PETER LAWFORD – PT2.

PETER LAWFORD – PT2.

October 14, 2021 Alan Royle 0

  An aging Peter Lawford with wife Mary Rowan Fred Otash By the age of sixteen, Marilyn Monroe was well aware that her curvaceous beauty was turning the heads of boys at school. And she enjoyed the attention. When her foster family could no longer keep her she married the […]

MOVIE TRIVIA – PT132.

July 16, 2019 Alan Royle 2

    Columbia head Harry Cohn pictured with Rita Hayworth The notoriously vulgar Harry Cohn, head of Columbia Pictures, had his mind set on using Rita Hayworth, an actress he sexually harrassed for decades, for the role of Billie Dawn in the 1950 classic Born Yesterday, but she had just […]

THE BEST OSCAR YEARS – 1939 & 1950.

April 5, 2019 Alan Royle 0

  Clark Gable as Rhett Butler in GWTW (1939)         The Academy Awards is a competition, but it is one that has seldom been conducted on a level playing field. A winner one year may very well not even have been nominated in a stronger year. Historically, the two […]

MOVIE TRIVIA – PT113.

March 12, 2019 Alan Royle 0

The war in Europe was underway in 1940 and causing the loss of the European market. President Roosevelt’s ‘Good Neighbour Policy’ of fostering friendship towards Latin American countries inspired Darryl F. Zanuck at 20th Century Fox to look towards Mexico and South America as alternative markets for his studio’s films. […]

MEMORABLE PERFORMANCES – PT9

December 2, 2018 Alan Royle 5

  George Clooney as Ulysses Everett McGill in O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) This charming comedy is very loosely based on Homer’s ‘Odyssey’ and is a wonderful vehicle for George Clooney, ably supported by the brilliant John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson. He demonstrates a natural flair for comedy […]

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THE ‘GOOD GAL’ ACTRESSES.

September 29, 2018 Alan Royle 4

  Selecting the 20 actresses that I felt might be really likeable, decent people to get to know, proved to be far more difficult than choosing the men. Why? Because I had to differentiate between likeability and desirability, a problem that never reared its head with the men. Each time […]

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 […]

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Heroes & Villains – the HUAC blacklistings 1947-58.

November 8, 2016 Alan Royle 15

  When 79 individuals were subpoenaed in September 1947 by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), and charged with subversive actions and/or injecting Communist propaganda into their movies, the repercussions career-wise for many of them were long and destructive. The charges were never substantiated, but their accusers were not concerned […]

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 […]

William Holden – His Life and his Loves

January 23, 2016 admin 21

      Holden in Escape From Fort Bravo (1953) William Holden featured in a lot of very good movies during his career. Women adored him, even men grudgingly conceded that he was both rugged and charming, certainly no milk sop. Unfortunately, he was also an alcoholic, from his teens until the […]