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Posted: |
Jul 21, 2010 - 12:30 PM
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By: |
johnjohnson
(Member)
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When Peter Cushing: An Autobiography was published in 1986, it turned out to be one of the most heart-warming autobiographies ever written.
Focusing very much on his private life and his relationship with and deep devotion to his wife, Helen, Cushing revealed himself to be a very gentle and caring human being who was utterly distraught and at the brink of suicide when she passed away in 1971.
Alas, the book never shared a lot of anecdotes about his time on set. By his own account, Cushing always felt that the reality of life on a movie set was primarily dominated by lengthy spells of boredom and proper preparation for a role and, contrary to common belief, had little excitement to offer.
The fans, however, disagreed and, as emotionally riveting as it was, demanded a follow up to his autobiography focusing more on his interactions with the stars and directors. Never one to disappoint his admirers, Cushing listened to their requests and Past Forgetting: Memoirs Of The Hammer Years followed two years later, concentrating on a more traditional style of Hollywood or, should I say, Bray Studio, reminiscences.
Slightly abridged and read by Cushing himself, both books had, at the time, also been made available on cassette. (Youngsters, check out Wikipedia if you don't know what this is.) Cosmic Hobo is now releasing the second volume, Past Forgetting, for the very first time on CD.
The recording starts with a list of the various ways Cushing had contemplated killing himself after the death of Helen. This introduction sounds even more shocking as it is read in the ever so gentle tone of one of cinema's most charming performers.
Following this staggering revelation, however, the material covered in this audio book, for the most part, focuses on more upbeat memories of working with his co-stars.
In this day and age of revealing showbiz memoirs from self-congratulatory 20-something-year-old ‘stars' of reality shows, too young to have actually yet lived a life worth narrating, Past Forgetting is a charmingly old-fashioned reminder of how else this can be done.
Cushing quite obviously took the old adage to heart that, if you have nothing good to say about someone, you better keep schtum. As such, he focuses on all the pleasant interactions he had with his fellow men and colleagues and proves that it is possible to write an intriguing piece of autobiography without the need to dish dirt and debase either yourself or your co-stars.
As a result, we get to listen to stories of his interactions with long time friend, Christopher Lee, his relationship with Terence Fisher and other Hammer luminaries, as well as with a range of people popular at the time, but hardly remembered any more.
When filming Star Wars he was often wondering what on Earth a "Grand Moff" was and filmed his scenes in slippers, as the boots provided were paining him. Wearing an RAF silk tie from Biggles in private led to him being introduced to W.E. Johns himself when he discovered the tie's colours and questioned Cushing's right to wear them. We also get to learn how Cushing dealt with cancer and how his utterly devoted assistant, Joyce Broughton, kept the news from him that the doctors only gave him another eighteen months to live.
All of this, and much more, is narrated by Cushing with a self-deprecating and slightly ironic tone of voice. In actual fact, hearing him read a personal variation on The Twelve Days Of Christmas, a rhyme he personally hated with a vengeance, is proof that he oozed a lot of comic talent that, for the most part, remained well hidden from the general public.
This is a two CD release. Bonus features include a small booklet with sleeve notes by The League Of Gentlemen's Mark Gatiss and a bonus audio documentary with David Miller (author of The Peter Cushing Companion) talking about Cushing and introducing comments by the likes of Christopher Lee, Jimmy Sangster, John Hough, Ingrid Pitt, David Prowse and Caroline Munro discussing their work with Hammer's gentle man of horror.
Overall, this is an absolute essential must-have for anyone interested in the actor and classic British horror in general. If there is only the smallest niggle it is that Cosmic Hobo has not also released Cushing's first and more personal autobiography, but I remain confident that this may still be on the horizon should sales of this CD prove satisfactory.
http://www.denofgeek.com/Reviews/544098/peter_cushing_past_forgetting_cd_review.html
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I hope this finds a market. I have both of the books which Peter Cushing wrote about his life. He was indeed a wonderful human being. When I'm old I'd love to be that charming, dabbing my lips with a silk hankie when eating, kissing ladies on the hand when meeting etc, but I know I'd just look a twat. Peter Cushing did it all so naturally. I think it was Kenneth Williams who was terrified by the ravages of time on his appearance and said that he wished he could be "all gaunt and dignified, like Peter Cushing".
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Yes, thank you for posting this information. As a longtime fan of Peter Cushing, I need to have this in my collection and hope they release the first volume in the future.
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Posted: |
Jul 24, 2010 - 4:24 AM
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By: |
ToneRow
(Member)
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Peter Cushing has also been a welcomed performer, whether as a supporting actor, appearing in Joseph Losey's "Time Without Pity" as a barrister or as a counsel for the prosecution in "The Naked Edge" directed by Michael Anderson, or as a top-billed leading man. Personally, though, I have a preference for Cushing's potrayals of unsavory or obsessive characters. Here's a sample of my favorites:
"The Flesh And The Fiends", made by Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman, features a superb script dense with wit and rich characterizations. Peter Cushing essays the role of the arrogant and agnostic surgeon Dr. Knox, who subordinates human life to his university lectures. This ab-Knox-ious doctor does not believe in the soul, and cares not about the how & where his supply of corpses originates. This movie is the best rendition of the Burke & Hare chestnut in my book.
"Cash On Demand" is an economical Hammer Film production which stars Cushing as a fussy and annoying Scrooge-like bank manager. Set within the confines of the bank and requiring a minimum of sets, this film is as riveting as any other thanks (again) to superb scripting and characters. After years of dictatorial behavior, this is one bank manager whose misanthropic persona becomes unraveled when a gentleman fraudster coerces him to appropriate 93,000 pounds from his own bank. A minor masterpiece!
"Corruption", directed by Robert Hartford-Davis, remains a strong experience despite its exploitational origins. While "Corruption" has been declared as one of Cushing's worst films, it nevertheless features Cushing as a surgeon who resorts to murder to retain his younger wife's beauty. One could consider "Corruption" as an update of the countess Bathory legend or a British remake of Georges Franju's "Les Yeux Sans Visage", complete with a jazz score, as the surgeon kills and mutilates one woman after another for the benefit of his wife's youthful beauty.
"Twins Of Evil" is a later-day Hammer Film production, but it is one of the best in my opinion thanks to visually impressive direction by John Hough and Peter Cushing's villainous portrayal of neurotic Puritanical Gustav Weil, who leads his congregation on horseback, turning them into a witch-hunting posse and burning so-called witches (sexy girls) on blazing crosses in KKK style.
I'm afraid though that the appreciation for Peter Cushing and the films in which he appeared may dwindle as both Cushing and Hammer recede from recent conscious memory into pre-1975 history. There are people on this message board who were born after Hammer Studios folded up cinema production by 1978, thus they have no personal memories growing up watching Hammer and could only discover Hammer looking backwards. Witness the pittance of responses to this thread.
Members such as Deputy Riley prefer gore franchises like "Friday The 13th" and the "Saw" series.
Perhaps the most crucial element is not so much age-related generational gaps but rather the contemporary cinematic language, with its simple dialogue and rapidly edited scenes, rendering older films obsolete. Most younger viewers cannot relate to slower-paced scenes with dialogue delivered in theatrical manner. Action moves from the 1980s onward, with Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, put an end to proper English elocution and Tarkovsky-styled passages.
[I assume we message board memebers here have noticed the Kaplan brothers efforts to musicalize "Rambo" and "Conan" and "Total Recall" via YouTube videos. Will there ever be a YouTube musical spoof of a film starring Laurence Olivier or Alec Guinness or Jack Hawkins or Ralph Richardson or ... Peter Cushing?]
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ToneRow, I agree with your sentiments, but I'm not entirely convinced by the reasoning. I mean, I myself grew up "looking backwards" at Hammer films when they were shown on the telly during my formative years, and that was a good couple of decades (eh...nearly) after they had hit the big time. And cinema had already changed a lot by the mid-70s when I began to explore the old Universal horror series and even the silents, and I was able to assimilate their language without even thinking about it.
Where I do think we coincide, although you didn't mention it specifically, is that there wasn't much choice when we (or at least "I") were growing up. We'd get our filmic education from the telly because there was nothing else on! So we were kind of "forced" to look backwards. With the amount of TV Channels, DVDs, on-line jobbies etc I wonder how many folks today "choose" to explore the past like an archaeologist....
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Posted: |
Jul 24, 2010 - 7:34 AM
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By: |
ToneRow
(Member)
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ToneRow, I agree with your sentiments, but I'm not entirely convinced by the reasoning. I mean, I myself grew up "looking backwards" at Hammer films when they were shown on the telly during my formative years, and that was a good couple of decades (eh...nearly) after they had hit the big time. And cinema had already changed a lot by the mid-70s when I began to explore the old Universal horror series and even the silents, and I was able to assimilate their language without even thinking about it.
Where I do think we coincide, although you didn't mention it specifically, is that there wasn't much choice when we (or at least "I") were growing up. We'd get our filmic education from the telly because there was nothing else on! So we were kind of "forced" to look backwards. With the amount of TV Channels, DVDs, on-line jobbies etc I wonder how many folks today "choose" to explore the past like an archaeologist....
True. I myself became a teenager in 1980, and the television series and films I watched on TV were mostly from the '60s. So I, too, was looking at material that was 10 to 20 years old by that time. My reasoning, then, is that a body needs to be receptive to film-making and acting and musical styles from the past in order to appreciate them. But as the decades roll on, how many people born after 1990, and grew up with digital media in this information age, will possess qualities such as tolerance and patience towards art which is not current?
To me, something prior to 1950 is "old"; to many others, "old" means greater than 12 months (thanks to computer software which becomes out-dated in a matter of months when the next "version" of it is released)...
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Where's Thor to tell us that we're a pair of old fuddie-duddies (or however you spell it)?
Just thinking about how great Peter Cushing was. He could express steely determination and cruelty, charm, elegance and vulnerability so apparently effortlessly. And sometimes within the same scene!
Which reminds me of FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED. I may have a few details wrong, but the scene goes something like this - Cushing has just spent some time being very courteous and gracious to a lady whose husband is dead but his brain lives on in another body. She knows nothing of this of course, but Cushing is fully aware that he has been "found out", or at least his lab has been discovered. After much "Don't be distressed my dear, I assure you that your husband will be fine, now let me accompany you to the door, and please, if there is anything at all I can do to help, do not hesitate to call by, thank you my dear", and he shows her out. As he closes the door behind her he swings round and barks at his assistants - "Pack! We're leaving!" Classic.
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