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.
1/Henry King was one of the 36 founders of the Academy [aka The Oscars] and from 1930-1961 he had the reputation of being one of the most commercially successful, hardest working, versatile and reliable directors in Hollywood.
2/Followers of this site may therefore, if they wish, consider him as The Work Horse of the 20th Century Fox lot for over 3 decades, though he has a reported net worth of $24 million in today’s money whereas OUR Work Horse keeps his probable huge earnings a secret – at least from us!
3/My fave King flicks are The Sun Also Rises, The Bravados, This Earth is Mine and especially Ty Power’s The Black Swan. Henry worked often at Fox with my idols Ty and the Great Greg.
4/Henry’s ranking placings are widespread over four polls of greatest directors: 8th,13th, 38th and 47th – average placing 26.5.
5/He was the first director ever to win a Golden Globe – in 1944 for 1943’s Song of Bernadette. Belfast where I live “My own private Manchester” has a large Catholic population and it used to be when we had re-runs here of Song of Bernadette there were naturally round the block queues for Bernadette. [for the most part with TV cinematic re-runs are now a thing of the past of course].
6/ My comments on Steve’s King video will follow tonight or tomorrow. Federer’s playing in a big tennis tournament at the moment so for a brief period Steve and even WH may have to be be each “just another guy around here”.
Just added Steve’s latest You Tube video to the page….Mr. W.S. Van Dyke. Our thoughts on Steve’s video and Van Dyke’s movies.
This is like a mini M. Loy video. You know she has the best box office total of any leading actress in our UMR database. I have seen 12 of the movies. But I bet I have almost all of these movies in our database already…so maybe we will soon have a very own W.S. Van Dyke movie page too. Favorites would be #4 After The Thin Man…my favorite of the Thin Man movies. #3 Tarzan The Ape Man…my favorite of the Tarzan movies. #27 Forsaking All Others….great cast in fun roles. I like #1 The Thin Man….yet I have never found a copy that did not look like a horrible VHS tape….I might change my mind if I ever see a version of that re-mastered. Good video. Voted up and shared
Hi Bruce, I bought The Thin Man series on DVD box set a few years ago, imported from the US. Picture quality was good but HD would be better.
Tarzan the Ape Man was a big hit and the start of a successful series of Tarzan movies starring Johnny Weissmuller. The first film borrowed footage from Trader Horn (1931) which was also directed by Van Dyke.
Your tally 12, mine 8 and Flora way out in front with 26. Thanks for the share, comment and vote, much appreciated.
That was W.S. Van Dyke’s nickname as he had no patience with repeat takes. He directed over 90 entertainments which because of his economically relatively quick-shooting schedules saved the studios vast amounts of money.
His career stretched a quarter of a century from the silent era in 1917 until 1942, obviously cut short by his relatively premature death at the age of 53 the following year. His massive output included 42 silent features and the partially silent The Pagan in 1929 starring Ramon Navarro, Chuck’s predecessor as Ben Hur in 1925.
In 4 separate polls of greatest directors his wide spread of ranking places comprised positions 4th, 11th, 20th, and 32nd – a reasonable average of approx 17th. On his death in 1943 he left behind a net worth that was reportedly equivalent to $13 million in 2018 dollars.
My personal favourites among his movies are the 4 that he directed out of the 6 movies in the Nick and Asta Charles series; the 6 that W.S. directed out of the 8 MacDonald/Eddy flicks that were made; San Francisco; Tarzan the Ape Man; I Take This Thin Woman; and especially They Gave Him a Gun. I rate your excellent video 98 %. My pick of the best posters/stills in my opinion are in Part 2. FL=foreign language poster and LC= lobby card.
BEST POSTERS: 1/first one for I married an Angel-the last and the least successful of the MacDonald/Eddy movies as Bruce’s tables on those two stars’ pages show. It lost for MGM the equivalent of $12 million in 2019 dollars 2/Rosalie 3/first two for I live My Life 4/FL one for Stand Up and Fight [sounds like a Jace title!] 5/Joel is a Sissy 6/Hide Out 7/two for Bitter Sweet 8/first one for Sweethearts 9/Penthouse 10/two for Trader Horn 11/Eskimo 12/two for Marie Antoinette 13/two for Rose Marie[“When I’m calling you-oo-oo-oo/You will answer too-oo-oo-oo”14/FL for Tarzan the Ape Man 15/the set for Frisco 16/two for His Brother’s Wife.
Smashing STILLS 1/Rage In Manchester 2/Stand Up and Fight 3/still and LC for Personal Property 4/LC for Love on the Run 5/saucy LC for Trader Horn 6/King Gable with an MGM extra in Manhattan Melodrama 7/Power and Shearer 8/LC for It’s a Wonderful World 8/Gable and McDonald 9/and exceptionally saucy one for Tarzan the Ape Man/10/Rose Marie-
“Oh Rose Marie I love you
I’m always thinking of you.
Of all the queens that ever lived I love you
To rule me my Rose Marie.”
PLUS all material showcasing The Great Asta. Magnificent video overall for my money.
Hey Bob….good information on Mr. Van Dyke. Lots of good information…..thinking we need to do an UMR page on him as well.
HI BRUCE:
I was actually surprised that you hadn’t done a One Take Woody page as it would have given you yet a further opportunity to pay homage to your Queen.
My initial impression is that The Thin Woman and Jeanette were his two fave leading ladies, but I will be interested in seeing what your own comprehensive co-star links column tells us.
Hey Bob…I should do a page on him….did some quick research and see that I have 34 of his movies already researched….lots of Loy.
By UMR ranking
MovieYear
San Francisco (1936)..says he is uncredited for this one
After the Thin Man (1936)
Trader Horn (1931)
Marie Antoinette (1938)
Another Thin Man (1939)
Thin Man, The (1934)
Rose Marie (1936)
Sweethearts (1938)
Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever (1939)
I Love You Again (1940)
Tarzan The Ape Man (1932)
Shadow of the Thin Man (1941)
Rosalie (1937)
Love on the Run (1936)
Personal Property (1937)
Stand Up And Fight (1939)
Forsaking All Others (1934)
Eskimo (1933)
Manhattan Melodrama (1934)
His Brother’s Wife (1936)
Penthouse (1933)
It’s A Wonderful World (1939)
Bitter Sweet (1940)
Prizefighter and the Lady, The (1933)
Hide-Out (1934)
I Live My Life (1935)
They Gave Him A Gun (1937)
Guilty Hands (1931)
Cairo (1942)
Feminine Touch, The (1941)
Rage In Heaven (1941)
Dr. Kildare’s Victory (1942)
I Take This Woman (1940)
I Married An Angel (1942)
Hi Bob, thanks for the review, generous rating, info, trivia and song lyrics, much appreciated. Happy you enjoyed viewing the stills, lobby cards and posters.
Looking at the video Van Dyke has worked with Jeanette Macdonald 7 times, Myrna Loy 8 times, William Powell 6 times, Clark Gable 3 times, Joan Crawford 3 times and Robert Taylor 3 times.
All those musicals and comedies – at least it explains why a blockbuster movie like ‘San Francisco’ was more musical than thriller.
The top 5 on the video –
The Thin Man 8.6
San Francisco 7.9
Tarzan the Ape Man 7.8
After the Thin Man 7.7
Rose Marie 7.6
Bruce’s critics top 5 for Van Dyke –
The Thin Man 8.7
After the Thin Man 8.7
San Francisco 8.6
I Love You Again 7.6
Another Thin Man 7.4
Only one film scored 10 out of 10 from my sources – The Thin Man. Three more scored 9 out of 10 – After the Thin Man, San Francisco and I Love You Again.
The Thin Man tops both IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes charts for Van Dyke.
Van Dyke on The Thin Man (1934) – “We shot it in 16 days, retakes and all. And that sweet smell of success was in every frame.”
According to IMDB – “Van Dyke saved Jeanette MacDonald’s life when she attempted suicide (pills) at the news of Nelson Eddy’s marriage in 1939. He commited suicide after being diagnosed with heart disease and cancer. He was close friends with Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, and at his request they officiated at his funeral and sang.”
HI STEVE: Thanks for the comprehensive feedback. I appreciate the details you have provided of the number of times W S worked with each of the stars concerned. I didn’t know about him saving Jeanette’s life.
Star and % ratings = power among professional film critics and historians: I’ll bet that there was many a morning The Duke and Ole Mumbles got out of their beds quaking in their boots in apprehension about what star ratings Hirsch was going to award their latest performances.
I will therefore take this opportunity to remind you that I am not being pretentious in awarding ratings to your videos as I appreciate that I do not have your eye for the finer details of the artwork in your material.
Accordingly a rating from me is merely an expression of my own simple SATISFACTION with a video; and truth be told as often as not I am 100% or virtually 100% satisfied with your work.
Similarly WH’s new pages normally leave me completely satisfied. For example I was so excited and delighted back when he gave us a new Victor Mature page that if I had been in the habit of rating WH’s stuff I would have given the Vic page 100% had Bruce not seemed to suggest Angela was Vic’s Delilah – that apparent misnomer was the proverbial fly in the ointment.
Had WH quickly made the necessary correction the rating WOULD indeed have been potentially 100%; but as you know he never heeds me and as the saying goes “You can’t teach an old Horse new tricks”! Therefore for a long time I could not with any confidence re-visit Vic’s page, much as I love that big lunk. Looking at Angela [marvellous in other parts it must be said] seemingly miscast as Delilah might have given me as a movie buff purist almost the unreasonable homicidal urge to throttle her, WH or both!
“Mm, my, my Delilah!
Why, why, why Delilah?
And so before the come to break down the door
Forgive me Delilah, I just couldn’t take any more.”
[“Delilah” sung by Tom Jones 1967]
Anyway I get the impression that Work Horse would have frowned at me giving out 100% satisfaction ratings to you: I know these teaching types and they don’t normally ‘do’ total praise.
For example when I was in the British Royal Air Force I took night classes in economics and British constitution and I handed in a paper with 10 questions on it and the class tutor [a Flight Lieutenant Turley] marked 9 out of the 10 of my answers right. I researched again the one that Turley said I had gotten wrong and found that I was in fact correct [as you know I usually am].
Thus I took the paper back and Turley conceded that I had indeed been right and he re-marked the paper 9 and a half out of 10, so I protested “But sir I got all 10 completely right.” Turley’s response reminded me of the pompous and unbending George Kitteridge played by John Lund in 1956’s High Society [and by John Howard in the 1940 Al Leach version, Philadelphia Story] who when wrong would defiantly fold his arms and say “I NEVER apologise!”
Turley said “I NEVER give 10 out of 10,” and he turned his back on me and walked away. I was dumbfounded but a classmate of mine who fancied himself as a bit of a wit giggled and shouted over at me “What he means Bobby is that the only guy around here who has 100% knowledge of anything is HIM!”
Ah the professional teaching outfit! Anyway I see that a W S page from Teach might be on the way and I look forward to that; but must go now and take my dog Asda for a walk. He’s named that after the AsDa supermarket chain over here [I don’t know if you have their stores in England]. Nevertheless when I’m out walking him and I run into friends from my personal movie buffs group they never cease to rib me with the greeting “Good Morning Nick!”
Good comments from Steve and Bob on the Wellman video and the Wellman movie career. Entertaining and educational…..the perfect comments.
Added Steve’s William Wellman You Tube Video To This Page. Our comment found on his channel.
Nice new video subject. I have seen only 8 of his movies listed…or 20%….not too impressive…especially compared to Flora’s 20 and 50% tallies. I actually thought John Ford directed #2 The Ox-Bow Incident….surprised it was Wellman…I guess all those Fonda/Ford movies confused me. I have seen #1 Public Enemy…but do not think it has aged well…but it made James Cagney a star. Favorite William Wellman movies would be #16 The High And The Mighty…..great theme song, #24 The Track of the Cat….still surprised that cat took so many of the main characters….and #5 Wings…the answer to the trivia question …what was the first movie to win the Best Picture Oscar. Voted up and shared
Hi Bruce, if you had produced a William Wellman page at the UMR Beau Geste would be number one followed by Ox Bow Incident and Public Enemy in 3rd place. I have many of the UMR movie ratings stored on my database, we’re not that far apart on final scores.
Your tally 8, mine 12, Flora 20. Thanks as always for the comment, vote and share, much appreciated.