Showing posts with label daughter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label daughter. Show all posts

Sunday 12 May 2019

MOTHERING SUNDAY AND THE CUSHING'S ON HOLIDAY AND MUM CAME TOO!


#‎MOTHERINGSUNDAY!‬ HAPPY MOTHERING SUNDAY to all our Mum's and Mom's in the USA! Below is Peter Cushing talking about his Mum!



ABOVE HERE IS A VERY RARE PIC of the Cushing Family, with Mum Nellie on holiday, in BOGNOR, of all places! From the left: GEORGE Cushing, Peter Father, then NELLIE Peter's Mother. Next ARTHUR Peter's Uncle, and Nellie's sister in law, WYN . An unnamed chap on the far right. At the front Peter's brother, DAVID on the left and a young smiling PETER on the right! The reverse side of this pic comes from a time when, a jobbing photographer would take your photograph at a sea-side resort, and process it on photographic paper that was also a postcard....so when you picked up your pic, you could write on the reverse side and post it off to your relatives and friends!  

 
DANCES, BANQUETS AND BALLS!: Martita Hunt as The Baron's Mother, Baroness Meinster. There is a story that when Martitia was rehearsing the scene where the Baroness laments the loss of the time when the château was once the social hub of parties, banquets and balls, she inadvertently paused and placed prominence on the word....'balls'. Everyone in attendance, broke out laughing, Fisher included...she repeated this in the take that was shot and printed in the final cut of 'Brides'....

Sunday 13 September 2015

THE CREEPING FLESH: LORNA HEILBRON AND PETER CUSHING'S PLAYING OF PROF HILDREN


Peter Cushing commitment to the role of Emmanuel Hildren was as strong as ever, and his professionalism absolute.He still concerned himself with not only his performance, but every aspect of filming. His copy of of the script is enthusiastically annotated with character details and instructions to himself.


'Don't gabble. Don't over act. Don't be conventional absent minded professor' And there, mixed up with notes about hairpieces and how to prepare lab slides are the words, 'Bois' 'Helen' 'Us'.


Peter related to me as a father and was tremendously caring and supportive' co star, Lorna Heilbron remembers today.'I played his daughter. He felt that I resembled his wife, Helen, so we had a rather intense relationship where I felt he really lived his part in the film.'


To play the deranged Hildren in the prologue and epilogue, Cushing again sacrifices any shred of vanity - without the toupee, which he wore in practically every film now, his hair is whitend and disarrayed and his cheekbones are strongly emphasisedf with make up. A quavering voice, insisting 'I alone can save the world', completes the impression of the character's tragic mental collapse.



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Sunday 10 May 2015

A VERY HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO ALL OUR U.S. FOLLOWERS


A Very HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to ALL our followers and friends in the USA! Here is a rare pic of a young Peter Wilton Cushing in his Mother's arms.


Thursday 12 June 2014

MADNESS AND TEMPTATION: THE AMICUS FILMS OF PETER CUSHING: PART SIX


Cushing would next be lured to Amicus with a role that referred back to his first assignment for the company.  From Beyond the Grave was another anthology film and like Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors, it cast Cushing in the linking segment and gave the actor a relatively rare opportunity to don makeup and an accent while playing a real character part.


Cushing is splendid as the sinister proprietor of a shabby antique shop known as Temptations Limited. The gimmick is simple: the various people who come into the shop are morally compromised in one way or another and as they look to get one over on the doddering proprietor, they set themselves up for some just desserts. “The Gate Crasher” stars David Warner as a man who buys a mirror which houses a bloodthirsty spirit; in “An Act of Kindness,” a sad sack executive (Ian Bannen) befriends a peddler (Donald Pleasence) and his creepy daughter (Angela Pleasence) and doesn’t live to regret it.


 “The Elemental” deals with a spirit which attaches itself to a middle aged businessman (Ian Carmichael), thus requiring the intervention of a wacky spiritualist (Margaret Leighton); and Ian Ogilvy regrets purchasing “The Door” when it becomes apparent that the object has the ability to gain access to a mysterious room housing an even more mysterious resident (Jack Watson).


The film benefits from an infusion of fresh material: sooner than fall back on another one of Subotsky’s derivative screenplays or offer up another collection of Robert Bloch-penned slices of irony, this one draws from the stories of R. Chetwyn-Hayes.  The stories offer a nice variety of mood and if the opening and closing segments are a little too similar for comfort, they are still successful in their own aims.  First time director Kevin Connor does a fantastic job with the material, going for shock effects where needed, while also taking the time to build character, notably in the affecting “An Act of Kindness” segment.


The individual segments are all of a high caliber, as are the performances. Cushing is in fine form in the linking segments, while Margaret Leighton comes close to stealing the show as the comically over the top spiritualist in the comic “Elemental” segment.  Ian Bannen and Donald Pleasence give wonderfully subtle performances in “An Act of Kindness,” with the actor’s real-life daughter Angela Pleasence making for a wonderfully baleful and eerie presence.


David Warner, Ian Carmichael and Ian Ogilvy all do excellent work, as well.  The stylish and atmospheric photography by Alan Hume recalls his work on Dr. Terror, while Douglas Gamley’s soundtrack is more subtle and effective than usual.


All things considered, From Beyond the Grave proved to be a fitting farewell for Cushing to the world of Amicus anthologies, but their business relationship was far from finished.  For their next outing, Amicus and Cushing would again be joined by American International Pictures. 


On paper, Madhouse had the makings of a classic.  It united Vincent Price with Peter Cushing and added up-and-coming genre star Robert Quarry to the mix.  Price and Cushing had already co-starred in Scream and Scream Again and Dr. Phibes Rises Again, but this film would finally allow them to share some scenes together.

 

The story, adapted from the novel “Devilday” by Angus Hall, could be seen as a sort of horror version of All About Eve, with some memorably bitchy dialogue that was particularly well suited for Price. And yet, sadly, it all went wrong … quite, quite wrong.


Paul Tombes (Price) is a horror film star who is finally enjoying a happy and stable personal life, thanks to finding true love. However, his fiancée is burtally murdered and he suffers a major mental breakdown. Years later, he returns to England to resume his career in genre films, with his old friend Herbert Flay (Cushing) acting as his screenwriter.  Unfortunately, embittered producer Oliver Quayle (Quarry) is none too supportive and regards the “has been” actor with suspicion. Things get worse when a series of strange events, including some killings, threaten to push Paul completely over the edge …



Editor-turned-director Jim Clark makes a botch job of this one.  There’s some indication that the script may have been intended to be done tongue in cheek, but Clark’s uninspired direction only succeeds in making it come off as plodding.  There are too many unlikely plot developments and the final twist is simply too absurd to be taken seriously.  Perhaps in the hands of a witty stylist like Robert Fuest (who directed the Dr. Phibes films so beautifully), the film might have come to life; as it stands, however, this is one of the most disappointing of Price’s many horror films.


Price walks through the film with an air of disinterest, suggesting that he was none too thrilled to be cast in the film to begin with.  The real standout is Quarry, who indulges in a marvelously pointed parody of AIP’s head honcho Samuel Z. Arkoff in his performance as the producer Oliver Quayle. Quarry’s acidic line readings give vent to his frustration over being shoehorned into one bad project after another and his onscreen tension with Price is a direct continuation of their off-screen relationship. Cushing rather disappears into the background in all of this, but he does have a few good moments towards the end of the picture.


Adrienne Corri is also very good as a crazed former starlet who has a thing for spiders, while Hammer horror veteran Linda Hayden (Taste the Blood of Dracula) is appropriately sultry as a femme fatale. In a cheeky bit of advertising, the film gives “special participation” credit to Boris Karloff and Basil Rathbone, by virtue of some extensive clips of their appearances in AIP’s earlier (and much better) The Raven and Tales of Terror.  Both actors were long dead by the time this film rolled along, but their presence does serve to remind one of the better days of Gothic horror on screen.


 

Pretty much everybody involved in Madhouse knew it was a lox and the general lack of enthusiasm does the film no favors.  It had the potential to sit side by side with Price’s truly brilliant Theatre of Blood, but a daft script and lackluster direction ensures that it’s not even on par with some of the lesser Edgar Allan Poe vehicles that were made after director Roger Corman jumped ship.

Written by Troy Howarth
Images and design: Marcus Brooks


COMING UP NEXT WEEK : THE FINAL PART : BOWING OUT WITH A WOLF
AND A MOLE : THE AMICUS FILMS OF PETER CUSHING BY TROY HOWARTH : PART SEVEN


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