We figured it was time to have a place to talk about Steve’s latest video subjects that do not have an UMR page.
(Visited 1,785 times)
We figured it was time to have a place to talk about Steve’s latest video subjects that do not have an UMR page.
I have seen 23 Top Film noirs from 1948.
Favourites are Key Largo, The Naked City, The Big Clock, They Live By Night, Force of Evil, Call Northside 777, Sorry Wrong Number, Raw Deal, Road House, Cry of the City, Pitfall, The street With No Name, I Walk Alone, He Walked By Night, All My Sons, Hollow Triumph, Woman in White, and The Dark Past.
Other noirs I have seen are Moonrise, Secret Beyond the Door, I Love Trouble, Bodyguard and Race Street.
Favourite posters and stills are from Key Largo, The Naked City, The Big Clock, They live By Night, Sorry Wrong Number, Raw Deal, Road House, Pitfall, The street With No Name, I Walk Alone, He Walked By Night and The Dark Past.
Hi Flora, another amazing tally, your 23 out of 30 easily beats my 6. My top favorite here is Key Largo, and I also enjoyed The Naked City, The Big Clock, They Live By Night, Road House and Saigon.
Thanks again for commenting, always appreciated. Happy you liked the posters and stills. Next video hopefully next friday.
Bruce gives Guys n Dolls a high review rating of 77%; 3 months before Guys n Dolls was released , It’s Always Fair Weather starring musical iconic legend Eugene Kelly premiered and overall in the States earned just 46% of the gross figure that Guys n Dolls ended up with and the Kelly flick actually penalised MGM with a net loss equivalent to 18 million in 2022 dollars.
Therefore despite Joel’s barbs it is not obvious to me how Brando’s presence could have harmed Guys n Dolls much and indeed the revered film historian David Shipman wrote “Somehow Brando manages to overshadow Sinatra [a professional singing icon] in Guys n Dolls”
In his apparent effort to ‘demonise’ Brando Hirsch piled on more insult by continuing on page 57 of the 1983 book with the castigation that ‘Sinatra was justified in referring to [Marlon] as “Mumbles” ’ There it would seem Joel was sadly lowering himself to spreading malicious gossip as it is unlikely that the 17-year-old Hirsch would have been on the set of Guys n Dolls back in 1955 to hear WHAT Sinatra said.
In fact the only DIRECT quote that I have seen from Frank about Brando was when Frankie was asked how he as a singer coped when he had to switch to a dramatic part, and he replied “I try my best to come to terms with the character; but if I get really stuck I always tend to take a leaf out of Marlon Brando’s book.”
It has disappointed me that I have so-far been the only viewer on this site to call out guys like Hirsch -and there are many of them: they seem to be everywhere – for the hyperbolic and sweeping statements they make at times, particularly ones that could damage a performer’s reputation. So I thought that Joel’s page on Cogerson should be updated in the light of my comments about how critics bad-mouthed Ladd’s Saigon as a “flop” which bears at least a mild comparison with some of Joel’s OTT rants about Marlon and in particular Desiree and Guys n Dolls
Anyway Hirsch may not have liked Brando’s singing but Barbra Streisand has said that she always wanted to sing with Brando on screen and she made her own wish come true: please google Barbra Streisand and Marlon Brando sing ‘I Know’ from Guys and Dolls.
It will be seen from Part One of this post that I eagerly await any pictorials that Steve can, or wishes to, provide for Alan Ladd’s Saigon. I have mentioned previously that I consider Saigon to be the least effective of the 4 main Ladd/Lake films and film critic Philip K. Scheuer in his review of Saigon for the Los Angeles Times called the film “long on atmosphere and short on logic.”
However although commonly castigated in its day as a “flop” according to Wikipedia, Saigon was reasonably popular and indeed has a fine adjusted US gross of $150 million and in fact it outgrossed Ladd’s.
I have seen many examples of self-opinionated critics airbrushing-out public approval of a movie that the critics themselves have disliked. One such example is provided on page 57 of Joel Hirschhorn’s 1983 book Rating the movie Stars where he says “nobody cared about Desiree or Brando’s performance of Napoleon”
Yet Desiree was the 18th highest grossing film of 1954 at the US box office with an adjusted US gross of $256 million outgrossing even the legendary On the Waterfront [$240 million] also starring Brando; and Desiree had better box office too than Martin and Lewis’ Living It Up, which itself was the highest earner among the 16 films that Dean and Jerry made together.
Indeed Living it Up was Jerry’s highest grossing film OVERALL. Also Lord Larry Olivier publicly pronounced Brando’s interpretation of Napoleon as the definitive one and [here I save the best wine for the last] Bruce gives the film a comfortably -“Good” rating of 67%. He once told me -though he has told me MANY things – that 60% is his yardstick for a movie entering the “Good” range of ratings.
On that same page 57 of his 1983 book Joel carried merrily on with the good work by saying that Brando was a “liability” to the musical Guys and Dolls. Yet that movie grossed a whopping adjusted US take of a lucrative $350 million; and Variety certified it as “the biggest money earner of 1956”. Now see Part 3.
HI STEVE: Thanks for the usual carefully-thought-out response and feedback. Your 1947 offering is great fun and I have just watched it again this morning-for a 3rd time overall so far I think. Actually I wasn’t sure what day it was coming out on so all week it has been like waiting for Sue Gray’s report!!
Interesting take on the Mitchum/Douglas relationship. In Out of the Past Robert was of course the top-billed star; but when they made The Way West together in 1966 Kirk had become the marginally greater star and he was top-billed with Mitch 2nd and my Richard 3rd. Good trivia also about the Mitchum/Jane Greer exchanges.
Initially I was disappointed with the video though because Saigon the Ladd/Lake final outing on screen was not there and Bruce lists it as a 1947 noir. However on checking it out I find out that if you DO include it in your next video you will be right and The Work Horse is wrong. But -say!- what’s new about that?
Indeed my own memory recognised it as a 1948 film which I saw in 1951 and my recollections are usually right when it comes to the work of The Great Ones such as Laddie; though to be honest I don’t have Flora’s overall recall and could barely tell you even what CENTURY a Myrna Loy or Jason Statham film was made in; and I keep mixing up Joel Hirschhorn with Joel Grey until my memory kicks in and I recall that Grey is a hugely-talented guy.
So I will keep my fingers crossed that Saigon makes the cut in your next noir video and meantime as you will have gauged from my lists I have been delighted with your visuals for 1947’s Calcutta starring Laddie and the lovely Gail Russell who was a fave co-star of The Duke. [The Work Horse got that one wrong too citing it as a 1946 movie – that guy needs a break!]
Speaking of The Duke, Ladd and the movie Saigon, as you know Big John and the Great Alan led Hollywood’s fightback against the “Reds” so that if Laddie had lived beyond 1964 he would have been devastated that some of his screen work had been in vain: his beloved Saigon fell to the victorious Viet Cong as a casualty of the Vietnam war and is today known as Ho Chi Minh City. [Just think of how a true-blue Conservative would feel if Manchester were renamed Jeremy Corbyn City!]
BLOOD ALLEY 1955: In this one The Duke captains a ship that smuggles West-leaning “good” citizens fleeing Red China. The Duke is highly-suspicious of one of them [not knowing that this chap too is really a “good guy”] and every time the poor guy moves or even breathes Big John adopts a physically-confrontational stance towards him. However one night the “bad Communists” creep aboard the ship and would have killed The Duke if the “good guy” whom Wayne has been menacing had not intervened. The Duke now looks at him afresh and with cow eyes says “YOU’LL DO!”
See also Parts 2 and 3.
Enjoyed your posts Bob, thanks. I’m pretty sure Saigon will make it to the next video, it’s American premiere was in March 1948, it’s borderline noir and just scrapes through. It won’t make the top 20 though. Two of my sources give it just 2 out of 4. But it should be near the UMR score average. With one reviewer stating “The last and least of the Ladds & Lakes.”
HI STEVE
Thanks for givng me hope that ‘Ho Chi Min City’ may well make the cut in your next noires video. I don’t know of course what your precise rating will be but IMDB and The Work Horse both give it 64% which gets it into Bruce’s “Good” bracket which commences at the 60% yardstick.
Anyway please keep safe and most importantly keep those excellent pictorials coming.
I have seen 32 noirs from 1947. My favourite noir of all time is Out of the Past. Other favourites are Body and Soul, Brute Force, The Lady From Shanghai, Kiss of Death, Crossfire, Boomerang, Dark Passage, Ride the Pink Horse, Born to Kill, T-Men, A Double Life, Possessed, They Won’t Believe Me, Dead Reckoning, The Unsuspected, The Man I Love, Nora Prentiss, The Red House, The Macomber Affair, High Wall, Lady in the Lake, The Unfaithful, Framed, Johnny O’Clock, Fear in the Night, Singapore, and The Lost Night. I have also seen Nightmare Alley, The Two Mrs. Carrolls, The Woman on the Beach, and Repeat Performance.
Favourite posters and stills are from Out of the past, The Lady From Shanghai, Kiss of Death, Crossfire, Dark Passage, T-Men, A Double Life, They Won’t Believe Me, The Unsuspected, Nora Prentiss, The Macomber Affair, Lady in the Lake, The Unfaithful, Framed, Singapore and The Long Night.
Hi Flora, you’ve seen 32 noirs from 1947, that’s amazing. Someone posted a tally of 25 out of 40 on my channel and I thought that was impressive, you’ve easily beaten him at the game of Noir. 🙂 A shame your comment isn’t printed there as well, so he can see what a noir fan you are.
My tally pales in comparison, just 8 out of 40, that makes 32 that I haven’t seen. I have to jot some titles down and watch them next time they pop up.
My favorite 1947 noir is the same as yours – Build My Gallows High. It’s not my all time favorite noir though. I’m not sure what my all time favorite is.
Thanks again for commenting, always appreciated. Happy you liked the posters and stills. Next video some time next week.