Ingrid Bergman photographed during the filming of her first film Munkbrogreven (The Count of Monk’s Bridge). |
Tag Archives: Movies
Hollywood Boulevard: Christmas 1939.
Original caption: “November 26, 1939. Hollywood, film capital of America, cast aside the serious side of life and went into a gala holiday mood with its recent Christmas Parade.
Here is a picture of Hollywood Boulevard, the film capital’s main thoroughfare that has been rechristened Santa Claus Lane for the holiday season, brilliantly illuminated as thousands of Southlanders turned out to see Santa Claus and movie celebrities take part in the gala parade.”
Image Credit: Photograph by Bettmann / Getty.
via Pictures of Christmas Past – The Atlantic
The Shire of ‘Hobbiton’.
Even before it was retrofitted with several Hobbit Holes to play the part of Hobbiton in Peter Jackson’s adaptations of the classic Tolkien book series, this sheep farm seemed like a perfect stand-in for the famous fictional “Shire,” home of hobbits everywhere.
Indeed, its natural likeness is undoubtedly the reason Jackson and his producers chose the location – with the only other qualification being that it’s located in New Zealand, unofficial real-life location of Tolkien’s Middle Earth.
The farm is still an active sheep farm, but visitors can tour the area used for the set.
Most of the Hobbit Holes are fenced off and you can’t enter them, but one is specifically designed for visitors to enter and explore. Tour guides are employed to explain where in the movies each area appears – Bag End is a highlight, along with The Green Dragon, a whimsical old-world pub.
In fact, The Green Dragon is now open for business and at the end of the tour you can have a drink there.
The set is very detailed and the hobbit holes are purposely made to look as though they have been there for years, complete with details like fake moss and many other small touches.
The tree at Bag End is a fake tree intended to preserve the area’s appearance as it was in the film, even though the one featured in The Lord of the Rings was real.
The film version was actually cut down and placed there for the movie.
It died by the time they decided to film The Hobbit, so a fake tree with hand-painted leaves sits in its place, an exact replica of the original.
The gorgeous location makes it easy to see why this was chosen for The Shire.
The farm is in the middle of the countryside, still seemingly hidden from the modern world.
A GPS is helpful in locating it, since there aren’t really any signs directing you where to go.
via Hobbiton | Atlas Obscura.
Making Boris a ‘Scary Monster’.
Boris Karloff sits for adjustments to his mask while prepping to film 1953 spoof Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Despite this picture, Hollywood legend suggests that Karloff only appears in the film as Dr. Jekyll, while the evil Mr. Hyde was portrayed by an uncredited stuntman.
Here’s a pic of Karloff in the chair without the mask.
Multiple masks were crafted by studio make-up chief Bud Westmore (right), and make-up artist Jack Kevan, to show the character’s transformation from man to monster.
Image credits: AP Photo
via Boris Karloff Suits Up for Horror Duty in This Behind-the-Scenes Photo.
‘Chips’ Rafferty an Aussie Icon.
John William Pilbean Goffage (1909-1971), actor, was born on 26 March 1909 at Broken Hill, New South Wales, son of John Goffage, from England, and his wife Violet Maud Edyth, née Joyce.
With his thin build and height of 6 ft 6 ins (198 cm), and an irreverent sense of humour, Goffage first entered show business as a magician’s assistant, then was hired as an extra in a film, Come up Smiling (1939), produced in Sydney.
He attracted attention in a small role as a gangling member of a slapstick bushfire-fighting team in Dad Rudd, M.P. (1940), and was promptly cast as the comic lead in Forty Thousand Horsemen (1940), Charles Chauvel ‘s much-publicized tribute to the Australian Light Horse in the Sinai desert campaign of World War I.
An outstanding commercial success at home, the film screened favourably in Britain and the United States of America, bringing ‘Chips Rafferty’ (the screen-name Goffage adopted) instant fame in Australia.
On 28 May 1941 at the registrar general’s office, Sydney, Goffage married Ellen Kathleen Jameson, a 37-year-old dressmaker. On 29 May 1941 Goffage had enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force.
On secondment, he acted in several Australian propaganda films for the Department of Information, including South West Pacific (1943), and in a second feature film for Chauvel, The Rats of Tobruk (1944).
Rafferty’s first postwar film, The Overlanders (1946), marked a turning-point in his career. He was cast by British director Harry Watt in the role of a bushman who headed a team which drove a vast herd of cattle across northern Australia beyond the reach of possible Japanese invaders.
With a brilliant background in documentary, Watt was determined to create authentic Australian characters in his factually based drama. Under his perceptive and disciplined direction, Rafferty moulded the character of the tough, laconic Australian bushman which he continued to play, with minor variations, for the rest of his life, both in public and on screen.
Following a postwar decline in local production, Rafferty took numerous roles in British and American films made on location in Australia, most notably Bitter Springs (1950), Kangaroo (1952), Smiley (1956) and The Sundowners (1960).
He continued to work as an actor at home and abroad in films such as They’re a Weird Mob (1966) and Double Trouble (1967) with Elvis Presley.
He also made numerous guest appearances on Australian television, in variety shows, in Australian series like ‘Skippy’ (1970), and in American series which included ‘The Wackiest Ship in the Army’ (1967) and ‘Tarzan’ (1969).
Chips died suddenly of lung disease and heart failure on 27 May, 1971, at Elizabeth Bay, Sydney.
via Australian Dictionary of Biography
Paul Newman, What a Cool Dude he was.
