DONALD PLEASENCE CENTENARY: BORN 100 YEARS AGO TODAY!

BORN ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO TODAY!... Today marks the centenary birthday of actor Donald Pleasence on October 5th 1919. Born in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England, he was the son of Alice (née Armitage) and Thomas Stanley Pleasence, a railway stationmaster.

TODAY, AFTER HIS PASSING... you can read all about Pleasence service during WW2, his capture as a prisoner of war, humbleness kept that under wraps for most of his life.. but he would talk and share about a fateful day and television broadcast, where both he and Peter Cushing received positive critical attention for their roles in the BBC version of Nineteen Eighty-Four (1954) from the novel by George Orwell. Pleasence played Syme, to Cushing's Winston Smith. BOTH terrified the British public! I could write much here about the amazing Pleasence career, the films, the TV and theatre.. but I have left plenty of space and thread, for everyone to do that, in this post at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE and leave that to you to share . . 😉

 DONALD PLEASENCE AS SYME IN THE BBC LIVE PRODUCTION OF '1984' IN 1954.

PLEASENCE IN the 1959 'FLESH AND THE FIENDS' as William Hare 

 A FULL FEATURE REVIEW WITH VINTAGE LOBBY CARD GALLERY! HERE!

AS JACK SEWARD in the 1979 version of 'DRACULA'

ABOVE: CUSHING AND PLEASENCE TOGETHER in 'Trial by Combat' 

DONALD PLEASENCE bumped along with Peter in several roles on the big screen, mostly co starring in films like 'The Flesh And The Fiends' 'Suspect' 'From Beyond The Grave' 'The Uncanny' 'Trial By Combat' and 'The Devil's Men'. In several of his roles, Pleasence was able to with little dialogue reach and un-nerve the audience, using something his actress daughter once referred to as 'Pleasencing' . . it worked. It ALWAYS worked.

TO DO DONALD PLEASENCE justice it would take several days, many, many posts to even scratch the surface of his amazing talent and presence. I am sure everyone here, can name three if not FIVE of their favourite Pleasence performances, because each one was different, a different character... but off screen, Donald was always one... charming, gentle and always entertaining... A VERY Happy Birthday Donald Pleasence... you are missed by many and celebrated by all who were entertained by your sensitivity and brilliant talent! 😉 - Marcus 

THE COMFORT OF CAT AND SLIPPERS : HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEVIN CONNOR DIRECTOR OF 'FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE'!

PETER CUSHING: The Comfort of Slippers and a CAT! I am sure many of you will enjoy this rare photograph, of Peter relaxing, not at home... but sitting in the study of his long time friend and secretary, Joyce Broughton, in Herne Bay, near Peter's home in Whitstable, Kent. For those of you who know Peter's work well, I am sure you'll see the interesting connections in this photograph . . despite the terrible time his character Wilbur Gray endured in the 1977 film 'The Uncanny', personally he did have quite a passion and love of animals, birds, cats, dogs and wildlife. This cat lived in Joyce's home, a family pet...along with a dog too.

TO MY KNOWLEDGE, neither Peter or his wife Helen, ever had pets at home . . they preferred to enjoy the children and pets of their friends . . and have a quiet life! The slippers...well, we ALL know the connection there, I am sure . . 😊 This photograph was taken by and is the property of photographer Colin Bourner. 😉 Marcus *NOTE the book on the foot stool 😉

HAPPY BIRTHDAY director KEVIN CONNOR . .born today in 1937. He joined the Amicus films train, a little late in their journey, but in his very first outing as director, did amazing job on 'From Beyond The Grave' in 1974. It was also the first time he worked with Peter Cushing. Connor's timing, having served as an editor, brought a tighter beat to the Amicus style, managing to create what certainly looks like much higher production values, but I am sure the budget was as tight as ever. Released during the opening tip -toe, death march steps, of the collapse and fall of the British film industry.. From Beyond The Grave arrived a little late, when horror and fantasy films had moved on from spooky supernatural to full on exorcisms and gore . . though it did feature the lifting of nasty and mischievous Elemental demon . .

IT WOULD TAKE until the arrive of Home Cinema and the arrival of VHS and BBC double bills on TV, before it started to get the praise and recognition it deserved. Conner was also director and working with Peter on the last Amicus film, 'At The Earth's Core', managing to make a good ol family feature and get the best from Peter's almost second cousin to his Dr who. It was a huge production to manage.. at the time filing most of Pinewood studios lots with staggering jungle sets, caves, lava and men in suits! Hey! It's for the kids!

SOMEWHERE around this time, Peter stepped in with a guest appearance in another Connor directed feature called, 'Trail By Combat' aka 'A Dirty Knights Work' with John Mills... Connor also directed other very popular Amicus / AIP fantasy films too.. The Land That Time Forgot (1975), The People That Time Forgot (1977), Warlords of Atlantis (1978) by this time, Connor was certainly off Milton Subotsky's Christmas card list... but he did manage one more with Peter Cushing, 'Arabian Adventure' in 1978, with Peter making a guest appearance alongside it's star, Christopher Lee with...Milo O'Shea, Oliver Tobias, Emma Samms and...Mickey Rooney!

SINCE THOSE DAYS, Connor now spends most of his time and working and living in Hollywood directing films like Motel Hell (1980), The House Where Evil Dwells (1982), Sunset Grill (1993) and Domestic Import (2006), as well as many TV miniseries and films, including Goliath Awaits, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, Great Expectations, Diana: Her True Story, Liz: The Elizabeth Taylor Story, Mother Teresa: In the Name of God's Poor, In the Beginning, Frankenstein, Blackbeard, Marco Polo and many more, as they say... 

TODAY, we thank Kevin Connor for bringing out some very entertaining films which thankfully also included Peter, if not starring, certainly in the mix. Beyond The Grave for many, is in their top three of the Amicus portmanteau productions, and deservedly so...as we will all see when it is released on blu ray by Warner Brothers next month.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEVIN CONNOR, have certainly entertained us, took us BEYOND the grave, into the CORE, all while certainly making your mark as part of the Amicus adventure !!

A REMINDER: BACK LAST WEEK we shared the news that Warner Archive had just announced that the Amicus films 'From Beyond The Grave' (1974) . . . . .starring Peter Cushing, Donald Pleasence, David Warner plus a rostra of other stars names, in the true Amicus portmanteau tradition, and directed by Kevin Connor . . was coming to blu-ray. Warner have also announced that this release will be a NEW 2019 1080p HD MASTER too! The SPEC as we have right now is as follows: FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE (1973) Running Time 98:00.Sound Quality DTS HD-Master Audio 2.0 - English Aspect Ratio 1.85:1, 16 X 9 WIDESCREEN: Product Color COLOR Disc Configuration BD 50. TO PLACE YOUR PRE-ORDER JUST CLICK : HERE!

WARNER BROTHERS RELEASE AMICUS FILMS 'FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE' ON REMASTERED BLU RAY

NEWS: Warner Archive have just announced that From Beyond The Grave (1974) is coming to blu-ray A NEW 2019 1080p HD MASTER! FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE (1973) Running Time 98:00.Sound Quality DTS HD-Master Audio 2.0 - English Aspect Ratio 1.85:1, 16 X 9 WIDESCREEN: Product Color COLOR Disc Configuration BD 50. PLACE YOUR PRE-ORDER: HERE!

Amicus Productions classic horror portmanteau makes its Blu-ray disc debut just in time for the horror-days! Bolt the door, lower the lights and settle in for a stylish five-episode supernatural shocker possessed of a shivery all-star cast and drenched in evil. Welcome to Temptations Ltd., a decrepit antique shop whose unwary customers get more than they bargain for from the wily proprietor (Peter Cushing). Much more. Go to the head of the horror class if you can predict who’ll join the ranks of the doomed from among this role call of distinguished British actors: Ian Bannen, Ian Carmichael, Diana Dors, Lesley-Anne Down, Margaret Leighton, Donald Pleasence, Nyree Dawn Porter, David Warner and more. A mirror. A medal. A snuff box. An ornate door. All unleash novelty surprises for the characters – and you – in these wickedly horrific tales From Beyond the Grave.

IT'S SEEN BY MANY FANS as the jewel in the Amicus films crown, very good production value, a stellar cast which includes Peter Cushing as the owner of Temptations Ltd, an 'olde worlde' antique shop . . where trying to a a 'fast one' on the owner.. isn't advised 😉Warner Brothers is finally bringing this to a long over due remastered blu ray release next month on OCTOBER 8th 2019, region free. It's going to be a very popular purchase with lovers of Amicus, Cushing and high standard Brit Horror films, grabbing their copy as soon as they can, I am sure. 

WE'LL SOON HAVE NEWS on another PCASUK Competition, where you can bag a copy too soon. Meanwhile... over at the THE FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE we are asking everyone, which of the four in the portmanteau film is YOUR favorite story? Drop in and share your thoughts 😉

DISCOVERED IN LONDON VAULT : SHOCKER HORROR FILM COMES TO BLU RAY FOR FIRST TIME!

NEWS : SEVERIN FILMS TO RELEASE 'THE UNCANNY' on Blu Ray

 for the FIRST TIME!

IN 1977, legendary Amicus co-founder Milton Subotsky (ASYLUM, AND NOW THE SCREAMING STARTS) teamed with Canadian producer Claude Héroux (SCANNERS, VIDEODROME) for the anthology shocker Celluloid Diaries calls “highly entertaining…the best killer cat movie there is!” Peter Cushing, Ray Milland, Donald Pleasence, Samantha Eggar (THE BROOD), Susan Penhaligon (PATRICK), John Vernon (POINT BLANK) and Alexandra Stewart (GOODBYE EMMANUELLE) star in this grisly portmanteau about a paranoid writer (Cushing) who must convince his publisher (Milland) that all cats are unholy fiends based on three tales of kitty carnage. Directed by Denis Héroux (NAKED MASSACRE) from a screenplay by Michel Parry (XTRO) with cinematography by Harry Waxman (THE WICKER MAN), THE UNCANNY is now scanned from an inter-negative recently discovered in a London vault.

Special Features:
The Cat’s Victim – Interview with actress Susan Penhaligon
Trailer
Exclusive Slipcover (Available on Severin Website)
REGION FREE
RELASE DATE: May 28th 2019

OUR PCAS FEATURE AND GALLERY ABOVE RIGHT HERE! 

#petercushing #theuncanny #cats #severinfilms #bluray #creepy

BREAKING NEWS: ORSON WELLES GREAT MYSTERIES : WITH CUSHING LA GRANDE BRETECHE: COMES TO DVD!

BREAKING NEWS: Network has just announced the TV series Orson Welles Great Mysteries is coming to DVD for the first time. Volume 1 will contain the first 13 episodes . . which includes Peter Cushing and Susannah York in the very cool drama, La Grande Breteche!

DETAILS:

Orson Welles Great Mysteries: Volume 1

The legendary Orson Welles hosts thirteen mysterious tales from this much sought-after anthology series.

SHOWCASING a haunting theme by John Barry, these macabre – often supernatural – dramas feature an astonishing array of talent, including Rupert Davies, Eli Wallach, Michael Kitchen, Patrick Magee, Donald Pleasence, Peter Cushing, Susannah York, Michael Gambon, Julie Dawn Cole, Kenneth Haigh, Harry Andrews, Dinsdale Landen, Christopher Lee, Jane Seymour and Ian Holm.

THE EPISODES  featured on this set – including classic tales from Wilkie Collins, W.W. Jacobs, Honoré de Balzac, Charles Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle : A Terribly Strange Bed, Compliments of the Season, The Ingenious Reporter, The Monkey's Paw,Captain Rogers, For Sale - Silence, La Grande Breteche staring Peter Cushing, An Affair of Honour, In the Confessional, The Furnished Room, Under Suspicion, The Leather Funnel, Trial for Murder

MADNESS! HP LOVECRAFT : WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN AND VINCENT AND PETER ON THE SET OF A MADNESS THAT CERTAINLY WAS!

HERE IS SOMETHING THAT COULD HAVE BEEN. But sadly wasn't. After Hammer films went under and was then restarted and rebooted by the late ROY SKEGGS, the opportunity was there for some to take a first look at the many films and projects that the studio had one time considered for production. Many of these also had Peter Cushing in mind, in the casting along with Christopher Lee. The majority sank even before the ink was dry on the note paper or on Tom Chantrell's poster! The above poster, is a but a 'wouldn't it have been great if..' piece if artwork, we often see here at PCAS. Many are emailed or offered up for posting. Sometimes the idea is better than the artwork, but often, as in this case, the artist has a great skill and has also, come up with a concept, were we back in 1966, Sir James Carrerars would have been all too happy to have added it to his pile of posters and concepts for his backers and to have asked, 'How would like to have a slice of our NEXT production?' 

OFTEN IT IS difficult to connect the artwork be it for funding OR even the theatrical release poster tothe film was devised for. Can YOU connect the artwork with the THREE films these were created for?

AS WE ARE NOW all aware these days, that was exactly how the Carreras formula Carrerars and how often Hammer  budgets were built. Usually, nothing of a script, just three lines typed on a piece of paper, a VERY interesting poster and Sir James doing the sell. Which of course, he was very skilled and sucessful at doing. One can only guess how Cushing would have played his role, how Lee if the money was right would have nailed it, I am sure Pleasence would have been very happy to join in, a lover of Lovecraft and like Lee had already worked with Cushing in quite a few other productions. The opinion at the FACEBOOK PCAS FAN PAGE has been interesting. Some believing we were doing an EARLY April Fool post! Some holding out hope that, this could have been promising, even though films of Lovecraft's work, in the past, had been disppointing, with low budgets and little if any real connection to the orignal plot of the book, it was said to have been based on. Still, the drama and concept creation devised in this poster by WKDart, does give us all, the opportunity to dream on and think . . . 

YOU SEE A VERSION of this behind the scenes photograph very often around the net, but here is a slightly different shot of Peter and Vincent Price during the making of MADHOUSE, being interviewed for BBC programme Film 73 . .

NOT INCLUDING the silk around Peter's neck, can you spot the subtle difference in Peter's appearance, to how he looks in the film? Come tell us at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE!