KINO STUDIO CLASSIC BLU RAY : 'ARABIAN ADVENTURE' : FIRST TIME ON BLU RAY!

IT'S LAMP RUBBING : CARPETS FLYING : GENIES THREATENING AND VILLAINS PLOTTING WITH A CAST THAT'S MAGIC IN OL' DOWN-TOWN BAGDAD-VILLE ! 

Kino Lorber Studio Classics has just rolled out the global debut on Blu-ray of the 1979 movie, 'Arabian Adventure' : this film was previously only available in the U.K. as a dire DVD video transfer released in 2007. Kino Lorber's new blu-ray, licensed from Studio Canal, is good news and especially welcomed by collectors of the genre and Cushing / Lee fans alike. With FOUR MILLION budget, that was never going to stretch to the needs, Alan Hume's cinematography is never less than beautiful to look at, as you would expect!

VISUALLY MANY OF THE SCENES look great, very colourful, bright and quite new, even though the advance and progress in cinema visual effects does date some of what may have already been 'from another era' even at the time of its release, you aren't fooled by what you see. Special effects chief, George Gibbs, gives you a lot to look at and knows the market had changed, but cuts the cloth with what he has. Back in the day of Saturday family and kids matinees, that really didn't matter. 'There is something of a charm to watching some effects here that really do go back to the art of silent movies, smoke mirrors, forced perspectives and strings!' You don't feel cheated, you get the feeling of 'you along with the characters, are along for the ride, on those magic carpets and all' 😉😊 

PRODUCTION DESIGNER, Elliot Scott dressers the film beautifully and uses lots of tricks and techniques he would later go on to use in classics like 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' (1988), Labyrinth (1986) and two of the Indiana movies, 'Tempe of Doom' and 'Last Crusade' (84 and 89), but with more than the share he got from this four million budget. It is perhaps worth mentioning and keeping in mind that much like Connor's Amicus film 'At The Earth's Core' and some of his 'Edgar Rice Burroughs' films, 'The Land That Time Forgot' (1975) 'The People That Time Forgot' (1977)... THIS is for the KIDS and there is much in the style and look of this film that reminds one of 'Jabberwocky' (1977) and 'The Adventures of Baron Munchausen' (1988)... but made with pennies rather than mega-bucks!  

EVEN THOUGH this was post 1977 'Star Wars', it was I am sure, when produced neither chasing that newly hatched sci-fi audience or hoping to compete. Maybe the producers should have told the publicity and press office that point though . .

VISUALLY:
THE WHOLE FILM  has been opened up to 1.78:1 from its native 1.85:1. Many of the street scenes and in the market really do shine, so much so there is a little sign of bits and dots in the motion, but not distracting. Scenes shot in a semi light in caves and at night, fare much better, as the texture and grain of the visuals can be a little different scene to scene. As I mentioned about this film using traditional cinematic visual effects, the use of matts. Very much like the blu rays of Cushing's 'Dr Who and the Daleks' (1965) and sequel 'Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 AD' strings are visible and matts that would have passed in the theatrical release don't hold out in their blending with live footage, once cleaned and presented on what can be at times a double edge and 'reveal all' of blu ray presentation.

AUDIO:

Kino supplies a DTS-HD Master Audio Dual Mono (1557 kbps, 16-bit) as THE sound track, without frills. The pitch levels do vary from one scene to another. If you too are a headphone wearer, you will notice. Mixing seems to have been a problem, any scene with dialogue and background crowds, sees that dialogue buried. Composer Ken Thorne's quite fab score is a great accompaniment to the action scenes, and while it's there everything sounds impressive.

• A NEW Audio Commentary by Director Kevin Connor, Moderated by Screenwriter and Novelist C. Courtney Joyner - If there is one thing you can say about director's Kevin Connor's pride in this film, is his comments on the design and look of the film. I get the feeling that Joyner maybe hasn't sat and watched the film in sometime. Many of his questions, give Connor little to work with in his answers, which is a real shame. For an 82 year old Connor is still very sharp, but the questions sometimes leaves him sounding as if he doesn't know the answer or can't remember! Experience should have told Joyner, you need to prompt and connect with your subject, it's been a LONG time!
• Theatrical Trailer (2:54, 480i) - Not restored, but a window-boxed and slightly cropped original trailer for EMI's Arabian Adventure.

SO TO SUM UP:
IF YOU SAW THIS FILM  when it was first released, like all of Connor's similar films, it can only bring back memories of simpler times. It should also bring with it some warm smiles when cast members like Christopher Lee, Milo O'Shea, Milton Reid and Peter Cushing appear. Emma Samms and Oliver Tobias
are a good match and a young and talented Puneet Sira, is very entertaining and unknowingly well set for his future as a major Bollywood director in the years to come. 

MICKEY ROONEY still stands as a bit of surprise casting! As a family adventure film, this one has ALL the ingredients, severed up as the complete package of a great and sparky adventure tale, produced ten years before this one was made. Now decades later, there is no shame in that. This is an above average transfer, even if in it's audio it would have benefited a little more care. A negative mind you, that will go quite unnoticed by the majority of those who have come along for the ride... on a carpet of course!

REMEMBERING KATE O'MARA BORN TODAY 1939

TODAY MARKS the late Kate O'Mara's birthday.... Her earliest television appearances, includes guest roles in 'Danger Man', 'Adam Adamant Lives!', 'The Saint', 'Z-Cars' and 'The Avengers'. Look carefully and you'll spot her in the crowd of ale swiggers in Cushing's / Hammer films CAPTAIN CLEGG. She also worked with Cushing in the film, CORRUPTION and in 1970, she appeared in two Hammer films films THE VAMPIRE LOVERS and 'The Horror of Frankenstein'. In the former, she had an erotically charged scene with Ingrid Pitt, in which O'Mara was meant to be seduced; the two women were left laughing on set, however, as Pitt's fangs kept falling into O'Mara's cleavage. O'Mara's work in 'The Vampire Lovers' impressed Hammer enough for them to offer her a contract, which she turned down, fearful of being typecast!

ABOVE a smashing photograph of actress KATE O'MARA, standing outside the WATFORD ODEON CINEMA back in October 1970, posing with poster of Hammer films, 'THE VAMPIRE LOVERS'.

IN BETWEEN APPEARANCES in the BBC 'Doctor Who', she played Caress Morell in the American primetime soap opera 'Dynasty'. After returning to the UK, she was cast as another scheming villain, Laura Wilde, in the BBC soap 'Howards' Way' (1989–90). Kate O'Mara passed on 30th March 2014 aged 74.

HELP CELEBRATE the memory of KATE O'MARA with everyone else at the FACEBOOK PETER CUSHING APPRECIATION SOCIETY FAN PAGE. YOU can join the page just by clicking LIKE and never missing a post and join in the fun!

SHOT GUNS FEAR, OLD SOLDIERS AND DIGGING THE COUNT!

#SILENTBUTDEADLY! What a striking image Donald Pleasence's Jim Underwood makes in his dazzling orange shirt, matchless tie, and that silk handkerchief, is a nice touch. Still, all this doesn't hide that fact, that he and his daughter, are more than VERY weird. It's poor ol Ian Bannen's Christopher Lowe I feel sorry for, all these alarm bells ringing and he doesn't see it coming. Peter Cushing's shop keeper didn't spare the horses in making this costumer suffer......! From Beyond The Grave, never fails to entertain. One of the best of the Amicus portmanteau films of the 70's... yes? Gif requested by Davy Travers.

 ABOVE: ANGELA PLEASENCE PLAYES DONALD'S DAUGHTER IN

'FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE' TO MAGNIFICENT EFFECT!

#SILENTBUTDEADLY!: IF you ever need a bit of midnight gardening done OR you find yourself in a bit of hurry to bury the evidence of your latest victim of carnage, #DRACULA is your man! Here's Christopher Lee in a frightening feral act, of burying his next victim, as a bit of supper he can come back to later!! You won't find a fast digger, other than my pet cat Ralph, after he has craftily stolen a pork chop, from my plate, and sets to burying it in the rose bed! It's true that Melissa Stribling got more than a mouthful of 'Bray-Village-Genuine- Best-of-English-Sod' while Lee was enthusiastically burying her. He almost fell in the hole during the shooting too! It's all part of the never-to-be-equaled final reel of #HAMMERFILMS #Horrorofdracula / #Dracula 1958. Peter Cushing's Van Helsing has never been better! You think? #GIF requested by Paul Ashman!

#SILENTBUTDEADLY! IT'S PRETTY OBLIVIOUS, that Ralph Bate's character Robert Heller, in Hammer films Fear In The Night never read page 238 of the 'Film Script Schemes and Plot Devices : Guns'. If a character has a loaded gun or rifle, and something moves or twitches behind a curtain, under a duvet or dust sheet' DON'T SHOOT! I didn't actually get to see this Hammer gem, until 1982, a full ten years after it was theatrically released. Watching the film with a crowd who really weren't au fey with Hammer films or this title was a real treat. They too were as caught up in the drama as I was, as not one of us knew the plot or any of the red herrings. 

THE PLOT REVEAL DETAIL that leads up to that gun shot, is a good one. Not wanting to give anything away, all I will share is the good news, FEAR IN THE NIGHT proves two things. One, the fact that this script nestled in the dust and dark recesses of Hammer films, scriptwriter Jimmy Sangster desk for over a decade, proves he wasn't that pin sharp at picking a potential winner, when he wrote one. Two, neither were Hammer! This script went through several rewrites and at one point, the whole thing was set on a canal boat!!! Things must have been more than tight, budget wise at that time I guess? 

FEAR IN THE NIGHT, is what Hammer called one of their quickies. And looking at the particulars for the film, you can see why! Sir James Carraras must have sold the family silver to pay Peter Cushing a misiliy £500 for a four day appearance, and the whole thing was in four weeks with a budget of a mere £141,000! The small cast of Ralph Bates, Judy Geeson and Joan Collins (slumming it, as Dynasty was just a twinkle in her agent's eye at this time) according to Sangster who also directed, had a wonderful time making the film. 

ABOVE: OFF SCREEN JIMMY SANSTER AND RALPH BATES WERE VERY GOOD MATES. AFTER RALPH'S SAD AND TRAGIC PASSING IN 1991, SANGSTER WOULD OFTEN REFLECT IN INTERVIEWS HOW MUCH HE STILL MISSED HIS OLD FRIEND . . 

SANGSTER DOES a good job cranking up the tension, but he must have used up his entire stock of directorial skills on Fear, as his other two outing for Hammer, 'Lust for a Vampire' and 'Horror of Frankenstein' are no way as inventive and entertaining as Fear. If you haven't seen Fear In The Night, it's worth your trouble digging it out. For those who have, revisit it, and remind yourselves, just how good Hammer could be when they had to....

#SILENTBUTDEADLY: PETER CUSHING EVER THE optimist, roles up he sleeves and attempts his, what's going on here then, medical sensibilities to a man who is WELL GONE, in the rip roaring, a 'new twist and plot development every minute', #HORROREXPRESS.  It never fails to surprise me how much everyone has a soft spot for this film. According to Christopher Lee, who appeared with Cushing in this Spanish-Horror, it wasn't the most comfortable of excursions. A little like Cushing dip into the Hong Kong way of making movies, with Seven Golden Vampires, the studio was basic, the catering was..basic, and Cushing who was still very much in an emotional spiral after the recent passing of his wife, Helen..wanted to just go home. In fact, if Lee had not intervened, Cushing would have been booked on the next REAL train out. The work surroundings and home comforts were absent, but every penny of the budget, was on the screen. Including that beautiful locomotive of the title. Sadly, before  all the 'train-spotters' race for a copy, much of the 'Express' travel footage was model work, good model work, but not the real article in loco-motion.

CHRISTOPHER LEE DEMONSTRATES THE OL ADAGE WHEN A SHOT GUN ISN'T  AT HAND, USE YOURS HANDS, TO KILL....A DEAD PERSON!

PETER CUSHING PROVING SHOT GUNS ARE NOT ONLY GOOD FOR SHOOTING PEOPLE UNDER DUST SHEETS - BUT ZOMBIES TOO!

LEE AND CUSHING are really on form in this one, and supported by a largely dubbed but capable cast. It appears that since the film moved into a weird and strange siding, in the world of ever confusing copyright, and has become public domain, the Horror Express timetable now appears on just about every compilation bootleg dvd of horror films you can spot on ebay. This in turn has helped the film, garland an even more prominent place with fans of zombie-fossil-thing-on-a-train films. Which can only be good for genre, if a little annoying for the guys who scrimped with that meany budget...! 

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. 

KATE O'MARA 1939 - 2014

Very sad to hear of the passing of actress Kate O'Mara today. Probably best known for playing Alexis Colby's scheming sister Cassandra 'Caress' Morrell in the US soap Dynasty during the mid 1980s, along with appearances in Dr Who, Triangle and Howard's Way. But, for us she stands out in two films where she worked with Peter Cushing. In 1971 she played Mme Perrodot, The Governess in Hammer films 'The Vampire Lovers' and Val Nolan in the Robert Hartford-Davis film, 'Corruption' (1968).