British Pathe: Autumn Hat Fashions

This month's British Pathe newsreel takes us high up at the Carlton Tower Hotel in London, where a bevy of beauties are displaying the latest fashion in hats....on a very windy day! These designer creations are quite fetching to look at and have very appealing names, too: Coach and Horses, Leafy Glade, Laura, etc. There is something for everyone, even for trolls, who would especially like the South Sea Bubble hat. 

These mod designer creations were reasonably priced at 2-12 pounds each, which is equivalent today to $45-$150 USD. 

The Carlton Tower Hotel ( now known as Carlton Hotel Jumeirah ) is one of London's most popular hotels. It gained its fame for being the tallest hotel in London. It opened in 1961 so it was fairly new when the British Pathe newsreel crew came for a visit. To celebrate its fiftieth anniversary, author Clive Aslet published "All That Life Can Afford", a pictorial history of the hotel's celebrated past and the star-studded international travelers who passed through their doors. 

Ready to watch Autumn Hat Fashions? Simply click on this link. 

Other similarly themed British Pathe shorts: 

Pringle Fashions ( 1968 ) - 3:32 sec

Pierre Cardin Fashions for 1966 - 3:44 sec 

Your Hat for Autumn ( 1961 ) - 0:53 sec 

From the Archives: Telly....Who Loves Ya, Baby?

 

Telly Savalas was at the height of his fame from his starring role in the television series "Kojak" that CBS gave him his own television special in February 1976 - "Telly...Who Loves Ya, Baby?" Barbara Eden, Diahann Carroll and Cloris Leachman acted as co-stars in this singing/dancing/comedy special. This enabled the publicity department to pen the clever tagline "Three Beautiful Women and One Telly". 

From the Archives is our latest series of posts where we share photos from the Silverbanks Pictures collection. Some of these may have been sold in the past, and others may still be available for purchase at our eBay store : http://stores.ebay.com/Silverbanks-Pictures

Sparkling Cyanide ( 1983 )

Rosemary Barton takes one sip of champagne at her wedding anniversary dinner party and then suddenly collapses dead. "Cyanide poison", the doctor exclaims. Was it suicide or murder? Rosemary certainly had her fair share of enemies. Her husband George believes it to be murder and so he gathers together the same dinner guests and recreates the party, hoping to add a surprise guest to bring the killer out in the open. Unfortunately, poor George also gets a taste of poisoned champagne and ends up taking a trip to the morgue. It is then left to Rosemary's sister Iris and private investigator Tony Browne to solve the mystery.

Sparkling Cyanide was a made-for-television movie that aired on CBS in November, 1983. It was one of three Agatha Christie television adaptations produced by Stan Margulies between 1981-1983. Like the other two films ( Murder is Easy and A Caribbean Mystery ) it features a cast of popular British and American actors of the time. 

The personable Anthony Andrews stars as our lead sleuth, Tony Browne. Andrews is a Shakespearan actor best known for starring in a number of period miniseries throughout the 1970s and 1980s ( e.g. The Pallisers, David Copperfield ), so it would seem that he would be out of place in a modern-day detective drama, but quite the contrary. He lends a great deal of charm to what could have been a rather dull character. Browne isn't much of an investigator and he spends more time trying to woo Iris then piece together clues to solve the puzzle, but he does manage to hit upon one clue that acts as a glue for all the others and therefore catches the killer singlehandedly. 

Deborah Raffin portrays Iris, a pencil-thin young woman who just arrived in Los Angeles to visit her sister Rosemary. She thinks that Rosemary and her husband George are happily married but soon discovers that she really knows very little about her sister and just what does make her happy. It turns out other men make her happy. She was having an affair with a young political candidate ( David Huffman ) who dropped her like a hot coal when he realized she would interfere with his latest campaign. His wife Sandra ( June Chadwick ) naturally despised her...as did her parents Eric and Viola ( portrayed by two familiar Brits - Barry Ingham and Anne Rogers ). 

Like most Agatha Christie stories, Sparkling Cyanide has a number of good suspects to keep you guessing till the very end who the killer might be, but on the whole, the mystery - and the film itself - is not as engaging as Margulies' other two Agatha Christie adaptations. It plays out like a soap opera and, with its setting in Los Angeles, it doesn't have that lovely English-mystery setting that one comes to expect in a Christie adaptation. The cast is its primary drawing feature and, in that respect, there are good performances to enjoy from all involved, including Harry Morgan ( as a police captain ), Pamela Bellwood, Nancy Marchand, and Josef Sommer.

The Impossibly Difficult Name that Movie Game

Here's a juicy screenshot. "What on earth is it?!" you're probably thinking. It is a bit difficult to make out, but this was the best screenshot I could take. There aren't many clues here, but if you saw this film you'll probably remember this scene!

Aren't familiar with the Impossibly Difficult Name that Movie game? Click here to find out what it is all about. 

From the Archives: A View to a Kill ( 1985 )

Wow, look at Grace Jones! I don't know if Bond met his match in Mayday but he certainly did with Zorin ( Christopher Walken ). This has always been one of my favorite James Bond films. It was Roger Moore's last appearance as Bond and one of his best. Lobby cards from the movie are difficult to find in really good condition like this one. 

From the Archives is our latest series of posts where we share photos from the Silverbanks Pictures collection. Some of these may have been sold in the past, and others may still be available for purchase at our eBay store : http://stores.ebay.com/Silverbanks-Pictures

Did You Know? - Lynda Carter Has Other Wonders

American actress Lynda Carter is best known for playing the beautiful Diana Prince, an Amazonian princess, on the television series Wonder Woman ( 1975-1979 ). For four years she entertained television audiences with her superhuman powers, deflecting bullets with her golden bracelet and capturing criminals with her magic lasso. Lynda Carter truly became her character and Wonder Woman remains part of her identity to this day. 

However, Ms. Carter is also famous for another talent: singing. Lynda always enjoyed singing and during the 1970s she recorded an album titled Portrait. Two of the songs that she helped co-write were performed on an episode of Wonder Woman in 1979. Later, when the series ended, Carter had a variety of her own musical television specials - Lynda Carter's Special ( 1980 ), Encore! ( 1980 ), Celebration ( 1981 ), Street Life ( 1982 ), and Body and Soul ( 1984 ) - where she performed with other popular singers of the time, such as Tony Orlando, KISS, Merle Haggard, Kenny Rogers and Ben Vereen. 

When she is not doing Wonder Woman appearances, Lynda still tours across the country today performing songs from her latest albums -  Crazy Little Things and Red Rock N' Blues.

Want to hear her in action? 

Lynda performs "Toto - Don't It Feel Like Paradise" ( a song she co-wrote ) from her 1978 album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0qHRT8tGFQ&list=PL0D35A7B8DD5BB3FC&index=10

Lynda and Tom Jones perform "With You I'm Born Again": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOPweKGdOIs

"Did You Know?".....sometimes we just feel like sharing interesting fragments of television and movie history and now we have a place to do just that. If you have a hot tip that you would like us to share on Silver Scenes, drop us a line! 

Once to Every Woman ( 1934 )

Grey's Anatomy 1934. Well, not quite. But if you want to see what a 1930s style version of a hospital melodrama looks like ( they really haven't changed much over the years ) then it is well worth checking out Once To Every Woman. This Columbia Pictures quickie is quite entertaining and features two appealing actors of the era - Fay Wray and Ralph Bellamy.

Ralph Bellamy is Dr. Barclay, a brilliant young surgeon who works under the watchful eye of his mentor, Dr. Selby ( Walter Connolly ), head surgeon of a city hospital. Lately, the two doctors have had conflicting opinions about what kind of operation to perform and, much as he regrets his decision, Dr. Barclay is considering leaving the hospital for a position elsewhere. 

Meanwhile, Nurse Fanshawe ( Fay Wray ) has some decisions to make herself, too. She has a soft spot for Dr. Freddie Preston ( Walter Byron ), but everyone at the hospital, except herself, knows that he is a playboy who likes to fondle the nurses behind closed doors. She wishes he would care about his profession more. She dislikes Dr. Barclay but nevertheless admires him for his work ethics. When he saves one of her patients using a skillful and untested surgical technique, her opinion of the doctor changes....and she realizes that Dr. Freddie may not be the man for her after all. 

Once to Every Woman is quite an odd and forgettable title to this really enjoyable Pre-Code film. It could have been called Miss Fanshawe's Dilemma or A Day in Ward K because most of the action takes place within the confines of the hospital ward in the span of one day. The physician and novelist A.J. Cronin, who was famous for writing "The Citadel" and "The Green Years", wrote the short story that this film was based on - "Kaleidoscope in K" ( another misleading title ). 

Director Lambert Hillyer had a long and prolific career at Columbia Pictures. During his heyday, he was turning out anywhere from 4-10 films per year, mostly westerns. Once to Every Woman is not a nail-biting melodrama, but Hillyer never lets it get boring and its 70-minute runtime moves along swiftly. 

Also in the cast is Mary Carlisle, J. Farrell MacDonald and Ben Alexander. Once to Every Woman has not yet been released on DVD but is available online to stream.