#CHRISTOPHERLEESATURDAY:THE CONFUSION OF FU MANCHU!
#CHRISTOPHERLEESATURDAY!SOME INTERESTING opinions and advice from Christopher Lee in an interview recorded in 2001.
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
#SILENTBUTDEADLY : HERE IS a great triple post of requested GIFS by you our friends and followers from here and our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE for this week's #SILENTBUTDEADLY! Above Christopher Lee is ready for business, and if you have seen the film 'The House of the Long Shadows' you'll know, all hell breaks loose from this point. 'The House of the Long Shadows' (1983 which marks first time stars Peter, Vincent Price, and Christopher Lee appeared in a film sharing scenes together! John Carradine and Shelia Keith also star in...despite what some say... a great little film, that has some classic moments, all four stars get their moment, it's camp, it's black, it's creepy, it has a wonderful ending, and it's worth seeing. This of course, is my personal opinion... what do you think???
IN 2012 We Celebrated the HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWS in style, sharing a BBC interview with you, recorded from the set of the film, during it's production!
#SILENTBUTDEADLY: This aint gonna be pretty! Vincent Price braces himself for the unexpected...or is it?? A great GIF requested by Paul Barton for this week's #SILENTBUTDEADLY GIF Gallery.
DID YOU KNOW ALL FOUR actors, Peter Cushing, Vincent Price, John Carradine and Christopher Lee ALL JOINTLY won the BEST ACTOR AWARD in 1983 at the SIGES FILM FESTIVAL? The Sitges Film Festival, is one of the world's foremost international festivals of film...
#SILENTBUTDEADLY: GAZOOKS! He just keeps coming. We KNEW there was something spooky about Peter Cushing's shop keeper in ''FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE' Turns out he is what he seems after all! A great addition to our GIF gallery requested by Phil Cooper UK.
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 our 30K following total for Peter Cushing BIRTHDAY on MAY 26th
2017 AND Help Keep The Memory Alive!
The year 2016 marks the 60th anniversary of PCAS, please help us celebrate Peter Cushing life and career, by sharing our post on any of our sites.
Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee: The Last Meeting Clip 1
The first in a series of clips of the last time Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee met, posted here and shared in features and articles on our various internet platforms. The occasion was the recording of a voice over at a small recording studio in Canterbury, Kent, UK for a documentary about Hammer films, called Flesh and Blood, that was later screened in two parts on the BBC. Part two was broadcast just two days after Peter Cushing's death on Thursday August 11, 1994. We post the clips under the title of 'ONE LAST TIME' ...in part a nod to the cameos that both Cushing and Lee played in a film entitled 'One More Time' as a favour to Hammer fan and friend, Sammy Davis jr. The unedited footage runs at approx one hour. Over the next two years, we will edit clips and share them. We are sensitive to anything within the footage that compromises confidentiality. The footage was shot with both Cushing and Lee's consent. Enjoy this last and rare moment, feel free to leave a comment or click a like, if you feel happy to and please come see us at any of our links below. You will be most welcome!
The Peter Cushing Appreciation Society is now in it's 60th Year! Come celebratw with us DAILY at our official FACEBOOK FAN PAGE. Click LIKE and join us! We are just a click away : HERE
It's a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to a grand ol lady!
It's 50 years today that Hammer films 'THE GORGON' hit the big screen.
Starring Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Barbara Shelley and Richard
Pasco it certainly qualifies as one of Hammer films marquee titles. Made
at Bray studios and directed by Terence Fisher. This post is dedicated
to our 'number one' resident Gorgon fan, Joshua 'Mageara' Kennedy!
PCASUK 'ONE LAST TIME' COMPETITION: Following
on from our 'ONE LAST TIME' feature yesterday, here's our second
competition of the week!
Here's YOUR chance to be one of THREE lucky winners who could win themselves A HI RES COPY OF THE PHOTOGRAPH OF PETER CUSHING AND CHRISTOPHER LEE as seen above!. All you have to do is correctly answer the question below!
It's easy to enter our competitions and they are open to anyone,
wherever in the world you may be! Answer the question correctly from the options below and EMAIL your answer to us at: theblackboxclub@gmail.com
COMPETITION QUESTION:
Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee shared a personal motto. Choose the correct ONE from choices below:
A) STEP ASIIDE! B) STEP DOWN! C) STEP AROUND! D) STEP UP! E) BIG STEPS! F) STEP OUT!
PLEASE NOTE: ANY ANSWERS POSTED ONTO THIS MAIN WALL / NEWS FEED / WILL BE DELETED AND NOT COUNTED AS AN ENTRY.
The competition closes THURSDAY 22ND MAY 7PM GMT. Winners names will
be drawn and announced ONE HOUR LATER AT 8PM GMT AND POSTED HERE. GOOD
LUCK EVERYONE!
The year 1971 got off to a horrible start for Cushing: Helen finally succumbed
after years of ever-worsening health.
For Cushing, the loss would prove unbearable. Helen was everything to him: his most valued
critic, his biggest fan, his best friend, his doting mother, his wife… It was
not a loss that Cushing would rebound from easily; indeed, it would cast a pall
over his remaining years. The
crestfallen actor considered suicide, but religious principles compelled him to
tough it out. His therapy would be work
– non-stop, if at all possible.
One of Cushing’s first films following his tragic loss was
Hammer’s first crack at updating the Dracula myth to the modern milieu. Dracula
AD 1972 would be Cushing’s first appearance as Van Helsing since The Brides of Dracula (1960), and the
passage of time would be all the more obvious due to the actor’s precarious
mental condition at the time of filming.
Cushing had always been a thin man, but after the loss of Helen he would
become gaunt – he would also attain something of a haunted aura about him… The
original screenplay by Don Houghton initially had Van Helsing as a modern-day
father, trying to keep his flower child Jessica (Stephanie Beacham) in line,
but Cushing had aged noticeably and a decision was made to make him into
Jessica’s grandfather. Cushing’s frail
appearance stands in stark contrast to the utter commitment and energy he
brings to the role. It is certainly my
favorite of his several attempts at the character, and he has real chemistry
with Beacham in their scenes together.
As for Lee, the actor had long vocalized a dissatisfaction with how
Hammer had been treating his most iconic role.
He came to AD 1972 out of sheer desperation, as several projects he had
signed on to had fallen through at the last minute. It would seem that the presence of Cushing
re-energized him, however, as he approaches the role of Dracula with a gusto
that had been notably absent in Taste the
Blood of Dracula (1969) and Scars of Dracula (1970).
The two stars cross
path on screen at the beginning (in a wonderful, nineteenth century-set
prologue) and again at the end, and their chemistry remains as palpable as
ever. Fans would react with mixed
emotions at the updated setting, however, and for some the film remains the
nadir of the series.Even so, the
Lee/Cushing dynamic remained untarnished, and more collaborations were ahead,
in short order…
Late in 1971, Lee and Cushing flew to Madrid to make Horror Express. For Lee, working in the Spanish film scene
was nothing new – he had already done several films for Jess Franco, after
all. But for Cushing, leaving the
confines of England was a different matter.
He had filmed in Spain and other locales in the 50s – but always with
Helen tagging along for support. Things
were different now and with the Christmas holiday looming, he had a change of
heart. Fortunately, Lee’s friendship and
encouragement would prompt Cushing to stick with it – and thank goodness for
it. Horror
Express (1972) would emerge as one of the most purely enjoyable films of
either actor career – and in many respects, it may remain
the definitive Lee/Cushing movie.
The
two actors are cast to type – Lee stuffy and imperious, Cushing impish and
charming – but the characters allow them to grow in interesting ways. Lee is particularly good as the pompous
archaeologist who does an about-face when he realizes that his indifference
towards the mayhem is monstrous in itself. He ends up as a swashbuckling hero,
rescuing the damsel-in-distress (Silvia Tortosa) in the process. Cushing is also in fine form as Lee’s
scientific rival, and the two actors have some marvelous dialogue. Cushing’s “Monsters? We’re British, you know!” is
rightly famous, but I always get a chuckle out of Lee’s impatient “What’s he
raving about?!,” directed at guest star Telly Savalas, who shows up long enough
to liven things up in the final act.
Director Eugenio Martin keeps the action moving at a terrific clip and
for once, Lee and Cushing are afforded more-or-less equal screen time. The supporting cast is marvelous as well,
notably Alberto De Mendoza as the Rasputin-like Pujardov, a religious fanatic
who crosses swords with Lee (who, of course, played Rasputin himself, for
Hammer) and the afore-mentioned Savalas, who makes for an unlikely Cossack but
is thoroughly delightful, just the same.
After this, it was back to England – but The Creeping Flesh wouldn’t be produced by Hammer or Amicus. Instead, the “other” major UK genre studio,
Tigon, was responsible for this – their only Lee/Cushing vehicle. In what could only be seen as an amazing
coincidence, the story bore a strong resemblance to that of Horror Express: in both films, an
ancient fossil is unearthed which contains a clue to the origin of Evil.
Horror
Express had been a fast paced romp, while The Creeping Flesh was darker, slower and altogether more
somber. The film would mark a return to
form for director Freddie Francis, who had spent much of the 70s hacking out
one poor film after another – Tales from
the Crypt (1972) to one side. The
literate and intriguing script for The
Creeping Flesh inspired him to make a more committed job of it, and he
responds with one of his most carefully crafted films. Only a gratuitous subplot involving Kenneth
J. Warren’s escaped convict drags the film down; it’s not that these scenes are
bad, they’re simply pointless and scream “filler”.
Top-billed Lee isn’t in it as much as all
that, but he’s in great form as the embittered half-brother to Cushing’s
pampered scientist. Lee conveys the
hurt, resentment and burning anger that is quietly bubbling under the surface
and manages to steal every scene he is in.
Cushing has the larger role, and the showier one, and he impresses as
the slightly addle-brained researcher.
In what was becoming an obsessive trope, the actor plays a lonely
widower who is assailed by memories of his late wife. Cushing brings tremendous pathos to the role,
making him instantly sympathetic, and the ambiguous fade-out makes it unclear
whether the story really did happen or if it was just a paranoid delusion. Lorna Heilbron steals the film from her stars
as Cushing’s naïve daughter, who succumbs to the taint of evil. Duncan Lamont, Michael Ripper and other
stalwarts help to boost up the faux Hammer flavor, and Paul Ferris contributes
a good, creepy soundtrack.
The same year, Christopher Lee would launch his own production
company, Charlemagne Productions; the name derived from his illustrious
ancestor, the Emperor Charlemagne, and the intent was to create a company that
could give Hammer and Amicus a run for their money by producing mature, “up
market” horror films for the discerning viewer.
Sadly, Lee would lose control of the project early on and Nothing but the Night would become a
problematic film on many levels.
The script was based on the novel of the same
name by John Blackburn,. There was a
good story to be told there, and in a sense its tale of “possessed” children
anticipated a certain Hollywood blockbuster by a year… but the film would be a
rather listless and dreary affair, and Rank’s inability to do much with the
film in the UK coupled with distribution woes in the US put an end to Lee’s
dream of running his own company.
None
of this should suggest that the film is a total loss, however. Director Peter Sasdy had just directed three
fine films for Hammer (one of which, Taste
the Blood of Dracula, was among the better of Hammer’s Dracula series) but
his stylistic verve is only evident in spurts here. Too much of the narrative is given over to an
unappealing love story between Keith Barron and Georgia Brown, while Lee and
Cushing linger on the sidelines as a sort of modern-day Holmes and Watson
team. Lee comes into his own in the
second half and gives a commanding performance, while Cushing struggles with a
rather unusually bitchy characterization which requires him to snap a lot and
shoot plenty of dark glances.
The film
builds to a memorable, fiery finale which can’t help but remind viewers of
another, much better Lee vehicle from the same period: The Wicker Man (1973).
Speaking of which, it has been rumored that Cushing was considered for
the pivotal role of Sergeant Howie in that film – which would likely have made The Wicker Man the most artistically
rewarding of their many films together… but the reality is, Cushing
was much too old for the part and the man who eventually got the job,
Edward Woodward, did a brilliant job with it. If Cushing ever had any
particular feelings on nearly being a part of The Wicker Man, he never
said so. In any event, his career would continue to move full steam
ahead...
The final part of 'Talent To Terrify' will be posted this weekend: 'The Count's Last Stand..And The Gang 's Here Too!'
'A Talent To Terrify: The Twenty Two Films Of Peter Cushing And Christopher Lee is written by Troy Howarth with images and artwork by Marcus Brooks.
