Category Archives: Film

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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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Composer Maurice Jarre’s ups and downs scoring films

Posted on September 14, 2024 by admin

By Ray Bennett French film composer Maurice Jarre, who was born 100 years ago yesterday, is invariably linked with director David Lean but there were other filmmakers he worked with more than once and he had interesting anecdotes about them. … Continue reading →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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Dave Grusin’s good and bad memories scoring movies

Posted on June 26, 2024 by admin

By Ray Bennett Great keyboard jazz player Dave Grusin, who turns 90 today, has written many wonderful movie scores including several for the late director Sydney Pollack, who told me, ‘He’s a chameleon, he can do anything.  His range is … Continue reading →

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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 →

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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 →

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