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.
In a career that spanned 65 years from 1945 until 2010 Eli was mega-prolific. According to Wiki he was in over 80 theatrical movies, 24 TV movies, 41 other television productions, 8 documentaries and over 30 stage productions.
Best posters in Eli Wallach Lensman video (1) Raunchy 2 for Lovely Way to Die/Go (2) The Two Joels (3) Tough Guys (4) FL for Ace High (5) The Hunter (6) 7 Thieves (7) a unique FL one for The Lineup (8) Cinderella Liberty (9) 1st one for Lord Jim – how that takes me back! (10) The Victors (11) FL for Baby Doll (12) FL for the Misfits, showcasing an iconic King Gable and (13) FL for Magnificent Seven.
Best STILLS (1) chatting behind the scenes [I presume?] of the Good, Bad, Ugly (2) with Hackman (3) raunchy lobby card for Dino’s How to Save a Marriage (4) Keeping the Faith (5) with Hayley Mills (6) The Holiday (7) Eli with Baby Doll Baker as she was nicknamed at the time (8) him with old pal Marilyn (9) in Godpop 3 (10) Magnificent 7 and (11) getting the drop on Clint.
Despite his enormous output that I have mentioned above Eli’s net worth was said to be a relatively low $6 million and he has gone unloved by the two Giants of this site, The Work Horse and The Master so it is good to see the Lensman video site recognising him and I “Vote Up!” the Wallach video with a well-deserved 97.5% rating.
Eli Wallach came up through the Method school of acting and like many from that school he was a Brando cheerleader in public. In fact from Oct 53 until March 56 Eli played in the stage production of The Teahouse of the August Moon the role of Sakini that Marlon played in the 1956 film.
At the Actors’ Studio Eli became friends with Monroe who was also on public record as a Brando admirer**. More – she was Marlon’s real-life lover for a time and also a friend..
Apparently on one occasion Marilyn stood for two hours in the backstage wings of the theatre so that she could get a birds-eye view of Eli playing Sakini in Teahouse. Later of course she and Wallace both appeared on screen in the 1961 The Misfits.
Critics possibly most admire Eli for his very first performance which was in the 1956 sex drama Baby Doll [for which he won a Golden Globe nom as best supporting actor] and audiences may well most remember him for The Magnificent Seven and The Good the Bad and The Ugly. However my own personal favourite Wallace role was that of the rampaging hit-man Dancer in the 1958 The Lineup, Eli’s 2nd film.
**It would probably be easy to list associated with entertainment those who did NOT admire Brando. His name is Joel Hirschhorn.
Hi Bob, thanks for the review, generous rating, info and trivia, always appreciated.
Glad you liked the posters, stills and lobby cards.
The opening behind the scenes still features director Sergio Leone with Clint, Lee and Eli relaxing during filming of a classic spaghetti western.
Like you say Wallach and Brando knew each other and were from the same acting school. I’m surprised they never made a film together. I could only find one photo of the two together.
https://i.pinimg.com/474x/9a/fc/7a/9afc7afde6c819e65b985b55b2c422cf–marlon-brando-anne.jpg
I haven’t seen his first two movies Baby Doll and The Lineup.
When I was young I knew Eli best as the Mexican bandit Calvera in The Magnificent Seven, one of my dads favorites. That film played on TV all the time in the 1970s, along with The Great Escape (and The Italian Job of course).
Later on I became very familiar with Eli as Tuco Ramirez in The Good the Bad and the Ugly, a mesmerising, hilarious and surprisingly sympathetic performance.
Two films scored 10 out of 10 in Eli’s filmography – The Magnificent Seven and Good Bad and Ugly. Two scored 9 – How The West Was Won and Baby Doll. Five more scored 8 out of 10.
TGTBATU tops the charts at RT and IMDB.
“I always end up being the evil one, and I wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
“I’ve worked with wonderful actors like Marlon Brando and Henry Fonda.”
“I was at the premiere of The Holiday, a movie I did with Kate Winslet. Surrounded by all these beautiful young women. And after they left my wife comes up and says to me, “Honestly, I don’t know what they see in you.”.
STEVE Thanks for you comprehensive response, including the quotes and the Brando/Wallach photo link which I had not seen before.
If you have been following any of the exchanges between Bruce and me recently about his great actresses 1950-2010 page you will understand why WH might be furious that Eli in your quotes mentions Kate Winslet and not the STAR of The Holiday Cam Diaz!
Regarding you point about Eli and The Great Mumbler never making a film together, it did almost happen. At one stage Brando was scheduled to play a cameo in his other pal Nicholson’s The Two Joels which features Eli but Marlon withdrew. I suppose therefore that the strongest on-screen Dan-like links that Marlon and Eli have are their separate appearances in Godpop 1 & 3 respectively and even more obliquely both of them playing Teahouse’s Sakini, Marlon in film but Eli only on stage. “Ships that pass in the night!”
Nostalgically I watched on TV last night [at the first opportunity that has come up in decades] Rory Calhoun and Piper Laurie in Dawn at Socorro [1954]. My last contact with it was in fact when you gave us your Rory Calhoun video some time ago, and after watching the movie I was inclined to re-visit that to me absorbing video.
I see you gave the movie a 63% rating, good for a B western of those times, and ranked it 9th among Rory’s films covered in the video. Your Dawn at Socorro posters are excellent and indeed your entire video is a fine tribute to Calhoun.
ASSOCIATED DAN-STYLE LINKED TRIVIA Piper Laurie [absolutely lovely in Dawn at Socorro]claims that when they were making Louisa together in 1950, The Great Communicator as he was politically nicknamed, Ronnie Reagan, invited Piper to his ranch for a social evening and took her v********. Rory also acted with Ronnie and Shirley Temple in 1947’s That Hagan Girl. Calhoun was 3rd billed. Rory of course never became President! Anyway a have good weekend,
Hey Steve and Bob. Lots of solid information on these comments. I agree with Bob that the success of 10 really brought John Derek back into the spotlight…and yes it was a quick time in the spotlight. I knew John had been married to Linda Evans….not sure if I remembered that he left Evans for Bo. Not sure I knew he had been married to Ursula Andress….that is good information. Thanks for sharing these thoughts.
HI STEVE
Thanks for the feedback and for some very interesting information about the Bo and John Derek and Ursula Andress relationship tangles and controversies, a lot of which I hadn’t known. The hype Bo got from the Dudley Moore film 10 brought John back into the limelight for a time but that ‘comeback’ like Bo’s stardom didn’t last long if I recall correctly.
A big coincidence is your mom humming the theme from Hajji Baba because I can recall leaving the cinema after seeing it with a group of pals and we sang the lyrics as we walked down the road home. I didn’t, but unfortunately some of my pals did, embarrassingly insert their own words into it –
“Hajje Hajje
Hajje any k******** on?”
I suppose you may [no pun intended] not get around to doing a video tomorrow as you will be too downhearted to work in the knowledge that your revered Leader has promised to announce next month a date for her departure. We live in sad times.
Anyway keep safe.
“Pretty boy” John Derek [who won competitive real-life beauty prizes] enjoyed his heyday in the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s. After the 50s John starred in just three more films ever, the biggie being 1960’s Exodus. However he directed 9 movies between 1965 and 1990 but I don’t think that any of them was up to much and indeed one of them, 1981’s Tarzan Is your bottom listed movie with a 32% rating. WH’s Tarzan movies page is even stingier with a 29% rating and it is HIS bottom rated movie too on that page though he quotes a respectable adjusted domestic gross of $118 million for it, maybe earned for it by Ireland’s Richard Harris! Bo Derek [Jane] was of course John’s real-life wife.
Best POSTERS in your video FL= foreign language. (1) Tarzan – exceptionally raunchy! (2) Once Before I Die (3) Thunderbirds (4) 1st raunchy one for Annapolis Story – may in fact be a lobby card (5) 1st one for Prince of Players (6) The Outcast [aka The Fortune Hunter – possibly my fave film in which Derek had the lead] (7) Run for Cover & Colorado both – I never knew about the AKA of Colorado (8) 3 fantastic FL ones for Knock on Any Door – one of the very first movies I ever saw and 1st time I saw Bogie] (9) FL for Exodus (10) FL for Scandal Sheet [aka The Dark Page] [11] Nightmare in the Sun (12) FL for Rogues of Sherwood Forest and (13) classy foreign language one for The Ten Commandments.
Best STILLS (1) John as Hajji Baba (2) lobby card for Fury at Showdown (3) John with the “Dirty Rat” (4) John with Bogie (5) lobby card for Prince of Players (6) Exodus (7) lobby card for Scandal Sheet (8) All the Kings Men and (9) John with an iconic Chuck.
Short – but nostalgically sweet to the tune of 98% for me. Spurned by your idols and mine The Work Horse and The Master most people today have probably never heard of Derek but to me growing up in the 1950s he meant a lot-
She lived unknown,
And few could know
When Lucy ceased to be.
Now she’s gone and is no more,
But oh the difference to me![ William Wordsworth–The Lucy poems]
Hi Bob, thanks for reviewing my John Derek video, appreciate the generous review, trivia and poem. Happy you enjoyed the picture gallery.
My mother was a huge John Derek fan and she would sing or hum the theme song from Hajji Baba to me as a child… aahh memories.
I was going to include Bolero, but the poster I wanted to use was a bit too raunchy. My rating for Bo Derek’s Bolero was 3.0. By contrast George Raft’s Bolero scored 6.3.
Two of John Derek’s films scored 10 out fo 10 from my sources – The Ten Commandments and All the King’s Men. There are no 9s. Two films scored 8 out of 10 – Scandal Sheet and Exodus.
Top rated at IMDB is The Ten Commandments, All the King’s Men was no.1 at Rotten Tomatoes.
According to IMDB – “It is often carelessly and erroneously stated that Derek “left” his second wife Ursula Andress for third wife Linda Evans. This is bullsh*t. Derek threw Andress out of his California home in 1964 over suspicions that she’d been cheating on him with Ron Ely.”
“Andress then went back to Europe, having affairs with John Richardson and Marcello Mastroianni before officially leaving Derek for Jean-Paul Belmondo in February 1965. Derek didn’t even meet Linda Evans until September 1965.”
“In 1973, left third wife Linda Evans for seventeen-year-old Bo Derek (then Cathy Collins) during the shooting of ‘Fantasies’ in Greece. The film’s backers were from a church organization and there was concern they would have John arrested for statutory rape. To escape charges the couple moved to Germany, then Mexico until Bo’s eighteenth birthday.”