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! 

 

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  . .

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY: HAMMER HORROR HUGS AND KISSES : A CHILLING GALLERY PART ONE

GREAT KISSES WE HAVE KNOWN SEEN AND LOVED....!

I GUESS IF YOU ARE SETTLING DOWN to watch a romantic love story on dvd or at the local flicks, you are already primed to the risk of your delicate and sensitive emotions being titillated by the occasional embrace, hug, squeeze, kiss or as we Brits subtly refer to it, 'a snog'. But what if was the mid 1950's, and you are watching a horror film?? OK, RKO's King Kong got away with murder with Fay Wray, but for many years, in the UK the censors keep a very careful eye on films, and especially in regard of mixing horror, violence, sex and lusting, even if one of the participants did have huge teeth ..and had been dead for 200 years!

FOR MANY YEARS, those who liked their horrors and thrillers, dusted with more than the accidental brushing of hands or furtive glances, Hammer films could and did test the boundaries. Hammer films certainly woke up the sleepy British cinema going public with Cushing and Lee's 'The Curse of Frankenstein' in 1957 and kept the censors on their toes. When in 1958, Hammer released 'Dracula / The Horror of Dracula', the BFC and John Trevillion, sniffed,  twitched, and then SNIPPED, at Christopher Lee's all embracing seduction of Melissa Stribling's Mina Holmwood. Not until 2013, was the footage reinstalled. Viewing today, you can still see why Trevillion and company thought it steamy stuff!

 

HOWEVER, not all of Hammer films romantic wrestling's were of the high voltage vintage. Hammer films script writers Jimmy Sangster and Anthony Hinds (John Elder) KNEW the guys in the audience were there for the monsters, the girls for the thrills and as Cushing himself once said, 'When courting couples came to see our films, and the young girl became frightened or tense, the couple would cuddle up'!' So Hammer knew what the audiences expected and made sure, every film had a little 'something' ...somewhere.

Here we present the first gallery of our 'hand picked' small selection of stills and GIFS depicting some of the best romantic chemistry from Hammer's films. They are not all marquee titles, or indeed Hammer films and some of the pairings were about saucy as a vicar's tea party, but hey, the title says 'Hugs and Kisses' I have to make sure what's on the label, is also in the can.... well almost, part two soon!

THE FLESH AND THE FIENDS : Peter Cushing and June Laverick.

 

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.

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY: WHEN LEE MET BOWIE AND RARE BRIDES OF DRACULA PUBLICITY

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY: WHEN LEE MET BOWIE! The Slim Duke Meets The Count? Would you have loved to have been a fly on the wall here? Both loved music, performing...worked in the film industry they also shared something else in common... Do you know what??

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY: FOR THE PAST FEW weeks we have had a lot of requests asking if we could also have a weekly theme post day for posts relating to Christopher Lee. We  thought that was a good idea too, so as of this weekend, Saturday's will now be . . . 

#CHRISTOPHERLEESATURDAY! WE'LL STILL CONTINUE to post occasional posts through out the week relating to the work that Peter Cushing and Lee did together, but Saturday's will now carry rare images, features banners and stuffs, as you requested 🙂  If you have requests for particular images, gifs or clips, you only have to ask 😉 Good idea? Let us know below....

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY: DURING THE 40'S 50'S AND 60'S  Picture Show and several other cinema magazines held a lot of sway with the UK cinema going public.  The films of Peter Cushing appeared regularly between many film fan magazine covers. Interviews, features, photograph spreads were prepared by the press office and reporters and photographers were courted and invited to come and dish up some angle of publicity, for the latest offering. Hammer films were certainly one of the British film studios that kept the magazine very busy.  And sometimes gave editors and writers exclusives. But the one above, is quite rare for a Hammer film. Not just a quick chat with one of the stars and on your way with a handful of glossy head-shots and a flimsy two page synopsis! The Picture Show photographer was allowed to take his own photographs, using the two love interest in the film, Yvonne Monlaur and David Peel. To suit the story angle presented by the magazine, and not disclose any details that may spoil the Hammer feature, what we get is bizarre fantasy angle to the very familiar characters played by Monlaur and Peel!  His Baron gets to bite her and she in turn gets to bite him back!  Ok it's the kind of thing that scriptwriter Jimmy Sangster would probably have shuddered at, but  in the realm of publicity, the PICTURE says a thousand words! And these are a couple of excellent excellent smouldering pictures!

 

Please visit us at our daily themed posts at our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE and help 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.

#MONSTERMONDAY: CHRISTINA KLEVE : MONSTER OR VICTIM?

#‎MonsterMonday‬: WHO AM I??? The question asked by this week's monstermonday candidate, Christian Kleve...through out Cushing's FOURTH ‪#‎Frankenstein‬ feature for ‪#‎hammerfilms‬. So, was Christina, played by actress Susan Denberg, really a MONSTER? It's not a simple one this one. Beauty reborn from disfigurement, souls, murder, executions, wrongly accused victims, lust and finally revenge....that poor Christina, witnessed and was involved in… A victim of circumstance or MONSTER, you decide....