WORK AND GOOD GRACE! CAPTAIN INVINCIBLE : DIANA RIGG AND VALERIE VAN OST

WITH MY APOLOGIES, I have had to spend a few days away from the website and FACEBOOK PCASUK FACEBOOK FAN PAGE, with annoying but 'had to do' matters, so only a few post this last week. However, here are the few that have entertained at the PCASUK Facebook Fan Page, this week. Glad to report, biz as usual here on in 😉😊 - Marcus

ABOVE BANNER:

#ChristopherLee Saturday! A little nugget of good advice, from the late Christopher Lee. He must have had nerves and patience of steel!! When you look through that filmography! One film that comes to mind is Amicus films, 'I Monster' (1971) A film he suggested young and new director Stephen Weeks to step into, after 'House that Dripped Blood' director turned it down. It was a script Lee liked, but the film rode a whole saga of issues in regard of the actual production . . a 3D process didn't work... 'the Pulfrich effect' anyone? Weeks did very well considering, even though the film ran out of lolly, before the last shutter... shut! Lee is VERY good, as is Peter Cushing in the role of Utterson. It's a shame that the film performed poorly at the box office, at the time, but as with many of these 'fantasy films from this time', the passing of the years has been kinder to the film and it is now seen as a very faithful adaptation.

'I MONSTER' BEHIND THE SCENES RARE STILLS  GALLERY

PART ONE: HERE 

I DID A FEW YEARS AGO, post two great galleries of rarely seen photographs from 'I Monster' of Lee and Cushing.. and in these pics you can see, both appear to be having fun..and showing ...good grace! 😊

PART TWO OF 'I MONSTER' BEHIND THE SCENES GALLERY WITH #PETERCUSHING AND #CHRISTOPHERLEE : RIGHT HERE!

#CHRISTOPHERLEESATURDAY: ABOVE IS AN INTERESTING PHOTOGRAPH with Christopher Lee and Australian actress Kate Fitzpatrick doing promotion at the Martin Place Amphitheatre Sydney for their film The Return Of Captain Invincible from July 1983 With The Lord Mayor of Sydney, Douglas Sutherland joining them. This sadly is another of Lee's many 'over-looked' films in his long and movie packed career. This film also gave him a chance to doing some singing on film, with Lee playing the main villain, Mr. Midnight

OVER AT THE  FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE we are asking if you are a fan of this one? or not 😊Please share your opinions in the comments in the comment thread!

ABOVE: ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL rare colour photograph we shared of Peter Cushing, as Capt. Richard Pearson, with Robert Stack in 'John Paul Jones' (1959) .. a 'meh' film, but PC is very good! Although, there's lots of comments about the film on the thread at the Facebook PCASUK Fan Page today HERE! This post comes with thanks to Lucy 😉😊

'WOMAN OF MY AGE ARE STILL ATTRACTIVE. Men of my age are not' ... so said, this amazing icon of entertainment last year. And you know, Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg, DBE...does have point! Many actors from her era have either left us, or look like an unmade bed! We all know the Cushing Connection here, Mrs Peel in the Brit 1960's TV series, The Avengers, where PC played the very dashing Paul Beresford, a smooth operator, pushing all the buttons as romantic interest for Rigg's all action Mrs Peel and a finger on the button of death that commanded his deadly Cybernaut!

READ  MORE ON DIANA RIGG AND PETER CUSHING in the 'Return of the Cybernauts' 'The Avengers' episode in our PCASUK feature : RIGHT HERE!

DIANA RIGG'S CAREER also features the splendid 'Theatre of Blood' with Vincent Price. She also worked with Christopher Lee in the Avengers tv series.in 'Never, Never Say Die' in 1967. Having recently started in the international hit tv series, Game of Thrones, Rigg is in no hurry to retire, and I think like Mrs Peel, she'll be 'socking it to us' for a while yet! We celebrated Diana Rigg's birthday last week at the Facebook PCASUK Fan Page on July 20th! It was a grand Happy Birthday Diana Rigg, who was born in 1938... Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg, DBE is still looking fabulous today!😉😀

YESTERDAY,  marked and remembered the birthday of the lovely Valerie Van Ost who was born July 25th 1944! As reference to her Peter Cushing connections, we mentioned the films 'Corruption', 'Incense for the Damned' and 'The Satanic Rites of Dracula' with Peter.

VALERIE WAS ALSO very popular in the Carry On series of film in the 1960's, in “Carry On Cabby,” “Carry On Don’t Lose Your Head,” “Carry On Doctor” and “Carry On Again Doctor,”. Van Ost’s sad passing was announced by agent Barry Langford who said in a tweet, “A sad goodbye to beautiful Valerie Van Ost, who passed away this week. Valerie gave up her successful acting career to become a respected casting director and was beloved in both profession. A native of Herkamsted, Hertfordshire, turned to acting after she had been a dancer in her teenager at London’s famed Palladium theatre. 

IT'S BELIEVED that at one time, she was once considered to be a possible replacement for Diana Rigg as Emma Peel in “The Avengers,” having once appeared in an episode of the show. In 1973, Van Ost took on her other most famous role, in the Hammer horror movie, “The Satanic Rites of Dracula'.” Van Ost played the role of a Secret Service secretary who is kidnapped by a satanic cult. Van Ost was married to movie producer Greg Smith. Smith had been the producer of Britain’s other great bawdy comedy series, the “Confessions” series of movies in the 1970s.

LATER IN 1985, Van Ost married Andrew Millington, with whom she set up a casting agency. This coincided with Van Ost’s retirement from acting. The pair cast five movies and a television series during the 1980s. Two of those films, “The Boys in Blue” and “Funny Money” were produced by her first husband.
 

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ACTRESS VALERIE VAN OST DIES AGED 75

IT HAS JUST BEEN ANNOUNCED that, sadly actress, Valerie Van Ost, has died at the age of 75. Van Ost appeared in Corruption, Incense for the Damned and The Satanic rites of Dracula with Peter Cushing. Valerie was also very popular in the Carry On series of film in the 1960's, in “Carry On Cabby,” “Carry On Don’t Lose Your Head,” “Carry On Doctor” and “Carry On Again Doctor,”. Van Ost’s sad passing was announced by agent Barry Langford who said in a tweet, “A sad goodbye to beautiful Valerie Van Ost, who passed away this week. Valerie gave up her successful acting career to become a respected casting director and was beloved in both professions. She will be much missed

VALERIE VAN OST, a native of Herkamsted, Hertfordshire, turned to acting after she had been a dancer in her teenager at London’s famed Palladium theatre. It's believed that at one time she was once considered to be a possible replacement for Diana Rigg as Emma Peel in “The Avengers,” having once appeared in an episode of the show. In 1973, Van Ost took on her other most famous role, in the Hammer horror movie, “The Satanic Rites of Dracula'.” Van Ost played the role of a Secret Service secretary who is kidnapped by a satanic cult. Van Ost was married to movie producer Greg Smith. Smith had been the producer of Britain’s other great bawdy comedy series, the “Confessions” series of movies in the 1970s.

VAN OST RECENTELY POSTED a photograph of her and BARRY LANGFORD on her twitter account . .

LATER IN 1985, Van Ost married Andrew Millington, with whom she set up a casting agency. This coincided with Van Ost’s retirement from acting. The pair cast five movies and a television series during the 1980s. Two of those films, “The Boys in Blue” and “Funny Money” were produced by her first husband. I am sure many of you would like to share your memories of your favourite role too.. please feel free to post your comments on the thread below. Valerie Van Ost, 25 July 1944 - 14 September 2019

CORRUPTION : SUPER SPLATTER OR SHOCKING MISCAST?

FOR SOME NOT CUSHING'S finest hours! But there are many who consider his performance as SIR JOHN ROWAN in the film, CORRUPTION (1967) to be obne of his best! I can't say I personally sit on either stool. I like the film, but I can take or leave Cushing's performance. When the film was given a very impressive remastering by GRINDHOUSE a few years ago, it blu rays and excellent extra features package, flew off their shelves. Cushing had found a NEW audience, his probably one and onlY 'splatter' film! This little collection of GIF'S selected and requested by Carl Porter, ends with a fine example of how far, the violence is cranked up in this one and believe me, on watching the uncut European print, that was part of the GRINDHOUSE package, it doesn't stop there!

 

OUR PCAS full feature and gallery on PETER CUSHING's film CORRUPTION : 

PLEASE CLICK HERE! 

THE FULL REVIEW of the GRINDHOUSE remastered BLU RAY :

PLEASE CLICK 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 reach all lovers of Peter Cushing's work AND Help Keep The Memory Alive! 

 

FREE HI RES HAMMER FILMS CONTACT SHEET : COLLECTORS WEDNESDAY!

#PETERCUSHING #COLLECTORS Wednesday! OK This week I am sharing a rare black and white CONTACT SHEET from Hammer films 1973, The Satanic Rites of Dracula. As usual, this is our FREE weekly full hi res upload, as seen on our our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE  available for you today, for you to download. These NINETEEN exposures from the  Hammer films on set stills cameraman, feature shots taken during the shooting of two scenes from the film, the Vampire's in the Cellar scene, with Joanna Lumley and Valerie Van Ost and Van Helsing visiting Professor Julian Keeley played by Peter Cushing and Freddie Jones.

 HI RES CONTACT SHEET ABOVE: RIGHT CLICK AND COPY!

WHAT IS A CONTACT SHEET? A contact sheet is a positive print of all the negative images from one film, made by a contact printing process so that all the images are the same size as the negative. A contact sheet is a useful way of seeing which are the best images on a film so you can decide which ones to make enlargements from. During the production the unit photographer was responsible for capturing thousands of still shots while the movie cameras were running. Some of the photos would offer a different angle to the motion picture camera. In other cases, the photographer would stand next to a movie camera operator. And some of the shots would be behind the scenes with actors and directors. After the final production still shots were taken each day, the roles of film negatives were placed on contact sheets (created by laying the negatives on a piece of printing paper and exposing them to light to create a set of mini prints the same as the film frames) (IMAGE) The contact sheets were then forwarded to the publicity department. The Publicity Department could then view the full roll of 36 images at one time with a “ring” or magnifying glass. Publicity Department –The Publicity Department was, among other things, responsible for generating early publicity about a film, including providing information to magazines and publications. In addition, they were responsible for providing the Advertising Department with information necessary to create the film’s promotional materials. The publicity department would review the contact sheets and select images for specific purposes, such as creating a key set, keeping track and providing exclusive images to magazines and publications, and sending the advertising department information necessary to begin preparation of promotional materials.

Key Set Creation - After a review by the publicity department, the better images were picked to become part of a key set. The selected images are numbered by placing an assigned number by the studio for that particular film, called the production number, and then a dash and the assigned individual still number. THIS is called the Production Code number.

ABOVE: Our Collectors Wednesday post from TWO weeks ago,  posted here and at our  PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE.. It was a pretty cool concept, but was ultimately ruined by Facebbok  quashing the post...thanks facebook!

The selected stills were then printed and placed into the key set binder. The rejects are skipped over and left unnumbered. The negatives and contact sheets were then filed. These may be pulled at a later date when someone wants something different. By the end of the shooting, this 'key set' would normally be hundreds of the better still shots to be used in a variety of ways by the publicity department. The stills used in this 'key set' would have numbers put on the still to help the publicity department identify and keep up with the different stills. They were kept in large bound books that could be used at any time for reference.

Exclusive Use – Major magazines and publications would quite often want exclusive photos to do an article on the upcoming film. This was a tremendous way for the film to get FREE publicity. To accommodate them, the publicity department would put a hold on numerous stills and send over a group for the editor to choose from. Once the exclusives were picked, the tags would be removed from those images not selected so they could be used for other purposes

I BELIEVE, Tom Edwards was the stills photographer on Satanic Rites. He had a very good eye for a great shot, and worked on other Cushing Hammer films like, 'Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell'. As I have mentioned before, each cell, photograph here would make a great pic for your collection, printed off would look great in a frame, the high res would also make a great poster too. The majority of the shots on this contact sheet, have rarely been officially published, as often just one or two from this studio contact sheet would have been chosen for press packs and promotion. I hope you like what I have shared so far? Have fun 🙂 Marcus

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

VALERIE VAN OST AND THE GALS : MONSTERMONDAY FEATURE AND GALLERY

TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES PREVENT US FROM BRINGING YOU THIS FEATURE RIGHT NOW. FEATURE AND GALLERY ON IT'S WAY