Out Of The Past (Part 10)

Out Of The Past (Part 9)

Out Of The Past (Part 8)

Out Of The Past (Part 7)

Out Of The Past (Part 6)

Out Of The Past (Part 5)

Out Of The Past (Part 4)

Out Of The Past (Part 3)

Out Of The Past (Part 2)

Out Of The Past (Part 1)

A Jacques Tourneur film starring Robert Mitchum and a young Kirk Douglas.

Kirk Douglas on What's My Line?

From the classic game show from the 1950s.

Champion

One of Kirk Douglas's best early career outings was in 1949's Champion.

I wrote of it:

'At its core, though, Champion- like Raging Bull, is not a boxing movie, merely a film whose structure uses boxing to tell its tale. Midge, like Jake La Motta, is not a nice guy. He’s a user, a liar, and egoist, and a bit of a sadist. We learn, in early scenes with Emma, that he was abandoned as a child, by a father who left and a mother who could only take care of sickly Connie, and grew up in an orphanage. One merely needs to hear the word orphanage to understand the rage that lights Midge’s eyes from the first shots of the film, as well as the few moments he speaks of his hatred for poverty and the condescension it brings. Yet, despite his personal decay, Midge is a savvy guy, realizing that boxing is ‘like any other business, only here the blood shows.’ And it does in this film, as well. If only Ron Howard’s film had such sanguine hues I may have never rediscovered this gem of a film, and bravura performance by Douglas.'

Nailed it again!

Lust For Life

This is a better film than Vincent And Theo.

Seven Days In May

John Frankenheimer directed this film, although it's was a rather straightforward thriller in a political vein.

It did include great performances by Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster.

Here's a taste:

THE END - SEVEN DAYS IN MAY - JOHN FRANKENHEIMER - 1964 V.O
Uploaded by this-is-the-end. - Classic TV and last night's shows, online.

Burt Lancaster

I've mentioned Charlton Heston and Kirk Douglas, but Burt Lancaster, who starred in From Here To Eternity, was as big a name.

Here is a tribute from filmmaker John Frankenheimer:


Note the scene between Douglas and Lancaster.

El Cid

El Cid was a film from the early 1960s, and one of the sword and sandal genres greatest achievements. Charlton Heston, long a rival of Kirk Douglas for box office supremacy in that genre, gives one of his better performances as the Spanish legend.

Sophia Loren is nice eye candy, but apparently she and Heston could not stand each other.

The film ends with El Cid leading a victorious army against Moslem conquerors, but unbeknownst to the many, he has been struck dead in battle and his armored figure strapped onto his horse.

While not a great work of art, it was great spectacle, as seen with the ending:


Here's an earlier scene:


Interestingly, the Moslem hordes were, in this film, used as Cold War stand-ins for Communists, yet, seen in today's climate, that little sleight of hand seems almost prescient.

And, finally, here's the trailer:


I have to say, film studios today have utterly forgotten how to make trailers that actually market the idea of cinema as spectacle. Most are PoMo hipster posing. This trailer, however, is equal to the film it declaims

The Vikings

This is another Kirk Douglas film, made in the late 1950s, that established his bona fides as a major action film star.

While not a great film, the screenplay does give a decent sense of what it must have seemed like to Medieval European folk, beset by Huns, then Vikings, and then Mongol conquerors, after the fall of the Roman Empire.

Here is a sample of the film: