240 thoughts on “Kirk Douglas Movies”

1. Hi Steve,
   I think your Kirk Douglas video is one of your best so far, in that you highlighted most of his greatest films and roles with a strong selection of posters and photos, for instance: Douglas and Barbara Stanwyck in his notable film debut in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, Douglas in Ace in the Hole, with Lana Turner in The Bad and the Beautiful, the Van Gogh posters for Lust for Life, with Burt Lancaster in Gunfight at OK Corral, the colorful posters of The Vikings, Douglas by himself in Paths of Glory and Spartacus, etc. Perhaps Douglas’ star-making role in The Champion could have merited a poster as well, so I will give you only 98% for this one 🙂

   I noticed a couple of interesting choices of billing order in some of the posters. In a Spanish poster of Tough Guys, Douglas’ name appears before Lancaster even though he was second-billed in the film – so while Bob and I agree Lancaster was the bigger star, Douglas must have been bigger at least in some Spanish-speaking country 😉 Douglas is billed before Robert Mitchum in an Italian poster of Out of the Past, even though Mitchum was the star of the film and Douglas (not yet a star) had more of a supporting role – this may be a print for a re-release.

   Kirk Douglas once said he made a career playing sons-of-bitches, and when you look at many of his roles, particularly the early ones that made him famous, it’s hard to disagree. However, it’s interesting to note that in his two best films, Paths of Glory and Spartacus, Douglas was outstanding playing men of strong principles and integrity; while in films such as Lust for Life and Lonely Are the Brave, he intelligently displayed sensitivity in portraying noble but vulnerable characters. And, though he may not have had the acrobatic prowess of Burt Lancaster, Douglas excelled in many heroic action roles as well. So when you consider his wide and diverse body of work, he was no doubt a extremely talented and personable actor, and one of Hollywood’s greatest leading men.

   My favorite Kirk Douglas films are: Ace in the Hole, The Bad and the Beautiful, Paths of Glory, Spartacus, Lonely Are the Brave, Seven Days in May, and There Was a Crooked Man. These films, together with Lust for Life, also contain my favorite Douglas performances.

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   1. Hey PhilHOF17….many many excellent points. I especially enjoyed the comments on the billing….and Spain. Makes sense that one star would be a bigger star over another in different countries.

      It reminds me of a story about a visiting celebrity from another country in the mid 1960s (I have forgotten who). They (mystery group) asked that celebrity who that wanted to meet….and she (I know it was a female) said…”I want to meet the biggest movie star in the world….Clint Eastwood.” They (still a mystery group) said all confused….”The guy from Rawhide?” she said….”No the Man With No Name guy”. Clint had become a huge star from his Leone movies years before those movies got to America…..so here in the states….he was the young guy from Rawhide…..while in other parts of the world….he was…”biggest movie star in the world”

      Good points on Douglas’ ability to play the hero and the villain. Looking at your favorites….I would include Bad and the Beautiful, Paths of Glory and Lonely Are The Brave in my Top 5 too. Along with The Vikings and The War Wagon (loved his character in that one). Good feedback as always.

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2. Added Steve’s updated Kirk Douglas Video To The Page. My mini-reviews of the Kirk movies I have seen.

   Kirk the man….the last living legend. Nice update. #49 Saturn 3 was a fun movie but critics destroyed it. #48 Arnold as the road runner and Kirk as the coyote….did not really work. #45 Greedy…saw it…barely remember it #44 Tough Guys….fun movie #40 Ulysses…the dvd version I saw the movie on was horrible…which probably made the movie seem worse than what it really was #38 Strangers When We Meet…Matthau plays a sleazy neighbor in this one #28 The Final Countdown…a great “what if” movie #27 The Fury…saw this one with my dad

   #25 War Wagon;…the best of the Wayne/Kirk movies #24 Young Man With A Horn…good but depressing #23 Adrian Messenger….fun movie #22 Crooked Man…love the ending #20 Man From Snowy River….one of my mom’s favorite movies #18 In Harm’s Way….Kirk is good as a not so nice guy #15 Strange Love of Martha Ivers…..his first role and first classic movie #14 Gunfight…the second best Earp/Holliday movie #13 The Vikings…what a cast…blockbuster

   #10 Lust for Life…another good one but depressing one #9 Lonely are the Brave…almost a forgotten Kirk movie #8 A Letter To Three Wives… nice mystery #7 7 Days in May….good thriller #6 Bad and Beautiful….great behind the scenes Hollywood movie #5 20,000 Leagues….monster hit #3 Out of the Past …maybe the great film noir movie #2 Spartacus….the height of his career. #1 Paths of Glory…my favorite Kubrick movie. So that is 25 or half of his movies. Voted up and shared on our Kirk UMR page.

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   1. Thanks for the vote sheer and quot Bruce it is apordvustrf. Appreciate.

      25 is good can’t rememb what my talli was.

      I think we have same number 1

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      1. Steve: I double checked our youtube responses on your Kirk Douglas video. You have seen 34 movies. I have seen 32.

         I see you are using your phone to comment and that you are not sure when your next video will be out. Is there something wrong with your internet or are you just not home. Hmmm. I wonder if I can guess who your next person is?

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         1. Hi flora. My internet router is not working properly and it’s also affecting my tv programming. Netflix no longer works. Hopefully all will be fixed by tomorrow afternoon. I have internet on my mobile phone but it’s it as comfortable ugjng using it

            My next video person if it appears this week won’t be that weel known. She was known for exoyic b moviex of the 40s usually in colour.

            Probs a top 20.

            Thanks for posting. Bob and Bruce make up yett? ?

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3. THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF PHARAOH RAMESES 2nd-PART 1`

   HI MOSES As you finished off the week with Kirk, and I had already exchanged posts with you about Burt I decided that for completeness my swan song on this site would be a post on your Kirk video. Anyway you had got the edge over me in the Burt/Kirk legendary status exchanges between us when the IMDB Legends list backed you and not me so I couldn’t let you have the last word about Lancaster/Douglas!

   My pick of an excellent run of POSTERS in 50-26 are Holocaust 2000, Saturn 3 [it shows you what a sad pass the movie business had come to when Farah Fawcett got billed before the legendary Kirk in that movie. My Burt would never have stood for that!] a mind-blowing one in my view for The Racers [aka Such Men are Dangerous] Ulysses, The Glass Menagerie, Strangers when we Meet, Posse [ a big Kirk fave with my late father] The Indian Fighter, a stunning and to me a completely original one for I Walk Alone, The Arrangement [Kirk taking over a role originally intended for Mr Mumbles who in real life was actually a close friend and frequent guest of Kirk] the foreign language one for The Last Sunset, the 2nd one for The Way West though the 1st one wasn’t bad either, and A Gunfight. The latter is my own least favourite Kirk western as it had 2 gimmicky alternative endings which were shown one after the other in the same movie which I found an unsatisfactory conclusion – in one ending Kirk won the gunfight and in the other Johnny Cash Imagine a movie where The Duke has to lose a gunfight! I remember the marquee for Ride a Crooked Trail screaming out “Audie Fast Draw Murphy”!

   Plenty of STILLS in Part One and I liked most of them – (1) Kirk with cat (2) lobby card for Tough Guys the final Lancaster/Douglas pairing, (3) lobby card also of Kirk with The Duke [no attempt by YOUR site to airbrush out that big guy!] (4) Kirk with Harris [I think you told me they didn’t get on] (5) Kirk on horseback (6) the 3 Great legends in iconic form in The Devil’s Disciple. When that film came out in 1959 people gasped that all 3 of them were in it and it was considered high-powered casting SORRY ABOUT YOUR COMPUTER. MINE WORKS FAR BETTER THAN EVER AFTER ITS RECENT REPAIR AND SERVICE

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   1. PART 2 RAMESES LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT
      1 “I am Spartacus!” is one of the most celebrated lines in a Hollywood biblical and/or costume epic but I much preferred though I Rameses was on the receiving end of it “Let my people go!” [It’s not only Dathan who has a licence to be biased!]

      2 The POSTERS I most admired in 1-25 are Two great Duke/Kirk ones for War Wagon and IN Harm’s Way, There was a Crooked Man, Man from Snowy River, The Big Sky, Last Train from Gun Hill, Gunfight at OK Corral The Vikings, Lust for Life, 20,000 Leagues under Sea, Spartacus and Man without a Star. In the latter Kirk sang the song “And the Moon grew Brighter and Brighter”– ie briefly Kirk was a singing cowboy!

      I was under a prairie moon
      Whistlin’ a lonesome tune
      When my rovin’ eye came to sight her
      And my heart growed lighter and lighter
      And the Moon grew brighter and brighter

      When I told her that she was swell
      She said, “You’re swell as well”
      I just don’t know who was politer
      Then my arms just seemed to invite her
      And the Moon grew brighter and brighter

      Yo-dah-lo-dee-oh-eee-oh
      Yo-dah-lay-dee-ay-dee-ay
      So I rounded up some kisses to delight her
      And she roped me tighter and tighter
      As the Moon grew brighter and brighter

      3 Great STLLS are (1) Kirk with my Doris. It was thought that the US title was too risqué so the film was called Young Man of MUSIC in UK (2) with Stanwyck (3) the Big 2 with guns drawn for OK Corral (4) Kirk in Out of the Past (5) with Eleanor Parker (6) as Van G . Kirk got an Oscar nom and a Golden Globe win but was scolded by the Duke for “letting down the American people by playing a weird guy.” 7) with your Lana – Goodness how you fought to get her on those lists! (8) in Paths of Glory which along with Last Train from Gun Hill is my joint favourite Douglas movie.

      4 You and Bruce agree on 8 of Kirk’s 9 best reviewed films. I awarded your Burt video a 98% rating and I now call a 97.95% for the Kirk video. THERE – Burt ultimately wins and the world is again a familiar place in which to live!

      5 In reality all of your extended videos have been of such a close high standard that the Duke’s Rio Bravo line comes to mind once more “Sure wouldn’t like to live on the difference.” [The Duke had been asked by the once fast-draw but now a drunk Dino to say who was quicker on the draw, the old pre-drunk Dino or New kid on The Block greased lightning Ricky Nelson.]

      6 Roger Ebert considered the intensity of Kirk’s acting in general “scary” and Kirk’s Ace in the Hole is one of Allan Stewart Konigsberg’s all- time favourite films. Refreshing to get some other “expert” opinions on this site for a change isn’t it!

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      1. Hello Bob. Didn’t expect part two of your video review so soon. Thanks for the review rating info trivia comparison and song lyrics. Much appreciated.

         I have to make this reply short because typing on this phone is a chore.

         Kirk has 9 films scoring 10 out of 10 form my sauces. Including paths of gory. Sporadacis. Out of the post. And 20 thousand legges under sea.

         Six more film scared 9 out of 10 inc the bed and the beautiful. And chompion.

         Not sure when my next vudeo will be out . Hopeflyy this well

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         1. Thanks for feedback.

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            1. Bob. Sorry for the jumped mess. The phone text chooser isn’t helpful at all.

               My next video will be a b.moive queen of the 40s. ?

               If I get my intranet back

   2. Hi Bob. Good to see you’re still posting here. You and Bruce make up and we can all live happily ever after . ? I hate typing on this phone. Dotkks out words. Sorry. The words don’t always make sense. It has a mind if it’s own. Thanks for reviewing the first half of my lurk Doulas video. Sorry kirk Douglas vudeo. Much appreciated. Glsd uoy loed he pictures and stalls. I thknk we need a translator. Looking forward to padte 2.

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      1. The sign that we are getting old….without our table top computers we are lost….meanwhile….younger people do not even know what a table top computer is….lol.

         When I am at work….I could comment on pages with my phone……but it is so FRUSTRATING…..that I just wait, until, I am at home, on my always there for me, table top computer.

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   3. Hey Bob….my first thought when seeing these Kirk Douglas comments was that he had passed….thankfully it is a new Steve video versus his passing. Mini Me passed away yesterday…..hard to believe Kirk outlived Verne by 52 years….Kirk was 52 when Verne was born…..the man has some good genes. Good breakdown on Steve’s video and Kirk’s career.

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      1. Hi Bruce. Mimi me died yesterday? Didn’t know. Venue troyet? Sad news. I’ll check out Hollywood rapeorter. Back later

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         1. Yep…sorry to be the bearer of that bad news. He was 49 years old.

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4. 1 MORNING PHIL I am afraid I’ve never been able to support the concept that something is a movie star’s own “business” when that something has been deliberately foisted on the public by the star(s) or their agents to create a favourable impression and then turns out to have been a deliberate falsehood.

   2 The public has a right to feel aggrieved if it has been taken in by the deception and I feel that to suggest otherwise is not just condescending but smacks of the kind of hypocrisy indulged in by public figures and celebrities who feverishly court publicity and then carp about invasion of their privacy when the public’s attention is drawn to something unfavourable about the same people. I think that the time honoured cliché is “having your cake and eating it” which then dictionary construes as wanting to “have it both ways”.

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   1. Bob, they might not have been the most chummy of friends but I refuse to believe they disliked each other. Why would they team up together in several films? Two powerful filmmakers can do whatever they like, it’s not like they’re forced into starring together in movies. Kirk’s not an idiot if he sensed that Burt didn’t like him he would never work with him again. Don’t believe the rumors. I think they liked each other, call it a professional friendship if you like.

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      1. HI STEVE
         1 Certainly those are the more comforting thoughts but the truth is we’ll never know.

         2 If the report of Burt’s interview is correct then he had never favoured the “buddy buddy” publicity to begin with and had obviously become totally pissed of with it or one would think that he would not have complained in public about it. And he was in good health when he made that statement so it may be that when his health failed he either (a) didn’t want Kirk to see him in his reduced state or (b) he had gotten so fed up with the whole Lancaster/Douglas false affinity thing that in his new lowly condition he no longer could be bothered with Kirk. Certainly Kirk felt slighted in the matter

         3 I have no proof of either of those alternatives of course but as Robert Webber Juror No 12 said in Hank’s 12 Angry Men “In the sales firm where I come from when we have an idea we just run it up the flagpole to see who salutes it.”

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      2. Hey Steve…..I agree that were probably not the best of friends off screen but they were friends. I love the story that Lancaster’s son based The Bad News Bear on Burt. His screenplay was based on his experiences with his father, Burt Lancaster. Buttermaker (played by Walter Matthau) was based on Burt, who was known for his grumpiness. That grumpiness might make it hard to be best friends with anybody….and if he and Kirk were even remotely friendly…that might make Kirk, Burt’s best friend….lol.

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   2. Bob,
      Good points, if the idea was indeed to use their alleged friendship for promotional purposes (which you suggest Burt did not favour), then I guess it’s fair game to examine more closely how genuine this friendship really was! I didn’t mean to be dismissive, I was just focused on other issues. While I think the friendship was indeed exaggerated and somewhat one-sided, I agree with Steve that there must have been some connection for them to co-star in 5 feature films (I leave out the List of Adrian Messenger where Lancaster just briefly appeared as a woman…or so the credits say), 1 TV movie, the Oscar routine etc..In 1981, they also co-starred in a play, The Boys of Autumn, portraying the characters of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn 50 years later. A biography of Lancaster I have says that upon Burt’s death, on behalf of the Screen Actors Guild, Kirk presented to him the Annual Achievement Award in recognition of career and humanitarian achievements. Kirk is also quoted as having said (not sure where): “It’s the passing of a giant. But Burt will never die. We’ll always be able to see him winging from a yardarm in The Crimson Pirate….and shooting with me in Gunfight at the OK Corral”. This does not prove any-thing, but it’s a touching thought.

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5. Hi Cogerson,
   Having commented on the Burt Lancaster movie page, I thought it only fair to comment as well on the page of his contemporary rival, friend, and co-star of several films. Among your pages on legend battles, you may want to consider a Lancaster vs Douglas page. The two are a bit like Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, with fans on each side claiming the other one is greater. On the basis of box office success and critically acclaimed films, Lancaster would win the battle, yet overall, I think Douglas has earned an equally honored place in American films history, perhaps because of a couple of reasons: Firstly, while Lancaster has some great roles and outstanding performances to his credit, he does not have a role quite as famous and enduring as Spartacus. Secondly, Douglas has remained more in the public eye over the past 25 years, simply by virtue of his incredible longevity – and maybe because his son has also become a successful movie star. This may explain why AFI ranked Douglas a bit higher than Lancaster (#17 vs #19) in its list of 25 male screen legends, though many would argue Lancaster should have the higher spot.

   A couple of comments on this page. Two of Douglas’s very best films and roles – Paths of Glory and Ace in the Hole – are only 15th and 16th based on the UMR because they did not do well at the box office at the time of release. However, if one could find a way of measuring long-term popularity (going back to one of my previous posts), these films would do much better, as would Lonely are the Brave, another important film for Douglas (though not quite as big as the other two). In an accompanying documentary to the DVD of Lonely Are the Brave, Douglas seems to suggest it may be his favorite among his films. He certainly gives a powerful and touching performance in it, though he feels his horse stole the show.

   Surprising to see how badly There Was a Crooked Man flopped in the US (though I think it did better internationally?). It’s still not a very well-known film, but it’s a smart and entertaining western comedy and Douglas is delightful as a complete rascal – in French, where I first saw it in the theatre a long time ago, the film is appropriately suitably called: Le Reptile.

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   1. 1 PHIL Crawford v Davis is the correct comparison to make although on this site certain ‘comedians’ have diluted and downgraded the comparison to Crawford v Loy. Anyway you make some interesting observations on Lancaster/Douglas and here are a few comments of my own some of which have already been aired on this site.
      (1) I have always been surprised that AFI ranked Kirk above Burt as I consider the pair equal in status and if I had been forced to split them it would have been marginally in Burt’s favour for reasons you mention.
      (2) A Douglas biographer claimed that in fact Kirk idolized Burt and that biographer went as far as to say “Kirk’s great problem was that all of his movie life he wanted to be Burt Lancaster.”
      (3) In an interview Burt claimed that Kirk and he had never been close friends off set and that their supposed affinity had been invented by Kirk for publicity purposes and that he, Burt, had had little enthusiasm for it but simply went along with the myth out of courtesy.
      (4) In a TV interview that I watched after Burt’s death Kirk and the interviewer discussed the fact that Lancaster had been housebound with illness in the final years of his life and Kirk ‘bitched’ to the interviewer that despite many attempts he had not been allowed into the house to visit Burt. Kirk seemed to blame Burt’s wife Susan for keeping apart him and Burt but in the light of Burt’s reported comments at (3) above I often wondered if it was in fact BURT who had exercised the veto.
      (5) If you turn to Steve Lensman’s 23.3.17 post at 12.56pm on this site you will see that Steve quotes Virginia Mayo as saying that she found Burt more likeable than Kirk.
      2 However I really don’t care whether any or all of that negative personal stuff is true or not for on screen both those guys were great actors who entertained me for half a century. Each was an ‘original’ and how do you definitively rank people who are unique – who is to say Grant was greater than Wayne or vice versa? To both Burt and Kirk there is total relevance in the old cliché “We shall never see his like again.”
      PS: Hope claimed that the off-screen friendship between him and Bing had also been greatly exaggerated and Bing’s widow Kathy seemed to confirm that in a TV interview by saying that Crosby kept largely to himself and that the only other celeb Bing ever had time for offset was Louis Armstrong.

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      1. PHIL Sorry I should have made clear that Steve Lensman’s post is on Bruce’s Virginia Mayo page on this site.

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      2. Good post Bob. I’m a big fan of both actors but if I had to choose between the two I might have to pick Kirk Douglas, not just because of Spartacus (one of my favorite movies) but I find him more sympathetic, even when he’s playing bad. And I think Kirk’s the better actor though Burt has a Best Actor Oscar and Kirk hasn’t.

         Burt and Kirk at the Oscars –

         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta-0orf0j7g

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         1. STEVE:
            1 Thanks for the link.

            2 I would have given Burt the marginal edge because he ticks all the traditional boxes that illustrate star status –

            (1) His movies considerably out-grossed Kirk’s according to WH’s stats:
            Lancaster Total Gross $6.7 billion – Average Gross $100 million
            Douglas Total Gross $5.2 billion – Average Gross $73.3 million

            (2) As you say Burt was an Oscar winner and Kirk wasn’t though he did get 3 nominations and the Myrna Loy Award for Lucky Losers- an Honorary Oscar.

            (3) Burt got into the Quigley Top 10 and I don’t think Kirk ever did?

            (4) In all of their movies together Burt was billed first (except for the alphabetically billed ensemble movie The List of Adrian Messenger).

            Apparently though such factors did not count for over-much with AFI with for example the Duke out-grossing everybody else in both AFI lists but not even getting into the Institute’s Top 10 males.

            2. However both Kirk and Burt impressed me not only as actors and entertainers but as humanitarians with Kirk making a stand to reinstate Dalton Trumbo and Burt crusading for Civil Rights. [Reportedly Clark Gable for all his gruff persona campaigned for desegregated toilets at Metro Goldwyn Mayer.]

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            1. Hi Bob, Steve,
               First, thanks for the link. I had heard of the Oscar routine but never seen it. It`s great!
               I’m aware there’s some doubt on whether the friendship was real or not, but that’s really their business. As actors, apart from the fact that they often appeared together, they seemed to have a similar level of energy, emotional intensity and physical prowess. I can’t think of any other two major stars who distinguished themselves in both dramatic and action roles to the extent that Douglas and Lancaster did. Overall, I think Lancaster had a slight edge not only because of what Bob mentions, but also because he has more classic films to his credit, achieved more popularity during their heyday, and has given some of the best dramatic performances of all times (in Sweet Smell of Success, Elmer Gantry, The Leopard and Atlantic City). Only Douglas’ performances in Lust for Life and Ace in the Hole are in that category in my view. Having said this, comparing them makes for an interesting conversation but as I said, it’s like comparing Davis and Crawford – both great!

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