WIN THE BLOOD BEAST TERROR COMPETITION : SIX COPIES UP FOR GRABS

We have SIX COPIES of THE BLOOD BEAST TERROR up for grabs! 3x BLU RAYS and 3x DVDS. Pick which format you would like to win by answering the relevant question!

You can enter by simply sending your entry by emailing it to us at THEBLACKBOXCLUB@GMAIL.COM. This Competition CLOSES MONDAY MAY 8th MIDNIGHT gmt, when all correct answers will be placed in a wardrobe full of moth balls, shaken and six winning names chosen at random! We will announce winners here and our FACEBOOK FAN PAGE on TUESDAY 9th at 6pm gmt. As with ALL our competitions, this is open to EVERYONE, no matter where you are!

Both the BLU RAY and DVD of Peter Cushing's 'THE BLOOD BEAST TERROR' can be purchased at the LINKS below!

PURCHASE THE BLU RAY : HERE 

PURCHASE THE DVD : HERE 

You'll find more posts every day at our PETER CUSHING APPRECIATION SOCIETY FACEBOOK FAN PAGE ! WHY NOT JOIN US?

THE CREEPING FLESH: LORNA HEILBRON AND PETER CUSHING'S PLAYING OF PROF HILDREN

Peter Cushing commitment to the role of Emmanuel Hildren was as strong as ever, and his professionalism absolute.He still concerned himself with not only his performance, but every aspect of filming. His copy of of the script is enthusiastically annotated with character details and instructions to himself.

'Don't gabble. Don't over act. Don't be conventional absent minded professor' And there, mixed up with notes about hairpieces and how to prepare lab slides are the words, 'Bois' 'Helen' 'Us'.

Peter related to me as a father and was tremendously caring and supportive' co star, Lorna Heilbron remembers today.'I played his daughter. He felt that I resembled his wife, Helen, so we had a rather intense relationship where I felt he really lived his part in the film.'

To play the deranged Hildren in the prologue and epilogue, Cushing again sacrifices any shred of vanity - without the toupee, which he wore in practically every film now, his hair is whitend and disarrayed and his cheekbones are strongly emphasisedf with make up. A quavering voice, insisting 'I alone can save the world', completes the impression of the character's tragic mental collapse.

JOIN US FOR DAILY UPDATES AT OUR OFFICIAL

PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE: HERE

TWENTY YEARS ON TODAY: ROY HUDD REMEMBERS PETER CUSHING:

ROY HUDD REMEMBERS PETER CUSHING:

"I made my first appearance in a feature film mid September 1967. It wasn't quite 'Gone with The Wind', but a small budget horror film called 'The Blood Beast Terror'. I had a smashing little part as the mortuary attendant. I could hardly believe my luck when I looked at the script and saw i had two scenes with Peter Cushing!

I religiously leaned every word of my dialogue, backwards and sideways. Anyway, I arrived a good hour before I was called, around five am, at a tiny studio off the Goldhawk road. Eventually, I was called for make up and there, in the next chair , was the great man himself. "Good morning" he said 'I'm Peter Cushing" - as if I didn't know. "Have you seen the script for today?" he asked, Had I seen it? - Seen it?? I'd LIVED it for the past seven days. "oh yes" I stuttered. "Not very good is it?" said Peter. "Well..." I blustered. "No we can do better than that", he said. "Can we?", I said. "How can we make it funnier?" asked the great man. "Well...." I advised.. And that was the start. Together we rejigged the whole two scenes. Peter was very patient, encouraging, and VERY inventive. It was his idea to have me eating pickled onions from the jar between the legs of the cadaver!

If you have never faced a studio full of camera people, lighting guys, production staff, actors and extras then you don't know what FEAR is! I was, petrified! So anxious not to make a fool of myself. The director shouted, "Lets rehearse" but Peter said, "No, Roy's never done a film before, so I just want him to feel at home" He held up shooting for a good half hour while he showed me the set, where the lights would be, and where the camera would move, the lot!'

He did make me feel at home and that, all too short morning spent in his company has stayed with me for forty odd years. A GREAT star, taking time and trouble to make a raw beginner feel able to give his best.

Thank you Peter. You were a gentle, dear and wonderful man...

Photograph: Peter Cushing and Roy Hudd on right, on set during the making of 'The Blood Beast Terror' (1967)

TIGON'S TALE OF TERROR: THE CREEPING FLESH PHOTOGRAPH GALLERY AND FEATURE

Scientist Emmanuel Hildern (Peter Cushing) unearths what appears to be a missing link while on an expedition in New Guinea.  His attempts at unlocking the skeleton’s secrets are compromised by the precarious mental condition of his daughter Penelope (Lorna Heilbron) and the interference of his bitter half-brother James (Christopher Lee)

In the 1950s and 60s, Freddie Francis established himself as one of the premiere lighting cameramen in Europe, snagging an Oscar for his work on Sons and Lovers (1960) and winning much acclaim for his work on The Innocents (1961).  Like so many directors of photography, Francis had a yen to direct.  He made his first film as a director in 1962 with the obscure romantic comedy Two and Two Make Six (1962), but the German-financed The Brain and the Hammer Films psychological thriller Paranoiac (both also 1962) pointed to where his career would evolve.

Francis, being a pragmatist at heart, initially accepted his pigeonholing as a “horror” director, and would take great pride in imbuing his films with sufficient visual gloss as a means of patching up the often inadequate screenplays he was handed to work with.  As time wore on, however, his dissatisfaction became quite evident – and indeed he would approach most of his directorial assignments of the 1970s with a mixture of contempt and indifference.

There’s really very little to recommend in such films as The Vampire Happening (1970), Trog (1970), Craze (1973) and The Legend of the Werewolf (1974), but signs of his former flair are happily on display in The Creeping Flesh.  Francis responded well to the screenplay by Peter Spenceley and Jonathan Rumbold, with its heady mixture of Victorian sci-fi and Lovecraft-flavored chills.  The end result is his last great hurrah as a filmmaker; he would direct only sporadically from that point on, and in 1980, he made a triumphant return to the station of lighting cameraman when producer Mel Brooks and director David Lynch drafted him to lens The Elephant Man.  He would go on to work with some of the most exciting and dynamic filmmakers of the new generation, including Martin Scorsese (for whom he shot a super stylish redux of Cape Fear, 1991), and would win another Academy Award for his work on Glory (1989).  Francis died in 2007, at the age of 89.

THE CREEPING FLESH

The story is certainly an eventful one, and it affords both of its iconic lead performers an opportunity to shine.  Cushing is cast in the flashier role, while Lee is seemingly relegated to yet another humorless authority figure.  Cushing imbues his character with ample humanity, but it is the character’s single minded obsessiveness which links him most closely with his most famous genre characterizations: Baron Frankenstein and Dr. Van Helsing.  Emmanuel is very much the absent father.  He dotes on Penelope whenever he returns from his trip, and there’s no question that he genuinely adores her, but his work always comes first; ultimately, he fails to realize her gradual slide into madness until it is too late.  True to form, he attempts to over compensate for this by using his discovery in an attempt to “cure” her madness on a biological level – the experiment is doomed to failure, of course, and one is left wondering just how sane he was from the get go.

Lee’s role as the embittered half-brother doesn’t allow him so much screen time (though he was given top billing in deference to his popularity at the box office), but he delivers a wonderfully detailed characterization, just the same. James can barely contain his contempt and jealousy towards his brother, which prompts him to take a certain sadistic glee in getting the upper hand on him. One gets the sense of James’ lifetime of struggle and unhappiness as he was pushed aside in favor of his more “privileged,” upper crust older brother, and as such his actions become almost understandable. It’s a marvelous performance that seldom gets the attention it deserves.

Lee and Cushing are supported by an excellent gallery of character actors. Lorna Heilbron is superb in the difficult role of Penelope, which requires her to run the gamut from doe-eyed, doting daughter to wild-eyed, crazed harlot – and she never hits a false note.  George Benson, who formerly mugged his way through a comic cameo in Terence Fisher’s Dracula (1958), is excellent as Cushing’s devoted lab assistant. Duncan Lamont is properly authoritative as the suspicious police inspector investigating the ensuing carnage, while real-life couple Michael Ripper and Catherine Finn show up in small roles – he as a blustery deliveryman, she as Heilbron’s caring housekeeper.

Francis handles the material with energy and conviction, but the film loses points for its introduction of a pointless subplot involving hulking character actor Kenneth J. Warren as an escapee on the loose from Lee’s insane asylum. Warren is fine in the role, but the subplot goes nowhere and was clearly crammed into an already busy narrative to pad the running time a bit.

The Creeping Flesh also has excellent production values – the sets and costuming are on a par with the best of Hammer, and the creepy music score by Paul Ferris helps to set the right mood. The cinematography by longtime Francis collaborator Norman Warwick is also lovely without being unduly fussy.  Special note must also be made of Roy Ashton’s makeup work.

The title is explained by the fact that the skeleton “grows” flesh when it comes into contact with water – which Cushing discovers when trying to clean it up a bit… The decidedly phallic looking finger that results from this is truly horrific, as is the final reveal of the regenerated skeleton, which becomes exposed to a rain storm when Lee engineers a break in to steal the specimen.  Francis even reuses his “skull point of view” gag from The Skull (1965) to maximize the effect of this gruesome makeup.

Fans of Cushing and Lee would do well to check out The Creeping Flesh if they haven’t done so already.  And even if you already have, it may well be time to go back and reacquaint yourself with it again; it’s a good one.

Feature: Troy Howarth
Gallery: Marcus Brooks

Come join our Facebook Fan Page : CLICK HERE 

PETER CUSHING AND ROY HUDD ON THE SET OF 'THE BLOOD BEAST TERROR' (1968)

 A RARE BEHIND THE SCENES SHOT OF PETER CUSHING AND CAST MEMBER ROY HUDD ON THE SET OF TIGON FILMS 'THE BLOOD BEAST TERROR' (1968)