There are two memorable versions of this story – Ronald Colman and Douglas Fairbanks Jr in the 1937 one and then Stewart Granger and Janes Mason in the Technicolor 1952 film. Both very good and both virtually the same

I have to say, that I thought Ronald Colman was much better as Rudolph Rassendyll – he was a much better screen actor than Stewart Granger but in fairness Stewart Granger was pretty good and very athletic in the final sword fight.

In this film is another Coronation and that is the reason for this article at this particular time

Whilst nowhere near as impressive as the one we witnessed yesterday in England, this is very well filmed and on a pretty large scale with impressive sets – and Technicolor at it’s best – unrivalled !!

The Prisoner of Zenda 1952 – Rudolph Rassendyll takes a fishing holiday in a European Country, where his remarkable resemblance to The King of that same country forms the basis to this thrilling adventure story

The Prisoner of Zenda 1952 Below with the Princess Flavia

The Prisoner of Zenda 1952

The Prisoner of Zenda 1952 – The Coronation

The casting of Stewart Granger in the double role of Rudolph Rassendyll and his royal cousin, the Crown Prince Rudolph of Ruritania and James Mason as the villainous Rupert of Hentzau proves to be inspired casting. If Stewart Granger doesn’t have Ronald Colman’s flair for the spoken word – very few ever have had – he makes a fine hero. As for James Mason, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. took the Rupert part because he was advised it’s one of the best villains ever created in drama. James Mason obviously relishes the role and he is very much the equal of his predecessor

MGM decided in 1952 that it was time to do another remake of The Prisoner Of Zenda in time to coincide with the publicity of Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation. Commercially they were right as this film did very well at the Box Office.

On Coronation Day 2023 I think it is very fitting to look back at the charming, heart-warming film that everyone who has seen it seems to love – as I do.

It is difficult to think how such a film could be done in the present day – there would be little of no impact because most people nowadays are able to nip up to London with ease, but at that time in the early fifties it was not so easy. Financially it would be almost impossible so this film did have an impact – still does – mainly because of the two youngsters who took their parts so well and in many ways, carried the film. There were no big name stars in this.

The story is quite well known – of two young children who run away to watch the Queen’s Coronation in 1953 – and the many adventures that they have in London.

ABOVE and BELOW – today’s Coronation

It is a joy to watch this lovely film as I have so many times over the years If you would like an enjoyable, satisfying and nostalgic look into the Fifties – a simpler world but a lovely one at that – then just see this film. It is  one of my own  favourite films even today after all those years.

What a cast here to join Roger Moore in this 1964 episode of The Saint. We have Anthony Bate, Michael Gough, Justine Lord and Jean Marsh among others who were all first rate actors and who did this episode proud.

‘The Imprudent Politician’ is Christopher Waites (Anthony Bate) a minister for the treasury department.

He is facing demands for blackmail for the sum of £1 million. Not because he is a married man having an affair with a young woman. It is because he gave her a letter with market sensitive financial information. She made money on the stock exchange from it.

The blackmailers tell Waites that he will not need to pay the money over. They just want to catch sight of a letter he will receive in advance. That too contains market sensitive material. Enough for the blackmailers to make a killing in the markets.

The courier who brings the letter to Waites is killed while Waites held a party for some assorted guests. The Saint who was invited found the dead man.

Eventually Waites asks for the Saint’s help.

A pretty good adventure. and one in which Simon Templar gets involved in several fights.

Templar quickly figures out that Waites girlfriend was involved with the blackmailers. It was the reason why she never got rid off the letter. Templar is convinced that someone close to Waites is directing the blackmailers

One thing I latched onto here was that Anthony Bate and Justine Lord had been cast together in ‘Act of Murder’ one of the Edgar Wallace supporting films – and one of the very best. In that she was his wife but in this, she was his mistress. I am not sure which one was made first – I have an idea it was ‘Act of Murder’

As we fast approach the Coronation, I thought it might be good to look back on the previous ones that are both within living memory. #

‘A Queen is Crowned’ 1953

Sir Laurence ends his narration in this Technicolor film of the Coronation with – “May the Queen live forever!!”. Well she did reign over us for more than 70 years. After her funeral in 2022 Channel 4 showed the film without ad breaks immediately after the two minute silence.

There had already been a film of George VI’s coronation in Dufaycolor in 1937 but 1953 proved a lucky moment as at about that time Technicolor was approaching the end of it’s long dominance – mind you, I for one would say that it has never been bettered

The Coronation was such a large and incredible event that was viewed Worldwide and Thanks to this film, we could see it in Colour.

We can go back to George V1 Coronation in 1937 and see this in Colour – in fact in Dufaycolor :-

These half hour Colonel March episodes were made and shown in the mid fifties on ITV I am pretty sure.

Only 26 were ever made but the ones I have seen are pretty good considering the time they had and maybe, a limited budget.

Boris Karloff as Inspector March here with John Laurie in a scene from ‘Present Tense’ a quite absorbing drama about Col March’s niece played by Mary Parker whose husband perishes in a plane crash – or does he ? His Wife seems to sense his ghost in the house and hears the piano playing in the style of her husband. All is eventually revealed.

Her husband is played by Peter Reynolds who I had seen not that long ago in a film with Diana Dors called ‘The Last Page’ in which he played another quite unsavoury character. He certainly looked the part and was very good. He was in a lot of films and TV here

He moved to Australia in the late sixties and appeared in quite a lot of productions there. He died in Melbourne in 1975 in a fire in his flat which also saw the death of his pet dog.

Then in the leading role was Mary Parker, an actress I didn’t know but I could see that she was very capable and it did make me wonder why I had no knowledge of her.

Looking further, it seems that she went to live in Australia – she had been brought up in Melbourne – and had a very successful career in Television right from it’s launch

“Everybody in England knew Mary Parker”, said her husband, Paul Fitzgerald. “In England she did several films with Sir Douglas Fairbanks Jr – I’ve seen her name in lights on Shaftesbury Avenue and then she worked on TV as an announcer. They also brought her out to Australia in 1956 to open the (television coverage of the) Olympic Games – she was the first woman on television in (Melbourne)

We all know Boris Karloff – he came to England in 1952 to make the ‘Colonel March’ films and in fact made the first three ‘Pilot’ episodes which were joined together and released as a feature film in cinemas – the film was entitled ‘Colonel March Investigates’

He then did the other 26 episodes which went out first in America and then here. They have been repeated again and again on both sides of the Atlantic

Again, this was on Talking Pictures this Bank Holiday Monday afternoon 1 May 2023 – it is a film I did not know at all and can’t remember it’s release here or indeed anything about it.

However I did view it, and, true to reports, it proved quite a compelling film to watch – when I started I didn’t think I could stay the course but it sort of sucked you in and held you.

Dan O’Herlihy took the leading role in this, one of his best remembered films it seems, and he does give a very good performance in a difficult role where he is the main – and for a while – the only actor, so he effectively carries the film.

It was made in Pathécolor – Pathécolor, later renamed Pathéchrome, was an early mechanical stencil-based film tinting process for films developed by Segundo de Chomón for Pathé in the early 20th century. Among the last feature films to use this process was the Mexican film Robinson Crusoe (1954) by Spanish Director Luis Buñuel

Dan O’Herlihy as Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe tends to his sick dog – his constant and only companion at this stage of the film

Robinson Crusoe

Of the many great films Director Luis Bunuel was involved with, ROBINSON CRUSOE is one of his very best.

The film contains the feverish dream sequence where Crusoe’s father chides him for his adventurous, and, therefore, “wayward” spirit; the scene where he is so desperate to hear another human voice he goes to the Valley of the Echo and shouts a Psalm, and then walks in despair into the sea and the final scene where, leaving the island at last with Friday, he looks back for the last time, and hears the ghostly echo of his faithful, but long since dead dog, Rex, barking...

Robinson Crusoe above He is joined on the island by his ‘ Man Friday’

Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe

ABOVE and BELOW – The final ‘invasion’ but Robinson Crusoe and Friday plus the two they have helped escape from their captors, finally escape for the island

Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe – has been on the island for more than 18 years and has survived.

This film and the acting by Dan O’Herlihy really convey to us, the audience, the suffering he has endured from loneliness and isolation and yet also the warmth that he got from Friday and his animals. In the first few years, he had his beloved dog, Rex but when he died that must have been the darkest time that he spent there.

What a good film

This film was shown on Talking Pictures this morning 1 May 2023 – I had heard of it but not seen it. The one thing that I can’t quite work out is – where was it filmed ? From all the information available it seems to have been done in Hollywood with a strong cast of English actors – many of them resident at the time in Hollywood.

However Martita Hunt had a prominent part but I cant imagine that she went over there – I may be wrong on that of course. On further investigation – I am wrong – Martita Hunt was over in the USA starring on Broadway in one of her famous stage roles ‘Thwe Mad Woman of Chaillot’ and she did 350 performance in this role

She must have fitted in her part in ‘The Fan’ during that time

In fact after ‘The Fan’ the next film she made was in England at Denham Film Studios – ‘The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men’ in the summer of 1951

The production of ‘The Madwoman of Chaillot’ was staged also at the St James Theatre in London’s West End with Martita in the role, in 1951

After this at the Phoenix Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue, she starred alongside Vivian Leigh and Laurence Olivier in ‘The Sleeping Prince’ written by Terence Rattigan – another great success for Martita.

The film rights to this play were acquired by Marilyn Monroe who came over to England to make is as ‘The Prince and the Showgirl’ with Laurence Olivier co starring with her. He was not really very good – had she had a better leading man I feel that the film would have been more successful.

I do remember when Alfred Hitchock was casting ‘Rebecca’ he wanted Ronald Colman who was not available and so had to go along with Laurence Olivier. My view is that Ronald Colman – a superb screen actor – would have been much better

Most of us film goers remember her mainly for that wonderful and memorable performance as Miss Havisham in the classic 1946 film ‘Great Expectations’ and maybe also a little later for ‘The Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men’ but it does seem that her greatest achievements were on stage either in the West End of London or on Broadway.

She had played Miss Havisham on stage to much acclaim and so when David Lean was casting the film, he looked no further that Martita Hunt

One Theatre critic, who had seen her on stage said of her :–

“With an arresting appearance and a dominant stage presence, she proved most effective as strong, tragic characters, her Gertrude in Hamlet being accounted by some critics the finest they had seen.”

As anyone who reads these articles would know, I tend to write this same story each year on 30 April about a film I really like ‘The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men‘

It is 72 years ago today, on 30 April 1951 that Richard Todd opened the curtains at his home at Pinkneys Green Nr Maidenhead, before heading off to Denham for the first day of filming for Walt Disney’s ‘The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men’, only to see that the garden and countryside around was covered in a blanket of snow.

This event had caught the Walt Disney organisation out as they had not thought of such a possibility – however things were quickly re-adjusted to suit but from that moment on, they made sure that there was always an alternative scene to be shot if, again, the unexpected happened

The snow went within a few hours but the following cold days were spent at Burnham Beeches with outdoor scenes being shot.

ABOVE – Here we are at Burnham Beeches along with Perce Pearce, Carmen Dillon and Alex Bryce, the Second Unit Film Director on this production. In fact he did virtually all of the outside action scenes for the film at Burnham Beeches

I have to say that I do feel the filming there was a little early because although the trees were in leaf they were not in full leaf as later when they are even more attractive and photographed in Technicolor so well.

These Scenes being filmed – probably in Denham Film Studios where the site sloped down onto the River Colne – certainly filmed on that river.

BELOW – Filmed at the rear of Denham Film Studios as the ground slopes down to the River Colne – it looks good though !!

ABOVE – Two young fans – and competition winners – with Richard Todd at Denham Film Studios during the summer of 1951

It must be said that this film is one of – if not the best – Technicolor film ever

“Cattle Queen of Montana” was a film that Ronald Reagan and Barbara Stanwyck both really enjoyed making – they got on well together and were friends

Ronald Reagan and Barbara Stanwyck only starred in one film together, the 1954 Western “Cattle Queen of Montana.”

Maybe not a great film but it looked good on the enormous Cinemascope screen with it’s wonderful location filming  

“Cattle Queen of Montana” tells the story of Sierra Nevada Jones (Barbara Stanwyck) who along with her father leaves Texas for Montana. As a family, they have inherited a large portion of the land, and they wish to continue to raise cattle.

Sierra ends up fighting both the Indians and Tom McCord, a local man who uses some of the Indian tribe in a bid to to steal the land from Sierra. 

Enter Farrell (Ronald Reagan), a man who appears to be a hired gun for McCord. Farrell and Sierra encounter each other at the beginning of the film, when she is bathing in a lake. Farrell warns her about the Indian tribe.

Their paths cross many times, especially when McCord offers Farrell a bounty to kill Sierra. It turns out that Farrell is not what he seems to be – he is a U.S. Cavalry agent sent to investigate the issues between McCord and the Indians. 

Predictably, a romance between Farrell and Sierra develops, especially since they end up sharing the same opinion about McCord.

Farrell and Sierra get rid of McCord and his gang, and they ride off into the sunset, knowing that the land will stay with Sierra, and peace with the Indians has been achieved.

Both Ronald Reagan and Barbara Stanwyck had fond memories of working on the film. In his autobiography, Where’s the Rest of Me?, Reagan reflected on the “scenic Glacier National Park” and Barbara Stanwyck’s absolute professionalism. “Somehow working outdoors,” he wrote, , “amid beautiful scenery and much of the time on horseback never has seemed like work to me. It’s like getting paid for playing cowboys and Indians.” 

Ronald Reagan admired Barbara Stanwyck’s acting ability and her stamina. She took her work very seriously, and expected others to do the same.

In a letter he later wrote to a friend, Ronald Reagan wrote, “She [Stanwyck] is a professional. Her only intolerance is of those who won’t take our profession seriously, and who come to work without their lines learned or who are late and careless in their work.

Barbara is ready every day exactly on time, her lines learned perfectly for each day’s shooting, prepared to undergo whatever has to be done to make the scene better for the audience who will eventually see the film.”

Much like Reagan, Barbara Stanwyck loved the open land and took any opportunity she could to act in Westerns. What comes through clearly  in “Cattle Queen of Montana” is Reagan and Stanwyck’s enjoyment of the job they were doing. 

Barbara Stanwyck’s friendship with both Reagans (Stanwyck and Nancy Reagan had also starred together in a 1949 film, “East Side, West Side”) continued well into Reagan’s presidency.

She had replied to a letter that he had written to her after she had won a particular accolade and the letter began formally, addressing Reagan as “Mr. President,” but she couldn’t help adding in a postscript: “Ronnie—If I had known during the filming of ‘Cattle Queen’ that you were going to be President of our country I would have given you first billing!!”

Ronald Regan replied to her and reaffirmed the joy that their friendship brought to him and Nancy, and their support of her accomplishments and well-deserved honors. In his typical humorous way, Reagan couldn’t resist adding a less formal note: “Incidentally, I appreciate your willingness to give me top billing in the picture but it might have set me back–RR as …..?” 

This picture was published in a magazine in January 1958

The Reporter had spent a day on the set / location for the popular Television Series. They were shooting outdoor scenes about 5 miles out of Beaconsfield up a muddy track off the A40 on a pretty cold winter day.

Gurth played by Robert Brown was a fixture in the ‘Ivanhoe’ series as sidekick to Ivanhoe himself. He was walking around the location, making ready for a scene in an open top tunic which cannot have been comfortable in such low temperatures. Part of an actors job it seems and this role would have given him good, well paid employment for a year or more.

A lot of filming was done on pretty good studio sets at Beaconsfield, although I have read that the first Pilot Episode was made at Pinewood and in Colour.

Roger Moore would come to know Pinewood pretty well in future years – I am pretty sure that he lived at Denham close by

The Series of 39 Episodes was shown throughout 1958 and it has been repeated many times since

In Episode No 32 – which was first shown in November of 1958 there was an actress well known on this site – the lovely Joan Rice. She played Marcia in ‘The Night Raiders’

BELOW – Joan Rice as Marcia in ‘The Night Raiders’ Episode 32 of Ivanhoe

Joan Rice played Marcia, and here she is with her father in the story who were being terrorised by The Night Riders

Joan Rice was back in familiar territory here after she had played Maid Marian a few years before. It is pretty obvious that this had no-where near the budget that the Walt Disney film had.

ABOVE – Ivanhoe comes to the rescue

ABOVE – Joan Rice and her father in the film, wave in gratitude

ABOVE – Joan Rice is star billed as she should be. Just look at the cast though – Anthony Bate and Edwin Richfield in early roles