LAUREL AND HARDY CLASSIC 80 YEARS OLD THIS YEAR AND ONE EXTRA IS NO CHUMP!

THIS YEARS MARKS the 80TH year of the release of Laurel and Hardy's feature film, 'A Chump At Oxford' . . a great anniversary for Stan and Olly . . but also quite an amazing quirk of fortune for Peter Cushing back then. If ever Peter Cushing comes up in conversation, pop this little nugget of info into your chat...and people wont believe you! 😃I find it strange also that this film features a comedy fright scene with a 'ghost'! Ironic or what?? 😉

ABOVE IS A SHOT of Peter Cushing and the other scoundrel students of 'Oxford' getting their just deserves in the garden lake. He is one of the students singing 'Fee Fie Fo Fum' and appears in a couple of other scenes too. He was just 26 years old when this was made. When often asked about his time with Stan and Olly, Peter would fondly recall his experience as an extra on this film and said his outstanding memory was of how concerned Oliver Hardy was about the welfare of the extras in the film and demanded that the producers arrange for towels and fresh clothes be supplied for the extras who got soaked in the pond scene and personally brought in a large tray of doughnuts for the extras to enjoy during filming . . 

HALLOWEEN COMPETITION NUMBER ONE NOW CLOSED: WINNERS TO BE ANNOUNCED ON SATURDAY 17TH NOVEMBER 2018

BOO! HERE IT IS! 🙂 The FIRST of our THREE PCAS Halloween Competitions 2018 🙂 PLEASE ONLY send your answers using the MESSAGE / CONTACT BUTTON at the top of this page, as usual. Sadly, any entries posted in the thread below, will be deleted and not counted as entries. If you can't wait to win, to own your own copy of this outstanding remaster of a great Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee Hammer DRACULA film... the blu ray is OUT NOW! 

YOU can ORDER and PURCHASE your copy of the Warner Brothers Archive Collection REMASTEREd Blu Ray HERE!

THE GIFS IN THIS FEATURE WERE NOT MADE

 USING THE REMASTERED BLU RAY

WE'LL HAVE ANOTHER Warner Brothers Competiton TOMORROW, where you can bag yourself copies of the remastered blu ray of the Dracula AD 1972 SEQUEL, 'The Satanic Rites of Dracula'! All correct answers will be as always, dropped into a pot and FIVE lucky winners will be announced HERE on Thursday November 15th! As ever, this competition is OPEN to everyone, no matter where you are! So GOOD LUCK! Have fun and get your entry in NOW 😉

WATCH TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED : PLUS HORROR GIFS WEDNESDAY!

TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED in 1983. ....it may not ring a bell for many here, as it was a UK Television show, but it was syndicated to the US and most of Europe. Cushing's role, was one of his last performances before the camera. There would only be three more roles for Cushing after this, in 'Helen Keller: The Miracle Continues', 'Masks of Death' as Sherlock Holmes and 'Biggles', his last film performance for cinema.

KARL VON BADEN is a role that Cushing could have played in his sleep just five years previous, that is not to say it's a weak performance, but the script gives him little to do, and it's Cushing who looks weak and frail at this point. It's a story that relies on flashbacks, and much of his screen time is played sitting down. He looks tired, but that helps to bring a poignancy to his role. Cushing shares most of his scenes with another television veteran, John Bailey. Anthony Higgins who plays Cassan in the story, would go on to play Sherlock Holmes in an updated Sherlock series and would also play Moriarty in the film 'Young Sherlock'. Vorpal Blade is a tale set in a sedate rose garden and a castle in Heidelberg... the episode was directed by John Jacobs who produced the other Anglia television series 'Orson Welles Great Mysteries'...in which Cushing also appeared, a wonderful episode entitled, 'La Grande Breteche' in 1973.

NAME THE FILMS THAT the above GIFS were taken from and the PETER CUSHING ROLES in the film plus the YEARS they were produced!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN : IT'S TRICK OR TREAT WITH A DOUBLE BILL OF CUSHING LEGENDS!

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY! AND SO, HERE WE are again! Seems like only a year since the last one!!! HA! I am a SUCKER for Halloween, and this year, it's my first time celebrating it in the US. It's different. Let's just say, the front of the house looks like a Hammer House of Horror playground for Wednesday Addams, and I have spent most of this morning, filling little trick or treat orange ghosty bags, with sweets (candy) Monster stickers and rubber spiders! They tell me to expect . . .  upwards of 50 visitors to the front door, wearing various monster, ghosts and ghoulies. Nothing new there then! I'm prepared! How about you? PLEASE share any pics here of your GET ups, GET Together's and GET downs ...decent please...the vicar and Aunty Mary is watching tonight 😉 

After the fuss DIES down, I'll be kicking back with some phantom punch, and watching our #PCAS HALLOWEEN DOUBLE BILL of Peter Cushing movies, which you too can watch here at #PCAS #Facebook, the #PCAS #Youtube Channel and the #PCAS website... See BELOW . .. Laters. Stay SAFE and HAVE FUN! -Marcus

DRAGGED FROM THE PCASUK YOUTUBE CHANNEL screaming and howling, here's a tasty little 1975 offering from TYBURN FILMS starring Peter Cushing, David Rintoul, Ron Moody and Lynn Dalby, LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF . . . sure to chill your blood and have you screaming for more . . . .

AND IF IT'S MORE YOU WANT . . . a lethal dose of a VAMPIRE LEGEND from the FAR EAST, this just might be just enough, to send you off to bed, knowing all is well, while Cushing's Van Helsing will forever be around, to fight DRACULA and his Skipping and Hoping Vampire zombies, well that and the KUNG FU Clan. . ENJOY and a HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Til NEXT YEAR....

 

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  . . 

#GETTHECUSHION! REVENGE ON THE DEAD!

#GETHECUSHIONITSCUSHING! This week's clip is one of my personal Amicus favorite scenes... it stars Ian Ogily and Peter Cushing, 'And Now, The Screaming Starts' ...it's THAT scene in the cemetery! The rain, the thunder..the skeleton! It's a weird film, a bit of sprawling script, in being Amicus films only ghost story, it could have been helped a little with a more subtle title. 'An Now, the...' etc was Max Rosenberg's idea. He, The King of Subtly'..said nobody....ever. The Bride of Fengriffen' the title of the book that the script was based on, would have been much better, I feel....what say you?

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#MONSTERMONDAY: COUNT DRACULA : MONSTER OR VICTIM?

#MONSTERMONDAY: It's kinda fitting that today, of all days, we debate and chew over probably the most deadly of ALL the creatures and phantoms, Peter Cushing ever had to face in a movie, THIS chap, gave him the most problems! #COUNT DRACULA.

MEETING FACE TO FACE in a total of FOUR films, all made by HAMMER FILMS, and all starring #CHRISTOPHERLEE as the Count, except one. So good was Christopher Lee in the role of Dracula, when Hammer films made, THE BRIDES OF DRACULA in 1960, his absence from the film, was something you just could not ignore. However, Lee did leave us quite a legacy of Dracula performances to enjoy, seven feature film for Hammer, and few other interpretations for others studios too. They may not all be to ones liking, but for many, he set the bar, which will probably never bettered or equaled.

So, for an actor Dracula is maybe the Hamlet of the Fantasy/horror roles, certainly a character you could...wait for it..get your teeth into. BUT, is the character . . .  a MONSTER or a VICTIM? Lee always hinted that the Count was cursed, a victim, forever doomed to roam the earth in search of blood and victims, maybe a romantic notion? Or was he a MONSTER spreading his plague of vampirism, draining his virgin victims of their lives and life blood?? MONSTER or VICTIM? YOU Decide! 

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#TBT REAL STRANGE AND SPOOKY GOINGS ON IN CUSHING 'CREEPING FLESH' FILM! CAN YOU SPOT IT?

YOU WOULD EXPECT the set of a Peter Cushing horror film to be a spooking and slightly unnerving place. You wouldn't be surprised to see the occasional skeleton, disembodied body parts hanging around or things moving around by themselves, but aided by a out of shot prop or special effects guy. BUT WHAT ABOUT MOVING UNASSISTED BY THE PROP GUY???

The Creeping Flesh Blooper by PeterCushingAppreciationSociety

 

WELL, THAT CERTAINLY SEEMS TO BE THE CASE HERE! The film is THE CREEPING FLESH  a very enjoyable horror film, starring Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Lorna Heilbron, George Benson and even, Michael Ripper gets a quick look in. It's one of the few films that Tigon Films produced in the 1970's, along with 'Blood On Satan's Claw' and that other Tigon Cushing outing, The Blood Beast Terror in 1968. Low on budget, but occasionally, quite polished and original. No Dracula's or Frankenstein's here...but certainly at times, they give some of Hammer films early 70's releases, a good run for their money! Though for a limited time, a very good quality DVD was available of this film, believed to have been struck off a superior HD master print, after some copyright issues, the DVD release vanished from sales and can now only occasionally be found on ebay, for very silly money indeed.  It's a film that is still sadly awaiting a blu ray release with a deserving menu of extra features and the bits and bobs, that make horror film buffs froth!

I GUESS I AM ONE OF THE LUCKY ONES, that put my money down, before the asking price went up! Certain cretins think making the price go north, is a dead cert to get fans to part with their lolly. Not The Case. So, the film unfortunately for the meantime, is out of the grasp for many. But, the tom tom drums tell me a Blu Ray is a-comin-soon!

HOWEVER, BACK TO THE PLOT. . . .  Peter Cushing's, more than able co-star for much of this film is Christopher Lee, but actor GEORGE BENSON has a good deal to do in his screen time with Cushing and shares some major suspenseful scenes! Which brings us to the film clip above, featuring both Cushing and Benson. We spotted something MOST peculiar in this shot. Cushing's Dr Emmanuel Hildern is explaining some important plot details to Benson's 'Waterlow'...and then... well. See if YOU can spot it too? If you can why not visit us at our Peter Cushing Appreciation Society Facebook Fan Page, where we have just posted this clip too...and let us know what you have seen...or not! Have fun!

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