This episode which was a very good one in the Scotland Yard Series was on Talking Pictures this evening July 5th 2021 – Introduced by Edgar Lustgarten as always – who somehow added that touch of class to the proceedings

A seemingly respectable bookshop owner called Frederick Stafford (Ivan Craig) calls the police and confesses to accidentally killing his wife. He is duly arrested by the police at the scene of his Kensington mews flat and charged with manslaughter.

Scotland Yard’s Supt Daker (Kenneth Henry) and Detective Forbes (Frank Forsyth) question his neighbours who all confirm that Stafford is, on the whole, a respectable person; although he is rather furtive in his manner and has a slight temper. He was also devoted to his invalid wife and could not do enough for her – apparently.

However Supt Daker isn’t satisfied since if he knew that his wife was so ill why did her row with her so violently? In addition, Stafford seems remarkably calm and composed for a man who is potentially facing imprisonment for manslaughter. He further arouses suspicion when he asks his lawyer to renew the lease on this house because, after all, his future is far from certain and why on earth would anybody want to go back to such a place after what has occurred there?

Ivan Craig as Stafford ABOVE

They suspect that there is something or someone hidden in the house. With the help of a young undercover female police officer, Sgt Blake Patricia Driscoll – the days she found fame in Sherwood Forest with Richard Green in Robin Hood – Supt Daker is able to keep tabs on Stafford’s shop assistant Joan Price (Jean Lodge) whom, it transpires, is engaged to be married to a man called Roberts.

Her fiance is apparently away on business, but a description is obtained from a barman and it matches that of Stafford.

The barman is played by ‘Captain Peacock ( Frank Thornton) – I remember him playing a barman again in an episode of ‘Steptoe and Son’ when Harold took his father, Albert, out in the West End to celebrate his birthday – and we all remember Captain Peacock in ‘Are you being Served’ – brilliant !

Supt Daker and Detective Forbes are now convinced that Stafford cold bloodedly murdered his wife and arranged it to look like and accident before confessing in order to get a lighter sentence leaving him free to marry Joan when he gets out. Unfortunately, they do not have anything to make it stick before a jury. Then, suddenly, a lead presents itself from the most unlikely source: a discarded bicycle in the mews where Stafford lives. It has been there for days and it is traced to a window cleaner who has gone missing. ‘The Silent Witness’ is discovered in the form of the dead body of the window cleaner who had witnessed the murder – and who Stafford had the killed and transported his body to the house and upstairs in the loft

The direction is by Montgomery Tully, who was one of Britain’s most prolific makers of shorts and ‘B’ pictures throughout the 1950’s-60’s. He clocked up fourteen episodes of this series in total.

ABOVE – Frank Forsyth as Detective Forbes

There were 120 episodes of The Fugitive running over four years. The climax of the series came when Dr Richard Kimble, who was on the run because he had been wrongly charged with the murder of his wife, finally meets and confronts the one armed man who is the murderer -we had been all waiting for over the years – in fact it did seem in mid series that the many adventures he had, made this main storyline seem secondary.

That last episode in the USA was watched by a record mind boggling 78 million viewers.

David Janssen was Dr Richard Kimble.

A little later, David Janssen again hit gold with another great series on Television ‘Harry O’ – a detective role that really caught on

“Harry O” is considered by most TV critics as a small masterpiece of the television form and David Janssen an example of the special charisma that very few actors have before the television camera.

It was television that saved David Janssen from a career of B-movie obscurity. First, the actor and producer Dick Powell chose him to portray “Richard Diamond,” one of the first of hard-boiled TV detectives.

In the 1957-60 series, Janssen’s secretary, “Sam,” appeared only as a pair of legs and a voice. It was Mary Tyler Moore’s first TV series role.

Then came “The Fugitive,” in which he played a Midwestern doctor, Richard Kimble, wrongly accused of murdering his wife constantly on the run from the police and trying to find the real killer, a one-armed man.

After “The Fugitive” ran its course, there was what seemed an unending procession of made-for-TV movies and mini-series.

Some were good, some not-so-good, but David Janssen was always in demand, always working.

He started acting at the age of 9 in a Buster Crabbe and Johnny Weissmuller film “Swamp Fire.”

He was born David Meyer on March 27, 1931, in the small town of Naponee, Neb., the son a local banker and a Ziegfeld Follies girl.

After his parents were divorced, David Janssen’s mother brought him to Los Angeles. He graduated from Fairfax High School, attended UCLA for a semester, then dropped out to go into summer stock.

After an unsuccessful attempt to land Broadway roles, David Janssen returned to Hollywood, where he signed to a contract by 20th Century-Fox and took his stepfather’s last name.

The studio bleached his hair blond, unsuccessfully tried to talk him into ear surgery to lessen his resemblance to Clark Gable, then dropped him entirely.

Universal signed David Janssen and his streak of B-pictures began. He did 32 movies for Universal, few of them memorable.

“I played an ‘agreer,’ “ David Janssen later said of this phase of his career. “The star would say, ‘Don’t you think so.’ I’d agree with him and disappear from the picture.”

Last came “The Fugitive,”—one of the highest rated TV series of its time—stardom, and a never-ending stream of scripts and film offers.

There were more than 100 movies in all, many of them made for TV. At the time of his death, David Janssen had just finished a major film, “Inchon” with Sir Laurence Olivier and had begun work on a TV movie, “Father Damien.”

He died very suddenly in February 1980 at the age of 48. He had no previous history of heart problems but he died of a massive heart attack.

This film was shown on one of the Satellite Film Channels today and it proved a little bit unusual with the stars of the film being the trains on this railway.

The film was directed by Byron Haskin who had great ability in bringing action stories to the screen – just before this he had done a superb job directing ‘Treasure Island’ for Walt Disney at Denham Films studios – Walt Disney’s first venture in to live=actio films as opposed to cartoon features – after this came ‘His Majesty O’Keefe’ and The Naked

Back in 1952, the film “Denver and Rio Grande” by Paramount Pictures was filmed on the actual Denver & Rio Grande Railroad in Colorado!

The film dramatised the history of the building of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad in which the D&RGW and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (called the Cañon City & San Juan RR in the movie) clashed while trying to compete for space to build their tracks.

The two rival track gangs actually had armed confrontations for trackage rights along narrow canyons and gorges while constructing their own separate railroads!

The film starred Edmond O’Brien and Sterling Hayden and featured a staged head on train crash in which the 2-8-0 Locomotives 268 and 319 were used. Both locomotives were donated by the D&RG because they were destined to be scrapped at the time.

Note: Notice the pyrotechnics went off a split second before the two engines actually collide!

Although damaged was severe to both locomotives, they somehow managed to remain upright on the track after the explosions and crash!

Well, this film comes outside of the Fifties era, but it’s main stars were still very active into that decade and beyond.

The film is a great showcase for the wonderful talents of Michael Curtiz, Errol Flynn, Ronald Reagan and Olivia de Havilland.

The final rescue scenes are great – those battle trumpets can still cause a chill to go up the spine.

It is a film with great entertainment value.

Ronald Reagan was very much underestimated as an actor much as Victor Mature was at a similar time.

Ronald Reagan was in some good films – he was teamed up again with Errol Flynn in ‘Desperate Journey’ and another film later was, of course, ‘The Hasty Heart’ made in England with Richard Todd in the leading role

RAYMOND MASSEY is especially memorable as John Brown. His earnest and single-minded portrayal of a madman-with-a-quest is the great stand-out of this film. The fiery eyes are almost hypnotic in its concentration.

Ronald Reagan and Errol Flynn are top rate.

These are actors that for better or worse will always stand out from the Hollywood crowd with their own special brand of something indescribable and timeless.

This was a very popular Television series from the late fifties both in the USA and here in Britain

John Ernest Crawford
(March 26, 1946 – April 29, 2021)

Johnny Crawford, the child actor who was absolutely wonderful as Mark McCain (son of Chuck Connors as Lucas McCain) in The Rifleman, has passed away aged 75.

Johnny was in 168 episodes and even at that time he had clocked up quite a few appearances in Film and Television including The Lone Ranger, Have Gun Will Travel, Whirlybirds and Wagon Train – not to mention Wild Bill Hicock

Johnny not only co-starred in one of the best Western series ever, he recorded a single or two with the great Bobby Fuller, and appeared in Howard Hawks’ El Dorado (1967).

In the 90s, he assembled a big band, the Johnny Crawford Orchestra. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s a few years ago. He was a very nice person.

BELOW – Taken from his Obituary in the New York Times earlier this year

Johnny Crawford, the soulful young actor who became a child star on the western “The Rifleman” in the late 1950s and had some success as a pop singer, died on April 29 in Los Angeles. He was 75.

The death, at an assisted-living home, was announced on the website johnnycrawfordlegacy.com by his wife, Charlotte McKenna-Crawford. It was revealed in 2019 that he had Alzheimer’s disease, and he had been in failing health since his hospitalisation last year with Covid-19 and pneumonia.

“The Rifleman,” which ran from 1958 to 1963, was a low-key half-hour series on ABC about Luke McCain (Chuck Connors), a widowed Civil War veteran and sharpshooter raising his son on their ranch in the New Mexico territory. The boy, Mark, was always identifiable by his Stetson hat and always had an intense expression — usually one of concern or hero worship.

John Ernest Crawford was born on March 26, 1946, in Los Angeles, the son of Robert Lawrence Crawford Sr., a film editor, and Betty (Megerlin) Crawford, a concert pianist. His maternal grandfather was Alfred Eugene Megerlin, the Belgian violinist who became concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

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Another episode had none other than Sammy Davies Junior in a starring role – apparently one of the very best episodes

“Two Ounces Of Tin, a 1962 episode of The Rifleman.

It’s The one where Sammy Davis, Jr. is the gunslinger who’d been in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. He’s in another one, too.

This gives Sammy Davis a chance to show off his gun-handling skills, which are really something to see.

What a perfect choice to promote this classic film both in England and the USA.

Here Elton Hayes – or Alan A’Dale – travels around introducing himself to the many fans who would be waiting to see the new film which had been very heavily promoted.

Elton was also enlisted to promote the film in the USA and in 1952 he set off on a demanding eight week tour, making an astonishing 113 visits to cinemas, theatres, Television studios, and whatever was deemed advantageous for Walt Disney, who had taken a lot of interest in this film and its success – and indeed it was very successful.

ABOVE – Elton Hayes visits the Delphian League match between Woodford Town and Rainham Town – and even demonstrates a left foot shot – maybe he is just kicking off the game

ABOVE – Giving youngsters a free song or two in the grounds of Cardiff Castle after he had appeared at the Empire Cinema in the City

ABOVE – Signing Autographs at the Gaumont Cinema in Liverpool

ABOVE – Prior to appearing at the Majestic and Scala Cinemas in Leeds, Elton visited the Tailors – Price – and tried his hand at cutting a suit.

He is watched by Mr W. Finan ( 2nd Left) the Personnal Manager at Price and Mr C. Willmott the Manager of the Scala Cinema ( 2nd Right)

ABOVE – While in Birmingham, where he appeared at the Gaumont, Elton paid a mid-day visit to the National Trade Fair at Bingley Hall, where he is pictured on stage with Harry Roy and his band, entertaining a large audience with hit tunes from the Walt Disney adventure

ABOVE – With Walt Disney himself at Denham Film Studios

ABOVE Elton Hayes in the film

and

BELOW – with the lovely Joan Rice who played Maid Marian

The Technicolor on this film was about as good as it gets – I think that the Technicolor of the early fifties was the best ever.

This film always intrigues me because of it’s parallel – at least from the title – with the Marie Celeste although the story does not progress in any way like that

The film stars Hazel Court and Dermot Walsh who were married in real life.

Hazel Court later married actor and Producer/ Director Don Taylor – who had made a Robin Hood film ‘Men of Sherwood Forest’ here in England in 1954.

They remained happily married until he died

An interesting film with some good acting, an excellent flashback sequence which is told by a medium who the young couple who had recently acquired the ‘ghost ship’ employ – who tells them of a love triangle that had gone gone horribly wrong for the previous owners of the boat.

The Medium had been consulted to find out why the many strange and eerie happenings occurred – which had unnerved the young couple.

Of the stars, there are bit players who would later go on to find fame and success (Joss Ackland and Ian Carmichael also Ewen Solon who turned up in a lot of British films of that era, British star, Dermot Walsh, a brief turn for Sewell’s real-life wife, Joan Carol; an excellent performance from TV’s QUATERMASS, John Robinson, as a wronged captain, Hugh Burden, who later found success in television; and of course, a starring role from lovely Hammer starlet Hazel Court. Hazel takes centre stage for much of the production and she was very good

ABOVE – Dermot Walsh and Hazel Court on location

This is 1958 and Janette Scott is 20 years old. When she is working she usually lives with her mother Thora Hird and father Jimmy Scott in a small mews house ‘The Old Forge’ somewhere in central London – I think that could be in Shepherds Bush

ABOVE – Janette outside ‘The Old Forge House’

The family have a love of music and quite a large collection of records of very varying types

They also have a large collection of miniature liqueur bottle which need dusting regularly – here Janette takes on the task

Janette had a secret wish to become a blonde – something she succeeds in becoming in her latest film ‘The Lady is a Square’ with Frankie Vaughan and Anna Neagle.

Here she is with blonde hair BELOW

Ted Lune from ‘The Army Game’ had a small part in this. He was a great comic

Again ABOVE – Janette looking lovely in this scene from the film

Within the last few days, I have been lucky enough to acquire quite a few items of memorabilia from the film world.

One of these items was the original Press Book from the famous film ‘The Railway Children’ of 1977 directed by Lionel Jeffries

Maybe not a Fifties film but there are connections here because in 1957 BBC Television had an 8 part serialisation of The Railway Children with Jean Anderson as the mother and Anneke Wills as Roberta. Norman Shelley played the old gentleman

This 1957 version of The Railway Children  also featured Cavan Kendall as Peter and Sandra Michaels as Phyl.

Jean Anderson reprised her role of Mother from the earlier 1951 BBC version, with Hilda Barry also returning as Mrs Viney. The script stuck closely to Dorothea Brooking’s original 1951 script.

Baynards railway station, on the Cranleigh line in Surrey (now disused) was used for location filming.

In the 1951 BBC Television version Clive Dunn had an early role and so did Ysanne Churchman from The Archers.

ABOVE – The poster really hits the button as regards the joyousness of the film

A tranquil family scene ABOVE – Lovely picture

Oakworth Station

I cant recall if the above scene was in the film – I don’t seem to remember it being though – maybe this is from the NEW version filming now

ABOVE – A tense and dramatic scene from the 1977 film

ABOVE and BELOW – The New Film – The Railway Children Return currently in production

I am quite looking forward to this new film being released early next year and seeing it in the cinema on the big screen – I think it will be good. Then again, I thought that the 2016 film version of ‘Dads Army’ was excellent but my views are not shared be everyone I know.

From the original 1977 film Press Book BELOW

As a friend pointed out, the address ‘Wardour Street London W1’ has been closely associated with the film-land over the years

With football very much with us at the moment, I go back to a great favourite of mine ‘The Love Match’ with Arthur Askey

In the film Arthur’s son is a young professional footballer who has signed for United when Dad, all his life, has been an ardent supporter of City

This is a very funny film from the mid 50’s about Bill ( Arthur Askey) who is a railwayman and a real football fan. He goes to a match with his co-worker Wally (played by the writer, Glenn Melvyn) and by accident he hits the referee with a pie in the face. He is hauled off to court and fined 5 pounds, but Wally, who is deliberately dim, hands the bag of money which was for a railwaymen party to someone who promptly uses the money to pay her fine of 50 pounds.

They then have the task of somehow getting the money back.

There are other characters in this film, namely Bill’s wife – Thora Hird -who has great one liners, his son who is going to play football for the team Bill hates and his daughter, the stunning Shirley Eaton, who is entered in a dance contest in Liverpool. This is a great comedy film.

The screenplay by Glenn Melvyn is superb, and there are genuinely hilarious moments. No matter what kind of comedy you like, this is very highly recommended. Its crisp, the wit keeps flowing and the laughs are plenty.

Alf Hall ( played by Danny Ross ) is Rose Brown’s dim-witted boy friend. When he knocks on the Brown’s front door for the very first time Bill Brown opens it and all Alf can do is splutter out his name “Alf ‘all, Alf ‘all.” Bill’s reply is “Don’t worry I’ll catch you.”

ABOVE – Glenn Melvyn again teamed up with Danny Ross as they appeared together in a stage play at the Victoria Palace in London in the mid to late fifties with Mollie Sugden – and Valentine Dyall – BBC Radio’s ‘The Man in Black’

Valentine Dyall is a name that was around all the time on Radio, TV and films in the fifties. I remember him doing a TV Series with mysterious true stories that both fascinated us and scared the life out of us at the same time

More about him in a later article on this Blog – he is an interesting character