78 thoughts on “Sylvia Sidney Movies”

1. 1 STEVE The FIRST times that I ever saw Sylvia on screen were in a supporting role to Victor Mature in the 1955 Violent Saturday and in the B movie 1956 release Behind the High Wall where she was second billed to a little know normally supporting actor called Tom Tully, her glory days clearly well behind her. She was 46 then and I was 15

   2 The LAST time that I saw her was in a 1993 episode of the TV series Diagnosis Murder when she was 83 and played a supporting part her beauty long gone so that if one had not known better one would have never guessed that this was the woman who had been a big 1930/40s star and who had been billed above Fonda/Tracy/Grant and Freddy March and George Raft in her heyday.

   3 As usual Steve you’ve given us a fine visual companion piece to Bruce’s page. I liked the posters for One Third of A Nation, Omen 2 [with Golden surfacing again], Sabotage, Pick Up [which got the blood racing!] Fury and especial the stunning one for The Wagons Roll at Night which was a fitting tribute to the movie from which onward Bogie never got billed other than first.

   4 You may have seen the for me enjoyable exchanges between Lupino and me about the differing posters for Trail of the Lonesome pine and I see that you have selected the original theatrical release poster in which Fred gets top billing. You have also provided 2 different types of posters for Dead End, one being the original version which gave Sylvia top billing and lists Bogie as an also-ran in smaller letters and the other actually listing Humph before Sylvia. One presumes this one was made up when Bogart hit the big time and one wonders if Tracy ever kept a look out for the same type of carry on working to his disadvantage.

   5 Excellent stills were of the lovely Sylvia in her prime in American Tragedy, Mars Attacks, Fury with Old Cantankerous, Sylvia with a gun in City Streets [seemingly proving her opening quote] and being driven by Fonda in You Only Live Once Bruce and you agree on all Top 5 of Sylvia’s movies and in the same order! Is that a first are you guys ganging up on me so that I can’t pick on either of you? Anyway Great stuff, indeed one of your best worth 97% to me as it very faithfully reflects how important a star Sylvia and how sexy was in the 1930s/1940s

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   1. STEVE

      1 RIP Robert Hardy Commander of the British Empire [CBE] who died yesterday aged 91. Robert was a very distinguished English actor who mastered the mediums of stage, big screen and TV and of course will be best know to modern movie audiences as Cornelius Fudge in the Harry Potter films. Were you familiar with much of his other work? For example he played Churchill and Franklin D Roosevelt each on more than one occasion

      2 I forgot to ask whether you noticed that on the two posters for Dead End in Sylvia’s video Joel McCrea’s surname was spelt differently. That might be token proof of our suspicion that there are people out there making up their own unofficial posters for some movies. It could be no coincidence that the one that wrongly spell’s Joel’s name is also the one that wrongly gives Bogie top billing and my notes suggest it may also have been a foreign language one.

      3 With your skills you couldn’t make me up one for The Towering Inferno with just Paul and the fire above the title? I’d like to give it to Phil for a birthday present.

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      1. I knew Robert Hardy more from his varied TV work than his movies. I did notice him in the Harry Potter films. I do recall him playing Churchill, did he play FDR too. He was never knighted. Mick Jagger was knighted, Rod Stewart was knighted. But not a distinguished actor like Robert Hardy. There you go. RIP.

         Foreign posters sometimes spell actors names wrong, I’ve noticed that on a few occasions. They even create their own character names for films. For instance James Stewart’s The Naked Spur in known as Colorado Jim in Italy, his name in the film is Howard Kemp. [sniggers]

         Bob, I saw a poster for The Towering Inferno with Paul Newman’s name listed first (from the left) just yesterday. [Bob gasps] let me see if I can find it – okay there it is – it’s a Yugoslavian poster I can’t link it here – go to Google Images – type in ‘pakleni toranj poster’ and it should be the first poster that comes up at the top. McQueens name is listed second and slightly above Newmans.

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         1. STEVE/ PHIL

            1 The final para of Steve’s 7.29 am post frankly flabbergasts me. If there was one order of billing that I thought WAS set in stone it was the McQueen/Newman Towering Inferno arrangement. However I’ve now duly seen that poster that Steve mentions and it’s almost the reverse of the McQueen/Newman order of billing that I’ve seen on all other posters though on this new one Steve’s name is raised higher than Newman’s is on the normal posters where the boot is on the other foot. Well done Steve Lensworth [not McQueen!] on this rare find and thanks for bringing it to our attention

            2 Robert Hardy played FDR in the 2002 BBC TV serial Bertie and Elizabeth and in the 2006 French mini TV series Le Grand Charles about Charles de Gaulle. At a ceremony in 2010 to mark the 70th anniversary of Winston Churchill’s famous wartime address about “Never was so much owed by so many to so few” Robert Hardy read out the speech again.

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            1. STEVE/PHIL

               1 I forgot to say that the Work Horse’s reproduction of the Towering Inferno poster on his Hirchhorn page is one of the clearest and best that I’ve seen and is quite large for Bruce who usually contents himself with smaller miniatures.

               2 Bruce keeps quoting Newman saying the fire was the real star of that movie but I think the Big Guy has now convinced himself that Joe was the true star of the movie!!

            2. Bob, Steve, you are too kind, but it’s not my birthday. Saw the poster, and now the break-up of Yugoslavia becomes a little bit more clear to me…. Very interesting indeed, while Newman’s name is the first on the left, half of McQueen’s name is on top of Newman’s so they’re both first?! Phew…the ultimate compromise!

            3. Steve’s You Tube video that many of these recent comments are talking about. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytBdhdl8LWM

   2. Hi Bob, thanks for the generous rating, review, comment, info, trivia, anecdote, observation, appraisal and evaluation, always appreciated.

      Happy you liked the posters and stills.

      Hey you’re absolutely right Bruce’s top 5 matches mine, a rare display of symmetry!

      I’m confused, which is the correct billing for Pine of the Lonesome Trail? Fonda first? Sidney last? Myrna Loy second? Who’s on first?

      Only one Sidney film scored 10 out of 10 from my sources – You Only Live Once (the prequel to the 1967 Bond movie), but it still ended up in third place. Three films scored 9 – Dead End, Street Scene and Fury.

      There may be some risque posters on my next video, a naughty young thing in the 1950s and 1960s and I think she’s still around.

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      1. HI STEVE/LUPINO

         1 Yes Pine is confusing. As I’ve said currently Wiki shows the original theatrical poster [ie STEVE’s one] with Fred/Sylvia/Henry in that order and IMDB has one that reads Henry/Fred/Sylvia. To thicken the soup whilst Wiki show Fred first in its cast list IMDB shows Sylvia first.

         2 My own take on it is that definitely the theatrical release posters had Fred/Sylvia/Henry as the order of play and from what Lupino says about Sylvia being first on his DVD print she may have been first on the screens when the original movie was released.

         3 Even then we can’t be sure because movies can movie around with different billing orders just as their titles can change from place to place – eg Jimmy Stewart’s Bend of the River (1952) became Where the River Bends in UK and John feels he saw a TV print of Liberty Valance where Stewart was billed first whereas definitely in the theatres in most places Wayne was first on the screen and Jimmy on the posters.

         4 So we cannot be sure that the particular print that any of us sees is set in stone regarding the billing order. One thing we can be certain of is that after 1940 there is no confusion about the billing in a Spencer Tracy flick !!

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         1. Hello BOB,

            I am afraid we have to agree to disagree on the point of billing for Trail. My DVD is the official Region 2 release, holder of the current copyright: Universal Pictures. Furthermore, when I saw the film on german TV decades ago, I distinctly remember Sylvia being first billed, then to my surprise, because I thought both Fonda and Fred were much bigger stars than the seldom heard of Miss Sidney. As we know, her career sharply declined by the next decade, so if anybody “tossed” with the billing after it’s initial release, then surly not to set the focus on Miss Sidney. Finally, Sidney biographer Scott O’Brien gives her first billing in his “Paid by the Tear”. I already hear you argue that biographers are supposed to do such things, but I’d like to add that he is very accurate with giving the correct billing order for her other films…even giving top billing to John Hodiak for Love from a Stranger,as well as Bogart for The Waggons…, Raft for Mr. Ace. As always, nice talking to you directly, although it really shows me the shortcomings of my mastering of the english tongue 😉

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            1. HI AGAIN LUPINO

               1 I forgot to mention that in my opinion whilst what you say about Universal is accurate it really has no bearing on the original marketing of Trail of the Lonesome Pine and under what billing arrangement on the original theatrical release posters.way back in 1936 because the movie was a Walter Wagner production that was released by Paramount pictures at that time

               2 It was one of over 700 productions sold by Paramount to Universal in 1958 and owned and controlled under the Universal copyright ever since I have already mentioned that billing on screen can differ from that on the posters and I have given you other examples of that

            2. Yes this seems like a “agree to disagree” conversation. I appreciate all the information Lupino and Bob have shared on this subject. Good to know Steve’s video is able to create a healthy conversation on a star that was at her peak 80 years ago.

         2. Hello again Bob,
            I understand that you are talking about marketing and not onscreen billing. This, I agree, can differ from state to state, country to country not to mention original and re- releases if not contractually fixed. Maybe most (in)famously is the omission of Lena Horne on movieposters in the southern states of the US, granted in some cases they left her whole footage out of the film. I have seen many posters of Pine with all possible billing orders myself. As for your complimenting me on my english, I humbly thank you but would like to add that you haven’t got a clue how long it takes me to write some of these posts here on this site 🙂

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            1. Hey Lupino….I can only imagine trying to communicate in German on a website that is in German….your efforts in getting out these excellent comments is very much appreciated.

               Du bist der Mann! Danke für all deine harte Arbeit! Mein schwacher Versuch, auf Deutsch zu kommunizieren.

            2. Bruce, your german seems impeccable to me!!!!!!!!
               My main problem seems to be the right use of the tenses and the spelling of certain words- I won’t even start talking about the right use of capital letters… :O(

               You made me laugh with your comment, THANK YOU!

            3. BOB,
               I really don’t want to be a pain in the butt about this, but I tried to find a bigger copy of the wikipedia poster and finally succeeded. If you look closely, there is a small, unreadable caption in one corner. This caption reads “A Paramount Champion- brought back by popular demand”. So, the poster on wiki’s Trail page shows one for the numerous re-releases, and I am the last one to claim that Sidney was a bigger star than Fred past 1940. So much for the reliability of the “Free Encyclopedia”.
               Since you mentioned that Walter Wanger was the producer, I thought about something I read about Joan Bennett desperately wanting the part of June, and as far as I remember she even tested for it. But director Hathaway insisted on Sidney and Miss Bennett allegedly didn’t take it too graciously 🙂

            4. HI LUPINO 1 My own experience of movies that were supposedly brought back by public demand was that they quite often came back within a short period of time from the first booking.

               2 In Belfast for example the cinemas would have a movie booked for just an initial 1 – 2 week run and would have to let it go after that but if it was very popular they would bring it back once they could re-book it for a further period and they would use the term “brought back by public demand” and naturally they would still use the original release posters with wording on them advertising the rerun. AND WIKIPEDIA MAKES CLEAR THAT THE POSTER THAT GIVES FRED TOP BILLING WAS RELEASED IN 1936 THE YEAR THE FILM WAS RELEASED and not in a later period of time like the 40s when Sylvia’s star had waned

               3 In the early days the studios like Paramount owned many of the cinemas so that Paramount would probably have had pr-prepared editions of the original release posters for that eventuality and for any future re-releases. Naturally they would want their own name [“a Paramount Champion”] associated with their own movies at their own cinemas and others where Paramount’s own films were shown.

               4 Indeed it was Paramount that was at the centre of the 1948 Anti-Trust landmark case that broke up the old system whereby the studios could dictate which theatres showed their movies and that marked the beginning of the end of the old theatre-owning studio system. I therefore think that Wikipedia got it right when it says it has the original release posters on which Fred was top billed but if you think they’re wrong you must contact them as I can’t help you in the matter

               5 Though of course regardless of how often you wish to write to me on the subject you are welcome and will never be a “pain in the butt” and if your posts are initially difficult for you to compose in English it is all the more of a credit to you that you can in the end turn out a post that is so polished, informative and articulate, so congratulations.

               6 As I keep saying though my original aim was to quote Steve a poster on which Sylvia was billed above Henry and I did that by coincidentally quoting from a poster that DOES exist, which I didn’t imagine and which I correctly quoted as billing Fred first. I was not particularly interested in the precise billing between Fred and Sylvia as long as I could show Sylvia before Henry and the Fred/Sylvia billing is a matter that seems to be concerning YOU.

               7 WHY it is so important to you has puzzled me as I was not challenging your account of what was on your DVD and its cover and anyway the matter is entirely academic today as of the three stars concerned Fonda is the only one who was ranked in the American Film Institute’s legends lists so that historically he must be regarded as ultimately the biggest star.

               8 Moreover as I mentioned last time I don’t think we can take much further the debate about what happened over posters way back in 1936 unless we can get hold of the billing contract clauses or get a Tardis to take us back to 1936 so that we can gaze at the posters first hand. That would be great fun wouldn’t it ? and on the way we could drop Bruce off at the Oscars in 1973 so that he could watch his idol Joel pick up his Oscar. Very interesting stuff about Joan Bennett so thanks for sharing it.

            5. Hey Lupino….glad my attempt at German made you laugh. Just putting together those two sentences was enough work to make me appreciate your English comments even more.

      2. SORRY ON MY PREVIOUS POST I MEANT JOEL AND NOT JOE. OH FOR THAT SELF-CORRECTION BUTTON THAT THE TANTALISING WORK HORSE ONCE HINTED WE MIGHT GET!

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         1. No luck on a widget that allows for commenters to edit their comments….but maybe one day.

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      3. Hello Bruce,
         can you please add Steve’s beautiful tribute video to Sylvia Sidney’s page here? It would be much nicer than just having a link that gets lost in the comments section. Thank you in advance 🙂

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2. hello Lupino,

   I dont known so much about Sylvia Sydney but when i read your notes, i just can say thank you to share with all the people who are on this site.

   I know Miss Sidney was in an American Tragedy by Von Sternberg between Dishonored and Shangai Express .
   I known Miss Sidney was at Paramount but when i read your notes it gives me simply a niew view.
   i hope your holidays were good and by the way to morrow where are in vacations too in France.
   have a nice day
   Pierre

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   1. Hello Pierre,

      Thank you, the vacation was short and nice. 5 out of 6 days we had blue skies- who could ask for more in March? I’m happy to see that you enjoyed my short triviapost on Miss Sidney. I only recently read her biography “Paid by the Tear”, it is a highly interesting book on one of the “forgotten” big stars of the 30’s. I wish you a great vacation, too!

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   2. Hey Pierre…I agree with your comment 100%. So much in fact that I included most of Lupino’s comments directly on our Sidney page. I will fix the anonymous name. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.

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3. At first, some trivia about Miss Sidney for those interested:

   Born August 8th, 1910 as Sophia Kosow in New York (Bronx).

   Had an ongoing affair with Paramount producer BP Schulberg in the 30’s, who was 18 years her senior.

   Married 3 times, had one son, Jodie, who suffered from ALS and to whom she was highly devoted. He died in 1987.

   Miss Sidney had a reputation for being very outspoken, she was often refered to as being cantankerous. In an interview after her death, director Sidney Lumet, who had played her brother in 39’s One Third of the Nation, even called her the “C” word.

   She played the tragic Cio-Cio San in the nonmusical version of Madame Butterfly (1932) which led to a brand of Japanese condoms being named the “Sylvia Sidneys”.

   Sylvia Sidney had problems working with Hitchcock, who, according to her, didn’t allow any creative input from his actors and William Wyler, who must have treated her miserably. In fact, her experience doing Dead End plus the fact that she didn’t get the promised role of Cathy in Wuthering Heights sent her straight back to the stage, where she was a member of the famous Group Theater. Her movie career lost it’s momentum after that (her last 30’s film was a Group Theater project), and although she had been billed above the likes of Fredric March, Cary Grant, Spencer Tracy, George Raft, Fred MacMurray and Henry Fonda in the 30’s, the 40’s saw her in only 4 movies, each time billed behind her costar. By the time of 1952’s Les Miserables, she didn’t even received costar billing.

   Sidney remained busy throughout the following decades, though, landing lots of TV-, even more stage- and occasional filmwork.

   She was nominated for Golden Globes and Emmy Awards, she won the Golden Globe for her work in the first TV movie dealing with HIV, An early Frost in 1985.

   Sylvia Sidney was an expert on needlepointing and wrote 2 books on that topic.

   She rejected the Hedy Lamarr role in “Algiers”.

   After working with Joanne Woodward in Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams, she remained friends with both Woodward and her husband Paul Newmann until her death.

   On her filmcareer:

   “I’d be the girl of the gangster… then the sister who was bringing up the gangster… then the mother of the gangster… and they always had me ironing somebody’s shirt.”

   “Paramount paid me by the tear.”

   Director Tim Burton was a fan of Sidney’s, casting her as Juno in Beetlejuice and as Grandma Flo in Mars Attacs!. Sidney had the following to say about him: “The way Tim Burton treated me, I really felt like a star!”

   Sylvia Sidney died from throat cancer aged 88, being a lifelong smoker she didn’t even stop during chemo-therapie.

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   1. So far, I have seen 32 of the above listed films, plus “Madame Butterfly” with Cary Grant and numerous TV appearances from the 50’s to the 90’s. The films I haven’t seen are Confessions of a Co-Ed, Hammett and the one I’d like to see the most, The searching Winds. My favorites would be Dead End, Street Scene, City Streets, Mary Burns, Fugitive, The Miracle Man and The Trail of the Lonesome Pine plus her films for director Fritz Lang…so almost anything she did during her decade as a true Star. Not mentioned on the List, but one of her rare comedy performances, Thirty Day Princess, is also a favorite. My favorite of her 40’s movies is Mr. Ace. While her Fantine in Les Miserables is a great piece of acting, her part in Behind the High Wall is a full flegded “Leading Lady” role, with Sidney playing a woman confined to a wheelchair. Of her 70’s movies, I like Summer Wishes… and Rose Garden. Her two movies for Burton are funny- with Sylvia standing out of the casts, at least in my opinion. Yet, my fav late Sidney movie is Used People, though her part is rather small. So, thank you again for bringing Miss Sidney to the attention of your readers and for enlightening me on her box office successes and failures 🙂

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      1. Hey Lupino….well hands down you win the tally tournament…..Lupino 32, Flora 7, Steve 6 and my 4. Wow…shocked one of the few I have seen is one of the few you have not seen. I liked Hammett…..but admit I do not remember her part at all. I think Hammett only made about $30,000 in theaters….a release that got almost no attention.

         Of your favorites…seeing Dead End, Trail of the Lonesome Pine and Madame Butterfly (huge Grant fan here) top my list. Summer Wishes got her the only Oscar nomination in her long career. I think Bob mentioned enjoying Behind The High Wall as well. As for Used People being your favorite…I find that very interesting. Maybe I should check that one out too.

         Glad you enjoyed your requested page….and once again thanks for the interesting facts listed in your other comment.

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   2. Hey Lupino…..great comment…..which has now been added to the page. I did not do an interesting facts part of her page….but now thanks to you….we have one.

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      1. Wow! Never thought I would be a contributor to Miss Sidneys UMR page 😉
         Glad you liked my comment about her life and career!

         I must admit that it was hard to find Sylvia’s movies in Germany- only a few have been released to DVD worldwide, a few to DVD on demand and my nice landlady from England was busy enough taping Bette Davis movies and Falcon Crest for me. But, luckily, I did find more than a few on voutube during the last decade or so. It’s a pity, because I love to have my favorites stored safely in my DVD shelf for repeated viewing 🙂

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4. Hey Bruce,

   just returned from a week at the dutch seaside and find “my” Sylvia Sidney page here! Thanks a lot!!! Will comment later, just wanted you to know that I appreciate this very much 🙂

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   1. Hey Lupino glad you discovered your requested page….hope you enjoyed your vacation.

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5. Just for the sake we haven’t done it in a while and you mentioned 1929, here are the people who appeared in a film with Sylvia and were on the original 2000 Oracle of Bacon Top 1000 Center of the Hollywood Universe list.

   …One Third of a Nation (1939) – 50 Jeff Corey
   Behind the High Wall (1956) – 930 Bing Russell, 961 Nicky Blair
   Behold My Wife (1934) – 744 Dean Jagger
   Blood on the Sun (1945) – 767 Philip Ahn
   Confessions of a Co-ed (1931) – 989 Bruce Cabot
   Damien: Omen II (1978) – 207 William Holden, 291 Lee Grant
   Dead End (1937) – 611 Don ‘Red’ Barry
   Fury (1936) – 740 George Chandler, 989 Bruce Cabot
   God Told Me To (1976) – 811 Robert Nichols
   Hammett (1982) – 155 Royal Dano, 165 R.G. Armstrong, 219 Elisha Cook Jr., 256 Hank Worden, 608 Frederick Forrest, 654 Roy Kinnear, 737 Samuel Fuller
   I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977) – 529 Norman Alden, 582 Susan Tyrell, 633 Bibi Andersson, 658 Reni Santoni, 908 Lynne Marie Stewart
   Les Miserables (1952) – 75 Cameron Mitchell, 100 Ian Wolfe
   Mars Attacks! (1996) – 622 Jim Brown, 678 Paul Winfield, 796 John Finegan
   Mary Burns, Fugitive (1935) – 379 Ann Doran, 651 Melvyn Douglas, 740 George Chandler
   Mr. Ace (1946) – 222 Bess Flowers, 410 George Raft
   Pick-up (1933) – 410 George Raft
   Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams (1973) – 48 Martin Balsam
   The Searching Wind (1946) – 100 Ian Wolfe, 169 John Dehner, 222 Bess Flowers, 420 Maurice Marsac, 963 Frank Ferguson

   The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936) – 56 Henry Fonda
   The Wagons Roll at Night (1941) – 76 Eddie Albert, 824 Frank Wilcox
   Used People (1992) – 210 Marcello Mastroianni, 499 Jessica Tandy
   Violent Saturday (1955) – 236 Lee Marvin, 464 John Alderson, 980 Victor Mature
   You and Me (1938) – 410 George Raft
   You Only Live Once (1937) – 56 Henry Fonda, 783 James Flavin, 832 Don Brodie

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