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.
On top of his cinematic directorial film career John was involved with 19 television productions between 1954 and 2002. His first cinematic movie was The Young Stranger [1957] starring James MacArthur and his final one was a short film called Ambush in 2001. His final film OVERALL was a TV one, Path to War starring the close friend of both Sir Maurice Micklewhite and The Great Mumbler, Irish-born Brit thespian Sir Michael Gambon as Lyndon B Johnson. It ran for 165 minutes.
I like a lot of John’s films and these are my favourites in no special order:
The Manchurian Candidate
7 Days in May
The Train
Seconds
The Young Savages
Black Sunday
Dead Bang.
My out-and-out faves are Seconds and especially 7 Days in May. Seconds is a critically highly acclaimed film but was a box office disaster that consolidated Rock Hudson’s demise as a very top star. The Work Horse for example gives it an 81% rating but credits it with a miserable adjusted US gross of $25 million
John’s further remake of The Island of Dr Moreau starring Mr Mumbles in 1996 is a dreadful film. . Unlike WH, I “tell it as it is” even against my own idols; no pretence from me that Dr Moreau was the best Christmas film ever.
Burt seems to have been John’s fave actor, the pair having made 5 flicks together: Young Savages, & Days in May, The Train, Black Sunday and Gypsy Moths. Part 2 to follow.
Steve’s latest video is part of his page….our thoughts which are found on his You Tube channel.
Voted up and shared at UltimateMovieRankings.com. I have only seen 5 of the 25 movies….but it is his entire Top 5…so I feel I have watched the right Nicholas Ray movies. Favorites would be #3 Johnny Guitar and #2 In A Lonely Place….a movie that seems to get better with each additional viewing….I actually was not too impressed on my first viewing. Good video with great posters. Thumbs up!
Hi Bruce, I can’t remember if I saw In a Lonely Place, I’ll have to watch it again. There are others on this list that I may have seen but can’t remember for sure.
Your tally 5, mine 8, Flora 14. Thanks for the vote, share and comment, much appreciated. Glad you liked the video.
NOTE: In part one I listed 10 of my fave Ray films and not 9 as stated there. Have to be sure to be exact so that I can compete to some extent with the “Have seen” Big 3: you, WH and Flora! Also Scarlett is wrongly spelt.
STILLS 1/The Racket 2/Joan Fontaine 3/The “Dirty Rat” 4/Bogie and Gloria 5/LC for Flying Leathernecks 6/Burton 7/a saucy Party Girl in the arms of The Cowboy of the Century 8/55 Days at Peking 9/On Dangerous Ground 9/The Lusty Men 10/James or “Mr Mason” as he insisted minor actors call him11/The King of Kings in glorious colour 12/a double from behind the scenes of They Live by Night and Rebel without a Cause 13/LC for Johnny and Joan 14/Jesse James-
THE BALLAD OF JESSE JAMES [Alias Mr Howard] – movie theme song.
Well the people held their breath
When they heard about Jesse’s death
And they wondered how poor Jesse came to die
It was one of his guys, called Little Robert Ford
And he shot Jessie James on the sly
Oh Jessie had a wife to mourn for his life
Three children they were so brave
But that dirty little coward
That shot Mr. Howard
Has laid Jesse James in his grave
On Wikipedia NicHolas Ray is credited with 28 films as a director and 7 movies as an actor. Those 7 include 3 major films in which his acting input was uncredited: A Tree grows in Manchester, Rebel Without a Cause and Chuck’s 55 Days at Peking, with Nicholas also directing the latter two. 6 actors whom it seems Nicolas liked are Bogie, Mitchum, Farley Granger, John Derek, Jeffrey Hunter and especially in would appear Robert Ryan with whom Ray made 4 films back-to-back which gave Robert some of his most pungent roles.
My personal favourites among Ray’s directed movies are these 9: Knock on Any Door, In a Lonely Place, The Racket, Macao, On Dangerous Ground, The Lusty Men, Johnny Guitar, Party Girl, King of Kings and 55 Days at Peking [probably more for Chuck than for the movie itself]. Many critics and film historians consider In a Lonely Place and Johnny Guitar classics. Knock on Any Door is one of the very earliest films that I can recall ever seeing and it was my very first encounter with Bogie on screen. My father took me to see it when I was nine years of age. I never liked Rebel without a Cause which I considered a very unpleasant film with, in my opinion, Dean wildly over-acting as I felt he was inclined to do – and frankly Scarlet I don’t give a d**n that Joel gave Dean’s performance 4 stars.
Despite its relative brevity your video is splendid and I rate it 97.5%. My Pick of the material is as follows. FL=Foreign Language/LC=Lobby Card. POSTERS 1/Woman’s Secret 2/first very racy one for Hot Blood 3/2nd one for Jesse James 4/We Can’t go Home Again 5/2nd one for Macao – that one takes me back! 6/both for Colorado [aka Run for Cover] 7/three terrific FL ones for Knock on Any Door 8/both FL ones for Flying Leathernecks 9/Party Girl 10/FL for 55 Days at Peking 11/FL for Lusty Men 12/entire set of material for Johnny Guitar 13/again the entire set for In a Lonely Place.
Hi Bob, thanks for the review, generous rating, info, trivia and song lyrics, much appreciated. Glad you liked the picture gallery.
Surprised you didn’t like Rebel Without a Cause, you must have been a young man when you first saw it, I thought young people of the time worshipped that film. I like it but it’s not a film I watch often.
The top two on Ray’s filmography – Rebel Without a Cause and In a Lonely Place are close in ratings and either one could have been at the top. Bruce’s ratings for Ray has Bogart’s film just out in front with 8.7. Rebel and Johnny Guitar tied for 2nd place.
Two films scored 10 out of 10 from my sources – Rebel and In a Lonely Place. Three more scored 9 out of 10 – Johnny Guitar, They Live By Night and King of Kings.
In a Lonely Place is no.1 at IMDB and Johnny Guitar is tops at Rotten Tomatoes.
Nicholas Ray on Cagney – “Jimmy not only has a great serenity, such as I’ve not seen in an actor outside of Walter Huston, he has a great love of the earth and of his fellow man, an understanding of loneliness.”
Nicholas Ray on Bogart – “He was much more than an actor: he was the very image of our condition. His face was a living reproach.”
Nicholas Ray on James Dean – “The conflict between giving himself and fear of giving in to his own feelings; a vulnerability so deeply embedded that one is instantly moved, almost disturbed by it.”
HI STEVE: Thanks for the feedback and additional information and comment.
Dean was an actor who completely irritated me in the three full-length films that he made. I watched them all just once, in the mid-fifties when they were first released, and have had no interest in them whatsoever since. Again, I don’t give a d**n what Joel says about them and about the fact that WH will invariably back him up.
I thought that particularly dreadful was Dean’s Giant performance as Jett Rink [sounds like a character Elvis would have played in one of his movies and indeed like the actual name of a another real-life rock star] . Did you know that Laddie, who had left Paramount and was under contract at the time to its makers Warner Bros, was first offered the Dean role but turned it down even against strong urging from his agent?
Now that WOULD have been a film worth repeat viewings if Laddie had co-starred with Rock and Liz in it – though I’m sure people like by son would have had great fun at the expense of a marquee that read Alan Ladd in Giant!
Bob, I agree that James Dean wasn’t particularly effective as the older Jett Rink in the latter half of Giant but otherwise he was okay as his younger self.
It wasn’t a heroic role and Alan Ladd would have been miscast, his fan club might not be happy he loses the girl to Rock Hudson.
I think that Dean played the moody confused and disturbed teenager perfectly in those first two films. Brando was a huge influence (wasn’t he always?), Monty Clift too.
HI STEVE: Thanks for your further thoughts on this subject, always respected by me even where we don’t fully share the same opinion.
I wonder if Laddie was put off Giant by the fact that his role would have been subordinate to Liz and Rock and Alan may even have had to accept 3rd billing.
After he rose to stardom in 1942’s This Gun for Hire Laddie was billed 2nd to Loretta Young in 1943’s China [he was always on the trail of those Reds!]. After that Alan was not billed less than first for almost quarter of a century, until his final film The Carpetbaggers. Indeed in 1944 he reversed the China order of billing by being billed above Loretta in And Now Tomorrow.
WIKIPEDIA: Most biographical sources speculate on Ladd’s height, which legend contends was slight. Reports of his height vary from 5 ft 5 in to 5 ft 9 in (1.65 m – 1.75 m), with 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) being the most generally accepted today. His U.S. Army enlistment record, however, indicates a height of 5 ft 7 in.
Interesting Steve, because if the Army got it right Laddie was around the same height as Bogie and Robinson and slightly taller than The Dirty Rat; and if 5ft 9ins was correct Laddie was just half an inch shorter than Stallone, whom you and The Work Horse seem to regard as a ‘man-mountain’!
HI STEVE: Thanks for your further thoughts on this subject, always respected by me even where we don’t fully share the same opinion.
I wonder if Laddie was put off Giant by the fact that his role would have been subordinate to Liz and Rock and Alan may even have had to accept 3rd billing.
After he rose to stardom in 1942’s This Gun for Hire Laddie was billed 2nd to Loretta Young in 1943’s China [he was always on the trail of those Reds!]. After that Alan was not billed less than first for almost quarter of a century, until his final film The Carpetbaggers.
Indeed in 1944 he reversed the China order of billing by being billed above Loretta in And Now Tomorrow -ie Ladd THE STAR had come into his own and could dictate his billing.
WIKIPEDIA: Most biographical sources speculate on Ladd’s height, which legend contends was slight. Reports of his height vary from 5 ft 5 in to 5 ft 9 in (1.65 m – 1.75 m), with 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) being the most generally accepted today. His U.S. Army enlistment record, however, indicates a height of 5 ft 7 in.
Interesting Steve, because if the Army got it right Laddie was around the same height as Bogie and Robinson and slightly taller than The Dirty Rat; and if 5ft 9ins was correct Laddie was just half an inch shorter than Stallone, whom you and The Work Horse seem to regard as a ‘man-mountain’! Whatever the true situation it will not cut any ice with my son to stop the jibes: he is 5ft 11ins. I think you said YOU are 6ft?
Bob, I’ve been 6ft since my mid teens, which came in useful for x-rated horror movies at the cinema! I love standing in a queue or line of people and usually being the tallest person there, though I have looked up at plenty of taller people over the years. I wonder how Ladd felt standing in a group of people? Probably wishing Veronica Lake was with him, she wasn’t even 5ft.
But isn’t it funny how movies trick us into not really noticing how short some actors and actresses are, camera angles, standing on a box, wearing lifts etc But sometimes it’s too obvious, I watched The Wolfman at Halloween and Claude Rains looked tiny next to the other actors in the film, particularly Lon Chaney Jr.
Added Steve’s latest You Tube video to this page. Our thoughts on George Marshall and his career are here.
“Took awhile to realize George Marshall was a director and not an actor…I was getting him mixed up with Herbert Marshall. Video offers up some very nice posters. My tally is not too impressive….coming in at 7. Favorites would include How The West Was Won, the two Destry movies….with the Murphy being my favorite of those two. Pretty sure I have seen #2 The Ghost Breakers….but Hope has two movies made at the same time with pretty much the same story…I have only seen one of those movies. Looks like Hope and Glenn Ford were his favorite leading men. Saw three of the Hope/Marshall movies…but none of the Ford/Marshall movies. Voted up and shared.”
Hi Bruce, we have similar favorites, though I enjoyed Audie’s Destry I prefer the original. Yep there are 6 Glenn Ford and 5 Bob Hope films in this list.
Your tally 7, mine 11 and Flora 17. Thanks again for the vote, share and comment, much appreciated.
Cogerson
November 12, 2019 at 8:03 am
Added Steve’s latest You Tube video to this page. Our thoughts on George Marshall and his career are here———Saw three of the Hope/Marshall movies…but none of the Ford/Marshall movies. Voted up and shared.”
HI WH: As a great film buff brought up in the Classic Era I find it regrettable that you of all people whom I consider my ‘mentor’ [at least on this site] should have missed out on the great Charlie Bill/George Marshall 6-movie era from 1958-1964. In particular it surprises me that a fellow movie buff of your stature has never seen The Sheepman. Heck The Master gave Charles B a respectable 3 stars for that performance.
However if the Great Charles William were about, he would probably be both understanding and consoling and would most likely reassure you with something like “I know how busy you are Work Horse but maybe you’ll catch up with those movies next time round and in that next life try to relax a bit more. Let your inspiration be the 1965 hit song from The Walker Bros – “Make it Easy on yourself.”