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.
Added Steve’s Elke Sommer Video to our “Steve” page. Our thoughts found on his video channel.
“A name I know, but whose career I do not really know….so good pick. Seen #19 Boy, Did I Get A Wrong Number….weak near the end of his leading man days movie for Bob Hope. #3 The Prize…an ok Newman movie #1 A Shot In The Dark….comedy classic. So that is 3 of 21, not too impressive. Good posters. Fun video to watch. Voted up and shared.”
Hi Bruce, Flora beats us on Elke, her tally 8, mine 5 and yours 3.
I probably saw the Bob Hope comedy decades ago but I can’t remember for sure. Back in the 70s my parents would not miss Bob Hope or Danny Kaye comedies on TV. Thanks again for the comment, vote and share, always appreciated.
Elke is a German actress whose father was Baron Peter Von Schietz so she was in fact born Elke Baroness Von Schietz [and to think Brit thespians have to act their a***s off to get titles!] Her father died when she was 14 and after school graduation she moved to England to learn English and earn a living.
While holidaying in Italy she was spotted by the great European Continental director and actor Vittorio De Sica and she started appearing in European films from 1958/9 onward, with some posters still on display billing her as Elke Summer.
Sadly she would not appear to have had any children and in fact suffered two workplace miscarriages, one when she was making The Money Trap (1965) with Charley Bill Stuart and the second when she co-starred with Bob Hope in 1966’s Boy did I get a wrong Number.
Elke doesn’t appear in Joel’s 1983 book, so far has not enjoyed a Cogerson page, and IMDB lists for her just 2 acting awards and 6 noms. However your videos are an excellent learning curve for those who are unfamiliar with her Hollywood/British career and in fact your coverage captures her most famous films.
Indeed total familiarity would take some doing because between 1959 and 2005 she made 99 film and television appearances, and in fact Wikipedia list around 100 films for her, many of them European movies and Wiki says that those 100 are just a SELECTED filmography! They enabled her to accumulate a net worth of $20 million though , not bad for a performer who was not a permanent part of the Hollywood scene.
Part 2 to follow, maybe tomorrow.
Hi Bob, thanks for the info on Elke Sommer. As you say she made a lot of movies ‘not in the English language’ so this video was more a selection of movies Elke appeared in rather than a countdown of her highest rated movies, and an excuse to ‘spotlight’ Elke in posters and stills. Looking forward to the rest of your review.
Despite its relative brevity your video attracts a 98% rating from me though high “sauce” content will be a strong selling-point in many posters. . Anyway my personal pick of the best is as follows-
POSTERS 1/ saucy set for Boy Did I Get a Wrong Number 2/Why Bother to Knock-another eye-pooper 3/Venetian Affair 4/Swiss Conspiracy 5/foreign language one for Corrupt Ones 6/Baron Blood 7/Ten Little Indians 8/entire set for Dino’s Wrecking Crew 9/Lisa and The Devil 10/Deadlier than the Male 11/The Prize 12/ 1st one for Shot in the Dark and 13/Carry on Behind. Your poster which is typical of the saucy ones that always promoted the Carry On series, a franchise which one film historian opined invariably reflected the “British craze for bathroom humour and risqué farce.”
STILLS 1/especially appealing to me was the one with Elke and the young Dick Van Dyke, as he is among my own top 5 television actors 2/eye-popper for Deadlier than the Male 3/lobby card for Prisoner of Zenda 4/ Venetian Affair lobby card 5/ with Leslie Towns Hope 6/with Robert Stack 7/They Came to Rob Las Vegas 8/dancing with Paul 9/the classic nude scene with Sellers /10 closing one of Elke in bikini and 11/lobby card of Elke with Charley Bill in Money Trap – your selection there faithfully charts Rita Hayworth’s decline as is shows Elke being billed above Rita and in fact that movie was even the only time Charley Bill had out-billed Rita in their many outings together.
I used to confuse Elke Sommer with Britt Ekland because (1) the slight Elke/Ekland name connection (2) both were blondes (3) they seemed to have largely similar builds and (4) Elke of course made at least 3 films with Sellers and Britt married him. Joel and WH are not the only ones to have neglected Elke as indicated by her being one of the subjects of a documentary “20 Forgotten Hollywood Bombshells.” so full marks to YOU for giving Elke her moment in the sun. “Voted Up!”
Hi Bob, thanks for reviewing my Elke Sommer video, appreciate the generous rating, info and trivia. Glad you enjoyed the saucy picture gallery.
I knew Elke mostly from the Pink Panther movie ‘A Shot in the Dark’, a film I’ve watched many times in the past, probably the funniest of the series. Technically not a ‘Pink Panther’ movie since the pink diamond does not figure in the storyline and nor does ‘The Phantom’.
But unless I’m wrong the diamond only appears in one other film in the Peter Sellers series ‘Return of the Pink Panther’, Christopher Plummer played ‘the notorious Phantom’, a role originated by David Niven in the first film. I don’t count the films that came out after Sellers died.
A Shot in the Dark is the only ’10’ in Elke’s filmography. There are three films scoring 8 out of 10 – The Prize, The Victors and Zeppelin.
Shot in the Dark tops the charts at IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes.
“I have no recollection of the 1960s or 1970s at all because I was working constantly. I had no time to live, or to evaluate my career, or even to speculate about what was going to become of me.”
Elke on Oliver Reed – “Ollie is a real character. But the English are all a little crazy, anyhow. Everybody has their little idiosyncrasies; Ollie just has more than most people. Off the set, he’s very unpredictable. But on the set, he’s fine. When he’s working, he shows up on time and is very disciplined — regardless of what happened to him the night before.”
An Italian beauty up next.
HI STEVE Thanks for the feedback on my posts about Elke including the quotes. I always like hearing what Ollie has to say. That girl sure had the English figured out! I suppose that born a titled Baroness she might have been bemused by her fellow thespians among the English groveling about on their hands and knees for knighthoods, peerages etc.
Historically the consensus of opinion among critics is that there was little artistically between Pink Panther 1963 and A Shot in the Dark 1964, IMDB for example rating them 72 and 75% respectively. I liked them both but for me the funniest SINGLE scene in the two was the one with the prolonged chase involving the Pantomime horse – I think that was in the 1963 movie.
As you are a ratings rather than a grosses man I set out now ratings for the 6 Sellers Pink Panther films. The first set of figures are WH’s and the second set IMDB’s. You of course have your own figures to compare with them. I’d like to see them again if convenient.
1964 A Shot in the Dark-80%/75%
1963 Pink Panther-72%/75%
1975 Return of the Pink Panther-75%/71%
1976 Pink Panther Strikes Again-75%/72%
1978 Revenge of the Pink Panther-70%/67%
1982 Trail of the Pink Panther-49%/45%
The 1982 film was of course made after Sellers’ death and his participation in it comes from archive footage left over from the previous Clouseau films. Niven surfaced once more in it as Sir Charles Litton, heading real life cast.
Looking forward to your Italian beauty.
Just added Steve’s latest video to this page…Mr. Hugh O’Brian. My thoughts on his video…found at his You Tube channel.
“Have not seen many of his movies…but I enjoyed the video. Seen #13 Game of Death…pretty bad movie. #5 Twins…he was believable as Arnold’s dad. #2 Broken Lance….good western drama…..but Hugh takes back seat to Widmark, Tracy and Wagner. #1 The Shootist….the Duke’s final movie. So like Flora, my tally is 4. Good video….voted up and shared.”
Hi Bruce, I’ve seen 6, you and Flora 4. Maybe Bob has seen more. I wasn’t going to include Twins right up to the last minute, thought it was a tiny role but it was his final film and he did play Arnie’s dad. Thanks for posting, always appreciated.
WH On re-reading your Burt’s Possibly Interesting Facts can I see now how I misinterpreted you regarding the Lancaster/Douglas partnership. Apologies of course, but (1) I couldn’t resist challenging Steve’s maths – pity it all backfired! (2) Kirk, himself born of Jewish emigrants, was always heavily into support for the Jewish cause.
For example his own production company Bryna made Cast a Giant Shadow in 1966 about the establishment of the State of Israel. Also Kirk touchingly played in 1982’s Remembrance of Love Joe Rabin a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust who travels to Israel for a reunion of Holocaust survivors. It therefore would not have surprised me if Kirk had made two versions of the Entebbe movie.
But STEVE! – none of what I have just said alters the fact that when alphabetical ensemble billing was not involved Burt always out-billed Kirk. Indeed I had meant to say in response to your playful jibe about my theory regarding the Lancaster/Douglas seating arrangement in the Oscars clip that psychologists have long maintained that people’s “automatic pilot” of the mind can at times make them unthinkingly replicate in one situation behaviour or stances that they are used to adopting in some fashion on other occasions where there might be certain connections.
For example a friend of mine joined a trade union at his work place. and attended a lot of the union meetings. For a time he was conscious of something peculiar occurring that he couldn’t put his finger on. Finally he worked out what it was. Trade Unions like probably most organisations have splits to one degree or another between guys conventionally perceived as politically “left wing” and “right wing” and it ultimately struck my friend that at meetings all the “lefties” sat together on the LEFT side of the room whilst the “right wing” guys sat in a bunch to the RIGHT of the room.
Steve: in reference to Dr. Kildare as well as upcoming video subjects. I remember that Greg has requested Lew Ayres a while back.
Hi Flora, Lew Ayres is in my files, but he will have to wait a few more weeks. Maybe Bruce can do a UMR page on Lew in the meantime.
Lew’s highest rated movie is nearly 90 years old!
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