Tag: Hollywood

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Movies ‘48

Movies ‘48 #4

Movie News – January 22, 1948

Did you used to visit Saturday morning film clubs? What did you think of them?

Movie News – January 23, 1948

In a fire sequence for Secret Beyond the Door, Michael Redgrave refused to have a double. In the escape scene, blinded by smoke, the star hit the wrong window and ran into glass instead of the sugar product used for such occasions. While having his wounds treated, Redgrave said, “That’s the first British blood split in America since 1812!”

Movie News – January 24, 1948

Coming soon, Raymond Chandler’s The Lady in the Lake starring Robert Montgomery, Lloyd Nolan, Tom Tully and Audrey Totter (pictured), one of the fastest-rising stars in Hollywood. “She provides romance and excitement in a district and positive manner that sets her apart from the usual young screen player”.

The movie was unusual in that it was filmed in a first person, point of view style, with Marlowe only seen in reflections and when he directly addresses the audience.

Movie News – January 25, 1948

Patricia Roc (pictured) tells how new film faces are found.

“If an actress shows promise, the publicity department take her over. They decide on the best personality angle to project through stills and write-ups. Her rise to fame has begun. The real work begins with the starlet’s first big part. She is coached both on and off the set. She learns how to handle autograph sessions and buy clothes. She is given a reasonable contract.”

Movie News – January 26, 1948

Ex-Actress Sues Surgeon

Dr Franklyn Thorpe, Hollywood surgeon and former husband of actress Mary Astor, has filed an answer in the Los Angles Supreme Court denying charges made by former actress Anne Nagel (pictured) that she had been sterilised in an operation he performed in 1936.

He admitted performing an appendectomy with her specific consent, but denied other allegations in her $350,000 damage suit.

Movie News – January 27, 1948

Loretta Young’s Aid Britain Campaign

Loretta Young was a divisive figure in the Hollywood community. On the one hand, she presented herself as pious, and devoted a lot of her time to charity work, while on the other hand, aspects of her personal life and political views raised eyebrows. To some people she was known as “Attila the Nun”.

Movie News – January 28, 1948

An advertisement for Gay Red lipstick. The advertisement failed to mention that Mrs Alan Ladd was Sue Carol born Evelyn Jean Lederer, October 30, 1906 – February 4, 1982). After a spell as an actress, Sue became an agent. The fourth of her four marriages was to Alan Ladd, previously a client. The marriage lasted until his death in 1964.

As ever, thank you for your interest and support.

Hannah xxx

For Authors

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Movies ‘48

Movies ‘48 #3

Movie News – January 15, 1948

MGM suspended Lana Turner when she refused to play Lady de Winter in The Three Musketeers. The suspension was later lifted when she agreed to feature in the movie.

Movie News – January 16, 1948

Ann Sheridan plays “a fine dramatic role” in The Unfaithful, a movie about infidelity centred on a wife who cheats on her husband when he’s away in the services. While criticising the wife, the movie concludes that there should be more “give and take in such cases”.

Movie News – January 17, 1948

Film-star portraits, only 7d each, post free.

Movie News – January 18, 1948

Cinemas are to charge threepence extra a seat. The price rise will raise £300,000 a week, and no part will be sent back to Hollywood to add to the “dollar drain”.

The remarkable statistic in this report was that 25 million Britons visited the cinema each week, compared to 2.25 million now.

Movie News – January 19, 1948

As 500 cinema goers watched Murder is My Business at the Tottenham Court Road cinema last night, a man went up to the box office, smashed the thick glass with the butt-end of a revolver and told the two female cashiers to hand over the takings. However, the cashiers had other ideas. Mrs Harris screamed and pressed the alarm while Mrs Wilson shouted, “Don’t you dare!”

Three men rushed to the scene and, after a scuffle, overpowered the gunman, who was later detained at Tottenham Court Road police station.

Movie News – January 20, 1948

“Family Man” from Manchester was one of many outraged at the showing of “The Birth of a Baby”. It was beyond his comprehension that the authorities allowed this film to be viewed by “Tom, Dick and Harry”. Tom and Harry were not available for comment. Meanwhile, Dick said it had nothing to do with him…

Movie News – January 21, 1948

The Sketch featured Britain’s #1 money-making movie star, Anna Neagle.

As ever, thank you for your interest and support.

Hannah xxx

For Authors

#1 for value with 565,000 readers, The Fussy Librarian has helped my books to reach #1 on 40 occasions.

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Movies ‘48

Movies ‘48 #2

Movie News – January 8, 1948

Deanna Durbin, twenty-five-year-old film star, parted company with Felix Jackson, her forty-five-year-old film-producer second husband. The couple divorced in 1949.

After the divorce, Deanna Durbin was inundated with film and stage offers including a Broadway role as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady. However, she rejected them all, packed her bags and set off for France where, in 1950, she married producer-director Charles Henri David. The couple moved to a farmhouse near Paris and remained together for forty-nine years.

Movie News – January 9, 1948

Showing in British cinemas, Hedy Lamarr and John Loder in Dishonoured Lady, aka Sins of Madeleine, a noir drama. Lamarr and Loder were married when they made the film, but they divorced later in the year.

Movie News – January 10, 1948

Hollywood Ten Plead Not Guilty

Ten Hollywood writers and producers (not named in this report), accused of refusing to tell the House Committee on un-American activities whether they were members of the Communist Party, pleaded not guilty and were ordered to stand trial separately beginning on February 9th.

Members of the Hollywood Ten and their families in 1950, protesting the impending incarceration of the ten

Movie News – January 11, 1948

Secrets in Their Contracts

Ingrid Bergman uses an onion to produce tears in weepie scenes.

Bing Crosby wears a wig.

Peter Lawford agreed not to marry within the next three years.

The studios provide Greer Garson, Bette Davis and Joan Crawford with a maid, and a “first class drawing room” whenever they film on location.

Hedy Lamarr has a clause that states that “she must wear her own underwear, unless such underwear is to be filmed, then it will be provided by the producer.” She must also return all the dresses she wears in her films to the studio.

Movie News – January 12, 1948

Bangs are back in fashion. In unrelated news, Margaret Lockwood was mobbed in Glasgow. A large crowd gathered at Glasgow Central Station to cheer and present her with flowers on day one of her three-day visit. The crowd was so large that Miss Lockwood required a police escort and took ten minutes to travel the short distance from the railway station to the Central Station Hotel.

Movie News – January 13, 1948

Recommended by June Allyson and nine out of ten movie stars, the Lux massage technique “brings quick new loveliness”.

Movie News – January 14, 1948

Gene Autry receives more fan mail than any other star in Hollywood, over 100,000 letters a month. Most stars average “only” 30,000 letters a month. Autry has a private post office in Hollywood where five clerks handle his mail. He can expect more letters due to the release of his latest film, The Last Roundup.

Book News

Ten years after publication, I’m delighted to say that Sam’s Song is once again #1 on the Amazon Private Investigator charts.

As ever, thank you for your interest and support.

Hannah xxx

For Authors

#1 for value with 565,000 readers, The Fussy Librarian has helped my books to reach #1 on 40 occasions.

A special offer from my publisher and the Fussy Librarian. https://authors.thefussylibrarian.com/?ref=goylake

Don’t forget to use the code goylake20 to claim your discount 🙂

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Movies ‘48

Movies ‘48 #1

My latest Golden Age of Hollywood article for the Seaside News appears on page 42 of the magazine.

Movie News – January 1, 1948

A party to announce the engagement of Lana Turner (pictured) to tinplate millionaire Henry J. Topping was hastily cancelled when Topping discovered that he couldn’t make the event. Four hundred invitations had been sent out to “the cream of Hollywood society and the international social world”.

Topping had proposed to Lana Turner at the 21 Club in New York City by dropping a diamond ring into her martini. The couple married in April 1948, and divorced in 1952.

Movie News – January 2, 1948

Film critics in New York named Deborah Kerr as the actress of the year for her performances in Black Narcissus and The Adventuress, a Second World War spy movie with comic touches. Released in Britain as I See a Dark Stranger, The Adventuress also featured Trevor Howard.

Movie News – January 3, 1948

Bing Crosby (pictured) was the silver screen’s box office favourite for the fourth successive year, Motion Picture Extra announced, after polling exhibitors. The runners up: Betty Grable, Ingrid Bergman, Gary Cooper, Humphrey Bogart, Bob Hope, Clark Gable, Gregory Peck, Claudette Colbert and Alan Ladd.

Movie News – January 4, 1948

Evacuated from London to Pasadena during the Second World War, and now taking Hollywood by storm after her appearance in National Velvet. many in the film industry, including Mickey Rooney, predicted that Elizabeth Taylor would be the “sensation of 1948”.

Movie News – January 5, 1948

“Only about fifteen percent of film made in Hollywood in 1948 will be based on original stories. The remainder will be based on ‘sure-fire successes’ – sixty-five percent will be remakes of old successes and the remaining twenty percent will be new versions of successful stage plays.”

One of the sure-fire successes, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, an adaptation of B.Traven’s 1927 novel of the same name.

Movie News – January 6, 1948

Films showing in British cinemas this week included The White Unicorn (also known as Bad Sister in America) starring Joan Greenwood and Margaret Lockwood, Duel in the Sun starring Jennifer Jones, Desert Fury starring Burt Lancaster, Uncle Silas starring Jean Simmons and Ivy starring Joan Fontaine.

Movie News – January 7, 1948

Sunday’s double feature at the Grand Theatre, Banbury: Tarzan’s Secret Treasure starring Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O’Sullivan, and Man From Music Mountain with Roy Rogers.

My Latest Book News

Amazon charts. Betrayal, Ann’s War Book One, is #1 this weekend, Tula, The Golden Age of Hollywood Book One, is #12, and Sunshine, The Golden Age of Hollywood Book Two, is #10 on the Hot New Releases chart.

As ever, thank you for your interest and support.

Hannah xxx

For Authors

#1 for value with 565,000 readers, The Fussy Librarian has helped my books to reach #1 on 38 occasions.

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Dear Reader

Dear Reader #216

Dear Reader,

Clara Bow’s fifty-sixth movie was Call Her Savage, produced between September 12 and November 2, 1932, and released on November 27, 1932. Clara played Nasa “Dynamite” Springer.

Call Her Savage was over-plotted, a common trait of late silent movies and early talkies, with “hardly a thought above the navel”. However, Clara was excellent offering one of the best performances of her career. Variety said, “Bow’s greatly improved acting technique is an added element of strength. She is abundantly capable of holding any audience’s attention.”

The Film Daily said, “Looking like a million dollars, acting better than she ever did, and playing a role that requires her to pretty near run the gamut of feminine moods and modes, Clara Bow makes a whirlwind comeback.” Make no mistake, Clara Bow could act. She could portray any emotion.

Carl Stockdale played a bit part in this movie, as Mort. I believe that Stockdale was involved in the murder of movie director William Desmond Taylor in early February 1922. I’m certain that Stockdale offered Charlotte Shelby a false alibi, and maybe he pulled the trigger, or was with the murderer on that perfidious night.

Columbo – Season One, Episode Five: “Short Fuse”. For me, this episode of Columbo was a mixed bag containing one of the worst plots – exploding cigars – and two of the best guest stars – Ida Lupino (pictured) and Anne Francis. The ladies deserved better material. In the first cable car scene, Columbo was terrified, while in the cable car denouement, he was calm. The series had to improve. Thankfully, it did.

A Hollywood Murder

Who murdered movie director William Desmond Taylor in February 1922?

From day one, the police ruled out robbery as a motive. Here’s why.

In William Desmond Taylor’s pockets, investigators found a wallet containing $78 (the equivalent of $1,300 today) a silver cigarette case, a Waltham pocket watch, a penknife, a locket bearing a photograph of actress Mabel Normand, plus a two-carat diamond ring on Taylor’s finger.

The Taylor case is complex because the investigation was conducted through a haze of corruption. Also, the movie studios were desperate to deflect blame away from Hollywood. As Karl Brown actor, cinematographer, screenwriter, and film director said:

“Somebody at the studio had a bright idea. Instead of giving them one or two red herrings, give them a multiplicity of them. Let them leap into the saddle and gallop off in all directions. I don’t know of anyone in Hollywood who could have been connected with Bill Taylor who was not implicated in this murder. I honestly believe that the Virgin Mary herself would have been pulled into this thing if she’d been around at the time.”

Karl Brown

Did a hit man murder Taylor? More next time.

*****

Hollywood Gossip, October 1942

Research for my novel Sunshine, book two in my Golden Age of Hollywood series.

American stars joining the Forces.

Hollywood Gossip, October 1942

Research for my novel Sunshine, book two in my Golden Age of Hollywood series.

Humphrey Bogart refuses to kiss Ingrid Bergman.

I’m doing some in-depth research on the movie Sunset Boulevard. Here’s my first note.

Sunset Boulevard: Notes on a Classic

In 1939, Billy Wilder made a note, “Silent movie star commits murder. When they arrest her she sees the newsreel cameras and thinks she’s back in the movies.”

Ten years later, he made the film.

Social media https://toot.wales/@HannahHowe

As ever, thank you for your interest and support.

Hannah xxx

For Authors

#1 for value with 565,000 readers, The Fussy Librarian has helped my books to reach #1 on 38 occasions.

A special offer from my publisher and the Fussy Librarian. https://authors.thefussylibrarian.com/?ref=goylake

Don’t forget to use the code goylake20 to claim your discount 🙂