SUSANNAH YORK AND PETER CUSHING : ORSON WELLES GREAT MYSTERIES SEPTEMBER 1973

A QUICK PROMO SNAP AND A RARE ONE: Here is Peter Cushing and Susannah York during the shooting of am episode of a very popular television series in the 1970's, ORSON WELLES GREAT MYSTERIES. The episode was entitled, ' LA GRANDE BRETECHE' and also starred Michael Elphick. The series was an anthology of different tales. Each episode was introduced by Orson Welles, in big hat and opera cloak! He topped and tailed each story, though never appeared in them. The episode, 'La Grande Breteche' was broadcast, just once in the UK on Saturday 22nd September 1973. It starred Peter Cushing as the Count Gerard De Merret and Susannah York as his wife, Countess Josephine. What Cushing gives us, is a quite terrifying performance. As with all the stories in this series, they were chosen for their punch, sting or twist at the end. Needless to say, Cushing doesn't disappoint!

IF YOU ENJOY our posts here at the PCASUK website and would also like to meet others and chat about the work of Peter Cushing and the posts you have seen, you can catch them all, at our FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE. COME AND JOIN over 33 thousand other lovers of Cushing's work, in the oldest Peter Cushing Fan Club! You will be most welcome! JUST CLICK HERE  and CLICK LIKE THERE! 

RALPH BATES REMEMBERED : BORN TODAY 1940

 

REMEMBERING: Born today in 1940, RALPH BATES. Sadly, no longer with us. A talented actor and a truly gentle and kind man.

RALPH BATES WAS THE GREAT, GREAT nephew of the renowned French scientist Louis Pasteur developed into a strangely handsome dark haired, pale complexioned English actor. Ralph Bates was born in 1940 in Bristol, England and attended the University of Dublin and studied at the Yale Drama School. His dramatic talents first came to audiences attention playing the evil Emperor Caligula in the well received BBC TV series The Caesars (1968). However, the Hammer studios resurrection of the horror genre was then in full stride, and Bates was soon engulfed in the swirling cloak of Hammer's success as he appeared in several horror films in quick succession.

ABOVE: A few fated coincidences here with these two chaps that appeared in 'The Caesars' tv series . . .Ralph Bates and Freddie Jones

FIRSTLY IN A SUPPORT ROLE as demonic Lord Courtley in Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970), followed as the lead character Baron Frankenstein in The Horror of Frankenstein (1970), then as Giles Barton in the sexy Lust for a Vampire (1971) and as the well meaning Dr. Jekyll in an unusual spin on the Robert Louis Stevenson story in Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde (1971) and 'Fear in the Night' with Peter Cushing in 1972. Bates brought a new zest to Hammer and with his stylish dialogue delivery and film acting methods, he quickly won himself quite a few fans in both critics and regular film goers!

UNFORTUNATELY, by the early 1970s there had been a downturn in Hammer studios fortunes, and Bates then found himself turning to more traditional character work in other production houses and he appeared in several films before snaring other superb villainous role as George Warleggan in the 18th century period piece Poldark (1975).

ABOVE: RALPH BATES and JUDY GEESON : HAMMER FILMS 

 FEAR IN THE NIGHT (1972)

AFTER POLDARK, Bates himself kept busy in TV shows and television film roles which did not really do justice to his remarkable talents. In the late 1980s his health rapidly deteriorated, and he sadly passed away from cancer aged only 51 on 27th March 1991.

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  

I NEVER FORGET A FACE OR A HEAD! #THROWBACKTHURSDAY!

#THROWBACKTHURSDAY! I NEVER FORGET A . . . HEAD! You may recall I asked all #HAMMERFILM fans out there, if they recognised the HEAD posing as the remains of the Marquis de Sade in Cushing film, The Skull, and posted a pic of the HEAD. No one spotted it, so here is the answer . . . that should make em sit up at the next pub quiz!

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THIS FILM at our SUPPLEMENT WEBSITE The Black Box Club. There is a full review and RARE IMAGE GALLLERY : 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 coordinator since 1979. PCAS is based in the UK and USA      

LONG SHADOWS COMPETITION : CHRISTOPHER LEE AND THE LITTLE WITCH VIDEO

#CHRISTOPHERLEESATURDAY! Ok as time runs out on our Peter Cushing Ghoul Autograph Competition TOMORROW.... Here is ANOTHER competition courtesy of Kevin and the Team at Paper Dragon Productions... Here is your chance to WIN a copy of the House of Long Shadows Screenplay by Michael Armstrong in a very neat book... ANSWER the competition QUESTION CORRECTLY, then SEND us your answer to  the email on the banner above! The first TWO correct answers pulled out of the hat NEXT SUNDAY will be declared the winners! If you would like to purchase your very own copy, it's easy to order, CLICK the LINK  HERE!

#CHRISTIOPHERLEESATURDAY: Like Peter Cushing's recording of 'No White Peaks' Dance House version...Christopher Lee too has a few recordings that fall into the 'it was a good idea, at the time' though this admittedly, isn't as bad as Peter's Dance-House single... 'Little Witch' by Kathy Joe Daylor, was released in the 1980s, during the height of Italo- Disco craze. Lee provided some spoken vocals and as you can see, and popped up in one or two music tv show promotions... 'Thriller' it ain't, but perfect for some Impro-Dad-dancing for sure... 

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    
 

REMEMBERED AND CELEBRATED TODAY : HAPPY BIRTHDAY VINCENT PRICE

SO, PETER YESTERDAY, Christopher Lee AND.... VINCENT PRICE today! Nothing I can say here that hasn't already been said about the versatile Vinnie... certainly a 'Man of the Arts', whose distinctive voice and excellent performances in fantasy films, made him a firm favourite for over 40 years!

His career spanned other genres, including film noir, drama, mystery, thriller, and comedy. He appeared on stage, television, radio, and in over one hundred films.... a good friend of both Peter and Christopher, though only appeared on screen with them BOTH just the once, in 'The House of the Long Shadows' in 1983.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT VINCENT PRICE'S ROLE WITH PETER CUSHING IN AMICUS FILMS, MADHOUSE HERE : FEATURE AND RARE STILLS: HERE

 

AN EXTENDED FEATURES AND GALLERY AT OUR SUPPLEMENT WEBSITE THEBLACKBOXCLUB.COM  : THE FLY  CLICK HERE

 

VINCENT PRICE IN THEATRE OF BLOOD : HERE

THE HOUSE OF WAX :HERE

You are still greatly missed and much celebrated, Vincent... a man and actor who could never be replaced... HAPPY BIRTHDAY Vincent Price!

#ONSETSATURDAY : THE BEAST MUST DIE : ANTON DIFFRING IN THE MAKE UP CHAIR!

#ONSETSATURDAY This week we visit that Amicus favourite, THE BEAST MUST DIE, with a rare shot of ANTON DIFFRING in the make up chair of Paul Rabiger. An interesting film in the Cushing portfolio, is a horror film, a thriller, a who done it??? The answer is probably, it's all three! With it's excellent 'WEREWOLF BREAK' a quite eclectic cast, headed by Peter Cushing, Charles Gray and werewolf hunter, Calvin Lockhart, who sounds like he's just popped over during a tea break from the Royal Shakespeare company's production of 'As You Like it'. It's not one of my favourites, and the music score I find so bad, I have been known to watch the entire film with the volume down. Amicus films, didn't have those memorable scores, like many of the Hammer films, and went down the route of employing Douglas Gamley (1924–1998) to score this one, and many of the portmanteau films. Just my opinion, but I am not a fan. 

Mind you, he's not quite as bad as Elisabeth Lutyens ...who scored Dr Terrors House of Horrors. Her avant-garde blackboard scrapings, set me on edge. Maybe, that was what they were meant to do??? What is YOUR favourite AMICUS film score??

MORE  on THE BEAST MUST DIE at our 

FEATURE and PHOTO GALLERY : HERE

SCREAM FACTORY TO RELEASE AMICUS DOUBLE BILL BLU RAY: VAULT OF HORROR UNCUT AND TALES FROM THE CRYPT

NEWS: SCREAM FACTORY TO RELEASE AMICUS DOUBLE BILL BLU RAY: Scream Factory, the horror-thriller offshoot of independent film distributor Shout Factory, has revealed that it plans to release on Blu-ray Freddie Francis' Tales From the Crypt (1972), Roy Ward Baker's Vault of Horror (UNCUT) (1973), and Freddie Francis' The Doctor and the Devils (1985). These releases are expected to arrive on the U.S. market later this year.

THE AMICUS FILMS OF PETER CUSHING: PART ONE

The Amicus Films of Peter Cushing : Part One of a serial feature written by Troy Howarth with images and design by Marcus Brooks

When Max J. Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky partnered up to produce films, they initially had their eye aimed squarely at the youth market.  They scored early hits with rock and roll films like Rock, Rock, Rock! (1956) and the early Richard Lester film It’s Trad, Dad! (1962), but it was their moody black and white chiller City of the Dead (1960, aka Horror Hotel) which would point to their later fortunes.  City of the Dead had been produced under the name of Vulcan Productions, but by the time they revisited the genre in the middle of the decade, the credits would read “An Amicus Production.”  Amicus, incidentally, was the Latin word for “friend,” indicating that the company was established with the best of intentions.

Truth be told, the distribution of work at Amicus was pretty much split thusly: Rosenberg set up the deals and Subotsky focused on the creative end of the partnership.  It was Subotsky who had enthusiasm for horror, sci-fi and fantasy; Rosenberg would have been quite content producing anything that turned a profit.  As such, their working relationship would prove to be harmonious—for the most part.  Dissent and hard feelings would settle in over time, but in the beginning it was a match made in heaven, with the two New Yorkers feeding into each other’s strengths.

When they decided to turn their energy to making horror pictures, they were well aware of the success that Hammer Films were enjoying in the UK.  Subotsky, in fact, had approached Hammer's Anthony Hinds with the idea of doing a remake of James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931) in the mid-50s. When Hammer went off and did a very different take on Mary Shelley’s original novel, Subotsky felt cheated and would often vocalize a critical attitude towards Hammer’s output in interviews. 

Subotsky preferred his horror with a bit of subtlety; to his thinking, Hammer’s shockers were too garish, too gory, too needlessly sexy.  Thus, it came as no surprise that the horror films he oversaw were comparatively “old fashioned” in their approach. Still, Subotsky and Rosenberg knew that they needed star power to help sell their films and they wasted no time in courting Hammer’s two biggest names, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.

Lee would top-line City of the Dead and would be brought back to star in Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (1965), the first of the Amicus anthology films.  To play the fortune-telling Dr. Schreck, they would enlist the services of Peter Cushing.  The combination of Cushing and Lee was good for box office and with Hammer veteran Freddie Francis also in tow to direct, some viewers may well have thought that they were seeing a new Hammer film!

Dr. Terror would establish a very different approach, however, one which would distinguish the Amicus product from that of Hammer.  Hammer’s films were typically period pieces.  They reveled in lurid scenes of gore and sensual sexuality.  And above all else, they were always single narrative pieces.  Amicus’ films, on the other hand, would be contemporary.  They would avoid explicit gore and seldom so much as touched on the subject of sex or sexuality.  And they would often embrace the anthology format which had so impressed the young Subotsky when he saw Ealing Studios’ seminal Dead of Night (1945).

The formula would prove to be successful.  Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors was a box office hit and it even snagged some favorable notices from the critics, many of whom were put off by the excesses found in Hammer’s films.  If Subotsky and Rosenberg were taking “the high road” in some respects, it was due entirely to Subotsky’s own feelings on the matter; if Rosenberg had produced such a film on his own, there’s little doubt that he would have hewed closer to Hammer’s example.  No matter how one views it, Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors made an impact and it remains one of their most purely enjoyable confections. Freddie Francis directs with style and energy, Alan Hume’s widescreen color photography is properly colorful and atmospheric, Elisabeth Lutyens contributes a spare, but chilling, soundtrack.

If it has a failing it’s in the script, written by Subotsky himself.  The stories are a pretty routine lot and at least one of them (the Voodoo segment with Roy Castle) is basically an uncredited rip-off of Cornel Woolrich’s story Papa Benjamin, which had been adapted as an episode of the popular Boris Karloff-hosted TV series, Thriller, in 1961. Even so, the stylish execution and generally excellent performances help to elevate it and result in a generally enjoyable film.  Like most anthologies, it’s uneven—one good story here, one so-so one there—but when it works, it works very well indeed. They would continue to refine the formula in later films.

The experience of making Dr. Terror would prove satisfying for Peter Cushing. He enjoyed getting to play a real character role, with makeup and an accent to boot, and he responded to Subotsky’s almost childlike enthusiasm. Indeed, the two men would find in each other kindred spirits. Much has been written about Cushing down through the years, but little of it touches on the complexity of the man. He had his faults, like anybody else, but one of his great strengths was an unerring sense of loyalty to his friends. In Subotsky, he found a producer whose love for creating mirrored his own.



If Cushing had issues with his writing, as he had with that of Hammer’s Jimmy Sangster, for example, he kept his concerns to himself—or at the very least broached the topic in gentle terms that didn’t ruffle any feathers on Subotsky’s part. Much like the “marriage” of Subotsky and Rosenberg, the union of Amicus and Cushing would prove to be a productive and happy one; it would also enjoy a happier resolution in the long run.

For their next collaboration, The Skull, Cushing would return to play the lead, with Lee along for the ride in the capacity of “guest star.” Freddie Francis was again brought on board to direct and he would deliver what was for all intents and purposes his masterpiece as a director.



The slight screenplay, adapted by Subotsky from Robert Bloch’s story “The Skull of the Marquis de Sade”, served as an ideal framework for the director to indulge in his love of mobile camerawork and artfully composed compositions. It may well be a case of style over substance, but so what?

As a mood piece, The Skull is remarkable well done. It’s even a little eerie in spots, as Cushing’s character, an obsessive collector of occult memorabilia, succumbs to the malefic influence of de Sade’s skull. Subotsky managed to assemble a top notch cast for the film: in addition to Cushing and Lee, it featured the likes of Patrick Wymark, Nigel Green, Patrick Magee, Jill Bennett, George Coulouris and Michael Gough.

This reflects a key strength of Subotsky as a producer—his unerring ability to entice top drawer talent to appear in genre films by offering them roles that could be filmed quickly, thus enabling them to earn a little extra money in between more “important” film and theatrical commitments.



Cushing was given an opportunity to carry the film, appearing in almost every scene and helping to ground it in reality.  He’s splendid in the role, which is in some respects one of his most under-appreciated performances.  He is relaxed and commanding when needed, but gradually conveys panic and fear as the character’s life begins to spiral out of control.

It’s a marvelous, low-key, naturalistic performance from an actor who could sometimes fall back on mannerisms when he didn’t have something more substantial to work from.  It, too, would prove to be a hit for the company and Subotsky would waste no time in continuing the association. Their next venture(s), however, would prove to be controversial among fans and sci-fi buffs in general, with many viewing the end result as something of a low point for both the studio—and the actor …

Written By Troy Howarth
Images and Design: Marcus Brooks

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