With his prominent cheekbones, sunken cheeks, and aquiline nose, Peter Cushing is undoubtedly one of the most striking and iconic faces in horror movie history. Combining his graceful physical appearance with his calm, well-spoken manners, Cushing has often been described as “the knight of horror.” As a longtime Peter Cushing fan, I would certainly agree with that designation, as I think he brought a certain kind of class and quality inherent to every role he played, horror or not.
My earliest memories of watching a Peter Cushing movie date back to the late sixties, when I first saw him in the Hammer horror movies that I came to love so much. When I was a little kid I stayed up late to watch Appointment With Fear every Monday night at 10.30pm. M., I was instantly struck by this fantastic British actor with a captivating face, a man who could play Baron Frankenstein or Dracula’s archenemy, Dr. Van Helsing. with equal charm and charisma. In those distant days, I had to be content with an old black and white television, so seeing Mr. Cushing in that context was exciting enough in itself. But then when we finally got our color television in 1975, and then I got to see all those wonderful Hammer horror movies in glorious Technicolor, well that was an even greater joy than my initial exposure to them in my old black and -! White dates back to the sixties!
It wasn’t just the Hammer movies that he loved Mr Cushing in, as he made some great appearances in the Amicus movies as well. Amicus were Hammer’s main rivals when it came to producing high-quality horror films, and my favorite role as Cushing in these films was that of the tragic ex-garbage man Arthur Grimsdyke in Tales from the Crypt (1972), who is pursued into committing suicide by the ruthless actions of a snooty neighbor, who opposes the way Grimsdyke befriends local children and has dogs in his house, taking the dirt from which, after Everything is just a simple case of a lonely and harmless old man who acts as a kind uncle with the local children. This is undoubtedly one of Cushing’s best roles, and I really felt sorry for Mr. Grimsdyke when his tormentor finally led the poor old man to hang himself. But of course, this being a Cushing horror movie, and one in which the character has been tampering with a Ouija board, it didn’t all end there, as a year later, Grimsdyke’s decomposing corpse rises from the ground. grave to exact a gruesome revenge on his ruthless neighbor, ripping out his heart and leaving it for his father to find the next morning, wrapped in a blood-soaked cloth with a Valentine’s poem written in blood. Classic Amicus stuff!
Along with all his Hammer films, the Cushing Amicus films occupy a special place on my DVD shelf. Whenever I look at my DVD collection, I often think to myself that when I used to see Peter in all those fantastically creepy movies years ago, I never thought I’d one day have them all in this format, always there to watch. whenever you want.
It wasn’t often that Peter Cushing played a baddie, but when he did, he could really impress, as unforgettably as he could when he played the gracious parts of a gentleman. The movie that sees Mr. Cushing in his most ruthless and disgusting form is, to me, the 1969 classic Frankenstein must be destroyed. In fact, of all the Frankenstein movies he starred in, this is the one that truly portrays the baron in his darkest moment, leaning towards such shocking acts as rape and murder. He blackmails a young couple into helping him with his ever-fanatical experiments, and when the girl, Anna (played by the lovely Veronica Carlson), unwittingly frees the monster, she slays her in cold blood. Next to the tragic image of poor Mr. Arthur Grimsdyke hanging from his neck in Tales from the Crypt, the scene where poor Anna lies dead with Frankenstein’s scalpel sticking out of her stomach in Frankenstein must be destroyed It certainly ranks high on my list of Cushing movies that have the most shocking value.
Of course, everyone knows that Peter Cushing played many other roles outside of the horror genre, and has appeared in countless stage productions portraying literary characters like Mr. Darcy from Pride and prejudice. Oh yeah, and who could forget his occasional guest appearances on The Morecambe and Wise show, where he persistently harassed the two comedians for their “money.” However, it is for his impressive performances as Baron Frankenstein and Abraham Van Helsing, along with all his other horror roles, that I will mostly remember him. He made those parts his own, just as his great friend Christopher Lee did with Dracula and Boris Karloff with Frankenstein’s Monster, and no one, but no one, could occupy his shoes in that sense.
Today’s horror film industry is sadly a much poorer place without Peter Cushing, the “knight of horror.”
