ROD TAYLOR – an under-rated Aussie star.

ROD TAYLOR – an under-rated Aussie star.

February 22, 2021 Alan Royle 0

  ROD TAYLOR Australian actor Rod Taylor had been in Hollywood less than a year when he was offered a long-term TV contract with Warner Brothers. Having tasted success as a radio star in his home-town Sydney, New South Wales, his initial plan was to make it as a movie […]

MOVIE TRIVIA – PT167

MOVIE TRIVIA – PT167

February 19, 2021 Alan Royle 2

    CLEATUS CALDWELL    (1923-93)                    Hollywood history is chock-full of stories about beautiful young women who arrive in the town from afar with stars in their eyes and high hopes of making it big in the movies. I don’t know what the percentages are regarding those who succeed and those […]

RANDOM QUOTES – PT40.

RANDOM QUOTES – PT40.

February 16, 2021 Alan Royle 0

  CHRISTOPHER REEVE:               [On being visited in hospital by comedian Robin Williams, shortly after the horse-riding accident that left Reeve permanently paralyzed]: ‘There was this guy wearing a blue scrub hat and a yellow gown and with a Russian accident, being some insane Russian […]

LET’S GO TO THE MOVIES – PT20.

LET’S GO TO THE MOVIES – PT20.

February 13, 2021 Alan Royle 2

               AIRPLANE! (1980) In 1980, Paramount Pictures released a parody titled Airplane! in most countries and Flying High in Australia. It was a massive box-office success that cost a meagre $3.5 million to make but brought in a staggering $158 million around the world! […]

WORLD WAR TWO – The stars & their stories – PT41.

WORLD WAR TWO – The stars & their stories – PT41.

February 10, 2021 Alan Royle 6

            PETER ORTIZ (1913-88)                                                    The highlight of the undistinguished film career of Peter Ortiz was probably his portrayal of Captain St. Jacques in the 1950 John Wayne western Rio Grande. His wartime career, however, is the stuff of legend. Multi-lingual Pierre ‘Peter’ Ortiz was the most decorated man to […]

MOVIE TRIVIA – PT166.

MOVIE TRIVIA – PT166.

February 7, 2021 Alan Royle 0

  BING CROSBY Actor/singer Bing Crosby married twice in his life and fathered seven children (six sons and a daughter). His first wife, singer Dixie Lee, gave birth to Gary in 1933; twin boys Phillip and Dennis in 1934, and Lindsay four years later in 1938. She and Bing were […]

GREAT BASEBALL MOVIES.

4 GREAT BASEBALL MOVIES.

February 4, 2021 Alan Royle 2

  It would be fair to say that I am not a fan of sporting biopics as a rule, probably because most actors (and actresses) are not very athletic and their lack of coordination and natural ability is usually instantly evident and annoying, a legacy no doubt of them treading […]

GREAT MOVIE DIALOGUE – The Last Valley.

GREAT MOVIE DIALOGUE – The Last Valley.

January 31, 2021 Alan Royle 3

THE LAST VALLEY (1971) This greatly under-rated movie is a fictional piece set in the Thirty Years War which began in 1618. A former teacher named Vogel (Omar Sharif) stumbles upon a village in the mountains that is untouched by the war or the Great Plague, a village rich in […]

RANDOM QUOTES – PT39.

RANDOM QUOTES – PT39.

January 25, 2021 Alan Royle 2

  KEANU REEVES:              ‘I’m a meathead, man. You’ve got smart people, and you’ve got dumb people. I just happen to be dumb.’ [On Patrick Swayze when the two co-starred in Point Break (1991)] ‘He was a beautiful person, an artist! There were some sky-diving sequences in this film we did […]