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And now the 93rd Annual Oscars are finished. Another one for the records books, it is now history. But how to quench your thirst for a bit more Hollywood history? Here’s the perfect refresher. It’s a warm, interview and clip-filled look back at one of the motion picture industry’s greatest producers. As a matter of fact (and it’s hammered home here) he was the head (or close to) of four of the major studio. Oh, and he’s still with us, offering his sage advice and counsel to filmmakers and stars. So we’re not talking about the cigar-chomping Golden Age studio moguls who are usually vilified in the non-fiction books and films (The biggest villain of Mank may be the ruthless and controlling Louis Mayer). No, this is about a man whose influence may have ushered in, maybe not a silver, but a bronze age,...

No 84 Alan Ladd 1913-64

He had a hard early life and a long apprenticeship. Born in Hot Springs, Arkansas, he was four when his accountant father died and, still a child, he moved to North Hollywood, California with his mother (who would become an alcoholic and commit suicide) and stepfather, a painter and decorator.

He was a high-school athletic star, principally as a swimmer, and developed the fine physique he was often to expose on screen, including two scenes of public flogging. Living so close to the movie business, he had certain acting aspirations but was constantly told he was too short (5ft 6in) and unfashionably fair-haired for stardom.

But after leaving school in the Depression, briefly running his own burger joint (disarmingly called Tiny's Patio) and working as a studio carpenter, he spent nearly a decade freelancing in radio and taking minor movie parts. Many of the latter were without dialogue,...