Posts by ColeThornton

It was a shame James Arness ruined this film with his awful overacting. Otherwise, not bad, although not as good looking as The High and the Mighty.

Gable was great in "The Tall Men" (1955), it's a shame the King of Hollywood didn't star in more westerns.

Like Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Jack Nicholson, George Clooney, Sean Penn, Brad Pitt, Russell Crowe, Dustin Hoffman, Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon etc. OK, some of those guys are pretty old but you get the point.

It's a shame the Franklin Mint's Nathan Brittles figure wasn't so good, the uniform looked nothing like it did in the film.

The first one is a much better likeness.

Have they made one for Lee Marvin?

I thought the 1975 remake of "Farewell My Lovely" was better than the 1944 original with Dick Powell, even though some critics thought that at 57 Robert Mitchum was too old - and too paunchy - to play Philip Marlowe. Unfortunately Michael Winner ruined the remake of "The Big Sleep" by pointlessly relocating it to England with an aged cast of stars ruining any attempt at realism.

One which hasn't been remade well is "Captains Courageous". Neither of the two TV versions equalled the chemistry between Spencer Tracy and Freddie Bartholomew. It's funny how, almost alone from the actors of his generation, Tracy's acting still holds up well today.

I thought Wayne was declared cancer free in 1969, and it was not found to have returned until January 1979.

I think if they had been friends Wayne would have attended the funeral. Maybe he didn't want to honour a man who had died from a drug overdose.

While on holiday in Yorkshire some years ago I managed to rent this movie out on video. I didn't know most of the stars then, apart from Duke and Henry Fonda. Sadly it's not available on DVD in this country.

Does anybody know how old Rooster was supposed to be? John Wayne was 61 when the film was made, so I'm guessing about 55?

Well I agree they were past their best in "The Misfits", but Gable at least managed to go against type for the first and only time in his career. You could say John Wayne was past his best in "True Grit" and "The Cowboys", since he was over 60 and had health problems, yet he still managed to turn in two superb performances.

My figure of John Bernard Books arrived today, and it is a far better likeness than the Hondo figure. But does anybody know whether there are any Rooster Cogburn figures available from anywhere? It doesn't look as though the Franklin Mint made one, which is strange since "True Grit" is arguably the Duke's most iconic role.

It's funny, but when Hank Fonda says, "Mr O'Rourke" in The Boston Strangler it always reminds me of Fort Apache.

Dog Day Afternoon. Another superb film from Sidney Lumet (Serpico, Equus, Network etc). A shame that Pacino didn't make that many films when he was younger, but then he always considered himself to be primarily a stage actor.

Thanks for answering. So they may have just met a few times then? I think if they had been friends Wayne would have attended the funeral.

Many conservatives in the 1950s thought Elvis was a threat, only he turned out he shared many of their views. Jerry Schilling, who is a Democrat, said in his book Presley was a Republican. Although he was raised on welfare he was personally against it because he thought it encouraged people to do nothing, like his father Vernon.

I think Lois should have finished before "A View to a Kill". It was strange hearing her talk about getting older in "Octopussy" when she was the same age as Moore. He had a facelift before his last film, but still looked every day of his 57 years.

It seems that Gordon's lead has almost evaportaed, he should have called an election two weeks ago when Labour was 11 points ahead of the Toeries.

George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg.

Mills was five years older than Howard, and too lightweight to play a villain.

The original version is so dated it's almost unwatchable today.

The Boston Strangler. Probably Tony Curtis' best ever peformance.

Quote from erthomp143

It's called a storyline and actors that can act... ever since they found special effects, they feel they don't really need those other two things...

You can't really compare the stars from the pre-Brando Old Hollywood, most of whom just played variations on the same character, with the realistic actors of today.