Captain's Theatre: BIGGLES: Peter Cushing's Final Bow

Peter Cushing was an integral part of several "franchise" series...

...including Hammer Studios' Frankenstein and Dracula series (as various Frankensteins and Van Helsings), Amicus' Dr Who and EC Comics duologies,  Star Wars (as Grand Moff Tarkin, the only guy besides the Emperor with the chutzpah to boss Darth Vader around), At the Earth's Core (as Abner Perry, inventor of a giant mechanical mole in the first of a projected Pellucidar series that never developed) and Sherlock Holmes (in films and a tv series).

British DVD cover

His final film was another potential franchise series...Biggles: Adventures in Time (1986).

Based on a popular British series of juvenile novels by Captain W E Johns (who reached the lower rank of Pilot Officer in real life),  the movie takes 1980s ad executive Jim Ferguson (Alex Hyde-White, son of actor Wilfred Hyde-White) through time back to World War I , where he encounters dashing British pilot James "Biggles" Bigglesworth (Neil Dickson) as he attempts to stop a secret German sonic weapon from being used against the Allies.

As retired Air Commodore Colonel William Raymond, who was Biggles' commander in 1917 and now lives secretly inside London's Tower Bridge in what was obviously meant to be a base of operations for the characters in later films, Cushing is the lynchpin of the story, explaining the whys and hows of the time-travel phenomenon that links the two characters from 1917 and 1986!

The movie itself is like Flash Gordon (1980), in that it's a tongue-in-cheek high adventure/sci fi amalgam.

Unfortunately, it didn't do well either in England (where the audience felt it didn't do justice to the Biggles character), or America (where Biggles was almost totally-unknown).

Here's the trailer, which plays up Peter's role...
...a feature about the movie from the BBC series Blue Peter...
...and here's the whole movie, unavailable on DVD in the US!

We hope you've enjoyed our posts featuring the legendary Peter Cushing.
There's more cool Cushing stuff to come!

Bookmark us and visit often!

And check out other posts from the Peter Cushing Centennial Blogathon by clicking on the art below!

Trivia:
Many of Peter's Biggles co-stars have also been involved in franchises...not always sucessfully!
Alex Hyde-White (Jim) was Reed Richards in the unreleased Fantastic Four movie (1995) as well as being a regular in the second season of the 1980s Buck Rogers in the 25th Century tv series.
Neil Dickson (Biggles) was the co-star of the short-lived She-Wolf of London/Love & Curses tv series as well as the voice of ongoing villain DreadKnight in the 1990s animated Iron Man series.
William Hootkins (Chuck) has appeared in numererous genre films including Batman (1989) as Detective Eckhart, Flash Gordon (1980) as Munson, Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) as Major Eaton, Superman IV: the Quest for Peace (1988) as Harry Howler, plus a taxi driver in the last two Peter Sellers Pink Panther films, and the Crimson Dynamo on the 1990s animated Iron Man series.

Captain's Library: DOCTOR WHO MONTHLY "Dalek Movies"

Peter Cushing IS Doctor Who!

Sadly, most of today's audience doesn't even know he played Doctor Who...twice!

Note: I didn't say "The Doctor", since Cushing's version was not a Time Lord from Gallifrey, but an eccentric human scientist!

To be fair, the exact concept of who (or what) the character was didn't get defined until the final episode of the first Doctor's run, which was done after the first Cushing film!

In the Hartnell stories the Doctor is said to be from "another time, another world", but that can be just taken as his being from a future Earth (which certainly would fill both criteria).

Even when other characters from his home (like the Meddling Monk, who also had a TARDIS) were introduced, no clear definition of where (or when) they were from was presented!

(The terms "Time Lord" and "Gallifrey" were first used during the second Doctor's {Patrick Troughton] run.)

Though Cushing's two films were adaptations of BBC-TV serials ("Dead Planet" and "Dalek Invasion of Earth"), they are not considered part of the official canon of the TV series.

Here's the cover-featured story from Doctor Who Monthly #84 (1984), which was only available in America through Forbidden Planet's New York store!

(The series was made available to the US market through Diamond Distribution a couple of years later, but this particular issue wasn't.)

You can see Peter's Doctor Who in comic book form...

Doctor Who and the Daleks Part 1

Doctor Who and the Daleks Part 2

Daleks vs the Martians

Plus Peter Cushing in other Hammer Film roles...

Baron Victor Von Frankenstein 

in Curse of Frankenstein

Part 1

Part 2

Lawrence Van Helsing

in Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires

Part 1

Part 2

There's more cool Cushing stuff to come!

Bookmark us and visit often!

And check out other posts from the Peter Cushing Centennial Blogathon by clicking on the art below!

Captain's Library: DOCTOR WHO "Daleks vs the Martians"

Set between the two 1960s Dr Who films starring Peter Cushing...

...this tale was created for Doctor Who Magazine's 101st issue thirty years later in 1996!

As it turns out, it was, as we saw in Daleks: Invasion Earth, 2150 AD...

Some feel the Peter Cushing Doctor Who is an "alternate universe" version of the character, much as the current Star Trek films depict an official alternate version of the Classic Trek universe.
There's also speculation that the two films are actually part of the BBC's universe as movies portraying the Doctor's public image based on rumor and speculation!
Considering that Peter was offered the TV series role twice (after the 1st Doctor, William Hartnell, and 4th Doctor, Tom Baker, announced their departures) it's not unreasonable to assume the BBC would've found a way to incorporate material from the flicks into the series.
Note: Cushing turned down the first offer feeling he didn't want to do an ongoing TV series.
The second time, he was interested, but had no time in his schedule to accomodate a commitment of several months!
You can learn more about the genesis of this strip (and see larger scans of the art) at THIS POST at the amazing Peter Cushing Appreciation Society blog.
The official comic book adaptation of Doctor Who and the Daleks can been seen at Part 1 and Part 2.
(Plus a bonus page of videos HERE.)

Tomorrow:

An extensive text feature (with cool pix) about Peter's Dr Who films from an even earlier (and harder to find) Doctor Who Monthly!

And check out other posts from the Peter Cushing Centennial Blogathon by clicking on the art below!

Captain's Library & Theatre: JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS Conclusion

When Last We Left Our Heroes...

...we'll add that one crewmember, Acastus (son of the king who sent Jason on this quest) tried to kill the Argonauts' leader, then dove into the sea when he failed...

This Dell Comics adaptation is listed as Movie Classic #12-376-31, not "Four Color #????" as most of the Dell one-shots were.

Written by Paul S Newman and illustrated by Maurice Whitman, Dick Giordano, and Vince Colletta (with a couple of re-drawn panels by Mike Sekowsky), the adaptation is remarkably-faithful to the finished film with good likenesses of the actors and Harryhausen-created creatures.
That said, this final part seems very...compacted, not giving the battles with the Hydra or Skeleton Army the chance to be the spectacles they are in the movie...

I saw this film when it was released to theatres in 1963.
I was five.
When this sequence started, I ducked behind the seat and wouldn't come out until it was over.
A couple of years later, when the film was re-released, I went to see it again.
This time I watched the whole flick.
And I was hooked.
After that, any time a Harryhausen movie was released (or re-released) I DEMANDED to be taken to it...until I was old enough to go on my own.
In 1981, I was working as an editor/designer for the publisher who produced the movie souvenir magazines sold in theatres.
The publisher and I attended a licensors' screening of a workprint of Clash of the Titans.
About 2/3rds of the film was complete, but I was still blown-away by what I saw up on the screen, especially by the rough stop-motion footage and, in a couple of scenes, Harryhausen's production art in spots where animation was still being filmed.
The publisher thought it was "old-fashioned" and chose to go with another fantasy flick (which was using computer-assisted stop motion) in its' place on the schedule.
The film we did a book for was DragonSlayer.
Clash of the Titans, produced for $15,000,000, did $41,000,000, became a perennial on home video, was recently remade, and even had a sequel.
DragonSlayer did $14,000,000 (not even making its' $18,000,000 budget back), and has largely been forgotten.
To be fair, DragonSlayer has some great elements, but it's not on the level of Clash.

Captain's Library: JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS Part 2

When Last We Left Jason...

Foiled in his attempt to avenge his family's murder, Jason is given the task of finding the magical Golden Fleece.

He stages a contest to assemble the greatest adventurers alive into a ship's crew, and commissions Argus, the finest shipbuilder in Greece, to build a vessel capable of traveling anywhere...

Tomorrow:

The Golden Fleece!

The Hydra!

and the Army of Skeletons!

WOW!

This Dell Comics adaptation is listed as Movie Classic #12-376-31, not "Four Color #????" as most of the Dell one-shots were.

Written by Paul S Newman and illustrated by Maurice Whitman, Dick Giordano, and Vince Colletta (with a couple of re-drawn panels by Mike Sekowsky), the adaptation is remarkably-faithful to the finished film with good likenesses of the actors and Harryhausen-created creatures.

Captain's Library: JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS Part 1

With the passing of the legendary Ray Harryhausen...

...we're presenting the comic adaptation of, IMHO, his greatest film, perfectly combining all the elements (story, live actors, animation, cinematography, music, etc.) into one seamless blend.

Tomorrow:

The Voyage Begins!

This Dell Comics adaptation is listed as Movie Classic #12-376-31, not "Four Color #????" as most of the Dell one-shots were.

Written by Paul S Newman and illustrated by Maurice Whitman, Dick Giordano, and Vince Colletta, the adaptation is remarkably-faithful to the finished film with good likenesses of the actors and Harryhausen-created creatures.