TCM: The Greatest Movie Channel

[elle]

I would think Moulin Rouge would be the best thing ZZG did on film--has anyone seen Death of a Scoundrel, which she did with her one-time husband George Sanders?  I never did.  Supposedly when they were married ZZ thought she should be in All About Eve--as Phoebe or maybe Miss Caswell.  I think she was pretty effective in Lili.

While she didn't have a spectacular career either, I think Eva Gabor was the better actress of the sisters.  Zsa Zsa had her share of bottom of the barrel stuff like Queen of Outer Space and Picture Mommy Dead.  How do I know these films?  Don't ask.

She has been quoted as saying that of all her husbands , George Sanders was the one she truly loved and never stopped loving.

 

I agree that Eva was the better actress!  There was a TCM clip of someone commenting on how she has this small role in Gigi and that she steals every scene she is in.

 

How do you know those movies?  TCM, of course!

 

---------------

Just wanted to mention to anyone who hasn't seen this week's Essentials "The Nun's Story" (as I hadn't), it's On Demand and is a great Zinneman film. As usual, it still includes the intro by Sally Field and Osbourne (mostly the former; I didn't get the feeling Osbourne saw it with the same enthusiasm). In any case, I completely agree with her about Audrey Hepburn's wonderful performance --she is so believable, her struggle  for humility in the service of God so convincing and uncliched, and the film has so much emotion even in its most quiet moments.

Robert Wolders, Audrey's partner, had said in an interview that is one movie of hers that he can not watch because it is so very personal.  It reminded him of how Audrey was in her real life.

 

 

 

I don't know if I'd say recommend, because José Ferrer in Very Important Movie mode* makes my teeth hurt

How did you feel about him in War and Peace?

 

Has anyone been watching the new adaptation?  If so, can someone explain how Henry Fonda made the character so much more interesting and sympathetic in the King Vidor movie?  (Besides saying "it is Henry Fonda.")

Edited February 7, 2016 by elle

[Rinaldo]

Lili is a good choice. My first thought for her would be Moulin Rouge. (Dubbed singing and all.)

[Julia]

How do you feel about him in War and Peace?

I'm afraid I've never gotten through it. Or 2001, or Lawrence of Arabia, or The Longest Day, or any number of other things I should have seen. I may just be allergic to epics in general.

[Milburn Stone]

I tried with Lawrence of Arabia this time. I really tried.

[Wiendish Fitch]

QUOTE

I don't know if I'd say recommend, because José Ferrer in Very Important Movie mode* makes my teeth hurt

How did you feel about him in War and Peace[/i}?

 

 

You're confusing Jose Ferrer with Mel Ferrer (for the record, no relation). Jose was a good actor, though I had no problem seeing his pompous image lampooned in The Band Wagon (and, ye gods, was Cyrano de Bergerac dull). Mel was... meh. I think he was the type of actor who really, really, really needed something to work with. Great actors can make something out of nothing, but Mel was not that kind of actor. He may as well be furniture for all he contributes in War and Peace (though, to be fair, Prince Andrei isn't the most riveting of characters). 

 

For the three good Mel Ferrer performances, I highly recommend Lili, Scaramouche, and the delectably campy Born to be Bad. 

 

Coming full circle, since people were discussing Audrey Hepburn, Ferrer was apparently a lousy husband to her. Anyone who can't be good and true to Audrey Hepburn gets no sympathy from me. 

[elle]

You're confusing Jose Ferrer with Mel Ferrer (for the record, no relation).

Yep.  I usually do.  Thanks for correcting that!  I did not realize that Zsa Zsa had co-starred with each of them (Moulin Rouge and Lili)

 

 

 

I tried with Lawrence of Arabia this time. I really tried.

Speaking of Ferrer...I usually stop watching that movie well before Jose Ferrer appears.  It is one of many epics that I usually do not watch all the way through.  While it would be interesting to see some of them on the big screen, I know I just could not stay the whole length.

 

The exception to that is The Longest Day.  I will stop what I'm doing to watch that.

 

I'm afraid I've never gotten through it. Or 2001, or Lawrence of Arabia, or The Longest Day, or any number of other things I should have seen. I may just be allergic to epics in general.

Did you survive the 1997 Titanic? ;o)

Edited February 7, 2016 by elle

[Julia]

Did you survive the 1997 Titanic? ;o)

Yeah, no. :(

There's just something about a movie where I'm more or less ordered to be awed that makes my eyes glaze over.

Edited February 7, 2016 by Julia

[Milburn Stone]

There's just something about a movie where I'm more or less ordered to be awed that makes my eyes glaze over.

 

This is part of my problem with Lawrence. But also, in a way I can't really articulate or defend, I feel it's dumb. At one and the same time some things are not sufficiently clear, while other things are way over-explained. You can feel the screenplay straining for intelligence and wit and never quite achieving it.

 

In contrast, The Revenant (which I saw recently) puts some scenery in front of you that actually makes you go OMG. It's not that the scenery is necessarily more awesome than that in Lawrence. It's more like you feel you're seeing it because that's where the story is. Again, I'm having a hard time articulating why Lawrence is so annoying, because you could say the same thing about Lawrence, and yet something gets in the way. I do think it's the script.

Edited February 7, 2016 by Milburn Stone

[Padma]

On at least one occasion, Pauline Kael remarked that yet another new movie had used Hepburn for her appeal and charm (which of course she had in abundance) without writing a rewarding role for her, and asked "What about Hepburn the actress, the one who gave a magnificent performance in The Nun's Story?"

So true. I went back to look at her list of dramas and, while she's good in everything, of course, even something like "Wait Until Dark" where she learned Braille, nothing comes close to the acting demands of "The Nun's Story".  Interesting to think, per post above about her husband, that that was so much as she was in real life.

 

Re: Zsa Zsa, I thought at first it was about Eva and also thought of Gigi where she really was wonderful. (Then, again, I enjoyed her with E.A. on "Green Acres"--somehow can't picture her sister in that part at all). I'd probably recommend they see "Moulin Rouge" and then watch her on a talk show. For me, that's kind of where she really shone most, as a larger-than-life television personality.

 

And re: Jose Ferrer. Just off Fred McMurray month reminds me of the performance I liked of his as the lawyer defending Van Johnson in "The Caine Mutiny". He did a good job with that character's unique point of view toward the man -we're- seeing, clearly, as a hero.  (Then again, I gather "disdain" came rather easily for him IRL, too).

 

Glad to see others struggle to make it through "Lawrence". I gave it a try (again) last week and as I was feeling I didn't like it much, I looked up info on the real TE Lawrence and decided the movie veered too far from facts---therein giving me "permission" to turn it off, rather than distort my understanding of that time period. (Did learn that Wm Shatner must have been thinking that mimicking Lean with his "alien arriving at a watering hole" shot in "Star Trek V" would somehow improve his directing. So, I got something out of the effort at least -- and remembering the beautiful score.)  I'm a big David Lean fan otherwise, just not that one. 

[ratgirlagogo]

 

This is part of my problem with Lawrence. But also, in a way I can't really articulate or defend, I feel it's dumb. At one and the same time some things are not sufficiently clear, while other things are way over-explained. You can feel the screenplay straining for intelligence and wit and never quite achieving it.

I feel like this as well.   The politics of the whole thing are murky and complicated (I mean the real-life politics historically) and yes, the script isn't very illuminating about them.  So you're left with Lawrence and how his need to live a Big Life full of risk and adventure kind of pushes him into this arena, and I keep waiting for the movie to explain to me why Lawrence is either heroic or anti-heroic, or even important in terms of the conflict.   O'Toole and Sharif are so handsome, and the cinematography is breathtaking.  And in a way that's mostly what I remember, the impressive visual spectacle.  And the score.

Edited February 7, 2016 by ratgirlagogo

[elle]

This is part of my problem with Lawrence. But also, in a way I can't really articulate or defend, I feel it's dumb. At one and the same time some things are not sufficiently clear, while other things are way over-explained. You can feel the screenplay straining for intelligence and wit and never quite achieving it.

 

In contrast, The Revenant (which I saw recently) puts some scenery in front of you that actually makes you go OMG. It's not that the scenery is necessarily more awesome than that in Lawrence. It's more like you feel you're seeing it because that's where the story is. Again, I'm having a hard time articulating why Lawrence is so annoying, because you could say the same thing about Lawrence, and yet something gets in the way. I do think it's the script.

 

 

I feel like this as well.   The politics of the whole thing are murky and complicated (I mean the real-life politics historically) and yes, the script isn't very illuminating about them.  So you're left with Lawrence and how his need to live a Big Life full of risk and adventure kind of pushes him into this arena, and I keep waiting for the movie to explain to me why Lawrence is either heroic or anti-heroic, or even important in terms of the conflict.   O'Toole and Sharif are so handsome, and the cinematography is breathtaking.  And in a way that's mostly what I remember, the impressive visual spectacle.  And the score.

Both of you have articulated very well how I feel about Doctor Zhivago, as well as, LoA.  As said before, I usually do not watch the films in their entirity, rather catching favorite scenes.  What you said, ratgirlagogo about the O'Toole and Sharif and the cinematography fits how I feel about DZ, with the exception of O'Toole, of course not being in that movie.

 

How to Steal a Million is a go to movie for me for the beauty of the actors as well as the winsome, wink of the eye fun.

 

I enjoy Alec Guinness in most any role, but for some reason, I do not like him in LoA whereas I find him a key player in DZ.  Maybe because he is in a way representing the viewpoint of the viewer and is also their (our) guide to the story.

[ratgirlagogo]

 

How to Steal a Million is a go to movie for me for the beauty of the actors as well as the winsome, wink of the eye fun.

Oh yes, I've always liked that movie also for both of them.

[Wiendish Fitch]

Man, I always believed Audrey Hepburn had zero competition in the pretty department, but I was wrong: Peter O'Toole in How to Steal a Million gives her a serious run for her money.

 

You gotta love the wholesome, but no less fanservice-y introductory shot of O'Toole's famous baby blues peeking over the frame of the painting. William Wyler knew what the ladies in the audience wanted to see!

Edited February 7, 2016 by Wiendish Fitch

[elle]

From the review of "Hail, Ceaser" at the.slate.com

 

 

Baird Whitlock’s biblical epic looks hammy enough to eat for Christmas dinner while TCM would be too embarrassed to play Hobie Doyle’s latest oater at any hour of the night.

This is the second review for that movie, the first mentioned here a page or two back, that I've seen a reference to TCM as a touchstone for "classic" movies.  I'm not sure if I should think "Cool!" or "oh, no the secret is out!"

 

I do disagree with the reviewer.  I can't think of any movie of the classic age of Hollywood that TCM would be embarrassed to show.  In fact they would probably feature it, as they would with cheesy sci fi movies.

Edited February 7, 2016 by elle

[Inquisitionist]

I've only watched Lawrence of Arabia in a movie theater.  No desire to see it on a small screen, even the "big" one in my living room.

 

The theater was Coolidge Corner in Brookline, MA.  Packed house from 8 pm to midnight, with applause at the end.  :-)

[prican58]

Man, I always believed Audrey Hepburn had zero competition in the pretty department, but I was wrong: Peter O'Toole in How to Steal a Million gives her a serious run for her money.

 

Wiendish Fitch, kind of like Garbo and Robert Taylor in Camille. Not much of a RT fan but damn it, he is more beautiful than she is!!

 

Re Lawrence, I did see it at the late lamented Ziegfeld Theater in NYC when it was re released after being restored a couple decades ago and it was thrilling. I rarely watch it on tv except for when I feel like being dazzled by the beauty of Peter and Omar. It is rather glorious on the big screen.  

 

Cannot sit through Zhivago and I love me some Julie Christie. 

Edited February 8, 2016 by prican58

[Julia]

My actor eye candy film from that period is Becket, which I know is a little weird, but it's such a beautiful movie.

[elle]

My actor eye candy film from that period is Becket, which I know is a little weird, but it's such a beautiful movie.

i understand!  Not only is beautiful but it is also riveting, mmv.

 

My movie story for that movie sends me back to senior year of high school.  I was kind of the "odd" one ;0) since I love old movies rather than current fare.  So, imagine my surprise and delight when our teacher had us watch Beckett in class.  My classmates were completely enthralled by the drama, absolute silence in the classroom as the movie played on a TV.  There were even requests to watch it again, if we had time later in the year.

[prican58]

elle, I have a similar feeling for A Man For All Seasons. Back in high school it debuted on tv with much fanfare, my English teacher told us to watch it. Grudgingly I did but I was enthralled! Ever since then I have a soft spot for movies about that era and I relish them. Love Becket, too. O'Toole and Burton are so fascinating.

 

If I ever meet these folks in the afterlife I would love to watch these two, Richard Harris and Oliver Reed hang out and talk. 

[Padma]

Beckett's wonderful and then there's also O'Toole as King Henry II again in one of my all-time favorites, "The Lion in Winter".

 

I suppose TCM doesn't have the rights to "Lawrence of Arabia", but if they did, it would be a perfect one for their "Films in local theater" program ( . I think it would probably be quite mesmerizing in a theater, even for those of us who can't get through it at home.

[ratgirlagogo]

Set your DVR, Rinaldo.  Broadway Melody is on TCM this Wednesday at 9:45 AM.

[Julia]

Set your DVR, Rinaldo.  Broadway Melody is on TCM this Wednesday at 9:45 AM.

I have to admit, I'm on tenterhooks to hear what you think.

[Rinaldo]

Set your DVR, Rinaldo.  Broadway Melody is on TCM this Wednesday at 9:45 AM.

Already done. Every Sunday I scope out the week ahead. Let's see if this time it's what it says.

[bluepiano]

Sometimes there's a movie you saw in your youth that had a tremendous impact on you, and that has taken on almost mythic proportions in your mind. And then you see it again after many years, and it's a bit of a dissapointment.

 

Well, thanks to TCM for showing The Hustler, which was every bit as great as I remembered. Maybe better, because when I was young Paul Newman was my favorite actor, so it was largely about Newman. It's still maybe the ultimate Newman performance, but the rest of the cast is great too, and I was just blown away at the artistry of the filmmaking. The direction, cinematography, editing (by Dede Allen, who later cut those great Sidney Lumet New York movies), art direction, music are all top notch and contribute to the experience.

 

Recently there were some posts here about black and white vs. color. The Hustler is a great example of how in the '60s people were choosing to still use black and white in order to make an artistic statement. I just can not imagine the movie in color.

 

Would it be too clichéd to say that they just don't make movies with this kind of integrity anymore? There is not a single moment where you feel that the filmmakers are pandering to the audience or thinking about box office. It's honest, gritty, uncompromising, and pretty strong medicine in terms of what it says about human beings and how we live. It's a masterpiece.

Edited February 9, 2016 by bluepiano

[Wiendish Fitch]

 

Would it be too clichéd to say that they just don't make movies with this kind of integrity anymore? There is not a single moment where you feel that the filmmakers are pandering to the audience or thinking about box office. It's honest, gritty, uncompromising, and pretty strong medicine in terms of what it says about human beings and how we live. It's a masterpiece.

 

I couldn't agree more. Sometimes "clichéd" is another word for "true". 

[Rinaldo]

I agree with the sentiment, but I would make it more specific as "they don't make movies like this as mainstream entertainment any more." We could probably find gritty uncompromising movies these days as low-budget indie productions that are seen in a handful of theaters for a week or two and then turn up on cable for a while and are written up as "overlooked." But not from the big studios, with popular stars, as a major release. 

[bluepiano]

Rinaldo, it's gotten crazy expensive to make and distribute even a small independent movie, so there's a lot of fund raising required, and it's harder to fundraise for a movie with a realistic or downbeat theme. Most of the independent movies I've seen in the past couple of years have been comedies or "feel good" movies. (That's in the US. There are definitely a lot more movies made tacking gritty subject matter in other parts of the world).

 

TCM recently showed two great low-budget film noirs from the '40s, Deadline and Dawn and Phantom Lady. Those are the kinds of incredibly well-made, small gems we won't ever see again. (Both based on novels by Cornell Woolrich, by the way.)

Edited February 10, 2016 by bluepiano

[Crisopera]

Ooh, Phantom Lady!  That's a good one.  The scene where Elisha Cook Jr. basically orgasms while playing a drum solo is quite...surprising for a 1940s movie.  And I really like Ella Raines in it - I'm sorry her career never really took off.

 

I do think that the only way to really appreciate just how breathtaking Lawrence of Arabia is, is to see it in a movie theater.  I would never want to watch it on my 32" TV, no matter how HD it is.  The scene where Omar Sharif appears out of the shimmering desert is never-to-be-forgotten.

 

Watched Broadway Melody of 1936 recently - man, that's one odd movie. The plotline doesn't make any sense at all.  Some of the numbers are worth seeing, and it's interesting to see June Knight (playing the badly written "other woman" character), since she had introduced "Begin the Beguine" in a short-lived musical called Jubilee, just the previous year.  "Broadway Rhythm" is a pretty great number, though.

[ratgirlagogo]

 

I do think that the only way to really appreciate just how breathtaking Lawrence of Arabia is, is to see it in a movie theater.  I would never want to watch it on my 32" TV, no matter how HD it is.  The scene where Omar Sharif appears out of the shimmering desert is never-to-be-forgotten.

I was dragged by a friend to see the revival of it at the Ziegfield (R.I.P) many moons ago and I agree that you can't enjoy the visual/aural spectacle properly on a  television or a computer monitor or a phone or whatever goddamn thing people watch movies on today.  Just not that crazy about it for the reasons I gave above, but yes it's really beautiful.

[bluepiano]

Yes, that drumming scene in Phantom Lady is quite something, and has been frequently written by, both because of how amazingly it's shot and edited, and because of its sheer audaciousness. And also as an example of the kind of thing that you could do in a B movie, but never in a mainstream Hollywood movie. Which is why many B (and "poverty row") movies from the 40s and 50s hold up better and are more fun to watch today than the "classy" movies that the studios prided themselves on.

 

There's a great moment in that scene when Ella Raines, pretending to be a floozie to get information from Elisha Cook Jr., stares at herself in the mirror as if she suddenly doesn't recognize herself. It's like she's thinking, "is that really me," because some part of her is enjoying this role playing, and being at this basement jam session drinking whiskey from a paper cup. She turns away from the mirror and throws herself into the music, shaking her hips and raising her arms in exultation. It's a great little moment, so well acted by Raines. She is really good throughout. (I remember reading that she married an Air Force general and retired from movies to live with him at the Air Force Academy in Colorado.)

 

Robert Siodmak, who directed Phantom Lady, also gave us a great scene involving music in one of all-time favorite noirs, Criss Cross, with Burt Lancaster and Yvonne DeCarlo. Lancaster sees DeCarlo in a nightclub, dancing to a Cuban band, and he's mesmerized. As in the scene in Phantom Lady, the rhythmic cutting between the faces of the actors and the musicians builds great excitement and perfectly captures the sensual feeling of the music. Siodmak was one of the German émigré directors, but he obviously had a great appreciation for American (including Latin American) music.

Edited February 11, 2016 by bluepiano

[prican58]

DeCarlo was really one of the unsung beauties of old Hollywood. Yes she was famous and her beauty was no doubt noted but her name doesn't come up when you immediately think of the gorgeous women of then. Yeah, Gardner, Hayworth etc but Lily Munster has them all beat. Okay, maybe second to Ingrid Bergman (my personal fave) but way above Ava and Rita.

[Crisopera]

I think we've already had a discussion about the most beautiful women of Old Hollywood (my personal favorite is Ava Gardner), but how about the most gorgeous men?  I'll kick it off with Errol Flynn and Paul Newman.  Genuine masculine beauty.

[Inquisitionist]

I never tire of looking at Cary Grant, whether in his 30s or in his silver-haired 60s.  From the next generation, Paul Newman was a veritable Adonis.  This scene from The Long Hot Summer is swoonworthy.  Mah smellin' salts, please!

[Rinaldo]

He wouldn't otherwise come to mind as an immortal screen icon, but there was a period in which Ryan O'Neal had as much onscreen magnetism as any leading man I can think of. The Thief Who Came To Dinner, in particular, really presents him as a gleaming object of desire (as is Jacqueline Bisset alongside him); unfortunately I can't find a still online that really does justice to that, though I recall some publicity posters that did. In my opinion, it becomes a subtext (I'd love to know how deliberate) that he, the thief, wins over the men in the story (Warren Oates, Austin Pendleton) by sheer confident sexual magnetism.

[Julia]

He wouldn't otherwise come to mind as an immortal screen icon, but there was a period in which Ryan O'Neal had as much onscreen magnetism as any leading man I can think of. The Thief Who Came To Dinner, in particular, really presents him as a gleaming object of desire (as is Jacqueline Bisset alongside him); unfortunately I can't find a still online that really does justice to that, though I recall some publicity posters that did. In my opinion, it becomes a subtext (I'd love to know how deliberate) that he, the thief, wins over the men in the story (Warren Oates, Austin Pendleton) by sheer confident sexual magnetism.

I'll have to look for that. I really enjoyed his Bogdanovich comedies, but I so much didn't enjoy Love Story and Barry Lyndon that I sort of gave up on him. Maybe as a leading man he's only as good as his leading lady? He's got a nice character part as Emily Deschanel's lovable murderous sociopathic father in Bones.

Ronald Colman for me.

[Crisopera]

Ooh, Ronald Colman.  Sigh.  He was almost unbelievably handsome in his silent movies (and sound as well, of course - that voice didn't hurt).

[henrysmom]

Always and forever Cary Grant, but I definitely second Errol Flynn and Ronald Colman (that voice!--I could listen to him for hours).

 

And also the young (1920s and 30s) Gary Cooper.  Has anybody seen an obscure little film from 1928 called Doomsday?  I loved that one.

[mariah23]

Anyone notice how blue and sparkling the young Henry Fonda's eyes were?

[Rinaldo]

And also the young (1920s and 30s) Gary Cooper.  

Last year I read Simon Callow's biography of Charles Laughton. He reports that when Laughton moved to LA and started making pictures there, the actor he admired (and continued to admire) above all others was Gary Cooper. There were reasons enough to admire his talent, but it's not unreasonable to imagine that there was also an element of "I wish I looked like that" too.

Edited February 12, 2016 by Rinaldo

[Wiendish Fitch]

He's far from everyone's favorite actor, but Charlton Heston in his prime was a fine lookin' man, especially in Ben-Hur. He had some nice guns... er, by "guns", I mean biceps, the literal guns wouldn't come 'til later.

 

Burt Lancaster, Paul Newman, and Christopher Plummer were all gorgeous. Peter O'Toole and Richard Burton were both pretty dreamy until alcoholism exacerbated the ravages of middle age.

[Milburn Stone]

Last year I read Simon Callow's biography of Charles Laughton. He reports that when Laughton moved to LA and starting making pictures there, the actor he admired (and continued to admire) above all others was Gary Cooper. There were reasons enough to admire his talent, but it's not unreasonable to imagine that there was also an element of "I wish I looked like that" too.

 

I find that interesting, because Laughton's "instrument" was so full of colors, while Cooper's instrument was close to monochromatic. I wonder what it was he admired. If you can summarize without going to too much trouble, I'll appreciate it.

[Sharpie66]

Burt Lancaster in The Crimson Pirate had my tongue hanging out, especially when he was just wearing the striped leggings. That man was FINE! Especially his chest.

[Rinaldo]

Laughton's "instrument" was so full of colors, while Cooper's instrument was close to monochromatic. I wonder what it was he admired. 

I admit that I mentioned Laughton's opinion in the first place because yes, it is a little surprising that he would think so. Though, on reflection, don't we all envy the qualities in others that we feel we lack ourselves? (There are plenty of movies on that theme, starting with The Way We Were.) Anyway, here's a quote from Simon Callow's Charles Laughton: A Difficult Actor, with elisions. (Callow is himself an actor of course, as well as a very experienced writer.)

[in The Devil and the Deep] it's not Laughton's fault that Tallulah's performance, dismissed at the time by both critics and herself, now seems an extraordinarily original portrait of an unfulfilled and oppressed woman, bored and unhappy, oddly attached to the paranoiacally jealous husband that Laughton plays. No doubt the wheel of fashion has turned to Laughton's disadvantage in this film, but now it is the uptight naval commander teetering on the brink of insanity who seems banal and obvious, while Bankhead's doomed chain-smoking beauty ... is startlingly real. Cooper, too, with his voluptuously gentle masculinity and nearly wooden delivery, is spellbinding in a way that Laughton, infinitely the superior technician, and in a sense the more commanding personality, cannot manage. It is impressive, in a stagey way, but in terms of his development as a film actor, it is prentice work.

 

He knew it, too. He immediately recognized in Gary Cooper something that was essential to film acting. "He gets at it from the inside, from his own clear way of looking at life," he said in an interview. For the rest of his life he always cited Cooper as the paragon of film acting ...

 

[xaxat]

Burt Lancaster in The Crimson Pirate had my tongue hanging out, especially when he was just wearing the striped leggings. That man was FINE! Especially his chest.

And he still looked great twenty five years later when all he wore were swim trunks for The Swimmer. 

 

For me, as a straight man, what puts him at the top is his amazing smile. He really could light up the screen.

 

I enjoy it when TCM runs movies that relate to current films. Right now I'm watching Marooned.  I don't know if the author of the book was influenced by it, but I can see so much of it in The Martian.

Edited February 13, 2016 by xaxat

[ratgirlagogo]

 

He's far from everyone's favorite actor, but Charlton Heston in his prime was a fine lookin' man, especially in Ben-Hur. He had some nice guns... er, by "guns", I mean biceps, the literal guns wouldn't come 'til later

I always enjoyed him on that level.  He was forty-five when he did Planet of the Apes and he still looked great without his clothes.  I love him in the super-heated The Naked Jungle with the very hot Eleanor Parker, and in the Big Country where he seems to be having a kind of gorgeousness contest against co-star Gregory Peck.

[Padma]

Charlton Heston was great looking but I think I really underestimated him as an actor because of the idea he was kind of hammy after all the period pieces (and the NRA advocacy didn't help either). But I really enjoyed him in Planet of the Apes (one of my favorite sci-fi movies) and also was lucky to see him live as the lead in "The Crucible" where, again, he wasn't afraid to bring an intensity that could have been over the top but imo really wasn't. 

 

For the last two weeks I've been "required" to watch many episodes of "Secrets of War" all of which he narrates. I've been impressed with him as a narrator, including how smooth and accurate he was with the often difficult pronunciation in the episode on Mao's China. Nice to see him getting some love! I think he's a little under-appreciated.

[Rinaldo]

He became a kind of parody (offscreen as well as on) in his later years, but it's valuable to remember that he wasn't always. His book which is his diary for a couple of decades, interspersed with his later reactions when rereading, is informative in this respect -- like some others as they age, he was really a disillusioned liberal. It's interesting that when he appeared onstage (and he did keep returning to the stage, as few movie stars on his level do), he repeatedly chose to play opposite Vanessa Redgrave, whom one might have thought incompatible with him politically.

 

Another little showcase for his speaking skills is his cameo as Leading Player in Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet film. He does achieve the necessary oratorical magic in his big "Priam and Hecuba" speech.

[Milburn Stone]

His book which is his diary for a couple of decades, interspersed with his later reactions when rereading, is informative in this respect -- like some others as they age, he was really a disillusioned liberal.

 

He wrote an autobio in 1995, but I'm assuming this is the one from 1976, called The Actor's Life: Journals?

[prican58]

We all probably overlap on these men but I have to put Douglas Fairbanks, Jr on the top of mine. So.Damn.Gorgeous.

I always appreciate Cooper more when I see his early films, especially "Wings".

Olivier is also a guy that knocks me out. When Heathcliff comes back all cleaned up in that black suit, I remember being stunned when I first saw it as a young teen.

I also think Basil Rathbone was a stunner, though in a more unconventional way. Maybe it was that nose and mustache that gave him a sort of regal look.

Surely someone out there agrees with this... John Wayne. Seriously, he is beautiful is Stagecoach.

Robert Mitchum. Yeah. Sleepy eyes, barrel chest, the I don't care attitude. 

 

Re Heston, IIRC he was at the D.C. gathering when MLK gave his I have a dream speech. Correct me if I am wrong.

Edited February 13, 2016 by prican58

[Julia]

Heston was a progressive for years. It's not his later politics that put me off him, though. He just developed an acting style over the years that seemed really grandiose to me, and I didn't particularly admire his looks (although I know he was an attractive man).

I did think he and Vanessa Redgrave did a surprisingly good job in what I would have thought was the impossible job of following Paul Scofield and Wendy Hiller in Man for All Seasons.