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.
Since WH moving the goal-posts around as described in Part Two of this post was, albeit interesting and fun, make-believe the net result was perhaps unfair to Brando and Dean because whilst Loy and the other 3 pretend-new- entrants didn’t lose out as they were not on ANY of the lists concerned anyway, Princess Grace and 3 others ended up on two REAL lists [AFI’s and WH’s] whereas Brando and Dean lost out on a bona-fide list [WH’s own]. Were the boot on th other foot W o C’s femist mates might well have been up-in-arms at her husband!
All of the foregoing does mean though that the otherwise fine 1950-2010 male Cogerson list is partially misleading as it would give the impression to the unassuming who take it at face value that all 25 on that list were bigger Legends in the period concerned than Brando and Dean whereas that was clearly not the case.
Because as Bruce himself says on Brando’s Cogerson page Brando “owned the 1950s” and created “movie magic” and earned Oscars love in the 1970s with Godpop and Last Tango and his six 1970s movies have a Cogerson adjusted domestic gross of around $1.9 billion – a whopping average per movie of approx $315 million.
Even in his declining years right up until his death producers paid Brando massive sums up-front for even the briefest of roles in their movies.
By contrast the careers of Princess Grace and MM came to abrupt halts in 1956 and 1961 respectively; Audrey Hepburn’s top-star days were over after 1967 with Home Before Dark; and Sophia Loren never an especially stand-alone box office force in the States had really no box office success at all worth talking about there after the 1960s.
So from my perspective WH unfortunately creates a great imbalance when he includes those 4 actresses in his 1950-2010 lists and leaves out Brando. Also once you start making arbitrary substitutions on the AFI lists using your own criteria you cease to compare apples with apples. However as you know I always like to try to have some mischievous fun in my interface with this site.
Therefore I chuckle when I imagine a scenario in which WH contacts the AFI authorities and says “I hope you don’t mind but I have revised your Legends lists and by manipulating the criteria I have included Myrna Loy whom you wrongly in my view excluded from your original lists.”
And the American Film Institute reply as The Duke did to a guy who ordered him off land that belonged to another guy in one of his westerns “Mister you sure take a lot onto yourself!”
“As famed New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael highlighted, Hollywood declared “Open Season” on Brando and guys like Joel Hirschhorn to show that they were what Richard Nixon called “a team player” bad-mouthed Marlon when the occasion arose. Unfortunately for them though he was now so revered in cultural circles that he had become “untouchable”.
AFI ranked him high-up in its 50 Greatest Male Movie Legends; Variety declared him one of the Top 10 Greatest entertainers PER SE of the 20th century; the US Time Magazine included him in 100 most INFLUENTIAL people of the century from all walks of life; and when he died in 2004 President George W Bush mourned his death publicly as “a great loss to the American people”. Icons like Martin Scorsese and George Lucas continue to sing his praises and jointly spent 2 years restoring his self-directed One-Eyed jacks.”
Those paragraphs are of course lifts from my original posts to you about your 1973-5 westerns video; and I should have amplified my trivia by saying it was not 100% plain sailing for Brando despite his great reputation.
For example when he devised his 1950-2010 50 Legends lists The Work Horse did a bit of soft-shoe shuffling with the rankings possibly with the purpose of giving The Thin Woman retrospective imaginary AFI Love.
WH’s manoeuvrings involved unilaterally updating AFI’s renowned Legends lists which he suggested were outdated and making his own substitutions.
These entailed keeping Brando and James Dean off WH’s own 1950-2010 lists but leaving them on the ‘shadow’ AFI lists; notionally taking 4 actresses [A Hepburn/Monroe/Loren and Princess Grace] off the real AFI Lists but including those 4 n his own 1950-2010 lists and allowing 4 fresh actresses on his pretend revised AFI list: Myrna [surprise! surprise!] Olivia De Havilland/Deborah Kerr and Irene Dunne.
PS The Revenant is reportedly the 2nd highest grossing western in actual domestics with $184 million after Dances with Wolves with $185 million. Phew! – close isn’t it.? IMDB reckons Blazing Saddles is 7th in all-time actual domestic grosses
On the first of my two viewings today of Steve’s 1973-5 video I thought something was missing from his selections but couldn’t put my finger on it – then it struck me: no Duke in the 1974 selections! As some historian once said any coverage of westerns that does not mention John Wayne is like giving a critique of Shakespeare’s Hamlet without mentioning Hamlet Prince of Denmark himself!
Anyway for me the best STILLS in the video are:
1/Chino
2/Take a Hard Ride
3/Blood Money – wow!
4/Los Amigos
5/2 for One Little Mancunian
6/2 for Spikes Gang
7/2 for Billy Two Hats
8/Showdown
9/2 for Oklahoma Crude
10/The Train Robbers
11/Cahill
12/2 for Hearts of the West
13/2 for Posse
14/Bite the Bullet
15/Set for Westworld
16/ALL for High Plains Drifter
17/My Name is Nobody
18/ALL for Bite the Bullet Hackman strangely effective in a western
BEST POSTERS in Steve’s 1973-1975 VIDEO
[FL = foreign language version of poster]
1/2nd one for Mackintosh and T J
2/2 for Chino
3/FL Take a Hard Ride
4/1st Blood Money
5/2 for Deadly Trackers
6/1st one for Billy Two Hats
7/1st one for Showdown – commercial flop despite 2 great stars
8/Oklahoma Crude
9/2 FL ones for Train Robbers
10/FL for Cahill
11/FL for Rooster Cogburn – Duke offering that didn’t completely appeal to me
12/Rancho De Luxe – wow!
13/2 for Posse
14/Final one for Westworld – really a western: not sci-fi?
15/Set for Pat Garratt and Billy the Kid
16/FL for High Plains Drifter
17/Hearts of the West
18/My Name is Nobody
19/Winterhawk – In this, Pale Flower is played by Marie Louise Cruz aka Sacheen Littlefeather mentioned in my parts 1 and 2 of these posts.
Hi Bob, late again, sorry about that. Thanks for the review, generous rating, info, trivia and quotes, much appreciated. Happy you liked the posters, stills and lobby cards.
There were no John Wayne westerns in 1974, McQ was the only film of his released that year. I think there’s only one John Wayne western left in the 70s. [wipes tear]
As usual I added a few ‘modern westerns’ to the list to make it a nice round number.
Blazing Saddles was the top rated western in that period from most of my sources. Pat Garrett and High Plains Drifter have their rabid fans, I knew whichever one of those two was in the top spot I would get flak for it, so I’m glad a Mel Brooks comedy knocked them off the top perch.
I may be wrong but I read somewhere that Blazing Saddles was the top grossing western of all time by the time it finished it’s run in the mid 70s in unadjusted dollars. Other sources say Butch Cassidy was still the no.1 wild west oater. Bruce might have the answer.
Science fiction has finally reared it’s metallic head in my Westerns series. An iconic Yul Brynner in his Magnificent Seven outfit as an unstoppable killer robot in Westworld. The original Terminator, and very effective he was too.
One film scored 10 out of 10 from my one of my sources and it’s not in my video top 5 – Bite the Bullet. One film scored 9 – Blazing Saddles.
My Video Top 5 –
Blazing Saddles 8.1
High Plains Drifter 7.8
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid 7.6
My Name is Nobody 7.6
Westworld 7.4
The UMR Critics Top 5 –
High Plains Drifter 8.5
Blazing Saddles 8.1
Westworld 7.9
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid 7.8
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia 7.8
“Shortly after the release of High Plains Drifter, Clint Eastwood wrote to John Wayne, suggesting that they make a western together. Wayne sent back an angry letter in reply, in which he denounced this movie for its violence and revisionist portrayal of the Old West. Eastwood did not bother to answer his criticisms, and consequently they did not work together.”
In a graveyard sequence from High Plains Drifter, one of the headstones features the name Donald Siegel, and another has S. Leone engraved on it. You can see this in a still on the video.
Billy the Kid was just 21 when he was shot dead by Pat Garrett, Kris Kristofferson was 36 when he made the film. James Coburn was 45 when he played 31 year old Pat Garrett.
Robert Taylor was 30 when he played Billy the Kid (1941). Paul Newman 33 in The Left Handed Gun (1958) and Emilio Estevez 26 in Young Guns (1988).
HI STEVE: Thanks for the usual thoughtful feedback and more fascinating comment as well as trivia about The Duke. I knew Big John detested Clint but never knew they had exchanged correspondence. The Duke certainly doesn’t pull his punches either in direct confrontation or in correspondence does he? He wouldn’t have made a good diplomat in the peace talks the Yanks had with the Viet Cong to end the Viet Nam war!
Let’s give honor where honor is due: WH rarely lets us down at the box office where there is reliable information in the public domain and his figures are:
Butch Cassidy Actual Domestic $100.1 million/adjusted $645.8 million.
Blazing Saddles Actual Domestic $118.1/adjusted $578.5 million.
Whilst Butch seems to be the highest inflation-adjusted western Blazing is still not the tops in actuals and that honor appear to go to Costner’s Dances with Wolves at $185 million domestically. That is apparently followed by 2010’s True Grit remake at $172 million and Django Unchained at $163 million in actual domestic grosses.
Of course to be really definitive Worldwide figures are necessary and whilst those are plentiful for recent movies they can be hard to come by for older movies and I have never seen any for Butch and Saddles; and ones quoted in other cases are at times inconsistent and unreliable.
Sacheen retreated to Brando’s home and when she got inside shots were fired at his doorway from a passing car. SPOILER: The Duke had left his six-guns at home that day and anyway didn’t know where Brando lived!
Hollywood generally pushed back against her by demonizing her as a paid professional hooker whereas as well as being a political activist she was in fact a model and an actress [eg Freebie and the Bean and The Trial Of Billy Jack] though Hollywood blacklisted her for a time after the Oscar ceremony commotion.
As famed New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael highlighted, Hollywood declared “Open Season” on Brando and guys like Joel Hirschhorn to show that they were what Richard Nixon called “a team player” bad-mouthed Marlon when the occasion arose. Unfortunately for them though he was now so revered in cultural circles that he had become “untouchable”.
AFI ranked him high-up in its 50 Greatest Male Movie Legends; Variety declared him one of the Top 10 Greatest entertainers PER SE of the 20th century; the US Time Magazine included him in 100 most INFLUENTIAL people of the century from all walks of life; and when he died in 2004 President George W Bush mourned his death publicly as “a great loss to the American people”. Icons like Martin Scorsese and George Lucas continue to sing his praises and jointly spent 2 years restoring his self-directed One-Eyed jacks.
The Duke [arguably still the most popular movie star ever] continues of course to entertain his fans via his war movies and westerns on DVD and in numerous television reruns. Sadly Marie Louise is currently dying of cancer.
However in Hollywood folklore, as a threesome The Great Mumbler, The King of the Cowboys and a humble actress/model/political activist will always be remembered as the trio who upended -and stole the show at! – the 1973 Oscars ceremony and visibly stunned the James Bond of the time Roger Moore as he vainly tried to hand Miss Littlefeather Brando’s Oscar. “Marlon instructed me not to even touch it!” Miss Littlefeather told 007.