Not a well known name – but a successful child actor

Lee Aaker
(September 25, 1943 – April 1, 2021)

Lee Aaker, who has died recently, will be remembered mainly for the Rin Tin Tin TV series – he played in 164 episodes between 1954 and 1959.

He also appeared in Hondo (1953, above) with John Wayne, High Noon (1952), Ride Clear Of Diablo (1954) and Destry (1954).

Also ‘A Lion in the Streets’ 1954 and ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’ 1952

He is quoted as saying that when the long running TV Series ‘Rin Tin Tin’ finished he was, quite quickly, out of the public eye and not ‘the centre of attention’ anymore

Such is fame – a fleeting time in the spotlight – although in fairness his film acting career lasted from 1948 until 1963 – so a good run by any yardstick

In England in the early days of Television, one of the first American Shows was ‘Rex and Rinty’ and we all loved it – It was basically the same as ‘Rin Tin Tin’ but what surprised me was that this series was made in 1935 – so well before the US Television series mentioned here.

‘Rex and Rinty’ had been directed by Ford Beebe an extraordinary character with an incredible work ethic, who wrote scripts, directed films, acted in them, cut the film and prepared it for screening – more on him in a later post.

This is just about the most famous film of all time. Beautifully made in Technicolor and with an iconic cast.

Vivien Leigh perfect in her role as Scarlett O’Hara

ABOVE – Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara

Vivien studies the script

ABOVE – Vivien Leigh outside ‘Tara’ – a publicity still but a very impressive one

ABOVE – Scarlett looks unimpressed by Rhett’s affection

ABOVE Margaret Mitchell Centre laughs along with David O. Selznick, Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh and Olivia De Havilland

ABOVE Vivien Leigh shares a laugh with Director Victor Fleming

ABOVE – A pompous looking Laurence Olivier with the lovely Vivien Leigh probably in the grounds of the San Ysidro Ranch owned by Ronald Colman

He must have been seething with jealousy at her great screen success against his moderate film work. He did play the lead in ‘Rebecca’ only after Alfred Hitchcock was unable to acquire Ronald Colman for the role – who would have been perfect in the role. Olivier was ok though

Apparently Sir Laurence used to check the scripts that Vivien Leigh was sent and he decided which ones were suitable – as he saw it that is. She was a wonderful screen actress and in fairness, could turn her hand to anything offered

Later on he decided to direct the film ‘The Prince and the Showgirl’ in with he starred with Marilyn Monroe. She was very much the star and with her in the cast you could guarantee a healthy Box Office

However, it is reported that the two stars did not get on well at all – with Sir Laurence heard to call Marilyn an unpleasant name

How dare he be so rude to such a great film star

ABOVE – The Prince and the Showgirl

BELOW – This would be much earlier at Denham – in fact just before the War because Charles Laughton is in costume for ‘I Claudius’ in 1937.

Here he is seated and having lunch with Mary Pickford and Alexander Korda at the Denham Canteen

BELOW – This would be 1947 at Denham and again in the Canteen waiting to be fed. David Niven is in costume as filming of ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’ was well underway – it was released in 1948

It does seem as though all the staff and the stars waited for their meals in the Canteen – and this is a surprise to me because I would have expected Alexander Korda to have had his own private dining room. Maybe he did and this was just a publicity still – and it seems from the picture below that that was indeed the case.

When Denham Studios opened in May 1936 it was hailed as Britain’s largest, most up-to-date film studio, located on a 193-acre site on an estate called ‘The Fishery’ north of Denham Village in Buckinghamshire. Equipped with state-of-the-art facilities, it was celebrated as symptomatic of the revival of the British film industry, and of the rise of Alexander Korda’s London Film Productions, the company that built the studios with finance provided by the Prudential Assurance Company.

Denham was by far the largest of the film studios in Britain, but it was soon to be rivalled by J. Arthur Rank’s Pinewood Studios which opened just a few months after Denham in September 1936

Basil Dearden directed this Thriller which starred Nigel Patrick, Yvonne Mitchell, Michael Craig, Paul Massie, Bernard Miles and many stalwart and well known actors of that era.

Basil Dearden had directed some impressive films including ‘Dead of Night’ “The League of Gentlemen” and this one “Sapphire”

The film begins with the discovery of a dead woman in a park. However, this turns out to be anything but a routine case when the police investigate further. It turns out that the lady was pregnant. Secondly , for whatever reason, she was black and posing as a white woman. While this sort of plot might seem pretty routine today – back then in 1959 it was quite daring.

The film is very well written. Nigel Patrick did a first class job in playing the chief inspector- I remember him for two film roles particularly – one in ‘The Browning Version’ where he plays Frank Hunter a young teacher who is having an affair with Millie Crocker-Harris, the wife of teacher Andrew Crocker-Harris played by Michael Redgrave in one of his best roles and the other in more light-hearted mode when he played Mr Know-All in one of the story segments in ‘Trio’

Michael Craig is in the early stages of his film career with this film – he plays the Chief Inspector’s Assistant

Yvonne Mitchell is also very good as a key witness, and Earl Cameron is outstanding as Sapphire’s dignified brother whose skin is closer to their mothers.

From him we get to see the indignities that an educated man must face because he’s a black doctor at that time

This is a film well worth seeing. It’s not surprising that the film won the BAFTA ( British version of the Oscar) for Best Picture.

ABOVE – Michael Craig and Nigel Patrick with Orlando Martins behind the bar

BELOW – Nigel Patrick here with Jean Kent and Michael Redgrave in ‘The Browning Version’ 1951

BELOW – Nigel Patrick as Mr Know-All in ‘Trio’

Michael Craig who is still alive today aged 93 started in films in the very early fifties and throughout that decade and the next he remained a popular leading man with his classic good looks helping him there.

One film he made early in his career in 1954 was ‘Svengali’ with the great Shakespearean actor Donald Wolfit who had been drafted into the leading role with only two week’s notice because the original star Robert Newton suddenly pulled out and flew back to the USA. One theory is that it was for tax reasons.

Michael Craig, though, was way down the cast list

I like Robert Newton and Sir Donald Wolfit as actors of that era. They were both Shakespearean trained stage actors who had gravitated into films quite successfully

Robert Newton had great success in ‘Treasure Island’ and after this failed ‘Svengali’ attempt – he went to Australia and made ‘Long John Silver’ and then a full television series by the same name which turned out to be very popular on a world scale – certainly on Television here in England

Donald Wolfit used his film earnings to help finance his Theatre tours which brought Shakespeare to the masses with great success.

He was much maligned by the likes of Sir Laurence Olivier and Ralph Richardson but he was at the very least their equal.

More on Sir Donald Wolfit another time

This film was on Talking Pictures today and, in truth I had no recollection of it at all, and yet it starred Robert Mitchum, Robert Wagner, Richard Egan and May Britt and was released in Cinemascope and Technicolor by Twentieth Century Fox – so it had all the credentials of a memorable one.

Also it had quite a big budget

There were some impressive action sequences and for the experts apparently, some of the best aerial scenes of conflict that we have seen on screen

ABOVE and BELOW :- Robert Mitchum rescues a colleague who is just hanging from his parachute in a tree

However they have been spotted by the Korean enemy and are pursued

Robert Mitchum pulls out his gun as the pursuers close in – but just at that moment a Sabre Jet comes out of nowhere and strafes the aggressors with bullets.

This was Dick Powell’s last film as a Director for 20th Century Fox

Robert Mitchum plays Ceve Saville, an older pilot looking to fly again. He becomes commander of an air squadron led by his old WWII leader, Dutch Imil ( Richard Egan).

Ceve forms his squadron with a young pilot, Lt. Pell ( RobertWagner), a gentler type, Corona (John Gabriel), an alcoholic, Carl Abbott (Phillips) and a more brazen type (Stacy Harris).

Meanwhile, Ceve falls in love with Carl Abbott’s beautiful and unhappy wife ( May Britt), and she with him.

The flying sequences are wonderful, filmed over the southwest United States giving the impression of great speed on the screen. Very few models were used – it was mostly real jets. Very exciting it was too

The Korean pursuers

BELOW – In a second attack one of the Korean vehicles is hit and bursts into flames.

A Korean vehicle is hit and bursts into flame

May Britt is the female lead.

In many ways I am reminded of a 20th Century Fox Film of a few years earlier – ‘D Day 6th June’ which starred Robert Taylor, Richard Todd and Dana Wynter. The conflict in that one was different but the storyline of a service man falling in love with his colleague’s wife was much the same.

Richard Egan and Robert Wagner

ABOVE – Robert Mitchum

ABOVE – Richard Egan

ABOVE – A Double Bill with ‘The Fly’ – Looking at all of the posters makes me realise that there were some vey good films released at that time

I was just browsing through various film topics that I always find interesting and entertaining and came across this assortment :

The Double Bill above just baffles me. I can’t recall these films at all.

It seems that the ‘Frankebnstein’ film was made in 1965 and gets reasoably good reviews. ‘Curse of the Voodoo’ also had the title ‘Curse of Simba’ and had none other than Denis Price in one of the leading roles. Reading what I could about it, it does seem to have had a good storyline

‘Them’ a much better known film

ABOVE – Another big one from Universal with a great cast

ABOVE ‘Giant from the Unknown’ has Buddy Baer in it. He wrestled with that bull in ‘Quo Vadis’ to save Deborah Kerr

If you just want to be entertained in that magical 50’s B picture way….take a look at ‘Giant From the Unknown’.

In ‘She Demons’ the acting was average at best but the special effects and cinematography were good considering when this film was made.

‘Half Woman Half Beast’ seems to be a heading straight from the Horror films of that era.

Boris Karloff ABOVE

Above – ‘Them’ teamed up with The Bowery Boys as a supporting film ‘Clipped Wings’

‘The Gorgon’ a very good film from Hammer when they were at the peak of their success

Richard Pasco and Brabara Shelley starred

I well remember Richard Pasco from a much later film ‘The Watcher in the Woods’ made in England for Walt Disney. A film that I really like – well made and original

Before the film ‘Macabre’ gets under way in the Cinema – we are warned:

Narrator: Ladies and gentlemen – for the next hour and fifteen minutes, you will be shown things so terrifying that the management of this theatre is deeply concerned for your welfare. Therefore, we request that each of you assume the responsibility of taking care of your neighbour. If anyone near you becomes uncontrollably frightened, will you please notify the management so that medical attention can be rushed to their aid? Please set your watches. It is 6:45 in the evening in a town called Thornton…

William Castle was the Director :

The first of William Castle‘s “gimmick” films. In this one, admission included a $1000 insurance policy against “death by fright” issued by Lloyds of London.

People in a small US town think that a doctor (William Prince) is responsible for the death of his wife due to his incompetence. Someone is so angry about this that they have apparently kidnapped the doctor’s daughter and have buried her alive. The doctor must scramble to figure this one out–and the leads point to her being buried in the cemetery.

In the late 1950s, director/producer William Castle began releasing horror thrillers with amazing gimmicks- such as electrifying seats and shocking viewers in “The Tingler” or sending skeletons flying over the audience in “The House on Haunted Hill”. “Macabre” was the first of these- with insurance policies on the patrons because the film was supposedly THAT scary. Unfortunately, the film just wasn’t scary!

Some years ago, we went over to the Manchester Opera House to see a play with a plot line not unlike this.

The Play was ‘Dead Simple’ by Peter James and the story was a very frightening one – here is the up-front publicity :-

Michael Harrison had it all: good looks, charm, natural leadership, a wicked sense of humour, and now, Ashley, his fiancée. While out celebrating with a group of friends a few nights before the wedding, Michael suddenly and unexpectedly finds himself enclosed in a coffin equipped only with a flashlight, a dirty magazine, a walkie-talkie, and a tiny breathing tube. It’s all in good fun — payback for the grief his mates suffered due to his own penchant for tomfoolery — that is until the four are killed in a drunk driving accident just moments after leaving Michael completely alone and buried alive.

Detective Superintendent Grace—himself dealing with the pain of losing his wife—is brought on to the case when Ashley reports Michael missing. Suspicions are raised when Michael’s only friend not at the bachelor party refuses to cooperate, and Ashley’s faithfulness—not to mention her increasingly mysterious past—are suddenly thrown in to question. As Superintendent Grace soon discovers, one man’s disaster is another man’s fortune.

‘Dead Sinple’ has been dramatised on ITV Television with John Simm as Inspector Grace

ABOVE and BELOW :  Richie Campbell and John Simm

A good Western in Technicolor with plenty of action – what more could we want.

Plus Randolph Scott, Alexander Knox – I never would have thought of him in a Western but as the ‘baddie’ he was excellent – he was a very accomplished actor – then we had Ellen Drew – I remember her with Larry Parkes in ‘The Swordsman’ and also Joan Leslie.

So, all in all, a pretty good cast

ABOVE – Alexander Knox and Ellen Drew

I always remember Alexander Knox for the film ‘The Night My Number came up’ which was a fascinating story of a dream of an aircaft flight that ended in disaster which when related in real life, gets so much into the minds of the people involved that it looks to be becoming self fulfilling.

Alexander Knox came to England in the early fifties – not long after ‘Man in the Saddle – where he pursued a long and successful career, mainly on the stage

He died in Berwick-Upon-Tweed

I have recently come across these fascinating pictures – the first two are aerial views of the large outside studio tank actually in use for Walt Disney’s ‘Treasure Island’ – so these would be taken in the hot summer of 1949

Difficult to gauge which part of the story would be done here – I suspect it would be the last few minutes of the film where Long John Silver – Robert Newton – escapes from capture in that small boat.

Jim Hawkins is with him and at the tiller and steers the boat into the sandy bank much to the annoyance of Long John who eventually manages to push it out into the water and then to the open sea.

ABOVE – I can’t think that the studio tank would be used that much on this film. The River Colne had been dammed in the grounds of the Studios for a while in order to film the pirate landing on the island – which was done in brilliant fashion.

When I read that the pictures ABOVE were taken during the making of that film, I just wonder. It is in the extensive grounds of the Studios though

ABOVE – In the grounds of Denham on the River Colne in the grounds of Denham Film Studios – but NO, we are landing on Treasure Island. This is a thrilling sequence with unmatched Technicolor photography – I just love it as it evokes such lovely memories from when I first saw it at the Cinema

BELOW – That same scene being set up

ABOVE – Here we are arriving at Treasure Island – the palm tress were added to the summer foliage and it really looks effective and good.

I just love these shots both above and below

Jim has escaped from the small boat and ran inland – the ABOVE shot is definitely in the grounds of Denham Film Studios.

As the grounds covered 193 acres there was ample room to cope with ‘Treasure Island’ and the very next film from Walt Disney ‘The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men’ both made at Denham – so after this those Denham exteriors were turned into Sherwood Forest

Farewell, Long John and Good Luck

I have just been re-reading an earlier article I did about the late, great Gerald Parkes – Cinema Owner, Entrepeneur and a man with an unrivalled knowledge of films and the cinema over many decades.

He became one of the youngest Cinema Managers in 1969 at the Ritz Cinema in Keighley

THIS view of Keighley’s Ritz Cinema can be dated to a week in mid-April of 1952 when it ran the “best film of the year”, the Academy Award-winning An American in Paris, starring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron, with music by George and Ira Gershwin.

A special showing was put on for Easter Monday, starting at 10.40 in the morning.

The Ritz opened in 1938 and the first Film shown was the classic ‘Lost Horizon’ with Ronald Colman

Seating 1,526 and provided with a Compton 3Manual/5Rank organ and small variety stage the Ritz Cinema was the most luxurious theatre in the area and it even had the facility of a café-restaurant which seated 100. It was designed by the well respected firm of Verity & Beverley with Sam Beverley acting as the chief architect for the scheme.

It was renamed ABC on 30th July 1971 and showed its last film on 2nd February 1974

A stage and dressing rooms were intended for variety shows. Indeed, the Ritz would later accommodate productions of the Keighley Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society.