|
Post by bravomailer on Feb 8, 2020 18:04:27 GMT
|
|
|
Post by mattgarth on Feb 8, 2020 18:06:13 GMT
|
|
|
Post by bravomailer on Feb 8, 2020 18:08:15 GMT
Opinion: Kirk Douglas's Passion Project After Spartacus
After Kirk Douglas produced and starred in Spartacus in 1960, which won four Oscars and was the biggest moneymaker of the year, he could probably get Hollywood to finance almost any film he wanted to make. Another epic, like Spartacus? An adventure, like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea? A scorching star vehicle, like Lust for Life? What Kirk Douglas chose to do was a small-scale film, black and white, not wide-screen technicolor, drawn from Edward Abbey's novel, The Brave Cowboy.
It was not a cowboy film with shoot-outs and sagebrush. It's the story of Jack Burns, a free spirit with a spirited horse, but no fixed address, who tries to survive as a cowboy in the modern American west of superhighways and fenced-in prairies.
"Have you ever noticed how many fences there're getting to be?" Jack Burns asks an old girlfriend. "And the signs they got on them: no hunting, no hiking, no admission, no trespassing, private property, closed area, start moving, go away, get lost, drop dead!"
Jack starts a bar-brawl with a one-armed man to get arrested, and thrown into a small-town jail where he wants to help an old friend break out. His friend has been jailed for helping undocumented immigrants. But he refuses the offer. He has a family. He wants to serve his time, and rejoin his wife and son. Jack Burns says he can't live behind bars and walls. So he breaks out on his own, saddles his horse, Whiskey, and breaks for the border, as marshalls and helicopters chase after a lone cowboy on foot, leading his horse through steep mountains and bristling timber.
Kirk Douglas asked Dalton Trumbo to write the film, which the studio re-titled Lonely Are The Brave. Trumbo was on the Hollywood blacklist, writing under pseudonyms. But Kirk Douglas insisted on giving him a screen credit with his real name for Spartacus, the story of brave man who leads an uprising. It brought down the blacklist.
Lonely Are The Brave was not a box-office success when released in 1962. But the film's fame has grown. Kirk Douglas often called it his favorite.
When Kirk Douglas died this week at the age of 103, I looked up the telegram Dalton Trumbo sent him when he first screened the film. His words may be the best kind of praise to mark an actor's career. He wrote: "I think they are going to leave the theatre saying, 'That is what I really am. Or at least it is what I want to be in my finest hour.' You did it. You showed the heart of a man."
|
|
|
Post by BATouttaheck on Feb 8, 2020 18:41:42 GMT
bravomailer another film he desperately wanted to make was ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST ! by the time it was finally brought to the screen he was too old for the part ! Kirk Douglas, who owned the rights, planned to star in it, but by the time they got around to making the film, he was too old. It was produced by son his Michael. Kirk Douglas first encountered the book in galley form in 1961. He instantly fell in love with it, and secured the rights at the first opportunity.
The play opened on Broadway, in New York City, on November 13, 1963, and closed on January 25, 1964, after eighty-two performances. The opening night cast included Kirk Douglas as R.P. McMurphy, William Daniels as Dale Harding, and Gene Wilder as Billy Bibbit.
|
|
|
Post by cynthiagreen on Feb 8, 2020 18:44:42 GMT
Great quote from Lancaster
"Kirk would be the first person to tell you he can be a difficult man. And I would be the second"
|
|
|
Post by mattgarth on Feb 8, 2020 19:10:21 GMT
I was in charge of a film society that was holding a weekend event of movies and discussions.
A publicist made contact with an offer -- a client was about to release a film he was starring in and had directed, and asked if our society would preview it. To make it even more palatable, he said the director-star would also appear. I hesitated at first, not wanting to showcase a pig in a poke.
My doubt instantly evaporated when the publicist said: "It's called SCALAWAG and it's Kirk Douglas that I'm throwing in."
I held off deciding for a fifth of a second before practically shouting into the phone: "YES!"
SCALAWAG was a version of TREASURE ISLAND with Douglas as the 'Long John Silver' character.
Given the circumstances, the audience enjoyed it and Kirk spoke with and charmed the audience afterward.
The was some slack time before his departure, so it gave me quality time with him for about an hour.
Our main topic of conversation was -- at my request -- a particular favorite: LONELY ARE THE BRAVE.
I must have hit a sweet spot -- we spent the entire time talking about what was (along with PATHS OF GLORY) his own favorite.
A memorable experience -- he was a real gentleman whom the audience loved ... me too.
|
|
|
Post by BATouttaheck on Feb 8, 2020 21:44:57 GMT
mattgarth luv these close encounters you have had .. thanks for the share !
|
|
|
Post by mattgarth on Feb 8, 2020 21:52:33 GMT
Of the fifteenth kind at last count, Bat.
|
|
|
Post by Prime etc. on Feb 10, 2020 8:18:31 GMT
Other than an Academy Awards appearance after a stroke and a documentary on Mel Blanc, the last time I saw him in a show was a tv version of Inherit the Wind. I can't remember who his co-star was. I recall his scene where he is asked about the age of a rock and he says he is more interested in the rock of ages.
|
|
|
Post by mattgarth on Feb 10, 2020 10:49:18 GMT
Prime -- that was Jason Robards opposite Kirk, playing the 'Henry Drummond' role.
|
|
|
Post by Isapop on Feb 10, 2020 23:22:15 GMT
Prime -- that was Jason Robards opposite Kirk, playing the 'Henry Drummond' role. Which recalls a fun piece of trivia - Robards played a different character also named Henry Drummond. Anybody know which movie without looking it up?
|
|
|
Post by OldAussie on Feb 10, 2020 23:29:26 GMT
Big Hand For The Little Lady ?
|
|
|
Post by Isapop on Feb 10, 2020 23:50:19 GMT
Big Hand For The Little Lady ? Check out the big brain on OldAussie! You're a smart muthafucker!
|
|
|
Post by OldAussie on Feb 11, 2020 0:00:42 GMT
I've seen Big Hand For The Little Lady 3 or 4 times.
Haven't seen that version of Inherit the Wind with Kirk.
|
|
|
Post by cynthiagreen on Feb 25, 2020 8:05:45 GMT
several Kirks, including CAT AND MOUSE and THE BROTHERHOOD have turned up on rarefillmm
Kirk on rarefilmm
|
|