Showing posts with label old dark house. Show all posts
Showing posts with label old dark house. Show all posts

Monday 2 October 2017

PRIVATE RAWLINGS IS ON PARADE FOR #MONSTERMONDAY!


#MONSTERMONDAY! Private Rawlings, as played by the late and great, Sir John Hurt.... Tom Rawlings, deserter, creepy chap and surely accomplice to murder . . . in Tyburn films, THE GHOUL....or was it all Peter Cushing's, Dr Lawrence to blame? Private Rawlings, Monster or Victim? You Decide and tell us over at the  PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE!



NEED TO REMIND YOURSELF OF RAWLINGS DEVIANCE? simply sit back and watch the film, above!





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   

Monday 15 May 2017

#MONSTERMONDAY: BROTHERLY LOVE . . . AND HATE!


#MONSTERMONDAY: SPOILER!! This just postage at our facebook fan page: The House of Long Shadows met with mixed reviews when released back in 1983. One of the criticisms aim at it was, it was 'predictable'! It might have been many things, but I could see that personally...AND neither did I expect the hysterical barbs, Vincent Price and Christopher Lee's characters the at each other in the closing moments of the film! Wonderful! BTW, PART TWO of the Making of the House of the Long Shadows hits our website TOMORROW - Marcus


SPOILER: ABOVE THE FINAL SCENE FROM 'HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWS'



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!

Monday 24 April 2017

#MONSTERMONDAY: THE MAKING OF THE HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWS PART ONE


IN THE SPRING OF 1982, Michael Armstrong and director Pete Walker approached Cannon Films, with Armstrong's supernatural thriller, Deliver Us From Evil


With his love of star packages, however, the head of Cannon, Menaham Golan was far more interested in them developing a package for cinema's horror legends: Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Vincent Price and John Carradine, who had never throughout their long careers, actually appeared on screen together as a foursome. Golan felt this would be a last opportunity to create cinema history.


WALKER AND ARMSTRONG knew that the current trend of teen slasher movies were not only unsuitable, but would fail to attract the stars in question. There had been several attempts to put them together in one film over the years, but each had failed because of the subject matter and the screenplay. Both Lee and Cushing, in particular, had often stated their dislike of the latest horror trends. Walker, therefore, suggested the remaking of an old classic, The Old Dark House, but was unable to secure the rights from Universal. Aware that if they failed to get back to Cannon quickly, they may lose the offer, Walker suggested another classic title from the same era,  Seven Keys To Baldpate.


SEVEN KEYS TO BALDPATE, had started life as a novel by the creator of Charlie Chan, E. Digger Biggs and then been dramatised for the stage by George M. Cohen. It became a long running hit on Broadway, before being made into a silent movie back in 1917, directed by Hugh Ford, with George M. Cohen as George Washington Magee! Hedda Hopper starred opposite him. In 1925, yet another silent version was made of the story directed by Fred C. Newmeyer. The first sound version was produced in 1929 by Reginald Barker, starring Richard Dix as William Magee. 

 

1935 rolled out another version, directed by William Hamilton. The final version was made in 1947 with Lew Landers directing, starring Phillip Terry as the renamed Kenneth Magee and Jaqueline White as the also renamed Mary Jordan.


WALKER LAID ON SCREENINGS of several versions at his flat for writer Armstrong and Jenny Craven, a friend of Armstrong and Golan, who would eventually act as associate producer on The House of Long Shadows. Armstrong recalls: 'We ignored a 1916 version made in Australia and a television version 1946, neither of which seemed relevant or connected with the book or the play, and watched - I can't remember maybe two or three, including the last one made in 1947- What we hoped would be a Gothic mystery thriller, along the lines of The Old Dark House, turned out to be an extremely dated crime thriller and nothing remotely suitable for the cast we had in mind. Over dinner we decided the only thing we could do was take the basic premise and the end twist and create a completely new storyline to suit our needs.''As I was going to be writing specifically for our four stars, it seemed logical to pay homage to the movies with which they had all been associated and create a tongue in cheek pastiche of the Gothic movies incorporating as many genre movies references as possible. Certain that our cast would be drawn to the idea of parodying their own classic images, we became very excited, ordered some more wine and set about creating a long list of everything we could think of from that era-thunder storms, to cats jumping out, to the inevitable 'monster locked behind the door', forever screaming heroines and menacing dialogues of  'things better not spoken of...'


TO ADD A FURTHER FRISSON of excitement to their discussion, Walker suggested they create a part for the original Bride Of Frankenstein, Elsa Lanchester. Because of the urgency to cement the deal, Armstrong returned home that night and within twenty four hours had produced a detailed twenty page treatment, so Walker could fly off to LA and quickly secure their stars. A few days later, Armstrong received a late night phone call from Walker, telling him the stars liked the treatment and were interested, subject to the screenplay - which he had told them was on the point of completion and would be available for them to read within two weeks. 'I've never been a slow writer, but to complete a screenplay within two weeks and be sufficiently polished to hook star names? It was quite ironic really. The film was about a writer taking on a bet to write a Gothic novel within twenty four hours! And here was I agreeing to write a Gothic screenplay within two weeks! So, I locked myself away with my typewriter, reams of paper, an ample supply of whiskey and enough cartons of cigarettes to open a tobacconists shop - in those days I was smoking 120 cigarettes a day! - and with Verdi's La Forza (Guiseppe Verdi's opera, La Forza Del Destino - The Force of Destiny) drowning out any distracting noises from the outside world, I sat down and went to work!'


AS REQUIRED, Armstrong delivered a completed draft of the screenplay on time! It was just hours before Walker had to leave to get to the airport! 'It was like some crazy suspense thriller' Armstrong now remembers, 'I finished the final page of the script around five, grabbed a cab to Morton's where Pete was waiting for me, before catching his flight to LA. I go there, literally minutes before he had to leave to get to the airport. I'd been working around the clock, on whiskey and cigarettes, had no sleep for two nights, staggered into Morton's more dead than alive, thrust the pages of typed manuscript into his hands- the only copy that existed- Pete asked me if I wanted a drink, I told him I just wanted to go home and collapse, he said he'd call me then called a cab- and that was it. He read the script on the plane and called me to say he liked it. A week later he called me to say that the script had gone down well with the actors and that they had all agreed to do it - except Lanchester, who unfortunately was too fragile to travel.' The part that Armstrong had written for her was that of a woman forever haunted by her past as a jilted bride. The role, instead, went to a Pete Walker favourite, Shelia Keith, who produced a wonderfully comic performance.


'PETE AND I intended that one of the fun levels of the film to be it's density of movie literary allusions, sometimes double edged, like Vinnies death: on one hand echoing his demise in Witchfinder General, whilst, on the other, being a parody of Mickey Mouse chopping up the broomsticks in 'Fantasia'. Armstrong explains, 'Unfortunately, quite a few filmic references for film buffs got lost along the way. There were also some that weren't followed through. For instance, the juve leads were written as a kind of Dick Powell and Fay Wray exchanging those sparring quick banter dialogues of the period. The young married couple were written as a parody of their British counterparts, epitomized by Noel Coward and Gertrude Lawrence in 'Private Lives'. But, these with other references got lost, partly because of the subtle campery required in the playing didn't really suit the actors cast the those roles.'

FOR ONCE, Armstrong was not around for the casting. Jenny Craven, the associate producer, was elevated into overseeing the film from the moment it went into pre production. 'Everything happened so quickly.' Armstrong recalls, 'Pete Walker had barely arrived back from LA before the film was in pre-production with a shooting date only a few weeks away. To my concern, what I'd dashed off in those two weeks was the script they were working from. Admittedly my first drafts are usually as tight as most people's final drafts but, even so, I still desperately wanted, at the very least, to sit down and clean it up and tidy it- especially around the final confrontation scene between the Grisbane brothers- but it proved impossible. Pete had been swept up into the throes of production with Jenny Craven, which meant that he and I couldn't find a free moment to get together and talk., even. Whenever I tried to say anything, everyone seemed perfectly happy with the script as it was, then I finally gave up pressing the point and assumed it was just me being insecure and finicky and that they'd come back to me if something wasn't working'


WITHIN THE FIRST WEEK of shooting a call came from the set, asking Armstrong to go down and fix the final dialogue scene between Vincent Price and Christopher Lee. 'I was so relieved,' Armstrong confesses, 'When I got on set, I found Christopher's concern was that he felt the final confrontation between he and Vinnie wasn't correctly balanced. Vinnie had more dialogue and had the last line. He was quite right, of course- except about wanting to have the last line. I sat down and tightened the whole scene, which I'd been dying to do. It automatically balanced their dialogue and resolved Christopher's worries and Vinnie still kept his last line, much to his amusement. From that point on, I decided it might be better if I remained on the set for the rest of the shooting- although, as it turned out, there was nothing else that needed fixing.' 







'THE SHOOT went smoothly.' Armstrong recalls. The stars, in particular, enjoyed working together and relished the camp theatricality of the dialogue and the lampooning the Gothic melodramas of the past. By the end of shooting, there was a general feeling on the set that the end product would be a lot of fun and prove popular with audiences'.


LEAVING WALKER to editing and post production, Armstrong became embroiled in Cannon's plans for publicity, part of which involved him writing and recording a series of jokey radio ads with Christopher Lee and Vincent Price. Elaborate plans were now in progress for releasing the film. Head of Distribution, Trevor Green and the publicity department came up with the idea of a starry, camp 30's style premiere to reflect the mood of the film. Craven, however, now overseeing the films publicity machine, as well as the film, opposed the concept, preferring the idea of a simple dignified press reception instead. Shortly afterwards, Trevor Green left and joined his brother to build one of Britain's biggest current distributors, Entertainment.


AS ENTHUSIASM for a fun launch of the film waned and a more serious approach to it's marketing was adopted, a similar sobriety seemed to be affecting the whole film during it's post production. 'Early in the cutting, Pete invited me into the edit suite to see his cut of the music scene with Vinnie and it was wonderful. Vinnie was very funny reveling in the moroseness of explaining the Grisbane's doom-ridden destiny to an accompaniment of Shelia Keith's wailing Verdi aria and the whole scene had a fabulous rhythm and stylish wit about it. Pete was so enthusiastic and clearly happy with the way the film was shaping up. I don't know what happened between then and later, when I saw the scene in the finished film, it had been re-cut and a good half of the scene was missing.....mostly Vinnie' dialogue. There were other strange cuts and trims too, a serious reduction  of comic pacing by dragging out Desi Arnaz Jr's early scenes and those with Julie Peasgood. Someone told me it was Cannon's attempt to tone down the films humour and turn it into a more serious horror film. How true that is I really don't know, but somewhere along the way, I sensed Pete's usual buoyant spirit had been eroded by something. I didn't know what. I didn't know why.....'



PART TWO OF THE MAKING OF
THE HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWS HERE!  NEXT MONDAY!


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!   

Monday 10 April 2017

#MONSTERMONDAY : DR LAWRENCE AND A SEPIA TRIBUTE


#MONSTERMONDAY: Peter Cushing's performance as Dr Lawrence in Tyburn films, 'The Ghoul' is exceptional, on many levels. I can't help wondering whenever I watch him in this role, how he manages to be involved in such bizarre and ruthless acts, and yet... I feel such pity for the character. Watching the story unfold, as Lawrence reveals his past, all skirts very closely to 'Art imitating Life', as both the Doctor and Peter Cushing emotionally crumple before our eyes. It could be called, a masterclass in using 'emotive memories' ...if it wasn't for the fact that, for Cushing like Lawrence, it wasn't about recalling the past...it was living with the loss and pain today....

ABOVE A FIRST for our YOUTUBE CHANNEL! As part of this week's #MONSTERMONDAY we present a film, made in the tradition of 'The Old Dark House', 'Psycho' and many many other 'thing in the attic' movies. 'The Ghoul' stands as one of three films that Peter Cushing made with Tyburn films. 'Legend of the Werewolf' and 'The Masks of Death' being the other two. All three films have a quality and pace that very much bucked the trend of the time, and producer Kevin Francis, should be acknowledged for having the back-bone, to present these films, in a style, standard and production value, that would have been considered, out of step by many. 


It is that style, that gives comfort and a quality, that was vanishing quicker than a vamp down a rat hole, at the first glimmer of sun-rise! Soon, all would be lost and stab, slash, scream and dismember would become the replacement for tension, suspense and a quality control hold on the body count. Having said that, many could and do site The Ghoul, as one of the very early slasher movies. Maybe so, but with the presence of Peter Cushing, the ageless beauty of Carlson and Bastedo and the bumpkin weirdness of the late, John Hurt.... things never slip so far as to become blood-lusty and just bad taste. The Ghoul is Kevin Francis homage to all those classics, where, just the THOUGHT of what could be in that room, out-strips the reveal of a million masked, chopper swinging, chain-saw buzzing, yawn fests, parts one, two, nine and TEN! It's a great shame that Tyburn had to leave us so soon, we were on the edge of our seats and just getting comfy! 







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!

Monday 5 December 2016

FAMILY FEUD : RODERICK THE BAD??


#MONSTERMONDAY: RODERICK GRISBANE... Monster or Victim?? It can get pretty lonely locked up in a attic room for a few decades. Enough to drive any man crazy! But is that any excuse to go on the rampage??? YOU decide! 


DESPITE WHAT YOU  may have heard or read from others, House of the Long Shadows, is a keeper. Plagued by the opinions of over optimist 'fans', the film is, what is. A one off gathering of four actors, now past the top of their game, but giving their all. For those expecting table leaping, fast chases and gore galore, you need to take a long look at the budget and the collective ages of the veterans at work here. What you do get is the reworking of an old tale. It's the old dark house, seven keys to baldpate... starring the very best. All four, Lee, Cushing, Price and Carradine, get their moment, their entrance and some pithy dialogue. Personally for me, it was the crowning cherry on the top of Cushing career cake! If you were expecting more, you've forgotten the roots from where our midnight horrors sprang from.. tight budgets, rushed schedules and cranked up drama... producers parameters set in stone and from such materials our beloved fantasy classics were hued... so get over yourself.



A FAN BOY I MAYBE, but my life would have been 102 mins the poorer had House of the Long Shadows not been produced, and for just this one time, bring my four fav terror theps together . . . and for that one reason alone, it puts the gripes in... the shadows!


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Monday 18 January 2016

WHOSE COAT IS THAT JACKET??? CHRISTOPHER LEE'S 'LONG SHADOWS' JACKET FINDS HOME


NEWS: Whose Coat, Is That Jacket??! You may remember that we reported on a story about the jacket that Christopher Lee wore as Corrigan in 'The House of the Long Shadows' was coming up for auction?



Well, HERE IT IS! Out of auction and looking very grand in it's show case. "For the moment, it's housed in the "Galerie Werkstatt", a very beautiful and well-frequented venue, art centre and restaurant near Cologne", our friend Gerd Pohl tells us. We applaud and congratulate the mangers of the Gelerie Werkstatt, for making the jacket accessible to the public and fans alike, so often items are whipped up by private collectors, never to been seen again...! I am very grateful to Gerd Pohl for providing us with these great photographs! A happy end to the story....



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Friday 8 January 2016

FOR THE FIRST TIME: HD LONG SHADOWS UK TRAILER


'The House of the Long Shadows' (1983) Trailer HD: For the FIRST and only time, Peter Cushing, Vincent Price and Christopher Lee appear and star TOGETHER on the big screen! And for the first time, we present the UK cinema trailer here.



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Tuesday 18 August 2015

KINO TURNS ON THE LIGHTS IN NEW LONG SHADOWS BLU RAY RELEASE SEPT 2015


KINO's latest offering from their Studio Classics Line, House of the Long Shadows on blu ray, offers an attraction that no video / dvd or blu ray has been able to furnish us with yet... a print of the film, that you CAN actually SEE! KINO's release is presented in AVC encoded 1080p high definition framed at 1.85.1 widescreen...and looks all the better for it. C'mon there are SHADOWS and there is just too plain DARK! 

I spotted a review by Ian Jane at the DVDTALK.COM website and I'm attaching the link here and at the bottom of this piece, so you can read for yourself, about this release....Here also for the very few who don't know what they're missing, if you've not SEEN this film, pardon the pun... there are some good points I've pulled out from Ian's review... 

:"Director Pete Walker's horror comedy The House Of The Long Shadows never got a domestic DVD release outside of an MOD/DVD-R release from MGM (which featured a shoddy full frame tape sourced transfer), which is surprising when you consider the pedigree of talent involved in the picture." In KINO's blu ray release you can actually see what's going on inside the shadowy interiors now and detail and texture are strong across the board." 

:"On the extras interview with Pete Walker he says,  how this movie basically got him out of retirement, working with Golan and Globus, how the film was basically a nostalgia piece and how everyone in the world absolutely loved Peter Cushing" 

"The House Of The Long Shadows maybe could and should have been more than it is but as it stands, it's a blast watching four screen legends unite (in the only film the four of them would appear together in) for a genuinely enjoyable mix of humor, horror and mystery. Kino's Blu-ray release offers a massive upgrade over the previous release and it throws in some quality supplements as well, giving this amusing and charming picture the special edition it deserves. Highly recommended.... Now all you lucky folks in the US, it's safe, the LIGHTS ARE ON....go get your copy!

The FULL REVIEW by Ian Jane is HERE @DVDTALK.COM


JUST CLICK  HERE 
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