Lon Chaney is a true legend of the Silent Era, making an estimated 155 films over 17 years, of which 109 are lost, and of the 46 remaining films, some are incomplete or mere fragments of footage. The bulk, if not all, of Chaney’s pre-1920 films were released in Australia. Advertisements exist for early films such as Damon and Pythias, The Grip of Jealousy and The Gilded Spider . It was not his acting or skill with make-up that first brought him to the attention of Australian audiences. Rather, it was his association with the Australian actress Louise Lovely.   Born in Sydney in 1895 [i] , Nellie Louise Alberti began acting and touring with dramatic companies at an early age under the name of Louise Carbasse [ii] . A precocious child, she later claimed at age 7 to have done the rounds of various businesses paying her mother’s accounts. She had played in almost every theatre in Australia, often alongside Nellie Stewart, before appearing in six films between 1911 and 1913. A prime a

In the history of cinema there has rarely, if ever, been a man more suited to horror films than Rondo Hatton. Hatton’s impact came not from his acting ability, which was dubious at best, but rather his looks. Hatton suffered from a rare physical disorder called acromegaly, a disorder that distorted and disfigured Hatton’s head and face, turning him from a young man once described as the Handsomest Boy in his class to an incredibly unique and wildly ugly man.   Hatton’s early life was spent in journalism, where he worked for newspapers as a sportswriter, but after being noticed by film director Henry King, who cast him in a bit part in Hell Harbor (1930), he was convinced to move to Hollywood where his looks were exploited, appearing in bit parts or as an uncredited, but instantly recognisable extra. Hatton toiled away, coming to the Australian publics notice in Moon Over Burma (1940), which, when released in 1941, he was name checked in ads. The presence of Basil Rathbone, a favour

None of this should have come as any surprise to anybody really. It was always going to happen once Disney acquired Marvel Comics, lawsuits would be flying all over the place. Disney is one of the most litigious publishers in existence. It protects it's characters, trademarks and copyrights with a zeal that is rarely seen with any other company. And once it Marvel, those same rules of litigation would be applied to the characters it bought. After all, you don't spend $4,000,000,000 for a company and it's assets only to let creators and their heirs come back and claim them for peanuts. Well, Disney doesn't.   It all kicked off on the 24th of September 2021 when Marvel Characters, Inc., which is owned by Disney, filed multiple lawsuits against the heirs of various Marvel artists. Marvel have already fought Joe Simon over Captain American and settled, and they famously fought Jack Kirby and Gary Friedrich. With Kirby they fought for virtually everything Kirby drew and co-w

Over the past two decades and change, our old mate Marc Toberoff has been at the forefront of trying to get characters out of both Marvel and DC. I have no doubt that his heart is in the right place, but, as the Superman case showed us, part of his reasoning is to gain control the characters - he was trying to enter into a joint venture with the Siegel and Shuster heirs in order to make a Superman film, which would have seen him make a lot of cash. Good on him, he sees a chance and he takes it.  Funnily enough, the only other high profile termination case that he wasn't involved with was Gary Friedrich and the Ghost Rider case. But, outside of the comic world and Nic Cage, that wasn't ever going to be a big money case. If you were to study his previous cases where heirs have regained copyrights, you'll notice that, in the small print, Toberoff also gets some control. His other standard operational method is to wait until the principal dies. He then approaches the heirs and,