STABBINGS CORPSES AND BAD BEDS : THIS WEEKS GIF GIF GIF WEDNESDAY!

#CUSHINGGIFWEDNESDAY: MICHAEL RIPPER as we all know, was one of the Hammer repertory players of Hammer films. He played lots of small supporting roles, but occasionally he got a larger slice and a larger role in a film. Amicus films, 'TORTURE GARDEN' features Ripper in a supporting role, that is quite a surprising 🙂 Do you have a favorite MICHAEL RIPPER role??

#THEGORGON is a Peter Cushing Hammer film, that has suffered from a quite horrible symptom since the first day of its release back in August 1964. I am not referring to the death gaze of Prudence Hyman's Magaera's baleful spell. The 'SNAKES". And as Hammer film fans, we all know it. The film IS a 'Hammer film Classic' made during that ten year golden era, of those Bray studio Magical Gothic Nightmares, that made Hammer more than just a step above, most that had gone before. THE GORGON has the perfect ROMANCE TRIANGLE, it has TRAGEDY,  CONFLICT, superb direction, art direction and cast, but ever Hammer Horror HAS to have a figure that truly frightens. That with the help of Cushing, Lee, Shelley and Co however fantastical, is believable. Pru looked and performed amazingly. Those serpents however and that 'head' on the deck, did not then and doesn't now. The story of the struggle that the props and effects department had with the 'twitching head set', is well documented, so we'll pass here. 

 OUR FEATURE AND GALLERY on Hammer films

 'THE GORGON' (1964) CLICK HERE!

IN OVER FORTY YEARS, cries have remained largely the same, 'Shot with too much light!' 'You see her, too early' 'Why didn't they surround her in mist, dry ice, fog . . .anything!?' It's true. In 90% of Magaera's shots, she IS seen. Clearly. I still do love the film, I love the sets, the costumes, it looks beautiful. There were enough of the sets and props left around from the 1958 'Horror of DRACULA' 'Curse of FRANKENSTEIN' and 'Revenge of FRANKENSTEIN' that the film can clearly been seen to be more than a cousin, of those other Hammer classics.  Such a pity. Maybe the tweaks and 're-imagining' of the SPIDER and the horse-bound ANGEL OF DEATH, should be tried on MAGAERA too? Not that Studio Canal or anyone else will ever be in a hurry to try that out again. Like some great Greek Shakespearean tragedy, 'Some quarters, they doth protested too much, methinks' . . . .


JOSHUA KENNEDY HAS PLANS to produce an amazing NEW FILM called, 'THE HOUSE OF THE GORGON' which will star Hammer film actors, Veronica Carlson, Caroline Munro, Martine Beswicke and Christopher Neame! FIND OUT MORE and how YOU can help to make this film a reality in our PCAS FEATURE CLICK HERE!

#CUSHINGGIFWEDNESDAY! The film, 'ISLAND OF TERROR' (1966) has always been very popular here. The love for those Silocates is always evident whenever, we post an image of them. Considering the budget for this film, it looks as though someone had the foresight to understand, a monster film, has to have convincing monster and pose a threat that looks real. Someone, maybe director Fisher thought to make sure a sizeable slice went to making the special effects.

THAT SHRIVELED CORPSE that Cushing's Dr Stanley finds, was quite a moment for me when I first saw this film when I was around ten. In ANY Cushing film, can you think of any effect 'special or otherwise' that made an impression on you when you first saw it???

AMICUS FILMS 'MADHOUSE' (1974) is a film that revels in the many cliques and well trod dramas and dilemmas of the celebrated  thrillers and horror films of the 30's, 40's and 50's. Vincent Price plays Horror film star PAUL TOOMBES, driven crazy when off screen life unravels and starts to imitate the scripts of his DOCTOR DEATH movies. Like his 'PHIBES' films and 'THEATRE OF BLOOD' (1973) lots of ingenious scenarios of 'horrible deaths' follow and Peter Cushing's HERBERT FLAY tries his best to help his desperate friend, but despite his best efforts, DOCTOR DEATH came after TOOMBES time after time. Just like in the above GIF ;)

PART SIX of 'The Amicus Films of Peter Cushing' covers MADHOUSE and includes a gallery of RARE images. You can find it HERE!

REMEMBER! 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     

CUSHING'S DAILY WALKS : FANCY MEETING YOU HERE! : CAN YOU IDENTIFY THIS MAN?

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY How cool is this? Here's a photograph that was passed onto me over Christmas. As you know, Peter Cushing's walks through his home town were often opportunities for visiting fans to bump into Peter and have a chat, but also Peter had many friends in the town, he would meet on the street or beach, during his daily jaunt. One of these were the Hewlett family. Many UK followers here will I am sure recognise Donald from the extremely popular 1970's BBC tv comedy series, 'It Ain't Half Hot, Mum', in which he played Colonel Charles Reynolds 🙂 Peter was very good friends with the family. This photograph was taken on the beach just outside Peter's own front door 🙂 Did any of you ever 'bump' into Peter on the beach at WHITSTABLE? Do tell . . .

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY! OVER THE YEARS I have seen lots of strange and wonderful illustrations on VHS and DVD covers, that grace the covers of Cushing films. But this one would be sure to make any Hammer fan, raise their eyebrows! Both Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee star in the film, contained in the box . . . but Lee certainly doesn't appear as Dracula, neither does Cushing play Baron Frankenstein. The image of Dracula has been lifted from the 'Satanic Rites of Dracula' (1973) press kit. Cushing's up to his elbows in Kensington Gore pic, comes from Hammer films, 1969 'Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed' . .  along with Simon Ward who plays, the Baron's assistant Karl. . . and no, Ward doesn't make an appearance in 'Cuerpos Vivientes' either! It's certainly not the worst of bungled Cushing film covers and there are more to come . . .    

#WHOISTHAT? MICHAEL ANDREWS popped onto the PCASUK FACEBOOK FAN PAGE  today, and set you all this puzzler. Andrew asks: 'Does anybody recognise the gentlemen below? He has a certain Cushing look about him. He does actually have a connection with Hammer films!' If you can put a name to that face, we'd be pleased if you too can pop over to the PCAS Facebook Page and provide the answer!

 

REMEMBER! 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     

WHEN MELVYN HAYES MET CHRISTOPHER LEE . . AGAIN!

#CHRISTOPHERLEESATURDAY! WHEN ACTOR MELVYN HAYES met Christopher Lee many years after he played a young Baron Frankenstein to Peter Cushing adult Baron in Hammer films first Frankenstein film, 'The Curse of Frankenstein' (1957) Christopher Lee was a virtual unknown actor at the time he appeared in the film as the 'creation' / 'monster' . .. which both Hayes and Peter 'MADE' in the movie. . . . .cringe....

THE VERY FIRST TIME I ever saw MELVYN HAYES, was on the big screen in a SATURDAY MORNING FILM CLUB for children when I was about nine years old. He played a character called ALBERT, that I loved very much, in a weekly film serial that was screened as part of the morning's entertainment called, Here Comes The Double Deckers!'. It was produced by the UK Children Film Foundation, which I believe provide funded by RANK CINEMAS, who provided all the films we watched. Maybe some of you from the UK may remember this?

IN THE COURSE of my duties managing PCASUK in the 80's I finally got to meet Melvyn. He was extremely friendly, loved to talk and share stories. Melvyn also appeared in other films that starred Peter Cushing, 'VIOLENT PLAYGROUND' (1958) which as he said, is a REAL time piece and as Daft Jamie in 'FLESH AND THE FIENDS' (1960) and finally in,  'A TOUCH OF SUN' (1980) which was one of the lost film features in our 'LESSER SEEN PETER CUSHING FILMS' season. It can be seen at our PCAS YOUTUBE CHANNEL 

REMEMBER! 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  

CHRISTOPHER LEE SINGS STUDIO VERSION OF NAME YOUR POISON

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY! CHRISTOPHER LEE gives a fun rendition of his song 'Name Your Poison' from the musical comedy film 'The Return of Captain Invincible' from 1983. The film starring Alan Arkin as Captain Invincible' and Christopher Lee as Mr. Midnight, grossed a mere $55,110 at the Australian box office despite a budget of $7 million.

LYRICIST RICHARD O'BRIEN Lyricist  and composer Richard Hartley, known for their prior collaboration on The Rocky Horror Show and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, contributed three songs, including "Captain Invincible" sung by O'Brien, "Evil Midnight" sung by Lee and Arkin, and "Name Your Poison" sung by Lee during which the evil Mr. Midnight tempts the alcoholic Captain Invincible with a well-stocked bar.

REMEMBER! 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

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY: DRACULA AUTOGRAPHED TWICE!

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY: Very cool, very rare. We have another one for you tomorrow in our Wednesday Cushing Collectables !

THIS YEAR, 2016 marks the 60th anniversary of PCAS, help us celebrate Peter Cushing life and career, by sharing our post on any of our sites.

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#petercushing #dracula  #christopherlee #hammerfilms 

MONSTERMONDAY THE SKULL AND FREDDIE FRANCIS SCRIPT

This weeks #MONSTERMONDAY features not so much a body or person, but a head! The SKULL, of the Marquis de Sade to be exact! Amicus films, THE SKULL produced in 1965 starred another teaming of Peter with Christopher Lee, who were supported by the superb casting of Patrick Wymark, Nigel Green, Patrick Magee and Jill Bennett. In recent times, the cranked up suspense and lush photography has enjoyed a remastering on blu ray, unfortunately the 'clean-up' of the print reveals not only the finer framed details, but also the 'strings' that suspend the floating skull of the title! Having said that, the Skull's suspense and menace, still delivers unnerving chills some 50 years on...and makes it more than worthy of being our nominated Monster this Monday.... The Skull.thumbs UP or DOWN?

Peter Cushing and Jill Bennett in Le Crane Malefique - The skull from Amicus films directed by Freddie Francis. This FRENCH lobby card carries the proof of a replacement paper sticker, that has been placed over the original title in French. The heirs of Donatien Alphonse François de Sade pressed charges to prevent any use of his name on the advertising material. The changes on posters and lobby-cards were made at the very last minute by gluing a paper sticker with the new title "Le Crâne Maléfique" (meaning "The Evil Skull") on top of the former, "Les forfaits du Marquis de Sade" (meaning "the Infamies of Marquis de Sade"). Only on that condition the film could finally be released in the French territory.

For many years, the director of Amicus films, THE SKULL starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, insisted that the impressive 'dream sequence' that takes place in the film with Peter Cushing, was entirely improvised on the day of shooting, on the studio floor. Here we present , from our collection, two pages from director's Freddie Francis personal script of The Skull. Page 21 describes 'Scene 12A Int Library Night' and gives detail of a MONTAGE SEQUENCE 'almost Dreamlike'... to the right of the page, in Francis own handwriting is an annotation note which says, 'OLD FASHION DREAM TRICK', which throws some doubt on Francis story. Throughout interviews in later times, Francis expressed his irritation with producer Milton Subotsky, and his habit of presenting Francis with incomplete scripts. This FINAL DRAFT shows clearly that a dream sequence was indeed included in the final vision of the script and that before shooting commence, Francis had also identified the style and technique that would be needed.

The Peter Cushing Appreciation Society is based in the UK but truly is an international group of fans, friends and admirers of the work of actor Peter Cushing. Established in 1956, PCAS is celebrating its 60 year this year. From its humble beginings as a newsletter and journal managed by Ms Gladys Fletcher until 1979, when it became a journal and audio tape service. The development of the audio tape show, was a forerunner of the todays PODCASTS, which was recorded in the style of a radio show, including interviews, competitions, sketches and features. The PCAS Sound Mag, later branched out into a spin off club and it's own following called The Black Box Club. Now both PCAS and the BLACKBOXCLUB enjoy a very popular presence on the internet and across many media platforms and social network sites. The PETER CUSHING APPRECIATION SOCIETY FACEBOOK FAN PAGE  AND our WEBSITE are UPDATED SEVERAL TIMES DAILY.

PETER CUSHING AS GUEST OF HONOR AT PARIS FILM FESTIVAL 1974