‘THE SEVEN-YEAR ITCH’ (1955) – A romantic comedy?

December 25, 2019 Alan Royle 0

Billy Wilder’s The Seven Year Itch (1955) is an unusual film – a sex comedy that contains no sex! Thanks to the iconic image of its star Marilyn Monroe standing atop a subway grating with her dress being blown upwards, revealing her legs and whatever else imaginative cinema-goers think they […]

20 ACTORS/PERFORMANCES I LEAST ENJOY WATCHING

December 28, 2018 Alan Royle 19

  Down the decades I have developed a powerful dislike for certain actors and/or individual performances, players or portrayals that I felt detracted from some really good movies (and a few bad ones). So, I wrote out a list of the really irksome players (or moments) in all the films […]

Darwin Porter – Believe him or not? PT 3

October 28, 2017 Alan Royle 4

The third and final segment regarding ‘Katharine the Great’, the controversial Darwin Porter biography of Katherine Hepburn. Eleanor Roosevelt *Eleanor Roosevelt had a heavy crush on Kate although it was not reciprocated. In the early 1940s the First Lady wrote her many passionate letters, but it was a one-way love […]

B-LIST BEAUTIES – PT 3.

September 22, 2017 Alan Royle 0

            PEGGIE CASTLE (1927 – 73)                  The Yellow Tomahawk (1954) opposite Rory Calhoun                                   Audie Murphy                […]

Hollywood & the Catholic Legion of Decency (CLOD).

December 18, 2016 Alan Royle 6

  At the zenith of their power the ‘Seven Sisters’ (MGM, Warners, Paramount, Universal, Columbia, Fox and RKO) did much as they pleased. Few outsiders had any influence over their decisions or their conduct. Few, that is, with the exception of the Catholic Legion of Decency (CLOD). They were a […]

‘The Seven Year Itch’ (1955) – not a good movie.

August 20, 2016 Alan Royle 2

  Some movies seem to take on a life of their own. Suddenly and often inexplicably, they are lauded as masterpieces, works of art, living statements of the times. Easy Rider (1969) is one such film. I have always thought it was an over-rated ‘nothing’ picture, inhabited by two ‘druggies’ […]