WONDERFUL WANDA : INTERVIEW : BLOOD BEAST : DOCTOR WHO : UFO AND MORE!

#WATCHWITHCUSHING! POSTING AND SHARING  a great INTERVIEW with actress WANDA VENTHAM today here and at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE certainly has taken off! It's a pretty neat interview with a very relaxed and most informative #WandaVentham! LOTS to learn here about the making of her and Peter Cushing's 'The Blood Beast Terror', on working with Cushing, the director Vernon Sewell, others in the cast, #DoctorWho, #PatrickTroughton, #Hammerfilms and the tv series #UFO! Mr H does well with the questions and some answers are quite surprising! Wanda has a great fan club site too RIGHT HERE!: Enjoy! Keep safe, stay well and look after each other 😀😊😉- Marcus

ABOVE :  A #MONSTER MONDAY BANNER from a whole ago, when Wanda's MOTH went through our weekly MONDAY trial! 

ABOVE : PETER CUSHING AND WANDA VENTHAM'S 'THE BLOOD BEAST TERROR' is also part of our #WATCHWITHCUSHING! 2020 #LockedDown season of posts at the Facebook PCASUK Fan Page. YOU can still watch it! RIGHT HERE! 

ABOVE : PETER CUSHING  chats with producer Tony Tenser on location shooting 'THE BLOOD BEAST TERROR' 

A DIFFERENT DOCTOR WHO FROM A DIFFERENT TIME THAT COULD HAVE BEEN?

#MEANWHILE IN A #TARDIS, not that far away! Here is a FINE piece of 'imagine IF' art from the twitter page of 'Timeless Tim'! #PeterCushingISDrWho! I have no idea who did this work, but would love to so I could congratulate them. IF only. You can see how the whole concept would work. The image of Peter Cushing is from around the mid 1960's 'Frankenstein Created Woman' time, the lab coat 1957, 'The Curse of Frankenstein', a wonderfully appropriate TARDIS interior . . an the 1970's K9, is the cheery on the cake...it crosses all kids of era's, styles and Doctor Who periods of time Just like all the best episodes, all about time 😊 Over at the Facebook PCASUK Fan Page we are asking, 'Would YOU have WATCHED this, as a TV series??' Feel free to join in on the opinions and comments!

CONNECTING NICELY to the post above, here's a great photograph on set of Cushing's Dr Who in 'Dalek Invasion Earth 2150 AD' I remember when first seeing this pic when I was I my early teen and being shocked that the set was actually INSIDE the lots at Shepperton studios! Clever chaps, these film makers 😃

ALSO MARKED AT THE   FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE TODAY MAY 14TH is  the birthday of Eric Morecambe, one half of the most successful comedy team in the UK. Still missed, loved by all, with Eric's passing back in 1984, it left a hole not only in the entertainment world but also in people's hearts. With his partner, Ernie...they provided one of tv's longest running gags, 'Peter Cushing and his Money!'... he did eventually get it , but not until the boys, had a lot of fun with it, stretching over many years and several programmes. God bless, Eric, Happy Birthday and thanks for all those precious memories and laughs 😅😀 

ABOVE is one of my favourite Peter Cushing guest spots with Eric and Ernie! Peter has come for his money, paying for when he is first appeared on their show. It's ironic that the BBC wanting value for money, also show a clip from that previous show, in this one!! Eric's teasing of Ernie for being tight with money was really a cover for the reputation the BBC had for being known as notoriously tight and mean with paying anyone... except their executives, in the 60's and 70's! Times haven't changed....

YOU CAN EASILY jump on board the PCASUK Facebook Fan Page, by clicking  RIGHT HERE!. PCASUK, it's posts, features and competitions are open to EVERYONE, whoever, wherever you are!

#VINCENTPRICE: 'NEVER MIND FINDING WITCHES I FOUND THE CANDY AND CHOCOLATE!'

'NEVER MIND FINDING THE WITCHES.. I found the CANDY and CHOCOLATE!' A fab photo sent to me by Frank N Stein today 😊 We all know that #VincentPrice was a 'choc-o-holic' . .and here is the proof . . it's also heart warming to discover he was a very generous one too! Here is Vincent, while on location filming, in full 'Matthew Hopkins' costume and on a quest though the streets of 1967 #Suffolk #UK... buying a stash of sherbet and chocolate, for himself and the crew of 'Witch-Finder General'! It seems that VP was a '#sherbet' lover too and who can blame him... like the candy and chocolate, Vincent Price was sweet, unique and always leaves me wanting more 😄😉 - Marcus

UPDATE: ON POSTING this photograph in our daily posts at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE today, PCASUK follower Stuart Carroll, who lives in the town where Price was buying his chocolate all those years ago, saw the PCASUK pic today, and zipped down to the location of where 'Dora Rogers Sweets and Alcohol' store was located all those years ago and snapped this terrific pic of him this morning . .  with chocolate! Many thanks to Stuart for taking the time and effort to do this today and sharing the pic 😃 - Marcus    

#LUSH! My FAVOURITE Peter Cushing lobby still. One of eight, from the UK distributors photographs of pics that would have been displayed in the lobby of cinema or in those wonderful glass cabinets that you would see in the foyer or on the wall outside the entrance of the cinema.. remember those? Because they were hang up, pinned or often hung up in damp glass cabinets and open to the elements, few survive today . . so if they are 90% intact, it's a rarity. All these stills were black and white, but hand tinted in four or less colours. They were cheap to produced and looked better than black and white lobby stills... now, they are worth a fortune! I love the richness of the colours in this one 😊 It's a wonderful pose of Peter Cushing in his second horror genre role for Hammer films. He would appear as Van Helsing in another four films for Hammer . . and he aged and played the role so well😉 - Marcus

A LONG TIME AGO NAME AND CLAIM YOUR ROY ASHTON FAVORITE!

OVER AT THE FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE #TOOCOOLTUESDAY! we are sharing some of the work and GENIUS of make up artist, Roy Ashton 😮 . . . and two pics from A LONG time ago and asking how many Ashton films can you name which are pictured on the above banner and WHICH are your THREE favs? 😉 Marcus

ABOVE: A letter from Peter Cushing to Roy Ashton, makes reference to the days that Peter remembers days spent in the make chair, listening to both Ashton and Christopher Lee and their impromptu singing!

BERNARD CRIBBINS HITS 90 YEARS OF AGE AND WE REMEMBER THE QUEEN OF CREEPY WOMEN TODAY!

IT'S A VERY HAPPY 90TH BIRTHDAY to BERNARD CRIBBINS TODAY! Born in 1928, Cribbins started his acting career at the tender age of 14! An actor since the age of 14 and was a major star on the London stage by his mid-20s. It would be another ten years before he became a national star with success in film comedies, with likes of Peter Sellers and a string of hit records, the most popular probably being, 'A Hole In The Ground' and 'Right Said Fred'. He appeared in several of the "Carry On" series, and also achieved a great degree of success doing voice-overs for cartoons and TV commercials. One of his biggest successes being the 1970's children's animated puppet series, 'The Wombles'.

CRIBBINS also took PETER CUSHING snorkelling in the Gulf of Aqaba! The pair were in Israel filming the Hammer films 'She', and Bernard recalls: “We did a couple of films together and that particular one was out in the Negev desert and we used to have a little swim at lunchtime. Peter was a very athletic gentleman. He played rugby, he told me, ‘I used to love to tackle people’ and you can’t imagine that ostensibly gentle man knocking people over! He was a good swimmer but he’d never been snorkelling, diving down and having a look at things, and he kept talking to me underwater, sounding like Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men which had me in hysterics!"

BACK IN 1974 Cribbins was interviewed for the role of DOCTOR WHO in 1974, as the BBC prepared for Jon Pertwee, leaving the role. 'I didn't actually audition. But when Jon Pertwee was leaving, the producer Barry Letts - who died quite recently - interviewed a lot of actors, one of whom was me. I went along and sat down and he said 'now then what can you do?' I said 'I'm a very good swimmer, I was a paratrooper, I could fight' - and he said 'Oh no, no fighting no, the Doctor is never seen fighting at all!' So Tom Baker became the next Doctor, and one of the first things I remember him doing was knocking somebody out.'

BERNARD also appeared in many tv drama programes as a guest star throughout the 1960's and 70's including the popular 'The Avengers' in TWO episodes. 'The Girl From Auntie' and the weird, 'Look, Stop Me If You've Heard This One, But There Are These Two Fella's'! Of all his movie roles, Cribbins has a fondness for 'The Railway Children' directed by Lionel Jeffries in 1970, where he played Albert Perks. Cribbins has a longstanding association with the science-fiction series Doctor Who (1963). 

ABOVE: Cribbins as Arkwright in The Girl from Auntie (1966) ... his first role in the UK television series, 'THE AVENGERS'

ABOVE Cribbins as Bradley Marler, with comedian Jimmy Jewel in "Look - (Stop Me If You've Heard This One) But There Were These Two Fellers..." his second appearnce in The Avengers in 1966. 

NOT ONLY DID HE play a companion in the second Peter Cushing film, 'Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.' (1966), which was 40 years before his regular role as a companion, Wilfred Mott, in the Russell T. Davies version of Doctor Who (2005). It certainly has been a very active and sucessful 90 years for sure. Please let us know what your favorite Cribbin's films, roles and shows so far . ..over at the FACEBOOK PCAS FAN PAGE. I think he is far from over yet! HAPPY 90th BIRTHDAY BERNARD and have a wonderful day😀

TODAY WE ARE ALSO REMEMBERING and marking the BIRTHDAY of actress . .  FREDA JACKSON who was born today. 29th December in 1907. Was there ever a more frightening actresses in a Peter Cushing Hammer film? Here we see her as the 'hair-raising' Greta in 'The Brides of Dracula' (1960) starring Peter Cushing, Yvonne Monlaur and David Peel. I have always thought it was a great shame that Hammer didn't cast her in any of their other films. She does appear in that 'is it a Hammer film or isn't it?'... 'Shadow of the Cat' (1961) as Clara the maid. But what a waste! Freda's performance as Greta in 'Brides' is as powerful now, as it was when the film was released all those years ago. What an actress! Happy Birthday, Freda!

FRED JACKSON'S GRETA, was also one of the very few feamle roles in Hammer's films, that also featured Cushing, that could give his character Van Helsing a fair fight on screen!!! 😮😉

CALLUM MCKELVIE ASKS : DOCTOR WHO AND DR WHO JUST WHO IS WHO?

IN ROUGHLY two-month’ time, the science-fiction programme Doctor Who, will see the thirteenth official ‘Doctor’ take on the role and the first female to do so. In its now over fifty year run-time, the programme has been through varying incarnations, from the political thrillers of the early 70’s period of the shower, to the gothic horror explored a mere five years later. Perhaps it is this versatile nature that allows it to be one of the most popular British television programmes of all time. 

THAT SAID, the two Dalek movies from the early 60’s are somewhat…controversial. Many people detest them, often citing the childish atmosphere and complete abandonment of the continuity of the television programme. Well I must confess that I hold a very different view and here I intend to defend a pair of often lambasted movies. This first post will tackle 1965’s Dr Who and the Daleks, whilst I will return soon to take on the sequel, Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 A.D (1966).

TO BEGIN, in the interest of full disclosure I must confess that:
A) I am a massive Doctor Who fan, to the point that I regularly attend conventions, listen to the audios, buy the magazines etc., etc. B) that is primarily due to these two films.

PICTURE IF YOU WILL, a four/five year-old northern lad who is already becoming something of a science-fiction aficionado. By this point I’d seen and enjoyed Forbidden Planet (1956), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) and War of the Worlds (1953). So naturally when I caught the final five minutes of Dr Who and the Daleks, I was hooked, managing to catch the entirety of the sequel a week later. From there I spun off into the television series, before eventually finding my way back to classic Sf/Horror cinema. So there you have it, this is the perspective of not only a Doctor Who super-fan, but one whose entire love for this subject is probably the result of these two movies.

SO WHERE TO BEGIN, my defence then? Well the Doctor Who movies usually receive criticism for three main points. The differences to the TV version, the child-like atmosphere and (amongst some fans) Cushing’s portrayal of the role. Starting with the first point, the television character is an alien, having fled his home planet and now roams time and space in his stolen Tardis, referring to himself only as; The Doctor (played on television by William Hartnell). He lands on the planet Skaro, with his granddaughter Susan and two school teachers, Ian and Barbara. Here he meets the Daleks, survivors of a nuclear war against another species, the Thals. The Daleks have mutated hideously and have locked themselves in travel machines in order to survive. Consumed with race hatred, they wish to eliminate the now peaceful Thals.

CUSHING AND SUBOTSKY'S version is a human being called ‘Dr. Who’ a somewhat dithering Grandfather who built the Tardis in his back garden. His granddaughter is no longer a teenager, but a small girl (Roberta Tovey) and the school teachers are changed for his beautiful niece (Jennie Linden) and her comic-relief lover (Roy Castle). This lack of continuity with the television series often causes upsets. 

ABOVE: Until quite recently in the TV series, the question of what actually IS inside the DALEK armor, was never really touched on and certainly not see, making this shot, a NO NO!

ABOVE: The SLAP-STICK SLICK, of Roy Castle is from 'another time'. The  now serious business of WHO time travel, losses it's drama punch, with clown shoes throwing a pie into the face of today's Doctor Who . . . 

THOUGH ONE WONDERS how much this is effected by what has come since. At this stage decidedly little was known about the title character. Several points which the film states as absolute (his name being Dr. Who and the possibility that he built the Tardis) were at this point, possibilities. In the 1965 television serial The Chase, the first doctor stated that he had built the Tardis whilst the Daleks would refer to him as ‘Human’. Other details from this time that would forgotten included a line that indicated the Doctor had only one heart and the Daleks stating that although he was human, this was not his ‘true form’ (The Daleks Masterplan 1965).

NOT ONLY THAT but the television serial upon which this is based (1963’s The Daleks) was cut down from a seven episode serial with each episode running roughly twenty-five minutes, into a ninety minute feature film, losing the more ‘talky’ elements and emphasising the action sequences. 

THIS WAS ALSO the trend at the time, with many adaptations of popular television shows at the time, choosing to adapt one of that particular series most popular or ‘important’ story lines. For example 1970’s House of Dark Shadows adapts Barnabas’s main story from Dark Shadows, ramping up the gore and fear factor for a mainstream audience whilst the UK 1971 Callan theatrical movie, also adapted that show’s first episode, again increasing the thrills for a big screen adventure. 

THE DARKER ELEMENTS  and detail of the script had to be jettisoned and the resultant film (no doubt due to Subotsky’s love for family friendly material) was aimed at younger children. Again this can be somewhat jarring to fans of the television series, but this is not unlike a majority of the science-fiction adventure films of the time. Perhaps a good comparison is the 1964 adaptation of H.G Wells The First Men In the Moon which similarly features an eccentric elderly inventor, a journey to another civilisation and an emphasis on light-hearted comedy, or another Jules Verne adaptation 1959’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth. 

'The First Men In The Moon' (1964) Soft, Cuddly and Kiddie-friendly!

 Our Review and Gallery of 'The First Men In The Moon' can be found: HERE!

AGAIN, whilst this may seem jarring, contextually it seems perfectly normal befitting a film of this nature as made in the mid 1960’s. It had a space journey, scary monsters and an alien world, perfect for the kid’s matinees! A Doctor Who film of the mid-late 1970’s would no doubt of followed some of the cinematic conventions of the time, as indeed the aborted script of Tom Baker’s Doctor Who Meets Scratchman, shows with him borrowing heavily from British horror. Indeed he even wanted Vincent Price to play the Villain!

IT'S HARD TO THINK of another Cushing character which is as divisive as his portrayal of the Doctor, a portrayal that would be massively toned down in the next film. Here he is heavily made up, with shocking white hair and a large bushy moustache. He seems constantly arched over and twitters and jumps excitedly, a mix between a Victorian scientist and the ideal grandfather. Admittedly, at points it can seem a little bit much perhaps not helped by the script (which includes a somewhat cringe inducing joke about ‘soft centred’ chocolates) but Cushing’s whimsical charm fits the very light-hearted tone of the film.

IT ALSO DOESN'T HELP that given the cut down run-time, Cushing has surprisingly little to do as the film goes on. Of course he invents the machine to take our heroes to the planet, deducts various things throughout the film, but when facing off the Daleks, he seems somewhat weak. Cushing’s Doctor (at least in this instalment) isn’t the strong, steadfast hero that we now associate with the character.

IN THE SEQUEL (as we shall see) this is one of the character traits that he changes to suit the darker script and his Doctor is all the better for it. However again we come back to the argument that at this stage the Doctor isn’t the draw. His character is not set in stone and in the colourful, child-like and child-for world of the film he fits right in. 

THE DALEKS themselves are terrifying. In full colour, they are far larger than their television counter-parts and having deeper, more booming voices that echo around the large and equally impressive sets. There are also far more of them, gliding menacingly in the background of various shots. The final battle sequence is superb and is easily the highlight of the film, with large explosions and Daleks spinning and crashing, making the television version pale in comparison.

INDEED WHILST certainly characters and some of the darker sides of Nations script are gone, the action set pieces are increased ten-fold. Dr Who and the Daleks is a brilliant Saturday matinee adventure film. Cushing’s portrayal, whilst certainly controversial, fits the tone and mood of the film perfectly.

WHILST I CAN see why fans of the show may not like this particular version, the television original is still there. You can still watch it and it has in no way had its status or reputation diminished by this version. Dr Who and the Daleks is best viewed not as a ‘Doctor Who’ film but a Dalek orientated children’s film and it is by no means any the worse for that. 

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 . .