NOTHING BUT THE NIGHT : THE HUMAN FACTOR : #WATCHWITHCUSHING! PCASUK 2020

ANOTHER TWO PCASUK GREAT #PETERCUSHING TREATS at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE  to maybe entertain you! FIRST a 1970's Peter Cushing and #ChristopherLee film, directed by Peter Sasdy that almost got away from everyone, the strange but very interesting 'NOTHING HUT THE NIGHT' (1973), Sadly, this was the only movie produced by Charlemagne Films, which was created by Christopher Lee and Hammer film producer, Anthony Nelson Keys. UK distributors Fox and Rank made a real botched and half hearted job of promoting this film, even at one point offering some 'cash prizes' for letters from readers of the Sunday Mercury newspaper, describing their real-life experiences with terror and the supernatural! A very dated publicity device that went out of fashion in the 1950's! 

IT SADLY MADE LITTLE BOX OFFICE in the UK though did fair a little better with a different publicity campaign with title change and snazzy poster design for it's US release.'THE RESURRECTION SYNDICATE, title probably gives away more, than is helpful. BUT if you haven't seen this film before, I think you'll find much to your liking. 

THERE IS ALSO a supporting cast including Fulton Mackay (from Cushing's 'Return of the Cybernauts' : The Avengers tv episode) a young Michael Gambon ( who starred with Cushing in Amicus films, 'The Beast Must Die) and a quite a few of vivid  and interesting female characters for a change! The quite stylish Georgia Brown as the dogged newspaper reporter, who has some good scenes with Cushing a nice surprise of Diana Dors, playing one of her 'dressed down, nasty wig and tarty ol scrote roles, which she did a few of in the 70's and 80's. Kathleen Byron, who appeared as Cushing's Gustav Weil's long suffering wife, in Hammer films 'Twins of Evil' wife get just about enough to do, but she is wasted really.. What an amazing and quite beautiful actress. wasted as usual. Even as a Nun, Sister Ruth in the 1947 classic 'Black Narcissus', I thought she looked quite stunning and a fine actress that really captured the imagination. 

SO AN USUAL CAST, a plot that in it's climax leans towards  towards another Christopher Lee film, that also suffered in the beginning from a more than limp release, BUT picked up when Home Cinema VHS / Beta Calvary, came to the rescue! ENJOY and please let me know what you make of it? 

ANOTHER INTERVIEW GEM from quite a few programmes and hour length features Peter Cushing did after he retired in 1987. On June 1st that year, the UK TODAY newspaper quietly announced, Peter was hanging up his coat, for a well deserved rest. 'After making some of the world's best known horror films during  his 50 year career, Peter Cushing has decided that he will never make another film. He's just finished filming two television advertisements and he says the experience is enough to make him realise enough is enough. 'I did them because I had been offered two film parts and didn't know if I would be up for the work' he admits, ' I didn't want to let anyone down, so I thought I thought I would 'cut my teeth' on these two commercials. But having spent four days shooting, I've decided  not to do any more films These adverts will be my swan song. It's too much for me.'

BUT 1990, NOW TAKING THINGS in his stride #PeterCushing gave an interview to 'The Human Factor' a  UK #TV programme made by TVS, where he talked about his love for his wife, his belief in an afterlife, his suicide attempt, his cancer, and the key moments from his childhood and his long and successful acting career. He covers many of these themes and more in the two volumes of his autobiography, but this is the first time I'd seen him talking very openly about them. It's a revelation. Never before had Peter appeared so genuine and profound in his answers. It's an inspiring and revealing piece indeed. This too is now UP as a #WATCHWITHCUSHING! post for the viewing at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE,  where many of you have commented on the frankness of Peter's answers during the interview. There were quite a few stories and facts I had not heard before. There will be MORE posts tomorrow too! This up load along with many of the other 'Watch With Cushing' post have proved to be very popular, with many watching through out the day . . I hope you enjoy some of the posts too!? - Marcus

WARNER BROTHERS ARCHIVE LATEST! ARE YOU TEMPTED? DONT MISS OUT!

TEMPTED? It looks like Peter Cushing's, shop proprietor of 'Temptations Ltd, has been restocking his store! 😉😊

WARNER ARCHIVE COLLECTION released the remastered blu ray of Amicus films, 'From Beyond The Grave' yesterday . . . 😃starring Peter Cushing, Donald Pleasence, David Warner, Ian Ogilvy, Diana Dors, Lesley-Anne Down, Jack Watson, Ian Carmichael, Ian Bannen, Margaret Leighton and many more . . we'll be launching our PCASUK competition very SOON. 🙂 It's your chance to win yourself a copy of this REGION FREE, remastered Amicus films, classic 🙂 DON'T miss out . . it's a BARGAIN 😉 - Marcus

HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR TV SERIES RELEASED AND URSULA MEETS BABY CHRISTINA!

#TOOCOOTUESDAY! Containing the COMPLETE series, remastered and on Blu Ray for the first time..... the 'Hammer House of Horror' tv series......OUT NOW!

SPECIAL FEATURES IN THIS BOX SET! Guardian of the Abyss Episode – Widescreen Version : Commercial Break Stings: Rude Awakening Opening Montage Raw Takes : Image Gallery and PDF Material

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY! HAMMER FILMS 'SHE'! Ursula Andress greets baby Christina Lee, daughter of Christopher and Gitta. Peter can be seen in costume of Major Holly bottom right . . .

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! : NEWORK UNVEILS BLU RAY COVER AND CUSHING ON CHRISTOPHER LEE'S LIFE

#FRANKENSTEINFRIDAY!: Just a reminder that NETWORK releases their much awaited blu ray box set of the popular Hammer house of Horror tv series next month. They have just released details of the release along with the cover and slip case design. What do you think? I am sure you know that Peter Cushing is included in the series, in weird little tale called, 'Silent Scream'  . ..  you'll never see your local pet shop in in the same way ever again!

'This star-studded anthology from Hammer Films presents thirteen unforgettable tales of spine-chilling terror. Reimagining classic Hammer themes in a contemporary British setting and signalling a new direction for the legendary film studio under the aegis of producer Roy Skeggs, the series blends the supernatural with a very modern horror – from hauntings and demonic possessions to sinister incarcerations and cannibalism... 

REVIEW AND GALLERY : HERE!

A huge hit on its first ITV transmission, Hammer House of Horror boasts a consistently high-calibre cast including Peter Cushing, Diana Dors, Denholm Elliott, Brian Cox and Sian Phillips. The complete series is featured here for the first time in a stunning new High Definition restoration from the original film elements in its as-transmitted fullscreen aspect ratio.'

#FRANKENSTEINFRIDAY! Here's a treat, Peter Cushing's guest appearance on Christopher Lee's 'This Is Your Life' show, in 1974. Peter is charming, Lee is shocked! A BIG thank you is in order as this clip comes courtesy of the Christopher Lee Facebook Fan Page 🙂 You didn't know there was one??? Well, I've include a link here, for you to pop along, show your support and say hi! It's the only regularly updated facebook page on Lee, and their admin, is the most charming and obliging young lady...plus she posts some quite rare and excellent stuff! They have a youtube channel too! CHRISTOPHERLEEFANPAGE HERE! 

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  

NEWS: HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR TV SERIES GETS BLU RAY RELEASE

NEWS: HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR TV SERIES GETS BLU RAY RELEASE! At last the fan favorite TV SERIES from the 1980's comes to BLU RAY in a fine BOX SET containing the entire series of thirteen 51 minute episodes, including 'Silent Scream' starring Peter Cushing, Brian Cox and Elaine Donnelly. No word on extras yet in this REGION B/2 Pal Blu Ray collection of three discs from Network. 

AS WELL AS PETER CUSHING there's a starry cast including . . .Nicholas Ball, Rachel Davies, Antony Carrick, Brian Cox, Anna Calder-Marshall, Gary Raymond, Gary Bond, Georgia Hale, Emrys James, Peter McEnery, Jon Finch, Prunella Gee, Ian McCulloch, Patricia Quinn, Simon MacCorkindale, Kathryn Leigh Scott, Gareth Thomas, Denholm Elliott, Lucy Gutteridge, Diana Dors, Celia Gregory, Paul Darrow, Pierce Brosnan, Barbara Kellerman, Norman Beaton, Warren Clarke, Julia Foster, George Innes, Suzanne Danielle, Sian Phillips, Anthony Valentine, and some past Hammer directors also return to steer the show in the Hammer style: Tom Clegg, Alan Gibson, Don Leaver, Don Sharp, Peter Sasdy, Robert Young. The Blu Ray Box Set is released on October 23rd 2017 and retails between £35.00 to £39.00, shop around! Do you have some favorite episodes?

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. 

DIANA DORS : REMEMBERED TODAY

REMEMBERING: Diana Dors born today, October 23rd 1931. '"I’m the kind of girl that things naturally happen to. When they don’t, I give them a push"....Dors much loved and real national treasure for many years with a career as a model, actress, television personality and 'blonde bombshell'...and also a co star in TWO Peter Cushing films. 'From Beyond The Grave' for Amicus films and Nothing But The Night also with Christopher Lee.

 

#MONSTERMONDAY : TOMORROW!

JOIN IS AT OUR FACEBOOK FAN PAGE : HERE 

DIANA DORS: BORN TODAY : THE SWINDON SIREN REMEMBERED

REMEMBERING: Diana Dors born today, October 23rd 1931. '"I’m the kind of girl that things naturally happen to. When they don’t, I give them a push"....Dors much loved and real national treasure for many years with a career as a model, actress, television personality and 'blonde bombshell'...and also a co star in TWO Peter Cushing films. 'From Beyond The Grave' for Amicus films and Nothing But The Night also with Christopher Lee.

TEMPTATIONS LTD PETER CUSHING: FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE (1974)

CAST:

Linking Story: Peter Cushing (Antique Store Proprietor). 1: David Warner (Edward Jeffries). 2: Ian Bannen (Christopher Lowe), Donald Pleasence (Jim), Angela Pleasence (Emily), Diana Dors (Mabel Lowe). 3: Ian Carmichael (Richard), Margaret Leighton (Madame Orlov), Nyree Dawn Porter (Suzanne). 4: Ian Ogilvy (Williams), Lesley Anne Down (Rosemary Williams) 

PRODUCTION:

Director – Kevin Connor, Screenplay – Raymond Christodolou & Robin Clarke, Based on Short Stories by Ronald Chetwynd-Hayes, Producers – Max J. Rosenberg & Milton Subotsky, Photography – Alan Hume, Music – Douglas Gamley, Special Effects – Alan Bryce, Production Design – Maurice Carter. Production Company – Amicus. 

SYNOPSIS:

An antique store proprietor promises a little ‘something extra’ with everything he sells. 1:- Edward Jeffries buys a mirror for his apartment. One evening, he has the urge to hold a seance. There he is possessed by a man in the mirror who uses Jeffries to lure girls to the apartment and sacrifice them so that he might gain physical form again. 2:- Hen-pecked husband Christopher Lowe befriends a street peddler and begin an affair with the man’s strange daughter. The daughter shows him how he can use a voodoo doll to get rid of his nagging wife. 3:- A man encounters the batty old Madame Orlov on a train who tells him he has an elemental spirit on his shoulder. When he finds himself strangling his wife, he is forced to call upon Madame Orlov’s services to exorcise the spirit. 4 A man buys an antique door and finds that it opens back into the era of Charles I.

COMMENTARY:

From Beyond the Grave was one of the best horror anthologies to come from Amicus. (See below for Amicus’s other anthologies). From Beyond the Grave was the directorial debut of Kevin Connor who would go onto become a modest name in genre cinema. This is in fact one of Kevin Connor’s best films and he demonstrates exceptional directorial style. Particularly good are the seance scenes in the first episode where Connor conducts some inventive 360^o pans with a candle that explodes between a flickering flame and a jet in the foreground. The murders in this segment are vividly staged with Connor creating some marvellously sinister images of David Warner standing about in bloodstained clothes and a wrecked apartment.

The second and third stories go for a much more tongue-in-cheek tone. The second is a veritable EC Comics tale – in fact, is a more successful EC-type story than Amicus’s two actual EC adaptations, Tales from the Crypt (1972) and The Vault of Horror (1973), were. The second episode has a particularly strong cast in weak-willed Ian Bannen; Diana Dors, who is having the time of her life playing it up as the wife; and a decidedly offbeat Donald Pleasence and his very, very weird real-life daughter Angela.

The third episode is played entirely for laughs. The exorcism scenes are a wonderfully over-the-top pyrotechnic show after which it surely seems impossible to watch The Exorcist (1973) with a straight face again. Margaret Leighton’s performance as the batty old exorcist is side-splitting.

Where in most anthologies there usually tends to be some stories that are weaker or stronger than others, this is one occasion where all four stories are equally strong. The only failing is the weak linking story, which has to contrive to introduce antique objects that have no other purpose in the episode other than to wind in the second and third stories. The linking story also contains an awkward performance from the usually great Peter Cushing.

Amicus’s other horror anthologies are:– Dr Terror’s House of Horrors (1964), Torture Garden (1967), The House That Dripped Blood (1970), Asylum (1972), Tales from the Crypt (1972) and The Vault of Horror (1973). Amicus producer Milton Subotsky later adapted more short stories from British writer Ronald Chetwynd-Hayes in his horror anthology The Monster Club (1980).

From Beyond the Grave was the directorial debut of Kevin Connor who later became a genre regular. Connor next directed Amicus’s trilogy of lost world Edgar Rice Burroughs adaptations, The Land That Time Forgot (1974), At the Earth’s Core (1976) and The People That Time Forgot (1977), and one original lost world film Warlords of Atlantis (1978), all starring Doug McClure; the Arabian Nights fantasy Arabian Adventure (1979); the cannibalism black comedy Motel Hell (1980); and the Japanese ghost story The House Where Evil Dwells (1982). These days Connor directs for tv, making such unexceptional true life soap opera fare as Diana: Her True Story (1993), Liz: The Elizabeth Taylor Story (1995), Mother Teresa: In the Name of God’s Poor (1997) and Mary, Mother of Jesus (1999). Among Connor’s genre tv fare is:- Goliath Awaits (1981), an interesting tv mini-series about a society that has survived in a sunken ship; The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1986), which brought the famous sleuth into the present-day; the Indian adventure The Mysteries of the Dark Jungle (1991); the stalker thriller Shadow of Obsession (1994); the Egyptian archaeology adventure The Seventh Scroll (1999); the Christmas fantasies Santa, Jr. (2002), A Boyfriend for Christmas (2004)and Annie Claus is Coming to Town (2011); the Hallmark adaptation of Frankenstein (2004); and Chasing Leprechauns (2012).

 

Images: Marcus Brooks

BEYOND THE GRAVE: LASER DISC COVER ART WORK AND CINEMA POSTERS