Friday 11 May 2012

PETER CUSHING AND CHRISTOPHER LEE: 'DRACULA' (1958) FEATURE AND GALLERY


CAST:
Peter Cushing (Dr Van Helsing), Christopher Lee (Count Dracula), Michael Gough (Arthur Holmwood), John Van Eyssen (Jonathan Harker), Melissa Stribling (Mina Holmwood), Carol Marsh (Lucy Holmwood), Valerie Gaunt (Vampire Woman)

CREW:
Director – Terence Fisher, Screenplay – Jimmy Sangster, Based on the Novel by Bram Stoker, Producer – Anthony Hinds, Photography – Jack Asher, Music – James Bernard, Special Effects – Syd Pearson, Makeup – Phil Leaky, Art Direction – Bernard Robinson. Production Company – Hammer.


SYNOPSIS:
Posing as a librarian, erstwhile vampire hunter Jonathan Harker travels to Castle Dracula where he is welcomed by the courtly Count Dracula. Harker attempts to kill Dracula and eliminate the vampire menace that Dracula spreads but the sun sets before he can do so. Jonathan’s body and diary are found by his friend Dr Van Helsing who stakes him and takes the sad news on to his fiancĂ©e Lucy Holmwood. There Van Helsing finds that Lucy has become Dracula’s prey. Joined by her brother Arthur, Van Helsing begins a search for Dracula, to stake and kill him before Lucy is fully claimed as a vampire.


COMMENTARY:
Dracula – usually better known under its American retitling, The Horror of Dracula – is the cornerstone of the Hammer Films legend. Although The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) the year before was beginning of Hammer’s success, The Horror of Dracula was the one that set Hammer on the map and marked the beginning of Hammer’s domination over the horror scene for the next fifteen years. The Horror of Dracula’s status, certainly in Anglo-horror fandom, is sacrosanct and its importance near mythic. The essence of what the Hammer film was all about is here – the darkly magnetic presence and aristocratic haughtiness of Christopher Lee; the commanding, straight-arrow rationalism of Peter Cushing; the florid shock hand of director Terence Fisher; the essential British repressions of sexuality and convention that Anglo-horror would pierce a stake right through; and the laughably dated shocked critical outcry.


Where then to view The Horror of Dracula today? Hammer films, particularly the early ones, have not dated well. Today their pace seems slow; the shocks that caused such a critical outcry (and then quickly transformed into the expected mainstay of this particular genre) seem absurdly mannered, even laughable. The rich and floridly colourful sets seem flat and stagebound and James Bernard’s celebrated scores loud and unsubtle. Yet The Horror of Dracula holds undeniable effect. One must understand exactly what it represented to audiences back then. To an audience raised on the Bela Lugosi Dracula (1931) and the cardboard, melodramatic figure that Dracula became among the Universal monsters line-up in the 1940s, The Horror of Dracula must have had an incredible shock value. For one, it was in colour – which meant that one could see the blood in its rich, overripe scarlet detail – and that alone made it an immediately different film to the Bela Lugosi version. For another, it was not as stagebound as the Lugosi version – Terence Fisher’s camera is kinetic and alive, always on the move.


As an attempt at adapting Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897), The Horror of Dracula is never any better or worse than any other version. Screenwriter Jimmy Sangster liberally sacrifices parts here and there for the economy of plot and budget – out go Renfield and the asylum (although these later appeared in Hammer’s Dracula – Prince of Darkness [1966]). Gone too is the magnificently ambient opening journey to Castle Dracula, the pursuit climax and set-pieces like the crashing of the Demeter. Gone too is Dracula as a supernatural being – “It is a common fallacy,” says Van Helsing, “that vampires can change into bats and wolves,” which conveniently does away with having to create costly effects sequences. (Although said fallacy seemed to have been disproven by the time of later sequels). Despite the liberties he takes with Bram Stoker, Jimmy Sangster nevertheless preserves the essence of the book.


(One of the irksome parts of film is its geographic hodgepodge – Dracula’s castle is located near Klausenberg (Cluj) in Rumania, which is near Transylvania. Yet according to the film, Rumania is supposed to border a country that contains both Karlstat (a town in Sweden) and Inglostadt (a town in Germany). In the real world, Germany and Rumania are separated by at least Hungary and either Austria or Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic; while Rumania and Sweden are separated by the Baltic Sea and either Russia or Poland).



The remarkable sexual element present in the Bram Stoker book (wherein Dracula essentially became a sexual predator, plundering the prim, virginal heroines and turning them into sexually aggressive and irresistible creatures), which was only fleetingly touched on in the Lugosi Dracula, is clearly brought out here – Mina sits up in bed in a V-neck nightgown that does a remarkable job of holding in more than one would ever think possible with her window open waiting for Dracula, and at other points the women invitingly tilt their necks up in anticipation. “It is established victims consciously resent being dominated by vampirism but are unable to resist the practice,” Van Helsing states. The Bela Lugosi version bled the film and its women dry of any sexual vitality but here Dracula had well and truly emerged from the Victorian closet. Part of the shock value that The Horror of Dracula had was its very wantonness in this regard.



In person, Dracula was 6’5” Christopher Lee. Christopher Lee incarnated Dracula as a haughty, imposing nobleman (in real life Lee traces his ancestry back to the Emperor Charlemagne). Bela Lugosi was a puffed-up ham, all stuffed-shirt menace; Christopher Lee, going back to the Stoker book, is introduced as a perfect gentleman who with shock rapidity turns into a ravening animal. When this Dracula is enraged, he is an animal, hissing, his eyes turning scarlet red. Not even Bram Stoker managed to show Dracula with this kind of raw lasciviousness. On the side of good was Peter Cushing who makes the definitive Van Helsing. Thankfully gone is the Dutch accent that Stoker gave Van Helsing and Peter Cushing is able to bring his customary genteel and commanding authority to the role. There is no greater sense in cinematic vampire mythology of Van Helsing as a man of reason who sits astride both science and religion with equal ease, holding society safe against primal forces than there is in Peter Cushing’s performance.



Most of all, The Horror of Dracula belongs to Terence Fisher who subsequently became Hammer’s most prominent director and developed a considerable critical cult within genre fandom. Fisher has no time for Bram Stoker’s Romantic imagery (or even subtlety) and heads straight for shock effect with all guns blazing. There is a shock scene where Valerie Gaunt tries to sink her teeth into Jonathan’s neck as he comforts her, only to be interrupted as Christopher Lee bursts in through a door – in this moment, Terence Fisher shock-cuts to a closeup of Lee’s face, eyes wide-open, blazing blood red and two trails of blood dripping from his fangs, and then has him leap across a table to throw both of them aside. The climax offers a stunning battle between the forces of light and darkness and is an indelible image in horror film – Van Helsing pursues Dracula into the library and leaps across a table to rip the curtains open, exposing an area of sunlight, then jumps on a table and grabs two candelabra to form a cross, which he uses to drive Dracula into the beam of sunlight, causing him to crumble into dust that is then blown away by a mysterious gust of wind as the end credits roll. It is a set-piece that even outstrips the climax in the book.



Hammer’s other Dracula films are:– The Brides of Dracula (1960), Dracula – Prince of Darkness (1966), Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968), Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970), Scars of Dracula (1971), Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972), The Satanic Rites of Dracula/Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride (1973) and The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires/The Seven Brothers Meet Dracula (1974). Christopher Lee appears in all except Brides of Dracula and Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires. Peter Cushing plays Van Helsing again in Brides of Dracula, Dracula A.D. 1972, Satanic Rites of Dracula and Legend of the 7 7 Golden Vampires. Countess Dracula (1970) is a Hammer film but not a Dracula film and in fact tells the legend of Countess Elizabeth Bathory.


Other adaptations of Dracula are:– the silent classic Nosferatu (1922); Dracula (1931); Count Dracula (1970) a continental production that also featured Christopher Lee; Dracula (1974), a tv movie starring Jack Palance; Count Dracula (1977), a BBC tv mini-series featuring Louis Jourdan; Dracula (1979), a lush remake starring Frank Langella; Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) with Klaus Kinski; Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), featuring Gary Oldman; the Italian-German modernized adaptation Dracula (2002) starring Patrick Bergin; Guy Maddin’s silent ballet adaptation Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary (2002); Dracula (2006), the BBC tv adaptation starring Marc Warren; and Dario Argento’s upcoming Dracula 3D (2012) with Thomas Kretschmann as Dracula.



Terence Fisher’s other genre films are:– the sf films The Four-Sided Triangle (1953) and Spaceways (1953), The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959), The Mummy (1959), The Stranglers of Bombay (1959), The Brides of Dracula (1960), The Two Faces of Dr Jekyll (1960), The Curse of the Werewolf (1961), The Phantom of the Opera (1962), The Gorgon (1964), Dracula – Prince of Darkness (1966), Frankenstein Created Woman (1967), The Devil Rides Out/The Devil’s Bride (1968), Frankenstein Must be Destroyed (1969) and Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1973), all for Hammer. Outside of Hammer, Fisher has made the Old Dark House comedy The Horror of It All (1964) and the alien invasion films The Earth Dies Screaming (1964), Island of Terror (1966) and Night of the Big Heat (1967).

Jimmy Sangster’s other genre scripts are:– X the Unknown (1956), The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958), The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959), The Mummy (1959), The Brides of Dracula (1960), the psycho-thrillers A Scream of Fear/Taste of Fear (1961), Paranoiac (1962), Maniac (1963), Nightmare (1963), Hysteria (1965) The Nanny (1965) and Crescendo (1970), and Dracula – Prince of Darkness (1966), all for Hammer. Sangster’s non-Hammer scripts are the lost medical vampire film Blood of the Vampire (1958), the alien invasion film The Trollenberg Terror/The Crawling Eye (1958), Jack the Ripper (1959), the Grand Guignol psycho-thriller Who Slew Auntie Roo? (1971), the tv movie psycho-thrillers A Taste of Evil (1971) and Scream, Pretty Peggy (1973), the occult tv movie Good Against Evil (1977), the occult film The Legacy (1979), the spy tv movies Billion Dollar Threat (1979) and Once Upon a Spy (1980), the psycho-thriller Phobia (1980) and the story for Disney’s The Devil and Max Devlin (1981). As director, Sangster made three films:– The Horror of Frankenstein (1970), the lesbian vampire film Lust for a Vampire (1971) and the psycho-thriller Fear in the Night (1972), all at Hammer. 


Review: Richard Schieb
Images: Marcus Brooks

Thursday 10 May 2012

PETER CUSHING: 'DR TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS' AMICUS FILMS (1965)


It really is no wonder that Amicus and Hammer Films made so much money overseas with promotional material like this! A superb PHOTOBUSTA from 'DR TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS' Amicus (1965) Dir: Freddie Francis and Produced by the the magical writing and business skills of Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg!

Wednesday 9 May 2012

Tuesday 8 May 2012

PETER CUSHING CHRISTOPHER LEE 'THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN' HAMMER FILMS 1957


SUPERB PHOTOBUSTA OF 'THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN' PETER CUSHING AND CHRISTOPHER LEE (1957) Dir: TERENCE FISHER

PETER CUSHING CAROLINE MUNRO DOUG MCCLURE: AT THE EARTH'S CORE: REVIEW AND GALLERY


CAST:
Doug McClure (David Innes), Peter Cushing (Dr Abner Perry), Caroline Munro (Princess Dia), Cy Grant (Ra), Sean Lynch (Hoojah), Godfrey James (Ghak)

PRODUCTION:
Director – Kevin Connor, Screenplay – Milton Subotsky, Based on the Novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Producer – John Dark, Photography – Alan Hume, Music – Mike Vickers, Process Photography – Charles Staffell, Special Effects Supervisor – Ian Wingrove, Production Design – Maurice Carter. Production Company – Amicus/Lion International.



SYNOPSIS:
Dr Abner Perry, accompanied by his American financer, David Innes, is about to put to the test his latest invention, The Iron Mole, a huge drilling device. However, things don’t go according to plan and instead of safely burrowing out through the side of a Welsh mountain they find themselves in a subterranean world populated by prehistoric beasts and warring tribes, ruled over by the powerful telepathic Mahars. The task soon falls to our intrepid duo of saving the enslaved humans, and returning to dear old Blighty of course!



COMMENTARY:
A co-production between American International Pictures and Amicus, At The Earth’s Core is a cheap and cheerful adaptation of the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel, scripted by Amicus co-founder Milton Subotsky. It retains all the familiar elements of his books; heroic adventurers in a lost world, strange prehistoric beasts, enslaved tribesmen with odd names such as Gak and Ra, and not forgetting an alluring local girl for our hero to romance.

No stranger to this sort of thing is Doug McClure, he also appeared in two other Burroughs adaptations, The Land That Time Forgot and The People That Time Forgot – and he brings his usual ‘talents’ to the role of David, in other words a typically wooden hero who gets into scraps with various beasts and falls for the charms of a tribal beauty. He’s not exactly the best actor in the world but there is a likeable everyman quality about him. 


Contrasting with this man of action is Peter Cushing as Dr Abner Perry. Cushing always gave everything to his roles, regardless of the quality of the film, and in At The Earth’s Core he provides another memorable interpretation, investing Dr Perry with an eccentric, slightly pompous air, totally British through & through, always armed with his trusty umbrella. Apart from providing all the plot exposition and saying “David!” a lot he gets the best lines; commenting on the inhabitants of this primeval world, “They’re so excitable. Like all foreigners!”, then when faced with the mesmeric powers of the Mahars he proudly states, “ You can’t hypnotise me, I’m British!” 



Although there is an interesting psychedelic tone created for this lost world with the bright purple sky, funky giant mushrooms and a tribe that look like extras from the cast of Hair the most obvious flaw in this movie is its special fx, or rather lack of them. The intimidating monsters which confront our heroes are nothing more than men in rubber suits, and the whole film does feel like an episode of Doctor Who. As such there are few thrills to be had when, for example, David has to battle against the imposing horror of what appears to be a green rubber hippo, or save the delectable Dia from the wrath of a big plastic fire breathing frog.


The evil Mahars that rule over this strange world look like prehistoric parrots, hardly the most threatening of adversaries. However the film does have one very special effect, in the form of Caroline Munro as tribal princess Dia. Munro was often found in this sort of film and in this sort of role, and little wonder! Here she is in all her heaving bosomed, skimpy costumed glory, looking longingly at McClure who suddenly finds things are looking up in this alien world when he meets her. A commanding presence viewers may find their minds wandering to thoughts of her during the rather flat action scenes which are directed with seeming disinterest by Kevin Connor. He was responsible for McClure’s other adventures in the worlds of Burroughs and went on to direct Warlords Of Atlantis, a similarly themed Victorian sci-fi adventure that is arguably the best of the bunch.




At The Earth’s Core is, despite its cheap cheesy and rather amateur feel, still a mildly enjoyable movie which stays true to its literary pulp adventure roots. Its appeal is more than likely due to nostalgia as many a thirtysomething adult was weaned on such adventures on a wet Sunday afternoon. Modern audiences, brought up on a diet of big budget fx extravaganzas would find the whole thing pretty laughable. Despite its shortcomings the plot is basically sound, Burroughs could really tell a great yarn, even though all his stories were essentially variations on the same theme. Maybe the time is now right for modern filmmakers to plunder his novels and bring to the screen big budget versions of his many adventures.


REVIEW: Jason Cook
IMAGES: Marcus Brooks
SOURCE: HERE

Sunday 6 May 2012

'CAROLINE MUNRO AND CHRISTOPHER NEAME' PETER CUSHING'S CO STARS IN 'DRACULA AD 1972' QUALITY COLOUR PHOTOGRAPH


A BEAUTIFUL colour negative shot from Peter Cushing's 'DRACULA AD 1972' featuring CHRISTOPHER NEAME as Johnny Alucard and CAROLINE MUNRO as Laura Bellows. Can't she much of Caroline though... but if you'd LIKE to see more of her from this film, just click on the link below and see our 'Caroline Munro: 'Dracula AD 1972' Gallery' Some great photographs of one of Peter's most talented and attractive co stars: CLICK HERE!

PETER CUSHING: AMICUS PRESSBOOK: 'TALES FROM THE CRYPT' (1972)







ONE OF THE BETTER AMICUS PRESSBOOKS FROM THE 1970'S: 'TALES FROM THE CRYPT'
WITH AN ALL STAR CAST INCLUDING PETER CUSHING AS ARTHUR GRIMSDYKE IN HIS AWARD WINNING STORY 'POETIC JUSTICE' 


PETER CUSHING: 1960'S LOBBY CARDS 'THE SKULL' AND 'CAPTAIN CLEGG'



TWO GREAT EXAMPLES OF EURO LOBBY CARDS FROM THE 1960'S 'CAPTAIN CLEGG/ NIGHT CREATURES' AND 'THE SKULL'

Saturday 5 May 2012

PETER CUSHING SHANE BRIANT MADELINE SMITH: HAMMER FILMS: 'FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM HELL' U.S. DVD REVIEW AND LOBBY CARDS GALLERY


Though their reign as the Empire of British horror had surely diminished by the time of its release in 1974, Hammer Film's FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM HELL marked a return to their familiar gothic traditions. Not only did it mark the last performance of the gaunt and fancy-wigged Peter Cushing in his most famous role of Baron Frankenstein, it was also the last film directed by Terence Fisher, the man who pretty much made the series his own. Also back were Anthony Hinds doing the writing choirs (under his "John Elder" pen name), composer James Bernard, and a bevy of familiar Hammer supporting players (Patrick Troughton, Charles Lloyd Pack, Peter Madden, Sydney Bromley, etc.).


The plot has Simon Helder (Shane Briant), a young doctor inspired by the work of Victor Frankenstein, being sent to an asylum for practicing "sorcery." There he meets Dr. Carl Victor (Cushing), who apparently harbors secret information on the underhanded director Klauss (John Stratton), and is able to run the place his own way. Young Helder quickly realizes that Dr. Victor is actually Baron Frankenstein, who wants the outside world to believe he is dead. Helder knows that Frankenstein could never give up his experiments, so after doing some snooping, he discovers his secret laboratory and his latest project.

The Baron's new experiment is the hulking, ape-like Herr Schneider (David Prowse), a homicidal inmate whom Frankenstein has kept alive after a violent suicide attempt and has grafted on the hands of a recently deceased sculptor (Bernard Lee). Since Frankenstein's hands were badly burnt in the name of science, the shabby stitch-work was done by Sarah (Madeline Smith), a beautiful mute girl who is nicknamed "Angel" who assists him. When Simon tells the Baron that he is a surgeon, the problem is solved. Soon new eyes and a new brain are given to the creature (allowing this to be a gorefest as far as Hammer is concerned), but he ultimately runs amuck in the asylum.




Filmed in late 1972, Hammer's final Frankenstein entry is one of those films that has divided appreciation among fans, some who think it's masterful and others who deem it a low point. The ultra low budget does show in Scott MacGregor's claustrophobic sets, unconvincing miniatures, and the monster's get-up is obviously a pull-over mask designed by Eddie Knight (though the monster is unique in the annals of Frankenstein cinema). But Fisher's direction and Cushing's consummate performance (adding complete madness this time to the character) display a true dedication to this kind of cinema, and the confinement of the asylum only adds to the doomed, somber mood. Prowse, who essayed the role of the monster in HORROR OF FRANKENSTEIN, is able to give the part some empathy--more so than any other Frankenstein monster in the Hammer camp. FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM HELL may be nothing groundbreaking, but it's certainly entertaining and a worthy end to an important chapter in British horror.


It's great to see that Paramount is the latest studio to unleash Hammer films on to the DVD market, but they have released the R-rated U.S. theatrical version which is missing some scenes only found thus far on an atrocious-looking Japanese laserdisc release from the early 90s. The footage not found on this DVD is as follows (those who haven't seen the film may want to view it first before reading this, as I'll reveal some plot points): a few seconds of a sequence where the Baron damns his useless hands and grasps an artery from the monster's wrist with his teeth, followed by his rinsing his mouth out with water; when Briant inserts the monster's eyeball, and Cushing says, "Pop it in," a brief side view of this procedure is replaced in the American version with a reaction shot of Madeline Smith; a second split-second shot of Bernard Lee's character's handless arms in his open coffin (looks to be the same exact brief shot as the first, so perhaps the Japanese just wanted to repeat the bloody sight); after the asylum director has his throat mutilated by the monster, the gushing of blood that comes from his neck is a split-second longer on the Japanese version, and; a few seconds more of the inmates tearing apart the monster during the climax, most notably missing in action is a shot where his guts are being squashed by someone's feet.


Quite simply, Paramount went back to the original negative for this transfer, and these scenes were never meant (or were demanded to be censored) for the U.S. version. Getting past that, Paramount's DVD of FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM HELL looks terrific, and far better than ever before. The film is nicely presented in the original 1.85:1 aspect ratio with anamorphic enhancement. As usual, the studio has done an excellent transfer. Sharpness and detail are very solid, and dark scenes that were once hard to make out are now clear as day. The print source is free of any major blemishes, and the somewhat subdued (for Hammer) colors appear greatly corrected, as do the various fleshtones. The audio is the original mono--there is some audible hiss present, but dialogue is generally clear and James Bernard's score is adequately robust. Optional English subtitles are also included.


The DVD has one extra feature (no trailer), and it's big one. A running audio commentary with actress Madeline Smith (Sarah) and actor David Prowse (the monster) moderated by genre historian Jonathan Sothcott. The commentary is rather energetic and quite funny, as both actors are never at a loss for words or a story to tell. They have plenty to say about the film, Cushing, Fisher, and the other players--which eventually leads to anecdotes about some of the other films of the period that they were involved in. This is very fun stuff, remaining interesting until the end, and you'll hear a lot of scoops you've probably never heard before in written interviews.

REVIEW: George R. Reis
IMAGES: Marcus Brooks

'FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM HELL' IS AWAITING A BLU RAY RELEASE IN THE UK SOMETIME THIS YEAR (2012) THE DVD REVIEWED ABOVE IS THE US DVD RELEASE AND CAN BE PURCHASED HERE: CLICK HERE!

Friday 4 May 2012

PETER CUSHING: 'EVERYTHING STOPS FOR TEA': REHEARSING 'BEAU BRUMMELL' BBC REHEARSAL ROOMS, ACTON, LONDON 1954

 

Peter Cushing rehearsing 'BEAU BRUMMELL' (BBC TX: 14th / 15th March, 1954) Drinking tea! Peter had quite simple tastes...Never happier than when he was, drinking tea, eating an apple and cheese and smoking Players cigarettes. But, of course NOT all at the same time...!


Tuesday 1 May 2012

'TWINS OF EVIL' SYNAPSE BLU RAY : CUSHING, COLLINSONS AND KARNSTEIN IN WIDESCREEN


SYNAPSE FILMS are releasing the BLU RAY / COMBO of  Hammer Film Productions 'TWINS OF EVIL' on JULY 10TH The film is restored and uncut in an all new 1080p high definition transfer in anamorphic1.66:1 widescreen.

The EXTRAS are as follows:
The Props That Hammer Built: The Hammer Props Collection
of Wayne Kinsey. A featurette.
Motion Still Gallery
The Flesh and the Fury: An 85 minute Documentary on the production  of 'TWINS OF EVIL'
(The Documentary appears on the BLU RAY ONLY)
Original theatrical trailer and TV spots
Deleted Scene
Isolated Music and Effects Track

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