Showing posts with label hound. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hound. Show all posts

Sunday 19 April 2020

PART ONE OF 'BASKERVILLES' AND VINCENT PRICE INTERVIEW 1973


#WATCHWITHCUSHING! . . 'Can you hear GROWLING' ? For your weekend, and continuing our Peter Cushing Sherlock Holmes posts, over at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE is Part One of a classic. Said by many to be the best of the BBC Cushing series. You think? We all know the ending, but it's a LOT of fun getting there 😃I'll be posting and sharing Part Two tomorrow!


HERE'S AN INTERVIEW shot back in 1973, when both #PeterCushing and #VincentPrice were busy making the AIP Amicus films, 'Madhouse'. This section of the interview, was shot by the #BBC tv show 'Film Night 74' also contained a longer section with both #PeterCushing and Price. This is a separate piece with just Vincent. Always good value for the lolly, VP starts with self-depreciation, slips in about six jokes and even ends with gallows humour! 😆 I have never seen a dull interview with Vincent Price..and you can catch this one today, at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE take care and stay safe, 😉- Marcus


CLICK HERE  TO FIND TWO GREAT RARE PHOTO GALLERIES of behind the sceneson the VINCENT PRICE and PETER CUSHING AIP Amicus films 'MADHOUSE'. Below TWO PCASUK promo banners during the launch of the galleries on our socila media platforms . .




Wednesday 5 July 2017

#SILENTBUTDEADLYWEDNESDAY! GIFS SHERLOCK COMEDY VAMPIRES AND TITLES


#SILENTBUTDEADLYWEDNESDAY!: PLAYING THE ROLE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES was something that Peter Cushing enjoyed very much indeed. Being a student of the stories and everything that went along with that, was indeed  a Cushing thing! Cushing had an eye and attention for detail, pouring over the structure and methods, in the story of 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' for Hammer films in 1959, he was very much in his element. 


THE FACT THAT he signed on for the Hammer Hound, then in 1968 16 episodes of the BBC television serial and finally choose to neatly wind down his career, with a 90 min tv movie The Masks of Death in 1984, playing an elderly Holmes, who was also bringing his long and distinguished career to an end, says much. Had failing heath not intervened, Cushing would have rubbed his hands together and prepared for another feature film, The Abbott's Cry,  in 1985. But sadly, it was not to be.





#SILENTBUTDEADLYWEDNESDAY!: WHEN DIRECTOR Peter Duffell read the script for 'THE CLOAK' story that was part of the four stories that made up Amicus films, 'The House That Dripped Blood' in 1972, he started to form a plan. The script outlined the climax and death of Jon Pertwee's vampire character, and that this particular tale was to be 'the comic relief' in the film. He hit on the idea, that maybe the comedy should be cranked up to max, and that the chase and staking would great if, it was shot and edited in a 'silent movie style'. He almost got his way. The producers first wasn't sure if this sudden changed of gear would lose the audience, and ruin the tension that had been built with the previous story. They drew the line at the use of black white photography and a flicker effect.




ORIGINALLY, Duffell wanted the whole story to be shot in monochrome, and the death scene to be sped up, with a 'keystone cop' frame flicker. Producers tuned Duffel's idea down, pleading that monochrome would be far too expensive for an entire 15 to 20 minutes, and that the flicker would jarring. But,  Duffell did get his under-cranked camera speed, and a slap-stick ending. NOTE: Subotsky liked the concept of a story set in a horror film on the Hollywood studio lot, and revisited the idea in one of his last anthology films, 'The Uncanny' starring Peter Cushing and Donald Pleasence in 1977.


#SILENTBUTDEADLYWEDNESDAY! THIS SHOT gets requested a lot! Director Freddie Francis must have known he was really onto something when he came up with idea, of POV shooting through the SKULL'S eye sockets in Amicus films, 'THE SKULL'...so much so he repeated the whole thing in Tigon's 'THE CREEPING FLESH' with Peter Cushing a few years later! Point Of View camera work was nothing new in 1965, but through a skull? Yup. 




FREDDIE CRANKED up the terror with whole sequences of POV's in Tyburn film, 'LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF' with Peter Cushing. The added effect this time, was a RED tint to the vision, giving the impression we were 'seeing what the werewolf' could see through his bloodshot eyes! It was very effective and saved money in the budget on showing the werewolf too!


#SILENTBUTDEADLYWEDNESDAY! I DON'T get requests for title sequences from trailers that often, but this one is a good one. Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee credits, with supportive text from 'THE GORGON' (Hammer 1964) I LOVE the font styles in 1950 and 6o's trailers. They seem to scream from the screen at you. Back in the day, text added to film was done in the labs optically, and was a highly skilled job. There were standard text styles that were used in rolling credits to be seen at the end of beginning of most films. But often, for something that came from Hammer films, the studio would ask for something a little special, like the title font style in these gifs here. Illustrators would attempt to evoke the genre or subject matter of the film through the letter forms. Here sharp, angular typography is used evoke the disturbing subject matter, also maybe echoing the work of German Expressionist illustrators like Josef Fenneker. 





IN THE DAYS BEFORE SOUND FEATURES, titles were standard and used to communicate the dialogue and direction of the story, but by the mid-late 1930s, film titles started serving a narrative function and were designed to prepare the viewer for the mood and story of the film. Hammer, Amicus and Tigon used this very effectively. 



AT THE TIME  THE GORGON was in production, title artists like SAUL BASS had made the film title an art form, with films like PSYCHO. Bass titles were legendary and he created what are still some of the best title designs for directors like Alfred Hitchcock. Bass once said, “For the average audience, the credits tell them there’s only three minutes left to eat popcorn… I aim to set up the audience for what’s coming; make them expectant,” says Bass. DO YOU have a favorite TITLE SEQUENCE from a Peter Cushing films? We are planning a feature all about title sequences in Cushing films. I would love to hear about it!

GIFs REQUESTED BY Shelley C.






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. 

Monday 19 September 2016

NO TIME FOR RETIREMENT : ONCE AGAIN THE GAME IS AFOOT AND GIFS


CHRISTOPHER LEE PLAYED Sherlock Holmes three times in his career first in Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace (1962) in which he was unfortunately dubbed by another actor, and twice more in the TV films Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady (1991) and Incident at Victoria Falls (1992) Not discussed as often as other roles in Lee's career, how do you rate his performances as Holmes?


CHRISTOPHER LEE as Sherlock Holmes with Morgan Fairchild and with Patrick MacNee as Dr Watson in TV film "Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady" (1991)




PETER CUSHING AS HIS OLDER SHERLOCK and Jenny Laird as Mrs Hudson..... proving even Sherlock Holmes gets stressed! And talking of stress, This 1984 film, The Masks of Death, Peter Cushing last performance as Sherlock, originally started as a project kick started by Tyburn films producer, Kevin Francis... it was to have been a new version of The Hound of the Baskervilles. Francis intended to cast Peter as Holmes, which would have been Cushing's third take on the Doyle tale, after the 1959 Hammer production and the two-part production for the 1968 television series..it was to have featured a stop-motion dog created by Ray Harryhausen!


However, STRESS....funding for the proposed film collapsed, and that led to Francis discussing an original tale with Hammer films writer Anthony Hinds. Peter Cushing considered Sherlock Holmes to be his favorite role but now with his age, Cushing being in his 70s, it required the part to be written for a much older Holmes....so Holmes was brought out of retirement and 'The Masks of Death' was born!

Thursday 28 July 2016

RELEASE THE HOUNDS! THROWBACKTHURSDAY RARE CHRIS LEE ON SET PIC


#throwbackthursday : IT'S 53 YEARS AGO THIS MONTH  that Hammer films 'Hound of the Baskervilles' was released in the USA. 'Hound' was Hammer films only dip into the Sherlock Holmes stories, though both Cushing and Lee went on to play the detective for several film companies over the years. Here is a rarely seen on set photograph of both Christopher Lee (Sir Henry Baskerville) and Marla Landi (Cecile) during a location shoot for the film on Chobham Common, Surrey, England. Although one of the most popular Sherlock stories, Holmes features much less on the page....and so in the film too, Dr Watson (Andre Morell) gets more screen-time than Cushing's Holmes!


The UK Press AD that appeared just two months before the release of Hammer films 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' in May 1959.


Now with almost 25 thousand freinds and followers world wide, the Peter Cushing Appreciation Society Facebook Fan Page welcomes you to join!
 Just CLICK the link : HERE 

Saturday 9 July 2016

DON'T MISS OUT : GET YOUR ANSWER IN : THIS SUNDAY!


SUNDAY 1OTH JULY #SHERLOCKSUNDAY : THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES COMPETITION! ONE QUESTION : EIGHT COPIES OF TWILIGHT TIME LIMITED EDITION BLU RAY UP FOR GRABS AS PRIZES!


YOU can eneter the competition on SUNDAY 
at our FACEBOOK FAN PAGE TOO!

Saturday 18 June 2016

WE WERE DEVOTEES OF SYLVESTER TWEETY PIE AND BUGS BUNNY : CHRISTOPHER LEE ON PETER CUSHING INTERVIEW

HERE IS A SPECIAL TREAT  we posted yesterday on the NEW PCAS YOU TUBE CHANNEL AND OUR A Great interview with Christopher Lee, talking about his special friend, Peter Cushing!

AND as today is our #onsetsaturday theme . . .


A RARE SET OF IMAGES of both Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee rehearsing at Elstree studios, during the shooting of the final scenes of Hammer films, 'The Satanic Rites of Dracula' ...final also in that this would be Lee's LAST appearance as Dracula for Hammer....

Wednesday 24 February 2016

DONALD FEARNEY'S AMICUS AND HAMMER DOCUMENTARY PRIZES ON THEIR WAY!


Nothing gives me more pleasure than giving away prizes in our competitions! Especially when they are DOUBLE prizes. ALL SIX winners of our VALENTINE'S DAY I LOVE HORROR FILMS COMPETITION can look forward to a PAIR of darn good double bills of Cushing/ Hammer/ Amicus documentaries arriving in the post in the next few days. Donald Fearney's MILTON SUBOTSKY'S AND MAX J ROSENBERG'S AMICUS: VAULT OF HORRORS and LEGEND OF HAMMER VAMPIRES documentaries are being shipped today... and with the Amicus doc alone being almost three hours long... I think there will be enough in this double bill to entertain, until the NEXT PCAS competition! If you would like to purchase a copy of either documentary, please contact me by facebook message, and I will happily provide you with the details. Stocks of both titles are now down to double figures. BOTH discs are REGION FREE.


Here at PCAS, I take pride in offering PRIZES that count! I scout out the best of Peter Cushing goodies out there, and then find companies and distributors to sponsor our competitions. I cover the expense of post and packaging,  all our competitions are free, no catch, no passing of emails and mailing lists. Dvd's, blu rays, box sets, books, magazines, lobby cards, t-shirts, hoodies, mugs, posters, bespoke artwork, autographs, rare movie props...even dinner with a Cushing Film Director!! But, not everything out there makes it to selection for inclusion in our competitions. Being a life long fan, I only select what I would love to have as an addition in my collection too!


Whatever the PCAS competition, whatever the prize, you can always guarantee a very good response. Everyone has fun and enters into the spirit, and after announcing the winners, it's not unusual to read a long thread of messages of congratulations, to the lucky winners. As I always say, I only wish I had more prizes to give away!

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