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.
In the “Discovering Film” episode it was also revealed that Tennessee Williams noticed that theatre audiences couldn’t take their eyes off a young newcomer in the cast of Streetcar on Broadway in the late 1940s so that other performers were being overlooked.
Tennessee therefore tweaked many parts of the script so that the other characters were positioned closer in distance on stage to the New Kid on the Block and therefore the other performers could not be totally ignored by the audiences. No names, no pack-drill: I’ll leave it to you STEVE to work out who the New Kid was. Apparently he ultimately became Tennessee’s favourite thespian.
ADDITIONAL TRIVIA FROM TV’s “DISCOVERING FILM” Marlon Brando’s robust appetite for food and women was legendary but very few knew how loyal and loving he was as a friend. When his comedian best buddy Wally Cox died and got cremated Brando kept Wally’s ashes for himself –against the fierce wishes of the Widow Cox!
When Marlon himself passed away many years later his ashes were mixed with Wally’s and that of another one of the close friends of the pair until after a suitable ‘mourning’ period the ashes were scattered in 2 designated places under the term’s of Brando’s last will and testimony.
HI GIRLY SWOT! As you mentioned Brando via One Eyed Jacks features well in your 1961 video ‘topping the bill’. Last night I watched a rerun of a 2015 episode of the TV series “Discovering Film” and Martin Scorsese’s now oft-quoted observation was again highlighted:
“History of the movies is in effect divided into 2 parts: there is Before Brando and there is After Brando: HE is the marker! I used to lie in bed wondering when we would next see him and what kind of role it would be when he did show-up”
Scorsese and George Lucas of course spent two years of their time and money restoring One Eyed Jacks. What’s new to me though is that the Celebrity Net Worth site has just proclaimed Lucas the richest CELEBRITY on the planet with an estimated net worth of $10 BILLION – wow! Spielberg has $3.7 BILLION in the bank “Thar’s gold in tham thar stars!”
Added Steve’s latest Western Yearly You Tube videos to this page. Good videos.
Hi Bruce, your comment only partially arrived at my youtube channel, sorry about that. Maybe it was mangled mid transit? Or the youtube censors did not like the content? [ominous music rising]
I’m kidding, youtube doesn’t have moderators or does it? Too much content. Would you take the job? Any takers? Approving comments at youtube, top wages, let’s see how many hands are raised… 1,2,3 [Stop it Steve!]
Thanks again for the share Bruce, always appreciated. “Hi-Yo Silver, away!” [Steve rides off into the sunset]
BEST STILLS IN STEVE’s 60s WESTERNS VIDEO [98% rated by me]
Not as many stills as usual especially in first part of the video – but what’s there is very satisfactory.
1/Guns of the Timberland – note ‘puffy-faced’ Ladd’s physical decline
2/2 for Heller in Pink Tights – wow again!
3/2 for The Plunderers-only Chandler’s one-armed Captain Sam stands in their way.
4/2 classy ones for Cimarron
5/2 for Hell bent for Leather – wow again!
6/Comanche Station
7/2 for The Unforgiven
8/2 for Flaming Star
9/3 for North to Alaska
10/Sgt Rutledge.
11/2 for The Alamo-
“My name’s Richard. I don’t like being call Dick!” – Widmark to the Duke when the latter was directing him in The Alamo. However the result of Wayne’s direction must have nonetheless pleased Richard because in an interview with the press he said “I’m now in big demand again,” after what he considered a bit of a lull in the quality roles in his career.
Hi Bob, thanks for the review, generous rating, info, trivia and quotes, much appreciated. Happy you liked the posters, stills and lobby cards.
Technically The Alamo is more big scale historical war movie than western but there were fewer good ‘western themed’ or ‘western flavored’ American movies in the 1960s so I can’t afford to be picky. The Alamo is more akin to Zulu than Rio Bravo, and at least Zulu had a happy ending.
“Republic. I like the sound of the word.” Eyebrows were raised when The Alamo nabbed a Best Picture Oscar Nomination back in 1960, the critics were not kind to the Duke’s patriotic epic.
Kubrick’s Spartacus wasn’t even considered back then and now it’s one of the most critically acclaimed epics ever. Academy voters decided Fred Zinnemann’s The Sundowners was a worthier picture than Spartacus for Best Picture.
Okay let’s see… one film scored 10 out of 10 from my sources and it was a ‘real’ western, with an iconic score by Elmer Bernstein The Magnificent Seven. A remake of Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, fittingly Kurosawa was a big fan of American westerns, John Ford in particular.
My Video Top 5 –
The Magnificent Seven 8.5
Sergeant Rutledge 7.4
The Alamo 7.3
North to Alaska 7.2
Flaming Star 7.2
The UMR Critics Top 5 –
The Magnificent Seven 8.5
Sergeant Rutledge 7.8
Comanche Station 7.6
Flaming Star 7.2
The Plunderers 6.7
The Alamo only scored 6.3 at the UMR and North to Alaska even less, 6.0.
“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”
Next video on friday.
HI LENNY! Thanks for the additional information and analysis. Back in the 1940s through the 1960s the kind of ideology that The Duke [and Widmark too] stood for apparently largely held sway in Hollywood.
For example Astaire and Rogers were able to set-up an official branch of the Republican party for movie stars within the RKO studios. In those days the kind of subjects that drew Oscar/Oscar Nomination Love in one fashion or another with the attraction that a jam jar has to wasps were those relating to drunks, priest/nuns – and patriotism. Lots of “mush” made the cut in those days Steve!
Nowadays it seems that ‘liberal’ themes dominate Hollywood but for how long we don’t know; trends are fickle aren’t they? In short though back in The Alamo’s time The Academy probably wouldn’t have had the nerve to overlook the Alamo regardless of how within reason they actually perceived its merits. You give The Alamo and North to Alaska respectable scores but The Work Horse fairly gets the boot into that pair doesn’t he? Worse: Hirsch gives The Duke just 2 stars for his Davy Crockett.
As I am a great fan of The Duke and Dickie -sorry Richard! – I cannot be objective in the matter and thoroughly enjoy watching it. Its theme music the haunting The Green Leaves of Summer has long been in my music collection-
A time to be reaping, a time to be sowing
The green leaves of summer are calling me home
It was good to be young then in the season of plenty
When the catfish were jumping as high as the sky.
A time just for planting, a time just for plowing
A time to be courting a girl of your own
T’was so good to be young then, to be close to the earth
And to stand by your wife, at the moment of birth.
By the way I mentioned to you how Cimarron and 4 Horsemen ended Charlie Bill’s days as a Top box office star. Wikipedia gives the full picture. Of the first dozen movies he made under his MGM contact in his heyday years 1955-62 eleven were very profitable and only one 1958’s war movie Torpedo Run lost money. The combined net profit to the studio of the 11 profitable ones was approx 90 million in inflation- adjusted dollars.
However remakes of 1960’s Cimmaron and Rudy’s 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse in 1962 were produced as epics and given massive budgets. The box office returns for the pair were miserable and their combined loss for the studio was 88 million in today’s dollars thus virtually wiping out the $90 million from the 11 earlier commercially ones. The two of those that were the most profitable were unsurprisingly Blackboard Jungle and Teahouse.
Bob, I have a soft spot for The Alamo too. Great music score by Dimitri Tiomkin, I have the CD soundtrack.
Btw The Mumbles Kid does very well on my next video.
HI STEVE:
Look forward to Friday’s video.
I see you have called me a Big Girl’s Blouse a tab used by Brexiteer Boris to describe pooer Jeremy Corbyn.
BoJo also used sexist language to describe Remainer David Cameron as “A girly swot” because he though Cameron read up on too much detail when HE was PM
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is full of these colourful descriptions calling for example St Patrick’s Day in the US “lefty c**p”!
Keep safe.
BEST POSTERS IN STEVE’s 60s VIDEO –
1/2 for Young Jesse James
2/Guns of Tombstone
3/Gunfighters of Abilene
4/Oklahoma Territory
5/1st one for Heller in Pink Tights – wow!
6/1st one for One Foot in Hell – Ladd the bad guy as a murderous sheriff for once – but he got 10% of the film’s profits.
7/1st one for The Plunderers
8/1st one for Cimarron
9/Hell Bent for Leather
10/1st and foreign language one for Seven Ways from Sundown***
11/2 for Comanche Station
12/a stunning ALL for The Unforgiven
13/ALL for Flaming Star – The King in the role Brando turned -down
14/2nd one for North to Alaska
15/ALL for The Magnificent Seven
16/Sgt Rutledge – as much a whodunnit as a western
17/The Alamo-
“I’m Col Crockett, he’s Col Bowie and you’re Col Barrett. So why don’t we stop all this Col stuff of addressing each other as Col all the time and just use our normal names!” – The Duke lays down the law to Widmark and Harvey.
***The title Seven Ways from Sundown is not a geographical reference but is the nickname of Audie’s character Seven Ways from Sundown Jones. Mickey Rooney’s young son Teddy Rooney is in the cast