FACE TO FACE 'WHEN BATES TRIED ON THE BARON'S BOOTS'

#PETERCUSHINGGEMS!  Here is a amazing pose photograph, posted at the  Facebook PCASUL Fan Page of both Peter Cushing and actor Ralph Bates...taken during a visit by Peter on set, for promo opportunities... 'A Younger Actor Takes Over The Role'! They posed for several, on the set of #Hammerfilms 'Horror of Frankenstein' (1970) but this SIGNED photograph is I think, the best I have seen of the bunch. For sometime during the release and years after, by some 'off target individuals', it was thought that Cushing wasn't really in favour of Bates 'taking over' the role... In our next post, we have some amazing evidence of quite the contrary, which I will be posting tomorrow!😉 Many thanks to Mr G for his assistance with excellent photograph 😊

#ChristopherLee Saturday! Here is a pic you don't get to see that often at all! In this movie, he once again played the opposite to Peter Cushing's characters good nature.... Over at the Facebook PCASUK Fan Page I asked everyone, if they can name the movie .. and if you can, the plot.... do you think it was all real or just all happening in the mind of PC's character?? 😊 There's been quite a reaction and lost of theories! Why not join us and tell us your take on quite a puzzler! - Meanwhile, please take care everyone, and look after yourselves and loved ones 😊- Marcus

ABOVE: Peter Cushing and director Freddie Francis, on set during the making of Tigon films, 'The Creeping Flesh' (1973)

PCASUK WATCH PARTY TIGON CUSHING CLASSIC NOW LIVE!

#WATCHWITHCUSHING! 'The Blood Beast Terror' (1968) NOW LIVE at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FANPAGE WATCH PARTY! This is a film that for a long time had the sad reputation of being known as '#PeterCushing's least favourite film'! A rep that was probably misunderstood, as time has gone on to inform us, it was Cushing's 'on set' experience that scored the 'no brownie points'. Like with a lot of tight budget movies from this time, today we watch them with an 'understanding' maybe. Yup the effects could be better, but I've seen much worse in films that were produced with monster budgets, and no excuse! No one looks good in a costume that is supposed to represent a 'real creature' that is actually an inch to two inches in size, and every director should have a note to themselves that reminds them, 'save some money for the big finish' 😉Director, Vernon Sewell sadly did not. 

BUT HE DID invest in a good cast, Robert Flemyng, replacing an ill #BasilRathbone gives a great turn, Wanda Ventham is quite convincing and committed, but I bet you she drew the line about wearing that costume, and Peter Cushing as ever, gives good value with a cracking performance, relaxed, charming and with some nice 'business' as Inspector Quennell. There's a nod to #Frankenstein and body-snatches '#BukeandHare' and the late Roy Hudd gets to make his first movie, with some well timed black humour as the morgue attendant showing a knack that even both #DonaldPleasence's Dr Seward in 'Dracula' and Cushing's Catflangue, in Legend of the Werewolf, would have been proud of!

 

#SILENTBUTDEADLY: ITS ALL IN THE FINGERS! #GIFS

#SILENTBUTDEADLYWEDNESDAY!: As you probably know, Wednesday is our THEME DAY when we post #GIFS as requested by YOU during the past week. This week the Theme at the website is 'FINGERS!' and this one was requested by Tomas Wentry from the UK. It's a clip from one of the last annual Christmas messages that Lee shared on the net.... that little gesture at the end there, ensured the clip went viral!

#SILENTBUTDEADLYWEDNESDAY! Here we have a surprising example of the dexterity of a DALEK claw! Who would have thought that a mechanical claw, could be so dainty?  This clip from Cushing's 'non-canon' Dr Who outing 'Dr Who and the Daleks' (1965) proves one thing, the pepper-pots may not be able to 'do' stairs, but if you want someone to your needle-point on the planet Scaro, these are your go to guys! Thanks to Milla  Sandosos, for the request and pointing this little factoid out!

Not EVERYONE enjoys Doctor Who OR the Daleks. Here's our REVIEW FEATURE and STILLS GALLERY at the website: CLICK HERE!

#SILENTBUTDEADLYWEDNESDAY!: Until I watched this film quite recently, not listening closely enough, I thought PC was handling a 'TOOTH!', so please allow me license, for the sake of our theme today?   Peter Cushing was famous for his use for props in films with him often having different items in his pocket even if they never appeared on screen. Getting the nickname 'Props Cushing.' RECALLING how the cast and crew on 'The Abominable Snowman' were entertained by Cushing's improvisation with props, director Val Guest said, "One Scene he gets give a tooth, we went for the take and then surprise, Peter brought out a small nail file, then a measuring tool! We got in the first take we'd never last another one!" Requested by Dina Meddows.

OUR ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN FEATURE AND RARE STILLS GALLERY HERE!

#SILENTBUTDEADLYWEDNESDAY! THAT FINGER sure caused poor Peter Cushing's Emmanuel Hildern, a LOT of trouble. IF that petrified skeleton had come with a piece of paper, like those SEA MONKEYS from your childhood, 'JUST ADD WATER' . . for chaos, it would have saved him, from such a cruel and sad fate. 'The Creeping Flesh' (1973) is a film that often gets discussed on our FACEBOOK FAN PAGE. It seems everyone who watches the film, has their own theory on what is actually happening on screen. Multi layered it certainly is, or you can enjoy it as a simple tale of revenge and misfortune. Either way it is sadly, one that slipped through the net back in the day. Tigon, a very small production outfit, unfortunately didn't have budgets that stretched to the kind of publicity that their competitors had. Fortunately, thanks to  home viewing, dvd's and blu rays, the film is finally getting the exposure it so richly deserves. Try and catch it  . . Thanks to Shelly Nightingale for this requested #GIF.

OUR FEATURE AND RARE STILLS GALLERY 'THE CREEPING FLESH' 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

MONSTERMONDAY: WANDA VENTHAM PETER CUSHING: COMPETITON SCREENBOUND PRIZES!

This week's ‪#‎monstermonday‬ features WANDA VENTHAM as the 'terror' factor of the title, 'The Blood Beast Terror'. It's an interesting film, with a monster that never truly gets the screen time or during production, the money invested in its look! The film also features a performance from our man that often gets overlooked. His Detective Inspector Quennell has some very nice touches, and Cushing slips in some lovely black comedy. Robert Flemyng steps in for a absent Basil Rathbone, and Vanessa Howard makes a great naive teenage daughter, for PC, wide eyed and fluttering lashes...and talking of fluttering, without giving too much away, Wanda's Death Head moth, isn’t that bad, I have seen much worse.

So, a performance from PC that's definitely worth a watch, good supporting cast...and the monster? The jury is still out on that one. What do you think? 

Earlier today, launched our competiton on facebook and here at the website.  You can now try your luck at winning your very own #SCREENBOUND blu ray or dvd remastered release of the film. HERE is the competiton, if you have missed it. It closes MONDAY 8th MAY 2016 at MIDNIGHT!

JOIN US A THE PETER CUSHING APPRECIATION SOCIETY FACEBOOK FAN PAGE! UPDATED EVERY DAY! RARE VINTAGE PHOTOGRAPHS, FEATURES COMPETITIONS, NEWS AND MUCH MUCH MORE: JUST CLICK : HERE 

SEVEN FOOT TALL AND ALL FLESH AND BONES! #MONSTERMONDAY TAKES IN 'THE CREEPING FLESH'

This #MONSTERMONDAY we ask you to consider the creep credentials of a skeleton with a difference...It doesn't sound very frightening... a paleontological bag-of-bones discovered in Papua New Guinea....and the 7ft tall skeleton doesn't do very much for the first hour of 'The Creeping Flesh'. However... chop off a digit and 'just add water..!'...and it becomes a flesh creeping, bone chilling tower of revenge. How do we rate this MONSTER?

For more features, rare photographs, interviews and memorabilia, why not join us at our facebook fan page? Over 18,000 followers worldwide, an extensive image library within the page and posts updated everyday. Just click here: WELCOME  - See more at: http://petercushingblog.blogspot.co.uk/#sthash.KA1hAwTD.dpuf

For more features, rare photographs, interviews and memorabilia, why not join us at our facebook fan page? Over 18,000 followers worldwide, an extensive image library within the page and posts updated everyday. Just click here: WELCOME

For more features, rare photographs, interviews and memorabilia, why not join us at our facebook fan page? Over 18,000 followers worldwide, an extensive image library within the page and posts updated everyday. Just click here: WELCOME  - See more at: http://petercushingblog.blogspot.co.uk/#sthash.KA1hAwTD.dpuf

For more features, rare photographs, interviews and memorabilia, why not join us at our facebook fan page? Over 18,000 followers worldwide, an extensive image library within the page and posts updated everyday. Just click here: WELCOME  - See more at: http://petercushingblog.blogspot.co.uk/#sthash.KA1hAwTD.dpuf

FOSSILS, FINGERS AND THE COUNT IS BACK: A TALENT TO TERRIFY : PART FIVE

The year 1971 got off to a horrible start for Cushing: Helen finally succumbed after years of ever-worsening health.  For Cushing, the loss would prove unbearable.  Helen was everything to him: his most valued critic, his biggest fan, his best friend, his doting mother, his wife… It was not a loss that Cushing would rebound from easily; indeed, it would cast a pall over his remaining years.  The crestfallen actor considered suicide, but religious principles compelled him to tough it out.  His therapy would be work – non-stop, if at all possible.

One of Cushing’s first films following his tragic loss was Hammer’s first crack at updating the Dracula myth to the modern milieu.  Dracula AD 1972 would be Cushing’s first appearance as Van Helsing since The Brides of Dracula (1960), and the passage of time would be all the more obvious due to the actor’s precarious mental condition at the time of filming.

Cushing had always been a thin man, but after the loss of Helen he would become gaunt – he would also attain something of a haunted aura about him… The original screenplay by Don Houghton initially had Van Helsing as a modern-day father, trying to keep his flower child Jessica (Stephanie Beacham) in line, but Cushing had aged noticeably and a decision was made to make him into Jessica’s grandfather. Cushing’s frail appearance stands in stark contrast to the utter commitment and energy he brings to the role.  It is certainly my favorite of his several attempts at the character, and he has real chemistry with Beacham in their scenes together.

As for Lee, the actor had long vocalized a dissatisfaction with how Hammer had been treating his most iconic role.  He came to AD 1972 out of sheer desperation, as several projects he had signed on to had fallen through at the last minute.  It would seem that the presence of Cushing re-energized him, however, as he approaches the role of Dracula with a gusto that had been notably absent in Taste the Blood of Dracula (1969) and Scars of Dracula (1970).

The two stars cross path on screen at the beginning (in a wonderful, nineteenth century-set prologue) and again at the end, and their chemistry remains as palpable as ever. Fans would react with mixed emotions at the updated setting, however, and for some the film remains the nadir of the series. Even so, the Lee/Cushing dynamic remained untarnished, and more collaborations were ahead, in short order…

Late in 1971, Lee and Cushing flew to Madrid to make Horror Express.  For Lee, working in the Spanish film scene was nothing new – he had already done several films for Jess Franco, after all.  But for Cushing, leaving the confines of England was a different matter.  He had filmed in Spain and other locales in the 50s – but always with Helen tagging along for support.  Things were different now and with the Christmas holiday looming, he had a change of heart. Fortunately, Lee’s friendship and encouragement would prompt Cushing to stick with it – and thank goodness for it.  Horror Express (1972) would emerge as one of the most purely enjoyable films of either actor  career – and in many respects, it may remain the definitive Lee/Cushing movie.

The two actors are cast to type – Lee stuffy and imperious, Cushing impish and charming – but the characters allow them to grow in interesting ways.  Lee is particularly good as the pompous archaeologist who does an about-face when he realizes that his indifference towards the mayhem is monstrous in itself. He ends up as a swashbuckling hero, rescuing the damsel-in-distress (Silvia Tortosa) in the process.  Cushing is also in fine form as Lee’s scientific rival, and the two actors have some marvelous dialogue.  Cushing’s “Monsters?  We’re British, you know!” is rightly famous, but I always get a chuckle out of Lee’s impatient “What’s he raving about?!,” directed at guest star Telly Savalas, who shows up long enough to liven things up in the final act.

Director Eugenio Martin keeps the action moving at a terrific clip and for once, Lee and Cushing are afforded more-or-less equal screen time.  The supporting cast is marvelous as well, notably Alberto De Mendoza as the Rasputin-like Pujardov, a religious fanatic who crosses swords with Lee (who, of course, played Rasputin himself, for Hammer) and the afore-mentioned Savalas, who makes for an unlikely Cossack but is thoroughly delightful, just the same.

  

PCASUK Review and Gallery 'Horror Express' HERE 

After this, it was back to England – but The Creeping Flesh wouldn’t be produced by Hammer or Amicus.  Instead, the “other” major UK genre studio, Tigon, was responsible for this – their only Lee/Cushing vehicle.  In what could only be seen as an amazing coincidence, the story bore a strong resemblance to that of Horror Express: in both films, an ancient fossil is unearthed which contains a clue to the origin of Evil.

 

Horror Express had been a fast paced romp, while The Creeping Flesh was darker, slower and altogether more somber.  The film would mark a return to form for director Freddie Francis, who had spent much of the 70s hacking out one poor film after another – Tales from the Crypt (1972) to one side.  The literate and intriguing script for The Creeping Flesh inspired him to make a more committed job of it, and he responds with one of his most carefully crafted films.  Only a gratuitous subplot involving Kenneth J. Warren’s escaped convict drags the film down; it’s not that these scenes are bad, they’re simply pointless and scream “filler”.

Top-billed Lee isn’t in it as much as all that, but he’s in great form as the embittered half-brother to Cushing’s pampered scientist.  Lee conveys the hurt, resentment and burning anger that is quietly bubbling under the surface and manages to steal every scene he is in.  Cushing has the larger role, and the showier one, and he impresses as the slightly addle-brained researcher.  In what was becoming an obsessive trope, the actor plays a lonely widower who is assailed by memories of his late wife.  Cushing brings tremendous pathos to the role, making him instantly sympathetic, and the ambiguous fade-out makes it unclear whether the story really did happen or if it was just a paranoid delusion.  Lorna Heilbron steals the film from her stars as Cushing’s naïve daughter, who succumbs to the taint of evil.  Duncan Lamont, Michael Ripper and other stalwarts help to boost up the faux Hammer flavor, and Paul Ferris contributes a good, creepy soundtrack.

 PCASUK Review and Gallery of 'The Creeping Flesh' Here

The same year, Christopher Lee would launch his own production company, Charlemagne Productions; the name derived from his illustrious ancestor, the Emperor Charlemagne, and the intent was to create a company that could give Hammer and Amicus a run for their money by producing mature, “up market” horror films for the discerning viewer.  Sadly, Lee would lose control of the project early on and Nothing but the Night would become a problematic film on many levels.

 

The script was based on the novel of the same name by John Blackburn,.  There was a good story to be told there, and in a sense its tale of “possessed” children anticipated a certain Hollywood blockbuster by a year… but the film would be a rather listless and dreary affair, and Rank’s inability to do much with the film in the UK coupled with distribution woes in the US put an end to Lee’s dream of running his own company.

 

 

None of this should suggest that the film is a total loss, however.  Director Peter Sasdy had just directed three fine films for Hammer (one of which, Taste the Blood of Dracula, was among the better of Hammer’s Dracula series) but his stylistic verve is only evident in spurts here.  Too much of the narrative is given over to an unappealing love story between Keith Barron and Georgia Brown, while Lee and Cushing linger on the sidelines as a sort of modern-day Holmes and Watson team.  Lee comes into his own in the second half and gives a commanding performance, while Cushing struggles with a rather unusually bitchy characterization which requires him to snap a lot and shoot plenty of dark glances.

PCASUK Review and Gallery of Nothing but The Night Here

The film builds to a memorable, fiery finale which can’t help but remind viewers of another, much better Lee vehicle from the same period: The Wicker Man (1973).  Speaking of which, it has been rumored that Cushing was considered for the pivotal role of Sergeant Howie in that film – which would likely have made The Wicker Man the most artistically rewarding of their many films together… but the reality is, Cushing was much too old for the part and the man who eventually got the job, Edward Woodward, did a brilliant job with it. If Cushing ever had any particular feelings on nearly being a part of The Wicker Man, he never said so. In any event, his career would continue to move full steam ahead...

The final part of 'Talent To Terrify' will be posted this weekend: 'The Count's Last Stand..And The Gang 's Here Too!'

'A Talent To Terrify: The Twenty Two Films Of Peter Cushing And Christopher Lee is written by Troy Howarth with images and artwork by Marcus Brooks.

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