LATEX TISSUE PAPER WAX AND GORE : THE ANSWER TO THE MYSTERY BOX

BOX CLEVER ANSWER: Yesterday, I posted a photograph of an 'interesting' multi layer case-box and asked you if you could identify what it was, who was its owner ..and maybe it's contents! A larger version of the pic was also posted at the website, so you get a closer look, if needed. It was quite a puzzle for some, as the compartments of the box also contained, cotton wool balls, pencils, paint brushes.. and two knives and forks!!

ABOVE : ROY ASHTON MODELS HIS FANGS, that were used by David Peel in Hammer films, 'THE BRIDES OF DRACULA' (1960) Peter Cushing's second outing as Van Helsing!

SUGGESTIONS OF  'Something to do with model soldiers?' from Darren Park, was a good guess, as the box has a connection with Peter Cushing and this could have easily been a handy box for his painting and making of his mass collection of model soldiers and model theatres 😉 Daniel Worlsey suggested something similar in 'Is it it not Cushing’s “bit box”, wherein he keeps all the tools for gaming miniatures, paints and the left over bits and bobs of such a hobby?' Mateja Djedovic, asked if it was 'A vampire hunter tool kit box' ! 😁. It could have been, that fork looked nasty! 😉 Stephen Johnson said 'Is it Peter's private make up box, as he was allergic to the studio make up?🤔' which was a good answer and certainly on the right track! Donna Vallois Broughton thought it was a 'Fishing box' 🤔. Hmm...I too have seen plastic versions of these boxes used for that job too. One of the clues was that weird fork 😉 Colleen Crouch suggested 'It looks like a make-up kit. I'd guess Phil Leakey's. Wonder what the fork is for...🤔 The Cushing Connection would be Curse of Frankenstein, among other films.

THIS FORK LEAD QUITE A FEW to the ANSWER : Roy Ashton's Make Up Box. Roy had three. He said, 'One to beautify, one for extras and crowd and the other... for more extensive jobs, like monsters!' This box held fangs, latex vampire bite marks, noses, ears and of course two bottles of 'Kensington Gore'... blood! The Knife and Fork, Roy used '..for lunch'! Often he would find himself on location, or unable to leave work for the 'canteen or catering truck, so would bring his own lunch.. and use THAT knife and fork!

A ROY ASHTON QUIZ from the past! You can find the answers to 'NAME THE MONSTER' HERE! 

NAME DROP ALERT! I did three interviews with Roy, and one quite detailed video interview while he worked. He was always very kind and I was very fortunate to meet him and his wife at home too. You wouldn't think such a charming, calm gentleman could devise and create such works of terror and horror... but he did 😊 

THE BOX IN QUESTION has many connections to Hammer films, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, Amicus and Tyburn productions. Roy told me he only replaced the 'monster box once.. in 1960. The other one the hinges broke!!'😕 So I asked him, which films and creations was THIS box in partnership with himself responsible for?' He replied ' Well. Most of them after 1960... certainly one you would be interested in with Peter. Arthur Grimsdyke in 'Tales from the Crypt'! He then pulled things from the box, that would have been typical of the materials he used over the period of working with Peter on the character, latex, make up sticks Leichner 'Greasepaint 'G' Stick - Light Blue, Black and Greasepaint Stick - Light Grey.. and TISSUE PAPER for Grimsdyke's skin! So HERE was THE box!

QUITE A FEW OF YOU cracked it, but WELL DONE Robert Withers, who got it in 20 minutes with ' Roy Ashton’s box of tricks' 😀 Also, Deb Duncan-Faul, Ben Smothers took two guesses, but got it. No one guessed the movie, lots of suggestions, but not the title I was looking for. . .

ABOVE : ACTOR DANIEL JOHNS who was transformed by Roy Ashton into a 'living wax mannequin' with Peter Cushing in Amicus films 'ASYLUM' (1972)

MIKE GIACOLONE, was almost there with 'Jimmy Sangster's lunch box!!' Sangster was probably there for most of Roy's work in some fashion or another, having written most of the Hammer films on which he did the make up. Thanks for everyone who took part, had a go. I hope you like the photographs too! 😉 Another one soon 😉 - Marcus

 

CAN YOU NAME THOSE FACES???

POSTED TODAY over at The UK Peter Cushing Appreciation Society Facebook Fan Page Peter Cushing and a gathering of other film and tv stars, who came together to help Save Hammer Films Bray studios in 1990. Cushing was actually helicoptered to the site, from his home in Whitstable, Kent to Bray studios on the day and landed on the green, just at the side of the Thames river! I put out the question of, how many of those four other faces did everyone recognise?? A question that proves that PCASUK is an international society and that there are certainly more followers and fans of Peter Cushing at the PCASUK sites from the US and Europe than there are from the UK! It was a tough question, with only a few correct suggestions! Can YOU name those faces? I will post the answer here tomorrow!

#LOCKDOWN BEWARE THE HOUND OF HELL : PCASUK #WATCHPARTY RIGHT NOW!

PCASUK WATCH PARTY! Tonight, you get the opportunity to judge which version of Peter Cushing Sherlock Holmes 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' you enjoy best! The BBC version we shared with you a short while ago on another #WatchWithCushing! Watch Party OR THIS version, produced by Hammer films also starring Christopher Lee in 1958? Directed by Terence Fisher, it has fine photography, performances and a cracking film score too by James Bernard! Look out for scene stealer Miles Malleson as the Bishop. YOU can join the PCASUK WATCH PARTY HERE! Like all the Watch Party films and posts, this film will remain on the page after tonight too 😉

SURPRISE! It has been often said that, typecasting hung around Christopher Lee for quite some time, maybe until later in his career when, he believed there was a little more flexibility. Personally, I always thought the majority of his roles, were often quite different, the genre may have been somewhere in a shared ball park, but I wouldn't say his role as the evil Edward Blake in 'I Monster' was the same as say, Francisco Scaramanga in 'The Man with the Golden Gun' or even the role of 'The Monster' in 'The Curse of Frankenstein' was in any close to Kharis in 'The Mummy' . . In this interview, which you can find HERE he makes his point in discussing how he always tried to surprise his audience.. which I think, he in most cases certainly did. At the PCASUK FAN PAGE, we ask IF there are role you can remember, where Christopher Lee played this card very well.. and surprised you?? Please feel free to skip to the page and tell us your thoughts 😊

FINALLY, A FEW DAYS AGO I posted and shared this photograph of  #VincentPrice and director #PeteWalker during the making of 'House of the Long Shadows' in 1982. Price was offered this movie and accepted before the script was written. The producers Yoram Globus and Menahem Golan never read the script . .. interestingly the film ran out of money three weeks into shooting. The film took five weeks to shoot and cost just under one million pounds sterling and is the only film where all four, #PeterCushing, #ChristopherLee and #JohnCarradine, all appear on screen together! Many 'Hammer and Amicus fans were a little disappointed with the film and script when it was released. Personally, I am very fond of it 😊 and on asking our followers and friends if they were too... got some interesting comments and answers! You can catch this photograph and those comments, which you too may want to contribute too maybe, RIGHT HERE! What are your thoughts??? - I hope you are all well and keeping safe this weekend? 😐😊- Marcus 

'HAVE ALWAYS TRIED TO SURPRISE THE PUBLIC WITH SOMETHING THEY DON'T EXPECT!'

#WATCHWITHCUSHING! SURPRISE! It has been often said that, typecasting hung around Christopher Lee for quite some time, maybe until later in his career when, he believed there was a little more flexibility. Personally, I always thought the majority of his roles, were often quite different, the genre may have been somewhere in a shared ball park, but I wouldn't say his role as the evil Edward Blake in 'I Monster' was the same as say, Francisco Scaramanga in 'The Man with the Golden Gun' or even the role of 'The Monster' in 'The Curse of Frankenstein' was in any close to Kharis in 'The Mummy' . . In this interview, he makes his point in discussing how he always tried to surprise his audience.. which I think, he in most cases certainly did. Over at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE HERE I have asked everyone if there is a role they can remember, where Christopher Lee played this card very well.. and surprised you?? And there are some surprising answers 😏😊

A ROLE THAT ALWAYS seemed quite different to me was Christopher Lee's role in his own production of the film, 'NOTHING BUT THE NIGHT' with Peter Cushing. His playing of Colonel Bingham almost seems like an extension of his character in the 1970, 'SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN'? you can still catch one of these films in our PCASUK #WATCHPARTY post at the  FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE! RIGHT HERE!

FACEBOOK LINKEDIN INSTAGRAM TINDER . . .PC!

HMMM  . . prompted by #DollyParton, it seems everyone is doing these at the moment. So here's our version of maybe how Peter Cushing's would have looked 😃😊😉 - Marcus

GOODBYE MR FOWLDS! ACTOR DEREK FOWLDS DIES AGED 82 TODAY

VERY SAD NEWS to report today, Derek Fowlds has sadly passed away aged 82. He was best known for playing Bernard Woolley in the British television comedies 'Yes, Minister' and 'Yes, Prime Minister', and Oscar Blaketon in the long-running ITV police drama 'Heartbeat', a role he played for 18 years. Fowlds was familiar to British television viewers as 'Mr. Derek' in the children's series The Basil Brush Show, replacing Rodney Bewes as presenter. He co-starred with Peter Cushing in Hammer's Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)

MANY COMMENTS and tributes to Derek today at the . Many remembering him for his Mr Fowlds with Basil Brush, but also of course his connection with Peter Cushing and role of the slimy Johan in #Hammerfilms 'FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN'. In his youth, Fowlds had very much aspired in the ambition to become a footballer. He first tried acting in school plays as a bit of a lark. "Just for kicks" he later decided to pursue the profession more seriously, going on to train at RADA where he debuted on stage in a 1961 production of "The Miracle Worker" at London's Wyndham Theatre. Thereafter, he popped up in the occasional motion picture, but was considerably more prolific on the small screen where he regularly alternated between comedy and drama. Early on, he played the lead in his own short-lived detective series, Take a Pair of Private Eyes (1966). His autobiography "A Part Worth Playing" was released in 2015.

 READ ALL ABOUT Susan Denberg, Derek Fowlds and the cast of Hammer Films 'FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN' in the above feature : HERE

DEREK WAS A very approachable and friendly chap, for the past few years Derek enjoyed appearing at various signing meetings in London, where he proved to be popular and made quite a few new friends between collectors and other signers during the well attended weekends. Again, another actor who maybe Hammer films should have utilised in other films during the mid and late 1960's. His playing of Johann, always makes me want to 'throttle him!' .... well played indeed. Goodbye Mr Fowlds, we won't forget you 😉😑

Derek Fowlds 1937 -2020

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 . . .

HUGS FROM DRACULA AND THE GANG SMILED ON . . .

REQUESTED: HERE'S A PHOTOGRAPH I posted a little while ago on here and at the Facebook PCASUK Fan Page, requested now for a repost by Mandy K, Cheryl T and others . .who missed it!  This has to be the most tactile and affectionate photograph, I have ever seen of Lee with an actress . . off studio camera and on set! 

AS I HAVE always said on the subject of Lee feelings on appearing on both 'Satanic Rites of Dracula' and 'Dracula AD 1972'. Lee may not have professionally liked the idea of the films and their plots, but I don't think he sulked or pouted around the set . .  as some would have you believe. And I think, this pic is a fair indication, that what director Alan Gibson said on making both films, that everyone got on, it was relaxed and they had fun! Let's face it, it's not everyone who can say they got a hug from Christopher Lee...!

HENRY OSCAR REMEMBERED : BRIDES AND SHERLOCK

HERE IS AN ACTOR with a name, that probably most of us would have forgotten, but certainly we know his face 😉 Today marks the birthday of HENRY OSCAR or Henry Wale as some would have known him, back in the day. Oscar changed his name and began acting in 1911, having studied under Elsie Fogerty at the Central School of Speech and Drama.

ON FILM OSCAR played professional characters, dentist for Hitchcock, school teachers, doctors, bank mangers, all usually stiff, authoritative and at times pompous, this was probably why Terence Fisher cast him as Herr Lang, head of the charming 'School for Young Ladies' in Hammer films 'The Brides of Dracula' in 1960. Again, pompous, his ego is deflated when Peter Cushing flashes his 'Dr Van Helsing' 'calling card'! It's a lovely scene. Oscar was to work with Cushing again on November 4th 1968, in episode 9 'Thor Bridge' of Cushing's BBC 'Sherlock Holmes' television series, as Bates. Sadly this episode was wiped in the great BBC 'spring clean', so we have no idea or images just how that looked. But my guess is, just like in 'Brides' both Cushing and Oscar, would have squeezed and presented quite a show!

OSCAR ALSO APPEARED in a wide range of films, Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The Four Feathers (1939), Hatter's Castle (1942), Bonnie Prince Charlie (1948), Beau Brummell (1954), The Little Hut (1957), Oscar Wilde (1960), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), The Long Ships (1963) and Murder Ahoy! (1964). Today, he isn't forgotten 😊Please join us in remembering and celebrating a Very Happy Birthday to Henry Oscar today! 😉