REMEMBERING HELEN CUSHING : JANUARY 14TH 1971

TODAY January 14th marks the 47th anniversary of the passing of HELEN CUSHING. Peter and Helen were married for nearly 28 years. They were a devoted couple. She lived for HIM and he lived for HER. . .. the story of the effect on Peter of Helen's passing is well documented here on the page and website. Both of them thought their meeting was kismet, meant to be . . . years after, she would remember their first meeting, as if it were yesterday

READ ALL ABOUT the Cushing's at home: CLICK HERE!

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  . .

CALLUM MCKELVIE: GOES RUMMAGING ON PLANET AARU FOR CUSHING WHO GOODIES!

SO FIRST THING FIRST- I’ve been away a little while, but now I’m back! So as before every Sunday I’ll be stealing the lime light to ramble a little about a differing aspect of Cushing and his work. It seemed best to return with a bang and following on from my two-part review of the ‘Dr. Who’ movies, we’re presenting another two-part piece on the films, though this time it’ll be more along the lines of a ‘behind the scenes feature’. Primarily there’s two reasons for this. A) I am of course a massive Doctor Who fan. B) There’s a lot of neat images and footage we have yet to share.

ONE OF THE MAIN REASON FOR this article was to showcase some footage available on the BBC DVD of the Jon Pertwee story Death to the Daleks. (see above) Recently discovered at the time of that stories release, the footage is a rare behind the scenes look at the making of the 1965 film. The BBC’s presentation of the footage is admirable as they’ve gone to the trouble of interviewing some of the original crew along with Hammer Historian Marcus Hearne, for what is an admittedly small amount of film. 

THE FOOTAGE has some interesting Cushing moments, showcasing him exploiting the slapstick comic potential of his character as he jumps around wildly in a doorway when their escaping the Dalek trap. The real delight however is a tiny moment in which Cushing and fellow star Roy Castle are seen partaking in a small song and dance number of what we can presume is some kind of Broadway theme. Unfortunately as the footage has no sound we’ll never know what this sounded like! Though I’m sure someone with excellent lip-reading skills could tell us the name of the song.

ONE OF THE MORE INTERESTING facts in terms of the films promotion centres around its sets. Designed by Scott Slimon (who worked on many contemporary horror pictures including Scream and Scream Again and The Skull amongst others) they are easily one of the most striking aspects of the production. Indeed so striking were they deemed by Milton Subotsky that not only did sections of them appear alongside the Daleks at the Cannes Film festival in the 1965, but they then went on a country-wide tour across the UK promoting the film. 

SEVERAL OF THE DALEKS from the film would be loaned out the BBC and appear as ‘Dalek guards’ in The Chase, which due to the shows tight turn-around would actually be broadcast before the film’s release. Their noticeable by the fact they are missing their large bases.

OF COURSE THE FILM was released during the height of so-called ‘Dalekmania’ within Britain, when the titular killer pepper-pots from the planet Skaro were taking over the toy stores. Indeed it’s often easy to forget that during this period it wasn’t really the ‘Doctor’ that was the draw of ‘Doctor Who’. The year the film was released the Daleks appeared in a massive 19 television episodes and that’s excluding cameo appearances, indeed one of the episodes didn’t even feature the Doctor (Mission to the Unknown). 

BY THE TIME the film hit cinema screens then a slew of Dalek related merchandise was available for the avid collector. Some was explicitly related to the Cushing film (The ‘Paint and Draw the Film of Dr. Who and the Daleks’ book) whereas a majority was simply ‘Dalek’ merchandise (Dalek soap, Inflatable Daleks). Most famous….or perhaps that should be infamous was the ‘Dalek Playsuit’. A red plastic dome would fit upon the head of the wearer, with a plastic sucker and gun arm, whilst there body would be draped in a plastic sheet, designed to look like a Dalek.

MORE EXPLICITLY movie related merchandise including a Dell comic adaptation, that like all Dell comic adaptations of the time told the story of the film with some rather unimpressive artwork. Meanwhile child star Roberta Tovey released the album ‘Who’s Who’ with a B-side featuring Jack Dorsey’s Dance of the Daleks. Listen to it at your peril…

PLEASE JOIN ME HERE AGAIN, next week! Where I’ll be discussing tid-bits concerning the second Dalek movie…DALEK INVASION EARTH 2150 AD!.

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 SIR ROBERT STEPHENS APPRECIATION SOCIETY

CONSIDERING THERE ARE SO MANY film, actor fan pages and groups, across facebook and the web, I only belong to a handful, mainly because, just posting a fuzzy photograph or asking you name your top five films, every other day. . .doesn't quite cut it for me personally. I want to see some thought put in and some interesting and engaging material. . . .please...! Rare photographs / memorabilia shared and a true insight to the subject matter of said page / group. I want to feel when I have taken time to visit there, that I have learned something or and had fun.

THE SIR ROBERT STEPHENS APPRECIATION SOCIETY, has only recently been launched, and I am very happy to say, that if what has been shared there already, is anything like we can expect in the future.... Joanna Keani Jones, who creates the posts and admins the group, is doing a fabulous job.

"The Sir Robert Stephens Appreciation Society is a celebration of the life & artistry of this incredibly gifted actor. Sir Robert always gave his best in performance and in the process, created a myriad of incredible character studies in which the viewer could relate to, understand and very often, find sympathy with, regardless of the character's intentions.

Because of Sir Robert's ability to create such emotion-fueled, nuanced portrayals in film, theatre, TV & radio, he garnered many admirers of his work which continues on today, some 20-plus years after his passing. This group has been created to discuss and share information with like-minded enthusiasts of all things Sir Robert." -Joanna Keani Jones  

YOU HAVE TO BE PASSIONATE TO CREATE banners, images and content like Joanna has. Rare theatre programmes, stills, reviews, clippings. It's ALL there and shared in hi res. As I mentioned in our early post, Stephens was a very rare talent indeed. A complicated man, with a complicated life. I can assure you, the content at the 'Sir Robert Stephens Appreciation Society Group', will never be dull, just because Stephens was far from dull, and Joanna shares material that really does show the breath of his career and the diverse roles he played.

I CAN'T PRAISE THIS GROUP enough and I am so happy to see someone doing such a fine job. Don't take my word for it, first watch the excellent promo trailer below and then if you have a facebook account, GO SEE FOR YOURSELF. THEN LIKE and come back and tell us, what you think? .Thank you. - Marcus

REMEMBER! 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     

VERY MUCH VALERIE : FEMME FATALES : FEATURE

#FEMMEFATALEFRIDAY! You think you've read all there is about an actor or actress, then one day you find another interesting tid-bit, and a little more . . that's the case with the late VALERIE GAUNT who sadly pass late last year. I'll be posting our usual Friday, over the weekend this week. But here is a taster of the banner, to look out for . . . a interesting lady, who vanished from our screens all too quickly, retiring in the early 1960's. So, later then

REMEMBER! 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     

HAPPY BIRTHDAY YOUNG VICTOR : MELVYN HAYES

JOIN US IN WISHING MELVYN HAYES a VERY Happy Birthday today. Melvyn was born today January 11th 1935, and since 1950 when he was "disappearing twice daily for £4 per week" performing the indian rope trick in Maskelyne's Mysteries at the Comedy Theatre in London! A very long and accomplished career on stage, tv and the big screen. Melvyn is quite an institution in the UK, having appeared in many TV dramas, soaps and comedy shows, the most successful probably being 'It Aint Half Hot Mum' in the 1970's. The show is now banished to 'Room 101' at the BBC, being considered like many shows from that era, quite UN-PC... you decide?

MELVYN WORKED WITH Peter Cushing as the young Baron Frankenstein in Cushing's first film for Hammer, 'The Curse of Frankenstein' (1957) he appeared as Daft Jamie in the brilliant 'Flesh and the Fiends' (1960) and with Cushing in 'Violent Playground' (1958) His last appearance with Peter was in the doomed 'A Touch of the Sun' in 1979 with Oliver Reed..see our PCAS YOUTUBE CHANNEL. A versatile actor, who stays young at 83, who will no doubt be having a real knees up and party as we wish him, Many Happy Returns Today 😉 Happy Birthday Melvyn and many more to come 🙂

ABOVE: IN CASE YOU MISSED IT. HERE'S MELVYN SHARING A GREAT ANECDOTE ABOUT MEETING HIS FELLOW CAST MEMBER, CHRISTOPHER LEE. . .

REMEMBER! 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