795 thoughts on “Site Index”

1. 1 The only Harold Lloyd film I’ve ever seen is the 1950s reissue of Mad Wednesday so that one apart I’m completely in your hands as here is no Bruce to give additional guidance this time. Unfortunately you didn’t rank Mad Wednesday very highly [16th and 6.5] but as your lowest marking was 6.2 you obviously considered all of the 18 to be at least of a respectable artistic standard and gave your top 5 a high average of 8.4

   2 OTHER COMMENTS (1) as is usual with your presentations a lack of knowledge of the movies is no bar to overall enjoyment because again the stills and posters make the video compelling viewing (2) there was a lovely coloured still of Milky Way and a run of good black and white ones the best of which for me were that with the doll , the one where a spanking was being administered from the ironically named Girl Shy which should please viewers looking for something out of the ordinary, and the famous one of Lloyd clinging to the clock, (3) too many stunning posters for all to be listed but I will single out Welcome Danger, Cat’s Paw and Feet First at random (4) Harold’s statement at the start of the video was very prophetic wasn’t it? and should be ranked alongside the prediction by a movie mogul that Gable’s ears were too big for him ever to become a star. 9.2/10 – great fun and another ‘scoop’ for you!

   Reply

   1. Thanks for the comment, review, rating and kind words Bob, always appreciated. Wait a mo don’t tell me Bruce hasn’t got a Harold Lloyd page, my oh my… just because the guy wears glasses and likes to risk life and limb hanging outside tall buildings… thats still no excuse! 🙂

      I’m messing with you mon ami, I’m sure you have more movie people on your index page than I have on my youtube channel… you used to anyway… hmmm maybe I should count all the names on my channel and compare… 😉

      Bob, I’ve only seen a few of Lloyds films, they are fun to watch and fast-paced, he tried to outdo Keaton in some of these crazy stunts. I love that quote of his which I shall I print here – “I do not believe the public will want spoken comedy. Motion pictures and the spoken arts are two distinct arts.”

      A lot of silent movie actors were stunned by the coming of sound, which was a natural progression for motion pictures (something that hasn’t happened to 3D yet – people hate wearing the glasses!). They were in denial and assumed (and hoped) that talking pictures were a passing fad and would quickly pass.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2gUF2g26eA

      Reply

      1. Thanks for the link.

         Reply

   2. Hey Bob….sorry we do not have a Harold Lloyd page…but I enjoyed your comments on Steve’s video.

      Reply

2. Joan Crawford had one of the more odd relationships with color.

   Her first color movie was Winners of the Wilderness in 1927. It originally had a color scene. Don’t know if Joan was in it. I have seen this movie, but the copy was entirely black and white and very poor. I assume the color sequence is lost.

   In 1929, Joan appeared in The Hollywood Review of 1929 in the color production number climax, “Singin’ in the Rain” which of course survives.

   In 1939, she appeared in Ice Follies of 1939 which had a color sequence at the end which she was in.

   in 1939, Joan appeared in The Women, which had a color scene with a fashion show, but none of the stars were in the color sequence.

   Her first actual full color feature was Torch Song in 1953. She appeared in two more color movies in the 1950’s, Johnny Guitar and The Best of Everything.

   Joan Crawford appeared in a total of seven full color features (plus the four partials) and one color MfTV movie.

   Her best color movie in my judgment is Johnny Guitar, filmed in what one film critic described as “Republic’s lurid Trucolor.”

   As with many of the top classic era actresses, Joan is mainly a black and white star.

   Reply

   1. Hey John….pretty interesting that …even though she had a few “partial color” movies that she had to wait until 1953 for her first full length color movie. By then her career was starting to really sputter.

      I like the way Johnny Guitar looks today….maybe back then it was indeed “Republic’s lurid Trucolor.” Only 7 color movies in that very long career….that seems puzzling. Thanks for sharing the information.

      Reply

3. Color movies of male stars–prior to 1950. This will not include shorts, or all star deals where everyone was on stage at the end. Only full movie roles for selected top stars.

   Color movies prior to 1950 & first color movie

   Clark Gable–1 –Gone with the Wind (1939)
   Humphrey Bogart–0
   Spencer Tracy–1 –Northwest Passage (1940)
   Cary Grant–1 –Night and Day (1946)
   Errol Flynn–8 –The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
   Tyrone Power–5 –Jesse James (1939)
   William Powell–3 –Ziegfeld Follies (1946)
   Ronald Colman–1 –Kismet (1944)
   Robert Taylor–1 –Billy the Kid (1941)
   James Stewart–1 –Rope (1948)
   Gary Cooper–5 –Northwest Mounted Police (1940)
   Henry Fonda–6 –Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936)
   Fredric March–3 –A Star is Born (1937)
   Fred Astaire–5 –Yolanda and the Thief (1945)

   Katherine Hepburn–0
   Barbara Stanwyck–1 –California (1947)
   Claudette Colbert–1 –Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)
   Joan Crawford–0
   Bette Davis–1 –The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)
   Ginger Rogers–2 –Lady in the Dark (1944)
   Myrna Loy–2 –The Red Pony (Loy also had a now lost B western in color in 1931)
   Greer Garson–2 –Blossoms in the Dust (1941)
   Irene Dunne–1 –Life with Father (1947)
   Carole Lombard–1 –Nothing Sacred (1937)
   Jean Arthur–0
   Marlene Dietrich–2 –The Garden of Allah (1936)
   Greta Garbo–0
   Judy Garland–9 –The Wizard of Oz

   *several of these stars did have appearances in all star productions or movies just a scene or so in color. I didn’t count those, or documentaries.

   Reply

   1. Now to go through 1959 with the stars, total color movies, except for all-star productions, documentaries, etc.

      Clark Gable—–9
      Humphrey Bogart—–5
      Spencer Tracy—–7
      Cary Grant—–9
      Errol Flynn—–19
      Tyrone Power—–15
      William Powell—–6
      Ronald Colman—–3
      Robert Taylor—–15
      James Stewart—–18
      Gary Cooper—–18
      Henry Fonda—–11
      Fredric March—–6
      Fred Astaire—–5

      Katherine Hepburn—–5
      Barbara Stanwyck—–5
      Claudette Colbert—–3
      Joan Crawford—–3
      Bette Davis—–3 (interestingly, twice as Elizabeth the First, and once as Catherine the Great)
      Ginger Rogers—–5
      Myrna Loy—–5
      Greer Garson—–5
      Irene Dunne—–1
      Carole Lombard—–1
      Marlene Dietrich—–5
      Greta Garbo—–0
      Judy Garland—–11

      And a couple I forgot–John Wayne 19 through 1959, 5 through 1949, first color movie The Shepherd of the Hills 1941
      Randolph Scott–36 through 1959, 11 through 1949, first color movie Jesse James 1939

      Reply

      1. Good stuff John, thanks for posting this. I like that you included their first color films. Surprised to see so many of the big stars with so few color films pre-1950. Errol Flynn and Judy Garland seem to be the lead actors for color films in the 30s and 40s.

         Reply

         1. Hey Steve…I think John did an excellent job of answering your question. I really enjoyed reading all of his comments and information….good job of asking a good question. Think I am close to catching up on the comments….plan on spreading some quality time on your You Tube channel later today.

            Reply

            1. Hey Bruce, yeah it’s great to have classic film buffs like Bob and John hanging around your website, the trivia, stats and movie info they provide nicely complements all the valuable info on your pages.

   2. Hey John.
      1. I fixed your anonymous issues….so you get full credit for your comments.
      2. Thanks for taking the time to dig out and show these stats on color movies.
      3. I will send Steve an e-mail…saying you have done a great job in answering his question.
      4. Wow….Errol Flynn is tops for the actors….I guess the success of Robin Hood helped the studio executives open up the bank roll and make more Flynn color movies
      5. Wow 2….as big as Bogart and Gable were….they got almost got shutout….that is shocking.
      6. Wow 3…..Henry Fonda gets the silver medal…while Astaire, Cooper (another surprise) and Power tied for 3rd…..I think Power is one of the most underrated movie stars ever.
      7. The women…Judy Garland topping everybody….I guess the public wanted those musicals in color.
      8. Of the entire list…Garland had 11 color movies and the rest of the list had 13…..the power of Judy stands tall.
      Very cool information ….thanks for sharing…and thanks to Steve for asking it….it seems like it is worthy of a page.

      Reply

      1. Hey Steve…..I agree with you 100%…..all of these comments make these page even more fun to do. Seems like an eternity ago when you were pretty much the only regular commenter on CogersonMovieScore.com and at the beginning of UMR.com. Thanks for another quality comment.

         Reply

4. 1 There have been so many actresses [eg Durbin and Grable]and indeed actors who were credited with being the ‘highest paid’ that some of it must be hyperbole. For one thing we don’t know the full details of salary contracts but do know that for example Golden had his salary for River Kwai paid in instalments over a number of years to avoid tax so how do we work out what that was ultimately worth?

   2 We also know that for a couple of years Brando was the KNOWN highest paid ever in ACTUAL money because he got into the Guinness Book of Records but if his money was adjusted for inflation the matter could be open to challenge in even his case.

   3 I would think that the likes of Cruise and Hanks with their enormous success and freelance contracts would have earned more in real terms than most of the classic era stars whose salaries were tightly studio controlled Demi Moore was known as “Gimme More” for demanding something like 20$ million per movies in the 90s though I suppose that any woman married to Willis would think she was entitled to more -no pun ! – out of life.

   4 I t would be interesting to have Bruce’s take on it though he may not be as interested in salaries as he is in box office grosses. As we’ve said before on this site today’s highest earning actors are supposed to be The Rock Johnson and Jackie Chan. Anyway looking forward to Mo O

   Reply

5. 1 Madeleine is an actress of bygone times whose name will not resonate nearly as well today as those of the likes of Katherine Hepburn and Betty Davis. Carroll’s career was confined to virtually the first two decades of the talkies and in the 50s many people confused her with French cinema actress Martine Carol who in that decade was trying to make it in Hollywood in films such as those with Van Johnson, Jeff Chandler and Jack Palance. One of Carroll’s final films in the forties Bahama Passage co-starred her husband for 4 years Sterling Hayden the crooked cop whom Pacino gunned down in the Godfather.

   2 VIDEO COMMENTS (1) among your best and raunchiest posters yet is in fact that of Madeleine & Sterling in Bahama Passage and also not taxing the imagination is the one from It’s All Yours. (2) I liked also those from Coopers’ The General Died at Dawn and the classy still of him and Carroll with Gary unfortunately being the young wooden Coop in the pose and reminding me why I did not grow to love him when he got older (3) No Bruce Top 5 this time but your Top 5 is solid and in fact all but Secret Agent are among those Carroll movies most repeated on TV in the 1950s (4) your musical score was so delicious that I immediately gave the video a rerun just to listen to the soundtrack. (5) the highest paid actress of her time deserved this pictorial profile, so good for you in producing a short but sweet profile that merits a 9.

   Reply

   1. Thanks Bob, much appreciated! Do you agree with the IMDBs claim that she was the highest paid Hollywood actress of her time or is it hyperbole? You know more about these things than I do.

      What amazes me is that you’ve seen most of these films, many of them I never knew about until recently, for instance ‘Safari’ I knew there was one starring Victor Mature but didn’t know there was an earlier one starring Fairbanks Jr.

      I’m glad you liked the music too, as you know I’m limited by whats available for free at Youtube.

      And Fred MacMurray really did get around didn’t he? 🙂

      A fiery red head from your neck of the woods coming up next.

      Reply

   2. CORRECTION

      My first post today about Madeleine should read “I did not grow to love him UNTIL he got older” as I greatly admired the Copper of the era from High Noon and beyond. Apologies for any confusion. BOB

      Reply

      1. Thanks for all of this information on M. Carroll….I knew ne t to nothing about her when watched Steve’s video earlier today.

         Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.