MOVIE TRIVIA – VOL 7 – PT2

MOVIE TRIVIA – VOL 7 – PT2

November 22, 2023 Alan Royle 1

  Henry Fonda When Henry Fonda first went to New York City a friend picked him up on a double date with a couple of sisters. The friend convinced the girls’ mother, Mrs. Davis, to let him and Henry show her daughters the Princeton Stadium by moonlight. The two young […]

H.U.A.C. & MCCARTHYISM – PT2

H.U.A.C. & MCCARTHYISM – PT2

October 23, 2023 Alan Royle 0

  Although membership of the Communist Party was still not illegal, those refusing to testify or answer certain questions had switched from standing on the First Amendment to invoking the Fifth Amendment, in other words endeavouring to shield themselves from self-incrimination. A ‘grey list’ came into being. Names on it […]

WORLD WAR TWO – The stars & their stories – PT42.

WORLD WAR TWO – The stars & their stories – PT42.

February 25, 2021 Alan Royle 0

NIGEL PATRICK (1912-81)                                  Nigel Patrick entered this world from Wandsworth, London, approximately two weeks after the SS Titanic slid beneath the North Atlantic in 1912. He started acting on the London stage in 1932 and was having some success when World War Two broke out in September 1939. Being British, […]

HOLLYWOOD & THE ‘COMMUNIST CONSPIRACY’.

HOLLYWOOD & THE ‘COMMUNIST CONSPIRACY’.

February 14, 2020 Alan Royle 6

                        To understand how the US Government came to investigate possible links between Hollywood and the Communist Party, we need to go back as far as 1938, when the Moscow show trials preceded the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact of 1939, […]

‘Hollywood – The Skeletons Are Out’ – a sampling

October 19, 2016 Alan Royle 0

  My latest book is titled Hollywood: The Skeletons Are Out. It contains 1,200 direct quotes by actors and directors about themselves, their colleagues and their films. Here is a random two dozen of them:   Young Joan Collins When Joan Collins was asked if she was ever unfaithful, she […]

Past Oscar-winners – some observations – Pt 3.

October 9, 2016 Alan Royle 0

    1949               All the King’s Men – Best Picture                         Broderick Crawford – Best Actor for All the King’s Men   Broderick Crawford Greg Peck as General Savage in Twelve O’Clock High Having seen all five nominated films for 1949, I am surprised that All the King’s Men came out on […]

The loves in the life of Marilyn Monroe Pt.3

April 14, 2016 admin 3

  In 1955 the director of On the Waterfront and Gentleman’s Agreement, Elia Kazan, wrote a letter of confession to his wife, apologizing for having an affair with Marilyn Monroe in 1950, just after her agent Johnny Hyde had passed away. Kazan came across her when she was distraught and […]

Reds under the bed – Hollywood and the HUAC.

December 10, 2015 admin 12

  John Huston directed and Sterling Hayden starred in The Asphalt Jungle in 1950. At the time both were members of The Committee for the First Amendment, a group formed in September 1947 to support the Hollywood Ten and to oppose those who wished to blacklist actors, writers etc. who […]

Did you know? Points of interest Pt. 15

October 16, 2015 admin 2

  Richard Schickel’s biography of director Elia Kazan tells how Marlon Brando was tricked into accepting the role of Terry Malloy in On The Waterfront (1954). Kazan had actor Karl Malden direct a scene featuring a young unknown from the Actors Studio speaking Malloy’s lines, knowing full well that Brando’s competitive […]

A few snippets from Frank Langella.

July 20, 2015 admin 2

  Oscar-nominated actor Frank Langella published his most entertaining biography titled, Dropped Names: Famous Men & Women as I Knew Them, in 2013. It is a scathing one that pulls few, if any, punches. Here are a few snippets from it, some of his observations down the decades, along with […]