AMICUS FILMS 'ASYLUM' WELL DRESSED AND REVIEWED AS SECOND SIGHT FILMS SCREAMINGLY GOOD LIMITED EDITION BLU RAY

 

FOLLOWING THE SUCCESS of SECOND SIGHT FILMS LIMITED EDITION BOXED BLU RAY release of Amicus films, 1972 'ASYLUM' just a few weeks ago, they have now released a standard BLU RAY package of the film, available NOW for PRE-ORDER and will be released on JANUARY 6th 2020.  Their LIMITED EDITION BLU RAY PACKAGE of Amicus films, 'The House That Dripped Blood' is also available as a standard release on January 6th 2020 and can be PRE-ORDERED NOW too!

THE VISUAL QUALITY:

SECOND SIGHT HAVE transferred ASYLUM, to a neat dual-layered blu-ray, with a pretty much maxed out bitrate. I have read some reviews that claim that this 'master transfer' is the same master as used a while ago by Severin, in their box set, that included ASYLUM. Having watched both, I see no similarities at all!  We reviewed the Severin release at the time of its release, and it seemed that it wasn't just the characters in the 'madhouse' were way off it, the print we watched was far from 'all there', as they say. The first thing some of you may notice, who have previous releases of this film is, the framing is just a little different. Just a snip off the bottom and top, but nothing that drastically changes or challenges your viewing. I found the colours, clarity and sharpness of the film through out, to be very good, what i hoped for as a marked improvement on other releases I own. So soft have been those previous releases, little details of light and exposure are different here, but you can see now, are intended! You will no doubt notice your visuals on this release are sharper, contrast sitting just right, even in darker shots and scenes. What you'll see complements, the excellent score and effects . .  

HOW DOES IT SOUND? THE AUDIO SPEC: 

IF YOU KNOW THIS FILM WELL, from your previous releases, you'll know JUST how it sounds and that the SCORE and MUSIC here makes up a rating on its own! If you are new to ASYLUM, you are in for a treat. Regulars,will notice it's the transfer is the film's familiar audio, using its original mono via an uncompressed 24-bit 1.0 channel linear PCM tack. All the assorted unsettling sound effects, are here and  sound clearer on Second Sights chosen mono track. An improvement then on the previous up converted 5.1 attempts on other releases of late. Douglas Gamley's score is probably the best of all Amicus films title sequences, with his Mussorgsky 'Night On Bald Mountain' clanking it up, even before we get past the titles. The musical accompaniment to Robert Powell's climb up the stairs of the Asylum, while glazing at the framed portraits and drawings of the Mentally Ill and Bewilderd, put a frightening and crueller twist on even Hogarth's etchings of 'Gin Lane and Beer Street' of the 1700's. It's all scary stuff and Gamley, does it so well . .   

THIS SECOND SIGHT FILMS RELEASE not only presents us with a very neat and much improved print of the film, which stars some of the not only past Amicus casts, but a neat crew in 'post production' and behind the camera too. The film has a pretty tight story and each of the four tales of terror skip along, just pausing for breath under Peter Tanner's editing. Tanner had a very good understanding of the pace needed for Brit Fantasy and strange stories, having edited some of the best of the TV series 'The Avengers' in nine episodes during 65 and 66. Tanner worked in a few Amicus films and was very much in demand until 1998, sadly passing at the grand age of 88 in 2002.

IN TODAY'S OFTEN COMPETITIVE MARKET MANY BLU RAY RELEASES have to contain a great package, but you would think judging by the case artwork and packaging that the box holds a horrendous bargain basement crapooey movie! All that work and they fall at the fence because they couldn't drum up decent artwork and packaging! Thankfully, THIS high-definition Blu-ray release of 'Asylum' comes in rigid slipcase packaging with eye-catching new artwork by Graham Humphreys, and really presents the whole deal as something special...and it IS!  They have more than made a VERY good effort  and a lot of thought has gone into design and the actual extras content. This release has some very worth while extras features on it's menu. Having watched film, video and dug around in archives, libraries, scrapbooks and footage for the last thirty five years, most of what is presented here, personally I can vouch I have never seen most of these gems before!

TO KICK OFF, there's a very good audio commentary with the late director, Roy Ward Baker, also a brilliant 1972 BBC report on the making of ASYLUM, featuring candid on the set pieces, with producer Milton Subotsky and many of the cast. David J Schow’s analysis of the career of Robert Bloch gives some interesting background on the author that provided quite few ideas and screenplays to Amicus releases. Milton Subotsky’s widow, Fiona Subotsky also provides some detailed and interesting memories of her husband and his career, along with some never before seen personal photographs. Next, ‘Inside the Fear Factory’ featurette from about twenty years ago, it isn't a new  one, but well worth the watch as it features Amicus producer, the late Max J Rosenberg back peddling and banging his drum! All this and a nice theatrical trailer. There’s also a very worth while 40-page booklet and a reversible poster. It makes an impressive and very entertaining package for any Amicus fan!

SO HERE IS THE LIST OF THE EXTRA VALUE OF EXTRAS!

Audio Commentary with Director Roy Ward Baker and Camera Operator Neil Binney
 

Two’s a Company: 1972 On-set BBC report featuring interviews with Producer Milton Subotsky, Director Roy Ward Baker, Actors Charlotte Rampling, James Villiers, Megs Jenkins, Art Director Tony Curtis and Production Manager Teresa Bolland Screenwriter David J. Schow on Writer Robert Bloch Fiona Subotsky Remembers Milton Subotsky
 

Inside The Fear Factory: Featurette with Directors Roy Ward Baker, Freddie Francis and Producer Max J. Rosenberg
 

Theatrical Trailer
Reversible sleeve featuring new artwork by Graham Humphreys and original artwork
Limited Edition Contents

Rigid Slipcase Featuring New Artwork by Graham Humphreys
40 page booklet with new essays by Allan Bryce, Jon Towlson and Kat Ellinger
Reversible poster featuring new and original artwork 

 

 

YOU CAN WIN YOUR COPY of SECOND SIGHTS FILMS REMASTERED BLU RAY of Amicus films 'ASYLUM ' in one of our many CHRISTMAS PCAS COMPETITIONS this CHRISTMAS! Look out for a whole SACK LOAD of PRIZES AND COMPETITIONS over the next TWO WEEKS! You can ALSO place YOUR PRE-ORDER direct with Second Sight Films RIGHT HERE!  

 

 

READ AND SEE MORE on the making of AMICUS FILMS 'ASYLUM' in the above PCASUK feature and gallery with DIRECTOR ROY WARD BAKER : HERE!

 

DARK CORNERS HAMMER FRANKENSTEIN FRANCHISE 1 AND 2 : MONSTER MUSICAL CONNECTIONS : PC MAN AND BOY!

#PeterCushing Femmefatalesfriday! Here's an interesting musical motif connection, between Valerie Gaunt and Christopher Lee. Btw Valerie is the subject of next week's #femmefatale feature here at the website!

PETER CUSHING AGED NINE, with a letter from his school, that was requested by his father, George. It's interesting to read how even back then, he was consciousness and stood out, even at school! 

THE ABOVE BANNER was posted today at our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE. With it was a message to everyone who follows and comments at the page, that this is the last post for a while, on the page.  FACEBOOK is a for PCAS is a great tool, to connect with fans of Peter Cushing's work, to devise competitions and get together with others, who have a love of Peter and the whole world, that connects to his work and life. But all of that shudders to a halt, if the followers can nit see the posts we make three to four times daily. Some are reporting seeing none at all, for DAYS! 

ABOVE A FACEBOOK MESSAGE we received seconds after posting the news of taking a some time out from posting on the PCAS facebook fan page. If it wasn't so stupid and manipulative, it would be funny . . BELOW the revised header banner

THE SOLUTION appears to be clicking a button, making a prioritization of the posts you see on facebook..without it, you will not see the PCAS posts, and the account, is starved of the interaction that facebook insists it receives, OR it buries the account. We are taking a few days off from the PCAS PAGE, and waiting to see, if things change . . . .Posts will continue here, unchanged. Thanks to YOU both this website and our PCAS YOUTUBE CHANNEL are very healthy indeed! I'll keep you posted - Marcus 

WHILE WE MAY BE EXPERIENCING visibility issues at our FACEBOOK PAGE, we are still very happy to promote and raise awareness of other society, groups and in this case, excellent video documentaries. I received a message from the chaps at the DARK CORNERS YOUTUBE CHANNEL  a short time ago, asking if we could possibly, post a LINK to their channel. There reason, I had already discovered that very morning. TWO SUPERB documentaries called HAMMER AND THE FRANKENSTEIN FRANCHISE.  Written and presented by Robin Bailes, directed and edited by Graham Trelfer, the docs are in TWO parts, and each are well worth your time, as are many of video docs. Packed with tons of images and clips, both are very well edited and presented, making these many steps above, what usually passes for docs and reviews on Youtube and also many extras on current blu rand DVD releases. Don't take my word for it, go look them up pr click these links for PART ONE and  PART TWO HERE!

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

CALLUM MCKELVIE: GOES RUMMAGING ON PLANET AARU FOR CUSHING WHO GOODIES!

SO FIRST THING FIRST- I’ve been away a little while, but now I’m back! So as before every Sunday I’ll be stealing the lime light to ramble a little about a differing aspect of Cushing and his work. It seemed best to return with a bang and following on from my two-part review of the ‘Dr. Who’ movies, we’re presenting another two-part piece on the films, though this time it’ll be more along the lines of a ‘behind the scenes feature’. Primarily there’s two reasons for this. A) I am of course a massive Doctor Who fan. B) There’s a lot of neat images and footage we have yet to share.

ONE OF THE MAIN REASON FOR this article was to showcase some footage available on the BBC DVD of the Jon Pertwee story Death to the Daleks. (see above) Recently discovered at the time of that stories release, the footage is a rare behind the scenes look at the making of the 1965 film. The BBC’s presentation of the footage is admirable as they’ve gone to the trouble of interviewing some of the original crew along with Hammer Historian Marcus Hearne, for what is an admittedly small amount of film. 

THE FOOTAGE has some interesting Cushing moments, showcasing him exploiting the slapstick comic potential of his character as he jumps around wildly in a doorway when their escaping the Dalek trap. The real delight however is a tiny moment in which Cushing and fellow star Roy Castle are seen partaking in a small song and dance number of what we can presume is some kind of Broadway theme. Unfortunately as the footage has no sound we’ll never know what this sounded like! Though I’m sure someone with excellent lip-reading skills could tell us the name of the song.

ONE OF THE MORE INTERESTING facts in terms of the films promotion centres around its sets. Designed by Scott Slimon (who worked on many contemporary horror pictures including Scream and Scream Again and The Skull amongst others) they are easily one of the most striking aspects of the production. Indeed so striking were they deemed by Milton Subotsky that not only did sections of them appear alongside the Daleks at the Cannes Film festival in the 1965, but they then went on a country-wide tour across the UK promoting the film. 

SEVERAL OF THE DALEKS from the film would be loaned out the BBC and appear as ‘Dalek guards’ in The Chase, which due to the shows tight turn-around would actually be broadcast before the film’s release. Their noticeable by the fact they are missing their large bases.

OF COURSE THE FILM was released during the height of so-called ‘Dalekmania’ within Britain, when the titular killer pepper-pots from the planet Skaro were taking over the toy stores. Indeed it’s often easy to forget that during this period it wasn’t really the ‘Doctor’ that was the draw of ‘Doctor Who’. The year the film was released the Daleks appeared in a massive 19 television episodes and that’s excluding cameo appearances, indeed one of the episodes didn’t even feature the Doctor (Mission to the Unknown). 

BY THE TIME the film hit cinema screens then a slew of Dalek related merchandise was available for the avid collector. Some was explicitly related to the Cushing film (The ‘Paint and Draw the Film of Dr. Who and the Daleks’ book) whereas a majority was simply ‘Dalek’ merchandise (Dalek soap, Inflatable Daleks). Most famous….or perhaps that should be infamous was the ‘Dalek Playsuit’. A red plastic dome would fit upon the head of the wearer, with a plastic sucker and gun arm, whilst there body would be draped in a plastic sheet, designed to look like a Dalek.

MORE EXPLICITLY movie related merchandise including a Dell comic adaptation, that like all Dell comic adaptations of the time told the story of the film with some rather unimpressive artwork. Meanwhile child star Roberta Tovey released the album ‘Who’s Who’ with a B-side featuring Jack Dorsey’s Dance of the Daleks. Listen to it at your peril…

PLEASE JOIN ME HERE AGAIN, next week! Where I’ll be discussing tid-bits concerning the second Dalek movie…DALEK INVASION EARTH 2150 AD!.

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  . . 

CHRISTOPHER LEE SINGS STUDIO VERSION OF NAME YOUR POISON

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY! CHRISTOPHER LEE gives a fun rendition of his song 'Name Your Poison' from the musical comedy film 'The Return of Captain Invincible' from 1983. The film starring Alan Arkin as Captain Invincible' and Christopher Lee as Mr. Midnight, grossed a mere $55,110 at the Australian box office despite a budget of $7 million.

LYRICIST RICHARD O'BRIEN Lyricist  and composer Richard Hartley, known for their prior collaboration on The Rocky Horror Show and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, contributed three songs, including "Captain Invincible" sung by O'Brien, "Evil Midnight" sung by Lee and Arkin, and "Name Your Poison" sung by Lee during which the evil Mr. Midnight tempts the alcoholic Captain Invincible with a well-stocked bar.

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

THE LITTLE BIRD OF CINEMA PT 1 : YVONNE MONLAUR RARE STILLS GALLERY

CUSHING FEMME FATALE FOUR: YVONNE THERESE MARIE CAMILLE BEDAT DE MONLAUR was born in France, the daughter of a French poet and a Russian ballerina and pianist. As a youngster she was trained for ballet and in her late teens worked as a model for Elle fashion magazine. By the mid-1950's, she also began appearing in French and Italian films. Her good looks and some positive reviews paved the way to bigger roles towards the end of the decade. With this came increased publicity. In June 1959, she was featured on the cover of the weekly Milanese news publication Tempo. Another Italian paper heralded her as the year's 'most promising actress'.

IN 1959 YVONNE MONLAUR suddenly became THE FACE and was a hot property across Europe. The flash point, of all the excitement was an Italian magazine, that voted her, the year's sexiest screen newcomer. Her face was featured on the cover of a June issue of Tempo magazine that called her 'the year's most promising actress'. 

ABOVE : YVONNE MONLAUR DANCES AT THE PARTY IN 'AVVENTURA A CAPRI'

DURING THE SHOOTING of the comedy 'Avventura a Capri/Adventure on Capri' (Giuseppe Lipartiti, 1959) she had a serious accident. She suffered bad facial burns in a speedboat accident, which resulted in months of recovery in hospital. But, just as things seemed to be at their worst, Hammer films producer contacted Yvonne having seen her in 'Avventura a Capri'. Hinds invited her invited her to England where she was cast in a little-seen television drama, 'Women in Love' (1958). A writer for the Daily Mail described this -- her first credited part in an English language production -- "as bubbly as a glass of champagne".

IN 1959 YVONNE MONLAUR traveled, accompanied by her mother, to England for a series of films. First she co-starred in the comedy 'Inn for Trouble' (C.M. Pennington-Richards, 1960). Yvonne's introduction to the horror genre came via 'CIRCUS OF HORRORS' (1960), made by Anglo-Amalgamated. She still had some difficulties with English, but recalled receiving some benevolent mentoring from her co-star Anton Diffring.

AT HER BLOG I recalled in 2008, ' I always loved the circus world. I did not hesitate for one second before accepting this opportunity to share the life of travelling artists by playing the part of Nicole, adoptive daughter to the fiendish Dr Rossiter, played by Anton Diffring.The film crew was staying within the circus grounds. As for me, I slept in a caravan, close to an Italian trapeze girl artist and Russian clowns.'

'The make-up cabin had been set up near the menagerie, which led to funny situations. For my circus acts, I wore a splendid set of feathers, that the monkeys always tried to catch when I had to pass along their cages on my way out. When I was not shooting, I was rehearsing my horse riding act, like any other artist of the Billy Smart Circus. Generally speaking, I have very good memories of my fellow actors. I particularly remember Diffring and Conrad Phillips'. 

'Sometimes, professional acting relationships mimic those of the characters they play. Such was the case with Diffring, as charming and protective to me as Dr Rossiter was in the movie. It also happened with Erika Remberg, but this time I regretted it, because she was playing the circus artist who could not stand feminine rivalry… in the ring or real life !' 

SOON PART TWO OF YVONNE MONLAUR : LITTLE BIRD OF CINEMA

WITH THE EXPOSURE from appearing in 'Women in Love' and 'Circus of Horrors', the direction of Yvonne's career would soon be taking a sharp turn, into the land of 'dark forests and whispers'. NEXT she would be sharing company with one of the most charming of fellows, the most evil of sons and a whole nest of trouble and horrors. The year 1961, would see her walk down the aisle, but first she would become, a BRIDE of DRACULA . . .

YVONNE MONLAUR: THE LITTLE BIRD OF CINEMA:

PART TWO COMING SOON!

PLEASE VISIT Yvonne Monlaur's wonderful OFFICIAL BLOG. Since her sad passing earlier this year, her son and her editor have decided that it should remain in the public area, for her fans and friends to visit, in her memory. You can find it by clicking :HERE 

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 co-ordinator since 1979. PCAS is based in the UK and USA