163 thoughts on “Top Screen Duos of All-Time”

1. HI BRUCE: I usually give The Best of Cogerson and Lensman a second viewing the day after each new page/video comes out. Perusing again your Brodie Crawford page this morning it occurred to me that another great duo that you missed on this page was Crawford/Ireland.

   The boys probably had their peak heyday in the 1948/50 period. That began for John with his role as Cherry Valance in Red River. Almost as much as The Duke’s Thomas Dunson Cherry Valance stuck in my mind over the years because of the unusual sound of it. Indeed it could have been contrived to ensure you remembered it much as say Cogerson and Lensman and Hirschhorn may well have been.

   Also Cherry had a key scene near the end of the film that ensured his legacy as one of the characters who was put down by The Duke in a major western. As Big John moves forward for his confrontation with Monty’s Matthew Garth Cherry pulls a gun on Wayne to try to stop him but The Duke typically shoots Cherry in the arm without even looking at him and proceeds uninterrupted for his fight with Clift.

   Classic Duke! And of course there is a Dan like link in that Wayne 14 years later appeared in The Man who Shot Liberty Valance. Red River and Wayne and Cherry may well have been respectively the first western and among the first I actors that I ever saw. I think that the difference could well have been that in Cherry’s case the surname was pronounced as VA- lance whereas with Liberty the name was spoken as an even seamless Valance. Anyway the 1948 movie was “The story of a boy and a man and the Red River D!”

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2. I was again looking over Variety’s list from 20 years ago of its own perceived Top 10 Greatest Entertainers of the 20th Century. The “usual suspects” are there of course: The Beatles, Chaplin, Bogie, Brando, Monroe and Elvis in the 10 and Al Leach high among the hon mentions just outside the cut. Also among the hon mentions is Lassie.

   It therefore struck me that no animals are included in WH duos lists; yet the involvement of Asta for example in The Thin Woman films would have given The Work Horse an excuse to -yet again- include Thins herself in an additional listing.

   Recognition of Asta [or Skippy as he was sometimes called] wouldn’t though have helped Al Leach [as if he needs help to get space on the COGERSON site!] because as far as I am aware Asta/Skippy and Archie teamed for only one movie.

   Moreover reportedly that cute little dog didn’t take to Archibald and its owner had to be brought onto the set to get encourage the little chap to do the Archie scenes.

   That seems to contrast with 1976’s The Missouri Breaks where The Great Mumbler and his screen horse apparently got on so well together that they actually kiss like two lovers in one scene.

   I am reminded of a critic in the early 1960s who quipped that “Rock Hudson is so popular at the moment that even dogs follow him about!” Pity that Rock and Asta never got to team up.

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   1. Further to the 2nd para of my 7.21am post today, it looks as if for once WH has let down Thins and Archie even under the existing criteria. Missing as duos are:

      THINS AND ARCHIE
      Bachelor Knight [aka Bobbysoxer – horrible title]
      Mr Blandings
      Wings in the Dark
      OVERALL GROSS [now] $560 million – Average nearly $190 million]

      LEACH and his “creator” MAE WEST
      I’m No Angel
      She Done him Wrong
      OVERALL GROSS -today] $510 – averare approx $255 million

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      1. Hey Bob…this page….was a ….”hey…I wonder page”…..it was pretty quickly done…..but it is far from perfect…..sadly….with all the recent comments…..I realize I need to research it better….but typing the entire page over is not in the cards right now…I just do not have the time….the clock is ticking I am 4 minutes away from another 14 school day….tick tock….tick tock….

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         1. HI BRUCE

            Thanks for the explanation and if you ever get around to a revamp I’ll look forward to it.

            I know there must be a cut-off point somewhere in those duos who are listed; but in any revision you might at least CONSIDER arguably the greatest brother and sister duo of all time in The Ugly American and The Chase – a woman who was partially blacklisted by the Senator from Wisconsin deserves love from SOMEWHERE !!!

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   2. Hey Bob…interesting point….maybe Asta will get some attention…when and if I figure out how to update this page….this was a “manual” page…..I would love to get it to become a “dynamic” page. So much information and so much new information to include. My first attempt at figuring out how to update was a failure….but I am not giving up. Good thoughts.

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3. To reinforce my perception that the Cogerson site at times does not give to my idols the love that they deserve, I should record that the Greg who belongs most on this site to Flora and me was not once but thrice denied due recognition on this Screen Duo page as neither was any account taken of his great teaming with Susan Hayward and Ava Gardner:

   PECK/HAYWARD
   Snows of Kilimanjaro
   David and Bathsheba
   TOTAL GROSS $545 million [Average just under $275 million]

   PECK/GARDNER
   Snows of Kilimanjaro
   On the Beach
   The Great Sinner.
   TOTAL GROSS $625 million [Just under $210 million]

   Indeed when we add in the 2 Greg/Jennifer jones movies, the total of the 6 different films comprised in Greg’s 3 duos comes to $1.54 billion [average almost $260 million] – wow! I’ve just admitted him along with Laddie and Brando to my private Collective Billion Dollar Club, membership of which is governed by rules devised by ME!

   In all honesty though how can any self-respecting Great Screen Duos list include performers like Anna Kendrick/Elizabeth Banks; John Cusack/John Malkovich; Brian Keith/Maureen O’Hara; Shailene Woodley/Ansel Elgort when someone like the Great Greg’s box office record in the Cogerson charts for forming screen partnerships is ignored? That Greg and Ava in particular have been designated AFI all-time legends seems to cut no ice anymore.

   “There is something rotten in the state of Denmark.”
   Marcellus to Horatio – Hamlet Act 1, Scene 4;William Shakespeare

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4. NOTES: 1/In Part 2 I have used Bruce’s VERY LATEST figures from the individual pages of the stars concerned; but the above table badly needs statistically updating. However it appears clear that the totals in Part 2 of mine compare well with those of many of the duos listed by WH, especially the Leach ones, even if updated. [My quotation of Bruce’s figures are always very slightly rounded].

   2/WH’s current figure for Mr Gimme More/Jacko for example seems to be around $605 million; Al and Irene seem to be around the $390 million now; and Archie and Katie approx $470 million

   3/THE “Thank Heavens for Small Mercies” CORNER: “Split” seems to be excluded from the Gimme More/Jacko figures – but let’s not relax because remember “Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water——-!!!!!” Goodness knows what will appear in any update: Mr More’s current box office record may well be making WH desperate!

   4/SPOLIERS (1) I feel that to be regarded as an important part of a team a performer must either have similar star status to the partner or at least be a part of the plot in his/her own right. In my opinion Alan Hale Sr fulfilled neither of those criteria to any meaningful extent and was in effect just an albeit likeable Flynn “prop” like Asta was in reality in The Thin Woman films. Initially he wasn’t meant to overshadow the stars. Conversely Bill Bendix in the Ladd flicks and Malden and Duvall in the Brando outings both operated to a certain extent in a self-contained manner within the dramatic context of the plot, though Bendix was often referred to as a “Ladd’s employee” and was a close personal friend of the Great Alan.

   4/(2) I think it a stretch to regard as a screen team Julie and James Garner [much as I love Jim: lovely man] They made just two, historically relatively unimportant films nearly 20 years apart whose box office takings were nowhere near vertiginous [Victor Victoria and The Americanization of Myrna; overall gross just under $200 million in Bruce’s updated figures] and certainly, great as they both were assolo artists, the pair did not in my opinion make the impact on the big screen as a duo that for example Ladd/Lake, Peck/Jones and Brando/Simmons or even Deana/Franchot did. Jim and Julie did in addition make in 1999 the lovely romantic drama One Special Night – but that was a TV movie.

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5. ADDITIONAL BOB’s IDOLS EXCLUDED FROM DUO PAGE

   PECK [AND JENNIE JONES]
   Man in the Grey Flannel Suit
   Duel in the Sun COMBINED GROSS $670 million [Average $335 million] – Wow!

   LADDIE [AND BILL BENDIX]
   China
   Calcutta
   Glass Key
   Blue Dahlia
   The Deep Six COMBINED GROSS $720 million – Wow again ! [Average $145 million]

   LADDIE [ANDLAKE}
   This Gun for Hire
   The Glass Key
   The Blue Dahlia
   Saigon COMBINED GROSS $515 million [Average $130 million]

   LADDIE [AND LORETTA YOUNG]
   China
   And Now Tomorrow COMBINED GROSS $400 million [Average $200 million]

   DEANNA [AND FRANCHOT TONE]
   His Butler’s Sister
   Nice Girl? COMBINED GROSS $235 million [Average around $115 million

   OH LADDIE and LAKE; GREG and JEN; My Lovely DEANNA and FRANCO – however could all that have been overlooked – whatever DID you do on Joel?

   Overall the nine different Ladd films in the 3 pairings above come to $1.135 billion in Bruce’s very latest stats. Television character Alf Garnett was excluded by his neighbors from a communal street party at the top of their street because he was one of Steve’s “nasty old bigots”; so when the party got under way, he opened his front door and shouted up the street “I’ll hold my own party and NOBODY will be invited!”. Similarly I have decided to admit the Ladd parings collectively to my personal Billion Dollars Club.

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