Past Oscars – Pt 4 (1955-60)

October 31, 2016 Alan Royle 4

  1955               Marty – Best Picture                         Ernest Borgnine – Best Actor for Marty   Robert Mitchum in The Night of the Hunter Doris Day & Jimmy Cagney Well, at least Elia Kazan didn’t get Best Director for East of Eden despite being again nominated. […]

Did you know?

October 29, 2016 Alan Royle 2

  A few notes on Destry Rides Again (1939) For years writers have been saying that the bar-room fight scene between Marlene Dietrich and Una Merkel in Destry Rides Again (1939) was real, that the two actresses went at it hammer and tong because they loathed each other. That is simply untrue. In fact, […]

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The best films year by year – PT 2 (1945 – 52)

October 27, 2016 Alan Royle 0

  1945    OSCAR:         THE LOST WEEKEND Other nominees:    Anchors Aweigh The Bells of St. Mary’s Mildred Pierce Spellbound   My Top 10 films for 1945     #1   #2  #3  #4  #5  #6  #7  #8  #9  #10   COMMENTS:           This was one of the worst years for movies on record. […]

Sarah Miles – a candid eccentric?

October 25, 2016 Alan Royle 0

  Her father was an affluent engineer so Sarah grew up in a house with servants. She claims her childhood was a happy one although her mother often beat her with a hairbrush whenever she was naughty. Young people today probably regard this as a contradiction in terms, but being […]

The best pictures – year by year – PT 1 (1939-44).

October 23, 2016 Alan Royle 0

  I have often been flabbergasted or just plain disbelieving as the Academy ran out each year’s list of Oscar nominees, especially the Best Picture nominees, and time after time exceptional pictures simply did not make the list. Consequently, I thought I might (starting with 1939, the year movies came […]

W.A.M.P.A.S. Baby Stars 1922 – PT 1.

October 21, 2016 Alan Royle 0

  Between 1922 and 1934 (except for 1930 and 1933) the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers (WAMPAS) annually selected 13 up and coming young actresses as ‘The WAMPAS Baby Stars’ amid considerable media publicity and fanfare. No doubt, being selected must have given these young ladies visions of future […]

‘Hollywood – The Skeletons Are Out’ – a sampling

October 19, 2016 Alan Royle 0

  My latest book is titled Hollywood: The Skeletons Are Out. It contains 1,200 direct quotes by actors and directors about themselves, their colleagues and their films. Here is a random two dozen of them:   Young Joan Collins When Joan Collins was asked if she was ever unfaithful, she […]

Happy 100th birthday, Kirk… I think.

October 17, 2016 Alan Royle 8

  Kirk Douglas was born Issur Demsky in New York City to Jewish-Russian parents on 9 December 1916. Like Olivia de Havilland (in July) he will turn 100 in 2016. Back in 1958 his good friend Mike Todd asked him to fly to New York with him to celebrate Mike’s […]

Three old comics.

October 15, 2016 Alan Royle 0

                                     Jack Benny (1894 – 1974) In his will Jack Benny left instructions for a single red rose to be delivered to Mary Livingstone, his widow and co-star from his radio days, every morning […]