#MONSTERMONDAY: COUNT DRACULA : MONSTER OR VICTIM?

#MONSTERMONDAY: It's kinda fitting that today, of all days, we debate and chew over probably the most deadly of ALL the creatures and phantoms, Peter Cushing ever had to face in a movie, THIS chap, gave him the most problems! #COUNT DRACULA.

MEETING FACE TO FACE in a total of FOUR films, all made by HAMMER FILMS, and all starring #CHRISTOPHERLEE as the Count, except one. So good was Christopher Lee in the role of Dracula, when Hammer films made, THE BRIDES OF DRACULA in 1960, his absence from the film, was something you just could not ignore. However, Lee did leave us quite a legacy of Dracula performances to enjoy, seven feature film for Hammer, and few other interpretations for others studios too. They may not all be to ones liking, but for many, he set the bar, which will probably never bettered or equaled.

So, for an actor Dracula is maybe the Hamlet of the Fantasy/horror roles, certainly a character you could...wait for it..get your teeth into. BUT, is the character . . .  a MONSTER or a VICTIM? Lee always hinted that the Count was cursed, a victim, forever doomed to roam the earth in search of blood and victims, maybe a romantic notion? Or was he a MONSTER spreading his plague of vampirism, draining his virgin victims of their lives and life blood?? MONSTER or VICTIM? YOU Decide! 

NOW WITH OVER 26,000 LIKES AND FOLLOWERS : COME JOIN US AT

OUR FACEBOOK FAN PAGE CLICK HERE!

HALLOWEEN AND OUR 60TH YEAR ANNIVERSARY COMPETITION TOMORROW!

HALLOWEEN TOMORROW! SO TOMORROW WILL BE A BUSY DAY. PLEASE JOIN US FOR OUR CELEBRATORY COMPETITION!!

OPEN TO EVERYONE, NO MATTER WHERE YOU ARE!

LOOK FOR THIS BANNER AT OUR FACEBOOK FAN PAGE

AND COME JOIN OVER 26,000 OTHER FOLLOWERS AND FRIENDS! 

NEW LANDMARK FOR PCAS: 26,000 LIKES!

AMAZING! Our Peter Cushing Appreciation Society Facebook Fan Page hit 26,000 LIKES yesterday! That's a LOT of people and a LOT of Peter Cushing fans! It's great that in our 60th year Peter Cushing's is still as popular as ever! Many thanks to everyone who supports the page and this website . . .  only through you are we able to keep the memory of Peter Cushing, his work and life a live!

Here is the post that was posted up on our facebook page yesterday!

 

A MILLION THANK YOUS!!!! Well this was a pretty amazing thing to wake up to this morning!! Our total of followers / likes for this page is an amazing 26,000.. actually it has now exceeded that total.. between seeing the figure and making this banner, it has tripped into almost 26,200, which is quite something!

I SAY THIS EVERYTIME, we reach another landmark total, but it's very true. I think Mr C, would have been very pleased indeed. Your continuing support and interest for this page, is very much appreciated. Making the posts and the work that goes into that, is always a real pleasure, and I get a big kick when reading your comments and interactions on the threads. It seems this Halloween, Peter Cushing is everywhere! Websites, blogs, newspapers, on tv... the interest in Peter has certainly increased in the last six months, and that is a wonderful thing to see.

IN OUR SIXTH YEAR that interest is bigger than ever., and it's in some part part, because of YOU. Your sharing our posts, makes the BIG difference, it brings people here, which prompts more interest, which makes the totals rise, that puts Peter Cushing, where he belongs, right out there. Let's all work to keep him there. It's all about keeping the memory of Peter Cushing alive and relevant. Here's to the next 1,000, and the remainder of our anniversary year..

WHY NOT COME JOIN US AND JOIN IN THE COMMENTS AND DEBATE AT

OUR FACEBOOK FAN PAGE? JUST CLICK RIGHT HERE!

GIFS: THE VAMPIRE GIRLS FROM HAMMER FILMS 1#

WE ARE RESTING #FRANKENSTEINFRIDAY for the next TWO WEEKS to bring you a series of GIFS of Vampires from Cushing films...TODAY it's the Cushing Hammer Vampires and we kick off with Hammer's Twins Of Evil (1972) with Madeleine Collinson as Frieda, taking a bite, before Cushing as Uncle Gustav gives her the fright and fight of her life!

DON'T FORGET TOMORROW IS #ONSETSATURDAY! RIGHT HERE AND AT OUR PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE

ACTRESS JULIE EGE as Ms Vanessa Buren in Hammer films, 'The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires' (1974) stands as Hammer films fastest transformation of vamp, from BIT to BITING! No sooner is she bitten, than... TARRAH..she is a vampire. Still, everything thing I suppose, whips along in that particular movie at a fair ol speed!

AND TOMORROW WE ARE WATCHING THIS CLASSIC! WATCHING TOMORROW! Here's an idea we started THREE WEEKS ago, that you might want to be a part of. Nothing new, but an experience worth sharing... the opportunity to watch a film, on the same day, as US and many others here! It doesn't matter what time, but be sure to share your thoughts and views on the film, we'll all watch tomorrow. TOMORROW WILL BE...Hammer films DRACULA /HORROR OF DRACULA (1958)..How fitting for HALLOWEEN....and you can pop in anytime, and share you thoughts....

AND HERE IS OUR LAST gif for this Friday, and it ties in quite nicely with tomorrow's Cushing movie we'll be sharing together, DRACULA / HORROR OF DRACULA. Maybe, Valerie Gaunt wasn't only Hammer's FIRST vampire, but the BEST too??  What do you think?

 

JOIN US AT OUR FACEBOOK FAN PAGE CLICK HERE 

CHRISTOPHER LEE : ON THE LOSS OF PETER CUSHING INTERVIEW PLUS CLIPS

The late Sir Christopher Lee on his close friend, Peter Cushing.

A NEW FEATURE FOR SUNDAY'S! GIFS, CLIPS, PHOTOGRAPHS AND 

ANALYSIS OF SOME OF THE MOST CLASSIC FRIGHTENING CLIPS FROM THE WORK OF PETER CUSHING

 

GET YOU TOP UP SEVERAL TIMES A DAY AT THE PETER CUSHING

APPRECIATION SOCIETY FACEBOOK FAN PAGE : TO JOIN US CLICK HERE

#THROWBACKTHURSDAY: FOUR FILMS TO WATCH THIS OCTOBER!

#THROWBACKTHURSDAY: Here's a new idea you might want to be a part of. Nothing new, but an experience worth sharing... the opportunity to watch a film, all on the same day! It doesn't matter what time, but be sure to be around the day after to share your thoughts and views on the film, we have all watched. We'll be setting up a banner on the days listed here...and you can pop in anytime, and share, chat, rant, gush on the thread below the banner!

FIRST ONE OFF THE BLOCK, is Peter Cushing's The Creeping Flesh! If you do not own a copy of the film, check out youtube, daily motion and vimeo, where all of these titles are shared . . . you'll just have to check their availability, in your part of the world. Territories do vary .. . . . Looking forward to it already!

 

PLEASE COME JOIN US AT OUR VERY OWN FACEBOOK FAN PAGE:  ALMOST 26,000 FOLLOWERS : UPDATED EVER DAY : RARE IMAGES AND COMPETITIONS: JUST CLICK HERE!

CHRISTOPHER LEE ON HAMMER FILMS

THAT great opportunity certainly covered a lot of films...

CLICK ON THE FILM TITLE LINKS BELOW TO EASILY REACH OUR FEATURES AND GALLERIES CONTAINING MANY RARE COLOUR STILLS, PRESS PHOTOGRAPHS, TRANSPARANCIES AND REVIEWS AT OUR WEBSITE!

THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957) 

DRACULA / THE HORROR OF DRACULA (1958) 

THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (1959) 

THE MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH (1959) 

THE MUMMY (1959)

THE TWO FACES OF DR JEKYLL (1960) 

THE TERROR OF THE TONGS (1961) 

TASTE OF FEAR  (1961)

PIRATES OF BLOOD RIVER (1962)

THE DEVIL SHIP PIRATES (1964)

THE GORGON (1964)

SHE (1965)

DRACULA PRINCE OF DARKNESS (1966)

RASPUTIN THE MAD MONK (1966) 

THE DEVIL RIDES OUT (1968) 

DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE (1968) 

TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA (1970) 

THE SCARS OF DRACULA (1970) 

DRACULA AD 1972 (1972)

THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA (1973) 
TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER (1976) 

VERONICA CARLSON : WOMEN IN GOTHIC : THE HAMMER FRANKENSTEIN SERIES : PART FIVE

After his somewhat more mellow mood in both The Evil of Frankenstein and Frankenstein Created Woman, the Baron's personality darkened considerably in Fisher's Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969). Perhaps frustrated by his continued failed experiments, Frankenstein has never been more ruthless than in this film. Another fine cast was assembled, including Peter Cushing, Freddie Jones, George Pravda and Simon Ward, but who would be the mistresses of Frankenstein in this episode?

First and foremost was Veronica Carlson, who had just been bitten by Christopher Lee in Dracula Has Risen From the Grave (1968) and was being touted as 'Hammer's new star discovery.' Aged twenty-four at the time, Carlson had been 'discovered' by Sir James Carreras after a revealing photo shoot for the Sun newspaper.

The statuesque blonde actress had been born in Yorkshire as Veronica Mary Glazer and had spent part of her childhood in Germany, where her father was stationed with the British Army. She later attended Thetford Girls' School  and High Wycome College of Technology and Design, where she studied art and acted in several theatrical productions.

Prior to being spotted by Carreras, Carlson had appeared in the Morecombe and Wise comedy The Magnificent Two (1967) and a movie ironically titled Hammerhead (1968). An episode of The Saint' with Roger Moore in 68 also 'Crossplot' a film, again with Roger Moore also produced in 1969.

As Anna, the keeper of a boarding house where Frankenstein decides to hide out and perform his experiments, Carlson has never been better. One of the best scenes in the film - indeed, in any Frankenstein film - features Anna having to haul a body out of a makeshift grave in a flower garden after a water main has burst. Under Fisher's masterful direction, the scene is as tense as anything in a Hitchcock film, and Anna ends up completely drenched, but successful in transferring the corpse to another hiding place so the police can't find it. It's an extraordinary scene and Carlson is exceptional in it.

The most controversial element of Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed is the inclusion of the infamous rape scene, in which the Baron, overcome by lust, attacks Anna in her bedroom. Included as an afterthought three days before the end of production and apparently demanded by James Carreras by way of Warner Bros, the scene was ultimately cut in the US - by Warner Bros, who had ordered it in the first place!

In her foreword to my book The Hammer Frankenstein, Carlson recalled the incident thusly: 'We were setting the scenes for the morning shoot on Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed when James Carreras made a sudden, dramatic, noisy appearance. High above his head he was brandishing sheets of paper. He snapped angrily, 'I've just been told there's not enough sex in this picture - so here's the new scene that's just been written!' He thrust the papers at Terry, who said simply, 'But we've set the scene of the film - the mood - we've nearly finished shooting!' To no avail. Terry looked through the sheets of paper whilst James Carreras made as sudden and loud a departure as his entrance had been.

'Terry glanced round at us all, looking straight at Peter and myself, then threw the papers into the air and abruptly walked away, leaving the offending scene fluttering, then settling in disarray upon the floor.

'We resolved to shoot that scene, as fans of Hammer know. But I've always felt that it undermined the essence of just what defined "Frankenstein." He was by definition the essence of a truly asexual man, driven single-mindedly in his torment to form an animate creature - especially Man.'

With all due respect to Veronica, whom I've been fortunate enough to call a friend for over 25 years, there was certainly nothing asexual about Frankenstein in The Curse of Frankenstein. He may have ignored his beautiful fiancee, but he had impregnated his maid. The rape scene in Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed is not really out of character. Hammer's Baron had been a murderer (and something of a lecher) from the very first film. Now he was a rapist as well. It really wasn't that much of a leap.

The Baron has never been more of a misogynist than he is in Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed. From the time he first meets her, he treats Anna like chattel. When her boyfriend Karl (Ward) pleads to Frankenstein, 'You don't need Anna,' the Baron sniffs, 'I need her to make coffee!' 

In that context, the rape scene can be seen to make sense as the logical outcome of a master/slave relationship. During the history of the series, Frankenstein has had only one 'normal' relationship with a woman - the one with Justine. But with the maid murdered by his Creature - and by proxy, by Frankenstein himself - the Baron's sex drive has been suppressed in favour of his experiments, making him not only increasingly deranged, but more dangerous and unpredictable as well.

 Warner Brothers 'Horror Classics Volume One' Blu Ray Box Set is 

ON SALE NOW ORDER: HERE

JOIN US : HERE