Showing posts with label halloween.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label halloween.. Show all posts

Sunday 2 October 2016

#SHERLOCKSUNDAY: NAME THOSE FILMS


#SHERLOCKSUNDAY: Over at our FACEBOOK FAN PAGE we have set everyone this cunning little teaser! COULD YOU NAME THEM????


#GETTHECUSHIONITSCUSHING

Tuesday 13 September 2016

#HAPPYBIRTHDAY CHRISTOPHER NEAME TODAY 12TH SEPTEMBER


Join us in wishing CHRISTOPHER NEAME a Very Happy Birthday Today! (September 12th) Neame give us his unique portrayal of the young Johnny Alucard in Hammer films Dracula AD 1972, starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing… like it or love, you can’t ignore it!


Pics:(on the left) A RARE behind the scenes photo of Neame on set during the making of Dracula AD 1972 (right) Peter Cushing as Van Helsing and Neame as Alcard…in a moment of exposure!

Saturday 24 October 2015

LIMITED EDITION DR TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS STEEL BOOK COMPETITION : ARRIVES HERE MONDAY


THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED. HERE ARE THE LUCKY WINNERS!


The TRAIN arrives HERE on MONDAY! A REAL FUN competition with SUPERB PRIZES!

You can preorder your copy of Odeon Entertainment Group LIMITED EDITION Steel Book Blu Ray OR DVD of Dr Terror's House of Horrors :HERE




Join us at our FACEBOOK FAN PAGE Updated Daily : Rare Photographs: News : 
Features and Competitions : HERE

Wednesday 29 October 2014

AUNTY BEEB BRINGS ON ANOTHER HAMMER TREAT


HEADS UP FOR BRITS: Lots of you writing in the say how much you enjoyed the screening of 'The Curse of Frankenstein' on BBC4 Monday night...and 'Dracula' the week before. Well, Aunty Beeb is certainly spoiling us by following these two classics with a THIRD. Hammer's 'THE MUMMY' is scheduled to be screened in the same slot NEXT Monday. A rare treat and a rare opportunity for Brit PC and Hammer fans to watch together! Thank you to John Cook, for the reminder. Now pin this banner to your desk top or mobile notes...so you don't forget.

Friday 24 October 2014

DIANA DORS: BORN TODAY : THE SWINDON SIREN REMEMBERED


REMEMBERING: Diana Dors born today, October 23rd 1931. '"I’m the kind of girl that things naturally happen to. When they don’t, I give them a push"....Dors much loved and real national treasure for many years with a career as a model, actress, television personality and 'blonde bombshell'...and also a co star in TWO Peter Cushing films. 'From Beyond The Grave' for Amicus films and Nothing But The Night also with Christopher Lee.


Monday 9 January 2012

PETER CUSHING: THE FLESH AND THE FIENDS: LOBBY CARDS AND REVIEW


One of the forgotten classics of British cinema, The Flesh and The Fiends (1959) is a blackly comic, almost disturbingly vicious black-and-white horror thriller. Telling the true story of Edinburgh grave robbers Burke and Hare and their dealings with the eminent anatomist Dr Robert Knox, the film bears a superficial resemblance to Terence Fisher's first two movies in the Hammer Frankenstein series (1957, 1958), but makes for a far more cynical, realistic, and uncomfortable viewing experience.



On the back of his recent Hammer hits, Peter Cushing was cast as the amoral Dr Knox in this film, and plays the character with the same arrogance he brought to his Baron Frankenstein. However, despite his top billing, Cushing is by no means required to carry The Flesh and The Fiends, and is instead merely one of an ensemble of actors who deliver almost universally fine performances. Most notable are George Rose and Donald Pleasence, who are both hilarious and chilling as the feckless body snatchers. Pleasence is particularly striking as the selfish, cowardly sociopath Hare, his shabby appearance, evil leer, and sudden lapses into excitable anger and panic being a world away from the controlled stillness of his more famous villains in the likes of You Only Live Twice. Billie Whitelaw is also extraordinarily effective (and extraordinarily sexy) as a hard-faced prostitute who falls victim to the murderous duo.



Produced by the team of Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman shortly after they had a moderate hit with their unremarkable Jack The Ripper (1959), the most impressive thing about The Flesh and The Fiends is the sheer scale of the production, which runs to some truly enormous interior and exterior sets and seemingly hundreds of extras for the crowd scenes (of which there are quite a few). In this regard, the film is a world away from the flamboyant and colourful, yet claustrophobically small-scale action of most Hammer horror films; in terms of scale, The Flesh and The Fiends is more reminiscent of historical epics such as David Lean's films of Dickens.


After a decade of making unremarkable (and mostly low-budget) thrillers, director John Gilling got his first horror movie gig with this movie, and rarely made films outside the genre thereafter; most of his later career was spent working in television. The Flesh and The Fiends is easily Gilling's best film, and certainly does not deserve its relative obscurity, particularly in its native country.


This Region 1 DVD of The Flesh and The Fiends is a good example of how the format can be used to make the most of films that exist in several different versions, such as when older films have been cut to ribbons (for a variety of reasons) over the years. Included here are both the original British release print of the film, and the more explicit `Continental' version, featuring slightly more violence, and even topless shots of some very game female extras in the brothel scenes (and maybe I'm overly prudish, but for me there's something not quite right about nude scenes in black-and-white films; the two things just don't go together somehow).



As well as the two complete versions of the film, the DVD also features the opening credits sequence of an abridged version called simply Mania, and a trailer for the movie, advertising it under the all-purpose title The Fiendish Ghouls; this DVD really does put to shame the bare bones releases of Hammer movies from the likes of Warner Bros. About the only thing missing is a commentary, but as Gilling, Cushing, Pleasence, and Rose are all (sadly) long gone, no obvious candidates for such an effort present themselves anyway.






2019 UPDATE: SINCE THE POSTING OF THIS FEATURE, we have posted this NEWS of a long awaited NEW BLU RAY release of 'FLESH AND THE FIENDS' at this website and the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE :We will of course, be posting reviews and updates as soon as the release in on its way!

NEWS: Great news another Cushing classic coming to blu-ray The Flesh and The Fiends coming from Kino. More details as we learn them. Coming in 2020!
Brand New 2K Masters! Two Cuts!
The Flesh and the Fiends (1960)

aka Mania aka The Fiendish Ghouls
aka Psycho Killers

 
Starring Peter Cushing, Donald Pleasence, June Laverick, Billie Whitelaw, George Rose, Renee Houston and Dermot Walsh – Shot by Monty Berman (Jack the Ripper, The Crawling Eye) – Music by Stanley Black (War-Gods of the Deep, Valentino) – Co-written by Leon Griffiths (The Grissom Gang, The Squeeze) – Co-written and Directed by John Gilling (The Reptile, The Plague of the Zombies).


REVIEW: Matthew Mercy
IMAGES: Marcus Brooks


Buy here:
http://www.amazon.com/Flesh-Fiends-Peter-Cushing/dp/tags-on-product/B00005KHJZ
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