GOODBYE MR FOWLDS! ACTOR DEREK FOWLDS DIES AGED 82 TODAY

VERY SAD NEWS to report today, Derek Fowlds has sadly passed away aged 82. He was best known for playing Bernard Woolley in the British television comedies 'Yes, Minister' and 'Yes, Prime Minister', and Oscar Blaketon in the long-running ITV police drama 'Heartbeat', a role he played for 18 years. Fowlds was familiar to British television viewers as 'Mr. Derek' in the children's series The Basil Brush Show, replacing Rodney Bewes as presenter. He co-starred with Peter Cushing in Hammer's Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)

MANY COMMENTS and tributes to Derek today at the . Many remembering him for his Mr Fowlds with Basil Brush, but also of course his connection with Peter Cushing and role of the slimy Johan in #Hammerfilms 'FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN'. In his youth, Fowlds had very much aspired in the ambition to become a footballer. He first tried acting in school plays as a bit of a lark. "Just for kicks" he later decided to pursue the profession more seriously, going on to train at RADA where he debuted on stage in a 1961 production of "The Miracle Worker" at London's Wyndham Theatre. Thereafter, he popped up in the occasional motion picture, but was considerably more prolific on the small screen where he regularly alternated between comedy and drama. Early on, he played the lead in his own short-lived detective series, Take a Pair of Private Eyes (1966). His autobiography "A Part Worth Playing" was released in 2015.

 READ ALL ABOUT Susan Denberg, Derek Fowlds and the cast of Hammer Films 'FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN' in the above feature : HERE

DEREK WAS A very approachable and friendly chap, for the past few years Derek enjoyed appearing at various signing meetings in London, where he proved to be popular and made quite a few new friends between collectors and other signers during the well attended weekends. Again, another actor who maybe Hammer films should have utilised in other films during the mid and late 1960's. His playing of Johann, always makes me want to 'throttle him!' .... well played indeed. Goodbye Mr Fowlds, we won't forget you 😉😑

Derek Fowlds 1937 -2020

STEVE CREATED FRANKENSTEIN : ACTOR EDWARD JUDD 'ISLAND OF TERROR' REMEMBERED

STARTING NEXT WEEK we will be returning and rebooting our popular daily themed posts on here our facebook fan page and the official PCASUK website. We'll be dusting off each of the seven themed days with some new additions too! Wednesday will now be offering an opportunity not only for collectors to share images of their Cushing collectable and goodies but, also we are inviting any of you who display at deviant art or otherwise, to share examples of your creations and art work here too 🙂 We are happy to provide links to your galleries and watermark items should you wish 🙂 Here is a sample 🙂 Portrait artist Steve Lilly, shared this with us today and I thought you would love to see his artwork for yourselves! This is a cracking portrait of Peter Cushing as Baron Frankenstein, from maybe one of your favourites too... 'Frankenstein Created Woman' ? Steve has a web presence with many superb examples of his work there too!

HERE IS A LINK to see more of his talent for yourselves! Thank you Steve for sharing! CLICK HERE FOR STEVE LILLY'S WEBSITE AND GALLERY!

REMEMBERING EDWARD JUDD today, who was born on this day 4th October 1932. Judd achieved his biggest successes with a series of science fiction films 'The Day The Earth Caught Fire' (1961) ,'First Men In The Moon' (1964) and co-starring with Peter Cushing in 'Island Of Terror' (1966) fighting the silicates…..

FULL REVIEW ON 'THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE WITH GALLERY:  CLICK HERE!

FULL REVIEW AND GALLERY OF 'ISLAND OF TERROR' JUST CLICK HERE! 

FULL REVIEW AND STILLS GALLERY: CLICK HERE!

REMEMBERING BARRY WARREN : BORN TODAY : KISS OF THE VAMPIRE : FRANKENSTEIN

FOR Petra Zemanova 😊 TODAY we remembering the BIRTHDAY of UK actor BARRY WARREN, born today in 1933. Trained at RADA, graduating in 1955, Warren was a handsome very competent supporting actor in several theatre productions, and spent the majority of his career on UK tv screens. 'The Wednesday Play' 'Play of the Month', two characters in the Brit TV classic 'The Avengers in 1966 and and 68. 

AROUND  1975, he vanished completely and continued his life... in a completely different role and gender. WE know him best probably for his work with Hammer Films and the excellent role he played with Peter Cushing in 'Frankenstein Created Woman as Karl in 67.

WARREN ALSO worked with Christopher Lee as Manuel in 'The Devil Ship Pirate's' in 64 and probably his best role for #HammerFILMS as creepy Carl Ravna in 'The Kiss of the Vampire' in 1963. Today we remember Warren and the edge he brought to those 'bad cads' in 'Created Woman' the haunted Ravna in '#KissoftheVampire' and lets not forget his softer side even against the ranks of Lee's Captain Robeles authority! all very sound roles and performances in three classic Hammer films! Happy Birthday and thank you, Barry

WIN SCREAM FACTORY CUSHING DENBERG HAMMER FILM CLASSIC : THORLEY WALTERS REMEMBERED

WE HAVE 'CREATED' a further treat for you tomorrow 😉 WHAT Makes this movie so great? Peter Cushing? Susan Denberg? Thorley Walters? Robert Morris? Duncan Lamont? It's SCREAM FACTORY'S Collector's Edition, UP FOR GRABS! Directed by Terence Fisher. It's a Hammer film classic. Be HERE or Miss OUT 😀 -Marcus

REMEMBERING THORLEY WALTERS.... There can't be many fans of Hammer films or of #PeterCushing or #ChristopherLee, who have never seen actor #ThorleyWalters! Once one of the Hammer films 'repertory company' of actors, who like Michael Ripper and many others, was a face who connected with some of the best of the studios films over a twenty year period. 'Dracula Prince of Darkness in 1968 with Christopher Lee, Hammer's Phantom of the Opera with Herbert Lom, was Lee's Watson in ' Terence Fisher's Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace both in 1962. 'The Man who Haunted Himself and Vampire Circus in 1970 and The Adventure of #SherlockHolmes' Smarter Brother' in 1975 and The People That time Forgot in 1977. Walters also appeared some great big screen British comedies and mass of tv drama's including 'Tinker Tailor, Solider, Spy in 1979.

PERSONALLY, my favorite Walter's performance, was as Dr Herzt with Peter Cushing in #Hammerfilms ' #Frankenstein Created Woman' in 1967. It's one thing to play the strange guy possessed by #CounDracula in Dracula Prince of Darkness, it's wacky it's weird and amusing playing an extension on the classic Stoker / Renfield character, but his playing with great emotional clout, a character who shows a quite #touching friendship to Cushing's Baron Frankenstein and displays such care and compassion to #SusanDenberg's Christina, in very little screen time, is quite a skill . . . Everyone here will have their favorite Thorley Walter's role, they were all gems really, be it with the scamps from #StTrinians or Colonel Bloodstock in #JonPertwee's excellent children's programme #WorzelGummidge, Thorley Walters was ALWAYS able to connect with audiences and left us with a rich and very entertaining cast of performances and roles. Bless you, Thorley 😊

TERENCE FISHER REMEMBERED TODAY

REMEMBERING TERENCE FISHER TODAY 😊 If you enjoy any of the better Hammer films of the 1950's and 60's . . this is the point, you doff your cap 😉 There can be few directors who worked for Hammer films, who did so much to develop that Hammer-in-house style. Terence Fisher, WAS Hammer. Along with Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and the players who helped under pin the rich vision of fairy-tale come Gothic nightmare style. Even when the 'monsters' were 'shaky' the script, with more holes than a Swiss cheese... the look, pace and world beautifully styled by Fisher, just sat so well. The Curse of Frankenstein in 1957 was the first, it also lit the rocket that would spin Peter Cushing into a new and long lasting career within the fantasy genre and Christopher Lee, on scraping off the make up and anonymity as 'the monster', would soon don a cloak and a feral shocking performance as Dracula, that set him on path, for more Fisher, Cushing Hammer classics to come. The Mummy, The Gorgon, and The Hound of the Baskervilles, still stand, as maybe the best of Terence Fisher and Hammer. 

TERENCE FISHER was one of the most prominent horror directors of the second half of the 20th century. He was the first to bring gothic horror alive in full colour, and the sexual overtones and explicit horror in his films, while mild by modern standards, were unprecedented in his day. Fisher although aware of the terrifying elements of his Hammer films, would only smile when questioned about their shock factor, and answer...'I make wicked fairy tales...!' Fisher also along with Lee and Cushing, had a wicked sense of humor, hints of which can often been seen on the screen. Given their subject matter and lurid approach, Fisher's films, though commercially successful, were largely dismissed by critics during his career. It is only in recent years that Fisher has become recognised as an auteur in his own right . . .

'BACK IN MARCH 1980, I was just 19, living in Kent and scuffling back and forth to London, jobbing in very basic model and extra work, desperately earning my actors 'Equity Card'. With PCAS has my hobby, I was living in digs, that belonged to a family who were organizing a fantasy convention in London just a few weeks away. They were very kind people and good friends of Terence Fisher's, who had now retired, and was sadly, not in very good health. But he had agreed to attend the convention. While sitting in the kitchen one evening, I was star struck to hear, they were chatting with Fisher on the telephone. I had spent the last two days laughingly trying to get myself an agent in London, the shambolic details they shared with Fisher. Laughing into my coffee I shouted across the room, 'Ask him if he knows any charitable, kind and helpful agents!'. There was a pause and a howl of laughter. I asked, what was his answer? 'Oh, you'll never find one of them!' was his reply . . and he is still laughing down the phone!' 🤣🤣 Sadly, Fisher passed in June. I did get my Equity card, thanks to sponsors, actor Michael Ripper and Make up artist, Roy Ashton... who strangely enough, held a membership of the Equity Union, for many years! So, I sadly never got to meet Terence Fisher... but I did get to make him laugh 😀😊' Marcus Brooks

PETER CUSHING AND THE DIRECTORS: PART ONE OF FOUR: HERE!

#FRANKENSTEINFRIDAY! RETURNS FOR JUST ONE MONTH!

The PCASUK #FrankensteinFriday comes back for a month THIS Friday, I have some interesting photographs, on set and behind the scenes of 'The Evil of Frankenstein' I want to share with you, some great bits and pieces on Peter playing the Baron... plus there are TWO Hammer Frankenstein Competitions, which I think you will enjoy too! It all starts this Friday for just a month, don't miss it 😉 - Marcus

REVIEW FEATURE: SCREAM FACTORY OVER HAULS HAMMER FILMS FRANKENSTEIN CREATION ON 2K SCAN BLU RAY

HAMMER FILMS, 1967 'FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN' GETS A NEW 2K Scan 'Using The Original Film Elements' in impressive BLU RAY release FROM SCREAM FACTORY!

'FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN' : HAMMER FILMS 1967

Director: Terence Fisher, Screenplay: John Elder [Anthony Hinds], Producer:  Anthony Nelson Keys, Photography: Arthur Grant, Music: James Bernard, Music Supervisor: Philip Martell, Special Effects: Les Bowie, Production Design: Bernard Robinson. Production Company: Hammer/Seven Arts

Synopsis
'She's a vision of loveliness ... with a murderous mission from beyond the grave!'

IN THIS MOST conceptually wild and out-rightly science-fictional of the Hammer Frankenstein films" (Moria Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Film Review), Baron Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) and Dr. Hertz (Thorley Walters) are embarking upon an experiment to capture the souls of the dead and impose them into other bodies. When their assistant, Hans (Robert Morris), is unjustly accused of murdering his girlfriend Christina's father and is himself put to death, the two men claim his body and trap his soul in their laboratory. Meanwhile, Christina (Susan Denberg) is consumed with grief over the death of her beloved Hans and commits suicide. Frankenstein and Dr. Hertz are able to transfer Hans' soul into Christina's healed body, which results in a vision of beauty. Their experiment appears successful until Frankenstein discovers that Christina's seductive appetites are being driven by the spirit of Hans and his passion for revenge ...

IF CRITICS AT THE TIME are time were to be believed, that hammer films were like the distant cousins of the Shepperton studios, 'Carry On films', 'made for the working classes, nothing too cerebral or intellectually demanding and with flashes of titillation to meet the demands of the lowest common denominator', then director Terence Fisher and script writer, Anthony Hinds over-stepped their remit and burnt out the brains of many an audience. 'CREATED WOMAN' follows a story track that leaves the concept of the Baron just rejuvenating sown and souring corpses, way behind. It soon becomes a quite interesting theoretical  essay and endeavor on the journey and existence of the soul! Judging by the box office, the 'classes' LOVED it! The whole thing is quite crazy, but it works. 

THE ARRIVAL OF HANS as a total gender swap, is interesting especially as her existence is all about REVENGE on men who abused and tormented her. Topical today or what? The relationship on screen between Thorley Walters and Peter Cushing is wonderful. Walters did the bumbling aged roles very well. The young snipes are cast well and our creation in, Susan Denberg, ticks all the boxes, for those who wanted more than the expected stitches and scars. The stitches here are broken, snapped and groaning under the weight of something that is certainly 'all women'  and reveal a creation, that would keep fans dribbling for many decades after the films release. The scar sadly, was something waiting in the wings for Denberg that would car crash her career and make her life something certainty more, than any nightmare, Hammer films could devise, for sure.

THE BLU RAY:
IF WE LOOK AT our blu ray shelf, it seems that Scream Factory has released Frankenstein Created Woman as the next part of their Hammer films Collector’s Edition series. This is a NEW 2k scan of the original film elements. A previously released blu ray from Millennium, thankfully quickly went out of reach for orders, and can now rest in the dust as THIS release leaves that memory fast fading, like it's visual quality at the time. Scream Factory has released the print that should have been delivered back then. SCREAM'S new transfer is visually superior, it's  vibrant, exposes those rich Hammer film colours and vibes, we know and look for, so well. There are no muddy, foggy textures here. The vision is much brighter, while not losing the density of shadows and the margins between black and grey.  The focus detail and depth of field in the focus can been seen through out and is not flat, as can often be the case in blu ray transfers. There are a few spots of damage to the print, but these are not distracting and were only spotted on the second viewing. The grain is in keeping with the film stock that Hammer used at this time. 

SCREAM FACTORY also presents this release in the film’s original 1.66:1 aspect ratio.  Frankenstein Created Woman is a very good film on a lot of levels, and visually the film has never looked this good in home cinema presentation. It's a great achievement that many fans of the film, I am sure will appreciate. The audio on this release is a DTS-HD MA mono track and both Anthony Hinds entertaining dialogue and the majestic film score sound is classic Hammer films! Terrific.

EXTRAS AND BONUS MATERIAL: 

• NEW 2K Scan From The Original Film Elements
• NEW Audio Commentary With Author/Film Historian Steve Haberman And Filmmaker/Film Historian Constantine Nasr
• NEW Interview With Actor Robert Morris
• NEW Interview With Camera Assistant/Clapper Loader Eddie Collins And 2^nd Assistant Director Joe Marks
• Audio Commentary By Actors Derek Fowlds, Robert Morris, And Film Historian Jonathan Rigby
• World Of Hammer Episode The Curse Of Frankenstein
• World Of Hammer Episode Hammer Stars: Peter Cushing
• Hammer Glamour Featurette
• Theatrical Trailers
• TV Spots
• Radio Spots
• Still Galleries – Movie Stills, Posters, And Lobby Cards

SO TO WRAP UP, what we have with this much welcomed released of one of Hammer and Cushing more interesting, Frankenstein films, is a vast improvement on what has gone before, you have the best of BOTH worlds, with EXTRAS and BONUS menu consisting of a number of features both very interesting and new, plus the best bits of previously seen material. It's a MUST for fans of the Hammer series and Peter Cushing! BUY IT and PRE ORDER HERE!