We figured it was time to have a place to talk about Steve’s latest video subjects that do not have an UMR page.
2,998 thoughts on “Steve’s Top 10 Charts YouTube Forum”
HI BRUCE
Mr Brando didn’t make many westerns but I agree with you that Appaloosa/Southwest to Sonora [its UK title] was a half-decent western, though with the bushy beard that ole Godpop sported for some of the Saxon movie the mumbling one looked less like John Wayne and more like serial western sidekick George Gabby Hayes.
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I thought I had seen Appaloosa fairly recently….but a quick check on my Letterboxd.com account…and I see I have not seen it in the last 3 plus years. Still I remember liking it more than Missouri Break…..and right there with One Eyed Jacks. Seems I have only watched and reviewed 6 Brando movies since 2014…..I can only imagine how shocked you are when your realize I am only averaging 2 Brando movies a year….lol.
1 STEVE Recently I watched Saxon in an episode of the TV series Quincy but my 3 main memories of him on the big screen are (1) suffering the indignity of Audie Murphy having to rescue him and carry him out of the desert and into town across the shoulders in the 1961 Posse from Hell (2) getting the better of Mr. Mumbles in a brutal arm-wrestling scene in the 1966 Southwest to Sonora [aka the Appaloosa]. Critics panned the movie but Saxon was perceived to have out-acted the Great Mumbler and John won a Golden Globe supporting actor nomination (3) Enter the Dragon, which I watched with my grandson a few weeks ago.
2 I have rated your Saxon video 97% which usually means that there were so many 1st class posters that it would have been overkill to list them all so here goes with a random selection of the very best. The Swiss Consulate, Queen of Blood, the Cthulhu type one The Night Caller, Battle Beyond the Stars [half expected Harrison Ford to be staring out of that one] Joe Kidd and an iconic one showcasing my Richard, Death of a Gunfighter. These did impress me most of all though: The Unguarded Moment, Strange Shadows in an Empty Room, The Elm Street ones, and Black Christmas
3 The best stills I thought were from Summer Love and the 1962 War Hunt [Redford’s first credited film]- Redford was uncredited in Jane Fonda’s 1960 Tall Story] John with Sandra Dee and him and Mr Mumbles from Southwest to Sonora, a collector’s item for any Mumbles enthusiast. The martial arts photo was also very interesting. In a published interview Saxon claimed to have been friends with Mr M since childhood and was delighted to have the opportunity to work with him in Southwest to Sonora.
4 Your visual profiles of 1950s/60s stars are certainly nostalgically rolling back the years for me. Excellent stuff from my viewpoint.
HI BRUCE 1 Saxon was always a very relaxing actor to watch although he never really made the big time. In Enter the Dragon I thought that John’s “class” as an actor ideally complemented Bruce’ Lee’s high octave action stunts and they therefore made a very satisfying team.
2 Also IMDB lists an astonishing 198 credits for Saxon including a lot of TV work so I guess he has never starved and I think I’ll now start dubbing HIM The Work Horse Also of course he was a childhood and lifelong friend of Mr Mumbles and not many can claim that distinction – though I’m sure Joel for one wouldn’t want to!
3 Actually I felt genuinely sorry for Saxon when I read the interview that I mentioned in my post to Steve. John was delighted to be working with his great friend in Southwest to Sonora [aka Appaloosa] and felt that he had been given a juicy part.
4 His instincts were correct there as he got a Golden Globe nomination which was quite a feather in his cap as those kind of nominations don’t usually go to supporting actors in a minor western, though the film itself was panned by critics at the time and I see that you have given it just a 54% rating on your Mumbles page and you’ve credited it with only a $27.5 million adjusted domestic gross. [It’s all relative of course and I’ve just been going over Charles Bronson’s updated Cogerson page and was amazed to notice that even with the increased figures when a few reasonable hits like The Valachi Papers and Death Wish are excluded none of the 20 or so remaining stand-alone true “Charles Bronson” films even make $27.5 in adjusted domestic revenues]
5 It did slightly better with Steve whose rating was 62% and in fact it made Steve’s Top 18 on the Saxon video but anyway reading between the lines Mumbles had already rained on poor John’s parade before the movie was even released by telling him that he, Mr M, detested making the film and saying he was just doing it for the payola.
6 By the way good of you not just to help Steve publicise his videos but also to permit him and me to discuss them on your site as confining myself to the one site saves me duplicating some aspects of my posts. Also if I started to repeat all those old Joel/Myrna jokes EVERYWHERE people would get fed up with them !!
A bit late to the party – Hello Bob, thanks for checking out my John Saxon video, appreciate the review, rating, comment, trivia, info, observation and comparison. Pleased to see you liked the posters and stills.
As you may know I was a huge Bruce Lee fan in my youth and my favorite of the few films he made before his untimely death was Enter the Dragon. I must have seen that at least a dozen times at the cinema.
John Saxon was a charismatic presence in that film and didn’t embarrass in the martial arts scenes (thanks to some expert editing and fight doubles but he knew some moves too). The only other film I remember seeing him in at that time was The Night Caller, a low budget British sci-fi which had some decent reviews. It would turn up regularly on late night TV during the 70s.
In the past few months when compiling these videos I started noticing Saxon had been appearing in movies with the likes of Jimmy Stewart, Burt Lancaster, Audie Murphy, Sandra Dee, Richard Widmark and even the great Mumbler himself. I knew that a Saxon video was definitely on the cards.
Btw I didn’t have to give Enter the Dragon a boost in ratings, the movie had above average ratings from all my sources, Maltin gave it 9 out of 10.
Three other Saxon movies received 8 out of 10 – Black Christmas, A Nightmare on Elm Street and The Unforgiven.
Btw I had inserted the wrong date on ‘Summer Love’, should be 1958 not 1968, too late to fix that now. Bruce can fix any errors easily on his dynamic charts, while I would have to delete the video, amend and publish again.
1 HI STEVE. When I saw you had gone temporarily absent and conversely the Work Horse was once again sprinkling a few crumbs of comments to us my first thought was that you had taken over from him as the Scarlet Pimpernel.
2 On reflection though nicknaming him that is probably uncharitable considering the way W o C and her consort have been beavering strenuously in the background to complete the terrific revamp of this site.
3 We all benefit from that and whilst distance prevents us from buying them a drink to register our appreciation I have nevertheless raised a glass in their honour and am toasting them by singing a line from the classic Dietrich song from the 1939 Destry
See what the boys in the backroom will have
And tell them I’m having the same
Go see what the boys in the backroom will have
And give them the poison they name
4 Yes Saxon has been a charismatic screen performer and in my 7.52 am post to the Work Horse I expressed my own admiration of John’s acting skills. He was though very fortunate to be able to witness first hand the greatest movie practitioners of Martial Arts and Mumbling doing their stuff. I wonder which skill he enjoyed the most?
5 Possibly though Robert Taylor would have been jealous of John. Robert craved the Cowboy of the Century award but never got it [Jimmy Stewart was one beneficiary] and Taylor succeeded in only incurring Flora’s wrath for even wanting it as she felt it should have gone to one of her and my idols Greg and Widmark.
6 For Southwest to Sonora though John was given the Bronze Wrangler acting award by the Western Heritage Awards Society though he had to share it with Mr Mumbles and director Sidney J Furie. But does that matter? After all Joel’s awards were shared ones and everyone but me seems to think his was a towering talent.
7 Black Christmas was one of the creepiest movies I’ve ever seen or been made aware of along with Psycho – and Expendables 3 with its cast of The Undead
Hey Steve….just added your Saxon video to your page here. Plus I viewed and commented on your channel. I feel your pain of the error…..one of the few videos we have is on Susan Hayward….one of the pictures I used was Paulette Goddard and not Hayward…..it has been wrong for three years now….and probably will remain wrong for years to come. So no extra boost for Enter The Dragon? Thinking….thinking….I guess I will have to go with that…..lol. Good stuff.
Hey Bob….good breakdown on John Saxon. I just re-watched him in Enter The Dragon. 198 IMDb credits and counting….he has been steadily for almost 65 years. I thought Appaloosa was a decent western….one of the Brando movies I liked from that period of time. I did not realize he got a Golden Globe for the role. Charlie’s movies were modest hits…..what made them profitable were the smaller budgets. I really think Jason Statham is the new Charles Bronson. Glad to help push Steve’s videos…and have a place to talk about them. Off to his video page right now…to comment and link here. Good stuff…as always.
1 Good additional information fro you. I have come to regard your feed-backs to me as often representing you own equivalent of Bruce’s enjoyable “Possibly Interesting Facts” and you may have observed that a couple of us on this site almost had a heart attack when we though that useful section was going to be permanently dropped from the site’s revamp.
2 Harrison is of course entitled to make as many Indiana Jones flicks as he thinks audiences will watch and it goes without saying that they too have their entitlements in that matter . However for me there’s nothing new or fresh in terms of acting in those franchises he and the rest of those ageing hams seem to be wedded to.
3 Accordingly as well as possibly taking Rod Taylo’sr advice Harrison instead of churning out old hat might also use as a template the character whom I have already mentioned from Wilde’s Picture of Dorian Gray who was once the life and soul of every party and dinner function in London but who at the age of 35 decided that he “had said everything in life that was worth saying,” and ever after kept silent.
4 My own favourite Rod Taylor flick after The Birds and the 2 with my Doris was the 1967 Hotel in which the young Rod made some good chemistry with veteran Melvyn Douglas who was recently profiled by WH. Good cast all round in that one including Mr Mumbles’ Napoleonic bride and Mr M’s old mate Karl Malden who gave a delicious turn as a hotel sneak thief. Thrown in for good measure was Richard Conte who you may remember was Don Corelone’s chief enemy mastermind in Godpop.
5 Incidentally contrary to my misgiving your suggested tactic did work albeit employed by me because my advising you that the Work Horse would be as well NOT viewing your Rod Taylor ensured that the did feel compelled to “jump in” and watch it! We could engage in triumphalism in the matter but that would be churlish as it is very decent of him to keep assisting you in promoting your videos. Anyway have a good weekend and I’ll catch up with you again when we have your next offering.
Thanks Bob. I don’t think I’ve seen Hotel, I’ll keep an eye out for it next time it’s on.
Talking of Doris Day, her figure looks spectacular in the poster for The Glass Bottom Boat, even Raquel and Ursula would be impressed. It’s been years since I saw the film and I’m wondering if that’s really her or some clever artwork. Was Doris ever that gorgeously sexy? [Bob nods] 🙂
I though the very young Doris was absolutely gorgeous in Romance on the High Seas in 1948 and if you go to her Cogerson page and look at WH’s miniature still of her with Cagney you can understand why she sent Jimmy’s blood racing in that movie!
Thanks again Bruce! Hopefully I’m giving you inspiration for future UMR pages with these videos. And your website has been a big help to me for video subjects in the past.
HI STEVE
1 Rod Taylor had an extensive apprenticeship in movies as a supporting actor from the mid-1950s until he became a star in the early 1960s after which he was a regular leading man often with top billing until right through the 1980s with I think one final lead role in a 1990s B movie.
2 He produced and starred in the 1967 western Chucka and also wrote a couple of screenplays, besides working on TV and the stage. Quite a professionally versatile character therefore. Three of his TV appearances were in 1995 Angela Lansbury’s Murder She Wrote. His final acting role was a cameo in the 2009 Inglorious Basterds and whilst he no longer had great prestige as a star his swan song could not have seen him playing a more prestigious real life person – your fellow countryman the great Winston Churchill.[To again paraphrase Jake Houseman in the 1987 Dirty Dancing “When are people great I SAY they’re great” – even if they are English! Sorry Joel, you don’t make the cut.]. In fact Rod seemed to have a fondness for playing historically famous Englishmen and in the 1962 Seven Seas to Calais for example he was Sir Francis Drake
3 Brilliant POSTERS in your Taylor video were Deadly Trackers, World Without End, Step Down to Terror, Chucka, Dark of the Sun, the Time Machine, The Train Robbers, showcasing my Duke at hi most iconic,s, and both the raunchy and foreign language ones featuring my Doris. Entertaining STILLS were I thought Glass Bottom Boat, the Time Machine, Giant, The Birds and my own very favourite one The Train Robbers. Unfortunately for Rod though when The Duke takes centre stage in any visual presentation I for one find it hard to look at anyone else in that presentation
4 My overall rating is 96.5%and your opening quote from Rod should be made compulsive instruction for Harrison Ford and all of those ageing action heroes we have been discussing recently and for their sycophantic followers on this site. You deserve credit for your courage in including it given your own stance in the debate. though perhaps you should be kind as well as courageous and urge The Work Horse on this occasion to not watch the Taylor video.
Hi Bob, thanks for the review, rating, info, comment and trivia, always appreciated.
Glad the posters and stills met with your approval.
And Rod Taylor was only 57 when he made that quote about getting too old for action movies and letting the younger guys take over, Ford is 75 and wants to make one more Indiana Jones movie before hitting 80. [Bob rolls his eyes] 🙂
I remember dear old Roger saying he had to quit making Bond movies because he was getting older and the girls were getting younger. On his last Bond movie, A View to a Kill, Tanya Roberts mother visited the set and Moore noticed that even she was younger than he was, it was time to retire as the worlds least secret agent.
I was a Rod Taylor fan when I was a kid because of two films he starred in – George Pal’s The Time Machine and Hitchcock’s The Birds, both are still big favorites of mine.
As an action hero Taylor was particularly good in the bloodthirsty African adventure Dark of the Sun (1968), which was titled The Mercenaries in Europe. Dark of the Sun was the name of the novel by Wilbur Smith who specialized in African adventure stories. Gold & Shout at the Devil, both starring Roger Moore, were also based on Wilbur Smith novels.
Three Rod Taylor movies scored 10 out of 10 from my sources – 101 Dalmations, Giant and The Birds. Four scored 8 – Inglourious Basterds, The Time Machine, 36 Hours and Raintree County.
Highest rated at IMDB was Inglourious Basterds with 8.3.
Hey Bob and Steve……so I am guessing that Rod Taylor got some Top 10 Charts love…I will be checking out Steve’s latest very soon…and sharing the video link here. P.S. Hey Bob….now I HAVE to watch his video…lol.
HI BRUCE
Mr Brando didn’t make many westerns but I agree with you that Appaloosa/Southwest to Sonora [its UK title] was a half-decent western, though with the bushy beard that ole Godpop sported for some of the Saxon movie the mumbling one looked less like John Wayne and more like serial western sidekick George Gabby Hayes.
.
I thought I had seen Appaloosa fairly recently….but a quick check on my Letterboxd.com account…and I see I have not seen it in the last 3 plus years. Still I remember liking it more than Missouri Break…..and right there with One Eyed Jacks. Seems I have only watched and reviewed 6 Brando movies since 2014…..I can only imagine how shocked you are when your realize I am only averaging 2 Brando movies a year….lol.
1 STEVE Recently I watched Saxon in an episode of the TV series Quincy but my 3 main memories of him on the big screen are (1) suffering the indignity of Audie Murphy having to rescue him and carry him out of the desert and into town across the shoulders in the 1961 Posse from Hell (2) getting the better of Mr. Mumbles in a brutal arm-wrestling scene in the 1966 Southwest to Sonora [aka the Appaloosa]. Critics panned the movie but Saxon was perceived to have out-acted the Great Mumbler and John won a Golden Globe supporting actor nomination (3) Enter the Dragon, which I watched with my grandson a few weeks ago.
2 I have rated your Saxon video 97% which usually means that there were so many 1st class posters that it would have been overkill to list them all so here goes with a random selection of the very best. The Swiss Consulate, Queen of Blood, the Cthulhu type one The Night Caller, Battle Beyond the Stars [half expected Harrison Ford to be staring out of that one] Joe Kidd and an iconic one showcasing my Richard, Death of a Gunfighter. These did impress me most of all though: The Unguarded Moment, Strange Shadows in an Empty Room, The Elm Street ones, and Black Christmas
3 The best stills I thought were from Summer Love and the 1962 War Hunt [Redford’s first credited film]- Redford was uncredited in Jane Fonda’s 1960 Tall Story] John with Sandra Dee and him and Mr Mumbles from Southwest to Sonora, a collector’s item for any Mumbles enthusiast. The martial arts photo was also very interesting. In a published interview Saxon claimed to have been friends with Mr M since childhood and was delighted to have the opportunity to work with him in Southwest to Sonora.
4 Your visual profiles of 1950s/60s stars are certainly nostalgically rolling back the years for me. Excellent stuff from my viewpoint.
Hey Bob…So I am guessing Steve has given Mr. John Saxon some Top 10 You Tube love….will have to check that out. Good stuff on Saxon.
HI BRUCE 1 Saxon was always a very relaxing actor to watch although he never really made the big time. In Enter the Dragon I thought that John’s “class” as an actor ideally complemented Bruce’ Lee’s high octave action stunts and they therefore made a very satisfying team.
2 Also IMDB lists an astonishing 198 credits for Saxon including a lot of TV work so I guess he has never starved and I think I’ll now start dubbing HIM The Work Horse Also of course he was a childhood and lifelong friend of Mr Mumbles and not many can claim that distinction – though I’m sure Joel for one wouldn’t want to!
3 Actually I felt genuinely sorry for Saxon when I read the interview that I mentioned in my post to Steve. John was delighted to be working with his great friend in Southwest to Sonora [aka Appaloosa] and felt that he had been given a juicy part.
4 His instincts were correct there as he got a Golden Globe nomination which was quite a feather in his cap as those kind of nominations don’t usually go to supporting actors in a minor western, though the film itself was panned by critics at the time and I see that you have given it just a 54% rating on your Mumbles page and you’ve credited it with only a $27.5 million adjusted domestic gross. [It’s all relative of course and I’ve just been going over Charles Bronson’s updated Cogerson page and was amazed to notice that even with the increased figures when a few reasonable hits like The Valachi Papers and Death Wish are excluded none of the 20 or so remaining stand-alone true “Charles Bronson” films even make $27.5 in adjusted domestic revenues]
5 It did slightly better with Steve whose rating was 62% and in fact it made Steve’s Top 18 on the Saxon video but anyway reading between the lines Mumbles had already rained on poor John’s parade before the movie was even released by telling him that he, Mr M, detested making the film and saying he was just doing it for the payola.
6 By the way good of you not just to help Steve publicise his videos but also to permit him and me to discuss them on your site as confining myself to the one site saves me duplicating some aspects of my posts. Also if I started to repeat all those old Joel/Myrna jokes EVERYWHERE people would get fed up with them !!
A bit late to the party – Hello Bob, thanks for checking out my John Saxon video, appreciate the review, rating, comment, trivia, info, observation and comparison. Pleased to see you liked the posters and stills.
As you may know I was a huge Bruce Lee fan in my youth and my favorite of the few films he made before his untimely death was Enter the Dragon. I must have seen that at least a dozen times at the cinema.
John Saxon was a charismatic presence in that film and didn’t embarrass in the martial arts scenes (thanks to some expert editing and fight doubles but he knew some moves too). The only other film I remember seeing him in at that time was The Night Caller, a low budget British sci-fi which had some decent reviews. It would turn up regularly on late night TV during the 70s.
In the past few months when compiling these videos I started noticing Saxon had been appearing in movies with the likes of Jimmy Stewart, Burt Lancaster, Audie Murphy, Sandra Dee, Richard Widmark and even the great Mumbler himself. I knew that a Saxon video was definitely on the cards.
Btw I didn’t have to give Enter the Dragon a boost in ratings, the movie had above average ratings from all my sources, Maltin gave it 9 out of 10.
Three other Saxon movies received 8 out of 10 – Black Christmas, A Nightmare on Elm Street and The Unforgiven.
Btw I had inserted the wrong date on ‘Summer Love’, should be 1958 not 1968, too late to fix that now. Bruce can fix any errors easily on his dynamic charts, while I would have to delete the video, amend and publish again.
1 HI STEVE. When I saw you had gone temporarily absent and conversely the Work Horse was once again sprinkling a few crumbs of comments to us my first thought was that you had taken over from him as the Scarlet Pimpernel.
2 On reflection though nicknaming him that is probably uncharitable considering the way W o C and her consort have been beavering strenuously in the background to complete the terrific revamp of this site.
3 We all benefit from that and whilst distance prevents us from buying them a drink to register our appreciation I have nevertheless raised a glass in their honour and am toasting them by singing a line from the classic Dietrich song from the 1939 Destry
See what the boys in the backroom will have
And tell them I’m having the same
Go see what the boys in the backroom will have
And give them the poison they name
4 Yes Saxon has been a charismatic screen performer and in my 7.52 am post to the Work Horse I expressed my own admiration of John’s acting skills. He was though very fortunate to be able to witness first hand the greatest movie practitioners of Martial Arts and Mumbling doing their stuff. I wonder which skill he enjoyed the most?
5 Possibly though Robert Taylor would have been jealous of John. Robert craved the Cowboy of the Century award but never got it [Jimmy Stewart was one beneficiary] and Taylor succeeded in only incurring Flora’s wrath for even wanting it as she felt it should have gone to one of her and my idols Greg and Widmark.
6 For Southwest to Sonora though John was given the Bronze Wrangler acting award by the Western Heritage Awards Society though he had to share it with Mr Mumbles and director Sidney J Furie. But does that matter? After all Joel’s awards were shared ones and everyone but me seems to think his was a towering talent.
7 Black Christmas was one of the creepiest movies I’ve ever seen or been made aware of along with Psycho – and Expendables 3 with its cast of The Undead
Hey Steve….just added your Saxon video to your page here. Plus I viewed and commented on your channel. I feel your pain of the error…..one of the few videos we have is on Susan Hayward….one of the pictures I used was Paulette Goddard and not Hayward…..it has been wrong for three years now….and probably will remain wrong for years to come. So no extra boost for Enter The Dragon? Thinking….thinking….I guess I will have to go with that…..lol. Good stuff.
Hey Bob….good breakdown on John Saxon. I just re-watched him in Enter The Dragon. 198 IMDb credits and counting….he has been steadily for almost 65 years. I thought Appaloosa was a decent western….one of the Brando movies I liked from that period of time. I did not realize he got a Golden Globe for the role. Charlie’s movies were modest hits…..what made them profitable were the smaller budgets. I really think Jason Statham is the new Charles Bronson. Glad to help push Steve’s videos…and have a place to talk about them. Off to his video page right now…to comment and link here. Good stuff…as always.
HI STEVE
1 Good additional information fro you. I have come to regard your feed-backs to me as often representing you own equivalent of Bruce’s enjoyable “Possibly Interesting Facts” and you may have observed that a couple of us on this site almost had a heart attack when we though that useful section was going to be permanently dropped from the site’s revamp.
2 Harrison is of course entitled to make as many Indiana Jones flicks as he thinks audiences will watch and it goes without saying that they too have their entitlements in that matter . However for me there’s nothing new or fresh in terms of acting in those franchises he and the rest of those ageing hams seem to be wedded to.
3 Accordingly as well as possibly taking Rod Taylo’sr advice Harrison instead of churning out old hat might also use as a template the character whom I have already mentioned from Wilde’s Picture of Dorian Gray who was once the life and soul of every party and dinner function in London but who at the age of 35 decided that he “had said everything in life that was worth saying,” and ever after kept silent.
4 My own favourite Rod Taylor flick after The Birds and the 2 with my Doris was the 1967 Hotel in which the young Rod made some good chemistry with veteran Melvyn Douglas who was recently profiled by WH. Good cast all round in that one including Mr Mumbles’ Napoleonic bride and Mr M’s old mate Karl Malden who gave a delicious turn as a hotel sneak thief. Thrown in for good measure was Richard Conte who you may remember was Don Corelone’s chief enemy mastermind in Godpop.
5 Incidentally contrary to my misgiving your suggested tactic did work albeit employed by me because my advising you that the Work Horse would be as well NOT viewing your Rod Taylor ensured that the did feel compelled to “jump in” and watch it! We could engage in triumphalism in the matter but that would be churlish as it is very decent of him to keep assisting you in promoting your videos. Anyway have a good weekend and I’ll catch up with you again when we have your next offering.
Thanks Bob. I don’t think I’ve seen Hotel, I’ll keep an eye out for it next time it’s on.
Talking of Doris Day, her figure looks spectacular in the poster for The Glass Bottom Boat, even Raquel and Ursula would be impressed. It’s been years since I saw the film and I’m wondering if that’s really her or some clever artwork. Was Doris ever that gorgeously sexy? [Bob nods] 🙂
HI STEVE
I though the very young Doris was absolutely gorgeous in Romance on the High Seas in 1948 and if you go to her Cogerson page and look at WH’s miniature still of her with Cagney you can understand why she sent Jimmy’s blood racing in that movie!
Just added Steve’s Jeff Chandler and Rod Taylor pages. I saw the comment that Bob was referring to….pretty sure that is what Ford thinks too….lol.
Thanks again Bruce! Hopefully I’m giving you inspiration for future UMR pages with these videos. And your website has been a big help to me for video subjects in the past.
Congrats on making the UMR fully dynamic.
HI STEVE
1 Rod Taylor had an extensive apprenticeship in movies as a supporting actor from the mid-1950s until he became a star in the early 1960s after which he was a regular leading man often with top billing until right through the 1980s with I think one final lead role in a 1990s B movie.
2 He produced and starred in the 1967 western Chucka and also wrote a couple of screenplays, besides working on TV and the stage. Quite a professionally versatile character therefore. Three of his TV appearances were in 1995 Angela Lansbury’s Murder She Wrote. His final acting role was a cameo in the 2009 Inglorious Basterds and whilst he no longer had great prestige as a star his swan song could not have seen him playing a more prestigious real life person – your fellow countryman the great Winston Churchill.[To again paraphrase Jake Houseman in the 1987 Dirty Dancing “When are people great I SAY they’re great” – even if they are English! Sorry Joel, you don’t make the cut.]. In fact Rod seemed to have a fondness for playing historically famous Englishmen and in the 1962 Seven Seas to Calais for example he was Sir Francis Drake
3 Brilliant POSTERS in your Taylor video were Deadly Trackers, World Without End, Step Down to Terror, Chucka, Dark of the Sun, the Time Machine, The Train Robbers, showcasing my Duke at hi most iconic,s, and both the raunchy and foreign language ones featuring my Doris. Entertaining STILLS were I thought Glass Bottom Boat, the Time Machine, Giant, The Birds and my own very favourite one The Train Robbers. Unfortunately for Rod though when The Duke takes centre stage in any visual presentation I for one find it hard to look at anyone else in that presentation
4 My overall rating is 96.5%and your opening quote from Rod should be made compulsive instruction for Harrison Ford and all of those ageing action heroes we have been discussing recently and for their sycophantic followers on this site. You deserve credit for your courage in including it given your own stance in the debate. though perhaps you should be kind as well as courageous and urge The Work Horse on this occasion to not watch the Taylor video.
Hi Bob, thanks for the review, rating, info, comment and trivia, always appreciated.
Glad the posters and stills met with your approval.
And Rod Taylor was only 57 when he made that quote about getting too old for action movies and letting the younger guys take over, Ford is 75 and wants to make one more Indiana Jones movie before hitting 80. [Bob rolls his eyes] 🙂
I remember dear old Roger saying he had to quit making Bond movies because he was getting older and the girls were getting younger. On his last Bond movie, A View to a Kill, Tanya Roberts mother visited the set and Moore noticed that even she was younger than he was, it was time to retire as the worlds least secret agent.
I was a Rod Taylor fan when I was a kid because of two films he starred in – George Pal’s The Time Machine and Hitchcock’s The Birds, both are still big favorites of mine.
As an action hero Taylor was particularly good in the bloodthirsty African adventure Dark of the Sun (1968), which was titled The Mercenaries in Europe. Dark of the Sun was the name of the novel by Wilbur Smith who specialized in African adventure stories. Gold & Shout at the Devil, both starring Roger Moore, were also based on Wilbur Smith novels.
Three Rod Taylor movies scored 10 out of 10 from my sources – 101 Dalmations, Giant and The Birds. Four scored 8 – Inglourious Basterds, The Time Machine, 36 Hours and Raintree County.
Highest rated at IMDB was Inglourious Basterds with 8.3.
Hey Bob and Steve……so I am guessing that Rod Taylor got some Top 10 Charts love…I will be checking out Steve’s latest very soon…and sharing the video link here. P.S. Hey Bob….now I HAVE to watch his video…lol.