Help With Episode? (A Hard One)
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telegonus — 19 years ago(January 24, 2007 09:54 PM)
I remember when
Goodnight, My Love
was first broadcast. It looked interesting, especially with Boone in it, but alas I missed it. There were so many good movies of the week in those days. They replaced not only the anthology shows that were gone by the early 70's, they were the B movies of their day as well. Spielberg's
Duel
, which I saw when it was first aired, helped put him into the major leagues as an up and comer.
Some of the "old regulars" got lucky, like Jack Klugman and Norman Fell. George Kennedy, a quite minor player prior to
Cool Hand Luke
, was a very lucky fellow indeed. Strother Martin, from the same film, also did better than most, almost becoming a cult figure for a time. Warren Oates lucked out, too.
I remember John McGiver well. Never cared much for him. His affectations got on my nerves. James Millhollin, the Franklin Pangborn of TV, was more fun. When Millhollin wasn't available there was always Dan Tobin. Many of
Psycho
's supporting players did better than most: Simon Oakland and John Anderson lasted longer than many of their era. Martin Balsam was hugely fortunate in having his talent recognized by the industry.
Remember discovering actors
before
they became famous? I noticed Tim O'Connor and Ed Nelson well before their
Peyton Place
days. James Coburn made the rounds of TV shows, mostly westerns, but there was the air of an up and comer to him, so his success with the Flint movies didn't surprise me. Linda Evans had a solid four years on
The Big Valley
long before her night-time soap days. Or do
igenues
not count? Same with Mariette Hartley, to the extent that she became a star, many years before those Polaroid commercials (or was it Kodak?) with James Garner. My first recollection of George Segal is from an episode of a Hitchcock's hour. Steven Hill and Robert Loggia were making the dramatic TV rounds decades before they became prime time stars, rather late in their careers. A favorite of mine, James Griffith, who
ought
to have been a
Peter Gunn
villain, specialized in playing seedy dandies. He worked less as an actor after the 60's, though I believe he wrote for many series.
As to John Dehner, he was an immensely gifted man; starting out as a cartoonist, he was good enough for work for the Disney studio back in the forties. He also wrote episodes of many radio series, including the excellent
Escape!
, some of which are excellent. Meanwhile, he was making a decent living as a radio actor and sometime B movie supporting player. He
did
have a dashing quality, and was the of sort actor I would imagine Errol Flynn might have become in middle age had he stopped the drinking-partying and lived longer. It took Hollywood forever to recognize his talents as an actor, it seems, but he kind of crashed through with the 1958 western
The Left-Handed Gun
, a strange movie, directed by Arthur Penn, with a very Methodish lead performance by Paul Newman in the lead. Dehner walks off with the film's acting honors as far as I'm concerned, and he wasn't even Oscar-nominated for his efforts. At least he found regular work on the small screen, often doing excellent work; alas, he got typed as a TV guy and never really got another chance to shine in a major film. -
ecarle — 19 years ago(January 24, 2007 11:14 PM)
That's a lot of fine actors one realizes that there are always probably too many interesting looking/sounding people to maintain long time careers in TV or movies (though Paul Giamatti recently said, before he became a bit of a lead, that his career was great: "Every show or movie needs a middle-aged character man sometime.")
I thought I'd take a run at a few more of your mentions:
Jack Klugman, it seems to me, really needed to AGE to become an effective character actor. He's powerful in "Twelve Angry Men," but he's not terribly charismatic his character is moody, emotional, with a chip-on-his shoulder. And Klugman's young looks weren't terribly handsome. Martin Balsam actually WAS handsome, for awhile.
"The Odd Couple" TV show made the middle-aged Klugman famous and accessible. I disagree with those who say that Klugman was better than Walter Matthau in the part Matthau was tall, deadpan, reasonably handsome, and had the timing that he himself said made him "the Ukranian Cary Grant." But playing Oscar to Tony Randall's sublime Felix (but again, not quite as nuanced and movie-lead-ish as Jack Lemmon) gave Klugman a new "comic gravitas" if that's possible. And then Klugman got to play "Quincy, M.E." and got that "mystery lead aura" that made Dennis Weaver and Raymond Burr instantly charismatic, too.
Big George Kennedy said that he got hired fast in Hollywood movies and TV series because "the physically big Western stars needed physically big guest villains to effectively look good beating them up." Kennedy was a fairly grim-looking man in his early years without a hairpiece (he wasn't bald so much as baldISH.) Around the time of his fine work in "Cool Hand Luke," Kennedy started wearing a hairpiece and matured into a big Teddy Bear of a man that women could love and men could like (especially playing working class and authoritative in "Airport.") He'd keep playing villains too, but now the "nice guy" would always seep through.
Dehner was good and "a real actor" in "Left-Handed Gun." I guess he felt forced to go for the steady pay of lightweight TV work thereafter. You can get trapped that way.
James Coburn spent a surprisingly long time as a "young character guy" rather a contradiction. I think he needed a few years to age into his looks: the big choppers, the somewhat long and simian face, the voice that ranged from deep to high-pitched. I sometimes think he should have been a bigger star, but came up right when Hollywood was falling apart. He just couldn't land enough "prestige movies," and too often took the easy roles in things like "The Carey Treatment" and "Harry in Your Pocket." (Remember them?)
But Coburn was fine in "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" and "Cross of Iron." Peckinpah seemed to get Coburn's potential for greatness. -
telegonus — 19 years ago(January 25, 2007 12:34 PM)
I'm one of those who prefers the TV actors of
The Odd Couple
to the movie's one. That I saw the TV series first is undoubtedly a factor. Lemmon's Felix
is
a more complex, shaded performance than Randall's, but it seemed almost too much so for me, as I found myself feeling sorry for the character too much, not laughing at him. Randall struck me as much funnier, albeit more one-dimensional. Klugman's Oscar was, I think, as good as Matthau's. I like Klugman better, though, for his air of the small time loser or near loser, while the taller, more commanding Matthau comes off as more of a winner. Klugman hit the lottery with that one, though arguably his "ascent" began the previous year with his portrayal of Mr. Patamkin in
Goodbye, Columbus
. His career is rather like his fellow
12 Angry Men
alumnus Jack Warden, with the latter doing better on the big screen, Klugman on the small one. Other, similar actors of their generation,the Opatashus and the Persoffshad to work harder to stay employed at all on either TV or the movies in the 70's.
I suppose it's a cliche to call Coburn Lee Marvin lite, but let's face it, that's what he was. Yes, he was a different guy with his own personality, but these two were easy to confuse even before they made it big on films. Coburn seemed so much older than he was. Even as early as
The Magnificent Seven
he seemed like a twenty year Hollywood veteran rather than the virtual newcomer that he was. He seemed middle-aged to me even then. His rise to film stardom with the Flint pictures was well timed, but again, he had to compete with Marvin, a bigger name and more powerful screen presence. Coburn didn't always choose his vehicles wisely. He would have been wiser to have gone the Michael Caine route and moved away from action-adventure stuff once his secret agent days were over, preferably moving toward more dramatic or "prestigious" material. I think that Coburn was also bedevilled by health problems, which slowed him down somewhat. He was a good actor but got stuck in a rut, relying too much on his teeth and voice later on. I agree that he looked somewhat simian in his early days, suaver and more distinguished as he got older. -
tulsam — 19 years ago(January 25, 2007 06:05 AM)
He of the dark glasses as the luckless Henry in "The Vampire", who later appeared as a Thrush confederate on "The Man From Uncle"in dark glasses. I had a soft spot for him because of his association with the former (possibly the first horror movie I ever saw) and reveled in his appearance on "Perry Mason", in "The Case Of the Frightened Fisherman" as the eponymous flycaster, seedy, venal, but decked out in a loud Hawaiian shirt.
Richard Erdman, distinguished member of the "3 times the killer" club on "Perry Mason" specialized in near invisibility, but the one time he played a victim on that show he got to show his chops as a foppish blackmailer.
Was Tim O'Connor ever young? Always the handsome grey eminence, even when doing silly things like whistling on "Wonder Woman". Marvelous "watch it, pally boy" sort of voice.
Richard Anderson, now 80, but still tall and commanding, ever the senator/CEO, even when playing Lieutenant Drumm on Mason, is a grand old regular. His Kolchak villain, Dr. Richard Malcolm/Malcolm Richards, was every bit as good as Barry Atwater's Janos Skorcezeny (vampire), but is less well remembered as "The Night Strangler" wasn't as exciting as "The Night Stalker". -
telegonus — 19 years ago(January 25, 2007 09:44 AM)
I don't know Davies, alas, but am glad to find another Griffith fan. That
Perry Mason
episode is one I remember quite well.
Echt
-Griffith, perfect casting, He was a favorite of mine from his uncharacteristic "leading man" performance in a
Thriller
episode,
Parasite Mansion
, in which he almost got the girl! The lovely, talented Pippa Scott no less. That too was typical Griffith, as he was boozing it up most of the show, egged on in his drinking by nasty granny Jeanette Nolan. Griffith, sadly, was second to third tier as far as TV character people went, seldom appearing in major roles in top shows, he was as often as not cast as hotel clerks or oddball suspects in detective series, seldom a major part. There were many others who started out the same way but "graduated" and got better roles later on, like Denver Pyle, who was a
Lone Ranger
villain who enjoyed the distinction of working his way up to becoming a
Gunsmoke
villain. John Doucette was another like that. Griffith seemed to lose interest in acting after the mid-60's, moving on to other things. His demeanor was memorable, though, with that long neck, pop-eyes and those quick, bird-like mannerisms, accompanied by a surprisingly deep, cultivated-sounding voice. He reminded me a bit of John Newland, somewhat darker, more sinister in appearance but otherwise the same type. Like John Dehner, he was a talented man, not just an actor but a professional musician and sometime writer. He was maybe a bit too eccentric to become a major name, even at the character actor level. There was that oddness to him, the unique combination of refinement and down and outness, that was maybe a little too offbeat for prime time. Had they done a movie biography of William Burroughs, he'd have been the perfect man to play the lead. -
tulsam — 19 years ago(January 25, 2007 11:58 AM)
you don't know Ryss-Davies? I may be mangling his name, but he's the portly Soviet spy in "The Living Daylights" and Indiana Jones's buddy in "Raiders of The Lost Ark".
Cultivated, mannered, and probably could've played Leo, "The Strangler", but not as well as Buono did. -
ecarle — 19 years ago(January 25, 2007 08:41 PM)
Yes, I was thinking of Buono in Davies part in "Raiders" when I posted that Buono might have fit in there.
But Davies didn't have the constant career of Buono, actually. From "Raiders" to "Lord of the Rings" with little famous in between. Although those are famous ENOUGH. -
jonmiktay — 17 years ago(February 19, 2009 06:14 PM)
All I have to say is I love each and everyone of you who have posted on this thread. Such intelligent comments reflect well on all of you. You could take this thread and write a history of American thought from the 50's forward.
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davidandjone — 16 years ago(September 30, 2009 11:29 AM)
Yes, your description fits perfectly to the ending of "A Family Affair". Peter Gunn was fighting with Mr. Collins, who shot and killed his boss. Mr. Collins wanted to get the inheritance he hoped his boss had maybe willed to him. The fight ends (after Mr. Collins tried to throw down a tall bookcase on Peter Gunn), among other stunts; your're right, it was quite a fight - then Mr. Collins accidently backs into a large knife of some kind which sticks into his middle upper back, and that's it for Mr. Collins, he falls over dead! This episode is on the set of 2 DVD'S that are out now and can be purchased.