TODAY'S#WatchWithCushing is 1975's 'LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF' at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE! Along with Tyburn's 'The Ghoul'
these were films that were produced in a style from another time...and
that was the producers intention. Hope you enjoy it! If you have not
seen it before, we'd love you to post your opinions and views on the news thread.
HERE IS PART ONE of our PCAS 'THE MAKING OF THE LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF' feature which includes rare images, quotes and interviews with actor David Rintoul on playing the role of Etoile and the task of applying the make up. There is also quite extensive details from Peter Cushing on how he prepared for the role of Parisian pathologist, Paul Catafanque. Along with details from producer, Kevin Francis it makes an impressive first look into the huge task of making a movie...
ABOVE: THE UK 'LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF' TRAILER, with DANISH subtitles and a narration by the wonderful tv, radio and film veteran, Valentine Dyall!
THIS WEEK'S TUESDAY TOUGHY, might be an EASY one for some, but a challenge for others! IF you think you have it, DO post your suggestion or in the thread below! Sadly, no prizes for this one, it's our weekly bit of fun! BELOW is LAST WEEK'S ANSWER. ONLY COLLEEN CROUCH got the answer correct, at the FACEBOOK PETER CUSHING APPRECIATION SOCIETY FAN PAGE! Well Done Colleen!
OUR WARNER BROTHERS 'DRACULA' remastered Blu Ray COMPETITION is now LIVE at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE ! PLEASE feel free to CLICK the LINK and bag yourself a copy of Warner's superb REGION FREE PRIZE NOW! As woth ALL PCAS competitions, this comp is OPEN TO EVERYONE! Whoever, wherever YOU are!
THIS IS THE FIRST PART of a series of features, focusing on THE MAKING OF THE LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF. This is quite a different series, compared to our usual theme of features on the work of PETER CUSHING. Each of our six parts will not just be looking at Cushing, the cast and a critque of the finished film, but we will also spend time hearing from the production crew, lighting, set design and the diector and producer. TYBURN FILMS were quite an unusual production company. At the time studios and companies were struggling to finance and make features, Tyburn approached the problem with a different concept, which makes this series all the more interesting. Peter Cushing appeared in four productions with Tyburn over the years. Three films, THE GHOUL (1975) THE LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF and THE MASKS OF DEATH, also a biographical tv programme called ONE WAY TICKET TO HOLLYWOOD. Tyburn's CEO Kevin Francis, first met Peter Cushing when he was working and finding his feet, for Hammer films. Both he and Cushing became friends, as Francis was such a fan of his work and Hammer films. The friendship helped too when Francis was looking for a top name, when casting his first Tyburn productions, it was a friendship that would grow even closer during and after Cushing's last few years.
ACTING UP!
OBVIOUSLY,
film acting has never been just a simply 'act' of learning your lines
and saying them with as much conviction as you can! There are various
technical things to think about, like keeping in frame, leaving seconds
at the beginning of takes, so the editor can get in, and keeping enegies
the same in the master shot, close ups and cut aways. The script for
THE LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF was like many scripts that director FREDDIE
FRANCIS worked with for another film production company to, AMICUS
FILMS. LEGEND had a script where actors were given a certain amount of
freedom in interpreting the script! Peter Cushing played the role of Paul Cataflanque, a skilled forensic surgeon. Here he explains his methods of performance for camera, and preparing for a role.
CUSHING AND THE LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF SCRIPT : CHANGES
PETER CUSHING:'I DO THE SAME THING on all film scripts. A play that's written for the
theatre, it's altered sometimes but it's done in a very different way. A
film script is such a technical thing, it's altered so much during the
original writing that sometimes the dialogue does get a little out of
hand. They've been concentrating on something else so much that in the
end they can't see the wood for the trees, but when an actor sees the
script for the first time he is able to see these little problems . Then
there are also certain ways of making exactely the same sense but
saying the line in a way that is better for the character. But one never
alters the gist of what is being said because obviously if you alter
that you alter the whole script. And then, a script is over written,
becauseit's much better to cut out, if you are over time, than to try
and add on if you are under, because it's when you add on, that begins
gto show a little, unless you have given it great thought to it. So
scripts are usually overwritten to about ten minutes so that you can cut
ten minutes offand come down to the required hour or hour and a half,
or whatever you want'.
CUSHING'S METHOD AND PREPARATION
PETER CUSHING:'I ALWAYS DO a tremendous amount of this, it's purely my way of working,
particularly in films, which is my favourite medium, But the actors get
very little rehearsal time, you see, so you must do your homework. I
naturally always ask the director, but the director has many things to
think of, not just me or the other actors, he got technical things,
lighting and so on, and what he's doing next week or next month. So
whatever you can do to help is good for everyone concerned. And
instinctively he knows immediately : it's marvelous and we'll add to it
or no, because I always do a little sketch of the clothes I want,
costume, because I think that is important. It helps with the character
to know, what you are goping to wear. This again is purely my 'method',
if you want to call it that. I think the more preparation you do the
better. I don't like the phrase 'technique of acting' because I don;t
think there is such a thing, but film making is very technical in as
much as you have to remember your 'marks', remember your 'key lights'
all sorts of things like that, and at the same time, you have to make it
all look as though, it's all just happening, when the camera films it.
"I DO A LOT OF WORK long before I start in the production and the shooting
begins. i know the whole script, because you never know what scene they
are going to do some days. They might suddenly change their minds, like
yesterday when we were a day and a half ahead of schedule. Well, had I
not known the scene, I couldn't have done that. But you see, when I get
home after a da's shooting there's not really time. I just check
through, and look at all my notes. By the time you get home it's seven
or eight o'clock and by the time you've had a meal and written a couple
of letters it's time to get to bed for half past five in the morning. So
that's why it's important to me at any rate, to do a great deal of work
before shooting starts".
WORKING WITH DIRECTOR FREDDIE FRANCIS:
PETER CUSHING : "EVERYBODY IS DIFFERENT, though I must say, I have been exceptionally lucky, with
all the directors I have worked for. Freddie has his way of doing
things. What I admire apart from his tremendous knowledge of the
buisness is Freddie's wonderful insight and instinct for how to treat
every indivdual on the studio floor. He knows those ones to lark with,
those not to lark with, he giot great kindness and yet absolutely the
correct kind of authority. The behaviour of everyone, obviously in
almost every industry, does stem from the top and go right the way down
through. If you get someone who's not very nice at the top it does tend
to inflitrate through the unit".
THE ROLE OF PAUL CATAFANQUE
PETER CUSHING : "HE IS A PATHOLOGIST,except that they weren't called pathologists in those
days, they were called judicial surgeons. But there's quite a lot of
humour this time, which is nice and makes a lovely balance to the mayhem
that goes on. But with any role you play your personality must come
across. From that you try to make something of the character, the author
has written into the part. This script was written by John Elder, he
was one of the directors at Hammer films. He wrote many of their early
ones and for eighteen years these Hammer films have been popular and the
mass of people who go to them, it's rather like those people who buy
their favourite chocolates; they know when they open the box, they'll
find the coconut cream and the truffles and that sort of thing, and they
know when they see this kind of film, they'll get what they are kooking
for. And so, they're catered for, by the scriptwriters".
THE SCRIPT MUST BE COMPLETE AND FINISHED
PETER CUSHING :"WHEN
I RECEIVE THE SCRIPTit is never a treament or second draft, it's the
final script, nearly always and it is something I have to insist upon,
because I know me, I know my limitations. I must have the script. It's
no good saying will you do it and you'll have the script the day you
arrive, I couln't accept because I know I couldn't do it. That's the
only reason, I am not being troublesome, it's just because I can't
workthe way I do unless I have it well ahead, to study and learn and
make what alterations I want to suggest. As soon as the script arrives, I
go right through it and if needed I make my suggestions which are then
sent through to the director and producer, they amalgamate them, when
they all get together. By the time I arrive to shoot, all the talking's
finished!!"
FOR DAVID RINTOUL 'The Legend of the Werewolf' was something quite different, it was his first film role. Although by this point he had played many theatrical roles, working in film was very much learning while working . . .
DAVID RINTOUL : "FILM IS TOTALLYdifferent! The first couple of weeks I was just trying to sus it all out! I was a bit lost, I think. I'm beginning to get more confident now. The technique is quite different. Hopefully with time you get the technical side of it, so it becomes an instinctive thing and all your concentraition goes on the acting. What I've found so far, is especially at the beginning of the film, was that, I had to concentrate on the tech things and tended to forget about the acting! But it's a question of experience, I guess. The first couple of days I seemed to have a problem hitting my marks, where to stop when walking, not to lean. I missed my walking marks because I was trying to do it without looking down!"
"YOU SEE WHEN a director says, could you move a little bit to the left, often he's talking about an inch or so. Whereas in the theatre when they say move a bit more to the left they mean FOUR FOOT! Even doing telly there's not the same precision of moves, as there is in film. Here lighting is so important. With telly, you do look for the lamps and that sort of thing, but it's not so central".
"WORKING WITH ALLthe werewolf make up, is alright. I have found it helps me. Different actors work differently. I like working off , without the costume or make up, so there's that boost for me when I go into make up. For example, in the theatre I don't like trying on bits of costume, until a day or two before we open the show, though some directors want you to rehearse in costume quite early. I always leave itthe end, because it gives you that extra boost, that extra charge."
"THE ROLE OFEtoile is pretty much an instintive type of part. Some parts you have to think about a lot, and others you say, yes, that' what the role is about. I talked with director Freddie a bit about the script, but it isn't all sacred and you can change it as you go along. I am lucky I haven't had to really change very much, because . . . he doesn't say that much! I've made it a bit more colloquial. It came across, in the reading, as not stilted, but a bit formal. So I changed little things, like 'you will' to 'you'll'. But you have to be mindfull that Freddie doesn't want it too colloquial, because it has to have a nineteenth century feel. It's a delicate balance bewteen the two. Etoile is described as a country lad. I'm not doing a country accent or anything like that, just making it a bit less formal...."
"WHEN CASTING STARTEDfor this film, I was busy auditioning for a theatrical play, I had already done two or three auditions for it, and was just about to go to the last one, when my agent rang and and said, go out to Pinewood studios tomorrow! So I did, nit really knowing much about it at all. I saw Freddie the director, talked for five minutes or so, met Kevin Francis the producer, talked to him for a couple of minutes and then went back to my flat in London not really knowing or having much idea of how I got on. The phone rang a couple of hours later and the agent said, you've got the part, That was that! We started about four weeks later. Though I was here at the studio, about a week before we started shooting, just to try out the Werewolf make up, and that turned out fine. A couple of minor adjustments when we began shooting, and that was that. As I remember there was just one make up test where they actually filmed it."
COMING SOON : PART TWO : JACK SHAMPAN ON SET DESIGN : THE BUDGET AND DIRECTOR FREDDIE FRANCIS INTERVIEW ON LEGEND!
WE
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PETER CUSHING collected toy soldiers from childhood, by the 1950's he had a quite an extensive collection. It was Cushing who introduced actor Alan Ladd to the hobby of collecting soldiers while they were both filming THE BLACK KNIGHT, and just about every co-star over the years, who was invited to the Cushing Home for for dinner was always given an impromptu introduction and visit to 'The Troops'. It has to be said that Peter Cushing's thoughts about his past times and hobbies were somewhat revolutionary for the time, when collecting miniatures and building to scale models of theaters were not that common, and a written feature at the time, also adds some strong indications and evidence to Peter's almost Peter Pan - like personality. The piece was called, 'TOYS? They're not Child's Play!'- Says Peter Cushing!' which he wrote for the TV Miror's 'On My Soap Box' column . Cushing changed the column's title to ' On My Hobby Horse'.....
HOBBIES? OH YOU SIGH, 'Peter Cushing is going to tell us about his toy soldiers again! Just kid's stuff! It's nothing to do with a bold Soap-box subject, surely?" Now I have a theory about hobbies and and toys, and Iam quite prepared for you to scoff at me. The theory is quite simple. It is that toys are given to children when they are too young to apprecaite them and because most men ' put away childish things' as they reach adulthood, they miss a great deal of happiness at a time in their lives when, because of greater maturity , they are actually in amuch better position to enjoy their toys and hobbies.
THE TRAGEDY IS THAT for too many men are hobby-less . .. Without escapism which comes only from dabbling with adult toys, their minds are prey to all the frusttration and fears of the working day. From my hobby-horse, I do not say that men would be better if they kept to their toys in theri adult years, but certainly they could be happier. . . So many, it seems to me, lose happiness as they grow up. Their entire absorption in their careers and adult responsibilities bring lines of worry and premature old age. It is not silly or childish to have an interest in hobbies . . . some men develop a passionate interest in costly 35mm cameras and in veteran cars, but what are these things except toys of a rather larger and dearer sort? I am not particularly mechanically -minded, so although I do have a certain interest in mechanical models, i get much great contentment from miniture figures and costumes. I love collecting old manuscripts and books on period costume too, but of course, that's a branch of art, and not a subject for any hobby-horse.
H.G. WELLS wrote a most interesting book entitled, LITTLE WARS, which was a serious satire designed to make real war impossible. There is a British Model Soldier Society, including youngsters of nine up to colonels of ninety, and who manoeuvre the soldiers according to the rules which H.G outlined in his book, rules which have changed little since the days of Napoleon. Played according to these rules, the wars of these tin soldiers become a vast game of chess. When I come home at night and find the news or the newspaper headlines more than usually anxious and alarming, I sometimes get out my soldiers and start solving international problems on my lounge carpet. Fearful problems which . .. cause international strife at UNO, are settled in a quiet half-hour with my private armies of military men, who are as clever, bold, strategic and vicious as I can make them, although they are only two and half inches high. One day, I may be tempted to send to Whitehall, to Washington and the Kremlin, so statesmen can find the key . . .
BUT NO. I have no wish to challenge anyone's opinion. I have my own inner contentment with this world-in-miniature. And you could too. It's not a thing to shout or campaign about, but to discover privately, and to enjoy in one's own heart . . . .
OUR WEEKLY 'MOMENTS OF TERROR' theme day tales a rest for a while next week. Monday's for seven weeks will see a new feature, The Making of Legend Of The Werewolf, takes a look at one of Cushing's and Tyburn films most interesting films together. Intyerviews, on set pics and much more... STARTS next Monday 11th June 2018! Please join us!
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NEWS: WE HAVE DISCOVERED SOME VERY INTERESTING news, from a very
reliable source, that a reputable dvd and blu ray distributor has sealed
the deal on several TYBURN film releases . . the titles and regions we
can not release right now, but as soon as we are given the OK and
authority to do so, you'll see it here first 🙂 LOTS of interest on our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE today with this great news! Which Tyburn titles would you like see released from their movies? Great news . .or what?
ONE OF MANY features and galleries on THE GHOUL
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ABOVE: THE JOYS OF THE UK POSTER MAGAZINE 'MONSTER MAG' AND THEIR
COVERAGE OF THE RELEASE OF 'LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF' BACK IN 1975
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
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