19 thoughts on “Jack Palance Movies”

1. Interesting facts about Jack Palance! While I like him as an actor, any-one who punches Brando and Lancaster in the face, and knocks out Widmark with a gun, does not sound like someone I would like to meet 🙂 There is something uniquely threatening and strangely handsome about Palance’s facial features, and he indeed was perfect playing villains, even though he had some sympathetic roles as well. My first recollection of this face was as a boy reading the French western comic book, Lucky Luke, where in one famous story (Lucky Luke versus Phil de Fer) the artist drew the main villain as Jack Palance in Shane, except taller and skinnier. There was little need to caricature the face. Anyway, I have seen 9 films on the list, with my favorites being Panic in the Streets, Shane, Attack and The Professionals. Thanks for those interesting facts about how Palance came up with his stage name
   Good stuff!

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   1. Hey PhilHoF17. As usual I agree with your comments. This seems like taking method acting to an unnecessary level. Interesting recollection of Lucky Luke and Jack Palance. Now that I know a little bit more about your childhood, that comment makes a lot more sense. Glad you liked the trivia on Jack Palance. Good stuff.

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2. Before I write what films I have seen, when he was making Panic in the Streets: Jack used a rubber gun to hit Widmark on the head in a scene in the rehearsals, but when it came to filming the scene Jack switched to a real gun and knocked Widmark out cold for 30 minutes.

   I have seen 14 Jack Palance films, including 8 of the top 10.

   The HIGHEST rated movie I have seen is Shane.

   The highest rated movie I have NOT seen is City Slickers.

   The LOWEST rated movie I have seen is Once a Thief, which I don’t consider as bad as its rating.

   Favourite Jack Palance Movies:

   Shane
   The Professionals
   Panic in the Streets
   Halls of Montezuma
   Sudden Fear
   Attack
   The Big Knife
   Ten Seconds To Hell

   Other Jack Palance Movies I Have Seen:

   Batman
   Barabbas
   Monte Walsh
   Young Guns
   Chato’s Land
   Once a Thief

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   1. Hey Flora…..thanks for checking out our Jack Palane page. Tally count…14 for you 11 for me. Almost all of my 13 where made after 1980. Interesting story about Widmark, Palance and the gun. I wonder if that scene made it to the movie. Looking at your favorites…I have seen your favorite Top 4….and that is the only 4 I have seen before 1980. So Batman did not crack your favorites list….interesting….but not thinking you are a huge fan of superhero movies. Good stuff as always.

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3. BRUCE: I thought that this extract from Wikipedia about The Duke’s tormentor Gilbert Harding might be of passing interest to you.

   “Harding was notorious for his irascibility and was at one time characterised in the tabloid press as “the rudest man in Britain”. His fame sprang from an inability to suffer fools gladly, and many 1950s TV viewers watched What’s My Line? less for the quiz elements than for the chance of a live Harding outburst.

   An incident on an early broadcast started this trend when Harding became annoyed with a contestant and told the contestant that he was getting bored with him.

   Harding’s rudeness off screen was also commented upon; at a wedding reception at which a guest remarked that the bride and groom would make an ideal couple. Harding replied “You should know, you’ve slept with both of them”.

   He became increasingly unable to move anywhere in public without being accosted by adoring viewers. On one occasion he asked a mother with two children if “your children are crippled”, because they had stayed seated on a railway bench.”

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4. This new page is highly voted up because Jack is a big part of my nostalgia for my early boyhood years as a cinemagoer. I was mesmerized by him in Shane and throughout the 1950s I watched all of his stand-alone movies.

   Also I can remember one sunny Saturday night in 1953 queuing up [on a 2nd occasion within the one week!!] for Arrowhead starring Jack and Chuck. The queue was massive because in 1953 many of us still didn’t have TV sets in N Ireland and I vividly recall one would-be wit riding by on a bicycle and gleefully jeering at us “All of you won’t get in!”

   I will always remember Jack’s interview after he had completed 1955’s The Big Knife and he commented “It’s the longest part that I nave ever played. The film runs for 111 mins; I am on screen for 110 mins; and in the minute that I’m off screen I’m in an adjacent washroom in the plot and while I’m there everybody’s talking about me!” In real life someone would probably get that kind of attention in just a situation where for example guys like The Work Horse and some of his pals were in a room with Al Leach or Joel Hirschhorn and Archie/Joel had gone to the rest room.

   ADDITIONAL TRIVIA
   1/At the time of his death Jack had a net worth equivalent to $13 million in today’s money. On top of his prolific film career Jack appeared in nearly 50 television productions and these included the title roles in two of Jack’s many TV movies: Bram Stoker’s Dracula [1973] and Dickens’ Scrooge [1997].

   2/I like the What’s my Line story in the trivia section. It reminds me though of feeling sorry for The Duke [I just HAD to get him in!] when he appeared on it in 1960 or 61 around the time of The Alamo’s release and panelist Gilbert Harding [a celebrity with a reputation for being a Tracy-like cantankerous type and would have given eeven Joel a run for his money as “Mr Nasty”] said to Big John when the got on to discuss The Alamo [which is why of course The Duke was on the programme!] “Didn’t you feel silly running around in that ridiculous coon-skin hat?”

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   1. Hey Bob….thanks for the additional information on Jack Palance. His role in Shane is pretty awesome. Not thinking too many people got Oscar nominations for playing a henchman in a western. Thanks for the information on his net worth and his television roles. Good story on John Wayne. As always good stuff.

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      1. HI BIG BOY:Thanks for the feedback. My own further comments are:

         1/I think you did well enough to provide grosses for some of the obscure films that you have done. For example I saw Kiss of Fire as a supporting feature to Rock Hudson’s 1955 weepie One Desire; and 1953’s Man in the Attic was released on the second half of a double bill over here with Van Johnson’s 1954 western The Siege at Red River. Though Man in the Attic is now a forgotten film that was minor even in its day the sinister Palance of the early 1950s was ideal as the Man who is in reality Joel the Ripper the notorious London Whitechapel serial slasher. It is heartening that your sources recognise it as at least a solid piece of entertainment with a 65% rating.

         2/It is now legendary that given the choice of whether Jesus or Barabbas should be set free the crowd released the latter who was a nororious criminal. In more modern times John McEnroe proved that bad behavious could be popular with the masses; and so did Gilbert Harding who needlessly put down The Duke on What’s my Line. Harding’s stock in trade was being totally obnoxious to everyone. He bought into [or at least pretended to buy into] the stock myth that we over in Ireland were as a nation primitive and backward people with no sense of the social graces and didn’t practice civilised living habits. For example he said to one contestant on What’s My Line “is it true that you all breed pigs in Ireland and that you keep them in your lliving rooms?” He also made a great show of going into shops and banging the counter loudly with his walking stick if he didn’t get immediate and/or satisfactory service. If Harding had vistied your store you would have henceforth welcomed Andy Griffith back as Santa Claus by contrast! Steve in terms of his own art work has often said “Sex sells.” : so does obnoxious behaviour. Anyway nice hearing from you and keep safe.

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5. Walter Jack Palance is my earliest recollection of the Great Hollywood Bad Guy; and certainly when he drew attention to himself in iconic roles in Sudden Fear with Crawford and especially Shane with Ladd he was THE epitome of what 1950s audiences considered supreme evil on the screen. Mad comic-cut evil geniuses like Lex Luthor weren’t taken seriously in those days even by us kids though today guys like Steve seem to be terrified by them.

   On the back of Sudden Fear and Shane Jack landed a string of top-billed lead roles for a while: Kiss of Fire; Attack!; Clifford Odets’ The Big Knife; The Lonely Man; House of Numbers; The Man Inside; and I Died a Thousand Times which was a remake of the classic High Sierra with Palance in the old Bogie role of anti-hero gangster Roy Earle.

   In 1959’s Ten Seconds to Hell Jack was 2nd billed to Jeff Chandler but it was Palance who had the lead role of the good guy for once and Big Jeff was unusually the villain of the piece. This was a role reversal for the pair from their teaming in 1954’s Sign of the Pagan in which Jack played Attila the Hun and Jeff was the noble Roman soldier who was Attila’s nemeses.

   I like the little miniature from Shane above and there is some excellent trivia on this page. For example I never knew about the Brando/Palance connection. Now that it has been told to me it strikes me that Tennessee have probably never have allowed Stallone to be even Brando’s understudy in the part of Stanley; but even if he had Marlon would have been safe because Stallone could never have landed that punch!

   Indeed Jack is the only actor whom I can immediately recall whose first 4 back-to-back roles were in movies starring others among my own top idols: Widmark in Panic in the Streets and Hall of Montezuma; Crawford in Sudden Fear; and Laddie in Shane. My own favorite Palance movies are the latter two; Arrowhead with Chuck; and Batman.

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   1. Hey Bob. Thanks for checking out our latest page. Glad you enjoyed the trivia. I figured you would like that Brando got mentions in 40% of the trivia. Palance got a great start….and then had a good finish. The middle of his career was not so impressive. One of the reasons it took so long to do a page on him….was his movies in the 1960s and 1970s….I do not like leaving out so many movies. 40 seems to be a good number to finally release the stats. I have not seen Ten Seconds to Hell…it sounds like it might be worth checking out. Good stuff as always.

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