REMEMBERING JON PERTWEE : A RARE COLOUR TRANSPARANCEY PLUS STUNNING RESIN CRYPT MODEL KIT PICS!

REQUESTED from Phil Randell
ANOTHER dip into the colour images from rare contract sheets of Christopher Lee and Veronica Carlson in 'Dracula Has Risen From The Grave', the last for while, this is a request, so here we go.... an interesting shot from the studio's publicity photographer, with the intention of trimming the pic later, to remove those lighting cables on the floor out of the shot. I think, this was between poses too, both seem to be listening to the photographer. . .

TODAY WE REMEMBER Jon Pertwee who we sadly lost on this day in May 1996. Pertwee became best known for spending 18 years (1959–1977) playing Chief petty officer Pertwee in the popular series The Navy Lark on BBC Radio. But achieved world wide recognition from playing the Third Doctor in Dr Who whom he played from 1970 to 1974.

AFTER DOCTOR WHO He had continued success in TV playing the title character in the television series Worzel Gummidge from 1979 to 1981 (reprising the role from 1987 to 1989). Judging by the response, to this post at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE it is wonderful to see, Pertwee's admirers and following is just as strong as ever. He is still very much, appreciated and remembered!  

DOES THIS 'THE MUMMY' kit figure grab you? I get sent quite a lot of photographs of figures and model kits, but this one is very good , I think. Resin Crypt's "Deadly Intruder" sculpted by Robert Price and.artist Nick DeAngelo has done an very good job painting and building the piece.

YOU SEE IT PRESENTED here, before the paint and after. The kit consists of 16 pieces and is 1/6th scale, which features include both figures of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing along with a highly detailed elaborate base including, globe, rifle and nameplate . . 

THIS IS ALL reproduced from the stunning action scene, that takes part in the Hammer film of 1959, The Mummy, directed by Terence Fisher...and make up by the amazing Roy Ashton! Over at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE, we have asked for YOUR opinion on the figure, and the feed-back has been MOST postive!

CATCH UP with our FEATURE and GALLERY on Hammer films 'THE MUMMY' starring Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and Yvonne Furneaux : JUST CLICK HERE!

DO YOU REMEMBER RHAID DINISTRIO FRANKENSTEIN? RARE PCASUK SCRAPBOOK CUTTING

HERE IS A RARE CUTTING, from our PCASUK scrapbooks, that I have posted before, but some time ago. Not only is it rare, but the occasion that story in the cutting is was quite an event and quite strange at the time, for quite a few people! I wonder how many of you remember it and if anyone remembers when and what the newspaper cutting is all about? Feel free to join in the discussion and debate at our right now!

PCASUK has several internet social platforms, including a FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE. It has over 33 THOUSAND likes and followers! Please come join us us and have an opportunity to discuss any of the posts you have seen here at the website! 

REMEMBERING ONE OF HAMMER FILMS NICEST MEN : TUESDAY TOUGHIE : WINNERS OF CINEFICCION!

REMEMBERING: A wonderful actor and special guy, RALPH BATES. Sadly, no longer with us, and died today in 1991. A talented actor and a truly gentle and kind man.

THE GREAT, GREAT nephew of the renowned French scientist Louis Pasteur developed into a strangely handsome dark haired, pale complexioned English actor. Ralph Bates was born in 1940 in Bristol, England and attended the University of Dublin and studied at the Yale Drama School. His dramatic talents first came to audiences attention playing the evil Emperor Caligula in the well received BBC TV series The Caesars (1968). However, the Hammer studios resurrection of the horror genre was then in full stride, and Bates was soon engulfed in the swirling cloak of Hammer's success as he appeared in several horror films in quick succession.

FIRSTLY IN A SUPPORT role as demonic Lord Courtley in Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970), followed as the lead character Baron Frankenstein in The Horror of Frankenstein (1970), then as Giles Barton in the sexy Lust for a Vampire (1971) and as the well meaning Dr. Jekyll in an unusual spin on the Robert Louis Stevenson story in Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde (1971) and 'Fear in the Night' with Peter Cushing in 1972. Bates brought a new zest to Hammer and with his stylish dialogue delivery and film acting methods, he quickly won himself quite a few fans in both critics and regular film goers!

UNFORTUNATELY, by the early 1970s there had been a downturn in Hammer studios fortunes, and Bates then found himself turning to more traditional character work in other production houses and he appeared in several films before snaring other superb villainous role as George Warleggan in the 18th century period piece Poldark (1975).

AFTER POLDARK, Bates himself kept busy in a few forgettable UK made TV shows and television film roles which did not really do justice to his remarkable talents. In the late 1980s his health rapidly deteriorated, and he sadly passed away from cancer aged only 51 on 27th March 1991. 

BELOW OUR ANSWER to LAST WEEKS TUESDAY TOUGHIE!

ANSWER: THE ACTORS who Peter Cushing worked with BETWEEN 1956 and 1959 who became KNIGHTED were MICHAEL REDGRAVE in TIME WITHOUT PITY (1957) , CHRISTOPHER LEE in a whole range of feature films, STANLEY BAKER in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND (1958) and JOHN MILLS in END OF THE AFFAIR (released 1956)

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY! HERE ARE OUR LUCKY FOUR winners to the competition we held LAST WEEK! YOUR magazine will be with you shortly. IF ytou did not supply a postal address where you would like your prizes mailed to, PLEASE contact me at the PCAS email. AGAIN thank you everyone who took part and entered AND many thanks to DARIO at CINEFICCION for those prize copies! HERE is where you can ORDER YOUR copy too!  ANOTHER COMPETITION LATER THIS WEEK! KEEP LOOKING IN!

FREE COLOUR DRACULA CONTACT SHEET : CUSHING COLLECTABLE WEDNESDAY!

THIS WEEKS and our FIRST Collectable is a contact sheet of press stills from #hammerfilms Dracula Has Risen From The Grave (1968) The shots were taken during shooting the 'Dracula's hide out' which were shot on sets at Pinewood Studios. Featured the shots are Christopher Lee appearing in his third Dracula film for the studio. Also actress Barbara Ewing as barmaid Zena and Veronica Carlson as Maria. This scene marks the seducation and 'biting' of Ewing's Zena. The film was directed by Freddie Francis. #dracula #hammerfilms #christopherlee

WHAT ARE MOVIE CONTACT SHEETS? : Back in the ‘classic’ movie  days, still photography went hand-in-hand with film making, to the point that photo negatives were just as important as the reel of the film being produced. Publicity shots made the film and its stars eternally shine. Photographers had to show a keen flattering eye for capturing the stars of the film, as the public’s perception, and success of the film, heavily depended on them. From a sheet containing maybe eight to ten exposures, the press office would choose maybe just one or two, which would be published and exhibited. The rest of the poses and pics would never see the light of day or be unpublished. THAT is what makes contacts rare and valuable. It’s sad to say that many contact sheets were trashed after the movie released or had public run. Most of these contact sheets have survived, because someone dug it out of the trash.”

TODAY is the first of our new weekly themed day here at facebook and our PCAS website. #CUSHINGCOLLECTORSWEDNESDAY! Each each week we'll be giving away rare stills, contact sheets from the press offices of the past and other visual goodies for the digital image collectors among you to add to your collections. Not every goody will be Cushing related, some will be, as in this case something from the Hammer or Amicus films archive. But all will be certainly worth having, individually un-watermarked and even if you don't collect...these can be printed off as photographs or large posters.

SO, THIS WEEK we start with TEN colour images still as originally processed by the Hammer films Warner Brothers press office. These images taken by studio stills photographer. They have not been clean or edited. They are in their original state and are YOURS 😉 Feel free to right click, save and copy.

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  

STABBINGS CORPSES AND BAD BEDS : THIS WEEKS GIF GIF GIF WEDNESDAY!

#CUSHINGGIFWEDNESDAY: MICHAEL RIPPER as we all know, was one of the Hammer repertory players of Hammer films. He played lots of small supporting roles, but occasionally he got a larger slice and a larger role in a film. Amicus films, 'TORTURE GARDEN' features Ripper in a supporting role, that is quite a surprising 🙂 Do you have a favorite MICHAEL RIPPER role??

#THEGORGON is a Peter Cushing Hammer film, that has suffered from a quite horrible symptom since the first day of its release back in August 1964. I am not referring to the death gaze of Prudence Hyman's Magaera's baleful spell. The 'SNAKES". And as Hammer film fans, we all know it. The film IS a 'Hammer film Classic' made during that ten year golden era, of those Bray studio Magical Gothic Nightmares, that made Hammer more than just a step above, most that had gone before. THE GORGON has the perfect ROMANCE TRIANGLE, it has TRAGEDY,  CONFLICT, superb direction, art direction and cast, but ever Hammer Horror HAS to have a figure that truly frightens. That with the help of Cushing, Lee, Shelley and Co however fantastical, is believable. Pru looked and performed amazingly. Those serpents however and that 'head' on the deck, did not then and doesn't now. The story of the struggle that the props and effects department had with the 'twitching head set', is well documented, so we'll pass here. 

 OUR FEATURE AND GALLERY on Hammer films

 'THE GORGON' (1964) CLICK HERE!

IN OVER FORTY YEARS, cries have remained largely the same, 'Shot with too much light!' 'You see her, too early' 'Why didn't they surround her in mist, dry ice, fog . . .anything!?' It's true. In 90% of Magaera's shots, she IS seen. Clearly. I still do love the film, I love the sets, the costumes, it looks beautiful. There were enough of the sets and props left around from the 1958 'Horror of DRACULA' 'Curse of FRANKENSTEIN' and 'Revenge of FRANKENSTEIN' that the film can clearly been seen to be more than a cousin, of those other Hammer classics.  Such a pity. Maybe the tweaks and 're-imagining' of the SPIDER and the horse-bound ANGEL OF DEATH, should be tried on MAGAERA too? Not that Studio Canal or anyone else will ever be in a hurry to try that out again. Like some great Greek Shakespearean tragedy, 'Some quarters, they doth protested too much, methinks' . . . .


JOSHUA KENNEDY HAS PLANS to produce an amazing NEW FILM called, 'THE HOUSE OF THE GORGON' which will star Hammer film actors, Veronica Carlson, Caroline Munro, Martine Beswicke and Christopher Neame! FIND OUT MORE and how YOU can help to make this film a reality in our PCAS FEATURE CLICK HERE!

#CUSHINGGIFWEDNESDAY! The film, 'ISLAND OF TERROR' (1966) has always been very popular here. The love for those Silocates is always evident whenever, we post an image of them. Considering the budget for this film, it looks as though someone had the foresight to understand, a monster film, has to have convincing monster and pose a threat that looks real. Someone, maybe director Fisher thought to make sure a sizeable slice went to making the special effects.

THAT SHRIVELED CORPSE that Cushing's Dr Stanley finds, was quite a moment for me when I first saw this film when I was around ten. In ANY Cushing film, can you think of any effect 'special or otherwise' that made an impression on you when you first saw it???

AMICUS FILMS 'MADHOUSE' (1974) is a film that revels in the many cliques and well trod dramas and dilemmas of the celebrated  thrillers and horror films of the 30's, 40's and 50's. Vincent Price plays Horror film star PAUL TOOMBES, driven crazy when off screen life unravels and starts to imitate the scripts of his DOCTOR DEATH movies. Like his 'PHIBES' films and 'THEATRE OF BLOOD' (1973) lots of ingenious scenarios of 'horrible deaths' follow and Peter Cushing's HERBERT FLAY tries his best to help his desperate friend, but despite his best efforts, DOCTOR DEATH came after TOOMBES time after time. Just like in the above GIF ;)

PART SIX of 'The Amicus Films of Peter Cushing' covers MADHOUSE and includes a gallery of RARE images. You can find it HERE!

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     

FREE HAMMER HORROR CONTACT SHEET AND CHRISTOPHER LEE COLOUR SHOTS FROM DRACULA CLASSIC!

#CHRISTOPHERLEESATURDAY: TWO RARE set shots from a proof sheet of Christopher Lee during the making of hammer films, 'Dracula Has Risen From The Grave' (1968) . . . I love the one where he is trapped on that cross. Such a clever idea. BELOW, a great RARE COLOUR SHOT of Lee  and Barbara Ewing, another RARE colour contact proof publicity shot of Christopher Lee from 'RISEN' a SINGLE RARE publicity shot of Veronica from 'RISEN' AND A whole 12 shot FREE CONTACT SHEET of rare pics for you to print off, sample, restore...as you like . .. Is VERONICA your favorite actress in a Lee Hammer Dracula film? If not, WHO is?

 

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