Severin Films Salutes Peter Cushing On Dec. 12 With The Six-Disc Blu-ray Collection Titled Cushing Curiosities

Severin Films, with sales and distribution support provided by MVD Entertainment Group, will have genre fans anticipating the arrival this coming Dec. 12 of the six-disc Blu-ray collection titled Cushing Curiosities.

The term “genre fan” and “Cushing” used in the same sentence?   That can only mean Peter Cushing … and naturally when you say Peter Cushing the name Christopher Lee springs to mind.   And Hammer Films!   And Amicus Productions … horror … Frankenstein, Dracula, and more!!

So what do we have here?   Sure, there are a couple of horror treasures here (restored), but Peter Cushing as an actor did much more than genre films … he was a damn good Sherlock Holmes too.   

Severin is serving up a sampler platter that includes five feature films and six BBC “teleplays,” which translates to six made-for-television films, all starring Cushing as Sherlock Holmes.

We kick off with the 1960 film (’61 domestic) release of Code of Silence (Trouble in the Sky was the domestic theatrical title), directed by Charles Frend (who begin his film career as an editor) and featuring Peter Cushing as a commercial pilot for British Empire Airways who might be responsible for a series of accidents.   It was something of a break between The Mummy (1959) and The Brides of Dracula (1960) … maybe to avoid being typecast.

Another non-genre production that dropped in about the same time was the Boulting Brothers (John and Roy) 1960 film production of Suspect (1961 domestic as The Risk), a tale about Cold War espionage and a potential bio-weapon.

The third non-genre film in the mix is director Quentin Lawrence’s 1963 film release of The Man Who Finally Died, teaming Cushing with Stanley Baker.   It didn’t arrive theatrically in the domestic market until 1967.

As mentioned, there are also six Sherlock Holmes entries included in this collection from Severin Films.   In the fall of 1968, Cushing joined the long-running BBC series as Holmes in A Study in Scarlet, which was quickly-followed by the two-part, The Hound of the Baskervilles … the other three included in this collection are The Boscombe Valley Mystery, The Sign of Four and The Blue Carbuncle.

Rounding out this six-disc collection are the meat and potatoes for genre fans.  We begin with Incense for the Damned, which is popularly known as Bloodsuckers.   It’s a muddled affair, but the mere presence of Cushing makes it an important entry in his canon of film work.   

 

This is, however, is a restored extended version, which could change everything in terms of how the film has been previously reviewed.

And finally, we have French filmmaker Pierre Grustein’s 1974 horror entry, Tender Dracula (dubbed version surfaced domestically in 1975 and was retitled The Big Scare).   Cushing plays a horror actor who has grown weary of playing vampires … a couple of his writers (with girlfriends along) visit his castle in an effort to talk him out of it.   As the evening progresses, they come to believe that “MacGregor” (Cushing) might actually be a vampire!!

Tender Dracula is a director’s cut of the film (previous versions were missing on the order of 20 minutes worth of footage).

Bonus goodies include commentaries, vintage interview sessions and more!