#WATCHPARTY 'DARK PLACES' 1974 CHRISTOPHER LEE JOAN COLLINS AND HERBERT LOM!

JUST POSTED AT FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE one of the last of our PCASUK #WATCHWITHCUSHING Facebook #WATCHPARTIES in our quest to entertain during the #LOCK-DOWN period of the last three months! 'DARK PLACES' is one of few lesser seen films of Christopher Lee. It's a ghost story, with a few twists and some nice little surprises. It's a film of time... when it was produced back in 1974, but a lot of fun.

 

DOOMWATCH INSEMINOID FEAR IN THE NIGHT AND DIAGNOSIS MURDER! A HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JUDY GEESON!

A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to actress JUDY GEESON today! We interviewed JUDY GEESON back in the early 1980's, in her dressing room, at a London theatre, where she was appearing in a play at the time. She was sharp, bright as a button, and chomped her way through a pawn salad, as she regaled us with stories for our Marantz audio recorder and microphone!

JUDY GEESON had only worked with Peter once in FEAR IN THE NIGHT (1972), and Christopher Lee in 1975 in a film called, DIAGNOSIS MURDER. Thankfully, she had much to share on both. She also commented on his Cushing's laugh...and his pleasure on finding out that Judy kept a parakeet, and had a pet dog. She even brought the bird to the set of Fear In The Night, so Peter could sketch and paint it! It's interesting that most reports and reviews of Cushing's films that you read about, from this period of time, are usual tinged sadness, and concerned with Peter Cushing's grief and loss, of his wife, Helen. It's good to know, he did have sunny days, some light and shade.

JUDY GEESON was born in Arundel, Sussex, in 1948, Her father moved the family to London when she was 10 years old and enrolled her and sister Sally Geeson into the Corona Academy, Chiswick. Judy initially wanted to be a ballet dancer, but had to change course when she suffered from terrible headaches as a result of some of the moves. Acting had always been a great interest, however, and she chose to pursue this, making her first TV appearance in Dixon of Dock Green (1955) aged 12. 

HER FIRST MAJOR FILM ROLE was as wayward teenager Pamela Dare opposite Sidney Poitier in To Sir, with Love (1967) at the age of 18. I am sure you can all name your personal favourite Judy film... I will vote for Fear in the Night and To Sire with Love... but there are many others, 10 Rillington Place, Doomwatch, Brannigian with John Wayne and a HEAP of tv dramas too! Please join us wishing Judy the BEST of birthday's today!

REMEMBERING KATE O'MARA BORN TODAY 1939

TODAY MARKS the late Kate O'Mara's birthday.... Her earliest television appearances, includes guest roles in 'Danger Man', 'Adam Adamant Lives!', 'The Saint', 'Z-Cars' and 'The Avengers'. Look carefully and you'll spot her in the crowd of ale swiggers in Cushing's / Hammer films CAPTAIN CLEGG. She also worked with Cushing in the film, CORRUPTION and in 1970, she appeared in two Hammer films films THE VAMPIRE LOVERS and 'The Horror of Frankenstein'. In the former, she had an erotically charged scene with Ingrid Pitt, in which O'Mara was meant to be seduced; the two women were left laughing on set, however, as Pitt's fangs kept falling into O'Mara's cleavage. O'Mara's work in 'The Vampire Lovers' impressed Hammer enough for them to offer her a contract, which she turned down, fearful of being typecast!

ABOVE a smashing photograph of actress KATE O'MARA, standing outside the WATFORD ODEON CINEMA back in October 1970, posing with poster of Hammer films, 'THE VAMPIRE LOVERS'.

IN BETWEEN APPEARANCES in the BBC 'Doctor Who', she played Caress Morell in the American primetime soap opera 'Dynasty'. After returning to the UK, she was cast as another scheming villain, Laura Wilde, in the BBC soap 'Howards' Way' (1989–90). Kate O'Mara passed on 30th March 2014 aged 74.

HELP CELEBRATE the memory of KATE O'MARA with everyone else at the FACEBOOK PETER CUSHING APPRECIATION SOCIETY FAN PAGE. YOU can join the page just by clicking LIKE and never missing a post and join in the fun!

A CATCH UP : ALL POSTS FROM THE LAST FOUR DAYS!

CONGRATULATIONS TO FROLLY COOKE. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO ENTERED HERE AND AT THE PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE!

YOU MAY HAVE NOTICED, everything came to grinding halt here on the website for the past few days. A few problems with the uploading, cause by someone tampering with the site. YOu may have also noticed we lost our PCAS YOUTUBE CHANNEL two weeks ago. Despite much effort trying to get it back, I fear the same 'Peter Cushing and Hammer Films Fan' who made us a target for YOUTUBE taking us down, is also behind causing trouble with our website. Everything is now fixed, we will be reactivating our MARK ONE YOUTUBE ACCOUNT, which was superseded by our MARK TWO CHANNEL, about two years ago. It will just take time to update that channel to the point where, the closed channel was... over 2,000 clips and intervirews, trailers and rare Cushing films... before it was taken down. Worked has started on the channel already, and THIS post will bring us up date, with posts that WERE posted at our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE during the short time, this website was having problems! 

THE 22ND OF MAY, brought us an opportunity to celebrate the BIRTHDAY of one of PETER CUSHING's favourite writers and one of his close friends. of his early days in theatre and film . . .

TODAY WE REMEMBER SIr Arthur Conan Doyle who was born on this day a writer best known for his detective fiction featuring the character Sherlock Holmes. Originally a physician, in 1887 he published A Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels about Holmes and Dr. Watson. In addition, Doyle wrote over fifty short stories featuring the famous detective. The Sherlock Holmes stories are generally considered milestones in the field of crime fiction. Peter Cushing played Sherlock Holmes in Hammer's THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, then in the BBC TV SERIES and finally in Tyburn's THE MASKS OF DEATH

TODAY WE ALSO REMEMBER an acting legend! Laurence Olivier who was born on this day in 1907. Olivier dominated the British stage of the mid-20th century. He also worked in films throughout his career, playing more than fifty cinema roles. Late in his career, he had considerable success in television roles. Among Olivier's best known films are Wuthering Heights (1939), Rebecca (1940), and a trilogy of Shakespeare films as actor-director: Henry V (1944), Hamlet (1948), and Richard III (1955).
 

OLIVIER'S LATER FILMS included The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968), Sleuth (1972), Marathon Man (1976), and The Boys from Brazil (1978). For his on-screen work he received four Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, five Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. The National Theatre's largest auditorium is named in his honour, and he is commemorated in the Laurence Olivier Awards, given annually by the Society of London Theatre.
 

PETER CUSHING co-starred and was directed by Olivier in Hamlet (1948) with Cushing playing Osric. Another notable thing about the film although they shared no scenes together it was the first film to star both Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, who had an uncredited role as a spear carrier with no spoken lines. What are some of your favorite Olivier films and performances?

THIS LADY NEEDS no introduction... and we covered her special day on the 23rd of May! TODAY WE ARE are wishing Joan Collins a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY today.

AT AGE 22 in 1955, Collins headed to Hollywood and landed sultry roles in several popular films, including The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (1955) and Rally Round the Flag, Boys! (1958). While she continued to make films in the US and the UK throughout the 1960s, she also guest-starred in an episode of Star Trek in 1967 named "The City on the Edge of Forever", as Edith Keeler.

DURING THE 1970'S she appeared in a number of Horror films such as Hammer's FEAR IN THE NIGHT (1972) Amicus's TALES FROM THE CRYPT (1972) both with Peter Cushing and also Tales That Witness Madness (1973)

 MORE ON 'TALES FROM THE CRYPT' HERE!

JOAN COLLINS WITH JUDY GEESON IN  HAMMER FILMS FEAR IN THE NIGHT

HER BIGGEST SUCCESS came in 1981, she landed the role of Alexis Colby, the vengeful and scheming ex-wife of John Forsythe's character, in the 1980s soap opera Dynasty, winning a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in 1982; she is credited with the success of Dynasty, which was the most-watched television series in the United States during the 1984-85 broadcast season. 

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 reach all lovers of Peter Cushing's work AND Help Keep The Memory Alive!

RALPH BATES REMEMBERED : BORN TODAY 1940

 

REMEMBERING: Born today in 1940, RALPH BATES. Sadly, no longer with us. A talented actor and a truly gentle and kind man.

RALPH BATES WAS THE GREAT, GREAT nephew of the renowned French scientist Louis Pasteur developed into a strangely handsome dark haired, pale complexioned English actor. Ralph Bates was born in 1940 in Bristol, England and attended the University of Dublin and studied at the Yale Drama School. His dramatic talents first came to audiences attention playing the evil Emperor Caligula in the well received BBC TV series The Caesars (1968). However, the Hammer studios resurrection of the horror genre was then in full stride, and Bates was soon engulfed in the swirling cloak of Hammer's success as he appeared in several horror films in quick succession.

ABOVE: A few fated coincidences here with these two chaps that appeared in 'The Caesars' tv series . . .Ralph Bates and Freddie Jones

FIRSTLY IN A SUPPORT ROLE as demonic Lord Courtley in Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970), followed as the lead character Baron Frankenstein in The Horror of Frankenstein (1970), then as Giles Barton in the sexy Lust for a Vampire (1971) and as the well meaning Dr. Jekyll in an unusual spin on the Robert Louis Stevenson story in Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde (1971) and 'Fear in the Night' with Peter Cushing in 1972. Bates brought a new zest to Hammer and with his stylish dialogue delivery and film acting methods, he quickly won himself quite a few fans in both critics and regular film goers!

UNFORTUNATELY, by the early 1970s there had been a downturn in Hammer studios fortunes, and Bates then found himself turning to more traditional character work in other production houses and he appeared in several films before snaring other superb villainous role as George Warleggan in the 18th century period piece Poldark (1975).

ABOVE: RALPH BATES and JUDY GEESON : HAMMER FILMS 

 FEAR IN THE NIGHT (1972)

AFTER POLDARK, Bates himself kept busy in TV shows and television film roles which did not really do justice to his remarkable talents. In the late 1980s his health rapidly deteriorated, and he sadly passed away from cancer aged only 51 on 27th March 1991.

REMEMBER! 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