From the Television of the mid fifties

Something that I did not know is that Armand and Michaela Denis travelled to Africa in 1950 to work on the feature film, King Solomon’s Mines in which Michaela acted as Deborah Kerr’s double. The film, as we all know, was very successful for MGM.

Armand and Michaela Denis made a wildlife TV series in the Fifties –  ANGLO-BELGIAN film maker Armand Denis specialised in documentaries about Africa. He was born in Brussels on December 2, 1896, the son of a judge, and studied chemistry at Oxford after military service in World War I.

He moved to America in 1926 and invented a system of automatic volume control for radio that earned him enough money to travel and shoot movies of exotic locations.

He worked as a cameraman in Hollywood before joining forces with Andre Roosevelt to document the island of Bali in 1 9 2 8 . The pair blended documentary footage with the fictional tale of the love between a native prince and a servant girl to produce Kriss (1932) which created a Bali craze in America.

Denis subsequently married Roosevelt’s daughter, Leila, and they had four children.

Armand Denis then directed the 1934 African jungle adventure Wild Cargo (1934). He and Leila travelled to the Belgian Congo in 1934-35 and recorded sound footage to be used in films set in Africa, including the dances and music of t he Tutsi and Mangbetu tribes. They made documentary shorts i n the Thirties and Forties, but Denis then divorced Leila to marry English dress designer Michaela Holdsworth, whom he met in 1948.

The couple lived in Nairobi a nd c ontinued t o make documentaries. Their BBC programme Filming Wild Animals was broadcast in 1954, and  they then regularly contributed to the BBC and ITV.

ABOVE – Their much praised 1954 film ‘Below the Sahara’ filmed in beautiful colour actually onto 16 mm film which was later transferred to 35 mm for a cinema release.

The trip took us through the big-game country, down along the South African coast, then up through the equatorial Congo to the home of a gorilla-hunting tribe – like a sight-seeing tour for Michaela and also us in the audience.

Probably we all wanted to see colourful film of Africa – at that time very few of us indeed would have ventured there or anywhere near there as we just could not have afforded it.

So this film opened up at least a little bit of this beautiful land for us

Later Armand Denis suffered from Parkinson’s disease and died on April 15, 1971.

ARMAND and Michaela had settled in Kenya in 1949 and lived there together until Armand’s death. Around 1973, Michaela married Sir William O’Brien Lindsay, who had been their lawyer, but he died of a heart attack after just six weeks of marriage. Michaela stayed in Kenya, carrying on her work in wildlife conservation and as a f amily planning advocate, becoming vice-president of the Kenyan FP Association.

She had a wonderful sense of humour and greatly enjoyed life. She supported and assisted several local projects to help the community around her.

Subsequently, she met Major George Withey who became her constant companion until his death in 1986.

After George’s death, Michaela lived with good friends at their home  on the Kenyan coast.

For many years, Michaela dealt in property around Nairobi. Every summer she would return to her Ealing house to escape the African heat. “Not to vegetate or rot, but to make every second of this life count. Never feel self- pity – what a vice, what a bore for others!”

Following a fall in Mombasa in her 80s, Michaela broke her hip and had a replacement. Sadly, she became confined to a wheelchair, but spent many hours sitting in the garden beside the Indian Ocean. She finally died there from heart failure aged 88 in May 2003.

Following her death her ‘adopted’ family built a clinic in Shariani near Mombasa in her name (The Michaela Denis Clinic) to serve the local people of the area, and it continues to do so to this day.

I thought that, in view of the flooding around parts of rural England, this film has a a topical title – although I know there are many families who at least are safe, but are without their home at the moment.

Floods of Fear is directed by Charles Crichton  from the novel written by John and Ward Hawkins. It stars Howard Keel, Anne Heywood, Cyril Cusack, Harry H. Corbett, John Crawford and Eddie Byrne with cinematography by Christopher Challis.

 ABOVE – Another double feature which I must admit would be just up my street – two pictures of the type I like on the same bill

Two convicts and one guard are washed away into a flood after the barrier they were building collapses. Ending up at the flooded farmhouse of Dr. Matthews (John Phillips), the men find that the doctor is not at home but his daughter Elizabeth ( Anne Heywood) is.    Soon  tensions rise to boiling point, especially since one of the convicts, Donovan ( Howard Keel), appears to be innocent of the murder he has been convicted of and he has revenge on his mind…

The flood recreation scenes are excellent,  we see  destruction sequences as houses and various other parts of the watery landscape fall by the way and the sense of tension and fear is conveyed extremely well.

Much of the filming of the flooded sequences were done in one of the very largest stages at Pinewood – and a huge studio tank.   Charles Crichton did say that the water could not be heated because of the fear of the smell as it became dank because  there was a lot of rubble and dirt in there, so it was pretty cold to say the least.

The actors endured long periods of being wet and cold but they stuck to the task in hand and produced a good film

This picture is really exciting.   You feel the characters’ desperation as they fight against each other against the backdrop of the raging flood waters. 

The final fight was one for the record books and Howard Keel’s athleticism throughout the entire film was top rate.

Great picture above from the film – filmed in the large studio tank set at Pinewood.

Plenty of action by the looks of this Television drama.

ABOVE: Patrick Troughton in a scene from  ‘The Splendid Spur’ – that is a very young looking Michael Balfour at top of the stairs – top right.

A wealth of television swashbuckling adventures were produced by BBC Television, based on ‘classic’ works, and presented usually in six weekly  episodes, and more often than not  transmitted live.

A good example was  Robin Hood (BBC, 1953), with Patrick Troughton as Robin then he was also  in Clementina (BBC, 1954), about the stirring 18th century adventurer Charles Wogan, and again in The Splendid Spur (BBC, 1960); set during the English Civil War.

I do remember him playing Chevalier Wogan in Clementina – and in one of the episodes he captured a rival as the potential killer tried to enter the top window of a hostelry where a number of visitors had disappeared and the pub / dwelling did not have a name.   Chevalier intercepted the intruder as this man climbed up emerged the outer wall, and stabbed his fingers to the pub sign and he said – that’s  name for the pub ‘The Mark of the Five Red Fingers’ – I thought that the episode was called that but it seems not, so I am not at all sure of  which episode it appeared in.

Another one was Lorna Doone which came later

Three of the greatest storytellers of historical adventure – Sir Walter Scott, Alexandre Dumas and Robert Louis Stevenson – were the most handsomely produced  by the BBC. Scott’s 18th century north of the border adventures, Redgauntlet (BBC, 1959) and Rob Roy (BBC, 1961), captured perfectly the essence of the outlaw hero. The development of the (literary) swashbuckler structure set by Scott was further enhanced by the works of Alexandre Dumas (père), beginning with adaptations of The Three Musketeers (BBC, 1954; 1966-67) and Further Adventures of the Musketeers (BBC, 1967), supplemented by The Black Tulip (BBC, 1956) and The Count of Monte Cristo (BBC, 1964).

I do also remember a good version of ‘Heidi’ with small and effective mountain sets in the Studio.

Inevitably, it was the prolific swashbuckling romances of Robert Louis Stevenson that received the most BBC attention. These adventures ranged from the pirates of Treasure Island (BBC, 1951) and the Wars of the Roses with The Black Arrow (BBC, 1951; 1958) to the Jacobean Rebellion background of Kidnapped BBC, 1952  Patrick Troughton played Alan Breck here and again in 1956,  and The Master of Ballantrae (BBC, 1962).

For its time, the swashbuckler was a colourful addition to the early evening TV schedules.

Patrick Troughton also had a role in ‘The Black Knight’ in 1954 with Alan Ladd and Patricia Medina – made in England

This Pictures is taken from the magazine ‘Band Wagon’ from November 1946

This must have been just before she went of to Hollywood – or maybe had just come back. She didn’t remain there very long in fact I can only see one film that she made there.

I do remember her in ‘Let George Do It’  – with, of course, the great George Formby, in one of his best films

The lovely Joan Rice – featured in a Magazine  of  5 May 1951 – at this point Joan’s brief but impressive film career had just really kicked into gear. She would be busy at Denham Film Studios filming ‘The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Man’ with Richard Todd in the title role.

Filming had in fact commenced only 7 days before on 30 April 1951 – with many of the early outdoor scenes being done  at Burnham Beeches.

She would just be entering Four months of intense work of this film which, to me, was the very pinnacle of her film career. She took the opportunity of playing Maid Marian, and did a superb job – and it is often voted as the most popular portrayal of this classic part.

She just looked the part and that certainly gives you a head start.

It wouldn’t be long before she flew off to Fiji to film ‘His Majesty O Keefe with Burt Lancaster – then calling in Hollywood on the way. I often woner if she flew round the world – she maybe did – which in those days was really something. Nowadays it would be commonplace.

Then, as we all know, her career just seemed to go downhill so quickly – and as I have said many times – I just have never discovered why or what went wrong.

ABOVE – With Elton Hayes

ABOVE – with Richard Todd in a really lovely colour picture.

The Technicolor here is perfect – it was a studio set but it looked so real and the credit for that goes to Carmen Dillon the Art Director on the film – producing in this picture her very best work in my view.

This could be a help to would – be set designers who could look at this film and realise just what could be done.

I came across this 1952 article, where actress Mari Aldon talked about the importance of getting a good rest and how to battle fatigue and survive in the film industry. 

It isn’t often that a girl’s first part is a starring one, but Mari Aldon makes her screen debut as Gary Cooper’s leading lady in “Distant Drums”.

It is a film I really like – set in the Florida Everglades with beautiful Technicolor and locations we could only dream of.

Mari was asked how it felt being a film star in Hollywood.   “It’s a dream come true” she confessed. “I’ve known I wanted to be an actress ever since I can remember.

My father tells me he had to drag me off the stage at the age of two.

I guess I’m a ham all right.” She was asked how she man aged to look good when she had worked so hard and was tired  to which she replied  “It’s easy to be fresh and radiant when you have had plenty of rest but it takes a little doing when you have to be up before six,  then work before the camera all day – and maybe even  attend a big premier “

Mari Aldon marries Film Director

Tay Garnett Tay Garnett had been a pilot in the US Airforce during World War 1.  When that was over he got back into films – and was a successful and very respected Director for an astonishing four decades. 

Those years spanned the golden era of Hollywood. He worked with virtually all the legendary names from that era.

I have only just touched on his life here – so we will endeavour to do a much more involved post later on this remarkable man.  

Their daughter Tiela Garnett has written a joint autobiography along with her famous father. She also talked lovingly about him in a talk she gave about her father – and said how much she admired and loved him and that she misses him and thinks of him every day of her life.

What a touching and heart warming thing to say. Lovely !!

Elton Hayes must have wondered just how his film career had begun – it all happened by accident.  After the War, Elton appeared on BBC Radio with folk songs and children’s nursery rhymes plus his original material and that led to Walt Disney using his talents to locate and provide  sea shanties for his British made live action film ‘Treasure Island’

He must have impressed them because when Walt returned to England – to Denham Film Studios again – to film ‘The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men’ he again called on Elton to provide  the mediaeval songs.

This led to him getting a small part as Alan A Dale  – but as the planning went on Alan A Dale became one of the key characters in the film – being used to link many of the scenes musically – and so Elton Hayes was then a film star with a big part – a starring part – in this a very successful film on a Worldwide scale.

ABOVE – Elton Hayes on the set – with Walt Disney and Richard Todd

ABOVE – a lavish and impressive studio set at Denham Film Studios for The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men 1952.

Here is Elton Hayes with James Robertson Justice and Michael Hordern.

Sadly Elton’s luck ran out after he was cast in 1954 in The Black Knight with Alan Ladd and Patricia Medina again made in England.  He appeared again as a minstrel singing one of the opening sequences and was due a bigger part. However one of the actors wore Elton’s costume in a fight sequence early in the film, where the actor was killed off. This meant that Elton’s part was effectively killed off too. 

The success of the Walt Disney ‘Robin Hood’ film – in which Elton had one of the leading roles as Alan A Dale – led to a nineteen-city tour of the USA and Canada, making 113 radio and TV appearances in 8 hectic weeks in 1952

He bought a 47-acre farm at Hartest, near Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk and soon built up a prestigious herd of pedigree pigs. He now found time to return to his youthful hobby of horses.

Sadly a severe stroke in 1995 put an end to these activities and Elton had to give up his farm and move to live with friends at nearby Cockfield. With characteristic courage and determination he overcame many of the difficulties associated with the stroke but lost the brave battle he had with his final illness in 2001.

Interestingly there was an article a few weeks ago from Scotland where some great action scenes from the new Bond film were being photographed

The jaw-dropping stunt BELOW  was filmed in the Laggan area, with a helicopter circulating above to capture the very best action possible for the hotly anticipated release.

The chase scene involved two vehicles, a grey Range Rover and a sand coloured four by four.

Images showed the Range Rover being pushed off the road into an embankment before careering off a rock face 30ft into the air, coming to an abrupt halt some 300ft away after bundling over with at least two full rotations.

The high-speed chase scene came after the brand new £1.5 million Aston Martin Valhalla – which can reach speeds of up to 200mph – was spotted in the Highlands after the car manufacturing company lent is prize asset to the production crew for inclusion in the upcoming release.

The vehicle will not be available for general purchase until 2021, with only 500 being produced worldwide, but some eagle-eyed movie fanatics managed to capture the first glimpse of the vehicle in the wild during filming on Saturday, as a 15-minute road closure was put in place in Laggan to allow for shots to be undertaken.

Producers of the latest venture have remained tight-lipped over any early announcements relating to the movie, with it solely listed as Bond 25 on all advertising platforms ahead of its release in April.

Rumours have been circulating in recent weeks that James Bond, played by Daniel Craig, will have his famous 007 number stripped, with the code name instead being handed to British actor Lashana Lynch and her currently unknown character.

Filming near to Laggan had gone on for quite a few weeks – and it was also revealed that a make-shift hotel had been erected in the Aviemore area to house 300 crew members.

The news was welcomed by business leaders across the region, who anticipated a multi-million-pound boost to the area.

Stewart Nicol, chief executive of Inverness Chamber of Commerce, described the arrival of production crews to Aviemore as “fantastic news”.

He added: “It is really a significant benefit to the whole region. It is not just the production period that brings a substantial economic boost, as they will be spending in the area, but it is the global effect afterwards.

“Bond fans and people who see the landscape want to come and see where it was filmed. Activity like this is really welcome in this area.”

The Highlands is no stranger to hosting production crews, with the Bond franchise returning after a previous visit in the run-up to the 2012 release of Skyfall, which was shot in and around the Glencoe area, including the famed Glen Etive.

Bond 25 is expected to be the final outing for Daniel Craig as the notorious secret agent.

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The new James Bond film No Time to Die has officially completed shooting

The Company  announced the news with a photograph of lead star Daniel Craig alongside the film’s director, Cary Fukanaga, captioned: “That’s a wrap on No Time to Die.”

According to the official plot synopsis, the film will catch up with Bond who is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica when his old friend Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright), from the CIA, turns up asking for help.

A mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist turns out to be far more treacherous than expected, leading 007 onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology.

This villain will be played by Bohemian Rhapsody Oscar-winner Rami Malek.

Ralph Fiennes will return as M, while Léa Seydoux will once again appear as Dr Madeleine Swann. Ben Wishaw will also be back as Q.

Naomie Harris, who will also star.

No Time to Die, which will introduce a female version of 007 played by Lashana Lynch, will be released in the UK on 3 April 2020.

This story dates back to 2014 when the former home of Walt Disney in the Holmby Hills was sold.

Since Walt Disney owned it there had been many changes Walt Disney’ pride and joy – his model railway that ran all around the grounds is gone – except for the remains of a tunnel he had built there.

I also expect that the old mid-western style barn that he had where he worked on some of his modelling and rail repairs is also gone. It had reminded him of his childhood in the mid West of America. In fact that very barn is shown on the old photograph above – as the train goes by with Walt Disney driving it – as he so often did.

Walt Disney eventually left this home in the Holmby Hills, leaving his barn but his  daughter eventually came to the rescue. She gave both the barn and Walt’s hand-laid tracks to a group of locomotive enthusiasts known as the Los Angeles Live Steamers who maintained a rail museum in LA’s Griffith Park. The barn and all of the tracks were moved in their entirety to the park where they are still in  service today.

Know as the “Disney Loop,” the tracks are still maintained and the Disney Barn is kept in the same state it was in when in use by Walt Disney himself.

The set up is akin to  a small museum where visitors can come and imagine some dreams of their own. 

This looks like it would have been Walt Disney’s small sitting room or study – but this is a much later picture

 This Newspaper Report dates back to  July 2010

Trigger, the palomino horse was stuffed after it died in 1965

 

Christie’s auction house, which ran the sale along with Western auctioneer High Noon Americana, said the collection of items related to Roy Rogers’ and his wife Dale Evan’s roles on television and in films brought in $2.9 million.

Trigger, the palomino horse which Rogers had stuffed after it died in 1965, was bought by rural US cable television station RFD-TV for $266,500, while his saddle fetched $386,500 (£252,000) from a private buyer.

Roger’s stuffed German Shepherd Bullet, who was also the family pet, sold for $35,000 (£22,890), also to RFD-TV.

Other top sellers included Roy Rogers’ 1963 Pontiac Bonneville and the Nellybelle jeep, an iconic emblem on the Roy Rogers Show, which ran on television in the 1950s and 1960s.

The Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum, which was based in Branson, Missouri was closed in 2009. Roy Rogers died in 1998 at age 86.