Ronald Reagan BELOW – on his favourite mare ‘Tar Baby’    He has just finished filming ‘Night Unto Day’ with Viveca Lindfors

Ronald Reagan BELOW – Horse riding with The Queen at Windsor Castle in 1982

ABOVE – The Queen with Ronald Reagan riding in the grounds of Windsor Castle 1982

In 1983 The Queen and Prince Philip visited California on the Royal Yacht Britannia and hosted a special party there for President Reagan and His Wife.  Later in the visit she went to the Reagan’s Ranch but there had been a huge storm and a lot of rain and her motorcade had great difficulty going along the mountain road that led there.

They all seemed to get on very well and one senses warmth between them – maybe it was a shared love of horses and horse riding that gave them a common bond

BELOW : Alexis Smith is herself a horse lover – she was in her element when she was cast with Ronald Reagan in ‘Stallion Road’ – in the role of a horse trainer.

Ann Francis above – another horse woman

Ronald Reagan ABOVE – his greatest love is horse riding – here he is with a few of his horses

As we all know, Walt Disney cast Richard Todd in three of his films – made here in England. 

The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men,  The Sword and The Rose and Rob Roy The Highland Rogue – the first one doing very well at the Box Office with next one quite good although Rob Roy didn’t fare that well.

The picture ABOVE and BELOW – has Richard Todd and Walt Disney on the ‘big dipper’ on Colney Island, New York in August 1953. 

Richard Todd was over there to promote  The Sword and The Rose and with that in mind  during his visit he did 26 Radio and TV appearance in the space of 23 days.   Only a few years before Elton Hayes had done the same promotional tour for The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men – in fact I am pretty sure that his was a larger and longer promotional visit – and it seems a very successful one.

Richard Todd recalled that the trip over to the USA was on the new Boeing Stratocruiser – and that the trip which was funded by Walt Disney stayed initially in an apartment at the Waldorf Towers.   However although this was luxurious,  there was no Air Conditioning – and the weather was VERY hot indeed so he said that one night he even thought of somehow getting g into the fridge for a while !!

After three weeks there, Richard’s wife Kitty joined him in New York but the very next day they flew on to California where they were booked into the Beverley Hills Hotel.

The next day, Walt Disney visited to welcome them and was just as kind and genial as ever. He then asked the two of them to join him and his family at their home in the Holmby Hills – where they saw his large rambling house set in large and beautifully kept gardens.

He had in the grounds a Barn resembling the one his family had somewhere in the mid-west of America when he was growing up – and of course he also had in the grounds  his own miniature railway

Not many actors who worked for Walt Disney were ever invited to his home but Richard Todd was one of those – I think that a few years later John Mills and his family went there also.

Walt Disney seemed to be , at that time, fascinated with the English and Richard Todd , for reasons I do not know, seemed very well connected at quite high levels in society of the time.

Michael Gough was poised and distinguished-looking, with an eloquent speaking voice.

I am doing this post today because this afternoon I watched ‘Dr Terrors House of Horrors’ with Peter Cushing and in one of the story segments Michael Gough appeared along with Christopher Lee – the story ‘the severed hand’ was quite gruesome as you can imagine

ABOVE – Christopher Lee is tormented by the severed hand – every where he goes – after he deliberately runs over Michael Gough a Painter, who has his hand severed – and the hand  seeks revenge – and is successful. BELOW:  Michael Gough makes a fool of Christopher Lee who plays the snobbish Art Critic  

He was able to play seducers, serial killers and other well-bred villains to menacing effect as a deranged writer in Herman Cohen’s Horrors of the Black Museum (1959), a film which begins with a girl being killed by binoculars with steel spikes which shoot out from the eyepieces.

Michael Gough  also featured in Black Zoo (1963), Berserk (1967) and Trog (1970), and Konga (1961), as a mad scientist who turns a baby chimpanzee into a giant gorilla.

He played in Four films with Peter Cushing – Dracula (1958), Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (1965), The Skull (1965) and Top Secret! (1984). and three of these films also starred  Christopher Lee

Prior to these films. I remember him playing the villain opposite Richard Todd in Walt Disney’s ‘The Sword and The Rose’ in 1953 which ended with the two of them sword fighting in the film’s climax.  They were fighting on the sea shore in a set resembling Lulworth Cove – and a very good duel it was with both giving their all.

Just a follow on from yesterday, and more scenes and stills from the film Prince of Thieves with Jon Hall

ABOVE : The Cinecolor titles in the film – Prince of Thieves with Jon Hall

Prince of Thieves with Jon Hall – The Castle as the Robin’s men prepare to enter the Castle

Prince of Thieves with Jon Hall  – The Merry Men ambush some of Prince John’s Soldiers in the forest

ABOVE – A thrilling charge towards the town where the Wedfing Ceremony is to take place

The Town prepares for the Wedding

Prince of Thieves with Jon Hall ABOVE – with Little John ( Alan Mowbray )  and Will Scarlett ( Syd  Saylor who unbelievably had appeared in 395 or 431 films  – dependent on which records you look at – from 1926 to 1962 ) Astonishing fact.

This is a film I have heard about but always found it difficult to get hold of – not sure why. However that was put right and I have just seen the film – and was not dis-appointed.

Director Howard Bretherton’s 1948 Columbia Pictures’ Robin Hood’  is a good adventure film

Jon Hall stars as  Robin Hood, who ensures that the Lady Christabel (Adele Jergens) marries the Saxon noble Sir Allan Claire (Michael Duane) and not the Baron Tristram (Gavin Muir).

King Richard is away at the Crusades and there is crucial court intrigue in his absence.

Alan Mowbray plays Friar Tuck and  Patricia Morison is a pleasing Maid Marian 

The actors are all good and seem to enjoy their roles   with the Cinecolor photography of considerable help. It was the film’s main attraction – but apparently I am told this process could not  reproduce the colour green.

However I have just watched the film and I felt that the colour was really good and enhanced the film

Also in the cast are H B Warner just after his most famous role as Mr Gower in Its a Wonderful Life. He was superb in than classic film.

The  stunt work in Prince of Thieves is taken on by Jock Mahoney, who later played The Range Rider on Television.

The film was shot re-using many of the sets left over from Columbia Pictures’ 1945 The Bandit of Sherwood Forest  and at Corriganville, Ray Corrigan Ranch, Simi Valley, California.

Sam Katzman  managed to secure the huge budget of $400,000, including $100,000 for cast, and cash for the all-important colour.

 Scenes from very early in the film ABOVE and BELOW

Filmed in Cinecolor – which I thought very good.

Jon Hall in good form as Robin Hood

I have put in the scene BELOW  of the Lake where the two leading ladies swim later in the film to show the Cinecolor print

Some Action Scenes

More action

ABOVE – Robin marries Lady Marian and Lady Christabel (Adele Jergens) marries the Saxon noble Sir Allan Claire (Michael Duane) 

At the end of the film riders gallop into the town where the wedding have taken place

More Scenes from the film BELOW – In Cinecolor

More Scenes from the film – In Cinecolor

Robin chats to Lady Marian – Patricia Morison

And demonstrates the bow he uses

Lady Marian ( Patricia Morison) and   Lady Christabel (Adele Jergens)  swim in the beautiful blue waters of the lake

Lady Marian ( Patricia Morison) and  Lady Christabel (Adele Jergens)  prepare for the wedding BELOW

However Robin and his men arrive and the wedding goes ahead – with a difference this time though

A sword fight ensues

ABOVE – A lovely colour scene of the town  – the Cinecolor here looks so good.

What a thrill it is when the Postman drops the large white envelope through the door – and it contains the latest Movie Memories Magazine – this time Summer 2019.

This is the creation and brain-child of  Chris Roberts, who has been producing this for quite a lot of years now. Always interesting and it is a magazine that you can go back to time and again to read a little bit that you might have missed or re-read other parts – and from the articles and the letters it is quite surprising what you can pick up.

After all, we all have different favourites as regards films and film stars – and reading the magazine often focuses us on things that we might not have considered or might never have known.

I would ask all readers here to subscribe to it by contacting Chris at crob.mvm@ntlworld.com

 In this issue we have articles such as ‘Rem,embering Laurence Harvey’ and one on Carmen Miranda as well as ‘Some thoughts on Ronald Colman’ – the last one I found very interesting

BELOW – This is the back cover of the Magazine.

PLEASE Do not miss this – it is really too good to miss out on.

Chris always attend the Renown Film occasions and is well known to the stars of that era who seem to  appear every year – in fact he interviews quite a few of them.

The era produced film stars who – on the whole – knew how to project themselves and to behave as film stars,  who were admired and in the public eye probably to a greater extent than now,  would do – and they maintained that mystique that is appealing.

If you wish to receive a copy then please contact Chris Roberts at crob.mvm@ntlworld.com

or via the web site www.moviememories magazine.com

OR just leave a message on this site – and I will pass it on to Chris.

Either way I can really recommend this magazine

Walt Disney flew back into England on Saturday 15 October 1949 to supervise the final shooting of Treasure Island at Denham Film Studios as well as dealing with the  editing and  music scoring for the film. Virtually all of the film then would have been completed here.

Here he is ABOVE – being met at the Airport by Perce Pearce, Cyril Jones from RKO-Walt Disney and Fred Leahy Production Executive on the film.

Interestingly, it was practicality that would ultimately get Walt to make his first fully live-action feature, in the form of Treasure Island. in England the British government had imposed a 75 percent import tax on American films shot in Britain.

“After the war we still had the frozen fund situation in Europe,” Walt said later. “So, in order to get the funds out of England, they wanted me to go to England and do something. I had this story Treasure Island I had wanted to do, and I suggested we go over and do Treasure Island and that way we’d use our funds.

Making a picture over there seemed the most logical way of making use of these frozen funds.” He added: “All in all, the project worked out very well, and I believe we are getting a very good picture.”

Walt had chosen Robert Louis Stevenson’s adventure classic Treasure Island as So Dear to My Heart was wrapping up. He tasked Perce Pearce and Fred Leahy to go to England and oversee the production, but Walt eventually wound up travelling to Europe with his wife and children to help supervise Treasure Island. Disney representative William Levy wrote to Roy (still back at the studio), that Walt had arrived “in excellent spirits and full of confidence.”

ABOVE:  Robert Newton in costume as Long John Silver with Walt Disney and Lady Tredder

Production on Treasure Island began on July 4, 1949, and while Walt said that he would be taking a more hands-on approach to the production, he only visited the set (at Denham Studios) occasionally.

That summer of 1951 proved to be a very good one – hot and sunny for much of the filming time – and as many scenes were outdoors this proved perfect. Later on the Studio scenes were done. The film was finished on 11th November 1949 – so a very long shoot.

According to Gabler, Walt was “unusually involved in post-production” on Treasure Island. He had asked  Perce Pearce and  Fred Leahy to airmail him specific takes for editing, and after a test screening in January.

The above Two scenes where Long John Silver escapes were actually the last scenes that Robert Newton filmed this was an extremely good Studio set at Denham – and very big

In Perce Pearce’s case, he remained here to look after the next film for Walt Disney the marvellous ‘The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men’.    Perce Pearce actually died in England in 1955 – where he had continued to live after Treasure Island.

Treasure Island–the first adaptation of the Stevenson story to be in colour–was released in America on July 29, 1950. (Its big premiere was, of course, in London on June 22.)

“Walt Disney, whose artistry marked a new era in motion picture entertainment, now sets a new milestone with his first all-live action feature,” shouted the film’s original trailer. “Only Walt Disney could bring to realistic life and with such dramatic impact Robert Louis Stevenson’s memorable characters.” The trailer promised a movie full of “daring action” and “breathless suspense,” and it delivered. The film was a hit. .

Walt and RKO then went ahead with three more British productions–The Adventures of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men, The Sword and the Rose, and Rob Roy, the Highland Rogue.

These are films that are important, according to British author and Disney historian Brian Sibley, not just because the films were “remarkable,” but because they “captured the essence of British stories.”

I would add that the films made here proved a defining moment in the Walt Disney history. They elevated Walt Disney to a whole new plateau.

After these came 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea – made in the USA. 

These British Films though – particularly ‘Treasure Island’ and  ‘The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men’ were indeed extra special – they were classics.

We have done an article on this Blog not that long ago on this superb film.

A young couple and their friend Tim ( John Carson), are messing around at their home – involving mild flirting between Tim and Ralph’s wife – Justine Lord. Ralph is played by Anthony Bate

Thee couple have planned a house swap – but things go very wrong – they are given a bogus address and think that they are taking on a West End flat with London views.

The people taking their home trash it and steal of all it’s valuables – but by the time the Longmans arrive home the contents have been mysteriously restored!!

However something is wrong  – Ann’s beloved garden has been vandalised, the chickens and pet canary have been poisoned and on their little dog is found dead.

They did not immediately suspect Tim who was the only person who knew the deep affection that Ann felt for the garden and her little dog

Ann can’t cope with anything and goes rushing off to – Tim. Ralph does some sleuthing when he finds out from the police that another house in the area had been burgled by the same “house swap gang” which starts him thinking – why was their house spared? It leads him to a shady antique dealer who finally admits their house had been targeted but a man returning for his overnight bag had stopped them in their tracks!!

The penny drops with Ralph.

Some great camera work and scenes – one where  Ann is dressing for bed,  and  chatting but there is no response, someone trips over in the dark – but it’s only Ralph.

Both John Carson  and Anthony Bate  are in top form here. Justine Lord was terrific as  Ann –   showing real acting depth.

After this, TV director Alan Bridges rightly much sort after and had a good career as a film director

In his first film Act of Murder  1964  made very much as a second feature on a cinema bill,   the director squeezes tension out of a love triangle between an actor, and his good friends – a married couple.

Up until a few weeks ago, I had never heard of this film but then an article posted here on Marius Goring – coupled with a scene from this film that was in the Cinema Studio Magazine – and which I used – introduced this little known but apparently excellent film.   The film does  seem to have made a life long impression on quite  a number of people who saw it all those years ago – that is underlined by some of the reviews I have read.

Anyway, as a result of that I have purchased the DVD of the film and will receive it soon I hope – so I may be able to add a little more – and even recommend it to anyone who reads this Blog.

Marius Goring and Maria Schell in So Little Time

Marius Goring said that other than the Powell Pressburger films, this one was his favourite.

The film was made at Elstree but a unit went out to Belgium to film various outdoor scenes – ABOVE is one of them – where the Director Compton Bennett and Cameraman Steve Dale line up a shot – and Assistand Director David Peers can be seen in front of the camera.

The Unit based themselves in the town of Leau, a small town with a population of 2,000 about 45 miles from Brussels.

One interesting snippet here is that the Unit spent only a short time in Belgium but still managed to get 20 minutes of quality film which would mean they would use 15 minutes of it in the finished film.  One interesting thing though – they did not take any Sound Equipment so they effectively shot a silent film there and added the sound back at Elstree.

ABOVE – An exciting scene where the car carrying Marius Goring is ambushed. 

The plot is unusual in that it depicts a sympathetic relationship between an invading German officer and a Belgian girl.

ABOVE – Marius Goring in uniform stand behind the camers with Director Compton Bennett behind him at the side of the Camera

So Little Time is the moving WWII tale of a 20 year-old girl (Maria Schell) in occupied Belgium who falls in love with 45 year-old German commandant (Marius Goring). The film is based on the novel ‘Je Ne Suis Pas Une Heroine’ (‘I Am Not A Heroine’) by Noelle Henry.

Some of the scenes were at the Chateau de Sterrebecke – just outside Brussels – as above

ABOVE – Baraba Mullen is questioned by the Nazis in the street

It was So Little Time that gave Maria Schell a significant role of the kind that became her trademark. She was cast as an aristocratic Belgian who falls in love with a German colonel – a member of the occupying forces. Although sympathetically directed by Compton Bennett, it proved too melancholy for postwar audiences.   

As Marius Goring said – ‘a touching little film . . . Maria Schell was beautiful and extremely good. It was too soon after the war and people still thought every German was a horror. A year later, and it would have been all right.’

I probably agree with him – A few years afterwards maybe this would have become a classic – and if what I read is correct it would deserve to be.

ABOVE – The Trailer to the film

There were a great many daily, weekly, monthly magazines published in the early fifties detailing and promoting what we could see coming to our local cinemas.

Picture Show used to be my own favourite, but we had Picturegoer as well.

I acquired the ones above – a French Colour Magazine ‘Cinemonde’ and the other is probably a ‘one-off’ publication ‘Screen News’

Picture Show above –  I bought it every week as a lad, just to keep up with all the film news – and read about what we could expect at our local cinema some weeks or months ahead

Photoplay Magazine ABOVE  Apparently  this was an American Film Magazine published from 1920 until  1980. It was a very good magazine regarding films of the time.

Really interesting ones I have come across recently have been Cinema Studio and To-Days Cinema which incredibly looks as though it may even have been a DAILY magazine. This would really  underline just  how many films were being released each week in that era.

To further illustrate this point in the 1951 Western Film Annual there were as many as 107 Western films alone released during that year.

1951 Western Film Annual with many pictures and details of all the Westerns of the Year – and those to come

I have opened this page in The Western Film Annual – mainly to show one of my all-time favourite Westerns – ‘Distant Drums’ with Gary Cooper and Mari Aldon