Showing posts with label stills. Show all posts
Showing posts with label stills. Show all posts

Sunday 12 August 2018

MADHOUSE : FIRST GALLERY OF RARE PHOTOGRAPHS : ON SET BEHIND THE SCENES : PART ONE


NINETEEN SEVENTY THREE was a busy year for Peter Cushing, and on January 4th he recorded two BBC television shows, in one day! The first was an invitation to the Michael Aspel children's show. A relaxed Cushing, chatted about requested clips children asked to be shown again. In the evening, a spot of promotion and an interview, centred on his most recent films on the news and magazine programme 'Nationwide'. Just a week later, Cushing took the stage of the National Film Theatre in London, to take part in a John Player Lecture. Cushing talked at length to a packed house about his childhood, his trip to Hollywood and his stage career. Strangely, there was little about his time with Hammer films or any of his fantasy genre movies. Later a transcript of this interview would form part of the body of his first autobiography. A project he began, after his wife's death, as 'a form of therapy' . . .





FEBRUARY brought an appearance on the BBC MORECAME AND WISE SHOW. Singing and dancing! April, he visited Paris to attend the Second International Horror Film Festival and was presented with the Licorne D'Or award, for his role as Arthur Grimsdyke, in Amicus films, 'Tales from the Crypt' plus special for his horror film work over the last decade. While in France, he also filmed an episode of the ITC television show, 'The Zoo Gang' entitled, 'The Counterfeit Trap' with direction from John Hough, who Cushing had worked with, in Hammer films 'Twins of Evil', just a sixteen months before.





MAY 14TH. Cushing arrived at the tiny Twickenham studios, to begin another film for Amicus. It's title would be MADHOUSE. Producer Milton Subotsky, had bought the rights to a book by Angus Hall entitled, Devilday, which upon adapting and completing into a screenplay, wasted no time in pulling together a cast and crew, using his own very successful and unique 'value for money' balancing and budgeting. Jim Clark was his director of choice and the more appropriate shooting title of 'The Revenge of Doctor Death', was rolled out to attract and entice a leading cast. Peter Cushing was signed to play Herbert Flay, a twisted, bitter, revengeful actor and screenwriter, who forms a nightmare of quite diabolical revenge! Vincent Price stars as a very successful horror film actor, Paul Toombes, who is also not without HIS problems, but not as many as he thought!


ONE OF THE VERY ENDEARING and well planned features of the film, are several sequences of film clips, from Paul Toombes many Doctor Death, horror film features, also starring Boris Karloff and Basil Rathbone! These clips are in fact, genuine pieces from the Roger Corman films, that Price actually appeared and starred in, now being convincingly passed as jewels from Toombe's successful career! MADHOUSE plays something akin to the successful formula that was adopted in Price's 'Theatre of Blood' and the Phibes movies. Horrible and yet, amusing deaths, with more than a sprinkle of black comedy. Here however, it's played quite straight and the whole thing swings into a fight to the death and a climax, that not only comes as a surprise, but even after several screenings, might leave you wondering, just who is who?





 
THE MADHOUSE of the title, doesn't really refer to a particular building, but more to a state of chaos and the unsettling manner of Cushing's character Flay and the unravelling of Price's character's mind. There are lots of red herrings, and not wanting to give any plot pieces away, all that can be said is, fans of Cushing and Price, should enjoy the twisting of the plot and the way both actors spare no cobwebs or spiders and go all out, when the cheating and horrors are revealed! Check out the cast in the rare photographs of this gallery, and you'll see Subotsky did his 'sums' well, and managed to gather quite a gathering of a company! Up until this time, Amicus were enjoying quite a successful run of releases, their portmanteau films were extremely popular and Price, who was managing almost a hit a year, from his contractual annual yearly production visit to the UK.  Which makes it confusing, as to why the box office was not as expected. Even today, reviews are mixed and the jury of Cushing and Price fans, are mostly still out . . . 



MADHOUSE is film that seems always to get a mix bag of comments, whenever it is featured at our FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE. A regular response and routine, that always confuses me. I can think of half a dozen or more films, from the careers of both Price and Cushing, that fall well below the standard of this film, and yet excuses are aired, failings thought out - so forgiven, praise and mostly positives garnishes dress the mess, of what is often a film of less meat and too much gravy. It's true, everyone can and does have their own and personal tastes and takes on any film, but a film that plays up the real and the fantasy world of film making, the ego's and off set going on's, I would have thought, had little chance of failing. Here today and back then, we are dealing with true nightmares and often quite crazy people! With tongue in cheek, for all those who can see it, MADHOUSE is a worthy addition to the other Price 'amusing slay and display' black comedies, mentioned previously. The extra value here is, we have the very entertaining  and unique chance to watch two actors, who sadly rarely had the opportunity to work on screen together. It's MADNESS it didn't happen more often . . .. 
 

























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Sunday 1 April 2018

#CALLUMMCKELVIE SUNDAY! THERES NO DRACULA BUT BRIDES STILL HAS A LOT OF BITE!


COUNTINUING MY TRIPS down memory lane, I’m going back a little earlier than my l piece as week on HORROR EXPRESS (1973). As I said previously.  When I came across Horror Express, I was already well acquainted with the work of Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and the gothic horror movement of the late 50’s- 1970’s. The subject of today’s piece, The Brides of Dracula, was one of the first films I encountered on my journey into this world and the first that really made me take notice of Cushing as an actor. 


MY INTEREST IN THE GENRE went something like this; finding Quatermass and the Pit (1967) through references in Dr Who magazines and then researching its background. From there I saw Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb (1964), chosen due to my interest in Egyptology (and the fact that it was the easiest Hammer-Mummy film to get on region 2 at the time) and the other Quatermass films. Then, I started to dip my toes into Hammers other franchises, Amicus films and the work of contemporaries like Roger Corman. I would do this by heading along to the UK HMV store and picking a random title or two, fortunately for me Halloween usually involved a sale on the horror section and two for £10. 
 



I BELIEVE IT WAS HALLOWEEN 2008 when, in the very early days of my hammer collecting, I grabbed both The Devil Rides Out (1968) and Brides of Dracula. I’d been after Devil for some time, but Brides I knew very little about and indeed only chose it to see an example of Hammer’s Dracula series. Rushing home with my two purchases, I had a habit at this age of turning any film I really wanted to see into something of an ‘event’, buying snacks and leaving it until late evening. The film I gave that honour too was The Devil Rides Out, but deciding I wanted to watch something however, I popped the disc of Brides into the player.


I THINK, IN MANY WAYS Brides of Dracula, is the perfect film in which to fall in love with both Hammer and Cushing. Whilst the script, can at times be a little messy, it is the atmosphere and performances that set this film apart. Visually the film is somewhat different to 1958’s Dracula, the slightly rougher aspects of that film are completely gone, primarily anything shot on location.




IN DRACULA , this was beneficial atmospherically as for the most part that film functions as a thriller in the guise of a horror movie. Think about it, a man hunts down an evil villain and dies in the process, a relative and the man’s accomplice in his mysterious work then embark on a cat and mouse chase with the villain. Of course I am being a little ignorant in this description of the gothic atmosphere and various staking’s etc., etc.



HOWEVER PURELY in terms of its various script beats, Dracula follows a classical thriller mould. Brides on the other hand is a fairy-tale, a dark fable of a girl who enters a strange country and rescues a prince (well Baron) only for him to turn out to be cursed. It is up to a brave hero (Van Helsing) to save the day. Perhaps reacting to this, Terrance Fisher opts to shoot Brides as mostly stage bound with very little obvious location footage. The set design is far more extravagant and what results is an utterly beautiful self-contained gothic world. The blacks and browns used in a lot of the sets in Dracula, are replaced with vibrant purples and reds. As a young horror fan, I fell in love with this gothic fairy-tale landscape.


A HUGE COMPONENT of this is David Peels performance as Baron Meintser, a character who somewhat divides the fans. Honestly, whilst I adore Christopher Lee as Dracula, I think it’s very unfair to compare that performance to this one. What is being exercised in the two movies are two very different portrayals of the ‘Dracula’ type character. 





WHILST CHRISTOPHER LEE gets his brief ‘refined gentleman’ moment in the opening scene of the earlier film, his Dracula is an animalistic, vicious character. The sexuality comes from that, with Lee's Dracula presented as a highly sexualised creature, not in a romantic way but a lustful and primal one. Peel on the other hand, feels as if the Hammer team were going for an entirely different approach, presenting him as a suave and debonair figure. For the most part he spends his time talking and being legitimately charming, as opposed to Lees snarling and hissing. This works within the films ‘fairy-tale mould’, after all the wonderful opening sequence in which the character of Marianne ‘frees’ him, wouldn’t work as well unless the character was a romantic one.




IN MANY WAYS, Peel's performance pre-empts the take that Frank Langella would have on the character many years later. And then of course there’s Cushing himself, giving what is perhaps his best performance as Van Helsing. I remember being utterly captivated by the determination in his performance, most notably the celebrated scene where he is forced to use a branding Iron on his neck to save himself from the curse of Vampirism.







THE SHEER FEAR mixed with determination presented here gives Van Helsing a warmer presence than he had in the earlier film (Teddy-bear coat scenes aside) and his bond with Marianne does hint at a romance between the two. It’s the performance that made me fall in love with the man and I quickly hunted down several of the Frankenstein entries to see more.



RETURNING TO MY little story of how I discovered Brides, whilst I did enjoy The Devil Rides Out, the film that really stole my heart that Halloween was Brides of Dracula. For me, it’s the only film to watch that time of year and I’m always ready to immerse myself in its rich gothic atmosphere again and again. Whilst I of course adore Dracula, in many ways Brides is a superior film and for me is Fishers masterpiece. If you ever want to indoctrinate anyone in the ways of Hammer, this is the one to go for- after all it worked for me!



AND WHAT ABOUT YOURSELVES dear readers? What were the films that really made you fall in love with Cushing? If you have any comments, suggestions or feedback about this or ANY of my features here at PCAS you can contact me HERE at spookycallum58@gmail.com


PART ONE OF OUR Femme Fatale Feature on YVONNE MONLAUR 
star of BRIDES OF DRACULA can be found HERE!
 


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