And a very good afternoon to you.
Hear the music.
The theme is called Alone at Last and was composed by Victor Young for Something to
Live For.
I think it's a beautiful theme.
It's romantic.
It's wistful.
Is there a feeling of something gone that can't ever be recaptured?
It's kind of a melancholy strain there.
But it's a beautiful theme composed by Victor Young and it's so much part of the fabric
of George Stephen's Something to Live For.
I can't imagine a film without it.
Are there films in your life that you're drawn to again and again and when you know they're
on you see them?
And yet if someone says what are your ten favourites or your twenty favourites you don't think
of them?
I bet there's some drawing power about some movies that's hard to spell out.
I'm trying to think of a comparable movie as I speak to you now.
Very hard.
I'll think of one during the film.
Something to Live For directed by George Stevens after he'd made A Place in the Sun with Elizabeth
Taylor and Montgomery Clift.
George Stevens, one of the most artistic of all American directors working in the movie
industry in the golden years period and slightly beyond it.
Some of his films are great and one of my favourites of course would have to be Shane
but there are many others.
But I have a special place in my heart for Something to Live For.
We have here an interesting situation, partly a triangular one but it's also one based on
business and based on alcoholism.
Ray Milan, who used to be my mother's favourite actor would you believe.
I've always liked Ray Milan.
You ever see him in Kitty with Paul of Goddard?
He was wonderful with Paul of Goddard.
Ray Milan is a man, is a member of Alcoholics Anonymous and he's called upon to give help
to a woman in great need.
Her name is Jenny and she's played by a very special lady in my life, Joan Fontaine.
I'm sure most of us like Joan Fontaine.
Do you remember her in September affair?
Have you seen her as Jane Eyre or in Suspicion as Cary Grant or in that extraordinary film
Serenade with Mario Lancer?
Joan Fontaine, a cool lady here on the brink of despair and you can feel how she feels
and how he feels trying to help her and falling in love with her at the same time.
And he has a wife.
The wife is played by Theresa Wright.
So there you have the triangular situation.
The film is set in New York around about Christmas time.
It's wintry and there's some wonderful images on the screen.
This film was put together with tender loving care and there's a little irony in it that
Joan Fontaine's appearing in a play called The Egyptian.
How odd in 1952 that that title wasn't already belonging to 20th Century Fox so they couldn't
have used it.
And I suspect there's a teeny bit of Victor Young's score for Samson Delilah woven into
the soundtrack.
I wonder if you can hear it.
Maybe it's my imagination.
But indulge, feel for these people.
Their problem is real.
And I just like the three participants so much that I just like the movie.
I'm drawn to it again and again.
Maybe you are too.
Maybe after today you will be.
I hope you enjoy Something to Live For.
Well, I hope you've enjoyed Something to Live For.
Did you like the music Alone at Last composed by Victor Young?
I think that might be one of my favorite scores.
Victor Young wrote some beautiful music.
Remember his score for Shane?
Do you remember his music for Around the World in 80 Days?
That was the very last score he composed.
And it was For Whom the Bell Tolls and Who Could Forget the Music of Samson and Delilah.
Sometimes people say to me, you mentioned such and such a movie.
Why do you like it so much?
I say I like to listen to it because I love the music so much.
Something to Live For.
Tomorrow's movie was made for television.
I think you're going to like it.
It's called Willa.
And Willa drives those big trucks and the actress who plays Willa is Deborah Raffin.
She's very nice.
I think you'll like her.
She's one of the most beautiful jewelers in the film and also the most amazing performance
visually and in other ways by Cloris Leachman as a truck driver.
It's really entertaining.
That's Willa to Morio.
Now I've got something wonderful for you to hear and a couple of fabulous books to tell
you about and I'll do so after this break.
Well now I have three special treasures for you, each one recommended by a different person.
One of them is me.
But the other two are two very important ladies in my life.
First of all Eva Hogan who works with me here at Channel 10.
Many of you have met Eva in some of our functions outside the channel.
You've met her.
I know all sorts of occasions.
I've spoken to her on the phone.
Without Eva, a void.
Well Eva is absolutely beside herself over this book.
She's looked through it.
She thoroughly recommends it and can't wait to get hold of it.
The author is Fran Rose.
It's called Cross Stitch Design Manual.
Now ladies, and maybe some gentlemen, I don't need to analyse this any further, surely.
All I've got to do is tell you that it exists.
There are 50 designs in full colour, borders and link motifs, simple gift ideas, over a
hundred charts, alphabets, family crosswords and commemorative work.
Look I'll give you an idea of some of the colour.
Eva's just beside me right now.
No that's not colour, that's black and white.
That's the colour.
Now as you can see it's a beautifully put together book and it's published in Australia
by Heineman.
There we are.
All sorts of ideas for those of you who are into cross stitching.
It's a complete design manual by Fran Rose.
And it's advice, well it's good for beginners and it's also a good book for those who are
somewhat advanced and like to chart their own designs.
You'll find the charts in there.
Here we are.
See what I mean?
Very valuable book published by Heineman in Australia, cross stitched by Fran Rose.
And by the way I must say thank you very much.
In your letters and in the personal appearances I've done and the signings, the number of
people who have said to me, oh we love to talk about books as legion now.
I've mentioned Edith Wharton.
Have you seen House of Mirth or Summer?
There's a book.
This one is recommended to you by my wife Joan.
One thing she liked about it and it's a very practical thing, you know how some paperbacks
have terribly tiny print.
Look at the nice print in this one.
I think you can tell can't you by looking at it like that.
Beautiful clear print.
Now this is one of the Virago Modern Classics.
A whole collection of books which are intended to bring to life again famous women authors.
Now this one is by Edith Wharton.
She wrote 17 novels and won two Pulitzer Prizes.
It's a story of a writer's struggle who wants freedom and it's also the story of the woman
who also wants freedom.
Thoroughly recommended.
Edith Wharton, The Gods Arrive.
I think you should read some Edith Wharton.
Put her on your reading list.
Either go to the library or get one of the Virago paperbacks.
I wish you'd read House of Mirth by Edith Wharton.
But remember, The Gods Arrive.
Thoroughly recommended and the Virago books have all got good print.
And now my recommendation.
This is a novel.
It's a bobby dazzle of a novel too and it's published by Viking which means it comes from
Penguin.
Don't you love the cover?
Listen to this.
Sex, even incest, cannot overpower the wonderful sense of atmosphere in this wonderful can't
put it down book.
A winner all the way.
A story of violent loves and unsettling passions.
Love the whole schema of the novel.
Beautifully written.
Philippa Gregory, Wideacre.
Tomorrow, Willa starring Deborah Rappan and Cloris Leachman.
And I'll certainly be looking forward to your company on that occasion.
Good afternoon.
Good afternoon.