Cutting - Michael Rennie dies (1971)

11th June 1971

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Michael Rennie was an English born film actor who, after a short career in films on this side of the pond, moved to Hollywood in the early 1950’s where he appeared in about 80 roles in films and on TV. He also appeared on Broadway. His mother-in-law was found murdered in 1954. See this post.

Advert - Kodak featuring John Mills (1958)

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1958 advert for Kodak camera film featuring film star John Mills star of that year's 'Dunkirk'.

Cutting - Audie Murphy obituary (1971)

1st July 1971

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Audie Murphy was one of 12 children in a poor tenant farmer family in rural Texas. His father came and went from their life and finally left for good. When Murphy was 16 his mother died and at 17 soon after Pearl Harbour and America's entry into World War II, he joined the US Army by lying about his age. By the end of the War he had been awarded just about every medal for bravery in combat available including the Congressional Medal of Honour. After the War he turned to film acting and appeared in about 50 film and TV roles including playing himself in the film of his autobiography 'To Hell and Back'. 

Cutting - The Shadow Show (1926)

17th October 1926

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‘The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse’ was originally released in the USA in 1921 and was the first starring role for Rudolph Valentino. Alice Terry, who co-starred, was married to the director of the film, Rex Ingram. The bitterness towards Germany left by the war to end all wars is obvious in the review written only 5 years after the Armistice.

Phonofilm was an early invention for recording sound onto film, but was not as successful as the synchronised disc systems that were also being tried out at the time. Both were superseded by the improved sound-on-film systems of the late 1920’s and the rest is history, as they say.

Advert - 'The Golden Disc' film (1958)

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'The Golden Disc' was known in the USA as 'The Inbetween Age' and starred Terry Dene who had a trio of hit records before being conscripted into the Army in 1958. He was discharged after only a couple of months due to ill-health. He left rock-n-roll behind to become an evangelist and I saw him at a local hall in Dagenham in the early 60's.

Advert - 'Limelight' film (1936)

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An unusual spot coloured advert from the Sunday Mercury dated 9th August 1936 for the film 'Limelight' starring Anna Neagle which was renamed 'Backstage' when it was released in the USA in 1937. She married the Director Herbert Wilcox in 1943.

Advert - 'Hunted' starring Dirk Bogarde (1952)

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Dirk Bogarde in Hunted, also known as The Stranger In Between. The boy in the film was played by Jon Whiteley who had a short 5 film career before eventually becoming curator of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

Cutting - Obituary for Charles Bickford (1967)

10th November 1967

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Charles Bickford had a career that went from burlesque to Broadway theatre to films to TV over a period of 63 years. As a child he was the black sheep of his family and was even tried (but acquited) of murder at the age of 9 (that is not a misprint - nine). As well as the films mentioned in the article his CV aso included 'Duel in the Sun' with Gregory Peck, 'Of Mice and Men' with Burgess Meredith and 'The Plainsman' with Gary Cooper.He was nominated 3 times for best Supporting Actor Oscars but never won.

Cutting - Batman is Banned (1979)

September 1979

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Australia in the 1970's and they are blaming children's bad behaviour on their desire to copy superheroes like Batman and Superman. Miss Jee is quite happy for them to play at being the foreign invaders who committed near genocide on the Native American population, sorry, I mean Cowboys and Indians.

Cutting - Parents Censor Nightmare Films (1936)

8th May 1936

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These days they blame computer games. Before that it was TV. In the 1950's there was an outcry against American comics such as 'Tales from the Crypt'. Back in 1936 it was the films or even just 'going to the cinema' that caused juvenile delinquency. I may be wrong but it appears that Australia had no age rating system for films before 1970.

Cutting - Marlene Dietrich (1949?)

Probably 1949

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Marlene Dietrich became an international film star during the Silent era when language was no barrier to success. As to how old she was - this cutting dates from either 1949 or 1950 and Dietrich was born in 1901, making her 48 or even 49, but then a lady has the right to lie about her age. 'No Highway' was released in 1951. Dietrich spent the last decade of her life mostly bedridden and died in 1992.

Cutting - Ronald Shiner Tops Film Poll (1952)

27th December 1952

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Published in December 1952 this poll of Britain's leading box-office attractions is headed by Ronald Shiner. I imagine anyone under 50 will ask, "Who?” Shiner made 86 films between 1934 and 1961. Surprisingly he is above such greats as Alastair Sim, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins and Trevor Howerd. This was when Britain had a film industry and 8 of the top 12 moneymaking films were British!

Random Cutting - Death of Harold Lloyd (1971)

10th March 1971

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I think I became aware of the silent film comedian Harold Lloyd when I saw the compilation film 'Harold Lloyd's World of Comedy' in 1962. Originally a 'poor man's Charlie Chaplin', Lloyd soon found his own character, bespectacled accident-prone optimist, and made a fortune. His films often featured seemingly dangerous stunts which Lloyd participated in with the help of stuntman Harvey Parry. He died on the 8th March 1971.

Random Cutting - Hermoine Baddely Death Threat (1926)

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Born in 1906, Hermoine Baddely began her stage career at 8, playing a page in The Marriage of Figaro. She went on to appear in plays, musicals and revues in London's West End. She also appeared in over 90 film and TV productions, including a memorable performance as the kindly barfly Ida in the 1947 'Brighton Rock', which starred Richard Attenborough. In 1960 she was nominated for a Best Actress in a Supporting Role Oscar for her part in 'Room at the Top' 

Random Ad - 3D Film (1973)

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If you thought 3D films were something new then you obviously hadn't seen 'Supersonic Super Girls' back in New York in 1973. Google this title and you find a story in the Austin (Texas) Chronicle that it was amongst a pile of 'lost' trash films found in a warehouse in 2001, so you may get to see it yet. 

Random Ad - The Singing Fool (1929)

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'The Singing Fool' was Al Jolson's follow up to the film generally regarded as the first feature length Talkie, 'The Jazz Singer' (1927). Not everyone was in favour of the Talkies and having seen several Silents from the late 1920's as well as several early Talkies, I think I would probably have been amongst the nay-sayers.

Random Cutting - Margaret Rutherford dies (1972)

May 22nd 1972

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Margaret Rutherford had a stage acting career starting in 1925 at the Old Vic Theatre and ending in 1966 when she played Mrs Malaprop in The Rivals at the Haymarket Theatre, alongside Sir Ralph Richardson, and a film career spanning 1936 to 1967. She is probably best remembered on film as Agatha Christie's amateur sleuth Miss Marple. 

Random Cutting - A E Mathews in Hospital (1960)

27th February 1960

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I couldn't resist this picture of the irascible 90 year old character actor A E Matthews smoking his pipe in a hospital bed just 5 months before he died on the 25th July 1960. Matthews was already an established stage actor when he started a film career than lasted from 1914 until 1960.

Random Ad - Film Ads (1964)

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'The Scarlet Blade' was made by Hammer who didn't just do Horror and the young Oliver Reed is there swashing his buckle. 'The Son of Captain Blood' starred Sean Flynn the son of Erroll Flynn who made 'Captain Blood' in 1935. Someone must have thought long and hard about that title.

Random Cutting - Death of Stan Laurel (1965)

23rd February 1965

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Stan Laurel (Arthur Stanley Jefferson) was born in 1890 in Ulverston when it was in Lancashire, England and became the internationally recognisable thin half  of the comedy duo Laurel and Hardy. Stan and Oliver 'Babe' Hardy appeared in 106 films together. Stan also wrote, produced and directed.