#WATCHWITHCUSHING! It takes a special friendship and almost psychic
understanding... in order to meet for what you know is probably the last
time, and to give exchanges and comments to each other, that because of
your bond, need only be given in your shared 'short hand', that has
been crafted and exchanged over many years, during tough times and good.
This is how we see a brief insight into the friendship, love and
respect both Peter Cushing and his close friend Christopher Lee had for
each other.
EVEN WITH THE CLOSE proximity of death, could be handled with
irony and gallows humour! Although, when asked by Peter, 'Will you fill
in for me, if I don't make it through this day?' even Lee could only
reply, 'Oh don't say that..' They behaved like this over a 30 year
career and friendship of even longer, even though, it was known in the
industry that even though Cushing and Lee had this closeness, their
wives Gitte Lee and Helen Cushing . . were not that close. What they
were was fiercely protective of their husbands, their careers, standing
and reputations.. plus Helen was born in Leningrad, USSR and Gitte in
Copenhagen, Denmark . . Strong wives, for husbands who loved to play 😊 - Marcus
THIS IS THE FIRST PART of a series of features, focusing on THE MAKING OF THE LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF. This is quite a different series, compared to our usual theme of features on the work of PETER CUSHING. Each of our six parts will not just be looking at Cushing, the cast and a critque of the finished film, but we will also spend time hearing from the production crew, lighting, set design and the diector and producer. TYBURN FILMS were quite an unusual production company. At the time studios and companies were struggling to finance and make features, Tyburn approached the problem with a different concept, which makes this series all the more interesting. Peter Cushing appeared in four productions with Tyburn over the years. Three films, THE GHOUL (1975) THE LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF and THE MASKS OF DEATH, also a biographical tv programme called ONE WAY TICKET TO HOLLYWOOD. Tyburn's CEO Kevin Francis, first met Peter Cushing when he was working and finding his feet, for Hammer films. Both he and Cushing became friends, as Francis was such a fan of his work and Hammer films. The friendship helped too when Francis was looking for a top name, when casting his first Tyburn productions, it was a friendship that would grow even closer during and after Cushing's last few years.
ACTING UP!
OBVIOUSLY,
film acting has never been just a simply 'act' of learning your lines
and saying them with as much conviction as you can! There are various
technical things to think about, like keeping in frame, leaving seconds
at the beginning of takes, so the editor can get in, and keeping enegies
the same in the master shot, close ups and cut aways. The script for
THE LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF was like many scripts that director FREDDIE
FRANCIS worked with for another film production company to, AMICUS
FILMS. LEGEND had a script where actors were given a certain amount of
freedom in interpreting the script! Peter Cushing played the role of Paul Cataflanque, a skilled forensic surgeon. Here he explains his methods of performance for camera, and preparing for a role.
CUSHING AND THE LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF SCRIPT : CHANGES
PETER CUSHING:'I DO THE SAME THING on all film scripts. A play that's written for the
theatre, it's altered sometimes but it's done in a very different way. A
film script is such a technical thing, it's altered so much during the
original writing that sometimes the dialogue does get a little out of
hand. They've been concentrating on something else so much that in the
end they can't see the wood for the trees, but when an actor sees the
script for the first time he is able to see these little problems . Then
there are also certain ways of making exactely the same sense but
saying the line in a way that is better for the character. But one never
alters the gist of what is being said because obviously if you alter
that you alter the whole script. And then, a script is over written,
becauseit's much better to cut out, if you are over time, than to try
and add on if you are under, because it's when you add on, that begins
gto show a little, unless you have given it great thought to it. So
scripts are usually overwritten to about ten minutes so that you can cut
ten minutes offand come down to the required hour or hour and a half,
or whatever you want'.
CUSHING'S METHOD AND PREPARATION
PETER CUSHING:'I ALWAYS DO a tremendous amount of this, it's purely my way of working,
particularly in films, which is my favourite medium, But the actors get
very little rehearsal time, you see, so you must do your homework. I
naturally always ask the director, but the director has many things to
think of, not just me or the other actors, he got technical things,
lighting and so on, and what he's doing next week or next month. So
whatever you can do to help is good for everyone concerned. And
instinctively he knows immediately : it's marvelous and we'll add to it
or no, because I always do a little sketch of the clothes I want,
costume, because I think that is important. It helps with the character
to know, what you are goping to wear. This again is purely my 'method',
if you want to call it that. I think the more preparation you do the
better. I don't like the phrase 'technique of acting' because I don;t
think there is such a thing, but film making is very technical in as
much as you have to remember your 'marks', remember your 'key lights'
all sorts of things like that, and at the same time, you have to make it
all look as though, it's all just happening, when the camera films it.
"I DO A LOT OF WORK long before I start in the production and the shooting
begins. i know the whole script, because you never know what scene they
are going to do some days. They might suddenly change their minds, like
yesterday when we were a day and a half ahead of schedule. Well, had I
not known the scene, I couldn't have done that. But you see, when I get
home after a da's shooting there's not really time. I just check
through, and look at all my notes. By the time you get home it's seven
or eight o'clock and by the time you've had a meal and written a couple
of letters it's time to get to bed for half past five in the morning. So
that's why it's important to me at any rate, to do a great deal of work
before shooting starts".
WORKING WITH DIRECTOR FREDDIE FRANCIS:
PETER CUSHING : "EVERYBODY IS DIFFERENT, though I must say, I have been exceptionally lucky, with
all the directors I have worked for. Freddie has his way of doing
things. What I admire apart from his tremendous knowledge of the
buisness is Freddie's wonderful insight and instinct for how to treat
every indivdual on the studio floor. He knows those ones to lark with,
those not to lark with, he giot great kindness and yet absolutely the
correct kind of authority. The behaviour of everyone, obviously in
almost every industry, does stem from the top and go right the way down
through. If you get someone who's not very nice at the top it does tend
to inflitrate through the unit".
THE ROLE OF PAUL CATAFANQUE
PETER CUSHING : "HE IS A PATHOLOGIST,except that they weren't called pathologists in those
days, they were called judicial surgeons. But there's quite a lot of
humour this time, which is nice and makes a lovely balance to the mayhem
that goes on. But with any role you play your personality must come
across. From that you try to make something of the character, the author
has written into the part. This script was written by John Elder, he
was one of the directors at Hammer films. He wrote many of their early
ones and for eighteen years these Hammer films have been popular and the
mass of people who go to them, it's rather like those people who buy
their favourite chocolates; they know when they open the box, they'll
find the coconut cream and the truffles and that sort of thing, and they
know when they see this kind of film, they'll get what they are kooking
for. And so, they're catered for, by the scriptwriters".
THE SCRIPT MUST BE COMPLETE AND FINISHED
PETER CUSHING :"WHEN
I RECEIVE THE SCRIPTit is never a treament or second draft, it's the
final script, nearly always and it is something I have to insist upon,
because I know me, I know my limitations. I must have the script. It's
no good saying will you do it and you'll have the script the day you
arrive, I couln't accept because I know I couldn't do it. That's the
only reason, I am not being troublesome, it's just because I can't
workthe way I do unless I have it well ahead, to study and learn and
make what alterations I want to suggest. As soon as the script arrives, I
go right through it and if needed I make my suggestions which are then
sent through to the director and producer, they amalgamate them, when
they all get together. By the time I arrive to shoot, all the talking's
finished!!"
FOR DAVID RINTOUL 'The Legend of the Werewolf' was something quite different, it was his first film role. Although by this point he had played many theatrical roles, working in film was very much learning while working . . .
DAVID RINTOUL : "FILM IS TOTALLYdifferent! The first couple of weeks I was just trying to sus it all out! I was a bit lost, I think. I'm beginning to get more confident now. The technique is quite different. Hopefully with time you get the technical side of it, so it becomes an instinctive thing and all your concentraition goes on the acting. What I've found so far, is especially at the beginning of the film, was that, I had to concentrate on the tech things and tended to forget about the acting! But it's a question of experience, I guess. The first couple of days I seemed to have a problem hitting my marks, where to stop when walking, not to lean. I missed my walking marks because I was trying to do it without looking down!"
"YOU SEE WHEN a director says, could you move a little bit to the left, often he's talking about an inch or so. Whereas in the theatre when they say move a bit more to the left they mean FOUR FOOT! Even doing telly there's not the same precision of moves, as there is in film. Here lighting is so important. With telly, you do look for the lamps and that sort of thing, but it's not so central".
"WORKING WITH ALLthe werewolf make up, is alright. I have found it helps me. Different actors work differently. I like working off , without the costume or make up, so there's that boost for me when I go into make up. For example, in the theatre I don't like trying on bits of costume, until a day or two before we open the show, though some directors want you to rehearse in costume quite early. I always leave itthe end, because it gives you that extra boost, that extra charge."
"THE ROLE OFEtoile is pretty much an instintive type of part. Some parts you have to think about a lot, and others you say, yes, that' what the role is about. I talked with director Freddie a bit about the script, but it isn't all sacred and you can change it as you go along. I am lucky I haven't had to really change very much, because . . . he doesn't say that much! I've made it a bit more colloquial. It came across, in the reading, as not stilted, but a bit formal. So I changed little things, like 'you will' to 'you'll'. But you have to be mindfull that Freddie doesn't want it too colloquial, because it has to have a nineteenth century feel. It's a delicate balance bewteen the two. Etoile is described as a country lad. I'm not doing a country accent or anything like that, just making it a bit less formal...."
"WHEN CASTING STARTEDfor this film, I was busy auditioning for a theatrical play, I had already done two or three auditions for it, and was just about to go to the last one, when my agent rang and and said, go out to Pinewood studios tomorrow! So I did, nit really knowing much about it at all. I saw Freddie the director, talked for five minutes or so, met Kevin Francis the producer, talked to him for a couple of minutes and then went back to my flat in London not really knowing or having much idea of how I got on. The phone rang a couple of hours later and the agent said, you've got the part, That was that! We started about four weeks later. Though I was here at the studio, about a week before we started shooting, just to try out the Werewolf make up, and that turned out fine. A couple of minor adjustments when we began shooting, and that was that. As I remember there was just one make up test where they actually filmed it."
COMING SOON : PART TWO : JACK SHAMPAN ON SET DESIGN : THE BUDGET AND DIRECTOR FREDDIE FRANCIS INTERVIEW ON LEGEND!
WE
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FACEBOOK FAN PAGE! With over 33,000 followers, and archives of rare
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#SILENTBUTDEADLYGIFS!ON SET during the making of Amicus Films, 'MADHOUSE' it's two leading stars, Peter Cushing and Vincent Price walk through their characters greeting on meeting each other . . . cue laughter and jokes about Price's poor Paul Toombes, having been 'away' at the local Hollywood asylum for the last five years. It was by all accounts a difficult film to produce. Under written characters, bulked out in late night writing session between co star Robert Quarry and Vincent. All things considered, you would never know it, when watching the film . . .
#SILENTBUTDEADLYGIFS! . . . Not so deadly, this one...more charming!
Taken from our collection of video clips of the last time Peter Cushing
and Christopher Lee worked together...well saw each other, while
recording a narration for a Hammer Films
documentary.... still playful, still fun and still very much devoted
friends. You can find all the clips on the The Last Meeting: One Last Time at our PCAS PCAS YOUTUBE CHANNEL, listen and watch what made their friendship so special . . .
#SILENTBUTDEADLYGIFS!
I REALLY DID feel sorryfor Christopher Lee's character in this film . . he was
pompous, and opinionated... but what a twisted thing to do...and a
twisted story! Can you name the film, this gif was taken from? Take a
look at the vintage still below, and see if you can
'solve' that question too?
#SILENTBUTDEADLYGIFS
: A NICE touch from Peter Cushing's General von Spielsdorf in 'The
Vampire Lovers' (1970) . . . whenever Peter met a woman, female, lady,
in public either for the first time or anytime, he always greeted them
with a gentle kiss upon the back of the hand. I have read many features
and interviews where the female interviewer or journalist, recounted
this and saw it as a wonderfully gallant and profound act of gentlemanly
manners . . . I am not so sure that, if Peter were around us today, he
would feel safe to make such a gesture either!
#SILENTBUTDEADLYGIFS!IT WAS CHRISTOPHER LEE who one said, when he and Peter Cushing attended the US premier of Hammer films, 'Dracula /Horror of Dracula (1958) that when THIS shot appeared at the end of the opening credits, a roar of laughter and hoots went up, from the attending audience. Lee was ready to leave the cinema right then. Cushing, placed his hand of Lee's arm and told him, to stay with it. A few minutes after, hoots still prevailing, for the first time Lee's Dracula stood at the top of the long stairs inside Castle Dracula, he walked down them to meet Jonathan Harker . As soon as he spoke, the whole cinema, fell silent. It was the first time his Dracula was seen on the screen, and it would be one of the very few times, he would speak . . .through out the ENTIRE SEVEN FILM series!
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 . .
#CHRISTOPHERLEESATURDAY:
Beloved is how Christopher Lee describes his old friend, Peter Cushing
in this clip from 1996. This was only two years since Peter's passing
and was one of the first times that Lee spoke about his feelings in
public ...
#CHRISTOPHERLEESATURDAY!
Here is a requested pic for Sammy Watts of the UK.. a pic of
Christopher and Birgit Lee out on the town. I will say this for Lee, old
age didn't hold him back from traveling. Just up to a few weeks before
his passing, he was all over Europe, going to charity events, film
festivals and galleries. It's great to see them both so happy 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.
TWO VERY CLOSE FRIENDS: PETER CUSHING and Christopher Lee during the making of DRACULA AD 1972 and THE GORGON. AND at the bottom of this feature, anothe 'LAST MEETING Clip, if you missed it a few days ago...!
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.
#HAMMERSATURDAY: WE ARE by passing the Hammer films stills and clips today, to catch up with several requests we have received over the last couple weeks to repost this clip of Christopher Lee talking about his personal and working relationship with Peter Cushing. Much to pick up on here, that maybe new to followers. Hope you enjoy. This is for, among many others : Clark Singer, Mandy Price, Dean Pook, Tracey O'neil, Robert Cook, Stephen Langley, Levi Warwick, John Hooper and Janet Coombes.
#HAMMERSATURDAY: AN EXTRA! Here is Christopher Lee actually performing those much loved Warner Brothers cartoon character voices, that both he and Peter loved so much!
PLEASE COME AND JOIN US ALONG WITH ALMOST 30 THOUSAND FOLLOWERS
AND FRIENDS AT OUR OFFICIAL PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE : HERE
The PCAS facebook fan page, now
has OVER 21,000 followers!! This has only been archived with your
fantastic support, your likes, shares and comments, for which I am, as
always, extremely grateful.
Thank You! We celebrate this milestone today, with a NEW banner at our facebook page,
featuring Peter and his close friends who we feature here regularly,
Vincent Price and Christopher Lee.
As we also celebrate our 60th anniversary with our competitions, post
and features, I hope you will continue to spread the word and our posts,
and help to keep the memory alive of not just Peter Cushing, but the
friendship he shared the his fellow gentlemen actors of the genre. Once again, Thank You and here's to the next milestone.Marcus Brooks
