GREAT GIFS! HEAD GIRL GETS THE CHOP : BYRON NEEDS MORE CREDIT AND FILM POSTER GAG THE FIRST?

#SILENTBUTDEADLYWEDNESDAY! : A fine SHOCK to push poor old Paul Toombes over the edge in Amicus films, 'MADHOUSE'. Toombes played by #VINCENTPRICE is really pulled through the mill in this fine little shocker. Added value of also having Peter Cushing and AIP groomed Robert Quarry in the cast too. There's a very dark thread of humor that runs through this film and the slight lifting of the veil reveals the tacky and catty spats behind the tinsel and glamour of the Hollywood set. A fancy dress 'A-List' party takes place with the usual hanger-on's and ex's in attendance. Price wonderfully, sits bored and boiling in a smoke puffing, pouty sulk, while Cushing glides around, champagne in hand, dressed in a vampire costume. Worth the price of my ticket alone! And  Julie Croswaithe in the gif here? She had it coming .....in the school of horror, she was the HEAD GIRL!

#SILENTBUTDEADLYWEDNESDAY! : If you are a regular to this site, then you'll know how much I love this story from #AMICUSFILMS, 'From Beyond The Grave'. It's a clever device I think, that both THE DOOR and the evil Sir Michael Sinclair are entwined! An axe blow to the fabric of the door, is a blow to Sinclair too! Stand by, as I once again, share glowing observations about the lighting in this story....it's a dream and cinematographer Alan Hume, was a gifted wizard! The set, lighting and dressings are the stars of this segment, not that #IanOgilvy, #LesleyAnneDown and Jack Watson don't do a fabulous job, it all works together. 'The Door' is the twin-terror treat, along with #PeterCushing's 'Poetic Justice' in the Amicus portmanteau party top table spread!

Just two weeks ago...I paid homage!!!

#SILENTBUTDEADLYWEDNESDAY! : 'What kind of plumage is this? For birds of paradise?' You have to love a scriptwriter who gives Peter Cushing, the opportunity to say a line like that! And to say, Gustav's first meeting with his niece's doesn't go well, is an understatement! There are fans who watch #HAMMERFILMS 'Twins of Evil' for different reasons, some for THAT plumage, some for Peter Cushing and some for the several satanic set-to's, between Damian Thomas and Cushing. Me? I get a double treat, not from the two performances, as good as they are, from Collinson Twins... but from Cushing AND KATHLEEN BYRON! It may bypass most viewers attentions that this is THE Kathleen Byron, who starred as Sister Ruth in the truly amazing 1947 classic, #BLACKNARCISSUS, alongside Deborah Kerr, Flora Robson and Jean Simmons.  

Byron also ticked several boxes in the Sherlock and fantasy genre too, with two appearances with Jeremy Brett's Holmes, casting in the Lee and Cushing 'Nothing But The Night', also the spooky 'Night of the Eagle', the cult tv series 'The Avengers' and just about every supernatural drama series that the BBC put out between the late 1950's,  until her sad passing just 2009 at the age of 88. A beautiful actress of substance, who for a time after Narcissus, frustratingly got typed in neurotic roles. Thankfully, she broke that mold and went on to give us many interesting and entertaining performances. Kathleen Byron : 1921 - 2009.

#SILENTBUTDEADLYWEDNESDAY!: I am probably missing something obvious here... but until I saw this shot in the #AMICUS film, 'Dr Terror's House of Horrors', that clever nod to the film, where Roy Castle's character spots a cinema poster, that's promoting the feature film. . . . he was actually appearing in...I couldn't remember another film, that had pulled that trick. CAN YOU?

EVERY #MONSTERMONDAY!

IF YOU LIKE what you see here at our website, you'll  love our daily themed posts at our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE.  Just click that blue LINK and click LIKE when you get there, and help us . . Keep The Memory Alive!. The Peter Cushing Appreciation Society website, facebook fan page and youtube channel are managed, edited and written by Marcus Brooks, PCAS coordinator since 1979. PCAS is based in the UK and USA  

#FRANKENSTEINFRIDAY GOES WITH A 'SWING AND A SLASH!' PLUS BIRTHDAY TRIBUTES

#frankensteinfriday: it has to be one of the top prologues to a Hammer film...maybe Dracula, Prince of Darkness, Dracula AD 1972 get the top prizes? ..Frankenstein hacks his way into the latest #frankenstein #petercushing adventure... it's a two part prologue that has quite a few frights. Maybe your favorite too??

ALSO TODAY WE WISH HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Ian Ogilvy, a wonderful actor best known for playing playing the role of Simon Templar in the TV series Return Of The Saint (1978-79)….. Ian has starred with three horror legends first with Boris Karloff in The Sorcerers (1967), Vincent Price in Witchfinder General (1968) and with Peter Cushing in two films for Amicus From The Beyond The Grave (1973) and And Now The Screaming Starts (1973)

 

WE ALSO REMEMBER and pay tribute to actress Deborah Kerr, an very talented actress who covered multiple genres of film during her career. Horror fans will remember her, for The Innocents (1961) and Eye Of The Devil (1966). She co-starred with Peter Cushing in The End Of The Affair (1955) which is often considered one of his best pre-hammer film......... What are some of your favourite of her performances?

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BREAKING HEARTS BEFORE HE STOPPED THEM: CUSHING AND THE END OF THE AFFAIR

"Oh God, don't let him be dead. Give him that chance. I'll love him, I'll do anything, only just let him be alive. I'll never quarrel with him again or make him unhappy. I'll be sweet and kind and good. I... I will be good. I'll live as you would want me to live. I'll give Maurice up forever. Only just let him be alive! Just let him be alive!"

Cushing really does give a superb performance.

Check out this emotion packed short clip 

The film 'THE END OF THE AFFAIR' (1954) is based on Graham Greene's complex novel and directed by Edward Dmytryk, who made several highly regarded film noir thrillers, including Murder My Sweet and Crossfire and came to England because of the anti -Communist blacklisting in America.

The film was produced by David Lewis, the long time lover of James Whale. Whether Lewis remembered the handsome stand-in for Louis Hayward in Whale's 1939 'Man In The Iron Mask' or not, this was certainly an important part for Cushing to land, oppersite Hollywood star Van Johnson and Deborah Kerr.

Greene's book was an examination of his own faith and, although it was not known at the time, was a roman-a-clef for the novelist's own adulterous affair with Catharine Walston. The film is shot through with a tone of pessimism and disappointment, and in the end all but collapses under a cartload of Catholic guilt.

There's a rather flamboyant piano score too, much given to melodramatic bashing on the keyboard at particularly emotional moments. Johnson is woefully miscast - he does his usual flat turn and seems not to understand the material. Greene, who vetoed Gregory Peck for the lead was appalled at the choice of Johnson and noted that the actor chewed gum during the love scenes, when not in shot. Cushing however, achieves a kind of brilliance with bhis portrayal of the wronged husband, a man with 'a mind as neatly creased as his trousers' and it is sobering to think that but for 'Nineteen Eighty Four' (BBC 1954) he might have carried on playing this kind of repressed individual for as long as it was needed.

The plot of 'The End of the Affair' is fragmented, and told in a series of flashbacks. During the Second World War, American Miles Bendrix (Johnson) is writing a book on the British civil service when he meets Henry Miles (Cushing), who works in service pensions. Miles presents  Bendrix to his devoted wife, Sarah (Deborah Kerr)  - and soon Bendrix and Sarah are having an affair. (Although what they actually do is left terribly vague) After an air-raid, Sarah suddenly becomes cold to Bendrix and returns to Miles. The rest of the film reveals her reasons for her sudden change of heart.

Though stuffy and pompous, Miles is genuinely in love with Sarah. As time passes and her behaviour remains erratic, he considers employing a private detective to investigate her, but ultimately cannot.

'They always say, don't they, that the husband is the last to know...'

Miles is equally unable to answer to his wife's questions about her faith. When she asks her husband if he prays, he is at a loss. 'I was taught to. In church, whenever I go . . . Really, this isn't the sort of thing to go into over a cup of tea!'

Towards the end of the film, Miles is a man on the point of despair and Cushing's performance is deeply affecting. 'I know I'm dull for you, Sarah.... frightfully dull. . .' he sobs. 'But I couldn't start again. It's too late, do you see?' As Sarah succumbs to a fatal fever, Cushing descends the stairs with a blank expression, unable to comprehend. It is another meticulous and disciplined performance, and Deborah Kerr is a graceful and generous co-star.

This review was taken from Peter Cushing: A Life In Film by David Miller. Available for purchase by clicking this link 
Miller's book a a triple thumbs up from PCAS  upon it's release in 2013 and is highly recommended.

Edit Graphics and Images here: Marcus Brooks

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