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!

#GETTTHECUSHIONSUNDAY! THE 1999 RELEASE OF A CAMP CLASSIC! REALLY?

#GETTHECUSHIONSUNDAY! THE BOX SAYS... 'Recently discovered CAMP CLASSIC! UNRELEASED for 25 YEARS!' ..Yeah, there was a reason for that delay 🙂  I wonder how much those critics were paid, or how much they drank before the screening??? ..It's a classic alright 😉 Anyone else have this release? This is one of those rare times where the box and packaging is more exciting and impressive that the contents!

HOW CAN A FILM, that gives us great images like the one above, get it so wrong??? I have said here many times, it almost seems that the budget and imagination needed for the creation of the film, was diverted into the publicity. The press and lobby photographs, were printed on hi quality colour paper, the photographer who took them, knew what he was doing. 

THERE ARE SOME EXCELLENT photographs, the press kit was pretty lush-deluxe too! In 1976, I was at a meeting where a short promo reel was screened... it was made up entirely of the 'My grand father was a grave digger' scene. Cushing (MacGregor) was playing his character's grandfather, a young boy, actor Robert Edwards, played Cushing in a wonderfully atmospheric scene. Horse drawn hearse, the black feather plumes, wind howling... 'It took 40 years to bury my grandfather! For a grave digger that is tragic!....' The tragedy is the premise of Cushing playing a retired Horror film actor, holed up in a creepy castle, playing the 'I could really be a vampire' card, was a good idea. The props department even used actual press photographs of Peter from his own films, to add back story evidence of MacGregor's career on the screen.

THIS FILM PROBABLY gets more interest here at PCAS than it rightly deserves, and that is probably because, we don't know WHY Cushing signed on the line.  There have been well documented instances in the past, where Cushing, questioned details in script, The Brides of Dracula and The Mummy for example, I would think he would have almost certainly declined to be involved with a film like this in his earlier years. And, I don't think we can lay the blame at the director shooting extra scenes in PC's absence or an editor putting a spin on the footage. I have never seen a full shooting script for Tender / Tendre Dracula.. but I am pretty sure the scene of PC's dashing out some buttock slapping (!!) to cast member Miou -Miou, was down in black and white, even if it was on a yellow or pink rewrite page !

WE ASKED YOU AT OUR FACEBOOK FAN PAGE  what YOUR opinion and thoughts on the film were. Here are some of your comments from the post at the page: 

S. ALEXANDER: 'A venture that Peter would have declined to be involved with in his earlier years. Remember his initial objections and reluctance over 'The Brides of Dracula'? Obvioulsly the finished cut differed from the scripted scenes too.'

R.JOYCE: 'I to  have confess...it's the only Cushing movie I can't sit through. Beautiful box art. But it's a disjointed, pseudo erotic flick. Er, not even that erotic, actually'.
 

J.PLAYER: 'I watched it there last year...everytime I thought that I couldn't believe I was watching that crap and was ready tonight it down, something would happen that made me want to keep going to see how it would end up!'

R.SMITH: I have a fondness for films like this that are so bad they're not even funny, just jaw dropping exercises in disbelief! Similar to the Bond knock-offs of Lindsay Shonteff (you have to see these to believe their creative ineptitude) I do feel there's a real need to see TENDER DRACULA on Blu-ray someday. The version I have on VHS is pretty shabby. 

G.GRANT: I watched this on YouTube a few years ago😱It was really bad. I mean it had novelty value, because Mr Cushing was in it. But just awful

T.TUTTLE: I got 20 minutes into it and had to stop! My pain threshold wasn't high enough to make it!

OUR FULL FEATURE AND GALLERY ON TENDRE DRACULA

CAN BE FOUND BY CLICKING : 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

GLOWS AND FLUTTERS: DRACULA AD 2015 REVIEWED GIFS AND GALLERY

SEVERAL YEARS AGO in another life, wearing a different hat, I was often called upon to be a guest on a panel, judging competition entries for national and international films and documentaries. Many of the films and programmes were produced by amateur film makers and enthusiasts. Some were made by students from universities and film schools . . . The entries were of varying standards and levels of competence, but all had been produced with enthusiasm and passion. For over twenty five years I had worked in television, managed my own production company and had the pleasure of nurturing and helping young people and adults, in theatrical performance (performing arts) and the visual arts. It was a unique job, and a very rewarding time. Nothing gave me greater pleasure than to meet someone who had spent, months and months shooting and editing, shaping and creating, that flickering image, their story on that big screen! It's true, as I have said, many fell short of a standard to win a prize, or to maybe show promise of the first steps of what could be a promising career. But occasionally a warm glow would start in the pit of my tummy, a flutter, followed by a smile of recognition, when a zinger came along that DID tick all those boxes. Joshua Kennedy's 'Dracula AD 2015' IS one of those zingers...

Charles Caleb Colton (1780–1832)  an English cleric and writer of some note once wrote, "Imitation is the sincerest [form] of flattery". Colton was at times  brilliant in the pulpit, and could have been a successful and charismatic force in the church. Unfortunately he was more than a little eccentric, even though he had at one time considerable wealth, he gambled it away and was in debt until the end of his life...and that end came, when he required surgery. An operation he dreaded so deeply, that he eventually killed himself rather than undergo the procedure! But, if what Colton wrote, is true, Hammer films should be bursting with pride! 'Dracula AD 2015' is a love letter, a beautiful filmatic quilt, not patches, but scenes, sounds and emotive sequences sown together, to warm the bones, hearts and souls, of anyone who still blows the dust off their VHS broadcast recording, of a Hammer films 'double -bill' courtesy of BBC2 in 1981!

I knew writing this review would be tough, because so much of Kennedy's homage to Hammer's Dracula films, is emotionally charged. It's hot wired into the memory bank of any Hammer-aficionado who loves those films. However, that is not to say, this production can only be enjoyed by a cliche, romantic fan boys or Hammer die-hards. No, there is much here, even for someone who has never heard of Dracula, Peter Cushing, or 'that bloke in the cloak, Christopher Lee. And what there is, I'll happily share with you . . .but without giving  too much away . . .

DRACULA AD 2015 is probably the Dracula film that Hammer films would be making now, if they were still around as the old gang, I guess. A film with drama, imagination, suspense and the age old 'everything works out in the end' plot, all produced by the cozy family of people who cared about the films and the quality of what they produced. It's one thing that is evident in Kennedy's film too. This a group of young people, who love what they do and do it well. They know Joshua and each other well, and actors always take risks and give great performances when they are with a director and team they can trust.

Which brings me, to those actors. Josh has 'cast' the film very well, using some of the same templates that Hammer used too. I am not sure if it was sheer luck or divine intervention that  provided Josh with actors that nearly all, project some either physical or spooky degree of nuance, of the actors and characters who appeared in the original  Dracula Hammer films! And it's not just Hammer's plots and iconic set pieces that get the nod, there's much enjoyment to be had for any horror film buff here, picking out the scenes and characters from a dozen or more references, among them Chaney Jnr, Bela Lugosi, Dwight Frye and quite a few more. Se if you can spot them!

In every Dracula film, it's the guy who plays the Count, that bolts the whole structure together. When Hammer made their Dracula series, Lee was the draw. Powerful, sexy and feral. When he wasn't in a few of the productions, it was like a cart without it's horses. The vehicle was sound, but had no way of getting anywhere! Not so with Dracula AD 2015. Dracula is played with a delicate touch by Xander Pretorious, and he is well supported by a multi textured cast. Another thing that Kennedy got right, actresses that sound, act and look believable. . .  something that Hammer often got really wrong and casting that still makes some uncomfortable and cringe-worthy viewing. 

Bessie Nellis is someone to watch, in the film and in the future. With a role like Ingrid Stensgaard..there it is again, the temptation to play big and busy is where many a female vamp has 'stuck a stake in the cred department', before they've even started. Nellis understands the gift of stillness in front a camera. Focus and concentration is all. It takes guts and maturity to use that rule as your guide, but the reward is a performance, that all eyes are drawn to, when you are on screen. Her seduction scene with the Count, crackles with electricity. Her haunting and truly 'other-wordly' scene with Madelyn Wiley, was sheer animal magic. Wiley gets some great scenes too and plays Diana Farmer's exit, with a performance that Barbara Shelley, would certainly be proud of.

Someone has to play the 'girl in peril' and Kit Kennedy thank goodness takes the role and makes it more than a scream fest. Like everyone here, Kit has a relaxed and natural presence before the camera. She makes Jennifer Fordyce real, in the moment, fresh and believable. I felt the same about Hannah Rose Ammon performance, as I did about Caroline Munro's in Dracula AD 1972... gone too soon! I would have loved to have seen more! Everyone loves the 'slightly pushy, but dizzy character, who comes unstuck' in a horror film and Ammon, never gives away, what is around the corner and her fate. Next, the suspicious sounding, Thorley Ripper! I am sure Universal fans are going to love what Jeremy Kreuzer does with this. It must be hard to play 'crazy' without tipping into 'crazily over the top', Kreuzer hits it just right, spot on. Crazy as a fox!



Director Terence Fisher believed, every audience had to have breathing time. After a shock, give them time to recover, before you lull them into the next shocker. And with stories like this, someone must play, well.... normal! It may feel like a thankless task, but no build up, results in no tension or climax. Here Cody Avord and Jake Williams, provide the stability of, the reliable boy friend and his buddy, but they certainly get a lot to do, some classic staking scenes re-enacted and a face off with a vampire too. Actors Philip Miller and Michael Kitchen in Dracula AD 1972, provided the same service. Except Miller's 'Bob' death scene never made the edit, despite being shot and Kitchen...remind me again? Finally, Claire Daniels, plays 'nightmare seduction with a certain trademark style', the stamp of a Freddie Francis seduction scene, from Dracula Has Risen From The Grave', complete with the sepia filters, and manages to give Veronica Carlson a run for her money too!

It would be unfair to give away key moments of the plot here, as some come as genuine surprises. It's not a straight follow the numbers, remake of Dracula AD 1972, Joshua Kennedy has been cute to key in some of the best elements of what made Hammer and Universal fantasy flicks great. The staking, the resurrection, the passion, the bite, the glamour and the sex. It's all here, and delivered with such confidence. Kennedy makes a great vampire hunter, in the Peter Cushing mold. He has the energy, authority and credibility of an actor and director many years older. His stamp can be seen throughout all his films. That wicked sense of humor and fun, that has brought the likes of actresses Martine Beswick and Caroline Munro, to come on board several of his productions. Munro actually has a voice-cameo in Dracula AD 2015 . .  playing the Mother of Hannah Rose Ammon, who plays Munro's daughter, Caroline Monlaur. See what he did there! 

I have watched Dracula AD 2015 several times, in order to get the full picture, and on one such screening, watched with a group of Hammer fans. Many a lead up to a scene was met with, 'They aren't going to do that scene are they?'...which was followed by, 'That was great!' 'Well done' and ' pulled it off. . ..wow!'. Also quite a few scenes were given a cheer or chap of appreciation. Dracula, cloak flapping striding through New York and running for his life across a subway platform, made quite a few very happy. As did the opening prologue to the film and THAT title sequence. Back in 1972, I am sure Drac Buffs almost choked on their popcorn and coke, when the film zipped into a dutch tilt  to the sky, and revealed a passenger plane and a hip and trendy London skyline with Chelsea hot pants and Trafalgar Square to boot!

In Dracula AD 2015, that theme tune, still has a punch, as Kennedy acknowledges the power and emotional connection to the music, in particular Mike Vickers soundtrack from the opening to Dracula AD 1972 and James Bernard's classic Dracula theme and incidental arrangements from the Hammer Dracula series. It's a technique that is used throughout the film and because of it's connection to the original films, works amazingly well, setting the atmosphere and tone of the entire film.

Last, but not least... when watching the film, take note of the lighting. Beautiful blues and throbbing rosey reds, if I didn't know better, I would think I was watching an Eastman colour print! Lighting camera operators were unsung heroes, back in the day of Hammer films. Kennedy has the lighting and shades, nailed too. He multi tasks, it's his script, editing, direction and camera work. And, it all works very well indeed.

If I was Kennedy, I would be entering every film festival and competition from here, across the Atlantic and back. This film needs to be seen and enjoyed, but also it needs the opportunity to win the praise it deserves...well done to everyone involved you made my viewing full of many warm glows and flutters! 

Marcus Brooks: Peter Cushing Appreciation Society : petercushingpcas@gmail.com 

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