Category Archives: Comment

Seven Michael Caine guilty favourites …

Posted on March 19, 2023 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – Michael Caine, who is still making films in his 90s with ‘The Great Escaper’ due out this year, has made so many movies that some tend to get lost. Here are seven I’ve always found … Continue reading →

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When watching the Oscars used to be fun

Posted on March 12, 2023 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – Maverick banshees all at once, Elvis sadness, women on water, Fabelmans on the western front. Tár but no thanks. There was a time when I really cared about movies and found the competition for Academy Awards … Continue reading →

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The Academy Awards? Oh, yeah, them … (yawn)

Posted on January 24, 2023 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – For the first time since I was a teenager, the Oscars hold little interest for me, well, aside from last year and the two years before that. I’ve forgotten, did they hold the Oscars last … Continue reading →

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Bob Dowling gave me the best job in the world

Posted on December 31, 2022 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – I shall always be grateful to Robert J.Dowling, the former publisher and editor-in-chief of The Hollywood Reporter who has died aged 83, because it was thanks to him that for several years I had a … Continue reading →

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Jerry Lee Lewis was no rock’n’roll hero to me

Posted on November 5, 2022 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – Now that he has been laid to rest, it’s time to offer some balance to the hysterical reaction to the death of Jerry Lee Lewis. Given that today an artist can be cancelled on the basis … Continue reading →

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There’s always a Ray in the movies

Posted on October 24, 2022 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – From ‘The Manchurian Candidate’ to ‘Ghostbusters’ to ‘Field of Dreams’ and now ‘Raymond & Ray’, there’s always a Ray in the movies and television.

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How ‘Oz’ made Judy Garland a legend

Posted on June 10, 2022 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – Judy Garland was born 100 years ago today and died more than half a century ago but her legend lives on. Mostly, that is thanks  to the enduring popularity of  ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and … Continue reading →

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When Warren Beatty changed Hollywood forever

Posted on March 30, 2022 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – One afternoon early in September 1967, the film writers and critics of London gathered in a West End cinema for a screening of a gangster movie starring a pretty-boy Hollywood actor. The cinema was packed … Continue reading →

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Me and the Bengals and a man named Benny

Posted on February 13, 2022 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – Two years after arriving in Canada in the late Sixties, I joined The Windsor Star newspaper just across the river from Detroit and discovered American football. In the office, aside from the sportswriters, the most … Continue reading →

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Memory Lane: The time before everything was streamed

Posted on October 19, 2021 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – Living, as I do, in turn-of-the-century London, it’s easy to become nostalgic for the long-ago 1900s. I know we’re just a few weeks into 2000 but it seems like forever. I recall the first single … Continue reading →

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