Stars we lost in 2016 – PT 1.

January 23, 2017 Alan Royle 0

  Every year the movie world loses irreplaceable talent to the ravages of time, illness and mishap, and 2016 was no exception. Here is a brief look at some of the performers whose unique personas will no longer grace our screens. Fortunately, unlike most of us, their best works will […]

Did you know?

January 21, 2017 Alan Royle 0

  Fifty or more years after The Magnificent Seven first graced our screens in 1960, it is still the second-most repeated movie on American television. Only Casablanca is shown more. Actor James Coburn could thank a scheduled strike by the Screen Actors Guild for his opportunity to star in it. […]

Did you know?

December 26, 2016 Alan Royle 3

  When the United Artists cast and crew arrived in Prague, Czechoslovakia in June 1968 to shoot this picture, Alexander Dubcek had only recently become the Communist Party Secretary in Czechoslovakia. Unlike his predecessors, he was a man bent on improving the lot of his countrymen by softening the hard-line […]

Did you know?

December 6, 2016 Alan Royle 0

  RUBY KEELER I recently watched 42nd Street (1933) in its entirety, having only seen excerpts until then. The acting was very ordinary, the sound quality (as expected) was inferior, and the highlighted singers were mostly awful. And that includes Ruby Keeler. In fact, she not only couldn’t sing, she […]

The making of ‘The Magnificent Seven’ (1960)

July 17, 2016 Alan Royle 7

  The Mirisch brothers, Walter, Marvin and Harold, produced a number of highly profitable movies in the fifties and sixties – Some Like it Hot (1959), West Side Story (1961), The Pink Panther (1963) and In the Heat of the Night (1967) were among them. The Magnificent Seven and The […]

The Best Movie Music?

May 4, 2015 admin 0

  Brief Note: At last, the day has arrived! After years of research, and months of hard work from my son Peter setting up this site and connecting with Amazon and Kindle, today we launch book two, ‘Movies Based on True Stories’. It is 626 pages in length (on Kindle), covers […]