Peter Cushing Movies
Imperious, intellectual-looking British actor Peter Cushing studied for a theatrical career under the guidance of Cairns James at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Cushing supported himself as a clerk in a surveyor's office before making his first professional stage appearance in 1935. Four years later, he came to America, where he was featured in a handful of Broadway plays and... (read more) Hollywood feature films. He had a small part in The Man in the Iron Mask (1939) and also doubled for Louis Hayward in the "twin" scenes; he was among the rather overaged students in Laurel and Hardy's A Chump at Oxford (1940); and he was second male lead in the Carole Lombard vehicle Vigil in the Night (1940). After closing out his Hollywood tenure with They Dare Not Love (1941), he returned to stage work in England. His next film appearance was as Osric in Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (1948), which also featured his future co-star Christopher Lee in a nonspeaking bit (Cushing and Lee's paths would cross again cinematically in Moulin Rouge [1952], though, as in Hamlet, they shared no scenes).
In the early '50s, Cushing became a TV star by virtue of his performance in the BBC production of George Orwell's 1984. Still, film stardom would elude him until 1957, when he was cast as Baron Frankenstein in Hammer Films' The Curse of Frankenstein. It was the first of 19 appearances under the Hammer banner; Cushing went on to play Van Helsing in Horror of Dracula (1958) and Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), roles which, like Baron Frankenstein, he would repeat time and again. Though his horror film appearances brought him fame and fortune, Cushing ruefully commented that he'd prefer not to be so tightly typecast: It is significant that his entry in the British publication Who's Who in the Theatre lists all of his theatrical credits, but only one title -- Hamlet -- in his film manifest. In 1975, after a decade's absence, Cushing made a return to the theater in Washington Square, ironically playing the role originated on Broadway by fellow Sherlock Holmes interpreter Basil Rathbone. Many of Cushing's later film assignments were in the tongue-in-cheek category, notably his sneeringly evil Governor Tarkin in Star Wars (1977) and his backwards-talking librarian in Top Secret! (1984). Retiring from the screen in 1986, Peter Cushing penned two volumes of memoirs: An Autobiography (1986) and Past Forgetting (1988). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Innocent Blood
R 1992
An uneven but entertaining blend of graphic horror and black comedy from John Landis, very much in the mode of the director's successful An American Werewolf in London....
Monsters and Maniacs
1988
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Biggles
PG 1986
Based on the characters created by popular fantasy author Capt. W. E. Johns, Biggles: Adventures in Time casts Neil Dickson in the title role. Biggles is a World War I...
The Masks of Death
1984
Twenty-seven years after Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), Peter Cushing makes a belated return to the role of Sherlock Holmes in the made-for-television Masks of...
Helen Keller: The Miracle Continues
1984
This semi-sequel to William Gibson's The Miracle Worker recounts the early adult years of the profoundly handicapped but brilliant Helen Keller. Helen, played by Mare...
Silent Scream
1984
In this film, a collection of rare and unique animals, including human beings, becomes a captivating hobby for the former commander of a Nazi concentration camp. ~ Iotis Erlewine,...
Top Secret!
PG 1984
The second of Zucker-Abraham-Zucker's theatrical-feature spoofs (Airplane was the first, discounting the patchwork Kentucky Fried Movie), Top Secret! lampoons practically...
Sword of the Valiant
PG 1983
In this uneven dramatization of a legendary sword-and-sorcery tale, the Green Knight (Sean Connery) is a magician who appears at King Arthur's court brandishing an axe and...
House of the Long Shadows
1982
In this umpteenth remake of the George M. Cohan-Earl Derr Biggers play Seven Keys to Baldpate, Desi Arnaz Jr. plays Kenneth Magee, the young writer who bets that he...
Monster Island
1981
After cannibalizing Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth in his 1977 film Where Time Began, Spanish director Juan Piquer Simon returned to the author with...
A Tale of Two Cities
1980
Chris Sarandon does the "far, far, better thing" when he tackles the dual role of Syndey Carton and Charles Darnay in this Anglo-American TV adaptation of Charles Dickens'...
Arabian Adventure
G 1979
A valiant prince battles an evil sorcerer to rescue his true love in this colorful fantasy, which features high adventure and plenty of special effects. The hero must overcome a...
Hitler's Son
1978
The leader of a right-wing political party discovers that a young man named Willi (Bud Cort), an illiterate woodcarver, is actually the son of Adolf Hitler. He and his...
The Uncanny
1978
In an attempt to sell his manuscript, a writer tries to persuade a prospective publisher that cats are ultimately evil by providing him with three different stories of kitty...
Shock Waves
PG 1977
This horror film concerns a shipwrecked yachting party. Rose (Brooke Adams) and her fellow yacht-mates, including the captain (John Carradine) run aground on an island when...
Die Standarte
1977
Toward the end of 1918, soldiers in the Austrian army were well aware that things were not going well. In this story, an army cadet arrives to serve in Belgrade and receives...
Land of the Minotaur
PG 1977
Brian Eno composed the score for this horror tale about a cult (led by Peter Cushing) which kidnaps Greek tourists for their ritual murders. Also known as Minotaur and...
Star Wars
PG 1977
George Lucas' mythological popcorn movie is a two-hour roller-coaster ride that has passed into movie legend. The story, for the tiny number of people not familiar with it,...
The Great Houdinis
1976
Made for television, The Great Houdinis tells the life story of famed American illusionist/escape-artist Harry Houdini and his wife Bess. Studiously avoiding covering the...
The New Avengers: The Eagle's Nest
1976
The New Avengers begins its two-season run with "old" avenger John Steed (Patrick Macnee), as fastidious and gentlemanly as ever, teamed with two new, young, and...