Diana Dors was an extremely good actress who could hold her own in any company. She seemed to have that appealing self confidence in a lovely way – it is a trait that can be off-putting but not in this girl’s case

I like her early films such as ‘A Boy a Girl and a Bike’ and  ‘Diamond City’,  ‘Dance Hall’ and one of my real favourites ‘Holiday Camp’

She was also in Oliver Twist in 1948  ABOVE – in the company of such stars as Alec Guinness and Robert Newton

Diana Dors in her early years, looking lovely.

A chance to play opposite Burt Lancaster in 1952

Diana Dors had met Burt Lancaster in London – in his suite at Claridges – in the early  50s and he had offered her the part of Dalabo in his forthcoming film His Majesty O Keefe which was turned down by her then husband Dennis Hamilton – who was her business manager  – in favour of a Summer Season at Blackpool as it turned out.

I am a great  fan of Joan Rice who took the part – and was very good in it, but I also am an admirer of Diana Dors

It appears that Burt Lancaster asked to see Diana at his suite at Claridges in London and indeed she did have this meeting alone with Burt but with her husband lurking somewhere below. She later tested for the part by darkening her skin a little, donning  a sarong, and wearing a black wig but Dennis would not let her take this part. It wouldn’t be much of a guess as to why.

I am pleased however that Joan Rice was successful – but can’t help but wonder what the film would have been like with Diana in that role – but more than that the effect it would have had on her future because she may well have seized the opportunity of such a big film as this. Her self confidence – which Joan Rice did not have at that time – would have opened doors in Hollywood – an opportunity that I am quite sure Diana would have grasped

Her husband thought better of her spending months in Fiji on a South Sea Island with Burt Lancaster.

Later on – in 1957  she did get to play opposite none other than the great Victor Mature in a film made here in England ‘The Long Haul’ which for fans of trucks and vehicles of that era is a must.

She got on very well with Victor Mature – you can imagine that she would, as somehow they seemed similar types both blessed with a great screen appeal.

Two Film Stars that I really like ABOVE – Diana Dors and Victor Mature

I keep coming back to this film – made by Walt Disney at Denham Film Studios

These Front of House Stills are really striking with their colour – however I think the two below must have been from a later release

 From the later release of this film BELOW – Wonderful Colour

BELOW –  Front of House Still from the 1950 release

BELOW –  Front of House Still from the 1950 release.

BELOW – A later scene in the film

BELOW – The same scene from the opposite angle

These Front of House Stills are really striking with their colour

ABOVE – Peter Ellenshaw with a brilliant Matte Painting from the film.

Set at the turn of the last century in 1900, a couple buy a large house which has been on the market for 40 years, but when a young lady joins them as a companion she becomes possessed by the ghost of a tragic former occupant. This is not a horror film as such, rather a drama with a supernatural element.

There’s little more plot to it than that, but the aim of the director isn’t to terrify the viewer but rather to evoke a certain mood of nostalgia and mystery.

The film is of interest because we see an array of famous faces of the era, including Barbara Mullen, Margaret Lockwood and Dennis Price, although the real treat is James Mason’s performance as an elderly Yorkshire gentleman.

Apparently when he first read the script, he liked it and wanted to do it. The film was not a financial success but in my view it should have been – my own take on this, as with many other British films of the time is that we were not good at marketing and promoting them particularly to the US market which was the one to aim for.

A Scene during filming ABOVE

Ernest Thesiger – ABOVE –  He played  the mysterious Dr. Marsham in this film although the picture is not of this film. He had a very distinctive face.

He really was an interesting and unusual person who didn’t seem to fit any particular norm – but he is a fascinating character.

An accomplished  stage actor as well as a film actor in more than 60 performances both in Hollywood and England

He was wounded in action in the First World War.

He was an accomplished watercolour artist and embroiderer (and even published a book entitled ‘Adventures in Embroidery’).

He was a great friend (and crochet partner) of Queen Mary and is even said to have based his later appearance on her.

In this film ‘ A Place of One’s Own’  he plays Dr. Marsham a mysterious doctor who appears at the end of the film

Now this was a really good Western which was on TCM this afternoon. I cannot remember ever seeing it but it was impressive with great action scenes at the climax to the film,

Gary Cooper was in fine form – and managed to get into and more particularly, get out of some quite scary scrapes

Springfield Rifle 1952

This may be something of a forgotten  Western  but it is a must-see for Gary Cooper fans.  Gary Cooper plays his usual character of a man intent on  redeeming himself, but this is not a typical Western.

It is a good Civil War film. Film fans will also see a  a young Fess Parker.

The film is full of twists and turns with  lots of battle scenes which all add up to a good old-fashioned, fun action film.

Below – Some action scenes from the film

Springfield Rifle 1952

Springfield Rifle 1952

Springfield Rifle 1952

Springfield Rifle 1952 Gary Cooper ABOVE

Springfield Rifle 1952

Lon Chaney Jr on horseback is shot as he enters the water

He then falls into the water

He has come to a sticky end ABOVE

Springfield Rifle 1952 – ABOVE ‘Baddie’ Paul Kelly who played Lt Col. John Hudson is finally captured after this scene and much more action.

Springfield Rifle 1952 The final frames of the film with Gary Cooper back in uniform

Springfield Rifle 1952

One incredible scene as the film approaches the dramatic action packed ending, is where a Covered Wagon driven by Gary Cooper hits a large rock, tips over and crashes down a steep slope / cliff. Gary Cooper jumps clear – and then the other man on the Wagon crashed down the hill with the wagon which on looking at this sequence a number of times, looks as though it very narrowly misses him. As it is done in one take it would not be possible to fake this.

The Stuntman seems to get away with it – I have taken a few pictures from this one shot scene – see what you think – to me it looks highly dangerous and I am so pleased that the man seemed to escape being hit.

Springfield Rifle 1952 –

I had wondered at first if the stunt was done by Jack Mahoney but, by then he was into acting and doing the highly successful ‘The Range Rider’ TV Series which was very popular in England.

The stuntmen who appeared in Springfield Rifle were  Ben Corbett, John Epper, Ted Mapes, George Ross, Jack Woody and Jack N.Young – so it would be one of these that did that jump.

Astonishing and very brave.

Who could forget this excellent BBC Television series in the mid 1950s – Bruce Seton was Fabian  in our eyes – such was the impact of the show.

I must admit I loved this series – particularly the Opening Sequence – when Bruce Seton as Fabian, sitting in the back seat of a speeding Humber Hawk said in a terse voice ‘This is Fabian – Of Scotland Yard’

Great stuff !!

ABOVE – Bruce Seton as Fabian of Scotland Yard

ABOVE – Bruce Seton in Scenes from an episode of  Fabian of Scotland Yard

However one piece of interesting information  has come to light – he re-married after a divorce within an hour

Now it appears the character actor from Edinburgh, who died in 1969, could hold the record for the shortest time between divorce and remarriage in Scotland.

Records of births, marriages and deaths, published online for the first time today, have uncovered the extraordinary love story of the dashing actor – and soldier – 1940 who married for a second time just an hour after being divorced in a Scottish court on St Valentine’s Day.

Bruce Seton married his second wife, actress Antoinette Cellier – Picture above –  in a special ceremony in Edinburgh – having only an hour before been granted a divorce in the Court of Session from his first wife, Tamara Desni, an actress of Russian descent. According to the National Records of Scotland, this may be the shortest time ever between a divorce and remarriage in Scotland.

Bruce Seton and his wife Antoinette Cellier did have a daughter Lydia Antoinette Seton born in November 1941

For his Wartime Service Bruce Seton was awarded the US Medal of Freedom

He  was also one of the founder members of the Lord’s Taverners in 1950 – so obviously a cricket fan like me

This Film was showed in the UK on Retro Movies yesterday and I saw quite a lot of the climax to it.

Barbara Payton is the mistress of a southern plantation -In the film’s prologue she and husband Craig Stevens are entertaining two old friends from West Point,  Guy Madison and Barbara’s secret love interest James Craig.

She is planning to run away with James that night, but news of the firing on Fort Sumter brings everybody’s plans to a halt as the men go off to war on their respective sides. Go forward to four years later and Stevens is in prison, but circumstance has brought Madison and Craig back to the neighbourhood.

Craig is given a rough assignment, bring a pair of cannons to the top of a hollow ridge called Devil’s Mountain and rain fire and destruction down on Sherman’s supply train on the railway tracks below. Guy has the unenviable duty of blasting him off the mountain. Of course neither knows the other is in command on the other side.

This film seems to get pretty good reviews from people who have seen it

Father and son actors in the film profession is not unique – I can think of Kirk Douglas and and Michael,  James Brolin and his son Josh and John Carradine and his son David – and a different relationship would be George Sanders and his Brother Tom Conway.

However Geoffrey Keen and Malcolm Keen being English both featured in mainly British films although on checking further it seems that Malcolm Keen had a few years in Hollywood and appeared in a number of films there.

It appears that Malcolm was successful on stage in New York in the late fories and early fifties and from 1950 to 1952 seems to have done his films there also.

They did appear in the same film a few times – one being Rob Roy The Highland Rogue and later than that ‘Fortune is a Woman’ where I think they played father and son.

Now on to George Sanders his Brother Tom Conway

That highly underrated actor, Tom Conway — was the older brother (by two years) of the Oscar-winning, George Sanders.

Tom Conway was born in St Petersburg in Russia – as was his brother – in 1904 under the name Thomas Charles Sanders.  When he followed George to Hollywood, he changed his surname to Conway. After a while  the likeable Conway was referred to as “the nice George Sanders.”

Comparisons with his much more successful younger brother apparently never bothered Conway as the two got on well.  It was George who persuaded his brother to try Hollywood after his radio and stage appearances in their adopted country.

The Sanders came from a wealthy St. Petersburg family who had fled the Russian revolution to England.

In Hollywood, George Sanders was a supportive brother.  The fact that Tom made an unsuccessful (screen) test should not depress him, he wrote in a 1937 letter to their father. I have made plenty of unsuccessful tests, and so has everyone else in the business, and the fact they said Tom did not photograph well should be no cause for alarm, since they said precisely the same thing to Ronald Colman!

After a stint at MGM, Conway shifted to RKO where he made his most memorable film appearances. He starred in 10 titles of the studio’s profitable Falcon mystery series, taking over the lead abandoned by brother George — who was on his way to bigger things.

A regular  contributor to some of the Articles here on this Blog is David Raynor – someone who is very well informed on films of the era – and whose comments on here are always appreciated and are very welcome.

Last evening he made this comment which got me thinking:

‘There was an absolute magic about going to the cinema in those days that has completely gone now. It was a very exciting time.’

This resonated with me, of course  he is absolutely right and my own comment was

‘Like you on a visit to the Cinema in those days, I can remember the sheer excitement of going – and I was often shivering with anticipation.

I remember when I was very young and My Mother and Father took us to see King Solomon’s Mines. What a wonderful experience – the colour was outstanding and the thrill of seeing those African locations on that enormous screen, was unbelievable. I can nearly re-live it now – and when I watch that film again, I always think of that time.   This is my memory of going to the cinema at that time.

I also remember my parents took us to see ‘Treasure Island’ with Robert Newton. Here again the Technicolor was fabulous – never bettered.    We arrived later into the film just as Jim had hidden in the apple barrel and was nearly discovered when the look-out shouted ‘Land Ho’ but of course we did stay to see the film round again.

Another scene I well remember which frightened me was when Blind Pew played by John Laurie staggered out of the Admiral Benbow right under the wheels of the oncoming coach and the soldiers. That scene was cut from the later 70s release – and even though the latest DVDs state full original fun cut film – that is not the case as this scene is still missing. 

There was another one later when Long John Silver throws his crutch almost like a spear and kills one of the pirates as it hits him in the back when they are digging up what they thought was the treasure.

Again this scene was cut in the 70’s and is still not back.  I think there is at least one more such scene

Any way as an example of a trip to the cinema of the time , I have come across this about the Odeon Cinema in Boston  Lincolnshire which celebrated its 21 st Birthday in 1958 –

In 1958 The Odeon Cinema celebrated its coming of age. It was estimated that in its twenty one years of being 11 million people had visited and 132 million feet of film had been seen!! My Wife is from Boston, and I remember taking her to the Cinema here when we first started going out together – mind you that was a few years after this 21st celebration. The opening night  saw the Mayor of the day and the band of the 1^st. Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment and patrons saw Vivien Leigh in “Dark Journey” together with a Technicolor film called “On ice”. The manager, when those first 1,592 patrons filled the cinema, was Mr. D. Wood.

In the early days of the 1939-1945 war came Sunday opening and the cinema had a Children’s Club started  and had a membership in 1958 of 900. The manager celebrated the 21^st. in 1958  by splitting a birthday cake among his staff and a number of the town’s old age pensioners who attended the afternoon performance as his guests.

This is a film version of the  BBC Television Series The Grove Family which was quite popular in the mid fifties and ran for over two years.

Ruth Dunning played Gladys Grove and Edward Evans Bob Grove – and these two characters with the same actors had been in the Norman Wisdom film ‘ Man of the Moment’ the previous year to the TV series starting – and I would reckon, even though they were uncredited in the film,  that this produced the idea for the BBC series.

Granny Grove – who seemed to be, in some ways, the star of the film and the series, was played by Nancy Roberts

In this film version ‘ It’s a Great Day, building contractor Bob Grove is desperately trying to find floor tiles to complete the council housing estate, which is shortly to be opened by Princess Margaret.

The Borough Surveyor does not like Bob Groves and, when he suspects that the tiles were stolen, he sets the police on Bob and rescinds the invitation to meet the Princess.

Bob is cleared of any wrong doing in the end  but too late to get back on the guest list. However there follows a twist in the story here – and all ends very satisfactorily and happily.

Along the way, we are treated to son Jack’s and daughter Pat’s romantic interludes, young Lennie’s dangerous escapade on some unstable scaffolding and numerous  humorous, asides from Gran, played  by Nancy Roberts.

Sheila Sweet ABOVE played daughter  Pat. In real life Sheila was first married to actor William Sylvester then later to another well know actor Richard Johnson by whom she had two children.  She didn’t have a very long TV or film career.   She died in 2003.

Nowadays, the film ‘It’s a Great Day’ is of more interest as a nostalgic piece of 1950’s family life.

This film is more for nostalgia fans like me,  and those interested in early British television – again like I am.

Walt Disney released this one ion 1957 in the USA but as far as I can see, it was not released in the UK until 1959 – I can’t think why that would be.

It was extremely successful at the Box Office – in fact Fess Parker, having been in the hit Davy Crockett scored bullseye again with Old Yeller.

It is a heart-warming tale of a boy’s friendship with a dog. Set in the late 19th century Texas, a homesteader leaves his wife (Dorothy McGuire) and his two sons for a few months to seek his fortune in the city. He leaves his elder son Travis (Fess Parker) in charge of the family. The very next day, the family comes across a stray dog. They name him Yeller and very soon he becomes a well-beloved family pet. Yeller is a smart dog and acts as a guardian for the family.

Yeller is in fact the protagonist of the story. His personality is well developed and he steals our hearts with no effort. The dog playing Yeller was one expressive canine. You can very clearly see the emotions on his face.

It is romanticised depiction of the old west but who cares. The location is picturesque. There are plenty of animals; lizards, snakes, toads, hogs, horses, cows, bears, wolves and of course dogs. They seem to be well-trained; most of their scenes look extremely natural. Add to that, the characters are all charming as simple, hard-working and good-natured folk and putting this all together  you have a very  enjoyable film  for both children and adults.