45 thoughts on “Victor Mature Movies”

1. Victor Mature, is the # 66 most connected actor of the 1950’s.

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2. Victor Mature was a star in the forties of course but in prestige movies he normally played second fiddle to the likes of Betty Grable, Rita Hayworth, Ann Sheridan, Gene Tierney, Betty Hutton, Britian’s Anna neagle and Henry Fonda. It was therefore not until the 1950s that Vic came into his own [probably on the back of Samson and The Robe] as THE prolific stand-alone star and action hero of adventure movies

   Most if not all of Vic’s stand-alone movie will be unknown to modern audiences who might not even be aware of who Mature once was but boy did he churn them out at breathneck speed! – Safari, Interpol [aka Pickup Alley], The Sharkfighters, The Last Frointier, Escort West, Veils of Bagdad and Timbuktu among others.

   He also made a joint UK/US movie in 1957 with Brit “blonde bombshell” Diana Dors called The Long Haul which the normally “all-inclusive” Work Horse has not been able to pick up in his table. YOU though include it further on in your video and indeed have given us a great foreign language one for it. [How does it feel to trump the Big Guy?]

   We kids loved Vic’s films and we were all members of an informal Mature fan club and “admiration society” and just as Chuck was our saintly Biblical hero and Audie and Rory were fighting the bad guys out west for us “Big Victor” as we called him was our down-to earth idol who had been sent among us simply to “save the world” in general. He had a grip and influence on us that I never saw again until I came across Bruce and Joel and you and Hitch. However adults often laughed at him nicknaming him “Victor Manure”.

   So you will therefore appreciate the nostalgia that your parade of fine pictorials is bringing back to me and I think the best POSTERS in entries 25-45 are The Tartars, The Sharkfighters, Timbuktu, Tank Force [aka No Time to Die. If you don’t start using more Brit titles I’m going to report your to the Daily Mail who will “out” you as a traitor akin to those “anti-Brexit judges” that the Mail savaged!] Hannibal, China Doll [one critic wrote “At last Mature gives at least a performance of some kind!”] One Million Years BC, Glory Bbrigade and Safari.

   I went to see Safari 3 times in the one week. Unfortunately you Brits don’t come off very well in it as the characters played by English actors John Justin and Roland Culver are portrayed as wimps who can’t protect the lovely Janet wheras American he-man Big Vic endlessly saves – and of course romances – Miss Leigh.

   All STILLS will be covered in Part 2.

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   1. Vic Mature usually played on the screen sombre and driven characters [witnessed for example by his quest for and protection of The Robe] but it seems that in real life he didn’t always take himself too seriously.

      For example after he retired from movies he started his own car sales business which apparently did very well and the running of which he largely delegated to others.

      He later explained to a journalist “I don’t need to be there all the time to make it work. About once a year I put on the toupee and stick in the false teeth and mosey down there and just walk about grinning at them, and the word-of-mouth that I occasionally make appearances there keeps them coming in all the year round in the off-chance that they might get a peek at me!”

      Best POSTERS for me in your entries 1-24 are Chief Crazy Horse aka Valley of Fury [which I saw on a double bill at the time with Maureen O’Hara as Lady Godiva of Coventry] The Big Circus [which I saw of the night of the British 1959 general election that returned Harold MacMillan to power] Wabash Avenue, Song of the Islands, The Long Haul [the Mature/Dors vehicle that I mentioned in Part 1] Million Dollar Mermaid [aka One Piece Bathing Suit – Vic and Esther were said to have had an affair during its making] The Egyptian [illustrating how iconically poster-friendly Mature was – he almost co-starred with Brando in that one but the latter walked out and was replaced by Purdom] Violent Saturday and the magnificent foreign language ones for Demetrius and The Robe.

      STILLS for the ENTIRE video that most impressed me are One Million Years BC, Vic with Betty Hutton, the threesome in The Shanghai Gesture, Mature with Rita as his “My Gal Sal” him with Vincent and Jane Russell, The Robe crucifixion scene, Vic and the gorgeous Hedy [ I was 10 when my elder cousin took me to see that one] Vic in jail with my own all time top fave actor and the two for My Darling Clementine [possible my own fave Mature movie along with Violent Saturday]

      Many critics unfortunately consider Mature as somewhat of a ham actor [with “generally just two expressions, the grin and the frown”] and you and this site’s greatest ham performer agree on 5 of his top 6 Stupendous EP overall and easily worth 98% to me personally

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      1. STEVE

         No I’m not using aliases again! so I don’t know what happened that my last post to you about Vic went out under Anon. Apologies.

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         1. Bob, my name hasn’t come up on the reply box below so it’s not just you. I’d better type it in before I’m anonymous too. 🙂

            Thanks for the review, rating, info, trivia and quotes, much appreciated!

            Glad you liked the posters and stills.

            For some reason I didn’t expect you to be a big Victor Mature fan, he was sort of the Sylvester Stallone of his era. [Bob winces] Bruce in his post below says Vic always reminds him of Stallone. And I have to admit he does look a bit like him.

            Sorry about the American titles but I simply assumed they were the only titles. I don’t have time to search for alternate titles unless I’m already familiar with them. And lets face it ‘Pickup Alley’ does sound more intriguing than ‘Interpol’ [Bob screams].

            On the other hand I do like the British title ‘No Time to Die’ which would have been a great 007 title and look who the producer and director is – Albert Broccoli and Terence Young. The Americans went with the more Ramboesque ‘Tank Force’.

            Only one Mature film scored 10 out of 10 and that was My Darling Clementine. None of them scored 9 but there are six scoring 8 out of 10 including Kiss of Death and Violent Saturday.

            Clementine tops all the charts including Bruce’s critics chart.

            Looking at the box office chart Samson was Vic’s biggest success, but The Robe wasn’t far behind. The Egyptian and Demetrius in 3rd and 4th place.

            Vic on Sly – “Recently, I was asked to play Sylvester Stallone’s father in a movie, so I gave them my price. It’s been a few weeks now and I haven’t heard, so it’s probably not going to happen. But that’s okay, I don’t need the work. My father was rich and I took good care of my own money.”

            I think the movie Vic was referring to was ‘Oscar (1991)’ which was a comedy and Kirk Douglas played Sly’s dying father in the opening reel.

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            1. HI STEVE

               Thanks for the feedback and quote. I never knew that Vic had been asked to play Stallone’s father.

               Neither star has gotten the reputation of being a great actor but (a) I was just a kid when I idolised Vic but (b) “When I became a man I put away childish things” so as an adult Stallone never really appealed to me.(c) even if he had I think I would have ultimately become bored with his flogging to death those handful of franchises that he milks [Yawn, yawn! Sorry that’s me just THINKING about Stallone.]

               I am nearly finished drafting comments on one of your other new videos of normal length but because the subject so excites me I got carried away and I see that I have unusually written enough for two posts on a shortish presentation of yours, so remember please to bear with me.

   2. I like Mr Mature. He is an unpretentious kind of regular guy. He played sexy dumb guys, the way a lot of woman played dumb but beautiful. I don’t think it reflected his own mental abilities but it was his schtick. It worked well. I don’t know much about him ,I have the feeling he was an un demanding professional.He found his level of mediocrity and made it his, no mean feat.

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      1. Hey Critter Hairy….thanks for the thoughts on Mr. Victor Mature. Good observation on his screen persona….I agree with your thought process. Good feedback.

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3. Steve’s updated Victor video has been added to the page….my thoughts on his video.

   “Stallone’s long lost dad (when I watch Mature in a movie I always think about Sly) gets an update. Have not seen many of his movies at all….but been aware of him all of my life. My tally is 6. But that includes his #1 movie…My Darling Clementine, #6 Samson and Deliah, #7 The Robe, #33 Escort West, #26 The Last Frontier and #8 The Gladiators. I want to see #2 Kiss Of Death…but some far….even though I have been looking for it…have never been able to find it. Voted up.

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   1. Hi Bruce, in some of those posters he does look a bit like Stallone. Vic’s most popular film has never been one of his highest rated, ironic that none of the epics he appeared in made the top 5. But he did get good reviews for Clementine which was easily his highest rated. My tally 12, Flora 11, Bruce 6. Thanks for the comment, vote and share, always appreciated.

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4. HI STEVE

   1 I totally agree but when Superman 1978 was made the modern era superhero craze hadn’t begun and the producers weren’t sure how the audiences of the time would react to such a concept. Possibly what helped Supe to be a success apart from a big star and special effects was the enormous influence of Star Wars because Superman was of course an alien and Star Wars had made those popular.

   2 I think that Star Wars was responsible as well for the re-birth of the Star Trek franchise with Shatner and the others being reunited to make the big cinematic hit Star Trek the Motion Picture released in 1979.

   3 Anyway be in touch with you later about Laruschka Mischa Skikne. It’s simpler to just describe him as an English actor, isn’t it?.

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5. 1 HI STEVE Yul Brynner got top billing in Solomon and Sheba on screen, official posters and all cast lists [see for example Wikipedia lobby card] and the few showing Gina 1st are probably “rogues” and it is possible that among the sources for one or other them is the Italian cinema.

   2 Victor Mature before Samson was in either low budget movies that gave him the lead or A pictures in which he played at most 2nd fiddle and was billed 2nd or less to the following performers: Rita Hayworth, Betty Grable, Gene Tierney, Linda Darnell, Henry Fonda and even Welsh-born Irish actress Peggy Cummins.

   3 He was the lead in the 1947 Kiss of Death but it was not a real biggie at the box office and today is probably best known for making a star of my Richard. Accordingly historians opine that it was Samson that lifted Vic into the bigger league but even then his name came second or lower to the likes of Jean Simmons, Lana Turner, Ann Sheridan, Jane Russell, Richard Burton and [naturally] Gable.

   4 Hedy on the other hand had been a prestige star since the 1938 Algiers and was above Mature in the perceived pecking order when contracts for Samson were drawn up in 1949. However she has not had it all her own way because Bruce ignores her completely in the co-stars column on the Mature page which suggests to the unenlightened that Angela Lansbury was Mature’s Delilah. The miniature still above the stats table showing Vic with Hedy probably serves only to confuse matters further as it does not say Hedy is Delilah.

   5 I have tried to coax WH to change it but you know he’s a law unto himself and generally all I get are stats thrown at me suggesting that in fact he seems to listen to everybody but me who requests changes. Unfortunately when I try to press him on matters the irresistible force and the immovable object are both on the same side of the argument.

   INTERVIEWER TO VICTOR Did you personally really fight that lion in Samson and Delilah?
   MATURE: Yes. But it was an old lion with no teeth!

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   1. Thanks for the explanation Bob. I just thought it was odd to see Hedy Lamarr billed first in Samson and Delilah. But than again Marlon Brando was billed first in a film called Superman and he was only in it for a few minutes. 😉

      Maybe Bruce has a great fondness for Angela Lansbury, we don’t know… okay I’ve checked Manchurian Candidate at the UMR and she isn’t listed as Frank’s costar… so, maybe not. 🙂

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      1. HI STEVE

         1 If a great and famous footballer like Ronaldo advertises say a certain hairdressing the makers don’t care if he actually uses it himself. His purpose is to get others who see him as a role model to use it.

         2 So too the Salkinds who produced Superman 1978 didn’t need Mr Mumbles to play a significant role in that movie. Back then they were taking a big chance with a film about a guy flying around in tights and a cloak and they needed a star name to have any hope of selling the movie to all the necessary parties and the public.

         3 I think Redford was one big name who was approached but they eventually settled on Mr Mumbles for a record flat fee plus 11% of the gross profits. Alexander Salkind explained that when Brando came aboard and they could publicise the fact.they(1) were able to raise the necessary big budget that the special effects necessitated (2) they got guaranteed overseas bookings and (3) respected actors who like Hackman were hanging back suddenly signed up.

         4. Hackman admitted the presence of Mr M was what had attracted him to the cast. The Brando take from the film was said at the time to be between 40 and 45 million in 2018 dollars and was in the Guinness Book of Records for several years and according to Bruce’s figures the movie grossed nearly $1.2 billion worldwide in today’s money and it is in fact the 8th highest grossing movie in WH’s Marvel V DC chart so The Salkinds were vindicated.

         5. The answer to the WH/Lansbury riddle could be quite simple. Maybe the ole Work Horse REALLY BELIEVES Angela was Delilah and knows she wasn’t the Manchurian Candidate!

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         1. You know your stuff Bob, thanks.

            And a similar thing happened with Batman in 1989, they needed a big name to attract audiences, it was an expensive film they couldn’t take any chances.

            But nowadays that sort of billing doesn’t really work, no actor has that much power or is so huge a draw anymore, the film itself is the attraction now, especially in comicbook movies.

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