I salute your knowledge Walter! Thanks for your detailed reply

I must confess though I've never heard of Mercedes McCambridge?

It's a very small world indeed in terms of you living near Margaret Lockwood in the past -was she more of a stage actress? I sense she's very famous for one particular role especially but I just can't place it mentally?

You may well live near some of today's stars _Are you anywhere near Belgravia in London? If so the one and only Joan Collins could well be a close neighbour!! 😘

Wouldn't that be divine?

I guess you haven't looked under my name, I live in Faversham, Kent, and left London in 1986, and it was the best decision I ever made. Although I was born there and was almost 50 when I left I wouldn't care if I never saw it again. It has changed so much, and I would not like the idea of growing old there.

I live in a lovely historic town, although the only famous person who lives here is Bob Geldoff, not that I am bragging about that.

Brando lived here for a while in the late 1980's, he liked it here as nobody bothered him, although by that time he was practically unrecognisable anyway.

Margaret Lockwood was the biggest British Film Star of the 1940's, and her most famous film was The Wicked Lady, with James Mason. Her other popular films were The Man in Grey, also with Mason, and Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes. Her best performance was as a vulgar cockney barmaid in Cast a Dark Shadow, and her last role was in The Slipper and the Rose. She had great success in the theatre after her film career came to an end, and I was fortunate enough to see her on stage twice.

Mercedes McCambridge clashed with Joan Crawford when they appeared together in the 1954 Cult Western, Johnny Guitar. It seems that their off set feud was far more exciting than the one that they had in the film.

Margaret Lockwood was also popular on TV in the early 70's as star of ITV show Justice.

I would strongly second Walter's recommendation of The Lady Eve. A wonderful film.

Yes, I have the complete series on DVD, and it is really very good.

I am probably the only one here who will remember an even earlier series "The Flying Swan" which ran from March to September 1965 on BBC 1. I only have a vague memory of it, Margaret was the proprietor of a Hotel called The Flying Swan, and her real life daughter Julia Lockwood played her daughter who I believe was an air hostess in the series.

It certainly is, and on the subject of my favourite actress, here are my Top 20 of all her films.

The Lady Eve
The Other Love
My Reputation
East Side, West Side
Christmas in Connecticut
Lady of Burlesque
The Furies
The File on Thelma Jordon
There's Always Tomorrow
No Man of Her Own
Remember the Night
Titanic
Baby Face
Ball of Fire
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers
Double Indemnity
B.F's Daughter
All I Desire
The Violent Men
The Miracle Woman

Ooh anymore juicy details -I love hearing details of Joan Crawfords feuds she really does them with diva like colour and panache!

I was just being tongue n cheek about Joan Collins as I suspect you'd love to have afternoon tea and a gossip with the showbiz treasure and Legend that is the forever glamorous and classy Joan Collins! ☺


Am I too take it you may have met Marlon Brando or Margaret Lockwood? Would you say she worked best leading man wise when paired with James Mason?

Never met Brando, but I was not a fan, I thought that he was a very self indulgent actor. My favourite was Paul Newman, who for me was a better actor, better looking, a really great humanitarian, and a good man. He did so much for charity, and I still use his Italian dressing "Newman's Own," which I can really recommend.

I met Margaret Lockwood when I was about 12 years old, I got her autograph at the 1949 Sunday Pictorial Film Garden Party, which I went to every year from 1948 till 1951.
This was where I saw my first stars in the flesh, and it was just magical for a star struck kid.

I would say that James Mason was Margaret's best leading man, but then he made every actress look good, from Judy Garland in A Star is Born, to Barbara in East Side, West Side. I only wish that they had done more than one film together.

Walter, any reason why you have not included Stella Dallas in your top 20?

Yes, I find it rather dated, in fact it was dated when it was first released in 1937, the year that I was born.

One of the reasons that Barbara's career has been revalued and appreciated in the 26 years since she died is that she was so modern. I don't feel that Stella Dallas is a good example of her best work, not that there was anything wrong with her performance. In fact that was really the beginning of her greatest years in films.

Strangely enough, Stella Dallas was not seen for years, and I finally caught up with it at a private film club in Whitechapel in 1984. I was bowled over when I first saw it, and thrilled when it was finally shown on ITV not long after, and yet I very rarely watch it now.

I judge my favourite films by how often I watch them, and I have lost count if how many times I have seen my top five, so many times that I know the dialogue off my heart.

Oddly enough, two of the films that are on my list are much older, The Miracle Woman (1931) and Baby Face (1933), but apart from the costumes, they don't seem dated at all.

Loving all this talk of the legendary actors

Big Bette Davis and Katharine Hepburn fan here. I also love a bit of Liz Taylor.

Yes, those fine folks at Network DVD have done a great job of unearthing classic commercial TV series, and even better at mining the back catalogue of films from Associated British (Elstree) and Ealing. ITV Global own the Rank catalogue, including Gainsborough where Magaret Lockwood was a huge star.

I recently purchased Cast a Dark Shadow, my favourite Margaret Lockwood film, from Amazon for just £7.99. This is the first time that it has been available since it was last on TV at least 30 years ago. I had a very old video tape of it, so I was delighted to get a copy of this beautiful new print.

Also starring Dirk Bogarde as her devious husband, with great support from Kay Walsh, Kathleen Harrison, and Mona Washbourne. I can really recommend this atmospheric thriller, and Margaret had never received such raves from the critics as she did when it was released in 1955.

"Lockwood gives a shattering performance, she plays the coarsely humorous wife with a razor sharp tongue, and a shrewd eye for cash with outstanding authority ."

"This role is a triumph of talent over vanity. It reveals for the first time that inside this glittering star, there is a real actress struggling to get out."

"The best performance of her career, the performance of a genuine actress, and not just a star."

"In her long career, Margaret Lockwood has never been so well suited to a part. Nor can I remember her getting so convincingly into the skin of a character."

Me too! What a special era it was! Are you a fan of any of the few remaining female big stars still with us like Olivia De Havilland, Doris Day, Angela Lansbury and Shirley Maclaine?


I absolutely love The Miracle Woman. A very underrated underappreciated film in my opinion.


I wonder if the Paul Newman sauces and their charitable link continue once his widow Joanne Woodward passes away?
I do find Paul Newman to be classically handsome without the excessive brooding that accompanies Brando. I'm still not persuaded he achieved much by refusing on principle to collect his oscar in person?

May I ask who else you met at the pictorial film garden part in that special era between 1948-1951?

Did Margaret Lockwood write an autobiography by any chance?

Glad that you like The Miracle Woman. I am sure that Barbara would gave got an Oscar Nomination if Columbia had been considered an important studio at the time.
Everything changed just three years later when It Happened One Night swept the board with Oscar's for Gable, Colbert, and Frank Capra the director.

I am sure that Paul's daughter's will carry on with his charity when Joanne dies, so far it has made 430 million dollars since 1982.

I believe that Brando's Oscar refusal was a cheap publicity stunt, he always struck me as a real phony.

I don't expect you will know the names of many of the stars that I met at the Garden parties, apart from Margaret, Anna Neagle, and Jean Kent. Most of them were British names like Dulcie Gray, and husband Michael Dennison.

I never realised until recently that Bette Davis and husband Gary Merrill were there in 1951, that was the year that I saw my first Hollywood star in the flesh, Burt Lancaster, and that was a big thrill!

Margaret wrote her autobiography "Lucky Star" in 1955, and I am lucky enough to have a copy. I see that it selling on Ebay for £48.

Of all the hundreds of books in my collection, my favourite is "Once a Wicked Lady" - a biography of Margaret by Hilton Tims. It is a marvellous book, and one that I must re read at least once a year. You feel that you really get to know that shy, vulnerable, private, and very complex lady. It was published before she died, and I just wish that he would update it.

In just five days we have had another 1000 viewers, well done to us!

Arrgh Walter you were in the same room as Hollywood Legend Bette Davis but didn't realise!! She must have been behaving herself that day and not have been telling anyone who'd listen how much she hated Joan Crawford in a very colorful raconteur kind of way!

On a more serious note I have heard some of those names but I do know very little about them. I'm aware that Jean Kent died in 2013 and there was something suspicious seeming about her death. Enough to warrant a police investigation? Very sad.

I know Dulcie Gray from starring in Howards Way but I don't know anything about her earlier career. Was Dulcie the Howards Way actress who died in her dressing room or hotel room a matter of hours or less before she was due to go on the theatre stage in 1998?

Anna Neagle -I only know the name no more.

Margaret Lockwoods autobiography and biography must tell a fascinating tale of a colourful life to generate such strong continuing enthusiasm.

I'm delighted we've made such a strong start on this thread in 2016 🙌 and I feel the number of views passing 100,000 sometime this year is almost a certainty!

For anyone in the London area the NFT have a season of Preston Sturges comedies next month.

As Sturges was a Paramount contract writer/director he had Barbara Stanwyck available to star in his pictures.

The NFT are showing Remember the Night (scripted by Sturges) in which Stanwyck co-stars with Fred MacMurray (February 7th & 10th) and an extended run of The Lady Eve (5th-17th) which Sturges wrote and directed and in which Henry Fonda is Stanwyck's co-star.

I urge anyone who gets the opportunity to go along to the NFT to see Barbara on the big screen in two of her best films.

Coincidentally, the very first time that I ever went to the NFT was way back in 1954 when I was 17. It was then called The Telekinema, and the film was The Lady Eve, which I was seeing for the first time, and what a thrill that was!

Preston Sturges wrote the screenplay of Remember the Night, which was directed by Mitchell Leisen. This is what was written about Barbara's collaboration with Sturges in his biography "Christmas in July - The Life and Art of Preston Sturges."

"Preston was heartened when he heard that Barbara Stanwyck would play Lee. Most everyone who worked with Stanwyck admired her talent, good nature, and professionalism. But Preston went further to declare that she possessed such a rare inner beauty that she would still be radiant in old age."

How right he was!

During the filming of Remember the Night, Sturges told Stanwyck, so often cast in weepies, that he would one day write her a great comic role, and the following year he honoured that promise by creating the role of Jean Harrington in her greatest ever film, the sublime The Lady Eve.

The Film Garden Party wasn't held in a room, it was at the enormous Morden Hall Park in South London. It was so vast that the stars were driven around in jeeps to the various booths where they sat in groups of three, and the fans paid 2 shillings and six pence (12.1/2 pence) for their autographs. That was quite a large amount for a twelve year old kid getting 2.1/2 pence a week pocket money, but I saved up all year for it.

You can see the newsreel of the year that Bette and Burt attended, you can also see Anna Neagle, and Dulcie and Michael Denison.

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/se.../query/denison

Sadly, Jean died as the result of a freak accident when a TV fell on her, and she laid helpless in her bedroom until she was found by her housekeeper. The police did investigate, but thankfully there was nothing sinister about her death, it was the result of a tragic accident.

I have very happy memories of when I last saw her, it was also the last time that I went to the NFT, in October 1999. Jean was there to attend a special showing of her favourite film (and mine) Trottie True, the story of an Edwardian Gaiety Girl who marries into the peerage. Among her non speaking Stage Door Johnny's in this 1948 Technicolor musical were a very young Roger Moore and Christopher Lee.

After the film Jean came out into the foyer where she spent over an hour posing for photo's and signing autographs. When I handed her a beautiful colour photo to sign she told me all about the photo session, and what she wore on the day. She had a very good memory, was really delightful, and I treasure the memory of our meeting.

Dulcie died at Denville Hall, the actors residential rest home after she developed bronchial pneumonia.

Along with Margaret Lockwood, Anna Neagle was our biggest star during the late 1940's. She starred in a very successful string of films with Michael Wilding called the London series. Starting with Piccadilly Incident in 1946, they followed that with The Courtney's of Curzon Street in 1947, and their biggest Box Office Hit in 1948, Spring in Park Lane. Maytime in Mayfair followed in 1949, and Derby Day in 1952.

That was the year that Wilding married Liz Taylor, moved to Hollywood, signed with her studio, MGM, and saw his career go very quickly down the drain. He was disastrously miscast as a blind pianist in the hilariously over the top camp fest Torch Song, with Joan Crawford resembling an over made up drag queen.

Almost as embarrassing was Cinderella, opposite Leslie Caron, in which he played a rather over age Prince Charming.

Meanwhile Anna wasn't faring much better, teaming up with an over the hill, prematurely aged Errol Flynn in two sad little musical's, Lilacs in the Spring, and Kings Rhapsody, neither of which did anything for either of them.

Her luck changed in 1965 when she began a six year run in the highly successful stage musical, Charlie Girl. It ran for 2.047 performances, and earned her an entry in the Guinness Book of Records, and she was also awarded a well earned Damehood.

I think that I mentioned to you some time ago that I did speak to Bette when she appeared at the NFT in 1971. I asked her if she had ever wanted to direct, and she said "NO, but I would like to produce, as I rather like the idea of bossing all those men around" When it was televised the following year I was shocked to see that although the show had been edited, my bit was shown, and the following day at work I experienced my five minutes of fame.

Unfortunately, that was years before videos, so I don't have that memory on film. Whenever there is a Bette tribute shown on TV they show clips of it, but never the bit that I am in. I always hope that one day we will get a repeat of the complete show.

I did see Bette again in October 1975 when she starred in her one woman show at the London Palladium, but that time I didn't have the nerve to speak to her.

Many thanks Walter for your detailed reply.

Firstly the Howards Way actress I was confusing Dulcie with was Lana Morris. Lana was the actress who died suddenly while in a theatre production, actually In her dressing room at a Berkshire theatre I believe.

Thanks for clarifying over Jean Kent -a very sad tale but thankfully nothing criminal or Sinister. How many times did you meet Jean Kent overall?

Anna Neagle is definitely someone I need to look into further -I genuinely had no idea she was such a big star.

Being famous locally for having an encounter with Bette Davis sounds like a dream come true to me you lucky devil!! 😁

Reading through your post and then I compare today's Hollywood with the golden era it's really dawning on me how majorly camp -a big banquet of campfest this magical era was!! 😍

Did you notice that my reply was in two parts, and did you see the Film Garden Party newsreel in my first reply. ?

I first saw Jean at the 1948 Film Garden Party, she was just 27, and quite stunning. You can see that newsreel if you click on the link below. I didn't speak to her, just joined a long queue for her autograph.

It was 51 years later that I saw her again at the NFT, and then I had a long chat with her. I just wish that I could show the photo's that I took of her in this Forum.

Coincidentally, Lana Morris appeared in three of Jean's films, Trottie True, in which she rejoiced in the name of Bouncy Barrington, The Woman in Question, and The Reluctant Widow.

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/fl...LM+STARS+PARTY

Hi Walter -just spotted the second part of your answer. Unfortunately my phone is playing up as it isn't enabling me to play the PATHE newsreel video so I will have to try it on my PC Or see if I can find a remedy for my temporary phone glitch.

I think it's amazing that you've met so many film stars and stage stars and Jean Kent seems especially elegant

Who were you the most nervous meeting of all the stars?

I think the stars of today will never have the mystique or elegance of the best of the bygone eras stars. Sad in a way but you really can't beat being an original in an epic ground breaking era.

PS regarding Lana Morris it's a small world!!! But was Lana an actress who tried to crack Hollywood?

I am very last century when it comes to mobile phones, I just don't like them, and can never understand how anyone can see anything in detail on such a tiny screen.

Lana Morris never went to Hollywood, and after marrying TV executive Ronnie Waldman in 1953 and having a son, she concentrated on TV and theatre. There is a lovely clip on YouTube of Lana being reunited with Norman Wisdom on his This is Your Life. He had sung his hit song, "Don't Laugh at Me" to her in his first big film, "Trouble in Store."

There is no doubt that I was the most nervous when I approached Barbara at the her reception at The Lincoln Centre in April 1981. I think that I mention to you before that she was in a roped off area of the Avery Fisher Hall, surrounded by friends and colleagues like William Holden, and Anne Baxter after they had paid tribute to her earlier. I had asked one of the security guards if he would let me through as I wanted to say hello to her after travelling all the way from London for her tribute. I still can't believe my luck, and that he actually let me through into the VIP area. I am sure that I stared at her for quite a while before introducing myself because I was stunned at how just small and delicate she was. She was in fact 5' 5'' but looked so petite.

Anyway, her reaction when I introduced myself was, "Oh, your the one!"

I never did discover whether she had been told that I had travelled all the way from London to be at her special tribute. Or whether she recognised the name of the demented fan who had been stalking her with fan mail for the past 35 years.

I am sure that she was used to being confronted by star struck fans, and was very sweet when I asked her if I could take a photo of her. I couldn't believe it when she said to me, "Well, after you have travelled all that way I think that we should have a photo taken together." The next thing I knew she stood up, put her arms around me, and asked one of her friends to take our photo, and than said, "you had better take another, just for luck" For once in my life I was speechless, apart from muttering, "I can't believe this is happening" When I look back and think of all the questions that I could have asked her, but the whole evening was so surreal. In fact if I didn't have the photo's I would have thought that I had imagined it all.

After mumbling my thanks I went to depart and Barbara held out her hand to say goodbye, and I spontaneously leaned forward and kissed it. I still can't believe that I did that, but I hope that she took the gesture in the way that it was meant. She left soon afterwards, and I raced ahead and got a great shot of her just as she was getting in her car. You can see all the photo's in our group album.

I still feel very privileged to have spent such an amazing evening meeting my favourite star, and I am only sorry that there is no newsreel footage of it.

Thanks for the reply.

I feel sure that after a very short while Barbara felt at ease and reassured that you weren't a dangerous demented unhinged person but a fabulously passionate fan!

Are there many actresses who are british who made it well and became famous in the UK but whom never tried to make it in Hollywood but whom you think should have given it a try as you think they may well have cracked it?