STEVE 1 Albert Finney’s 1960 Saturday Night and Sunday Morning was one of the major films that comprised the “kitchen sink dramas” of the British cinema in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Films in that group, in contrast to the American feel good films about “winners” so popular in those days, were designed to show the bleak existence of working class “losers” living in the Britain of that time and they usually had in them an “angry young man” railing against society such as Finney’s Arthur Seaton in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and the more famous Jimmy Porter played by Richard Burton in the 1959 Look Back in Anger. In This Sporting Life 1963 Harris played another of those angry young men and of course in real life Harris seems to have ultimately matured into an angry old man!
2 Finney experienced big box office success with the 1963 Tom Jones which in today’s dollars cost a mere $8.2 million to make and garnered worldwide rentals in excess of 160 million in 2017 dollars, which figure might convert to an adjusted gross of $300 million or more. but overall he was more of a “prestige” actor than a box office star and enjoyed broad success in the multi mediums of stage, screen and television earning for example considerable praise for his performance as Winston Churchill in The Gathering Storm a 2002 TV film about Churchill. Albert won both Emmy and BAFTA awards as best actor for his work in that film.
3 He turned down offers from the British Establishment of a CBE and a knighthood castigating such awards as “perpetuating snobbery”. In your opening quote he does of course have another pot shot at British snobbery as he perceives it. He loves British football though being a lifelong supporter of Manchester United Football Team.
4 For me your Finney profile is to be admired for faithfully capturing his amazing diversity pand range as an actor. The posters that I enjoyed most were Loophole, Rich in Love, Charlie Bubbles, Night Must Fall, Orphans, Big Fish, Looker and Amazing Grace. Excellent stills were Under the Volcano, Finney with my own Julia Roberts, Albert as Christie’s Poirot, the “angry young man” still from Sat Night/Sun Morning, Finney as Tom Jones, and a bearded Finney in Skyfall. I must single out for special praise though both the poster and still for Wolfen. Your video is a solid 97% rated hit in my book – good stuff all over
Hi Bob, thanks for reviewing and rating my Albert Finney video, appreciate the info, comment and trivia. Glad you liked the posters and stills.
I had always wondered why Finney was overlooked for a knighthood, hell even Rod Stewart has been knighted! The guy hates snobbery, I suspect Richard Harris hates it too. Didn’t bother Caine, Moore or Connery though. 😉
Wolfen is a big favorite of mine, watched it many times on video during the 80s. An unusual take on the werewolf genre. Mancunian Finney gives a passable American accent.
Five films scored 10 out of 10 from Finney’s filmography – Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, Miller’s Crossing, Tom Jones, The Bourne Ultimatum and Skyfall. He was top billed on two of those. Three scored 9 – The Dresser, Big Fish and Under the Volcano.
Highest rated Finney film at IMDB is The Bourne Ultimatum followed by Big Fish.
I’ll upload one more video some time tomorrow than I’ll have a nice long Xmas break, recharge my batteries. Start again in the new year.
2 For me personally Finney like Myrna Loy is a person whom I admire as much for the private life as I do for the professional one. However like Mumbles Finney found fame on the screen playing a lout [Marlon in Streetcar and then the Wild One and Albert in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and initially I never could have envisaged the Brando of Julius Caesar or the Finney of the later great variety of dramatic parts that he tackled. As the saying goes “You can never judge a book by its cover.”
3 I’ll keep my eye out eagerly for your pre-Xmas “swansong”..
Don’t know why or how my 6.02 pm post came up as anonymous. Maybe Flora’s spammers are gumming up the works again!
BOB
Hi Steve, just catching up on some of your latest videos. Excellent work on Ricardo Montalban, Omar Sharif and Richard Harris. These actors appeared in a wide variety of films, so there are some exciting colorful posters, from Arab Shieks to knights in shining armor, to Latino shawbucklers, not to mention a few apes! Sharif playing a German officer in The Night of the Generals is almost as believable as Montalban playing a star of Japanese Kabuki theatre in Sayonara, but hey in these days, any-one who did not quite look Anglo-Saxon could essentially pass as any nationality in the movies.
I enjoyed the chat about Harris and his drinking buddies. He was certainly as much of a character in real life than in his films. Though he had a good career and I usually enjoy his performances, ultimately his one great role is the one that made him a star in This Sporting Life. I note that in all the others that you rate 7 or above, Harris only had supporting roles. I heard that Harris felt strongly about billing as well, and this is likely the case considering he was billed above title in The Long, The Short and The Tall and Mutiny on the Bounty, along with stars who were much better known at the time. And I never quite figured out why he was billed before, or equally (depending on how you look at it), to Sean Connery in The Mollie McGuires. Sure Connery was in down phase after leaving James Bond, and Harris had made something of a splash with Cromwell. Still, I can only assume that Connery was generous. Maybe this is why Connery was the only co-star Harris fondly remembered 😉
Thanks for checking out my videos Phil, much appreciated.
I hadn’t noticed Richard Harris top billed on The Molly Maguires, I’ve just looked at another poster for the film and he is indeed first billed, maybe Connery’s role was smaller? I haven’t seen the film. On the poster I used on the video Connery’s name is raised slightly. [cue Bobs eyebrow raised slightly].
Harris’s highest rated top billed movie is This Sporting Life followed by Cromwell.
Anyone seen Bruce? It seems like ages since he last passed thru here. Is he that busy or has UMR boredom finally set in? Maybe the Xmas holidays started early. Ahoy there Bruce! The inmates are taking over the asylum again. 🙂
Steve, I would recommend The Molly Maguires. It’s an interesting and compelling drama about a rather now obscure part of American history, with Harris as an undercover detective infiltrating a radical, Irish-American group of coal miners (i.e. the Molly Maguires) led by Connery. Well-made and good performances, but maybe too grim and realistic for American audiences at the time. Harris does have the slightly larger role and I’m pretty sure his name comes up first in the credits, although it seems they did a pre-Towering Inferno billing compromise on some of the posters 🙂
By the way, I happened to have seen Harris’ first film, Shake Hands with the Devil (with James Cagney and Don Murray) and he actually has a relatively large supporting role there. He is memorable as a ruthless IRA gunman and I would not be surprised if that film helped to put him on the map.
Just finished seeing the Eva Marie Saint and Tab Hunter videos. I think I only saw a couple of Tab’s films – he declined rapidly by 1960 – but I found it interesting he later co-starred with Divine in Polyester – that must have been some match! I liked the Saint video. Some goods stills of her with Grant, Brando, Newman and Clift-Taylor. Good actress, but underused and under-appreciated.
Since you seem to covering a number of stars from the 1960s, could you at some point give some consideration to Rod Taylor, Cliff Robertson, George Peppard an Stephen Boyd – 🙂
1 STEVE. Thanks for the feedback about Toshiro – I never knew he couldn’t speak English. In their heyday Richard Harris, Oliver Reed and Peter O’Toole were apparently a heavy-drinking trio of “nuisances” who were nicknamed the “hellraisers”. A certain mellowing seemed to set in as they got older and indeed it was reported that in later life O’Toole and Harris went on the wagon, with Harris taking to drinking goat’s milk and making a big fuss about it, and both him and Peter becoming rather gaunt as a result of the new lifestyle.
2 An interviewer asked Ollie Reed if he wasn’t thinking of joining his old mates on the wagon and he retorted “No chance! Have you seen the pair of them lately? – they look like **** all!” To some extent there had always seemed to me to be an element of the anti-social about HARRIS and he appeared to confirm that when before his death he told an interviewer that he had never liked any actor whom he had known except Sean Connery.
3 It would be unrealistic to expect too many of your videos to reach the exceptionally high standard of the Mifune profile but the Harris video is so close to it that to again quote The Duke in Rio Bravo “I sure wouldn’t like to live on the difference,” so your Harris outing gets a 97.2% rating in my book. Posters like the following make it not hard to see why: Golden Rendezvous, Caprice with my Doris, The Cassandra Crossing, The Molly Maguires [with “friend” Connery] and the Count of Monte Cristo. However all of the following were I thought par excellence – Guns of Navarone, Major Dundee , Mutiny on the Bounty. and most of the ones for the “Horse” franchise.
4. For a guy who is at times a trifle dismissive of stills you sure go to a lot of trouble to select a range of fine ones! and the Harris video is no exception to your norm. These I especially loved (1) Heroes of Telemark in iconic pose with Kirk, and that movie is my personal Harris favourite film along with (2) Juggernaut (3) Richard looking splendid in Camelot (4) with Russell Crowe a modern “hellraiser”!] (5) as English Bob in Unforgiven (6) the arm-wrestling one and (7) in Mutiny on the Bounty with Mumbles and Trevor Howard, the latter apparently no stranger either to alcohol!
5 Even allowing for Richard’s propensity to dislike his fellow actors in general I was always surprised at his proclaimed special loathing for Mr M as many of Richard’s own performances were to me a degree “Brandoesque” with Harris’ rugby player in This Sporting life especially having shades of Stanley from Streetcar while the hiding that English Bob took from Hackman’s Little Bill in Unforgiven reminds one of Terry’s savage beating in Waterfront. However in fairness to Harris he did in an interview praise Mr M as an ACTOR. Anyway good stuff as always from you, giving me much food for thought
Thanks for reviewing and rating my Richard Harris video Bob, appreciate the info, comment and trivia. Happy you approved of the pictorial content.
I too was surprised to learn Mifune didn’t speak English, probably only a few basic words. Another famous Japanese actor (and director) who can’t speak English is Takeshi Kitano. Even Jackie Chan never really bothered with the English language and usually mangles the dialogue when he makes American movies, requiring take after take.
I’d heard about the problems on Mutiny on the Bounty, they could write an entire book on the production of that film. A shame Harris and Brando didn’t get along. I think he didn’t get along with Douglas either on Telemark, and Heston on Major Dundee.
When he made The Wild Geese he was interviewed saying that Roger Moore, who has a fear of loud bangs after an accident he had when young, should be playing 003½ not 007. 🙂
But it’s Sir Michael Caine who really raised his ire – “The point about Michael is that he can say what he likes, I don’t mind him opening his mouth and shooting off. I don’t care what he says. But don’t characterize Richard Burton, Peter O’Toole and me as drunks as if that’s all we achieved in our life, because he could live 20 f***ing lives and he couldn’t achieve as much as we three have achieved.”
And again – “Any suggestion that Caine has eclipsed the names of Finney, O’Toole and Burton is tantamount to prophesying that Rin-Tin-Tin will be solemnised beyond the memory of Brando.”
Whoa! 🙂
Three of Harris’s films scored 10 out of 10 – This Sporting Life, Gladiator and Unforgiven. One scored 9 – The Guns of Navarone.
Highest rated at IMDB is Gladiator with 8.5. Highest rated at Rotten Tomatoes is Unforgiven. Whilst Leonard Maltin wasn’t overly impressed with either Gladiator or Unforgiven, he gave This Sporting Life and Guns of Navarone the highest rating for this actor, both scored 9 out of 10.
One more Harris jab at Caine – “Good luck to him with his BAFTA mask. I hope he does us all a favor and wears the bloody thing in front of his face wherever he goes.”
1 STEVE. IN DEFENCE OF SIR MAURICE. As one academic observed “You are entitled to your own opinions but not your own facts,” and the facts don’t support Harris’ observations about how professionally superior he, Burton and O’Toole were to Sir Maurice who for years has been admired far and wide by many reputable movie critics and historians. Here for example is how the actors Harris mentions are ranked in IMDB’s Definitive list of the 100 Greatest Movie Actors of All Time- No 14 Sir Maurice/No 22 O’Toole/No 44 Burton/Finney 59 Harris is not in the 100 at all nor is Oliver Reed. I think the jury’s still out on the Rin Tin Tin/Brando comparative rankings until Bruce provides us with a Rin Tin Tin stats page!
2 Harris’ tirade against Sir M confirms my long-held view that among the things that Richard and Ollie Reed had in common was a seeming compulsion to be needlessly abusive in public about their fellow artists. Reed for example in an interview referred to Jack Nicholson as a “balding midget”.
3 Reid and Harris also seemed to share a Brando fixation. That is perhaps understandable in Harris’ case if Mr Mumbles was as obnoxious to him as Richard claims and he knew he couldn’t lord it over Marlon in the way that he mistakenly felt he could Sir Maurice [and indeed I have already mentioned that Harris always praised Brando’s acting skills].
4 Reed though for some reason seemed to feel that he had a calling to publicly make fun of Mr M at every opportunity. For example as you know ole Mumbles was supposed to be fond of “mooning”. On a TV chat show one night an intoxicated Reed was discussing his own talents for mimicry when he suddenly jumped up and shouted “And here is my Brando impersonation,” thereupon downing his pants and hopping around the stage displaying his rear end to audiences in the studio and at home. I could hardly believe what I was seeing!
5 Anyway thanks for the interesting and informative feedback.
Hi Bob, Oliver Reed was always half drunk in the interviews. Michael Parkinson tried to interview him on a couple of occasions but Reed was an even worse mumbler than the great mumbler!
Harris on Hackman and Caine – “Hackman is an intimidating and dangerous actor. Mr. Caine is about as dangerous as Stan Laurel or Oliver Hardy, or indeed both, and as intimidating as Shirley Temple.”
oof!
And he didn’t think much of Tom Cruise either – “He’s got very nice teeth, but has he ever read a book?”
“Someone asked me once “What is the difference between Tom Cruise now and you when you were a major star?” I said there is a great difference. Look at a photograph of me from the old days and I’m going to one of my film premieres with a bottle of vodka in my hand. Tom Cruise has a bottle of Evian water. That’s the difference–a bottle of Evian water.”
1 More good trivial and quotes which I greatly appreciate you sharing.. I wonder why Harris had his knife into Sir Maurice so much – it seems like the kind of fixation that Richard had about Brando and as I’ve said I could at least understand A potential reason for the latter.
2 Anyway I’m examining your profile of Albert Finney at the moment and will be writing to you later tonight or early tomorrow about the Finney video. Meanwhile have a good weekend.
Cheers Bob. I think Harris resented that Caine was more successful than he was, and more liked. Plus Caine won awards, including Oscars, while he, Burton, O’Toole and Ollie, never picked up one of those lovely gold statuettes. Connery managed it though as a supporting actor on The Untouchables.
Say hello to Richard Harris You Tube Video bu Steve
Two new Steve videos added to the page. Albert Finney and Toshiro Mifune.
STEVE 1 Albert Finney’s 1960 Saturday Night and Sunday Morning was one of the major films that comprised the “kitchen sink dramas” of the British cinema in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Films in that group, in contrast to the American feel good films about “winners” so popular in those days, were designed to show the bleak existence of working class “losers” living in the Britain of that time and they usually had in them an “angry young man” railing against society such as Finney’s Arthur Seaton in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and the more famous Jimmy Porter played by Richard Burton in the 1959 Look Back in Anger. In This Sporting Life 1963 Harris played another of those angry young men and of course in real life Harris seems to have ultimately matured into an angry old man!
2 Finney experienced big box office success with the 1963 Tom Jones which in today’s dollars cost a mere $8.2 million to make and garnered worldwide rentals in excess of 160 million in 2017 dollars, which figure might convert to an adjusted gross of $300 million or more. but overall he was more of a “prestige” actor than a box office star and enjoyed broad success in the multi mediums of stage, screen and television earning for example considerable praise for his performance as Winston Churchill in The Gathering Storm a 2002 TV film about Churchill. Albert won both Emmy and BAFTA awards as best actor for his work in that film.
3 He turned down offers from the British Establishment of a CBE and a knighthood castigating such awards as “perpetuating snobbery”. In your opening quote he does of course have another pot shot at British snobbery as he perceives it. He loves British football though being a lifelong supporter of Manchester United Football Team.
4 For me your Finney profile is to be admired for faithfully capturing his amazing diversity pand range as an actor. The posters that I enjoyed most were Loophole, Rich in Love, Charlie Bubbles, Night Must Fall, Orphans, Big Fish, Looker and Amazing Grace. Excellent stills were Under the Volcano, Finney with my own Julia Roberts, Albert as Christie’s Poirot, the “angry young man” still from Sat Night/Sun Morning, Finney as Tom Jones, and a bearded Finney in Skyfall. I must single out for special praise though both the poster and still for Wolfen. Your video is a solid 97% rated hit in my book – good stuff all over
Hi Bob, thanks for reviewing and rating my Albert Finney video, appreciate the info, comment and trivia. Glad you liked the posters and stills.
I had always wondered why Finney was overlooked for a knighthood, hell even Rod Stewart has been knighted! The guy hates snobbery, I suspect Richard Harris hates it too. Didn’t bother Caine, Moore or Connery though. 😉
Wolfen is a big favorite of mine, watched it many times on video during the 80s. An unusual take on the werewolf genre. Mancunian Finney gives a passable American accent.
Five films scored 10 out of 10 from Finney’s filmography – Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, Miller’s Crossing, Tom Jones, The Bourne Ultimatum and Skyfall. He was top billed on two of those. Three scored 9 – The Dresser, Big Fish and Under the Volcano.
Highest rated Finney film at IMDB is The Bourne Ultimatum followed by Big Fish.
I’ll upload one more video some time tomorrow than I’ll have a nice long Xmas break, recharge my batteries. Start again in the new year.
HI STEVE
1 Thanks for the useful feedback.
2 For me personally Finney like Myrna Loy is a person whom I admire as much for the private life as I do for the professional one. However like Mumbles Finney found fame on the screen playing a lout [Marlon in Streetcar and then the Wild One and Albert in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and initially I never could have envisaged the Brando of Julius Caesar or the Finney of the later great variety of dramatic parts that he tackled. As the saying goes “You can never judge a book by its cover.”
3 I’ll keep my eye out eagerly for your pre-Xmas “swansong”..
PS STEVE
I note that you have now been knighted though Sir Steve doesn’t sound as impressive as Sir Maurice!
STEVE
Don’t know why or how my 6.02 pm post came up as anonymous. Maybe Flora’s spammers are gumming up the works again!
BOB
Hi Steve, just catching up on some of your latest videos. Excellent work on Ricardo Montalban, Omar Sharif and Richard Harris. These actors appeared in a wide variety of films, so there are some exciting colorful posters, from Arab Shieks to knights in shining armor, to Latino shawbucklers, not to mention a few apes! Sharif playing a German officer in The Night of the Generals is almost as believable as Montalban playing a star of Japanese Kabuki theatre in Sayonara, but hey in these days, any-one who did not quite look Anglo-Saxon could essentially pass as any nationality in the movies.
I enjoyed the chat about Harris and his drinking buddies. He was certainly as much of a character in real life than in his films. Though he had a good career and I usually enjoy his performances, ultimately his one great role is the one that made him a star in This Sporting Life. I note that in all the others that you rate 7 or above, Harris only had supporting roles. I heard that Harris felt strongly about billing as well, and this is likely the case considering he was billed above title in The Long, The Short and The Tall and Mutiny on the Bounty, along with stars who were much better known at the time. And I never quite figured out why he was billed before, or equally (depending on how you look at it), to Sean Connery in The Mollie McGuires. Sure Connery was in down phase after leaving James Bond, and Harris had made something of a splash with Cromwell. Still, I can only assume that Connery was generous. Maybe this is why Connery was the only co-star Harris fondly remembered 😉
Thanks for checking out my videos Phil, much appreciated.
I hadn’t noticed Richard Harris top billed on The Molly Maguires, I’ve just looked at another poster for the film and he is indeed first billed, maybe Connery’s role was smaller? I haven’t seen the film. On the poster I used on the video Connery’s name is raised slightly. [cue Bobs eyebrow raised slightly].
Harris’s highest rated top billed movie is This Sporting Life followed by Cromwell.
Anyone seen Bruce? It seems like ages since he last passed thru here. Is he that busy or has UMR boredom finally set in? Maybe the Xmas holidays started early. Ahoy there Bruce! The inmates are taking over the asylum again. 🙂
Steve, I would recommend The Molly Maguires. It’s an interesting and compelling drama about a rather now obscure part of American history, with Harris as an undercover detective infiltrating a radical, Irish-American group of coal miners (i.e. the Molly Maguires) led by Connery. Well-made and good performances, but maybe too grim and realistic for American audiences at the time. Harris does have the slightly larger role and I’m pretty sure his name comes up first in the credits, although it seems they did a pre-Towering Inferno billing compromise on some of the posters 🙂
By the way, I happened to have seen Harris’ first film, Shake Hands with the Devil (with James Cagney and Don Murray) and he actually has a relatively large supporting role there. He is memorable as a ruthless IRA gunman and I would not be surprised if that film helped to put him on the map.
Just finished seeing the Eva Marie Saint and Tab Hunter videos. I think I only saw a couple of Tab’s films – he declined rapidly by 1960 – but I found it interesting he later co-starred with Divine in Polyester – that must have been some match! I liked the Saint video. Some goods stills of her with Grant, Brando, Newman and Clift-Taylor. Good actress, but underused and under-appreciated.
Since you seem to covering a number of stars from the 1960s, could you at some point give some consideration to Rod Taylor, Cliff Robertson, George Peppard an Stephen Boyd – 🙂
1 STEVE. Thanks for the feedback about Toshiro – I never knew he couldn’t speak English. In their heyday Richard Harris, Oliver Reed and Peter O’Toole were apparently a heavy-drinking trio of “nuisances” who were nicknamed the “hellraisers”. A certain mellowing seemed to set in as they got older and indeed it was reported that in later life O’Toole and Harris went on the wagon, with Harris taking to drinking goat’s milk and making a big fuss about it, and both him and Peter becoming rather gaunt as a result of the new lifestyle.
2 An interviewer asked Ollie Reed if he wasn’t thinking of joining his old mates on the wagon and he retorted “No chance! Have you seen the pair of them lately? – they look like **** all!” To some extent there had always seemed to me to be an element of the anti-social about HARRIS and he appeared to confirm that when before his death he told an interviewer that he had never liked any actor whom he had known except Sean Connery.
3 It would be unrealistic to expect too many of your videos to reach the exceptionally high standard of the Mifune profile but the Harris video is so close to it that to again quote The Duke in Rio Bravo “I sure wouldn’t like to live on the difference,” so your Harris outing gets a 97.2% rating in my book. Posters like the following make it not hard to see why: Golden Rendezvous, Caprice with my Doris, The Cassandra Crossing, The Molly Maguires [with “friend” Connery] and the Count of Monte Cristo. However all of the following were I thought par excellence – Guns of Navarone, Major Dundee , Mutiny on the Bounty. and most of the ones for the “Horse” franchise.
4. For a guy who is at times a trifle dismissive of stills you sure go to a lot of trouble to select a range of fine ones! and the Harris video is no exception to your norm. These I especially loved (1) Heroes of Telemark in iconic pose with Kirk, and that movie is my personal Harris favourite film along with (2) Juggernaut (3) Richard looking splendid in Camelot (4) with Russell Crowe a modern “hellraiser”!] (5) as English Bob in Unforgiven (6) the arm-wrestling one and (7) in Mutiny on the Bounty with Mumbles and Trevor Howard, the latter apparently no stranger either to alcohol!
5 Even allowing for Richard’s propensity to dislike his fellow actors in general I was always surprised at his proclaimed special loathing for Mr M as many of Richard’s own performances were to me a degree “Brandoesque” with Harris’ rugby player in This Sporting life especially having shades of Stanley from Streetcar while the hiding that English Bob took from Hackman’s Little Bill in Unforgiven reminds one of Terry’s savage beating in Waterfront. However in fairness to Harris he did in an interview praise Mr M as an ACTOR. Anyway good stuff as always from you, giving me much food for thought
Thanks for reviewing and rating my Richard Harris video Bob, appreciate the info, comment and trivia. Happy you approved of the pictorial content.
I too was surprised to learn Mifune didn’t speak English, probably only a few basic words. Another famous Japanese actor (and director) who can’t speak English is Takeshi Kitano. Even Jackie Chan never really bothered with the English language and usually mangles the dialogue when he makes American movies, requiring take after take.
I’d heard about the problems on Mutiny on the Bounty, they could write an entire book on the production of that film. A shame Harris and Brando didn’t get along. I think he didn’t get along with Douglas either on Telemark, and Heston on Major Dundee.
When he made The Wild Geese he was interviewed saying that Roger Moore, who has a fear of loud bangs after an accident he had when young, should be playing 003½ not 007. 🙂
But it’s Sir Michael Caine who really raised his ire – “The point about Michael is that he can say what he likes, I don’t mind him opening his mouth and shooting off. I don’t care what he says. But don’t characterize Richard Burton, Peter O’Toole and me as drunks as if that’s all we achieved in our life, because he could live 20 f***ing lives and he couldn’t achieve as much as we three have achieved.”
And again – “Any suggestion that Caine has eclipsed the names of Finney, O’Toole and Burton is tantamount to prophesying that Rin-Tin-Tin will be solemnised beyond the memory of Brando.”
Whoa! 🙂
Three of Harris’s films scored 10 out of 10 – This Sporting Life, Gladiator and Unforgiven. One scored 9 – The Guns of Navarone.
Highest rated at IMDB is Gladiator with 8.5. Highest rated at Rotten Tomatoes is Unforgiven. Whilst Leonard Maltin wasn’t overly impressed with either Gladiator or Unforgiven, he gave This Sporting Life and Guns of Navarone the highest rating for this actor, both scored 9 out of 10.
One more Harris jab at Caine – “Good luck to him with his BAFTA mask. I hope he does us all a favor and wears the bloody thing in front of his face wherever he goes.”
Yikes!
1 STEVE. IN DEFENCE OF SIR MAURICE. As one academic observed “You are entitled to your own opinions but not your own facts,” and the facts don’t support Harris’ observations about how professionally superior he, Burton and O’Toole were to Sir Maurice who for years has been admired far and wide by many reputable movie critics and historians. Here for example is how the actors Harris mentions are ranked in IMDB’s Definitive list of the 100 Greatest Movie Actors of All Time- No 14 Sir Maurice/No 22 O’Toole/No 44 Burton/Finney 59 Harris is not in the 100 at all nor is Oliver Reed. I think the jury’s still out on the Rin Tin Tin/Brando comparative rankings until Bruce provides us with a Rin Tin Tin stats page!
2 Harris’ tirade against Sir M confirms my long-held view that among the things that Richard and Ollie Reed had in common was a seeming compulsion to be needlessly abusive in public about their fellow artists. Reed for example in an interview referred to Jack Nicholson as a “balding midget”.
3 Reid and Harris also seemed to share a Brando fixation. That is perhaps understandable in Harris’ case if Mr Mumbles was as obnoxious to him as Richard claims and he knew he couldn’t lord it over Marlon in the way that he mistakenly felt he could Sir Maurice [and indeed I have already mentioned that Harris always praised Brando’s acting skills].
4 Reed though for some reason seemed to feel that he had a calling to publicly make fun of Mr M at every opportunity. For example as you know ole Mumbles was supposed to be fond of “mooning”. On a TV chat show one night an intoxicated Reed was discussing his own talents for mimicry when he suddenly jumped up and shouted “And here is my Brando impersonation,” thereupon downing his pants and hopping around the stage displaying his rear end to audiences in the studio and at home. I could hardly believe what I was seeing!
5 Anyway thanks for the interesting and informative feedback.
Hi Bob, Oliver Reed was always half drunk in the interviews. Michael Parkinson tried to interview him on a couple of occasions but Reed was an even worse mumbler than the great mumbler!
Harris on Hackman and Caine – “Hackman is an intimidating and dangerous actor. Mr. Caine is about as dangerous as Stan Laurel or Oliver Hardy, or indeed both, and as intimidating as Shirley Temple.”
oof!
And he didn’t think much of Tom Cruise either – “He’s got very nice teeth, but has he ever read a book?”
“Someone asked me once “What is the difference between Tom Cruise now and you when you were a major star?” I said there is a great difference. Look at a photograph of me from the old days and I’m going to one of my film premieres with a bottle of vodka in my hand. Tom Cruise has a bottle of Evian water. That’s the difference–a bottle of Evian water.”
HI STEVE:
1 More good trivial and quotes which I greatly appreciate you sharing.. I wonder why Harris had his knife into Sir Maurice so much – it seems like the kind of fixation that Richard had about Brando and as I’ve said I could at least understand A potential reason for the latter.
2 Anyway I’m examining your profile of Albert Finney at the moment and will be writing to you later tonight or early tomorrow about the Finney video. Meanwhile have a good weekend.
Cheers Bob. I think Harris resented that Caine was more successful than he was, and more liked. Plus Caine won awards, including Oscars, while he, Burton, O’Toole and Ollie, never picked up one of those lovely gold statuettes. Connery managed it though as a supporting actor on The Untouchables.
Say hello to Richard Harris You Tube Video bu Steve
danke schoen