fredbaetz
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Posts posted by fredbaetz
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This is one of my all time favorite films. I don't know how many times I've seen it or care. I watch it every time I find it playing. The acting is some of the finest you will see anywhere. For me everything works in this film because of the dynamics of its two stars. O'Toole and Hepburn are at the top of their craft, the script is marvelous , the supporting players are outstanding along with the score,photography,sets, and direction. everything works.
The first time I ever saw "Lion" was on a flight from New York to L.A. and I watched about 5 minutes and took off my headset thinking "What a lousy movie". The next time I saw it was a few months later on a double bill, "Lion" was the first film and I sat there awe struck, I couldn't believe this was the film I partially watched on the plane. I don't even remember what the other film was, I don't remember staying for it. To watch O'Toole and Hepburn duel with words is a thing of beauty, both are at their best and watching them is a joy. I always though "what a great way to make your movie debut in a film with O'Toole and Hepburn" as Anthony Hopkins and Timothy Dalton did. I was so disappointed that O'Toole lost the Academy Award for acting to Cliff Robinson that year. He has lost so many times before or since. That was the year Katherine Hepburn tied with Barbara Streisand for the win At least he won the Golden Globe for Best Actor.......
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If this Western looks kind of familiar, just think of it as a "Seachers" in reverse. Both films are based on novels by Alan LeMay. I think it is a very good Western, but it could have been great. The problems behind the scenes with Audrey Hepburn falling off a horse and breaking her back, which most likely led to her miscarriage, which Huston blamed himself for, although Hepburn bore him no blame.Needless to say she was not happy with the film. Huston 's battles with the producers { Lancaster's company was one of the backers, I believe} over the direction of the story. Huston was pulled to the story of racism in the old West between white and red men. The backers wanted a more commercial old fashion story., I don't think either got what they really wanted. Huston said of all his films this was the one he disliked the most. Most critics felt the same way.
The sad thing is you have a great cast, although Hepburn is miscast as am Indian, she delivers a fine performance considering what happened to her. Lancaster is at his best as the rugged brother and son. Audie Murphy shows what he could do in an "A" picture. He's great, as is Doug McLure as the younger brother. The rest of the players all deliver fine performances, but the wonderful Lillian Gish steals all the scenes she's in. The old pro who had been around since almost the beginning delivers a heartfelt performance. One cute story from this film is the one where John Huston took her out into the desert to teach her how to shoot, because she has to fire a rifle in the film. Well he didn't have much to teach her, it turned out she was a better shot them him or Lancaster. It seemed she was taught to shoot in the silent days by an outlaw Al Jennings, who was a bank robber and became a actor when he got out of prison and she found she enjoyed shooting and was a marksman { or woman in this case}.
It is a fine movie which could have been better, in my opinion......
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Well lets start the party. . A nice plate of Nachos with all the trimmings, then a nice selection of Tacos, Burritos, Enchiladas. side of rice and refried beans { just love them }. Bottles of Bohemia and Negra Models, a bottle of good Tequila. Fire up the DVD player and throw in "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" , "Desperado"or any of Robert Rodriquez films or the great South of the Border movie star, Tyrone Power in "Zorro" or "Blood and Sand"...
SALUD
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Eugene Pallette was one of my all time favorites. It's funny to think he made over 130 films before he spoke on screen with his "Froggy" voice in 1929's "The Canary Murder Case" a Philo Vance mystery with William Powell. Eugene started in 1913 and a great number of his silent film were uncredited. But he'll always be the one and only Friar Tuck.
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Some of my favorite second bananas:
Elisha Cook Jr.--Forever Wilma
Dub Taylor- another great western sidekick among others
Jesse White-POOKA-fond of rumpots,crackpots and "How are you Mr.Wilson"
Arthur Hunnicutt-one of the great sidekicks, a challenge to Walter Brenner.
Roland Young-original "Topper" and one of the "Ten Little Indians" {And Then There Were None}
Edited by: fredbaetz on Apr 26, 2010 1:41 AM
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That is one " Drop Dead Gorgeous" photo of Dorothy. Be still my heart..
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I remember Moe Howard of the "Three Stooges" told me when they did the very first short for Columbia Pictures " Woman Haters" 1934, that Walter Brennen had a small uncredited part of the train conductor, The film was shot in rhymes. Walter had a lot of problems remembering the words and the director wanted to fire him, but Moe said him and Curly and Larry worked with Brennen and helped him with the role.Finally he was able to perform the tricky dialogue...
Edited by: fredbaetz on Apr 25, 2010 8:29 PM
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Along with a very nice check for the endorsement of the cigarettes along with the free cartons, which in the 1940's cost about a dollar to a dollar and a quarter...
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In 1917 the American Tobacco Company came up with LSMFT slogan along with "It's Toasted" instead of sun dried. In 1942 they changed their green pack to white stating the the government needed the copper for the war effort with the slogan "Lucky Strike Green has gone to war". In truth they wanted to update the package and according to their research the white package would appeal to women smokers... Ah truth in advertising....
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Thank you for the kind words. I wish the film had turned out better for him and us,
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He played a real good bad guy in "The Gun Runners", the Audie Murphy film remake of " To Have and Have Not" that aired yesterday. Not a bad little film directed by Donald Siegel, Albert looked like he was having fun with the character....
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If you saw "Bugsy", the Warren Beatty film. The scenes where Bugsy is with George Raft { Joe Mantegne } on the movie set and meet Vriginia Hill { Annette Bening } for the first time. The movie that's being shot is "Manpower"
As for Mel Ferrer, I never was a fan of his and don't know why. Maybe it was because he married Audrey Hepburn and I resented him for that and though she was too good for him......
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Ben is OK in my book.....It may not be a best seller, but he's OK.. I enjoy listening to him, I think he does a good job with the wrap a rounds. Just the sort of guy you like to hang around with on the week end, laid back and relaxed and informative...
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This film had moments of greatness and Ford tries his best to deliver a film that he had wanted to do for a long time. But there were many hurdles to over come and some of these I think did the film in. Ford wanted the leads characters of Little Wolf and Dull Knife to be "Honest-to-God Indians", but casting non actors in lead roles the films backers would say no. Then Richard Boone and Anthony Quinn were considered, Ford was okay with Quinn, but wanted Woody Strode,who was part Indian, as Little Wolf .Warner Bros. stood firm and Ford had to cast the lead Indian roles with non Indians.The supporting tribe members were indeed American Indians , however they were all Navajo not Cheyenne as was the language.Ford envisioned a bleak black and white film in the vain of "The Grapes of Wrath". Characters of both stories start out on a journey from awful surroundings. The film also resulted in a split with Ford and his son Patrick. Patrick had done extensive research on the books and history along with James Webb, but Patrick received no screen credit and he felt very slighted along with the $ 10,00.00 he got paid compared with Webb's $100,000.00 along with 10% of the net. This put a serious strain on an already rocky relationship. and pushed it to the breaking point. Patrick left the movie business and moved to Hawaii.The relationship never recovered and in 1970 John Ford revised his last will and requested that no share of my estate be distributed to my son Patrick.Many argue that Ford should have used more of Howard Fast novel "The Last Frontier", a better novel then Mari Sandoz "Cheyenne Autumn", Fast whose other novel "Spartacus" had been a successful motion picture in 1960.
Ford's health was also a problem, the years of drinking and cigarettes, rough living and the decline in his health took a heavy toll. Ford was using uppers and sleeping pills to get him through the days and nights.. It led to clashes with William Clothier, his director of Photography, when Clothier flushed his pills down the toilet, and Wingate Smith his brother-in-law had to call in a doctor when Ford became incapacitated. I don't think there's one thing wrong with "Cheyenne Autumn". There's many things that caused the film to be over looked by the public and most critics.Most likely more then I've mentioned here. Ford's heart may have been in the right place, along with the courage he showed in making it, but between his age, health, the scripts, the fights with the studio and casting, personal problems, it seems that Pappy had 3 strikes on him from the outset..
With all this said I still think it should be viewed as a major piece of film making by one of America's greatest directors, flawed as it is......
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I would have loved to have seen her.You're lucky being in the right spot at the right time. The seventies were the beginning of the downfall. A true movie star of the first order.
I remember the first movie star I saw when I moved to Hollywood in 1969. I was driving to work at ABC Hollywood early one morning and I stopped at a red light on Hollywood Blvd. and a car pulls up next to me, I look over and it's Anthony Quinn. He looks at me at the same time and nods and smiles and the light turns green and off he goes. I though ,This is great, a movie star sighting the first week in Hollywood.. I remember seeing Dan Blocker at Musso and Franks one afternoon while I was having lunch. Also almost every time I went to the great old "C*** and Bull" on Sunset Blvd. there was Jack Webb by himself with a bloody Mary. But I would have loved to have seen Rita.. It was a good time to be there then...
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I moved to the Valley in1976 and was working in Glendale then at Ch 52. I seem to remember something about her attending some film revival or festival, but sadly I wasn't there, would have loved to have seen her......
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I'll mark that on my dance card and hopefully see you next year and have a few at the Cinegrill in the Roosevelt Hotel and maybe hear the ghost of Monty Clift practice the bugle as he did when he stayed there while shooting "From Here to Eternity" in 1952. Or maybe see Marilyn's ghost in the mirror from her room , now in the lower floor, where some claim to have seen her reflection...If not we'll have a few more and maybe then we'll hear or seen them.....
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I'm retired and live in Western Washington and I'm in the same boat. Would love to attend this festival and see where I lived in the 1970's almost where they're holding it. Use to have drinks at the Roosevelt Hotel, saw "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" at the Grauman's Chinese theater, so it would be great to see those places again. But $$$ it a little tight. Hope all who attend have a great time and fill us shut-ins in....
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To me Eddie Albert was a nice second string leading man, friend of the star, if he got the girl at all it was in a "B" or "C" film. I saw him in "Attack" a World War 2 film made in 1956 with Jack Palance and Lee Marvin and Albert blew me away with his role of a cowardly Army captain. If you have never seen this raw, gritty film, a very realistic movie, long before "Pork Chop Hill" or "Saving Private Ryan" check it out. After reading the script the U.S. Army would not assist with film .
His first film was "Brother Rat" which he recreated his Broadway role and he was under contract from 1938 to 1941 when his contract was suddenly terminated with Warnres. The story was he was having an affair with Jack Warner's wife. He moved up another notch on my ladder when I read this. He flew a Coast Guard Landing Craft during the war and was awarded the Bronze Star for rescuing 47 Marines off shore who were under heavy machine gun fire during the battle of Tarawa .One of the earliest movie stars to move to TV and had two very big hits with "Green Acres" and "Switch" with Robert Wagner.
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The strange case of the missing Henry Nakamura. I know this was discussed before, but it's odd that he only did 7 films from 1951 to 1958. Three for William Wellman and he just disappeared. There is nothing on him after "Lafayette Escadrille" in 1958.. No personal info, no Date of birth or death. He just vanished , it seems, into thin air. He did a war film "Go for Broke" about the Japanese American soldiers in WW 2, then "Westward the Women" for Wellman and an uncredited appearance in Wellman's "Blood Alley" with John Wayne and Wellman's final film "Lafayette Escadrille". If anyone has new info, I for one would love to hear it.He seems to have appeared out of no where and vanished after 1958....
Edited by: fredbaetz on Apr 21, 2010 10:57 PM
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"WOW", that's all I have to say...."WOW"
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I stated in my thread below that she won a Golden Globe for best supporting actress and a Academy Award nomination for "The High and the Mighty". She was a really fine actress that never reached the stardom rung on the ladder. She did quite a few films "Caged" with Eleanor Parker, "Woman on the Beach" with Crawford, "The Mating Season" with Gene Tierney among others. She almost got the lead in "Born Yesterday", she played the Chicago stage version and blew the critics and audiences out of the water with her Billie Dawn and was even announced to play the film lead then Columbia decided to go with Judy Holiday {Which I can't imagine anyone else in that part }, Sterling hit some rough patches after Douglas died and she went back to stage for a long time.
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He was so great in so many roles. I love to watch him work, his performances were pure joy. "The Sundowners" with Mitchum and Kerr, "Billy Budd" with Robert Ryan and Terence Stamp , "Logan's Run" as the old man with his cats in the ruined Senate, "Viva Max" remember the Alamo and "We're No Angels" with Bogie Always wondered why he pulled out of the "Pink Panther" and they gave the part to Peter Sellers? Which was a break for Sellers and the movie audiences , but still wondered about that....
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After the "I make Westerns" statement Ford went on to say, "" I don't agree with C.B. DeMille, I admire him. I don't like him, but I admire him....I think Joe has been vilified and I think he needs an apology...I admire C.B.'s guts and courage, even if I don't agree with him......What we need is a motion to adjourn". Ford's motion was carried and the 25 men vilified by DeMille were given a vote of confidence.
Edward Bernds { a director of comedy shorts at Columbia } remembered, " A great night. Ford unleashed a broadside against DeMille. To see that man just shrivel and shrink as Ford spoke, it was a great triumph for moderation"
But the following Ford sent DeMille a letter stating that he {DeMille} displayed "Gentlemanly behavior at the event...." Joseph Mankiewicz was reelected as President and John Ford was named vice-president....
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I wondered what happened to my old body.....