Requests

requests1

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:

Many more to come…have to find all of my old napkins and transfer the requests to this page.

 

(Visited 6 times)

1,625 thoughts on “Requests”

  1. Not Robert Roy. BOBBY !

    PS I am actually just sitting down to watch a movie about the life of Robert Kennedy It’s called BOBBY ! !

    Reply

    1. Bobby. Yes. But if people look up your comments in search, it won’t be Bobby.

      Great to hear about the film Bobby.

      Reply

    2. I’d never have guessed Anon was YOU Flora.

      Full many a gem of purest ray serene
      The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear
      Full many a flower is born to grow unseen
      And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

      BOBBY

      Reply

      1. We get lots of Anonymous comments and a few “Me” comments…..I can edit in the name when I now which person forgot to include the name.

        Reply

    3. If that is the Bobby movie I think it is….not a whole lot of RFK in that one….but it has a good cast for sure.

      Reply

  3. Bruce:

    Based upon the fact that you have not had time to work on Audie Murphy lately, I suggest you put Audie on the back burner despite the fact that many of us would love a page on him and do a classic artist whose films are mainly in your database, or another year review like the 1976 year I requested. In other words:

    MAKE THINGS EASY FOR YOURSELF.

    So a page on someone easy to find the information.

    Furthermore, I know you like to alternate between classic and current stars, but why not forget that for now and instead focus on a name that you personally enjoy, regardless of whether it is on the request list like you did when Anton died.

    Reply

      1. Exactly!

        When Bruce decided to do the top 50 AFI stars, he started out with the ones that were the easiest to find box office. That’s mostly MGM. He had to rethink how to do people like silent stars and he did do them differently. But he did them.

        It took him 5 years to complete the AFITop 50 Stars, but he did it.

        Reply

        1. BRUCE
          No problem. The cinemas in Belfast used to be open Christmas Day and in 1954 my Christmas present to myself was to go to a matinee showing a Rory Calhoun western called Dawn at Socorro; after that I went to an early evening performance of Martin & Lewis in Living it Up at another cinema; after which I crossed the road to yet another cinema & watched a late evening performance of Jubilee Trail with Forrest Tucker.

          So bring on the Murphy 33 !! Seriously it’s great news.

          BOB

          Reply

    2. Well…currently I am looking for possible interesting facts….which is the last part of doing these pages….I am thinking I will go ahead and finish Mr. Audie….lol. But I appreciate your concern. I did give up on 9 of his 1960s movies….but I think the 33 I have pretty much covered his career. The page should be done soon…..though watching Suffragette while writing the page is considerably slowing me down. lol.

      Reply

  4. BRUCE
    1 Glancing down your Sigourney Weaver page I stumbled upon that wonderful colour reproduction of the poster for Duel at Silver Creek and nostalgia came flooding over me.

    2 I loved Murphy’s string of B movies in the 50s one of which [ Destry 1955] was a minor remake of the Stewart/Dietrich classic. Duel at Silver Creek too became an often-viewed cult classic in my family It was almost unique in that virtually every prominent character in it had a nickname – “Rat Face”/ “Brown Eyes” / “Silver Kid” – and was never addressed by his/her real name.

    3 As covered in DiCaprio’s The Aviator Faith Domergue whose name is prominently displayed on the poster and who played “Brown Eyes” was a mistress of Howard Hughes. She tried to run him down in her car when he dumped her. In the movie a young Lee Marvin was a bad guy nicknamed “Tinhorn” .

    4 Linked to the poster reproduction was a suggestion that you might be about to do a page on Murphy. That it never materialised surprises me. Whilst Murphy was just a B movie actor*** in his career he has become a cult figure in cinema folklore.

    5 Moreover, your early comments about Jimmy Stewart suggested that you respected actors who distinguished themselves in the military service of their country. Although not an actor at the time of World War 2 Murphy received in connection with that war every combat award for valour that the US Army could issue. However we have agreed how difficult it can be to unearth figures for films especially minor ones, released by Universal studios who made
    most of Murphy’s movies.

    6 ***Incidentally, during the 1980 Presidential election campaign Ronald Reagan was ridiculed by his political opponents for having been just a B movie actor who “never got the girl”. Ronnie beautifully turned the tables on his attackers by saying: “In my Hollywood days the B stood for bringing in the film within Budget.- which is what I intend to do for America. Oh, and by the way. I always got the girl ! ”

    Best wishes BOB

    Reply

    1. Hey Bob.
      1. Then you should really like the next UMR page….Mr. Audie Murphy….who has been on our request list for awhile now.
      2. Currently my knowledge of Murphy is pretty limited….but by the time I finished looking up all of his movies…I will be better educated….but nowhere near your knowledge.
      3. When I added that video…I saw Faith Domergue’s name…and thought…never heard of her….but after reading your comment….I must have read about her when I was reading lots of books on Hughes a few years ago.
      4. Yep Murphy is next…currently I have 6 Murphy movies in the database…..so I have some work to do.
      5. Murphy’s war record is very impressive. I think actors like Gable,Montgomery and Stewart that left their Hollywood stardom to fight in the war is even more impressive. One of my dad’s favorite books was about Stewart and his military career…reading those stories are amazing. Not as impressed with some actors that were more concern about their careers than the War…..and figured out a way to avoid the war….is not as impressive.
      6. Reagan had some awesome comments.
      Thanks for the input.

      Reply

      1. 1 Brilliant about the Murphy page. He obviously can’t be considered one of the Greats; but for me he sits in a special bracket of lesser stars for whom I had great affection.

        2 As you are no doubt aware the military draft passed the Duke by. It has been reported that whilst he and John Ford had an otherwise great relationship Ford [who apparently regarded himself as a super patriot] always considered that the absence of military service was unfortunate in the Duke’s case.

        3 For example Ford and the Duke were shooting a scene for one of their cavalry movies
        in which Wayne had to salute his superior officer. A dissatisfied Ford made him do the scene about two dozen times and they were tied down by it for a long time. When Ford finally cried “cut” he is said to have turned to Wayne in front of the whole cast and crew and admonished “Now if you had served your country you would have know how to salute.”

        4….Whilst no doubt embarrassed Wayne didn’t seem to let Ford’s general cantankerousness
        unduly influence their relationship. He is reported to have said to Jimmy on the set of Liberty Valance “That’s just the way he is.” Also when reporters asked Duke for his opinion on what had propelled him above most other actors who specialised in action films and westerns he simply replied “John Ford.”

        5. Ronnie Reagan’s awesome one-liners on the political scene were among those qualities that earned him the accolade “The Great Communicator.”

        6 Faith Domergue was a stunningly beautiful woman but she never transcended B movies. She is I think most to be remembered as Bob Mitchum’s criminally psychopathic lover in the low budget Where Danger Lives [1950] where Mitch doesn’t realise that he is in the company of a psychopath. Some historians have observed that just as McQueen always seemed to ‘escape’ Big Bob tended to be repeatedly ‘victimised’ in one fashion or another in his movies.

        7 Indeed one critic opined that Mitch was the most victimised leading actor in American cinema history. In Not as a Stranger for example he is forced to apologise and say that he was wrong when he was in fact right. And in the very last scene in Angel Face [1952] another of his deranged lovers, Jean Simmons, reverses her car over a cliff because he was attempting to leave her and kills them both.

        I’ve detained you enough so best wishes BOB

        Reply

        1. Hey Bob
          1. I did well on his movies from 1949 to 1958…..the end of his career looks like it was filled with low budget movies…pretty much the opposite of Wayne’s career…who started with the Bs and ended with the big budget movies…..Murphy started with moderately budgeted movies and ended in the Bs.
          2. I just watched Trumbo….and the Duke’s lack of service was part of a couple of scenes….I imagine it probably was a sore spot for Wayne for sure.
          3. I think Ford was always figuring out ways to ride Wayne….so I am not surprised at all about #3.
          5. Reagan was indeed the Great Communicator.
          6. Thanks for the information on Domergue.
          7. I agree Mitch had some problems in the movies….things did not go well for him at all in Out of the Past either.

          So I have a Brando story for you…..found this one while I was looking for a A. Murphy box office number. At one point Brando was set to star in The Egyptian. “Brando, however, was a very single-minded person, and had decided that he did not like Phillip Dunne’s screenplay. After a first read-through of the script he left Los Angeles and refused to return to the studio”. Needless to say The Egyptian is not part of Brando’s resume.

          Reply

          2. BRUCE
            1 Thanks for the extra information about The Egyptian. I knew that he had walked out on his contract to do the Egyptian, but never knew why. I always thought that it might have been because Mature was in the film and that MB didn’t rate him as an actor. Burt Reynolds regularly comes onto TV to complain about Bud vetoing him for the James Caan part in Godpop. Bud later explained that he couldn’t envisage Burt and he having any on-screen chemistry. {Burt also complains about MB being repeatedly rude to him in public and it almost came to a fist-fight once.]

            2. However now that you’ve given me the lowdown on The Egyptian I can say only that Marl seems to have gone from the frying pan to the fire. To avoid a breach of contract lawsuit from Fox he had to do Desiree, which apparently he loathed and which was mauled by the critics. However it seems to me that there were still compensations for him:

            (1) The film had massive domestic grosses as your own inflation adjusted figure bears out. bears out. ***

            (2) According to a biographer of Stewart Granger [then hubby of J Simmons MB’s co-star in Desiree and Guys and dolls] Stewart and Bud formed a romantic relationship for a while.

            (3) The great Olivier went public on TV and took on the critics by opining that MB’s Napoleon was one of the most underrated performances that he( Larry) had ever experienced.

            3 I saw Trumbo and was enthralled by it. I agree that it was in many ways unflattering to the Duke. However it did confirm reports that I had read down the years that when you got Big John away from politics and his ‘a a man’s gotta do’
            persona he was one of the most warmhearted and gregarious people you could meet.
            For example he went overboard to be friendly to his neighbours, buying them all Christmas presents and drinking with those with whom he was especially friendly. Above all even with regard to politics the Duke was not a vindictive person.

            4 Trumbo seems to bear out that. You will notice that even though Edward G had given the Committee what it wanted the vicious Hopper and some of the others still wanted to tear down Eddie; but the Duke stood up to them and said “no” even though
            Hopper threatened him. Big John took the view that they had gotten their pound of flesh and that Ed G had to be allowed to “walk away with something”. Duke then immediately went out to Eddie and told him that he (John) would start making phone calls right away to get him lined-up for good parts.

            5 The one weakness of the film was that it did not always make clear what ‘un-American’ thing an artist had done. In an autobiography Robinson explains his ‘sin’ and recalls how even though he had always acted in good faith as a US patriot he had made one near-fatal mistake. His wife was a journalist at one point and had obtained an interview with one of the great revolutionary leaders in Russia. Eddie had an interest in political figures of all persuasions and his wife allowed him to sit in on the interview to satisfy his curiosity about the man.

            6 It can be appreciated how whenever that came out during the Committee investigations it was like a red flag (no pun !) to a bull. As Eddie put it in the autobiography “Then the roof fell in on me.” . He opines that Hopper and the other unforgiving ones might have gotten him in the end but for one man: Cecil B D: Eddie and Cecil were both Jews and Cecil threw the protective arm of the Jewish Community round Eddie. Cecil was also seen as a stalwart Man of the Right and that consideration along with the power of the Jewish Community enabled Eddie to be left alone for the rest of his career. .

            7 Going full circle back to Bud. In his book Eddie. whose stock and trade was of course gangster parts jokingly called the Don his own offspring and opined that it demonstrated that the star of The Godfather was “pretty well part proof”

            Best wishes BOB

            ***When you produced the worldwide inflation adjusted figure for Superman (1978) it completed my knowledge of the worldwide grosses for the entire set of the 4 1970s Brando blockbusters [the other three being Godpop, Last Tango and Apocalypse Now]. Their overall inflation adjusted gross worldwide came to about $3.0 Billion (ticket Inflation calculation method) or around $3.5 Billion (CPI method of adjustment). That means that foreign grosses were in broad line with domestic earnings.

            However I would expect that if they were in keeping with the times MB’s foreign grosses for his classic era films might have been weak. I have never been able to get any information about his worldwide grosses for those films and if you ever stumble across one or two of them I’d appreciate it if you could pass them on to me.
            Many thanks.

          3. Hey Flora….I think you will enjoy Trumbo….lots of movie history there for sure.

            Hey Bob…..1. I feel I have accomplished something….by telling you something new about Brando.
            2. If you read about the making of The Godfather…..it was a difficult project and many thought it was destined to be a bomb…..once it succeeded….it seems many people came out saying they knew all along that movie was destined for greatness….amazing how a blockbuster can change people’s minds.
            3. The Egyptian was a hit…but it is mostly forgotten with time…..maybe Bud would kept the movie in the public eye more.
            4. Good view on Trumbo…..the guy looked nothing like Wayne…but I still like his performance….I agree when he helped EGR….it showed him in a very good light.
            5. Thanks for the back ground on EGR….and his thought on Brando.
            I will see what I have for worldwide box on his movies you mentioned….I thought I had Superman worldwide gross listed on my DC vs Marvel page,,,…I will have to check and see. I will also see what I have on the other three movies.
            As always thanks for sharing your knowledge.

      2. Great! Audrey Murphy is another one of my favourites. A true Hero who became a movie star after being a hero.

        Reply

        1. 18 movies done….but stuck in 1959 through 1967….looks like his career quickly turned into low budget B movies….with the exception of 1960s The Unforgiven.

          Reply

          2. BRUCE

            By my reckoning Audie just made 4 films that were not B movies to one extent or another.

            (1) The Unforgiven (1960) –
            Supporting role and billed below title with Burt and Audrey

            (2) Night Passage (1957)
            Second lead to Jimmy Stewart but billed above the title after Jimmy

            (3) To Hell and Back (1956)
            His autobiographical film about his war experiences. He was of course the stand-alone, top billed star of that and I think it was his highest grosser – but you’ll sort that out. I saw a rental of 6 million dollars quoted for it – massive for 1956, 1.5 million rental was usualyl the highest for his B films

            (4) The Quiet American (1958)
            He was top billed in this and occupied the title role. However the truly central character Thomas Fowler, was played by Michael Redgrave in that version and Caine in the later remake.

            All his other films were, certainly here in N Ireland, either B movies on the bottom half of a double or B+ ones on the top half. For example his 1955 remake of Destry Rides Again was on the bottom half of a double bill shared with So this is Paris starring Tony Curtis.

          3. Hey Flora….have not had the time today yo work on Mr. Murphy…..but you might be right….I might have switch things around a little on his page.

          4. Hey Bob…..I think the four movies listed would be his big budget event movies….with Red Badge of Courage being a close 5th place. Think some his movies got more attention in the states…..but his movies in the 1960s seem like some bottom of the barrel projects for sure. So far I have budget numbers fir those movies but nothing else. 7 movies made on a grand total of budget of 3.5 million…with Murphy getting a little under $300,000 for all three movies. Thanks for sharing the information in your comment.

      3. BRUCE/UPDATE:

        1 I mentioned that Edward G accompanied his journalist wife to an interview with a revolutionary leader. I have checked my notes and the leader concerned was Leon Trotsky, probably the most important architect of the Russian Revolution after Lenin.

        2 Trotsky was assassinated in 1940 so the interview was likely in the 30s. The Committee certainly went a long way back in its investigation; and one can now clearly see why they were so antagonistic towards him and the reason the likes of Hopper wanted to keep after him..

        3 Every Fu Manchu film ended with the chilling voice-over threat: “The world shall hear from me again!” YOU shall certainly hear from ME again. I’ve just noticed that Leon has galloped into town.

        Reply

        1. Hey Robert Roy.
          1. Interesting information about EGR, is wife and the Russian Revolution….almost sounds like a movie in itself. Maybe for Red2 …especially if Warren Beatty’s unnamed Howard Hughes movie does well.
          2. Makes sense. One of my favorite parts in Trumbo was near the end when JFK comes out a viewing of Spartacus and says how wonderful the movie was….as Hopper/Helen Mirren is watching the President on tv…..and her face shows that she knows the witch hunts and her power are going away.
          3. I look forward to hearing from you again.

          Reply

          1. BRUCE:

            1 I had meant to say to you that I thought that the 1991 Guilty by Suspicion starring DeNiro was a reasonable companion-piece for Trumbo. [So was Good Night and Good Luck but I’ll not dwell on that one as Cogerson-unloved Clooney was in it. ! ]

            2 There are some cross-overs between the DeNiro film and Trumbo If you’ve seen Guilty by Suspicion you may recall that Sam Wanamaker was a lawyer who operated a one man sort of good cop/bad cop routine. He supported the Committee but, by seeming to criticise it he pretended to be on the side of its victims to subtly persuade and frighten the latter to yield to the Committee.

            3 Speaking to DeNiro’s character who is reluctant to give the Committee ‘names’ he says: “You can’t beat these b——s David. They’re ruthless. One of their leaders has just been jailed for corruption.”

            4. You will recall that in clink Trumbo met the latter, who says to him that it was ironic the pair of them were both inside when they were opposed to each other at the hearings. I loved it when Trumbo replied that the difference was that he Trumbo had not committed a crime whereas the other party had.

            5. There I felt that Trumbo was making the point that many of the critics of Guilty by Suspicion missed. The latter was criticised for watering down to a ‘mere’ Liberal a character who in the book from which it was adapted was a Communist. .

            6 But in reality the main historical criticism of the Committee is usually that many of the people whom it punished WERE Liberals and not Communists. In other words whatever one thinks of all the ideologies involved the Rule of Law presupposes that a citizen can be charged with only the actual offence that he is supposed to have committed.

            7. You are spot on in referring to the decline in Hopper’s power. Indeed as the 50s wore on celebrities who had once feared her because of the influence of her column became less afraid; and Bud is supposed to have disrespectfully referred to her as “the one with the hat”

            8. But [no pun intended] .Hats off to the Duke for standing up to her when she was still powerful. That would have been an interesting one, wouldn’t it? – Hopper trying to brand as ‘soft on Communism’ the man idolised by millions as THE AMERICAN .

            9 Anyway I’d need to get off, politics. albeit within an artistic context, or I’ll bore Flora and she’ll give me her Mickey Rooney treatment.- go into another room when
            my posts are flagged up !

            10. I’ll not quite be able to escape politics today though. The ‘wife of Robert’ and I are of to see Elvis and Nixon about the occasion when Elvis met the President [and I think that Nixon made him an honorary FBI agent – beats Cowboy of the Century]

            Best wishes BOB.

          2. Hey Bob.
            1. Those are great insights into the connections of Guilty by Suspicion and Trumbo.
            2. I can not remember if I have seen Guilty by Suspicion or not….but it is sitting on my DVD rack ready to be watched…either again or for the first time
            3. I will have to have this comment open when I watch the movie….it is like a map to how to view that movie.
            4. Seems like maybe you could edit the two movies together and make one long in depth look at the situation….and we can not forget a young Woody Allen running around….in The Front.
            5. Yep…I liked the scene where Duke stood up for EGR.
            6. Hoped you and WoR enjoyed the movie…..and that Michael Shannon made a good Elvis.

      1. Hey Flora….I have a couple books on Mr. Murphy….if they don’t help with his 1960s movies……thinking I will just provide the critic audience rating. In some ways his career is really similar to Steven Seagal’s career……some good hits at the beginning but then one low budget movie after another…at the end of his career. For Seagal…..another person on the request list…..I might have two tables one with box office and everything else…..and then a second that shows the rest of the movies. Seems Murphy’s page fits that strategy too.

        Reply

      1. I was talking to Bruce.

        I thought that if he could not find the information for Audie Murphy’s entire films maybe he would change the order of the artists featured. He has had to do that before. However, since he likes to do a new post every couple of days or three days in between at the most, he still has more time.

        Of course, now that school’s out he won’t have a lot of time period.

        Reply

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