SCREAM FACTORY ANNOUNCES RELEASE OF 'SNOWMAN' BLU RAY FOR NOVEMBER!

NEWS: EARLIER TODAY at the San Diego Comic Con panel, SCREAM FACTORY announced the release of 20+ film titles that they are releasing this year. Peter Cushing's / Hammer film 'THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN' (1957) is one of those titles. No details of extras or features. The title is set for a NOVEMBER release this year. Hammer fans in the US can also cheer the release of Ralph Bates's 'DR JEKYLL AND SISTER HYDE' (1971) – Directed by Roy Ward Baker (The Vampire Lovers) it has an expected release date of Dec 2019. INTERESTED??? - Marcus

BACK IN 2013, Hammer films announced their plans to REMAKE the film! Here is our PCAS review of the 1957 film and a cool gallery too! CLICK HERE!

FOR THOSE OF YOU who have been around here for a while and visit the FACEBOOK PCAS FAN PAGE MAYBE you remember this TUESDAY TOUGHY? If so, swing over to the FACEBOOK PCAS PAGE and SHARE the answer 😀😊😉  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAME DIANA RIGG TODAY!

''WOMAN OF MY AGE ARE STILL ATTRACTIVE. Men of my age are not' ... so said, this amazing icon of entertainment last year. And you know, Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg, DBE...does have point! Many actors from her era have either left us, or look like an unmade bed! We all know the Cushing Connection here, Mrs Peel in the Brit 1960's TV series, The Avengers, where PC played the very dashing Paul Beresford, a smooth operator, pushing all the buttons as romantic interest for Rigg's all action Mrs Peel and a finger on the button of death that commanded his deadly Cybernaut!

DIANA RIGG'S CAREER also features the splendid 'Theatre of Blood' with Vincent Price. She also worked with Christopher Lee in the Avengers tv series.in 'Never, Never Say Die' in 1967. Currently starring in the international hit tv series, Game of Thrones, Rigg is in no hurry to retire, and I think like Mrs Peel, she'll be 'socking it to us' for a while yet Happy Birthday Diana Rigg, born today in 1938.

ABOVE AN INTERESTING look on the chemistry of Cushing's BEREFORD and Rigg's MRS PEEL, in the 'Return of the Cybernauts' episode, HERE with GALLERY: RIGHT HERE!

ABOVE OUR FULL PCASUK REVIEW with GALLERY on the 'RETURN OF THE CYBERNAUTS' episode starring Peter Cushing when it FIRST appeared on DVD! CLICK HERE!

THE BARON BELLES! DING DONG! PICK YOUR FAVORITE!

#FrankensteinFriday! HERE IS A LITTLE something we did a long while ago...and is worth repeating with a new banner of pics at the FACEBOOK PCAS FAN PAGE.  In ALL the Peter Cushing Hammer Frankenstein movies, there HAD to be an actress who co starred. Back in the day, box office mattered more than gender equality and producer dictated that no matter if the supportive reason was the acting, star status, eye candy or two other sexist outstanding assets, the actress had to be IN. Whatever your reasons maybe, I would love to know WHO is your YOUR favorite Frankenstein actress who appeared in a Cushing Hammer Frankenstein film . . . phew!

A REMINDER OUR 'FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN' IS STILL LIVE AND YOU ARE WELCOME TO ENTER WITH YOU ENTRY AT THE FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE!

ABOVE I HAVE PROVIDED images, dedicated letters from A to F and the titles of the films. Feel free to give is your reasons and also a grading from A to F should you wish! Have a Fab #FrankensteinFriday, and hope you have fun 😉 - Marcus

JUST ONE MORE WEEK LEFT OF OUR PCASUK #FRANKENSTEINFRIDAY MONTH!

HUGS FROM DRACULA AND THE GANG SMILED ON . . .

REQUESTED: HERE'S A PHOTOGRAPH I posted a little while ago on here and at the Facebook PCASUK Fan Page, requested now for a repost by Mandy K, Cheryl T and others . .who missed it!  This has to be the most tactile and affectionate photograph, I have ever seen of Lee with an actress . . off studio camera and on set! 

AS I HAVE always said on the subject of Lee feelings on appearing on both 'Satanic Rites of Dracula' and 'Dracula AD 1972'. Lee may not have professionally liked the idea of the films and their plots, but I don't think he sulked or pouted around the set . .  as some would have you believe. And I think, this pic is a fair indication, that what director Alan Gibson said on making both films, that everyone got on, it was relaxed and they had fun! Let's face it, it's not everyone who can say they got a hug from Christopher Lee...!

DIRECTOR HOUGH CREATES A HAMMER LIKE NO OTHER WITH TERROR TWINS!

BACK IN THE EARLY 1970's mankind made some very interesting and surprising break throughs, technical and domestic... In 1972, interactive games with vastly more primitive graphics only existed in laboratories, until the invention of PONG! Remember that? 1970 brought pocket calculators to students, engineers, and scientists the world over! 1971 brought us something that was huge in terms of its impact, the Intel 4004 Microprocessor! 1973 gave us the first cell phone, the XEROX ALTO, also TCP, Ethernet and fibre optics!

ALL THIS . . but for some reason Hammer films just couldn't NAIL a new and entertaining idea, that worked on the big screen. My opinion, but something I never understood! But that was until... John Hough's 'Twins of Evil' which cast not only Peter Cushing in a new spin on the Vampire Killer, but also someone who wasn't even trying to copy or replace Christopher Lee as a the head and evil 'toothful-one', Damien Thomas made a great Count Karnstein. Denis Price added some casting clout briefly and two sweet, though not innocent Maltese actresses / models Mary and Madeleine Collinson shapely slipped into the shoes of the title twins with ease. It was director John Hough, who brought the whole lot together in a very refreshing way. With Tudor Gates twist on some Sheridan Le Fanu influences, Harry Robertson's outstanding music score and Dick Bush and his beautiful cinematography, Hammer had an original tale that looked great, sounded wonderful and still impresses.

HENRY OSCAR REMEMBERED : BRIDES AND SHERLOCK

HERE IS AN ACTOR with a name, that probably most of us would have forgotten, but certainly we know his face 😉 Today marks the birthday of HENRY OSCAR or Henry Wale as some would have known him, back in the day. Oscar changed his name and began acting in 1911, having studied under Elsie Fogerty at the Central School of Speech and Drama.

ON FILM OSCAR played professional characters, dentist for Hitchcock, school teachers, doctors, bank mangers, all usually stiff, authoritative and at times pompous, this was probably why Terence Fisher cast him as Herr Lang, head of the charming 'School for Young Ladies' in Hammer films 'The Brides of Dracula' in 1960. Again, pompous, his ego is deflated when Peter Cushing flashes his 'Dr Van Helsing' 'calling card'! It's a lovely scene. Oscar was to work with Cushing again on November 4th 1968, in episode 9 'Thor Bridge' of Cushing's BBC 'Sherlock Holmes' television series, as Bates. Sadly this episode was wiped in the great BBC 'spring clean', so we have no idea or images just how that looked. But my guess is, just like in 'Brides' both Cushing and Oscar, would have squeezed and presented quite a show!

OSCAR ALSO APPEARED in a wide range of films, Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The Four Feathers (1939), Hatter's Castle (1942), Bonnie Prince Charlie (1948), Beau Brummell (1954), The Little Hut (1957), Oscar Wilde (1960), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), The Long Ships (1963) and Murder Ahoy! (1964). Today, he isn't forgotten 😊Please join us in remembering and celebrating a Very Happy Birthday to Henry Oscar today! 😉

REMEMBERING ERIC PORTMAN : THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED

REMEMBERING Actor Eric Portman, who was born today 13th July 1901 in West #Halifax, Yorkshire, UK. He was so convincing and extremely good at playing 'in the cinema audiences perception' mean and calculating German spies and /or #Naziofficers, that many believed he actually was German, or at least #Austrian. Eric had a very distinguished career on stage and in many much admired and respected British films. Among his many film credits are “49th Parallel”, “Went the Day Well”, “Daybreak” and “Millions Like Us”. Eric only appeared in one film from #Hollywood, “The Prince and the Pauper” in 1937.

PORTMAN APPEARED in an absolute gem of a 1963 Peter Cushing film, entitled 'The Man Who Finally Died'. For what sounds something like, associated with one of PC's many fantasy genre films, this one is nothing of the sort. A tight, dramatic and often very suspenseful thriller, starring Stanley Baker, Georgina Ward, Nigel Green, Niall MacGinnis and Mai Zetterling, and directed by Quentin (#Cash On Demand) . . .it's a film that in recent years emerged on dvd and if it's £5 or £25, you'll find much worth every penny. It keeps you guessing and all cast are on their toes, with Porter, Baker and Cushing working together so well. Eric Porter sadly died in Cornwall in 1969. 

I FIND IT CURIOUS that these days, so little is known about Eric Portman’s work as he appeared in many major British films of the Gaumont era, and many with some of our best directors. Happy Birthday Eric Portman, never dull, always entertaining 😉 Trivia : I am today sat in the home of a friend, whose house is less than four houses away from the home where Stanley Baker was born and lived until he was a teenager!