Your work week sounds like mine lately, but enough about real life and on to the silver screen...
Interesting lists. I'm not really a fan of either actor, but I found their picks strangely compelling to read. The Duke's ego on display is pretty amazing and I thought it was odd - but somehow not surprising - that the Princess only listed actresses.
I adore Liz Taylor even though she's constantly over-the-top, but that's why I love her! I might be the only person in the world who likes Butterfield 8, but that's probably due to another one of my favorite over-the-top actors being teamed up with Liz, the gorgeous Larry Harvey!!!
I've come to realize that I often like my actors over-the-top and "hammy" or very low-key. It's the boring middle men and women that don't do a lot for me. And by low-key, I don't mean dull as doorknobs (a.k.a. Kevin - yuck! - Costner). I mean more like Alain Delon or Lee Marvin.
I've never understood all the love for Gone with the Wind either. I'll take the campy Butterfield 8 over it any day of the week!
Cinebeats | | Email | Homepage | 09.11.07 - 4:58 am | #
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Not a fan of Grace Kelly? But she was so bland. Oh, wait a minute...
I quite agree. Grace Kelly bores me stiff. As for Wayne, I like him in The Searchers (and he did too apparently) and Stagecoach and probably even a few others but he's personally never been to my taste.
As for Liz, she definitely had bucketloads more personality than Grace. I was just amazed that these two very different actors, having all of film history to choose from, somehow both picked Taylor. I mean, what are the odds? Maybe if they're both selecting a list of fifty but from a list of five? Especially considering Wayne only picked two actresses.
I remember watching Butterfield 8 with my roommate in college and having a grand old MST3K time watching it. That was back in the day when AMC actually showed classic movies and TCM didn't even exist yet.
Thanks for the great comments, Kimberly.
Jonathan Lapper | | Email | Homepage | 09.11.07 - 7:55 am | #
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As a big Vincente Minnelli fan, I've always been a little curious about the1962 Horsemen, but haven't found a copy or seen it on TCM anywhere (at least recently). Even if it's bad, I want to see it just to see it. I wonder if the GWTW appearance is a generational thing-- that was such a landmark film for folks coming into the business when Wayne and Kelly did, that it probably made a big impression, whatever its qualities as a film (kind of like Shawshank Redemption seems to for anyone under 30 these days). I do like that Wayne had the chutzpah to choose two of his own films-- I'm just surprised one of them wasn't The Alamo.
cinephile | | Email | 09.13.07 - 12:36 pm | #
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I've never seen the Minnelli version either so I was just going on the fact that the 21 version is considered great while the 62 version - not so much.
Now if Wayne had picked a movie he not only starred in but also directed that would have been something. But even he had to recognize that The Alamo just didn't cut it. And I don't know where A Man for All Seasons came from. It's well made, if nothing special. Scofield and Hiller are both excellent as well as most of the supporting cast, especially Robert Shaw. But greatest of all time? What? The Duke. He was something else. What exactly I don't know, but he was something else.
Jonathan Lapper | | Email | Homepage | 09.13.07 - 1:22 pm | #
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Looked at from a different perspective...
The Duke worked on movies he believed in and The Princess worked for anyone.
Jon | | Email | 09.25.07 - 1:02 am | #
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Now that sounds right. I don't think John Wayne would have ever worked on a movie that he didn't believe, or to put it the other way around, I know he never would have worked on a movie that ran opposite to his way of thinking.
Jonathan Lapper | | Email | Homepage | 09.25.07 - 6:01 am | #
