SHANE BRIANT LAST LEAD STANDING

The above titled image is a caption that would I am sure, upon reading it, would have Shane Briant allowing himself a titter! As the title of his autobiography tells us, not only is he is always 'the bad guy', but today on his birthday, he stands as the only remaining lead male actor, from the the final days of that most treasured British institution and regal house of horrors, Hammer studios, still working. 

Looking at the titles of many of Shane's  films and characters, you quickly begin to understand that, he may be still standing, but often he has left our nerves on the floor,  shocking us with his young and deranged Peter Clive in 'Straight On Til Morning', Simon Helder in 'Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell', all for the Hammer studio, but Norma in the landmark BBC production of 'The Naked Civil Servant' in 1975, Sir Clifford Chatterley in Lady Chatterley's Lover in 1980, and Dr. Trayso Talnell / Kaarvok in tv's 'Farscape', prove that Shane is no stranger to the tormented and the slightly skewed and has brought us a feast of 'fabulous fiends', that often stand, hold rank and quite comfortably keep company , with some of cinema's best! 

We invited Uwe Sommerlad, to take a step back and take an over view of the man who has brought us many chilling chaps in the black hat, but in life, couldn't be a more charming, friendly and sensitive man. Shane Briant

Happy 70iest Birthday to Shane Briant! The British actor studied law before he decided on a, hm, less theatrical career as an actor, making his professional debut as Hamlet in Dublin. He then played in London with the splendid Yvonne Mitchell in "Children of the Wolf", winning the Best Newcomer Award.

He played several small parts on the screen before Hammer took him under contract, hoping that he would become a new major Hammer star. Alas, Hammer was going commercially downhill by then, and the four movies Briant did for them - the underrated psycho thriller STRAIGHT ON TILL MORNING (1972; dir. Peter Collinson), the strange Freudian Gothic DEMONS OF THE MIND (1972; dir. Peter Sykes), the experimental CAPTAIN KRONOS - VAMPIRE HUNTER (1974; dir. Brian Clemens, with Horst Janson) and Terence Fisher's last movie, FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM HELL (1973, with Peter Cushing) did not do very well at the box office.

In between Briant went to Hollywood and played Dorian Gray in the TV adaptation THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (1973; dir. Glenn Jordan), but no horror stardom followed (with Briant not really suited for the "slashers" and Zombie movies to come), but a solid career as a character actor in various movies and on TV. He was a killer in John Huston's THE MACKINTOSH MAN (1973, wiith Paul Newman and James Mason) and Jack Palance's evil son in the trash classic HAWK THE SLAYER (1980; dir. Terry Marcel).

He played a cross-dressing homosexual in the Quentin Crisp biopic THE NAKED CIVIL SERVANT (TV 1975; dir. Jack Gold, with John Hurt), not LADY CHATTERLEY'S LOVER (1981; dir. Just Jaeckin, with Silvia Kristel) but her wheelchair-bound husband, and was suspicious in the Agatha Christie adaptation MURDER IS EASY (TV 1982; dir. Claude Whatham, with Bill Bixby). 

Briant went to live in Australia in the Eighties, where he continued to appear in movies and TV shows, including the horror movies CASSANDRA (1986; dir. Colin Eggleston) and OUT OF THE BODY (1989; dir. Brian Trenchard-Smith), thrillers GRIEVOUS BODILY HARM (1988; dir. Mark Joffe) or TUNNEL VISION (1995; dir. Clive Fleury, with Patsy Kensit) and episodes of SF series TIME TRAX (1994) and FARSCAPE (2001 - 2003). He also became the main villain in children's TV series, namely MISSION: TOP SECRET (1994 - 1995) and SEARCH FOR TREASURE ISLAND (1998 - 2000).

Shane Briant has also turned to writing and had seven novels published between 1994 and 2011. His short film A MESSAGE FROM FALLUJAH, loosely based on Ambrose Bierce's "An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge", won the "Best of the Fest" award at the 2005 Los Angeles International Short Film Festival and was in the final mix of ten shorts for consideration for an Academy Award. In 2013 he played Major Lawrence Miller in seven episodes of the HBO serial, Serngoon Road and last year competed work on the tv mini series GALLIPOLI as Sir Frederick Stopford.

JOIN US AT OUR PETER CUSHING APPRECIATION SOCIETY FACBOOK FAN PAGE 

NOW WITH OVER 25,000 FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS

GIF GALLERY WEDNESDAY IS GIMMETHEGIFWEDNESDAY

SO HERE WE ARE... with our SECOND #GIMMETHEGIFWEDNESDAY! Keep those requests a-comingand we will do our best to, find that clip and make that gif!  What makes a great gif? Here are two of the things to consider when choosing your gif, the best gifs are a short section of film with no dialogue...remember a gif plays without any audio. Maybe some thing that has high drama or action... a gif can be only 5 to 12 seconds long...

GIFS below are from 'Flesh and the fiends', for Bella Podtetenieff. 'Horror Express'  for Tom Boulton and 'Legend of the Werewolf' for Lexi Conroy. 

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY : KELLY SHARES A NEW FIGURE

A NEW MICHAEL RIPPER sculpt is in the works from KELLY GODEL. Premièring here at the Peter Cushing Appreciation Society and and at our FACEBOOK FAN PAGE too! Kelly tells us that, 'The previous Michael Ripper figure was inspired by Ripper's character in Hammer films, Scars of Dracula. This is more of a "Tom Bailey" but without the beard (yet)!

Although Kelly is still working on this figure, I could see this one already had all the signs of being just as excellent as his last Michael Ripper, and I think it will being sought after by figure collectors. I Kelly him how would someone go about ordering one?. 'I don't have any selling plans other than if anyone wants one they message contact me--and there are more to come. I can be contacted at, kgodel@show(dot)ca or they can facebook message me.'

I never really saw Michael very often after he retired. Even though when he was working, he always made time for fans and was, in all this attention, an extremely humble man. He admitted he was a little confused and enormously flattered by the interest that his work with Hammer was now receiving. I once joked and said he might be surprised yet, should they erect a statue of him in honour of his work. He smiled and actually blushed! 

During our chatting on facebook today, I mentioned to Kelly that it was great to see this figure was up to his usual excellent standard. And that I was pleased to see he had chosen to make another Michael Ripper figure! Within seconds, Kelly's reply came through on the chat box...it said, 'I haven't forgotten that you said, Michael Ripper would be "over the moon" to have had a statue made of him, so I had to do two!' 

Hmm, I think Michael would have liked that..!

CELEBRATE #TOOCOOLTUESDAY HERE AND

AT OUR FACEBOOK FAN PAGE JUST CLICK HERE!

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY: PETER CUSHING BRONZE BUST

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY : NOW AINT THAT TOO COOL?

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY : CONTACT PRINTS are ALWAYS cool!Clock-wise: Peter Cushing MADHOUSE, Onset Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, Vincent Price publicity portrait for Comedy of Terrors, Peter Cushing at book signing 1986 — with Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, Dracula Has Risen from the Grave and Hammer Films

PLEASE JOIN US AT OUR FACEBOOK FAN PAGE

#MONSTERMONDAY : HERBERT FLAY MONSTER OR VICTIM?

#MONSTERMONDAY Over at OUR PCASUK FACEBOOK FAN PAGE we are getting ready to load up this week's #MONSTERMONDAY post. This week, Peter Cushing's HERBERT FLAY, from Amicus films, MADHOUSE is in the dock! Madman? Monster, Victim? ...YOU decide...

PLEASE JOIN US AT OUR FACEBOOK FAN PAGE

TWENTY FIVE THOUSAND HELPING TO KEEP THE MEMORY ALIVE!

MANY, MANY THANKS to everyone who has joined our Peter Cushing Appreciation Society Facebook Fan Page in the last four weeks, making it possible for PCAS to not only HIT the 25 THOUSAND followers mark but, to FLY WAY PAST IT!! To be quite honest with you, I thought I was seeing things, when I glanced at our total followers number. It's a staggering amount of friends and followers for our little society! And not since the Peter Cushing Appreciation Society was first founded in 1956...have so many friends belonged to this society. Peter would have been shocked I am sure!

WE KNOW FROM RECENT EMAILS and messages, PCAS has friends and followers as far away as Moscow, many in Australia, a few thousand in the UK, a huge amount in ALL the states of the USA, we get Hello's from just about every country in Europe, Ireland, Scotland, New Zealand, Brazil, Alaska and Canada.... To you ALL...... Thank you for your many very kind words, comments and continued interest. To those who write our fabulous features, those who send me photographs, cuttings and press reports. The people with their eyes on PC film releases and the many who I have have made friends with here over the past six years....  

We have recently move ALL our video clips, interviews, trailers and media from the M.BROOKS youtube channel to our NEW PCASUK Youtube Channel. We will no longer be updating posts at the M.Brooks channel. Why not give the new channel a visit and maybe subscribe, so you don't miss a thing? HERE 

IT'S ALWAYS A PLEASURE POSTING FOR YOU ALL and I hope to continue for quite some time yet. Here's to the NEXT big number...as Peter Cushing often said, it's time...'STEP OUT!'

Please come join us at our PCASUK facebook fan page

We'd LOVE to meet you! 

#‎petercushing‬ ‪#‎hammerfilms‬ ‪#‎christopherlee‬

ALICE LOPES FOLLOWS THE TRAIL BACK OVER HER WHITSTABLE TRIP LAST YEAR!

At the end of August, it’s gonna be one year since my trip to England. For almost a week, I had the opportunity to be in contact with a culture that has fascinated me throughout life. Accepting Marcus's (Brooks) invitation, I've come back to PCASUK, to talk about my passion for cinema and literature, relive some moments of my trip and finally talk about my plans for the future.

ABOVE THE BANNER FROM ALICE'S ORIGINAL FEATURE. 

THE POST CAN BE FOUND HERE

Since I can remember, I have a great passion for cinema. But it was at the age of ten, while watching a silent film in black and white that I began to look at films with different eyes. Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, 1920 caught my attention from the first scene until the very end. The play of light and shadows, classical music playing in the background, psychedelic sets, focus on the characters' look, the precision of the movements ... It was a set of details that connected two totally different generations. Although I was separated from that film by almost a century, it aroused the desire to know more about classic films. In a few months, I had already watched all the section of silent films of the video store.

Peter Cushing appeared by chance in my life when I was 12 years old. One of my hobbies at the time (and still is) was going to the video rental stores. Among several films I picked up Madhouse, 1974. After having watched the Dr Phibes’ films and feeling completely amazed by Vincent Price, I was in a true saga in search of all films in which he was the protagonist. But in Madhouse I came across with another actor who would become, like Vincent Price, one of my biggest inspirations. The end, far from being obvious, in which Peter had an iconic participation, made me want to know more about him. The next week I was immersed in Hammer’s adaptations of Frankenstein and Dracula.

As the years passed by, my interest for cinema increased more and more. I used to watched everything. I often say that I am a person of phases: when I come across with a certain genre, actor or director with which I identify myself, I watch everything of him. Documentaries, silent films, terror, Mafia, Alice's in Many Lands and so on. They all exert some level of influence on me, some more, some less. But terror will always be my favorite genre, both in film as in literature.



After all, I have chosen a completely unrelated career from the movie business: Economics and International Relations, which are the courses that I currently study in Sao Paulo. Despite my career choice, I can not see my future without doing something related to cinema in some point of my life. Be a short film, a documentary, or even a video for YouTube. Somehow, I want and I have plans to do something behind or maybe in front of the cameras: writing, directing or acting.

Last year, I had the opportunity to do a theoretical course on cinema’s history. It was six wonderful months of classes ministered by Inacio Araujo, who showed us a more critical and methodological view of the film industry, pointing out established directors and key films for any cinephile.

Since 2015, I have been involved in an academic project, in which I study the relationship between Philosophy and British Gothic Literature of the 19th century, to be more specific: the relationship between the works of Francis Bacon and novels such as Frankenstein and Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde. In this study I could relate two fields that apparently did not make any sense.

I was charmed and I felt madly in love with England. I visited a golf course and also a croquet one (believe me: golf courses are extremely rare and inaccessible in Brazil), I walked through a cold, almost desert of shingle beach (the opposite of what we see here), where the sun was still shining bright at 7PM (the sunset here happens much earlier than in Europe). I tried the famous delicacy Fish & Chips, which approved at first. Walking through Whitstable was like a tour next to Peter. Despite not having had the opportunity to meet him, I could see him in every corner of the city: his ocean-front home, the restaurant that bears his name, Geoff Laurens Antiques, the museum filled with items from his personal collection, and the population as a whole, always willing to share an actor's memory.

In London I came across old houses, which I only see in historical cities of Brazil. There, on the other hand, it seems that the Victorian air still remains.I went to a casino for the first time and visited the acclaimed Whitehaven Mansions, the Poirot’s building (which I refuse to call Florin Court) and passed by Scotland Yard. Not forgetting the classical tourist sights.

I also broke the stereotype that British people are cold and distant, finding, on the other hand, polite and nice people, always willing to help, very thoughtful and patient.

Funny situations were also part of the script: it did not take long to realize that the delicious ice cream brand Kibon, in England is called Wall's; pass the subway card (Oyster Card) both to enter and to leave was a real surprise, because in Brazil whether you spend two hours or two minutes on the underground you will always pay the same amount. Finally it is worth remembering to any unsuspecting tourist that trains have a little button to open the doors!

FINAL WORDS

Finally, I would like to thank Marcus for the opportunity to return to PCASUK and share my experience with thousands of Peter’s fans around the world. I hope that both my history and my trip to Whitstable have brought good memories of our dear Master of Horror.

Alice Lopes, 20 anos, São Paulo, Brasil

JOIN US AT OUR FACEBOOK FAN PAGE NOW WITH OVER 25 THOUSAND FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS JUST CLICK  HERE