Margaret Rutherford with her husband in real life Stringer Davis

In ”Murder at the Gallop” (1963), ”Miss Marple” and ”Mr. Stringer” join forces to solve the mystery of Mrs. McGinty’s blackmail.

Miss Marple suspects the blackmail is tied to a ”1951 theatrical production” by the ”Cosgood Company” and identifies the ”Lord Chamberlain’s office” in London as the key to uncovering details about the play.

She sends Mr. Stringer to investigate its history, showcasing their resourceful teamwork. Together, they edge closer to exposing the blackmailer and solving the case.

Away from film land there was a very dark side to Margaret Rutherford’s early life: Her grandfather, the Rev Julius Benn, was murdered by his son William – Margaret’s father – who was then imprisoned in a mental diseases institution. Her mother changed the family name to Rutherford, before committing suicide herself. Margaret struggled all her life to overcome the weight of these horrors, which she tried to keep out of the media – not entirely successfully. She was brought up by an Aunt Bessie in Wimbledon, where there is a blue plaque to celebrate that detail. Two in fact, the other at Wimbledon High School, where she excelled at music, drama and elocution. On the school’s recommendation, Bessie funded acting lessons. Margaret was known at the school as shy Peggy Rutherford.

Tony Benn, who was a cousin, spoke of her as a genial companion and produced a photo for a BBC documentary of the two of them sitting in deck chairs on a beach. He said she was exactly the same on screen and off.

I did go to see Tony Benn when he toured in his one-man show – and asked him what was probably the only non-political question about Margaret Rutherford. He says that Yes – she was a dear old Aunt who he visited often in his growing up years

I never need much of excuse to feature Joan Rice

The pictures BELOW are taken from a very short promotional film shown over Christmas on Talking Pictures.

It was called ‘The Postman’ and featured David Tomlinson as a postman delivering letters and introducing very short clips of stars such as Phyllis Calvert, Harry Fowler, Joan Rice and others at Christmas 1952 wishing us cinema-goers Best Wishes for the New Year.

And what a year 1952 had been for Joan Rice.

The wonderful ‘The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men’ had been released here in March of that year – and in June she was offered the female lead opposite Burt Lancaster in ‘His Majesty O’Keefe’ to be filmed in Fiji later in the year.

She got engaged and then flew out to Fiji – returning in November of 1952. She then broke off her engagement and met David Green in late December and married him in February 1953.

The past two years for Joan Rice had been meteoric.

One thing that does please me – after Robin Hood she got this major part and travelled round the world to film it and the film – ‘His Majesty O Keefe’ – was ‘big’ and well known and very well received.

Richard Todd was particularly scathing in his comments about Joan Rice and her acting abilities in ‘Robin Hood’ – but he got his come uppance – his next film after ‘Robin Hood’ was ’24 Hours in a Woman’s Life’ and he even missed the Robin Hood premiere to be on location on that film.

It was a dud – whereas Joan Rice in ‘His Majesty O Keefe again hit the jackpot as it did so well on a World scale.

From

I am so sorry not to have posted many articles in December – in truth I have been unwell and lacked the zest that normally helps me along with this. When you are fully well, almost anything is possible but even one degree under removes the energy and the interest.

I hope to be back OK soon

An old Theatre advertisement from Peterborough. It wasn’t so much the headline act of Tessie O Shea AND the Billy Cotton Band that took my eye, although I can imagine that this show would have been really good. No it was the bottom forthcoming attraction – Donald Wolfit in ‘Treasure Island’ that drew me in.

I had never thought of Donald Wolfit as Long John Silver and I can’t think why because he would seem a perfect fit

I delved further and came across this programme which is dated 27 February 1950 for the Kings Theatre in Southsea.

This production must have been aimed at capitalising on the success of the Walt Disney film released at that time – and Donald Wolfit would have been well able to give a very similar performance to Robert Newton – another Shakespearean actor, one would imagine.

Interesting to see John Charles worth as Jim Hawkins – he is well remembered for his role in the BBC TV Billy Bunter series, and later for a film I like very much ‘The Blue Peter’ which came out a little later than this.

I think that the poor lad came to a very tragic end.

Looking down the cast list I can’t see anyone else that we would have known.

The Blue Peter was filmed mainly in Snowdonia and centred around an outward bound school. The young men in the film all seem to have been in the TV Billy Bunter series as pupils at Greyriars

The film itself was made in Tecnicolor and Cinemascope.

Keiron Moore and Harry Fowler – The Blue Peter 1955

The climax of the film came when one boy slips down a cliff and has to be rescued by another of them who himself is having to overcome a fear of heights due to  events in his childhood. The way his sequence was filmed was impressive on the wide screen as we, the audience, were looking down at the boy clinging to the sheer cliff face. I remember hardly daring to watch at the time and this sequence has certainly stuck with me.  If I ever think of this film I think of that shot –  looking down at the long drop to the valley below with the lad, arms outstretched, clinging to the rocks

Keiron Moore played one of the instructors and the female lead was Greta Gynt who by now was at the end of her film career. They were both quite good in the roles.

JOHN CHARLESWORTH

A young actor called John Charlesworth played the young man with the fear of heights who eventually comes good.  He had a busy career. He was in Scrooge with Alistair Sims, the Bunter series and many other film and TV appearances. Sadly he died in 1960 aged 24. There is scant biographical information available on John.

He was born John William Charlesworth on November 15th 1935 in Hull, Yorkshire, England.
He appeared in a large number of films during his young life. The most famous of these being the 1951 Alastair Sim vehicle ‘Scrooge’. Charlesworth played the role of Peter Cratchit.

On April 2nd 1960, John took his own life.  A very sad event for someone who seemed to have achieved such a lot in a short life.

Not so much a Western but more a riverboat adventure.

Patricia Medina seemed to have carved out a very good film career in Hollywood after she went there along with her then husband Richard Greene, He did OK there but achieved greater fame later on when he was back in England in ‘The Adventures of Robin Hood’ the very famous Television series

Directed by William Castle
Starring Lex Barker, Patricia Medina, Warren Stevens, Craig Stevens, John Dehner, Mel Welles

Duel On The Mississippi (1955) is one of those Louisiana riverboat films, with plenty of riding and shooting’ – we get river pirates instead of outlaws or Indians.

Lex Barker had just finished with his Tarzan films – I always thought that leaving them proved a wrong turn for Lex – he was very popular as Tarzan and had done a good job in the role.

This film is set in Louisiana at the start of the 19th century and sugar is becoming a valuable commodity. The traditional plantation owners are trying to capitalise on the sugar crop but there are pirates around intent on stealing what they can.

The leader of these ruthless thieves is “Lili” (Patricia Medina) who, along with her dad “Jacques” (Ian Keith) and “Hugo” (Warren Stevens) has set her sights on the “Tulane” family.

She owns the debt on their land and is determined to force them into ruin. However a saving grace here is that “André” (Lex Barker) who is the son very much catches the eye of Patricia Medina.

The film has a solid story of greed and revenge

Patricia Medina must have been back and forth to England because she was in ‘The Black Knight’ with Alan Ladd – made at Pinewood Films Studios here in England in 1954

The Above is an earlier Picture from February 1949 – Richard Greene and his wife Patricia Medina pack before flying to the USA.

They  were actually divorced just over two years on from this picture being taken, and much later, in 1960, she married film actor Joseph Cotton, a marriage that lasted until he died. They were very much in love throughout their marriage and often toured the USA together in stage productions

Patricia Medina was much in demand in films in the early fifties.

I would imagine that she was a girl who could stick up for herself if necessary – she had self confidence and she was good

Lex Barker is really not well remembered outside of Tarzan. He did however make quite a lot of films in Europe

I have to admit that Kirk Douglas is NOT my favourite actor by any means but have to admit that he was in some good Westerns. He was good as Doc Holliday in ‘Gunfight at the OK Corral’ but nowhere as good as Victor Mature in the same role a decade earlier in ‘My Darling Clementine’

However when you look at Kirk Douglas’ life you have to admire how he was able to emerge from real poverty to achieve the success that he did in his very long life

He was the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, born Issur Danielovitch Demsky in Amsterdam, New York. He grew up poor, but was a fine student and gifted athlete. An acting scholarship got him into the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and he appeared in a few minor Broadway roles before joining the Navy in 1941.

He got a real break when he won the lead role in the 1946 picture The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers.

In the 1950s, as television took hold and this saw effectively the end of the Hollywood studio system.

Film stars began developing their own films, often backed by the studios. With the formation of Bryna Productions, Kirk Douglas was one of the first to set up shop. (Bryna was his mother’s first name.)

The Indian Fighter ABOVE

Backed by United Artists, Douglas opened a small Bryna office in Beverly Hills in 1955, with The Indian Fighter the company’s first release. I remember that he had personally picked out Elsa Martinelli as his co-star – she had little or no experience in films but she looked very beautiful. Apparently it is reported that it was Kirk’s wife who spotted her for the film

I remember seeing the film in the Cinema and it was in Wide Screen of course and terrific Technicolor. It looked so good.

Elsa Martinelli
(January 30, 1935 – July 8, 2017)

Elsa Martinelli was an Italian model and actress. She was “introduced” in The Indian Fighter (1955), which was produced by its star, Kirk Douglas, and directed by Andre de Toth.

Italian actress Elsa Martinelli, who starred opposite Kirk Douglas in the 1955 Western “The Indian Fighter” and went on to gain international recognition working with such directors as Mario Monicelli, Roger Vadim, Orson Welles, Howard Hawkes, and Elio Petri, died Saturday 8 July 2017 in Rome at the age of 82.

Born in the Tuscan city of Grosseto, Martinelli moved to Rome in the early 1950s and started a career as a model. She soon appeared in “Vogue” and “Life,” which is where she was noticed by Kirk Douglas’ wife, Anne Buydens.

Martinelli made her acting debut in 1954 in the Stendhal adaptation “Le Rouge et le Noir,” directed by France’s Claude Autant-Lara. But her breakthrough role came the following year in Andre de Toth’s “The Indian Fighter,” which Douglas produced.

Elsa Martinelli went on to alternating roles in European and U.S. productions,

Over the course of his career, Kirk Douglas made some fine Westerns. Howard Hawks’ The Big Sky in 1952. Man Without A Star in 1955. John Sturges’ Gunfight At The O.K. Corral from 1957, with Burt Lancaster as Wyatt Earp and Douglas as Doc Holliday — and its sister film, Last Train From Gun Hill. He appeared with Rock Hudson in The Last Sunset, directed by Robert Aldrich, in 1962. 

Lonely Are The Brave, a modern-day Western from 1962, is always named as Kirk’s favourite of his own movies.

This pictures dates back to May of 1976 – Very hot summer here as we all remember

Some big stars here – Seated Kathryn Grayson, Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Fred Astaire and Donald O Connor.

Standing: Marge Champion, Cyd Charisse and Johnny Weissmuller

The big-name stars from the golden days of the silver screen gathered in London on Sunday 16 May 1976 for the gala premiere of the film ” Thats Entertainment, Part 2, ” in which many of their most successful films are featured. Nostalgic group from the great days of Hollywood, pictured outside London’s Savoy Hotel

A much earlier photograph taken again at The Savoy Hotel BELOW :-

Sir Laurence looking nervous at the press introduction of Marilyn Monroe who is to star with him in ‘The Prince and The Showgirl’

She looks relaxed – she must have known that she was the star of this film – and the person who would guarantee Box Office results – He wouldn’t !!

‘The History of Mr Polly’ is a book I well remember us reading at school all those years ago and it was one I liked but it was quite a lot of years before I actually saw this 1949 films adaptation which was superb.

It was made at Denham – in fact the idyllic Pub by the water was constructed in the grounds of Denham Film Studios down towards the River Colne and lakes and it looked just perfect and eventually gave Mr Polly the life that he wanted.

However before he gets there, there is one episode in his life that I just love and that is when on a cycle ride he meets and befriends Christabel – a teenage girl at a College that he passes. It is really rather sweet and innocent but in his mind he sees this girl as the personification of all that he has dreamed about

These lovely summer time shots from scenes when Mr Polly is just meandering around the countryside and loving it

He takes this country lane

BELOW he stops here – a beautiful Studio set at Denham, and meets the young girl of his dreams

This little area is wonderfully re-created in the studio

ABOVE Mr Polly realises that he has found somewhere magical

ABOVE – He just sits and takes in the tranquillity

This teenage girl sees him from her vantage point sitting on the College wall. Mr Polly chats with her and quite quickly he becomes hooked on her beauty

He rises to his feet to talk more

History of Mr Polly

H sees her as a damsel and he sees himself as a Knight in Shining Armour – and he describes this to her

Christabel herself ( the lovely Sally Anne Howes ) seems to enjoy the chat and plays along with his dream

Their conversation just flows so easily

They finish the chat when she has to go and he pleads to see her again

Sally Anne Howes BELOW who would be 19 when she played this part – she played it beautifully

Sally Anne Howes

John Mills as Mr Polly

She looks so excited and his is transfixed

History of Mr Polly

Christabel has to leave and Mr Polly is loving every minute

History of Mr Polly

On his next visit a few days later, he carves her name on a tree

and she re-appears on the wall

History of Mr Polly

She holds out her hand so that he can kiss it which he does

He the hears schoolgirl giggling over the wall and gets up to see two more girls who had been listening in

ABOVE and BELOW – The dis-heartened and shattered Mr Polly thinks that he has made a fool of himself and trudges back to his bicycle – a forlorn character

You just couldn’t help yourself feeling so sorry for him. He then on a whim sets off to see his cousins and eventually goes for a walk in the park with Miriam. They sit on a park bench together and he turns round and sees Christabel and her friends there and immediately he turns and proposes to Miriam – I can’t think why but it is another one of his wrong turns in life. We can all see in his face that marriage to Miriam is not what he wants. So begins an unhappy chapter for him

Back to later scenes and the Studio set for the Inn on the banks of the river – built in the grounds of Denham Film Studios – where Mr Polly eventually after some adventures find the happiness and tranquillity that he has searched for all his life

It looks so pretty

It leaves me wondering though – What happened to Christabel – that would make another good story

When Sally Anne Howes played this role, although only a teenager she had been in some classic films including the great ‘Dead of Night’ and also ‘Halfway House’, ‘Pink String and Ceiling Wax’ ‘Nicholas Nickleby’ and ‘Anna Karenina’ with Vivien Leigh

I remember this one – a big budget British film but I have come across these location pictures that show how well we use existing locations – in this instance Warwick Castle. Only a dew short months late MGM made ‘Ivanhoe’ and they built a castle in the grounds of Elstree Studios.

This film opens with quite a random selection of Castles in a short intro we see Bodiam Castle, Leeds Castle and a couple of others before we alight on Warwick Castle.

Another Castle location used in the film was Allington Castle in Kent

In the picture above, the 20th Century Fox Unit rests between scenes in theb 13th Century drama ‘The Black Rose’. In this photograph we can see Tyrone Power, Director Henry Hathaway, Jack Hawkins, First Assistant Bluey Hill, Continuity Pam Davies, Red Gemmell ( Camera ) and George Frost ( Make Up)

In the picture ABOVE

Almost up to their necks in it for the final scenes in ‘The Black Rose’ the camera crew took to the River Avon, close to Warwick Castle, during the three weeks location there with this Technicolor romantic adventure story

Eye to the camera is Jack Cardiff with Paul Beeson, camera operator. Behind them are Ted Scarle and Neil ( Red ) Gemmell with Director Henry Hathaway ( in white shirt )

I have scanned back over the film and when I read here that there was a THREE week location shoot, the scenes in the film seem to be very few and particularly this one in the water. There was such a scene but it seemed to be in semi darkness and in my mind those brief scenes could so easily have been shot in a Studio Tank

it must have been a very hot day in the summer of 1949 – the film was released on 7 September 1950

Just look at the cast list ABOVE. Henry Oscar – a very well known and reliable film actor, Laurence Harvey who went on to a quite dazzling film career but sadly died very young and James Robertson Justice – how does he get these parts I just don’t know – he must have been very well connected, He went on to the three big Walt Disney films made here in the early fifties and then on to the ‘Doctor’ series and a lot of others. How does he do it ?

I have just been browsing through various magazines / Annuals of the fifties era and came across these scenes BELOW which I have used before on this Blog.