We figured it was time to have a place to talk about Steve’s latest video subjects that do not have an UMR page.
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We figured it was time to have a place to talk about Steve’s latest video subjects that do not have an UMR page.
Hi Bob, great posts! Thanks for the review, generous rating, info and trivia, always appreciated. Happy you liked the posters, stills and lobby cards.
One of the regulars on my video channel suggested Lon Chaney Jr for future consideration and here it is. I think I’ve covered all the horror greats on my video let’s see… Karloff, Lugosi, Price, Lorre, Carradine, Cushing, Lee and Chaney Sr was well represented in my Tod Browning video late last year.
I remember reading John Wayne also got angry at Kirk Douglas for playing the constantly whining and disturbed Vincent Van Gogh in Lust for Life, one of his best roles. According to IMDB Wayne was horrified. “Christ, Kirk! How can you play a part like that? There’s so few of us left. We got to play strong, tough characters. Not those weak que*rs.” Douglas tried to explain, “It’s all make-believe, John. It isn’t real. You’re not really John Wayne, you know.” Wayne looked at him oddly, as if Douglas had betrayed him.
Three films scored 10 out of 10 from Chaney’s filmography – The Defiant Ones, Of Mice and Men and High Noon.
High Noon tops both IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes charts.
“My father would be horrified if he knew I was making it in the pictures and that I wasn’t billed as Creighton Chaney.”
Interesting comprehensive and yet compact and easy-to-follow feedback from you as usual. I get the feeling that you enjoyed bringing together the Chaney material [especially the “chillers” ] every bit as much as I enjoyed viewing it. There’s something about those old posters and vintage stills/lobby cards that always grabs me.
Thanks too for the additional information about The Duke’s spat with Kirk. I was aware of some of what was said but not it all; Kirk’s combative response has never been in any account that I have seen. Certainly he wasn’t afraid to stand up for himself. Apparently when the ‘confrontation’ took place, John was one of a group of guests at Kirk’s home around the time Lust for Life was made and Kirk gave them a private showing of the film.
At some point The Duke got up a walked out, as I understand it, and seethed and cooled his heels in Kirk’s garden. When the movie was over Kirk Joined him and asked him what was bothering him; and that’s when the ‘fireworks’ occurred.
Sinatra had the same attitude as Big John when people didn’t conform to what Frankie considered were social norms; and he went ballistic when his agent told him that a movie about Sinatra’s life was being considered with Elton John in the lead. “THAT little weirdo’s NOT going to play ME!” he emphatically yelled at the poor agent. Sinatra was always a “shoot the messenger” kind of guy.
Changing the subject to another “real American” among movie stars the following is an extract from WH’s Alan Ladd page that I hadn’t picked up before to the best of my recollection though the page has been with us for some time. Were you¸ as possibly this site’s No 1 super/action hero fan, aware of the information contained therein?
ITEM 5: TRIVIA BRUCE’s ALAN LADD PAGE
“Alan Ladd was the visual inspiration for the original illustrations of superhero Green Lantern/Alan Scott (created in 1940). Ladd was 27 years old at the point. The Green Lantern’s full name is Alan Ladd Wellington Scott.”
From the moment I first set eyes on Laddie I knew he wasn’t an ORDINARY screen tough guy/hero – HE would have sorted out The Meg before the first reel ended!! Anyway as I’m off on holiday for 9 days this Saturday I hope you have another video for us on Friday. Keep safe.
Bob, that is interesting about Alan Ladd inspiring the comic book design for the Green Lantern, I wasn’t aware of that bit of trivia. It’s ironic that despite his lack of height Ladd was an action hero to millions around the world, and women swooned when he took his shirt off.
My theory is that it wasn’t obvious back then how short he really was (surely taller than Pacino or Hoffman), clever camera angles, standing on boxes, lifts in his shoes etc gave the impression he could handle any situation and he rarely looked up at his opponent. Jason Statham isn’t exactly tall either, was Ladd shorter than him I wonder?
Btw Bob, Flora, Bruce I think I’ll take a week off too next week, recharge my batteries. But there will be one more video on friday. I’ll still be popping in at the UMR.
HI STEVE: Thanks for your response. With his ‘scoop’ about Ladd and Green Lantern, The Work Horse ‘trumped’ us both: me as the Great Laddie Fan; and you as this site’s expert on super heroes. Will we ever live it down? WH does contribute meaningfully sometimes to this site!!
There are conflicting reports on Ladd’s height. His official US Army record puts it at 5ft 8’. If that’s true Jace is still the taller however at 5ft 10’; though I’m sure that The Meg would rather be confronted by him than Laddie!
Talking about The Duke’s prejudices and hang-ups, one of his dislikes that was almost as strong as his annoyance with “unreal” Americans such as Cooper, was tightness with money on the part of anyone in the Wayne social company.
For example he couldn’t stand the supporting actor Bruce Bennett[*** see also Part 2]because the latter always dodged buying his round of drinks when socializing with fellow actors like Wayne. In private life Wayne was apparently a generous man, buying presents for all his neighbors at Christmas and distributing them on Christmas Eve.
That leads me to wonder what Big John thought about Randy and Archie who were said to be such “tight wads” that they shared a house for a time to economize on rent although both were well-off financially; and the Duke worked with the pair – Randy in Pittsburg and The Spoilers [both 1942]and an uncredited Al Leach in 1946’s Without Reservations.
So you are taking a break that will coincide with my own. That will test WH: can he survive without both of us? Certainly one feels that all it will take is for one of his other regulars like Dan or Flora to disappear too the same week as you and I do, and The Work Horse will call in sick! Anyway roll on Friday until we get your final video for now and Saturday when I depart for sunny climes.
***Bruce Bennett in 1931 was actually the first ever actor in the talkies to be signed to play Tarzan. However before shooting began, he broke his shoulder and Johnny Weissmuller of course got the part and as the cliché goes “the rest is history”. Therefore that accident may have historically robbed Bennett of the Big Time; but he lived to nearly 101 whereas sadly Johnny, who died at 79, went mad and was admitted to an asylum where he scared the other inmates by waking them in the middle of the night with his Tarzan yell. WE though ended up OK because we’ve got a Bruce who’s even better than Tarzan – though he seems to think he’s Rocky!
STILLS/LOBBY CARDS I think that again I’m just about to list all of them; and that’s OK because the quality was fairly even throughout with some of the “shockers” maybe having a very slight edge. Anyway here goes:
1-3 Mummy’s Curse, Ghost and Tomb
4/Big Vic back one million years ago
5/I died a Thousand Times – remake of Bogie’s classic High Sierra
6/Big house USA
7/Son of Alucard
8/House of Frankenstein
9/Revenge of the Wolf Man
10/Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein – A & C of course one of WH’s Greatest Duos!
11/The Wolf Man
12/The Defiant Ones – WH probably includes me in that group!
13/Of Joels and Men
14/Coop begging for Lon’s help – The Duke would have burnt that one!
15/The closing “frightener” – takes pride of place in my view
Ah the days of Larry Talbot, Kharis, Alucard and “Frankie” as we kids used to nickname the Monster, in our ignorance not realizing that Frankenstein was the creator and not the Monster himself! I think though that it suited the studios to let kids think that.
MY PICK OF THE 20 BEST POSTER SETS IN LON JUNIOR’s VIDEO
1/first one for Bride of the Gorilla
2/Alligator people
3/The Black Castle – on double bill over here with Ronald Shiner’s comedy Top of the Form
4/The Black Sleep
5/first one for Mummy’s Ghost
6/Pillow of Death
7/first one for Mature’s One Million years BC
8/House of Alucard
9/Man Made Monster
10/Weird Woman – was that one lifted in error from the Nick Charles films?
11/first one for The Ghost of Frankenstein
12/Cowboy of the Century as Billy the Kid – classiest poster I’ve seen for that movie
13/Springfield for Rifle
14/first one for House of Frankenstein
15/Haunted Palace
16/My favorite Brunette – very saucy!
17/The Wolf Man
18/Of Joels and Men – first one, very sexy!
19/first one for High Noon
20/Union Pacific.
Ironically, I had just finished watching a TV rerun of Union Pacific when it was suddenly announced on the news that Joel had died. That would have been 20 Oct 1990 – gosh; I remember that announcement vividly as if it were yesterday! I would have been younger than The Work Horse – wiser but not as conceited of course!
However by the 1950s the old style horror films had run their course and although Lon Jr appeared subsequently in sporadic “shockers” he was obliged to act in a variety of supporting parts in other genres [like that in High Noon] to continue in movies. By the 1960s he was further reduced and had small roles in cheap westerns such as Young Fury, Black Spurs and Apache Uprising [all starring my Rory] and Town Tamer featuring Dana Andrews.
Those westerns and a number of others like them were all produce by A C Lyles [a close friend of Cagney] and they were nicknamed “graveyard films” because Lyles made them on shoestring budgets and virtually every role in each of them was occupied by former stars of reasonable importance but had become over-the-hill ‘has-beens’ who could be bought cheaply. Johnny Mack Brown even turned up in one in the tiny role of a humiliated sheriff who was run out of town I pantomime fashion. by the bad guys.
Thus are the mighty fallen; and I always thought that Lon Junior’s participation in films nicknamed “graveyard” ones was rather ironic given that all of the horror films he made in his heyday would have well suited being set in graveyards and many of them on the face of it probably were if I recollect properly. My pick of the posters/stills/lobby cards are listed in Parts 3 and 4; and your video entertained me to the tune of 98.5%. A good pre-holiday treat from my perspective.
When one reads the following passages from the profile of Lon Chaney Senior in Wikipedia it will be understood how hard an act Lon Junior had to follow:
Leonidas Frank “Lon” Chaney was an American stage and film actor, make-up artist, director and screenwriter. He is regarded as one of the most versatile and powerful actors of cinema, renowned for his characterizations of tortured, often grotesque and afflicted characters, and his groundbreaking artistry with makeup. His ability to transform himself using makeup techniques he personally developed earned him the nickname “The Man of a Thousand Faces”.
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In the 1970s the BBC television company over here used to run late-might seasons of black and white old horror films at weekends featuring stars of the genre such as Karloff, Lugosi and Lon Junior. I loved them and they made my weekend at times. However today I remember Lon Jr most for the scene in High Noon in which he refuses to help Cooper fend off the bad guys.
It was scenes like that in High Noon that earned Coop The Duke’s eternal contempt because in Wayne’s view Cooper and the makers of High Noon were “showing small-town America up as cowards,” and Big John stated publicly that instead of “sniveling, crawling to ordinary citizens and depending in the end on his wife [Princess Grace] to save him,” Gary should have “got out there and protected the people that as peace office he was duty bound to serve,” by demonstrating, that as the cliché goes “A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do,” as the Duke himself had done many times.