A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to actress AIMI MACDONALD TODAY! Aimi maybe isn't
so well known in other countries, but is face most people over 50 will
recognise in the UK , from her acting on tv including The Avengers, The
Saint, Man at the Top, Sez Les, Shirley's World, Dixon of Dock Green and
Rentaghost. Her appearance in 'The Avengers' (Peter Cushing's "Return
of the Cybernauts" in 1967) was as a mini-skirted secretary, Rosie who
gets stunned by the Cybernaut!
AIMI'S BLONDE BOBBED hair style and bubbly zany attitude, high
squeaky voice, soon made her the go to in several shows in the 60's and
70's. MacDonald came to national attention in 'At Last the 1948' Show,
for which she had been spotted by David Frost. At the opening and
closing of the show and between longer sketches, she would present short
pieces on the theme of her loveliness 😊
Her excitable, squeaky voice
was likened to "a choir of frantic mice" Aimi is still working and still
loved and remembered for those shows, 'Rent-a-Ghost' in particular! Do YOU
remember Aimi?? Happy Birthday and hope you are having a great day Aimi!
😉😃
''WOMAN OF MY AGE ARE STILL ATTRACTIVE. Men of my age are not' ... so
said, this amazing icon of entertainment last year. And you know, Dame
Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg, DBE...does have point! Many actors from her
era have either left us, or look like an unmade bed! We all know the
Cushing Connection here, Mrs Peel in the Brit 1960's TV series, The
Avengers, where PC played the very dashing Paul Beresford, a smooth
operator, pushing all the buttons as romantic interest for Rigg's all action Mrs Peel and a finger on the button of death that commanded his deadly Cybernaut!
DIANA RIGG'S CAREER also features the splendid 'Theatre of Blood' with
Vincent Price. She also worked with Christopher Lee in the Avengers tv
series.in 'Never, Never Say Die' in 1967. Currently starring in the
international hit tv series, Game of Thrones, Rigg is in no hurry to
retire, and I think like Mrs Peel, she'll be 'socking it to us' for a
while yet Happy Birthday Diana Rigg, born today in 1938.
ABOVE AN INTERESTING look on the chemistry of Cushing's BEREFORD and Rigg's MRS PEEL, in the 'Return of the Cybernauts' episode, HERE with GALLERY: RIGHT HERE!
ABOVE OUR FULL PCASUK REVIEW with GALLERY on the 'RETURN OF THE CYBERNAUTS' episode starring Peter Cushing when it FIRST appeared on DVD! CLICK HERE!
OH DEAR. When I embarked upon this two-part
examination of Peter Cushing’s four vampire films that didn’t feature him
playing a variation of his Van Helsing character, I had no idea what I was in
for. Now my first part concerned what are, essentially, two solid later day Hammers
that stand up to this day. One, The
Vampire Lovers, isn’t the best showcase for Peters talents, but it’s a
pretty great film overall and a successful attempt by Hammer to eroticise their
Vampire formula further than before. Twins
of Evil, on the other hand features one of Cushing’s very best roles, as the vicious Gustav Weil.
ABOVE: LAST WEEK'S FIRST FEATURE ON the theme of Cushing in VAMPIRE FILMS not playing one of his most popular anti-vamp roles, VAN HELSING: HERE!
HOWEVER, WITH THOSE TWO out of the way, it was up to me to then tackle both Incense for the Damned (1970) and Tendre Dracula (1974), two films I had
not seen. Now writing this piece…I wish I hadn’t.
WE'LL START WITH ABOVE,Incense
for the Damned, a 1970 British production starring Cushing as Dr Walter
Goodrich. Goodirch is something of a high-up in British society, whose son has
gone missing in Greece, having fallen under the influence of a mysterious girl.
A group of the young man’s friends and a private detective embark on a journey
to find him. On the You-Tube description for the posting of this film, my
colleague Marcus opens by stating; ‘From
the 92 feature films that Peter Cushing appeared in during his long career in
television, theatre and cinema, there only about five titles, whatever your
person taste, that could be deemed as 'almost unwatchable',
A SENTIMENT I am
afraid I must agree with. The film is truly terrible, with a sluggish and
plodding narrative that makes tremendously little sense. The majority of the
characters come across as childish and unlikeable, bickering constantly.
PATRICK MACNEE, always a
welcome sight, has a role and the film is elevated somewhat whenever he is on
screen. Unfortunately, and this is not something I thought I’d say, the
opposite must be said for Cushing. For once in his career he seems utterly
bored and…well…is clearly going through the motions with very little vitality
an energy resulting in a lacklustre performance. I don’t want to be too harsh,
his role is very small and so its possible there’s just nothing for him to work
with, for whatever reason the results are the same.
MOVING ON TO Tendre
Dracula, I was mortified that Marcus had also included it in his list of
the ‘five-unwatchable Cushing films’, stated in the video description mentioned
above. None the less I soldiered on, sat down to watch it…and was not rewarded.
A bizarre French comedy centering on an aging horror star, MacGregor, who has
decided he only wants to play romantic roles.
CUSHING THIS TIME, is the only good thing, probably enjoying playing
a variation of himself but alas even he cannot save what is one of the most god
awful train wrecks of a film I have ever seen. Crude, poorly acted, poorly shot
and well just cringe worthy, Tendre Dracula may have Cushing giving
it his all…but here it’s simply not enough.
THERE'S A FEW INTERESTING snippets, a nice touch
which clearly are supposed to reflect an actual horror star reflecting on his
career through the guise of a fictional character but this is hardly a new idea.
Of course the best example of this is Peter Bogdonavich’s Targets (1968), starring Boris Karloff and but if you want to see
Cushing do this in a far better film I suggest Madhouse (1974).
HERE HE PLAYS A WRITER, not an actor (that role
goes to Vincent Price) but some of the sentiments shared between the two are
clearly meant to be based in reality. In Tendre
Dracula these moments come across as shallow and ineffective…what’s more it
feels like instead of having a bit of fun but ultimately respecting Cushing,
that the Director is actively taking the piss.
THE INFAMOUS and much maligned ‘spanking’
scene seems horrifically out of place and Cushing himself hardly seems pleased.
I’m not really sure what I expected when I put this on, usually being a fan of
the weird and oft maligned but what I got wasn’t even vaguely entertaining. Tendre Dracula deserves its reputation
as a childish exercise in farce.
WELL AFTER THOSE TWO, I feel I need a stiff drink. But
I leave you with a solemn warning. Whilst that old feeling that Cushing can
save truly awful films is often correct, it’s not always. When he even he can’t,
then you must wonder just how awful the resultant product can be. If you ever
get tempted to sample these… delights,
then I warn you dear reader, STAY AWAY. Down that road only madness lies. Until
next time!
HERE IS A FOOTNOTE to this review feature on TENDRE DRACULA. LATE last year, I received this email. I THINK I managed to provide a good answer, for their TV show. What do YOU think the answer would be?
Hello Marcus Brooks My name is Jose Puig, and I work as journalist for a cultural quiz show on the Spanish TV called ‘BOOM’. I’m writing you because we are working on a question about the Peter Cushing and I have thought that you maybe could help me confirming the information that we mention in it in order to be as precise as possible and make sure we don’t spread wrong information to our contestants and our audience. With your permission, I attach you the information we want to confirm:It would be really helpful if you could confirm us that Peter Cushing has never performed a vampire character in cinema in order to give this option as a false one for a question we are working for.
I hope you don’t mind helping us with our doubts. Thanks in advance for your help and your time. Best wishes, JOSE PUIG
#THROWBACKTHURSDAY! It's a nice touch, that when the new and rebooted AVENGERS came back to
TV, in the very first episode broadcast on the 17th October 1976, they
brought Peter Cushing along to help launch the new series. Cushing, had
of course appeared in the 1960's hey day series, in an episode entitled
'The Return of the Cybernauts' in 1967. Then, playing Paul Beresford, a
baddie through and through first time round, Cushing returns playing ,
Professor Maybach Von Claus, nice chap in an evil situation . .. In The
EAGLE'S NEST, Steed investigates the death of a colleague while Gambit
witnesses the kidnapping of Professor Von Claus. Purdey scuba dives to
the remote island of St. Dorca, where a monastery hides a secret and
Germany's greatest treasure.
TODAY IN THE TRUE SPIRIT of #TBT we take you back to FEBRUARY 17TH 1976, and the return of a gem from telly past, The Avengers, brushed down and polished, karate kicking and tea cup cup tilting, and ready for adeventures new with gentleman STEED, with two new companions. The inclusion of Joanna Lumley and Garethe Hunt, taking a little of an older, but just as iconic Steed, was a great idea, bring Peter Cushing along from the original AVENGERS series, was a master stroke!
#THROWBACKTHURSDAY!
Those of you who are big fans of the UK tv show, 'The Avengers' and
'The New Avengers' from the 60's and 70's, will probably know right
away, what this clip is about. For the rest of us well... In an episode
of 'THE NEW AVENGERS' called , "TARGET', our heroes Steed (Patrick
Macnee) Purdey (Joanna Lumley) and Gambit (Gareth Hunt) are being tested
on an ambush / gun assault -course- range (???) thing...! Presumably,
to check if their wits are sharp and they are still fit for the job??
THE ASSAULT RANGE is disguised as a small village, with a collection of
buildings and streets, with fake graffiti and road-signs and . . robot
assassins! There is also a 'police telephone box' which they blow up...!
Now, the writer of this episode is Dennis Spooner. Some believe the
inclusion of the box / tardis gave Spooner the opportunity for an
in-joke about a 'previous job', hint hint...as the police box is
spectacularly detonated at one point ! Rumour suggests this is the
actual TARDIS exterior from the Amicus Dalek movies. . . .what do you
think??
ABOVE YESTERDAY'S BANNER, an experiment to see if we could take an interactive post vote on facebook to see which Cushing Collectable Hi Res photographs. we most wanted to share. Sadly, facebook's practice of squashing any of our posts that contain links to platforms outside of the facebook domain, sabotaged what could have been a useful tool . However, the few that DID get to see the post, voted, and these are the two hi res stills, that were most popular with you! Top: A contact sheet of images from Hammer films, 'DRACULA ad 1972' and a striking colour portrait of Peter Cushing asGeneral von Spielsdorf, from THE VAMPIRE LOVERS (1970). Despite the setback this week,. we will continue with Cushing Collectors Wednesdays, and next week, there will be MORE rare images shared . . .!
TODAY MARKS WHAT would have been a very significant birthday in the life
of Peter Cushing...the birthdate of his wife, Helen. Peter never forgot
to mark anniversaries or special days with Helen, often making her
beautiful greetings cards, notes and..of course the silk scarves. He
never forgot her birthday, and neither shall we... so, in remembrance,
Happy Birthday Helen.
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
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
