795 thoughts on “Site Index”

1. 1 Please see the 4th para of my 21 Nov post on the Victor Mature page. Whether the boast was exaggerated to sell copies of Hedy’s autobiography she certainly liked to make shocking claims of exploits that other actress would done gone to great lengths to cover up as is indeed illustrated by the opening virtual confession in your video

   2 OTHER COMMENTS (1) the opening still and posters for White Cargo and those for Samson Delilah and the posters for Ecstasy raise blood pressure and the other ones throughout do not tend to lower it again (2) The Female Animal, her final movie, was also a good poster and from what I can remember of the film it is partially autobiographical at least if one heeds her own claims (3) I’ve seen only 3 of your Top 5 but those 3 deserve their placing in my opinion (4) was surprised Algiers ****was not higher (5) I see that two William Powell co-starring movies are included so Bill certainly got around the great ladies of the screen, and once again you’ve scooped Bruce for he has no stat for The Heavenly Body (6) those erotic goddesses of the classic era with their stunning faces are nearly always sure to give you a field day for you pictorials so a 9.6 for this ‘adults only’ stunner of a video. Truly remarkable.
   *****The posters for Algiers were later revised to reflect Lamarr’s new found high as in the movie Sigrid Gurie was actually Boyer’s leading lady and as the Wikipedia poster and all the available cast list demonstrate Sigrid was originally billed before Hedy. There I go again!

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   1. PS TO LAMARR POST

      I’ve seen graphic other Hedy posters and stills together down through the years of course but it is not until you see a run of them set out as in a collection like yours that you realise how much she capitalised on her sex appeal.

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      1. Bob, there is still interest in Hedy the sex goddess, 46 views in the first 24 hours!

         She’s already caught up with Jane Russell.

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   2. Hi Bob, thanks for the comment, rating, trivia, quibble, observation and review! Hedy was one sexy gal and very pretty too Some of the pictures from her pre-Hollywood erotic drama Ecstasy were a little too racy for my video.

      Most of the films here were low scoring, I haven’t seen her top rated movie. I think that’s the first time that’s happened. There wasn’t much of a difference in ratings for the top 4, maybe I should have nudged Samson and Delilah into first position, not a great film but it’s her most popular.

      Algiers highest rating was from IMDB – 6.9. It was beaten by a Bob Hope comedy which got 7.4 from Rotten Tomatoes. When Bruce eventually gets round to Hedy (“It’s Hedley!” *) it’ll be interesting to see if our scores match, maybe Algiers will be better placed.

      * Blazing Saddles

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVIT6JyVvkM

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      1. I saw one of the Ecstasy stills only but it might have got a 10/10 !

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         1. I was tempted to add a racy picture Bob, but I chickened out. 🙂

            Sex sells. My Megan Fox video was a ‘bestseller’ because you were guaranteed some naughty pictures, nearly 20,000 views!

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2dFVTudF6s&t=16s

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            1. 1 Your stuff is of very high quality and whilst it is probably essential for the sake of balance that you should include stars like Hedy in the tasteful way that you do you do not want your overall quality to drop.

               2 Speaking personally I would rather see the intelligent informative profiles that you provide than an endless parade of pinups which like too much gunplay in a western could become boring after a while.

2. 1 I perceived Sir Alec as Britain’s top star for a few years after Bridge on River Kwai. Also he was reportedly one of the few British stars to make big money in the Hollywood of his day yielding from his modest percentage of the earnings of the 1st Star Wars movie in 1977 a sum that would be equivalent to $20 million dollars today.

   2 COMMENTS ON VIDEO
   (1) It was great to see you include a fine range of Sir Alec’s wonderful early British films my own favourites being Lavender Hill Mob, Malta Story, The Captain’s Paradise, Man in White Suit and Ladykillers (2) my choice of posters was HMS Defiant, Fall of Roman Empire, and DR. Zivago, and I liked the still of Sir A and Princess Grace from the Swan (3) Solid top 5 with which (me not being Bruce) I would find it difficult to quarrel (4) was pleased that the Top 5 included Great Expectations and that No 14 was the excellent Tunes of Glory, both of these films
   teaming the two great friends Guinness and John Mills

   3 Sir Alec lives on in a way that he could never have imagined. The youngsters of successive generation may not have known of Col Nicholson and his Bridge but they certainly have been familiar with Obi Wan Kenobi!

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   1. Hi Bob, thanks for checking out my Ben Kenobi video, much appreciated. My imagination or does Guinness have more 9+ scoring films than Olivier and Hepburn? Let me see… yep 6 films past 9. Might be a new record, hang on how many did Elvis have? 😉

      Star Wars made him famous and popular to a whole new generation of moviegoers, but he wasn’t a fan and was really fed up with answering questions about them. He called them ‘fairy-tale rubbish’.

      You mentioned Tunes of Glory and when I previewed my video just now the following video was the entire movie of Tunes of Glory, a good copy and in English too. Youtube is filled with full length movies, most of them old classics, some of them in the public domain.

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      1. 1 Orson Welles would have appreciated Sir Alec’s frustration as Welles was fed up talking about The Third Man and in fact told a TV interviewer “if anybody else asks me about that movie I’ll turn into a 4th Man.”

         2 Bit like biting the hand that feeds you though isn’t it? Guinness made a fortune from Star Wars and 3rd Man is a Brit classic. According to Wikipedia and IMDB Last Tango in Paris grossed 96.3 million dollars worldwide between 1973 and 1980 which allowing for the phasing of its income would equate to around 400 million in 2016 dollars. Yet Bertolucci who directed it complained about being bored with the publicity it attracted to him but when has one of his films since made that kind of money?

         Great having our usual chit chat. Have a good weekend. Personally I mightn’t be able to sleep as Bruce has promised us a Vic Mature page soon.

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         1. A mature Victor page would be nice, what did Groucho Marx say after viewing Samson and Delilah? “It’s the first film I’ve seen where the leading man’s t*ts are bigger than the leading lady’s. 🙂

            So is Samuel L Jackson still the biggest box office star of all time? [Bob’s head explodes]

            Thanks for the trivia, I liked the Welles quote.

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            1. Hey Steve….yes…and Bob finally sees the light….the King and Queen of Box Office Career Totals are Samuel L. Jackson and Myrna Loy….lol. Mr. Mature is being worked on…..doing a current star…maybe Eddie Redmayne (looking for a quick one to do) or Tyler Perry (got a recent request).

         2. Hey Bob….I am sure Sir Alec…..liked those Star Wars checks….lol Mr. Mature will be done before I leave for Alaska. So in the next day or two.

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3. MY IMPRESSION OF GREATEST CLASSIC FEMALE BOX OFFICE STARS EVER – B LIST
   [In alphabetical Order]
   Jean Arthur
   Olivia De Havilland
   Marlene Dietrich
   Jane Fonda
   Joan Fontaine
   Greer Garson
   Paulette Goddard
   Jean Harlow
   Rita Hayworth
   Susan Hayward
   Audrey Hepburn
   Betty Hutton
   Jennifer Jones
   Grace Kelly
   Vivien Leigh
   Carole Lombard
   Shirley MacLaine
   Myrna Loy
   Norma Shearer
   C LIST
   Greta Garbo
   Ava Gardner
   Dorothy Lamour
   Sophia Loren
   Gene Tierney

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   1. 🙂 I am sure some Garbo fans will see her listed in the C List…and immediately disregard any comments from you…..but I agree her box office record is not too tough. I of course immediately disregarded your comment when I saw Loy on the B list…lol.

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4. MY IMPRESSION OF GREATEST CLASSIC FEMALE BOX OFFICE STARS EVER – B LIST
   [In alphabetical Order]
   Jean Arthur
   Olivia De Havilland
   Marlene Dietrich
   Jane Fonda
   Joan Fontaine
   Greer Garson
   Jean Harlow
   Rita Hayworth
   Susan Hayward
   Audrey Hepburn
   Betty Hutton
   Jennifer Jones
   Grace Kelly
   Vivien Leigh
   Carole Lombard
   Shirley MacLaine
   Myrna Loy
   Norma Shearer

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   1. I left Paulette Goddard off my B list – apologies, BOB

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      1. Looks like you have put some serious thought into this……I will have to come up with my lists tomorrow….this will give my mind something to do tomorrow when I go to work.

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         1. 1 Yesterday I posted the A and B lists of my personal perception of the Greatest Female Box Office stars of all time. I split them into two lists because other than that I would have found it too difficult to fine tune the rankings of many of them. However anyone who feels that those on the B list are really A list stars would have a good case because they were all important stars in their day and the B list ones could be regarded as those who would be placed at the bottom of the A list had I been able to strictly rank all the stars.

            1 The criteria that I drew on to make the selections and division were (a) Cogerson box office figures (b) any overviews of stars’ careers as expressed in Cogerson’s Possibly Interesting Facts etc (c) my own perception of the weight to be placed on a star’s personal contribution to his/her Cogerson table. For example the only major movie that Grace Kelly ever made without a then top Hollywood box office star was The Swan and it lost money according to Wikipedia.

            2 It struck me that had I been strictly ranking the stars within their lists 5 others would have been included at the bottom of the B list and I have now prepared a short C list with those 5 names on it. A separate sheet will follow shortly comprising both the B and C lists with Goddard now included in the B list.

            4 I realize that as a third of my criteria is highly subjective many will disagree with my divisions – Shadow Man Emeric DeBasco about Myrna Loy for example!– so then I would simple take the stance that to paraphrase Gene Hackman in Hoosiers “My teams are on the floor.” However I must acknowledge that without the Cogerson pages I could not have even attempted the exercise so that if Bruce gives us new page on Dorothy Lamour example or some other stars I may well ‘promote’ them as my existing knowledge of for example Lamour’s career s insufficient for me to do other than regard her as a ‘third wheel’ of the Hope/Crosby team. Jeanette MacDonald should now be added to the A list as her new Cogerson page has impressed me with her career of which I previously had no meaningful overview.

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            1. Hey Bob….checked out and studied your lists. I think all the actresses are A list…..or as I would call them ‘above the title” stars regardless of billing order. Like your lists…some I agree with….but…I used the stats in my database….took career totals, average box office, Quigley and a couple of other factors. Here is my Top 10 Actress list…in ABC order

               Ingrid Bergman
               Claudette Colbert
               Joan Crawford
               Bette Davis
               Doris Day
               Olivia de Havilland
               Judy Garland
               Betty Grable
               Barbra Streisand
               Elizabeth Taylor

               *Jennifer Lawrence at the tender age of 26 is actually getting close to joining this list.
               ** Yes Myrna Loy is not on the list….she was first in total ticket sales….but got destroyed in average per movie

5. I found something interesting. Online I came across a FILM DAILY YEARBOOK 1925 & 1926, there are other years as well, but I’ve only looked at the aforementioned years. They have a Variety’s First Run theatres weekly gross for each movie from a few key cities if not a complete list of all first run theatre in the U.S or Canada. I’ve noticed some theatres exhibit one title for six months in a row and another showed 4 or 5 film in an entire year at one location. This of course mean that a town or city has at least 3 to 10 theatres that show different movies from one another, which mean the audience can go to the one of their choice or visit each one a day. It also mean that there is only one theatre showing a certain movie in an entire city. Strange.I also notice some one theatre shows different movie each week, which seems like those movies has a short run and would not be able to make a $ 100,000,000 type in today’s adjustment. Anyway, I’m gathering the gross information for each film for my interest.

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   1. Hey Kevin…..sounds like a very interesting find. I will have to take a look at those Film Daily Yearbooks…pretty sure they are on the media guide website….which has tons of older publications like that. Laurent from France has done a ton of research using weekly Variety numbers. As for your observations….some make sense others do not….a theater only showing 4 or 5 movies all year makes no sense to me. My father-in-law who helped run theaters in the 1940s and 1950s pretty said movies only lasted about a week. Seems strange that only 20 years before they last so much longer. Maybe lack of movies would cause that to happen. Appreciate you sharing your find and your theories….it is greatly appreciated.

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      1. Hey Cogerson,
         The only reason I think that the popular big movie palaces like the Graumans ,Rivoli, Criterion and others that shows 2 to 5 movies are the most popular movies and people was still paying to see them, therefore they were the big money makers.

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         1. Hey Kevin. That makes sense to me too. Thanks for the clarification.

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