WATCH PARTY WITH 'THE GHOUL' WITH GALLERY AND MUCH MORE!

HAVING A GREAT TIME over at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE! right now! Where many of our #FRIENDS and #PCASUK #FOLLOWERS are seeing this Peter Cushing classic movie, for the first time! Prepare to be wrapped in the haunting fog of the moor, a house with terrible secret and a film with its foundations, strongly planted in another time. When producer Kevin Francis made this film, he wanted the script and the language on the screen to be of a past cinematic era. He succeeded... have fun with this one and feel free to leave your comments on this film in the thread! Take care and Stay Safe! - Marcus

ABOVE: A RE-RELEASE of the UNCENSORED 'TASTE of FEAR' VHS version of 'THE GHOUL' 

TYBURN FILMS THE GHOUL (1975) was originally certified by the UK BBFC at a duration of 93 minutes following cuts to (a) remove the third close-up of the knife embedded in Geoffrey's face (b) remove a knee to the groin delivered by Veronica Carlson to John Hurt. However, the subsequent theatrical version was only 87 minutes long following some last minute snipping by the distributors. The full 93 minutes version, with BBFC cuts restored, was subsequently released on UK video on the 'Taste of Fear' label. The differences are as follows: 

THE OPENING party sequence is extended by about 2 minutes 30 seconds via several additional dialogue extensions that largely serve to explain Carlson's character. In particular the conversation between her and Ian McCulloch when she is sitting in the car is nearly a minute longer and the subsequent three way conversation by another car involving Stewart Bevan is extended by about 40 seconds.

ABOUT 35 MINUTES into the film, directly after Peter Cushing asks Carlson whether there is anything she would like before dinner, the extended version has a new sequence lasting about 2 minutes and  30 seconds in which Carlson is escorted upstairs to her bedroom and takes a bath, in this sequence Carlson's left breast is briefly visible. This sequence is missing entirely from the theatrical print  and believed removed by the distributor at the time, through requests by BBFC.

AFTER THE BACH TOCATTA AND FUGUE strikes up on the soundtrack the extended version has an extra 1 minute showing Carlson emerge from the bedroom, clothed again, and go down the stairs where she then peeks in on Cushing in his chapel. In the theatrical version, it's a bit odd that Cushing is surprised by her given that in the previous scene they'd been together in his drawing room.

MATTHEW CONIAM'S FASCINATING dig, to FIND THE GHOUL. A past PCASUK feature, with a great gallery and some updates! FIND IT : HERE! 

RAW FOOTAGE TV INTERVIEW AND SURPRISE PARTY!

#WATCHWITHCUSHING! There are some clips of #PeterCushing, which I really enjoy and make me smile. Here are two of them. The first is a raw UK TV studio interview. Here PC is very much 'Johnny On The Spot' Charming and relaxed. Quite the gent, wit style and having fun. The second, is a clip of more raw footage, that some of you may have seen here before. It's Peter Cushing's Surprise 80th Birthday Party! Here of course he is older, but still able to have a lot of fun and is quite genuinely surprised and happy to see everyone. This always make me smile. I hope you smile and enjoy this too! Stay safe everyone and look after yourselves 😊 You'll find the clip at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE HERE!!

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

CATCH UP on ALL the PCASUK '#WATCHWITHCUSHING! 'watch parties' at the FACEBOOK UK PETER CUSHING APPRECIATION SOCIETY FACEBOOK PAGE HERE!

'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 

COME JOIN US : RIGHT HERE!

THE PHANTOM IS BLOWING THE CITY WHILE THE ISLAND IS SUCKED DRY!

NO THIS ISN'T A LONG LOST  #PeterCushing film 😄 . . but the touches of Cushing, Hammer and Tigon films are all over it! Think, 'The Blood Beast Terror' 😉 I've love this series since I was a child... and yes, my children love too! I have a son who's middle name is borrowed from it's writer, Spike Milligan, who originally wrote this for his mate, Peter Sellers. Eventually it found it's way into Ronnie Barker's tv series, 'Six Dates with Barker' (ITV 71) , then being re-written for Barker and Ronnie Corbett's 'The Two Ronnie's BBC tv series in 1976, as a weekly instalment. It's silly, maybe rude (?) some of the other episodes are a little un-pc now, but then Spike always was a rule unto himself, which is why I love him still. The episode you'll find on the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE is episode one, where Peter kind of gets a mention as does Vincent too 😊 Trivia: Spike worked with Cushing in the 1960 film, 'SUSPECT' aka 'THE RISK' Spike also provided the 'raspberries' SFX himself!

OUR SECOND #WATCHWITHCUSHING! today is, a CLASSIC and a huge favourite among followers and Cushing fans alike, 'ISLAND OF TERROR' made in 1966 and directed by Terence Fisher. If ever there was a film that proves you should never trust your vacuum cleaner... THIS is it! Peter gets to do some 'fight the monster' in this one! And what a MONSTER! For years the Silocates, have been up there with other first class cinematic 'creatures from another world' creations like the brain things from ' Fiend Without A Face'. They been available and stocks sold out, when made into figures and models for collectors... even as fridge magnets! 

THERE'S LOTS TO LIKE about this film, great monster, a very good cast with Edward Judd beefed up, Cushing providing the investigative brains, so when asked giving the right answers to anyone in the audience who can't keep up and Carole Gray does very well and offers much more than a 'helpless female, who is permanently set on 'scream'! Fisher's directing is tight and it all clicks. Granted NO living creature who looks like he has sat in on too many McDonald's 'all you can eat' early bird offers, should be able to climb a tree... and if he did and fell on some some guy, THAT guy should be one very FLAT pancake! I hope you enjoy the contents of our PCASUK Watch Party uploads today! Come join in, pull up a chair, bring some snacks and we will have fun 😉😊 Please take care everyone! - Marcus