SCREAM FACTORY ANNOUNCES RELEASE OF 'SNOWMAN' BLU RAY FOR NOVEMBER!

NEWS: EARLIER TODAY at the San Diego Comic Con panel, SCREAM FACTORY announced the release of 20+ film titles that they are releasing this year. Peter Cushing's / Hammer film 'THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN' (1957) is one of those titles. No details of extras or features. The title is set for a NOVEMBER release this year. Hammer fans in the US can also cheer the release of Ralph Bates's 'DR JEKYLL AND SISTER HYDE' (1971) – Directed by Roy Ward Baker (The Vampire Lovers) it has an expected release date of Dec 2019. INTERESTED??? - Marcus

BACK IN 2013, Hammer films announced their plans to REMAKE the film! Here is our PCAS review of the 1957 film and a cool gallery too! CLICK HERE!

FOR THOSE OF YOU who have been around here for a while and visit the FACEBOOK PCAS FAN PAGE MAYBE you remember this TUESDAY TOUGHY? If so, swing over to the FACEBOOK PCAS PAGE and SHARE the answer 😀😊😉  

BBC CHILLS IN LIVE DRAMA WITH MORE THAN SNOWMAN : THE FIRST TUESDAY TOUGHY OF 2019

 

HERE IS OUR FIRST CUSHING TUESDAY TOUGHY of 2019! You'll be pleased to see, I haven't spared the trickiness 😏 When Peter Cushing's BBC 1954 drama of THE CREATURE was broadcast LIVE over two evenings back in January and February of 1955, it was ONLY just FIVE weeks after Cushing and the BBC had shocked the whole nation with their live broadcasts of George Orwell's 1984. With front pages of newspapers screaming the cries of a trumatised telly watching public and questions being asked by the government in the House of Commons about if Cushing and the BBC had gone too far, all eyes were on Cushing's latest 'nail-biting' SUNDAY evening BBC television drama. 

THE KNEES OF THE BBC must have been really trembling, but not enough to stop this planned drama to not only star the lead responsible for last year's controversial show, but also the same director, Rudolph Cartier! This production was also granted a larger budget, with exterior shots of the snowy mountains and hillsides of the Himalayas filmed on location in Switzerland, just two weeks before the live broadcasts. Surprisingly, the production was allowed a substantial amount of filming to supplement the modest BBC studio facilities available for the otherwise live transmission. Location filming was essential to establish the mountainous environment of the play, though the play's designer Barry was uneasy with Cushing’s involvement in this location filming, fearing for the star’s safety, and suggested a double be used instead. Typically, Cushing said he disliked the use of doubles and the loss of continuity of performance that this entailed, and wrote to Barry to personally assure him of his preference to take part in the location expedition!

GALLERY OF RARE IMAGES from the BBC production, Hammer films version and more besides! Catch up on our PCAS feature on Peter Cushing's 'The Abominable Snowman' elsewhere at this website or go directly to it HERE!

DESPITE ALL THE PRE PUBLICITY and advanced column inches in newspapers, this script and story by Nigel Kneal, was a quite different affair to 1984. No torture, but lots in the way of tension and a moral for all to think about later. Hammer films, never one to miss an opportunity, invited Cushing to play his role of John Rollason, for their big screen version. Sadly actor Stanley Baker was not invited along to join him and US actor Forest Tucker, played the role of Tom Friend, producers following their mantra of always casting actors from across the Atlantic, to improve the box office potential when the film was released overseas. Cushing's Rollason was also guven a wife in Hammer's revamping. She was also called Helen. Richard Wattis returned for gentle comic relief as Rollason's assistant Peter Fox. Arnold Marle also repeated his performance as the Lama, giving a very memorable and yet weird performance. 'Act in the name of Mankind and act humbly' the Lama warns Rollason, as he sets out in search of the YETI. 'For man is ndear to forfeiting his right to lead the world'. A message from over 60 years ago, that in today's world means more than ever . . 

YOUR ANSWER to our previous CUSHING TUESDAY TOUGHY! How did YOU do with YOUR answer?

FACE TO FACE WITH THE SNOWMAN : MONDAY MOMENT OF TERROR!

AT A REMOTE  lhamasery in the Himalayas, scientist John Rollason studies rare mountain herbs with the help of his wife Helen, and associate Peter, while awaiting the arrival of an American named Tom Friend. Over Helen's objections and warnings by the High Lhama, he sets out with Friend on an expedition to find the elusive Yeti, accompanied by another American named Shelley and a young Scotsman, McNee, who claims to have seen the thing. 

FOOTPRINTS are found in the snows and McNee seems queerly affected the closer they get to their quarry's likely habitat but the biggest shock to Rollason is discovering Friend is a showman who only intends to exploit their find, with Shelley his game hunter-marksman. The conflict between science and commercialism only increases when an enormous anthropoid is shot, and the horror only increases as the party realizes the other Yeti intend to retrieve their fallen comrade and have powers to do so which seem extra-human...

A FULL FEATURE WITH RARE STILLS GALLERY CAN BE FOUND : HERE!

 

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  . 

#SILENTBUTDEADLY: ITS ALL IN THE FINGERS! #GIFS

#SILENTBUTDEADLYWEDNESDAY!: As you probably know, Wednesday is our THEME DAY when we post #GIFS as requested by YOU during the past week. This week the Theme at the website is 'FINGERS!' and this one was requested by Tomas Wentry from the UK. It's a clip from one of the last annual Christmas messages that Lee shared on the net.... that little gesture at the end there, ensured the clip went viral!

#SILENTBUTDEADLYWEDNESDAY! Here we have a surprising example of the dexterity of a DALEK claw! Who would have thought that a mechanical claw, could be so dainty?  This clip from Cushing's 'non-canon' Dr Who outing 'Dr Who and the Daleks' (1965) proves one thing, the pepper-pots may not be able to 'do' stairs, but if you want someone to your needle-point on the planet Scaro, these are your go to guys! Thanks to Milla  Sandosos, for the request and pointing this little factoid out!

Not EVERYONE enjoys Doctor Who OR the Daleks. Here's our REVIEW FEATURE and STILLS GALLERY at the website: CLICK HERE!

#SILENTBUTDEADLYWEDNESDAY!: Until I watched this film quite recently, not listening closely enough, I thought PC was handling a 'TOOTH!', so please allow me license, for the sake of our theme today?   Peter Cushing was famous for his use for props in films with him often having different items in his pocket even if they never appeared on screen. Getting the nickname 'Props Cushing.' RECALLING how the cast and crew on 'The Abominable Snowman' were entertained by Cushing's improvisation with props, director Val Guest said, "One Scene he gets give a tooth, we went for the take and then surprise, Peter brought out a small nail file, then a measuring tool! We got in the first take we'd never last another one!" Requested by Dina Meddows.

OUR ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN FEATURE AND RARE STILLS GALLERY HERE!

#SILENTBUTDEADLYWEDNESDAY! THAT FINGER sure caused poor Peter Cushing's Emmanuel Hildern, a LOT of trouble. IF that petrified skeleton had come with a piece of paper, like those SEA MONKEYS from your childhood, 'JUST ADD WATER' . . for chaos, it would have saved him, from such a cruel and sad fate. 'The Creeping Flesh' (1973) is a film that often gets discussed on our FACEBOOK FAN PAGE. It seems everyone who watches the film, has their own theory on what is actually happening on screen. Multi layered it certainly is, or you can enjoy it as a simple tale of revenge and misfortune. Either way it is sadly, one that slipped through the net back in the day. Tigon, a very small production outfit, unfortunately didn't have budgets that stretched to the kind of publicity that their competitors had. Fortunately, thanks to  home viewing, dvd's and blu rays, the film is finally getting the exposure it so richly deserves. Try and catch it  . . Thanks to Shelly Nightingale for this requested #GIF.

OUR FEATURE AND RARE STILLS GALLERY 'THE CREEPING FLESH' HERE! 

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

#GIMMETHEGIFWEDNESDAY : THE BARONS BEDROOM EXIT AND LIGHTNING EXIT FROM THE COUNT

THREE GREAT GIFS MAKING OUR REQUEST LIST for this week's #GIMMETHEGIFWEDNESDAY. 'The FIRST..!' as Christopher Lee once grimly announced in a Dracula film long ago....is from #BruceCrichton. He requested, the moment where Count Dracula (Christopher Lee) is struck by lightning in Hammer's Scars Of Dracula (1970). See Above. 

WHEN THE GIF WAS POSTED on the PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE today, it set off a thread of it's own, when in the description of the GIF also mentioned the connection with Christopher Lee's, 'To The Devil A Daughter' for Hammer in 1976. We said, ' TRIVIA am sure some of you know, that this scene and it's ending, went on to trip up the climax of Christopher Lee role in Hammer films, 'To The Devil A Daughter'... the idea was for Lee's role to be struck by lightening, and everything was et to go on the day, until someone piped up...hey, didn't you get struck by lightening in one of your Dracula films?' Oops... so Lee's Father Michael, was struck by a rock instead... in a very weak ending....' Many of us remembered the ending and the confusion. We followed it up with a post of these two shots, from the Lightening Bolt sequence shots that were filmed, but changed for a different ending...

NEXT CAME ...'GOODNIGHT!' says the Baron…! There are quite a few things people find not to their tastes in Peter Cushing's #theeviloffrankenstein but the are quite a few things that are refreshing and spot on...one of those is the 'black humour ' in the script...this gif captures that perfectly! The GIF was requested by Mat Harrison

OUR NEXT REQUESTED GIF made the website just a few days ago too.  Creature (Christopher Lee) encountering the old blind man (Fred Johnson) in the woods in this classic sequence from Hammer's The Curse Of Frankenstein (1957) was accompanied by the question, 'There is a Cushing's 'The Abominable Snowman' (1957) connection here...can you guess it? '. This was answered by Summer Rhiannon-Elizabeth Miller Vining : 'He was one of the Yeti in the film!'.. which also started a thread on who the eyes of the SNOWMAN featured in the close up in the film, actually belong to?

We had always believed, Jack  Johnson was THE snowman whose eyes we see in the film, ....but INMB credits John Rae, so a pic was provided, so we could chew it over. Stewart Green thought Johnson looked very much like, Michael Gough! So we pinned that theory with a pic too!

AND SO ENDED another entertaining and satisfying couple of GIFS for  another #GIMMETHEGIFWEDNESDAY.

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#MONSTERMONDAY: CHILL OUT! HE'S NOT A MONSTER REALLY! THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN

#‎MONSTERMONDAY‬: THIS WEEK, we are presenting a character from a Cushing film, that doesn't really deserve the hype of the movie poster or the reputation that this 'misunderstood' creature has gained. All I can say is, watch the movie! See for yourself, frightening to look at, yes... but the 'Snowman' is a wise creature...surely more wiser than the name we have given him...snow 'MAN'.

IN HAMMER FILMS 1959, 'The Abominable Snowman' Peter Cushing plays Dr John Rollason. He reprised Rollason having played the good doctor in the BBC drama of the same story, written by Nigel Kneale, entitled 'The Creature' in 1955. At this point in his career, Peter Cushing was best known as a television actor, having starred in the BBC productions of Pride and Prejudice (1952) and Beau Brummell (1954) ....as well as the Kneale production of 'Nineteen Eighty-Four', directed by Rudolph Cartier.

Here's a rare snap of Peter in the BBC drama 'The Creature' from 1955, with Brit actor Stanley Baker in the Tom Friend role, that would be played by Forrest Tucker in the Hammer version. . .

'SNOWMAN' was his second picture for Hammer films productions, the first had been 'The Curse of Frankenstein' directed by Terence Fisher and co starring Christopher Lee in 1957, it was the film that set the mold and would bring him international fame.

RECALLING how the cast and crew on 'Snowman' were entertained by Cushing's improvisation with props, director Val Guest said, “We used to call him 'Props Cushing', because he was forever coming out with props. When he was examining the Yeti tooth, he was pulling these things out totally unrehearsed and we found it very difficult keeping quiet” If you have yet to 'CATCH' The Abominable Snowman, you're in for a treat!

FEATURE AND FULL GALLERY HERE AT THE WEBSITE: CLICK HERE

 

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THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN : HAMMER FILMS ANNOUNCE REMAKE : REVIEW AND GALLERY OF THE CUSHING CLASSIC

In 1953, Nigel Kneale changed the face of television with his serial The Quatermass Experiment.  The play, broadcast live on British television, was a huge hit with the public, establishing Kneale as a force to be reckoned with in the science fiction and fantasy genres.  He would hit a nerve in 1954 with his adaptation of George Orwell's political allegory, 1984.

The teleplay starred Peter Cushing and it would help to make him into the country's first bona-fide TV star.  A reteaming seemed inevitable, and in 1955 they united for The Creature.  The play told of an expedition which sets out to prove the existence of the so-called Yeti, or abominable snowman, and of the in-fighting and conflicts within the group which lead to their eventual destruction.  It was yet another hit, though sadly the BBC couldn't be bothered to make a recording of it.  Thus, the original version of Kneale's thoughtful sci-fi adventure is lost to the mists of time, along with the performances of Cushing and Stanley Baker, cast in the opposing roles of kindly scientists Dr. Rollason and crassly commercial Tom Friend.

Around this same time, Hammer Films had optioned Kneale's first Quatermass adventure for the cinema - the resulting film, The Quatermass Xperiment (the "X" serving to emphasize the "adult" nature of the material), would become a hit for the company, thus steering them in the direction of sci-fi and horror.  Following the success of The Curse of Frankenstein in 1957, Hammer continued with more Kneale adaptations, bringing their own versions of the 1955 Quatermass 2 and The Creature to the screen; the latter would be rechristened as The Abominable Snowman or The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas, depending on the print.

Hammer enlisted Kneale to write the screenplay, as the writer had been extremely vocal of his criticism of the changes made by director Val Guest on The Quatermass Xperiment, and also saw fit to retain Cushing as one of the leads.  Sadly, they elected to go the "American name" route in casting Tom Friend, however, thus leaving Stanley Baker out of the picture.  Happily, the actor they cast to replace him proved quite capable: Forest Tucker.  The imposing and very brash character actor may have seemed an odd choice for Hammer Horror territory, but he brings just the right attributes to the role of Friend.  He's loud, he's aggressive, he's patently phony in his desire to help further "science," and he plays beautifully off of Cushing's English reserve and sensitivity.

Despite Kneale's issues with his handling of The Quatermass Xperiment (and Quatermass 2, which Kneale was more closely involved in bringing to the screen), Hammer brought Val Guest in to direct.  Guest broke into films quite by chance after slagging Chandu the Magician (1932) in a print interview and boasting that he could write a better film himself; the film's director took him up on the challenge and Guest took to screenwriting like a duck to water.  He would begin directing unassuming programmers but would go on to direct some eclectic and very interesting pictures.  He was precisely the kind of director Hammer liked: strong and authoritative on set, but capable of bringing in the film on budget without succumbing to hubris and excess.  Guest would later describe The Abominable Snowman as a disappointment, citing Hammer's unwillingness to allow him to film on location, but the end product is very well crafted and continued Kneale's trend towards thoughtful, low-key sci-fi with much emphasis on characterization.

The entire cast does a fine job, notably Arnold Marle as the wizened Dalai Lama figure who seems to hold some key to the mystery of the Yeti, but the emphasis is very much on the clash between Cushing's idealist and Tucker's showman.  The two actors do a magnificent job of playing off one another, with Cushing adding depth and nuance to what could have been another stock character.  Cushing's fondness for improvising with props  led director Guest to dub him "props Peter," while his concern over realism prompted him to question Guest as to whether or not one could actually light a cigarette at such a high altitude; Tucker's reply was along the lines of, "I don't care if you really could or not; I'm smoking anyway, so you may as well, too."  Both actors thus take time to visit flavor country while stressing out over the severity of their situation.

Despite Guest's protestations of penny pinching, the film looks impressive.  Arthur Grant would later become Hammer's DP of choice when Jack Asher's meticulous methods made him too expensive for the company, and his later work tended to be functional but uninspired.  For whatever reason, however, he did splendid work in widescreen and black and white: thus, The Abominable Snowman joins Joseph Losey's These Are the Damned and Freddie Francis' Paranoiac as one of the best-looking films he photographed.  The mood is highlighted by a spare, ominous soundtrack by Humphrey Searle, who did far too little work for Hammer.  It may lack the "star value" of Hammer's better-known monster figures, but The Abominable Snowman is an unappreciated gem in their overall body of work and shows once again why Guest was the company's best director of science fiction properties.

Text: Troy Howarth
Banner and Images: Marcus Brooks