Showing posts with label vampire girl.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vampire girl.. Show all posts

Sunday 28 October 2018

SPOT THE ODD ONE OUT! DRACULA AD 1972 TRADING CARDS


TRIVIA: Here is something to get your brain cells ready for the start of our FIRST Warner Brothers PCASUK competition THIS TUESDAY (30th October)  πŸ˜‰ Here is a bit of fun, I have posted over at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE πŸ˜‰ HERE ARE FOUR rare and collectable Hammer films Dracula AD 1972 trading cards. Which is the ODD ONE OUT and TELL US why! Shouldn't be difficult for the Hammer Drac fans here πŸ˜‰ Lets see how many of you can guess this correctly πŸ˜‰ - Marcus



Tuesday 10 July 2018

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AND REMEMBERING HAMMER DRACULA FIRST BRIDE!


REMEMBERING Today we remember Valerie Gaunt. VALERIE'S short career on the big screen featured only in two films, and they were along side Peter Cushing. Just two roles, but they left a lasting impact, that would outlast many longer career! Her playing of Justine in 'The Curse of Frankenstein' (1957) and her performance in Hammer films,1958 'Dracula' hold a special place for lovers of fantasy cinema. Born Valerie Shelia Gaunt, on the 9th July 1932 in Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, England, following an interest in amateur theatre, after leaving school embarked on a career as a model, before auditioning for Hammer and landing her first professional role in 1957. Gaunt married her husband Gerald Alfred Reddington on May 17th, 1958.




OUR PCAS Femme Fatale feature on the life and career of Valerie Gaunt at our website! My apologies for the video clips that no longer work. This is the result of a particular cretin out there who sabotaged our very successful PCAS YOUTUBE channel.. real monsters DO exist! Another PCAS YOUTUBE channel has been created and is being updated, so all clips will be repaired and updated on our features and reviews eventually, Marcus. JUST click HERE! 


IF YOU ENJOY what you see here and would like MORE why not join our Peter Cushing Appreciation Society FACEBOOK FAN PAGE. UPDATED most days with a following of over 33 thousand followers! Just CLICK HERE  and CLICK LIKE there! 

Sunday 19 November 2017

THE ONE AND ONLY : #CUSHINGSFEMMEFATALESFRIDAY!


BEST KNOWN  as Hammer Films' most seductive female vampire of the early 1970s, the Polish-born Pitt possessed dark, alluring features and a sexy figure that made her just right for Gothic horror! Ingrid Pitt (born Ingoushka Petrov) survived World War II and became a well-known actress on the East Berlin stage, however, she did not appear on screen until well into her twenties. She appeared in several minor roles in Spanish films in the mid 1960s, mostly uncredited, before landing the supporting role of undercover agent "Heidi", assisting Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton defeat the Third Reich in Where Eagles Dare (1968).




HER EXOTIC looks and eastern European accent came to the notice of Hammer executives who cast Pitt as vampiress "Mircalla" in the sensual horror thriller The Vampire Lovers (1970). The film was a box office success with its blend of horror and sexual overtones, and Pitt was a beautiful, yet ferocious bloodsucker. Next up, Pitt was cast by Amicus Productions as another gorgeous vampire in the episode entitled "The Cloak" in the superb The House That Dripped Blood (1971). This time, Ingrid played an actress appearing in horror films alongside screen vampire Jon Pertwee, but then later reveals herself to be a real vampire keen on recruiting fresh blood.




INGRID DONNED the fangs for her third vampire film in a row, Countess Dracula (1971) which was loosely based around the legend of the 16th century bloodthirsty Countess Elizabeth Bathory. Whilst not as successful, as the two prior outings, Ingrid Pitt had firmly established herself as one of the key ladies of British horror of the 1970s. She then appeared in the underrated The Wicker Man (1973) as an uncooperative civil servant annoying Edward Woodward in his search for a missing child. Further work followed in The Final Option (1982), as "Elvira" in the adaptation of the John le CarrΓ© Cold War thriller Smiley's People (1982), Wild Geese II (1985) and The Asylum (2000).









INGRID made regular appearances at horror conventions and fan gatherings, had penned several books on her horror career, and she relished talking to fans about her on screen vampiric exploits. Ingrid's fan club is known as the "Pitt of Horror"! A much loved and genuine cult figure of modern horror cinema, she died on November 23, 2010, just two days after her 73rd birthday.








PLEASE visit the INGRID PITT FAN CLUB WEBSITE . . .and help keep her memory alive. Just simply 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 . . 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  . .

Wednesday 12 July 2017

SHOT GUNS FEAR, OLD SOLDIERS AND DIGGING THE COUNT!


#SILENTBUTDEADLY! What a striking image Donald Pleasence's Jim Underwood makes in his dazzling orange shirt, matchless tie, and that silk handkerchief, is a nice touch. Still, all this doesn't hide that fact, that he and his daughter, are more than VERY weird. It's poor ol Ian Bannen's Christopher Lowe I feel sorry for, all these alarm bells ringing and he doesn't see it coming. Peter Cushing's shop keeper didn't spare the horses in making this costumer suffer......! From Beyond The Grave, never fails to entertain. One of the best of the Amicus portmanteau films of the 70's... yes? Gif requested by Davy Travers.


 ABOVE: ANGELA PLEASENCE PLAYES DONALD'S DAUGHTER IN
'FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE' TO MAGNIFICENT EFFECT!


#SILENTBUTDEADLY!: IF you ever need a bit of midnight gardening done OR you find yourself in a bit of hurry to bury the evidence of your latest victim of carnage, #DRACULA is your man! Here's Christopher Lee in a frightening feral act, of burying his next victim, as a bit of supper he can come back to later!! You won't find a fast digger, other than my pet cat Ralph, after he has craftily stolen a pork chop, from my plate, and sets to burying it in the rose bed! It's true that Melissa Stribling got more than a mouthful of 'Bray-Village-Genuine- Best-of-English-Sod' while Lee was enthusiastically burying her. He almost fell in the hole during the shooting too! It's all part of the never-to-be-equaled final reel of #HAMMERFILMS #Horrorofdracula / #Dracula 1958. Peter Cushing's Van Helsing has never been better! You think? #GIF requested by Paul Ashman!



#SILENTBUTDEADLY! IT'S PRETTY OBLIVIOUS, that Ralph Bate's character Robert Heller, in Hammer films Fear In The Night never read page 238 of the 'Film Script Schemes and Plot Devices : Guns'. If a character has a loaded gun or rifle, and something moves or twitches behind a curtain, under a duvet or dust sheet' DON'T SHOOT! I didn't actually get to see this Hammer gem, until 1982, a full ten years after it was theatrically released. Watching the film with a crowd who really weren't au fey with Hammer films or this title was a real treat. They too were as caught up in the drama as I was, as not one of us knew the plot or any of the red herrings. 


THE PLOT REVEAL DETAIL that leads up to that gun shot, is a good one. Not wanting to give anything away, all I will share is the good news, FEAR IN THE NIGHT proves two things. One, the fact that this script nestled in the dust and dark recesses of Hammer films, scriptwriter Jimmy Sangster desk for over a decade, proves he wasn't that pin sharp at picking a potential winner, when he wrote one. Two, neither were Hammer! This script went through several rewrites and at one point, the whole thing was set on a canal boat!!! Things must have been more than tight, budget wise at that time I guess? 




FEAR IN THE NIGHT, is what Hammer called one of their quickies. And looking at the particulars for the film, you can see why! Sir James Carraras must have sold the family silver to pay Peter Cushing a misiliy £500 for a four day appearance, and the whole thing was in four weeks with a budget of a mere £141,000! The small cast of Ralph Bates, Judy Geeson and Joan Collins (slumming it, as Dynasty was just a twinkle in her agent's eye at this time) according to Sangster who also directed, had a wonderful time making the film. 



ABOVE: OFF SCREEN JIMMY SANSTER AND RALPH BATES WERE VERY GOOD MATES. AFTER RALPH'S SAD AND TRAGIC PASSING IN 1991, SANGSTER WOULD OFTEN REFLECT IN INTERVIEWS HOW MUCH HE STILL MISSED HIS OLD FRIEND . . 

SANGSTER DOES a good job cranking up the tension, but he must have used up his entire stock of directorial skills on Fear, as his other two outing for Hammer, 'Lust for a Vampire' and 'Horror of Frankenstein' are no way as inventive and entertaining as Fear. If you haven't seen Fear In The Night, it's worth your trouble digging it out. For those who have, revisit it, and remind yourselves, just how good Hammer could be when they had to....


#SILENTBUTDEADLY: PETER CUSHING EVER THE optimist, roles up he sleeves and attempts his, what's going on here then, medical sensibilities to a man who is WELL GONE, in the rip roaring, a 'new twist and plot development every minute', #HORROREXPRESS.  It never fails to surprise me how much everyone has a soft spot for this film. According to Christopher Lee, who appeared with Cushing in this Spanish-Horror, it wasn't the most comfortable of excursions. A little like Cushing dip into the Hong Kong way of making movies, with Seven Golden Vampires, the studio was basic, the catering was..basic, and Cushing who was still very much in an emotional spiral after the recent passing of his wife, Helen..wanted to just go home. In fact, if Lee had not intervened, Cushing would have been booked on the next REAL train out. The work surroundings and home comforts were absent, but every penny of the budget, was on the screen. Including that beautiful locomotive of the title. Sadly, before  all the 'train-spotters' race for a copy, much of the 'Express' travel footage was model work, good model work, but not the real article in loco-motion.


CHRISTOPHER LEE DEMONSTRATES THE OL ADAGE WHEN A SHOT GUN ISN'T  AT HAND, USE YOURS HANDS, TO KILL....A DEAD PERSON!


PETER CUSHING PROVING SHOT GUNS ARE NOT ONLY GOOD FOR SHOOTING PEOPLE UNDER DUST SHEETS - BUT ZOMBIES TOO!

LEE AND CUSHING are really on form in this one, and supported by a largely dubbed but capable cast. It appears that since the film moved into a weird and strange siding, in the world of ever confusing copyright, and has become public domain, the Horror Express timetable now appears on just about every compilation bootleg dvd of horror films you can spot on ebay. This in turn has helped the film, garland an even more prominent place with fans of zombie-fossil-thing-on-a-train films. Which can only be good for genre, if a little annoying for the guys who scrimped with that meany budget...! 



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. 
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