#TOOCOOLTUESDAY: JUST WHAT THE GOOD DOCTOR ORDERED : CITY OF THE DEAD AND SILICATE ON THE FOURTH!

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY!: To all our friends in the US have a great day today! ..Do you think silicates have cook-outs and parties today???

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY: What The Doctor Ordered! Isn't strange the effect that just a small tash can make to a face you know well? Here is Peter Cushing with the modest of mustaches, that somehow changes his whole face! That are quite few (!!) roles on the big screen where wore a mustache, and beard, a handlebar tash too! (Thank you Mark Iveson) On stage and on the small screen there were quite a few. I somehow can't quite image his signature roles like Baron Frankenstein, Sherlock or Van Helsing with a tash. This I am guessing is from around the time of him shooting the Dr Who films, where a tash was needed. Because of his dislike of and slight allergy to the glue that held on false facial hair, Cushing had to grow them from . . . scratch! The films where Peter Cushing  DID wear a tash? Thanks to Mark Iveson:The Man in the Iron Mask : A Chump at Oxford:Hamlet - although he has a tuft on his chin : Revenge of Frankenstein - end of movie : Suspect : The Dr Who films : Fear in the Night : Dr Phibes Rises Again : The Creeping Flesh - beginning & end of film : From Beyond the Grave : At the Earth's Core

#TOOCOOTUESDAY! CITY OF THE DEAD aka Horror Hotel, is a true masterpiece and the perfect example of how imagination and craftsmanship can overcome a small budget in film making! Producer Milton Subotsky was very proud of their promotion and advertising campaign and the strap lines, but many, think they used a broad brush stroke in the artwork for the cinema poster...maybe relying on the fact that both Cushing's and Lee's careers were then so closely linked with each other, that the cinema going public, aided by this artwork, may confuse one with the other? 

I MEAN, the publicity photograph above proves that it's Lee from a shot in the film, but it COULD be Peter Cushing. And I know what you're thinking..., studio publicity departments would never mislead the public with their posters, would they???

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#TOOCOOLTUESDAY: HAMMER CINEMA PROMOTION FROM JAPAN!

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY: This week we bring you, some excellent examples of cinema promotion for several Peter Cushing #HAMMERFILMS in Japan from the 1960's and 70's. Personally, I LOVE poster art from any countries, other than the main drag of the USA and UK market. Often the outer territories would be given basic press kits, that the press offices would customise, to suit their culture and audiences tastes. This often meant using rip and tear collages, sometimes including using images and artwork from films, that were not part of the official promotion campaign. This more often than not, resulted in some very exciting and resourceful posters.

AT THE TOP, we have a hand-bill for Hammer films 1969, 'Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed'. Look carefully at the images, and maybe you can spot at least three examples of the artists adding some extra effects to the official press kit photographs. One image addition, from another completely unconnected Hammer film! 'Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed' was released in Japan with another Warner Brothers - Seven-Arts release, 'Valley of the Gwangi', making an interesting night at the cinema! 'Destroyed', the last Frankenstein Hammer film theatrically released in Japan, and audiences would have to wait until both 'Horror of Frankenstein' (1970) and 'Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell'  were released on domestic video cassettes, to see how the Hammer / Frankenstein / Cushing saga ended.

MUCH OF THE ASIAN CINEMA  artwork often came about because of the lack of materials, sent on by the distributors. Press kits more often than not were, incomplete and certainly in English language. Necessity being the mother of invention, cinema circuits in Japan set about making their own promotional material, using whatever was at hand, or could be added with a brush and paint. A little added blood here, an exposed breast there, with an extra long fang for good measure, resulted in many examples unregulated artwork doing the rounds, but that, as a kick back, added an extra dimension to the story of the film being exhibited...and give us more reason to ponder, today . . .  

Please visit us at our daily themed posts at our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE and help 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.

#MONSTERMONDAY: WHEN CUSHING TOOK ON THE HAMMER PRESS OFFICE

#MONSTERMONDAY: 'Oh that's not on...' says Cushing. Here's how Peter Cushing got Hammer to change the script on #THEMUMMY in an ever so clever way, when the press office got a little carried away! Was Cushing right to do this, do you think???

Please visit us at our daily themed posts at our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE and help 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.  

#TBT PIRATE AND OPERA DOUBLE BILL HAMMER HORRORS FROM 1962

PETER CUSHING IN HIS ELEMENT HERE, 56 years ago he swung across the congregation of one Reverend Blyss, on location in a church that sat just outside the Hammer studios, in the sleepy village of Bray, England. The church now long gone, but the thrill of watching Peter having a ball and playing a great swash buckling dual role, is a throwback worth celebrating!

#TBT WHAT A GREAT DOUBLE BILL this must have been... Hammer films 'The Phantom of the Opera' with Herbert Lom and Edward de Souza and 'Captain Clegg' / 'Night Creatures' with Peter Cushing! Released in the UK together, Clegg and Phantom was supported by quite an impressive press campaign along with single and double bill cinema quad posters. Personally, Lom id my favourite Phantom, and Dr Blyss was a wonderful role for Peter, who was again given the opportunity to display some swordsmanship and a few stunts into the bargain!

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FIRST GIF WEDNESDAY REQUESTS AND MORE CAKE FROM CHRISTOPHER LEE!

FOLLOWING ON from yesterdays post on Christopher Lee and his 'KNIFE AND BIRTHDAY CAKE GAG' this could be where it all started maybe. The year, 1958. The place, Universal Pictures headquarters. Both Cushing and Lee along with chairman of Hammer films, James Carreras and producer Anthony Hinds were invited to a pre-opening night luncheon with the reps and executives. It was Christopher Lee's birthday, the day after Peter Cushing's. At mid-night, the 'The Horror of Dracula' was screened...and the rest, as they say, is history!

#PeterCushing and #ChristopherLee: THE LAST MEETING: Lee and Cushing chat about going to NEW YORK and the DRACULA premier.

THE BRITS HAVE LANDED! Lee, Cushing, Carrreras, and Hinds on the tarmac of the airport having just arrived in New York to attend the Hammer Dracula premier. They would go on from here to meet Alfred (Al) Daff, and hear first hand from him and the Universal executives on how HORROR OF DRACULA had saved the company from bankruptcy...

GIFS REQUESTED BY: Niamh T from N. Ireland, M. Nash UK and S Martin.

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DEZ SKINN'S MONSTER MAG IS BACK!

Long before video nasties, multiple TV channels. DVDs, downloads and the like, MONSTER MAG ruled! The original horror films poster mag, it was launched in 1973 by prolific Dr Who scriptwriter Roger Noel Cook and ran for 14 issues. Following a short absence it was revived by Dez Skinn in 1976 for a further three issues before morphing into The House of Hammer.

Outside of its high profile for gore making it highly collectable, with back issues regularly selling for £20/$30, it has a far greater claim to fame... By accident, its second issue has become the world's most scarce film magazine.

While French and German editions can sometimes be found on eBay - where they sell for as high as $1250 - there are no copies in existence of the English language number 2, having all been destroyed by HM Customs on arrival from its Italian printer, deemed unsuitable for an all-age market (a For Adults Only band was added to covers from issue 3 and stickered for a rereleased issue 1).

Another frustration for collectors is that in vol 2 #3 (issue 17) editor Dez Skinn promised that the next issue would be a "Double X" Special. But it never happened. Instead the legendary House of Hammer was launched.

With Roger Cook and Dez Skinn both working together again, there's some long-overdue tidying up they're promising to prioritise...