My personal favorite of Jean-Luc Godard's films. The great, crazy, "Weekend." One helluva ride! If you love the movies, go check out this film. It will make you feel something...
ROBERT RYAN at Film Forum in New York City http://www.filmforum.org/films/robertryan.html#817 "Life, death, loneliness, loss: these were some of the things we learned from the quiet art of Robert Ryan." – Pete Hamill
When I was a kid, I used to watch movies with my dad. He used to work a lot so when he and I would watch a movie on TV it was quality time. Despite being in a remote town in PA, he was a good movie guy. He got the ball rolling by making me watch "On the Waterfront," with the great Brando, Burt Lancaster in "Elmer Gantry" and Howard Hawks' "Red River," with John Wayne and Montgomery Clift that he told me were all great actors. But one actor that he always told was the GUY, was Robert Ryan, his personal favorite. Robert Ryan is indeed a great actor, Jeff Bridges who was in "The Iceman Cometh" with him as a young man, says that Ryan was the greatest actor that he'd ever seen on screen or worked with. Robert Ryan was an actor's actor who never was an "A-Lister" but when paired with such stars as Clark Gable, Robert Mitchum, John Wayne, Burt Lancaster, James Stewart, Lee Marvin and Spencer Tracy, he more than held his own.
Ryan often played conflicted, ambiguous characters in such films as Nicholas Ray's "On Dangerous Ground," Anthony Mann's great western "The Naked Spur," Fritz Lang's version of Clifford Odets' "Clash By Night," or Max Ophuls' "Caught," in those great director's movies and many others he simply dominates the screen even though his characters are not very nice people.
In other films like the adaption of Melville's "Billy Budd," Richard Brooks' "Crossfire," Robert Wise's "Odds Against Tommorow," and "Bad Day at Black Rock" with Spencer Tracy, Ryan is just downright mean, cementing himself as possibly the screen's greatest heavy. However all of his characters brought an intelligence and gravitas that gave dimension to all of those characterizations.
In real life he was the exact opposite, a private, family man, a fierce liberal who campaigned for many causes like civil rights, against Sen. McCarthy's withchunts, anti-nukes, etc. He did many stage productions at the height of his movie stardom which not too many actors would do including Irving Berlin's last musical "Mr. President." He said, "In movies, I've played pretty much everything that I've dedicated my life to fighting against." A legitimate tough guy in a land of fake tough guys, he was a Marine Drill Instructor and an Ivy League boxing champion who on the set of "The Wild Bunch," threatened to punch out legendary tough guy Sam Peckinpah whom he didn't get along with. Legend has it that he and his friend and total political opposite John Wayne almost came to blows. Shortly after Ryan died in 1973, his estate sold his apartment in the Dakota building to a young couple named John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
The Film Forum on West Houston Street in NYC is doing a very overdue tribute to Robert Ryan's career showing 21 films over 12 days this August, it's going on now. FilmForum.org 2 excellent films where Ryan gets to really show his stuff and are playing in this festival are Roy Ward Baker's 3-D survival tale "Inferno," and Robert Wise's boxing film "The Set-Up." Both films feature tour de forces by Ryan. In "Inferno," he plays a not so nice millionaire who's left to die in the desert with a broken leg by his cheating wife. He's alone on screen trying to survive for most of the movie and one can't help but rooting for his boorish character to survive. In "The Set-Up," considered by many one of the best of all the boxing movies and Bob's favorite role, Ryan plays a real ham and egger in the dead end world of small time boxing. “Bob caught all the nuances of guts and shattered hopes, and small-time aspirations of a never-was beating the hell out of the desperation of being a club fighter.”– Samuel Fuller. I'll be as bold to say that Ryan's performance is the best in any boxing movie.
So I think my old man was right about saying that Robert Ryan was "the man." An actor first, a star second, not afraid to take an unsympathetic role. Ryan brought a dignity and intelligence to any film that he was in and if you love movies and acting you should definitely try to catch some of his films at the Film Forum, TCM or Netflix. You will be entertained. The writer who did Robert Ryan's obituary when he died in 1973, wrote this very lovely summation of Ryan's career, "he left behind a lifetime of roles too small for his talent..." Well said.
Me and millions of others remember exactly where they were in 1979 when they heard that Thurman Munson was killed tragically in a plane crash at the age of 32. It was a very sad day for all of baseball and heartbreaking to Yankee fans who had lost their Captain, their heart and soul. A great player who led the Yankees to 3 straight World Series appearances and winning 2 in '77 & '78. Munson played with a fire that is rare in a player and his style clicked with fans. He was a lunch bucket type of player from Canton Ohio, whose uniform was always dirty, played through injuries and the only time he'd smile on the field is after the Yankees had safely secured a win.
His fight during a collision with his rival, Boston catcher Carlton Fisk is the stuff of legend. In '76, Owner George Steinbrenner named the catcher to be the first captain of the New York Yankees in 37 years succeeding the late, great Lou Gehrig. Munson was perhaps the best clutch hitter of his time leading the '70's Yankees from being an also ran to champion in a short time. Those Yankee teams were something else, a collection of rogues starting from "The Boss" George Steinbrenner, Manager Billy Martin, controversial power hitting outfielder Reggie Jackson whom Munson feuded then befriended, flaky Mickey Rivers, tough guys Lou Piniella and Graig Nettles to quiet superstars like Catfish Hunter and Ron Guidry. They were nicknamed the Bronx Zoo but it was their captain Munson that held the ship together and led them to victory. Thurman Munson a beloved Yankee, team captain, champion. His locker at the old Yankee Stadium remained empty with his number 15 jersey hanging there since that day in August of '79 and that locker was moved to the new Yankee Stadium paying tribute to Munson.
Hopefully the veterans committee of the Baseball Hall of Fame will rightfully place him in Cooperstown. He deserves to be in the Hall of Fame much more so than the recent batch of statistical compilers who've recently entered the HOF. Here's a 3 segment video biography of the Yankee great.
Some of Thurman Munson's accomplishments as a player:
*3 consecutive seasons batting .300 or better with 100 or more RBI each year. He was the first catcher to accomplish the feat in three consecutive years since Yankee Hall of Famer Bill Dickey's four straight seasons from 1936-1939, matched only by Mike Piazza since (1996–1998).
*Munson had a career .357 batting average in the post-season with three home runs, 22 RBIs and nineteen runs scored.
*Munson's batting average in the World Series was .373.
*1976 AL MVP
*7 Time All-Star (1971, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978)
*3 Time Gold Glove Award winner (1973, 1974, 1975)
Today is the birthday of one of my favorite stars and an exceptional actress, the late Natalie Wood. She started out as a child actress and appeared in many films most notably "Miracle of 34th Street." As a teen she was in two great films; Nicholas Ray's "Rebel Without a Cause" with James Dean and John Ford's masterful "The Searchers." One of her greatest performances is in Elia Kazan's "Splendor in the Grass," as the tragic "Deanie." A really great performance by this beautiful woman.
Some of her other films that I like with Miss Wood are: "Kings Go Forth" with Frank Sinatra and Tony Curtis, "This Property is Condemned," with Robert Redford, "West Side Story," "Sex and the Single Girl," "Gypsy," Blake Edwards' "The Great Race," "Love With the Proper Stranger" with Steve McQueen, "Inside Daisy Clover" with Redford and Christopher Plummer, Paul Mazursky's "Bob, Carol, Ted and Alice," and an excellent tv presentation of Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," with Laurence Olivier and husband Robert Wagner. Wood is really good as "Maggie the Cat" in this nice production from the BBC and Olivier.
She died tragically in 1981 under mysterious circumstances but her star still burns bright with her radiant screen presence.
Here's a nice tribute to Miss Wood from her co-star Robert Redford that ran on TCM:
Here's the trailer from Elia Kazan's production of William Inge's "Splendor in the Grass."
You can see many of Natalie Wood's films from Netflix and on TCM. I think you'll like them.
In the movies I fell in love with Piper Laurie, Janet Leigh, Colleen Miller, Marilyn Monroe, Claudia Cardinale, Monica Vitti, Virna Lisi, Susan Hampshire, Debbie Reynolds, Christine Kaufmann, Gloria DeHaven, Suzanne Pleshette, and Mae West.
I took one girl from Frank Sinatra and took back one girl from George C. Scott.
Doing a quick post celebrating the birthday May 16th of the great Henry Fonda, one of the best actors that we've ever had on the screen or stage. He was a portrait of quintessential American dignity as "Tom Joad" in John Ford's "The Grapes of Wrath," and as a "Young Mr. Lincoln" in yet another Ford Masterpiece. Fonda amassed a tremendous body of work in a career spanning over 50 years, creating the great role of "Mr. Roberts" in the play of the same name and then the classic movie. Oddly enough he started acting in his native Nebraska at the urging of Dodie Brando (yes Marlon's mother). This dignified presence that Fonda brought to the screen had him often playing "The President" in several of his later films. He was the liberal yin to the conservative yang of his friend John Wayne.
Fonda was also very cool as he showed in his western performances. I particularly like him as "Wyatt Earp" in Ford's "My Darling Clementine, and " William Wellman's "The Ox-Bow Incident," and in Edward Dmytryk's "Warlock" based on a great novel by Oakley Hall (one of Thomas Pynchon's favorites btw). "Warlock" is a inversion of the Wyatt Earp/Doc Holliday legend with Fonda ambiguously portraying an Earp like hired gunman/marshall.
One other performance of note was as the title character in the Alfred Hitchcock chilling masterwork "The Wrong Man." He plays a man whose life is destroyed when wrongly accused of murder.
Some of Fonda's other excellent films and performances include: The Ox-Bow Incident, Drums Along the Mohawk, The Lady Eve, You Only Live Once, Jezebel, The Return of Frank James, The Male Animal, Daisy Kenyon, Fort Apache, War and Peace, The Wrong Man, 12 Angry Men, The Tin Star, Advise and Consent, The Best Man, Fail Safe, Firecreek, Once Upon a Time in the West, Battle of the Bulge, Big Hand for A Little Lady, There Was a Crooked Man, My Name is Nobody, On Golden Pond, Summer Solstice.
Most of these films are available on Netflix and are shown regularly on TCM. Please check them out, you will be entertained.
When she passed away a few weeks ago, Elizabeth Taylor had achieved an iconic level of enduring worldwide stardom that really only a very few ever achieve; Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Marlon Brando, Michael Jackson, Marilyn Monroe, Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant and Charlie Chaplin are among those who ever enjoyed that kind of stardom. During the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, Elizabeth Taylor was arguably bigger than any of them on the world stage. As Roger Ebert wrote, “Of few deaths can it be said that they end an era, but hers does. No other actress commanded more attention for longer, for her work, her beauty, her private life, and a series of health problems that brought her near death more than once.” Ebert described, “Taylor had her own category of stardom.” She’s known mainly by today’s young people as an old star who had a popular perfume and made charitable appearances and cameos, but there’s a lot more going on there: she was a damned good movie actress. Taylor quit really making movies in the mid-70’s due to health concerns and I think boredom, but her work truly stands up and is a testament to a woman whose beauty often overshadowed her talent.
A friend of mine's tattoo of her idol Elizabeth Taylor
In the excellent New York Times obituary written by Mel Gussow writing about Miss Taylor, “There was one point of general agreement: her beauty. As cameramen noted, her face was flawlessly symmetrical; she had no bad angle, and her eyes were of the deepest violet.“ It also quoted Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who directed her in "Suddenly Last Summer” and “Cleopatra,” saw her for the first time, in Cannes, when she was 18. “She was the most incredible vision of loveliness I have ever seen in my life,” he said. “And she was sheer innocence.” Mankiewiewicz who wrote and directed such classics as “All About Eve,” and “The Barefoot Contessa,” also admired Miss Taylor’s professionalism. “Whatever the script called for, she played it,” he said. “The thread that goes through the whole is that of a woman who is an honest performer. Therein lies her identity.”
Elizabeth Taylor had no formal acting training but basically grew up on camera and was a terrific movie actress whose parts displayed an impressive range. I think she’s the definitive Tennessee Williams heroine doing four movies of his plays. She did “Taming of the Shrew” with her then husband, the great Richard Burton in possibly the best film of Shakespeare. Most impressively over the course of her career she held her own on screen with such imposing screen titans as Mickey Rooney, Montgomery Clift, Marlon Brando, Spencer Tracy, James Dean, Paul Newman, Rock Hudson, Henry Fonda, Robert Mitchum, Michael Caine, Katherine Hepburn and Burton whom she did 11 films with.
In 1944, she did the enduring kid’s classic “National Velvet” as young girl and was a star for the rest of her life in a touching performance that captured the public’s imagination. From there she made a series of solid films for MGM most notably as Spencer Tracy’s daughter in Vincente Minnelli’s “Father of the Bride,” and “Father’s Little Dividend.”
Everything changed in 1951, Elizabeth Taylor made a very important film with a top director George Stevens in “A Place in the Sun,” co-starring Montgomery Clift, then along with Brando were the shining new lights of the theatrical world. “A Place in the Sun,” was based on the masterful classic novel An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser, and Liz plays what Stevens describes as “beautiful girl in the yellow Cadillac convertible that every American boy, some time or other, thinks he can marry.” Clift plays the working class kid who falls for the unattainable Liz and she for him but first impregnates the girl he knew earlier to disastrous results; simple, working class girl Shelley Winters. Taylor and Clift’s gorgeous, romantic couple highlights and complicate the dark plot of this enduring classic. I highly recommend this film.
Several years later, Stevens hired Taylor to star in his big American epic, the most expensive film ever made at the time “Giant,” along with box office star Rock Hudson and the tragic, emerging superstar James Dean. Based on Edna Ferber’s novel, it epically follows the lives of a Texas cattle/oil family. “Giant” was a massive hit and a touchstone movie from the ‘50’s. James Dean died while during filming.
One of the definitive Taylor performances was in the Richard Brooks production of Tennessee Williams’ provocative classic play “Cat on A Hot Tin Roof.” Liz is “Maggie the Cat,” appearing gorgeous in a white slip throughout most of the movie, desperate for the love of her alcoholic and possibly gay, ex-football star husband Paul Newman. Despite the censorship of the times, the movie made its point and the performances by the ensemble around Liz is excellent. The handsomest couple in movie history perhaps.
Mankiewicz directs Katherine Hepburn along with the third teaming of Taylor and Montgomery Clift in another Tennessee Williams play “Suddenly Last Summer.” This lurid melodrama features Hepburn in her only villainous role as a mother who wants her seemingly crazy niece Taylor lobotomized by psychiatrist Clift to silence her about the sleazy life and death of her son. (Clift had a terrible disfiguring car accident some years before this driving from Liz’s house and is a shadow of himself from the earlier films. Taylor had to pull Clift’s teeth out of his throat to prevent him from choking to death.) The three stars are dynamite and this was another big hit, and Taylor is amazing in her white one-piece swimsuit.
The film that probably defined Taylor’s career for many was the legendary, bloated, mega-expensive yet highly watchable epic “Cleopatra.” This is the film where she began her tumultuous affair with Richard Burton, a personal favorite and the greatest classical actor of his generation. This love affair/marriage was biggest tabloid story of the 60’s as these two magnetic superstars defined excess and yet made a string of very good movies. Check out the IMDB http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056937/trivia trivia entry for the myriad of stories surrounding this film that would’ve cost about 300 million in today’s money. Taylor received 1 million in salary and eventually made 7 million due to overruns in scheduling and profits from it. It was originally 6 hours long cut to 3 but is highly entertaining. This film was so expensive that Fox had to sell off part of its back lot and studio space which is now the Century CIty part of Los Angeles.
As the 1960’s progressed, “Liz & Dick,” worked together and apart in many quality productions, their most well known is probably Mike Nichols smash hit film of Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.” Taylor won her second Oscar (her first for “Butterfield 8”) and deservedly so in a truly fearless performance putting on 20lbs. Burton is equally good as her codependent drunken husband. A viewer wonders was art imitating life as the two hurl unrelenting alcohol infused abuse toward each other. A touchstone film of the sixties.
As I wrote earlier, “Liz & Dick” did quite possibly the best film version of Shakespeare in a very funny and entertaining “Taming of the Shrew,” directed by Franco Zeffirelli. Burton is perfect as the scheming, loutish “Petruchio” and Taylor again shows her stuff as the shrewish brat “Kate.” This film was lovely to watch and made Shakespeare into big box office.
A film that features three legends and was a big flop and hardly remembered and yet is an exceptional film is “Reflections in a Golden Eye,” starring Taylor and Marlon Brando directed by John Huston based on the Southern Gothic novel by Carson McCullers. Set on an Army fort in the South, Taylor daringly plays the vulgar wife of a latent homosexual officer (Brando). In a great performance, Brando is obsessed with a young soldier (played by Robert Forster of “Jackie Brown”) who he catches sneaking in his home going through Liz’s underwear. Taylor tortures and ridicules the sullen Brando while carrying on with another officer in front of him. This film was shot in Rome and Huston tinted its print in golden hues, very daring for its time in dealing with homosexuality, voyeurism, masochism, etc. Roger Ebert, a big fan of this movie, thinks that this film failed at the box office because the public wasn’t ready to see two great stars in essentially an art film playing pretty unsavory characters. However it’s very entertaining and has great performances from Taylor and Brando.
These are just a portion of the many movies that Elizabeth Taylor made throughout her great career, in my opinion the best ones, however her star graced many more worth watching and a few that were not, but we shall not see another star the likes of her again. In reviewing her life, she seemed like a hell of a great woman who was remembered as a loyal friend, tremendous spokesperson and fundraiser for AIDS research and somebody who didn’t take herself too seriously despite having the world at her feet.
Bonus: Here's a touching tribute to Liz for TCM by her co-star in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," Paul Newman.
Thanks for reading and watching, these movies are frequently on TCM and are available on Netflix. This is my third entry in this blog and I hope that you enjoy it. Any feedback is welcomed. Stay tuned.
