25 PULP FICTION (1994) – The popular Chuck Berry hit, ‘You Never Can Tell’, gets a second life as Uma Thurman and John Travolta join the ‘Jack Rabbit Slim Twist Contest’ – and win. To my mind Travolta is one of the most watchable actors going around, and has […]
I have often been flabbergasted or just plain disbelieving as the Academy ran out each year’s list of Oscar nominees, especially the Best Picture nominees, and time after time exceptional pictures simply did not make the list. Consequently, I thought I might (starting with 1939, the year movies came […]
1942 Mrs. Miniver – Best Picture Well, World War Two was in full swing and America was now in it, so a war picture (or at least a flag-waver) was bound to win Best Picture. And one did. There were four of these nominated: Mrs. Miniver, Wake Island […]
I remember being taken in the fifties by my grand-parents to the open-air cinema nearby to watch black and white dramas starring the likes of Joan Crawford, George Raft, Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Dana Andrews, Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell, Ida Lupino and many others. For some reason a handful […]
#10 Road to Perdition (2002) Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Daniel Craig, Jude Law, Tyler Hoechlin Is there anything Tom Hanks cannot do? This period piece set during the Great Depression is beautifully crafted and, despite its gangland theme, is not a bloodbath. Hanks is simply the best. #9 My […]
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 […]
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 […]
HUMPHREY BOGART (1899-1957) Humphrey was not born on Christmas Day 1899 as his studio liked to state. At least two 1900 census forms prove it. He was actually born on 23 January 1899, but the Warner Bros publicity department chose to run with the stupid tagline, ‘a guy born on […]
‘The vainest man I ever met’, was how Ingrid Bergman described her Notorious (1946) co-star Cary Grant. ‘I never had an affair with Cary – but, then who among his leading ladies did?’ She later enlarged on her feelings. ‘I fell in love with Cary Grant…He did not reciprocate […]
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