MOVIE TRIVIA – PT8.

May 12, 2018 Alan Royle 2

    Burt Reynolds & Sally Field in Smokey & the Bandit (1977) Burt Reynolds had been smitten with Sally Field for some time, ever since he saw her debut in Gidget on TV in 1965, and wanted her for the role of Carrie in Smokey and the Bandit (1977). She had […]

MOVIE TRIVIA – PT6

May 8, 2018 Alan Royle 0

Ava Gardner in 55 Days at Peking (1963) Ava Gardner had a long-running nervous breakdown during the making of 55 Days at Peking (1963). She was drunk on several days, continually demanded rewrites, and was extremely difficult to deal with. Charlton Heston stated that her character, Baroness Natalie Ivanoff, was killed off […]

PETER O’TOOLE – the actor and the man.

August 19, 2017 Alan Royle 4

  PETER O’TOOLE   (1932 – 2013)                                      Peter O’Toole hailed from Leeds in Yorkshire. He always maintained he was born in Ireland, but there are simply no records indicating that. As a teenager he started out as a newspaper copy boy, showed promise as a reporter, but was drawn to the […]

The making of ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ (1962).

August 11, 2017 Alan Royle 1

  Lawrence of Arabia (1962) is a remarkable movie for many reasons, not the least of which is that it runs for 227 minutes (the restored Roadshow print) without a single word being uttered by a female! No women, no romance and no love story. Most Hollywood experts would automatically […]

The many loves of Ava Gardner.

August 3, 2017 Alan Royle 29

  AVA GARDNER (1922-90)            Ava was a ‘knockout’, possibly the sexiest woman ever to grace a movie screen. She married Mickey Rooney when he was the number one box-office draw in movies (she refused to sleep with him unless he married her first). Within three weeks or so of the […]

The making of ‘Caligula’ (1979)

March 12, 2017 Alan Royle 5

  Legendary movie critic Roger Ebert went along to see and review Caligula and did something he admitted he rarely ever did. He walked out of the theatre part-way through the showing. It was during the Brothel-Boat-orgy sequence, which he described as ‘sickening, utterly worthless, shameless trash.’ He went on […]

My Top 10 Movies of 1968.

January 27, 2017 Alan Royle 2

  #10 WHERE EAGLES DARE       Ingrid Pitt as Heidi                                            Schloss Werfen in the background Alistair MacLean wrote this screenplay in six weeks – and then he wrote the […]

My Top Ten Movies of 1967.

January 13, 2017 Alan Royle 2

                                                                                        #10        THE FLIM-FLAM MAN       […]

Past Oscars PT 5 – (1961-66)

November 16, 2016 Alan Royle 0

    1961               West Side Story – Best Picture                         Maximilian Schell – Best Actor for Judgment at Nuremberg                         George Chakiris – Best Supporting Actor for West Side Story                                                               Except for Fanny, I have seen each of the nominees – West Side Story, Judgment at Nuremberg, […]

A few Hollywood substance abusers PT 2.

November 4, 2016 Alan Royle 17

    Anthony Hopkins Anthony Hopkins opted to join Alcoholics Anonymous after he awoke in another state without having any idea how he got there. Until then he had struggled with alcoholism since the beginning of his acting career. It turned him into a loner and destroyed several relationships.   […]