*contains spoilers Two rather well-known celebrities of their day “disappeared” for a short time within around six months of each other back in the 1920s, and in the 1970s within a few years of one another a couple of interesting movies resulted about each disappearance. The first is The Disappearance of Aimee (1976 tv movie)…
Read more The Disappearances of Aimee Semple McPherson and Agatha Christie
*contains spoilers Bloch and Harrington did The Cat Creature together and there is a “cat woman” to be found in that movie similarly dressed as the one in the 1942 Cat People movie. Obviously, both were fans and influenced by producer Val Lewton’s movies from the 1940s – the running times of the tv movies…
Read more Actor Ray Milland Meets The Sea Serpent (Part Two)
*contains spoilers If there is a career which ended with a bad movie it is that of actor Ray Milland (1907-86 lung cancer). The Welsh actor began his career in the late 1920s and he won an Oscar for his portrayal as an alcoholic in the classic Billy Wilder directed movie The Lost Weekend (1945).…
Read more Actor Ray Milland Meets The Sea Serpent (Part One)
*contains spoilers Actress Bridget Fonda (1964-) is the daughter of actor Peter Fonda (1940-2019 lung cancer), the niece of actress Jane (1937-) and granddaughter of Henry Fonda (1905-82 heart disease). She is also the partner of composer Danny Elfman. She retired from the screen before the age of forty after a bad car accident in…
* contains spoilers A Girl in Every Port (1952) would be one of Groucho’s last feature films he starred in. Also starring William Bendix (1906-64 lobar pneumonia) and Marie Wilson (1916-72 cancer). It seems like another RKO torture movie. And it is odd Groucho is in a film with Bendix – but this is RKO…
*contains spoilers This article looks at the back end of comic genius Groucho Marx’s (1890-1977 pneumonia) later career around the end of the comedy team that was the Marx Brothers. They made over a dozen features together. Groucho starred in a few films without his brothers Chico (1887-1961 arteriosclerosis) and Harpo Marx (1888-1964 after heart…
* contains spoilers Gordon made one of my favourites when he got 50s sci-fi star Richard Carlson (1912-77 cerebral haemorrhage) to do Tormented (1960) for Allied Artists now that he had fulfilled his contract with AIP with four quick fire movies, something which must have left the director exhausted. It is Carlson’s last starring role…
*contains spoilers Director Bert I. Gordon (1922-) worked through from the mid-1950s until his last feature film in 2015. He was known as Mr B.I.G. because of his initials and for his propensity for his films to have special effects that showed giant animals and humans. The movie Tormented (1960) is one of my favourite…
*contains spoilers The Real Macaw was made as a family follow-up to Andreacchio’s critical, and runaway financial success, with another family film he directed and co-wrote entitled Napoleon (1995). That film was about a golden retriever pup that escapes his city home and goes on a trek cross country with the help of a galah.…
Read more The Versatility of Director Mario Andreacchio (Part Two)
*contains spoilers Adelaide-based director Mario Andreacchio (1955-) was at the heart of the growth of the film industry in South Australia in the 1970s and 1980s. Part of a core group of directors in that state, he began with a series of varied short films and then moved on to features. The features he has…
Read more The Versatility of Director Mario Andreacchio (Part One)
