This gallery contains 5 photos.
There are apparently a number of different prints of Ambush, 1950, floating around. The last time Turner Classic Movies showed the film it was a quite different version from those I had seen before. There was a forward showing a … Continue reading
This gallery contains 3 photos.
Most of this article strikes me as fanciful but it’s fun to read and indicative of how celebrity “news” was written in 1940. From Movie World, Australia 3/23/40 from Christine Webb, in Hollywood Difficult to believe that this lovely, demure … Continue reading
Valley of the Kings, 1954, is playing on Turner Classic Movies on Saturday, April 2, at 4:00 p.m. Closed captioned. Mark Brandon, the ruggedly handsome archaeologist played by Robert Taylor is thought to be the inspiration for Indiana Jones.
This is one of my favorite Robert Taylor pictures. Eleanor Parker and he had wonderful chemistry and both of them looked their best in this exotic action-adventure film. The following is my review for the IMDb.
This isn’t a serious or “meaningful” film. It is pure entertainment, beautifully photographed on location in Egypt. The stars, Robert Taylor and Eleanor Parker, had great chemistry both off-screen and on. Taylor manages to be glamorous even when trapped in a sandstorm. The plot is relatively thin with Parker seeking to validate part of the Old Testament by finding the tomb of the Pharaoh who reigned in the time of the Biblical Joseph. She bats her eyelashes at Taylor who comes along happily. Then she introduces her husband, Carlos Thompson. There are horse and carriage chases, murders, the aforementioned sandstorm, a spectacular fight at Abu Simbel, a scorpion attack–all in ninety minutes. Given the slower pace of movies in the 1950s, there is also time for Taylor and Parker to discover each other more thoroughly (over some fermented goat). Egyptian belly dancer Samia Gamal shakes her stuff at the demure Parker. Highly enjoyable.
One of the best screen kisses–ever!
Some behind the scenes photos:
From left: Robert Taylor horsing around with a donkey; looking insecure on a camel.
From left: Robert Taylor with belly dancer; with Kurt Kazsnar and Carlos Thompson; at the sphinx.
From left: Robert Taylor and Eleanor Parker at the Mena House Hotel; touring by carriage.
From left: Mr. Taylor and Ms. Parker in Egypt.
From left: Mr. Taylor and Ms. Parker, taking pictures; with director Robert Pirosh; saying hello to a camel.
Actress Eleanor Parker, on her knees, helps Robert Taylor, dressed up as an archaeologist, to lace up a boot on the set of the movie ‘Valley of the Kings’. Egypt, 1954. (Photo by Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)
Mr. Taylor injured his knee jumping off a camel and may have had difficulty lacing his boots. They both look happy about it.
Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937) is playing on Turner Classic Movies on Saturday April 2 at 6:00 a.m. Closed captioned. The film cost $1,588,000 and made a profit of $271,000 or $4,609,188.57 in today’s money.
Broadway Melody of 1938 is one of those pure escapist type films that folks in the Thirties paid their money to see. It’s a nice film combining both a backstage and a racetrack story with one of the most eclectic casts ever assembled for a film.
What can you say when you’ve got dancing covered by Eleanor Powell, George Murphy and Buddy Ebsen, the varied singing styles of Judy Garland, Sophie Tucker, and Igor Gorin and such incredible character actors as Raymond Walburn, Charley Grapewin, Billy Gilbert, and Robert Benchley. All of them such great performers and such vivid personalities there’s no way that the film could be bad.
Almost lost in the shuffle are Robert Taylor and Binnie Barnes who don’t sing or dance and aren’t colorful. But Binnie Barnes is one fine actress and she’s the villain of the piece as Raymond Walburn’s wife who was once part of the chorus, but wants not to be reminded of from where she came. She’s jealous of Eleanor Powell and has a thing for Taylor, As did half the young women in America in 1937. Though the part doesn’t call for any kind of real acting, Robert Taylor shows every bit as to why he was such a screen heart throb that year. He’s the nice guy producer/director who gets caught in a crunch between his financial backer Raymond Walburn and his wife and the girl of his dreams, Eleanor Powell. Walburn is in the role that Guy Kibbee had in 42nd Street and he does it well with his own avuncular touches.
Powell is not just an ambitious hoofer as are Ebsen and Murphy. She’s also the owner of race horse upon whose performance everyone’s future eventually rides. Just how the racetrack and backstage are woven into the same plot you have to see the film for.
Vocal highlights are provided by Judy Garland who sings her famous Dear Mr. Gable version of that old Al Jolson song, You Made Me Love You. She also sings Everybody Sing which is a number I personally like a whole lot better. Honest Indian.
Sophie Tucker is her mother who owns and operates a theatrical boarding house where half the cast lives. She’s an old trooper herself and of course she gets to sing her famous theme, Some of These Days.
Other material that the MGM songwriting team of Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown did not provide for this film are a couple operatic arias sung by the great concert singer Igor Gorin. He sings Largo Al Factotum from The Barber of Seville and the Toreador Song from Carmen. I’d venture a guess that Louis B. Mayer signed Gorin for this as an effort to keep his other two singers Nelson Eddy and Allan Jones in line. In fact Eddy and Mayer did not get along and Jones would be leaving MGM the following year. Gorin is in fine voice, but did not have much screen presence and has very few spoken lines. I don’t think that was an accident.
Broadway Melody of 1938 is one of MGM’s best musicals from the Thirties and how can you not like a film with as much talent as this one is loaded with. Review by bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York for the IMDb.
Some behind the scenes photos:
Left to right: Eleanor Powell and Robert Taylor posing for some photos on the set; Robert Taylor on the set.
Left to right: Celebrating Sophie Tucker’s birthday.
Please note: I had the time of this wrong. It is 11:30 a.m. not 1:30 a.m.
Song of Russia, 1943, is playing on Turner Classic Movies on Thursday March 31 at 11:30 a.m. est. Closed captioned.
Song of Russia is rarely shown. It was very controversial and figured in the 1947 HUAC hearings. Robert Taylor strongly resisted making the film but had to give in eventually. The Soviet ambassador to the U.S., among others, wanted the film made.
Robert Taylor and Susan Peters in “Song of Russia,”1943.
Song of Russia was never made to accurately portray Soviet peasantry, but rather to enlighten the West of the Anti-Nazi plight of the Russian citizens.Director Gregory Ratoff is no more guilty of tainting the truth for entertainment’s sake than were many American directors for their careless, racist portrayal of the “savage” American Indian.
Stalin and Hitler were both maniacal murderers, but in 1943 much less was known of the atrocities these two leaders committed. If Western leaders had known better in 1943, greater efforts should have been made to stop the bloodshed. 20/20 hindsight gives us great power to criticize filmmakers of that period, but what of Roosevelt and Churchill? What did they know, and what did they do about it?
Song of Russia was a warning and a call for help.Although Russian peasants weren’t as “Americanized” as the film portrays, they did defend their land against the fascists and lost over 20 million people doing it.I enjoyed the film, and yes, I thought the peasants looked a bit well-to-do for the period, but that helped me imagine what we as Americans might have confronted if the Nazis had made it past England and Russia. Review by SirIvanhoe from New York for the IMDb.
Some behind the scenes photos:
Left to right: Robert Taylor phoning from “Russia”; with a young cast member; shooting with Susan Peters; playing ball.
Robert Taylor Actor 