Cinderella

One of the earliest animated Disney classics I recall seeing was CINDERELLA. Here's a lovely LIFE ad from its original release.

Hoot Gibson

I never saw Hoot Gibson growing up. His career had kind of petered out with Westerns in general in the mid thirties but Westerns, of course, made a big comeback and so did Hoot. Well, not that big, really, but he made some enjoyable B's in the 1940's. I finally discovered him just recently as these films began appearing on NetFlix and YouTube. If you like cowboy heroes, you might like Hoot, too!

My Brando Top 10

I'm not a rabid Brando fan but I do find him an endlessly fascinating actor. These are grouped by my preference of his performance, I guess. Certainly not by how much I like a particular film overall or SUPERMAN would top this list.

 

My Goldie Top 10

 

Frank Wolff

A US character actor who, like a number of his sixties contemporaries, had greater success in Europe, Frank Wolff was a versatile performer who could offer subtle performances or chew the scenery with the best of them. With his career on a down slide in the early seventies, though, he killed himself in Rome. R.I.P.

My Top 10 Wilders (Gene Not Billy)

This morning I watched THE WOMAN IN RED from 1984, described on IMDB as "Gene Wilder's most beloved comedy." I hated it. It occurred to me that as much as I adore gene, he really never made a movie I liked all that much after the seventies. Here are my Top 10, in order of preference, all from 1979 or earlier.

 

Candy

Another candidate for the worst film of the sixties is CANDY and like THE MAGIC CHRISTIAN, it was based on a  book by Terry Southern. Coincidence?

CANDY was Southern's oft-banned dirty version of CANDIDE and as film mores loosened up in the sixties, it was inevitable that someone would film it.

I first hear of CANDY when I saw the image of its star, Ewa Aulin, on the album below offered as a poster. Although very young, the Swedish actress had already appeared in some major European films. CANDY was expected to be her big breakthrough.

Has there ever been a pack of major stars wasted as much as the ones in CANDY? And quite frankly many of them DO appear to be wasted. Marlon Brando! Richard Burton! James Coburn! Walter Matthau! John Huston! Ringo!!

It would be years and years after its release before I finally saw the incomprehensible film. As with THE MAGIC CHRISTIAN, its soundtrack was its saving grace.

Bob Steele

My Dad loved cowboy movies and one of his all-time favorite cowboy actors was Bob Steele. The only place I knew Bob Steele from was his comedic role in TV's F-TROOP but I later saw him as a talented character actor. It wasn't until the age of DVDs and the Internet that I was able to see Bob Steele in all his glory as a cowboy star but now he's one of MY favorites as well!