TCM Pick O’ The Day — Wednesday, August 20th
Posted by Dirty Harry on Tuesday, August 19th, 2008
3:15pm PST - Mr. Winkle Goes to War (1944) - A henpecked husband surprises his family by coming back from World War II a hero. Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Ruth Warrick, Ted Donaldson. Dir: Alfred E. Green BW-79 mins, TV-G
Think about this… We live in a world where Ben Affleck won an Oscar and Robinson didn’t. Where’s your god now?
Filed in Classic Films |
Larry Kepharton 19 Aug 2008 at 12:59 pm 1It’s remarkable that he was deaf when he came out of retirement to do Soylent Green with Chuck Heston. he had to practically read lips to get his cues.
PerfectTommyon 19 Aug 2008 at 1:06 pm 2One thing that caught my eye was “79 minutes”. Yesterday’s “Baby Face” was 76 minutes. Back in the day, if the story could be told in a little over an hour, that’s what they did. Of course, you probably got a double feature, newsreel, cartoon and maybe a short, so you wouldn’t feel ripped off by the price of admission.
If only contemporary filmmakers knew how to wrap up a story quickly (yeah, I’m looking at you, Ron Howard…and don’t think I don’t notice you hiding in the corner, Mr. Jackson.)
Morganon 19 Aug 2008 at 2:10 pm 3Now I envy you, Dirty Harry. You’ve got the TiVo, I don’t. Some of these movies sound great, but I can’t record any of them. And what’s worse, I have relatives who don’t care about most of these movies. They care more about what’s on HGTV and Style Network. I’m putting a TiVo on my Christmas list.
Dirty Harryon 19 Aug 2008 at 2:13 pm 4Actually, I don’t have a TiVo. With my recent unemployment a number frills went out the door like TiVo. I was just using that as an expression. I do, however, have The Hot Little Number I Call Mrs. Harry which makes up for any and all things.
Robert Lindseyon 19 Aug 2008 at 2:26 pm 5I don’t have a Tivo, but I have a VCR. I don’t have cable or sat and this is the only thing that makes me wish different.
Robinson was quite the actor. Could play a tough guy, a cuckold, an honest square guy, amazing.
Alicaron 19 Aug 2008 at 2:40 pm 6Robinson would’ve had more chances to win an Oscar if your intellectual forebears hadn’t blacklisted him.
astorianon 19 Aug 2008 at 2:47 pm 7Psssst. Alicar!
Glance at this and point out the lengthy gaps in Mr. Robinson’s employment. If you’re right, he should have no activity for much of the Fifties. Point out that stretch for me, would ya please?
Incidentally, Robinson never got a single Oscar nomination in his entire career! Not for “Little Caesar,” not for “The Sea Wolf,” not for “Key Largo,” not for “The Cincinnati Kid.” You can’t possibly blame that on any blacklisting.
Audietooon 19 Aug 2008 at 2:48 pm 8Alicar: there you go! of course, our “intellectual forebears” were the reason he never got an Oscar. Everybody knows how ingnorant and cruel “our” forebears were, in contrast to yours. But I have always wondered why Elia Kazan got booed by your forebears. I am assuming you are the 13yo male who represents your class to me.
Dirty Harryon 19 Aug 2008 at 2:53 pm 9HARRY HERE: Alicar, I’ll take my intellectual forebears who forced a few screenwriters to write under a pseudonym, over your intellectual forebears who enabled, romanticized, and covered for the tens of millions murdered and “disappeared” under their precious Uncle Joe’s USSR.
Anytime you want to compare “intellectual forebears” you just raise a red flag. You know you got one.
How morally illiterate must one be to be more offended by anti-communists than actual communists?
Johnny Ed's Babyon 19 Aug 2008 at 2:57 pm 10Greatest actor never to be nominated for an AA? Cary Grant would get my vote for the best actor never to win an Oscar but how did Robinson never get nominated? His scene on the different methods of suicide was worthy of an Oscar by itself. Or the look in his face in Little Caeser when he has to shoot his friend is as food a piece of acting as anyone has done.
Elizabetheon 19 Aug 2008 at 4:32 pm 11It’s just more proof that this is, indeed, a fallen world.
Jack Marinoon 19 Aug 2008 at 8:19 pm 12Now the ignorant stalinist that run Hollywood are blackballing any conservative that opens his mouth or makes a pro-American film.
A lot of great actors never got the Oscar., Kirk Douglas, Richard Burton, Richard Widmark, Peter O’Toole, Robert Mitchum, plenty of greats, now they give it to you just for insulting President Bush.
A true story about Edward G. He was on the set of Soylent Green sitting in his chair reading the trades. Meanwhile the rest of the actors are all mad at the director for taking his time with the set ups and they are making comments and acting like babies. One of the actors comes up to Edward G and asked him, ” How come you aren’t upset with all this waiting around we are here to act not wait”. Eddie turned and said, ” I act for free, they are paying me to wait around”. Heston was there and he was the one who told this story on TV years later.
I love him as Johnny Rocco… “more, yea thats right I want more” Also how Warners would put his likeness in the Bugs Bunny cartoons as Mugsy! “its curtians for ya mugsy”…. Whomp ! “ah they’re adorable…”
astorianon 20 Aug 2008 at 12:17 pm 13Richard Burton and Peter O’Toole never won Oscars, but both received Best Actor nominations many, many times, because they appeared in the type of Very Serious Movies Hollywood used to like to honor.
Edward G. Robinson NEVER got a single nomination in his career, and Cary Grant got just two nominations. Why not? Because, even though they were VERY different actors, they had a few disadvantages in common:
1) Both tended to play the same type of character over and over (Robinson was the tough guy, and Grant was the dashng, witty charmer), and Hollywood insiders somehow thought that wasn’t real acting.
2) Both worked largely in genres that didn’t command great respect in Hollywood. Robinson appeared in gangster films, Grant in light romantic comedies. Those genres, along with Westerns and horror movies, seemed too lowbrow to appeal to Academy members.
Today, things have changed. Today, the Oscars might as well be the Indie Spirit awards. But for a long time, even though Hollywood insiders were very liberal politically, they were very conservative artisitically.
From 1935-1995, if you wanted to win an Oscar, the best formula was this: combine the lush visuals and sweeping landscapes of David Lean with the earnest, preachy topical screenplays fo Stanley Kramer.
Johnny Ed's Babyon 20 Aug 2008 at 5:20 pm 14astorian:
Mitchum, Douglas and Widmark also got AA nominations. EG Robinson never getting 1 nomination is a disgrace.
Grant worked in light romantic comedies but it didn’t hurt It Happened One Night. And it didn’t hurt Jimmy Stewart in The Philadelphia Story in which I thought Grant should have won. And Grant was great in dramatic roles like Penny Serenade or Suspicion or Only Angels Have Wings. People always say Grant was just playing Grant but there were a lot of movies that just ain’t true. He deserved better.
I liked Grant best when he worked for Hitchcock (N by NW is my favorite) and Hitchcock never won an Oscar either. When Peter O’Toole retires he would get my vote for the best never to win. I just can’t picture Grant playing T.E. Lawrence or Henry II as good as O’Toole.
I agree that working in gangster roles hurt Robinson just as it hurt Cagney. Today those roles would be automatic AA nominations. Little Caesar is on right now and Robinson dominates every scene he’s in.
Leoon 22 Aug 2008 at 11:34 pm 15Amongst my favorite roles was in Double Indemnity… My dad’s in Little Ceasar.
Bah, Claude Rains is my favorite actor, 4 noms, no wins, stole almost every scene he was in.
Oh well. Dances with Wolves won over Goodfellas, tool.