MYSTERY #PETERCUSHING PHOTOGRAPH #BURGESSMEREDITH AND TWINS OF EVIL #DAVIDWARBECK!

YESTERDAY WE MARKED AND CELEBRATED the birthday of actor, #BURGESSMEREDITH, born November 16th, 1907, at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE!

TODAY we remember on his birthday the wonderful actor Burgess Meredith His career spanned over six decades. A lifetime member of the Actors Studio by invitation. He won several Emmys,was the first male actor to win the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor twice, and was nominated for two Academy Awards.He established himself as a leading man in Hollywood with critically acclaimed performances as George Milton in Of Mice and Men (1939), Ernie Pyle in The Story of G.I. Joe (1945), and the narrator of A Walk in the Sun (1945). 

Meredith was known later in his career for his multiple appearances on The Twilight Zone and for portraying arch-villain The Penguin on the 1960s TV series Batman and boxing trainer Mickey Goldmill in the Rocky film series. For his performances in The Day of the Locust (1975) and Rocky (1976), he received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He later starred in the comedy Foul Play (1978) and the fantasy film Clash of the Titans (1981). He narrated numerous films and documentaries during his long career, including Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983). Notable horror films include The Sentinel (1977) , Burnt Offerings (1976), Magic (1978) and The Manitou (1978) He co-starred with Peter Cushing in Amicus's 'Torture Garden' (1967)

NO ONE bowed out quite as well . . or indeed as many times, as #ChristopherLee! I think he actually holds a record??! At the Facebook PCASUK Page, we've asked 'Which is YOUR fav Christopher Lee OUT? There are MANY to choose from, if you can remember them all! Surprisingly,at the moment just five hours after this was posted on the Fan Page, DRACULA AD 1972 and The Satanic Rites of Dracula, followed by Dracula Has Risen from the Grave' is leading. I say surprising considering, for decades DRACULA AD 1972 was the gripe of most Hammer/ Dracula fans!! We'll see how it goes..... 😏

ANOTHER BIRTHDAY and ACTOR with a life sadly passed, we are marking today at the FAN PAGE is DAVID WARBECK. Warbeck, was born on the 17th November 1941. Originally, from New Zealand, he made film debut in the Hammer film, 'Wolfshead: The Legend of Robin Hood', directed by Johnny Hough, who would direct him again for Hammer! He made a number of notable appearances in Italian horror films such as Luci Fulci's 'The Beyond' (1981) & 'The Black Cat' (1981)….. He starred with #PeterCushing in only one film, but it was a memorable one, Hammer's 1971 #TwinsOfEvil as Anton Hoffer, who stood up to Cushing's Weil and taught him a thing or two about Vampires, directed again by Johnny Hough! Sadly, we lost David to cancer on July 23rd in 1997. Today, David Warbeck is Remembered . . 

AND FINALLY, here is something I have posted tonight at the PCASUK PAGE, hoping for some answers! 'I wonder if someone out there can help with this one? I have had this press clipping for quite a long time, it's from 1992 and originally had some details about this photograph of #PeterCushing. with a group of people and children from ... Romania, attached to it! Paper-clip and details vanished! Who are they, Why they are there with Peter, and where.. I have no idea! Lovely photograph, but I would love to know the story behind it... any ideas?? Thank you, Marcus' Any Ideas? 

PLEASE COME JOIN US at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE! With posts every day, rare images and photographs, features and prize competitions.You'll have good company with over

 34 thousand followers, we aslo have a presence on IG too HERE! All are celebrating the LIFE and CAREER of Peter Cushing OBE! Just come and say HI! 😉

 

#SHERLOCKSUNDAY : FROM THE LIBRARY OF #PETERCUSHNG PLUS ARE YOU OUR #INDICATOR #IMONSTER WINNERS?

HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to our TWO 'I MONSTER' blu ray Competition WINNERS! Alistair Carnell AND Alison Tipton 😊You have both won a copy of the fab remastered #Indicator / #Powerhouse bu ray 'I MONSTER' starring #ChristopherLee and #PeterCushing, directed by #StephenWeeks, released in 1971. Thank you to everyone who entered, there were very , very few incorrect answers/entries... but just TWO WINNERS, picked at random last night. It's a cracking premier release on blu ray, remastered and stacked full of extras. Again, many thanks to our sponsors Indicator / Powerhouse for once again stepping up and providing our prizes 😀 ANOTHER PCAS Competition arriving shortly ... stat tuned!😏

OUR COMPETITION QUESTION: 'STEPHEN WEEKS, DIRECTED PETER CUSHING IN TWO FILMS. NAME THE FILMS AND THE CHARACTER PETER CUSHING PLAYED!' 

THE ANSWER: Stephen Weeks directed two films with Peter Cushing; 'Amicus films 'I Monster' - Peter Cushing played Utterson. The second film was 'Sword of the Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight' in 1984. We excepted the title 'Sword of the Valiant' as a correct answer Peter Cushing played Seneschal Gaspar or Gaspar.

MANY, MANY correct answers! Maybe I should make these a little tougher???? - Please stay safe everyone and thank you for joining in on the fun! : Marcus

#SHERLOCKSUNDAY! One of quite a few Sherlock books owned by #PeterCushing containing a selection of #SherlockHolmes stories. This one is quite worn, which I value MORE! It's a good sign he read it and accessed it often? I love #ConanDoyle's Holmes stories, many I find more enjoyable reading off the page, than adapted for a film or tv production. . .

OVER AT the Facebook PCASUK Fan Page, I am asking if friends can select their favourite Sherlock Holmes story, or maybe a top three? I love the 'Red Headed League', 'The Empty House' and 'The Last Bow'.. . . What are yours?

ANOTHER TRIVIA QUESTION, being asked today at the Facebook Fan Page, is can you name ALL the faces in this photograph, and what was the occasion and why they were all brought together? LOTS of answers! Tea party? Convention? There are many . .  any ideas? 😁😉

PLEASE COME JOIN US at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE! With posts every day, rare images and photographs, features and prize competitions.You'll have good company with over

 34 thousand followers, all celebrating the LIFE and CAREER of Peter Cushing OBE!

IF IT LOOKS LIKE DRACULA, MOVES LIKE DRACULA, BITES LIKE #DRACULA, THEN IT IS . . .

UPDATE on this post, shared today at Facebook PCASUK Fan Page: The studio photographer, credit Bruce McBroom is a 'in-joke' name for screenplay writer Terry Southern, a joke shared by Terry, director Joe McGrath and Peter Sellers. Sellers was famous for his love of giving friends and associates pseudonyms. Betty Strain, Augustus Pillpot, you name it... he had them. Southern though did take many of the photographs and stills that were used in publicity and press for the film, hence his 'studio photographer' credit in the film credits, press book and publicity materials 😊 - Marcus

#ChristopherLee Saturday! Here is Christopher Lee on set of the #PeterSellers / #RingoStarr 1969 film, 'The Magic Christian' with the stills photographer Bruce McBroom. It's a kinda cameo role, credited as playing 'a vampire'... No Dracula here, honestly!! 😀😵😝😏It's a groovy, zonked out film, just tripping and slipping in at the end of a decade of psychedelic mania, peace, love and understanding. And that's the thing here.. I don't understand why Lee signed up for this...money? Moolah? lolly? ... he would do it once again just a year later, with #PeterCushing as Frankenstein for the his and Peter's good friends #SammyDavisJr and director #Jerrylewis, the ''Salt and Pepper' sequel 'One More Time' produced in 1970. Based on Terry Southern's book and screenplay, #TheMagicChristian is also of it's time, seen now by many as a 'classic' ... I love the soundtrack score with Paul McCartney's 'Come and Get It' theme song sung by '#Badfinger' .

Lee's appearance in the film adds to a few moments and amusing reaction shots, this one with the ship captain, played by Wilfred Hyde White, is one of my favs. WHW reaction is certainly 'a moment!😝

I LOVE Peter Sellers and the absolute chaos.. For me, Lee is a bonus. Have you seen the movie and what's your take on Lee playing a role, he often had many reservations on playing... ever again, and again.... 😊 Stay safe and have a great weekend everyone! - Marcus

PLEASE COME JOIN US at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE! With posts every day, rare images and photographs, features and prize competitions.You'll have good company with over 34 thousand followers, all celebrating the LIFE and CAREER of Peter Cushing OBE!

THESE MONSTERS ARE STILL WAITING FOR YOU . .

MANY THANKS TO #INDICATOR / #POWERHOUSE for sponsoring another PCAS competition, with their brilliant 'I Monster' remastered blu ray, starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, a fabulous package, busting with extras too! This competition is open only at our FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE and as with all PCASUK competitions, it is open to everyone, whoever, wherever you are,from the page!! We close the doors on the 'lab' and entries at MIDNIGHT GMT TODAY, Friday 13th... so bend the superstition, enter . . coz some people are going to get lucky! So GOOD LUCK Everybody! 😉😀- Marcus

YOU CAN ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY, direct form POWERHOUSE: HERE!

I THINK WE CAN all spot WHO this is above? 😏 A neat caricature of Peter Cushing by the talented Jeffrey Haiduk! I love the fingerless glove touch . .. 😄 - Marcus

UNSEEN DRACULA AD 1972 CONTACT SHOT : ALTAR GIRLS AND WIN INDICATOR'S 'I MONSTER' REMASTERED BLU RAY!

OCCASIONALLY, photographs pop up or are found on contact sheets from #PeterCushing films, that just by the random or weirdness of their content, when posted and shared, they cause a bit of a chorus of head-scratching or sometimes, stunned silence. The one above, has caused quite a rash of more questions than answers. Not that long ago, a small faded postage stamp sized exposure on a 50 year old publicity stills contact sheet I spotted, gave the answer to a plot hole, that had teased fans of #Hammerfilms, 'Dracula AD 1972' for decades.

ONE OF THE MANY entertaining plot points in this film is, all the pop picking, trendy youngsters in the film, fall victim to the bite of 'the Count', and we have a nice, wrap to their fate, with a shot of them either dead, dying or staked, a good few years before the trend of the 'teen slasher' movies, that would soon by the dying diet of most horror films of the late 70's and eighties. All the victims get gnarled and knocked off in style.  But, we get kinda cheated in the case of  actor, Phillip Miller's role of Bob, boy-friend of Stephanie Beacham's character, Jessica Van Helsing. We are aware in a reveal of Bob having been pecked and made part of the Vamp klan, during a set up scene with Johnny Alucard and Jessica at the night club. 

FULL UNCUT INTERVIEW with #CAROLINEMUNRO from 2000 RIGHT HERE!

BUT SHORTLY AFTER, Peter Cushing's Van Helsing stumbles upon him, dead and life-less in among the tombstones of St Bartov's cemetery. How he got there and what finished him off, was a mystery and a bit of whimp wrap. Hardly fast forwarding, but decades later, that little exposure on that very contact sheet, reveals all. An image of Bob, holding his hands to the sun and covering his face, in the cemetery where Van Helsing found him, points and hints to, Bob got fried in the sun... how and when, we may never know. So feast your eyes on the colour contact sheet exposure, at the top of this page. 

1970'S ACTRESS AND SINGER, Marsha Hunt is being laid upon the altar, by Christopher Lee, either having already been bitten or ..about to. This shot if it was ever filmed would have been very similar to the fate that almost fell Van Helsing grand-daughter Jessica, same location, same altar. It's hard to know which was filmed first, but if this was shot with Hunt, Beacham one the day and Hunt's footage hit the floor, instead meeting her end, by being bitten standing, in the church... ahem.. similar to Laura Bellows, as played by Caroline Munro. If the shot was filmed and included in the film, that would have made all three actress, spending sometime on THAT altar! I know, Hammer loved to get their monies worth out of props, costumes and sets, but that may have been going a bit tooooo far, maybe?  

ABOVE : DIRECTOR Alan Gibson and production designer Don Mingaye on THEIR knees at the altar at the set of 'Dracula AD 1972 

WEEK, I GUESS script writer Don Houghton, was maybe running out of ideas, tough with all that action with Dracula taking place in Christopher Lee's ONE location in this film... INSIDE the desecrated church of St Bartolph's! If this shot was never taken, then maybe it was the result of a set up by the film's studio publicity photographer George Whitear. Maybe, one day will will find out? Over at the Facebook PCASUK Fan Page this pic has certainly got friends and followers thinking though . . 😏 

TRIVIA: IMDB credits 'a picture of Peter Cushing's recently deceased wife Helen Cushing can be seen on the desk in Professor Lorrimer Van Helsing's study'. . . it ain't her at all, it is a random photograph form a photo library, not Helen Cushing. At the the Facebook PCASUK Fan Page we are asking, Can you name the film where Helen Cushing's photograph WAS used???

OUR PCASUK 'I MONSTER' INDICATOR BLU  COMPETITION CLOSES FRIDAY 13TH! THERE IS STILL TIME TO ENTER HERE! 

OUR FULL REVIEW OF INDICATOR'S REMASTERED BLU RAY OF AMICUS FILMS CLASSIC  'I MONSTER' starring #ChristopherLee and #PeterCushing IS HERE! 

PLEASE COME JOIN US at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE! With posts every day, rare images and photographs, features and prize competitions.You'll have good company with over 34 thousand followers, all celebrating the LIFE and CAREER of Peter Cushing OBE!