48 thoughts on “Edward G. Robinson Movies”

1. Bob, I did post a reply to your Eddie p.2 comment but it looks like it didn’t survive the journey. I hope it’s not lost. I don’t have a copy of it.

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2. 1 PART TWO 1-25 In part one I mentioned the contract that was put out on Cagney’s life. Eddie of course had a different kind of hit men after him in his personal life as he fell foul of the Un-American Activities Committee in the McCarthy era.

   2 STILLS. The buses have arrived all at once again and what a fine fleet they are! My personal pick are (1) The lobby cards for The Prize and Brother Orchid (2) with Bogie in Bullets or Ballots (3) Eddie and Boris (4) with Chuck [one to please BOTH you and me] (5) Cincinnati Kid (6) Eddie’s hand on Davis’ knee (7) The Sea Wolf (8) with Fred in Double Indemnity, and (9) with Bogie & Co relaxing on the Key Largo set.

   3 Best POSTERS I thought were Black Tuesday, The Prize, Larceny Inc, The Sea Wolf, The Violent Men [aka Rough Company with Charley Bill Stuart taking central position in your poster] Woman in the Window, Double Indemnity foreign language one, The Whole Town’s Talking [not to be confused with Archie Leach’s The Talk of the Town!] House of Strangers [remade as a western Broken Lance in 1954 with Old Cantankerous Tracy in Eddie’s role] and Key Largo. The latter film was the first time that Eddie had taken 2nd billing*** in a proper lead role since Barbary Coast in 1935

   4 TREMENDOUS VALUE VIDEO EASILY WORTH 98.5% TO ME. You and WH agree on just 6 of the Top 10 best reviewed films and you are particularly far out on Dr Erlich’s Magic Bullet and Kid Galahad which you have at Nos 8 and 9 respectively and WH places at Nos 22 and amazingly 44 respectively. I can’t remember a gap between you two as big of the 35 point difference in your Kid Galahad rankings. That movie has always been one of Eddie’s most prominent as it co-starred him with both Davis and Bogie and Elvis remade it in 1962 with Elvis as the Kid and our our newfound pal Gig Young in Eddie’s role. For some reason Charles Bronson apparently refused to speak to Elvis during the making of the latter and in fact generally cold-shouldered The King.

   ***”At my age of 55 I was lucky to be getting even 2nd billing. However regardless of the billing order Bogie was deferential to me and would refuse to go onto the set each day until ‘Mr Robinson’ as he insisted on calling me had arrived and often he would call at my dressing room and walk with me to the set.” [EG’s autobiography]

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   1. Hi Bob, Thanks for the review, generous rating, billing info, trivia, comment, comparison and observation, much appreciated.

      Happy you enjoyed the posters, stills and lobby cards!

      As you know I’m a big fan of both Elvis and Charles Bronson, so I’m disappointed to read that Bronson wasn’t a fan of the King. And Elvis was such an easy-going friendly person too. Oh well these things happen.

      I do know that another favorite of mine Charlton ‘Behold His Mighty Hand’ Heston loved Eddie Robinson and to quote from my 2016 comment on this page “At the end of Soylent Green, when Chuck Heston finds Eddie had died, his tears were real, Robinson was dying of cancer and passed away soon after shooting wrapped.” 🙁

      Two of Eddie’s films scored 10 out of 10 – The Ten Commandments and Double Indemnity. 11 more scoring 9 out of 10 including – Key Largo, Little Caesar and The Sea Wolf.

      Double Indemnity tops all the charts, with Key Largo and Ten Commandments tied in second place at IMDB. Key Largo no.2 at Rotten Tomatoes and on Bruce’s chart.

      The next contender has 11 movies scoring 10 out of 10. wow is that a record? A top 50 might not be enough for this cinematic icon.

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      1. “The next contender has 11 movies scoring 10 out of 10. wow is that a record? A top 50 might not be enough for this cinematic icon.”

         STEVE

         I presume you are talking about Myrna lLy here.

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         1. Hohoho! Bob, out of curiosity I looked at my Myrna Loy chart and she does have four 10 out of 10s! Eddie managed two… not bad eh… here are the titles – Love Me Tonight, Libeled Lady, Thin Man and Best Years of Our Lives. That girl is a miracle I tells ya! 🙂

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            1. “Steve Lensman
               March 22, 2018 at 5:37 am
               Hohoho! Bob, out of curiosity I looked at my Myrna Loy chart and she does have four 10 out of 10s! Eddie managed two… not bad eh… here are the titles – Love Me Tonight, Libeled Lady, Thin Man and Best Years of Our Lives. That girl is a miracle I tells ya!”

               Whoa horse! Whoa Horse! Whoa Horse!

               1 In love Me Tonight the stars were Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald who were billed alone above the title. 5th billed Loy was an also ran.

               2 In Libeled Lady the stars were in order of importance Jean Harlow, William Powell, Myrna Loy and up-and-coming Spencer Tracy.

               3 The Thin Man was called just that and not The Thin Woman despite my cracks to the contrary and Bruce’s efforts to make the latter seem so.

               4 Freddie March got the Oscar for the Best Years of Our Lives and Myrna never won an Oscar. She was given an honorary one late in life but to me that’s like the “lucky Loser” in profession tennis tournaments who fails to qualify for the real thing but who is admitted at the last moment because someone better drops out owing to illness etc.

               5 Accordingly your saying Myrna was a miracle girl whose movies got 4 ten out of tens cuts as much ice with me as that hyperbolic ole Work Horse’s table for the 1940s decade implying that Walter Brennan sold more tickets than Hope, The Duke, Cooper, Bogie, Grant or Tracy. [ “Believe nothing of what you hear and only half of what you see!” [Burt in The Crimson Pirate]

               “COGERSON POSSIBLY INTERESTING FACTS
               8. Melvyn Douglas and billing. Douglas – “Well, Freddie Bartholomew had first billing in Captains Courageous and that drove Spencer Tracy mad. I was billed fourth – and couldn’t have cared less. Joan Crawford once explained to me she was over Clark Gable and William Powell but under Norma Shearer. Powell was under Jean Harlow but above Bob Montgomery and Myrna Loy.”

            2. Bob, another post I’ve just noticed, am I blind or have they just materialised?

               Well my Myrna post was written largely in jest, pushing your buttons so to speak. You take me and Bruce far too seriously regarding our lovely Myrna. We all know she isn’t on the level of Joan, Bette or the great Kate, she’s not a screen Goddess, but she was popular and she did star (or co-star if you prefer) in some very famous and very successful films. It would be unfair if we pretended those films didn’t exist in her filmography.

               To imply she wasn’t at all an attraction to moviegoers of that time and they were only really interested in the male stars of her films is wrong IMO.

      2. 1 I did get your substantive Eddie Robinson post. Thanks for the usual thoughtful feedback. All of our missing posts have now seemingly turned up. Perhaps whoever were holding on to them have now had time to show them to all their friends.

         2 I’ve just watched a 1973 episode of the TV series Ironside and one of your recent video subjects Dorothy Malone had a small part in it. She was 49 and looked very fine for a woman of that age. However top stardom for actresses usually depends on them looking much more than “fine” and in Dorothy’s case long gone was the sultry siren of the 1950s We “ancient” movie buffs owe a lot to you and the WH for taking us back to a time when “the world [and we] were young”

         3 Talking about ancient people and your story about Chuck and Eddie, I was going to tell you about this anyway I was watching a journalist on TV last night being asked what he thought of relics like Sly, Arnie and Harrison Ford continuing to play action heroes [though only Sly was actually specifically mentioned]. The journalist laughed and replied “Well I suppose they’ve earned a bit of poetic licence, though Moses wasn’t 80 when he parted the Red Sea and Heston was just 32 when he played him!”

         4 Humphrey was only in his mid forties when he married Bacall but he had prematurely aged because of the booze and cigs and she was of course 24 years his junior. Betty’s father is reported to have morbidly said to a wedding guest as Bogart and Bacall sped off on their honeymoon “They should be taking Bogie to the mortuary casket rather than the honeymoon bed!” I wonder what some modern father would be thinking if he saw his 21 year old daughter departing on honeymoon with Harrison – with or without makeup! “Nevada’s like his guns – full of blanks!” – Carroll Baker The Carpetbaggers Sorry I spelt your name wrong in my last header. I wouldn’t dare spell Bwuce’s name wrong!

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         1. Hi Bob, glad my post made the trip. Thanks for the info and quote.

            Burt Lancaster played Moses in the 1970s – Moses The Lawgiver – which played in cinemas here in the UK but I think was a TV movie in the US? Anyway he must have been in his 60s by then. Another Lancaster / Heston connection, Burt was considered for the role of Ben-Hur. I don’t think the two actors have appeared on screen together.

            Christian Bale was 42 when he played played Moses, so Chuck is still the youngest to play the role.

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            1. 1 Yes I remember Burt as Moses but he was well past his best sell by date by then though Burt was part of Hollywood generations who were quire comfortable with for example 50s something Joel McCrea courting a 24 year old “child bride” and her father who was about Joel’s age addressing the latter as “young man”

               2 That was also a time when in North by Northwest Archie Leach’s screen mother was almost as old as he in real life, a time when the 50+ Randy Scott left the church holding hands with another “child bride” and the preacher said to him “It’s nice to see the young men coming to church.” But at least those guys weren’t almost 80 like the geriatric Harrison Ford or OAP Stallone.

               3 However the TV journalist that I mentioned may have been engaging in semantics when he said that Moses wasn’t 80 when he parted the Red Sea because whilst the debate among religious scholars still rages about the matter Moses may not have been far short of 80 at the time of the parting. Indeed some Biblical experts think he was 120 when he died. Say there might be some serious career left in Harrison Ford or Arnie yet.!

         2. Steve Lensman [TO BOB]
            March 23, 2018 at 7:55 am
            Well my Myrna post was written largely in jest, pushing your buttons so to speak. You take me and Bruce far too seriously regarding our lovely Myrna
            Dear Moses:

            Regarding your 7.55 post and the extract above, when you look at my 9.29 am one and what I have said in the extract from IT immediately below can you really believe that I take it all over-seriously? What was the song that Burl Ives had a big hit with?

            “It’s just my funny way of laughing,
            Just my funny way of laughing
            [Myrna] doesn’t bother me!”

            BOB to STEVE
            March 23, 2018 at 9:29 am
            I am becoming concerned that the Cogerson site instead of following the traditions of the Wall Street Journal and Variety in conveying financial accuracy is now joining the Fake News spreaders. Consequently I toss and turn in bed at night unable to sleep for fear that Bruce Willis Moore Cogerson and his cheerleader Steve “Mo” Lensman are in reality closet spammers.

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3. Hi Bob, I thought your old Eddie G review below was the one you just posted and was about to respond to it. :O

   Confusion reigns! Sorry your post hasn’t got thru yet. Looks like you and I are the only ones still having problems with lost or delayed posts. I’ll keep an eye out for it. Cheers.

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   1. Yes and ironically ours are the ones everybody probably most want to see so maybe somebody’s “borrowing” them for a time to savour and copy. I’m sure people are getting tired of all those old Work Horse posts hyping up Myrna Loy..

      PS: Watch our for two Edw G parts.

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4. 1 PART ONE 50-26 I mentioned how Cagney had strong likes and dislikes and apparently he was very deferential to Eddie Robinson when they made Smart Money together early on. Eddie and George Raft though apparently did not get on during the making of the 1941 Manpower and they had to be dragged apart when a fist fight between them started on set.

   2 However reportedly at one stage in real life a murder contract was taken out on Cagney because he joined a crusade to thwart Mafia influence in the movie business and it is said that when word of the contract got to Raft he used his own connections to get the hit man called off.

   3 My notes have not recorded any stills in the first half but mention a magnificent lobby card for Manpower. However the POSTERS certainly demonstrate what a prolific stand-alone star EG was at the height of his career and my favorites are Glass Webb [which I saw nostalgically way back in 1953 on a double bill with Norman Wisdom’s comedy Trouble in Store] Vice Squad, Blackmail, My Geisha, Nightmare, Destroyer, Illegal [with one’s eyes for once ignoring EG and straying to Miss Mansfield] Seven Thieves [possibly my own fave Robinson movie] Night has 1000 Eyes, Red House [with my Rory in an early role and credited for it on your poster] and last but not least a cracking one for my Laddie’s Hell on Frisco Bay –

   “Shall I go after him boss and crack his skull?” Burly henchman to gangland leader EG when hero Ladd walks out the door after insulting and threatening Eddie.

   Edward G: “Name me in your will if you do!”

   [Riotous laughter from Bob Roy’s son!]

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   1. Bob, your posts are up! Hark the herald angels sing! 😉

      Glad you liked part one of my Eddie G extravaganza. Yep all the stills seem to have ended up in the top 25. Wasn’t my fault. I swear your honour! [bursts into tears]

      I’m amazed that you remember which films you saw on each double bill and most likely which cinema it was too. I wish I had your memory.

      Interesting info on Jimmy, Eddie and Georgie. Thanks.

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5. 1 . When the Hollywood gangster cycle was at it height Warners had under contract all of the perceived greatest stars of the genre and Robinson was considered one of the biggest of them. Some film historians feel that Robinson’s most dominant decade was the thirties because although his popularity continued into the forties and early fifties it was felt that Bogart over shadowed him from the 1940s onward and Chuck Heston even alluded to that point in a documentary about Bogie. The reason the historians gave for the changing of the guard was that after Casablanca audiences regarded Bogart as “the man most likely to be able to take on Hitler.”

   2 In the light of the foregoing I was curious to see how you would split your selections over the decades in the Robinson video and I have calculated that your Top 30 includes 13 from the 1940s and 9 from the 1930s which is reasonable given that the talkies were in their infancy in the latter decade and that film making had much improved by the forties.

   3 Other comments (1) none of your choices get really poor ratings (2) I was pleased to see little gems such as Seven Thieves, Two Weeks in another Town, Nightmare and Illegal in your picks (3) I don’t really regard 10C as a truly Robinson but rather a Chuck movie but its artistic merit certainly merits its No 2 ranking in its own right (3) you and for audience/critic the Oracle coincide in 3 of your Top 5 ratings (4) usual iconic range of poster reproductions heightened by the photogenic Robinson persona with my prize going to the one for Two Weeks in Another Town (5) excellent Key Largo ‘between filming’ still (6) joining up the dots in Dan fashion A slight Case of Murder was remade in 1952 as Stop You’re Killing Me starring Broderick Crawford and Eddie’s ‘moll’ from Key Largo, Claire Trevor. [I saw the Brodie remake on the same double bill as another Warners movie Operation Secret starring Cornel Wilde].

   3 Bogie was one of my own all time faves and I don’t care if he eclipsed Eddie as a star I still loved that little guy too and therefore liked your classy video which was a definite Guns Up.

   Have a good weekend.

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   1. Hi Bob, over a hundred views on my Eddie G video already, there’s still interest in the old boy I’m happy to say.

      At the end of Soylent Green, when Chuck Heston finds Eddie had died, his tears were real, Robinson was dying of cancer and passed away soon after shooting wrapped.

      I had to include The Ten Commandments, Eddie had an important role in that. I wrote a hub on that movie a few years ago. The critics weren’t kind to the film and the cast, especially this critics –

      “I’m sure DeMille could have had any actor he wanted Yet the actors he chose with few exceptions are second and third rate… Heston has a fine hatchet face on which a beard looks well, and nothing else… John Derek and Debra Paget have faces on which neither mind nor heart has left a trace. And how ridiculous Edward G. Robinson and Vincent Price are in Egyptian costumes!… The visual representation of supernatural occurrences are inexcusably crude… And I cannot understand how Mr De Mille allowed a voice on the soundtrack to represent the voice of God.” (Henrietta Lehman, Films in Review)

      ouch!

      And here’s Gore Vidal on Mr. Epic –

      “When I arrived for the filming of Ben Hur, all the sets had been built, including Charlton Heston.”

      eeek!

      🙂

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      1. Oh and I’m glad you liked the video cheers!

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      2. 1 I think that audiences and critics were used to seeing Eddie in those smart suits and stylish gangster hats. However he NEEDED The 10C because DeMille who was sympathetic to him put him in it to save his career which was nearly wrecked by the un-American Activities Committee and their supporters. There are anyway a number of other great actors who probably wouldn’t have suited costume with Bogie and Monty Clift springing to mind Indeed western garb didn’t really become Bogie and in Cagney’s Oklahoma Kid he looked like a smiling gigolo when he played Whip McCord from the Panhandle.

         2 Vidal was a great writer but on a personal level he was a less vulgar WC Fields who liked to say negative and controversial things to shock. You know he was related to Al Gore the politician, don’t you? Heston had the last word by getting the Oscar for Ben Hur.

         3 I remember attending a course once in which the lecturer who was English said “Hollywood at times gets a bad press but the best of Hollywood films are as good as ANYONE’s best. Unfortunately there is a school of snobbery that won’t accept as high art anything that isn’t European, isn’t in black and white with sub titles,isn’t as dry as dust and doesn’t have a cuckolded husband in it.” Also a films historian emphasised that the public aren’t fools and will not give their patronage for any length of time to an artist who is not delivering value for money in one manner or another.

         BOB

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      3. The power of classic stars…it is what keeps the views coming into this website….enjoyed Bob’s comment and glad your EGR video is doing so well.

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