BIGGLES : CUSHING'S LAST THEATRICAL FEATURE GETS BLU RAY RELEASE DATE

BIGGLES: Adventures In Time,  Peter Cushing's last theatrical released film from 1986 at last comes to blu ray with a brand new & restored HD master and available in its original screen ratio of 1.85:1 for the first time! Directed by John (Twins of Evil) Hough and also starring Neil Dickson, Alex Hyde-White, Fiona Hutchison, and Marcus Gilbert... This REGION B/2 blu ray release from Odeon Entertainment is available right now to pre order with a release date of MONDAY JUNE 15th 2015. Can't wait!

NEW HD MASTER RELEASE FOR HOUSE OF LONG SHADOWS BLU RAY THIS YEAR

NEWS: COMING SOON! Kino Lorber releasing HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWS (1983) on BLU RAY from NEW HD MASTER.

Directed by Pete Walker 'House of the Long Shadows' marks the FIRST TIME Peter Cushing, Vincent Price and Christopher Lee all shared scenes and screen time together! Along with veteran John Carradine and Shelia Keith, Richard Todd and Desi Arnaz....it's all good dark fun!

Tentative Release Date: September 2015
Extras: TBA

DORIAN GRAY AND COUNT DRACULA : THE FINAL SCENE

Director, screenwriter and film critic, Jean-Luc Godard once said: “It’s not where you take things from - it’s where you take them to."... Whether Terence Fisher ever saw the closing moments of the 1945 Albert Lewin directed, The picture of Dorian Gray, we will never know...Even though we have flipped the screen shot from Dracula, the cinematic framing similarities in the death throws of both Fisher's Dracula in 1958 and Lewin's Dorian Gray are, you have to admit interesting.

Just like Hammer films 1958 Dracula, this 1945 MGM production of the Oscar Wilde story, also presented the audience with some although basic, first time out special effects. Although shot primarily in black-and-white, the film features four inserts in 3-strip Technicolor of Dorian'sit as a special effect (the first two of his portrait's original state, and the second two after a major period portrait of degeneration)

THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN LIFE: SIR CHRISTOPHER LEE

 

At 92 years young....we give you, Sir Christopher Lee!  A true legend!

RADIO DUSSELDORF 1953 : CUSHING BROADCASTS PORTRAIT OF PEKO

1953... and Peter Cushing is at a radio station in Dusseldorf taking part in a broadcast of the P.N. Walker- Taylor play, 'Portrait by Peko' transmitted on August 31st. The play had been broadcast live by the BBC on the 23rd and 27th August.

ARROW REVEALS ARTWORK AND EXTRAS FOR HAMMER BASKERVILLE BLU RELEASE

NEWS: Hammer films The Hound Of The Baskervilles starring Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and Andre Morell arrives on Blu-ray from Arrow Film and Video. UK release available JUNE 1st 2015

Region: B
Format: Blu-ray
Starring: Peter Cushing, André Morell, Christopher Lee
Directed by: Terence Fisher
 

SPECIAL
EDITION CONTENTS:
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) feature presentation
- Original Mono audio (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-ray)
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- New audio Commentary with Hammer experts Marcus Hearn and Jonathan Rigby
 

- Brand new interview with hound mask creator Margaret Robinson
- Brand new interview with assistant director Hugh Harlow
- Andre Morell: Best of British – A featurette looking at the late great actor Andre Morell and his work with Hammer films
 

- The Many Faces of Sherlock Holmes – a 1986 documentary looking at the many incarnations of Conan Doyle’s celebrated character, narrated and presented by Christopher Lee
- Actor’s Notebook: Christopher Lee – an archive interview in the which the actor recalls his experiences of making The Hound of the Baskervilles
 

- The Hounds of the Baskervilles – Excerpts read by Christopher Lee
- Original Theatrical Trailer
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Paul Shipper
 

-Collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Hammer archivist Robert J.E. Simpson, illustrated with original archive stills and posters

PRE ORDER: http://bit.ly/1NqdgXw

NEWS: THE LARGEST SHERLOCK HOLMES EXHIBITION IN THE UK EVER!

NEWS: If you are a Sherlock fan in the UK, here's can exhibition you can not afford to miss!

The exhibition opens at a time when It is this endurance that is an underlying theme of the exhibition, and is explicit in the title, “The Man Who Never Lived and Will Never Die”, based on a similar observation made by Orson Welles in 1938. Thus there is a strong filmic element in the exhibition, featuring different actors who have assumed the role over the years – from Peter Cushing and Jeremy Brett to Robert Downey Jr and Benedict Cumberbatch, as well as a soundscape of radio plays, including the voice of William Gillette, and an assortment of original film posters from across the globe.

Sherlock Holmes: The Man Who Never Lived and Will Never Die which opened at the Museum of London on Friday 17 October 2014 can be visited until Sunday 12 April 2015. The exhibition is sponsored by Shepherd and Wedderburn and the technology partner is NEC. More information can be found at www.museumoflondon.org.uk/sherlock.

Adult tickets are £12 (£10.90 without donation), concession tickets (ages 12-15, students, over 60, unwaged and registered disabled) £10 (£9 without donation) and flexible family tickets for 3-6 people (must include at least one child and one adult) are £9.50 per person (£8.50 per person without donation). It is FREE, fast-track entry for Friends of the museum and FREE for children under 12.

For MORE info click this link: HERE 

MADONNA DRACULA: THE ART OF WEARING A CLOAK

The Art of Wearing A Cloak...
*Mind you, Christopher Lee's Dracula did fall in ALL seven of his Dracula films for Hammer.

DIRECTOR TERENCE FISHER 'THE MAN WHO TOLD US FAIRY TALES'

A man who certainly needs no introduction to anyone who regularly visits this page. Today we mark the birthday of the late Terence Fisher, a director whose trade mark blend of fairy-tale, myth and sexuality, gave us some of Cushing's and Hammer films greatest hits. The Curse of Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy, The Gorgon, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed..... and many, many others. All absolute gems. Happy Birthday Terence Fisher!.

SIR JOHN MILLS REMEMBERED: SHERLOCK HOLMES THE MASKS OF DEATH

Today we mark the birth of one, Lewis Ernest Watts Mills... or as we knew and loved him... Sir John Mills. He was without doubt, one of our most popular and beloved English actors and born today February 22nd 1908. In a career that stretched over eight decades, Mills appeared in over 120 films, debuting in 1932 in 'Midshipmaid Gob' right up until 2009 in 'The Snow Prince'. Many of his roles like Pip in 'Great Expectations' in 1946, Shorty Blake 'In Which We Serve' in 42, Captain Scott in 'Scott of the Antarctic' in 48 and the alcohol troubled Captain Anson in 'Ice Cold in Alex' in 58 would make him an internationally renowned star.

Mills appeared in two films with Peter Cushing, the first in 1976 entitled 'Trial by Combat' aka 'A Dirty Knight's Work' as Sir Edward Gifford. It was no more than a guest appearance, slotted in when another project on Cushing's slate fell through. The second though, was a much grander enterprise with Tyburn films and marked Cushing's return to the character of Sherlock Holmes...and Mills as Watson! They made a terrific team as a much older duo, so impressive was the chemistry that another Cushing /Mills / Sherlock film from Tyburn was planned entitled 'The Abbot's Cry', but was scuppered owing to Cushing's fragile health.

Like Cushing, Mills was in his private life a sensitive romantic, in January 2001 at the age of 92, he and wife Mary, age 89, renewed their marriage vows at St. Mary's Church, next to their home, Hills House, in Denham, England. When they had wed 60 years earlier, he was denied a church service because he was serving in the Army during World War II. Happy Birthday, Sir John!

 Sir John Mills died on the 23rd of April 2005.

JACK PALANCE REMEMBERED ON HIS BIRTHDAY TODAY 1919

Today we remember JACK PALANCE, born on this day in 1919....everyone has a favourite Palance movie and there's many crackers to choose from..Shane, Batman, Hawk the Slayer, City Slickers...or even his performances as Dracula in 74 or Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in 1968.

The Cushing connection would his be crackling performance as Ronald Wyatt in 'The Man Who Collected Poe' story in 'Torture Garden' (Amicus films 1967) A man of few words off the set, he owned his own cattle ranch and displayed other creative sides as a exhibited painter and published poet.

Read our review of 'The Man Who Collected Poe' - 'Torture Garden' : HERE 

OLIVER REED REMEMBERED

Today we remember Robert Oliver Reed, born today February 13th 1938. The 'Cushing Connection' spreads over three films, 'Captain Clegg /Night Creatures' in 1962, 'Sword of Sherwood Forest' in 60, both for Hammer films and a car crash of a film entitled 'A Touch of the Sun' in 1979... a film produced in Africa, and never found a distributor outside of it! A larger than life character both on and off the screen..who was always happy to acknowledge his 'Hammer film roots.... 'The Curse of the Werewolf in 1961 and 'These Are The Damned' in 1963. Happy Birthday Oliver!

RALPH BATES REMEMBERED : BORN TODAY 1940

REMEMBERING: Born today in 1940, RALPH BATES. Sadly, no longer with us. A talented actor and a truly gentle and kind man.

The great, great nephew of the renowned French scientist Louis Pasteur developed into a strangely handsome dark haired, pale complexioned English actor. Ralph Bates was born in 1940 in Bristol, England and attended the University of Dublin and studied at the Yale Drama School. His dramatic talents first came to audiences attention playing the evil Emperor Caligula in the well received BBC TV series The Caesars (1968). However, the Hammer studios resurrection of the horror genre was then in full stride, and Bates was soon engulfed in the swirling cloak of Hammer's success as he appeared in several horror films in quick succession.

Firstly in a support role as demonic Lord Courtley in Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970), followed as the lead character Baron Frankenstein in The Horror of Frankenstein (1970), then as Giles Barton in the sexy Lust for a Vampire (1971) and as the well meaning Dr. Jekyll in an unusual spin on the Robert Louis Stevenson story in Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde (1971) and 'Fear in the Night' with Peter Cushing in 1972. Bates brought a new zest to Hammer and with his stylish dialogue delivery and film acting methods, he quickly won himself quite a few fans in both critics and regular film goers!

Unfortunately, by the early 1970s there had been a downturn in Hammer studios fortunes, and Bates then found himself turning to more traditional character work in other production houses and he appeared in several films before snaring other superb villainous role as George Warleggan in the 18th century period piece Poldark (1975).

After Poldark, Bates himself kept busy in a few forgettable UK made TV shows and television film roles which did not really do justice to his remarkable talents. In the late 1980s his health rapidly deteriorated, and he sadly passed away from cancer aged only 51 on 27th March 1991.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0061012/bio 

CHRISTOPHER LEE STILL SHARP!

Christopher Lee is 93 this year. Still working and as sharp as a tac!