Category Archives: Memory Lane

When Maggie Smith called me a horrible man

Posted on September 27, 2024 by admin

By Ray Bennett To meet a movie actor you admire can sometimes be a disappointment but Maggie Smith, who has died aged 89, was exactly how I hoped she would be. She told me off and swept away. It was … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Memory Lane, Recalling ..., Television | Tagged | Comments Off on When Maggie Smith called me a horrible man

When I mixed up Frankie Avalon with another former teen idol

Posted on September 18, 2024 by admin

By Ray Bennett ‘It wasn’t exactly Elvis in Las Vegas’. That was the lede in our story after my colleague Ron Base and I interviewed Frankie Avalon, who turns 84 today,  when he performed in cabaret at a seedy nightclub … Continue reading →

Posted in Comment, Film, Memory Lane, Music, Recalling ... | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on When I mixed up Frankie Avalon with another former teen idol

That time when Lauren Bacall gave me a smacker

Posted on September 16, 2024 by admin

By Ray Bennett ‘You know how to whistle, don’t ya? Just put your lips together and blow.’ Whenever I watch the movie ‘To Have and Have Not’, that provocative line Lauren Bacall (photo below) says to Humphrey Bogart always gives … Continue reading →

Posted in Comment, Film, Interviews, Memory Lane, Music, Recalling ..., Theatre | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on That time when Lauren Bacall gave me a smacker

Alfred Hitchcock had a wicked way with film music

Posted on August 13, 2024 by admin

By Ray Bennett The films of Alfred Hitchcock, who was born on this day 125 years ago, are noted for their exceptional scores and it was no accident.  Composer John Williams told me that the master of suspense had a … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Interviews, Memory Lane, Music, Recalling ... | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Alfred Hitchcock had a wicked way with film music

Richard Lester on making ‘A Hard Day’s Night’

Posted on July 6, 2024 by admin

By Ray Bennett Sixty years ago today, a little rock’n’roll movie titled ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ starring the Beatles was released in the U.K. Their first album had come out less than eighteen months earlier, their singles were topping the … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Interviews, Memory Lane, Music, Recalling ... | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Sydney Pollack – a filmmaker with a great sense of music

Posted on July 1, 2024 by admin

By Ray Bennett Music has been an intrinsic element of filmmaking since the silent era but not all filmmakers have had a full grasp of how to blend it successfully into a production. Sydney Pollack, who would have turned 90 … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Interviews, Memory Lane, Music, Recalling ... | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Sydney Pollack – a filmmaker with a great sense of music

Duane Eddy – meeting a rock legend in the shade

Posted on May 3, 2024 by admin

By Ray Bennett In the 1950s, Duane Eddy, who died on April 30 aged 86, was one of the American rock stars most popular in the United Kingdom. With his band the Rebels, his hit singles ‘Rebel Rouser’, ‘Peter Gunn’, … Continue reading →

Posted in Interviews, Memory Lane, Music, Recalling ... | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Duane Eddy – meeting a rock legend in the shade

There are film composers and then there’s Elliot … Goldenthal

Posted on May 2, 2024 by admin

By Ray Bennett Oscar-winning American composer Elliot Goldenthal, who turns 70 today, said that the first time he saw the sheet music for Krzysztof Penderecki’s ‘Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima for 52 Strings’ when he was 17, he turned … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Interviews, Krakow Film Music Festival, Memory Lane, Music, News, Recalling ... | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on There are film composers and then there’s Elliot … Goldenthal

Songwriter Steve Dorff in praise of Clint Eastwood

Posted on April 21, 2024 by admin

By Ray Bennett American songwriter and composer Steve Dorff, who turns 75 today, has a huge number of screen credits including TV series such as ‘Murphy Brown’, Spenser for Hire’ and ‘Major Dad’. In a Q&A for The Hollywood Reporter, … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Interviews, Memory Lane, Music, Recalling ..., Television | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Songwriter Steve Dorff in praise of Clint Eastwood

Henry Mancini and the best strip club in London

Posted on April 16, 2024 by admin

By Ray Bennett A memory of the great film composer Henry Mancini, who was born 100 years ago today: London’s Soho strip clubs in the Sixties (so I’m told) were shabby and sleazy, compared to which the long-gone Raymond Revuebar … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Interviews, Memory Lane, Music, Recalling ... | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Henry Mancini and the best strip club in London