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Mike Henry, the former National Football League linebacker who became the 16th movie Tarzan in the 1960s, died last month in Burbank, California at the age of 84. He reportedly succumbed to complications from Parkinson's disease and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), caused by repeated head injuries in sports. A California native, Henry played college football at the University of Southern California in the late 1950s. He was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the ninth round of the 1958 NFL draft. After three seasons with the Steelers, he joined the Los Angeles Rams in 1962. After occasional appearances in movie and television productions during his playing days, Henry succeeded Jock Mahoney as the screen version of Tarzan. In 1965, he filmed three movies about Edgar Rice Burroughs' jungle hero. They were released in consecutive years. The first, "Tarzan and the Valley of Gold" (1966), teamed Henry with the actress Nancy Kovack. "Tarzan and the Great River" (1967) focused on the African adventurer's Tarzan in Brazil, where he battled a cult group that threatened local villages. The action film also starred Jan Murray, Rafer Johnson, Diana Millay and Manuel Padilla, Jr. "Tarzan and the Jungle Boy" (1968) marked Henry's final screen appearance as the man also known as Lord Greystoke. The storyline revolved around the search for a missing teen (played by the future "General Hospital" regular Steve Bond) in an African jungle. Also starring in the film: the Olympic great Johnson (as a different character from the previous movie) and Aliza Gur (pictured below with Bond and Henry). Henry (pictured second from the left below) co-starred with Charlton Heston in the 1969 drama "Number One" (originally titled "Pro"). Heston played Ron "Cat" Catlan, a longtime New Orleans Saints quarterback struggling to make it through another NFL season. Henry played one of the state prison guards in "The Longest Yard" (1974), which starred Burt Reynolds as a former pro quarterback who led a ragtag squad of prisoners against a team of guardsmen. In the 1977 Reynolds-Sally Field action comedy "Smokey and the Bandit," Henry played Junior Justice, the hapless Texas deputy and son of Sheriff Buford T. Justice (Jackie Gleason). The film, which was second only to "Star Wars" as a box-office attraction, spawned two sequels that featured Henry and Gleason. Henry reunited with Heston in the 1972 thriller"Skyjacked." They played the pilots of an imperiled Boeing 707 en route to Minneapolis. Directed by John Guillermin ("The Towering Inferno"), the film also starred Yvette Mimieux (pictured below), James Brolin, Claude Akins, Susan Dey, Roosevelt Grier, Mariette Hartley, Walter Pidgeon and Jeanne Crain (in her final feature film). In a Season 6 episode of the CBS series "M*A*S*H," Henry appeared as Lt. Col. Donald Penobscott, the husband of Major Margaret Houlihan (played by series regular Loretta Swit). The installment, titled "The M*A*S*H Olympics," originally aired on November 22, 1977.

Thanks for your take on The Killers, MissW, and I appreciate the fact that you're willing to give your reasons for not liking a popular film. Just as you find Gardner an uninteresting character in the '46 version, I can say the same for John Cassavetes in the '64 remake. I can't say that I much care about his character or what happens to him, in contrast to poor Ole (Burt Lancaster) in the Siodmak take. Burt is a slightly dim but decent sort and really open faced in his adoration for Gardner. I suspect a lot of guys may identify with Lancaster allowing himself to be taken advantage of by a sensual beauty like Gardner (we'll just have to agree to disagree about her looks, MissW, since I think she's one of the great beauties of the movies - in any era). Poor Ole, the chump even gives gives up three years of his life in prison for this dame who only takes advantage of him afterward. Yes, dumb slug that he is, I can feel for Burt's character (unlike Cassavetes) so I feel a connection there. And, Miss W, let's give Gardner a little credit as an actress. She's got a great final scene in the '46 version in which, knowing that she's caught, she pleads on her knees for a dying man to tell the authorities there that she's innocent. The actress in her is given a moment to emerge there, even if briefly. Aside from that just looking at Gardner smoulder in this film, leaning against a piano at a party or later coming to Ole's room to tell him that he's being set up by the gang, it's easy to understand why a man could make a fool of himself for her, especially when he thinks she came to his room because she cares about him. I appreciate the performances of Marvin and Gulager as the killers in the Siegel version, and Angie Dickinson shows her acting credentials in the scene in which she is terrorized by the killers. Tramp that she is you feel sorry for her there. Visually, though, there is no contest between the two films. I'll take the moody Germanic photography of the '46 version (that darkness permeates, wonderfully so, the entire film) over the television bright lights look of the '64 film any day. One more thing I'd like to add about my enjoyment of the '46 film, and it comes from the character performance of Vince Barnett as Charleston, the aging old time crook, who looks at the stars from his prison cell, and later may well mourn Ole's death more than anyone else in the film. There's a sweetness about Barnett's portrayal as he gently tries to steer crazy-in-love Ole away from a dame who owns his heart but will leave him broken. That moment, in particular, in the prison cell when Barnett tells Burt that there are reasons why a woman doesn't contact a guy in jail that have nothing to do with her being sick. Not surprisingly, Charleston will be one of the few that shows up for Ole's funeral. Truth is he's the person that should have been the beneficiary of Ole's life insurance, not that cleaning lady. I love the '46 version's photographic visuals, a source of never ending pleasure for me:

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) An Unmarried Woman (1978) Ruby In Paradise (1993)

Girlfriends (1978) a recent showing on TCM, about a female photographer who finds herself on her own after her friend/roommate moves out

The Broadway Melody (1929) The Barkleys of Broadway

The examples provided for today's category remind me why I appreciate each of you. I just love how you are able to flesh out some of these concepts and mention relevant films. Thank you!

Limelight (1952)

Wild, mine is the 12th. we are both aquarians, and while I think Zodiacs are bs, Every time I read the write up of what Aquarian traits are, I’m like, “yeah that’s me.” Happy birthday you hopelessly artistic, left-brained, highly emotional weirdo!

By the Way, in the book Inside Oscar, it says that in 1974 Variety encouraged Universal, 20th Century Fox, and Warner Bros. to put Earthquake and The Towering Inferno on the same double bill and nickname it: Shake and Bake Hopefully I provided you with a laugh. It's a bit of a big day for me, my birthday, and I'd like to kind of return some joy....

Julia (TV Show) That Girl (Marlo Thomas) Two Women (with Sophia Loren) Ziva David (NCIS) Mary Poppins

And how about MY FRIEND IRMA (1949).

If we're allowed two girls on their own, let's add TROUBLE WITH ANGELS and WORLD OF HENRY ORIENT

Yeh but what about Hoagy Carmichael? Now that's a sexy guy!

OH and btw, and regarding MM here... MUCH too phony looking, what with that damn bleached blonde hair and usually with way too much makeup on that puss of hers too. Sans all that makeup, and she isn't such-a-much lookin' at all. Just look at those early pictures of her taken when she was still "Norma Jean". She's pretty much just your pleasant looking girl-next-door type. (...to say nothing about that breathless little "baby talk" voice she had....YUCK!!!)

"She sure fooled me!"

MissW, I love Criss Cross, too, a film that may not be as well known as The Killers but, for my money, is comparable to it, not only in quality, but theme, as well (Lancaster enamoured with the wrong woman again, though in this case she's not all bad, her relationship with another gang leader, the robbery, the double cross, etc.). I have always considered the final scene in Criss Cross to be as tragically dark an ending as any noir film ever gave us. And it's Siodmak again. By the way, should you get the opportunity to view The Killers again, for suspense and real excitement, you might take another look at the scene set at the Green Cat Club when the killers reappear to try to knock off Edmond O'Brien as Gardner goes to "powder her nose." I think it's one of the most beautifully staged sequences in the entire film. Siodmak's direction is truly remarkable here. And with that great "Dragnet" theme by Miklos Rozsa playing on the soundtrack again. What a great professional relationship Robert Siodmak had with Burt Lancaster, not only two of the best film noirs but a couple of years later, for contrast, The Crimson Pirate, with an athletic, ever smiling Burt in one of the best tongue-in-cheek pirate films ever made.

"When the Red Red Robin Comes Bob Bob Bobin Along"-- Jolson Sings Again(Al Jolson) Next: An Al Jolson song originally sung by him, but now associated with Judy in a MGM movie

Claire Trevor

Man Without A Star 1955

Comet, it tastes like gas-o-line, Comet, it makes your teeth turn green. Comet, it tastes like vomit, So get Comet, and vomit, Today. . . .

Looks like maybe 9 to 5? On a humid day? Dolly's sporting one herself.

Jeanne Crain

Judith Anderson

Nader, Michael

Krakowski, Jane

MOON OVER MIAMI (1941)

Iselin, Senator John -- James Gregory in The Manchurian Candidate

In some parts of the South I have heard "horse relish" for "horseradish." I'm one of the ones who shudders at "No problem" rather than "You're welcome." Actually, no one has problems any more. They are now called "issues."

The Joker (2019) Jackie Brown (1995)

KISS ME KATE EASTER PARADE 42ND STREET A NIGHT AT THE OPERA YANKEE DOODLE DANDY

Any Paramount pre-code that has not already aired on TCM.

While I enjoyed the 1964 Killers well enough nothing in the film for me comes close to the riveting power of the first ten minutes of the 1946 version when the two hit men (Charles McGraw, William Conrad) arrive in the small town searching for their target. A combination of strong black and white photography and the ominous sounds of Miklos Roza's musical score, with its famous da-de-da dum theme, tells you that something terrible is about to happen. And then comes our first sighting of Burt Lancaster, lying in a bed but refusing to take cover when he hears that two killers are looking for him. Within minutes, Lancaster hears the sounds of their steps slowly approaching his room, with his door suddenly bursting open as the two gunmen empty their guns into him, flashes from their weapons reflecting light on their faces. The scene ends with a shot of Lancaster's hand limply falling to the side of the bed. It is one of the most justly famous opening sequences of any film. While some may argue that nothing else in the film matches that opening (and I would agree with them) the cast's performances and tension achieved through Robert Siodmak's direction contribute to make this one of the most memorable excursions down a dark noir screen ally. Poor Lancaster, trapped in an obsession with a woman who finally proves to be unworthy of his devotion, beauteous Ava Gardner, a sensual force of destruction for weak men, great journeyman actor Edmond O'Brien who is in many ways the real star of this film as he investigates the murder of a boxer, and sleek, duplicitous Albert Dekker, mastermind behind the robbery that brings most of the cast together. These four actors all make memorable turns here. I don't know what Ernest Hemingway thought of the '46 version. Only the opening ten minutes accurately reflects the entirety of his short story, to the extent that they even used some of his dialogue. The rest of the film was pure Hollywood invention in a production I regard as one of the key illustrations of the power of noir. Poor Ole. He's doomed from the first moment he sees her but it's not difficult to understand why.

Getty, Estelle

CODE TWO

Some say horror, some say noir, some say just a drama. I say, it doesn't really matter. This is a first rate film especially the first 3\4.

I haven't seen Sister My Sister. The film must not have been promoted very well by the media because I have never heard of it. I forgot to mention that I have also seen The Killing of Sister George (1968). One has to wonder if director Robert Aldrich was going for sensationalism with the bedroom scene near the end of the film.

Mike Henry in The Longest Yard:

OK sorry, but I just have to respond to this. I feel the same way as Miss W about Ava: Definitely a pretty woman, but not over-the-top beautiful like say Elizabeth Taylor was in PLACE IN THE SUN or MM on film, you can't take your eyes off them. (lighting & good camera work helps too) But, I do think Ava was a better actress than she's given credit. I absolutely love her in ON THE BEACH. The fact that all anyone ever talks about is how beautiful she is - is testament, proof of her talent. Remember, 99% of acting is BELIEVING you are that charactor. Ava believes she's drop dead gorgeous, she's acting. I often illustrate this for others while walking the dog or walking through the Mall or anywhere in public, really. I ask the person I'm with to watch all eyes coming towards us. Nothing, no reaction. I then begin to walk like on a runway, changing my posture & movement. Same person, but now every head turns to watch. People in cars driving by slow down & look. It's called "acting" and Ava Gardner was really good at making you believe no man could resist her!

Pritchard, Augusta -- Edna May Oliver in The Last Gentleman (1934)

Rennie Davis is portrayed by the British actor Alex Sharp (below right) in Aaron Sorkin's 2020 film "The Trial of the Chicago 7."

North, Pamela, played by Barbara Britton on Mr. and Mrs. North

Teachers (1984)

10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) Next: Sunset Blvd. (1950)

What an excellent review. You should post this on the IMDb, if you haven't already!

CHA-CHA-CHA BOOM

If so, she would be at least 110. However, Mrs. MacFee had a huge impact on me. To this very day I cringe when I hear a sentence that ends with a preposition. I also struggle with people who substitute "bring" for "take" and "your" for "you're". Also, although it's still grammatically correct; I try not to substitute "no problem" for "you're welcome". I know it's probably silly these days, but that's where I'm at. (LOL)

Eighteen and Anxious (1957)

If I may, there's another Paramount film worth mentioning. It's THE COUNTERFEIT TRAITOR (1962) with William Holden. It would fit so many different themes on TCM. Lilli Palmer has the lead female part. The photo above, with Holden being held captive and reaching out, is from the part where Palmer's character is executed in front of a firing squad. Palmer did such a fantastic job with that death scene, the cast and crew gave her a standing ovation after she fell to the ground and the director yelled "cut." It really is something TCM viewers should see. A thought-provoking film.

MUSIC FOR MADAME (1937)