#MONSTERMONDAY! REMEMBERING DAVID PEEL AND HIS BARON WITH BITE!

#MONSTERMONDAY! Marking DAVID PEEL'S passing today, we present this vintage Italian (?) cinema poster for Hammer films, 'The Brides of Dracula' starring Peter Cushing as Van helsing, David Peel as Baron Meinster and the beautiful Yvonne Monlaur as Christina... It's a pretty neat poster, I think. So effective with so little, two colour and broad representation of the characters...with the voltage up on sex appeal as well as the fantasy...or are they the same thing??? Either way, this poster is one of my all time favs. What do you think?

#MONSTERMONDAY: TODAY we remember actor DAVID PEEL who we sadly lost on this day in 1981. There are few who have made such an impact as Peel. He only appeared in ONE film for Hammer films and I believe only appeared in one film with Peter Cushing. ONLY ONE ROLE, one film and yet, enter VAMPIRE HAMMER into google images, and he will appear in most of the pages. Despite the success long after The Brides of Dracula was made...audiences felt a little cheated that it was a DRACULA film, without Dracula!....

I suspect that Peel wasn't impressed with either the film or the subject matter. An unhappy man, with troubles and issues. You probably know, he left the industry early on and went into antiques and real estate, but life for Peel was certainly difficult. We remember him today though, for that one Hammer film and the impressive performance as Baron Meinster, the boy vampire who certainly pushed the boundaries of vampire film!

#MONSTERMONDAY! Here I've have scanned, TWO lobby cards you rarely see today, featuring David Peel. . .one from the UK set and the other from the US set. Both are tinted sets and quite rare!

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  

#MONSTERMONDAY: PAUL TOOMBES: MAD ABOUT MADHOUSE!

#MONSTERMONDAY: It's a film that is not universally  liked, in a way some of the other Cushing films are or is held in affection like some of the portmanteau films of Amicus, but Amicus films MADHOUSE does have some pretty cool action and scare scenes, presented in the classic scare fashion. It's true there is nothing new in the film, BUT it's the performances of Cushing and Price, and a few red herrings that seal the deal on the climax of the movie, and the ultimate pay-off of who is the Doctor??? PAUL TOOMBES played by Price is we are lead to believe is a sore, washed up loser film star one minute and killer the next... He DOES have some issues, and well he actually did bump off one or two of the ladies..OR DID HE??? #MONSTERMONDAY!

VINCENT PRICE AND PETER CUSHING served up some great set pieces, all with more than a wink to both Prices and and Cushing's past horror films, the chemistry worked a charm with Vinnie and Cushing . .

AS A LITTLE EXTRA, here's is something as a complete contrast, to today's #MONSTER the beautiful Yvonne Monlaur with Peter Cushing on the red carpet, at the premier of The Brides of Dracula on July 4th 1960 . . . 

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 

REMEMBERING DAVID PEEL : MAKING OF BRIDES GIFS AND MODEL KIT!

#MONSTERMONDAY: TODAY we remember actor DAVID PEEL who was born today 19th June 1920. There are few who have made such an impact as Peel. He only appeared in ONE film for Hammer films and I believe only appeared in one film with Peter Cushing. I have a memory of him turning up in a theatre production with Peter in the 1950's..but I'll look that up, in mo...

ONLY ONE ROLE, one film and yet, enter VAMPIRE HAMMER into google images, and he will appear in most of the pages. Despite the success long after The Brides of Dracula was made...audiences felt a little cheated that it was a DRACULA film, without Dracula!....I suspect that Peel wasn't impressed with either the film or the subject matter. 

AN UNHAPPY MAN, with troubles and issues. You probably know, he left the industry early on and went into antiques and real estate, but life for Peel was certainly difficult. We remember him today though, for that one Hammer film and the impressive performance as Baron Meinster, the boy vampire who certainly pushed the boundaries of vampire film!

THE PROFESSOR MODEL KIT! NOW AVAILABLE! STRICTLY LIMITED EDITION OF ONLY 50! ORDER NOW FROM INFOPROFESSORBENAMINLOVE@GMAIL.COM

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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.

#MONSTERMONDAY: THE BLOODY COUNT IN THE CHATEAU WITH GIFS!

#MONSTERMONDAY: Requested By Tel Morrison, UK. David Peel as Baron Meinster... he comes in for a lot of stick, but I think he did very well. Peel really is acting his 'socks-off' here! A very gentle man, older that his casting, was met by his appearance on screen, with cries of 'But...he's NOT Dracula' and 'It Says DRACULA on the poster outside!!' Soul destroying, I would think. He wore lifts because his height was deemed not tall enough for the role (Tell me about it!) and a page boy blonde wig.... to give that look of innocence. All the more frightening, when he changes into the raging vampire beast, that the BARON really was.... I think he did a great job....

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#HAMMERFILMSATURDAY: THE FAIREST BRIDE OF THEM ALL : HAMMER DOCUMENTARY

#HAMMERFILMSSATURDAY: FOLOWING the news of the sad passing of Yvonne Monlaur yesterday, I thought it would be a good time to revisit this very good documentary about the making of one of her best, The Brides of Dracula. There are interviews, including Yvonne, lots of stories, behind the scenes, the works. She really was a fine talent and a beautiful woman, with such a gentle attitude. Bless you, Yvonne....

WE WILL BE posting a in-depth feature on Yvonne Monlaur, her life and career, with rare stills gallery this week.

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YVONNE MONLAUR 1939 -2017

Sad News to report Yvonne Monlaur has passed away....

She starred in the 1958 Italian film Three Strangers in Rome which was amongst Claudia Cardinale's earliest films and in 1960 in the horror film Circus of Horrors alongside prominent actors in British film such as Anton Diffring and Donald Pleasence. In 1960, she also starred in the Hammer horror film The Brides of Dracula alongside other noted British actors of the day Peter Cushing and Freda Jackson and in The Terror of the Tongs (1961) with Christopher Lee.

Monlaur screen tested for the role of Domino Derval in the 1965 James Bond film Thunderball. The role eventually went to another French actress, Claudine Auger. After a string of German and Italian films, Monlaur left films to return to Paris. She continued to live there. Of late she has attended a few film conventions, which have included salutes to Hammer films. News of her passing was press released on April 21st 2017. She died on April 18, 2017, aged 77.

Yvonne Monlaur being helped with her costume, a suit of armor, on the set of the film 'To Live and Die a Fascist', Rome, Italy, November 12th 1961. 

 

Italian actor and comedian Nino Taranto, French actress Yvonne Monlaur and Italian actor Maurizio Arena (Maurizio Di Lorenzo) gathered at the Piazzetta of Capri in a scene from the film Avventura a Capri. Capri, 1958

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY: WHAT THE BEST DRESSED VAMPIRE HUNTERS ARE WEARING!

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY: What at first looks like a pretty cool behind scenes photograph of David Peel, Yvonne Monlaur and Peter Cushing on the set of #hammerfilms 'The Brides of Dracula'...on closer inspection reveals it's a very cool shot of them rehearsing, and Cushing is wearing a comfy personal woolly sweater!! He is wearing his Van Helsing costume, under the sweater!

TRIVIA: The Hammer films, BRAY STUDIOS lot was a notoriously cold unheated place to work. The manor house of Down Place, where most of the interiors for #THECURSEOFFRANKENSTEIN and #DRACULA #HORROROFDRACULA were shot, were very cold in the winter months, the outer lot buildings were unheated too. When Christopher Lee as Dracula stands talking to Harker in the guest room, his breath can be clearly seen! When Lee played the Creature in 'Curse of Frankenstein' his bandages, post the huge water tank, were soaked with warm water, which cooled to freezing water within minutes, and gulps of brandy were consumed to stop him catching hypothermia!

 

 

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#MONSTERMONDAY : GRETA THE BRIDES OF DRACULA

#‎monstermonday‬ : PLAYED BY FREDA JACKSON, Greta is the Meinster's 'maid and Mrs Mop', who when not cooking meals, dusting and welcoming stray visitors to the château, takes care of the Baroness Meinster's insane son who is locked up in another room and chained.....But as we all know, there's more to Greta than that! Is Greta barking mad, or is that the 'influence of the young one', she has an interesting line in 'mid-wifing duties of new vampires', on cue she can be relied on, to scare the socks off anyone with that blood chilling cackle. . . she may be devoted and demented, but she's also fiercely loyal, at one point even having a scuffle with Cushing's Van Helsing. Is she a monster or just under the spell of the Baron Meinster??

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