Peter Cushing: A One-Way Ticket to Hollywood

Said Cushing in a 1966 interview ''You have to have a great ego to want to play 'Hamlet' all the time and I just haven't got that ego'' - and this light-weight, enjoyable and thankfully never enjoayable feature-length documentary, on his life, proves such a sentiment. Cushing, avuncular and self-effacing, is interviewed by an occassionallly annoying Vosburgh in this description of his career from his days on stage in England, through 1940's Hollywood, his successes on tv, Hammer and his meditations on the after-life. Thankfully Cushing effortlesses rises above the very cinematic forays that made him internationally famous (Including Hammer productions that he appeared in during the 60's and 70' that became anacronystic with time - but never quite fashionably ironic) and showcases his life in an excellent anacdotal fashion.

One of the great actors in movie history, and not only related with horror films, Peter Cushing has been forgotten by many critics (or art defenders). This documentary is a long and enthusiastic interview in which Peter talks about a lot of things, including movies, great anecdotes and famous colleagues he has worked with. But what about himself, his unforgettable career, his fame made by lots of young and old fans? Unfortunately, Peter makes many references about "the pleasure of working with...", "it was something incredible to have a dialogue next to..." instead of estimating himself. I don´t mean "hey, look how good I am working as an actor", but at least a little more time for himself and his own feelings and classic movies he starred. We know Peter was an excellent person and not a presumed professional. That´s why he talks here with an enormous respect for his colleagues. He was a great man, always with that sense of humor we couldn´t see very often in his works. I have always seen him (this is a very personal opinion, of course) as "the arm of God", as the title of the Film Comment note published due to his death in 1994. He´s simply a celluloid legend.