PETERCUSHINGBLOG.BLOGSPOT.COM (PCASUK)

Sunday 16 July 2017

#GETHECUSHIONSUNDAY! WHO IS THAT?????

#GETHECUSHIONSUNDAY! WELL...there's a shocker! Actress Jodie Whittaker has been named as the latest regeneration of DOCTOR WHO! Ok.... What do you think????

MY TWO-PENCE WORTH: ...for what it is worth.....THE WONDER FACTOR: The 'Wonder Woman' movie this year made a lot of the studios sit up and think, it was a big surprise that it was so popular and made so much at the box office. Doctor Who is no longer a nice little tv show made in the UK for just 'the fans'...it's a show with an international audience, that sells overseas. The BBC and their programmes even though financed by the license fee, MUST make a profit, and move the tastes and predicted and unpredictable favor of the viewing public, both in UK, Europe and further afield. This casting is in line, with all of those things, despite what fans, supporters, long time viewers may think, it's a business... - Marcus

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

#GETTTHECUSHIONSUNDAY! THE 1999 RELEASE OF A CAMP CLASSIC! REALLY?

#GETTHECUSHIONSUNDAY! THE BOX SAYS... 'Recently discovered CAMP CLASSIC! UNRELEASED for 25 YEARS!' ..Yeah, there was a reason for that delay 🙂 I wonder how much those critics were paid, or how much they drank before the screening??? ..It's a classic alright 😉 Anyone else have this release? This is one of those rare times where the box and packaging is more exciting and impressive that the contents!

HOW CAN A FILM, that gives us great images like the one above, get it so wrong??? I have said here many times, it almost seems that the budget and imagination needed for the creation of the film, was diverted into the publicity. The press and lobby photographs, were printed on hi quality colour paper, the photographer who took them, knew what he was doing.

THERE ARE SOME EXCELLENT photographs, the press kit was pretty lush-deluxe too! In 1976, I was at a meeting where a short promo reel was screened... it was made up entirely of the 'My grand father was a grave digger' scene. Cushing (MacGregor) was playing his character's grandfather, a young boy, actor Robert Edwards, played Cushing in a wonderfully atmospheric scene. Horse drawn hearse, the black feather plumes, wind howling... 'It took 40 years to bury my grandfather! For a grave digger that is tragic!....' The tragedy is the premise of Cushing playing a retired Horror film actor, holed up in a creepy castle, playing the 'I could really be a vampire' card, was a good idea. The props department even used actual press photographs of Peter from his own films, to add back story evidence of MacGregor's career on the screen.

THIS FILM PROBABLY gets more interest here at PCAS than it rightly deserves, and that is probably because, we don't know WHY Cushing signed on the line. There have been well documented instances in the past, where Cushing, questioned details in script, The Brides of Dracula and The Mummy for example, I would think he would have almost certainly declined to be involved with a film like this in his earlier years. And, I don't think we can lay the blame at the director shooting extra scenes in PC's absence or an editor putting a spin on the footage. I have never seen a full shooting script for Tender / Tendre Dracula.. but I am pretty sure the scene of PC's dashing out some buttock slapping (!!) to cast member Miou -Miou, was down in black and white, even if it was on a yellow or pink rewrite page !

WE ASKED YOU AT OUR FACEBOOK FAN PAGE what YOUR opinion and thoughts on the film were. Here are some of your comments from the post at the page:

S. ALEXANDER: 'A venture that Peter would have declined to be involved with in his earlier years. Remember his initial objections and reluctance over 'The Brides of Dracula'? Obvioulsly the finished cut differed from the scripted scenes too.'

R.JOYCE: 'I to have confess...it's the only Cushing movie I can't sit through. Beautiful box art. But it's a disjointed, pseudo erotic flick. Er, not even that erotic, actually'.

J.PLAYER: 'I watched it there last year...everytime I thought that I couldn't believe I was watching that crap and was ready tonight it down, something would happen that made me want to keep going to see how it would end up!'

R.SMITH: I have a fondness for films like this that are so bad they're not even funny, just jaw dropping exercises in disbelief! Similar to the Bond knock-offs of Lindsay Shonteff (you have to see these to believe their creative ineptitude) I do feel there's a real need to see TENDER DRACULA on Blu-ray someday. The version I have on VHS is pretty shabby.

G.GRANT: I watched this on YouTube a few years ago😱It was really bad. I mean it had novelty value, because Mr Cushing was in it. But just awful

T.TUTTLE: I got 20 minutes into it and had to stop! My pain threshold wasn't high enough to make it!

OUR FULL FEATURE AND GALLERY ON TENDRE DRACULA

CAN BE FOUND BY CLICKING : HERE

Saturday 15 July 2017

#CHRISTOPHERLEESATURDAY!: THE AMICUS VAULT OF HORRORS!

#CHRISTOPHERLEESATURDAY! EXCLUSIVE! Starting TOMORROW Donald Fearney's definitive documentary 'THE AMICUS VAULT OF HORRORS' HERE!. From the early beginnings, City of the Dead, through all the classic portmanteau Amicus Horrors, Dr Terror's House of Horrors, Tales From the Crypt, Asylum, From Beyond the Grave, The Skull and Many Many more... Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Vincent Price Donald Pleasence, Ingrid Pitt...Interviews, on set behind the scenes, rare images... and it ALL STARTS HERE TOMORROW! Exclusive to PCAS. Please JOIN US!

NEWS: THE HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR IMMERSIVE AND FRIGHTENINGLY LIVE:

NEWS: THE COMPANY BEHIND so many of Peter Cushing's and Christopher Lee GREATEST SCARES is about to embark on a IMMERSIVE THEATRICAL EXPERIENCE to CHILL YOU to your HALLOWEEN BONES! Something 'ANCIENT and EVIL' is coming to HOXTON HALL, set in deepest JACK THE RIPPER country, the EAST END of LONDON! HOXTON HALL is an ATMOSPHERIC listed VICTORIAN music hall theatre and will be the setting of a HALLOWEEN HAPPENING, Hammer says, 'You'll NEVER forget!'

THE HOUSE OF HAMMER HORROR SHOW LIVE is due to run through out OCTOBER 2017, ending it's run with a SPECIAL EXTRA LATE show on Halloween. Hammer Films CEO SIMON OAKES is promising 'A TENSE and INTIMATE ENCOUNTER' adding 'NO TWO PERFORMANCES WILL BE THE SAME! Anything else, he's keeping nailed down as tight as coffin lid!

IT SOUNDS PROMISING! The HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR LIVE runs from OCTOBER 3rd 2017 until HALLOWEEN October 31st 2017 . .. . We can't wait!

Friday 14 July 2017

#FRANKENSTEINFRIDAY: THE MAN WHO WOULD BE FRANKENSTEIN

#FRANKENSTEINFRIDAY: NEXT WEEK, a NEW feature! If you love Cushing's Hammer film Frankenstein series.. you will love this 🙂 After SIX adventures from Cushing's Baron...and a open end to the last film, Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell... how do you think Cushing's Baron would have ended his days???? I'd like your opinion for the feature next week? 😉 BTW...we are hitting the weekend, and it's the return of the PCAS COMPETITIONS. Just wait and see what I have for YOU 😉 Have fun today! - Marcus-pcas

Thursday 13 July 2017

#THROWBACKTHURSDAY! IT HELPS TO BE MAD!

#THROWBACKTHURSDAY! THREE GIFTED gentlemen who knew the secret! Christopher Lee, Vincent Price and Peter Cushing . . .

INVALID CAST : VINTAGE CORRESPONDENCE: KEEN GUSTAV AND DUBIOUS PRACTICES

#THROWBACKTHURSDAY: 'There is more evil around us here than I have ever encountered before. . ' Certainly a line of dialogue to get the pulse racing. This image is taken from the BBC television series 'Sherlock Holmes' which starred Peter Cushing as Sherlock, the episode is 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' which was broadcast in two parts . . Gary Raymond picture here, stars as Sir Henry Baskerville.

#THROWBACKTHURSDAY! THE WONDERFUL thing about researching and documenting Peter's life and work is, being such a prolific letter writer and note maker, he has left a paper trail, and every now and then, something interesting bobs to the surface!. Here are two good examples. These are genuine letters of correspondence between members of the public who have written to Peter, wishing him well and requesting an autograph or photo. Cushing was very good at sending replies, and 9 out of ten times, also including an autograph on a photograph, even if it wasn't requested.

#THROWBACKTHURSDAY: I THINK if Gustav Weil from Hammer films 'Twins of Evil' was around today, he would certainly be a regular monthly winner of the 'EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH'. He certainly stuck to his job description, and wasn't happy until he and his band of the 'brotherhood' met their monthly quarter!

#THROWBACKTHURSDAY: THE PROGRAMME cast page from the 1951 production of THE GAY INVALID, lots of names that were soon to be house-hold names in the UK, along with Peter Cushing... there are also other performers names who have 'fantasy genre' connections on the big screen too. Can you spot them??

HOUSEKEEPING: If you are wondering were our Competitions have gone...worry not! I have an excellent COMPETITION for you THIS WEEKEND ! Also, for those of you who have spotted a fair ol scattering or typos, errors and mistakes in my jottings over the past three months, my apologies. I haven't lost my marbles, I am taking some elephant strength painkillers, following a wobble in health last year. I do try and check everything I write, but often it's difficult when the words and page are doing a tango and double vision at times, makes it a tricky exercise. I am ok, but please bare with me, normal service will continue very soon!

Wednesday 12 July 2017

SHOT GUNS FEAR, OLD SOLDIERS AND DIGGING THE COUNT!

#SILENTBUTDEADLY! What a striking image Donald Pleasence's Jim Underwood makes in his dazzling orange shirt, matchless tie, and that silk handkerchief, is a nice touch. Still, all this doesn't hide that fact, that he and his daughter, are more than VERY weird. It's poor ol Ian Bannen's Christopher Lowe I feel sorry for, all these alarm bells ringing and he doesn't see it coming. Peter Cushing's shop keeper didn't spare the horses in making this costumer suffer......! From Beyond The Grave, never fails to entertain. One of the best of the Amicus portmanteau films of the 70's... yes? Gif requested by Davy Travers.

ABOVE: ANGELA PLEASENCE PLAYES DONALD'S DAUGHTER IN

'FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE' TO MAGNIFICENT EFFECT!

#SILENTBUTDEADLY!: IF you ever need a bit of midnight gardening done OR you find yourself in a bit of hurry to bury the evidence of your latest victim of carnage, #DRACULA is your man! Here's Christopher Lee in a frightening feral act, of burying his next victim, as a bit of supper he can come back to later!! You won't find a fast digger, other than my pet cat Ralph, after he has craftily stolen a pork chop, from my plate, and sets to burying it in the rose bed! It's true that Melissa Stribling got more than a mouthful of 'Bray-Village-Genuine- Best-of-English-Sod' while Lee was enthusiastically burying her. He almost fell in the hole during the shooting too! It's all part of the never-to-be-equaled final reel of #HAMMERFILMS #Horrorofdracula / #Dracula 1958. Peter Cushing's Van Helsing has never been better! You think? #GIF requested by Paul Ashman!

#SILENTBUTDEADLY! IT'S PRETTY OBLIVIOUS, that Ralph Bate's character Robert Heller, in Hammer films Fear In The Night never read page 238 of the 'Film Script Schemes and Plot Devices : Guns'. If a character has a loaded gun or rifle, and something moves or twitches behind a curtain, under a duvet or dust sheet' DON'T SHOOT! I didn't actually get to see this Hammer gem, until 1982, a full ten years after it was theatrically released. Watching the film with a crowd who really weren't au fey with Hammer films or this title was a real treat. They too were as caught up in the drama as I was, as not one of us knew the plot or any of the red herrings.

THE PLOT REVEAL DETAIL that leads up to that gun shot, is a good one. Not wanting to give anything away, all I will share is the good news, FEAR IN THE NIGHT proves two things. One, the fact that this script nestled in the dust and dark recesses of Hammer films, scriptwriter Jimmy Sangster desk for over a decade, proves he wasn't that pin sharp at picking a potential winner, when he wrote one. Two, neither were Hammer! This script went through several rewrites and at one point, the whole thing was set on a canal boat!!! Things must have been more than tight, budget wise at that time I guess?

FEAR IN THE NIGHT, is what Hammer called one of their quickies. And looking at the particulars for the film, you can see why! Sir James Carraras must have sold the family silver to pay Peter Cushing a misiliy £500 for a four day appearance, and the whole thing was in four weeks with a budget of a mere £141,000! The small cast of Ralph Bates, Judy Geeson and Joan Collins (slumming it, as Dynasty was just a twinkle in her agent's eye at this time) according to Sangster who also directed, had a wonderful time making the film.

ABOVE: OFF SCREEN JIMMY SANSTER AND RALPH BATES WERE VERY GOOD MATES. AFTER RALPH'S SAD AND TRAGIC PASSING IN 1991, SANGSTER WOULD OFTEN REFLECT IN INTERVIEWS HOW MUCH HE STILL MISSED HIS OLD FRIEND . .

SANGSTER DOES a good job cranking up the tension, but he must have used up his entire stock of directorial skills on Fear, as his other two outing for Hammer, 'Lust for a Vampire' and 'Horror of Frankenstein' are no way as inventive and entertaining as Fear. If you haven't seen Fear In The Night, it's worth your trouble digging it out. For those who have, revisit it, and remind yourselves, just how good Hammer could be when they had to....

#SILENTBUTDEADLY: PETER CUSHING EVER THE optimist, roles up he sleeves and attempts his, what's going on here then, medical sensibilities to a man who is WELL GONE, in the rip roaring, a 'new twist and plot development every minute', #HORROREXPRESS. It never fails to surprise me how much everyone has a soft spot for this film. According to Christopher Lee, who appeared with Cushing in this Spanish-Horror, it wasn't the most comfortable of excursions. A little like Cushing dip into the Hong Kong way of making movies, with Seven Golden Vampires, the studio was basic, the catering was..basic, and Cushing who was still very much in an emotional spiral after the recent passing of his wife, Helen..wanted to just go home. In fact, if Lee had not intervened, Cushing would have been booked on the next REAL train out. The work surroundings and home comforts were absent, but every penny of the budget, was on the screen. Including that beautiful locomotive of the title. Sadly, before all the 'train-spotters' race for a copy, much of the 'Express' travel footage was model work, good model work, but not the real article in loco-motion.

CHRISTOPHER LEE DEMONSTRATES THE OL ADAGE WHEN A SHOT GUN ISN'T AT HAND, USE YOURS HANDS, TO KILL....A DEAD PERSON!

PETER CUSHING PROVING SHOT GUNS ARE NOT ONLY GOOD FOR SHOOTING PEOPLE UNDER DUST SHEETS - BUT ZOMBIES TOO!

LEE AND CUSHING are really on form in this one, and supported by a largely dubbed but capable cast. It appears that since the film moved into a weird and strange siding, in the world of ever confusing copyright, and has become public domain, the Horror Express timetable now appears on just about every compilation bootleg dvd of horror films you can spot on ebay. This in turn has helped the film, garland an even more prominent place with fans of zombie-fossil-thing-on-a-train films. Which can only be good for genre, if a little annoying for the guys who scrimped with that meany budget...!