Showing posts with label peter madden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label peter madden. Show all posts

Friday 19 May 2017

#FRANKENSTEINFRIDAY: FRANKENSTEIN IN THE DOCK : DOUBLE BILL CLIPS AND GIFS


#FRANKENSTEINFRIDAY: One thing I have noticed in these Frankenstein films down the years.. you just can't stop a creepy character from peeping in through window! Just plain nosy I say! Here's Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee doing the peeping . .



#FRANKENSTEINFRIDAY: For those of us who have a top ten of Hammer Cushing scenes, this one would be in there for sure. In fact, any scene where Cushijg's Baron deflates the pompous is always a joy to watch. Here Victor Madden gets the pin treatment, as the Baron defends his friend and assistant, Hans from the guillotine . . Frankenstein's quick come backs and chill and great...but maybe not enough to save his friend...





HERE'S A BIT of a teaser for you... you see this photograph around Hammer film fan sites a lot... can you solve this puzzle. ANSWER later . .



OUR FEATURE WITH GALLERY ON FRANKENSTEIN
 CREATED WOMAN : CLICK HERE


PETER MADDEN co stars in 'Frankenstein Created Woman', and is an actor who rarely gets a mention these days. Back in the late 50's and 60's he was a popular choice of casting, for anything from police officers, teachers, hoteliers and 'the creepy one who lurks in the back, that you are not sure of!' He appeared in several film and tv shows along side or supporting Peter Cushing. The BBC Cushing Sherlock series, Dr Terrors House of Horrors, Brides of Dracula, Kiss of the Vampire, ... So, we are mentioning him here today, because  he is one of many we come across in our features...who deserves, to be remembered.....


Peter Madden featured in one of the lobby cards of Amicus films, Dr  Terror's House of Horrors.



Peter Madden (9 August 1904 – 24 February 1976) was a British actor who was born in Ipoh in the Federated Malay States (now Malaysia). Madden was a character actor who made several appearances in Hammer films and was a familiar face in British film and television during the 1950s and 1960s.

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Sunday 18 August 2013

TROY HOWARTH REVIEWS: THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY: PETER CUSHING BBC SHERLOCK HOLMES


A farmer by the name of McCarthy is brutally slain.  Problem is, he wasn’t very well liked, and the list of suspects is lengthy… It’s up to Sherlock Holmes to get to the bottom of the matter…


The Boscombe Valley Mystery, published in 1891, isn’t one of the more popularly referenced Sherlock Holmes adventures, though it has been adapted on several occasions.  In 1922, it became part of a series of Holmes adventures starring Ellie Norwood as the great detective.  Prior to Arthur Wotner and Basil Rathbone, Norwood was arguably the screen’s premier interpreter of Holmes; sadly, many of his films are now believed to be lost – including this one.  The story would get a reprieve until 1968, when it was adapted for this installment of the BBC’s Sherlock Holmes series.  It would not be adapted again until Granada included it in its series The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, which would emerge as the final series to feature an ailing Jeremy Brett in his signature role as Holmes.


This adaptation remains the more satisfying of the two extant versions, largely because Cushing in his prime is so much more enthralling in the role of Doyle’s master detective.  While Brett’s performance is rightly championed in many circles, his later performances tend to mix the melodramatic with the lethargic, a reflection, no doubt, of his disintegrating mental and physical condition.  Cushing, by contrast, is at the top of his game here.  He knows when to work in one of his signature flourishes – cue that extended index finger! – and when to rely on quiet understatement.  He also has great chemistry with Nigel Stock’s Dr. Watson.  Stock is seldom mentioned among the screen’s most notable portrayers of Watson, and this is a pity – he manages to combine the blustery humor of Nigel Bruce and the intellectual efficiency of Andre Morell, and his performance matches Cushing’s every step of the way.  


The supporting roles are ably portrayed as well, with the cadaverous Peter Madden making a good impression in his small role as the ill-fated (and quite disagreeable) McCarthy; Hammer fans will remember him as the sympathetic innkeeper in Kiss of the Vampire (1962) or as the pompous police inspector volleying insults with Cushing’s Baron Frankenstein in Frankenstein Created Woman (1966).  Hammer alum Victor Brooks (Brides of Dracula) and Michael Godfrey (Rasputin – The Mad Monk) also put in appearances.


The episode was directed by Latvia-born Viktors Ritelis, whose most significant genre credit remains the suspenseful Michael Gough vehicle Crucible of Horror (1969), also known as The Corpse.  Ritelis employs some of the flashy editing techniques also evident in that film and he manages to pace the episode smoothly.  The murder scene includes some surprisingly bloody insert shots, which surely caused a little bit of concern at the BBC at the time.


For Cushing fans, The Boscombe Valley Mystery – like the other entries in the series – is an undiluted pleasure.  Holmes remains one of his most indelible characterizations, and it’s easy to see why – he manages to walk the tightrope between the florid and the understated, and he remains one of the most authentic interpreters of the character on screen.
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