MORE favourite dead not-American actors: an Advent Calendar cont…
There’s often a thing about Peter Cushing (as with many other genre-bound actors) that if only he’d not been tarred with the Hammer brush, he’d have somehow fulfilled his potential as an actor more - been allowed to do more comedy, more drama, more serious work, more interesting things. And I’ve been guilty of thinking that sometimes (and also been pretty sniffy about Hammer films, mainly due to the law of diminishing returns) but you know what? A of all, there’s nothing wrong with being a genre star, second, he actually did do lots of other interesting things before, during and after his time as a horror actor, and c) Peter himself would tell you, in a kindly, gentlemanly, steely, perfectly enunciated way, that one should always do one’s best, whatever the job. And he bloody did. There are some really bloody shoddy films in his catalogue, but he never never fails to take the work seriously.
Also, it’s not like he never did any other stuff. He was one of the princes of british telly in the 50s (including playing D’Arcy, be still my heart). He’s a flamboyantly oleaginous Osric in Olivier’s Hamlet [1948] (where all the best bits are the bit parts); understated and intelligent in many 1950s films (Violent Playground, Time Without Pity); an engaging and tweedy small screen Holmes and of course he is a joy whenever he is himself, writing, being interviewed, behind the scenes, hanging out with his bestie Chris Lee.
It’s (especially) in the early Hammer films where he is at his finest though, because he gets flipping great roles, he is the bloody star, and those early Hammers are well written, well cast, have beautiful production values and - if you can ignore the liberties they take with the original stories - (I’m looking at you, Hound of the Baskervilles) then they are really great entertainment. And Peter, with his steely eyes, his beautiful voice, his cheekbones of JUSTICE (or OBSESSION, depending on what film it is), his athleticism, his intelligence, his humour, his sense of understatement, is fucking tremendous.
Favourite Role: it’s a tricky one, but I have to plump for Van Helsing in Horror of Dracula (1958) because open my flipping guts he is SO BAMF-tastically COOL. Also great clothes, and he is fighting the good fight, and (side bonus) is totally boyfs with Arthur.
Another good place to start: The Mummy (1959) where he is the most awesome archeologist since/before Indiana Jones and just oozes integrity and kickassness. Also - on the flipside - The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) which is top of the Your Fave Is Problematic pile because he is an icily obsessed Baron Frankenstein, possibly the most uncompromising one I’ve seen, and yet is still magnetic and super hot (I said it was a big YFIP, didn’t I).
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