795 thoughts on “Site Index”

1. great discussion all. Oscar’s list:
   criteria number best actor wins first, secondary is number of best actor nominations, tertiary consideration supporting wins and nom. strengths: industry insiders, saw all the movies, only annual best. weakness: political, sentimental, annual competitors unequal/unfair.
   spencer tracy 2 wins/9 nominations
   marlon brando 2/8
   gary cooper 2/5
   Fredrick march 2/5
   Laurence Olivier 1/9
   paul muni 1/6 includes finished second one year without a formal nomination( write in)
   james stewart 1/5
   Gregory peck 1/5
   burt Lancaster 1/4
   Charles laughton 1/3
   clark gable 1/3
   Humphrey bogart 1/3
   james cagney1/3
   ron colman 1/3
   bing Crosby 1/3
   William holden 1/3
   alec guiness 1/2 , supporting 0/2
   john wayne 1/2
   jose ferrer 1/2
   Sidney Portier 1/2
   Robert donat 1/2
   Wallace beery 1/2
   peter finch 1/2
   rex Harrison 1/2
   henry fonda 1/2
   burt Lancaster 1/4

   not on list due to criteria
   richard burton 0/7
   Charles boyer 0/4
   Montgomery cliff 0/3
   kirk douglas 0/3
   William powell 0/3
   Anthony Quinn 0/2 supporting 2/2
   Charlton Heston 1/1

   my criteria:
   1)do I consider their acting great
   2) can they make me laugh, comedic ability is essential
   3) variety and difficulty of roles
   4) top 10 movies
   5) top 20 movies
   my movie rating system a ten is great(5 stars), a nine is very good( 4 1/2 stars, an eight is recommended to watch(4 stars),a seven is a good way to kill afternoon if no 10,9,8s to see
   james stewart
   cary grant
   marlon brando
   Laurence Olivier
   Frederick march
   Humphrey bogart
   clark gable
   Gregory peck
   Richard burton
   john wayne
   gary cooper
   William powell
   William holden
   henry fonda
   buster Keaton
   bing Crosby
   Charlton Heston
   burt Lancaster
   erroll Flynn
   fred Astaire
   edgar g robinson
   james cagney
   lionell Barrymore
   rex Harrison
   jerry lewis
   my apologies to paul muni, I have not seen enough of his work to rate him

   Reply

   1. HI BOB COX

      Great to see Crosby at last getting onto a list.

      Reply

2. Bob, Flora, thanks for the added info.

   Here is my own personal Top 25 Greatest Hollywood Actors list. All born before 1930.

   I left out Olivier for being too British. Chaplin and Buster Keaton are out too. I’ve never found slapstick comedy particularly funny and if I had to choose I prefer Keaton, for his elaborate gags and dangerous stunts and for being unsentimental. I’ve left in Bob Hope but removed The Marx Bros, big favorites of mine but I had to be ruthless.

   Sidney Poitier is a good actor but not as legendary as these gentlemen IMO. James Dean left his mark but he starred in just three films and the jury is still out on whether he would have grown into a major Hollywood star ala Paul Newman or Brando.

   I should have totted up their top 10 movie scores to make it more interesting but I’m too lazy, maybe next time.

   In alphabetical order –

   Fred Astaire
   Humphrey Bogart
   Marlon Brando
   James Cagney
   Gary Cooper
   Kirk Douglas
   Errol Flynn
   Henry Fonda
   Glenn Ford
   Clark Gable
   Cary Grant
   Charlton Heston
   William Holden
   Bob Hope
   Gene Kelly
   Alan Ladd
   Burt Lancaster
   Robert Mitchum
   Gregory Peck
   Tyrone Power
   James Stewart
   Robert Taylor
   Spencer Tracy
   John Wayne
   Richard Widmark

   Reply

   1. Btw all these AFI comments and lists would have been more suitably placed on Bruce’s AFI Top 50 page instead of the index page.

      Reply

      1. Agreed – I’ll make that my project for tomorrow

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      2. MO – agreed. I’ll make that my project for tomorrow. Get back to you later about your own list RAM 2nd

         Reply

   2. Interesting list made in alphabetical order. For me, I never thought the Marx Brothers should be included either. You are quite right about Bruce’s AFI page. We should switch discussion to that page.

      Reply

3. HI MO

   1 For some reason I missed your 13 April post so apologies though I see that Flora courteously did the honours and confirmed for you that Larry was in the AFI list.

   2 I was always surprised that Larry was so relatively high on the AFI list [14th and just below The Duke] because I never saw Olivier as a big box office star and if there was another major star in the movie like Lancaster, Douglas, Monroe and Greer Garson Lord Larry was usually billed 2nd and/or in a supporting or even cameo role so I have tended to look on him as largely just a “prestige” actor like Paul Muni or my own Dirk Bogarde in the later parts of his career. Dirk conceded that in the final years his name was “of no great box office worth” as he put it himself.

   3 However, like his mumbling American counterpart, Larry in a way has transcended the usual confines that determine Hollywood stardom and his name is always a big part of any serious discussions about acting so I decided to include him in joint 25th on my own list with the Marx Bros who overall were not great box office stars either but like Bogie have grown bigger in legend during the years after they stopped making films. Anyway I’m glad you liked my list and I look forward to seeing what Flora says about the women.

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4. To Bob and Phil:

   I have just read your last comments regarding the AFI list of legendary actors and your suggestion that debate should now turn to the list of actresses with a woman participating in the discussion. Thanks for the compliment, Bob. I would be happy to participate. I’m not sure how different my perspective might prove to be. I’ll think about the list and post mine tomorrow – I am 8 hours behind you Bob.

   My criteria will be quite similar to AFI’s list. The women have to have started their career before 1950 or have died before 2000. Their star power and lasting impact and acting skill will factor in my decisions.

   Reply

   1. Hi Flora,
      Glad that you are taking on Bob’s challenge to provide us your list of female screen legends. I look forward to it. You may want to consider giving us your take on the male legends as well!

      Reply

5. Good work Bob, a much better chart than the AFI’s Top 25.

   Good to see Flynn, Heston, Widmark and Glenn Ford on there.

   And John Wayne of course at the top.

   Was Laurence Olivier on the original chart? I thought only American actors were included by the American Film Institute. But than again Cary Grant, Bob Hope and Chaplin were born in England. Flynn was born in Tasmania.

   Reply

   1. Yes, Olivier was on the original chart.

      Reply

      1. FLORA

         1 Glad you could join in. It’s all very well for me with a lot of time on my hands but I know you engage in a lot of activities so I was hesitating about putting any additional pressure on you. However anyone who has been following the debates about the Legends is probably getting tired of us men talking about the male legends so I thought that an authorative female talking about the women would be a nice change and also I’m very interested myself in seeing some feedback about the AFI Top 20 actresses.

         2 As we wish to make comparisons with the AFI lists themselves I think you are wise for the sake of consistencey to stick as closely as you can to the Institute’s criteria but of course you like Phil and me are free to drop some of the AFI names and include your own selections in their stead. I look forward to your list.

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         1. FLORA

            Apologies in my last post to you I meant Top 25 [and not 20] actresses.

            Reply

   2. MO

      1 I noticed your reference to Flynn being born in Tasmania so he seems to have had quite cosmopolitan connections one way or another as his father was I think a lecturer at Queen’s University here in Belfast Northern Ireland

      2 Part of Errol’s great legend is of course that he was a womaniser and drunk who also kicked over the traces in many other ways and indeed I think he wrote an autobiography called “My Wicked, Wicked Ways”. In the old Roadrunner 5 minute cartoons that we used to get in the cinemas as supporting entertainment one of the Roadrunner’s adversaries was called The Tasmanian Devil and I always wondered if that was a veiled reference to Errol!

      3.. Come to think of it we used to have a cinema here called “The News and Cartoon” which never showed feature films but ran continuous daily 90 minute programmes of newsreels and short cartoons such as those featuring the usual suspects like Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse. If you have done a video devoted solely to cartoon posters perhaps you could direct me to it and if not you might do worse than to consider letting us have one at some stage.

      Reply

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