HAROLD SAKATA (1920-82) His name might not ring many bells for cinema fans, but his face usually does. Harold Sakata achieved cinematic immortality portraying Auric Goldfinger’s personal bodyguard Oddjob, steel-rimmed bowler hat and all, in the third of the James Bond franchise films Goldfinger (1964). Born in Hawaii of Japanese […]
BUTTERFLY MCQUEEN (1911-95) Born Thelma McQueen in 1911 in Tampa Florida, she acquired the nickname ‘Butterfly’ – a tribute to her constantly moving hands – for her performance of the Butterfly Ballet in a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She never much cared for her Christian […]
Clark Gable as Rhett Butler in GWTW (1939) The Academy Awards is a competition, but it is one that has seldom been conducted on a level playing field. A winner one year may very well not even have been nominated in a stronger year. Historically, the two […]
L to R – James Darren, Greg Peck, David Niven & Anthony Quinn in The Guns of Navarone (1961) The problem with the WW2 action flick The Guns of Navarone (1961) should be immediately apparent to just about everyone. Of the six commandos sent to disable the mighty guns of the […]
Luise Rainer While there is no doubt that Hollywood admires actors and actresses who win Oscars, it is equally true that the industry only likes to employ those who make money, and to be able to do one does not necessarily mean you can do the other. Take Luise Rainer, […]
There have been some quite wonderful ‘Best Picture’ Oscar winners since 1927/8 and there have been some shockers, too. Just for the heck of it, I went through the list and jotted down my top ten and my bottom ten. If anyone agrees with either list I shall be flabbergasted, […]
In the 1955 Hitchcock picture To Catch a Thief, there is a scene in which John Robie (Cary Grant) is discussing the cook’s ‘sensitive hands’ with an insurance agent and casually mentions that those hands once strangled a German general without a sound. For German audiences, however, the words were […]
LITA BARON (1923 – 2015) The Broken Star (1956) opposite Howard Duff Tiny Lita Baron (she was just 4’11”) was a fiery Andalusion-born singer/dancer from Almeria, Spain who performed up front with Xavier Cugat’s Orchestra at […]
As far as film noirs go, The Blue Gardenia rests somewhere near the middle of the genre. It has its moments, but the hurried ending detracts from its overall effectiveness. Indeed, if we didn’t know better, we could be forgiven for thinking that the production suddenly ran out of […]
Bobby DARIN Sandra DEE (1960 – 67) divorced Bobby Darin & Sandra Dee As a struggling songwriter in the legendary Brill Building, Bobby met up and coming singer Connie Francis and fell desperately in love with her. The girl’s strict Italian father refused her permission to […]
Copyright © 2024 | WordPress Theme by MH Themes
