Monday 24 April 2017

#MONSTERMONDAY: THE MAKING OF THE HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWS PART ONE


IN THE SPRING OF 1982, Michael Armstrong and director Pete Walker approached Cannon Films, with Armstrong's supernatural thriller, Deliver Us From Evil


With his love of star packages, however, the head of Cannon, Menaham Golan was far more interested in them developing a package for cinema's horror legends: Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Vincent Price and John Carradine, who had never throughout their long careers, actually appeared on screen together as a foursome. Golan felt this would be a last opportunity to create cinema history.


WALKER AND ARMSTRONG knew that the current trend of teen slasher movies were not only unsuitable, but would fail to attract the stars in question. There had been several attempts to put them together in one film over the years, but each had failed because of the subject matter and the screenplay. Both Lee and Cushing, in particular, had often stated their dislike of the latest horror trends. Walker, therefore, suggested the remaking of an old classic, The Old Dark House, but was unable to secure the rights from Universal. Aware that if they failed to get back to Cannon quickly, they may lose the offer, Walker suggested another classic title from the same era,  Seven Keys To Baldpate.


SEVEN KEYS TO BALDPATE, had started life as a novel by the creator of Charlie Chan, E. Digger Biggs and then been dramatised for the stage by George M. Cohen. It became a long running hit on Broadway, before being made into a silent movie back in 1917, directed by Hugh Ford, with George M. Cohen as George Washington Magee! Hedda Hopper starred opposite him. In 1925, yet another silent version was made of the story directed by Fred C. Newmeyer. The first sound version was produced in 1929 by Reginald Barker, starring Richard Dix as William Magee. 

 

1935 rolled out another version, directed by William Hamilton. The final version was made in 1947 with Lew Landers directing, starring Phillip Terry as the renamed Kenneth Magee and Jaqueline White as the also renamed Mary Jordan.


WALKER LAID ON SCREENINGS of several versions at his flat for writer Armstrong and Jenny Craven, a friend of Armstrong and Golan, who would eventually act as associate producer on The House of Long Shadows. Armstrong recalls: 'We ignored a 1916 version made in Australia and a television version 1946, neither of which seemed relevant or connected with the book or the play, and watched - I can't remember maybe two or three, including the last one made in 1947- What we hoped would be a Gothic mystery thriller, along the lines of The Old Dark House, turned out to be an extremely dated crime thriller and nothing remotely suitable for the cast we had in mind. Over dinner we decided the only thing we could do was take the basic premise and the end twist and create a completely new storyline to suit our needs.''As I was going to be writing specifically for our four stars, it seemed logical to pay homage to the movies with which they had all been associated and create a tongue in cheek pastiche of the Gothic movies incorporating as many genre movies references as possible. Certain that our cast would be drawn to the idea of parodying their own classic images, we became very excited, ordered some more wine and set about creating a long list of everything we could think of from that era-thunder storms, to cats jumping out, to the inevitable 'monster locked behind the door', forever screaming heroines and menacing dialogues of  'things better not spoken of...'


TO ADD A FURTHER FRISSON of excitement to their discussion, Walker suggested they create a part for the original Bride Of Frankenstein, Elsa Lanchester. Because of the urgency to cement the deal, Armstrong returned home that night and within twenty four hours had produced a detailed twenty page treatment, so Walker could fly off to LA and quickly secure their stars. A few days later, Armstrong received a late night phone call from Walker, telling him the stars liked the treatment and were interested, subject to the screenplay - which he had told them was on the point of completion and would be available for them to read within two weeks. 'I've never been a slow writer, but to complete a screenplay within two weeks and be sufficiently polished to hook star names? It was quite ironic really. The film was about a writer taking on a bet to write a Gothic novel within twenty four hours! And here was I agreeing to write a Gothic screenplay within two weeks! So, I locked myself away with my typewriter, reams of paper, an ample supply of whiskey and enough cartons of cigarettes to open a tobacconists shop - in those days I was smoking 120 cigarettes a day! - and with Verdi's La Forza (Guiseppe Verdi's opera, La Forza Del Destino - The Force of Destiny) drowning out any distracting noises from the outside world, I sat down and went to work!'


AS REQUIRED, Armstrong delivered a completed draft of the screenplay on time! It was just hours before Walker had to leave to get to the airport! 'It was like some crazy suspense thriller' Armstrong now remembers, 'I finished the final page of the script around five, grabbed a cab to Morton's where Pete was waiting for me, before catching his flight to LA. I go there, literally minutes before he had to leave to get to the airport. I'd been working around the clock, on whiskey and cigarettes, had no sleep for two nights, staggered into Morton's more dead than alive, thrust the pages of typed manuscript into his hands- the only copy that existed- Pete asked me if I wanted a drink, I told him I just wanted to go home and collapse, he said he'd call me then called a cab- and that was it. He read the script on the plane and called me to say he liked it. A week later he called me to say that the script had gone down well with the actors and that they had all agreed to do it - except Lanchester, who unfortunately was too fragile to travel.' The part that Armstrong had written for her was that of a woman forever haunted by her past as a jilted bride. The role, instead, went to a Pete Walker favourite, Shelia Keith, who produced a wonderfully comic performance.


'PETE AND I intended that one of the fun levels of the film to be it's density of movie literary allusions, sometimes double edged, like Vinnies death: on one hand echoing his demise in Witchfinder General, whilst, on the other, being a parody of Mickey Mouse chopping up the broomsticks in 'Fantasia'. Armstrong explains, 'Unfortunately, quite a few filmic references for film buffs got lost along the way. There were also some that weren't followed through. For instance, the juve leads were written as a kind of Dick Powell and Fay Wray exchanging those sparring quick banter dialogues of the period. The young married couple were written as a parody of their British counterparts, epitomized by Noel Coward and Gertrude Lawrence in 'Private Lives'. But, these with other references got lost, partly because of the subtle campery required in the playing didn't really suit the actors cast the those roles.'

FOR ONCE, Armstrong was not around for the casting. Jenny Craven, the associate producer, was elevated into overseeing the film from the moment it went into pre production. 'Everything happened so quickly.' Armstrong recalls, 'Pete Walker had barely arrived back from LA before the film was in pre-production with a shooting date only a few weeks away. To my concern, what I'd dashed off in those two weeks was the script they were working from. Admittedly my first drafts are usually as tight as most people's final drafts but, even so, I still desperately wanted, at the very least, to sit down and clean it up and tidy it- especially around the final confrontation scene between the Grisbane brothers- but it proved impossible. Pete had been swept up into the throes of production with Jenny Craven, which meant that he and I couldn't find a free moment to get together and talk., even. Whenever I tried to say anything, everyone seemed perfectly happy with the script as it was, then I finally gave up pressing the point and assumed it was just me being insecure and finicky and that they'd come back to me if something wasn't working'


WITHIN THE FIRST WEEK of shooting a call came from the set, asking Armstrong to go down and fix the final dialogue scene between Vincent Price and Christopher Lee. 'I was so relieved,' Armstrong confesses, 'When I got on set, I found Christopher's concern was that he felt the final confrontation between he and Vinnie wasn't correctly balanced. Vinnie had more dialogue and had the last line. He was quite right, of course- except about wanting to have the last line. I sat down and tightened the whole scene, which I'd been dying to do. It automatically balanced their dialogue and resolved Christopher's worries and Vinnie still kept his last line, much to his amusement. From that point on, I decided it might be better if I remained on the set for the rest of the shooting- although, as it turned out, there was nothing else that needed fixing.' 







'THE SHOOT went smoothly.' Armstrong recalls. The stars, in particular, enjoyed working together and relished the camp theatricality of the dialogue and the lampooning the Gothic melodramas of the past. By the end of shooting, there was a general feeling on the set that the end product would be a lot of fun and prove popular with audiences'.


LEAVING WALKER to editing and post production, Armstrong became embroiled in Cannon's plans for publicity, part of which involved him writing and recording a series of jokey radio ads with Christopher Lee and Vincent Price. Elaborate plans were now in progress for releasing the film. Head of Distribution, Trevor Green and the publicity department came up with the idea of a starry, camp 30's style premiere to reflect the mood of the film. Craven, however, now overseeing the films publicity machine, as well as the film, opposed the concept, preferring the idea of a simple dignified press reception instead. Shortly afterwards, Trevor Green left and joined his brother to build one of Britain's biggest current distributors, Entertainment.


AS ENTHUSIASM for a fun launch of the film waned and a more serious approach to it's marketing was adopted, a similar sobriety seemed to be affecting the whole film during it's post production. 'Early in the cutting, Pete invited me into the edit suite to see his cut of the music scene with Vinnie and it was wonderful. Vinnie was very funny reveling in the moroseness of explaining the Grisbane's doom-ridden destiny to an accompaniment of Shelia Keith's wailing Verdi aria and the whole scene had a fabulous rhythm and stylish wit about it. Pete was so enthusiastic and clearly happy with the way the film was shaping up. I don't know what happened between then and later, when I saw the scene in the finished film, it had been re-cut and a good half of the scene was missing.....mostly Vinnie' dialogue. There were other strange cuts and trims too, a serious reduction  of comic pacing by dragging out Desi Arnaz Jr's early scenes and those with Julie Peasgood. Someone told me it was Cannon's attempt to tone down the films humour and turn it into a more serious horror film. How true that is I really don't know, but somewhere along the way, I sensed Pete's usual buoyant spirit had been eroded by something. I didn't know what. I didn't know why.....'



PART TWO OF THE MAKING OF
THE HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWS HERE!  NEXT MONDAY!


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Sunday 23 April 2017

#GETTHECUSHIONSITSCUSHING! WEIL AND KARNSTEIN GO FACE TO FACE


#GETTHECUSHIONITSCUSHING! SPOILER! If there was ever a on the edge of your seat moment in a Hammer film, featuring Peter Cushing, THIS would probably be it. Count Karnstein and Gustav Weil go face to face, in the final moments of Hammer films, 'Twins of Evil' (1971) A fitting end? One of your favs? Lets us know!



YOU CAN READ up on TWINS OF EVIL elsewhere at this website. Above is teh banner from one of our most popular posts about the film. Lots of rare COLOUR photographs and details on the story behind  maybe the best of the Hammer Karnstein trilogy. Just 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 reach our 30K following total for Peter Cushing BIRTHDAY on MAY 26th 2017 AND Help Keep The Memory Alive! 

SLAYING DRAGONS DRACULA AND SAINT GEORGE


#GETTHECUSHIONITSCUSHING! TODAY, for those who are patriotic, in the UK it is ST GEORGE'S DAY! St George is the patron saint of England and has become famous from stories that he slayed a dragon and saved a distressed maiden.... Peter Cushing made reference to St George when he was awarded with his Order Of the British Empire medal (OBE) back in 1989. TRIVIA: St George is also mentioned in Bram Stoker's novel, Dracula ' In the first chapter, the ill-fated Jonathan Harker is on his way to Count Dracula’s home, and has arrived in Romania on a very auspicious day. “Do you know what day it is?” asks the landlady at Bistritz. “It is the eve of St George’s Day. Tonight, when the clock strikes midnight, all evil things in the world will have full sway.” She does not help make him feel any better, needless to say. Happy St George's Day!



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 reach our 30K following total for Peter Cushing BIRTHDAY on MAY 26th 2017 AND Help Keep The Memory Alive!

Saturday 22 April 2017

#HAMMERFILMSATURDAY: THE FAIREST BRIDE OF THEM ALL : HAMMER DOCUMENTARY

#HAMMERFILMSSATURDAY: FOLOWING the news of the sad passing of Yvonne Monlaur yesterday, I thought it would be a good time to revisit this very good documentary about the making of one of her best, The Brides of Dracula. There are interviews, including Yvonne, lots of stories, behind the scenes, the works. She really was a fine talent and a beautiful woman, with such a gentle attitude. Bless you, Yvonne....


WE WILL BE posting a in-depth feature on Yvonne Monlaur, her life and career, with rare stills gallery this week.


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 reach our 30K following total for Peter Cushing BIRTHDAY on MAY 26th 2017 AND Help Keep The Memory Alive!

YVONNE MONLAUR 1939 -2017


Sad News to report Yvonne Monlaur has passed away....

She starred in the 1958 Italian film Three Strangers in Rome which was amongst Claudia Cardinale's earliest films and in 1960 in the horror film Circus of Horrors alongside prominent actors in British film such as Anton Diffring and Donald Pleasence. In 1960, she also starred in the Hammer horror film The Brides of Dracula alongside other noted British actors of the day Peter Cushing and Freda Jackson and in The Terror of the Tongs (1961) with Christopher Lee.


Monlaur screen tested for the role of Domino Derval in the 1965 James Bond film Thunderball. The role eventually went to another French actress, Claudine Auger. After a string of German and Italian films, Monlaur left films to return to Paris. She continued to live there. Of late she has attended a few film conventions, which have included salutes to Hammer films. News of her passing was press released on April 21st 2017. She died on April 18, 2017, aged 77.


Yvonne Monlaur being helped with her costume, a suit of armor, on the set of the film 'To Live and Die a Fascist', Rome, Italy, November 12th 1961. 

 


Italian actor and comedian Nino Taranto, French actress Yvonne Monlaur and Italian actor Maurizio Arena (Maurizio Di Lorenzo) gathered at the Piazzetta of Capri in a scene from the film Avventura a Capri. Capri, 1958



Thursday 20 April 2017

IT'S NOT JUST THE EYES THAT FOLLOW YOU AROUND THE ROOM!


WITH THE EXCEPTION of dear old Arthur Grimsdyke in 'Tales from the Crypt' Peter Cushing never did get to play a physical grotesque. Amazing when you consider that wonderful facial bone structure. A make up artist's dream! If ever you find yourself at The Prater in Vienna, and your heart can take it, you must go and seek out this animated digital 'painting' of Peter Cushing's likeness for yourself! Spooky? What do you think?


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 reach our 30K following total for Peter Cushing BIRTHDAY on MAY 26th 2017 AND Help Keep The Memory Alive!

#THROWBACKTHURSDAY: IN THE STUDIO AT THE BBC WITH THE MASTERS OF MENACE!


#THROWBACKTHURSDAY: A wonderful publicity photograph of both Peter Cushing and Vincent Price while recording the BBC radio serial 'ALIENS OF THE MIND' in 1977. Do you REMEMBER this radio series being broadcast? 


ABOVE some Radio Times Listings from our archive of the broadcasts
 back in 1977 . ..


ALIENS OF THE MIND was a serial in six parts with Vincent Price as Curtis Lark and Peter Cushing as John Cornelius. On the Isle of Lewigh, Lark and Cornelius are certain that the death of Dr Hugh Dexter was no accident. From his research notes, they diagnose the ' island sickness ' as the early symptoms of a strange genetic mutation undergone by many of the inhabitants, turning them into zombies blindly obeying some unknown force. The key to the mystery seems to be an apparently simple-minded 18-year-old - Flora Keiry - who saves Lark and Cornelius from being burnt to death! The series titles were, ‘ISLAND GENESIS’, ‘HURRIED EXODUS’, ‘UNEXPECTED VISITATIONS’, ‘OFFICIAL INTERCESSIONS’, ‘GENETIC REVELATIONS’ AND ‘FINAL TRIBULATIONS’. 


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 reach our 30K following total for Peter Cushing BIRTHDAY on MAY 26th 2017 AND Help Keep The Memory Alive!

Wednesday 19 April 2017

THE LATE CHRISTOPHER LEE HAS THE LAST LAUGH ....LITERALLY!


WHILST CONDUCTING the digital remastering process on his collected musical works, Mel Croucher unearthed a never-heard-before gem: An ‘evil laugh’ competition between Christopher Lee and fellow actor Joaquim de Almeida.


IN THE DAYS  when computer games came on cassette, Automata were well known for including music tracks on the reverse side as a ‘bonus’ for the players. The Games Collector, a UK-based company is now selling those music tracks as a collection on crowdfunding site Indiegogo. When it came to re-mastering the audio for Deus Ex Machina 2, the sequel to Automata’s most famous game, an outtake was found in the archives in which Christopher Lee - at that point in his nineties and recording one of his final voice acting roles – competed with Joaquim de Almeida to see who could laugh in the most evil way possible, with Croucher himself the judge! Who won? Well, that would be telling…!


WITH THE REMASTERING complete, the evil laugh competition is included as a bonus extra on one of the five albums that make up InsÏ€red: The Collective Works of Mel Croucher. Croucher himself is considered the father of the British gaming industry; at a time when most computers were being used to calculate the compound interest on the revenue from a year’s worth of potato sales, he was selling his eclectic range of games for the ZX Spectrum through eye-catching adverts on the back pages of the popular computing magazines of the day.

Interested parties can reserve their collection through the campaigns crowdfunding page at igg.me/at/pimania  A preview of Mel’s music is available on Soundcloud at bit.ly/2oHZlae

The Games Collector Ltd is the result of decades of playing and creating games and the obsessive collecting of memorabilia by its founders. With a product line up featuring exclusive, exquisite and highly desirable collectibles, the company aims to bring fans the items they long for, and maybe even a few they didn’t know they wanted!


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 reach our 30K following total for Peter Cushing BIRTHDAY on MAY 26th 2017 AND Help Keep The Memory Alive!

#SILENTBUTDEADLY: GAZOOKS A TRIPLE BILL OF GIFS!


#SILENTBUTDEADLY : HERE IS a great triple post of requested GIFS by you our friends and followers from here and our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE for this week's #SILENTBUTDEADLY! Above Christopher Lee is ready for business, and if you have seen the film 'The House of the Long Shadows' you'll know, all hell breaks loose from this point. 'The House of the Long Shadows' (1983 which marks first time stars Peter, Vincent Price, and Christopher Lee appeared in a film sharing scenes together! John Carradine and Shelia Keith also star in...despite what some say... a great little film, that has some classic moments, all four stars get their moment, it's camp, it's black, it's creepy, it has a wonderful ending, and it's worth seeing. This of course, is my personal opinion... what do you think???


IN 2012 We Celebrated  the HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWS in style, sharing a BBC interview with you, recorded from the set of the film, during it's production!


#SILENTBUTDEADLY: This aint gonna be pretty! Vincent Price braces himself for the unexpected...or is it?? A great GIF requested by Paul Barton for this week's #SILENTBUTDEADLY GIF Gallery.



DID YOU KNOW ALL FOUR actors, Peter Cushing, Vincent Price, John Carradine and Christopher Lee ALL JOINTLY won the BEST ACTOR AWARD in 1983 at the SIGES FILM FESTIVAL? The Sitges Film Festival, is one of the world's foremost international festivals of film...



#SILENTBUTDEADLY: GAZOOKS! He just keeps coming. We KNEW there was something spooky about Peter Cushing's shop keeper in ''FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE' Turns out he is what he seems after all! A great addition to our GIF gallery requested by Phil Cooper UK.






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 reach our 30K following total for Peter Cushing BIRTHDAY on MAY 26th 2017 AND Help Keep The Memory Alive!



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