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 […]

Stolen Oscars? Pt. 3

September 24, 2015 admin 26

  Part 3 of ‘Stolen Oscars?’ looks at some of the individual Academy Award winners who, for want of a better word, purloined their statuettes. I shall start with the Best Actor category. 1930/1             Lionel Barrymore for A Free Soul I haven’t actually seen any of the other nominated performances […]

TALLULAH BANKHEAD – The one and only.

September 1, 2015 admin 2

  The incomparable Tallulah Bankhead was born in Alabama in 1902 to a father who would become the Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1936 until 1940. At the age of eleven she was raped. At fifteen she ran away from home and before long was the toast of […]

GARY COOPER – The ultimate movie star.

June 13, 2015 admin 0

  He was born Frank Cooper in Helena, Montana, but his agent was born in Gary, Indiana, so his hometown was chosen for Coops’ Christian name. After all, the name Gary Cooper had a certain masculinity that Helena Cooper seemed to lack. A car accident in his youth broke Coop’s […]

Beau Geste (1939)

February 25, 2015 admin 0

  Ray Milland, Gary Cooper & Robert Preston in Beau Geste ( 1939 ) Gary Cooper (as Beau Geste): ‘I don’t know much about mutinies, but I do know it isn’t good form to plan them at the top of your voice.’

GRACE KELLY – Man-eater extraordinaire.

February 6, 2015 admin 14

    Every once in a while an actress comes along with whom the camera seems to fall in love. Ava Gardner, Marilyn Monroe and Greta Garbo were three one could name, but even these beauties took a back seat to Grace Kelly. She only made eleven movies, yet she […]