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.
Added Steve’s Henry Koster Video To This Page. Our thoughts on his career and Steve’s video.
“Henry Koster? Never heard of him…not even sure if I remember seeing his name in the credits. Ok…I have heard of many of his movies…but I have only seen 8 of them. Favorites would include #1 Harvey…Jimmy Stewart’s favorite role. #6 The Inspector General….not a huge Kaye fan…but I enjoy this one. #13 The Virgin Queen……good period piece…Joan Collins steals the show. I see lots of Deanna Durbin movies and a Brando appearance…I know somebody that will really enjoy this video. Voted up and shared.”
Koster’s uncle owned a cinema in Berlin during the silent era and his mother played the piano to accompany the movies. Henry screen-wrote a number of silent and talkie flicks between 1925 and 1935 and made his directorial debut in 1932 with the movie Thea Roland but called himself Hermann Kosterlitz. His first film under the name Henry Koster was my Deanna 3 Smart Girls.debut film in 1936
My personal favourite Koster films are The Durbin ones covered in your video and: No Highway; The Robe; A Man Called Peter; D Day 6th June; and Desiree -sorry Joel! sorry Work Horse! Wikipedia lists Koster’s years active in movies overall as being from 1925-1967; and IMBD ranks him 94th in its list of the 100 greatest directors of all time.
Naturally I liked every poster and still featuring my Deanna. The rest of the material that I especially favoured are in Part 2 and your video was rated 98% for my personal satisfaction.
“You can’t direct s***! Who the f*** do you think you’re directing anyway – Deanna Durbin?” One of The Great Mumbler’s many tirades against Koster during the shooting od Desiree. Koster actually had Deanna and Marlon meet over dinner as guests at his home during the filming and by all accounts the pair got on well together.
I must especially highlight Deanna’s 100 Men and A Girl: the foreign language one was lovely and it was Churchill’s favourite movie that he watched many times – over a glass [or two] of whiskey!
Disapproving female politician: “Mr Churchill, you have shown up at the House of Commons drunk!” “Madam I’ll be sober in the morning but you’ll still be ugly!”
“A modest man with much to be modest about!” – Churchill on political rival Clement Atlee.
BEST POSTERS-FL=foreign language
1/Elopement
2/first one for Fraulein
3/two for Dear Brigitte
4/Take Her She’s Mine-very saucy!
5/FL for D Day 6th June
6/My Blue Heaven
7/first raunchy one for Wabash Avenue
8/FL for Desiree – note Hirsch: Brando billed alone above title
9/first one for Flower Drum Song
10/FL one for Virgin Queen
11/FL for The Robe
12/FL for Inspector General
13/first one for Power and The Prize
14/Luck of the English-vintage Ty Power!
BEST STILLS/LOBBY CARDS
1/William Lundigan – whatever happened to him?
2/Mr Audrey Hepburn
3/Take Her She’s Mine
4/Niven administering spanking!
5/D Day 6th June – lobby card AND still
6/Mr Hobbs! – out-grossed Liberty Valance released same year.
7/two of “Nappy”
8/Todd &; Collins
9/two for The Robe
10/No Highway
11/Leach and Niven
12/Harvey
Hi Bob, thanks for the review, generous rating, info and trivia, much appreciated.
Glad you liked the stills, lobby cards and posters.
Six Deanna Durbin films on here, that must have made you smile.
I’m surprised they all got good scores, all 6 did better than Brando’s Napoleon!
It Started With Eve was her highest scoring film from my sources. Which one do you think was the best of her films? And which is your guilty pleasure favorite?
One film scored 10 out of 10 from Henry Koster’s filmography and that was ‘Harvey’. There are no 9s. 12 films scored 8 out of 10.
Top rated at IMDB is Harvey, no.1 at Rotten Tomatoes is It Started With Eve.
Bruce’s top 5 (critics chart) –
Harvey 8.7
It Started With Eve 8.2
The Bishop’s Wife 7.8
Inspector General 7.8
Stars and Stripes Forever 7.6
My video top 5 –
Harvey 8.5
It Started With Eve 7.8
The Bishop’s Wife 7.5
Three Smart Girls 7.5
No Highway in the Sky 7.4
Koster on Richard Burton – “The world lost one of the greatest actors of our time when he died.”
Koster on Robert Taylor – “Really easy to work with, and a wonderful gentleman. The only trouble with him was he couldn’t give up smoking. He was warned that if he didn’t give up smoking… he tried and tried, and finally gave up and said he couldn’t help it. He hoped that nothing would happen. But it did happen, and he died.”
HI STEVE: Good quotes about Burton and The Cowboy of the Century. My fave Durbin movie wasn’t included in your video- His Butler’s Sister co-starring Franchot Tone and Pat Obrien. However of the ones that you did include I’ll go with “Winnie” and say 100 Men and a Girl, though it was the lowest scoring among your own 6.
My “guilty pleasure” as you put it probably comes from watching a rerun of It Started with Steve [sorry Eve!] because I saw that one with an old flame from those days when I was about 20 and I felt guilty about wanting to be with Deanna instead of the flame.
My most disliked Durbin film was Christmas Holiday [again not in your selection] which on paper should have been a cracker with Eugene as her co-star, but I felt they were both miscast. Also Durbin’s character was in effect a high class hooker, but Deanna felt it would harm her image if she was overtly seen as that so they called the character a “nightclub hostess”. Creating the delusion that Deanna was less than a hooker made a slight nonsense of the last part of the film.
Your rating for 100 Men and a Girl didn’t exceed “Nappy” by much [despite Sir Winston’s great admiration for the former and Joel’s detestation of the latter]. Moreover with the exception of 100 Men, the Brando film out-grossed every Durbin flick ever made; and the average Cogerson Adjusted US Gross for the 6 in your video is approx $150 million whereas Desiree [or “Daisy Ray” as Brando pronounced it in the movie] had a whopping Cogerson Adjusted Gross of $250 million.
Indeed Daisy Ray’s gross exceeded that of Marlon’s critical classic On the Waterfront [$234 million according to WH]. Bottom line: the public will decide what THEY want to watch and will not have their tastes dictated to by guys like The Master and The Work Horse. Anyway take care and keep safe. PS: I’ve just watched your Koster video a 3rd time and have been fighting the “guilty pleasure”!
WORK HORSE RATINGS FOR STEVE’s 6 DD FILMS
[Cogerson US Grosses in brackets]
1/It Started with Eve 82% [$93 million]
2/First Love 73% [$113 million]
3/Spring Parade 72% [$92 million]
4/3 Smart Girls 70% [$196 million]
5/100 Men and a Girl 68% [$313 million]
6/3 Smart Girls Grow Up 68% [$106 million]
STEVE’s OWN RATINGS
1/It Started with Eve 78%
2/3 Smart Girls 75%
3/Spring Parade 71%
4/3 Smart Girls Grow Up 71%
5/First Love 70%
6/100 Men and a Girl 68%.
OVERALL AVERAGE OF EACH SET of 6: Approx 72.2% – ie Dead Heat between Steve and WH
PS Tagline on release posters for 1952’s My Cousin Rachel “Olivia in a new role – and wait to you see Richard Burton!
I have been trying several times to get through to you Part 2 of my Blake Edwards post but without success. I will try again later
Added Steve’s latest video to this page. Mr. Franklin J. Schaffner. Our thoughts found on his video channel.
Little known Best Director Oscar winner….interesting selection for a video. I have seen #7 The Boys From Brazil…..love the fight between Sir Larry and Greg at the end. #4 Papillon….good movie but so bleak…one of McQueen’s best roles….never as impressed with Hoffman in this one. #2 Planet of the Apes….classic classic movie….always entertaining…and aging very nicely….maybe the reason Frank got picked for a video? #1 Patton….the movie most people know him for…..good movie….with great performances by George C. Scott and Karl Malden. So that is 4 of the 14…..at least those 4 were in his Top 7. Good video. Voted up and shared.
Hi Bruce, I was surprised that Schaffner only directed 14 movies, but there you go. Patton and Planet of the Apes made this video possible.
Your tally 4, Flora 5 and I’ve seen 6. You know which is my favorite, I even wrote a hub on it at hubpages.
Thanks for the comment, vote and share, much appreciated.
Frank directed in 3 mediums: movies, television and stage. His first film was 1963’s The Stripper but long before that he debuted on television in 1948. He was President of The Directors Guild of America from 1987 until his death in 1989.
Frank worked twice with each of 3 of the big screen’s greatest names: Chuck, George C Scott and Olivier – ie in almost 50% of the 14 cinematic films he made. His collaborated with Heston in Planet of the Apes has resulted in that movie being part of big screen legend and of course the movie spawned franchises on both the big and small screens.
I have seen 8 of Frank’s 14 movies: Sphinx; Best Man; Warlord; Planet of the Apes; Patton; Nicholas and Alexander; Islands in the Stream; and The Boys from Burnley. My favourite among them is The Best Man followed by Nicholas and Alexandra.
Cliff Robertson who co-starred with Hank in Franklin’s political drama The Best Man saw himself as having a close affinity with politics; for examples Cliff (1) played JFK in the 1963 movie PT 109 about Kennedy’s war experiences (2) campaigned for Arizona Senator Morris K Udall in the 1976 Democratic presidential primaries (3) played The Director of Central Intelligence in the 1977 TV political thriller mini-series Washington Behind Closed Doors about the Watergate scandal.
Cliff’s character in ‘Behind Closed Doors’was called William Martin but it was based on Richard Helms who was the actual Intelligence Chief at the time of the scandal. Jason Robards’ President Richard Monkton was of course Richard Nixon and Andy Griffith’s Esker Scott Anderson was LBJ.
You didn’t have a lot to go on in compiling your video; so we look for quality and not quantity in enjoying and assessing the video. In that respect what was there gave me a 97% satisfaction treat. My favourite material is-
POSTERS: 1/Yes Gigolo 2/two for Sphinx 3/Lionheart 4/Islands in the Stream 5/2nd and 3rd ones for The Stripper 6/foreign language one for The Boys from Burnley 7/2nd one for Nicholas and Alexandra 8/the 2nd and the foreign language one for Papillon 9/entire set for Planet of Apes – indeed stunning! 10/again the complete set for Patton. George was great in that one and joined The Great Mumbler in refusing an Oscar, but I have to say it was never one of my faves; I’ve told you I’m not a war movie buff.
STILLS/LOBBY CARDS: 1/Yes Gigolo 2/Welcome Home 3/two or Double Man 4/Islands in the Stream 5/The Stripper 6 & 7 Larry & Gregg in The Boys from Burnley 8/Nicholas and Alexandra 9/two for The War Lord 10/Papillon 11/The Best Man 12/4 in all I think from Planet of Apes.
My personal satisfaction rating is 97% but for again your success in compiling a very successful video from very little quantity deserves a 100% rating. I take it that your Nicholas and Alexander still is of either (1) TV’s Dr Who Tom Baker as the mad Rasputin or (2) Joel Hirschhorn slipped in erroneously?
Correction: my last post should have been labelled Part 2 – apologies for any confusion.
Hi Bob, thanks for reviewing my Franklin J. Schaffner video. the generous rating, info and trivia is very much appreciated.
Happy you enjoyed the picture gallery.
I was surprised at how few films many of these modern directors have made compared to the great classic directors, some with more than 100 films under their belt.
For example top rated British directors John Boorman and John Schlesinger both have less than 20 films listed at IMDB, and American director William Friedkin has only managed 19 since 1967.
Topping the list of oh-I-cant-be-bothered directors is Terence Malick who has only directed 9 films since Badlands in 1973 and Titanic director James Cameron, he has directed just 8 films since 1981.
My favorite Franklin J. Schaffner film has to be Planet of the Apes, one of my all time favorite movies. But Patton was way ahead in ratings so I couldn’t nudge Apes into first place, it wouldn’t be right.
Patton is another favorite of mine, George C. Scott is astounding as ‘old blood and guts’, it was an easy Oscar win though he was a fool to reject it. Ditto Brando two years later. To paraphrase King Feisel in Lawrence of Arabia “accept the honor gentlemen, be a little kind”.
One film scored 10 out of 10 from my sources – Patton. Two scored 9 out of 10 – Planet of the Apes and The Best Man.Three more scored 8.
Bruce’s top 5 (critics chart) –
Patton 9.0
Planet of the Apes 8.6
The Best Man 8.1
Papillon 7.5
Nicholas and Alexandra 7.1
My video top 5 –
Patton 9.1
Planet of the Apes 8.6
The Best Man 8.2
Papillon 7.8
The War Lord 7.5
Schaffner on Planet of the Apes – “The approach was to engage an audience in a simian society. I had never thought of this motion picture in terms of being science fiction. More or less, it was a political film, with a certain amount of Swiftian satire, and perhaps science fiction last.”
p.s I laughed at your Joel / Rasputin confusion. Not sure Bruce is happy seeing his mentor treated this way. I just hope Hirschhorn’s kids aren’t regulars here. 😉
HI STEVE: Thanks for the detailed and thoughtful response. My own thoughts on some of what you’ve said are as follows:
1/I agree that it seems to be “the thing” in more recent times to put quality before quantity, and THAT consideration also seems to apply to some stars as well as directors. For example in the old days Gable, Wayne and Stewart had an average big screen career of approx 43 years apiece when they died and their average number of films in Bruce’s charts is roughly 80 apiece.
2/In relatively modern times the careers of Hanks and Cruise [so far] and Brando [when he died] average out at 44 years apiece and the 3 are credited with an average of roughly 43 movies each in WH’s charts. In short the 3 actors of yesteryear had virtually the same average career duration as those 3 more recent actors but the ‘older guys’ churned out almost twice the number of movies within that time frame.
3/Some film historians opine that it is somewhat of a misnomer to say that Brando and George C “refused” their Oscars as refusal wasn’t within their power. All they could do was to decline to pick up the statue and cause unpleasantness, but the records of the Academy and the film world generally still credit the Oscar WINS to both stars.
4/What would we do without Joel to give us a laugh every now and again? If Bruce hadn’t given him to us we would, as the saying goes, have had to invent him!