This will be , for me, the highlight film of this Christmas – The Holly and the Ivy – 1952. On Talking Pictures Christmas Eve at just after 9 pm.

It is a film I have known for many years and have featured it on this Blog previously but make no apologies for doing so again.  I just love this film – and this type of film. Very British – where we have a family gathering at Christmas – nothing much happens but somehow we are drawn in to the  lives of the family we meet – and find ourselves absorbed in their lives – as they unfold before us. Fascinating.

Christmas Film: The Holly and the Ivy (1952)

Starring Ralph Richardson, Celia Johnson, Denholm Elliott, Margaret Leighton, Hugh Williams, Margaret Halstan and Maureen Delaney, the film takes place as a family returns home on Christmas Eve and in the midst of the bright holiday, none of them are very happy and are hiding their troubles.

Rev. Martin Gregory’s (Richardson) wife recently died and his daughter Jenny (Johnson) cares for him at the parsonage. Jenny sends letters to her brother Michael (Elliott), sister Margaret (Leighton), cousin Richard (Williams) and aunts Lydia and Bridget (Halstan, Delaney), inviting them to their home for the holiday.

Jenny is the only child of the reverend who lives at home, and she feels she can’t leave him. But on Christmas Eve she learns that her fiancé David (John Gregson) is being transferred to South America for his job. David tells Jenny that he told his job he would be bringing a wife, but she doesn’t feel she can marry and leave her father. She wishes her younger sister Margaret would leave the city, where she works as a fashion writer, and live at home. But Jenny isn’t even sure Margaret will come home for Christmas.

 As each family member arrives home, they bring their problems. Michael is in the Army and lies his way to get leave so he can go home. Aunt Lydia is a grand, wistful, and dreamy woman who has been a widow for 30 years, but talks of her deceased husband constantly. In stark contrast, Aunt Bridget is crabby and constantly criticizing everyone. Bridget never married, because she spent her life caring for her mother.

Margaret arrives late on Christmas Eve and is deeply troubled by loss she experienced during and after World War II. She masks her pain by drinking and only confides in Jenny. Margaret doesn’t feel that she can divulge her sins to her father because he is a holy man. Michael and Margaret feel that they will be judged by their father and will receive a religious lesson if they discuss their indiscretions with him.

Ralph Richardson as Rev. Gregory and Denholm Elliott as Michael (Mick) Gregory

When the Reverend realizes his children never brought their pain to him and why, he feels he has failed as a religious figure—he isn’t there to criticise but to help.

Set on the snowy English countryside, “The Holly and the Ivy” (1952) has a cozy, warm feel.

Although the holiday surroundings are inviting and happy, no one seems to like Christmas much. Jenny decorates the house “because it’s what we always do.” David says decorating is a waste of time. Michael and David agree that Christmas is depressing. Margaret wonders why she even returned home.

Jenny (Celia Johnson) and David (John Gregson) decorate the vicarage.

Even the Reverend says he hates Christmas, because it focuses more on drinking and commercialism and “No one remembers the birth of Christ.” He also hates giving his Christmas sermon, because he knows everyone is fidgeting and “wanting to get home to baste their turkeys.”

Margaret Leighton as Margaret in The Holly and the Ivy (1952)

Celia Johnson’s character of Jenny is the calm and responsible daughter who is concerned for the family. Margaret Leighton’s character of Margaret is hard, bitter and emotional.

Margaret Leighton does a good job of exhibiting the pain within her – from her life’s sad life experiences that we eventually hear about.

Denholm Elliott’s Michael doesn’t seem to take life too seriously.

While the film is largely a drama, the aunts played by Margaret Halstan and Maureen Delaney ( reprising their West End Theatre roles.) supply the comic relief.

“The Holly and the Ivy” originated as a play by Wynyard Browne, which premiered on London’s West End at the Duchess Theater in 1950.

It is easy to see that this film was adapted from the stage by the extent of dialogue, long scenes and drama – it comes to the screen very well indeed – and I love it.

Patricia Medina pictured when she had arrived back in England – probably towards the end of 1953 to filmThe Black Knight with Alan Ladd at Pinewood Studios.

This  picture  was taken after she had appeared as a panellist   on   Whats  My  Line in early December 1953

She had appeared opposite Alan Ladd a couple of years before this one – in Botany Bay 1952 – another of my favourite films.

She made four films in 1953 alone, followed in 1954 by Phantom of the Rue Morgue and an adventure film  The Black Knight, made in England and in which she co-starred with Alan Ladd .

Patricia Medina had married, in 1941, Richard Greene, the strikingly handsome Irish star who was later to star in The Adventures of Robin Hood on British television.     After divorcing him in 1951, she lived alone in Hollywood, terminating her MGM contract and moving to Columbia.

On visits to London she regularly appeared on BBC television as a panellist on What’s My Line? (1951-63) with personalities including Gilbert Harding and Barbara Kelly.

Shortly after her marriage to Joseph Cotten in 1960, the couple embarked on the first of several theatre tours of the United States. Her only significant film thereafter was The Killing of Sister George (1968), in which she played a prostitute.

Joseph Cotton referred to Patricia Medina as having the most beautiful face in Hollywood – and seeing that he had worked with some of the classically beautiful women of the era, that is some compliment. He was right I’m sure.

After Joseph Cotten’s career was terminated in 1981 by ill health, Patricia Medina devoted herself to caring for him until his death in 1994 . In 1998 she published her autobiography.

I must look it up and buy it.

Patricia Medina and Joseph Cotton on their Wedding Day – Above

They were  married at the Home of David O. Selznick and Jennifer Jones  in Beverley Hills, Hollywood on 20 October 1960.

Serpent of the Nile is another version of Cleopatra. The Queen of Egypt is played by Rhonda Fleming, and with Raymond Burr as Antony.

Filmed in Technicolor

This film enjoyed something of a renaissance in 1963 – ten years after it was made – at the time of the release of Cleopatra – Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton famous version. This film was shown quite a lot on Television at that time obviously designed to take advantage of the immense publicity that the  film Cleopatra had given us.

Director: William Castle Writer: Robert E. Kent (story and screenplay)   Stars: Rhonda Fleming, William Lundigan, Raymond Burr, Jean Byron, Michael Ansara, Michael Fox, Julie Newmar This  is a low budget film but works quite well  –  Raymond Burr, who really hadn’t made his name at this stage, but he manages to impress as a drunken, weak-willed Antony, while Rhonda Fleming as Cleopatra is stunning and manages to toss in a goblet-throwing temper tantrum here and there.

Above: Rhonda Fleming reads the script

Above: Rhonda Fleming in her role

Rhonda Fleming plays Cleopatra as a scheming type with totally unrealistic expectations for her lovers who are entertained them with whip-wielding women dressed as Roman soldiers.

William Lundigan plays her  love interest, Antony’s associate who apparently had an affair with her years before as one of Caesar’s guards. Nobody looks particularly Egyptian, and Raymond Burr sounds more like Perry Mason than a Roman General. It’s never really made clear why he went to Egypt in the first place, except that he “likes to have Cleopatra around” while Octavian takes over where the real action is – back in Rome.

Michael Ansara is around as Cleopatra’s somewhat bumbling heavy There are some good action scenes however – one scene has Egyptians wrestling a real Bear – and another good action scene involving some daringly placed cameras under the hooves of charging horses and chariots. In among all that there are some  cheap sets and  matte paintings. And there are a lot of costumes for a cheap film.

Credit to a good script and lead performances and to William Castle for keeping it moving and colourful–something he always did.

Ellis Powell played Mrs Dale in Mrs Dale’s Diary on BBC Radio in England from 1948 until 1963 when the role was taken over by Jessie Matthew.   Ellis Powell was married to well known film actor Ralph Truman who had many roles although one memorable one for me was as George Merry in Walt Disney’s Treasure Island made at Denham Film Studios and released in 1950.

Byron Haskin, the film’s director, said that he had realised when casting the film, that Robert Newton was just going to ‘let rip’ in the role of Long John Silver – which he did very successfully – so as a sort of balance, he cast Ralph Truman and with instructions for  him to go well over the top in his portrayal of George Merry – and so successfully did he do that, that Byron Haskin said that in the scenes they played together it almost made Robert Newton actually look as though he was underplaying his part.

There is very little information about Ellis Powell available anywhere although she had the main role in the very earliest of Soaps on Radio – of course – Mrs Dales Diary.  She had been a Radio Drama actress from before the War – in fact right through the War until in 1948 she landed this part. She was part of the BBC Radio drama team that was shipped out of London during the War and based in Evesham where she appeared in many radio plays, although some of them were produced in Manchester. Ralph Truman also was a very well known BBC Radio drama actor with up to 5,000 broadcasts to his name. They may have met through BBC radio I would guess.

Above – a posed still for Mrs. Dale’s Diary – Ellis Powell and Grace Allardyce in a scene

Something that is not known generally is that shortly after she left the role as Mrs. Dale. she agreed to become a  Night Spot Club Hostess at the  Nitespot in Charing Cross, London owned by former Light-Heavyweight Boxing Champion Freddie Mills which was due to open at the end of April 1963.  Freddie Mills had been part owner of a Restaurant and was having this converted to the so-called Nite-Spot. It seems that Ellis Powell lost her job as Mrs. Dale in February of 1963.  She was then offered this job from late April 1963 and she died on 2 May 1963. Just over two years later Freddie Mills was found shot dead in his car – it was reported as suicide although there has been some dispute over this.

Above: Actress Ellis Powell sitting with her feet up and her pet cat next to her, pictured following her dismissal from the radio series ‘Mrs Dale’s Diary’, at her home in London, February 20th 1963 – this is the day after she walked out of Broadcasting House (BBC)  for the last time after being cruelly sacked from her long running part as Mrs Dale.

Ellis Powell was reported to have been ‘sacked’ from Mrs Dale’s Diary  – and from her long running role as Mrs. Dale – she walked out of Broadcasting House on 19 th February 1963 for the last time – very bitter. She had earned £ 30 per week for her role,  although her voice was well known to millions of listeners the country over – but her face was not- so she found fame of a sort but not a fortune – in fact very little. She had been fired partly it is alleged because of her drinking habits but also because – in typical BBC fashion – they wanted to give the programme a face-lift. ‘ The BBC have chucked me out like and old sock’ she said. Her fans believed that she never recovered from the shock and distress of her dismissal. In the last weeks of her life she is reported to have worked as a Demonstrator at the Ideal Home Exhibition and as a Cleaner at a Hotel – although this is at odds with what I have found out that she had lined up this job at Freddie Mills’ NiteSpot.  Maybe she was just taking any job that came in her desperation. There are also references to the vague similarity of the True Life story of Ellis Powell to the plot of The Killing of Sister George – but to me that is stretching things a bit far unless there is something that links the two which  is not  generally known – although on the other hand from the outline of the story of the film below does have a parallel – that is clear.

I have come across this mini article below :- Marcus’s play was inspired by a controversial incident in 1963 when the BBC sacked a beloved radio star and was replaced by Jessie Matthews. The radio soap Mrs Dale’s Diary had been running since 5 January 1948 when the BBC decided to replace the lead actors and move the setting to a new town, with new supporting characters. The actress who had played Mrs Dale for 15 years, Ellis Powell, never recovered from this blow and died three months later, at the age of 57, through the shock and distress of her summary dismissal by the BBC.

Also I have seen another reference to her ‘at one time married to the actor Ralph Truman’ but as far as I can see she remained married to him until her death.

In fact in an interview for a 1954 magazine, she says that she was like Mrs Dale I some ways – they both lover, gardening, They both loved children and they both loved cats although she said that she had three cats Joe, Tortese and Baby Bella , whereas Mrs Dale had one called Captain. Ellis Powell also said that Mrs Dale had a son called Bob and she had a son Clive who was a similar age both in their earl 20s in 1954.

She had married Ralph Truman on 8th March 1928 so presumably had her son Clive around 1930 ish – that is a very little reported fact.

Apparently Ellis Powell  did use this local –  the Stags Head – close to Broadcasting House.

Also just come across these stark facts which gives Ralph Truman’s  and Ellis Powell’s  full name :-

Ralph du Vergier Truman, 1900 – 1977

Ralph married Ellis Agnes Estelle Truman (born Powell).

Ellis was born in 1905, in London, England.

This is quite a good  Western with no Star Names – it was on one of the Film Channels a week or two ago in England. I had never seen it before and was quite intrigued with the Colour – which was Cinecolor and although it is not seen as being that good, I thought it was excellent and really fitted such a Western Film as this.

The main Character is Larsen – a young man who has to turn to crime, almost forced to do so because of his mother’s outlaw reputation. (The real-life Belle Starr )-  she also had a daughter, Pearl, believed to have been fathered by outlaw Cole Younger–see BELLE STARR’S DAUGHTER, 1947) Larsen is recruited by underhanded sheriff Healey to help in a robbery. Larsen goes along with the plan because he wants to find out who set him up the year before.

During the robbery, the sheriff’s men turn on him and try to capture him but Larsen guns them down and hides the bounty, hoping to find out the real mind behind the plan. He gets his man, but his reputation as an outlaw gets Larsen in the end too.

A rather sad and un satisfactory ending – I am someone who always likes a happy ending in films – and in life too !!

I really love these Colour shots direct from the film – almost a faded sepia tint –  but very effective I thought.

Above: Dona Drake.

Dona Drake : A few snippets of information –

Sadly Dona Drake  died of pneumonia and respiratory failure in Los Angeles, California on June 20, 1989, at the age of 74. She was cremated and her ashes scattered at sea

This is an interesting bill – a Musical with Betty Hutton  – the last film Betty Hutton ever made coupled with an adventure film starring John Payne and Arlene Dahl with Sir Cedric Hardwicke and Francis L Sullivan – two very experienced British Actors – in fact having worked with them on this film,  John Payne said that  Cedric Hardwick and Francis L. Sullivan were “two of the finest actors in the business.” After making ‘Somebody Loves Me’  Betty Hutton had a row with the Studio (Paramount) and walked out. The temperamental star’s skyrocketing career came to earth with a bump in film terms although she made a few stage appearances and was on Television in The Betty Hutton Show which only ran for 30 shows in 1959 and 1960.  This though was a far cry from her Film days.

Caribbean Gold took almost 1.5 million dollars at the Box Office – so proving quite a hit that year.  Cedric Hardwick had been in a similar sort of film a year earlier with Alan Ladd in Botany Bay – a film I really like – although I do think that one could have been made before Caribbean Gold even though it was released after.

Both films came from the  Paramount Studio

We featured this a few months ago – this was a BBC play done in the days when there was just One Channel which was BBC.   This drama went out ‘live’ as they tended to do in those days – and not only did it go live on  Sunday evening 6th December 1953 at 8-40 pm they all did it again ‘live’ on Thursday  December 10th 1953 this time at 7 pm – Almost 65 years ago nearly to the day. Apparently this play was done because  Richard Todd, then at the height of his film popularity, expressed interest in playing Heathcliff and the BBC arranged for an adaptation to be made.   Above – a tense scene – Yvonne Mitchell as Cathy with Robert Brown as Edgar Linton along with Richard Todd’s Heathcliffe. Sadly no recording of this survives now – the would be before the days of early tele-recording I know but I had hoped there might be a copy. I remember seeing this as a child on our TV at home – maybe a 12 inch screen I would guess – but it was good – and memorable. Nigel Kneale wrote the screen play – none other than the Quatermass writer – and that would come shortly after this.   The Caption on the pictures says – Models of sets are made to help the actors. Here Richard Todd and Yvonne Mitchell are studying a set for ‘Wuthering Heights’ Above: The Two leading Actors Richard Todd and Yvonne Mitchell view models of the sets used – I imagine to get an angle on moving from one studio set to another in a ‘Live’ production. I do remember one scene where Richard Todd as Heathcliffe was in the door of a stable brushing down the rear of a horse – obviously a model horse – I will look back at Richard Todd’s Autobiography-  he may say more about this.

Robert Brown who played Edgar Linton went on to play Gurth – Roger Moore’s companion in the Television series Ivanhoe – which was very popular. This would come shortly after this production – of course he later played alongside Roger Moore as ‘M’ in a number of James Bond Films.

I have just read about him – and one thing that struck me was that he was born in Swanage in Dorset, England – and he died there. He must have lived there all of his life which I find admirable.  I have to admit that Swanage is a particular favourite seaside location for me.  It is like a place that is locked back in time somehow. Lovely place.

This is an interesting and colourful picture of Jon Hall in costume on the set of Ali Baba and The Forty Thieves made in Technicolor.

It also starred Maria Montez who seemed to play opposite him in quite a few of these exotic colourful adventure films.

This style of film and the actors involved were very popular at this time in the mid to late 40s  – such actors as Turhan Bey, Jon Hall and Maria Montez.  There was always seemed to be at least one scene where she emerged from a bath or swimming pool, quickly being discretely covered by large towels borne by hand-maidens.

There is a ‘cast of thousands’ in this one but most of the time the director does no more than fill the screen with people particularly in the battle scenes but I suppose that would be where they would be needed – and in film terms look most impressive.

Ali Baba has wicked caliphs and valiant freedom fighters battling it out in the Hollywood desert.

It all makes for colourful and very appealing entertainment.

Errol Flynn was in fact, very good as Soames Forsyte in the Hollywood version of the Book that was adapted so successfully a few years late for BBC Television in Britain.  This film went under the title of ‘That Forsyte Woman’ but I can’t think why – maybe they thought The Forsyte Saga would be a bit too formal for the viewing audiences back in 1949. It seems like a mistake to me.

It shows on the picture below that it got a Royal Film Performance with the title  The Forsyte Saga

Irene was played in this film by Greer Garson.

This is one of the few non-swashbuckling films for  Errol Flynn and one where he plays a character  who is not that appealing . He rises to the occasion and does it not merely well but really well.   Because he was so good at using his natural athletic abilities in costume dramas, he rarely got the meaty roles such as this one. Greer Garson is good..  Robert Young as Philip Bosinney is OK although I did feel he was mis-cast in this part – possibly my judgement is impaired by the actor who later  played him in the Television version – John Bennett –

This film is beautifully photographed in Technicolor with lush costumes but it’s Errol Flynn who steals the show– without even trying.

Filming took place from January to March 1949  with the two stars being recalled for reshoots in June.  However it was released in August 1949 – a quick turn around

Errol Flynn and Greer Garson got along surprisingly well during filming and discussed making another film together – but that never happened

What a lovely dog – Lassie who has appeared in exciting films and Television series over the years.

Below:  In Son of Lassie – Lassie jumps on to the plane to be with her master Peter Lawford in a thrilling sequence where they are together in the cauldron of war. It is quite a moving part of the film where we even fear for Lassie’s life.  

Breathtakingly beautiful location photography (Banff National Park, Canada) provides a colourful background for a war story involving Lassie, Peter Lawford, June Lockhart, Donald Crisp, Leon Ames, William Severn and an early performance by Terry Moore when she was a child actress.

Peter Lawford and Lassie have some strenuous stunts to perform in the rapids as they escape.

Son of Lassie is definitely a Lassie film worth watching.

  Above:   Lassie lovingly tries to wake up a young Claude Jarman in a scene from The Sun Comes Up.

Above – again in The Sun Comes Up. It seems Lassie got him out of bed and out in the fresh air on what looks like a lovely day.

I am not  at all familiar with this film  but it receives excellent reviews.

Above:  Lassie looks to be celebrating Christmas in a charming colour picture.