REMEMBERING AND SHINING THE LIGHT ON THE MAN WHO MADE HAMMER LOOK GREAT!

#THROWBACKTHURSDAY! Next time you sit down and watch your favourite early Peter Cushing Hammer film, and marvel at the beautiful gothic atmosphere, the rich colours, the frightening shadows... that 'Hammer Look and Style', remember this man, ace cinematographer Jack Asher BSC, a true magician! He did indeed paint with light! Best known for his work with Hammer, The Curse of Frankenstein, The Brides of Dracula, Hound of the Baskervilles, Dracula / Horror of Dracula, The Mummy and The Revenge of Frankenstein. Jack was born in London, on this very day in 1916. A REAL craftsman, who applied his skills along with Terence Fisher and the Hammer team, and gave us these rare feasts which live on, OUT SHINING many films and features today! Jack left us in April 1991, aged 74. Happy Birthday Jack!

ANOTHER OF JACK ASHER'S GREATEST: THE BRIDES OF DRACULA and below, another excellent documentary from DONALD FEARNEY on the making of this Peter Cushing and Hammer film classic . .

ABOVE: NEW SERIES STARTING FOR #CHRISTOPHERLEE SATURDAYS, 

THIS SATURDAY!

 

HAMMER FILMS ACTRESS SUZANNA LEIGH DIES

SAD NEWS TO REPORT, another one of the Hammer family has passed away, actress Suzanna Leigh who starred in the Hammer Films 'THE LOST CONTINENT' (1968) and 'LUST FOR A VAMPIRE' (1971)

Born Suzanna Smyth, the daughter of an auto engine manufacturer, Suzanna Leigh grew up in Belgrave, England, and in convent schools outside London. She began working in movies while still a pre-teen, appearing as an extra in 1958's Tom Thumb (1958) (film-debuting in the "Dancing Shoes" sequence), 1960's Oscar Wilde (1960) with 'Robert Morley' and other English productions. A few years later, she was the star of the 13-episode French TV series, Trois étoiles en Touraine (1966), which every week featured Leigh, her racing car and a different male lead (the "Three Stars" of the series' translated title).

Planning to attend London's Opera Ball, costumed as "Madame Du Barry", Leigh had a sedan chair made, along with costumes for five footmen who carried it (and her) through the streets of the city. Movie producer Hal B. Wallis saw newspaper photos of Leigh's elaborate stunt and imported the 20-year-old blonde to Hollywood for Boeing, Boeing (1965). Following her brush with major studio stardom, she resumed her English acting career, showing up on movie screens, most regularly in chillers. Her 1998 autobiography is entitled "Paradise, Suzanna Style".

"Elvis Presley's kisses held an intensity that melted my very being. I slipped my arms around his neck and our bodies entwined. This was all madness, but we didn't stop. A person could go to the gallows with such a kiss lingering on their lips, knowing life had been good...." Suzanna Leigh

 

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: TIME WARP VAMPIRE SHOES : AND TWO DRACULA ACTRESSES THAT ARE NOT LINDA HAYDEN

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY: ANSWER? Very cool and a bit of a trend setter too... Note her PALE BLUE STILETTO HEEL SHOES... they were not invented until the early 1940's.... This scene in Hammer films Dracula starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, took place in 1885, putting her at least 55 years ahead of popular fashion, un-dead she maybe, dumb she isn't !!

 

#‎toocooltuesday‬ : PETER CUSHING, an actor who for the latter third of his career did get trapped in a kind of type-casting, of horror fantasy roles, and even though he didn't watch horror films, had a good sense of humour about it all... that's too-cool!

#‎TOOCOOLTUESDAY‬ : HERE'S A VERY COOL REPOST, that also turned out to be one of our most popular series of posts on our website. It it tells the tale of Christopher Lee having a right ol bat flap in a series of contact sheet photographs from a photo session with a Daily Mirror newspaper photographer in 1972...This feature you can find at the website HERE!

NOT ALONG AFTER we posted the Dracula Daily Mirror Pictures . . . We started getting enquiries about a colour photograph we posted in the feature. A mysterious photograph that was also turning up at signing sessions, and being signed by LINDA HAYDEN. The problem was..it WASN'T Linda Hayden in the photograph with Christopher Lee.. but someone with a Space 1999 / glamour model connection . . the mystery was solved! You can read all about it with full gallery HERE 

AS THE PUZZLE OF THE ' NOT LINDA HAYDEN' photograph was solved, we decided to get to the bottom of another mysterious face in Dracula AD 1972, the DANCER ON THE PIANO.. who again, some were saying...also could be the girl in the pic with Lee! This one, wasn't going away.. but after MORE digging and a telephone chat with the lady in question.. we managed to solve this one too! Find out just who THAT girl is RIGHT HERE

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