LAUGHTER ON THE SET BUT HOOTS STOPPED FOR DRACULA GIFS! GIFS! GIFS!

#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 sorry for 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! 

 

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WATCH 'AND NOW, THE SCREAMING STARTS!' #GETTHECUSHIONSUNDAY!

#GETTHECUSHIONITSCUSHINGSUNDAY! INDEED! One of a handful of Cushing frighteners, that passed my dear ol Mum's 'GetTheCushion' test!  . .  she always hid her eyes behind a cushion on sofa, if the tenstion became, TOO MUCH! Yeees, that's where this themed concept comes from ;)

'In 1795, in England, the young woman Catherine moves to the house of her fiancé Charles Fengriffen in the country to get married with him. When she arrives, she feels interest in the portraits of the Fengriffen family, particularly in the one of Charle's grandfather Henry Fengriffen, which seems to have a sort of evil entity possessing it. While admiring Henry's face, a severed hand attacks Catherine through the picture on the wall. Later, she gets married with Charles, beginning her journey of mystery, eerie apparitions, secrets and deaths, and having her days filled with fear and the nights with horrors in a cursed family.'

'AND NOW, THE SCREAMING STARTS' was AMICUS FILMS only production that ventured into the field of 'GOTHIC GHOST STORY'. The Amicus trademark, were films that were set and based in a contemporary setting. Even though a tale like, 'THE DOOR' in 'FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE' (1974) has a toe in the Ghostly World of time past, it confines the setting of the story, to a modern home, with ONE ROOM that appears to be trapped in the 1700's. Maybe it was a question of cost? Films sets for period films, have lots of ZERO'S on the budget sheet, something that would have certainly given producer Milton Subotsky nightmares! With that in mind, don't look too closely at the interior sets of this film, instead admire Cushing calm performance..IGNORE the hairpiece, we've been over it. Beacham is very good, as is Herbert Lom, Magee, and Geoffrey Whitehead. Special mention to a young Ian Ogilvy and director Roy Ward Baker, who both along with Cushing, keep the whole thing, entertaining and moving along nicely....

YOU CAN FIND OUT  MORE ABOUT THIS PRODUCTION, PETER CUSHING'S ROLE AND HIS MANY ROLES WITH OVER THE YEARS IN OUR SERIES ABOVE: LOADS OF RARE PHOTOGRAPHS AND MUCH MORE: CLICK HERE!

MORE ON PETER CUSHING AND THE CAST OF

 'AND NOW, THE SCREAMING STARTS' 

 

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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THE CINEMATIC TECHNIQUES OF SLAPPING PEOPLE AROUND IN A HAMMER FILM

#TBT OUCH! THAT MUST HAVE STUNG, more than a little bit! For our second #THROWBACKTHURSDAY post today, we have dipped into the 1960's Hammer film and Cushing bag, to launch a series of interesting little sequences. The above GIF is from a scene in the 1960 Hammer films, 'CASH ON DEMAND' starring Peter Cushing as Bank manager Fordyce and Andre Morell playing Hepburn, a role he originated in a earlier television version of the story, written by Jacques Gillies, entitled 'The Gold Inside' in 1960, director Quentin Lawrence returned too....it is one of the few films, were Cushing plays a character that takes a body blow, such an event was rare. Which is ironic! If you were to lay out just a sample of some of the slaps, punches and 'nobblings' that Cushing has dealt out over his 92 film career, you would maybe think, that the above was quite justified. But, no one has ever done that. . . . .  until now!

Nope. We didn't crank up the speed on this GIF, that is how the Baron swiftly  handed poor ol Francis Matthews a super-speedy-five-finger-slayer in Hammer films, 'The Revenge of Frankenstein' in 1958. RATING: Impatiant but effective swift side swipe. 7 /10

AGAIN. it's the Baron's work in Hammer films, 'Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed'. It's eleven years later, but Frankenstein has kept his 'slapping-kit' in order and with assistant Simon Ward on the receiving end, falling away with some creative aftershock dramatics, you can see, Frankenstein still has what it takes. We have added a extra two points to the total score for this one, in regard of Cushing's well known and respected fore-finger agility. The blow is followed by a very nice, Cushing signature note, the pointing forefinger, at Veronica Carlson! 8/10 

AND FINALLY, the one that  is a lesson in true Cushing 'Slap-around-theology'. The TRIPLE BACK HAND FLIP TO FRONT FACE PLOUGHER!  Prof Julian Keeley played by Freddie Jones, does know what has hit him. Cushing's Van Helsing may have been a dab hand at dispensing with Count Dracula and his crowd, but he could also lay into the occasional crack pot too. Not only does Van Helsing give Keeley a right panning, but look at his face too, while he is swaying the slaps! His face expresses total commitment and...he's not a happy chappy at all. Prof Keeley is out of his box, and VH is giving a piece of his mind, and a triple slapping that earns him a glorious thigh slapping 10 /10   

STORIES OF PETER CUSHING'S  generosity to other performers and actors are legendary. Helping a new actor by some well timed words whispered before the camera rolled, the gentle suggestion, nod or kind word. It's great that he also shared and taught some of his slapping skills to fellow performers too . . .  and one pupil archived some wonderful results!

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BORN ON THIS DAY: PATRICK MAGEE REMEMBERED

Today we remember Patrick Magee, a very talented character actor whose career covered multiple genres of films. Known for his appearances in horror films, some notable ones include The Masque of the Red Death (1964) , Die Monster Die (1965) and Demons Of The Mind (1972) for Hammer. Outside of horror he starred in two films for Stanley Kubrick, Barry Lyndon and A Clockwork Orange. He co-starred with Peter Cushing in four films The Skull (1965), Tales From The Crypt (1972), Asylum (1972), And When The Screaming Starts (1973)

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