#TOOCOOLTUESDAY: REMEMBERING ACTOR PATRICK MACNEE : TODAY

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY!: The late Patrick Macnee on how he almost lost the role of John Steed in the iconic UK television series, 'The Avengers'.  

PATRICK MACNEE, Peter Cushing and Joanna Lumley in The New Avengers episode, 'The Eagles Nest' in 1976

REMEMBERING PATRICK MACNEE who passed today in 2015. Was there ever a cooler chap? Peter Cushing worked with Macnee in Return of the Cybernauts episode of The Avengers in 1967, in 'The New Avengers' episode, 'The Eagles Nest' in 76. Peter and Macnee also appeared in 'Incense for the Damned' in 1970. School fiend of Christopher Lee and all round gentleman! Patrick Macnee 1922- 2015. A favorite with you?

Patrick Macnee and Roger Moore during the making of 'A View To A Kill' (1985)

Macnee and Christopher Lee made a fine Holmes and Watson!

Old school friends, Chrsitopher Lee and Patrick Macnee, study a school photograph during the making of  'Never Never Say Die' episode of The Avengers in 1967.

If you LIKE what you find posted here . . Please visit us at our daily themed posts at our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE and help 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: VINCENT PRICE DR BROWNING WITH GIFS AND STILLS GALLERY

#MONSTERMONDAY: 'A serial killer who drains his victims' blood is on the loose in London; the police follow him to a house owned by an eccentric scientist'.

REALLY? I HAVE LIVED SO LONG without really understanding what on earth, the film #SCREAMANDSCREAMAGAIN is really about, I don't care much, if I ever understand it. It has never effected my enjoyment of the film, which probably down to two things: the performance of Alfred Marks as Detective Supt. Bellaver and Vincent Price as the weird Dr. Browning. 

BUT TODAY it's Vincent's Dr Browning that we are shinning our spot light onto. Who OR what is this guy? Ok, he has a title, he's a Doctor who whose clinic specializes in limb and organ transplantation... can I hear alarm bells? As we witness in the film, patient limbs have a habit of parting and walking off, and not by themselves. I have read theories that Browning is also, an alien? Whatever he is, Price plays him with a 'now you see me, now you don't' wink which keeps us guessing. Price also went down on record in later years that, the character may have been hard to pin down, because he had no idea either, what Browning OR the film was really about. It's not hard to believe, when it seems the film appears to have THREE individual plots running at the same time. 

ONE IS REMINDED of Cushing's 'Doctors Wear Scarlet' / 'Incense For The Damned' / 'Blood Suckers' movie from 1970. Here the budget pot ran dry during the production,causing filming to halt in the spring of 1969, resuming some months on.New plot strands had to written, as actors had moved on and the results were a mess! 

I HAVE EVEN READ a theory where, in order to proceed with the film, and  get a theatrical release, footage from a completely unrelated film, was glued onto the existing scenes . .  how-else could you account for such a jumbled non coherent story? BUT this isn't the case here, SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN was adapted from the novel by Peter Saxon, The Disoriented Man. Peter Saxon being a 'house pseudonym' used by various authors in the 1960s and 1970s. .  So, I guess there isn't one man to blame then? 

EVEN SO, the great Fritz Lang is reported to have had an appreciation of the film, it's a pity he isn't still around to enlighten us about the plot! But hey, Plot? Smot! Who needs it when you have Vincent Price firing on all cylinders? Dr Browning is a fascinating creation, and the reason why we have installed him in our #MonsterMonday archive. Price created, by accident maybe, another villain armed with a scalpel, out to do harm and to be feared. He is a bounder and a sly one at that. He's quick, but not quick enough to escape Christopher Lee's 'Fremont ' entering from the shadows and seeing him off in such an acidic fashion. Does DR BROWNING make YOUR MONSTER list?

If our #MONSTERMONDAY feature has whetted your appetite, and you didn't enter our PCAS COMPETITION LAST YEAR  (ABOVE) and don't own a copy  of  'SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN. HAVE NO FEAR! Twilight Time who generously sponsored our PCAS competiton have a terrific BLU RAY release, complete with EXTRAS! Just click and ORDER RIGHT HERE! 

If you LIKE what you find posted here . . Please visit us at our daily themed posts at our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE and help 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.

#GETTHECUSHIONITSCUSHINGSUNDAY: THE MAKING OF THE BEAST MUST DIE: WE ARE HAVING YOU FOR DINNER!

#GETTHECUSHIONITSCUSHING: TODAY WE FEATURE a scene from The Beast Must Die (1974) from Amicus. One of their non-portmanteau films and their only werewolf one. The story is, in essence, a conflation of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None (aka, Ten Little Indians) and The Most Dangerous Game, with elements of the werewolf mythos stirred in. One of its unquie features is a 30-second break called "The Werewolf Break", where the audience is asked to guess the werewolf's identity, based on clues from the movie.

WHILE NOT AS HIGHLY regarded or well known as most of Amcius's films, and despite its budget restraints, it remains a fun film with some unique ideas and has a steller cast with Peter Cushing, Calvin Lockhart, Michael Gambon, Anton Diffring, Charles Gray. Are you are fan of the film? and did you guess the IDENTITY of the WEREWOLF, the first time you watched it?

HAVE A CUSHING QUESTION? Ask our resident expert, ASK ARTHUR.. post it to us at our email OR join us at our Peter Cushing appreciation Society Facebook Fan Page Here!

If you LIKE what you find posted here . . Please visit us at our daily themed posts at our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE and help 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. 

#CHRISTOPHERLEESATURDAYS: THROUGH THE ROUND WINDOW: RAPTOR IS COMING AND BRIAN CANT IS GONE!

#CHRISTOPHERLEESATURDAYS: Lee referred to as, "one of the best pictures I've ever been in, most delightful". 'A Feast At midnight' is surely is one of the secret gems and certainly worth watching....Headmasters, private boys school, and FOOD! Let this little morsel whet your appetite ...tell if you think so too...worth a watch?- Marcus

A NEW STUDENT at a British public school forms a secret society centered around cooking and midnight feasting with other school misfits and outcasts. . . The school's principal, is nick-named, 'RAPTOR' . .. now I wonder who could be playing that role???

AND SO UNCLE BRIAN has gone. I would doubt that few outside of the UK , who visit this site, would know the name. Brian. Brian Cant. Millions of thirty, forty and fifty year olds who grew up in the UK from the mid 1960's and up until the early 80's, will know that voice, even if the name doesn't ring bells. Cant very late in his career, played a small role in a firm favorite of the late Christopher Lee...but I doubt if many would recognise the title either...so shamefully limited was it's release in 1995.  'A Feast At Midnight' is a gem of film. Set in a private boys school, it's the stuff of dorms, headmasters, tuck shops, rugger, cricket and FEASTS at midnight...! Cant's role was a blink and you'll miss him opportunity, but I didn't miss him, or that voice. So, there we are, that is the justifying out of the way. We pay tribute to Brian Cant who played a small role in a low budget film, that got little chance to shine. The real reason why he is here, I'll come clean . . .   

CANT WAS THE VOICE and face, of one the most popular and earliest pre school morning television programmes on the BBC, 'Play School'. I missed his arrival, being too old for the show, and was otherwise busy elsewhere, when for the first time, 'Here's a house and a door, windows, one, two, three four..' were spoken over the air. I didn't come to the programme, until the show was well into its stride and my younger sister was born, I was eight years old. I missed pretty much most of my primary schooling and thought a family unit was something along the lines of a piece of kitchen furniture or the place where children who were slower were sent at school. 'Apply yourself, or YOU will end up in the unit!' No, for endless mornings, because I was not at school, my sister and I watched the half an hour of 'Play School', with Cant, Humpty, Hamble, Jemima, Big Ted and Little Ted. The songs, dance, stories and chatty lessons. 

THE KIND SMILING MAN with the gentle voice made a huge impression me, and the relationship I had with my sister. Daily, Cant showed me, how to communicate with a young child, with patience, care and gentleness. We called him, Uncle Brian. He was the nearest thing we had to compassion and understanding. In a perfect world, he would have been our favorite school teacher, Uncle, friend's Dad... or wishful thinking OUR Dad. Daily, through that flickering screen and fuzzy black and white screen, Brian Cant led the way. And for that, I say thank you. Thank you Uncle Brian. Today, you are remembered, tomorrow cherished. . . 

If you LIKE what you find posted here . . Please visit us at our daily themed posts at our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE and help 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.

#CHRISTOPHERLEESATURDAYS! RISEN: HE IS UP AND ABOUT AND NOT HAPPY!

#CHRISTOPHERLEESATURDAYS! Here's one straight off the contact sheet, requested by Rich Santos! Christopher Lee in 'Dracula Has Risen From The Grave' (1968) From a colour contact sheet with many similar poses...this is one from the session, that you don't see that often. 

#CHRISTOPHERLEESATURDAYS : HERE ARE three images from a photo session that Veronica Carlson did, with a photographer, whose name escapes me at the mo! It has long be thought that these unusual photographs were taken specifically for publicity on 'Dracula Has Risen From The Grave'. However, Veronica Carlson has recently revealed that that photo session was set up, between her and the photographer, it was only when the press office at #HAMMERFILMS saw them, they thought they were terrific and just what was needed to spice up the interest in their latest #CHRISTOPHERLEE ' #DRACULA release . . . so now you know!

If you LIKE what you find posted here . . Please visit us at our daily themed posts at our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE and help 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.

#FRANKENSTEINFRIDAY: FREE VINTAGE CONTACT SHEET

#FRANKENSTEINFRIDAY: HERE IS A TREAT for today. A FREE large un-water-marked original contact sheet from our PCAS files of Peter Cushing working with Simon Ward on set during the making of Hammer Films, 'Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed'... it's a thank you, as we will shortly be hitting our 31K milestone of followers at our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE Snip it, edit it, frame it...share it!

If you LIKE what you find posted here . . Please visit us at our daily themed posts at our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE and help 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.

#THROWBACKTHURSDAY: COMBAT AVENGERS ANNIVERSARY AND GIFS!

#THROWBACKTHURSDAY: DURING THE 1960-70's Peter Cushing made quite a few short, blink and you'll miss em appearances in several films, Scream and Scream Again, Dr Phibes Rises Again are but two. One here's another you may want to add to your list... Trial by Combat ' / 'A Dirty Knight's Work' / 'A Choice of Arms' made in 1976 is odd, even by tome of the choices made by Cushing's agency at this time.. 'Hitler's Son', 'A Touch of the Sun'..it would take more than the space we have here to explain the dotty 'plot', it stars John Mills and Donald Pleasence, who must have regretted signing on that dotted line, when it was too late. Peter just had two days, did his bit and left for 'The Devils Men' and . . . 'Battle Flag'....! Thankfully, a little role in 'something' called Star Wars turned up and save the year! Would be great to hear from anyone who has sat through this....!

#THROWBACKTHURSDAY: BROADCAST ON FEBRUARY 21st 1968 Return of the Cybernauts, brought back a Avengers favorite, along with Peter Cushing for his first appearance.

Cushing and Robert Day director of 'SHE' and 'Return of the Cybernauts' sharing a giggle . . .

URSULA ANDRESS AS SHE ENTERS THE FLAME FOR THE SECOND TIME IN HAMMER FILMS 'SHE' (1965)

THE SUBJECT of our first post today the film, 'Trial by Combat' (1976) give nods to this series, and in doing so, proved just how talented the production team of the series really were. Robert Day who directed this episode, also directed #PeterCushing in the Hammer films, 'SHE' too.....

DON'T FORGET #CHRISTOPHERLEESATURDAY THIS WEEKEND

If you LIKE what you find posted here . . Please visit us at our daily themed posts at our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE and help 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.