RARE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL CUSHING PHOTOGRAPH PLUS ACTORS NIGEL GREEN AND ROBERT URQUHART REMEMBERED

A VERY RARE PHOTOGRAPH OF PETER CUSHING in 1948 FEB until OCT!! Now That is a LONG tour! Granted 'Richard III was also part of the tour, but knowing how Cushing found the repetitive nature of eight or nine performances a week, extremely difficult... I don't know how he did it. But here is where he learnt his trade, skills and attitude, that would prepare him for tv work in the 1950's and days that could be long and draining on the set of film work . . come November 1952 and one of his first roles on LIVE BBC tv in 'If This Be Error' .. HE certainly, would not be making errors

TODAY we are marking the birthday of that fine English character actor NIGEL GREEN . . . Green left us at only 47 years of age, with a very impressive career already at that point. In our banner can be seen on the far right, in a little get together on the set of the cast of Amicus films THE SKULL (1965) with Peter, Patrick Wymark far left, Patrick Magee sat down on the right. Green had a small role of Inspector Wilson, in the film.

ABOVE: PCAS FULL REVIEW AND LOBBY STILLS GALLERY OF 'THE SKULL'  Just CLICK HERE!

ABOVE: FULL REVIEW FEATURE OF TWILIGHT TIME REMASTERED BLU RAY RELEASE AND GALLERY! 'Sword of Sherwood Forest' tarring Peter Cushing, Richard Green, Nigel Green and Oliver Reed : JUST CLICK HERE! 

BECAUSE OF HIS STRAPPING build and commanding height, (6 feet, 1 inch) & regimental demeanour he would often be found playing military types and men of action, in films such as Jason and the Argonauts, Zulu, Tobruk and The Ipcress File. His large physique also led to his being cast as Little John in Hammer films THE SWORD OF SHERWOOD FOREST (1960), with Peter Cushing.Green also appeared in a number of horror films including Corridors of Blood (1958), The Masque of the Red Death (1964), as the father of Jane Asher's character, The Skull (1965) also with Cushing, Let's Kill Uncle (1966) and Hammer's COUNTESS DRACULA with Ingrid Pitt(1971)
 

REMEMBERING Robert Urquhart. 'Quiet, well-read and a lover of classical music, Robert Urquhart was an actor who grew frustrated with his career as he grew older. It was, he bemoaned, an honourable profession but so much of the material he was offered did not deserve any respect...' Robert Urquhart Obituary. 'The Independent' newspaper, 24th March 1995. In the early 1950's Urquhart was building himself quite a reputation for his theatre work. A reputation that would eventually bring him to the attention of studio casting agents and land him supporting roles on the big screen. But it was in the medium of film, that Urquhart was not such a happy chap...

THAT ONE FILM WAS 'The Curse of Frankenstein' with Peter Cushing in 1957 for Hammer film. He detested it. It is said he left the premier screening, refused to make appearances to promote it and only in the last years of his revived career on television, could he find the stomach to even mention it, if it was brought up in interviews. By 1980, Urquhart had cooled off a little..and appeared in another Hammer production, the Hammer House of Horror' television series, in an episode entitled, - Children of the Full Moon. However, we remember him today for his sterling performance in The Curse of Frankenstein'!

ONE GOLF CART TO MOVE THEM ALL AND FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE BLU RAY REVIEW THIS WEEKEND!

#CHRISTOPHERLEE SATURDAY! ONE GOLF CARD to move them ALL ! I believe both Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee got around a few times on a camel, during the making of Hammer films 'She'... but this? I think Peter would have approved, MUCH more civilised 😊😉

HAVE YOU ORDERED? Waiting to find out more OR are you going to enter the PCASUK competition? Either way, you can get the low down on the Warner Brothers Archive Collection release of yet another, Peter Cushing classic blu ray 'From Beyond The Grave' ! HERE THIS weekend!

MEANWHILE, we ANNOUNCED the actual RELEASE of this great BLU RAY from Warner Brothers Archive, this week on OCTOBER 8th. Just a REMINDER, that we are launching our PCAS 'Beyond The Grave' COMPETITION, very soon   

If you are ordering your copy right now, I would recommend placing your order from the Warner Archive website..HERE! The BLU RAY release is region 0, making it playable on just about anyone's player.. unless you have a player like a 1920's biscuit tin driven by steam or clock-work... !

ONE MAN AND HIS PASSION FOR TOYS WITH THEATRES FULL HOUSE AND SOLD OUT!

PETER CUSHING was certainly a man of hobbies. MANY hobbies. Collections, books, stamps, coins, figures, soldiers, trains, cigarette cards, models .. and toys! After Peter's passing, it took two major auctions and several smaller charity sales, to clear a vast collection of passions. Toys were something he had a great love for and the older and simpler it was, the more he liked it 😀 Eighty years after it was purchased and given to him . . he still owned his first and most favourite toy... Piglet!

This weeks quote is taken from Peter Cushing: Past Forgetting' Weidenfeld and Nicolson 1988.

DONALD PLEASENCE CENTENARY: BORN 100 YEARS AGO TODAY!

BORN ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO TODAY!... Today marks the centenary birthday of actor Donald Pleasence on October 5th 1919. Born in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England, he was the son of Alice (née Armitage) and Thomas Stanley Pleasence, a railway stationmaster.

TODAY, AFTER HIS PASSING... you can read all about Pleasence service during WW2, his capture as a prisoner of war, humbleness kept that under wraps for most of his life.. but he would talk and share about a fateful day and television broadcast, where both he and Peter Cushing received positive critical attention for their roles in the BBC version of Nineteen Eighty-Four (1954) from the novel by George Orwell. Pleasence played Syme, to Cushing's Winston Smith. BOTH terrified the British public! I could write much here about the amazing Pleasence career, the films, the TV and theatre.. but I have left plenty of space and thread, for everyone to do that, in this post at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE and leave that to you to share . . 😉

 DONALD PLEASENCE AS SYME IN THE BBC LIVE PRODUCTION OF '1984' IN 1954.

PLEASENCE IN the 1959 'FLESH AND THE FIENDS' as William Hare 

 A FULL FEATURE REVIEW WITH VINTAGE LOBBY CARD GALLERY! HERE!

AS JACK SEWARD in the 1979 version of 'DRACULA'

ABOVE: CUSHING AND PLEASENCE TOGETHER in 'Trial by Combat' 

DONALD PLEASENCE bumped along with Peter in several roles on the big screen, mostly co starring in films like 'The Flesh And The Fiends' 'Suspect' 'From Beyond The Grave' 'The Uncanny' 'Trial By Combat' and 'The Devil's Men'. In several of his roles, Pleasence was able to with little dialogue reach and un-nerve the audience, using something his actress daughter once referred to as 'Pleasencing' . . it worked. It ALWAYS worked.

TO DO DONALD PLEASENCE justice it would take several days, many, many posts to even scratch the surface of his amazing talent and presence. I am sure everyone here, can name three if not FIVE of their favourite Pleasence performances, because each one was different, a different character... but off screen, Donald was always one... charming, gentle and always entertaining... A VERY Happy Birthday Donald Pleasence... you are missed by many and celebrated by all who were entertained by your sensitivity and brilliant talent! 😉 - Marcus 

RARE FILM CLIP OF PETER CUSHING'S FRANKENSTEIN MONSTER ON SET PLUS THE 'EVIL' EXTRA US TV FOOTAGE!

RARE FOOTAGE! Following the popularity of the rare behind the scenes The Gorgon clips I shared with you a short while ago, here's another one! We are going back to October-November 1963 and the golden age of Hammer films, when the company, based at the tiny studios, along with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee were making some of the best of the Hammer British Gothic bunch ...and above, here is a rare glimpse inside the legendary Bray Studios, in the Make up room of Roy Ashton . .

If you ever wondered, just how Cushing's Baron Frankenstein 'Creature' make up was applied... below is your answer.

BELOW IS actor Kiwi Kingston, with Roy Ashton, showing his solution to the problem of 'How to save the producers time and money, when it comes to applying make up when making a monster, who is ready for the camera and walk on set, in ten minutes!!' The studio hated the fact that prep, applying and daily making up a monster, took time...and time costs money. This solution, for the producers it worked . . but for Roy and the fans of Hammer horror, it was a compromise that sadly effected the credibility of the film...it's a complete over-head mask... and the audience knew it too. 

THE GIF CLIP ABOVE IS QUITE RARE, not often seen and proves even for a film like 'The Evil of Frankenstein' ...with a superb performance of the Baron by Peter Cushing, tight directing of Freddie Francis, very entertaining support cast of Sandor Elès , Katy Wild, Peter Woodthorpe, Duncan Lamont and Kiwi Kingston..and amazing sets, also used in Hammer films 'The Gorgon' from Bernard Robinson and Don Mingaye...even Universal Studios on-board... if you ain't got a great Monster...it's like a firework, that promises to shock...but fails when it doesn't that have THAT bang!

HAMMER TOOK A CHANGE in direction, with the making of 'The Evil of Frankenstein'. When the camera clogs first turned on Hammer's concept of a Frankenstein movie, they were very aware of having to start their concept from scratch. On hearing of Hammer's plans, Universal films wasted no time in despatching a warning to the producers, that if anyway Hammer's 'monster' resembled the famous Jack Pearce Boris Karloff creation in any way, they would be despatching a writ, with teeth, that would for sure make a real meal of their plans and production. Universal was also clear that their script and concept was also their property, and that Hammer should tread carefully. So make up artist Phil Leakey got to work creating a 'monster appearance' on Christopher Lee, that in no way could possibly be connected with the Pearce monster. So, was the case in the Hammer sequel, 'The Revenge of Frankenstein' too.

AFTER TWO MOVIES of managing quite well in creating the 'look' of a new monster appearance, with stories too that resembled little if anything in common with the Universal Frankenstein films, fate somehow took hold of the steering wheel and tiller, and Universal relaxed their hold on the 'monster look' and story concepts, and invited Hammer films into their party. Hammer films, Anthony Hinds wrote a script that rebooted the series, no connection to either 'Curse' or 'Revenge'  . .  and a 'monster', after weeks of designing and drawing, that gave more than a wobbly nod, to the Universal creation. The bolts, the flat top and big boots, were all in! 



AFTER THE SUCCESS of 'The Curse of Frankenstein' and 'The Revenge of Frankenstein', Universal wanted IN, along with Peter Cushing as part of the deal. 'Evil' would contain many of the Universal 'Frankenstein Tropes', and after it's cinema release would also be spread across the US television screens too. The problem was that 'The Evil of Frankenstein' came up short of duration of only 84 minutes and some scenes were deemed a little too intense for family viewing . .  so a whole new back-story was shot at Universal studios, where new and quite unrelated characters were slipped into the film. None of the film's established cast were included in the footage.. and Frankenstein's monster is seen by his boots only . . .

WORLD PREMIER OF HAMMER FRANKENSTEIN AND DRACULA SCORES RELEASED!

NEWS: AS REPORTED here at PCASUK in MAY this year, TADLOW MUSIC had been very busy recording the COMPLETE musical scores of BOTH Hammer films 'The Curse of Frankenstein' and 'Dracula' as written by James Bernard. BELOW is a link to not only place your easily place your order, but also sample some of the score, all Newly Recorded in Stunning and Dynamic Digital Sound! The scores are performed by the Acclaimed and Award-Winning City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra Conducted by Nic Raine with some new score and Bernard’s own Orchestrations Reconstructed by Leigh Phillips . Each disc is accompanied by a 20-Page Full-Colour Booklet with Informative Sleeve Notes by Hammer Film Music Expert David Huckvale – plus numerous original film stills and posters. Both discs sound amazing! The RELEASE Date for both recordings is OCT 25th 2019….just in time for Halloween !

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO SAMPLES and place YOUR order :HERE!

WARNER BROTHERS 'SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA' REMASTERED SECOND PCASUK HALLOWEEN COMPETITION NOW CLOSED : WINNERS TO BE ANNOUNCED NOVEMBER 18TH

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Here is our SECOND PCAS Halloween Competition. Last night, we launched our first with prizes of Warner Brothers Collective Archive release of Hammer films, 'Dracula AD 1972' REMASTERED blu ray! The competition is still live and doesn't close until November 14th! Now we have another remastered Warner Brothers Hammer Dracula film, starring again, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing : 'The Satanic Rites of Dracula'. The last time Cushing and Lee fought as Van Helsing and The Count! Warner has been very generous in also sponsoring this competition and we have FIVE COPIES to give away as prizes!

ALL YOU HAVE TO DO, is answer our competition question, send you answer to us ONLY using our Facebook Message, please. Any answers posted on this post, will be deleted and made void. Lots of luck everyone! It's a SUPERB remastering of a classic and quite different Hammer film, and Lee and Cushing REALLY do their thing! I hope you are having a great Halloween, Good Luck and have fun! - Marcus

THE WARNER BROTHERS Archive Collection release of The Satanic Rites of Dracula will go on release from NOVEMBER 13th 2018. You can palce your order HERE!

ALL PCAS COMPETITIONS are open to everyone, whoever and wherever YOU are! CLICK HERE for the above Warner Brothers / Hammer films DRACULA AD 1972 blu ray COMPETITION! If you want to enter at The FACEBOOK PCAS FAN PAGE, that version of the competition is HERE!