10 thoughts on “Jean Peters Movies”

1. I have seen 9 Jean Peters movies.

   The HIGHEST rated movie I have seen is Three Coins in the Fountain.

   The highest rated movie I have NOT seen is A Man Called Peter.

   The LOWEST rated movie I have seen is A Blueprint For Murder.

   Favourite Jean Peters Movies:

   Three Coins in the Fountain
   Broken Lance
   Pickup on South Street
   Niagara
   O. Henry’s Full House

   Other Jean Peters Movies I Have Seen:

   Apache
   Captain From Castille
   Viva Zapata!
   A Blueprint For Murder

   Reply

   1. Hey Flora… I figured with all these current actors getting pages it was time to do another classic page. I have only seen 3 of these movies. So, your tally has me topped three times. Unlike the Robert Morse page…all 3 of my “seen” movies are in your favorite movies list. I have always wanted to see Viva Zapata!…but so far I have not tracked that one down. Another one I want to see is O Henry’s Full House….that movie has lots of people in it that have an UMR page. Good stuff as always.

      Reply

2. THE MARK OF DAN!

   (1) initially not Marlon Brando but Ty Power Jean’s leading man in her debut film Captain from Castille was to play Emiliano Zapata. See also my additional trivia below.

   (2) Brando was the idol of Louis Jourdan from Peters’ Anne of the Indies and Louis once publicly said of Marlon “HE is OUR Don Quixote, always tilting at windmills on screen to show us what we can and can’t dare to do as actors!”

   (3) Conversely Jean’s main co-star in Broken Lance Spencer Tracy detested Brando and bad-mouthed him in public at every opportunity. For example when making The Mountain, Tracy said to Anna Kashfi whom Marlon married around that time “Acting doesn’t take much intelligence: look at your husband!” Tracy was nasty like that and it is why he is nicknamed Old Cantankerous; and also for example according to Melvyn, Spence sulked with the entire cast and crew of 1940’s Boom Town because Clark Gable was billed above him in that movie. When Tracy dubbed Gable The King of Hollywood it was allegedly sarcasm and not praise: Tracy was implying that Clark had a “big head” about himself. Spence’s lip apparently curled when he said to others on set “Here comes The King!” as Gable approached the set from a distance.

   Despite the relative brevity of her career which lasted from 1947-1955 – just 8 years and didn’t run the length of even one calendar decade – Jean deserves her Cogerson page as she brought before the camera that class and screen presence which the Hollywood actresses of the Classic era seemed to own and bottle-up for themselves so that they aren’t in my view being repeated and marketed today. This new pages is therefore “Voted Up!”

   ADDITIONAL TRIVIA: The late Senator John McCain who opposed Barack Obama in the 2008 US Presidential Election loved men of action and action stories in fiction; and his all- time literary hero was Robert Jordan in Hemmingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls who fought against the Fascists in the Spanish Civil War and who was played by Gary Cooper in the film version of the novel.

   Senator McCain’s favourite MOVIE was Viva Zapata and that is interesting because whereas McCain belonged to the US Republican party Zapata was a revolutionary who opposed the established order in his own day. In the movie Jean Peters plays Josefa Zapata the wife of the revolutionary Emiliano.

   Television footage of the 2008 Presidential election shows John McCain severely-chastising his own supporters at a rally for engaging in racist language in relation to Barack Obama.

   Reply

   1. Hey Bob. Good trivia about Brando with his connection to Jean Peters. According to the UMR ratings…16 of 19 of her movies would be considered “good”…that is 84% of her movies. I remember when McCain did that during the rally in 2008. As for Spencer Tracy and Clark Gable…..I would think there would be a good movie about their relationship. The movies together, the rumors of their conflict in real life, their friendship in the 1950s. Good stuff as always.

      Reply

      1. HI BRUCE: Thanks for the substantive feedback. Much appreciated. An 84% “good” or better rating for Jean’s movies is – well, good! It was YOUR Melvyn Douglas page’s Possibly Interesting Facts that also “outed” how contrary Tracy could be at times:

         “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. Are you still with me?” JFB (Just for Bob ROY)”

         I couldn’t resist quoting that back to you Work Horse as The Thin Woman is mentioned last! – proving the old cliche that “There is nothing new under the sun”!

         Also Tracy sulked with everyone concerned with 1940s’ Boom Town because Gable was billed before him. When Old Cantankerous -or Younger Cantankerous as he was then! – would go into the sulks over the Gable top-billing arrangement with even people who had nothing to do with, and had no control over, the arrangement it is no wonder that Old C detested Brando.

         And of course being the unpleasant and bad-tempered guy that Spence was he hadn’t the courtesy to keep his dislikes to himself and had to share them with all of Hollywood. Say here’s a thought! – I wonder if Tracy and Hirsch were mates?

         .

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3. As the Work Horse indicates above Jean’s heyday was the late 1940s and early 1950’s – up until 1955 as Bruce demonstrates when her career was cut short. I most remember her for 3 Coins in the Fountain/A man Called Peter/Apache/Pickup on South Street/Captain from Castille/Broken Lance/Vicki/ Anne of the Indies and Viva Zapata.

   Regarding the last-named 3 Vicki is a remake of 1941’s I wake Up Screaming starring Victor Mature and Betty Grable whom I regard as the REAL box office queen among the big classic era stars of the 1930s thru 1955 though Betty’s own heyday was largely confined to the 1940s.

   Anne of the Indies and Viva Zapata co-starred Peters with respectively Louis Jourdan and Brando as highlighted above by Bruce. There are a couple of Dan-like slender threads running through those and other castings recorded in Bruce’s Jean Peters tables: see Part 2

   Reply

   1. Hey Bob. Good feedback on Jean Peters. I admit I am not too aware of her career. I remember reading about her in some Howard Hughes books. For some reason when I was younger, I was fascinated with Hughes, so I read lots of stuff on him. Of the ones you mentioned, I have only seen Pickup On South Street and Broken Lance. I want to see Viva Zapata….it is one of the few movies that won Best Supporting Actor winning movies that I have not seen. Also I think it stars somebody besides Anthony Quinn…lol. Interesting about Vicki. I did not know that at all. Good stuff as always.

      Reply

      1. THE GREAT MUMBLER AND OLD CANTANKEROUS – Continued

         The G. M. had never done anything on Old C as far as I am aware and I have never read about them even ever meeting. Film historians opine that his intense dislike of Marlon was caused by Spence seeing Brando as a threat to Tracy’s own perception of himself as THE Hollywood Great Actor and THE Tinsel Town liberal.

         To be fair to The Angry One Wikipedia records that he ‘survived Brando’ and here’s what Wiki has to say on the subject:

         “Brando was ranked by the American Film Institute as the fourth-greatest movie star among male movie stars whose screen debuts occurred in or before 1950. He was one of only six actors -just 4 of whom including Brando were mainstream – named in 1999 by Time magazine in its list of the 100 Most Important People of the Century [from all walks of life and branches of sport/entertainment]. Variety magazine in cluded him in its top 10 Greatest Entertainers of the Century from all branches of entertainment.

         In its list, Time also designated Brando as the “Actor of the Century”. Historians reckon that his lustre as an actor eclipsed the acting styles of all the great screen actors who came before him with Spencer Tracy’s reputation being the only one to survive intact the coming of Brando [if we ignore the more theatrically orientated Laurence Olivier but even he did not come to symbolise an entire Actor’s Studio].”

         Anyway please keep safe

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4. I have seen all 19 of Jean’s films listed.

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   1. Hey Dan…..well…me and Flora have seen 12 of her movies…so we are not too far behind you…lol. You are the man when it comes to tally counts. But…I always have Bruce Willis…lol.

      Reply

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