#THROWBACKTHURSDAY:
The Peter Cushing bio-documentary was broadcast TWENTY EIGHT YEARS ago
this week. Produced by Tyburn films and interviewed by Dick Vosburgh,
the 90 minutes goes by very quickly, with Peter Cushing sharing stories
of his life on and off the camera....
#THROWBACKTHURSDAY:
As promised, here is a clip of Peter Cushing from 'One Way Ticket To
Hollywood' broadcast 28 years ago this week... He gives a very
insightful clue about Christopher Lee here...and there's THAT laugh
again!!!!
#THROWBACKTHURSDAY: AND FINALLY. . . A snap behind the scenes of Christopher Lee as Captain Zantor in the SPACE 1999 episode 'Earthbound' in 1976.
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#SILENTBUTDEADLY: Dr. Namaroff (Peter Cushing) attempts to destroy The Gorgon (Prudence
Hyman), though makes the fatal mistake of looking directly at her, from
Hammer's The Gorgon (1964). It's surprising how many times this scene has been requested. Despite the slightly disappointing SFX at the end, even by 1960's standards, everything else makes up for it in this Hammer classic. Everyone is on board, Cushing, Lee, Barbara Shelley and even Patrick Troughton get a look in! Haunting, score and top notch sets from the Bray team, 'The Gorgon' is one that grows on you. The script is imaginative, and the idea of The Medusa, 'monster' was original for the time. It's an idea that is bendy enough for Josh Kennedy, of Gooey Films to fit a contemporary setting. and Josh's 'Night of the Medusa' I would recommend. Keep an eye out here, for my review, sooon! This was requested by Tim The Smart (!) USA. Thanks Tim!
#SILENTBUTDEADLY: Baron Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) about to add jail breaking to his list of crimes...this GIF from Hammer's 'The Evil Of Frankenstein' (1964). Requested by Albee Crawford.
#SILENTBUTDEADLY:
Baron Meinster (David Peel) temporarily gets the better of Van Helsing
(Peter Cushing) in Hammer's 'The Brides Of Dracula' (1960). Requested by Honest Sammy!
#SILENTBUTDEADLY: Before we go any further with this one..I have a confession. Christopher Lee as Prof. Karl Meister, in Hammer films, 'The Gorgon'? I get his performance, sort of, the voice I kind of believe, but it does distract me, every viewing. But, the actual character, the age, the mustache? No. Why did they opt for trying to make him older? The whole grouchy Einstein thing?
When I interviewed make up artist, Roy Ashton, yeeears later, I asked him about it. You want to know what his opinion was? 'I don't know why. But, I do remember it came from the top. They wanted to try something different. Looking at it, it was a mustache which was made. Peter preferred to grow his own, he had a allergy to the gum we used. That's a wig, I would think. It usually was with Christopher Lee, some piece or another, and simple aging. ME: Did that happen often, the suits would suggest something, about the make up? ROY: Well, more often than not, they would leave you to it. Unless there was something they didn't like, they thought didn't work. Like the mustaches in Hammer's 'Curse of the Werewolf' They didn't like them. They said that it didn't look correct. But I had researched the era and location, for facial hair and whatnot, at the Victoria and Albert Museum. And presented my findings. And then they said, 'Oh alright'!
ROY:Christopher's appearance was what they wanted, and I, as well as many others were too busy on the blessed snakes for the actual Gorgon, to worry. Oh it took sometime, and at the end of the day, you try your best. The same could be said, with the mask for Herbert Lom in their 'Phantom of the Opera'. They spent weeks and weeks leading up to the time, the actual day, that we were shooting a scene, where the mask had to be seen. They just didn't know what they wanted. I found some rags, some latex and a bit of paint, and put it together during my lunch break. 'That's it! That's it, they said, That's what we want!'..It was just as well, really'
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#TOOCOOLTUESDAY: HERE IS A GREAT interview with Christopher Lee, where he gets the opportunity to talk about Terence Fisher, Hammer and all sorts of things connected with the business of the industry. Very interesting interview. Even though this was recorded for use as an extra on a blu ray, the interview doesn't suffer the problem that many of later the interviews with Lee did... digging for info JUST about the film that the interview was packaged with, as an extra. This is the FIRST of TWO interviews with Lee we'll be sharing over the next few days. He's on form, sharp and entertaining as ever... coming up soon, both Christopher AND his wife, Birgit interviewed in one of the strangest interviews I have sen yet!
#TOOCOOLTUESDAY: Back last week we posted a photograph of Christopher Lee with the late, Mohamed Ali. I received requests asking if there were any more pics of that meeting and how did it happen. Well, I have made this banner...here are another four photographs, and Christina Lee's (daughter of Christopher and Gitte Lee) account of what happened...and more!
MORE GEMS FROM THE PAST EVERY THURSDAY HERE AND
OUR OTHERS NET PLATFORMS
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MICHAEL ARMSTRONG'S disappointment at the cuts in the final cut of The House Of The Long Shadows
was matched by the reaction of the stars of the film. Vincent Price, in
particular, was so upset that his role had been reduced by the cuts-
especially in the music room scene- that he denounced the film openly
and refused to aid in it's promotion or have anything more to do with
the film.
Michael Armstrong recalls: ' I got a call from Cannon just before the
film was due to open in the UK, telling me about Vinnie's reaction and
asking me if I could try and change his mind. Apparently, he had refused
to speak to anyone at the Cannon offices. He was staying in London at
the time, because his wife Coral Brown was at that time receiving
specialist treatment for cancer here. I called him and tried to persuade
him to talk to Cannon, but he was adamant. He was so angry and so very
upset because he'd loved doing the film and thought it was some of his
best comedy work and then to see so much of his performance cut...but
what could I say?'
Armstrong, continued 'I was totally in agreement with him and, as I pointed
out- the cuts to his dialogue were equally the cuts to my dialogue. We
were on the phone over an hour and a half. By the end, we were
commiserating with each other. He never did speak to anyone at Cannon,
although he and I continued to stay in touch right up to his death.'
ABOVE: PETER CUSHING PROMOTES THE HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWS ON THE UK BBC BREAKFAST TIME PROGRAMME 1983. CLIP QUALITY FLUCTUATES BUT IT'S WORTH IT!
HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWSopened in London in 1983 at the
Carlton Cinema in the Haymarket to mixed reviews and a disastrous box
office. Cannon's decision to sell the film as a straightforward horror
film had only resulted in confusing both the critics and the audiences
who, without having the benefit of knowing beforehand that it was meant
to be a tongue-in-cheek lampoon of Gothic melodrama, mistook all the wit
and pastiche jokes as an attempt at the real thing. Those critics,
however, who did realise the films intent, raved- in particular over the
screenplay and the stars. Similarly the film went on to win prizes for
best film, best screenplay and best actors (jointly for the four stars)
at Avoriaz, Sitges, Paris and other genre festivals around the world.
DISMAYED AT THE London box office results, Armstrong persuaded
Cannon to let him experiment with a different approach for the regions
in the UK and sell the film as the comedy it was, rather than the horror
film that it wasn't. To test this the East Anglia release was launched with a specially
organised gala night audience in Stowmarket being issued with souvenir
programmes quoting those reviews recognising the film as a comedy. The
result was a packed house loving the film, laughing and applauding
throughout. As Armstrong points out, 'It was exactly the same audience
reaction we'd seen at Avoriaz and in Paris where it had won the audience
prize for Best Film at the Paris Film Festival'.
THE BRITISH QUAD CINEMA POSTER FOR 'HOUSE
OF THE LONG SHADOWS' WAS SCALED DOWN FOR THE
CANNON VIDEO RELEASE
DESPITE THIS EVIDENCE of the audience reaction, it was too late to
change anything. Cannon's original marketing plan remained and the film
continued to fail at the UK box office. With a far more tongue-in-cheek
marketing campaign the film fared better upon it's American and
international release, once more mainly garnering good reviews. Its
excellent entry into the video market, however, was cut short by the
collapse of Cannon. as part of the company's product sell off, the film
was included in a package required by MGM and along with so much of the
Cannon product was lost in the archives.
ARMSTRONG SAW THE PROBLEM, 'The problem with parody is that unless you know what is being parodied,
you miss the joke and I think that's where certain people missed out on
the film. It's a pity because The House Of The Long Shadows is
so full of jokes for the movie buff- almost every single line of the
dialogue has a reference point to some movie or another - I defy anyone
to get them all in a single screening. Apart from the movie references,
though, The House Of The Long Shadows exits on several levels,
which is why it really needs more than one viewing to appreciate it
fully. It was also made with a great love for the film it so
affectionately lampoons and as a swan song to the horror careers of the
four. Just take a look at their dialogue to see what I mean. I firmly
believe when it does finally emerge on DVD, it will finally be
recognised, not only as one of Pete Walker's best and most complex
films, but as a fitting tribute and elegy to a bygone era'
BUT IT DIDN'T STOP THERE . . 'The House Of The Long Shadows'until 2013 was still in limbo, regarding a legitimate release. Maybe Peter Cushing Centenary was an opportunity too good to miss? Whatever it was, the powers that be, finally gave us what we had been waiting for. 'The House of the Long Shadows' arrived in not only ONE blu ray package, but quite a few! The region FREE blu ray was followed by a German blu ray, then Spanish...and many more there after. The news is good, seems someone turned on the lights at the home of the Grisbanes, and now, the once foggy, under-lit scenes are presented, just as they should have been, when we spent our hard earned cash for groggy dvd copies. The picture quality is great, audio too! The Horror Channel has screened the movie several times over the past five years too! Seems, just like Roderick in the story, if WAIT long enough...you'll get what you want!
#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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