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Gunga Din is a Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO) Pictures adventure film that was produced and directed by George Stevens. Stevens was well known for his previous work on silent comedy films. Howard Hawks was originally going to direct Gunga Din. But the delays on his 1938 film, Bringing Up Baby, and its abysmal box office numbers led the studio to replace Hawks with Stevens as director. The leading cast members of Gunga Din are three acclaimed actors: Douglas Fairbanks Jr.; Archibald Alexander Leach, also known as Cary Grant; and Victor McLaglen. Supporting cast members included Sam Jaffe, Eduardo Ciannelli, and Joan Fontaine.

Significance: An engineer, a businessman, and a politician, Steven Blaney served the Canadian government in numerous capacities since assuming office in 2006, applying his technical experience as a member of the Conservative Party.

The Night of the Iguana is an American drama film that was released in 1964. It is based on the 1961 Broadway play of the same name, a drama written by Tennessee Williams. Produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Seven Arts Productions and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, The Night of the Iguana cast included acclaimed actors such as Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr, and Sue Lyon. Burton, however, was not the first choice to play the celebrated role of Reverend Dr. T. Lawrence Shannon. The role was originally offered to James Garner, better known today for his portrayal of two iconic television characters. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he played the title character, Bret Maverick, in the western-comedy series Maverick; then in the 1970s, he played Jim Rockford in the detective dramedy series The Rockford Files. The film’s cinematographer was Gabriel Figueroa, who worked in Mexican and American cinema. Figueroa worked on over one hundred black-and-white and color movies. British composer Benjamin Frankel, who worked on over seventy movies during his lifetime, scored the film, and his scoring on The Night of the Iguana is noted for being one of the best he created. Some of his more prominent work was done on the films The End of the Affair (1955), London Belongs to Me (1948), The Importance of Being Earnest (1952), and The Years Between (1946).

All Quiet on the Western Front is a classic American antiwar film. Based on the bestselling 1929 German novel written by Erich Maria Remarque, it was also the first antiwar film of the sound era. Remarque served in World War I as a German soldier. Remarque named his hero after himself, giving him the name Paul, Remarque’s given middle name at birth. The film is centered on the experiences of a group of young German students who enlist in the German army during World War I at the behest of a school teacher. Disillusionment soon eclipses all hope of heroism and valor in war as the young soldiers are made to confront the reality of trench warfare and death on a scale with which they are ill prepared to deal. All justifications, stemming from propaganda that had been fed to the group, regarding killing the enemy disappears as the boys witness the death and dismemberment of friends and enemies alike, leaving them angry and confused.

High Noon is a celebrated film directed by Fred Zinnemann, the acclaimed director of such other classic films as From Here to Eternity (1953), Oklahoma! (1943), and A Man For All Seasons (1966). Born in Rzeszów, Poland, in 1907, Zinnemann was considered a pioneer of the social realist style of directing which incorporates an edgy atmosphere by coordinating screen time with real time. While his career spanned nearly fifty years, Zinnemann’s films are noteworthy for their thematic consistency. Zinnemann’s films are all dramas in which the main protagonist, an ethical and principled person, is tested by disastrous events to reveal their motivation and true character.

Horse racing is a classification of sports that involves multiple jockeys riding horses throughout a standardized length of track competitively. The races may also involve the horses pulling a conveyance in which a driver is seated. The sport is amongst the most ancient and the format that it may take has largely varied. Some of the variations include obstacle courses, varying distances, restricting breeds that compete, varying the gaits (the ways in which the horse moves), and varying the track surfaces.

Education: Westmount High School; Montreal High School for Girls

Education: Texas A&M University, University of Texas, and University of Wisconsin

Education: Vienna Gymnasium; University of Vienna

Education: Cornell University; Columbia University; University of Cambridge

Education: University of Pavia; University of Padua; University of Vienna; University of Genoa; and University of Turin.

Canadian politician. Michael Dennis Duffy was born to parents Wilfrid and Lillian Duffy in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. His grandfather, Gavan Duffy, was Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island. He was the oldest of five siblings. Duffy dropped out of high school but years later received honorary degrees from Niagara University, Wilfrid Laurier University, and the University of Prince Edward Island. He was a ham radio aficionado and would make amateur audition tapes using borrowed equipment. At sixteen, he got a paying radio job, working shifts twice a week. Duffy then became a news writer and presenter at a radio station in Nova Scotia.