Paging @Yotsuya. You've got a kindred spirit here. I'm a big fan of Stanwyck's as well - Stella Dallas and Clash by Night are the ones that stand out for me - but I've never been able to get into Preston Sturges movies. Recently, I saw an early movie of hers called Night Nurse and her role in that might actually be my favorite based solely on a scene where she goes toe-to-toe with Clark Gable.
Getting dignified now, huh, good sir? I've seen very little from Gielgud, but for Olivier my favorite role of his is easily his role in Spartacus. He's a piece of shit and Charles Laughton rules yet I always want to root for Olivier. He did such a great job with that character.
So many to choose from and it's very hard to go wrong. That's definitely one of the top Cagney picks.
For me, it'd be a battle between Spartacus and Advise & Consent. If pressed, I'd probably go with Spartacus, but it'd be a hell of a fight.
Again, so many to choose from. I think I'd probably go with House on Haunted Hill, but I also really like his earlier roles in The Baron of Arizona and His Kind of Woman.
For me, it's Harry Lime all the way.
I think that parenthetical is the key. You know your classic movies more than 99% of this forum, but if you're struggling to come up with actresses with expansive careers then it means you need to watch more of their shit. Aside from the obvious ones - Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Barbara Stanwyck, Ingrid Bergman - you've also got Constance Bennett, Irene Dunne, Claudette Colbert, Myrna Loy, Marlene Dietrich, Ginger Rogers, Vivien Leigh, Rosalind Russell, Jean Simmons, Janet Leigh, Elizabeth Taylor. There was a wealth of female talent back in the day and the caliber of their work across multiple decades is not only nothing to sneeze at but IMO far more impressive than today's crop of actresses.
I've never loved him, but I definitely respect his consistency. My favorite from him though is the boring obvious pick: La Strada all the way.
Fuck yeah. Serious acting chops on that guy. I first saw him in The Cincinnati Kid going up against McQueen, so that role will always be special to me, but I also love him as Nick the Barber in Smart Money, which has the added bonus of featuring the pairing of Robinson and Cagney.
Another fuck yeah. I still remember my grandpa giving me his VHS copy of Cyrano de Bergerac and telling me that Ferrer's performance was his all-time favorite. Since then, I've seen a lot of his stuff, though nowhere near as much as I'd like. I actually have I Accuse!, which he also directed, in my DVR at this moment. For me, though, my favorite role of his is unquestionably as the criminal hypnotist in Whirlpool. I also FUCKING LOVE his hilarious performance in Woody Allen's A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy.
Can't go wrong with the De Niro to Kurosawa's Scorsese. Obviously, he's amazing in Rashomon. I also love him losing his mind in Throne of Blood. But my favorite role of his - and IMO his career best performance and, in my book, the GOAT non-English-language performance - is his role as the father and business owner who slowly loses his mind and becomes a psychotic paranoiac living in fear of the next (in his mind inevitable and imminent) bomb drop in I Live in Fear. Such a harrowing and gut-wrenching performance.
Nice to see him on the list.
Haha, now I'm going to have to restrain myself from calling you Plato
For me, 12 Angry Men represents the quintessence of Fonda-ness. But you're right that Hitchcock managed to distill the essence of Fonda for his purposes in The Wrong Man.
He's the man.
I think Bogart's problem was that he had less range, so his lane was a lot narrower and his star persona was very specific, except that the studio system wasn't about catering projects to the actor's strong suits. When he was in his lane, though, and when he was surrounded by great talent both in front of and behind the camera, then, like you said, he was movie magic.
I haven't seen Blood and Sand, but "evilest spider-woman" has me intrigued...
No joke, because of how much I loved the movie growing up and how shocked I was to learn years later that it was her, I'd have to say that my favorite role of hers is her role as the grandma who inadvertently saves the world in Mars Attacks!
Solid
The teacher in me made this thread specifically for club members like you, people who love movies and who have seen a ton of them but who have yet to venture into the wonderful world of classical Hollywood cinema. Hopefully you enjoy, after Interstellar, traveling all the way back in time to the black-and-white era
Professional wrestling is an odd phenomenon. Everyone makes fun of how ridiculous it is and yet year after year, decade after decade, it sells out shows and fills arena's. As a form of entertainment it has done exceptionally well.
You know the whole "first impression" thing? I think I got that with Stanwyck. First I noticed her in The Strange Love of Martha Ives (where she was outshined by Kirky Kirk and Van Helfin) and then in Double Indemnity (where the Eddy G-MacMurry interactions were far more impactful than the Stanwyck-MacMurry ones where). So I may be holding her at an artifically low opinion. Still, I haven't seen Lady Eve (or Baby Face). I like her just fine in stuff like Meet John Doe, but can't say it's someone I take notice of.
chickenluver's next Top 10 theme "Top 10 words that Sound better when Sir Laurence Oliver say them." Number 10: Rebecca. 9 Marmalade. 8 Intransigent...
Price just have so many stellar performances that picking one is impossible. Besides those that Bullitt mentioned, Evil Count Prospero in The Red Masque of Death. OG Jigsaw in The Abominable dr Phibes (where he gloriously overacts despite playing mute). But my favorite may be Witchfinder General where he completely plays against type, being restrained and introverted yet chillingly (and self-counciously) evil in a very human way.
Where Montez plays identical twins! So it's twice as good as a normal movie because you get double Montez! (Needless to say, one of them is deliciously evil!)
Yes, but if memory serves, it was probably the least good film of her Universal run, and like in Arabian Nights. her role was more downplayed. Sudan is the movie that you're actually after. Smallest budget but biggest on fun. Easily the best of her Arabesque pictures. Note: the movie Sudan does not actually take place in Sudan (because why would it?)
I think that parenthetical is the key. You know your classic movies more than 99% of this forum, but if you're struggling to come up with actresses with expansive careers then it means you need to watch more of their shit. Aside from the obvious ones
As I mentioned, there are plenty of women who I love in a particular role, but can't really say that they've become a favorited actress as a result. Betty Davis in Marked Woman (whom we discussed), Veronica Lake in This Gun For Hire (seems like a one hit wonder). I think that I just don't tend to notice female actors as much as I do male ones (EDIT: no homo) .
Hey man, I may be able to objectively understand that her and Cary Grant's acting was really great in Penny Serenade. But that movie was just way, waaaay to feminine for me to handle. There is a limit to how much talk about homemaking and babies that I'm able to handle.
While I do like Crawford's and Taylor's pictures, I can't say that I've become attached to them as favorite actresses or anything. Though Taylor in Virginia Woolf was damn good.
5) Cary Grant - This guy is the definition of a movie star. If you look up "movie star" in the dictionary, his picture's the one that should be there. The looks, the voice, the charisma, the talent. He had it all. And he could do heavy drama as well as he could do zany comedy. I've always loved him, and while I'd probably pick either Arsenic and Old Lace or Father Goose as representing his best work, my favorite role of his would have to be the role of C.K. Dexter Haven in The Philadelphia Story. He's charming and hilarious on the outside, but you can still see traces of the wounds left from his and Hepburn's marriage and the way that he tries to convey the carefree guy yet at times can't help but present the hurt and the vulnerability makes for amazing viewing. I also love the way that he whistles to announce his presence. One of my all-time favorite little character quirks.
I would never even have considered On Golden Pond as the pinnacle of his acting. To me, that just felt like a swansong for him and Hepburn. A dignified farwell, showing his skills, but nothing I'd ever put on a pedestal.
7) Kirk Douglas - Still going strong at 102 years old, the fact that this guy's still alive and kicking is a testament to how awesome he is. If you don't like Kirk Douglas movies, then there's something wrong with you. For me, I think that his performance in The Bad and the Beautiful is far and away the best work he ever did. However, my favorite role of his is actually as the nutty rich grandfather in the criminally underrated comedy Greed. You never know when he's pulling your leg, when he's testing you, or when he's being sincere, yet you always have the sense that he's in charge and that there's a reason for everything he does and says. In his final performance before his stroke, Douglas left one final example of his legendary awesomeness.
I considered Kirk Douglas for my nr 10 spot (along with Gregory Peck). While he did do many splendid roles, I think the tipping-point for me is that he doesn't shine as much in B-stuff. If you pick out totally mediocre stuff from his oeuvre, like... [browses IMDB]... The Big Trees, he's not going to improve the picture that much. Now, sure, such examples are true for every actor, even Cagney did stuff like The Time of Your Life and Tribute to a Bad Man. But I think it's a bigger problem with Douglas.
Definitively a testament to his vocal qualities as an actor. But not just the hypnotism. I'm especially thinking of that scene where he is bedridden and being interrogated by Conte (or was it Bickford?). Now, from a power-play position, he should be at a disadvantage in such a condition. But the gravel in his voice just alters your entire impression of the character.
I think Bogart's problem was that he had less range, so his lane was a lot narrower and his star persona was very specific, except that the studio system wasn't about catering projects to the actor's strong suits. When he was in his lane, though, and when he was surrounded by great talent both in front of and behind the camera, then, like you said, he was movie magic.
No joke, because of how much I loved the movie growing up and how shocked I was to learn years later that it was her, I'd have to say that my favorite role of hers is her role as the grandma who inadvertently saves the world in Mars Attacks!
Professional wrestling is an odd phenomenon. Everyone makes fun of how ridiculous it is and yet year after year, decade after decade, it sells out shows and fills arena's. As a form of entertainment it has done exceptionally well.
I keep trying to watch The Cobra Woman w/ my friend, but every time we watch movies together we make a bracketed tournament w/ winners determined by coin flips & it never wins.
Ops! I must have made a copy-paste error. Yeah I've seen Colbert in plenty of stuff. Sign of the Cross, It Happened One Night. Can't say that she's a favorite though.
To even further clutter my Actress List with even more B-movie stars though, I also have to mention Jane from Tarzan, Maureen O'Sullivan. That woman projected warmth and loveliness better than almost anyone. A huge part of why the early Tarzan movies worked so well.
Ops! I must have made a copy-paste error. Yeah I've seen Colbert in plenty of stuff. Sign of the Cross, It Happened One Night. Can't say that she's a favorite though.
Yeah, I was first really into her after seeing her glamour roles in Cleopatra and Sign of the Cross, but even in brilliant movie like It Happened One Night one get's impression, that the movie is great because Capra knows how to use her stuck up screen presence for the good the the film instead of because of Colbert's acting or versatility.
I have to admit, that my knowledge of classical era Hollywood is so spotty, that I have to do two lists. Here’s my top-4 fanboy list of actors and actresses, who’s body of work I’m somewhat familiar with:
Gary Cooper: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
Burt Lancaster: The Train
Barbara Stanwyck: Lady Eve
Orson Welles: Macbeth
And here’s a work-seriously-in-progress -list of actors and actresses that I’m intrugued by and the movie that sparcled that interest:
Betty Davis: All about Eve
Kirk Douglass: Lonely Are the Brave
Cary Grant: Philadelphia Story
Katherine Hepburn: Rooster Cogburn and the Lady
Charles Laughton: Jamaica Inn
Tyrone Power: Jesse James
Edit. HM to Joel McRea, who's kind of in between of those two categories.
Baron of Arizona was interesting. I really liked Price's performance. His Kind of Woman seems dope. Price's character is some kind of matinee idol if I remember correctly.
Professional wrestling is an odd phenomenon. Everyone makes fun of how ridiculous it is and yet year after year, decade after decade, it sells out shows and fills arena's. As a form of entertainment it has done exceptionally well.
You can start here with Hepburn. And obviously all the films/filmmakers/actors that I mention ITT have my ringing endorsement. But beyond all that, if you're looking for checklist-type stuff, I'd recommend the original 1998 AFI list of the 100 greatest movies (https://www.afi.com/100Years/movies.aspx), which has a ton of awesome classics on it, and the various Sight & Sound top 10 lists, which have a great mixture of classic Hollywood films and classic foreign films (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sight_&_Sound#Critics'_Top_Ten_Poll).
After that, you'll start to find the actors you really like, the filmmakers you really like, the genres you really like, etc., and you'll be able to cut your own paths through the classic era. For starters, though, this thread and those lists should provide you with some good checkpoints
I don't remember when/where I first saw her. But, for my money, the best way to cure you of this would be to watch Stella Dallas and/or Clash by Night. The former is IMO her best performance, a real testament to her acting ability, while the latter is a fascinating character embedded in a super underrated late Fritz Lang film. You can't go wrong either way.
But my favorite may be Witchfinder General where he completely plays against type, being restrained and introverted yet chillingly (and self-counciously) evil in a very human way.
I vaguely remember you mentioning this once in the SMD way back in the day. I was surprised by the glowing terms you were using to describe a Vincent Price movie that I'd never even heard of. Then weirdly quick after that I managed to DVR it. Definitely an under-the-radar film of his that should be on more people's radar.
As I mentioned, there are plenty of women who I love in a particular role, but can't really say that they've become a favorited actress as a result. Betty Davis in Marked Woman (whom we discussed), Veronica Lake in This Gun For Hire (seems like a one hit wonder). I think that I just don't tend to notice female actors as much as I do male ones (EDIT: no homo) .
Veronica Lake always served her purpose and served it well but I wouldn't call her a great actress. Bette Davis, though, she's right there with Hepburn at the top of the heap. For a quick little top five recommendation list, if you haven't seen these, try them and she should become an instant favorite:
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex - Literally no one else could've done this role. A painful combination of viciousness and sympathy and it's all a credit to her. (Also, Vincent Price is in this one in a small supporting role right at the start of his career.) As if it's not hard enough to live knowing that she wanted desperately to play Elizabeth opposite Katharine Hepburn's Mary in Mary of Scotland but the studio wouldn't loan her out on her contract, to see what she did here, it's almost too much to bear knowing how awesome it would've been if she could've squared off against Hepburn in the supremely underrated Mary of Scotland.
The Old Maid - I already said my piece on this one.
The Little Foxes - Possibly her most deliciously wicked role with a phenomenal script and some of William Wyler's best direction.
In This Our Life - The most underrated femme fatale in film history and an excellent follow-up from John Huston to his debut with The Maltese Falcon.
Now, Voyager - One of the GOAT classic melodramas played with so much heart by Davis.
Aside from finding Constance Bennett extremely sexy (never been a platinum blonde guy but she makes it work) she was one of the first really good actresses to hit her stride in the sound era. I love her with Cary Grant in Topper - they make one of the funniest/funnest couples in all of cinema - but the go-to film for her would be What Price Hollywood?
And then Claudette Colbert is probably most famous for It Happened One Night but I think she might've done her best work in Since You Went Away. She's also great with Orson Welles in the hidden gem Tomorrow is Forever.
I fucking love that woman. Her best work was in The Best Years of Our Lives IMO, but she's great in everything, from The Prizefighter and the Lady and Manhattan Melodrama to Libeled Lady and Test Pilot to The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer and Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House.
Hey man, I may be able to objectively understand that her and Cary Grant's acting was really great in Penny Serenade. But that movie was just way, waaaay to feminine for me to handle. There is a limit to how much talk about homemaking and babies that I'm able to handle.
That's a great one. Kitty Foyle is the one where she got her Oscar (stealing it from Hepburn for The Philadelphia Story, though ) but I think her best work was in Stage Door (alongside Hepburn ). I also really liked her and Cary Grant in Once Upon a Honeymoon.
While I do like Crawford's and Taylor's pictures, I can't say that I've become attached to them as favorite actresses or anything. Though Taylor in Virginia Woolf was damn good.
Of all the actresses I've listed and discussed, Joan Crawford is the one I've most recently come around on. She's fucking phenomenal. If you haven't seen A Woman's Face, Mildred Pierce, Possessed (the 1947 one, although the 1931 one, which is a completely different movie with the same title, is also very good), or Sudden Fear, I'd recommend them all.
I would never even have considered On Golden Pond as the pinnacle of his acting. To me, that just felt like a swansong for him and Hepburn. A dignified farwell, showing his skills, but nothing I'd ever put on a pedestal.
I haven't watched it in a long time, so maybe I'd take it off the pedestal, but I remember putting it on that pedestal the second that movie was over. He was consistently great all throughout his career, but that's the performance that came with the most power for me.
I considered Kirk Douglas for my nr 10 spot (along with Gregory Peck). While he did do many splendid roles, I think the tipping-point for me is that he doesn't shine as much in B-stuff. If you pick out totally mediocre stuff from his oeuvre, like... [browses IMDB]... The Big Trees, he's not going to improve the picture that much. Now, sure, such examples are true for every actor, even Cagney did stuff like The Time of Your Life and Tribute to a Bad Man. But I think it's a bigger problem with Douglas.
Philly Shell all you want, you throw shade at Kirk Douglas AND James Cagney in one post and I'm coming at you SAFTA style.
Seriously, though, I obviously disagree. He doesn't make shitty movies delightful like Vincent Price, but he's always great even in lesser stuff. Just recently I watched him in two subpar movies, one that was downright terrible (The Arrangement, just a disaster of a movie horribly directed by Elia Kazan) and one that just wasn't very good (There Was a Crooked Man... in which Douglas completely outshines Henry Fonda).
Yeah, I was first really into her after seeing her glamour roles in Cleopatra and Sign of the Cross, but even in brilliant movie like It Happened One Night one get's impression, that the movie is great because Capra knows how to use her stuck up screen presence for the good the the film instead of because of Colbert's acting or versatility.
For me, Gary Cooper is Howard Roark. The scene in The Fountainhead where he's just sitting in the chair, alone in his room, while everyone beyond his closed door is marveling at or arguing over his work, and while Patricia Neal is surely on her way, and he's completely serene, that's the essence of the Randian protagonist right there on the screen.
How can anyone not love Burt Lancaster? Funny story:
Funny exchange:
Personally, my favorite role of his is his role in The Rainmaker. It was like his test run for Elmer Gantry but he's got more heart in the former and he works so well with Hepburn. I also love his vengeful character in I Walk Alone, which I suspect was a huge influence on Scorsese's remake of Cape Fear.
As a follow-up to Jamaica Inn, I'd recommend The Private Life of Henry VIII but you've already seen that, so I'll recommend Advise & Consent if you haven't seen it.
Yeah, he's a popular movie star who's hungry for real adventure, so he hangs around Robert Mitchum like he's his sidekick in an action movie...which he is
If I can jump in here, I'd say for Bergman you go right to the 1941 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde if you haven't seen it. She's AMAZING in that. You could also check out Gaslight and Notorious if you haven't seen them.
I don't know if it works the same way for embedding the clips on here compared to dropping the link itself, but you have to add ?start=X where X is the number of seconds you want the video to begin playing at. So it'd be dailymotion.com/video/thisisthevideo?start=133 for 2 minutes and 13 seconds in.
That’s a cool role by Power. Really interesting movie for that era. I’m looking forward to see the Bill Murray remake someday.
I just got through Blood and Sand (@europe1 too). Gorgeous movie and along Jesse James maybe Tyrone Power’s best. I think he is the Takanori Gomi of classical Hollywood with fearless but childish charisma and boyish but intense looks.
As for Cooper in Fountainhead, I have not seen it in ages, but I liked it. Underrated movie. Mr. Deeds is not a bad Randian hero either...
Thanks for your recomendations btw. I’ll check out some of them for sure.
If I made a Nomination-Week with the theme "I should love these movies. We don't I love these movies?" then The Train would definitively be on it. Lancaster is a great leading-man though. Especially when he's kidnapping Claudia Cardinale along with Lee Marvin
Saskatchewan is quite a good movie, but it's doesn't really stand out that much. It's one of those "What you expect is what you get, but what you expect is pretty good". He wears the exact same costume from Shane despite being a Canadian Mountie. Also, just like Sudan, Saskatchewan doesn't actually take place in Saskatchewan
For Ladd, I would most preferably set my eyes on his early noir work, especially This Gun For Hire which is my silver medalist after Shane. Then there's still like The Glass Key or The Blue Daliah.
@Bullitt68 already dealt with Bergman. But I just thought I'd mention that she played the Batman villain Two-Face in the 1938 Swedish film A Woman's Face.
I vaguely remember you mentioning this once in the SMD way back in the day. I was surprised by the glowing terms you were using to describe a Vincent Price movie that I'd never even heard of. Then weirdly quick after that I managed to DVR it. Definitely an under-the-radar film of his that should be on more people's radar.
Umm... I've seen those flicks. Honestly, I can't say that I remember any of them that well. I thought Elizabeth and Our Life was okay. Voyager was pretty good though, especially with Hitler-Mom around.
I fucking love that woman. Her best work was in The Best Years of Our Lives IMO, but she's great in everything, from The Prizefighter and the Lady and Manhattan Melodrama to Libeled Lady and Test Pilot to The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer and Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House.
I agree that he's boyish and intense but I can't rate him that highly (haven't seen Zorro though). But was machismo up the wazzu in Blood and Sand, though!
The Philidelphia Story takes the victory! Get ready for a Hepburn, Grant, Stewart trifecta! Anyone who shows up and trashes the remake High Society will get an extra film to nominate on their week of Nomination.
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