INVALID CAST : VINTAGE CORRESPONDENCE: KEEN GUSTAV AND DUBIOUS PRACTICES

#THROWBACKTHURSDAY: 'There is more evil around us here than I have ever encountered before. . ' Certainly a line of dialogue to get the pulse racing. This image is taken from the BBC television series 'Sherlock Holmes' which starred Peter Cushing as Sherlock, the episode is 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' which was broadcast in two parts . . Gary Raymond picture here,  stars as Sir Henry Baskerville.

#THROWBACKTHURSDAY! THE WONDERFUL thing about researching and documenting Peter's life and work is, being such a prolific letter writer and note maker, he has left a paper trail, and every now and then, something interesting bobs to the surface!. Here are two  good examples. These are genuine letters of correspondence between members of the public who have written to Peter, wishing him well and requesting an autograph or photo. Cushing was very good at sending replies, and 9 out of ten times, also including an autograph on a photograph, even if it wasn't requested.

#THROWBACKTHURSDAY: I THINK if Gustav Weil from Hammer films 'Twins of Evil' was around today, he would certainly be a regular monthly winner of the 'EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH'. He certainly stuck to his job description, and wasn't happy until he and his band of the 'brotherhood' met their monthly quarter!

#THROWBACKTHURSDAY: THE PROGRAMME cast page from the 1951 production of THE GAY INVALID, lots of names that were soon to be house-hold names in the UK, along with Peter Cushing... there are also other performers names who have 'fantasy genre' connections on the big screen too. Can you spot them??

HOUSEKEEPING: If you are wondering were our Competitions have gone...worry not! I have an excellent COMPETITION for you THIS WEEKEND ! Also, for those of you who have spotted a fair ol scattering or typos, errors and mistakes in my jottings over the past three months, my apologies. I haven't lost my marbles, I am taking some elephant strength painkillers, following a wobble in health last year. I do try and check everything I write, but often it's difficult when the words and page are doing a tango and double vision at times, makes it a tricky exercise. I am ok, but please bare with me, normal service will continue very soon!

IF YOU LIKE what you see here at our website, you'll  love our daily themed posts at our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE.  Just click that blue LINK and click LIKE when you get there, and help us . . 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

SHOT GUNS FEAR, OLD SOLDIERS AND DIGGING THE COUNT!

#SILENTBUTDEADLY! What a striking image Donald Pleasence's Jim Underwood makes in his dazzling orange shirt, matchless tie, and that silk handkerchief, is a nice touch. Still, all this doesn't hide that fact, that he and his daughter, are more than VERY weird. It's poor ol Ian Bannen's Christopher Lowe I feel sorry for, all these alarm bells ringing and he doesn't see it coming. Peter Cushing's shop keeper didn't spare the horses in making this costumer suffer......! From Beyond The Grave, never fails to entertain. One of the best of the Amicus portmanteau films of the 70's... yes? Gif requested by Davy Travers.

 ABOVE: ANGELA PLEASENCE PLAYES DONALD'S DAUGHTER IN

'FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE' TO MAGNIFICENT EFFECT!

#SILENTBUTDEADLY!: IF you ever need a bit of midnight gardening done OR you find yourself in a bit of hurry to bury the evidence of your latest victim of carnage, #DRACULA is your man! Here's Christopher Lee in a frightening feral act, of burying his next victim, as a bit of supper he can come back to later!! You won't find a fast digger, other than my pet cat Ralph, after he has craftily stolen a pork chop, from my plate, and sets to burying it in the rose bed! It's true that Melissa Stribling got more than a mouthful of 'Bray-Village-Genuine- Best-of-English-Sod' while Lee was enthusiastically burying her. He almost fell in the hole during the shooting too! It's all part of the never-to-be-equaled final reel of #HAMMERFILMS #Horrorofdracula / #Dracula 1958. Peter Cushing's Van Helsing has never been better! You think? #GIF requested by Paul Ashman!

#SILENTBUTDEADLY! IT'S PRETTY OBLIVIOUS, that Ralph Bate's character Robert Heller, in Hammer films Fear In The Night never read page 238 of the 'Film Script Schemes and Plot Devices : Guns'. If a character has a loaded gun or rifle, and something moves or twitches behind a curtain, under a duvet or dust sheet' DON'T SHOOT! I didn't actually get to see this Hammer gem, until 1982, a full ten years after it was theatrically released. Watching the film with a crowd who really weren't au fey with Hammer films or this title was a real treat. They too were as caught up in the drama as I was, as not one of us knew the plot or any of the red herrings. 

THE PLOT REVEAL DETAIL that leads up to that gun shot, is a good one. Not wanting to give anything away, all I will share is the good news, FEAR IN THE NIGHT proves two things. One, the fact that this script nestled in the dust and dark recesses of Hammer films, scriptwriter Jimmy Sangster desk for over a decade, proves he wasn't that pin sharp at picking a potential winner, when he wrote one. Two, neither were Hammer! This script went through several rewrites and at one point, the whole thing was set on a canal boat!!! Things must have been more than tight, budget wise at that time I guess? 

FEAR IN THE NIGHT, is what Hammer called one of their quickies. And looking at the particulars for the film, you can see why! Sir James Carraras must have sold the family silver to pay Peter Cushing a misiliy £500 for a four day appearance, and the whole thing was in four weeks with a budget of a mere £141,000! The small cast of Ralph Bates, Judy Geeson and Joan Collins (slumming it, as Dynasty was just a twinkle in her agent's eye at this time) according to Sangster who also directed, had a wonderful time making the film. 

ABOVE: OFF SCREEN JIMMY SANSTER AND RALPH BATES WERE VERY GOOD MATES. AFTER RALPH'S SAD AND TRAGIC PASSING IN 1991, SANGSTER WOULD OFTEN REFLECT IN INTERVIEWS HOW MUCH HE STILL MISSED HIS OLD FRIEND . . 

SANGSTER DOES a good job cranking up the tension, but he must have used up his entire stock of directorial skills on Fear, as his other two outing for Hammer, 'Lust for a Vampire' and 'Horror of Frankenstein' are no way as inventive and entertaining as Fear. If you haven't seen Fear In The Night, it's worth your trouble digging it out. For those who have, revisit it, and remind yourselves, just how good Hammer could be when they had to....

#SILENTBUTDEADLY: PETER CUSHING EVER THE optimist, roles up he sleeves and attempts his, what's going on here then, medical sensibilities to a man who is WELL GONE, in the rip roaring, a 'new twist and plot development every minute', #HORROREXPRESS.  It never fails to surprise me how much everyone has a soft spot for this film. According to Christopher Lee, who appeared with Cushing in this Spanish-Horror, it wasn't the most comfortable of excursions. A little like Cushing dip into the Hong Kong way of making movies, with Seven Golden Vampires, the studio was basic, the catering was..basic, and Cushing who was still very much in an emotional spiral after the recent passing of his wife, Helen..wanted to just go home. In fact, if Lee had not intervened, Cushing would have been booked on the next REAL train out. The work surroundings and home comforts were absent, but every penny of the budget, was on the screen. Including that beautiful locomotive of the title. Sadly, before  all the 'train-spotters' race for a copy, much of the 'Express' travel footage was model work, good model work, but not the real article in loco-motion.

CHRISTOPHER LEE DEMONSTRATES THE OL ADAGE WHEN A SHOT GUN ISN'T  AT HAND, USE YOURS HANDS, TO KILL....A DEAD PERSON!

PETER CUSHING PROVING SHOT GUNS ARE NOT ONLY GOOD FOR SHOOTING PEOPLE UNDER DUST SHEETS - BUT ZOMBIES TOO!

LEE AND CUSHING are really on form in this one, and supported by a largely dubbed but capable cast. It appears that since the film moved into a weird and strange siding, in the world of ever confusing copyright, and has become public domain, the Horror Express timetable now appears on just about every compilation bootleg dvd of horror films you can spot on ebay. This in turn has helped the film, garland an even more prominent place with fans of zombie-fossil-thing-on-a-train films. Which can only be good for genre, if a little annoying for the guys who scrimped with that meany budget...! 

IF YOU LIKE what you see here at our website, you'll  love our daily themed posts at our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE.  Just click that blue LINK and click LIKE when you get there, and help us . . 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. 

REMEMBERING PATRICK WYMARK : BORN TODAY

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY: Today we remember British character actor PATRICK WYMARK. An experienced actor of stage, TV, film and Radio, whose life was cut short suddenly due to an heart attack at age 44…. Some of his best known film roles are Where Eagles Dare (1968) , Repulsion (1965), The Blood On Satan’s Claw (1970) and Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun (1969) and Cromwell (1970)… He co-starred with Peter Cushing in Amicus’s The Skull (1965)

THE WYMARK family: Patrick Wymark and family in 1965, the year of #THESKULL release .. his wife Olwen, with their children (L-R) Dominic, Tristram and Rowan, at their home.

IF YOU LIKE what you see here at our website, you'll  love our daily themed posts at our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE.  Just click that blue LINK and click LIKE when you get there, and help us . . 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.

THE MAN IN THE MIRROR: FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE

#MONSTERMONDAY: His name is Marcel Steiner, an actor who probably had less screen time than most creepies in an AMICUS film, but his few seconds in the story, 'The Gate Crasher' has left a lasting impression, on everyone... all these years SINCE the film was made in 1975. If you have seen the movie, FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE you'll know this guy well, and what did to poor David Warner...or did he??? Over at our FACEBOOK FAN PAGE we have asked our friends to decide is he another one to add to our weekly MONSTER list or Is just a NEEDY guy?

IF YOU LIKE what you see here at our website, you'll  love our daily themed posts at our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE.  Just click that blue LINK and click LIKE when you get there, and help us . . 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. 

REMEMBERING VALERIE GAUNT TODAY : CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN

REMEMBERING Today we remember Valerie Gaunt. VALERIE'S short career on the big screen featured only in two films, and they were along side Peter Cushing. Just two roles, but they left a lasting impact, that would outlast many longer career! Her playing of Justine in 'The Curse of Frankenstein' (1957) and her performance in Hammer films,1958 'Dracula' hold a special place for lovers of fantasy cinema. Born Valerie Shelia Gaunt, on the 9th July 1932 in Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, England, following an interest in amateur theater, after leaving school embarked on a career as a model, before auditioning for Hammer and landing her first professional role in 1957. Gaunt married her husband Gerald Alfred Reddington on May 17th, 1958.

PETER CUSHING'S role in the clip above is short, but matters!

VALERIE GAUNT passed away, aged 84 after a short illness in November 2016.

IF YOU LIKE what you see here at our website, you'll  love our daily themed posts at our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE.  Just click that blue LINK and click LIKE when you get there, and help us . . 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. 

AVENGERS NEVER SAY DIE: ISLAND OF THE BURNING DAMNED CONCEPT ARTWORK

#CHRISTOPHERLEESATURDAY! I have been asked for YOUR opinion please.... which of the designs do you PREFER. The original US Vintage cinema poster design on the left OR the NEW concept artwork on the right? Please don't be shy in sharing your opinions on the style and artwork and maybe the reasons for your choice. Thank You! It's #CHRISTOPHERLEESATURDAY Today and there's some goodies on baddies coming up during the day!

#CHRISTOPHERLEESATURDAY: Christopher Lee like Peter Cushing and many other top actors at the time guested on the classic TV Show The Avengers. Lee made two appearances on the show, first in the Emma Peel era episode 'Never, Never Say Die' And the second being from the Tara King era called 'The Interrogators' which was directed by Oscar-nominated Ealing Studios veteran Charles Crichton. Lee plays Colonel Mannering who is running a special interrogation course, established to determine the degree to which agents can withstand interrogation. Except that everyone who passes the course soon learns that all of their contacts have been murdered. And then, Tara is called in for a run through the course as well. Its a fun episode with Lee delivering a great performance as Mannering

IF YOU LIKE what you see here at our website, you'll  love our daily themed posts at our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE.  Just click that blue LINK and click LIKE when you get there, and help us . . 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.