THE H.U.A.C & McCARTHYISM PT1

THE H.U.A.C & McCARTHYISM PT1

October 20, 2023 Alan Royle 0

  The HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee)  was created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty and rebel activities in the USA by individuals or organizations suspected of having Communist ties. The threat of Communism, labelled as ‘The Red Scare’ drove a wedge between society and the US Government. As investigations […]

‘Exodus’ (1960) & ‘Major League’ (1989)

‘Exodus’ (1960) & ‘Major League’ (1989)

December 7, 2021 Alan Royle 2

  EXODUS (1960)                    When, in 1958, American author Leon Uris published Exodus, his fictional novel about the founding of the state of Israel, it was only a matter of time before Hollywood would buy the rights and turn it into a movie. Autocratic taskmaster Otto Preminger was chosen to direct […]

RANDOM QUOTES – PT8

October 8, 2019 Alan Royle 4

    TONY CURTIS:                                                        ‘They gave me away as a prize once – a ‘Win Tony Curtis for a Weekend’ competition. The woman […]

THE MAKING OF ‘SPARTACUS’ (1960).

March 24, 2019 Alan Royle 9

  There were three Servile Wars in B.C. Italy; the one involving escaped slave/gladiator Spartacus being the last of them. It ended with a final battle in 71 BC. Stanley Kubrick replaced Anthony Mann as director of Spartacus (1960), after Mann and the star, Kirk Douglas, repeatedly clashed. Douglas and […]

Reds under the bed – Hollywood and the HUAC.

December 10, 2015 admin 12

  John Huston directed and Sterling Hayden starred in The Asphalt Jungle in 1950. At the time both were members of The Committee for the First Amendment, a group formed in September 1947 to support the Hollywood Ten and to oppose those who wished to blacklist actors, writers etc. who […]

JOHN WAYNE – The man and the myth.

October 14, 2015 admin 8

  A lot has been written about John Wayne and his early days as an actor in ‘B’ westerns during the 1930s, although even he thought ‘B-Grade’ was rather over-generous description. ‘Hell, they were a lot farther down the alphabet than that’, he recalled. And they were, too. Rock bottom in […]