Talking about fine food and entertaining movie related topics

What better way of looking back at the most beautiful and flamboyant actress of recent years than by highlighting how I remember her best which is her role in Cleopatra (see the trailer lower down) ! Cleopatra links my words in this post to things Egyptian and more particularly, food ! So, my dear readers, I will draw your attention to the exquisite food of this ancient land of the Pharaohs. Their much loved food that even all children will love, Egyptian or not is something we are all linked to. See lower down. There is no sincerer love than the love of food, said George Bernard Shaw, the playwright,in my header above. It is a fitting time to refer to it as it is an unseen force in our lives which helps shape our lives. This is no slur on the obese or overweight people amongst us. Elizabeth Taylor, a double Oscar winner, (Butterfield 8 and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? ) who has just made the transition from this life to the next at the age of 79, had issues with her weight at one time, I read. How many of you remember her ? Perhaps you remember her in a photo with the late, great Michael Jackson who was her close friend for more than twenty years. In fact they loved each other very much. Well, I bet some of you are wondering what is all this about Egyptian Food. Tourists, young and old alike, to Egypt will not be disappointed by the array of food on offer. As you know, when you are hungry, almost any food, well cooked and presented in such a way to tempt you, will always be appetizing ! I have not had the pleasure of going to Egypt myself but know, thanks to the remarks, uttered to me by members of my family who have been there, about the culinary delights of the land of the Pharaohs, that you will love what is served up ! Before glancing a little more at Egyptian food, let us remind ourselves about the 1963 movie starring Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton (whom she married twice amongst her list of seven husbands !) and Rex Harrison.

Elizabeth is an actress I have always admired but not known very much about quite surprisingly as she was a very beautiful woman who attracted a great deal of attention right from the start of her career, most especially in her fifth movie, National Velvet (1944, when she was just 12 years old !) about a young girl, a horse and a dream about winning the Grand National Steeplechase ! I notice, on a point of interest, the film preceding her springboard movie, National Velvet, was a film called The White Cliffs of Dover, a love story in which Liz takes on a small role as a ten year old, a real contrast to her fifth movie ! A film writer who dislikes horses was moved to tears when he saw this fifth movie of hers just very recently following Liz’s death on four days ago on March 23rd, resulting in his being determined to write this wonderful critique of the film !

What about the exquisite food I was talking about? Scroll down this Egyptian food site once again to see zabadi, one of the Egyptians’ favourite ‘mezzes’, salads and dips preceding their main dishes. Check back up at my first food link at the top to revive your understanding of their food. Nothing beats actually eating it. When I asked my wife whether she knew about ‘tabouleh‘, she immediately said, “but of course, a wonderful vegetarian dish” (from Egypt) that all ‘carnivores’ will like too. It has even given its name to a restaurant in downtown Toronto, Canada !

On realising I was about to write a little in praise of Liz Taylor, I was fascinated to find this Oscar website that enumerated in horizontal form scrolling from left to right, by clicking one small photo for each year, all the winners from 1929 upto 2011 ! Wow ! What is more, Liz’s photo is right up front ! If you had been around in 1959 and seen Liz in Suddenly, Last Summer you would have marvelled at her starring role here. All the young men watching her walk from the water in a loose fitting swimming costume symbolized many cinema-goers who raved about her beauty and acting skills ! See the phenomenon right now. There are many who believe she should have won an Oscar for that role after only being nominated. Here are her awards at a glance

She would have a love/hate relationship with the Oscars. One such ‘disagreement’ was when she won the Oscar for Butterfly 8 which she would have preferred not to win as she was ‘forced’, as part of her contract to the MGM studio, to play the role of this high class call girl.

Liz was, no doubt, a much loved high achiever in the world of films and will surely be missed greatly for that and her work for good causes such as fighting AIDS. Many of you will recall the title of one of her movies, called Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which like Raintree County, many believed should have won her more Oscars but the only other Oscar for Best Actress was in her leading role in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf which is a well known film from 1966, perhaps because of Liz’s powerful performance and the suggestion that the film mirrored her private life with Richard Burton, her co-star. Thank you, my dear readers, for reading this my sixty-ninth post ! I hope you enjoyed reading about this fine actress who left her indelible mark on the film making industry and in our hearts ! Till next time !

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I never imagined at the time that I would cause my parents so much worry and concern when I started quite imprudently and rashly to run down the hill I had just climbed. My pace would quicken as my strides became wider and bolder and my enthusiasm for running would embolden me to take ever bigger risks. This not so dramatic escapade of mine runs parallel somewhat to the quiet school girl outing which took place in 1900 in Victoria, Australia and went disastrously wrong. I first introduced you to Picnic at Hanging Rock towards the bottom of my blog post,Some Outstanding Australian Offerings. The famous natural landmark in a range of hills called the North Downs, south of London, called Box Hill is a favourite spot for walkers and cyclists alike. Not only did it entice my parents, brother and I away from our Wimbledon home one summer’s day when we were quite young but also numerous other day trippers who would not only walk but use two wheels to reach the top along its now famous zig zag route to the carpark at the top of the hill. It is no surprise then that I learn that Box Hill will be one of the venues for the cycling races in the upcoming Olympic Games in London next year.

Cycling up Box Hill never occurred to me at that time. Walking was what we were there for just like the girls in this movie called Picnic at Hanging Rock. It put Australian films on the map after it appeared in August 1975. It is a haunting film of great mystery which initially appealed to Australian audiences then spread abroad to great acclaim bringing into prominence Australian films and more especially the Australian director Peter Weir whose many awards for his work you have just seen ! Anne-Louise Lambert…(see her above, aged 20 in the photo and as an older woman in her fifties in the two interesting background to the movie videos)…who played the role of Miranda in the movie was totally enchanting and surreal helping to create the mystery through her ethereal, untouchable and mysterious characterization !

Where are they now? This is a very good question for all who are interested in a thumping good mystery is about to be answered ! It appears that most of the cast of this ground breaking movie have come back regularly to Hanging Rock over the years since Peter Weir made the film. In the video right here, Anne-Louise talks about taking a break from filming and walking alone amongst the eerie, awe-inspiring rocks only to be approached by the author of this so-called fictional story and given a great hug by her and told that she incarnates the apparent fictional Miranda to perfection, a perfect rendering of the character that Joan Lindsay, the author of the book, Picnic at Hanging Rock, had in mind. See her speak here about her writing of the book in 1967 and its subsequent filming of it in 1975.

My running down Box Hill (from left to right in the main picture above, I do believe, as it is very long time since that summer family outing !) and “coming a cropper” as we say in slang English, meaning hurting myself badly was a picnic compared to the three girls who disappeared at Hanging Rock. They were never to be seen again ! They lost their lives unlike me who survived ! I must have banged my head seriously upon my over hasty arrival at the bottom of the hill, near the main road ! My parents had to take me, badly shaken up, to the quaint local Public House (bar) to be tended to ! That much I do remember apart from my mad dash down the slope! We are allowed to make up our own minds as to whether Joan Lindsay’s novel is true or not. We can decide on our own whether we want to believe we’re watching a story based on a real mysterious tragedy from 1900, or complete fiction.

What sets Picnic at Hanging Rock apart from most films that categorically state they are based on real life is that the viewer / cinema-goer is not at all bothered by the argument about whether the events are true or false. I, for one, was simply riveted by the movie and so believed that the three girls had disappeared and died. You will have seen in the last video above that Hanging Rock never fails to attract visitors who speak so convincingly about believing the story is true. No wonder Joan Lindsay, the author, hugged Anne-Louise Lambert when she came across her in amongst the rocks during a break in filming in 1975. I hope you will have seen the author speaking above ! By writing more on this great cinematographic offering by the Australian film industry, I am honouring my daughter Edwina who so loved the movie when she was a child that she could never stop talking about it ! Nicholas signing off till next time ! Thanks for reading me yet again !

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Hello again my dear readers ! Do any of you remember or recognize the movie you see posted to your left that came out in 1946? It happens to be my most favourite movie. You will learn why a little later. I was led to showing you this because the very unusual award winning children’s animated ‘horror’ film called Coraline (based on the novel written by Neil Gaiman), quite a creepy story about a young girl discovering a parallel existence going on in her own home (did you see the trailer inside the last link?) appeared in cinemas two years ago this month. I don’t wish to concentrate on that but that mini anniversary does inspire me to consider parallel lives and desires that we all have bursting out within us wanting recognition !

Science has proven that there is some form of life going on in a parallel universe that has some sort of inexplicable link with our own lives, a duality that exists in our lives at all times without our really being aware of it. Multiply that single universe which shadows each of our own lives by all the other people who live in our world. There is a lot going on around us and we don’t even know it ! Ha ! The size of these universes vary of course. A universe is the totality of known or supposed objects and phenomena throughout space, the totality of all the things that exist in creation even any scene of human activity or thought.

My favourite film has just begun dramatically (above) preparing us in the audience for the transition from our own little universe…(which is the life to which we have become accustomed with the veil over the memory of our past lives still firmly in place!)…to the life after death or the next phase of this life which our soul is pursuing. “It starts where this life leaves off” says the handsome David Niven to his new love, Kim, in the movie! He forms a bond with Kim Hunter (Kim is aged 77, born November 1922, here in this interview in 1999….I thought you might be interested to see the beautiful Kim Hunter a little older!) who tries to console him.

Look at our desire to eat yet at the same time we don’t want to get fat. We don’t want to let our waistlines become too big. Do you remember my post with the friendly picture of the lovely actress call Rachel Weisz at the top ? More to the point, I included vital information about how not to get fat which I thought was very useful. How many of you made the effort to click on that embedded video which I post here again for those of you who just want to listen to a bit of unbiased common sense for a while!?

Ian Marber of the Food Doctor declared in the video you may have just watched, that too much sugar is a food to avoid. Sugar is the culprit by far since if it not used up in the body, it is later stored as glycogen and then turns to fat. Marber goes on to say, “Those who do avoid sugar, see the biggest success in losing weight and having a healthier lifestyle.” This is my chance to re-introduce you to the movie Ratatouille…(see the movie trailer here before you look at the background to the movie below in the embedded video)…which is all about a rat that has aspirations to cook. (If you put the word Ratatouille in the search bar at the top of my first sidebar you will see all the posts in which mention is made of that word. I dare you to give it a go ! It works amazingly.) Take a look at how you should make Ratatouille right here ! Ratatouille recipes abound but I thought I should show you one !

He lives the life of a rat but wants to break free from that world and develop his skills as a budding cook which seems most unlikely. However the makers of the film are determined to let food play the major role in making us believe the rat can pass through that ‘black hole’ as it were and live the life he has aspired to because he is sick and tired of dirty unappetizing food picked up in rubbish /garbage bins and gutters. Take a look behind the scenes here about how food plays a major role in this successful movie. You must see it if you haven’t already!

As I have already suggested, parallel universes exist ! It has been proven as you may have read in the ‘Freaky Physics proves parallel universes’ link and the amazing Hubble telescope pictures you will hopefully have seen above. What is the nature of duality you may ask? My brother tried to define it for me and I quote ! “Duality is the concept of otherness and separation from the reality of Oneness that is beyond personality and the concomitant conflict associated with duality.” Does anyone understand that ? If you read it slowly, you may well do so ! No one is an island. It seems to me we are all interdependent when we leave our own little universe ‘temporarily’ while we interact with others but return to it when we are alone again! David Niven’s universe, his way of life and thought, brushes up, so to speak, with Kim Hunter’s universe. In this Part three of the movie, David is expected to have made the transition to the next phase of life after dying in the crash but he does not appear thus causing a problem or two because no mistake has ever been made in ‘heaven’.

Let me end my sixty-seventh post here by saying that I have tried to show through the example of my favourite movie, A Matter of Life and Death and Ratatouille that we are never alone, in the sense that our own universe must always inevitably shadow or live in parallel fashion with other lives and thoughts that are each a world of their own, separate universes, living and breathing, pulsating endlessly through time and space. Life is eternal as none of our thoughts never die. That word, ‘Akashic’ resurfaces and can never escape us ! I put it in my search bar and came up with it in my eulogy to one great Sherlock Holmes actor, Arthur Wontner !

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We’d be looking at John Mills and Sylvia Syms quite differently in this celebrated beer drinking scene if the 1958 movie director had been able to retain a really steamy love scene in the desert. Sex sells movies we are told but more of that further down. St. Valentine’s Day is a time when we focus our thoughts on love and its meaning including the role it plays in our relationships. Love has many faces and it is expressed in so many different ways, almost as many, dare I say, as the magnificent variation of the ways our faces are sculpted. We recognize people initially by their faces ! We see the lovable face of the local village idiot called Michael, a role that won the focus of my sixty-sixth post on the theme of love, Sir John Mills, an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in Ryan’s Daughter (1971)

Do you see the likeness? John Mills in love (in the war story) with Sylvia Syms, half his age, and the John Mills wowing audiences with his super lovable performance as the village idiot. I saw both these movies in the cinema when they came out! As I said in my post, The Poseidon Adventure stood the test of time, John Mills is my one of my most favourite actors ! You just have to see John Mills in “action” here in the movie, Ice Cold in Alex so you can make the comparison between the two John Mills and enjoy the “wow” effect of Sylvia Syms. What would that sensual scene that was dropped have been like? Enjoy Anthony Quayle as the German and Harry Andrews as the man who pulled off the dog tag…great actors in the own right ! Take a look at the film’s website for some more photos from the movie !

See the love Sylvia Syms has for John Mills in the way she is admiring the way he is drinking his beer after he had continually talked about enjoying an ice cold beer in Alex(andria) after escaping their ordeal in the desert. If you can look at Tom Hanks‘ wife’s face as she reacts to the loving remarks of her husband, Tom, about two minutes thirty seconds into the video of his Best Actor (for Forrest Gump in 1995) Oscar acceptance speech you will see a face that gives you a warm glow that shows us that Tom’s words are true ! I quote, “…she teaches me and demonstrates to me every day what love is…..”

Let me return to to Mills and Syms. They shared a love that was borne out of trying, testing and dangerous circumstances such as you might expect in a tense war situation. The censors in 1958 decided to drop a scene which was deemed too strong, too steamy (probably a little way on into the film from the scene you see here), when Sylvia’s army shirt had too many buttons undone revealing more of her ample cleavage than should be shown. How much cleavage is too much one might ask for the cinema goers of 1958? I suppose they must have seen me and my brother coming ! We were too young at age ten, to be attracted to and distracted by the pleasures of love. Not seeing Sylvia Syms’ attractive cleavage did not detract from the movie however! Nevertheless, had we been able to see it, the film might have been more successful than it was and changed the course, somewhat, of cinematographic history!? Sylvia was so beautiful that she made a lasting impression on me ! I was quick to recognize her playing the role of the Queen Mother in Queen (2006).

Had J. Lee Thompson, the director of the Ice Cold in Alex not been forced to drop the sexy scene that had developed from the “tamer” love scene above, the movie’s success may have been in a situation where ’sex sells movies’ such as can be seen in Just go with it out in cinemas right now ! Ice Cold in Alex was reasonably successful at the box-office but might have been more so had J.Lee Thompson had his way, I repeat, and been able to retain the steamy scene of Sylvia Syms’ revealing much of her cleavage with rather too many buttons being undone!

It is all the more surprising that the lesson had not been learned from the success of the The Seven Year Itch made in 1955, three years earlier than Ice Cold in Alex. Watch this ‘complete version’ of the famous skirt scene when Marilyn Monroe raised temperatures by giggling in a gust of wind that conveniently raised her skirt in a flattering fashion. That one image of Marilyn being very relaxed and sensual helped sell the movie a million times over.

In this tribute to John Mills who was a “Colossus” of the British Film Industry (beating ‘ole Norman Wisdom by a couple of years and reaching the grand old age of ninty-seven when he died in 2005) we see his wife of over sixty years thus exemplifying even more fantastically the love that Tom Hanks shows above to his wife. So here we are on this glorious St. Valentine’s day, February 14th 2011 ! Have a happy day everyone ! I must end on the beautiful love scenes that I urge you to take a look at again in my post about British Admiral Nelson in love with Lady Hamilton….another face of love !

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While listening to the music of the Italian born French composer, Jean-Baptiste Lully (listen to some his music at the bottom of the above link), I learned that he was the first musician ever to use a conductor’s baton (not as we know it today) but as a heavy staff six feet long to beat the time as he conducted the orchestra. I went on to learn, to my great alarm and consternation, as if I was actually there to hear his screaming out in agony, that, during a concert in early January 1687 to celebrate King Louis XIV of France’s return to health (he lived from 1638 to 1715), Lully accidentally brought his staff down so hard on his right foot that he crushed his big toe. He refused to have the toe amputated and the infection turned fatally gangrenous.

My earlier post, A Gallic influence is still felt today, Lully’s beautiful music, his dreadful mishap resulting in his subsequent death and all the fine clothes of 17th Century French fashion conjured up in my head, the name Scaramouche, which means ’stock character in commedia dell’arte and pantomime, depicted as a boastful coward or buffoon.’ You will see what I mean when you view the video clip of the movie of the same name I watched, one Saturday night, at my boarding school in Dorset, England in the early 1960s. Dying from the effects of gangrene was far less common than dying by the sword in a duel and this 1952 movie boasts a long and most exciting sword fight which you will see below. Take a glimpse here of MGM’s epic of adventure, intrigue and the pursuit of romance that is Scaramouche. I can never forget Stewart Granger in this role opposite Eleanor Parker who is still alive as I write, at the grand old age of 89.

She received three Oscar nominations for Best Actress in the 1950s! President Ronald Reagan had the pleasure of acting with her even. Find her at around two minutes fifty seconds into this introduction to the famous film, The Sound of Music (1965) for which she is best remembered, proving her great talent and versatility as an actress. Also standing out in Scaramouche was the lovely Janet Leigh who was in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho and ‘died’ in that scary shower scene The handsome Mel Ferrer, also well known for his role in War and Peace (1956) played his part in making the swordfight (see below) so unforgettable in Scaramouche !

In Toronto, Canada, there is a restaurant named Scaramouche. I have never been there so I am unable to recommend it. However you can see for yourself from their website that it looks to be high class. It is not easy to find this high class restaurant as it is tucked away in an upscale apartment building but just read this review for yourself !

Stewart Granger was a buddy of my father, Hilary Wontner, for a while during their days together sharing lodgings in Birmingham, England before the Second World War. I believe they were in Repertory together there and my father started an actors’ cricket club (my having seen photos)! The acting careers of these two men took divergent paths after Granger had to be invalided out of the army and the war in 1942 enabling him to land a key role in the movie, The Man in Grey (1943) which helped, thanks to his powerful performance which you may have just seen, to make him a huge star in Britain.

My father stayed in the army after the British Army’s evacuation at Dunkirk (some readers might find this account interesting) and went on to serve in the Indian Army in India. Consequently, Hilary Wontner’s acting career was set back at least three years resulting in his losing touch with the world of acting and leading him onto emigrating to South Africa for a number of years where he worked as a radio announcer and historical programme producer for the South African Broadcasting Corporation. My twin brother, Rupert, and I were born in Johannesburg on December 18th 1947. By the summer of 1953 we had all returned to Blighty (UK). It was only by the mid 1950s that Wontner returned to acting. Granger had had a huge head start !

Thank you for reading my humble effort on the fun of Scaramouche which came to life through the pen of Rafael Sabatini. It really has proved to be a good read to the point it was turned into a film. Perhaps the owner of the Scaramouche Restaurant is a fan of Sabatini novels ! Nicholas signing off for another week ! See you all soon !

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Hello my dear readers ! This post is a follow-up to my first post written on Lobster . I thought I would look back at my sixth post, Nigella’s cooking is movie goer’s reward. Nigella Lawson is one of the most influential writers on food to be found in Great Britain. Just look at her labour of love, some five hundred pages’ worth, that took her several years to write, called Kitchen – Recipes from the heart of the home I am following a bit of a lobster theme as I have a short story to tell involving Nigella. See here one of her Lobster recipes Here is another for good measure If she had read my post on Lobster, she would have given me the thumbs up because she is very versatile in her cooking as you will see from her latest book and from my numerous efforts to portray that versatility. This is borne out by the fact that she is asked to present awards in her world of food! See her here at the Food Network awards in 2007. Let me show 100 Lobster recipes coming from her colleagues at the Food Network. Perhaps, Nigella would win more awards if she were to champion the cause of humane treatment of Lobster and its fellow crustaceans, before they become our supper or lunch.

I believe many of you have become practised at checking through all my posts and you may have overlooked another Nigella post of mine which I consider unmissable if you want to pick up a mine of information on this formidable food writer, chef and food program presenter ! The post is called, Nigella Lawson and two actors called Nigel. In my sixth post, the super exciting movie of 1962, The Counterfeit Traitor, (with William Holden and Lilli Palmer) never got an airing so here it is ! Nor will you have had a chance to see an excerpt from the popular movie, Public Enemies (2009)

I thought you might like to read about an amusing story involving an oversized lobster that Nigella managed to take home after it had been badly scalded by boiling hot water. How did this happen you might ask? Well it was back in 2002 before Nigella had married Charles Saatchi.

In the Ivy restaurant, Los Angeles, I believe, one Gordon Ramsey, a well-known chef and the very rich Charles Saatchi were having a furious argument about a rather large lobster that the cooking staff had dubbed ‘Trevor’. Charles did not want it to be cooked and thought it would look good as some form of art. Gordon, as you might expect, insisted that the lobster be cooked and served up as lunch. Witnesses to this rather unusual argument saw the two men come to blows. ‘Trevor’ fell against the main cooker and proceeded to be scalded as I said. Not willing to see the oversized lobster go the way of so many lobsters before they are eaten, Saatchi rushed to help the creature by hosing him down with cold water and reviving him. At that crucial moment, Nigella Lawson arrived for lunch with Charles. She took the creature home in order to nurse him back to health. History does not relate what finally happened to ‘Trevor’ but the journalist covering this story, imagined him supporting Ramsay in his quest to cook him but also being rather resentful of Saatchi just wanting to display him on his mantelpiece. Tellingly, the food reporter pointed that ‘Trevor’ was coy about the intimacy of his relationship with Nigella but that, since he had a primitive nervous system, he had some feelings for her and wouldn’t say any more for now.

This leads me on to the more positive side of whether Lobsters feel pain or not when they die for us. They now have an ally in the pioneering efforts of Christopher Reeve to find a cure for spinal paralysis. Chris was quadraplegic, only able to move his neck after his near fatal horse riding accident in 1995. What is his legacy when it comes to Spinal Cord Research? Here we see how he fights to recover some mobility in the quest for a cure.

Having just been reminded that this large crustacean like its smaller brethren, the shrimp and the crab, must feel pain when they are cooked, let me commiserate with those people who have difficulty pulling apart a lobster which has been subjected to being boiled alive so that it might provide us with a delicacy that so many people crave. Eat your lobster/crab/shrimp supper without it suffering ! I won’t go into whether a lobster screams or not because it is too upsetting, especially having perused a few videos purporting to demonstrate the pain and the ’screaming’ the lobster must endure to provide us with its very tasty meat. I like the taste of lobster but am happy to avoid pulling it apart. Let us stay positive and recall there are ways to eat it. Perhaps you may like to find out how to eat lobster from this site. What you may have just read about the crustacean avoiding suffering could lead to us all enjoying our lobster/…supper with less guilt and greater peace of mind. I, for one, would come into that category.

Do lobsters hold the the cure to paralyzed and brain damaged patients? It appears they do, just from the sugar content in their shells ! Hope for paralysis treatment through lobster shell is real and present in our lives now and we must be thankful for the fact that lobsters don’t only die so we may have a great meal. You will be interested to note that our late and lamented friend, Christopher Reeve, Superman, features here in this article alluding to the fact they may have been able to save him (had the discovery been made in time) when he was severely paralyzed after that near fatal horse riding accident of his in 1995. It was his efforts that have led to the discovery about Lobster shells directly helping victims of paralysis and brain damage. If these sea creatures don’t have to suffer on their way to feeding us, then their deaths will not be in vain ! He might also have been saved by stem cell research ! See you all very soon, thanks for reading me!

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As I wrote in my first Grace Kelly post we continue in a timeless way, despite the untimely and unfortunate manner (described in detail here lower down the very revealing and almost startling article) in which she departed this life in September 1982, to be transfixed by this beautiful lady who gave up her successful career in films to marry a prince and have a family. Here in this photo we are reminded of her beauty while she plays the role of a princess (who thinks she may be more in love with her tutor, played by Louis Jourdan (in the photo) than her cousin, the Crown Prince), yes a princess in her second to last film, The Swan (1956)!

I just had to show you her photo with the Crown Prince, played by Alec Guiness, the Oscar winning British actor I introduced you to in my post Bridge on the River Time. Well before she started feeling the pressure that came with her great success, one Alfred Hitchcock, dubbed the Master of Suspense, was greatly fascinated and infatuated by blonde actresses who were true lead characters and not just a pretty lady on the arm of some handsome male lead. He played his part in helping us to be forever transfixed by her when he employed her acting skills in only three of his famous movies, Dial M for Murder (1954), Rear Window(1954) and To Catch a Thief (1955). Hitchcock was an important part of the engine, as it were, that moved her along steadily towards fulfilling her destiny…(although she did not know it at the time, I think)…which was to marry Prince Rainier III of Monaco in 1956 after only completing 11 films (besides acting in theatre and on television).

Alfred Hitchcock spotted Grace Kelly in the movie, Mogambo in which she was playing a supporting role of a young married woman accompanying her anthropologist husband (played by another British actor, Donald Sinden). She falls for Clark Gable out in the African Bush and proves to be a strong rival to the other lady who is already in love with him, one Ava Gardner. I think it would be nice if you could click here to see Kate Beckinsale play the role of Ava Gardner in a clip from the movie, Aviator (right at the top). It is very interesting to note that Grace’s movie career might have stopped still in its tracks if it had not been for one lovely actress, called Gene Tierney having to drop out of the role Grace takes on.

On a lighter note, for those readers of mine who have only just come across Clark Gable for the first time here in this post, this remark from one cinema-goer in 1955 will help you realise how famous he actually was in his time > “I’m afraid to send my kids to the movies any more. Ever since they let Clark Gable get by with saying ‘damn’ in the 1939 movie ‘Gone with the Wind’, it seems every new movie has either ‘hell’ or ‘damn’ in it.” How things have changed, eh? One of Grace’s reasons for wanting to make Mogambo, a resounding success and great springboard for her career, was the fact that she wanted to meet to Gable with whom she was to have an intimate affair. Live the passion you see in their eyes here!

Did you see the passionate kissing going on between Gable and Gardner and then Kelly and Gable in the video? It is a film to see, I do declare, although I can’t claim to have seen it yet. Just a few years late! Ha! Perhaps now I will make an effort! Mogambo was an essential cog in Grace’s wheel of fortune and Hitchcock was there to move it along and place her in an environment, due to his infatuation and need to have an intelligent, elegant, beautiful and passionate blonde actress in a leading role, which would steadily and and imperceptibly enhance her reputation leading her eventually to being dubbed Hitchcock’s most loved leading lady when compared to all the others he had. Grace Kelly replaced Ingrid Bergman and Grace herself was replaced by Kim Novak in Hitchcock’s movie, Vertigo. Hitch’s trend towards blondes had started with Madeleine Carroll who was just fabulous in The 39 Steps (1935) which was such an enjoyable movie to watch. In an earlier post of mine I sing the praises of this film compared to the remake. I think it would be unthinkable to watch a remake of a Grace Kelly movie. It just wouldn’t be the same.

Grace Kelly is irreplaceable and will live in our hearts and minds as a wonderful person, not only as an actress but as the wife of Prince Rainier of Monaco and importantly, the mother of their three children, something she had decided she wanted more than the adulation she was receiving constantly by the time she had finished her final film, High Society in 1956.

Hitchcock made sure his leading ladies were nicely buttoned up and restrained in their clothing to divert attention away from the curvaceous figure of the passionate woman beneath. See her here in the eternally beautiful scene of Grace kissing James Stewart in the movie, Rear Window, and you will understand why and how she was so compelling, so alluring, oozing passion and sexiness and indelibly imprinting her image in our minds, transfixing us forever.

Her pivotal role in The Bridges at Toko-ri, with William Holden, one of the four movies she made in her busiest year, 1954, was a subtle vehicle of progression towards her ultimate destination. It seems only fitting that she beat Judy Garland for the Best Actress Oscar in 1955 for her role in the film The Country Girl (1954).

In 1952, in only her second film, High Noon, a clip of which you can see in an early post of mine she faces her own High Noon (that she does not yet know about) as I’d suggested my daughter was facing before her wedding in October 2009. Find a photo there of Grace accepting her Oscar from William Holden!

As I conclude this second part of my most successful post of all, unaware as yet of you, my readers’ reaction to this my sixty-third post, let us not forget the role played by Edith Head, Hitchcock’s costume designer who started working for him in 1946, on the film Notorious. In line with having his leading lady looking the part of the cool icy blonde, combining her beauty with her unique sense of polish and poise and that remarkable ability to show a lurking sense of passion, she rescued Grace one day during the filming of Rear Window when something was not quite right with her bosom when she appeared on set in a sheer nightgown !

Read the section concerning this telling episode that appears below the photo of her in Dial M for Murder and her standing in her sheer nightgown with James Stewart ! I mention this because it is all part and parcel of the story that goes to make up the fairy tale, the transfixing of us her admirers, that is about to unfold in just a few short years. Every detail in a princess’ life is important. In order to be released from her contact with MGM she agreed to have the whole of her wedding filmed. See that film in two parts in my first Grace Kelly post, the link being at the top of this post. What more than that could seal her date with destiny? Thank you for reading me yet again. See you next week, dear readers! Nicholas signing off for now.

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Does the modern day cinema-goer realise that the accomplished singer that is Gwyneth Paltrow whom a good number of you will have seen in her new film Country Strong when it opened in cinemas two days ago on January 7th, won her first Oscar for Best Actress playing Juliet in Shakespeare in Love (1999)? Her name and the movie appear in my Valentine post of 2010 with that haunting signature tune to the film that plays as you read Shakespeare’s definition of love towards the bottom of the piece. Gwyneth admits in her Oscar acceptance speech above that she would not have been able to play the part had she not come to understand love of a tremendous magnitude. I do believe that this music, that you should play here again in case you did not bother to go back into my Valentine post of 2010

is a preparation for her musical development and her burgeoning desire to sing and play the guitar together. I am so incredibly moved by the music that I think our new musical star must have been so moved herself….see her emotion at the Oscar ceremony ! This is why, according to me, and it is my privilege to say so as the author of this post, that she was ultimately unable to resist the temptation of playing the substance-abusing Nashville singer, Kelly Canter, in the melodrama, Country Strong, that should be a big hit for all you country and western fans! Here is the trailer.

She is not even a little bit “country” as the expression goes. She’d only sing on the floor with her two children, Apple,6, and Moses,4, that she has with her rock ‘n’ roll singer husband, Chris Martin, so it appears Gwyneth has a real talent, of which I, for one, was unaware ! What really strikes a chord with me is how she was able to stand on stage in front of a stadium audience playing the guitar and singing at the same time, something she just had to do for some of the Country Strong sequences! What chord, you might ask? Back forty years ago, whilst I was at teacher training college, I was playing the small role of a young man, in the famous Russian short story writer, Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, who had to sing a bit while strumming on his guitar !

Whereas Gwyneth’s experience gave her an adrenalin rush because of her natural talent, I did not benefit from her musical development that must have been so helped along by her moving experience in Shakespeare in Love. I was consequently very nervous as I attempted to sing and play the guitar and couldn’t wait to get off stage. It was an unmitigated disaster! I can’t remember what the final result was but I am sure I was never offered a lead role in an upcoming film of a favourite rock musical, Rock of Ages like Gwyneth was just before Christmas 2010 on the strength of her performance in Country Strong.

Apple, aged 6, leads me to think of apples in our everyday diet. Were you aware the old saying, an apple a day keeps the doctor way, has its roots in truth. I know many of you out there are fabulous cooks so this opportunistic look at apples might turn your mind once again to cooking great main dishes with apples Here is another that might be of interest

You must surely remember Gwyneth in her Oscar winning role? See her here, dressed as a man in a different clip from the one above since there are English sub-titles to accompany the English you hear coming from the mouths of the actors in Shakespeare in Love. If you don’t recognize her in her only Oscar winning performance to date (from 1999) when she was still in her twenties, then you will surely recall her in Iron Man and Iron Man 2 right here

Gwyneth was very aware of what she should eat to keep herself in shape for her role in Iron Man 2. See what she ate No doubt she will undertake a similar diet when she prepares for reprising her role as Pepper Potts in Iron Man 3 which is due for release in 2013. What it is to be much in demand following her Oscar in 1999, so in that light, you won’t be surprised to learn she will be appearing in a new Steven Soderbergh thriller called Contagion in 2011.

“I know that singing and guitar are really part of my life now,” confesses the Country Strong star,and she admits, “I play and sing everyday but I may just continue to do it on the floor with my kids.” I do wish Gwyneth Paltrow great success with her foray into singing and playing the guitar in front of large audiences ! All her previous experience has brought her to this point where she is ready to diversify her career if she is willing to do so. For Country Strong, she had a great support group in her husband and in Tim McGraw, a country music veteran, her co-star in the movie and his wife Faith Hill, a chart-topping singer, and Beyonce who inspired her to show great confidence as she sang and it appears to be mind blowingly high ! Gwyneth said, ” I knew I would be fine if I could bring a tiny bit of Beyonce’s extreme joy and abandonment to my performance.” Indeed she did and it has contributed to her success and I am sure she is so grateful for all the support…. Thank you for reading my sixty-second post. See you next week !

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Josh Brolin, who acted brilliantly in No Country for Old Men was always determined not to be an actor from an early age because he detested show business on account of its unstable nature. My father, Hilary (see him in My Fair Lady cannot breakfast at Tiffany’s) would often be in and out of work something his father, Arthur Wontner, must have endured too despite his greater fame. My mother steered me away from following in my father’s and grandfather’s footsteps due to this perennial problem of instablity. The difference between Josh and me was that, despite his inner strong conviction not to want to be an actor he changed his mind which has led to his ultimate success after supposedly just being known as the husband of the successful Diane Lane (whom he married in 2004), as the stepson of Barbra Streisand who married his more famous actor Dad, James Brolin, following the death (on February 13th 1995, a day after Josh’s 27th birthday in a car crash) of his actor mother, Jane Cameron Agee, James’ first of three wives.

I never mentioned spinach in my post on thrillers of a year ago, Sustenance fit for watching Thriller Movies so I make up for it now. Why would I think of spinach as I wrote about Josh Brolin being justified in changing his mind about pursuing acting as a career? It is because I almost always include something on food and because spinach is related to strength that is inevitably linked to strength of character. Enjoy Popeye’s first cartoon (from 1933) that I feature right here. Here are some recipes to enjoy for the culinary minded ! Josh was imbued with a will that did not consume him but certainly guided him to a life of ultimate recognition in his own right and not just as a reflection of the glory associated with those to whom he is attached.

Avoiding an acting career had never occurred to me so therefore I was never in Josh’s shoes when he decided to change his mind. Had it been a decisive feeling that I wanted to steer clear of an acting career then I could lay claim to the ultimate benefits of changing my mind and becoming an actor since it was “in my blood”.

My “choice” of a teaching career that I was encouraged to undertake was rooted in a quicksand of personal indecision, ignorance and a happy go lucky attitude to life that has not served me well because I lacked the strong-willed inner conviction to say either I wanted to be an actor or did not want to be an actor. Had I had a greater grip on my earlier life I might have been in the enviable position of Josh Brolin winning through to great recognition and the talk of being nominated for an Oscar for his riveting performance in No Country for Old Men.

The memory of his mum’s wonderfully loud voice (reminding me of the days, my grandpa Arthur could, in the days before microphones, project his voice up from the stage to the rafters at the back of a large theatre) would be evoked by Josh when he was being lauded at the Cannes Film Festival for his fine performance as Llewelyn Moss in No Country for Old Men. Her death in 1995 spurred Josh on to devote himself to acting more than ever!

Being decisive demands a certain hardness and cynicism in one’s character! If only I had exhibited this greater strength of character and had been less weak-willed in my first sixty-three years of life ! I would have avoided two major debilitating scams ! I detested spinach “one minute” forcing my parents to scold me for rejecting my Mum’s beautifully cooked power-packed vegetable then later changed my mind once I knew it was a “cool” vegetable with so many beneficial effects. I won’t be too hard on myself because I had the presence of mind to declare my detestation of the wonderful vegetable but then changed my mind because changing your mind can be a good thing especially if one held the diametrically opposed opinion beforehand. A nonchalant attitude where no point of view is held was where I was and would not justify any change of heart.

All power to Josh Brolin’s elbow for first saying he would never become an actor but then changing his mind because he could see the benefits of becoming one…the rewards come from decisiveness ! See the ‘massive surge’ in his career ! Fortune favours the bold ! Thank you for reading my 61st post. See you next week. Happy New Year to all my readers !

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