The Peter Cushing Centennial Blogathon : Day Four

Peter Cushing, distinguished horror movie actor, goofs around during an interview, in 1973.

The clip cuts short, but you’ll hear Cushing talk about Frankenstein. The video concludes with a British television report on a surprise party for a frail but cheerful Cushing on the occasion of his 80th birthday in 1993.

This one’s a well-done tribute to Cushing using film clips, and set to Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now.

And here’s comic Alan Davies performing Peter Cushing Lives in Whitstable, animated for British TV. If you prefer the original artists, listen here to The Jellybottys.

Over at Let’s Get Out of Here!, Craig Edwards continues to map Peter Cushing’s career in movie posters. Today’s titles cover 1959 to 1966. The collection includes such triumphs as The Mummy, Brides of Dracula and The Skull, along with more obscure crime dramas and rarely seen swashbucklers. Go look!  

Up on the movie blog The House of Sparrows, Dave Robson takes a look at The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974), the bizarre but curiously enjoyable late Hammer entry co-produced by the Shaw Brothers that took Cushing’s Van Helsing out to Chongqing, land of hopping vampires. Personally, I would have gone for a whole series of Seventies-style Kung-Fu vampires with Cushing as the action hero. 

Cartoonist Dave Lowe salutes the Big 100th with a four-panel strip featuring Cushing as The Grand Moff. Catch it on Dave’s art blog, Para-Abnormal.

In a brilliant little post called Sisters, David Cairns looks at George Stevens’ Vigil in the Night (1940) as a transitional piece in the directors’ evolution from light fare to serious drama. Of Cushing’s fine supporting performance, David ponders whether the actor, shortly before his sprint back home to England, was ever destined for Hollywood stardom. 

Cairns’ writing — sharp, astute and funny — makes me want to either throw in the towel and give up, or dig in and work harder at writing better. Hell, I don’t know what to do. Damn you, David Cairns.

Cushing’s Sherlock Holmes gets his due today. First up, Yvette of In So Many Words shares her enthusiasm for Hammer’s The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959) and its great cast. The whole thing is illuminated with a generous selection of stills.

At The Pneumatic Rolling-Sphere Carrier Delusion — which would make a great title for a Holmes adventure! — Joe Thompson computes Six Degrees of Peter Cushing: Sherlock Holmes. They’re all here, from Gillette, Barrymore, Wontner, to Rathbone, to Downey Jr., and Cumberbatch, and everyone in between. Elementary fun. 

Horror writer Orrin Grey reflects on the six Hammer Frankensteins starring Peter Cushing and draws up a list of favorite things from the series: Favorite Assistant, favorite lab, favorite creature — The Baron was prolific —, as well as his favorite Cushing performance and, ultimately, his favorite Hammer Frankenstein. See if you agree with Orrin’s sometimes surprising choices.

Today’s Cushing portrait by Zombie Rust is the tragic Arthur Grimsdyke, in revenant mode.