We figured it was time to have a place to talk about Steve’s latest video subjects that do not have an UMR page.
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We figured it was time to have a place to talk about Steve’s latest video subjects that do not have an UMR page.
Hell on Frisco Bay which is NOT covered in Steve’s 1956 noirs video was actually the only one of Laddie’s 50s noirs that interested me though by 1956 when he was just about 43 years of age his looks had prematurely deteriorated as a consequence of the possible over-indulgence in alcohol and other drugs.
His once almost-beautiful face for a man had become quite puffy and a lot of the energy seemed to have gone out of his screen persona. However some of the old Ladd magic still shines through at times in Hell on Frisco Bay and it’s probable that The Reds were still terrified of even a Ladd-in-decline!
STEVE ROLLINS [Alan Ladd – and isn’t Steve an appropriate tough guy screen name?] “If I find out that it was you that set me up for that unjust prison rap I’ll be back Amato.” Rollins then nonchalantly saunters out.
AMATO’s HENCHMAN “Shall I go after him boss and teach him a lesson?”
GANGLORD RACKETEER VICTOR AMATO [Edward G] “Be my guest – but if you do be sure first to include me in your will!”
LT COLUMBO [Peter Falk]: “And where were you at the time of the murder Miss Fielding?”
KAREN FIELDING [Julie Harris] I was at home watching an Alan Ladd film on television Lieutenant. This Gun for Hire.”
LT COLUMBO: “Great movie. I must try to catch it next time it is showing.”
[From Columbo TV series episode ‘Any Old Port in a Storm’ first aired 1973.]
I have mentioned before that whilst Ladd was one of the top film noir stars of the 1940s his output in that genre was rather thin in the 1950s and the films concerned were so-so or even poor in quality. In the fifties he was probably associated more with adventure films and westerns rather than with crime movies though ironically given his early mastery of the noir genre it was after the release of the 1959 film noir The Man in the Net that one critic and film historian pronounced “Alan Ladd is no longer a star.”
And indeed The Work Horse’s tables show that The Man in the Net has a derisory $27 million adjusted domestic gross and a woeful review rating of 46% that contrasts sharply with the $195 million/79% respectively which for example 1946’s The Blue Dahlia at the height of Laddie’s star power earned. Admittedly WH particularly when under the influence of his Great Mentor can be a “hard case” when it comes to stats but one other reviewer wrote at the time: “Mr. Ladd performs in his usual, cool style, which under the hectic circumstances in the movie mutes his personality to the point of unreality.”
In the penultimate paragraph of my previous post to you the final line should read “for
how much help he gave her WITH her tricky dramatic scenes.” Sincere apologies for any confusion caused.
Bob, there was a lengthy interview with Francis Coppola at Deadline.com.
You might be interested in these excerpts where he talks about Brando and Sinatra.
COPPOLA: What I remember about Sinatra is, before I made the picture I ran into him. I didn’t know him. But he recognized me and I remember he was nice, sort of. He said, “Why don’t you and I buy The Godfather and I’ll play the old man.” I remember him saying that to me. I heard that he ran into Mario and was a little more negative. But that’s how I remember what Sinatra told me. He said, let’s buy it and I’ll play the Godfather, you know what he was saying he would play the old man.
DEADLINE: Could you envision him as Don Corleone?
COPPOLA: No, no, I don’t know. The Godfather was tricky because he had to be this incredible, charismatic, soulful person. He couldn’t be just a new discovery. Very often there’s a person that no one’s ever heard of, that you could put in that thing and he could be great. But a 65-, 70-year-old man, it’s hard to think you’re going to just find someone. Evans had the idea of Carlo Ponti, who was a producer. Carlo Ponti was certainly wonderful. But the difference was that The Godfather was not an Italian. He was a New York Italian, an Italian-American. That Italian-American is very different. They have a different way of speaking. They have more of a Brooklyn accent. Carlo Ponti and Dino [De Laurentiis], they were Italian gentlemen. That’s not what the Godfather was.
DEADLINE: But you considered Laurence Olivier, and he was not that.
COPPOLA: I came down to it with my erstwhile casting associate Fred Roos. We didn’t know what to do. I said, well, Fred, who are the two greatest actors in the world? Well, there’s Marlon Brando and Laurence Olivier. Laurence Olivier actually looked a lot like Vito Genovese. So he almost looked more like the part. But he was elderly. He was British, and he was sick. And ultimately, his agents said he can’t consider that, he’s not well. So he was off the chart. Brando was 47, a young man and of course, not Italian. But he’s such a great actor. You know, I saw him do Zapata. I saw him do Guys and Dolls. His Marc Anthony, the one he did with Joe Mankiewicz, he was brilliant. That “Friends, Romans, countrymen” speech. It’s great. You understood it the way Brando did it. Even his role in Mutiny on the Bounty was so brilliantly conceived, because if he was going to be a guy who’s going to give up ever going home again. To play him as a sort of urban fop with girls and stuff was a brilliant concept because then when he gives it up and goes and lives in the woods, he’s giving up everything. So I just thought he was a genius. And he was.
HI STEVE:
I was unaware of those thoughts of Coppola’s so thanks for making me privy to them. A real collector’s item in my book. Francis is apparently mostly retired from moviemaking nowadays and spends a lot of his time in vineyards he owns making his own wine.
It is interesting that Francis praises Marlon for Guys and Dolls among the films that are mentioned. As you may know Hirsch crucified Marlon’s Sky Masterson performance in that movie. I suppose though that we laymen should go by Joel’s verdict: HE after all would have known more about film making than Francis ever did!
I have mentioned before that when Brando died and his effects were being taken away his DVD shelf was packed with silent comedy films of Chaplin etc and only one movie of his own – Guys and Dolls!
Actually it is somewhat of a coincidence that you first write to me about my recent holiday and then give me material about Godpop. Just beside the villa where I was staying throughout the holiday a new coffee bar has opened up and adorning its wall are 6 large movie photographs: 3 of Monroe; 2 of Eastwood as The Man with No Name; and one of Marlon as The Godfather – the premises being Italian and called Antonio’s
HI STEVE: Thanks for the enjoyable feedback. I had a great holiday thanks. However I had to wear a mask for the 4-hour air trip to Lanzarote and of course for another 4 hours on the way back and found the obligation rather claustrophobic.
Also most shops in Lanzarote were very strict and in fact I was told-off for forgetting to don a mask when I went into a chemist shop.
Luckily I had documentary proof that I had received all my necessary jabs or I would not have gotten into the country.
Hey! – I’m not Joel Hirschhorn or The Work Horse: I don’t insist that a film is not a classic just because I am not impressed with it; I will simply leave with you the marker that Night of the Hunter is not a classic for me.
I actually enjoy being the odd-man-out in my movie tastes; it makes me feel special and when I was trying to watch that film I yearned for the warm and cuddly feelgood of Magnificent Obsession or All That Heaven Allows – two bona fide “out and out” classics!
IF everything that I have read about Mitchum throwing his weight around IS accurate Laughton didn’t understand his private persona properly or else Big Bob took care that Charles saw only the good side of him.
Whatever the truth Mitch did go down a bit in my estimation when he confided that he had queued for 2 hours in the rain for the autograph of George Alan O’Dowd aka Boy George.
Indeed my brother shared my displeasure when he exclaimed to me “The legendary ROBERT MITCHUM queuing for a pop star’s autograph!: what’s the world coming to?”
Speaking of Charles Laughton my Deanna had a great word to say about him when he co-starred with her in It Started with Eve [1941] and Because of Him [1946]. The Greatest Teenage Warbler who Ever Lived was not an experienced actress and she praised Charlie for how much help he gave her without her tricky dramatic scenes.
Conversely accordingly to Peter Ustinov when he and Charles were making Spartacus together in 1960 Charlie asked Peter who he though was the greatest living actor; and when Peter mischievously and with tongue-in cheek plucked Richard Burton’s name out of the air Charles sulked and refused to speak to him for the rest of the movie’s shooting.