Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Shakespeare

Just finished watching "Henry V" on Turner Classic Movies only to confirm my opinion that Olivier was the greatest actor of my life time.
When I was going to school in Hot Springs they took a bunch of us down to the Paramount Theater to see "Hamlet". Afterward everyone was saying "I'd rather stay in class than sit thru that again".
I of course agreed, too embarrassed to admit that I thought it was terriffic.

In the right column I see an ad that asks "Bad Credit?, Trouble getting a loan?"
Do they think I cater to riff raff?

Posted by Buckles at 12/14/2005 11:24:00 PM

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have most of his work on tape and I agree with you about his talent. I can't think of the name of the movie but it was where he was working on the guys teeth trying to find the diamonds, He was the bad guy, My bulk mail is 75 per cent wanting to give me credit. I hate that? Dustin Hoffman was the good guy in that movie. I have read weithering Heights 14 times and watched the tape two many times to count. Until the 70s I never knew Lawarence was heathcliff and always wondered what happened to that actor. It is my all time favorit book and movie.

15 December, 2005 07:21
Buckles said...

I think that picture was called "Marathon Man".
Just prior to my dad's death in 1963, Ben Hur and Spartacus had finally made it to Hugo and he marveled at the interplay between Olivier, Charles Laughton and Peter Ustinov.

15 December, 2005 07:37
Anonymous said...

I cryed for days after watching these movies. Peter and Charles were so great. Non of these men were American actors. I think being a stage actor makes for better performances in movies. Like the circus it is always better to see in person the talent that is there. Watching it on film just is not the same. Compare zoo's to seeing a sanctuary tape of animals, the magic is just not there.

15 December, 2005 07:53
Buckles said...

After watching an evening of Shakespearian movies I recalled a story about the Knight leaving his castle bound for the Crusades.
His first stop was at the castle of his best and truest friend whom he entrusted the key to his wife's chastity belt with instructions to protect her honor while he was away.
After continuing on for about a half mile he heard a horse and rider approaching frantically from behind, it was his best and truest friend yelling "You left the wrong key!".

15 December, 2005 08:39
Anonymous said...

Othello[?] was one movie where I wanted to smack him for listening to gossip. Could not believe he could be so stupid. Then again most men are when it comes to the woman they love. I just love the old movies where you saw the actors and not a lot of senery and special effects. Just good acting.

15 December, 2005 14:57
Anonymous said...

Something odd on the CHS site. Question 1011 was written the day after the reply was made. How did they do that?

15 December, 2005 16:46
Anonymous said...

I caught those TCM movies, too. Along with Olivier's pictures, we were given another indelible portrayal by the distinguished Lesley Howard as Romeo. When I was a theatre major at Texas Tech, we studied Hamlet an entire semester, and included was Olivier's film, which won Best Actor for him, and Best Picture of 1948. I got an A as Hamlet in our required acting finals, and sweated it out like mad as our Professor was cast in that role for his finals at Northwestern--where his classmates were Charlton Heston and Patricia Neal.

16 December, 2005 04:37
Anonymous said...

As a sidebar, speaking of Charles Laughton: He is interred in the same courtyard as Mr. Beatty. As you drive past the front gate to Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills, look left and you'll see the mausoleum known as Courts of Remembrance. As you enter this vast open area of walls, you turn right, and look directly at the largest plaque facing you. It is Mr. Beatty's, with his signature above the reclining lion. On the way to his resting place, about halfway down, look upon the wall to your right, and find the marker very simply reading, "Charles Laughton - 1899-1962".

16 December, 2005 04:44
Anonymous said...

My Dad had an odd mix of friends for a guy who worked the carnival, joined the Navy, drove a bread truck then spent 25 years in civil service. After the Navy he spent a couple years in New York studying theater. Mostly he wondered what the big deal was that made anyone want to live in a big city, and the GI Bill financed his investigation. One thing my dad brought away from those years was a passion for Shakespeare. He used to say that Olivier, Ralph Richardson, and John Gielgud were equally fine actors, but only one of them wsa a "movie star." He also liked to say that the next generation of British actors, which included Richard Burton were equally talented, but their good looks allowed booze, broads, and Hollywood to ruin them. these days I think he would liked Kenneth Branagh

16 December, 2005 09:44
Anonymous said...

Charles Laughton was one of my idols. I used to see him quite often when I would visit his home to see his wife Elsa Lanchester, I was working on a one woman show for her and he would sit in on the meetings and offer directorial suggestions. I attended his funeral in 1962 and was saddened by the fact that only about a dozen people were there to bid farewell to this great actor.

16 December, 2005 09:57
Anonymous said...

Did he play the Hunch Back Of Notra Dame[?] People have told me I reminded them of Esmarelda. I think Ron Perlmen did a find job in the remake. He is one of the finest actors of the present. Its a shame[?] he looks so like a lion that those are the parts he get mostly. Does a fine job. I have a poster of him from Beauty and the Beast hanging in my wine cellar.

16 December, 2005 10:26
Anonymous said...

In Junior High School they made us watch Romeo and Juliet. I got so upset I spent the last two hours of school in the nurses office. Also the Tale of Two Cities. I love movies with real endings. Not happy ever after.

16 December, 2005 10:33
Buckles said...

Here's a story you movie buffs might appreciate. John Herriott told me that when he was with the Gil Gray Circus in the 1950's they once wintered at the Air Port in San Angelo, Texas.
Gil was a good friend of the actor John Boles who now owned a factory that manufactured Boles-Arrow trailers.
John said he was impressed with Boles dapper and classy manner and added that he and Gil would sit in the shows office wagon for hours cutting up jackpots about the old days all the while tossing back a few shots.

16 December, 2005 14:16
Anonymous said...

Do you think that the great shape we were all in the on the circus was because we tossed a few shots while visiting instead of filling our face with fast food as the people seem to do now adays. Happy drunks instead of unhealthy. obese, dull, people. I'll drink to that.

17 December, 2005 13:09

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