REMEMBERING VAL GUEST TODAY BORN DECEMBER 1911

HONORING the director Val Guest on today (what would have been his 101st birthday) is a pretty tough thing to do. After all, this is the man who gave us Hammer Horror, without the smash success of The Quatermass Xperiment and its sequels and follows up, we wouldn’t have had The Curse of Frankenstein and the gothic boom that followed. It’s a well-known fact that Quatermass creator Nigel Kneale had his differences with Guest in terms of his interpretations of the story, but the film itself is a masterpiece of British Sci-Fi Horror and perfectly captures a bleak post-war world. During my time at university I wrote a dissertation covering the post-war themes within the Quatermass television series and films and spent a great deal of time defending Guests adaptation. His Quatermass’s strength lies in its difference to the TV version, non-more explicit than it it’s titular hero…or in Guest’s eyes Villain. In his vision, Quatermass becomes an inhuman monster, representing the dangers of science. The world he inhabits is shown to the audience in an almost ‘documentary’ style, infusing it with a gritty realism. The next-two sci-fi horror films Guest did for Hammer, Quatermass II and The Abominable Snowman, were also adapted from Kneale screenplays and have a disturbing realism to them.

QUATERMASS II is, at least in my humble opinion, a massive improvement on its television predecessor, exorcising a somewhat frivolous space-journey at its climax that only served to undo all the tension built up to this point. With a somewhat softer Donlevy and several shocking and disturbing moments (‘they blocked the pipe with human pulp!’) it’s another classic. One of his best and easily my favourite of his science fiction films is his memorable collaboration with Peter Cushing, The Abominable Snowman. Adapted from Nigel Kneale’s The Creature, it’s a mesmerising exercise in a slow building sense of claustrophobic tension. All the more admirable considering the films set in vast snowy plains. Guest gets the best out of his performers and by keeping the Yeti mostly off screen, they become a genuinely frightening presence.

PETER CUSHING'S CO-STAR, EDWARD JUDD FROM ''ISLAND OF TERROR'' STARS IN 'THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE' GREAT GALLERY AND REVIEW:  HERE!

IT SEEMS unfair to just discuss these films though when Guest had a rich and varied career within the British film industry. Of course his most famous film is probably, 'The Day the Earth Caught Fire', another science-fiction film that adopts the same documentary eye as his previous works and tells the story of what happens when the earth begins to overheat. He was one of the directors on the masterpiece of mess that is the 1967 version of 'Casino Royale', and this was by no means his first stab at comedy either, having director both Up the Creek and Further up the Creek. Two of his best however were once again for Hammer, both war pictures and films that manage to be almost the opposite of each other. 

PETER SELLLERS WITH CUSHING'S 'SHE' CO STAR, URSULA ANDRESS, IN VAL GUEST'S 'CASINO ROYALE' (1967) Peter Sellers Facebook Scrapbook page: HERE

BARBARA SHELLEY IN VAL GUEST'S 'THE CAMP ON BLOOD ISLAND' (1958)

'THE CAMP ON BLOOD ISLAND' is a brutal tale of the horrors of a Japanese prisoner of war camp that caused quite a stir on its release in 1958. The following year came Yesterday’s Enemy, a film which Val Guest often said he was most proud. Based on a BBC teleplay it’s still a criminally unknown film, which is a shame as it’s a masterpiece. Featuring stunning performances from Stanley Baker, Guy Rolfe, Leo Mckern and Gordon Jackson, the film features no incidental music for the entirety of its run time. A relentlessly depressing film, it shows the horrors of war as they are and doesn’t shy away from condemning both the British and their enemies. In my opinion it’s Guest’s best and film that, if you have yet to see it, deserves your attention

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  . 

FACE TO FACE WITH THE SNOWMAN : MONDAY MOMENT OF TERROR!

AT A REMOTE  lhamasery in the Himalayas, scientist John Rollason studies rare mountain herbs with the help of his wife Helen, and associate Peter, while awaiting the arrival of an American named Tom Friend. Over Helen's objections and warnings by the High Lhama, he sets out with Friend on an expedition to find the elusive Yeti, accompanied by another American named Shelley and a young Scotsman, McNee, who claims to have seen the thing. 

FOOTPRINTS are found in the snows and McNee seems queerly affected the closer they get to their quarry's likely habitat but the biggest shock to Rollason is discovering Friend is a showman who only intends to exploit their find, with Shelley his game hunter-marksman. The conflict between science and commercialism only increases when an enormous anthropoid is shot, and the horror only increases as the party realizes the other Yeti intend to retrieve their fallen comrade and have powers to do so which seem extra-human...

A FULL FEATURE WITH RARE STILLS GALLERY CAN BE FOUND : 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 . . 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  . 

ON SET WITH CUSHING : GOLDEN VAMPIRE TRIP AND ON SET VAMPIRE LOVERS FOOTAGE!

#GETTHECUSHIONSATURDAY! ABOVE Derek Whitehurst, assistant director on some Peter Cushing films with Hammer films. remembers Peter on set . . .

#GETHECUSHIONSUNDAY! AMAZING behind the scenes footage of PETER CUSHING at Elstree studios, making Hammer films, 'THE VAMPIRE LOVERS' (1971)

#GETTHECUSHIONSUNDAY! Something a little different this week..a REAL fright! Here is the moment, we've uploaded it in slow mo . . . where poor Peter as Van Helsing, accidentally slips on his size twelves and lands almost face-down in the real camp-fire, on the set of Hammer films, 'Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires'. It's a 'stunt' that I am sure wasn't scripted or expected , and probably frightened director Roy Ward Baker and the insurance company to death! Typical Cushing, he would have given his consent for the shot to be used, to help the drama along!

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  . 

THE MEETING OF TWO MEN AND WITCH CRAFT!

#CHRISTOPHERLEESATURDAY!: So, it's official then? Despite the rumors . . Christopher Lee didn't live in his bath! WISE WORDS of Warning from Christopher Lee.

#CHRISTOPHERLEESATURDAY! The Meeting of Ages One a military men from the modern world and the other a high priest from an ancient civilisation . . Major Holly questions of the blind faith of Billali.

ON SET during the making of SHE, antics with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Lee here with a young daughter, Christina.

THIS IS a very neat scene. Two actors who by this time in 1965, had appeared in several films together and although at this time, they didn't spend much social time with each us when not engaged in a film, knew each others timings and methods. In this scene, which barely lasts two minutes, they have managed to convey to the viewer, the core values of the characters. All of which makes you wish, Hammer producers had found a bit more lolly, to have had more screen time with Cushing and Lee together . . .

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  . 

THE ART OF RAQUEL GOMES: HAMMER FILMS KHARIS WITH ART WORK VIDEO

#THROWBACKTHURSDAY HERE'S a throwback to a role played by Lee alongside Peter Cushing in 'The Mummy'...what do you think of this artwork from Raquel?

Artwork by Raquel Gomes

FROM Raquel's Facebook Account: 'It is finally ready!!! Christopher Lee as 'THE MUMMY' (1959) directed by Terence Fisher from Hammer Studios! Will be available tomorrow in my shop HERE!, but meanwhile please feel free to visit it for other horror and scfi prints . I added several pictures and videos of the painting process' RAQUEL ETSY SITE CAN BE FOUND : 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 . . 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 .

HORRIBLE DEATH WEDNESDAY 2: WITH CALLUM MCKELVIE

SO TODAY is of course our new theme, ‘Horrible Death Wednesday’, where we highlight some of our favourite dispatches for a multitude of memorable characters in Cushing’s film. It’s a pretty good line-up if I say so myself, featuring one film I’ve regularly mentioned as a personal best, another that featured in my ‘Choicest Cushing’ article and one that I haven’t as of yet praised- but will shortly. 

FIRST UP is the aftermath of the titular creature’s death from ‘Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell’. During the final moments, the creature (having of course been on the rampage) is set upon by the inmates of the asylum and quite literally ripped apart. A particularly gruesome moment, it’s one of a number of gory sequences that feel at odds in what is essentially a throwback film. None the less, it feels right in what is an exceptionally dark film (even for the Hammer Frankenstein series) and a fitting end to one of the more sympathetic creatures in the series.

NEXT UP is a sequence from a film I’ve regularly mentioned to be a personal favourite, though haven’t as of yet written anything substantial on it. Christopher Lee’s death in The Skull has long been one of my favourites and I think it’s down to the very subtle elements of black comedy in the scene. Bar one sequence at the opening, Lee and Cushing only ever appear playing Billiards together, so it’s little surprise when Cushing batters Lee over the head with a ball. Unlike the above sequence, there’s very little on-screen gore but it’s the context that makes this particularly gruesome. Subotsky had a particular flare for introducing gruesome elements into his films, but somehow instructing directors to keep the high levels of violence off screen (the ‘Blind Man’ sequence in Tales from the Crypt springs to mind). This is a prime example. 

FINALLY we have a sequence from The Mummy. The Mummy is full of a number of great death sequences, Daddy Banning’s and Mehemet Bay’s spring to mind, but today’s is the death of Cushing’s uncle played by Raymond Huntley. Huntley is a familiar British character actor and he’s such a friendly and likable character that his death, strangled as Lee’s titular walking cadaver crashes through a door, proves to have something of a resonance to it.

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  . 

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY: COLOURISED GUESTS FROM HAMMER BRIDES PREMIER

#TOOLCOOLTUESDAY: Here is a colourized image from premiere 1960’s 'The Brides of Dracula', featuring Yvonne Monlaur and of course Peter Cushing. 'Brides', is one of those films that in my very humble opinion…manages to outdo the original in almost every way. Ok I will conceit that perhaps during the latter half of the film the script isn’t the strongest, but the opening sequences at Castle Meinster easily stand among the best of any Hammer Horror and again…perhaps somewhat controversially, far outdo those in the earlier picture. Cushing once again gets to play more of the action hero and the final sequences in the barn are incredibly thrilling, including the famous ‘branding’ sequence. David Peel makes a refreshing substitute for Christopher Lee and it’s nice to see the Hammer team taking a chance on a very different look for this vampire. Of course Yvonne Monlaur steals a great deal of the screen, being equally glamorous and, un-like a lot of early Hammer heroines, convincingly brave as she becomes determined to free the Baron. It’s a shame she only did one more picture for Hammer, 1961’s 'The Terror of the Tongs' though horror fans can also catch her in 1960’s 'Circus of Horrors' alongside another Hammer star, Anton Differing. Monlaur passed away earlier this year, it’s a tribute to her performance that 'The Brides of Dracula' succeeds at being as powerful as it is. - Callum McKelvie (pcas)

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  .