Ronnie Ronalde has died a day or so ago – a name I remember so well from the radio days here in England in the early fifties. However I forgot that he whistled the soundtrack for Innocent Sinners in 1958 – a British film not really much known these days. I must search it out because apparently it is a charming film of its time – and it is adapted from a novel by Rumer Godden – featured on this Blog a while ago when we covered another of her works – Black Narcissus and The River.

And what about  Ronnie Ronalde – The Voice of Variety AS HE WAS CALLED..

In the 40 s and 50 s he  was a headliner, and broke box office records all over the world –  he was a big name in the UK, US, Australasia, Scandinavia, Africa, South America and Europe.

Such was his success in the US in the 1950s, he was seen as serious competition to Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby, and others such as Richard Tauber and Josef Locke.

Ronalde had his own BBC Radio Show from 1949 called The Voice of Variety. During this series, the volume of Ronalde’s fan mail caused a problem for the BBC. The Voice of Variety News fan publication had a print of 55,000 copies twice yearly, and fan clubs during this era existed all across the UK. Thames TV also presented a weekly show titled Meet Ronnie Ronalde.

In 1949 Ronalde filled Radio City Music Hall in New York City (with capacity of over six thousand) every night for ten weeks. He was at that time the most frequent UK artiste to ever perform there (over a thousand times).

During the same period he filled a 25,000 capacity venue in Toronto Canada for a fortnight.

Ronnie Ronalde whistled the theme to Innocent Sinners.

Gentle children’s drama based on the novel An Episode of Sparrows by Rumer Godden following a Cockney girl’s  efforts to brighten her drab life by cultivating a bomb-site garden. Director Philip Leacock was an adept hand at capturing youthful emotions and had earlier done so on films including The Kidnapper’s (1953) and The Spanish Gardener (1955). Characteristically of the director, it’s a sensitive and well acted drama.

It is set in London during the period of post-war austerity.  A 13-year-old girl,  Lovejoy Mason (June Archer) lives with guardian parents whilst her mother Bertha (Vanda Godsell) treads the boards at the coastal holiday resorts. When the girl comes into possession of a packet of cornflower seeds she decides to make something beautiful out  and creates a small garden in a bombed-out section of London. To tend her garden Lovejoy requires two-shillings for some garden tools and resorts to singing in the street – where she comes to the attention of terminally-ill resident Olivia Chesney (Flora Robson). She eventually gets the  money she needs  by robbing the collection box at a nearby bomb-damaged Roman Catholic church

A group of street urchins led by street-smart Tip Malone destroy Lovejoy’s garden and the young sparrow is forced to scour London in search of a new plot. Tip feels remorse for vandalising Lovejoy’s creation and offers to help her create a better garden in the grounds of the ruined Catholic church – providing she repays the money stolen from the collection box. Meanwhile, Lovejoy’s guardian’s, dreamer Mr Vincent (David Kossoff) and his wife Emma (Barbara Mullen), have troubles of their own with a restaurant that is failing and when news reaches them that Lovejoy’s mother has married and eloped to Canada the couple no longer have the funds to care of their young ward.

Lovejoy and Tip are arrested by the police for stealing from a communal garden, and together with her mother moving away, the  young teenager is taken into care. The one sympathetic figure transpires to be golden-hearted spinster Olivia Chesney, who having overseen Lovejoy’s predicament, calls on her solicitor to draw up a trust fund to ensure both Lovejoy’s future and that of likeable restauranteurs the Vincent’s in a new West End premises. Sadly Mrs Chesney passes away before the fund can be finalised and it’s left in the hands of her stern sister Angela (Catherine Lacey) as to whether her dying wishes are carried out.

Ronnie Ronalde with the them from Innocent Sinners 1958 :-

I have recently acquired this item – an original typed film script from the famous film The Blue Lagoon.   It is a fascinating find because it reminds us of an era now gone – and it also shows the great detail necessary in film making. Quite a lot of the filming went on in Fiji which in those days would be even more remote and inaccessible than it is today – but for young actor like Jean Simmons and Donald Houston it must have been a very exciting period in their lives. How on earth would they get there in those days. Even in the mid fifties to get to New Zealand would mean around nine hops by air – and whether Fiji meant another plane journey or by sea I don’t know. I do know however that Jean Simmons went to Sydney on her way out to film The Blue Lagoon  and received a very warm reception there. She also describes how she travelled back in luxury. Jean Simmons said :- “I’ve got some lovely memories.   I remember coming back from the Fiji Islands on the Queen Mary after we’d made The Blue Lagoon. I travelled with Eleanor Roosevelt and she gave me a bunch of violets. I was so thrilled. I was just 18. I’ve had a lovely life. Not bad for a kid from Cricklewood.” I must query Jean’s recollection here though, because there is a newsreel film of her celebrating her 19th Birthday on Fiji before she left for home.  Still that hardly seems to matter !!

Below is a jig-saw puzzle from the film – my Mother and Dad bought me one like this way  back probably in the early fifties and I treasured it and remember it to this day.

However years later  I was able to get hold of the full set of FOUR of these which made me very happy.

I am cheating a little here when I bring in the wonderful NEW series of Father Brown starring  Mark Williams in the title role – and excellent he is too.

Why this is not on at a peak time I just do not know.

However the reason that I can include this reference is the fact that in the Fifties there was a film version starring Alec Guiness as Father Brown and his adversary here was Peter Finch.

Alec Guiness as Father Brown – 1954 film version.

Father Brown returned for a third series and this time he was uncovering a Soviet spy team in the Cotswolds

Father Brown (BBC1) returned for a third series, with an episode every afternoon for the next three weeks, and this time he was uncovering a Soviet spy team in the Cotswolds.

Actor Mark Williams fills out the role with a combination of delicacy and slapstick.

He isn’t clumsy, or socially inept. Visiting a young couple to offer his condolences after their friend was murdered, he sat with his teacup balanced on his knee, a gesture that seemed to reassure them that he wouldn’t intrude for long into their grief.

Creator G.K. Chesterton stated that Father Brown had an ability to lose his head and, by putting two and two together make four million. As Father Brown himself put it: ‘I am a bumbling idiot but I see patterns in things.’

Richard Todd and Rupert Evans rehearsing for action shots for The Story of Robin Hood 1952 – Walt Disney – in the summer of 1951. The film was released here in England in 1952.

If you look closely at the picture on the right – at the very back of the photograph, I reckon that is James Robertson Justice – who plays Little John in the film – seen chatting to someone who I think could be Walt Disney himself.   He came over that summer and appeared a number of times on the set both at Denham and Burnham Beeches.

These pictures were taken at Denham Film Studios – I reckon at the rear of the studio where it slopes down to the River Colne.

Rupert Evans was an expert swordsman and as such had been drafted in to train the actors when necessary – which in this film would have been quite often I guess.