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GREAT STARS OF THE PAST YOU JUST DON'T LIKE

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jmaci(d)	GREAT STARS OF THE PAST YOU JUST DON'T LIKE	Lead	[-]
Posts: 1255 Jan 9 03 3:58 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Tags : None Most of us have at least one big star of the past, who just never did it for us. Or maybe, we wondered how they got to have such a big career. My pick is LANA TURNER. I find her acting wooden and amateurish, her voice terrrible, and her looks just fair. What's the deal with Lana? Who's your pick? ******************************* "That's the way it crumbles, cookie-wise"
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Richard Valley	Re: GREAT STARS OF THE PAST YOU JUST DON'T LIKE	#1	[-]
Posts: 54081 Jan 9 03 4:44 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I like Lana Turner, particularly in THE POSTMSN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE, THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL, PEYTON PLACE, and MADAME X. I've never seen William Holden in a film without thinking the part could have been better played by someone else. In roles that required him to have some youthful zest (even the last vestiges of youthful zest, as in PICNIC), he seems old beyond his years . . .
DonM435	Re: GREAT STARS OF THE PAST YOU JUST DON'T LIKE	#2	[-]
Posts: 9514 Jan 9 03 5:15 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Jean Harlow.
jmaci(d)	Holden in PICNIC	#3	[-]
Posts: 1255 Jan 9 03 5:43 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	But Richard, isn't Holden supposed to be 'old' in PICNIC? He was 38 at the time, and looking mighty fine, I thought. ******************************* "That's the way it crumbles, cookie-wise"
Ken Hanke	Re: GREAT STARS OF THE PAST YOU JUST DON'T LIKE	#4	[-]
Posts: 71452 Jan 9 03 5:52 PM Administrator Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Boy, what a can of worms this is! I could make some remarks about overrated stars of the past, but as far ones I just plain don't like... I'll definitely have to go with Lana Turner, too, and I'll throw Mickey Rooney (with very rare exceptions), Robert Taylor, Greer Garson (a couple films to one side), and at least one whose name escaped me while I was typing this into the mix...or off the top of my head and into the stew.
jmaci(d)	Robert Taylor	#5	[-]
Posts: 1255 Jan 9 03 6:33 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Ken Taylor is on my list as well. With very few exceptions (THE HIGH WALL, for ex) he is stiff as a bored, I mean 'board'! And his looks were overrated, too. Thank goodness Van Heflin is in JOHNNY EAGER, what with Taylor and Turner being the stars. Ohh...you're right this IS a can o' worms! Jay M ******************************* "That's the way it crumbles, cookie-wise"
Richard Valley	Re: Holden in PICNIC	#6	[-]
Posts: 54081 Jan 9 03 7:20 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	But Richard, isn't Holden supposed to be 'old' in PICNIC? He was 38 at the time, and looking mighty fine, I thought. The character is supposed to be aging and clinging to his youth, yes, but frankly I'm surprised to learn that William Holden was only 38 when he made PICNIC. He seems older than that to me. Hell, he seems older than 38 in SUNSET BLVD . . .!
77Jerry	Re: Holden in PICNIC	#7	[-]
Posts: 4481 Jan 9 03 8:21 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	We'll, he was an alcoholic no?
javad2000	well.....	#8	[-]
Posts: 179 Jan 10 03 12:35 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Everyone seems to have a person in mind, but then some exceptions... Mine is definately Fred MacMurray. Sort of like having to settle for vanilla ice cream when you really wanted strawberry. Will watch him if he is with someone I like, i.e. Barbara Stanwyck (Double Indemnity) or my goddess Roz Russell (Take A Letter Darling and Flight for Freedom)...but if he is mainly alone...I'll pass. JJ When is there going to be more Roz on DVD?? I need more!!
Ken Hanke	Re: well.....	#9	[-]
Posts: 71452 Jan 10 03 5:30 AM Administrator Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	*Quote:* Mine is definately Fred MacMurray. Sort of like having to settle for vanilla ice cream when you really wanted strawberry. To me, Fred gets a bad rap based largely on his Disney days and MY THREE SONNY BOYS...the only of his vintage performances I don't care for is in TRUE CONFESSION and I think a lot of that has to do with that weedy mustache. I'd be hard-pressed to think of anyone I'd rather have in REMEMBER THE NIGHT.
Richard Valley	Re: well.....	#10	[-]
Posts: 54081 Jan 10 03 5:42 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I'm a Fred MacMurray fan and that includes his Disney days, particularly THE ABSENT MINDED PROFESSOR, SON OF FLUBBER, and THE SHAGGY DOG. He proves himself still an expert at comic timing in all three films . . .
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Ken Hanke	Re: well.....	#11	[-]
Posts: 71452 Jan 11 03 11:50 AM Administrator Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Well, that seems to have brought this thread to a halt...
DonM435	Re: well.....	#12	[-]
Posts: 9514 Jan 11 03 12:17 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Re: McMurray. I think if a guy's good enough at comedy for long enough, it becomes difficult to accept him as a serious actor, unless he's really good. I find that I can't watch Leslie Nielsen in a serious role, even from many years ago, anymore without expecting him to do something silly after each line he delivers.
jmaci(d)	Henry Fonda	#13	[-]
Posts: 1255 Jan 11 03 1:02 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Anyone else find Henry Fonda rather dull? It's not that I think he's bad, just totally uninteresting as an actor and as a screen persona. Sure, he's very good in GRAPES OF WRATH, etc, but never excites me as a performer. ******************************* "That's the way it crumbles, cookie-wise"
len2476buster	Re: Henry Fonda, etc.	#14	[-]
Posts: 7251 Jan 11 03 1:57 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Well, in my humble opinion, Hank Fonda was great in movies like THE RETURN OF FRANK JAMES, MY DARLING CLEMENTINE, THE OX-BOW INCIDENT and ON GOLDEN POND - to name a few - and talk about comic timing, he and pal Jimmy Stewart are a lot of fun to watch and listen to in THE CHEYENNE SOCIAL CLUB. As for Lana Turner, I disagree! I saw her in an old movie called ZIGFIELD GIRL and I thought she was terrific in it! Robert Taylor? Well, I haven't seen enough of his movies to give an educated opinion, but I wouldn't go out of my way to see one if I had a choice of watching just about anything else. - Mr. Len
javad2000	Glenn Ford	#15	[-]
Posts: 179 Jan 13 03 1:52 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Glenn Ford is another one for me who is rather dull...wooden, too stiff. Exception being Dear Heart with Geraldine Page...maybe she made him more human... JJ
jmaci(d)	Re: Glenn Ford	#16	[-]
Posts: 1255 Jan 13 03 2:54 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	DEAR HEART is a wonderful film. Page, Ford and Lansbury are great, along with an amazing supporting cast. It is incredibly moving, yet completely avoids sentimentality. A gem, one of the finest 'forgotten' films of the 1960s. He can seem stiff, but I developed a liking for Glenn Ford in films like DEAR HEART, 3:10 to YUMA, and THE BIG HEAT. [He was beautiful in his youth (cf TEXAS (1940), with William Holden)] ******************************* "That's the way it crumbles, cookie-wise"
freddybastion	SMASHING IDOLS	#17	[-]
Posts: 2774 Jan 14 03 5:53 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Never could understand the Betty Grable thing, personally. She wasn't unlikeable, but certainly not special in any department... especially looks, where she always seemed nothing so much as Vivian Vance-ish. And the legs might have been fine, but the derriere was pretty flat (I know these may seem pretty superficial criteria, but was I really supposed to judge her on her thespian abilities? She was even flatter there).
freddybastion	Re: Glenn Ford	#18	[-]
Posts: 2774 Jan 14 03 5:58 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I think Ford was all right, but his heyday was an era that is just so uninteresting to me. Whenever I hear that a Glenn Ford film is on, I instantly wish to turn off the tube (GILDA and EXPERIMENT IN TERROR excepted, and I'm not all THAT crazy about those films, either).
MarkDClark	Re: SMASHING IDOLS	#19	[-]
Posts: 4501 Jan 14 03 6:03 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Well, I very much like Lana Turner, William Holden, Greer Garson, Fred MacMurray, Henry Fonda and most of the other stars bashed so far. So let me take a stab at some true screen idols: Outside of HIGH NOON, Gary Cooper has never done anything for me. Nor can I fully warm up to Gregory Peck. Both of them always seemed stiff and cold to me. Among the female screen legends, I gotta vote Marilyn Monroe. Yes, she was gorgeous but so what? Even in her best films (like SOME LIKE IT HOT, which I love) she's more a curvaceous prop than a convincing actress.
jmaci(d)	COOPER & MONROE	#20	[-]
Posts: 1255 Jan 14 03 7:33 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I have to agree about Cooper, I don't even like him in HIGH NOON (I do like the film, though). I suspect his career was sparked by phenomenal good looks in his youth, then some lucky casting choices later (SGT YORK, etc) which endear him to audiences who overlook the absence of actual acting. Monroe I think has benefitted from being seen as 'tragic'. People WANT her to be a great actress, they don't like her being reduced to a mere sex symbol. She HAS to be more than that. I think she got pretty good near the end (THE MISFITS), but relied too much on her own brand of schtick (voice, body language). Had she lived longer, she might have become consistently very good. ******************************* "That's the way it crumbles, cookie-wise"
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