Showing posts with label roy ward baker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label roy ward baker. Show all posts

Thursday 19 December 2019

SINGER ACTOR AND ENTERTAINER KENNY LYNCH DIES AGED 81 AND REMEMBERING ACE HAMMER DIRECTOR


THE ENTERTAINER #KennyLynch has died at the age of 81. Best known for on-screen roles in TV shows including '#TheSweeney', films such as '#CarryOn Loving' and for his pop career, Lynch’s death was announced by his family on Twitter, who commented that he would be “remembered & missed by many”. As a musician, Lynch was one of the country’s first black pop stars, touring with the #Beatles and scoring two Top 10 hits, among them Up on the Roof – originally recorded by the Drifters – which was released in 1963..


LYNCH appeared with #RoyCastle in Amicus films 'Dr Terror's House of Horror's' in 1965. During a nigh-club scene in the Castle story of this first #Amicusfilms portmanteau movie, Lynch sang 'Give Me Love'.


Kenny Lynch and Co on the album sleeve of 
'Band On The Run' Wings in 1973 


REMEMBERING TODAY.. the birthday of director Roy Ward Baker, whose work with Peter Cushing includes 'Asylum', 'And Now, The Screaming Starts!'. 'The Vampire Lovers' with Amicus films. 'The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires for Hammer films and 'The Masks of Death' with #PeterCushing for Tyburn films.
 

STARTING AS A TEA BOY at the Gainsborough Studios in #London in 1934, raising to the role of assistant director with Alfred Hitchcock on 'The Lady Vanishes' by 1939, then onto a career as director in Hollywood, working with #MarilynMonroe...
 

ABOVE AND BELOW : TWO Amicus films classics RE-released by SECOND SIGHT FILMS on BLU RAY on JANUARY 6th 2020, ASYLUM directed by ROY WARD BAKER and 'THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD' now available as Standard Releases and OPEN for PRE-ORDER here NOW! HERE and HERE! 


Sunday 21 July 2019

SCREAM FACTORY ANNOUNCES RELEASE OF 'SNOWMAN' BLU RAY FOR NOVEMBER!


NEWS: EARLIER TODAY at the San Diego Comic Con panel, SCREAM FACTORY announced the release of 20+ film titles that they are releasing this year. Peter Cushing's / Hammer film 'THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN' (1957) is one of those titles. No details of extras or features. The title is set for a NOVEMBER release this year. Hammer fans in the US can also cheer the release of Ralph Bates's 'DR JEKYLL AND SISTER HYDE' (1971) – Directed by Roy Ward Baker (The Vampire Lovers) it has an expected release date of Dec 2019. INTERESTED??? - Marcus


BACK IN 2013, Hammer films announced their plans to REMAKE the film! Here is our PCAS review of the 1957 film and a cool gallery too! CLICK HERE!


FOR THOSE OF YOU who have been around here for a while and visit the FACEBOOK PCAS FAN PAGE MAYBE you remember this TUESDAY TOUGHY? If so, swing over to the FACEBOOK PCAS PAGE and SHARE the answer 😀😊😉  


Tuesday 19 December 2017

REMEMBERING DIRECTOR ROY WARD BAKER


REMEMBERING TODAY.. the birthday of director Roy Ward Baker, whose work with Peter Cushing includes 'Asylum', 'And Now, The Screaming Starts!'. 'The Vampire Lovers' with Amicus films. 'The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires for Hammer films and 'The Masks of Death' with Peter Cushing for Tyburn films. Starting as a tea boy at the Gainsborough Studios in London in 1934, raising to the role of assistant director with Alfred Hitchcock on 'The Lady Vanishes' by 1939, then onto a career as director in Hollywood, working with Marilyn Munroe...Ward Baker had a very full career that covered just about every genre! Today we remember his birthday and the contribution to not only Peter Cushing's career, but the the world of cinema...




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  .

Friday 17 November 2017

FREE CONTACT SHEETS 'THE VAMPIRE LOVERS' FOR CUSHING'S FEMME FATALES!


#CUSHINGFEMMEFATALESFRIDAY! This week, we present a gallery dedicated to one, who has proven to be larger than life itself, even in death . . INGRID PITT. In just over a week it would have been her birthday and the tenth anniversary of her all too soon passing . . . I have a few photographs to share here today, and whole gallery here at the website, some new and some favorite pics, of the only actress to have been friends with not only Peter..but also Helen, his late wife too . .To start the ball rolling... to mark Ingrid's inclusion in the FRIDAY FEMME FATALE GALLERY, I am giving away below, SIX rare hi res CONTACT SHEETS of rare photographs taken during the making of Hammer films 'The Vampire Lovers', for free! Join us on our NEXT #CUSHINGSFEMMEFATALES! POST TODAY, in just a few hours hours - Marcus







 

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  . .

Sunday 30 July 2017

#GETTHECUSHING: THE AMICUS VAULT OF HORROR PART THREE



#GETTHECUSHIONSUNDAY! Everyone really seems to have enjoyed Donald Fearney's 'The Amicus Vault of Horrors' mammoth definitive documentary that we have been uploading and sharing with you here and at our PCAS Youtube channel . .. so you'll be very pleased to hear here for your entertainment is the penultimate episode, PART THREE.... there are some great Cushing / Amicus classic in there...and we are not though yet... just one more episode to go, next week! Please send us your feedback and comment on the thread below, it's great to have such a huge resource about Peter's work with the legendary Amicus Films, and to read your opinions about those classic films! ENJOY!









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 

Monday 20 June 2016

HE IS NO DUMMY OTTO LIVES!! #MONSTER MONDAY


THIS WEEKS #MONSTERMONDAY features what is maybe not the fastest monster on two legs, but he's pretty effective at squeezing the living daylights out of Barry Morses, Bruno thread bare tailor! Without giving too much away, 'The Weird Tailor' story in Amicus films, 'Asylum' is a sort of spin on the old  chestnut of W.W.Jacob's ghost story, 'The Monkey's Paw', but with that extra 'Amicus' twist.




ONCE AGAIN, Peter Cushing gets to play a grief stricken and bereaved individual for Amicus, Mr Smith. This was the second 'a role too close to life?' for Cushing on the  big screen in as many years, with his Grimsdyke in 'Tales from the Crypt', being the first. His Dr Lawrence in Tyburn's 'THE GHOUL' would be the final performance, with cast and crew witnessing fragile Cushing's emotional melt down on set, it may have been a bridge too far.


AGAIN MAKE UP ARTIST Roy Ashton, provided the monster make up. In an interview with us in 1984, Ashton admitted that coming up with a convincing make up for Otto, was a challenge. As with the majority of assignments with amicis, ashton found himself with little to nothing for developing a make up, and even less in the way of time on the studio floor, after applying the make up to actually maintain it. Otto's appearance isn't the best of Ashton's work, but along with actor Daniel Johns efforts, it does the job.


There is only ONE Peter Cushing Appreciation
Society on FACEBOOK and you'll find it : HERE

Saturday 6 December 2014

THE FINAL BOW: ROY WARD BAKER ON 'THE MASKS OF DEATH' CUSHING'S LAST SHERLOCK


Wonderful! Sherlock Holmes was to manifest himself once more. The producer, Kevin Francis, had conjured him up and this was to be a film by Holmes buffs, for Holmes buffs. Based on a story by John Elder (the pen name of Hammer films Anthony Hinds), the script by NJ Crips was packed with in-jokes. It also had a number of twists on the traditional style: Holmes is no longer infallible and makes several mistakes, which he admits; Irene Adler reappears, in the person of Anne Baxter, but this time she is a goodie.


Over recent years there have been several versions of the Sherlock saga, plus pitches, new stories, etcetera, etcetera, some very faniciful indeed. Peter Cushing, Sir John Mills and I met for a discussion of the relationship between Holmes and watson. Not surprisngly, we were all of one mind: we had re-read the books and out opinions were based on what we had read.


They were both bachelors of a certain social status. They were both looking for a modest and comforatble set of rooms in a respectable area not too far from the centre of london. They each had a small income which wouldn't run to a suitable place, but if they shared the expenses they would be able to rent such a set, together with a housekeeper, They scrupulously respected each other's territory, using the sitting room as a common ground. It was an exclusively male existance and they became fast friends. In the course of adventures they came to depend on each other. Contrary to the speculations of some latter-day commentators, they were never envinced the slightest in homosexuality. The period of 'The Adventures...' runs from 1881 to 1903, the present story 'The Masks of Death' is set in 1913, with Holmes being dragged out of retirement.


Peter Cushing was one of the best of many actors who played Sherlock Holmes. This was his seventeeth and final bow in the part; he knew the man and understood him perfectly. Johnnie Mills had never played Watson and to my mind, his was the best version ever. It is the devil of a character to convey as a real person. He is usually presented to us a thick-headed stooge to the great man, which of course makes one wonder how Holmes puts up with him - that can't be right. Holmes is the eccentric, imaginative figure, while Watson is down to earth, methodical, practical: after all, he is a doctor of medicine. The two men are complete oppersites but in thier different ways they are equals, or at any rate of equal value to each other. They respect each other. I guarentee that this picture is worth a look just to see this performance. I don't mean to belittle any of the othetr actors, who are all fine: Anne Baxter, Anton Diffing, Gordon Jackson and Ray Milland, all on great form.


The crew was largely a collection of old friends. Anthony Mendleson, the brilliant costume designer and three stalwarts from Hammer films: Make up artist Roy Ashton, editor Chris Barnes and guess who as sound editor - the 'other Roy Baker! Ray Sturgess was the camera operator. We had worked together several times before but this time he was presented with some special problems.


The ruling was that we must use camera equipment from the Pinewood camera dept[artment, which hadn't been used for years! Pinewood had been a wall-to-wall studios for ages. Therefore all visiting crews brought their own gear with them. Anyway the Pinewood stuff was cleaned up and tested but it was old fashioned, which didn't make life easy for Ray. It was due to his efforts that everything worked out well. Brendan Stafford was the lighting cameraman who, like Holmes, had to be  dragged protesting out of retirement to do the film. He enjoyed it , I am sure....


Taken from The Director's Cut
By Roy Ward Baker
Reynolds and Hearn 2000

Images and Design: Marcus Brooks
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