*contains spoilers Margaux appeared on an April 1996 instalment of tabloid host Geraldo’s show talking about her bulimia and alcoholism at length and the time in the mid-70s when she slit her wrists after a long night drinking at Studio 54. She showed off the scars on her arms. She was talking suicide, something which…
Read more Actresses Margaux and Mariel and The Hemingway Curse (Part Two)
*contains spoilers The Hemingway sisters Margaux (1954-96 suicide by drug overdose) and Mariel (1961-) are actress sisters and granddaughters of writer Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961 suicide by gunshot). Their family is said to have been affected by mental illness, alcoholism and suicide – something termed The Hemingway Curse. I will use a couple of books in…
Read more Actresses Margaux and Mariel and The Hemingway Curse (Part One)
*contains spoilers Ashley is an interesting actress, big in the theatre, with a distinctive voice. She was nominated for a Golden Globe way back in 1965 for her role in The Carpetbaggers. It is there she met her future husband George Peppard (1928-94 lung cancer). She took time out to have a child and reportedly…
Read more Enter the Hong Kong Action Trio of Director Robert Clouse (Part Two)
*contains spoilers Director Robert Clouse (1928-97 kidney failure) is no great shakes when it comes to directing and his name isn’t up there with the greats. But he started off well in the early to mid-1960s when two of his short films were nominated for Oscars. He had one massive hit with Bruce Lee’s (1940-73…
Read more Enter the Hong Kong Action Trio of Director Robert Clouse (Part One)
*contains spoilers Mars Needs Women (1967) came next and was an original screenplay, like Swamp Creature, and not a remake of a 1950s movie. It begins with women who are enjoying themselves – on a tennis court, in a nightclub and in a shower – suddenly disappearing. Then the military are informed via teletype from…
Read more The Cult of the Azalea Pictures by Larry Buchanan (Part Two)
*contains spoilers Filmmaker Larry Buchanan (1923-2004 collapsed lung) is feted for his bad movies and the worst of these are his Azalea Pictures. They are a series of eight movies, which were shot on budgets of about $30,000 each, starting in the mid-1960s. Produced by American International Pictures they were the first of the colour…
Read more The Cult of the Azalea Pictures by Larry Buchanan (Part One)
*contains spoilers There is a link between cult favourite – well, for a few – The Day of the Dolphin (1973) and the film Altered States (1980). That link is American scientist John C. Lilly (1915-2001 heart failure). Lilly studied the communication between humans and dolphins for many years in the 1950s and 60s which…
*contains spoilers But Bowie is far from the grave as the human population ages as he remains the same… All Bowie wants is to be left alone and live in peace. His heterosexual relationship brings him company but it has also corrupted him with alcohol which has spoiled his simple pleasures. Is this what leads…
Read more David Bowie is The Man Who Fell to Earth (Part Two)
*contains spoilers Director Nicholas Roeg’s (1928-2018 natural causes) film The Man Who Fell to Earth, starring music legend David Bowie (1947-2016 liver cancer) is essentially a science fiction film about alcoholism. Bowie plays an alien who comes to Earth in search of water for his parched planet. He has left his family behind in the…
Read more David Bowie is The Man Who Fell to Earth (Part One)
*contains spoilers The Fan (1981) stars Humphrey Bogart’s (1899-1957 throat cancer) widow Lauren Bacall (1924-2014 massive stroke) well past her prime but worthy of the attention of a fan – like me! Released by Paramount Studios and produced by Robert Stigwood (1934-2016) who had incredible success with Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Grease (1978) along…
