#HAMMERFILMSSATURDAY: THE VANISHING UK DRACULA TRAILER

#HAMMERFILMSATURDAY : Yesterday being #frankensteinfriday, we shared the trailer for The Revenge of Frankenstein and thinking about our previous post today, about the Hammer Queens Award for Export back in 1968, I had a quick scroll through the titles of Hammer film titles from 57 to 75, and most of the big winners in there were, the Frankenstein and Dracula series. It could be said, they were the most popular Hammer films, certainly if Peter and Christopher Lee appeared in them.

BUT THERE are other titles like One Million Years BC....which were also very popular indeed. With the exclusion of the Cushing and Lee Hammer films... what do you consider to be your personal Hammer film favorite? The Nanny? Plague of the Zombies? Nightmare? Slave Girls?? Surprise me. Send you comments, which will be posted below to our email address, petercushingpcas@gamil.com

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 reach our 30K following total for Peter Cushing BIRTHDAY on MAY 26th 2017 AND Help Keep The Memory Alive!

#MONSTERMONDAY: PAUL BERESFORD AND HIS CYBERNAUGT REVENGE!

#MonsterMonday: What a REAL smoothy this character was. Cushing's Paul Beresford, was the brother of Clement Armstrong, (see 'The Cybernauts' episode 1966) played by Michael Gough, the creator of the Cybernauts. He blames Steed and Mrs. Peel for his brother's death at the cold hands of his own creation. Aided by Armstrong's assistant Benson, he abducts several scientists who are blackmailed into producing a new batch of Cybernauts. Whilst he is the perfect gentleman towards Mrs. Peel, his aim is to turn her and Steed into human robots. It's a firm fan favourite, Cushing is at the top of his game in this performance, Beresford is a clever and manipulative genius, but is he also a madman and this week's MONSTER? You decide!

HE'S GOT MRS PEEL UNDER HIS SPELL AND UNDER THE CONTROL OF HIS LITTLE BOX! WILL BERESFORD SUCCEED IN HIS EVIL PLAN??

PAUL BERESFORD, TO QUOTE ANOTHER FINE CUSHING
 CHARACTER, 'CHARMING, TO THE LAST...' WHAT A ROGUE!

SEEMS IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN A GOOD IDEA TO HAVE MAYBE

IRONED OUT THOSE HI TECH BUGS, BEFORE THROWING THE SWITCH ON THIS KILLING MACHINE? 

MORE ON THIS EPISODE IN OUR FEATURE! JUST 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 reach our 30K following total for Peter Cushing BIRTHDAY on MAY 26th 2017 AND Help Keep The Memory Alive!   

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHAEL GOUGH

The 1958 Hammer films, Dracula , Phantom of the Opera, Dr Terrors House of Horrors and..KONGA! Today marks the birthday of Michael Gough! Gough had quite an interesting film career, some hits and some misses, but all entertaining. Two films which starred Peter Cushing and packed career on stage and screen. Do YOU have a favourite Michael Gough film? Happy Birthday Michael Gough, you are remembered!

#ONSETSATURDAY: NEW CANDID CUSHING AND LEE CHAT : BLANKETS FOR VAMPIRES AND DRAC'S ON ICE!

#ONSETSATURDAY : LAST MEETING: Here's a NEW CLIP from our 'The Last Meeting' footage of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee meeting for the last time in 1994. This is a clip is a cracker, were Peter asks Christopher Lee to tell him some of his favourite anecdotes. Lee of course obliges with impressions too! So, here for the last time, Peter giggles at the stories of actor Sir Ralph Richardson, Sir John Gielgud ,Sir Noël Coward...and Chuck Connors!!!! Enjoy. More clips HERE at our PCAS YOU TUBE channel!

#onsetsaturday : Here is quite a commonly seen behind the scenes still from Hammer's 1958 Dracula, but no one ever seems to notice that the 'un-credited actress' playing Valerie Gaunt's aged vampire, is in fact snuggled up all toasty-like with a blanket around her LEGS! The stories of Bray studio's stages being like a arctic winter are well known, the elderly lady was obviously feeling the chill...despite vampires..already being DEAD!

When we interviewed Michael Gough in the early 1990's he remembered the actress quite well shooting her scene, and that she was also shocked and a little upset when she arrived at the studio that morning, having been told, the job was 'no lines playing a sleeping grand-mother'! She wasn't happy at all! But after a comforting cup of tea, decided to carry on...... Hammer were obviously spoiling her..blanket, cups of tea...

#ONSETSATURDAY : STILL ON THE DRACULA THREAD, but minus Peter Cushing and his Van Helsing, here is a rare on set colour transparency shot from Hammer's 'DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE', with actor Ewan Hopper as a 'faith-faltering' Priest, about to resurrect, the 'Lord of the Undead', Dracula who lies just under the ice! One trickle of blood from the holy father's head, is all it's going to take!

You are MOST WELCOME to join us at our International Official PCAS FACBOOK FAN PAGE, along with OVER 25,000 followers! Just CLICK HERE! 

#GIMMETHEGIFWEDNESDAY : THE BARONS BEDROOM EXIT AND LIGHTNING EXIT FROM THE COUNT

THREE GREAT GIFS MAKING OUR REQUEST LIST for this week's #GIMMETHEGIFWEDNESDAY. 'The FIRST..!' as Christopher Lee once grimly announced in a Dracula film long ago....is from #BruceCrichton. He requested, the moment where Count Dracula (Christopher Lee) is struck by lightning in Hammer's Scars Of Dracula (1970). See Above. 

WHEN THE GIF WAS POSTED on the PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE today, it set off a thread of it's own, when in the description of the GIF also mentioned the connection with Christopher Lee's, 'To The Devil A Daughter' for Hammer in 1976. We said, ' TRIVIA am sure some of you know, that this scene and it's ending, went on to trip up the climax of Christopher Lee role in Hammer films, 'To The Devil A Daughter'... the idea was for Lee's role to be struck by lightening, and everything was et to go on the day, until someone piped up...hey, didn't you get struck by lightening in one of your Dracula films?' Oops... so Lee's Father Michael, was struck by a rock instead... in a very weak ending....' Many of us remembered the ending and the confusion. We followed it up with a post of these two shots, from the Lightening Bolt sequence shots that were filmed, but changed for a different ending...

NEXT CAME ...'GOODNIGHT!' says the Baron…! There are quite a few things people find not to their tastes in Peter Cushing's #theeviloffrankenstein but the are quite a few things that are refreshing and spot on...one of those is the 'black humour ' in the script...this gif captures that perfectly! The GIF was requested by Mat Harrison

OUR NEXT REQUESTED GIF made the website just a few days ago too.  Creature (Christopher Lee) encountering the old blind man (Fred Johnson) in the woods in this classic sequence from Hammer's The Curse Of Frankenstein (1957) was accompanied by the question, 'There is a Cushing's 'The Abominable Snowman' (1957) connection here...can you guess it? '. This was answered by Summer Rhiannon-Elizabeth Miller Vining : 'He was one of the Yeti in the film!'.. which also started a thread on who the eyes of the SNOWMAN featured in the close up in the film, actually belong to?

We had always believed, Jack  Johnson was THE snowman whose eyes we see in the film, ....but INMB credits John Rae, so a pic was provided, so we could chew it over. Stewart Green thought Johnson looked very much like, Michael Gough! So we pinned that theory with a pic too!

AND SO ENDED another entertaining and satisfying couple of GIFS for  another #GIMMETHEGIFWEDNESDAY.

COME JOIN US AT OUR FACEBOOK FAN PAGE 

Now with over 25 followers and friends!

DAME DIANA RIGG GUESTS AT BFI SCREENING OF CUSHING AVENGERS CYBERNAUT SCREENING

NEWS: Karate-chopping, killer robots, Peter Cushing – this episode of the classic tv series THE AVENGERS has it all! The Avengers: Return of The Cybernauts starring Diana Rigg, Patrick Macnee...and guest starring Peter Cushing is to be screened at the BFI London on Sunday 25 October 2015. The screening will be followed by a compilation of oddities and rarities from the world of Emma Peel and The Avengers.

Joint ticket available with The Avengers: The House That Jack Built + discussion with Dame Diana Rigg. Tickets go on sale, 06-10-2015 11:30 am 

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THIS AVENGERS EPISODE : HERE 

MICHAEL GOUGH REMEMBERED

THE WOOING OF MRS PEEL : PETER CUSHING AND DIANA RIGG 'RETURN OF THE CYBERNAUTS'

Steed and Mrs. Peel go up against the charming but ruthless Paul Beresford, who holds the crime fighting pair responsible for the death of his brother…Oh, if you have not seen this episode, please do so before reading this little write-up.

Peter Cushing is renowned for many things on screen, but he is seldom thought of as a leading man, romantic type. He didn’t have the “manly” qualities that one typically associates with such actors. He was slight of build, a bit on the fussy side. As such, he seldom had an opportunity to really display much of a romantic quality on screen. Just think of the roles for which he was best known: Sherlock Holmes, Baron Victor Frankenstein and Dr. Van Helsing were all so single minded and obsessive, they never had much time for sex.

As such, Cushing’s performance as Paul Beresford in this season six episode of the hugely popular British TV show The Avengers is of great interest. True, Beresford is a sociopath and a villain, but he has some scenes with the delectable Mrs. Peel (played, as usual, by the stunning Diana Rigg) which hint at the Don Juan side of his personality. Cushing and Rigg absolutely sparkle in their scenes together; he is witty and charming and she responds with warmth and interest. The Avengers brought on a number of familiar faces as guest stars (Christopher Lee, Dennis Price, John Carson, Clifford Evans, Donald Sutherland, Michael Gough [whose character Cushing is looking to avenge in this episode, if you will pardon the expression], etc) but nobody quite displayed the on-screen chemistry with Diana Rigg that Peter Cushing did in this episode.

It’s a pity the character had to be disposed of at the end; it’s the type of character that could have been built up as a recurring villainous mastermind. But, no matter: at least we have this one, wonderful opportunity to see Cushing hawking his wares as a seductive cad, much to the delight of Mrs. Peel… and the audience.

Written By Troy Howarth 
Images and Design: Marcus Brooks

Enjoyed this piece? Look up Troy Howarth 'The Haunted World of Mario Bava' and the soon to come, 'The Tome of Horror' on amazon and at www.midmar.com