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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Ranking Movies Since 2011
We figured it was time to have a place to talk about Steve’s latest video subjects that do not have an UMR page.
Good cover poster for Cimarron. I have mentioned before that under his MGM contract Charlie Bill made 14 films between 1955 and 1962 and most of them were box office successes.
However so high were the costs of making Cimarron and 1962’s Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse that they incurred massive financial losses that almost wiped-out the profits in their entirety from the money-makers among the other 12 movies under the contracts.
That harmed Charlie Bill’s status as a top box office star and he immediately dropped out of the Quigley annual lists of Top 10 Box office stars in the US where he had been No 1 in 1958.
After 1964 he no longer appeared in even Quigley’s Top 30 where he had a consecutive 10-year run from 1955-1964 inclusive; and his stand-alone movies like Advance to the Rear started to appear in just double bills and even as supporting features over here where he had once been Belfast’s top box office star along with The Duke and Burt Lancaster.
*** “A Big Girl’s Blouse” – a derogatory English idiom reportedly fashioned a few centuries ago in Lancashire England to describe a man considered ineffectual, weak, effeminate and/or with a posh accent. See fuller definition in The Free Dictionary. I first came across it when I watched The Big Country in the Gaumont cinema Belfast way back in 1957 and when Royal Dano’s ‘cultured gentleman’ Jim McKay initially refused to fight Chuck’s rugged and macho Steve Leech – I suppose those are qualities that go with the Christina name – some rowdy character in the audience [his accent sounded American -possibly a Yank from Virginia over here on a day or two out] yelled out “Oh what a big girl’s blouse!”
It is of course a sexist slur but some ‘rednecks’ are said to be like that in and around Lancashire’s neck of the woods; but it got great publicity in the past while and has received many recent enquiries as to its meaning when the current Conservative British Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson used “A Big Girl’s Blouse” in public to describe the Labour opposition leader in 2019 Jeremy Corbyn. Of course you know that political leaders over here often use colorful expressions in their robust exchanges; for example Conservative Sir Winston Churchill described the Labour party leader of his time Clement Attlee as “A modest man with much to be modest about!” But say STEVE doesn’t Lancashire border on the Greater Manchester super county where you live?
Big Sam left Seattle in the year of ninety-two
With George Pratt his partner and brother Billy too
They crossed the Yukon river and they found the bonanza gold
Below that old white mountain
Just a little south-east of Nome
Sam crossed the Majestic mountains to the valleys far below
He talked to his team of huskies
As he mushed on through the snow
With the northern lights a-runnin’ wild
In the land of the midnight sun
Yes Sam McCord was a mighty man
In the year of nineteen-one
Where the river is windin’ big nuggets they’re findin’
NORTH! to Alaska, go north the rush is on
NORTH! to Alaska, go north the rush is on
George turns to Sam with his gold in his hand
Said Sam you’re lookin’ at a lonely lonely man
I’d trade all the gold that’s buried in this land
For one small band of gold to place on sweet little Myrna’s hand
‘Cause a man needs a woman to love him all the time
Remember Sam a true love is so hard to find
I’d build for my Myrna a honeymoon home
Below that old white mountain
Just a little south-east of Nome
Where the river is windin’ big nuggets they’re findin’
NORTH! to Alaska, go north the rush is on
NORTH to Alaska, go north the rush is on
[Sung by Johnny Horton from Duke Wayne’s 1960 North to Alaska]
1/Ah the Duke! Will we ever see his like again Out West? As a music lover it strikes me that his movies usually have haunting themes [Beautiful Dreamer and The Isle of Innisfree both in The Quiet Man for example] and that his action have ones rousing signature songs well worth repeating which I have done in Part 3 of 3.
2/Almost ironic that a man often derided for his slender build created one of the screen’s most dynamic and enduring western characters of all-time: Shane! Which came first – the chicken or the egg? George Stevens the director of Shane said in an interview in 1953 “Get me the right star and I can always build a wonderful movie around him.”
3/As I’ve said previously Stewart Granger with his solid performances in The Wild North/The Last Hunt/Gun Glory/North to Alaska demonstrated that contrary to the long-held negative myth Englishmen can do westerns. Let’s not forget too that Stew in one of the lead roles was the father-figure and the employer of The Virginian from 1970-1971 in 24 episodes of that western series. Stewart exploded the prejudice that Out West the English are all “Big Girls’ Blouses” ***See Part 3 of 3.
4/I think it is indicative of the almost snobbish attitudes that some critics have had to the westerns genre generally that The Big Country -one of the very greatest westerns of all time in my opinion – doesn’t NORMALLY in my experience get well up into the 90% ratings bracket along with the likes of Godpop, Citizen Kane etc. I think you did mention it getting 10 out of 10 from one of your sources and to his credit The Work Horse falls just short of the 90% bracket with a 89% rating for the Dano/Chuck oater but he at the same time gives the Mafia saga 96%.
Hi Bob, good posts as usual. So we agree that Blazing Saddles is a western just not your idea of a western? Movie books on westerns do include comedies as well as musicals. I know, I’ve read them.
If I make a video on the top 30 horror movies of the 1970s, should I not include ‘Young Frankenstein’ and ‘Love at First Bite’? But Bob, they feature Dr. Frankenstein, the Monster and Count Dracula! Horror icons. How could I not include them? Because they’re not frightening? Of course I’m going to include them.
Unless of course I title my video the scariest horror films of the 1970s.
Or how about Top 30 Serious Westerns of the 1960s?
As Bruce might say, let’s agree to disagree. [Bob snarls] 😉
Btw Welsh Warbler Tom Jones was asked to name his favorite films, he picked three – Favorite horror – The Beast With Five Fingers. Favorite romance – The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. Favorite western – Shane.
HI STEVE: Thanks ever so much for your further thoughts on the genre subject. I suppose that the difference between us really comes down to (1) what one personally considers is the correct format for a traditional Hollywood western and (2) how strong one’s feelings are about that format being distorted with overlaps from other genres.
Really if YOU like Leslie Townes Hope, Dino Paul Crocitti Martini and Joseph Levitch clowning about in a western setting in cowboy gear [albeit in which 2 of that trio don’t look at all comfortable] then you ARE being entertained and that’s what it’s all about and the classification of genre is academic: after all a rose by any other name smells as sweetly just the same.
I have never seen or been remotely interested in ANYTHING Mel Brooks has provided as I consider him a tasteless individual and indeed in an interview that I watched he conceded that such was a widespread perception of him. “I know I am nicknamed Mel No Taste Brooks,” he told the interviewer. Hence I have never before thought about the genres of Blazing Saddles or Young Lensmanstein. However IMDB regards it as a comedy with no mention of it being a horror film.
All I have been doing in my appraisal of your western videos is point to a for me few small flies in the otherwise massive soothing ointment that you always seem to provide for me. Indeed there is a chance that I am looking for small criticisms so that I don’t have to give you 100%! though I see that The Work Horse gives both On the Waterfront and Godpop a UMR rating of 100.
Anyway in Part 2 of 3 are some are some specific other take-ways that I have gotten from the westerns series.
HI STEVE: I hope that you enjoy your break. Meanwhile I take it that when you return you do not intend to extend your westerns videos into the 1960s. Indeed I wasn’t a great fan of the westerns made after the 1950s though that is not to say that I would not enjoy your posters/stills relating to them. Anyway here are a few that I always find worth mentioning:
1/Sir Derek Niven van den Bogaerde’s 1961 The Singer Not the Song with Sir Derek looking magnificent as outlaw Anacleto Comachi, terrorizing the locals in Magnificent Seven-style, riding a white horse, dressed head-to-toe in a tight black outfit and brandishing a vicious whip. It is now considered a cult movie.
2/1961’s One Eyed Jack of course though I’m not sure that I would have liked it as much if Brando hadn’t starred in and directed it. However George Lucas and Martin Scorsese considered it worthwhile spending their own money and two years of their time restoring it.
3/Audie’s 1962 Six Black Horses. This film could almost be called Ride Clear of Manchester 2 because Audie and Duryea reprise their highly entertaining buddy-buddy act; but it is called Six Black Horses because Dan expresses the wish to be taken away in a hearse drawn by 6 Black Horses “when my time comes”.
4/The Duke’s North to Alaska with Stew Granger again showing posh-voiced Englishmen CAN do westerns; though no prizes for guessing who plays the macho Sam McCord!
Big Sam left Seattle in the year of ninety-two
With George Pratt his partner and brother Billy too
They crossed the Yukon river and they found the bonanza gold
Below that old white mountain
Just a little south-east of Nome
Where the river is windin’ big nuggets they’re findin’
NORTH! to Alaska go north the rush is on
NORTH! to Alaska go north the rush is on
Sam crossed the Majestic mountains to the valleys far below
He talked to his team of huskies
As he mushed on through the snow
With the northen lights a-runnin’ wild
In the land of the midnight sun
Yeah Sam McCord was a mighty man
In the year of nineteen-one
Where the river is windin’ big nuggets they’re findin’
NORTH! to Alaska go north the rush is on
NORTH to Alaska go north the rush is on.