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.
Herbert Stothart was placed at both the heights and a relative low point of 2 polls of greatest all-time movie musicians that I have seen, being ranked 5th and 32nd in them. My own 3 favourites, as films, among the movies with which he was musically involved are Picture of Dorian Gray, Random Harvest and Night at the Opera
Best POSTERS entries 40-21 (1) Kismet (2) Undercurrent (3) 1st one for A Guy Named Joel (4) White Cliffs of Dover (5) Romeo & Juliet (6) Valley of Decision (7) Conquest (8) Rose Marie and (9) 1st one for 30 Seconds over Tokyo.
POSTERS entries 1-20 (1) 1st one for Anna Karenina (2) The Yearling (3) After the Thin Woman with Asta in dominant iconic form (4) both for Camille (5) Random Harvest (6) Queen Christina – with Garbo very iconic in both (7) 2nd one for San Francisco (8) both for Mutiny on the Bounty (9) Tale of 2 Cities and (10) Night at the Opera.
My pick of all of the STILLS [1-40] (1) Jimmy Stewart and Hedy (2) Long John Silver (3) highly suggestive one of Eugene and Lana (4) China Seas (5) The Yearling (6) behind the scenes on the Camille set
(7) The Good Earth (8) Joe Yule Jr and Liz (9) Cowboy of the Century and Vivien Leigh (10) the Marx Boys in the renowned cabin scene sketch and (11) W C Fields “A man who hates children can’t be all bad!”
An excellent video easily worth a 97.5% rating.
Hi Bob, thanks for the review, generous rating, info and quote, much appreciated.
Glad you liked the picture gallery.
I was surprised at the amount of prestige movie assignments Stothart was given, big movies, big stars and many of them based on classic novels. Surprised because Stothart isn’t as well known as other composers of that era.
His music for The Wizard of Oz beat Max Steiner’s Gone With the Wind that year, both MGM films so the studio was still happy with the win.
12 Stothart films scored 10 out of 10 from my sources –
The Wizard of Oz
A Night at the Opera
A Tale of Two Cities
Mutiny on the Bounty
David Copperfield
Mrs. Miniver
Queen Christina
Pride and Prejudice
National Velvet
The Good Earth
They Were Expendable
Anna Karenina
Seven more scored 9 out of 10.
If it wasn’t for Oz the Marx Bros would have had the top spot on the video with their comedy masterpiece A Night at the Opera.
Otis B. Driftwood: “You’re willing to pay him a thousand dollars a night just for singing? Why, you can get a phonograph record of Minnie the Moocher for 75 cents. And for a buck and a quarter, you can get Minnie. “
HI STEVE Thanks for feedback, additional information and quote. A Night at the Opera is my own favourite Marx Bros movie and whilst some critics regard it as the brothers’ main masterpiece others insist that Duck Soup holds that honour. The Work Horse disagrees with the latter opinion as he gives Night at the Opera the No 1 spot on his Marx Bros page and Duck Soup is in 2nd place, ratings of 89% and 86% respectively.
Certainly for those who don’t feel they have FULL value for money in cases where a movie is not of a reasonable length Duck Soup would be a disappointment. It’s running time in most prints is 68 mins [max 72 mins in some versions] compared with for example 93 mins for Night at the Opera and 109 minutes for Day at the Races.
The Master gives all of 7 Marx Bros films 4 stars each and they are The Cocoanuts, Duck Soup, Animal Crackers, Night at the Opera, Night in Casablanca, Room Service and The Big Store.
I was surprised that Hirsch included Room Service as a 4 star film [remade in 1944 as Sinatra’s Step Lively] because most critics pan Room Service, IMDB giving it just a 67% rating and The Work Horse only 66%.
Joel doesn’t usually do box office but in his 1983 Book of Terror he cites Night at the Opera as the brothers, biggest box office hit. Here again though his pupil takes issue with him because WH’s Marx Bros stats table suggests that all of the following beat Night at the Opera at the box office in the US -Day at the Races, Horse Feathers, Animal Crackers, The Cocoanuts.
Of those 4 WH provides worldwide grosses for just Day at the Races but it beats Night at the Opera at the global box office as it does in the US. Accordingly if Bruce is right, The Master is wrong and Day at the Races -not Night at the Opera- is the brother’s biggest box office hit. I argue with Hirsch all the time but if you want to fight with The Work Horse over box office stats I’ll hold your coat!
Bob, Bruce, Flora, Billy Crystal was interviewed by Hollywood Reporter and he mentioned Shane, Ladd, and Peck, here’s an excerpt –
HR: Have you ever fantasized about a handprint ceremony at the Chinese?
BC: Not really. But I remember as a kid, when I was growing up in the ’50s, they still had newsreels in the theaters — “The World of the Week in Review” — and you’d see Gregory Peck getting his hand and footprint done. It just seemed like an amazing thing.
HR: Do you remember the first movie you ever saw?
BC: It was [1953 Western] Shane. I remember wanting to be the kid. I mean, Alan Ladd was great, and then obviously Jack Palance was the bad guy, and I would get to work with him in City Slickers. But Brandon deWilde was the kid in that movie, and I sort of looked like him when I was that age.
HR: Did you tell Jack Palance that when you met him on City Slickers?
BC: Yeah, I did. And in Jack’s way, he just looked at me, and went, “Bullsh*t. You’re just trying to be nice to me.”
🙂
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/billy-crystal-reflects-harry-met-sally-30th-anniversary-1196806
Thanks for sharing that excerpt from Crystal’s interview with The Hollywood Reporter and for the link to the interview.
HI STEVE
Thanks for sharing the Laddie, Greg, Shane name-dropping.
Added Steve’s Victor Young Video To This Page. Our thoughts shared on his channel.
“Overall I have seen 23 of these movies….not too bad…considering before coming here this morning, I was not aware of Mr. Victor Young. Favorites would include #2 The Quiet Man, #1 Shane, #9 Scaramouche (what great sword fighting scenes), #22 Ministry of Fear…almost like a Hitchcock movie and Flying Tigers. So he did the score for two movies in which John Wayne died on screen….that is impressive…since the Duke did not do that too many times…7 or 8 times in almost 200 movies. Good video. I enjoyed learning about Victor Young.”
Hi Bruce, Victor Young was Cecil B. DeMille’s composer of choice and Paramount studios top music man until his death in 1956. I lead the tally’s this time round- I’ve seen 31, Flora 29 and Bruce 23. Thanks again for the comment, vote and share, always appreciated.
Victor Young’s career has been enormously prolific with for example 282 movie soundtracks and 217 composer contributions being credited to him by IMDB. He was involved with the music for such classics as The Quiet Man and For Whom the Bell Tolls and yet found time to lend his talents to “rubbish” such as the 2 Jon Hall early 1950s B westerns When the Redskins Rode and Brave Warrior. In 4 separate polls that I have seen Victor is ranked 5th, 16th, 21st and 26th [a fine average of 17th]
Best POSTERS in entries 40-21 in your video are for my money the following. FL=foreign language (1) both for The Conqueror (2) Son of Sinbad – very raunchy (3) Strategic Air Command (4) 2 suggestive ones for The Outlaw (5) Ladd in iconic form in Calcutta (6) Gulliver (7) The Tall Men (8) 1st one for Reap the Wild Win (9) both for Samson and (10) FL for Sands of Iwo Jima
My pick of the POSTERS in entries 1-20 (1) Unconquered (2) Big Clock (3) The Glass Key (4) 1st one for Rio Grande (5) Scaramouche (6) The Paleface (7) 1st one for The Quiet Man (8) both for Shane and FL for The Country Girl – most unusual.
STILLS in the entire 40 entries that most pleased me are (1) Bing and Rhonda (2) Samson and Delilah (3) Coop & Ingrid (4) Around the World (5) Chuck and Jimmy the Clown (6) Grace, Bing and Golden (7) Ladd & Lake (8) Road to Morocco (9) lobby card for gun Crazy (10) Joaney Guitar (11) The Quiet Man and (12) Shane – Ladd certainly has got a lot of attention in your V Young video.
The enormity of Victor’s filmography must have made it difficult for you to whittle your choices down to 40 but it’s unlikely that a different set of selections would have been much better because I “Vote Up!” your Victor Young video with a 98% rating.
Hi Bob, thanks for the review, generous rating, info and triva, much appreciated.
Glad you liked the posters, stills and lobby cards.
Victor Young was Cecil B. De Mille’s favorite composer but ill health meant he missed composing the music to DeMille’s biggest epic The Ten Commandments.
Oscar nominated 22 times, Young won his only Oscar for Around the World in 80 Days (1956), a posthumous win, he died a few months before the Oscar ceremony.
Five films scored 10 out of 10 on Vic’s scoresheet – Shane, The Quiet Man, The Paleface, Rio Grande and The Uninvited.
Eight more score 9 out of 10 including – Johnny Guitar, Gun Crazy and Scaramouche.
There are 7 John Wayne films on the video, Alan Ladd has 4, 3 for Gary Cooper and 3 for Ray Milland. Ladd has the top spot. No Hitchcock this time.
HI STEVE
Thanks for the feedback and additional information.
It’s good to see two of my top idols, Laddie AND the Duke getting multiple runs in one of your videos.
Take care.
Added Steve’s Dimitri Tiomkin Video to this page. Our thoughts:
“Another composer….that I was unaware of…but have seen many of his movies. After a slow start…missed the first four movies….ended up seeing 31 of the final 36 movies. Favorites would include #13 The Thing, #5 Strangers on a Train, #3 Red River and #22 The Sundowners. I of course, enjoy many of his all-tme classics….It’s A Wonderful Life, Giant, High Noon and many others…..just not as much as the 4 I mentioned. Another interesting and informative video. Good stuff. Voted up and shared.”
Hi Bruce, thanks for the vote, share and comment! 31 out of 40 is pretty good, I managed 27, Flora has seen 35.
Glad to help. Looks like your video channel is really taking off…..congrats my friend…good to see your hard work paying off.