SHERLOCK HOLMES TAKES ON THE MASKS OF DEATH! #WATCHWITHCUSHING #WATCHPARTY!

DON'T THINK FOR A MINUTE THAT YOU CAN'T take another post of a Cushing Sherlock Holmes adventure? Snap out of it.😉😀 This one... is different 😉 #SirIanMckellen was 75, when he made that amazing Mr Holmes feature back in 2015. #PeterCushing was 71 when he appeared in what would almost be his 'swan song' for the big screen, and he pours just about everything he has in it 😊'Sherlock Holmes and the Masks of Death' (1984) is a pretty clever film, with a very cool cast to help make it work. 

THE THREE FACES OF Peter Cushing's Sherlock Holmes 

'The Hound of the Baskervilles' (Hammer films 1959)

Peter Cushing as Sherlock Holmes in the BBC Television series of 1968

Cushing's Holmes in semi retirement in 'Sherlock Holmes and the 

Masks of Death (1984)

THERE ARE MANY very nice touches in this film and despite Peter's obvious age and his belief he was too old to play it, it works, helped by Cushing's good friend, John Mills who fills the role of Dr Watson confidently and with a few well timed 'matured-creaks and groans'. Roy Ward Baker directs also Ray Milland, Anne Baxter and #AntonDiffring are all lovely to watch and help put the cherry on what could have been quite a stale and mouldy cake! 

I VERY MUCH LIKE the story in this film. At times it's bleak, quite dark and uses one of the 'world's darkest of times' to under pin the evil and threats' in this #Sherlock and #Watson drama, written by Hammer's Anthony Hinds and N.J Crisp. It is a shame Cushing thought himself not fit enough or capable to nail another Holmes film, which was planned for production after this one. But, he did wait while Tyburn were trying to source funding.  

CUSHING MADE '#Biggles' (1986) while waiting, which would be his last cinema role. I think he more than managed to do his last Sherlock justice and finally bow out from one of his most accomplished and always most confidently performed roles in his long and varied career. I hope you enjoy this too 😊Marcus

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'NO IMAGINATION NO HORROR!' SHERLOCK WATCH WITH CUSHING NOW LIVE!

#WATCHWITHCUSHING! OVER AT The FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE we have lanched our #WATCHPARTY for today, with ANOTHER dip into the 'Sherlock Holmes' BBC television series, 'A STUDY IN SCARLETT' with Peter Cushing again in the role of Sherlock Holmes 😊

#WatchWithCushing! 'Where there is no imagination, there is NO horror!' so says Peter Cushing's Sherlock Holmes in 'A Study in Scarlett', in this episode from his 1968 BBC television serial. Cushing had taken on the role for the BBC when Douglas Wilmer's Sherlock, left the series. It would not be a pleasurable experience for the actor, and when he and Wilmer were later united on the Hammer/AIP production of 'The Vampire Lovers' (1970), Cushing remarked that he would sooner spend the rest of his career sweeping Paddington Station than to work for the BBC again under similar circumstances. Cushing would later argue that the strain affected his performance, indicating a preference for his earlier, less hurried portrayal of Holmes in Hammer’s 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' (1958).

WITH ALL DUE RESPECT TO CUSHING, however, I disagree – where his earlier performance is a bit mannered, he seems far more relaxed and comfortable in the role in the BBC series. Sadly, many of the episodes no longer survive – but the ones that do show just how effective Cushing really was in the role. 'A Study in Scarlet' wasn’t the first of the series that he did for the BBC, but it is the first in continuity of that surviving episodes. WHICH Cushing Sherlock portrayal do you prefer, the 1958 Hammer Baskerville or the BBC series? Stay Safe, Stay Inside, Stay Well Everyone 😉 - Marcus 

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