Sunday 3 September 2017

#CHRISTOPHERLEESATURDAY! REMEMBERING FRANCIS MATTHEWS


#CHRISTOPHERLEESATURDAY! Today we remember Francis Matthews a very talented actor, known for playing Paul Temple in the BBC series of the same name, as well as voicing Captain Scarlet… But he is best known here for his roles in 3 Hammer films Dracula Prince Of Darkness (1966) Rasputin The Mad Monk (1966) both co-starring Christopher Lee and The Revenge Of Frankenstein (1958) with Peter Cushing, with whom he remained close friends .. 




IT'S A 'SLAPPY BIRTHDAY' from Peter Cushing to Francis Matthews in 'The Revenge of Frankenstein'



#CHRISTOPHERLEESATURDAY:Here's a GREAT #GIF from Hammer Films 'Dracula: Prince of Darkness' (1966) with Dracula (Christopher Lee) frighteningly displaying his supernatural-strength and attacking poor ol Charles Kent (Francis Matthews). Hammer, produced this film at Bray Studios, back to back with 'Rasputin The Mad Monk (1966) which also starred Francis Matthews, Barbara Shelley Susan Farmer and Christopher Lee . . .


MATTHEWS AND LEE IN 'DRACULA, PRINCE OF DARKNESS' (1966)




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  

Friday 1 September 2017

#FRANKENSTEINFRIDAY! 1956 BEFORE STORM AND STUNNING PORTRAIT


#FRANKENSTEINFRIDAY: Peter Cushing at his and Helen's London home, and a visit from the press . . . this was August 1956, just months before the release of Hammer films, The Curse of Frankenstein . . . and soon everything would change. Cushing had been the face of television drama since the early 50's... soon he would be the face of British Horror Films a label that would stick for the rest of his career. . . .



#FRANKENSTEINFRIDAY! : An excellent portrait of Peter Cushing from the 1967 'Frankenstein Created Woman' by the very talented Frankie Smith. Would it look good on your study wall??? For Frankie's Website 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 . . 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  

#THROWBACKTHURSDAY! : SCREAM AGAIN PUBLICITY AND VINTAGE DRACULA POSTER


#THROWBACKTHURSDAY! PUBLICITY EXPLOITATION PRESSBOOK for the Amicus AIP feature film, 'Scream and Scream Again' (1970) slightly misleading claim . . .


#THROWBACKTHURSDAY!: How the 'Horror of Dracula' / 'Dracula' publicity campaign looked back in 1958 . . . . different!




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    

Thursday 31 August 2017

#SILENTBUTDEADLY! : DOCTOR WHO AND THREE SIXES : DARTH AND MOTH GIRL SIZZLE!


#SILENTBUTDEADLYWEDNESDAY! WHO, ME AND THE NUMBER SIX! There are a few great shots in Cushing's first #DRWHO movie, 'Dr Who And The Daleks' (1965) and this, is one of them. Not only because, it's SIX..count em, Six Daleks in a row, but for a kid of SIX at the time, this was without doubt, after the slight of my first 'CHOPPER' bicycle, the coolest thing I had ever seen. I was pretty caught up in the whole Dalek thing at this time and got my Dad to queue with me in the pouring rain, to see this film, the first day it arrived at our local flicks. 


I didn't know who Peter Cushing was at this time, and wasn't bothered that he bore little resemblance to the Dr Who I knew from the tv series. It's the memory of this shot and the image of the dalek out of its armour suit, that I carried with me to school the following day. Such was my recalling of the drama, the excitement to my school pals . . . they too were soon pestering their parents, to trek to the 'Palace Cinema' and see for themselves. Thus, I got to see this film, SIX times that Summer. Happy days . . .



#SILENTBUTDEADLY! Christopher Lee and Barbara Shelley in Dracula Prince of Darkness. Peter Cushing had a guest appearance . . .un-credited...as Van Helsing in the prologue, the ending from the previous Dracula in 1958... some years had past since Lee's first appearance as Dracula in that film, do you think his performance as the Count was as good in this sequel??


#SILENTBUTDEADLYGIFWEDNESDAY! AMICUS writer and producer, Milton Subotsky once told me that, he saw films that ended with a 'FIRE', as in the film ends and it all burns down.. as a disappointing lack of imagination on the script writers part. He must have held some store in that theory, because i can only think of just TWO film that he wrote or produced that ended with a big boom or fire. AT THE EARTH'S CORE above, is one of the two, and I guess the source material of the book, that the film was loosely based on, did influence the climax of the film. So, ONE other Amicus film that ends with fire? Do you know which one?


#SILENTBUTDEADLYWEDNESDAY! THE GREAT THING about rubber is, it burns very well! Looking weirdly for all the world, like the death pyre of 'DARTH VADER' in 'RETURN OF THE JEDI', the 'Death-Head-Moth-Woman' bit the dust, just before we could get a good look at here. Monsters eh? 


Peter Cushing and Glyn Edwards play the investigating coppers in 'The Blood Beast Terror', entertaining performances, though Cushing thought the concept a bit weak. Edwards who had starred in the film Zulu, played quite a few policemen...and a certain barman in a much loved, long running BBC comedy too . . . 



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   

Tuesday 29 August 2017

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY! CONSTABLE TOM ON TRAFFIC DUTY SIXTIES DALEK PUBLICITY STILLS


#TOOCOOLTUESDAY!: Something familiar about that Traffic Police Man?? The young school girl, waiting to cross the road, with her grandfather too...her grandfather????  IS IT??? It COULD be! Photo shoot with Peter Cushing, Bernard Cribbins and Roberta Tovey in a car park at Shepperton film studios, during the making of 'Daleks Invasion Earth, 2150 AD'  . . . .








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  

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY! ANANKA'S LIVE AND WELL AND RESTING IN . . .PERTH???


#TOOCOOLTUESDAY! When Hammer films and Lionsgate launched their UK release of the remastered blu ray of the Cushing / Lee Classic 'The Mummy' in 2013, it was the feather in the cap of three amazing releases and titles, titles that are sometimes considered to be, the the best from the cozy cottage studio on the Thames. Stepping out in glorious Eastman colour, cleaned up, crisp and looking much, much more than its estimated £125,000 budget, Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and cast, have never looked better.


Everyone seemed to agree, whatever had happened with the previous remastered classics, this one...appeared to be spot on. Even the extras were very cool too. In one of the extra features, detailing the accuracy of the sets, the props and costumes, a suited expert tells us of a . . .' magnificent custom made sarcophagus that was lovingly built by the Bray studios craft, plaster and carpentry workshops...in fibre glass... and that it is now housed in the collection of the Perth Museum and Art Gallery, Scotland!' . . . . There follows a pause...


And then, he moves on...! Where one would have expected a photograph or a short clip of the final resting place of Ananka...nope. Not a Pharaohs Tut or Thank you. Just Nada of the Nile! That afternoon, and for quite sometime later, I looked everywhere for photo, a clip a drawing ...anything.  


Finally, some time later, it was left to Hammer historian Robert J E Simpson. . . to come up with the goodies. Yes, it's not in Egypt, or sadly in a Hammer films museum... it's in Perth, Scotland. And that, is as good a place as any. We are lucky it's anywhere! It looks just as impressive as it did, when John and Stephen Banning found it, all those years ago...! So, thank you Perth Museum for keeping the ol' gal safe... and thank you Robert, for taking that photograph. Now that...IS cool!


Robert J. E.  Simpson is a writer, director, Hammer film historian and archivist, who has provided several  works for inclusion on the official Hammer film blu rays including the media booklet which was part of the UK blu ray release of Hammer films, 'The Mummy' (1959). Robert has a presence on several social media platforms including INSTAGRAM  and  FACEBOOK



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   
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