DON'T LOOSE YOUR HEAD! MONSTERMONDAY : PITT AND THE VAMPIRE!

In todays #MonsterMonday we feature Carmilla from Hammer's The Vampire Lovers (1970) played by the lovely Ingrid Pitt in what many considered to be her finest role… A fine cast supports her in the film, Peter Cushing, George Cole, Maddie Smith and Douglas Wilmer who we sadly lost last month. Ingrid's performance made Carmilla one of Hammer's most successful female vampires, How do you rate her performance?

Ingrid and the gals get together for a publicity shot on

 The Vampire Lovers 1970

BTS: Peter Cushing, ever the gentleman...happy to come to the aid of Ingrid Pitt, to ensure she doesn't slip or hurt herself...before he hacks her head off! Peter Cushing and Ingrid Pitt in The Vampire Lovers (1970)

 

 FIND MORE on INGRID PITT and BEHIND THE SCENES

on THE VAMPIRE LOVER AT OUR RARE STILLS

FEATURE: RIGHT HERE! 

JOIN US AT OUR OFFICIAL PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE!

UPDATED EVERY DAY WITH NEWS, FEATURES, RARE AND

UNPUBLISHED PHOTOGRAPHS, FEATURES AND

COMPETITIONS. JUST CLICK HERE 

ACTOR DOUGLAS WILMER 96 DIES TODAY

News has just broken that the actor, Douglas Wilmer has died today. Another loss. Wilmer was mainly associated by the public for his role as Sherlock Holmes, which he first played in the BBC's 1964 production of The Speckled Band. Together with co-star Nigel Stock, playing Doctor Watson, it was a knock out tv series, that Peter Cushing went on to star in after Wilmer left.

In 1973 Wilmer played author Jacques Futrelle's Holmesian detective Professor Van Dusen in The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes for ITV. In 1975 he once again appeared as Holmes (albeit in a supporting role) in Gene Wilder's The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother, with Thorley Walters as Dr. Watson. Wilmer also played Sir Denis Nayland Smith in two Harry Alan Towers' Fu Manchu films The Brides of Fu Manchu (1966) and The Vengeance of Fu Manchu (1967).

Douglas Wilmer appeared in Hammer films, The Vampire Lovers, as Baron Hartog... with Peter Cushing in 1970. With roles in Revenge of the Pink Panther, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, Cleopatra in 1963 and Jason and the Argonauts.. it will be for Sherlock Holmes he will probably be best remembered. In 2009 Wilmer published his autobiography entitled Stage Whispers. In 2012 Wilmer made a cameo appearance in the "The Reichenbach Fall" episode of Sherlock as an irate old man in The Diogenes Club.

ON SET SATURDAY WITH PETER CUSHING : URSULA ANDRESS : BERNARD CRIBBINS AND DAWN ADDAMS

Candid Cushing: Principal photography started on The Vampire Lovers at Elstree Studios on 19th January 1970 The film also used locations in the grounds of Moor Park Mansion, Hertfordshire (This stood in for Styria, Central Europe). The Vampire Lovers was produced on a relatively low budget of £165,227 and was the final Hammer film to be financed with American money. Almost all of the later films were backed by distibutors Rank or EMI. Our onset photograph shows, Peter Cushing and Dawn Addams having a cuddle on the set of Hammer's The Vampire Lovers in 1970.

The principal photography for Hammer films, SHE started in southern Israel's Negev Desert on 24th August 1964, with scenes also shot at MGM's Elstree Studios in London, when Hammer's own home, Bray Studios proved to be too small for the project. SHE was the most expensive film Hammer had made up until this time, mid 1964.

Our REVIEW and GALLERY of SHE can be found:  HERE

TRIVIA: Hammer were pleased with the look of Ursula Andress in the film – she was lit by Harry Waxman, costumed by Carl Toms, with her effects make up provided by master make up artist, Roy Ashton – they found her 'Swiss German' accent off-putting, so had her entire part re-dubbed by actress Monica Van Der Syl. Syl was careful to maintain a slight accent in her dubbing, so as not to throw the film's audience, who may have have been familiar with the way Andress spoke in her recent appearance in the James Bond film, Dr. No.

 Read MORE on Hammer films SHE in our feature with supporting

gallery : HERE

 

Join Us at our FACEBOOK FAN PAGE : Updated daily : HERE

REMEMBERING INGRID PITT ON HER BIRTHDAY

Today we remember Ingrid Pitt who was born on this day.. A wonderful actress who starred in several horror classics such as The Vampire Lovers with Peter Cushing, The House That Dripped Blood, The Wicker Man both with Christopher Lee. A truly lovely lady who lead a remarkable life...

ACTOR GEORGE COLE DIES 1925 - 2015

I am very sad to hear today that the wonderfully gifted actor and perfect gentleman, George Cole has died. George Edward Cole OBE had career that spanned more than 70 years in show business. George lived a very full life that started when he was given up for adoption at just ten days old, as a youth he worked himself up from working as a butcher boy aged 10....to finally becoming one of one of our most loved actors... on the cinema screen and popular TV.

At 15 he was cast in the film Cottage to Let (1941) where he starred opposite Scottish actor Alastair Sim. Sim liked Cole, and agreed with his family to take in Cole and his adoptive mother to their home. Acting as his mentor, Sim helped Cole lose his Cockney accent and he stayed with the Sim family until he was 27. Cole later attributed his career success to Sim, with whom he appeared in a total of 11 films. Cole really became familiar to audiences in British comedy films in the 1950s, when appeared with Sim in Scrooge (as the young Scrooge) in 1951.

George Cole as the loveable rogue 'Flash Harry' and Alistair Sim as Headmistress in  The Belles of St Trinian's (1954)

But for many he will be remembered "Flash Harry" in the St Trinian's films (two of which also star Sim) and as the crooked used-car dealer Arthur Daley in the Thames Television series Minder, in which he played from 1979 until the show's conclusion in 1994.

We remember George here today also for his role as Roger Morton with Peter Cushing in Hammer films, 'The Vampire Lovers', starring also Ingrid Pitt. I have always thought it was an odd piece of casting, but was glad to see him there, none the less. God Bless, George. Sleep Well.

FIND US ON FACEBOOK HERE 

PHOTOPLAY 1971 FILM ANNUAL PRICE CUSHING LEE THREE FACES OF FEAR FEATURE

How Photoplay Film Annual reported on the success and popularity of  the THREE FACES OF FEAR at the cinema in 1971 : Peter Cushing, Vincent Price and Christopher Lee.

 

MAID IN ENGLAND: MADELINE SMITH GALLERY

Hammer films 'Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell' is celebrating it's 40th anniversary this year since it's release in the US and we'll be marking that in style next month. The last of the Hammer / Cushing / Frankenstein series starring Peter Cushing, Shane Briant and.... Madeline Smith.

Madeline Smith was born on 2nd August 1949. She worked as a model in the 1960s, and appeared in many television series, Hammer horror and comedy films from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. Smith was born in Hartfield, Sussex. Her father owned an antiques shop near Kew Gardens, while she had a temporary job working at Biba's boutique, a fashion house in Kensington High Street, London. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Smith was frequently the subject of cartoons by J Edward Oliver, which made constant admiring reference to her disproportionately large bust. Smith first worked for Hammer films in Taste the Blood of Dracula (1969) as an East End prostitute, a non-speaking role. In 1973 she played the Bond girl Miss Caruso in the post-titles sequence of Live and Let Die, the first James Bond film starring Roger Moore, and The Angel Sarah, in Hammer Films  'Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell  with Peter Cushing and Shane Briant in 1973.

Her television credits include Doctor at Large (1971), The Two Ronnies (appearance in the serial "Hampton Wick" 1971), Clochemerle (1972), His and Hers (1970) with Tim Brooke-Taylor, Casanova '73 (1973) with Leslie Phillips, and The Steam Video Company (1984). She was a member of the regular cast for the BBC2 series The End of the Pier Show (1974) and In The Looking Glass (1978), along with John Wells, John Fortune and Carl Davis. Smith made her last film, Eric Morecambe's final work, The Passionate Pilgrim with Tom Baker, in 1984.