REMEMBERED TODAY : PETER WILTON CUSHING OBE AUGUST 11TH 1994

IN MEMORY of Peter Wilton Cushing 26th May 1913 - 11th August 1994:

TODAY WE MARK the 24th Anniversary of the day the Peter Cushing left us. As a society, here at our Peter Cushing Facebook fan page and at our website we mark the many birthdays and the sad news others passing, and also remembering those who worked with or knew Peter Cushing. It's a sad day, but as always, we ask that the mood be one of celebration...the celebration of a life well lived, of his career, his professional achievements and of him being the most of gentle, of gentle men.

POST HERE AT OUR WEBSITE on the 20th anniversary of Peters passing, ROY HUDD REMEMBERS PETER CUSHING. READ IT by CLICKING HERE!

STAR WARS actor DON HENDSERSON : REMEMBERS PETER CUSHING also, you can find that by CLICKING HERE!

PLEASE FEEL FREE to share your memory's of Peter over at the FACEBOOK PETER CUSHING APPRECIATION SOCIETY FAN PAGE  where many are celebrating and remembering, Peter Cushing OBE . . .

REMEMBERING KATE O'MARA BORN TODAY 1939

TODAY MARKS the late Kate O'Mara's birthday.... Her earliest television appearances, includes guest roles in 'Danger Man', 'Adam Adamant Lives!', 'The Saint', 'Z-Cars' and 'The Avengers'. Look carefully and you'll spot her in the crowd of ale swiggers in Cushing's / Hammer films CAPTAIN CLEGG. She also worked with Cushing in the film, CORRUPTION and in 1970, she appeared in two Hammer films films THE VAMPIRE LOVERS and 'The Horror of Frankenstein'. In the former, she had an erotically charged scene with Ingrid Pitt, in which O'Mara was meant to be seduced; the two women were left laughing on set, however, as Pitt's fangs kept falling into O'Mara's cleavage. O'Mara's work in 'The Vampire Lovers' impressed Hammer enough for them to offer her a contract, which she turned down, fearful of being typecast!

ABOVE a smashing photograph of actress KATE O'MARA, standing outside the WATFORD ODEON CINEMA back in October 1970, posing with poster of Hammer films, 'THE VAMPIRE LOVERS'.

IN BETWEEN APPEARANCES in the BBC 'Doctor Who', she played Caress Morell in the American primetime soap opera 'Dynasty'. After returning to the UK, she was cast as another scheming villain, Laura Wilde, in the BBC soap 'Howards' Way' (1989–90). Kate O'Mara passed on 30th March 2014 aged 74.

HELP CELEBRATE the memory of KATE O'MARA with everyone else at the FACEBOOK PETER CUSHING APPRECIATION SOCIETY FAN PAGE. YOU can join the page just by clicking LIKE and never missing a post and join in the fun!

WHEN A HAMMER HORROR SCRIPT WENT AWOL AND ALMOST DIDN'T GO INTO PRODUCTION!

THERE WAS ONLY ONE completed MASTER SCRIPT in existence... and on the day it was to be in the hands of producer Anthony Nelson Keys . . it went missing! Which classic Peter Cushing Hammer film script was this and where was it RESCUED and FOUND? . . . .it wasn't The Hound of the Baskervilles! The ANSWER will be posted at our FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE where you can submit YOUR answer! Please feel free to join in with the other suggestions, being submitted by the friends and followers on our Fan Page TODAY! 

YOU CAN JOIN AND FOLLOW the THE FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE just by clicking HERE! . Please come JOIN US, you will be most welcome! 

 

COMIC TURNS AND MAGAZINES WEDNESDAY : WORLD OF HORROR SHORT LIVED BUT LONG REMEMBERED!

TWO GREAT PAGES, from a UK magazine, that made it's mark and sadly vanished, WORLD OF HORROR. It only made it to just nine issues, and vanished from the newsagents shelves in less than a year. It was launched in 1974 by the Dalruth Publishing Group / Gresham Publishing company and edited by, Gent Shaw. What happened to either of those, I have no idea. I  know I was not the only young teenager, who awaited each new issue, with much excitement. The range of subject matter and films covered in the magazine all fell under the 'horror and fantasy' banner, I suited my appetite and interest very well. Yes, Monster Mag, sits on the top of the pile, with those amazing posters, but because of the format, they only had eight pages, the other and underside of the poster, with limited panels, to write. So info was always limited, but the posters made up for that!    

WORLD OF HORROR also provided some excellent covers, not all nine issue covers images were wonderful, but several colour pages within, gave us some very impressive stills and portraits.  They always seem ed to have a good supply of both Hammer and Amicus films, NEW photographs. You have to remember, all three actors, Peter Cushing, Vincent Price AND Christopher Lee were still working, and in 1974, were still appearing in the films, that made companies, lots of lolly at the box office. The two page feature on Amicus films, MADHOUSE appeared just as the film was being released, so press offices, were keen to give synopsis's and lovely pics. It was a golden era for some TV shows too, that appeared in the magazine, like the BBC Dr Who, with Tom Baker. There was something to please everyone. We'll be posting more on this magazine and many others, over the next few weeks, as we turn our WEDNESDAY theme here at the website, to comics and magazines, that included and covered the films of Peter Cushing and friends. COMIC TURNS AND MAGS WEDNESDAY, has started today!

MEANWHILE this SUNDAY, you'll be getting more than the few images as included in the feature above from the Amicus film, MADHOUSE.  A TWO PART feature, with a mega gallery in each, MADHOUSE : ON SCREEN AND BEHIND THE SCENES, with Peter Cushing, Vincent Price, Robert Quarry, Adrienne Corri, Natasha Pyne, Linda Hayden, Barry Dennen, Jenny Leigh Wright, Julie Crosthwaite, Michael Parkinson and Director Jim Clark, all appear! PART ONE can be found here at the website, with selected extracts at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE!

IF YOU WANT to discuss, chat or debate the content of any of our posts, here at the website, please come join us at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE  There are over 33 thousand other friends and fans of Peter Cushing's work, who have joined the page, and it's a busy place. BUT we are always happy to meet new friends and chat. Photos, features, themed daily posts and competitions, lots to see! You will be MOST welcome!

THE ROY ASHTON AND PETER CUSHING TALES FROM THE CRYPT SECRET!

THIS WEEK'S CUSHING TUESDAY TOUGHY! Amazing Make up artist,  ROY ASHTON and his work with Peter Cushing, is the subject matter of our question, this week. Roy was an absolute gentleman and joined PCASUK back in the early 1980's, as an Honorary Member, along with Vincent Price, Ingrid Pitt and Amicus films producer and writer, Milton Subotsky. Over the years, Roy gave us several interviews on audio and two precious VIDEO interviews, which were shot at his home. He was a wealth of information and shared his experiences with good humour and honesty. This little nugget of info, which provides our CUSHING TUESDAY TOUGHY this week, comes from the last video interview. The answer will probably surprise you, as much as it surprised me! Good luck and have fun thinking this one out! ANSWER NEXT Tuesday!

AS A TRIBUTE to Roy Ashton's creation of the UNDEAD Arthur Grimsdyke, make up artist, GREG NICOTERO created a 'Grimsdyle-look-a-like' in an episode of the US tv series, 'THE WALKING DEAD' in 2017, Make up artist, RICK BAKER also created his own tribute to Ashton, last year!

BELOW: LAST WEEKS  CUSHING TUESDAY TOUGHY ANSWER

ALL OUR POSTS HERE AT THE WEBSITE are also shared daily at our Facebook Peter Cushing Appreciation Society UK Fan Page. Every day, each post is chatted about, stills shared in the company of good friends, who have one thing in common, the love and interest in Peter Cushing, his like and work. Over 33 thousand friends have joined the Fan Page. Please come join us! You will be most welcome!

DO YOU REMEMBER RHAID DINISTRIO FRANKENSTEIN? RARE PCASUK SCRAPBOOK CUTTING

HERE IS A RARE CUTTING, from our PCASUK scrapbooks, that I have posted before, but some time ago. Not only is it rare, but the occasion that story in the cutting is was quite an event and quite strange at the time, for quite a few people! I wonder how many of you remember it and if anyone remembers when and what the newspaper cutting is all about? Feel free to join in the discussion and debate at our right now!

PCASUK has several internet social platforms, including a FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE. It has over 33 THOUSAND likes and followers! Please come join us us and have an opportunity to discuss any of the posts you have seen here at the website! 

CALLUM MCKELVIE: PHIBES RISES : CUSHING POPS IN : VINCENT DELIVERS ANOTHER CLASSIC! DR PHIBES RISES AGAIN!

Dr Phibes follows it’s titular character as he seeks retribution for the death of his wife by murdering the nine members of the team who he believed failed her on the operating table. Sounds simple? Did I forget to mention that he kills them in ways relating to the seven plagues of Egypt, has an enigmatic mute assistant called Vulnavia whom he waltz’s with to music played by his clockwork band, talks through a gramophone and wears a mask of his own face?

WHEN HELEN CUSHING passed away in 1971, the effect on Peter was profound. Physically and emotionally devastated, he threw himself into his acting, working as consistently as he could, up to his death in 1994. However several films which were slated to star Cushing surrounding Helens death, quickly had to find alternatives. So Andrew Kier, ended up replacing Cushing in Blood From the Mummy’s Tomb and Joseph Cotton took over his role in one of the subjects of today’s piece, 'The Abominable Dr Phibes'. 

PHIBES IS A MASTERPIECE  of camp comedy. With a deliciously morbid sense of humour and a tremendous amount of style, the film turned out to be one of the most unique and inventive British Horrors at the point when the death knell was just beginning to sound. However you’d be forgiven for thinking the Cushing connection was only a curious, ‘what if’. A year later, its sequel and the real focus of this article- Dr Phibes Rises Again, managed to go even further than the first in terms of outrageous black comedy and eccentricity. 

NOT ONLY THAT, but Rises Again, features an incredibly small cameo from Peter Cushing, making up (to some extent) for his having to turn down the role of Dr Versailius in the first film. Re-watching the films again however had me pondering…would Cushing’s presence make that much of a difference? And if so would it have improved the film? or perhaps changed it beyond recognition?

DR PHIBES follows it’s titular character as he seeks retribution for the death of his wife by murdering the nine members of the team who he believed failed her on the operating table. Sounds simple? Did I forget to mention that he kills them in ways relating to the seven plagues of Egypt, has an enigmatic mute assistant called Vulnavia whom he waltz’s with to music played by his clockwork band, talks through a gramophone and wears a mask of his own face? Yes, whilst the plot in itself is somewhat simplistic it is these eccentricities that give both Phibes films their flair. And what of Phibes himself? 

THE FILM WAS DESIGNED as a vehicle for Vincent Price and despite having very little dialogue, his immense presence steals the show and works perfectly with the vision for the film created by director Robert Feust. Arguably, at this stage in his career Price had developed a persona as an exaggerated Gothic gentleman, and by the late 60’s one can’t help but  sense Price having a great deal of fun with this image of the ‘merchant of menace’ and sending himself up. Phibes exploits this and the title character draws on many of the tropes associated with Price, the lavish tastes and exaggerated classiness.

WHAT OF JOSEPH COTTEN and Versualias then? The role Cotten role was  to have been taken by Cushing? Admittedly the role itself isn’t particularly rewarding, he’s the staunch stoic hero to Price’s maniacal villain.  True, a Price-Cushing standoff would doubtless of been a highlight of both men’s careers, but let’s not forget that the two characters only come together for the final ten-minutes or so. Not only that but with Price’s voice hampered somewhat by the silted pronunciation needed for the character, one wonders if it really would have lived up to expectations. On the other hand Joseph Cotten is somewhat thought of simply as a replacement for Cushing and I don’t think that’s fair. Let’s remember the kind of world that Feust is trying to create. The film is set in the 1920’s but draws on the 30’s as well, an art-deco world of parties, music and dinner jackets. A tongue in cheek pastiche of old Hollywood glamour. 

NOW LET'S CONSIDER what Joseph Cotten is known for; Citizen Kane, The Third Man, not to mention his work with the Mercury theatre company. True, a little later than Phibes is set but all titans of old Hollywood. Indeed there’s something incredibly anachronistic about Cotton in the film at all, he seems like a man out of time. Could it be, perhaps that he was chosen for this reason?  That in the same way that Phibes exploits Prices’s persona, that the role of Versualias exploits Cotten’s Hollywood image. Certainly he was chosen as a replacement, but I can’t imagine Feust not jumping a little bit with joy when he realised he was going to have one of the stars of Citizen kane in a sequence that involved an operating table and a lot of acid…

SO CUT TO A YEAR LATER and the inevitable sequel. Often given a bad wrap, I must confess to being something of a fan of this one. The eccentricity of the first film is taken to it’s logical conclusion and Feust opts to go bigger and broader. Purposefully sending up the 1920’s obsession with everything Egyptian following in the wake of Tutankhamun, this film features a heavier dose of the mystical, lacking in the first film. Here Phibes embarks on a quest to find the mythical river of life, which he believes will bring resurrection for his wife and eternal life for them both. Of course along the way he encounters a rival team of archaeologists and sets upon dispatching of them in ways equally as eccentric and theatrical as those featured in the first film.

THIS IS ONE OF THE BIGGEST COMPLAINTS lodged against the film, namely why Phibes is going to the trouble of killing these people in these ways when he doesn’t even know them. In the first film there was some level of logic to it, with his motivation being revenge and him therefore wanting them to suffer. In Rises Again however, one can’t help but feel that Feust is spoofing his own work up. Why does Phibes go to all this bother? Well because he can! After all, why does he transport the body of his wife around in what appears to be a carnival attraction? It’s perhaps a case of style over substance, but good god is it stylish.

PRICE HIMSELF also hams it up even further than before, his voice being allowed to flow naturally instead of the stilted style used in the first film. He’s given a great deal more dialogue too, narrating many of his own scenes and getting to state a lot of delightful nonsense about the ancient gods of Egypt and so on and so forth. Not only that but the opportunity for comedy is heightened here, with ‘wonders with the local fish’ and ‘if music be the fruit of love…’ being two favourites of mine.

ROBERT QUARRY appears in the film as Biederbeck, a sort of Man Who Could Cheat Death type figure, also hunting for the river of life. Quarry is something of a personal favourite of mine, with a natural presence and gravitas. Really, it’s nothing short of a crying shame that his career as leading man of horror didn’t take off more. Unfortunately, it’s well known that there was possible tension between he and Vincent Price due to AIP potentially grooming him to step into the ageing Price’s shoes.

WHATEVER THE CASE, this didn’t happen and Quarry got no further than starring in a handful of horror projects in the 1970’s. And Cushing? Well it really is a blink and you’ll miss it performance. A funny and light-hearted moment, it’s not one that allows for much commentary. However since we’re on the topic of possible could-have-beens for Cushing, I have to admit that whilst the idea of him as Versualias in Phibes doesn’t fill me with excitement, there is one role in the Phibes films that does. Now despite my love for Quarry (and really he is fantastic) the idea of Cushing as Biederbeck is one that really does inspire me with the possibilities. 

BIEDERBECK is a far more threatening match and his final confrontation, in which the two characters discuss the merits of eternal life, not for themselves but for love, is a far more intriguing stand-off than anything between Phibes and Versualias. Perhaps some of this dialogue would have been a little much for Cushing, the emotional resonance maybe being a bit strong- however roles in films such as The Ghoul and Tales from the Crypt, show a utilisation of his emotional distress that lead to some of his finest performances. 

WHATEVER THE IMPACT of Cushing may have been, ultimately we will never know. The films as they stand are two of the finest British horror films to emerge during this period and never cease to be endlessly entertaining.

Written by Callum McKelvie
Edited and Images Jamie Somerville
and Marcus Brooks

Any comments or suggestions on Callum's feature
you can email him HERE!

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