HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHAEL ASPEL : WAS IT GOOD FOR YOU TOO?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHAEL ASPEL! 😀😃 Here's a man who has such a well known face and reputation on UK television, that when he appears on the screen, it's almost like your favourite Uncle, has come to tea! Aspel's career has been a prolific to say the least! Starting in working as a reporter for the local press, by the early sixties, he had become one of four regular newsreaders on BBC national television, along with Richard Baker, Robert Dougall and Corbet Woodall. Then becoming a regular face presenting BBC flagship programming like 'Come Dancing', 'Crackerjack', 'Ask Aspel', and the Miss World beauty contest, which he covered 14 times.

IT WAS ON A EPISODE of his weekly children's tv show Ask Aspel, where children requested clips of their favourite tv shows, that Aspel first worked with Cushing on January 7th 1974. The next time would be quite 'unexpected' and yet quite an event! After a long spell fronting his own very popular ITV talk show and the horrendous 'never ending' afternoon programme 'Give Us A Clue' that Aspel took over fronting ITV's long running favourite, 'This Is your Life' when host Eamonn Andrews died in 1987 until its run ended in 2003.

ABOVE: ACTRESS JOANNA LUMLEY and actor FREDDIE JONES, both who appeared in Hammer films 'THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA' (1973) with Cushing! Freddie starred with Cushing in Hammer films, 'FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED' (1969) Lumley also starred with Cushing in the very first episode of 'THE NEW AVENGERS' called 'the Eagle's Nest' in 1976.

DURING THAT RUN, Aspel surprised Peter Cushing, with his 'Big Red Book' on 21st February 1990. Cushing's 'This Is your Life' episode almost didn't happen, when the secret cover of surprise was blown a few weeks before the recording. Cushing never let on he knew 'he was coming!' and Aspel did a great job steering Cushing, who at this time could be quite unpredictable during live recordings, through an army of guests who had worked with Peter over the years. One surprise guest was Ursula Andress, who had flown quite a journey to be there for Cushing's evening. When she was announced and grandly made her way onto the set to hug Peter, he welcomed her with hugs when she made a reference to the film they made together.. 'She' in 1965. 'She who must be obeyed!' said Andress. Cushing suggestively replied with glee, 'Oh and you still are darling...What would you like me to DO?' which got a big laugh.

I BELIEVE IT WAS quite a task for the 'This Is Your Life' team, after much research and study to decide on guests for the show. Guests had to be special, entertaining, engaging and guaranteed not to run away from Aspel when he shock surprised them with the book and the evening's planned recording before a live audience, of their lives shared with the public. Aspel had specially requested Peter Cushing be used in the series, several times. The start of preparation and plans were almost uncovered each time and the shows were cancelled. Eventually, Aspel got his wish and Peter Cushing had an evening he would never forget! Thank you for that Mr Aspel ...and a VERY Happy Birthday to YOU!

TWO PAGES from Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee's scripts. BOTH from Hammer Dracula films. Cushing's from 'The Satanic Rites of Dracula' (1973) and Lee's 'Taste the Blood of Dracula' (1970) BOTH films had a trying and difficult 'birthing' process . . I think for both Cushing and Lee, making a Hammer Dracula film, was a different experience. . . but it is now, both interesting and quite amusing how Lee and Cushing dealt with prep for the role, short-falls of the script, the detail, the dialogue... Cushing as we know, loaded his scripts with yards of notes, references, costume suggestions and anything that would aid him in doing his best on the screen.. he was quite meticulous.

LEE IN THIS INSTANCE, makes no secret of again being not at all happy with the contents of the page... or any page I would guess. Linda Hayden's Alice lines of 'Master, Master, you are back!' and her '(Whimpering Passionately: Love me! Love Me!) are given the short shrift note with ' Ridiculous Lines!' and another 'NO!' ... for Lee, it must have been extremely frustrating.

ABOVE AND BELOW : The PCASUK guide to 'Hammer's Dracula Franchise' PART ONE HERE and PART TWO HERE

I HAVE SHARED many times that personally I feel Hammer's Dracula's are 'films of moments' 😊😉 Some scenes are very good indeed. Others cringing. I am sure you have watched them all many times..so over at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE I am asking, is there any scene, line of dialogue or sequence, that if you hand a magic wand, you would change today?? Marcus 
 

 

NOW LIVE: WIN WARNER BROTHERS 'FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE' BLU RAY : PCAS HALLOWEEN 019 COMPETITION

PETER CUSHING APPRECIATION SOCIETY HALLOWEEN 019 COMPETITION

THE COMPETITION!
IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN and as usual, it's another PCAS competition, and a chance to bag yourself a Peter Cushing goody! Are you UP FOR IT? If so, if YOU are ready...here we go . . 😀

THE PRIZE!
THIS YEAR, thanks to the very generous team at Warner Brothers, we have A PAIR of fabulous remastered BLU RAYS to give away. No doubt you have seen our features on their superb and very recent release of Amicus Films 1974 'FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE' . . the last of the portmanteau Amicus films series to finally get to Blu Ray.. and what an amazing job they have made of the release! TWO very lucky contenders have the chance of winning a copy.
The blu rays are REGION FREE.

ABOUT THE BLU RAY:
'From Beyond the Grave', boost quite an amazing cast including Peter Cushing, David Warner, Ian Bannen, Donald Pleasence, Lesley-Anne Down, Diana Dors, Margaret Leighton. Sadly, it was last of the Amicus multiple -story films when produced in 1974. Directed by horror director Kevin Connor, produced by Milton Subotsky and based on stories by R. Chetwynd-Hayes, it is held together by what first appears to be simple frame work story 😉 Four customers purchase (or take) items from Temptations Limited, an antiques shop whose motto is "Offers You Cannot Resist". But, a nasty fate awaits those who try to cheat the shop's proprietor . . . Peter Cushing. 

MORE INFO ON THE PRIZE!
YOU can read all about the BLU RAY in our PCAS REVIEW and Gallery Feature at the PCAS website : HERE 
 

 

HOW DO YOU ENTER?
All you have to do is ANSWER the Competition Question CORRECTLY and send your answer in a message to us, using the Facebook MESSAGE / Contact Button. You'll find it at the top of this page, on the RIGHT, under our main ID Banner. PLEASE do not send your answer on the thread or the comments thread under this post. Any entries / answers posted there will be deleted and the made void. This competition, like ALL PCAS Competitions is open to EVERYONE, who ever you are are, where ever you are !

THE QUESTION!

The title sequence and the trailer for 'FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE' features a quite famous, actual cemetery. WHAT IS THE NAME OF THAT CEMETERY.

PICK ONE OF THE FOLLOWING ANSWERS:
A: THE DEAD CENTER OF LONDON
B: MILTONMAX CEMETERY
C: STOKERVILLE CEMETERY
D: HIGHGATE CEMETERY
F: HIGH PITCH CEMETERY

WHEN YOU HAVE CHOSEN YOUR ANSWER, PLEASE SEND IT TO US VIA OUR EMAIL ADDRESS: THEBLACKBOXCLUB@GMAIL.COM
 

WHEN IS TIME UP?
This Competition CLOSES on SATURDAY NOVEMBER 9TH at MIDNIGHT.
 

HOW WE PICK THE WINNERS!
All correct answers, will printed onto separate notes of paper, will be placed in a large top hat and the first two drawn from the hat will be declared the WINNERS! Both winners will be notified via facebook and names announced on our PCAS Facebook Fan Page on Sunday November 10th by mid day GMT.

 
CAN'T WAIT? WANT IT NOW?
YOU can purchase YOUR copy, direct from the Warner Brothers archive Store here: HERE!

WE ARE GRATEFUL TO OUR SPONSOR . .
Again many THANKS to Warner Brothers, in again supporting another PCAS Competition! 

HAVE A SAFE AND FABULOUS HALLOWEEN!
GOOD LUCK EVERYONE 😀

WARNER BROTHERS ARCHIVE LATEST! ARE YOU TEMPTED? DONT MISS OUT!

TEMPTED? It looks like Peter Cushing's, shop proprietor of 'Temptations Ltd, has been restocking his store! 😉😊

WARNER ARCHIVE COLLECTION released the remastered blu ray of Amicus films, 'From Beyond The Grave' yesterday . . . 😃starring Peter Cushing, Donald Pleasence, David Warner, Ian Ogilvy, Diana Dors, Lesley-Anne Down, Jack Watson, Ian Carmichael, Ian Bannen, Margaret Leighton and many more . . we'll be launching our PCASUK competition very SOON. 🙂 It's your chance to win yourself a copy of this REGION FREE, remastered Amicus films, classic 🙂 DON'T miss out . . it's a BARGAIN 😉 - Marcus

WARNER BROTHERS RELEASE AMICUS FILMS 'FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE' ON REMASTERED BLU RAY

NEWS: Warner Archive have just announced that From Beyond The Grave (1974) is coming to blu-ray A NEW 2019 1080p HD MASTER! FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE (1973) Running Time 98:00.Sound Quality DTS HD-Master Audio 2.0 - English Aspect Ratio 1.85:1, 16 X 9 WIDESCREEN: Product Color COLOR Disc Configuration BD 50. PLACE YOUR PRE-ORDER: HERE!

Amicus Productions classic horror portmanteau makes its Blu-ray disc debut just in time for the horror-days! Bolt the door, lower the lights and settle in for a stylish five-episode supernatural shocker possessed of a shivery all-star cast and drenched in evil. Welcome to Temptations Ltd., a decrepit antique shop whose unwary customers get more than they bargain for from the wily proprietor (Peter Cushing). Much more. Go to the head of the horror class if you can predict who’ll join the ranks of the doomed from among this role call of distinguished British actors: Ian Bannen, Ian Carmichael, Diana Dors, Lesley-Anne Down, Margaret Leighton, Donald Pleasence, Nyree Dawn Porter, David Warner and more. A mirror. A medal. A snuff box. An ornate door. All unleash novelty surprises for the characters – and you – in these wickedly horrific tales From Beyond the Grave.

IT'S SEEN BY MANY FANS as the jewel in the Amicus films crown, very good production value, a stellar cast which includes Peter Cushing as the owner of Temptations Ltd, an 'olde worlde' antique shop . . where trying to a a 'fast one' on the owner.. isn't advised 😉Warner Brothers is finally bringing this to a long over due remastered blu ray release next month on OCTOBER 8th 2019, region free. It's going to be a very popular purchase with lovers of Amicus, Cushing and high standard Brit Horror films, grabbing their copy as soon as they can, I am sure. 

WE'LL SOON HAVE NEWS on another PCASUK Competition, where you can bag a copy too soon. Meanwhile... over at the THE FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE we are asking everyone, which of the four in the portmanteau film is YOUR favorite story? Drop in and share your thoughts 😉

NEW CLIP: HOW ARE THINGS IN GUATEMALA? THE LAST MEETING OF PETER CUSHING AND CHRISTOPHER LEE

AS PROMISED as part of today's Peter Cushing Birthday Celebrations.. here is a brand new, freshly edited addition to the series, 'Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee : The Last Meeting' I hope you enjoy it 🙂 This candid footage was shot on a camcorder, without prep, tripod or lighting. The day was May 17th 1994 and the location at a small studio in Canterbury, a short distance from Peter's home in Whitstable. At just under ten minutes long, it's our longest clip and is probably the most interesting. There is of course lots of Peter enjoying himself, laughing, weeping with giggles and Christopher Lee once again crushing any theories of what many though was, a man with no sense of humor! Here we see Lee present Cushing with a birthday card, Peter admits he has one for Lee too, and will save the cost of a postage stamp! 

BOTH CUSHING, LEE AND VINCENT PRICES'S birthdays were just over a week away. It would be Cushing last, a point that is poignantly given pause when with black humor Cushing asks Lee a question that, for once Lee bound with emotion, found very hard to give a reply, and defuses it with humor. Cushing almost blows the gaff on a some private work, Lee was undertaking on a film featuring Rasputin, their love of Warner Bros cartoons and their shared appreciation of actor, singer and comedian 'Snoozzle' Duarnte is displayed again, to great enjoyment and Cushing howls. Cushing introduces again, his assistant and close friend Joyce Broughton, to Lee, and asks for a 'Scotty' nose tissue! Cushing also floors Lee with a question about Guatemala! There is much to see and enjoy, and for first time too, we get to see the man who brought Peter and Christopher together for this day, Ted Newsom.

YOU'LL FIND THE WHOLE TWELVE CLIP PLAY LIST at the PCASUK YOUTUBE Channel RIGHT HERE! 

IT WAS TED NEWSOM'S IDEA to bring Lee and Cushing together for one last time to record the narration for his great tv documentary, 'Flesh and Blood: The Hammer Heritage of Horror'. We have him to thank really for making this meeting possible. There is also a interesting piece on Lee being interviewed about his thoughts on remaking the Hammer film, 'The Devil Rides Out' There's lots to see and I hope you enjoy this clip . . feel free to leave your comments on this in the thread below, feel free to share with others and have fun, THEY most certainly did 😉😊 - Marcus (pcasuk)

REVIEWED DRACULA AD 1972 : WARNER BROTHERS REMASTERED BLU RAY : GIFS AND SCREEN CAPS!

HERE IS A PETER CUSHING FILM, that has probably more column inches and photographs on all our PCASUK sites, than any other Cushing film. This is a weird situation, when you consider, that along with it's sequel,  HAMMER FILMS 'THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA' no other Cushing / Hammer film, causes a more wider divide in opinions among fans, than this one does! I think 'DRACULA AD 1972' as we have already explored in our previous Warner Brothers review of 'SATANIC' was a brave attempt by Hammer studios, to take one of their biggest box office draws, in another direction.

ACTING ALMOST as a reboot, to catch a new audience of teenagers, who might be more atrracted to a Prince of Darkness, who treads his deadly and terrifying path, among the 'fashion conscious and trendy dudes' of the psychedelic seventies, hot pants, flares, pot and glam-rock to boot! Sadly, this was one direction that left many hardcore fans out in the cold. 'AD 72' sadly isolated, what was left of the audiences who had attended all previous five Christopher Lee Dracula movies. But Hammer CEO Michael Carreras saw that the tried and tested concept could not last much longer, even though the previous outing of 'SCARS OF DRACULA' had grossed sizable takings, for both Hammer and Lee, when released with a reboot of the Hammer's other box office winner with 'The Horror of Frankenstein'. It was time for change. 

WHAT SCRIPT WRITER DON HOUGHTON, delivered and director Alan Gibson produced with both 'AD 1972' and 'SATANIC' were both pretty much on the mark, for what was needed for that change of direction. The fact that Robert Quarry had starred in AIP's 'COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE' a TWO YEARS previous, and coined an interesting box office return, must have also influenced their choices. And so, Warner Brothers commisioned both AD and SATANIC, from Hammer films. The problem was, as was the habit with Hammer at this time, BOTH films arrived a little late. By 1972, fashion, tastes and music had moved on, for what is offered as 'trend' in both films.  the target audience of the past DRACULA features, would never have the tastes or tolence for such concepts as long hair, 'free love', flapping flares and psycho-colours, bright enough to burn the sensitive eyes of any dark dwelling vampire!

FOR DECADES, both 'AD 1972' and 'SATANIC' have been viewed, or rather not seen as worthy of being included in the 'fan love' list, of Hammer's Dracula rota. But just like fickle way of clothing and music fashion, what is out today, often returns from the 'dead as a doe-doe state', to be greeted and revisted with either the welcome of a long lost friend or, as in this case, maybe a view that sees, if the well loved Dracula features are from an era and time long past, so are 'AD 1972' and 'SATANIC'. They are ALL from the box office trends, of another time? The fans of vampire films today are much more flexiable, with vampire television series and movies, that actually rely on the concept of bringing 'the vampire' along with the Prince of Darkness into penthouse dwellings, rather than castles and gothic crypts. So, you can see why BOTH films are now finally getting their time,  and it has taken the Warner Brothers REMASTERING of the films, to finally SEE what the audiences saw on the big screen back in the day. . . .  

THE SYNOPSIS: As mention at teh beginning of this review, DRACULA AD 1972, has been covered in several features, galleries and reviews over teh years on this site. But for those who have never read the features or seen the film, here is a brief synopsis, WITH some spoliers :

IN 1872, COUNT DRACULA, (Christopher Lee) and his nemesis Lawrence Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) battle on the top of a runaway coach. The carriage crashes and Dracula is partly impaled by one of the wheels. In the struggle, Van Helsing manages to fully push the wheel into the vampire's chest, staking him. This done, Van Helsing collapses and dies from his own wounds. At that moment, a follower of Dracula (Christopher Neame) arrives, collects Dracula's remains and, a few days later, buries them near Van Helsing's grave at St Bartolph's Church. A century later, a new generation of Britons appear who move the tale along: in this case, a group of young hippies that includes Jessica Van Helsing (Stephanie Beacham), granddaughter of Lorrimer Van Helsing (Peter Cushing), an occult expert and descendant of Dracula's old nemesis, and Johnny Alucard (Christopher Neame), who closely resembles the disciple of Dracula seen in 1872. Alucard persuades Jessica and the others to attend a black magic ceremony in the now abandoned, deconsecrated St. Bartolph's, where he performs a bloody ritual involving one of their group, Laura Bellows (Caroline Munro). Jessica and the others flee in horror, after which Dracula is resurrected and kills Laura. 

Laura's body is discovered, drained of blood, and a police investigation begins, headed by Inspector Murray (Michael Coles). Murray suspects an occult element and interviews Lorrimer Van Helsing, who is shocked to learn the details of Laura’s death. He realises that Johnny Alucard (whose name is Dracula written backwards) is a disciple of Dracula, and that the Count must have returned. In the meantime, Alucard brings another of Jessica’s friends, Gaynor Keating (Marsha Hunt), to St. Bartolph's, where she is killed by Dracula and Alucard willingly has himself turned into a vampire. The vampiric Alucard kills a passerby and lures Jessica’s boyfriend, Bob (Philip Miller), to a café they frequent, where he turns him into a vampire as well. While Lorrimer is out, Bob goes to the Van Helsing house and persuades Jessica to come to the café, where he and Alucard capture her and take her to Dracula.

AIDED BY ONE OF JESSICA'S FRIENDS, Lorrimer tracks Alucard to his flat and battles him. Alucard accidentally kills himself with the running water in the bathroom shower. At St. Bartolph's, Lorrimer finds Bob's dead body, slain by sunlight before he could reach his resting place, and Jessica in a trance, with Dracula planning to take his revenge on the Van Helsing family by turning her into a vampire. Lorrimer sets a trap for Dracula by placing a pit of stakes underneath the graveyard and waits for him to return at nightfall. The two have a struggle in which Lorrimer attempts to kill Dracula with a silver knife, but the knife is pulled out by Jessica, still under Dracula’s command. As the pair go outside, Lorrimer throws holy water at Dracula, which burns his hands and causes him to fall into the pit of stakes that Van Helsing had previously prepared. Realising Dracula is still barely alive, Lorrimer uses a shovel to push Dracula into the stakes even further. Dracula dies, his body crumbling into ashes, and his spell over Jessica is broken. As Jessica embraces her grandfather, the title "Rest in Final Peace" is shown.

SO HOW DOES THE REMASTERED BLU RAY LOOK?
CONSIDERING DRACULA AD 1972, is now almost 47 years old, the film technically has never looked better! Since 2005, Warner has had a quite good quality region free DVD on the market, a big step up from a VHS version. It is THIS dvd that has fed the fans of the film for over the last 15 years. Then, a few years ago a German Blu-ray based on the same transfer created for the 2005 DVD was released in multiple regions. The team at the Warner Archive Collection actually reviewed that transfer and rejected it as unusable to use in this blu ray transfer. Thankfully, a 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray was produced from a NEW 2K scan by Warner's MPI facility, of a recently manufactured interpositive. Amazingly what we have for the DRACULA AD 1972 blu ray release are images that are indeed comparable to FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED, 'Dracula Has Risen From The Grave', 'Taste The Blood Of Dracula' and 'The Mummy' in the previously released Hammer Horror Classics collection Warner Brothers release. The colour correcting for this release was achieve  by using the Ektrachrome publicity transparencies as a reference. All age-related damage has been repaired . . .  by hand, frame by frame, taking out what must have been thousnads of dust, scratch and dirt frames, over the films 96 minute duration. All details, blacks and densities are all quite defined and superior to anything we would have seen of this film previously, and the film's grain pattern has been finely rendered. The compression at Warner's Archive Collection is customarily presented at a high rate of just under 35 Mbps, which completes the film's 1080p resurrection. DRACULA AD 1972 mono soundtrack has been taken from the magnetic master and encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0. Word has it that the soundtrack was in an impressive shape and thankfully, required minimal cleanup. The dialogue is clearly rendered, the basic sound effects too. Again, on this blu ray, I heard some subtle sound effects, I had not heard before! Both actual DRACULA death scenes now carry detail and subtleties you may not have been able to see before on the dvd's. 

SO TO WRAP, the remastering is way beyond what many expected for DRACULA AD 1972. What has been for sometime the least loved of the Hammer Dracula saga, shows up in very grand style, presenting what it has always been ..  Something different, stepping out beyond what was respected but had become predictable, embellished by it's two outstanding actors, to push the drama and action to a new level, for a new audience. Today, the thrill is still there, and is now wonderfully remastered, presented in such quite superb picture quality, spookily it offers the chance of again for a NEW audience to see and experience, what has been for sometime.... such fab frightening fun! 

IT'S NEVER LOOKED BETTER!  ORDER YOUR COPY : HERE!