109 thoughts on “William Holden Movies”

1. 1 Dear NOEL As one of my all time fictitious idols Dalton in Road House said “Opinions vary.” –
   (1) “The most underrated performance of a historical figure that I have ever seen was Brando’s Napoleon in Desiree” [Lord Laurence Olivier but maybe he knew nothing about acting!!]
   (2) ” And to think they put him down for that great performance in Mutiny on the Bounty.” Richard Dreyfuss.
   (3) “The best performance that I have ever got from an actor was Brando’s in 1967s Reflections in a Golden Eye” [John Houston]. “When one considers how Brando’s performance in that film was received it is no wonder that he seemed to lose interest in his craft for a time.” [Famed film historian and author David Shipman].
   (4) “ Though not a singer, in some strange way Brando was able to overshadow Sinatra in Guys and Dolls “ [David Shipman again]
   (5) “I have wanted to do more films and certainly when I watched Marlon Brando in the 1958 The Young Lions I wished that I could act like that.” [British comedian Max Bygraves].
   (6) All the cast of Superman the Movie seemed to be enjoying themselves but the greatest demonstration of old- fashioned Hollywood professionalism was provide by Brando in his 15 minute appearance at the start” [Newsweek USA Magazine]
   (6) The greatest performance by an actor in the entire history of the cinema was in my opinion Brando’s in Last Tango in Paris. [Alexander Walker renowned film critic of London Evening Standard.]
   (7) “Who’s the best actor ever ? Bud when he wants to be.” Hank Fonda

   2 However I will “defend to the death” your right to hold contrary opinions but if your description of Brando’s career accurately reflects the achievements of a performer whom Time magazine listed as one of the 100 MOST IMPORTANT people of the 20th Century then to paraphrase Sgt Bilko’s Colonel “They’ll be queuing up to see what those that didn’t make the 100 look like.” As it is Time Magazine put Brando in the general company of people like Albert Einstein and President F D Rosevelt both of whom headed the lsit However as you have also listed American Legend and box office giant Duke Wayne low at 186th perhaps there is a parallel universe somewhere in which the likes of Brando and Wayne have had different careers from the ones that seasoned observers, scholars and historians know about. Conversely “When the legend suits better than the truth print the legend” [The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” 1962]

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2. 47 for Bill Holden

   Apartment for Peggy (1948) – Edmund Gwenn
   Ashanti (1979) – Michael Caine, Peter Ustinov, Rex Harrison
   Blaze of Noon (1947) – Anne Baxter
   Born Yesterday (1950) – Broderick Crawford, Judy Holliday
   Casino Royale (1967) – David Niven
   Damien: Omen II (1978) – Lee Grant
   Executive Suite (1954) – Shelley Winters, Dean Jagger, Fredric March
   Fedora (1978) – Jose Ferrer
   Forever Female (1953) – Ginger Rogers
   I Wanted Wings (1941) – Ray Milland
   Invisible Stripes (1939) – Humphrey Bogart
   Love is a Many Splendored Thing (1955) – Jennifer Jones
   Network (1976) – Robert Duvall, Faye Dunaway, Peter Finch, Beatrice Straight
   Paris – When it Sizzles (1964) – Frank Sinatra, Audrey Hepburn
   Picnic (1955) – Cliff Robertson
   Rachel and the Stranger (1948) – Loretta Young
   S.O.B. (1981) – Shelley Winters, Julie Andrews
   Sabrina (1954) – Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart
   Texas (1941) – Claire Trevor
   The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) – Alec Guiness
   The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954) – Frederic March, Grace Kelly
   The Counterfeit Traitor (1962) – Hugh Griffith
   The Country Girl (1954) – Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly
   The Devil’s Brigade (1968) – Cliff Robertson
   The Horse Soldiers (1959) – John Wayne
   The Key (1958) – Sophia Loren
   The Moon is Blue (1953) – David Niven
   The Revengers (1972) – Ernest Borgnine, Susan Hayward
   The Towering Inferno (1974) – Faye Dunaway, Paul Newman, Jennifer Jones
   The Turning Point (1952) – Edmond O’Brien
   The Wild Bunch (1969) – Ernest Borgnine, Ben Johnson, Edmond O’Brien
   Union Station (1950) – Barry Fitzgerald
   Variety Girl (1947) – Ray Milland, Burt Lancaster, Barry Fitzgerald
   When Time Ran Out (1980) – Ernest Borgnine, Paul Newman, Red Buttons
   Wild Rovers (1971) – Karl Malden
   Young and Willing (1943) – Susan Hayward

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   1. Good total for Mr. Holden….you would think with 4 Oscar winners in the cast…there is no way Ashanti would be so bad….will I revisited that movie about a month ago…and it still stinks! I have not seen S.O.B. in years….I need to track that one down. I wonder if I would get the Hollywood inside jokes better now. Thanks for providing this Holden list.

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3. HELLO AGAIN STEVE

   1 And there was me thinking that writing unflattering things about Mr M had formed the common bond between you and our modern Burt Lancaster! Still it’s interesting to learn how you two did get close.

   2 As Richard Nixon is supposed to have said as soon as he won the 1968 Presidential election and one of his aides was the first ever to address him as Mr President “Somebody should be taking a note of this.”

   3 I think that the last time that I was so interested in learning how a duo of the stature of Cogerson/Lensman or Lensman/Cogerson – compromise billing ! – came together was in relation to Woodward and Bernstein often credited with being Nixon’s Nemesis.

   4 Back to your own comments and I would say that on this occasion it’s not a case of all great minds thinking alike as I would have Golden’s Stalag 17 as No 1. However I was delighted that in your Top 30 was Holden’s little gem Escape from Fort Bravo. I vividly remember that one because Bill played an initially cruel Army office Captain Roper who strangely has a love of flowers and has a little flower garden on camp called “Roper’s Roses”. Also sticking in the mind
   is one of the other characters assuring him that despite attacks on the fort Roper will live to a ripe old age as “only the good die young.!”

   5 Anyway take care!

   BOB

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4. PS STEVE

   I forgot to say the quote at the beginning of the Golden video contained some very choice words for an actor whom Bogie used to chide for having a ‘goody, goody’screen persona with Humph and Bill almost coming to blows for Bogie’s crack on the Sabrina set ” Done any more of your Smiling JIm roles lately?”

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5. HI STEVE

   1 The Golden Holden video is one of those with special appeal for me as to my mind Golden was as much a part of 50s stardom as the more publicised Burt, Kirk, Monroe and Mr M, the difference being that whilst there always seemed to be a hullabaloo surrounding those 4 Golden just went about quietly and without fuss doing what he was paid for and between Stalag 17 in 1953 and The World of Suzie Wong in 1960, his very peak years, gave us hit after hit.

   2 Extracting the appropriate stats from Bruce’s highly comprehensive table shows that in that 53-60 period Golden made 16 films which have an adjusted domestic gross of $3.2 billion, which is a staggering average of nearly $200 mil per movie. Your video includes 13 of the 16 and 11 of your 13 crashed Bruce’s now legendary 100 mil barrier . Glenn Ford proclaimed that Bill’s performance in Bridge on River Kwai was the finest he had ever seen on screen from an actor.[Of course that speech was made before Last Tango in Paris and Godpop were released !! ]

   3 To be honest watching the video was a bitter-sweet experience. On the one hand I enjoyed the usual stupendous art work on the posters and found the rankings and the scores very interesting but as the titles of the 50s movies rolled up I had to at times fight back tears of nostalgia and also wondered “Was Bill Holden one of those who stole my boyhood?” because I was certainly at the head of the queue for every Holden 1950s film in the video as well as for example most 50s Stewart/Peck/Widmark/Laddie films

   4 Next comes “A man gotta do what a man’s gotta do.” and you know who is most famous for epitomising that code of ethics !! Glad to see Randy is also now ready for viewing. Anyway well done again Steve andI think I’ll now bracket you along with Bruce as one of those who have been put here to “give us all a grand time”!

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   1. Thanks Bob, I was lucky at hubpages finding a kindred spirit in ‘Cogerson’ as I was calling Bruce 5 years ago, before I knew his real name. We were both doing movie pages, he was interested in box office grosses and ratings and I was writing about my favorite movies. I remember one of our first email chats was about Variety’s yearly box office charts. I had some of the yearly issues he needed for his research.

      Thanks for checking out the Golden Holden video. It was basically a toss up between Sunset Boulevard and River Kwai for the number one spot, I gave it to Kwai. Bruce has Kwai at no.4 on the critics chart and no.1 on the UMR. Sunset tops the critics chart.

      The strangest thing about Sunset Boulevard – ‘Spoiler Alert’ – is that it’s narrated by a dead man, William Holden’s character. A device later copied by Sam Mendes for American Beauty. I bought Sunset on Blu-ray recently and have been perusing the extras. I also have Kwai and Stalag 17 on Blu.

      Thanks as always for the movie trivia. I enjoy reading your posts.

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      1. Enjoyable comments to read between Steve and Bob.

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