This is the seventh in a series of examinations of legends from movies and the people who make them and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the previous six.

Let’s begin!

MOVIE LEGEND: Frank Sinatra kept the Manchurian Candidate under wraps for years in the wake of the Kennedy Assassination.

STATUS: False

The Manchurian Candidate is about a United States soldier (played by Lawrence Harvey) who is brainwashed in an attempt to get him to assassinate a Presidential candidate, allowing the Vice-Presidential candidate (who is controlled by the Communists) to take over control of the party and run the United States FOR the Communists (and be the “Manchurian Candidate” that the title refers to).

Frank Sinatra plays a fellow soldier who does his best to stop this plan. Angela Lansbury is magnificent as the evil mother of Harvey.

The film was released in October of 1962.

A little more than one year later, the President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, was assassinated.

It has long been said that Frank Sinatra got a hold of the film rights and then squashed the film until the late 1980s in honor of the President. In fact, it was said that he got the rights specifically TO squash the film.

However, that’s not the case.

Sinatra got the rights to the film in 1972, and in later years, he claimed that the film’s delay in getting a re-release was due to the fact that he did not even know he OWNED the rights to the film. Said Sinatra, “I didn’t know we owned the rights. Whoever was working for me apparently made a pretty good deal.”

In any event, the story is not true, as the film appeared on network television TWICE after Sinatra purchased it, once in 1974 and once in 1975.

It also appeared two times during the 1960s after Kennedy’s assassination, for those people who believe that it was pulled from TV after Kennedy’s assassination even before Sinatra got a hold of it.

Thanks to Tom Santopietro’s great book, Sinatra in Hollywood, for the Sinatra quote.

MOVIE LEGEND: Elvis Presley’s first on-screen kiss became a Catholic nun a few years later.

STATUS: True

Dolores Hart was the stage name for Dolores Hicks, a girl from Chicago whose parents divorced when she was a young girl (after the family had moved to Los Angeles so that her parents could each pursue a career in show business). While living back in Chicago with her grandparents, Hicks attended parochial school and also spent a lot of time with her grandfather, who was a movie projectionist.

Eventually, Hicks grew up to pursue a career in films, as well, and at the age of 18 years old, she appeared in one of Elvis Presley’s first movies (to be more precise, it was his second film to be released), Loving You under the stage name Dolores Hart…

The next year, Hart appeared in ANOTHER film with Elvis as his love interest, King Creole.

The film is notable for not only being Elvis’ favorite film that he starred in, but also for being the first film in which Elvis had an on-screen kiss. And that kiss was with Dolores Hart.

Hart appeared in two other films in 1957 and 1958 besides her two Elvis films.

In 1959, she appeared on Broadway and earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in the play The Pleasure of His Company.

The next year, she starred in what is most likely her most famous film (although the Elvis roles are notable, as well, of course), Where the Boys Are.

The film was about four female college co-eds on Spring Break in Florida. Besides Hart, it co-starred Connie Francis, Paula Prentiss and Yvette Mimieux as her friends.

The film was notable for its fairly frank depiction of sexuality (for 1960, at least). Connie Francis had a hit song with her rendition of the title track of the movie.

While filming her next film, 1961’s St. Francis of Assisi, Hart actually met the Pope in Rome.

Around this time, even though she was dating (and eventually engaged to) a Los Angeles businessman named Don Robinson, Hart began seriously thinking of pursuing a role in the Roman Catholic Church.

Finally, after finishing her last film, 1963’s Come Fly With Me, Hart broke off her engagement and, at 25 years of age, entered a convent to become a nun.

She became a nun at the Benedictine Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Connecticut. She is known as Sister Dolores. In 2001, she became the Prioress of the Abbey.

While a member of the Abbey, however, Sister Dolores continued to be a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and is the only nun who actually casts a vote come Oscar time.

Sister Dolores uses her Hollywood past frequently to help raise money for charity.

Sadly, Sister Dolores has peripheral idiopathic neuropathy disorder, a painful neurological disorder that affects many people every year. In April of 2006, she testified in Washington DC on behalf of the need for more research regarding the disease.

Through all the constant pain, however, Sister Dolores continues to be a great force for good, running her Abbey and organizing many charity events every year.

Amusingly enough, one of Elvis’s last films co-starred Elvis and Mary Tyler Moore about a man (Elvis) who unknowingly falls in love with a nun (Moore)…

MOVIE LEGEND: Frances McDormand almost lost her role in Blood Simple because she had to watch a soap opera.

STATUS: Basically True

Looking back, a lot was riding on Blood Simple, the brilliant noir crime film by Joel and Ethan Coen.

It was the directorial debut of the Coen Brothers.

It was Frances McDormand’s film debut.

And Frances McDormand and Joel Coen have been married since 1984.

And yet, it was almost all de-railed because of…a soap opera?!?

Here’s McDormand in a scene from Blood Simple…

You see, McDormand auditioned for the role of Abby in Blood Simple (she got the audition because her roommate, the Coen Brothers’ first choice, couldn’t do the part, so her roommate suggested McDormand. Her roommate, by the way, was Holly Hunter) and did pretty well.

So well that the Coen Brothers wanted to continue the audition later that afternoon.

And McDormand actually had to tell them NO, and better yet, the reason was because she had to watch a soap opera!

As it turned out, McDormand had a friend who had just gotten a gig on a soap opera, and his first episode was that day and McDormand had promised to watch it, so she could not make the scheduled audtion callback.

The brothers were reasonably befuddled at her response, especially her reasoning.

However, they liked her enough that they let her re-schedule for later on in the evening, and it, of course, all worked out for the best!

Still, you have to admire the fact that McDormand was willing to possibly hurt her career all to support a friend.

Okay, that’s it for this week!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com