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.
Seems like it has been awhile since I included a new Steve video here….well…no more. Added in Steve’s Sam Wood video and included my comments found on his You Tube channel.
Welcome back. Hmmmm….I know the name…but I have never done any research on Sam Wood. I have seen 11 of the 30 movies….so over 33% of the ones listed here. First of all….great looking posters…they do not make them like that anymore. Favorites would include #10 The Stratton Story…good baseball flick…and based on a true story. #8 Command Decision…my dad liked this one as well. #4 Kings Row…the acting highlight of Ronald Reagan and #15 Raffles…really like David Niven in this one. Good video. Voted up and shared
Hi Bruce, as a long time Marx Bros fan I knew the name Sam Wood from when I was young and watching films with my parents, aaah memories.. I haven’t seen The Stratton Story, for some weird reason I’ve avoided a lot of sports movies over the decades, maybe I should catch up on some of the best in that genre some day.
Your tally 11, mine 6 and Flora beats us both with 18. Thanks for the vote, share and comment, always appreciated.
Director/producer Sam Wood had prolific careers in both the silent and talkies movie eras. During his silent years from 1920-29 he made 36 films and from 1930 until 1949 he gave us 41 talkies. Your cover poster is for his final one, Ambush, which was released in 1950 the year after his death. I vividly remember seeing it in 1961 when I served with the Royal Air Force in Wolverhampton England. I have seen 7 of his other talkies but none of his silent films. The 41 talkies include a 24 day stint as stand-in director for Victor Fleming on Gone with the Wind when Fleming was on sick-leave. When Sam died, he left behind a net worth of approx 10 million in TODAY’s dollars according to Celebrity Net Worth.
My pick of the POSTERS: 1/two mildly raunchy ones for Heartbeat 2/two for Stablemates 3/Paid [Crawford said that of all the movies she made this was the one she detested the most] 4/Guest Wife 5/Beyond the Rocks [silent film – poster must be an extreme rarity nowadays 6/first one for Saratoga Trunk 7/Ivy 8/Bluebeard – another collector’s item poster for a silent movie 9/Ambush [one of the westerns that convinced Spangler that he deserved to be Cowboy of the Century more that the likes of Randy or The Duke] 10/foreign language one for Our Town 11/foreign language one For Whom Bell Tolls 12/A Day at the races 13/ foreign language one for Goodbye Mr Chips 14/Her Sweetheart 15/Casanova Brown 16/Unguarded Hour
Best of the STILLS [LC = Lobby Card] 1/LC for Stablemates 2/Joan in Paid 3/ LC of the Cogerson Queen in Whipsaw [WH is sure to drool over that one] 4/LC for The Man in Possession 5/Raffles 6/Hold Your Man 7/The Stratton Story 8/Kitty Foyle 9/For whom Bell Tolls 10/LC for Joel and Miss Jones11/all ones featuring Julius Henry Marx with or without brothers 12/King’s Row 13/LC for Goodbye Mr Chips 14/the lovely Arlene Dahl with Spangler Arlington Brugh [aka Lt Taylor of the wartime US Naval Corps].
With this profile of an artistic technician who was not an actor you have further extended the diversity of your site and my scores for the video added up to 97.5%. The presentation is a very worthwhile addition to your overall catalogue.
Hi Bob, thanks for the review, generous rating, info and trivia, always appreciated.
Glad you liked the posters, stills and lobby cards.
It’s been a while since I posted in this thread, over 2 months. This latest wave of videos is centering on classic Hollywood directors I haven’t already covered before. I don’t think any of them are on Bruce’s index page so this will probably be our chat page for the next few weeks.
We should be grateful to Bruce for a dedicated video page otherwise we’d be randomly posting comments in the ‘About’, ‘Site Index’ and ‘Forums’ pages, confusing everyone. 😉
Three of Sam Wood’s films scored 10 out of 10 from my sources – Pride of the Yankees, Goodbye Mr. Chips and A Night at the Opera.
Eight more scored 9 out of 10 including – Kings Row, A Day at the Races, Kitty Foyle and For Whom the Bell Tolls.
Sam Wood on working with Gary Cooper – “I froze in my tracks the first time I directed him. I thought something was wrong with him, saw a million-dollar production go glimmering. I was amazed at the result on the screen. What I thought was underplaying turned out to be just the right approach. On the screen he’s perfect, yet on the set you’d swear it’s the worst job of acting in the history of motion pictures.”
HI STEVE. Thanks very much for the feedback including explanations and additional information. I was especially interested in the Cooper story because I can recall a leading journalist way back in the mid to late 1950s having a similar experience.
He was invited onto the set to watch the filming of The Harder they Fall starring Bogie and Rod Steiger which was released in 1956 and turned out to be Humph’s final film. The journalist said that Steiger was on fire with some of the most strenuous acting imaginable and Bogie just stood or sat around and seemed “out of it”. The journalist thought “Poor Bogie – Steiger’s acting him into insignificance. I dread to see Bogart’s reviews.”
However months later when the same journalist attended a preview it was as if he were watching up on the screen an entirely different situation from that which he had actually witnessed in reality, a role reversal in fact: on the finished celluloid product involving those very same scenes that had been played out before the journalist’s own eyes Bogie was completely dominating the camera and Rod was reduced to an ‘also-ran’.
I suppose the lesson of your story and mine is that all the Greats -Gable, The Duke, Chuck, Mr Mumbles, Asta and The Meg-have that iconic magnetism that rivet your attention to them no matter how others sharing scenes with them are performing. Anyway great that your ‘video show’ has returned. Keep safe.
There are so many Kates in the entertainment world that it becomes confusing: Kate Winslett, Cate Blanchett, Kate Hudson, Katie Holmes, Kate Bosworth, Kate Walsh etc. It only adds to the difficulty in distinguishing among them when you are not too familiar with the work of most of them. For example I have seen just three Kate Beckinsale movies ever – Serendipity, Van Helsing and The Aviator. Van Helsing was for me a huge bore that I quickly switched off the TV but I thoroughly enjoyed the other two. I am generally AWARE of course of her Underworld franchise.
Kate has won 9 acting awards and 34 nominations and has a reported net worth of $16 million dollars and my fave POSTERS in your video are 1/Absolutely Anything 2/Van Helsing 3/Haunted 4/two for Total recall 5/two for Pearl Harbour 6/Stonehearst Asylum 7/Vacancy [I actually wouldn’t mind SEEING that one] 8/Snow Angels 9/Love and Friendship 10/Last Days of Disco 11/Cold Comfort Farm 12/the entire set for the Aviator 13/Much Ado About Joel.
Great STILLS, my pick of which are: 1/Whiteout 2/Only Living Boy in Manchester 3/Pearl Harbour 4/Click 5/ Contraband 6/Serendipity 7/with Emma Thompson [I think?] 8/Total Recall 9/the solo of the lovely Kate from Brokedown Palace But I should also especially highlight-
(1) almost the entire set of stills AND posters for the Underworld franchise – magnificent, and a fine companion piece to your pictorials for Milla’s Resident Evil series. Indeed your posters tend me to see Kate’s Selene as a kindred spirit of Milla’s Alice and Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley in the Alien series. Milla’s opening quote in your video on her suggests that macho male Yanks don’t take too well to action heroines and that’s why Milla’s Resident Evil films didn’t do nearly as well in the US as they did abroad where they made a mint. Speaking for myself I’d rather watch Kate, Milla and Sigourney any day than the likes of The Rock – or Jace with or without his shirt on!
(2) the still of Van Helsing with the huge gun. I found it very Freudian and had to laugh because it reminded me of the line from Mae West that Bruce quotes at the start of his West page: “Is that a pistol in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?”
Indeed (1) and (2) are indeed the kind of joys that you regular give us that earns your stuff such high ratings in my book¸ this time 98%. I don’t see a Work Horse tribute to Kate – are these tired old eyes playing tricks on me again? Anyway keep safe.
Hi Bob, thanks for the review, generous rating, info and observation, much appreciated. Glad the picture gallery met with your approval.
Kate, Milla and Angelina blossomed into real beauties by their mid 30s, they weren’t as pretty in their early 20s or teen years. The same with Liz Taylor, when she hit her 30s she was beautiful, from cute, to pretty to beautiful, that’s how it should be no? By contrast Lana Turner, Rita Hayworth and Ava Gardner were already fading beauties into the 1950s.
That was Emma Thompson with young Kate in the still for Much Ado About Joel.
We obviously don’t have the same taste in modern movies Bob, you might find Van Helsing boring, but something like Serendipity would put me to sleep, even the title.
No 10s from my sources in Kate’s filmography but there is a 9 out of 10 – The Aviator. 5 more films scored 8 out of 10.
“I don’t think I fit the type of actress Michael Bay had met before. I think he was baffled by me because my boobs weren’t bigger than my head and I wasn’t blonde. I’d just had my daughter and had lost weight but was told that if I got the part, I’d have to work out. And I just didn’t understand why a 1940s nurse would do that. When we were promoting the film, Michael was asked why he had chosen Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett, and he said, ‘I have worked with Ben before and I love him, and Josh is so manly and a wonderful actor’. Then when he was asked about me, he’d say, ‘Kate wasn’t so attractive that she would alienate the female audience.’ He kept saying it everywhere we went, and we went to a lot of places.”
HI STEVE: Thanks for the normal thoughtful comments in response to my own. A very interesting and extensive quote from Kate. I agree that our tastes differ greatly in many respects but that’s OK because as I’ve said before if everybody liked only Cary Grant type films John Wayne would have been out of business and vice-versa.
Besides you may have noticed that my opinions especially the ‘controversial’ ones come with a qualifying declaration such as “I speak for only myself.” I would not presume to speak for others and do not regard my preferences as definitive though what I opine is, to use the old cliché “A poor thing maybe but nevertheless mine own.”
I do agree with you about the contrasting beauty changes in the actresses whom you mention. Indeed I thought that among the men Lee Marvin’s looks became more mellow and pleasant as he aged. I also considered Al Leach as very “sissy” looking when he was younger and I therefore didn’t like his earlier films, but greatly admired the older more sophisticated-looking Leach and his flicks.. Archie apparently had a gay following like the one you attribute to my Joan and of course every one of us is entitled to choose his/her own idols.
See also Part 2 and keep safe. Me – I’m off to my comfort zone once again. Come and join me sometime – it’s pleasant in there!
KATE BECKINSALE’s UNDERWORLD FILMS
Total Adjusted Worldwide Gross 5 movies: $0.635 billion
Average per movie $127 million
Total Adjusted Budget $230 million.
MILLA’s RESIDENT EVIL FILMS
Total Adjusted Worldwide Gross 6 movies: $1.46 billion
Average per movie $244 million
Total Adjusted Budget $344 million.
SIGOURNEY’s ALIEN FILMS
Total Adjusted Worldwide Gross 4 movies: $1.60 billion
Average per movie $400 million
Total Adjusted Budget $270 million.
NOTE: Worldwide figures for the Alien franchise are conflicting and as WH will quote only grosses that he is sure of he gives global grosses for only 2 of the Alien films. I have therefore combined Bruce’s complete worldwide stats for those 2 movies with the averages of all the figures quoted for the other 2 films to come up with the $1.6 billion total.
I know of Milla through only my awareness of the existence of the Resident Evil franchise and watching her as Joan of Arc. However the Resident Evil movies are not my cup of tea so I’ve never watched them and the only movie among the many that Milla has made that I’ve ever seen her in is The Messenger/Joan of Arc, which I enjoyed
She is reputed to have a net worth of $40 million and IMDB credits her with 3 acting awards and 19 nominations. One of the nominations was for an action heroine performance that would make Jason Statham jealous and covetous: a 1998 MTV + TV Award for a sequence in Bruce Willis’ 1997 The 5th Element which the presenters entitled “Fight between Milla Jovovich and Aliens”!
Another nomination that she got for The 5th Element was from the Online Film & TV Association for “Best Sci-fi/Fantasy/Horror Actress” so I can see how she would appeal to YOU! However you are not alone because she is at present on 3 IMDB user lists of current Top 37 “favourite” and “hottest” actresses – in positions 1st. 21st and 22d
Best POSTERS in Milla’s video 1/two for Ultraviolet 2/1st one for No Good Deed 3/Dirty Girl 4/You Stupid Man 5/foreign language one for Faces in the Crowd 6/1st one for Survivor 7/Hellboy 8/Racy one for .45 9/two for The Messenger 10/Zoolander 11/2nd one for 5th Element.
Fine STILL are 1/Ultraviolent 2/Hellboy 3/Kuffs 4/3 Musketeers 5/as Joan 6/Perfect Getaway 7/what I take as a lobby card for Zoolander 8/He got Game 9/two for the 5th Element.
Plus the entire glut of poster and stills for the Resident Evil franchise. They were all so good – and sexy for the most part! – that it would have been difficult tom make all that much distinction among them.
In a way my general unfamiliarity with Milla’s career made me more curious that is even usually the case about one of your videos and I found it both enjoyable and educational and rated it 99%.
Hi Bob, thanks for the review, generous rating (ooh), info and trivia, much appreciated. Glad you liked the posters, stills and lobby cards.
Regarding Zoolander, I’m surprised they were still producing those kind of lobby cards in 2001, the type with some poster art on the side and a photo at the top. I don’t see that anymore, maybe a glossy photo with the title of the film at the bottom, and even that is rare.
The Resident Evil saga went on too long and started to repeat itself, three movies would have been enough. But I shouldn’t complain I like seeing Milla in action. If only they’d put her in a big important movie occasionally, before she gets too old and ends up playing the hero’s mother, or grandmother!
I remember in an interview she said that her mother was always moaning that she never gets to wear any proper clothes in her films, or even normal clothes! She was nicely dressed in The Three Musketeers as Milady de Winter, though they didn’t dare kill her off in that version, might upset her fans.
No 10 or 9 scorers in Milla’s filmography, 4 films scored 8 out of 10 – Chaplin, He Got Game, Dazed and Confused and The Fifth Element.
Milla on The Fifth Element – “I worked like hell. No band practice, no clubs, no pot, nothing.”
Milla on Resident Evil – “We’ve got really infantile mentalities on this movie. We’re like: “It’s gross – cool! It’s disgusting – print it!”. You have to think like a fifteen-year-old. Wet dress. Zombies. Guns. Cool!”
Thanks for the feedback, additional information and quotes. Your pictorials and my further general reading [which your video encouraged] about Milla suggests to me that she has found her niche among the screen action heroines of the present era [a latter day Sigourney Weaver?]. We will have to see if we can arrange to have Milla and Jason team up as I’m sure that it would please audiences of the two genders if they were both to take off their shirts of at the same time!
Indeed she is also a musician and has done modelling work so that (1) the VHI music channel dubbed her “the reigning queen of kick-butt” in 2016, a crown that even The Thin Woman never possessed! (2) in 2004 the prestigious Forbes Rich List classified her as the highest paid model in the world.
Against an overall production budget of around $345 million in 2019 money the 6 Resident Evil films in which she appeared have collectively grossed worldwide in cinemas almost 1.5 billion in today’s dollars, an excellent average of around $240 million per movie.
By the way, Whilst at 43 Milla could fall prey to the Curse of 39 any day now, I wouldn’t worry about her having to play superheros’ mothers. Remember the megastar who upset The Master by making a fortune playing Superman’s father way back in 1978 for just 15 minutes on the screen!
Yet another Brit! “Will no one rid me of these troublesome peoples?” [Paraphrased, what Henry 2 of England is supposed to have said regarding Thomas Becket that may have encourage Becket’s assassination]. Seriously though I saw Rachel in The Favourite and she was mind-blowing.
Therefore as her career started much too late for 1983 Master love and as so far the “wench” has not found favour at the court of King Bruce, I doubly and warmly welcome this video profile of her. IMDB credits her with 41 acting awards and 73 noms and her net worth at present is said to be $36 million.
My fave POSTERS 1/Chain Reaction [I am surprised that you include a poster featuring that “perve” Morg Freeman] 2/360 3/Dream House 4/1st one for Confidence 5/Oz 6/1st one for My Blueberry Nights 7/Whistleblower 8/Lovely Bones 9/Disobedience 10/1st one for Brothers Bloom 11/1st one for Youth showcasing an iconic Sir Maurice 12/two for The Fountain 13/complete set forThe Favourite
Many classy STILLS my pick being 1/Fred Claus 2/Agora 3/Oz 4/Mummy Returns 5/Definitely Maybe 6/Bourne Legacy 7/ Constantine 8/Runaway Jury [my personal Weisz favourite movie after The Favourite- hope that doesn’t seem like duplication!] 9/The Mummy [one] 10/About a Boy 11/Constant Gardner 12/The Favourite – as said above, the entire set
“Voted Up!” with a 98.5% rating, and recommended for several viewings.
Hey Bob….good thoughts on Steve’s video and her movie career. I have added the video to this page….and added my comment found on his channel.
“Although she is an Oscar winning actress…I feel she is underrated. I have seen 28 and probably 29 of her 30 movies listed. I have not (for sure) seen #15 Disobedience….pretty sure I watched #26 Agora….but not 100% sure…I guess I watch too many movies. I am not a fan of her number one movie…The Favourite…..I suspect it’s review number will go down as time passes….it has been steadily moving down on IMDb over the last few months as more and more people watch it. She has made a bunch of different types of movies….so kudos to her. My favorites would include #3 About A Boy, #4 Enemy At The Gates, #6 Youth and #23 Oz….looks awesome in 3D. Good video…voted up and shared.”
Hi Bruce, many thanks for the comment, vote and share.
Well you’ve more than doubled my tally of 13, Flora has seen 1 – About a Boy.
You’ve seen so many of Rachel’s films but where’s her UMR page. 😉
Hey Steve….like many of these current stars….I had no idea I had seen so many of her movies until seeing a list. As a Best Supporting Actress Winner…..she will one day get a page…so many stars to do…and so little time to do it.
HI BRUCE
Thanks for the kind words and for your feedback on my own comments about Katharine Ross.
You will recall our exchanges -another draw! – a week or so ago about what movies were dated and which ones were not .
My almost-14 grandson is now quite grown up and heavily into movies. He watches all the superhero flicks, the Star Wars franchise and the Alien series and recently bought the DVD of To Kill a Mockingbird as he read the book and is transfixed with Atticus Finch. Accordingly knowing that I am a big Greg fan GS o Bob has invited me round to watch the movie with him.
However -and this took even me aback- he doesn’t know who Fred Astaire is! It will though in due course come to your family too. Years from now some Cogerson whippersnapper will be confessing to have never heard of The Usual Suspects of today’s Cogerson site such as Sir Maurice Micklewhite, Archibald Alexander Leach, John McClane and his real-life wife Gimme More. Indeed it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that a few people 100 years from now will have no idea who Hirsch was!
Hey Bob…..I experience the same thing with my family (which shocks me….they are surrounded by kids) and my kids at school. Each semester we do a “Favorites list”…I of course ask “Favorite Actor”. Without fail….4 guys get about 95% of the vote…Kevin Hart, Dwayne Johnson, Chris Pratt and Adam Sandler (the power of Netflixx?). I still remember one time….one time…..a girl mentioned Dorothy Dandridge….I was shocked. She of course turned out to be one of the smartest people in my class….lol. This has allowed me to realize the truth you speak will come. Lots do not remember Mr. Grant….poor Mr. Hirschhorn is probably only remembered at UMR. Good stuff.
Hi Bob, thanks for reviewing my Rachel Weisz video, appreciate the generous rating and info, glad you liked the posters and stills.
I enjoyed The Favourite too, not sure if I’d buy it though, maybe when it’s priced cheaper. I’m glad they retained the English spelling of ‘favourite’ for the title.
I first noticed her in the action movie Chain Reaction more than 20 years ago, never suspecting she would be a future Oscar winner.
She was a lot of fun in The Mummy films.
Two films scored 10 out of 10 from my sources – The Fountain and The Favourite.
Enemy at the Gates ties with The Favourite as top rated Rachel movie at IMDB, no.1 at Rotten Tomatoes is The Favourite.
“People find out I’m an actress and I see that ‘whore’ look flicker across their eyes.”
“I’m not one for parties and stuff like that. I get a bit nervous around lots of people. Being invisible is what I really enjoy. That I find quite entertaining.”
Bob, I know you’re a fan of Michael Caine’s film ‘Youth’ here’s a link to a poster I couldn’t use on my video – a bit more adult and I can’t imagine it being displayed in cinemas.
http://www.impawards.com/intl/misc/2015/posters/youth.jpg
We should also mention of course that Rachel Weisz is married to tough and moody Bond, James Bond – Daniel Craig.
https://peopledotcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/11/rachel-weisz.jpg
STEVE [Beware – the weekend’s here and I’m in delicious and jolly tongue in cheek mood!] I’ve long noticed how you Brits when sizing each other up normally ensure that the tank is seen as ‘half-full’ for the Brit but often “half-empty” for another in a similar situation, especially when that other is in competition with the Brit.
For example you refer to Daniel Craig as being [the normally complimentary] “tough” whereas Hirsch in his write up on Richard Harris referred to the pugilistic Irishman as “pugnacious”, a term normally used in a derogatory context [though as we know Joel seemed to admire that “quality” in Harris.]
[Personally I always more admired the often victimised screen spy Sir Maurice’s Harry Palmer or Sir Alec Guinness’ low key George Smiley than the flashy, womanizing smart-a**Bond. The self-satisfaction of the Bond character combined with the repetitiveness of the plots are what turned me off the Bond films decades ago and it’s been years since I’ve even looked at James, except of course on your marvellous posters.]
Also I watch a lot of tennis and down though the years I’ve noticed that when a Brit thrashes Johnny Foreigner all the focus is on the wonderful skills that the former displayed; however when ‘Johnny’ hammers a Brit the UK commentators as often as not are full of praise for how “plucky” the Brit was in attempting to stand up to such aggressive power in being hammered for example a derisory 6-1, 6-0 and the ‘whistling in the dark’ ensues with suggestions like “He/she will take away a lots of useful lessons from that defeat.”
Of course the Irish-American Bond of 1995-2002, Pierce Brosnan, got it spot on when he stood on a rooftop near Wimbledon one year along with Federer and complimented my Roger on being “tough”!!!! As I’ve said though from my film buff’s viewpoint I was pleased that you shared that Craig/Rachel photo with the rest of us -great stuff.
Not to mention that she has a son with director Darren Aronofsky of Pi, A Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, The Wrestler and Mother fame.
HI STEVE Thanks for yet another comprehensive response to my own comments and for the extra info you have provided
That swimming pool link was most appreciated and from my perspective certainly beats watching Statham taking his shirt off! Why is it though that you have to be careful where you show a piece of good, healthy art like that and yet the ladies are permitted to ogle to their heart’s content at a shirtless Jace? I think though that the “bathing beauty” in the link would be lost on the poor ole Work Horse as he would be transfixed instead with Sir Maurice! I don’t think however that 1966’s Alfie would have been content to sit there as a mere onlooker!
I liked too the Rachel/Daniel link so thanks for also sharing that one; and Rachel’s comment about liking being “invisible”made me laugh and brought back long ago memories of my days in the Royal Air Force while serving in Gloucester England. An English pal of mine [called Tinsley] at the unit was a great fan of The Invisible Man TV series and one when we were in the camp television room watching an episode he leaned over and in hushed tones whispered into my ear in all seriousness “Bob, I’d love to be invisible.”
I also found Rachel’s “w***e” quote interesting as it again demonstrates how people can at times tar all entertainers with the one brush whereas for example the Greg that Flora and I admire didn’t run around beating people up like Crowe or self-harming like Depp.
Nonetheless I remember vividly that Saturday afternoon in 1958 when normal TV programs were interrupted to announce the premature death at 44 of Ty Power. As a film buff and particularly a Power admirer I was of course shocked and saddened. However when I told a friend of mine who detested film stars generally about Ty’s death he retorted “Good – that’s one more w***e hopper who’s no longer around!”
Anyway the weekend’s coming up and I hope it’s a good one for you. Meanwhile take care.
Hey Bob….Thanks for sharing the memory of Tyrone Power’s death. I imagine back then news really traveled much slower than today. Good to know Power was a big enough star to have overseas television programs interrupted. Hope your weekend keeps you in your “delicious and jolly tongue in cheek mood”. And finally…good thoughts on Steve’s video and Rachel’s movie career.
HI BRUCE – Thanks again for all your attentions. I’m trying to get Steve to “draw” My fellow die hard Brexiteers across the pond usually rise to the bait when you suggest that the Brits like the rest of us have faults!
In the 1950s movie stars were virtually the whole deal whilst today with so many diverse entertainment outlets and the widespread television coverage of sport, TV programmes are more likely to be interrupted on the death of a pop star or footballer than than they are for the passing of a movie star.
Accordingly there is some truth in Bette Davis contention that even when she was alive and in her declining years movie stars were not what they were in the 30s and 40s when cinema audiences were at their peak.
In an interview in the early 60s Brando agreed with Davis’ view and in fact suggested that he would have been even bigger if he had been a 1930s or 40s star [gosh that would have been fun for Brando fans like me, wouldn’t it?] but defensively he added “I can’t help the era in which I was born” [In his diaries Richard Burton claimed that had he been a silent movie star Marlon might have been the greatest star that ever lived as he could express so much silently with his gestures, eyes and facial expressions.]
As it is Brando fans will have to accept their man being MERELY linked with Bogie, Archie Leach and Astaire in terms of legendary status. Sad!
Hey Bob….I think Brando did just fine as an actor of the 1950s. Who knows what would he would have become if he was a 1930s and 1940s star. John Garfield and Paul Muni come to mind right away. Both skilled actors…whose legacy is with film buffs..versus the general public that do not even know Mr. Garfield and Mr. Muni existed. Brando has a much higher recognition factor than Garfield. Good stuff.
Hey Steve….I have seen that poster…it was probably for European audiences…..but I think USA audiences could have handled it.