Alan’s Favorite Actresses
- Barbara Stanwyck
- Shirley McLaine
- Agnes Moorhead
- Marilyn Monroe
- Deborah Kerr
- Ava Gardner
- Gloria Grahame
- Teresa Wright
- Ida Lupino
- Dorothy McGuire
- Jean Simmons
Alan’s Favorite Actors
- Frederic March
- Melvyn Douglas
- Lee Marvin
- Kirk Douglas
- Gary Cooper
- Walter Matthau
- Humphrey Bogart
- Robert Mitchum
- John Garfield
- Paul Newman
- Sidney Poitier
Photo by twm1340 - John Cassavetes
- James Whitmore
- Jack Warden
- Burt Lancaster
- James Cagney
- Joseph Cotten
- Orson Welles
Brian’s Favorite Actresses
- Bette Davis
- Patricia Neal
- Claire Trevor
- Jean Arthur
-
Cropped screenshot of Bette Davis from the film Hell’s House. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) - Barbara Stanwyck
- Teresa Wright
- Deborah Kerr
- Gloria Grahame
- Shelley Winters
- Eva Marie Saint
Brian’s Favorite Actors
- Melvyn Douglas
- Frederic March
- Sterling Hayden
- Lee J. Cobb
- Lee Marvin
- Tony Franciosa
- Walter Matthau
- John Garfield
- Humphrey Bogart
- Paul Muni
- Jack Albertson
- John Cassavetes
- Jack Nicholson
- Richard Boone
- Claude Raines
- Cary Grant
Brian’s Favorite Movies
- Best Years of Our Lives
- Asphalt Jungle
- The Subject was Roses
- Treaure of the Sierra Madre
- Hombre
- Shane
- On her Majesty’s Secret Service
- Wuthering Heights
- North by Northwest
- The Fountainhead
- The Seven Year Itch
- The Apartment
- Cat Ballou
- Dirty Dozen
- The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
Patterns
You take me on as someone who hates you down to the raw nerve!”
Although Rod Serling is best known for TV’s “Twilight Zone”, he is also remembered for writing “Requiem for a Heavyweight”. A lesser known, but equally important work was “Patterns”.
“Patterns” tells the story of an Ohio engineer, Fred Staples (Van Heflin) being
hired by a large New York conglomerate, not knowing he is being groomed by the despotic corporate boss, Walter Ramsey (Everett Sloane) to take over the No. 2 man, Bill Briggs(Ed Begley)’s job in the corporation. Briggs has worked for the company for many years, remembering and admiring the founder (Ramsey’s father) and the way he cared about the employees, unlike the son who is ruthless , dictatorial, and cares only about the bottom line. Briggs despises Ramsey and Ramsey goes out of his way to viciously abuse and belittle him in an almost transparent effort to get Briggs to resign. Fred Staples finds himself in the uncomfortable position of wanting the high-powered position but hating the poisonous corporate politics. Staples likes Briggs and is astonished at the vitriolic attacks on Briggs by Ramsey, wondering why he doesn’t simply resign and collect his pension. But Briggs won’t give Ramsey the satifaction.
The acting is superlative all around , but special mention must go to Everett Sloane’s mesmerizing portrayal of the tyrannical corporate boss Walter Ramsey. His boardroom tirades are electrifying to watch. Van Heflin’s characterization of the decent Fred Staples is equally as effective. The confrontation between Staples and Ramsey at the end of the film is worth the price of admission alone! Sample dialogue: “You take me on as someone who hates you down to the raw nerve!”
Quote from?
I was born with this on my back. I didn’t grow it myself.
The Asphalt Jungle
I was born with this on my back. I didn’t grow it myself.
This brilliant John Huston film is one of the finest examples of film noir ever made. The plot revolves around a jewellery heist engineered by recently paroled master criminal “Doc” Reidenschneider (Sam Jaffe). To pull off the caper, he needs a safe-cracker, a get-away driver and a strong-arm man ( ” a hooligan” ) and $50,000 to pay the three men. He gets the names of these men from Cobby the bookie who also tells him he can get the financing from corrupt
lawyer Alonzo Emmerich (Louis Calhern). Through unforeseen circumstances, the well-planned caper goes awry in more ways than one.
What follows is a taut and
suspenseful crime drama to the very end. The hooligan ,Dix Handley, is played by Sterling Hayden in a magnificent performance; Dix’s friend, the hunch-backed diner owner Gus (James Whitmore) is the driver. Marc Lawrence plays the part of Cobby the bookie. Marilyn Monroe is perfectly cast in the small but important role as the ravishing young mistress/girlfriend of lawyer Emmerich.
Sterling Hayden is absolutely the right actor to play Dix. With his heavyweight boxer’s frame, gravelly voice, and angry glare, he literally embodies the role: he exudes menace! All of the performances in the movie are first-class, with special mention going to James Whitmore as Gus and Sam Jaffe as Doc.
As well as directing the film, John Huston co-wrote the screenplay, adapted from the novel by W. R. Burnett. The hard-boiled and realistic dialogue is vivid and very believable. One of the best lines goes to Whitmore’s character, Gus. After being called a cripple-back, Gus replies: “I was born with this on my back. I didn’t grow it myself.” The film is filled with wonderful dialogue like this.
A must-see film – the viewer is compelled to keep watching from start to finish!
My First Movie
For as long as I can remember, I have always loved going to the movies.
I was probably only 5 years old when I first saw a movie.
It was “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and it was playing at the lone theater in our small town.
Before the main feature, there was a Three Stooges short, something about the boys accidentally being shot into space by pressing the wrong button inside a spaceship! The year was 1960 and our mother had taken my brother and I to the Saturday matinee (I remember it was a very hot summer day) and we were excited.
I still remember the thrill of the lights going down, the curtain drawing back, the stereophonic sound. I especially remember munching on pocorn out of a box with the picture of a circus clown on it. And then the big screen filled up with these towering images. To a 5-year old, they were astouding, exhilarating, magical! I was absolutely thrilled by the sounds, the music, the beautiful colours.
When the movie ended and the lights came up, I looked around the theatre and thought, “Wow, that was a lot of fun!”
Bad Day at Black Rock
In this suspenseful film, Spencer Tracy stars as John J. Macreedy, a one-armed retired Army veteran who arrives in Black Rock, an isolated desert town in the American Southwest right after WWII; he is there to deliver a posthumous military medal to Komoko, the father of the man who saved Macreedy’s life during the war.
He immediately encounters suspicion and hostility from the townspeople – Black Rock is essentially ruled by rancher Reno Smith (Robert Ryan) along with his henchmen Hector (Lee Marvin) and Coley (Ernest Borgnine).
It soon becomes apparent that the town of Black Rock harbors a deep dark secret involving Komoko – The alcoholic sheriff (Dean Jagger) is of no help as he’s terrified of Smith. The undertaker/veterinarian (Walter Brennan) advises Macreedy to leave Black Rock as soon as possible but also informs him that Komoko is dead.
Visiting Komoko’s homestead in Adobe Flats, Macreedy finds it’s been burned to the ground but also that there are wildflowers growing, indicative of a buried body. When Macreedy tries to phone the state police, the hotel operator won’t put the call through. When he sends a telegram, the telegram is unsent. Since Macreedy arrived by train, he has no car to leave town; when he arrived, it was the first time in years that the train had stopped in Black Rock. How does he get out of this mess?
See Bad Day at Black Rock and find out!
Ernest Borgnine turns in a wonderful performance here as the mean thug/bully Coley.
The scene in the diner where he picks a fight with Spencer Tracy is terrific!
Lee Marvin is very effective as the menacing Hector, and,as usual, Robert Ryan and Tracy turn in sterling work.
A splendid film.