25 thoughts on “Tony Randall Movies”

1. HI BRUCE Thanks for the feedback on my Randall post At the time of Dino’s signing for The Young Lions columnists protested because they considered Randall the better dramatic actor as Dino was still associated with, and seen as the weaker link in, the Jerry Lewis slapstick movies and Martin’s solo venture Ten Thousand Bedrooms had bombed.

   His friends and backers were therefore desperate to get him into a box office success, especially as JERRY’s post-Martin and Lewis flicks were ringing the box office tills. Your own tables show that Jerry’s two 1957 releases Sad Sack and Delicate Delinquent had a combined adjusted domestic gross of almost $320 millions whereas Dino’s “Bedrooms “ romp brought in just 44 million in adjusted domestic dollars, though ironically your tables show that it was ultimately Dino who became the bigger “beast at the box office” as you deliciously expressed it on your Martin page!

   Flora has Send Me No Flowers as No 3 in the pecking order of her Randall movies and she is of course right that it was an entertaining enough movie and indeed you give it an excellent 72% rating above. However for me it was the weakest of the Hudson/Day/Randall trilogy because of its different format. The greater fun in the first two I thought was in Rock going incognito to fool and seduce Doris whereas in “Flowers “ they had become just an ordinary American married couple – not that all US married couples are “ordinary” though as demonstrated by you and W o C !!

   Also of course neither you nor Flora had the personal unfortunate experience that I had with “Flowers”. I was stationed with the British Royal Air Force in Steve’s Merry England at the time and travelled by bus to a small country village to watch the movie. However the projector broke down for a while so the film ran late, I missed the bus home to the base and had to walk all the way back in the dark. Still my Doris even in the least of the 3 movies was worth the effort!

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   1. Bob Roy , Great share. you inspire me to overcome my paucity of words and be a better communicator . a special thanks for the personal story, you put a smile on my face. I appreciate you and your eloquence and your knowledge . yea UMR, Yea the cogersons, Yea Bob Roy.

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      1. HI BOB

         Thanks for your feedback on my Tony Randall post.

         Your communication skills are fine and indeed you are ahead of the game in a way because I -and I’m sure there are many like me – could not communicate with anyone other than in my own language and as I’ve said before we feel privileged that great movie fans like yourself from other countries make such a great effort to communicate with us and of course we learn much from you.

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   2. Sorry to hear you were stranded when you saw Send Me No Flowers. I know the feeling when movies or music are associated with a bad experience tends to colour our experience of the movie.

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      1. HI FLORA

         Thanks for your sentiments.

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   3. Hey Bob…..interesting memory of your “long walk back to base”. Demonstrating just how much you like movies….I am sure many would have abandoned the movie versus sticking with the movie.

      Glad you like my “beast at the box office” description of Martin….of all the pages only three star’s box office performances have really surprised me….Martin, Judy Garland and Tyrone Power….I had no idea they were as popular as they turned out to be. I guess you could include Greta Garbo too….but it was a reverse surprise….as her domestic box office numbers were very underwhelming.

      Good breakdown of Martin and Randall. I think Some Came Running made people look at Martin in a different light….he got that role because of his friend Frank Sinatra.

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2. As Bruce indicates above Tony Randall is best known for his small screen portrayal of the big screen Jack Lemmon character in the TV series The Odd Couple. However whilst in the end it might not have made a great difference to Tony’s failure to more seriously ignite the big screen he did seem to me unlucky at times in his choice of roles and some of the breaks he got. For example

   (1) The hype for 1957’s Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter was most concerned with promoting Jayne Mansfield as a sex symbol and yet she was unable to carry the film at the box office as Bruce’s table above illustrates. Her big success on the Cogerson table of her own page, The Girl Can’t Help It, owed a lot to the rock n roll music and the guest stars who sang it like Little Richard. Certainly that was the case over here and historians now opine that the music and rock artists overshadowed Jayne..

   (2) Also Rock Hudson’s name was on everybody’s list in 1957 and a lot of people thought that the film with its title about a Rock Hunter was a play on Hudson’s rise to stardom, which took more attention away from Randall.

   (3) Randall’s main success was probably in the 3 Rock Hudson/Doris Day films but in the company of that at the time magical duo he was never going to get over much credit for the great reception of those films by the public, critics and historians.. [I agree with Bruce’s reservations about Send Me No Flowers]

   (4) Tony’s portrayal of famous Christie detective Hercule Poirot in the movie The Alphabet Murders was the worst that I have ever seen in any medium and in fact because the film itself was given the humorous treatment Tony played Poirot as almost a comic opera figure more akin to Sellers’ Clouseau than Sherlock Holmes. David Suchet’s TV portrayal of Poirot got international recognition and praise because Suchet was able to reflect the right balance between Poirot’s eccentricities and his brilliant mind without making him a figure of fun Bruce’s table above is not kind to The Alphabet Murders and I see that Flora considers that it was her last but one favourite among Randall’s movies that she has watched.

   (5) Tony originally was scheduled for the Dean Martin part in The 1958 The Young Lions but Dino’s agency at the time also had Brando and Clift under contract and it was reported that the agency refused to provide the latter two important stars if Dino was not part of the package. However it would not surprise me if the shadowy influence of Sinatra was somehow involved in manipulating matters. [I wonder was anybody sent a horse’s head!]

   Nonetheless because of his contribution in particular to the Hudson/ Day classics I feel that Tony deserves his Cogerson page as much as other lesser cinematic performers whom Bruce has – quite rightly in my opinion – decided to profile for us.

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   1. Hey Bob…..lots of great information here. Thanks for the mini-review on The Alphabet Murder…..I was thinking that it would be a good one to track down. It is based on one of the best and one of my favorite Agatha Christie books. But, now I think I will stay away from it. So Dino took away The Young Lions from him…..actually thinking it was a good decision.

      I agree with your assessment of his career…..he was very good in many movies…..but always seemed to be in supporting roles in his big movies and in the leading role in movies many have never even heard of before.

      Good to know we agree on Send Me No Flowers…..I knew it could finally happen…..lol. Thanks as always for sharing your vast movie knowledge.

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3. Now that all the Tony Randall movies are listed, I see that I had forgotten the title Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter as a movie I have seen and enjoy.

   Therefore, I have seen 10 Tony Randall films. In preferred order:

   Lover Come Back
   Pillow Talk
   Send Me No Flowers
   Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter
   Let’s Make Love
   Boys’ Night Out
   The Mating Game
   The Alphabet Murders
   No Down Payment

   Finally, there is the cameo he made in The King of Comedy I saw shortly after Jerry Lewis died.

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   1. Hey Flora
      1. Wow….we are tied at 10 when it comes to Tony Randall movies.
      2. I originally thought it was 11…..but after looking at the trailer for Lover Come Back…. I am no longer sure I saw the 2nd Hudson/Day movie.
      3. I see that you have Lover Come Back as your favorite Randall movie…I will have to check that one out.
      4. I did not really like Send Me No Flowers as much as Pillow Talk……but could see people saying Randall had a better part in Send Me No Flowers.
      5. I almost did not include The King of Comedy…..but in the end… I liked getting the movie total to 25…so it got included.
      6. Two movies I have seen that I enjoyed are 7 Faces of Dr. Lao and Foolin’ Around….the first has some of the best makeup work that I have seen in a movie so many years old….while the latter is nice romantic comedy with Gary Busey. Randall plays a very stiff butler in that one.
      Good feedback as always.

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4. Bruce: I appreciate the fact that you are trying to create new pages and have them published like normal while you are away on vacation. So sorry you are having issues. I am able to read this Tony Randall page. I see that it is missing 3 titles including the ever popular Pillow Talk which should be high on the list and others between 21 and 25.

   I have seen 9 Tony Randall movies as well as being a fan of The Odd Couple.

   My favourite Randall films are the three he made with Doris Day and Rock Hudson:

   Lover Come Back
   Pillow Talk
   Send Me No Flowers

   I have also enjoyed:
   Let’s Make Love
   Boy’s Night Out
   The Mating Game

   I have also seen The Alphabet Murders where he was seriously miscast as Hercule Poirot.

   Finally, I have also seen No Down Payment.

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   1. The ninth film I have seen is The King of Comedy where he played himself in a cameo. I missed that title in my main comment.

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      1. Scotty to the rescue again…..the rankings column are a little off….but now at least all the movies are there and in the right order. It is so much harder doing this when I am 700 miles away from my computer.

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         1. Glad Scotty was able to fix the problem of missing films and putting them in the correct order.

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   2. Hey Flora…..darn darn darn….I see the issue you mentioned….trying to get Scotty to fix that too. Wow…..this plan has not worked out very well. Thanks for the headsup.

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   3. thanks Flora, your favourites are always a welcome addition to my “to be seen” list. I saw 7, no 10s, no favourites. enjoyed boys night out the most. I love james garner .

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      1. Hey bob cox….or at least who I am guessing did this comment. I would add The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao to that list….it might be his best role…..he is the lead actor as well. Good stuff.

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5. Scheduled post did not work last night. Best laid plans crashing and burning.

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   1. Hey Flora….well…..the 2nd and 3rd pages look right….so hopefully it will just be this page that ends up being messed up so much.

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