Did you know? (D)

June 27, 2016 Alan Royle 3

    Recently I watched a British WW2 drama made in 1953 called Appointment in London (aka Raiders in the Sky). It was pretty good, too, although the final segment (a bomber raid on Germany) was drawn out far too long. The cast was first class with Dirk Bogarde, Ian […]

Did you know? (C)

June 25, 2016 Alan Royle 4

    The 1934 picture Bolero teamed Carole Lombard and George Raft for the first time. True to Hollywood form they were soon embroiled in a steamy affair. Raft was renowned in Tinsel Town for being a ‘sexual technician’. When asked by a reporter to name Hollywood’s greatest lover, Carole […]

Did you know? (B)

June 23, 2016 Alan Royle 6

  Jude Law’s marriage to Sadie Frost began in 1997 and ended in 2003. A contributing factor to the break-up was a near tragedy in October 2002 when Iris, their two year-old daughter, swallowed an ecstasy tablet she found on the floor at a children’s party and was rushed to […]

Jean Harlow – quite a woman.

June 21, 2016 Alan Royle 0

  Born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1911, 16 year-old Harlean Carpenter ran away from home to marry a 21 year-old businessman named Charles McGrew in 1927. The couple lived off his rather large inheritance for a couple of years, but it is believed that his drinking led to an […]

Did you know? (A)

June 19, 2016 Alan Royle 0

  Producer Robert Evans purchased the rights to F Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby in 1971 with the intention of having his wife Ali MacGraw play Daisy in the 1974 production. However, while waiting for the script to be finalised, Ali went off and made The Getaway with Steve […]

Jennifer O’Neill and ‘The Summer of ’42’.

June 13, 2016 Alan Royle 34

  In 1971 a 23 year-old unknown actress named Jennifer O’Neill made quite a splash, especially with teenaged boys, portraying the ‘older woman’ involved in an affair with a youth in a movie called Summer of ’42. The events in the picture are true, although the book of the same […]

Sara Shane aka Elaine Hollingsworth.

May 16, 2016 Alan Royle 15

  I recently watched a 1956 Clark Gable western titled The King and Four Queens and was struck by the beauty of one of the leading ladies, an actress named Sara Shane. Indeed, she was not the only beauty in the picture for it featured one of my all-time favourite […]

Emma Thompson – making a difference.

May 8, 2016 admin 0

    Emma Thompson is a Londoner born into a family of actors in 1959, hence she developed a strong, witty personality, no doubt honed around the kitchen and dining table at home while growing up. Studying English literature at Cambridge University, and becoming part of its Footlights Group, where […]

The ‘girl next door’ types – Pt.2.

May 6, 2016 admin 0

      In the fifties the iconic ‘girl next door’ arrived on the screen in a series of domestic romantic comedies, several of them opposite Rock Hudson. Doris Day would grace the pop music charts with numerous best-selling singles and albums, but her screen image of the suburban housewife, […]