My Opinion

Discussion of the actors, directors and film-makers who 'made it all happen'
Post Reply
User avatar
mrsl
Posts: 4200
Joined: April 14th, 2007, 5:20 pm
Location: Chicago SW suburbs

My Opinion

Post by mrsl »

I can't help it, I've tried to keep it in all of yesterday, and today, but aaahhhhrrrggghrhehrhgh!!! Early yesterday morning I watched the Private Sessions with Tony Curtis. At first I thought it would change, but no. . . Later I caught the second half and it was the same. Such an egotistical, self serving, know it all, I, I, I, me, me, me, total jerk I have never before seen in my time. This guy really takes the cake, he's even worse than my first husband!!!!, and that is saying a lot!!!! If Janet Leigh was really as sweet and nice as he said she was, I don't see how she could stand him for more than a couple of years. . . . . Every compliment given to anyone in connection with him was given by him, or, he was the intended recipient. He told directors how to direct, and writers how to write, even on only his third movie!!! Whether it was true or not, I couldn't believe what he said about Mitchum and working with a black man!!! I would be just as upset if he said it in reference to Marble mouth, and you know my feelings about him, but who in the heck does Curtis think he is?

I can't believe I had the typical teen-age crush that all my friends had back in the 50's on him. Did anyone else come away with this opinion or did I just get a bad slant on him from the first?

Anne
Anne


***********************************************************************
* * * * * * * * What is past is prologue. * * * * * * * *

]***********************************************************************
raftfan
Posts: 65
Joined: January 2nd, 2008, 12:05 pm
Location: Winnipeg

Post by raftfan »

Curtis misquoted that casting story regarding "The Defiant Ones". As I heard it:

"Mitchum didn't want to work with a black man."

"Brando wanted to play the colored part."

"Douglas wanted to play both parts."

Curtis reversed up the last two. And those are actually the two I could almost believe.
stuart.uk
Posts: 1805
Joined: January 21st, 2008, 12:25 pm
Location: Dundee, Scotland

Post by stuart.uk »

Anne

Lou Grade was once asked who was the easiest star and who was the most difficult. Interestingly it was the two co-stars of The Persuaders he mentioned. Roger Moore was the easiest, Tony Curtis the most difficult.

However, despite rumours that both Moore and Curtis didn't get on They both insist that they did. Joan Collins who guested in one said she liked Roger, but not Tony. If that's the case it was her bad luck as she was Tony's love interest rather than Roger's
klondike

Post by klondike »

Know what this puts me in mind of?
That childhood game where a bunch of kids (as many as you can muster), stand in a big circle in a yard or field, and one kid starts by writing a secret sentence on a hidden piece of paper, and then whispers it to the kid nearest clockwise to him, and then that kid counts out loud to 10, and then whispers the sentence as best he/she remembers it, to the kid next to him on his left, who does the same thing, and so on, the "big kick" being when the last kid repeats out loud what's whispered to him, cause it's always real different than what the first kid wrote down, and whispered, and the more kids in the circle the funnier it is, 'cause the more different it is.
That's what a lot of Hollywood "quoting" reminds me of, except the chain only ends when the original remark morphs into something really controversial, which I guess is a sad comment on the "mass appetite" for human interest stories about our Stars.
I've been a fairly astute pupil of the high & low points of Mitchum's life, over the last 20 years, and this is the only whiff of racism I've ever heard connected to him.
About politics, women, authority, religion, professional conduct, romance, money, substance abuse, contracts, marriage, scripts, the law - oh, for sure, RM grooved on being the Big Square Peg, the monkee wrench in the cogs, and the louder and more abrasive, the better!
But about race?
Baby, I just don't think he cared!
User avatar
ChiO
Posts: 3899
Joined: January 2nd, 2008, 1:26 pm
Location: Chicago

Post by ChiO »

As I recall the Mitchum/The Defiant Ones casting story being related in the Mitchum biography "Baby, I Don't Care":

1. Raftfan correctly tells the "joke" that circulated around Hollywood when Mitchum declined the role.

2. Mitchum declined the role because (I paraphrase): "I've been in jail in the South and there's no way a black man and a white man would've been chained together."

3. Mitchum didn't like the whispering that he was racist because it was untrue, but in the end..."Baby, I don't care."
Everyday people...that's what's wrong with the world. -- Morgan Morgan
I love movies. But don't get me wrong. I hate Hollywood. -- Orson Welles
Movies can only go forward in spite of the motion picture industry. -- Orson Welles
User avatar
vallo
Posts: 278
Joined: April 15th, 2007, 8:39 am
Location: Long Island, N.Y.

Post by vallo »

Anne, I wouldn't take him seriously for someone who once said " "Yonder stands da castle of my fodda" I also liked him as a kid. But, he seemed to grow into a "perv. saying things like "What's the secret to a long and happy life? Young women's saliva!" His present wife is 42 years his junior.
he always seemed so full of himself.




Bill
"We're all forgotten sooner or later. But not films. That's all the memorial we should need or hope for."
-Burt Lancaster
User avatar
mrsl
Posts: 4200
Joined: April 14th, 2007, 5:20 pm
Location: Chicago SW suburbs

Post by mrsl »

Thanks for all the responses. I agree I know quite a bit about what a partier, and skirt chaser Mitchum was, but in all the dirt, I never saw or heard a hint of racism.

Actually though, the point of the post was to show how I choose my idols. This was really a rude awakening, but only more so than I've seen before from Mr. Curtis. Long ago I saw him in an interview and realized what a jerk he was, is, and always will be. It's good that he made up with Jamie Lee because I'm sure he doesn't have a whole lot of admirers around town.

That is basically the same attitude I got from Brando, Peter O'Toole and several others who I saw on various talk shows in the 50's and 60's. As I've remarked before, I have to like the leading actors to truly enjoy a movie, because if I don't, a lot of my energy is focused on trying to ignore my dislike of the star instead of absorbing the movie.

My other thermometer is if I've seen an actor who is awfully stiff and unsure in several movies and doesn't seem to relax. If after that much experience he/she still doesn't make me believe he/she is the character come alive, I don't feel he/she is worth bothering with again.

Anne
Anne


***********************************************************************
* * * * * * * * What is past is prologue. * * * * * * * *

]***********************************************************************
stuart.uk
Posts: 1805
Joined: January 21st, 2008, 12:25 pm
Location: Dundee, Scotland

Post by stuart.uk »

Michael Parkinson's nightmare interview was with Meg Ryan, who gave the impression she didn't want to be there.

Terry Wogan's was Anne Bancroft, but she suffered from stagefright and hardly said a word

Scots presenter Lorraine Kelly said Harrison Ford was her hardest interview, but admitted he didn't like doing interviews. She said Bruce Willis was hard, because he tried to act intelligent, taking forever to answer questions. She added George Clooney was the best, a nice guy.

Movie critic Barry Norman said Bruce Willis behaved like a child in his interview with him
User avatar
movieman1957
Administrator
Posts: 5522
Joined: April 15th, 2007, 3:50 pm
Location: MD

Post by movieman1957 »

I saw Peter O'Toole do an interview with Charlie Rose a couple of years ago and found him quite interesting and not at all cocky or self involved.

Maybe time calmed him.
Chris

"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."
User avatar
moira finnie
Administrator
Posts: 8024
Joined: April 9th, 2007, 6:34 pm
Location: Earth
Contact:

Post by moira finnie »

Hi Chris,
Peter O'Toole's hour with Charlie Rose is in the following clip and the interview from 2000 as well. I think that when Rose allows his guests to speak without interrupting them, sometimes they open up in a way that never happens on other chat shows on American tv anymore. He was disarming and self-deprecating in an unpretentious conversation that covered a lot of ground! Thanks for reminding me of this occasion.

[youtube][/youtube]
Avatar: Frank McHugh (1898-1981)

The Skeins
TCM Movie Morlocks
User avatar
charliechaplinfan
Posts: 9040
Joined: January 15th, 2008, 9:49 am

Post by charliechaplinfan »

I read Tony Curtis's ghost written autobiography, I think the author was Barry Paris, I remember enjoying it and thinking he had both an ego and sense of humour. The other thing I remembered was he went on about his new wife who was the love of his life, only he divorced her as soon as I'd read the book.

I've been pleasantly surprised by some of his performances, I'd written him up as a pretty face some years ago but in films like The Sweet Smell of Success and The Boston Strangler he revealed a larger scope than I'd given him credit for.

I've watched a documentary on Cary Grant presented by Tony Curtis, he did have plenty of nice things to say about Cary.

I do sympathise with you Anne. He's perhaps not what your teenage heart thought he'd turn out like.

As for Brando, I love so much of his work but the man I don't care for at all.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
User avatar
inglis
Posts: 207
Joined: April 24th, 2007, 11:45 am
Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Peter

Post by inglis »

movieman1957 wrote:I saw Peter O'Toole do an interview with Charlie Rose a couple of years ago and found him quite interesting and not at all cocky or self involved.

Maybe time calmed him.
Hi Chris I have seen other interviews with him and he seemed grounded and down to earth
User avatar
mrsl
Posts: 4200
Joined: April 14th, 2007, 5:20 pm
Location: Chicago SW suburbs

Post by mrsl »

Maybe I caught him on a bad day. But the time I saw him, he just seemed to be so full of himself, it was nauseating.

Anne
Anne


***********************************************************************
* * * * * * * * What is past is prologue. * * * * * * * *

]***********************************************************************
User avatar
inglis
Posts: 207
Joined: April 24th, 2007, 11:45 am
Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

tony

Post by inglis »

Hi Anne !
I saw the Curtis interview as well and I thought he was a bit strange. I can't really put my finger on it but I just felt he was not being all that real.I am a fan of some of his movies .I like The Vikings and really I think I enjoyed Kirk Douglas more and Ernest Borgnine . I Liked him in that movie Houdini and Trapeze.
Post Reply