11 thoughts on “Robert Wise Movies”

1. Things are moving too fast here in UMR land and I’ve lost track of the latest pages.

   I forgot I even had a Robert Wise video, thanks for the share.

   I’ve seen 16 of the 39 films on the chart. Favorites include – The Day The Earth Stood Still, The Andromeda Strain, Star Trek The Motion Picture, The Hindenburg, The Body Snatcher, The Haunting, The Sand Pebbles, The Sound of Music and West Side Story.

   I’ve also seen 4 of his editing credits – Citizen Kane, All That Money Can Buy, Hunchback of Notre Dame and My Favorite Wife.

   My favorite of all his films is probably The Day The Earth Stood Still, a huge favorite of mine as a teenage sci-fi addict and it still impresses today.

   Good stuff Bruce. Vote Up!

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   1. Hey Steve….well…last week was my first week of summer vacation…..so I had more free time to get some pages done…..which is why so many pages were coming up. I figured you would enjoy our look at Robert Wise’s career. Lots of classic movies are in the Lensman favorite movie club.

      I had no idea you loved The Day The Earth Stood Still so much. I guess you are a big Keanu fan…lol. I of course know which classic sci-fi movie you love so much.

      Yep…you have a Robert Wise video. I still think you need an index somewhere. My index is on the verge of having one million visits…our first page to do that….I know you accomplished that a long time ago.

      I am happy to say that I have seen every single one of your favorite Wise movies. I am right there with on The Day The Earth Stood Still, The Body Snatcher, The Sand Peebles and The Sound of Music. WoC loves the Sound of Music…and BERN1960 (my mom) loves Star Trek 1. So you are not alone when it comes to these movies. Good stuff as always.

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2. I see you have made a table for Robert Wise’s Editor credits and I discovered there is another movie that I have seen that Wise edited: The Devil and Daniel Webster

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   1. Hey Flora…yep….I kept going back to how I had the information originally presented….and kept not liking it….so I had to do some “database manipulation” to get this second table done. We now have a Robert Wise and a Wise Robert in our database. WoC gets miffed when I do stuff like that….as she says it corrupts the data….but I like the name Wise Robert….it seems to fit him. So your Robert Wise tally is 31….pretty impressive. The Devil and Daniel Webster goes by many names…..I have stuck with the two that seem to be the most popular. That movie got Walter Huston an Oscar nomination…one day I will check that one out. Good stuff as always.

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3. I have seen 22 of Robert Wise’s directing credits, including 9 of the top 10 and 16 of the top 20.

   I have seen 8 of Robert Wise’s editor credits. In order of preference, they are:

   Citizen Kane -favourite
   The Hunchback of Notre Dame -favourite
   Bachelor Mother – favourite
   My Favorite Wife – favourite
   Dance Girl Dance – favourite
   The Fallen Sparrow – favourite
   The Magnificent Ambersons
   Fifth Avenue Girl

   Going Back To Robert Wise’s Directing Credits:

   The HIGHEST rated movie I have seen is The Sound of Music. I played Sister Sophia in a stage version.

   The highest rated movie I have NOT seen is The Andromeda Strain.

   The LOWEST movie I have seen is Mademoiselle Fifi.

   Favourite Robert Wise Director Movies:

   The Sound of Music
   West Side Story
   The Set-Up
   Run Silent, Run Deep
   The Day The Earth Stood Still
   Executive Suite
   Odds Against Tomorrow
   The Haunting
   Born to Kill
   I Want to Live!
   Star Trek: The Motion Picture
   The Desert Rats
   Destination Gobi
   So Big

   Other Robert Wise Director Movies I Have Seen:

   The Sand Pebbles
   The Hindenberg
   Somebody Up There Likes Me
   Helen of Troy
   Two For the Seesaw
   This Could Be the Night
   Until They Sail
   Mademoiselle Fifi

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   1. Hey Flora….thanks for the visit, the comment and the tally counts. Let’s see…I have seen 14 of the Wise directed movies (to your 22) while seeing only 4 of the Wise edited movies (to your 8). Combined tally counts: Flora 30….Cogerson 18.

      Wow…that is a lot of favorites. Of the 21 listed…I have seen 13 of them. My favorites would be The Sand Pebbles, Odds Against Tomorrow and Citizen Kane (of course). Not thinking many people have seen Mademoiselle Fifi……so I am impressed that you have seen that one. Of your favorites….The Set-Up would be the one I want to see the most. Great feedback as always.

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4. I can not think about Robert Wise without thinking about his great musicals West Side Story and The Sound of Music. Both movies were seen by my family many many times growing up. This makes me remember all the joy my mom and grandma got watching and singing along with. We had a small hill behind our house and we would play out the Sound of Music on that hill. Memories that make me tear up. Tear up in a good way.

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   1. Hey Helakoski….thanks for sharing these movie memories. I find stories like that very fascinating. I can picture you on a hill singing famous songs from The Sound Of Music. Great feedback. Glad our page got those memories out of storage….lol.

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5. Robert Wise is credited by IMDB with 36 acting awards and 26 nominations. His net worth on his death in 2005 is said to have been a relatively low $3 million [about $4 million in today’s money]. I have see 13 [a third] of the movies in the above tables.

   His filmography is certainly a thoroughly mixed bag, from expensive blockbusters such as Sound of Music and West side Story, through modest productions such as Cagney’s Tribute to a Badman and Widmark’s Destination Gobi, to the low budget B movie The Set-up [shot in real time over just 72 mins].

   Tracy had started working on the what became the Cagney part in Tribute to a Badman, but Spence became even more than his usual cantankerous and contrary self so, after production had been delayed several times because of Tracy’s clashes with Wise, an MGM executive went to Spence’s dressing room and sacked Old Cantankerous on the sport and apparently the latter broke down into tears like a baby.

   Tracy never again appeared in an MGM film [though he did the narration for How the West Was Won] and Tribute to a Badman was in fact Cagney’s final western. Initially MGM had tried to sign up for the female lead, in order of succession, Grace Kelly, Eva Marie Saint and Jennifer Jones. I saw the movie when it came out here in 1956 on an MGM double bill with Cornel Wilde’s adventure flick The Scarlet Coat. Tribute was from a short story written by Jack Schaefer who wrote the novel on which Laddie’s Shane was based .

   My personal fave Bob Wise movies are that one, my Richard’s Destination Gobi and the B movie The Set-up – and what a B movie! Critics have long included it among the most lauded B features of all time, up there with the likes of The Killing [89%] The Narrow Margin [83%] Force of Evil [81%] and Audie Murphy’s western No Name on the Bullet [74%]. The ratings quoted are your own and all are excellent for B movies and you are to be congratulated on also giving the Set-up a high [81%] rating and making it your joint 4th top Robert Wise movie for critical review [and for ranking Golden Holden’s forgotten gem Executive Suite 5th with an 80% rating].

   But -and wait for it!-was there ever a more prestigious illustration of a movie’s artistic worth than the 4 stars dished out to Ryan for his Set-up performance, and the following high praise? “The Set-up was a grimly realistic view of the fight racket which was too raw for mass appeal.” A spot-on observation from guess whom? Other critics have called the movie one of the most brutal boxing films ever made up until then. Your Wise new page is welcomed with a warm “Vote Up!”

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   1. Hey Bob. Thanks for checking out our latest page. We are working on so many lists….that sometimes we lose track. For instance we are trying to get all of Joel’s 410 subjects an UMR page. Trying to get an UMR page on the Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supp. Actor and Supp. Actress, Best Director Oscar winners…..this Wise page takes off 2 from that Director page.

      He does not get a ton of credit….but….he did make lots of good to great movies in lots of different genres. I think you might like the attached trailer to Tribute To A Bad Man….it has Cagney talking to the screen. Interesting story about Tracy getting fired from that job. Pretty sure alcohol had taken control of his life by then.

      Glad you like most of my critic/general audience review percentages. I have not seen Destination Gobi…..but I want to. The Set-Up is considered to be one of the best boxing movies…I did not know it was filmed in real time….now that is good trivia. Thanks for the visit and the vote up.

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      1. Thanks for the feedback to my own comments. Joel was by far not the only critic to admire Ryan’s acting. In my opinion though for Robert to have achieved Legend status too many of his best roles were in very bleak films-Act of Violence, I Married a Communist, Clash by Night, The Racket and maybe especially On Dangerous Ground. Certainly when The Duke, Randy or my Jimmy was in a Ryan movie HE was 2nd fiddle.

         Hirsch’s OWN opening thoughts in his section about Robert [in the 1983 book] regarding Ryan’s failure to achieve stardom are astutely observed. Indeed The Oracle’s overall profile of Ryan’s career is, well – masterful! Also anyone interested in learning more about Robert and his films could do worse than to read YOUR comprehensive Ryan page on which you list 62 of his movies, including all his main ones, and provide some interesting supplementary information as well about him.

         Good point about Tracy and alcohol, though he seems to have been such a volatile character by nature [with so many chips on his shoulder about a lot of different things and many people] that I gather he could have turned nasty at any moment even when sober, with little provocation. Certainly if you are of a contrary disposition imbibing the “fool’s broth” as my religious mother used to call it would not help that disposition. Indeed I often wonder if it was the booze that aggravated W C Field’s unpleasant nature that caused him to do things like complain about the professional singing practicing of his neighbour, my Deanna, and make cynical statements such as “A man who hates children can’t be all bad!” and also come out with some more vulgar sayings.

         I see that like Alexander the Great you are “looking around for fresh worlds to conquer.” – ie planning more lists! My own batteries go down after 6 pm and I could not safely tackle even a modest task; yet you nurse this gigantic site, feed it with fresh material, gadabout regularly and still hold down a demanding day job. You remind me of a workaholic next door neighbour of ours years ago who once said to my father “Harry, there aren’t enough hours in the day for me!”

         However you are sure to leave a great Legacy in the distant future because not only do we regulars of this site owe you much but I am certain that one day many of those young pupils whom you teach will be saying things like Oliver Goldsmith said in his Deserted Village [very slightly paraphrased]-

         “There, in his noisy mansion, skill’d to rule
         The village master taught his little school——
         In arguing too, our teacher owned his skill,
         For even tho’ vanquished, he could argue still;
         While words of learned length and thundering sound,
         Amazed we gazing pupils ranged around;
         And still we gazed, and still the wonder grew,
         That one small head could carry all he knew.”

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