slaytonf Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 Of the slate of his movies offered tomorrow, I suppose the sentimental favorites would be Min and Bill, and The Champ, where his lovable scoundrel persona is shown to its best effect. But Beery had a dark side to his schemer, smarmer characters, as was seen most popularly in Treasure Island. Dark indeed, amoral and murderous. I like these roles the best, as they were devoid of the sticky sentimentality that the goody-goody roles were prone to. My favorite of these is as Butch Schmidt in The Big House, one of the earliest, and best of the prison-theme movies. The contrast between his aw-shucks manner with a none-too subtle undercurrent of violence and danger is perversely entertaining. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredbaetz Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 Most of the people who worked with him were not fond the man. Jackie Cooper who worked with him called him a vicious, mean cruel drunk. Harlow couldn't stand him, he disliked Gable and the feeling was mutual. Gloria Swanson who was married to him at one time made the remark, "He was invited to every home in Hollywood...Once" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomJH Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 Not that we will ever know for sure, but there have even been long time rumours that Beery was involved in the beating death of Ted Healy in 1937. Immediately after Healy's death, Beery did take a lengthy European vacation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DownGoesFrazier Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 My mother related the story to me that he was the first star she ever saw in person. She saw him on the Atlantic City boardwalk circa 1931, and she couldn't believe how big he was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sepiatone Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 And in spite of all that, he was known as, "The lovable slob". Most likely by the moviegoers. Since I was a kid, I liked Beery movies. Probably because of the "smarm" mentioned earlier. Over time, I was able to catch his more "dark" work, and some of his silent work as well and grew a new appreciation for him. But I STILL don't buy him as PONCHO VILLA. Sepiatone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DownGoesFrazier Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 His most sympathetic performance might have been in AH, WILDERNESS!, on TCM this afternoon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyBackTransformer Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 Wallace Beery = yet another day for me to pass on TCM. Hey, how about a Frances X. Bushman fest? :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janet0312 Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 I love the movies he made with Jackie Cooper. I have to steer clear of the ending of The Champ though. I bawl my head off every time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyBackTransformer Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 This Wallace Beery crap is the reason I will be watching The Good, The Bad and the Ugly tonite at eight on a local PBS channel. Right now I'm thinkin' Strother Martin.....*"but that's the way TCM wants it. Well, they get it!"* We're not all cinema verite silent cinema worshippers out here. No, just regular folks lookin' for something good to watch on a lazy late summer saturday evening. Now just ask yourself who has more personality? Wallace Beery or Tuco? I have ta go with Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez otherwise known as the rat. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0uoeZwCOCY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slaytonf Posted August 17, 2013 Author Share Posted August 17, 2013 >sez FlyBackTransformer: > We're not all cinema verite silent cinema worshippers out here Huh? For a Wallace Beery day? About as far as you can get from cv. As I said, you need to catch The Big House. If you missed it, you missed out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyBackTransformer Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 What I mean is TCM continues to put stuff on that no one wants to see and as such I lump Wallace Beery in with art house and silents...nobody wants any of it! I guess TCM braintrusts think if they schedule something enough times we're all of a sudden gonna like it. Wallace Beery? Only like 2 films of his, Sergeant Madden and This Man's Navy...Bad Bascomb has and interesting pov shot of Beery chucking an axe in a desperado's back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dargo2 Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 Well first, FlyBack... >What I mean is TCM continues to put stuff on that no one wants to see and as such I lump Wallace Beery in with art house and silents. Seein' as how Beery was one of the biggest stars of early talkies, and was primarily popular with the "Working Class" audiences of his day, I don't see how his movies could ever be described as "Art House" fare. And secondly... >...nobody wants any of it! You suuuuuure like to talk usin' a whole lot o' definitive statements, doncha?! LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dothery Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 I can't stand him. I never could. A dreadful man personally, according to those who worked with him. I don't like the characters he played so I avoid them anyway. I don't know what TCM is doing these days. The awful junk they're passing off as classic is just hideous. Now: Can anybody tell me how to get to Page 2 of any given thread? I can't find a place to click on to get there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dargo2 Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 "It's really pretty easy, Senorita! Jus' take your cursor and click just to the right of where page-"1" is showin', 'cause even though ya can't see it, the number "2" is right there!" (...sorry Dothery...I just couldn't resist this!!!) LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyBackTransformer Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 *I do endeavor to speak in a very general context.* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomJH Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 There are only a few films in which I like Beery but they are the ones that show his darker side: Treasure Island and, particularly, Viva Villa! But he is aslo very good bantering with Harlow in Dinner at Eight. Pancho Villa has a lot of Beery in the characterization, of course, but it would be the one performance he gave I'd like to see a few times. My favourite Beery performance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dothery Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 Gracias, Se?or Dargo ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dargo2 Posted August 18, 2013 Share Posted August 18, 2013 De nada, Se?orita. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TopBilled Posted August 18, 2013 Share Posted August 18, 2013 I love Beery. He's one of my favorite MGM contract stars. I love how different he is in style from Garbo, and yet they were the studio's two biggest stars of their respective era. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredbaetz Posted August 18, 2013 Share Posted August 18, 2013 Also, two others were maybe involved . Albert "Cubby" Broccoli, who went on to produce the James Bond films and his cousin Pat DiCicco, a gangster connected with "Lucky" Luciano and DiCicco the ex husband of actress Thelma Todd who may have had a hand in her "strange" death.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matey Posted August 18, 2013 Share Posted August 18, 2013 Thanks for the topic. I didnt see yours so I open a new thread about Wallace Beery cuz he is one of my most favorite actors and I love to see him act. here's what I wrote (but I didnt see it posted)>? I thought surely TCM would show Bad Bascomb today but they didnt and instead played that boring musical (Date with Judy with Beery doing practically nothing). oh I hate musicals they are so boring and usually have no story or even acting involved... (maybe couple of exceptions like My Fair Lady) Bad Bascomb was exciting because both Marjorie Main and Margaret O'Brien played in it (2 of the best actresses I know of). only thing I didnt like about that movie was the ending but of course he had to get busted for the sake of the law... huh! They are showing the grand hotel right now with a great cast of characters such as both Barrymores, Wallace Beery Garbo and my favorite Joan Crawford. and then after that they are going to show dinner at 8...(with my favorite gal Jean Harlow). Both of those movies are really good . Dinner at 8 deals with glamorous life of the rich and the so-called ''society'' people as so many movies of that era are about!. But wasnt that cold-blooded (inappropriate) on part of hollywood to sort of rub it in to the American people at the time when the nation was induced into and was suffering from worst recessions, unemployment and all sort of depressions (and whats so great about depression)?...huh! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomJH Posted August 18, 2013 Share Posted August 18, 2013 Yes, Fred, I know about the other two potential accomplices with Beery, as well. Healy's beating death took place behind the famed Trocadero night club. That was the same night club at which Thelma Todd was last seen before her mysterious death less than two years before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomJH Posted August 18, 2013 Share Posted August 18, 2013 While it's the Barrymore brothers and Crawford that I like the most in Grand Hotel, I must give Wallace Beery credit as the only star of the film who adopted a German accent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DownGoesFrazier Posted August 18, 2013 Share Posted August 18, 2013 It sounds as if you took your life in your hands if you went to that club. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbfan Posted August 18, 2013 Share Posted August 18, 2013 I enjoyed the WallaceBerryfest all day yesterday. I know he wasn't the easiest person to work with but what a great group of actors he worked with and what great films. The titles of the films are classics and you have to give him credit for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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