203 thoughts on “British Actors Smörgåsbord”

1. Sir John Hurt has left behind him some of the screen’s most searing images such as (1) The Elephant Man and (2) the emergence of the Alien from his chest in the first of the franchise way back in 1979. When the baby Alien erupted from John it was the first appearance of what was to become one of the screen’s great cult monsters.

   When I recently took my grandson to see The Meg [which was under protest by me of course considering who the 2nd star of the movie was!] I asked my grandson whether he would prefer the Alien or The Meg to come after him and he replied The Meg because the end would probably be all over for the victim much quicker!

   The POSTERS I Most like in your Hurt video entries 40-21 are (1) Frankenstein Unbound (2) Wild Bill (3) both for Osterman Weekend (4) The Rock as Hercules [never saw it but I’ll bet there was some high powered acting in that one!] (5) Outlander (6) Black Cauldron (7) The Shout (8) 1st one for Lord of the Rings (9) a very original one for the massive flop Heaven’s gate and (10) Scandal. The latter film is about the Christine Keeler/Mandy Rice Davies prostitution scandal that ultimately destroyed British Conservative Prime Minister Earl Harold Macmillan’s government in the early 1960s

   POST SCRIPT I have picked up from past exchanges that you may be a great fan of zombie movies so when I was flicking through some TV movie channels I spotted a title on one of the adult channels that made me ask myself “I wonder if Steve has that one in his DVD collection or has at least a poster for it?” It is called “Zombie Strippers”.

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   1. Sir John was one of the victims of the mid-1990’s collapse of the production of the Brando film Divine Rapture which I’ve mentioned before and which ran out of budgetary funding in Ireland after a limited number of scenes had been shot. {Sir John and Marlon reportedly got on very well together ..]

      Brando had an arrangement for his fee to be paid up front before each day’s shooting so he cleared off with $1 million in his pocket but none of the rest of the cast including Hurt got anything. Leading lady Debra Winger took legal action but drew a blank, being told there was no money left in the kitty which was the Court’s polite way of telling her she could go and whistle for her fee.

      She complained bitterly in the press saying she had a young child [by actor Timothy Hutton whom she had divorced] to support. In the end neither Hurt nor Winger starved.though John’s net worth as of 2016 is said to be $30 million and Debs is reportedly worth $16 million today.

      The POSTERS I most enjoyed in entries 1-20 are (1) both for Hellboy (2) foreign Language one for Shooting Dogs (3) Hellboy 2 (4) Deathly Hallows Part One (5) Snowpiercer (6)Contact (7) both for V for Vendetta (8) Midnight Express and (9) foreign language one for The Elephant Man.

      My pick of the STILLS in the entire video are (1) Indie (2) Hellboy (3) Tinker, Tailor (4) 1984 (5) John with Harry Potter (6) the hanging (7) Midnight Express (8) The Elephant Man (9) Sir John with Elijah Wood and (10) the entire set of 3 from Alien..

      You and Bruce agree in 3 of Hurt’s Top 6 best reviewed. Overall this video contained some of your most stunning selections and is well worth a 98% in my book.

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      1. Hi Bob, thanks for the review, generous rating, info and trivia, much appreciated.

         Glad you liked the posters and stills.

         It’s been ages since I last watched Scandal. I think it’s in the collection, might be worth another spin. The girl playing Christine Keeler, Joanne Whalley, married Val Kilmer after they acted together in the Ron Howard fantasy Willow (1988). It didn’t last. She seems to have disappeared but Val Kilmer might be making a comeback in Top Gun 2.

         I have seen Zombie Strippers and it was predictably awful. There is another one called Pride & Prejudice & Zombies, which was actually quite good. I don’t watch every horror movie that comes out, the new ones don’t seem to interest me much. They have very little story and use quiet moments followed by a loud noise or music to make people jump which is a cheap trick.

         Believe it or not Bruce does have a John Hurt movie page [Bob gasps] we keep forgetting that he has done pages on quite a few British actors. 😉

         Five films scored 10 out of 10 from my sources –

         Alien
         Elephant Man ,The
         Midnight Express
         Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows p.2
         10 Rillington Place

         No 9’s but 11 more scored 8 out of 10.

         Alien tops the IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes charts for John Hurt.

         Hurt on Frankenstein Unbound – “Everybody’s got to work with Roger Corman. You can’t leave out that experience. I was amazed when I met him, because I was expecting to see this rather freaky character with hair all over the place – a complete crazy man. But he wasn’t. He was dressed in a tie and a suit, with very neat hair. At first, I thought he was a solicitor.”

         Hurt on making Indiana Jones 4 – “I don’t suppose we could talk about the lack of enjoyment in making it?”

         “I had no idea that Doctor Who had got so huge; I just thought, “Brilliant, I’ll be a Doctor!” I was suddenly – what do they call it? “trending”. This is all new to me. I don’t think I saw the first episode and I think it escaped me for quite a long time. It was a kiddies’ programme, or it was assumed to be. It was known basically for the fact that all the scenery used to fall over.”

         “Well, I would say that if you could manage to get to the end of The Elephant Man without being moved… I don’t think you would be someone I’d want to know.”

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2. Sir Richard’s Steve Lensman You Tube Video is now on our British Soup page.

   “#38 Brannigan….not one of Wayne’s better efforts #38 Dr. Doolittle….huge box office bomb #36 A Chorus Line…at least Douglas is good in the movie. #31 Closing The Ring was a decent little movie. #28 Miracle on 34th Street….bad remake #27 Jurassic Sequel…not good at all. #24 Magic….decent thriller. #16 Chaplin…his last success as a director…and even then it was a box office disappointment. #14 A Bridge Too Far…one of my favorites..impressive big budget movie #13 Elizabeth…good movie. #12 The Sand Peebles..surprised it is so low. #5 Flight of the Phoenix…great cast in a good movie #3 Jurassic Park….blockbuster #2 Gandhi- Oscar winner. #1 The Great Escape…glad it was number one….but shocked it topped Gandhi. So that is a total of 14 seen. Good stuff. Voted up.”

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   1. Hi Bruce, it’s been ages since I last watched Flight of the Phoenix, I have the remake here too. The Great Escape tops Gandhi on your charts too. The Sand Pebbles gets a better rating from your sources, mine didn’t seem that impressed with it.

      But they did like The Great Escape more than you did (Bruce glares) I meant your sources of course, I know it’s a big favorite of yours. Thanks again for the comment, vote and share.

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3. Apparently my idol Richard Widmark preferred to be addressed as “Richard” and he got cross with Wayne at the Duke calling him “Dick” when Big John was directing him in The Alamo. Conversely it seems that Baron Richard Attenborough liked to be known as “Dickie”

   “Dickie” was very good at playing low-life people such as spivs and cowards. In the 1959 OSS Pacific for example the aircraft on which his unsavoury character is a passenger starts to hurtle towards a crash landing so Richard panics and grabs a security axe within reach and bizarrely tries to hack his way out of the aircraft as it hurdles downward, so that he has to be restrained by other passengers. OSS Pacific was a routine action/adventure film and Richard made many much more artistic movies than it but I will probably always remember him most as a actor for that scene in that movie.

   My pick of the POSTERS in 40-21 of Lord Richard’s video are (1) 1st one for Brannigan (2) A Chorus Line (3) Sea of Sand (4) Danger Within (5) The 3rd Secret (6) Miracle on 34th Street (7) both for London Belongs to me (8) Operation Disaster aka Morning Departure and (8) two stunners for The Ship that Died of Shame. Morning Departure was one of several films Lord Attenborough made with Sir “Johnnie” Mills and Sir John always had the larger role and the higher billing.

   ALL STILLS in 1-40 my favourites among which are (1) with The Duke (2) as Santa (3) “Dickie” being spanked! [In the forties, fifties and sixties the English seemed to lap up spanking scenes. “Professor” Jimmy Edwards used to have Brits roaring with laughter when as a headmaster in his TV series Whacko” he had pupils regularly bend over for a sound caning] It was a brand of humour that never caught on in Northern Ireland and very much considered an English obsession (4) young Sir Anthony in Magic (5) Young Winston (6) The Angry Silence (7) Privates Progress the movie that made Ian Carmichael a star (8) stunning one from A Bridge too Far (9) both ones with McQueen (10) the still and lobby card for Brighton Rock (11) with my Jimmy and (12) “Dickie” with “Sir Ben”.

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   1. In later years “Dickie” was well known for his political support for the British Labour Party though he refused to support it over the Iraq War. Attenborough’s affinity with that party was in a way ironic because Labour was always closely associated with the Trade Union movement of Great Britain and “Dickie” appeared in the 1959 I’m All Right Jack and 1960s The Angry Silence perceived as two of the most anti Trade Union movies of the their day. The London Daily Express [regarded as the leading “right wing” tabloid newspaper back then] was so pleased with the two movies that it serialised them in print over a 5 day period. It did not though highlight the fact that I’m All Right Jack criticised the “bosses” as well as the Unions.

      POSTER 1-20. The ones I most enjoyed are (1) Guns at Batasi (2) both for Dunkirk, again co-starring Richard with Sir John Mills. It was one of the few films that were “retained by public demand” in Belfast cinemas. (3) Chaplin (4) A Bridge too Far (5) two for The Sand Pebbles (6) 3rd one for Brighton Rock (7) 2 for 10 Rillington Place (8) foreign language one for The Great Escape and (9) two original ones for Flight of the Phoenix. My Jimmy looked a bit old in that one but constitutionally he was fine living for a further 32 years.

      Richard was never an overtly popular British star for any length of time, being listed just once [1949] among the top 10 stars of the British cinema. However he had great prestige and your video does a fine job of profiling his most important work as an actor and director and therefore deserves a 98% rating in my estimation Lord Attenborough’s net worth when he died in 2014 was $20 million. IMDB credits him with 28 awards and 22 nominations for acting, directing and producing, however –

      “Attenborough’s directorial achievement does not obscure his excellent contribution as a performer.” [The Master – is there any HIGHER praise?]

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      1. Hi Bob, thanks for the review, generous rating, info, trivia, comment and quote, much appreciated. Happy you liked the picture gallery.

         “OSS Pacific” You’re not the only one making a boo-boo, on the video I wrote “The Third Street” instead of “The Third Secret”, Flora pointed it out to me.

         Bruce can easily fix mistakes on the page but I would have to delete the video and upload it again, not worth it. Next time I should concentrate on my work instead of watching TV. 🙂

         Sir Dickie was friendly with everyone, he told Steven Spielberg that ET the Extraterrestrial should have won Best Picture in 1982 not his epic Gandhi. They became close friends and worked together on Jurassic Park and it’s sequel.

         Richards brother Sir David Attenborough is still going strong at the age of 92, he has a new wildlife series playing on TV.

         Seven of Lord Attenborough’s films scored 10 out of 10 from my sources –

         Great Escape ,The
         Jurassic Park
         Gandhi
         Shadowlands
         I’m All Right Jack
         Seance on a Wet Afternoon
         10 Rillington Place

         Two scored 9 – Flight of the Phoenix and League of Gentlemen. 11 more scored 8. Tops at IMDB is The Great Escape, and that film ties with Jurassic Park at no.1 at Rotten Tomatoes.

         “There’s nothing more important in making movies than the screenplay.”

         “I think it is obscene that we should believe that we are entitled to end somebody’s life, no matter what that person has supposedly done or not done.”

         Dickie on Kevin Kline – “A complex character, a total chameleon – and an engaging and bewitching man. He can charm the birds off the trees, but he is also terribly shy.”

         “A number of people have asked me and said – What performance do you like best or what’s the best film you’ve made? – and I don’t really have any hesitation that the film I’m least embarrassed by and ashamed of is Shadowlands.”

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         1. HI STEVE

            Thanks for the comprehensive feedback on my Dickie posts including the interesting quotes.Your quote about taking life shows why Dickie opposed the Iraq War.

            It’s very frustrating when you find out you’ve made a silly error but have no means of correcting it. I remember once years ago when proposing to book passage on the Heysham to Belfast ship to cross with my then English girlfriend I sent a letter to the shipping company requesting separate cabins for us [I was a good little guy in those days!]. After I had posted the letter I looked at the copy that I had kept and discovered to my horror I had written something like.
            “Please book for me separate male and female cabins for my girlfriend and me. She will of course stay in the Ladies’ and I will occupy the Gents.” !

            I don’t think that Spencer Tracy or divas like my Joan would have agreed that the SCREENPLAY was the most important thing in their movies!

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   2. STEVE

      In my Part One “Dickie” post I referred to “OSS Pacific” instead of “SOS Pacific”

      Apologies but the mistake was natural enough as Laddie made a 1946 film called “O.S.S.”*** and it has obviously been seared in my subconscious.

      Anyway it’s “an ill wind that blows nobody any good” because I’ve managed to get a plug in for a Laddie film!

      ***Office of Strategic Services

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4. HI STEVE

   Thanks for the further link. I’d forgotten about that scene.

   He also got angry with Lee Grant’s step daughter played by Patricia Mattick in 1971’s Ransom for a Dead Man when Mattick raised her had to slap him because he exposed her for planting evidence against Lee Grant’s character.

   This has all turned temporarily from a Brit series into a Columbo exploration – the Yanks win again!

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5. HI STEVE

   Thanks for the additional information and the link.

   After I replied to you it occurred to me that there was a Columbo episode that was a semi-“who dunnit” – the 1973 Double Shock with the wonderful Martin Landau as twin brothers. The audience knew that one of them had committed the murder – but which one? It gets a high 77% rating from IMDB

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   1. How often did Columbo get really angry on the show?

      Here’s a youtube clip of Peter Falk losing his temper at Leonard Nimoy –

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=golLNTQCxko

      Reply

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