NEWS 'LEGEND OF THE SEVEN GOLDEN VAMPIRES' COMES TO BLU RAY : REMEMBERING GEOFFREY BAYLDON TODAY

NEWS: Scream Factory have announced they are putting out Hammer Films and Shaw Brothers THE LEGEND OF THE SEVEN GOLDEN VAMPIRES On Blu-ray starring Peter Cushing as Van Helsing, with Julie Ede and Robin Stewart . . SCREAM RELEASED a press note today stating : Starting 2019 on a high note: THE LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES - a highly-requested title from the Hammer Films catalog - kicks its way onto Blu-ray April 9th! Extras are in progress and will be announced on a later date. The big news to confirm today though is that we will be presenting two cuts of the films -- Hammer's original uncut version and its edited US version called The 7 Brothers Meet Dracula!'

 

 

 

MANY ARE ALREADY hoping for maybe a full version of the 'LEGEND OF THE SEVEN GOLDEN VAMPIRES'  music soundtrack. An album was released by Hammer films of this, along with the story narrated by  #PETERCUSHING back in 197. Also a cleaned up print of the MILK MARKETING BOARD short feature, that was shot on location with the cast and crew in Hong Kong, would be a winner too. Fingers Crossed! You can share your thoughts on this release at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE where the CHAT and opinions have already started on the thread and newsfeed! 

 

 

 

 

#MOMENTSOFTERROR #MONDAY! Back in the day, 1959 to be exact, Peter Cushing as #SherlockHolmes looms down from giant sized billboards in central London, promoting his first performance as Sherlock in Hammer films, only Holmes movie, 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'. Billboards were certainly impressive displays back in those days, as were the cinema posters!

 

TODAY MARKS WHAT would have been the birthday of actor GEOFFREY BAYLDON. He would have been 95 years old! Geoffrey passed in 2017 and PCAS posted quite an extensive obituary at the time. 

 

 

The PCASUK GEOFFREY BAYLDON OBITUARY FEATURE  CLICK HERE! 

 

 

 

HE WAS VERY MUCH ADMIRED, loved and respected actor and extremely popular with the army of fans and admirers of his work. Many films and tv credits go way back to Hammer films first Dracula with Peter Cushing, some of Amicus films finest like 'Asylum', 'Tales from the Crypt', 'The House that Dripped Blood', Hammer's 'Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed', 'The Risk' / 'Suspect with Cushing in 1969, his tv series 'Catweazle'. 

 

 

 

GEOFFREY appeared with Jon Pertwee in 'Worzel Gummidge as The Crowman from 1979 until 1981, the BBC's Dr Who in 79 and 'The Avengers tv series in the 60's. Geoffrey is still very much missed. A gentleman and such a Gentle Man 😉 

 

 

CUSHING COLLECTORS WEDNESDAY! CINEFICCION NINE : SHERLOCK AND THE SHERLOCK FIFTY PENCE COIN!

MAGAZINE COLLECTORS: A HEADS UP that ISSUE NINE of CINEFICCION is OUT at the END OF JANUARY. It carries a neat feature on the late VALERIE GAUNT and a feature we ran back two years ago about Peter and INGRID PITT! Lost to get your teeth into with this issue, plus we hope to have GREAT news on something VERY special from CINEFICCION coming VERY SOON! If that aint enough for you, there is ALSO the ICONOS DEL HORROR: SHERLOCK themed magazine to add to you collection! Orders and details ALL  RIGHT HERE!

HERE IS SOMETHING that I am sure many #SHERLOCK fans will nip up in no time! INTERESTED? Well, 2019 commemorates the 160th Anniversary of the Birth of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the Royal Mint has released a special Limited Issue Brilliant Uncirculated Sherlock Holmes 50p Fifty Pence Coin. The reverse is designed by Stephen Raw and features a cameo of Sherlock Holmes and title of some of his books while the obverse features the Fifth Portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II by Jody Clark. The SPEC goes like this: Metal: Cupro-Nickel Weight: 8.00 Grams Diameter: 27.30mm. The MINT items can be ordered from The LONDON COIN COMPANY at around £22 plus delivery cost! 

MORE CUSHING GOODIES NEXT WEDNESDAY!

BBC CHILLS IN LIVE DRAMA WITH MORE THAN SNOWMAN : THE FIRST TUESDAY TOUGHY OF 2019

 

HERE IS OUR FIRST CUSHING TUESDAY TOUGHY of 2019! You'll be pleased to see, I haven't spared the trickiness 😏 When Peter Cushing's BBC 1954 drama of THE CREATURE was broadcast LIVE over two evenings back in January and February of 1955, it was ONLY just FIVE weeks after Cushing and the BBC had shocked the whole nation with their live broadcasts of George Orwell's 1984. With front pages of newspapers screaming the cries of a trumatised telly watching public and questions being asked by the government in the House of Commons about if Cushing and the BBC had gone too far, all eyes were on Cushing's latest 'nail-biting' SUNDAY evening BBC television drama. 

THE KNEES OF THE BBC must have been really trembling, but not enough to stop this planned drama to not only star the lead responsible for last year's controversial show, but also the same director, Rudolph Cartier! This production was also granted a larger budget, with exterior shots of the snowy mountains and hillsides of the Himalayas filmed on location in Switzerland, just two weeks before the live broadcasts. Surprisingly, the production was allowed a substantial amount of filming to supplement the modest BBC studio facilities available for the otherwise live transmission. Location filming was essential to establish the mountainous environment of the play, though the play's designer Barry was uneasy with Cushing’s involvement in this location filming, fearing for the star’s safety, and suggested a double be used instead. Typically, Cushing said he disliked the use of doubles and the loss of continuity of performance that this entailed, and wrote to Barry to personally assure him of his preference to take part in the location expedition!

GALLERY OF RARE IMAGES from the BBC production, Hammer films version and more besides! Catch up on our PCAS feature on Peter Cushing's 'The Abominable Snowman' elsewhere at this website or go directly to it HERE!

DESPITE ALL THE PRE PUBLICITY and advanced column inches in newspapers, this script and story by Nigel Kneal, was a quite different affair to 1984. No torture, but lots in the way of tension and a moral for all to think about later. Hammer films, never one to miss an opportunity, invited Cushing to play his role of John Rollason, for their big screen version. Sadly actor Stanley Baker was not invited along to join him and US actor Forest Tucker, played the role of Tom Friend, producers following their mantra of always casting actors from across the Atlantic, to improve the box office potential when the film was released overseas. Cushing's Rollason was also guven a wife in Hammer's revamping. She was also called Helen. Richard Wattis returned for gentle comic relief as Rollason's assistant Peter Fox. Arnold Marle also repeated his performance as the Lama, giving a very memorable and yet weird performance. 'Act in the name of Mankind and act humbly' the Lama warns Rollason, as he sets out in search of the YETI. 'For man is ndear to forfeiting his right to lead the world'. A message from over 60 years ago, that in today's world means more than ever . . 

YOUR ANSWER to our previous CUSHING TUESDAY TOUGHY! How did YOU do with YOUR answer?

HAMMER FILMS PRODUCER ROY SKEGGS DIES AGED 83

VERY SAD TO HEAR ROY SKEGGS, one of the very few left of the Hammer films 'home guard' sadly passed away on the weekend. Roy was a producer for Hammer Films and began his connection with the company way back at Bray studios in 1963 as production accountant. Roy was then promoted to 'company accountant' and secretary. He became production supervisor in 1970 and (with Brian Lawrence) took over the reins of the company when it fell into receivership in 1979. Was latterly chairman of Hammer films, based in Elstree.

ROY WAS BORN in 1934. He was a very capable and respected producer and production manager, and probably best known for his work with Hammer films. He was responsible for Peter Cushing's last return to the company with the tv series, Hammer House of Horrpr' in 1980. The series expanded into 'Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense' in 1984, and became a winner overseas and the US. He worked alongside Peter on 'Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell' (1974), Dracula AD 1972 and The Satanic Rites of Dracula. 

A PERIOD OF ILLNESS took Roy away from his love of Hammer films in the 1990's... but in the last few years, although always having been a very shy man, he stepped out to one or two conventions and signing days .. and was surprised not only how much he enjoyed the attention...but how fans and the public remembered him and his work with Hammer films. A hard worker, very good at 'math' and was responsible for bringing Hammer back to the small screen and Cushing's final bow as Frankenstein. Thank you Roy 

BERNARD CRIBBINS HITS 90 YEARS OF AGE AND WE REMEMBER THE QUEEN OF CREEPY WOMEN TODAY!

IT'S A VERY HAPPY 90TH BIRTHDAY to BERNARD CRIBBINS TODAY! Born in 1928, Cribbins started his acting career at the tender age of 14! An actor since the age of 14 and was a major star on the London stage by his mid-20s. It would be another ten years before he became a national star with success in film comedies, with likes of Peter Sellers and a string of hit records, the most popular probably being, 'A Hole In The Ground' and 'Right Said Fred'. He appeared in several of the "Carry On" series, and also achieved a great degree of success doing voice-overs for cartoons and TV commercials. One of his biggest successes being the 1970's children's animated puppet series, 'The Wombles'.

CRIBBINS also took PETER CUSHING snorkelling in the Gulf of Aqaba! The pair were in Israel filming the Hammer films 'She', and Bernard recalls: “We did a couple of films together and that particular one was out in the Negev desert and we used to have a little swim at lunchtime. Peter was a very athletic gentleman. He played rugby, he told me, ‘I used to love to tackle people’ and you can’t imagine that ostensibly gentle man knocking people over! He was a good swimmer but he’d never been snorkelling, diving down and having a look at things, and he kept talking to me underwater, sounding like Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men which had me in hysterics!"

BACK IN 1974 Cribbins was interviewed for the role of DOCTOR WHO in 1974, as the BBC prepared for Jon Pertwee, leaving the role. 'I didn't actually audition. But when Jon Pertwee was leaving, the producer Barry Letts - who died quite recently - interviewed a lot of actors, one of whom was me. I went along and sat down and he said 'now then what can you do?' I said 'I'm a very good swimmer, I was a paratrooper, I could fight' - and he said 'Oh no, no fighting no, the Doctor is never seen fighting at all!' So Tom Baker became the next Doctor, and one of the first things I remember him doing was knocking somebody out.'

BERNARD also appeared in many tv drama programes as a guest star throughout the 1960's and 70's including the popular 'The Avengers' in TWO episodes. 'The Girl From Auntie' and the weird, 'Look, Stop Me If You've Heard This One, But There Are These Two Fella's'! Of all his movie roles, Cribbins has a fondness for 'The Railway Children' directed by Lionel Jeffries in 1970, where he played Albert Perks. Cribbins has a longstanding association with the science-fiction series Doctor Who (1963). 

ABOVE: Cribbins as Arkwright in The Girl from Auntie (1966) ... his first role in the UK television series, 'THE AVENGERS'

ABOVE Cribbins as Bradley Marler, with comedian Jimmy Jewel in "Look - (Stop Me If You've Heard This One) But There Were These Two Fellers..." his second appearnce in The Avengers in 1966. 

NOT ONLY DID HE play a companion in the second Peter Cushing film, 'Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.' (1966), which was 40 years before his regular role as a companion, Wilfred Mott, in the Russell T. Davies version of Doctor Who (2005). It certainly has been a very active and sucessful 90 years for sure. Please let us know what your favorite Cribbin's films, roles and shows so far . ..over at the FACEBOOK PCAS FAN PAGE. I think he is far from over yet! HAPPY 90th BIRTHDAY BERNARD and have a wonderful day😀

TODAY WE ARE ALSO REMEMBERING and marking the BIRTHDAY of actress . .  FREDA JACKSON who was born today. 29th December in 1907. Was there ever a more frightening actresses in a Peter Cushing Hammer film? Here we see her as the 'hair-raising' Greta in 'The Brides of Dracula' (1960) starring Peter Cushing, Yvonne Monlaur and David Peel. I have always thought it was a great shame that Hammer didn't cast her in any of their other films. She does appear in that 'is it a Hammer film or isn't it?'... 'Shadow of the Cat' (1961) as Clara the maid. But what a waste! Freda's performance as Greta in 'Brides' is as powerful now, as it was when the film was released all those years ago. What an actress! Happy Birthday, Freda!

FRED JACKSON'S GRETA, was also one of the very few feamle roles in Hammer's films, that also featured Cushing, that could give his character Van Helsing a fair fight on screen!!! 😮😉

DID SANTA HIT THE BEST ON YOUR WISH LIST???

2018 WAS ANOTHER GREAT YEAR for adding new and remastered releases of Peter Cushing best ofs on blu ray to your collection! The cherry on the cake for many being the LONG awaited final Lee and Cushing Hammer DRACULA films, Dracula AD 1972 and THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA from Warner Brothers archive! Granted both of those films, are not everyone's 'cup-o-tea', but cleaned and remastered, they look frighteningly FAB! Much appreciated was another remastering, the Twilight Time 'SWORD OF SHERWOOD FOREST' with Peter as the dastardly Sheriff of Nottingham! All featured as prizes in our PCAS competitions over the past fews weeks and now available for all! SO, did Santa put a smile on YOUR face and place any of these or other Peter Cushing titles among your Christmas goodies, this year? If so, you may want to swing by the FACEBOOK PCAS FAN PAGE   where everyone is being asked to share what of the bunch, they found under the Christmas tree this year! You can also gain points, by posting a pic of any your  favorites too!

REMEMBERING : CARRIE FISHER SHINES ON

IT SEEMED, quite surreal last year writing this, and even more so, today . . . TWO years on. Today, I am sure many Star Wars fans and lovers of Carrie's work will be feeling the same, sharing posts and photographs of a woman, who was never dull, touched all she met, was a mountain of energy and fun and yet sadly, like many of us, carried another life, that sometimes worked against her, making even the sunniest of days, dark and exhausting. On December 27th 2016, the day we lost CARRIE FISHER, the shock rippled around the world, and I am sure today, many will again feel that disbelief. Many here of course will know her connection to Peter Cushing, through the movie, STAR WARS.

WITH CUSHING playing the evil TARKIN and Carrie the vulnerable PRINCESS LEIA Tarkin, together they played a key scene, with Peter cranking up his performance, as the cruel and most Machiavellian of characters in the Star Wars universe. Carrie later shared how difficult it had been for her to find the motivation, to hate Peter's Tarkin. She too,like many before her, had been charmed and moved, by his kindness and manner on set, it was quite a task to actually say those lines. Even though she left us a wonderful library of work on screen and on the page, it's a weird feeling, knowing, she isn't around to cheer us up and make us laugh in her interviews. As a teen she was my first crush, she dazzled and shone very brightly . . on screen and in life, a real Princess! 🙂 We remember Carrie today . ..