795 thoughts on “Site Index”

1. Bob Crane, whom I had never heard of before, now getting even more publicity on Cogerson! They say that a kind of Law of Repetition often comes into force. What they mean is that once you have become acquainted with a person one way or another for the first time ever, you sometimes then subsequently keep coming across that person again. In short: do I sense a Bob Crane Cogerson page coming our way?

   Certainly he would deserve that page if he did OK even on television in a role that Archibald Alexander Leach had performed well on the big screen. As usual Archie didn’t receive the full praise that he deserved and it was a difficult role to play; indeed if Stallone had thought of emulating Archie in the part Tennessee Williams would probably have talked Sly out of it! Boris Karloff played the part in a radio production of Arsenic and Old Lace. I never heard it but I’m sure the Al Leach screen and Boris radio voice deliveries would have been quite contrasting!

   In 1944 Al Leach aged just 40 was starting off on the ‘elderly co-star’ phase of his career with making back to back that year Arsenic and Old Lace and None but the Lonely Heart [should have had the Oscar for that one and not just a nom]. In the first film Josephine Hull and Jean Adair were 67 and 71 respectively and in Lonely Heart Ethel Barrymore was 65. Talented Elderly ladies like children and cute little dogs are hard to compete with on the screen [ask The Thin Woman!] and in fact Ethel won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Lonely Heart; so Archie did well to match her terrific acting on screen.

   Al Leach capped all that that of course with famously having in North by Northwest a screen mother who in real life was just 8 years older than he. Indeed it often struck me that the N by NW part would have been the ideal vehicle for my Joan and Mr Mumbles to team up in. Joan got her agent to ask The Great Mumbler to be her romantic leading man in 1956’s Autumn Leaves to which he retorted [rudely I thought] something like “No thanks. I’ll wait until a mother-and-son film comes along!”

   Well done by the way in keeping ticking over your more general pages such as weekly box office and best/worst films of 2019. If the Razzies WERE positive and not negative awards you would deserve one for consistent hard and highly informative effort, making this site one of the most topical as well as historically-orientated ones in existence.

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2. Sue Lyon has died at 73. She was the title star of Lolita opposite James Mason and was also known for Night of the Iguana. R.I.P.

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   1. HI FLORA: Sad news indeed. I was unaware of it so thanks for broadcasting it on the site.

      TRIVIA:

      1/After the back-to-back successes of Lolita and Night of the Iguana which suggested Sue could be in the limelight for some time as a “sex goddess” her career unfortunately went nowhere and for me the only movie that stands out if her remaining filmography is Sinatra’s 1967 Tony Rome which Bruce credits with a so-so adjusted domestic gross of approx $73 million and in which Sue had a supporting role.

      2/Overall her years as an active thespian were a relatively short 21 from 1959 until 1980 and during that time she made 14 big screen movies and 11 television productions, which included 4 TV movies.

      3/Those 4 TV movies included a 1969 remake of the 1944 big screen classic Frank Capra’s Arsenic and Old Lace starring Archibald Alexander Leach [aka Cary Grant] as Mortimer Brewster. In the TV movie Brewster was played by a Bob Crane of whom I had never previously heard; but Sue Lyon was in illustrious FEMALE company in that remake – the great veterans Helen Hayes and Lillian Gish as Mortimer’s two aunts, Abby and Martha respectively. Those aunts were played by Josephine Hull and Jean Adair in the Al Leach classic.

      4/Sue has left behind a bank balance of $2 million according to the Celebrity Net Worth site; and in 1963 she (1) won a Golden Globe as Most Promising Female Newcomer for Lolita (2) was nominated for a [Golden] Laurel Award for Top Female personality of the past 12 months. She never received any other awards or noms.

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      1. Bob Crane will forever be Col. Hogan of Hogan’s Heroes for me. Thanks for the additional Sue Lyon information.

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         1. Thanks for enlightening me on the identity of Bob Crane.

            I had heard of Hogan’s Heroes but never watched it though it must have been very popular, running as it did for 6 seasons from 1965-1971.

            Hope you are having a good festive season. Keep safe.

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            1. Hey Bob….growing up Bob Crane was one of my favorites….granted all the Hogan’s Heroes shows I watched were reruns….but little Cogerson did not understand that concept back then. Crane was in a Disney movie with Kurt Russell that I watched a lot in the 1970s….Superdad…..a horrible movie now…but great entertainment for a pre-teen Cogerson. Good stuff as always.

      2. Hey Bob…great information on the late Sue Lyon. Rest in peace Sue Lyon.

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   2. Hey Flora….thanks for the information on Sue Lyon’s passing sad news.

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3. Actress Virginia Leith has died at 94. I saw her in A Kiss Before Dying and Violent Saturday.

   RIP

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   1. Rest in Peace Virginia Leith…..weird consequence….the classic page I am working on this morning is one of the star’s of her A Kiss Before Dying. RIP.

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      1. Lovely husky voiced Virginia Leith had a brief heyday in movies which lasted from 1954-1956. After appearing in Kubrick’s Fear and Desire and [uncredited] in Hope’s Here Come the Girls both in 1953, she signed a contract with fox and had parts in 4 of their films which were among my own 1950’s favourites: Black Widow [with Ginger Rogers] Violent Saturday [with Victor Mature] White Feather with [Robert Wagner and Jeffrey Hunter] and On the Threshold of Space [with Guy Madison, often hyped back then as “That Great Guy” Madison]. Fear and Desire was Kubrick’s feature directorial debut and Ginny played the part of a “young girl” in it.

         She made two more movies before fading into obscurity both in 1956: (1) A Kiss Before Dying starring again Wagner and Hunter and distributed by United Artists and (2) Golden Holden’s Towards the Unknown [aka Brink of Hell]. Wikipedia seems to suggest that this was another Fox vehicle, but actually it was a Warner Bros release and was one of the very weakest vehicles in Golden’s great 1953-1960 peak period from Stalag 17 to World of Suzie Wong. In none of the movies that I have mentioned was Ginny the lead and her billing in any of them was never up to much.

         In Ginny’s final acting period from 1977 until 1983 she was confined to television and appeared in 9 TV productions including the popular series Starsky & Hutch [1977 episode Death in a Different Place] and Barnaby Jones [episode Gang War, again 1977].

         I remember her well from the 1950s and I liked her but I can’t see there being enough meat in her career for her to warrant a Cogerson page. To me the most interesting piece of additional trivia about her is that in 1956 she heavy-dated The Great Mumbler. Her reported left-behind net worth is $9 million-not bad for a rather obscure actress whose relatively unimportant career ended almost 40 years ago.

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4. HI BRUCE: Thanks for looking in on my opening contribution to Christmas on Cogerson [2019]. I can’t speak for Steve of course and he doesn’t seem to be around at the moment to speak for himself; but speaking for MYSELF I intend to be very pro-active on Cogerson this year: I will be busy organizing a petition to get Die Hard removed from the site’s Christmas page!

   The whiskey-splitting story that I told was actually 100% true; but it happened 30 years ago when the quartet concerned were experiencing the good times and sadly since then there has not really been a happy ending for any of the 4.

   1/’Bruce’ and ‘W o B’ divorced and it was all rather acrimonious and I had to accompany him to the police to ask for protection against harassment by her. They both live alone now, the kids all grown up and away of course. ‘Bruce’ is in another relationship, but he doesn’t live with her. He’s no longer the great ‘family’ man he once was.

   2/The two sisters ultimately fell out and when I last spoke to ‘Bruce’ a few years ago the women hadn’t spoken to each other for 10 years. I can’t recall what he said the falling out was over.

   3/’Myrna’ and ‘Joel’ divorced too. As Sam Wannamaker mentioned in DeNiro’s Guilty by Suspicion, real life seldom resembles Hollywood movies: ‘Bruce’ never really liked ‘Myrna’ though she had been his sister-in-law.

   4/’Joel’ died at the age of 50 with cancer; he was alone throughout his illness.

   All of which is what England’s prolific writer Sir Philip Gibbs called “the spoils of time” in his 1952 novel of that name. This post is not appropriate for your bright and breezy Christmas page, so I have moved to this page.

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5. Paramount Pictures Producer and Studio Chief Robert Evans has died at 89. He resurrected the studio in the 60s.

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   1. Rest in Peace Mr. Robert Evans. He leaves behind many great movies…with Chinatown being my favorite. Sad news.

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      1. IMDB lists just 15 acting credits for Robert Evans and in truth there were only ever two roles in which he stood out:

         1/the Richard Widmark role in a western remake of 1947’s Kiss of Death, with Hugh O’Brien in the Victor Mature role-1958’s The Fiend Who Walked the West.
         2/The Sun also Rises (1957) as Ava Gardner’s gigolo-type lover. He was well-outclassed in the acting stakes by screen giants Power and Flynn; but the gorgeous looking Robert came into his own in the looks department, Tyrone and Errol getting on in years and the latter not having worn the best because of his unhealthy and decedent lifestyle.

         Robert did though [as Bruce touches on in his tribute] PRODUCE a fair number of successful films: Chinatown, Marathon Man, Black Sunday, Urban Cowboy, Popeye and others. Maybe though what movie history owes its greatest debt to him for is that on his watch as Paramount STUDIO EXECUTIVE we got Godpop 1 and 2 and without Robert it’s possible that those two classics might never have been made and there may well have been no Brando comeback. Heaven forbid-but certainly Joel owed Robert no favors!

         Tennis fans may also remember Robert for doing a line for a while some years ago with Serene Williams. I think Serena had some ambitions about acting at that time and she told a magazine about how she used to lie on Robert’s bed and read scripts that he gave her.

         I was 16 when for a few years the 30-something Robert with his Valentine-like looks was the benefit of much Hollywood hype and I remember it well; so there’s another part of my nostalgic youth GWTW. RIP Robert and “Voted Up!” to your Cogerson tribute.

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