Alan Ladd at Black Rock Beach

The above photograph shows Hollywood icon Alan Ladd relaxing with his wife Sue Carol on location at Black Rock beach, north Wales. The beach is situated between Criccieth and Porthmadog. The film being shot was The Red Beret (1953) - a piece of post-war hokum that overestimated Britain's role in thwarting Hitler; shamelessly propagandised Britain's 'special relationship' with the US; and completely failed to acknowledge that in military terms it was actually the USSR that had defeated the Nazis. Apart from that it is historically accurate.