LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF CLIP : 'A MORGUE???'

THERE'S A WORRY SELECTION of bodies popping up throughout a small suburb of Paris..and they all have their throats torn out! Police surgeon, Peter Cushing suspects something is a foot..or paw! Tyburn films, Legend of the Werewolf is one of a pair of films that neatly brought the Brit Horror Era to a close. Cushing made both Legend and The Ghoul with director, Freddie Francis. Kevin Francis, son of Fred was CEO of Tyburn, and looked at one point to have the winning formula to keep the Brit Fantasy Flick alive.

The Making Of Legend Of The Werewolf

Behind the Scenes Photographs, Script and Interviews HERE! SOON!

ALAS, THE SHIP had already left the dock and was sailing for tastes a new, splashed with gore, serial killers and mayhem. 'Legend', 'The Ghoul' and Cushing bring a certain dignity to the screen. A class of film, that would soon vanish from our screens.
 

IN THE CLIP ABOVE, Cushing is joined by Roy Castle. A performer who in the past had been a one man, dancing, singing, musician entertainer who had a vast experience of performing in variety, on both stage and tv. Castle appeared with Cushing in two other films, 'Dr Terrors House of Horrors' and 'Dr Who and the Daleks' both for Amicus films, who at one time were the only real competition to Hammer films. The Dr Who film was Amicus in all but name. Cushing and Castle knew each other well enough, to bounce and feed each other in their two scenes in 'Werewolf', and bring a certain black comedy-vaudeville to the film.

'LEGEND' WAS IN PART, a Tony (Hammer Films) Hinds script, which Kevin Francis added to. The two characters in this clip, funnily enough, do not appear in the first draft of the script! The film has a very neat cast, even Michael Ripper, credited as a 'Sewer Man', gets to re-enact his look of horror, first seen in Hammer films 'The Mummy' with Cushing and Lee back in 1959! Ron Moody plays the lovely scruffy ol zoo keeper, David Rintoul, the doomed Etoile, Lynn Dalby is a sensitive love interest, but Renee Houston in her last screen performance before her death in 1980, as Chou-Chou and Hugh Griffith as Maestro Pamponi, almost steal the show.

This film at the time of writing, still is without a dvd release.

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#TOOCOOLTUESDAY : CUSHING POSES FOR LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF PINEWOOD

#toocooltuesday : Peter Cushing poses for the press at Piewood studios, during the making of Tyburn Films, Legend of the Werewolf (Francis 1974)

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REMEMBERING MICHAEL RIPPER

I've seen the likes tonight that mortal eyes shouldn't look at!'... say that line of dialogue and any Hammer film fan worth his or her salt, quick as a flash will reply, 'Michael Ripper, as the poacher in 'The Mummy!'.. And it is Michael Ripper who we remember today on the day his birth, 27th January 1913. Ripper appeared in many productions for Hammer, seven with Peter Cushing, nine with Christopher Lee. Inn keepers, coachmen, police officers, Ripper an accomplished stage and film actor it could be argued is as much part of the Hammer family as Cushing, Lee, Fisher and Francis. Christopher Lee once announced to a packed convention in Baltimore, with Ripper standing at his side.. 'This man IS Hammer!' And for many of us, he always will be....

TYBURN FILMS AND PETER CUSHING : THE MAKING OF TYBURN FILMS LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF

A SUPERB movie from the excellent Tyburn Films in a six part feature series.  Galleries, interviews and starting soon!

STARTING HERE soon!

LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF: 'I AM PARTICULARLY INTERESTED IN YOUR WOLVES!'

 

Peter Cushing as police pathologist and amateur detective, Paul Cataflanque in 'Legend of the Werewolf' (Tyburn 1975)

.....'..Cushing seems to be enjoying himself enormously - almost all his scenes, until the last have a ghoulish humour about them. It is never forced, it is just a witty, clever, concentrated performance. Cataflanque is eating his tea as the newest cadaver is brought in. 'Ooh dear,' Cushing clucks, with his mouth full, peering under the sheet, 'that's very nasty...' He gets rid of his pompous superiors by mischievously presenting them with a gullet and when he does a bit of undercover research in the local brothel he is left bashfully holding a frilly garter!'
( David Miller, The Peter Cushing Companion. 2000)

'LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF' RON MOODY AND PETER CUSHING

Ron Moody Remembers Peter Cushing:
 

"Some scripts are so terribly over the top, there's a terrible temptation to send them up" I said to Peter Cushing. We were sitting in the late summer sunshine outside a very realistic French bistro on the lot of Pinewood studios, between takes on Tyburn films, 'Legend of the Werewolf'. I was playing the zooo keeper, and regarded the whole thing as a bit of a half term holiday, so i was decked out in a stove pipe bowler hat, a black embrosse wig, a ten o'clock shadow and set of buck teeth that made me look like a Neanderthal throwback! Actually, I rather thought I looked like Humphrey Boart. Anyway, if the hero could be a werewolf, why shouldn't the zoo keeper be an ape? Here, I must add, Freddie Francis, the director, thought it was a very funny idea.

Peter didn't. He surveyed me quizzically for a moment, his eyes twinkled. "If you were sending it up" he said, "We wouldn't have you on the film." And he MEANT it. For this sweet-natured, gentle man, dangerously on the verge of sainthood, there could be no mockery of his beloved craft. He played every one of his 'horror roles' with no less dedication then he had applied to his earlier classical career and the stream of powerful dramas that had established him as television's leading actor. His total belief and immersion in everything he did lifted these fantasy / horror tales from the banal to the believable, he commanded respect for the genre, lifted it up, almost single highhandedly, to the level of credibility that made everyone of them a minor classic!

Working with a great actor, something always brushes off! My zoo keeper, hair, hat, teeth and all, was never sent up! In fact, I like to think that my animal man was totally believable, completely identified within film, and had, dare I presume to say it, a touch of Cushing

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LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF: PETER CUSHING AS PAUL CATAFLANQUE

Peter Cushing as Paul Cataflanque in Tyburn Films 'LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF' (1975)