#SILENTBUTDEADLY: GIFS OF TRAINS, CREEPY SHOP KEEPERS, TEMPTRESSES AND A DREAM

#SILENTBUTDEADLY: NO MATTER HOW much you may hate or dislike the character of Johnny Alucard in Hammer films, 'Dracula AD 1972' you have to admire the playing of the role by actor, Christopher Neame. Upstart, swanky, dis-likeable and rude, you most certainly could not tag, Mr Neame. Born in London, in 1947, Neame was educated at the independent, "King's School" in Canterbury, Kent, UK. He started his film career at the beginning of 1970s, with two outings with Hammer films,  Lust for a Vampire (1971), and after some TV work, he was cast in Dracula AD (1972), where he played Christopher Lee's personal assistant, one... Johnny Alucard. From that moment, he fell into a little type-cast, being usually cast as a villain. He continued to work on television in the 1970's making an impression with the viewing public in the BBC TV series "Colditz" (1972-1974), "Edward The King" (1975) and "Secret Army" (1977)

IN THE 1980's he started to make an impression in US films and TV series, Steel Dawn (1987) and D.O.A. (1988) and a nine year run in the television series,  "Dynasty" in 1981, after which he returned to UK, appearing small roles in films like, the James Bond film License to Kill (1989). Returning to the US in 1990, he appeared in Ghostbusters 2 (1989), Edge of Honor (1991), Diplomatic Immunity (1991) and Suburban Commando (1991). He played villains in 'Street Knight' (1993), opposite Jeff Speakman and 'Hellbound' (1994) opposite Chuck Norris.

BUT, WE'LL TAKE  Alucard over any of the above, as indeed does Angie McDonald who requested this gif!

#SILENTBUTDEADLY! LET'S FACE IT, would you buy anything from a man who peeps out from his shop like this? But, all the characters in 'From Beyond The Grave' quite happily, skipped into Temptations Limited, and thought they could also con, Cushing's proprietor into the bargain! How wrong they were! 

OUR #MONSTERMONDAY TRIBUTE 

FROM A FEW MONTHS AGO

WITH BOTH 'Dr Terror's House of Horror' and 'Beyond The Grave' Cushing took the role of character device, that was the narrative bridge between each tale. Small roles, but as ever, he was able to make each role, much more than was written on the page. Stan Partridge requested this GIF,and this particular shot!

#SILENTBUTDEADLY: HERE is a very interesting GIF selected by Gavin Porter, from the UK. He has chosen this particular shot, and asked if we knew the relevance of the guard who looks out from the train carriage... We do. But do YOU? If you know the answer, send us an email to the address at the bottom of this post.... 

#SILENTBUTDEADLY!: MORE TRAINS.... and here is the perfect example of why you should never talk to strangers on a train, pulling out of Karlsbadd! A young Derek Fowlds long before, his Mr Fowlds stint with a certain fox-hand puppet called Basil Brush and his excellent playing of Bernard Woolley in the BBC 'Yes, Minister' and 'Yes, Prime Minister. 

THE VICTIM OF Susan Denberg's Christina Kleeves, in Frankenstein Created Woman in 1967, Fowlds gives an excellent commentary on the BLU RAY release of the film, revealing that Denberg was far from being the raving sex kitten during the making of this film, that the UK tabloids would have you believe. Many trued to date her from the pool of actors and technicians at Bray...but only Fowlds actually dated her. Fowlds didn't quite kiss and tell, but let's just say, they had a good time together!

#SILENTBUTDEADLY: CRUSHING! That is the only way to describe the closing moments of Cushing's 1973 film, 'The Creeping Flesh'. Here Cushing's Emmanuel Hildern is visited by his step-brother, James Hildern played with fine line in villainy by Christopher Lee. It's the beginning of the final psychological spiral downwards of Emmanuel's life...or is it?

THE CREEPING FLESH is a film that stays with you, long after the credits role, as you realize, the plot has left you with more questions than answers. It's got more twists and turns, than a roller-coaster at Coney Island. To quote John Lennon..'Was it just a dream?' I guess we'll never really know, for sure....

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WHO LOVES YA? WE ALL DO!

WHO LOVES YA, BABY?...Today we remember the birthday of the late Telly Savalas. A much loved and larger than life man, on and off the screen. His Peter Cushing connection is his rip-roaring performance as the Cossack, Captain Kazan in the 'run-away-train-with-a-monster-and-zombies-onboard' epic from 1972, 'Horror Express'.
 

IT'S A FILM THAT NEVER STOPS going up gears through out it's tense 90 mins. When Savalas appears, almost an hour in, it really is full steam ahead! Along with Cushing and Lee, he makes the film a whole lot of fun. Most of us remember him as the lolly sucking cop in the excellent tv show, 'Kojak' and his quick to catch on catch phrase, 'Who Loves Ya Baby?'…… Who loves ya Telly? Why we do and always will.....

HORROR EXPRESS IS REVIEWED WITH RARE IMAGES HERE

ANNOUNCED DELAYED POSTPONED ANNOUNCED DELAYED: THE TROUBLED JOURNEY OF 1984 : THE DVD.

NEWS: Yes, sounds like the kind of announcement you may hear on any train station platform up and down the UK... 'The 19:84 from Scunthorpe to London, has been delayed until 20:15. We aploogise for the delay..! No this is news that the BFI DVD of '1984', (Remastered and Restored) adapted by Nigel Kneale, produced by Rudolph Cartier and starring Peter Cushing, has been delayed until March 2015.

This official release has been a long time coming, though groggy-fuzzy bootlegs from Spain and the US have given us a tantalizing taster over the years. Though I will tell you that this release has been on the table and had several false starts since 2004!

In 2004, it was announced that it the BBC 1984 television play would be released by DD Video. This was followed by a press release from  DD and with the news that considerable effort had been made in order to present the programme in the best possible quality.

The DD Press release of 2004:

BBC CLASSIC SF DRAMA PAINSTAKINGLY RESTORED

Classic TV specialist DD Home Entertainment claims to have set a new quality benchmark on its restoration work for the 1954 BBC drama Nineteen Eighty-Four.

This early landmark of British television, which will be available for the first time ever on DVD and video on November 8th, required extensive work on it, but viewers will – according to DD – find the restored picture even better than when it was first transmitted.  In December 1954 videotape recorders (even for broadcast use) were two years away and existed, if at all, only in prototype form in research laboratories.

Since 1947 BBC engineers had been able to make crude recordings of TV pictures simply by pointing a film camera at a monitor screen.  However, dramas were not recorded until 1953 and Nineteen Eighty-Four remains one of the earliest surviving examples of the art-form. It was recorded at the time using an ingenious system of modified telecine machines.

New transfers of the film recording were commissioned from BBC Resources using its highest quality Spirit Datacine equipment. Special arrangements were made with the BBC Film and Videotape Library for access to the archive master material, which cannot normally be used.

The new copies of the play were graded. This is the process of taking each shot (or even part shot) and adjusting the brightness and contrast. Dirty cuts (where a frame is made of superimposed and distorted pictures from two cameras) were removed or, where possible, repaired using paintbox techniques.

Nineteen Eighty-Four will be available from November 8th 2004

Needless to say, the  DVD never arrived in November 2004, the word was there had been 'problems' and a dispute with author George Orwell's estate. Things went very , very quiet for  a long time.....

Then in July 2014, the BFI announced that they would be releasing the 2004 restored DVD as part of their 'Days of Fear and Wonder' SF season... but that too has now been postponed until March 2015. 

Orwell estate trying to claw the last few few bucks from their rights to the material, before it slips into from their ownership? BFI busy putting together some worth while extra features? Who knows...

Until March of next year, we sit and wait...

Another slice of buffet car coffe anyone?