AMICUS THE SKULL : BIG FALL : MOMENT OF TERROR MONDAY AND TRICK OR TREAT PLANS?

THIS WEEK'S #MOMENTSOFTERRORMONDAY! comes from Amicus films, 'THE SKULL' (1965) starring Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee . .and here, Peter Woodthrope, who some of you may recognise from his portrayal of Zoltan the hypnotist, Hammer films, 'The Evil of Frankenstein' also with Peter Cushing from the same year. The floating SKULL of the The Skull of the "Marquis de Sade" was a true device of terror, and a concept devised by author and screenplay writer, Robert Bloch.

RARE STILLS GALLERY BEHIND THE SCENES from THE SKULL in  The Amicus Films of Peter Cushing PART ONE Right HERE!

BLOCH WORKED on a few Amicus films, The Skull probably being the best of the bunch. Peter Cushing plays the tormented Christopher MAITLAND . . .a surname that is a death sentence in an Amicus film, as script writer and producer has used the surname so many times in his films! This is great clip. I LOVE the way that Woodthrope's, Bert Travers falls through no one, but TWO glass skylights...and if you listen carefully, it sounds as he went through another too . .. . A TRUE Moment of TERROR! BEST print on the market, would have to be the EUREKA BLU RAY. Great visual quality and sound...and a load of extra features too PLUS It's REGION ZERO! ENJOY! - Marcus

OVER AT THE Peter Cushing APPRECIATION Society Facebook Fan Page   WE'RE ASKING ABOUT YOUR PLANS FOR TOMORROW EVENING? JOIN US?

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  . .   

MR SMITH'S SON IS BACK FROM THE DEAD! HE IS VERY ANGRY AND NO DUMMY!

#MONSTERMONDAY! Asylum as most of you will know is a British Horror film, made in 1972, starring among many others, Peter Cushing, and Barry Morse. It is a horror anthology film, one of several produced by Amicus during the 1960's and 1970's.

Here Cushing and Morse star in a story entitled, 'THE WEIRD TAILOR' Here it is for your enjoyment! TRAVIA: Cushing Morse and their wives, Helen and Sydney were once traveling across London together in a double decker bus during the end of WW2...and were almost killed by a flying bomb....!

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   

#GETTHECUSHIONSUNDAY: THE AMICUS VAULT OF HORRORS PART TWO

#GETTHECUSHIONSUNDAY! PART ONE OF this documentary went down very well last Sunday, and I know there are many waiting for #PARTTWO. Lots of gems in this part, from 'The Psychopath' right up to 'The House that Dripped Blood'. Please feel free to send any thoughts, comments and observations about Part Two, your comments are always welcome. Help us by subscribing and sharing. It keeps the sites and the memory of #PETERCUSHING alive!

#THEHOUSETHATDRIPPEDBLOOD #AMICUS #PETERCUSHING

 

#SCREAMANDSCREAMAGAIN #PETERCUSHING #AMICUSFILMS

#VINCENTPRICE #CHRISTOPHERLEE #PETERCUSHING #ACID #BATH  #AMICUSFILMS

#DRWHO #DOCTORWHO #TARDIS #DRWHOANDTHEDALEKS #AMICUSFILMS

#THESKULL #PETERCUSHING #CHRISTOPHERLEE #AMICUSFILMS

#DRTERRORSHOUSEOFHORRORS #PETERCUSHING #DONALDSOTHERLAND

#CHRISTOPHERLEE #MICHAELGOUGH #AMICUS FILMS

#JONPERTWEE #GEOFREYBAYLDON  #AMICUSFILMS #ROBERTBLOCH

#HORRORFILMS #GIFS #DOCUMENTARY #AMICUSFILMS

 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   

#MONSTERMONDAY: CHRISTOPHER MAITLAND IN THE SKULL

#MONSTERMONDAY: Greg Jenkins suggested Peter Cushing's Christopher Maitland from Amicus films, The Skull today...and we thought this was a great suggestion. The Skull is a terrifying story of a collector caught up in having his sights set on the ultimate addition to his collection... THE Skull of the Marquis De Sade.

EVENTUALLY, Maitland wins his prize at an auction, and then it all goes terribly wrong.... very quickly. It's a story of greed, obsession, pride, torment and ultimately destruction. But, I am not quite sure if Cushing's Maitland, is as an innocent victim, as he first appears... what do you think, Victim or Monster?

READ ALL ABOUT  PETER CUSHING ROLE IN THE SKULL AND MANY OF HIS AMICUS FILMS THROUGH OUT HIS CAREER IN SERIES THE AMICUS FILMS OF PETER CUSHING : PART ONE . .

WANT MORE? There are FOUR THEMED posts most days, seven days a week at our official PCAS Facebook Fan Page: Why Not Join US?? Just CLICK HERE AND CLICK LIKE THERE!

EUREKA ANNOUNCES EXTRA FEATURES FOR DUAL RELEASE OF THE SKULL

NEWS: Peter Cushing's THE SKULL (1965 Amicus. Dir Freddie Francis) has been available on dvd and blu ray in other region formats for a long time, but never in a format we could watch here in the UK.... until now! You may remember we confirmed the very exciting news of the EUREKA dual blu ray / dvd release a few weeks ago...and that this release is also a NEWLY RESTORED VERSION of the film.

We can now also confirm the extra features. They are as follows:

SPECIAL FEATURES:
Exclusively restored 1080p presentation of the film on Blu-ray
New video interview with film scholar Jonathan Rigby
New video interview with critic & author Kim Newman
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
Reversible sleeve featuring original and new artwork
Limited Edition Collector’s Booklet.

Trailer: The Skull (Amicus 1965)

Eureka Entertainment to release THE SKULL, the blood curdling Amicus horror starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, in a Dual Format (Blu-ray & DVD) edition for the first time in the UK on 26 October 2015

Pre-order now http://amzn.to/1MvMRFf

READ MORE ABOUT THE SKULL IN OUR FEATURE: HERE 

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CHRISTOPHER LEE PETER CUSHING 'THE SKULL' GETS UK BLU RAY DVD RELEASE

Christopher Lee would have smiled at the timing of this one.... NEWS: Eureka Entertainment Ltd have announced they are releasing a UK region 2B dual disc Blu Ray and DVD package of Amicus films 'THE SKULL' on 26 Oct. 2015. No word on any extras yet. We'll keep you posted. The Skull is one of the better of 22 films that Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing made together. Great cast all round...plus it's got that great floating skull and a terrific nightmare scene!

WELCOME TO THE ASYLUM : ROY WARD BAKER ON THE AMICUS FILMS CHILLER

Producer, Milton Subotsky in his quiet and unobtrusive way, had made about 30 pictures since he came to England from New York. A dedicated Anglophile, he took British citizenship. He made a number of films of the magazine type, taking four or five short stories and stringing them together, usually enclosed in a suitable envelope. He persuaded strings of star names to appear in them and they were successful. ASYLUM was another one in that style. He had selected five short stories written by Robert Bloch. He sent his plan to bloch, together with a suggested envelope. Not surprisngly, Bloch wrote a cracking good script.

All the characters in these stories were lunatics except one and it was vital that their obsessions and fantasies should be absolutely genuine, NOT people putting on an act. Milton assembled a marvelous cast which was simply a list of first class actors who all responded beautifully. I was in my element and thankful to have such a group around me.

Before we began shooting the was one sad incident. I had asked Arthur Grant to photograph the film. He had read the script and was as enthusiatic as i was, but only ten days before the start he came to me, full of apologies. He was ill, and he felt it would be irresponsible to continue. He saud he knew that he couldn't do the job. I didn't ask any questions. I never knew was he was suffering, but only a few momnths later, he died. A sad loss to us all. He was  so good natured, unpretentious and good at his job. He was an ace at photographing dramatic night sequences: his motto was 'Never mind how dark it's supposed to be - the audience has still got to see what's going on!' And yet it still looked like night.

Dennis Coop was dubious about taking over at short notice but I managed to persuade him. He was a real top rater. He had high standards and you wouldn't find him photographing any old rubbish. We worked well together and I was glad to have him on my next two pictures. After that he became one of the principal members of the team that made Superman fly and you couldn't see the wires because there weren't any!

ASYLUM is one of my favorite films. The shoot was a smooth as silk. Tony Waye being the first assistant: he later spent a lot of time as a line producer on the James Bond films. There ios no pint in describing the stories or in picking out individual performances, they were all excellent, although I must just mention Herbert Lom's piece, which was utterly convincing. It was all shot in one day too, not that that's important. And the joint efforts of Charlotte Rampling and Britt Ekland were really smart. I like the picture because it all fits together so neatly, with terrific pace, too.

Milton Subosky was one of the nicest people i ever worked with. Shy, honest, modest - not the popular image of a film producer. I should have underlined the word 'popular'. Of course all producers are shy, honest, etc! Milton was no good at the publicising himself, never put himself about. He was an innovator. He filmed Harold Pinter's 'The birthday Party' directed by William Friedkin. He was the first to revive the Sword and Sorcery style - and first into insects, with a plague of bees! After Dead of Night, which had no follow ups because it was so good, he revived the magazine format with macabre stories. His productions were in the same field as Hammer but were always somehow different. An admirable man. He loved the stories and he loved film, to him, it wasn't just a business....

Roy Ward Baker: The Directors Cut.

published 2000

Images and Layout

Marcus Brooks

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IF WALLS COULD TALK! THE AMICUS FILMS OF PETER CUSHING: PART THREE

When Cushing, Lee and Subotsky reunited for The House That Dripped Blood (1970), it was in the more familiar context of the horror anthology. The script was again penned by Robert Bloch and it offered an uncommonly consistent array of stories linked together by an interesting mystery device. A skeptical police inspector (John Bennett) is looking into the disappearance of horror star Paul Henderson (Jon Pertwee), whose last known residence was the creepy house of the title.

In the course of his investigation, he is told of some other bizarre occurrences that unfolded in and around that house: horror novelist Charles Hillyer (Denholm Elliott) is driven to madness when it appears that his “fictitious” strangler, Dominick (Tom Addams), has taken on a life of his own; retired stock broker Philip (Cushing) becomes obsessed with the figure of Salome at a nearby wax museum; chilly widower John Reid (Lee) dishes out cruel punishments to his little girl, Jane (Chloe Franks), but it could be that it’s the little girl who is really in charge; and lastly, we see how Paul Henderson may have met his fate while appearing in a low budget horror film at nearby Shepperton Studios.

Director Peter Duffel made his feature debut with this film and he did a magnificent job of it: the individual stories are well paced and executed, while the linking segments keep the suspense factor high until the very end.  Unlike most anthologies, there really is no weak link, though many viewers complain that the Cushing segment doesn’t quite fit the overall theme of the picture; there’s some truth to this, but as an exercise in melancholy mood, it’s hard to fault.

The entire cast is in good form: Cushing’s off-screen suffering over the declining health of his beloved wife, Helen, manifests itself in his character’s sense of loss and regret, Lee is splendid as the aloof father who isn’t quite what he appears to be, Elliott is his usual brilliant and neurotic self as the horror novelist on the verge of a breakdown and Pertwee is a delight as the hammy horror star.

Not surprisingly, Vincent Price was originally offered the latter’s role, but AIP wasn’t involved in the financing and refused to allow their top horror star to go and appear in a film for the “competition.”  Price was reportedly furious over this and dragged his displeasure with him on to the set of his next AIP assignment, Gordon Hessler’s stylish but confused occult thriller The Cry of the Banshee (1970).

 

Duffel was appalled by the film’s brazenly exploitative title, but co-producer Max J. Rosenberg correctly maintained that it would pack audiences in.  The end result was another hit for the company; it arguably remains their finest anthology and one of the great, albeit unsung, examples of subtle, low key horror.

The Amicus Films Of Peter Cushing Is written by Troy Howarth
with artwork and images by Marcus Brooks

Part Four Coming Soon: I, Monster.