Remarkably 20th Century Fox Studios  even looked after the children of the Film Stars they employed – providing them with a school  at the Studios – as below :-

Below – Claude Jarman Jr. looks quite grown up – as he goes to School accompanied by his Father – and in the MGM Studio Complex.

Below: Doris Day kissing her boy Terry goodbye as he goes off to school.

Below: Hollywood City College

Below – an interesting ‘spoof’ item on the School’s subject

1950 Film Star Betty Hutton at school taking a mock English Exam and Clowning about –  in an imitation of what she might have been caught doing back in 1933 when she actually did take the exams.

A few weeks ago, we featured a similar item and here are more pictures from the Early to Mid Fifties showing that even those Stars of the Screen have to have some down time – and indeed they do know how to enjoy themselves

For instance Jeanne Crain BELOW just loves making home movies and is quite often seen with her quite sophisticated film camera – this one looks to have three turret lenses and is probably a 16 mm type but it looks good. Jeanne gives her own film nights at her home where her friends have great fun watching them. I would imagine she took this film camera along on location – wish we could get hold of those films if she did as there would be a really interesting look  ‘behind the scenes’ of the films from those days.

Rhonda Fleming below had just married Dr. Lew Morrill when this picture was taken They had tied the knot while she was on location filming Pony Express for Paramount Pictures

Hollywood Stars at Home – Above Rhonda Fleming and Below Doris Day

ABOVE – Doris Day is just busying herself around her home

ABOVE – Robert Cummings swimming with his Daughter Tio. She was one of five children he had with former actress Mary Elliot

A quiet cup of tea with his wife for James Stewart.

Barbara Bel Geddes – BELOW

Barbara Bel Geddes lived in what is described as ‘a modest, attractive house in West Hollywood’

BELOW – she is with her Daughter Susan

BELOW – Finishing writing her letters and then  choosing a Book

I remember her from the film I Remember Mama made in about 1948 – although for me it was seeing it on Television quite a few years later. She did not have a prolific career in films -and in truth didn’t make that many and when she did she was never top billed.

She is probably best remembered for the very successful Television Show Dallas much later

One of the advantages of having my Mother In Law over on a Sunday afternoon is that she prefers to watch good action packed older colour films – quite often Westerns so today we have seen Randolph Scott in Carson City from 1952 – and the very first film in Warnercolor – and very good colour it was too.

Andre de Toth directed Carson City – it looks pretty good, and it was successful. Eventually, he would direct six Randolph Scott films, with all four of the Warner Bros. ones being in WarnerColor.

By the way, Carson City is available on DVD through Warner Archive.

This  is a good story and a baddie in the shape of Daniel Massey who really fits the role.

Andre De Toth took over late in production after Michael Curtiz apparently did not want to deal with  the new Warnercolor process.

I have to say though – the colour looked good.

The lead girl in this film was Lucille  Norman who  had been a professional singer first and then transferred over to films in mostly second female leads except with this  one  where she played the  leading lady.

Soon after this she retired from films and later in life she became the companion and part-owner/saleswoman of “Charles Crenshaw Piano Store” in Burbank, California.

I also found this advertisement for Chesterfield Cigarettes – you wouldn’t find an advertisement like this nowadays

Well, here we are on 1st February 2019 – As last year, I set myself the task of one new post each day during January – which has been done I am happy to say.

This year it coincided with my Daughter and her family being with us throughout this period and this New Post – now in February – is a little different but features a Theatre visit a few days ago to the West End of London for this wonderful production.

I am cheating a little here – this was, of course not a film but is probably THE most famous Theatre Play ever. However it did commence it’s long run in November 1952 so in that regard it fits the time – and also may of Agatha Christie’s Novels have been made into films.

Last Tuesday – 15 January 2019 –  I went to see it again with my Daughter and Granddaughter who both loved it – at St. Martins Theatre in the West End of London.

Agatha Christie indeed came up with a humdinger of a story which kept us guessing until the very last minutes. Superb.

There is a sort of tenuous link to films though in that the very first lead actor in this production was Richard Attenborough in 1952 and his Wife Sheila Sim was in the cast also.

The story is known to the many thousands who have seen this Theatre Production but to anyone who hasn’t  it is not so well known – as we are all told to ‘keep the secret’ of who the killer is – so enough said as I will leave any readers to go and see the play.

You will not be disappointed.  It has done tours over the past few years all around the country.

Above – a Scene from the 2019 London Production.

The present cast – apparently there is an all new cast every year – were all on very good and able form.  When we were leaving one of the leading ladies – Emily Plumtree  appeared in the Theatre Foyer and she was kind enough to sign my Granddaughters Programme – see above –  and have a chat with us. She was very nice.

It is a wonderful production and the stage set  is sumptuous,  complete with large open fireplace with a lovely fire burning on a cold and snowy night  – in the Drawing Room of a small Hotel somewhere in the countryside Near Oxford.

In a few scenes it was necessary for the window in the house, at the back of the stage,  to be opened and when it was, we heard the wind howling outside – and even with the window closed – in the opening scenes the snow was clearly seen falling outside – perfectly done.

The Mousetrap was originally at the Ambassadors Theatre but moved just next door to St Martins Theatre in 1974.

A picture  on the front of Agatha Christie

I have also come across this Booklet – not yet sure of what it is all about but when I purchase it I will report back – looks interesting though.

Before we go in to see The Mousetrap – what a good idea to have a drink in the lovely Bar at St Martins Theatre –  ABOVE

A few years ago, I was talking on the phone to a good friend of mine David Small from Leicester England and I remember him saying that he thought that Marilyn Monroe and Errol Flynn were still the biggest Film Star names in the World.  He may well have been right.

Sadly David died last year.   However I have no hesitation in stating here and now, that David was The World’s Leading Expert on Errol Flynn – he knew everything about him, had collected an enormous amount of Memorabilia and had even written a book about his early life in England as an actor.

He had the original footage on the unfinished Errol Flynn ‘William Tell’ film which was to have been an epic Cinemascope film shot in Switzerland and directed by Jack Cardiff. He told me that the film that had been shot was very impressive indeed.

Here are two pictures -from a Film Annual of the time – and two lovely colour pictures they are too of these Two great stars :-

David knew every Errol Flynn Film and had probably seen every one of them many times over but his favourite of course was The Adventure of Robin Hood which had Errol in sparkling form in the title role. He fitted the part like a glove.

I remember saying to David in one conversation that I had seen The Prince and the Pauper – again with Errol Flynn – and I had thought in that one he looked different somehow – not so athletic and somehow more slender and slightly awkward – and David said that this one had been made only a year before Robin Hood – but he agreed with me that Errol seemed to be nothing like as mature or confident an actor as he was in Robin Hood. He did seem a different man.

I always preferred The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men – made in England and released in 1952 with Richard Todd and Joan Rice. This was of course a Walt Disney film.

David agreed that it was a very good film but still had the Errol Flynn version as his best.

Anyway, we have above, pictures of TWO great Film Stars who lived in a golden era in film terms and who have attained iconic status.

I cannot think of any modern star who fits the same bill somehow but then, as someone once said to me when talking on another subject – ‘ these were different days’ !

I remember seeing this at the local Essoldo Cinema with a gigantic wide screen and to say that it was impressive is a great understatement. I knew one girl in the offices where I worked as a very young lad – the first job I ever had and a very happy one at that – this girl had been to see the film at least EIGHT times.  She loved it too.

Although Rogers and Hammerstein wrote many great musicals,  South Pacific must rank as one of the best “There is Nothing’ Like a Dame”, “Younger than Springtime”, “Bali Hai”, Gonna Wash that Man Right outa my Hair”, and  “Some Enchanted Evening” are major highlights,  but there are many other delightful and strong songs.

Nellie(Mitzi Gaynor)is an army nurse posted to the Pacific Rgeion during the War, who meets, befriends and falls in love with handsome plantation owner Emile de Becque (Rossano Brazzi).

The relationship between these two is really the heart and soul of the film and is one of those timeless will they or won’t they get together relationships.

Featuring beautiful use of colour photography and some truly gorgeous scenery and filled with memorable songs. This is a beautiful film and is without a doubt a must see.

Opening on Broadway only four years after the end of the War, South Pacific found a ready made audience.

The show is based on two short stories from an anthology of stories entitled Tales of the South Pacific by James Michener.

The success of South Pacific boosted Michener’s reputation as a novelist.

It is one of those films – and there are many – that need to be seen on the big screen. Television gives us the chance to view them but not in the  way that they should be viewed.

More scenes – Including this one above of Mitzi Gaynor while on location in the South Pacific for the film.

Don Taylor was a film actor who had or developed an interest in Film Direction – and so became a quite successful Film Director.   His second wife was the English ‘Hammer Films’ actress Hazel Court.

They had both appeared in Hammer Film Productions in England in the 50 s but actually met whilst filming a TV episode of an Alfred Hitchcock Presents series – an episode called ‘The Crocodile Case’ in 1958

When this picture below was taken Don Taylor was married to his first wife Phyllis Avery  and is with his  two daughters Avery and Ann. He had just finished with Men of Sherwood Forest which was released in November 1954. Filmed in England.

They were divorced in 1955 – not long after this family picture appeared in the Film Show Annual

Above: Men of Sherwood Forest 1954 – The first Hammer Film to be made in Colour

Hazel Court had been married to Dermot Walsh the Actor by whom she had a daughter but they were divorced in 1963.

She had a long career with Hammer Films and it seems she was their biggest female star.

Above – Enjoying a Canteen Lunch with Christopher Lee while filming The Curse of Frankenstein 1957

Before this though she had been in films such as Holiday Camp – a film I really like – and in this scene she is pulling away from Dennis Price – and a good thing she did because, if you know the film, he is not someone that it is healthy to be around.

Hazel Court and Dennis Price in Holiday Camp – above

She was born in Sutton Coldfield in Birmingham.  She studied acting at the London Academy of Dramatic Art, which led to a contract, aged 18, with the Rank Organisation. In her first film, Champagne Charlie (1944), an affectionate homage to the Victorian music hall, she had one line: “I never drank champagne before.”

Hazel Court took leading roles in her next two films: Dreaming (1945), opposite Flanagan and Allen, and Gaiety George (1946), another period musical.

Holiday Camp (1948) was  the film that brought the Huggett family to the screen, and she  played the  daughter of Jack Warner who finds romance in Whitby with Jimmy Hanley.

The following year, she married the Irish actor Dermot Walsh, and co-starred with him in three  second features.

After The Curse of Frankenstein, Court’s second role for Hammer was The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959), also directed by Fisher. Anton Diffring played a sculptor who had found a way of stopping the ageing process so that he was around 70 years older than he looked.

From the late 1950s, Hazel Court was a frequent guest star on American television series including Dr Kildare, The Dick Powell Show and Alfred Hitchcock Presents, in one episode of which her disgruntled husband (Laurence Harvey) grinds her up for chicken feed.

She married  actor-director Don Taylor in 1964 (the year after her divorce from Dermot Walsh), and  settled in California permanently.

After  Don Taylor’s death in 1998, Hazel Court devoted most of her time to charitable activities, her hobbies of painting and sculpture and to her three children (two from her second marriage), who survive her.

Hazel Court did write her autobiography, Hazel Court – Horror Queen  published by Tomahawk Press.

This is referred to quite a bit, as a B Western – but the locations used and the action sequences would suggest a bigger budget film. I would think that the leading actors would be seen as, not exactly  from the front rank of stars at that time – although they proved adequate in this DeLuxe Color action packed Western – and In Cinemascope.

There were some very good Westerns made around this time – I think of The Searchers and The Last Wagon made the year before – as was The Secret of Treasure Mountain which although not really in the same league as the first two mentioned – nevertheless to me, it was a memorable and enjoyable film.

John Ericson and Lola Albright headed the cast list in this film.

Oregon Passage is  directed by Paul Landres and starring John Ericson, Lola Albright, Edward Platt, and Rachel Ames. Its plot follows a clash between an army lieutenant and Shoshoni Indians in the Cascade Mountains region of Oregon in 1871, where it was filmed.

With bigger Stars,  I am of the opinion that this one could have done very well indeed.    It is well made, and beautifully photographed.   The story also, is good – and we have plenty of action.

Oregon Passage is a tough and action packed picture. The action scenes, particularly the final raid on the fort, are well staged.

John Ericson is good as the dedicated young officer — he’d already been in Bad Day At Black Rock (1955) and Forty Guns (1957). Edward Platt is easy to hate as the  Major- and Lola Albright and Toni Gerry manage well in the roles of the cavalry wife and Indian squaw, respectively.

It was based on a novel by Gordon D. Shirreffs.

Above – The Indians prepare to attack.

Cinematographer Ellis Carter was a real craftsman, often working at Universal-International. He shot some of the best of the studio’s late-50s. films.

Ellis Carter’s outdoor work on Oregon Passage is often beautiful. He and his crew certainly made the most of their two weeks on location.

Above – The Soldiers dig in to fight back as the Indians attack

Above – All Out Fighting

Above – Casualties

Above – A lone Indian

Above – Forward the Soldiers

Above – John Ericson  targets the Chief

Above: The final showdown

Above: The final showdown

Above – A Fight to the finish

Above – A Romantic Ending

Above – the filming was actually done in Oregon

The early days of television and on alternate Saturday evenings between 5 pm and 6 pm, we had Whirligig – then on the other Saturday was ‘Saturday Special’ which featured Peter Butterworth with the puppet Porterhouse or Porty as we knew him – the Parrot.

On Whirligig we had the Actor Humphrey Lestocq – referred to as H.L. – and Mr. Turnip – pictured here BELOW :-

Humphrey Lestocq, I remember as an actor had played in Angels One Five 1952 an RAF wartime film – and a very good one at that. He did’t have a leading role but he appeared well up the cast list and gave a credit worthy performance.

Above: Angels One Five – which I know well and Once a Sinner – which I don’t know at all

He had been, in fact, a Fighter Pilot during  the War

For many years, Humphrey and his wife Mary, and family lived at Rye Harbour in Sussex

Last evening I watched an episode of Gideons Way on Talking Pictures – with John Gregson as Inspector Gideon – and it got me to looking more into John Gregson and his life. Sadly that life was cut short when he suffered a fatal heart attack while on holiday with his family at Porlock in North Somerset , England.

Just over a year ago – in an episode of Eggheads on TV – one of the challenging team was the son of John Gregson and he was asked briefly about his father and his father’s film career, so maybe this was just another reminder for me.

Film Actor John Gregson lived at Creek House, from 1958 until his premature death, aged 55, in 1975.

John Gregson had  become involved in amateur theatrical productions as a young man, before serving in the Royal Navy during World War Two. After the conflict he made acting his profession. He married the actress Thea Gregory in 1947, and moved to the London area, eventually having a family of three sons and three daughters.

John Gregson appeared in 40 films between 1948 and 1971, including ‘Angels One Five’ (1952)’, ‘Above us the Waves’ (1955) and ‘The Battle of the River Plate’ (1956), as well as the Ealing Comedies ‘Whisky Galore!’ (1949), ‘The Lavender Hill Mob’ (1951)’, and ‘The Titfield Thunderbolt’ (1953).

Perhaps his best known performance was in ‘Genevieve’, which was selected for the Royal Film Performance in 1953 and won a BAFTA award for best film. Despite being based around the London-Brighton veteran car run, parts of the film were actually shot in Spelthorne, along Stanwell Moor Road and at Stanwell Mill in Horton Road!

I personally remember him more for being in The Titfield Thunderbolt a year or two after Genevieve

John Gregson also appeared in several TV programmes, notably as Inspector Gideon in the 1960s series ‘Gideon’s Way’.

In 1959  John Gregson and his wife Thea puercahed Creek House from Bernard Braden and Barbara Kelly and lived there with their six children.

The pub just down the road from Creek House had been the focus of Hollywood gossip, as it was where trysts between Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were conducted while Taylor was still married to Eddie Fisher.

The Gregsons held parties at Creek House  where they played host to stars such as Peter O’Toole, Peter Ustinov and Vivien Leigh.

Thea Gregson stayed on in the house for several years after John’s death.

Creek House :

Thea Gregson  is still alive and living in the South Cotswolds at Wotton Under Edge,  and until recently made twice-yearly pilgrimages to Creek House. A devout Roman Catholic as was her husband –  she built a small – and unconsecrated – chapel  in the grounds which still stands today on the acre of land across the creek.

John Gregson attended the Roman Catholic church of St. John Fisher in Wood Road, Shepperton Green.

He was buried at Sunbury Cemetery.