THE CLOCK IS TICKING as the PCASuk Competition comes to an end. If you haven't entered yet, there is still time before all entries have to be in at the Facebook Fan Page, using ONLY the Facebook MESSAGE BUTTON! Just click THIS LINK ... and GOOD LUCK 😉 -Marcus
YOU ARE MOST WELCOME TO JOIN USand over 34,000 others Peter Cushing followers at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE! With posts every day, rare images and photographs, features and prize competitions.. all celebrating theLIFE and CAREER of Peter Cushing OBE
IS THIS OFF TOPIC?I am not sure. But hey, it's Dracula, a character close
to Peter Cushing's and Christopher Lee's heart... not sure what they
would think or say about this though. I am surprised it has taken this
long for them /Universal to get around to a film based on the 'Renfield' character.
NEWS: Nicolas
Cage has made a career of biting into his roles with seemingly reckless
abandon, even as he strayed further and further from studio movie making
and sunk his teeth into indie cinema. Now, in a deal sealed with a
vampire’s kiss, Cage is returning to a big-studio movie and will play
the meaty role of Dracula in Universal Pictures’ monster movie
'Renfield'. Nicholas Hoult is starring as the titular character,
the vampire count’s infamous acolyte and henchman, in the feature
directed by Chris McKay, the helmer behind Amazon’s The Tomorrow War and
The Lego Batman Movie.
BELOW JUST THREE OF MY PERSONAL RENFIELD 'TOP THREE'
#DWIGHTFRYE for some the definitive #RENFIELD in #LUGOSI's 'DRACULA' ... he was mad enough for sure. YOUR fav??
TONY HAYGARTH, one of my favourite Renfiled's who was an amazing balance for #FrankLangella's
Dracula. Dracula with a 'black comedy bent, was quite an impressive
movie, me thinks...Haygarth and his northern sway on the role, as did
the film was a breath of fresh air...
#TOMWAITS
had the voice, the hair and the 'mood' already half way there for the
role. A superb singer and artist, brought a whole other madly obsession
to the role. Where Hammer films, totally booted and chopped out the
character of Renfield in ALL of the Dracula movies, they did go some
way, by bringing in Thorley Walters as 'Ludwig' who ticked the box for
madness, fly eating and severer attachment issues to #Dracula.. but his hygiene was far too daily and smacked of #Disney's Pinocchio's Dad, Geppetto to be a real frightener... still quite crazy though.... - marcus
ABOVE: AS EVER, the brilliant THORLEY WALTERS playing in Hammer films, edited and diced Renfield-ques 'Ludwig' in the 1966 Terence Fisher directed DRACULA, PRINCE OF DARKNESS
YOU ARE MOST WELCOME TO JOIN USand over 34,000 others Peter Cushing followers at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE! With posts every day, rare images and photographs, features and prize competitions.. all celebrating theLIFE and CAREER of Peter Cushing OBE
HERE ARE FOUR VERY IMPRESSIVE quarter scale figures of Peter Cushing, cast in resin by talented sculptor Jeff Yagher for Paul Gill's company, Gillman Productions. The
Van Helsing figure is part of their ongoing 'Hammer' series
and along with Governer Tarkin, these I believe are unlimited editions.
These figures belong to Mark' personal collection, BUT if you are
interested and want to learn more about how you could own your own
copies of these figures, ordering and prices, just skip along JUST CLICK HERE! MANY thanks to Mark Jenkins for sharing these! What do you thnk of them?? - Marcus
ABOVE: A BRILLIANTLY DETAILED rasin figure of Peter Cushing as Phillip from 'The House
That Dripped Blood' / 'Waxworks' story ... having had the chop, from
Salome! This is a very cool creation of Peter's head, which actually
looks far better than the actual head that appeared in this segment of
the film. A very nice touch is that lovely detail on the Salome face
being half skull, something that featured on some of the publicity Quad
Crown Cinema posters. On many later VHS and DVD releases substituted the
face of Salome with the face of a fanged #IngridPitt, snarling holding
the platter! Ingrid appears in 'The Cloak' story, with Jon Pertwee and
Geoffrey Bayldon, as Carla... with a secret 😊
This is a real quality figure, here awaiting it's paint job, that
interprets the characters in this story very well. Can't wait to images
of this when finished! - Marcus
ABOVE: WE HAVE SEEN many figures of Peter Cushing's Grand Moff Tarkin, and this
one is a very good one indeed. I can't see anything that looks off,
wrong. I have heard many sculptors explain the Cushing is a difficult
face to get right. Well, they certainly got it right and spot on here -Marcus
ABOVE: PETER CUSHING AS ARTHUR GRIMSDYKE from 'Poetic Justice' a segment of the
Amicus film, 'Tales from the Crypt' This figure has everything right,
the clothing, the colour of the jacket, the teeth and the hair. Again
this is a figure that others have tried, but nearly of of them did have
the detail this one has. The heart is a nice touch too... and looks
real. I think that is the clincher in all these figures, even more so
when painted, as this one is... they look very real! Another great figure... - Marcus
ABOVE: AND FINALLY, the completed, painted Peter Cushing as Van Helsing. I think
it's a mix of both the 1958 Dracula and Brides of Dracula... but more
Brides with the very cool additions on the based of the bust. I am not
sure about the colour of Cushing's coat. But the coat text / fur looks
great, as does Peter's face and hair. I have also shared these images and details, over at the Facebook PCASuk Fan Page today, please feel free to visit the post and in the comments thread, tell us what do you think??? - Marcus
YOU ARE MOST WELCOME TO JOIN USand over 34,000 others Peter Cushing followers at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE! With posts every day, rare images and photographs, features and prize competitions..
all celebrating theLIFE and CAREER of Peter Cushing OBE
NEWS!Bran Castle, also know as the “Dracula’s Castle,” in Transylvania is up
for sale, with a frightening £47 million (around $80 million price tag!😊
Now before we get too excited, as I sure most of you will be well
aware, but you can never be too sure, THIS Castle is not the fine and
quite frightening, Castle Dracula as seen in #PeterCushing's and #ChristopherLee
1958 Hammer film, 'Dracula' ... Nope this one, as you can see has none
of genius set designer, Bernard Robinson's fantastic set dressing of
lush drapes, twisted Turkish pillars, fab red and gold beautiful flak
wallpaper, four poster beds and well... coffins! But THIS castle does
have a horrifying history too, and shockingly, in this case, it's ALL
TRUE!
WHAT WE HAVE HERE IS THE NOTORIOUS #BranCastle,
a 13th-century palace near Brasov. It has had a long list of previous
owners: from Saxons to Teutonic knights. But its most famous occupant
was . . Prince Vlad the Impaler, an historical warlord who inspired Bram
Stoker’s 1897 novel, “Dracula”. For many years, this has been part of a
tourist attraction.
ACCORDING TO THE UK 'newspaper', the #DailyTelegraph , the castle is now owned by descendants of Britain’s Queen
Victoria (Yikes! three siblings in their 70s with the last name
“Habsburg”) after it was restored to their control following the
collapse of communism. The main problem of the 57-room, 22-acre castle
is the lack of lavatories and bathrooms. ( I never saw Dracula go to the
loo or take a shower did you? So, no need 😉
) These were provided for the tourist visitors, but were ripped out of
the residential part of the castle by the communist regime.
EACH YEAR, 560,000 people pay £4 to visit the fortress. Even though there is a theory this castle, isn't actually the home that Vlad actually nestled in at all! When this feature was posted and shared yesterday, at Facebook PCASuk Fan Page, many of you kindly shared your personal snaps you have taken on YOUR holiday trips to the area, and visited Bran AND Castle Poinari, which is thought to be THE Castle Dracula! The castle is a ruin sadly, without roof, but has impressive views, but not as appealing and interesting to market to tourists, as Bran I guess.
ABOVE:One of Castle Bran's authentic claims to fame is that it WAS visited by another DRACULA! Christopher Lee visited and strolled around the grounds, during the making of the 1975 documentary, 'IN SEARCH OF DRACULA' in full period costume, Lee is a dead ringer for VLAD TEPES DRACULA, aka VLAD THE IMPALER, the military governor, or prince whose cruel methods of punishing his enemies gained notoriety in 15th-century Europe...and that is why Bram Stoker, adapted some of Vlad's activities, to form his story of 'DRACULA' in his 1897 novel!
DOING A LITTLE RESEARCH, I found that the
whole business of the sale of Bran castle over the past few years has had more resurrections than Christopher Lee's Dracula and bit of a contradiction. So I have tried
sourcing materials, to get to the basement / cellars of the story. Some of the issues are founded in promotion
for a tourism based business, with the hope of selling the castle to another
owner maybe holding several other attractions as part of their portfolio and even
though the site was up for sale up to and beyond 2016, it seems if a
ANOTHER prospective buyer was to claim interest, no doubt the cycle of publicity
would be generated again. In our current climate, which has been fatal
to some tourism sites, any publicity is, good publicity.
IT CAN'T BE EASY for the man who actually owns “Dracula's castle” as he really
wishes we wouldn't call it that. Seventy-nine-year-old Dominic Habsburg,
spent his childhood at Bran Castle, where his grandparents Queen Marie
and King Ferdinand I lived. He inherited the 14th-century castle in
2006. Do you have deep pockets,
need no loo or WC? Then, maybe this could be your dream cosy abode 😊- Marcus
REMEMBERING
actress 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.
ABOVE : Our FULL FEATURE with RARE UNPUBLISHED PHOTOGRAPH GALLERY on actress VALERIE GAUNT you can FIND HERE!
BORN
Valerie Shelia Gaunt, on the 9th July 1932 in Stratford-on-Avon,
Warwickshire, England, following an interest in amateur theatre, 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. Valerie was
survived by her husband, Gerald and their four children. . .
YOU ARE MOST WELCOME TO JOIN USand over 34,000 others Peter Cushing followers at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE! With posts every day, rare images and photographs, features and prize competitions.. all celebrating theLIFE and CAREER of Peter Cushing OBE
OF THE MANY POLLS and votes we have shared over the years, on the question of your favourite #PeterCushing role in an #Amicusfilm,
it is usually a fight to the top role, and this one often wins.. Peter
Cushing as Dr Schreck aka 'Dr Terror' in the 1965 film 'Dr Terror's
House of Horrors'.
SO, IT IS PERHAPS, NO SURPRISE that the talented and skilled sculpture and artist Russell Robie of #BansheeStudiosUK
chose Schreck as the latest figure to add to their already impressive
gallery of amazing figures. The figure/ bust stands at 10 inches tall . . .
THE FIGURE IS QUARTER SCALE, comes in ten pieces and is part of a very
limited edition. I personally think, it's his best figure yet! If you
want to see more, have a look through the gallery of stills here in this
post . . and for more details, why not take a short and careful
click-trip, over to the Banshee Studios UK Facebook Page.. BUT DON'T go by
train 😏😆
YOU ARE MOST WELCOME TO JOIN USand over 34,000 others Peter Cushing followers at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE! With posts every day, rare images and photographs, features and prize competitions.. all celebrating theLIFE and CAREER of Peter Cushing OBE
