HERE IS A TWO PART POST that was shared on the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE today. There were some very interesting comments and opinions, which you can contribute to and read by just CLICKING HERE!
#CHRISTOPHERLEESATURDAY! . . . PART ONE: Here's an interesting quote from the late
Christopher Lee, taken from an interview with the Daily Telegraph in
2015. It's the first time I can recall, reading a quote from Lee where
he compares his performance as DRACULA to other actors who played the
role. This was also at a time when the mention of the 'D' word, was
taboo in interviews, certainly interviews with the press. Lee ends this
interview with the request, ' “Please don’t describe
me in your article as a ‘horror legend’. I moved on from that.” . .
.Was Lee's performance as the Count, just too good, he made a role from
which he could not escape.. and that is why he became typecast? Or was
it really about the attraction of the films were then pushing
boundaries, in colour, blood, lust and horror, and that was the real
attraction? What do you think?
#CHRISTOPHERLEE
SATURDAY! PART TWO : As we have read in the previous post today and
along with your very interest comments and opinions.. the role of
Dracula was indeed one of Christopher Lee's finest. He often said, that
he made too many, should have quit playing the Count earlier. Budgets
and payments that should have been higher, better scripts . . he also
mentioned these factors too. Personally, I never tired of watching any
film that had Lee as Dracula and whatever he feelings were later about
the role, he could not dismiss the fact, it was always good, Very good.
For any actor, after a career as long as his indeed his was, in a
business so fickle and unpredictable ...that has to be, for this
actor... a sure victory?
IF I HAD A DOLLAR BILL or a pound coin for everytime that PETER CUSHING looked through a MAGNIFYING GLASS in a film or TV drama, I would be a wealthy man! This one is from the BBC SHERLOCK HOLMES series that Cushing starred in the late 1960's. I wonder if you could guess, which classic DOYLE SHERLOCK story this is? REQUESTED by ANNA MILES NY USA.
THE AMICUS FILMS, 'AND NOW, THE SCREAMING STARTS' to be quite frank, is one of my least favorite AMICUS / CUSHING films. To me, the script seems to wander, the horror ellements too, I find a little bad taste, and CUSHING sadly has little to do. If there is a moment, that does anything, it's that pretty dramatic scene with Peter and IAN OLGIVY in the cemetery, during a terrible storm. This was the only time AMICUS produced a GHOST story and also a period film. They certainly got the LOOK right, but the story, aint my kinda of thing. Here STEPHANIE (DRACULA AD 1972 ) BEACHAM as the newly married Catherine Fengriffen, looses her cool on the portrait of Henry Fengriffen played by HERBERT LOM. REQUESTED by AMANDA POOLE, Leeds, UK.
PART FIVE of our AMICUS FILMS OF PETER CUSHING has a great selection of rare stills from AND NOW THE SCREAMING STARTS : You will find it HERE!
SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN, WAS NOT AMICUS films, first venture into the world of SCI-FI CINEMA. Though this film, is never really sure, in WHICH genre it's sitting. I think that is one of the reasons why, many enjoy the film so much. It's reputation and following has really climbed in the last ten years, with a super dooper BLU RAY from TWLIGHT TIME back in 2013, giving it the treament and good extras. VINCENT PRICE and CHRISTOPHER LEE are great, Mr P having more screen time, and a wonderful exit! CUSHING'S role is brief as this film also stands as a very good example of how producer SUBOTSKY used his, 'stack those stars in the film and hire them for a limited time!' . . it all paid off when their names were on the bills and the marquees! REQUESTED by MIDGE ILLINOIS USA.
OUR FULL FEATURE AND RARE GALLERY on SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN can be found at this website BY SIMPLY CLICKING HERE!
IF I AM LOOKING FOR A FUN PETER CUSHING FILM with a BIT OF BITE, on for a late night view, this is the one that nearly always hits the player! Personally, I think JOHN FORBES-ROBERTSON did a good job as DRACULA, considering what he was dealing with. LEGEND OF THE SEVEN GOLDEN VAMPIRES despite being made by HAMMER FILMS, has very little in common with other films from the company. The film was a joint two film venture with, Shaw Brothers of Hong Kong. Their Horror and Supernatural films were presented in quite a highly stylised fashion, quite unique to the cinema of the country and culture. Many criticise the appearance and make up of Forbes-Robertson's DRACULA, unware that the almost 'phantom-demon' look to his face, is very much in keeping with what most vamps looked like in Hong Kong Horror Cinema of the 60's and 70's. Same too for the crumbling effects of the vampires, when they were killed. It ALL was in the flavour, of ASIAN CINEMA. The second film which Shaw made with Hammer films, also starred Cushing, was called CALL HIM MR SHATTER with STUART WHITMAN, as the star. BOTH are pretty neat films, entertaining too. A great pity Hammer never went on to make the other films, they had planned with Shaw Brothers...BELOW a lovely UK MILK MARKETING BOARD film, pushing the use of MILK on the set of the film, in a style only the 1970's cinema adverts, could do! REQUESTED by PAUL BARTON SURREY UK.
YOU WILL FIND POSTS LIKE THIS EVERY DAY AT OUR PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE! UPDATED EVERY DAY! NOW WITH OVER 33,000 FOLLOWERS: COME JOINCLICK HERE AND CLICK LIKE THERE!
AND SO, HERE WE ARE with another Saturday, which for THIS website, means something CHRISTOPHER LEE connected, to meet your #ChristopherLeeSaturday shopping list!! LAST WEEK we started our short season of CHRISTOPHER LEE: THE HAMMER DRACULA FLICKS: THE MOMENTS WE LOVE, and dipped into 'Dracula Has Risen From The Grave' and 'Scars Of Dracula', and very popular they were too! Thank you! This week, we have PART TWO and another two Hammer Dracula films.
WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?
Last week, I also received a few emails asking, why is a Peter Cushing Appreciation Society website, giving so much space to films that AIN'T really anything to do with Mr C? Well, even before Lee passed, we were already making regular space and time, to covering Lee's career, and why? The Official Christopher Lee Fan Club, sort of folded and with that so did any regular official internet presence. Good Lee photographs can be rare and expensive, so no 'official fan' was going to be posting and sharing their goodies. Lee of course made twenty two great films with Peter Cushing, plus he and Peter were very close and long time friends. So, I tested with the posting of Lee material at our now, closed PCAS Facebook Fan Page, and the results were good. On posting the series of rare clips called, THE LAST MEETING where Cushing and Lee worked and met for the last time, it proved there was much interest and many many people who came to PCAS, who wanted to see more from THE LAST MEETING and basically ANYTHING that connected to Christopher Lee.So, as always I give you, what you ask for. AND here it is! This week we are looking at the BITS WE LIKE from another two GREAT Christopher Lee Hammer Dracula films. I hope you like this week's contents!
THE AMAZING CAST:Andrew Keir (Father Shandor), Christopher
Lee (Count Dracula), Francis Matthews (Charles Kent), Barbara Shelley
(Helen Kent), Suzan Farmer (Diana Kent), Charles Tingwell (Alan Kent),
Philip Latham (Klove), Thorley Walters (Ludwig)
THE TERRIFIC PRODUCTION CREW:Director – Terence Fisher, Screenplay – John Sansom, Story – John Elder [Anthony Hinds],
Producer – Anthony Nelson-Keys, Photography – Michael Reed, Music –
James Bernard, Music Supervisor – Philip Martell, Special Effects –
Bowie Films Ltd, Makeup – Roy Ashton, Production Design – Bernard
Robinson. Production Company – Hammer/Seven Arts. UK. 1966.
DRACULA, PRINCE OF DARKNESS dramatically opens with the final sequence from Hammer Films 1958 'DRACULA',
showing the spectacular demise of Christopher Lee's Count Dracula at the hands of Peter Cushing's Van
Helsing. This sequence is enclosed in a smoky frame because the earlier
movie was shot in a different aspectic ratio - DRACULA PRINCE OF DARKNESS was one of the few Hammer movie to be shot in 'scope. Little did they know, come the release of the LIONSGATE blu ray of the film, the smokey ratio would cause a few probs, that would how ever be solved.
EVERYONE in this DARKNESS, does a very good job and has their time in the LIGHT!! Maybe the pace of the first half of the film, lays out time, for us to understand the characters and beleive the performances, Something that most Hammer films, hardly ever did, for anyone other than the top layer of performers. CHRISTOPHER LEE as DRACULA, is very good, BUT not quite as feral and rabid as in his first performance.
THE KENT'S trip and their time on the journey finally arriving at CASTLE DRACULA does take a little time . . . it ALL takes time.
DRACULA,PRINCE OF DARKNESS DOES take a little while to get started, but once the the FIRST SPATS of BLOOD start following, director Terence Fisher makes sure the horror pace doesn't stop. Personally, I feel the long fist half of the film without DRACULA, I think was probably caused by several thing, two nothing to do with the script and building tension, more maybe to do with Lee's opinion and resistance to play the Count again for Hammer, and maybe the COST per scene, of actually getting him to do that!
OVERALL IT EMERGES as a fine
sequel to Hammer's first DRACULA / HORROR OF DRACULA. Andrew Keir as Father Sandor makes a
fine character, stepping in as the Vampire Hunter, as Peter Cushing did as Van Helsing, in the previous movie. It's kind of a shame
that Hammer didn't run two series in parallel, one with Dracula against
various savants and one with Van Helsing against various villains, but I
guess Cushing was already quite busy with their FRANKENSTEIN series.
AS FOR MOMENTS WE LIKE . . one of the most remarkable sequence in the film is
the scene where Barbara Shelley is held down on a table, hissing and
writhing, as a stake is hammered into her heart by the dispassionate
priesthood. It is perhaps the most potent image of sexual repression in
all of British horror cinema. Indeed, Dracula - Prince of Darkness,
more than any of the Hammer Draculas, embodies the recurrent image of
sexual repression threatening to emerge to tear Victorian society apart
and its dispassionate elimination by men of reason.
THE TRAVELERS, played by Shelley, Farmer, Matthews and Tingwell are
deliberately set up as representatives of 'English genteel' in order to be
torn apart – the strongest image of this polarity is the turning of the
prim, uptight and anxious Barbara Shelley into a voluptuous vampire,
begging Francis Matthews “Give us a kiss.” The sexual overtones in the
scene where Christopher Lee causes Suzan Farmer to kneel and drink from
the cut he opens with his fingernail in his chest are incredibly vivid.
ANOTHER GREAT MOMENT would have to be Farmers shock and terror, on seeing Lee's Count, unknown to her, standing in the room. Personally, I fond her reaction THE most genuine and terrified reaction I have EVER see. Totally convincing. AND there is of course DRACULA bowing out horribly in the ICY RUNNING WATER . . .
AND WE MUST MENTION Thorley Walters. I have seen some odd comments on blogs and websites, annoyed that Walters doesn't play a very good, RENFIELD. Well, firstly that is because, this isn't the character of Renfield, it's LUDWIG, and second, this is Thorley not Dwight Frye. Take a faff through the flicks featuring vampires, as well as DRACULA and you will often find a suspect individual who isn't called Renfield, BUT does eat FLIES!
OUR SECOND DRACULA FEATURE has several fine moments and a great cast. TASTE also has moments where the story and reasons, do drift and stray from what made the previous Hammer DRACULA's so great. The element that makes TASTE fall short, is the fall out from some of the pre production problems that effected the script and stability of the film. Sadly, we don't get to see Christopher Lee as DRACULA, as many times as we should, and when we DO it's those preproduction issues, that make his presence wobble . .
THE CAST: Geoffrey Keen (William Hargood), Linda Hayden (Alice Hargood), Anthony Corlan (Paul Paxton), Christopher Lee (Count Dracula), John Carson (Jonathan Secker), Peter Sallis (Samuel Paxton), Ralph Bates (Lord Courtley), Isla Blair (Lucy Paxton), Martin Jarvis (Jeremy Secker), Gwen Watford (Martha Hargood), Roy Kinnear (Weller), Michael Ripper (Cobb)
ABOVE: A RARE CONTACT SHEET of photographs from TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA taken on set by the production photographer
PRODUCTION CREW: Director: Peter Sasdy, Screenplay: John Elder [Anthony Hinds], Producer: Aida Young, Photography: Arthur Grant, Music: James Bernard, Music Supervisor: Philip Martell, Special Effects: Brian Johncock, Makeup: Gerry Fletcher, Art Direction: Scott MacGregor. Production Company: Hammer.
SYNOPSYS: Three Victorian men who lead upstanding and moralistic lives, sneak out to a brothel on the pretext of conducting charity work. Their pleasure is interrupted by the libertine Lord Courtley who offers to show them far greater pleasures. He takes them to an antique shop where he gets them to purchase Dracula’s cape, signet ring and a vial of his powdered blood. Courtley conducts a ceremony in an abandoned church. But when he asks the men to drink the blood, they are disgusted. Drinking it himself, he collapses. The men kick and beat Courtley to death and then flee the scene. But Courtley’s spilt blood revives Dracula who swears vengeance on the other men for killing his disciple. Dracula then seduces each of the men’s children, making them vampires and turning them against their fathers.
ABOVE ANOTHER RARELYseen never shared, CONTACT SHEET from TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA
TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA
was the fifth of the Hammer Dracula films and by for many fans, it was the last Hammer Dracula worth seeing. It saw the entry of a promising
new director Peter Sasdy. A Hungarian immigrant, Sasdy had come
from noted tv work during the 1960s, including episodes of the sf
anthology series Out of the Unknown (1956-71) and the acclaimed BBC
adaptation of Wuthering Heights (1970). The problem with Taste the Blood of Dracula
is, like many it doesn’t always work – as usual with the Hammer Dracula sequels, the
script has difficulty coming up with worthwhile motivation for Dracula.
The vengeance theme that drives the story, isn't well connected – it does seem overly generous of
Dracula to swear vengeance for Ralph Bates's Courtley’s murder, having not even MET
Courtley!
CONSIDERING that Courtley’s death was necessary for him to
be resurrected it does seem slightly irrational of Dracula to then
swear vengeance on Courtley’s murderers. Further it makes Taste the Blood of Dracula
into a Hammer Dracula, that is something really different from the other Hammer Drac films. It now becomes a film about vengeance rather
than one about vampirism. Throughout the focus is on Dracula corrupting
the children and turning them against their parents and the usual
business of blood-letting hardly even figures at all.
BUT AGAIN, LIKE ALL the Hammer Dracula films that followed the 1958 production, it's MOMENTS and VISUALS that make the films watching. I have selected several of these moments in our GIFS and images, of the moments that worked for me personally. IF you have seen either of these films, MAYBE you would like to send me an email, about your thoughts and opinions..and I will ADD THEM to this feature, as they arrive. I hope you have enjoyed our latest DOUBLE BILL of Hammer Dracula Flicks. We have just one MORE DOUBLE next week... Please JOIN US then!
