The stunning American actress Grace Kelly only made eleven movies in her brief but spectacular career. By most accounts she made hay with most of her leading men while the sun shone. But not all of them. Her supporters argue that she was basically seeking a father substitute […]
Director Dorothy Arzner & Crawford ‘I like to think that every director I’ve worked with has fallen a little in love with me’, Joan Crawford once confided in an interview none too modestly. ‘I know Dorothy Arzner did’. No surprises there. Given her well-documented sexual orientation Dorothy may well […]
A few notes on Destry Rides Again (1939) For years writers have been saying that the bar-room fight scene between Marlene Dietrich and Una Merkel in Destry Rides Again (1939) was real, that the two actresses went at it hammer and tong because they loathed each other. That is simply untrue. In fact, […]
I have been looking through the history of the Academy Awards and, like most people interested in such things, I have found myself disagreeing with many of the choices and agreeing wholeheartedly with others. Here are a few of my thoughts on […]
The ravishing (and ravenous) Yvonne de Carlo was at the height of her beauty when Robert Wagner spotted her in her car alongside his at a drive-in restaurant called ‘Jack’s at the Beach’. She nodded for him to come on over, which he duly did, and she invited him […]
For the life of me I cannot understand why critics rave about Hitchcock’s 1958 so-called ‘classic’ Vertigo. I watched it again yesterday and my opinion of it, if anything, was reinforced. It is as ordinary as dishwater. Take the opening sequence, for example. It is just plain stupid. A […]
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 […]
I have picked out a half dozen Alfred Hitchcock films for quick examination. I liked the first one a lot (despite its many errors), the second one was enjoyable also, but the other four I found to be both dull and amateurish, with performances from some of their […]
It is impossible to accurately assess Hollywood’s contribution to the winning of World War 2, but it would be fair to say that it was substantial. Apart from the thousands of industry people (including many actors and directors) who actually got into uniform, it was the impact on national […]
Even though he earned an architectural degree at Princeton and was very intelligent, Jimmy Stewart’s favourite method of relaxation on the set was to read Flash Gordon comic books. Away from the set he was, according to legend, considerably more active. His name has been linked, in fact, […]
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