Thankfully we get lots of requests for new pages. Well…the wife recently informed me that my way of collecting my requests was pretty weak. She seems to think that writing down requests on whatever piece of paper or napkin or bill that is currently on my desk is not the way to do it. So….since she is way smarter than me….I have decided to create a page just for requests. Plus it should give a good idea of what pages are coming down the pike.
My logic in picking which page to do next….I lean heavily towards the subject that has the most requests.
- Roger Corman – request by Dan
- Peter Cushing – request made by SteveLensman, Dan & Brando 90
- Disney Live Action 1967-1980 – request by Mimic
- Foreign Movies requested by Laurent
- Samuel Goldwyn – request by Dan
- Sam Katzman – request by Dan
- Fritz Lang – request by Lupino, Just Me
- Bruce Lee – request by Brando 90
- Harold Lloyd – request by Søren, Me
- Henry Mancini – request by Flora
- Patricia Medina – request by Dan
- Mirisch Brothers – request by Dan
- Edward Small – request by Dan
- Rudolph Valentino – request by Laurent
Completed requests:
- Kurt Russell Facts – request by WoC – 4/27/17
- Gunfight At OK Corral Movies – request by Sunter – 4/26/17
- John Sturges – request by HotHam – 4/24/17
- Favorite Movies – request by LoP – 4/23/17
- Tim Conway – request by Cogerson – 4/20/17
- Fast & Furious Movies – request by Bry57 – 4/17/17
- 1945 Movies – request by LoP – 4/15/17
- Rosalind Russell – request by Chris – 4/12/17
- Vin Diesel – request by Bry57 – 4/11/17
- 1944 Movies – request by LoP – 4/9/17
- Going In Style – request by WoC – 4/6/17
- Don Ameche – request by Søren – 4/1/17
- 1943 Movies – request by LoP – 3/30/17
- Sylvia Sidney – request by Lupino – 3/27/17
- Marine Movies – request by Alex – 3/23/17
- 2017 Actress Tourney – request by me – 3/20/17
- 1937 Movies – request by LoP – 3/18/17
- 2017 Actor Tourney – request by me – 3/16/17
- Sonja Henie – request by Kevin – 3/14/17
- Emma Watson – request by Katie – 3/14/17
- 1938 Movies – request by LoP – 3/13/17
- Sean Penn – request by Hinton66 – 3/11/17
- Arlene Dahl – request by Flora – 3/8/17
- 1941 Movies – request by LoP – 3/6/17
- Cameron Crowe – request by Cogerson – 3/4/17
- Tony Curtis – request by Dan – written 3/2/17
- Bill Paxton – request by WoC – written 2/26/17
- 1980s Action Heroes – request by me – written 2/25/17
- Kathryn Grayson – request by Flora – written 2/24/17
- Ben Kingsley – request by Hinton1966 – written 2/22/17
- Donna Reed – request by John,Lupino – written 2/19/17
- Judd Nelson – request by Cogerson – written 2/17/17
- Dev Patel – request by Aarav – written 2/16/17
- Ray Milland – request by Chris – written 2/13/17
- Michael Bay – request by Tomlin – written 2/8/17
- Mario Lanza – request by BERN1960 – written 2/7/17
- Top Hits Through 1965 – request by me – written 2/5/17
- Margaret Sullavan – request by Lupino – written 2/3/17
- Time Travel Movies – request by Katie – written 2/2/17
- Danny Glover – request by Dan – written 2/1/17
- Clifton Webb – request by Cameron – written 1/29/17
- John Hurt – request by Scotty – written 1/27/17
- Dana Andrews – request by many – written 1/26/17
- Paul Giamatti – request by BryRog57 – written 1/24/17
- Priscilla Lane – request by Kevin & Lupino – written 1/22/17
- Richard Gere – request by Chris & WoC – written 1/18/17
- Van Heflin – request by Peterson – written 1/15/17
- Donald Trump – request by WoC – written 1/11/17
- Battle of the Legends – request by WoC – written 1/11/17
- Richard Dreyfuss – request by Hinton – written 1/10/17
- George Arliss – request by Top Billed – written 1/9/17
- Dick Powell – request by Top Billed – written 1/8/17
- Your Movie Sucks – request by J. Scott – written 1/6/17
- Jason Statham – request by Michael – written 1/4/17
- Wallace Beery – request by Søren – written 1/3/17
- December 2016 (9 requests written)1959 MoviesCarrie Fisher, Lyle Talbot,Video Game Movies,1976 Movies,George Lucas,Fredric March,Daniel Radcliffe,Virginia Mayo
- November 2016 (13 requests written) Nicole Kidman,Dorothy Lamour, Gail Russell, Victor Mature, Michael Biehn, Jeanette MacDonald, Donald Crisp,Paul Henreid,Linda Darnell, Christopher Plummer, Jean Arthur,Career Top Ticket Sellers,Ray Harryhausen
- October 2016 (12 requests written) Jake Gyllenhaal,Paulette Goddard,Justin Timberlake,Bad Blockbusters,Quigley 1939 Stars,Paul Muni,Gary Oldman,John Barrymore,Ronald Reagan,Robert Zemeckis,Warner Brothers Ledgers Trip,Sydney Greenstreet
- September 2016 (16 requests written) Jeremy Irons, Maureen O’Sullivan,Joel McCrea,Mr. Moto Movies,Who Is Next Brando?,Betty Hutton,Gene Wilder,Van Johnson,Richard Pryor,Top 200 Science Fiction Movies,627 Science Fiction Movies,Philip Seymour Hoffman,Robert Altman,Tiger Theater,Thelma Ritter, George C. Scott
- July 2016 (14 requests written) McClane vs Bourne,Frank Marshall,Kathleen Kennedy,Esther Williams,Mel Brooks,Vincente Minnelli,Tommy Lee Jones,Walter Pidgeon,Melissa McCarthy,Greer Garson,Garry & Penny Marshall,Gene Tierney,Steven Seagal,Walter Wanger
- June 2016 (15 requests written) Glenn Close,Audie Murphy,Sigourney Weaver,Robert Montgomery,Chevy Chase,Anton Yelchin,Josef von Sternberg,Michael J. Fox,George Stevens,Deanna Durbin,Ryan Gosling,Robert Taylor,John Goodman,Peter Sellers,Annette Bening
- May 2016 (12 requests written) Robert Ryan,2016 Movies,Shelley Winters,Ernest Borgnine,Ann-Margret,Michael Fassbender,Yul Brynner,Tim Burton,John Williams,Jennifer Jones,Roger Moore, Western Movies
- April 2016 (13 requests written) Top 100 Westerns, Sally Field,Kay Francis, Leslie Howard, Diane Keaton, Top 100 Stars, Deborah Kerr, Top 25 Actresses 1950-2010, Top 25 Actors 1950-2010, Rob Reiner,Elia Kazan, Ice Cube, Fred MacMurray
- March 2016 (16 requests written)Top 100 Film Noir Movies, Warren Beatty, Movie of the Year, Keira Knightley, Film Noir Movies,George Cukor, Peter Lorre, Lucille Ball, Kevin Smith, Frank Capra,Claude Rains, Chuck Norris, Top 100 Musicals, Seth Rogen,Alan Ladd Movies, Daniel Craig Movies
- February 2016 (13 requests written) Lionel Barrymore Movies, AFI Top 100 Movies, AFI Top 50 Screen Legends,Mary Pickford, Drew Barrymore, Buster Keaton, Sam Peckinpah, Jessica Chastain, Lillian Gish, John Hughes, Richard Burton, Warren Oates, 1952 Top Grossing Movies,
- January 2016 (19 requests written) Kate Winslet, Claudette Colbert, Ben Stiller, Carole Lombard, Top Ticket Selling Movies, Edith Head, Joan Fontaine, Zoe Saldana,Ronald Colman, Stephen King Movies, Roy Scheider,Classic Movie Actor Stat Table ,Steve Carell, Glenn Ford, David Bowie, Samuel L. Jackson, Tarzan Movies.Francis Ford Coppola, Randolph Scot, Mark Ruffalo
- December 2015 (18 requests written) Anthony Quinn, Vincent Price, Peter O’Toole, Charles Laughton, Walter Brennan, Betty Grable, Best Christmas Movies, Terry Gilliam ,Natalie Wood, Paul Rudd, Rita Hayworth, Jason Bateman, David Niven, Fred Zinnemann, William Powell, Bruce Dern, Jane Fonda, Billy Wilder
- November 2015 (10 requests written) Dan Patrick, David Lean ,Julianne Moore, Orson Welles, John Candy, Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman Movies
- October 2015 (9 requests written) Cecil B. DeMille, Goldie Hawn ,Mickey Rooney , Andy Hardy Movies, Chris Evans Lauren Bacall ,Debbie Reynolds ,Ma and Pa Kettle Movies, Tom Hardy
- September 2015 (8 requests written) Ava Gardner, Emily Blunt , Jean Harlow , Kevin Costner, 1942 Top Grossing Movies ,Susan Sarandon , Abbott and Costello ,Screen Duos
Many more to come…have to find all of my old napkins and transfer the requests to this page.
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Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy! And thanks for the Robert Ryan page
Hey Brando90….glad you liked your Ryan page….I will add Laurel & Hardy to the page….but I have done so research on them….and there is very little box office information on their full length movies…but maybe I will find some in the future. Thanks for the suggestions.
Per my comment on Henry Fonda’s page when you recently shared it and I talked about it:
I think you should continue with the family dynasty pages like with the Barrymores and the Hustons.
You have done a page on Henry Fonda, and on Jane Fonda.
I’m requesting a page on Peter Fonda.
Hi Bruce
What about these names…
Virginia Mayo
Dorothy Lamour
Paulette Goddard
Ralph Bellamy
Don Ameche
Hey Søren….all good suggestions….and all added to the request list…thanks for the suggestions.
By definition the AFI list of screen legends excludes stars who were not considered historically ‘great’.. The beauty of Cogerson is that it gives information about not just the ‘greats’ but also stars of a perceived much lesser status. However Joan Crawford once remarked that to be considered an important movie star one had to carry some weight at the box office; and a film historian has said that we know that for example Alan Ladd was an important star in his day because there was little else but Alan Ladd in the droves of financially successful film he mad in the forties and fifties.
Within such contexts some of the preferences of both AFI and Cogerson do leave me puzzled. Sophia Loren’s box office record is nowhere vertiginous (nor for that matter is Greta Garbo’s!). And take Ava Gardner. In none of the 15 top grossing films in Cogerson was Ava the top-billed star; her name was always no higher than second to the likes of Gable,Burton,Ty Power, Peck, Heston, Bogie, Robert Taylor, or Lancaster. Indeed I can think of only ONE film that Ava ‘carried’ as the top-billed star and which reputedly made money: The Little |Hut [1957]. Thus Margaret Hinxman, a respected film critic of Photoplay magazine in the fifties demanded: “Where’s the evidence that Gardner is big box office?”
Conversely though between 1938 and 1948 Deanna Durbin made a string of films most of which apparently were box office successes; where Deanna was to paraphrase that historian the only thing in them; and which were said to have saved her studio (Universal) from bankruptcy. Yet the late Miss Durbin has been ignored by AFI and (so far anyway) by Cogerson. When I consider all that I have no urge whatsoever to sing my favourite MacDonald/Eddy song “Ah! sweet mystery of life At last I’ve found you!”
Hey Robert Roy. I like the AFI list but I do not agree with it 100%…..especially on the actress side. I did a page that took the AFI Top 50 and created my Top 50 current stars….when I did that….I feel I was able to make the AFI Top 25 Actress page better….as I moved Audrey Hepburn, Olivia de Havilland, Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly and Sophia Loren to the modern stars….and added Myrna Loy, Irene Dunne and Deborah Kerr to the classic stars….to me it made the list much much better. https://www.ultimatemovierankings.com/top-100-movie-stars/
As for Ava G……not sure how she made the list….she herself was not impressed with her own career…she was great in small doses…..the sexy Thelma Ritter of movies…..when like you say it was her movie…those movies did not fare very well.
As for Deanna Durbin….before we started doing these pages….we admit we were not aware of Deanna Durbin….she is now on our radar….She only has 23 acting credits…..with two of them being shorts….leaving 21 movies…we have 4 in our database already….leaving on 17 to research…..though her movies were with Universal…..not one of the easiest to find box office information on…..but only 17 movies interests me.
Thanks for the great comment…it is appreciated.
Thanks for your comments on the AFI list. You’re right about the women’s list being more out of line than the men’s. All of the ‘Big Beasts’ that you would expect to be in the men’s list are there and one could only really quarrel about the order in which they are placed [Henry Fonda bigger than Wayne? -come on!]
To be fair to you you have now covered all of the big classic stars that I personally would be interested in with the exception of Durbin and Robert Taylor. Thanks also for your info about The Men. I always thought that Box Office Story’s gross of 7.1 was way over the top. I should add that I do not see any inconsistency between your grosses and calculations under the Consumer Price Index. Your figures illustrate what a film of yesteryear would make if it was released today and had the same attendance figures. Thus your figures are excellent for making comparisons with modern films’ popularity. Consumer Price calculations on the other hand are good for illustrating what value in today’s dollars one can place on actual grosses of long ago when cinema ticket prices were much cheaper in real terms than they are today.As one historian pointed out a forties Cagney film with the same audience as a Cruise/Hanks film today would have needed in fact to have doubled that audience to have a box office gross of equal dollar value to the Cruise/Hanks film in today’s money. But as I have said there is no conflict in all of that. If you want to see a real conflict of figures look up sometime the actual grosses quoted by Box Office Mojo and The Numbers for Marvin/Eastwood’s Paint Your Wagon.
Finally I laughed at your description of Ava as a”sexy Thelma Ritter”. Coincidentally a line relating to each of these ladies has long been ingrained into my mind. In the Cold War Widmark movie Pick-up on South Street Thelma said something like “I have nothing against Communism. I just don’t like Communists as people.”! The poster tagline for the Bogie/Ava Gardner movie The Barefoot Contessa read “The World’s Most Beautiful Animal!” I’ll sign off by saying thanks again Bruce for all the hard work you have put into illuminating for all movie buffs the history of many aspects of the film marketplace.
Hey Robert Roy
1. I have really enjoyed your comments this week.
2. You have made some great points.
3. I will add Durbin and Taylor to my request page…and try to knock them out soon.
4. The Men was one of the few misfires in the 1950s for Brando
5. Glad you liked my Thelma Ritter comment.
6. I tried to contact Box Office Mojo about their Paint Your Wagon issue….but they had no interest in my point.
I greatly appreciate all the nice words about our website…and for visiting our website.
Bruce you have brought definitive consistency to a lot of box office mysteries down through the years. It used to be that we would read in the press statements like “Jaws has grossed over 200 million”.or “The Godfather has passed the 50 million mark.” Such statements are meaningless of course unless they can be placed within a proper context. As you know a bald figure can relate to domestic rental, domestic gross, worldwide rental or worldwide gross. Your pages always make crystal clear the type of revenue to which you are referring.
Perhaps someday there will be also be more information available about the actual profits made by films. As it is we don’t know which ones made the most money after costs, etc. The extent of the gross is just a rough guide but is not definitive. Some big-grossing films have allegedly lost money, whilst smaller grossing ones have been profitable because of modest production budgets. Matters are not helped by what actor James Coburn called the creative accounting of film producers designed to deny actors promised profit shares.. For example on top of a massive flat fee for Superman (1978) Brando was reportedly promised a percentage of over 11% of
the film’s profits. In 1978/79 Superman grossed 300.3 million dollars worldwide (over 1 billion in today’s dollars!). Yet the producers apparently told Brando that there were no profits because of massive costs. It was subsequently reported that he took legal action and was given an out of court settlement (figures vary between 15 and 18 million dollars in 1980s money). Anyway keep doing what YOU are doing. I am very keen to see more of your updated classical actor pages; very much enjoyed today’s one on Henry!
Thanks for the awesome words about our website. As for production costs and profits….the RKO and MGM ledgers have all that information. I wish all studios would have taken the time to do ledgers like they did.
Creative accounting has been around a long time….and will be around for a long time…even in this era of “transparency”. Paramount claimed Coming To America was not profitable….until they got sued….and lost. The https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buchwald_v._Paramount case is very interesting to read.
Thanks again for the kind words.
Peter Sellers too
Hey Brando90…..I will add your name to the Sellers requests…thanks for stopping by.