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Post by BrokenSword on Apr 6, 2008 9:21:29 GMT -6
Charleton Heston; aka Major Dundee, Will Penny and way too many other characters to mention, left us all last night.
Certainly not the greatest actor of his age, but the world of movies has gotten very much smaller with his passing.
Personally, I've envied the man ever since he got to kiss Senta Berger. Sigh. Sorry Hunk.
M
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Post by Treasuredude on Apr 6, 2008 9:33:21 GMT -6
I remember when I was a kid and saw Planet of the Apes for the first time. I still haven't gotten over that. RIP
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Post by Diane Merkel on Apr 6, 2008 11:31:32 GMT -6
In the mid-70s, I worked for a Washington attorney who made frequent trips to the west coast. He would always fly first class and bill his clients for it. His clients were all contractors with claims against the US government, so the legal bills would get passed along to the government as part of the settlement or award. In the end, as always, tax paying Americans ended up paying for his first class seats and the vast quantitites of booze consumed in the American Airlines lounges at the airports. (I had more than my share of those drinks, too, so thanks everybody!)
Anyway -- one time my boss boarded a flight back to DC, and Charleton Heston and his wife were on the flight but no one other than the flight attendants approached them. My boss said that Heston stood up before take-off and made a big deal about addressing the other first class passengers, asking that they not talk to them or bother them for autographs. My boss was disgusted. He had seen a lot of celebrities on his many cross-country flights, but none with such an ego.
I have never liked Heston but wish him peace.
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Post by BrokenSword on Apr 6, 2008 11:59:28 GMT -6
Now, Diane-
Considering the total taxes Heston probably paid, and considering just how MUCH whiskey (from what Hunk told me) it takes to actually get you 'crazy in the head', was Heston really asking so much?
What your boss should have done is stood and asked, "And who are you, Sir?" then turned to the other passengers and said, "I will ask for the same consideration for myself. Thank you everyone." OR, just said, "You can count on me Mr. Brando!"
That's too funny a story.
M
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Post by Diane Merkel on Apr 6, 2008 13:42:48 GMT -6
I wasn't there but, knowing the usual level of intoxication of my boss, I wouldn't be surprised if he made one of those responses!
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Post by Montana Bab on Apr 6, 2008 13:45:25 GMT -6
Charleton Heston; aka Major Dundee, Will Penny and way too many other characters to mention, left us all last night. Certainly not the greatest actor of his age, but the world of movies has gotten very much smaller with his passing. M Oh, Michael, You forgot MOSES and JUDAH BEN HUR! Most of the new movies would do well to last as long as those have! We old- timers don't forget. (Speaking for myself, of course). Bab
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Post by "Hunk" Papa on Apr 6, 2008 15:06:17 GMT -6
For me one of Charlton Heston's most memorable movies was the1958 "Touch of Evil", mostly because he got Orson Welles to direct and co-star in it giving an outstanding portrayal of the corrupt cop Hank Quinlan. Quite magnificent by both men.
At the other end of the scale is the ridiculous 1953 turkey, "Pony Express", with Heston as Buffalo Bill and Forrest Tucker as Wild Bill Hickock. Aaaaaagh!! Quick Michael, break out the whiskey, me go crazy 'n head to forget heap bad movie.
H
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Post by BrokenSword on Apr 7, 2008 8:17:25 GMT -6
Hi Bab-
I didn't actually forget Ben Hur and The Ten Commandments. I guess I just mentioned the two Westerns most prominent in my mind. But now that you mention it, the Red Sea crashing down on Pharaoh's chariots does have its parallel with Custer at the Little Bighorn.
M
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Post by clw on Apr 7, 2008 9:25:13 GMT -6
Watching some old interviews last night, Heston said the role he was most proud of was Will Penny. Haven't seen it and will have to look it up.
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Post by crzhrs on Apr 7, 2008 9:49:43 GMT -6
Moses . . . Moses . . . Moses (classic line if I ever heard)
Did you know Woody Strode was in that movie and so was a young Clint Walker among the cast of thousands.
PS: "From my dead, cold hands" (now's the time, I guess)
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Post by BrokenSword on Apr 7, 2008 10:08:05 GMT -6
clw- "...Haven't seen it..." Will Penny. Excellent portrait of an aging cowboy with no real prospects for the future. (Classic Bruce Dern, as well) crzhrs- "...Moses . . . Moses . . . Moses (classic line if I ever heard)..." Right you are! So let it be written. So let it be done.I knew about Woody (kinda hard to miss him in anything), but didn't know about Clint. M
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Post by elisabeth on Apr 7, 2008 11:31:28 GMT -6
Will Penny is a very nice movie indeed. Not surprised he was proud of it. Most of his best roles called for him to play either a monolith (Ben Hur, Moses etc.) or a somewhat remote or even unlikable character (such as Major Dundee). Those, he could do with his eyes shut, but Will Penny took real acting: a softer, sympathetic, vulnerable character. A remarkable piece of work.
For an actor it was generally hard to warm to, he did make some terrific movies. El Cid is hard to beat -- that glorious scene where his corpse is strapped into the saddle to lead the crucial charge into battle ... And he was great in Khartoum, conveying Gordon's constipated wrong-headedness with quite some courage, really -- can't be easy to play a lead character you know the audience is going to loathe, yet resist the temptation to blur the sharp edges so as to gain sympathy. Good stuff. There's a very minor movie called The War Lord which might be worth revisiting, too. It had quite a cult following back in the '60s (as did many things that shouldn't have, of course) but I still remember it as being very stark and strong. I don't know how it would look today -- it may be awful -- but I think it might stand out as pretty interesting.
He wasn't infallible, of course; my parents saw him on stage in London, as Thomas More in "A Man for All Seasons", and said he was just terrible -- wooden, flat, and given to striking poses. But many can't make the transition from screen to stage. He created himself as an icon, yet still tested himself with screen roles that stretched him, and he deserves full credit for that.
Question: given his penchant for playing flawed characters unblinkingly -- what would a Heston Custer have been like? (Yes, hopelessly wrong casting and all that, but Peckinpah, I believe, was planning a Custer movie before settling for "Major Dundee" ...) Not entirely to Swiss tastes, one suspects. Could have been quite something, though ...
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Post by BrokenSword on Apr 7, 2008 13:40:46 GMT -6
Elisabeth-
You, Lady, ask the most fascinating questions.
I suspect that Heston's Custer might, while being totally wrong physically, have captured that sort of personal 'barrier' Custer seemed to have established with certain of his officers. The woodeness displayed in many of his portrayals might have been perfect for the often overbearing authoritarian personna that Custer exhibited toward them.
Of course, Jack Nicholson would have to portray Benteen opposite him in any such film.
M P.S. Thank you for mentioning 'The War Lord'. I really liked that one and it had slipped my mind. Can't call myself a cultist about it, just intrigued by every boy's fantasy (I suppose) at having complete authority over all the pretty village women. I'm not really bad, I just think that way.
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Post by crzhrs on Apr 7, 2008 13:57:21 GMT -6
One Heston's earlier movies, APACHE also starred Jack Palance as an Apache who as a youth was sent East to learn the White Man's ways. He came back and with his knowledge of the White Man saw that the Apache way of life was doomed. He them became a messiah-figure and wanted to wage a holy war against the White Man.
Heston, who was a scout and had experience with the Apaches ended up in a violent feud with Palace. Heston did not portray, shall we say a "Indian Lover" and ended up Anti-Apache and killed Palace.
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Post by "Hunk" Papa on Apr 7, 2008 14:14:31 GMT -6
One Heston's earlier movies, APACHE also starred Jack Palance as an Apache who as a youth was sent East to learn the White Man's ways. He came back and with his knowledge of the White Man saw that the Apache way of life was doomed. He them became a messiah-figure and wanted to wage a holy war against the White Man. Heston, who was a scout and had experience with the Apaches ended up in a violent feud with Palace. Heston did not portray, shall we say a "Indian Lover" and ended up Anti-Apache and killed Palace.
Er, sorry Crazy, but methinks the movie you have in mind is the 1953 "Arrowhead" with Heston as 'Ed Bannon' [an Al Seiber clone] and Palance as 'Toriano'. The movie "Apache" was a 1954 Robert Aldridge direction starring Burt Lancaster as 'Masai' and John Mcintire playing the role of Al Seiber. I will always have an abiding memory of Heston protecting Doc Holliday in "Tombstone" and saying to Wyatt Earp, "If they want to get to him, they'll have to come through us" and looking suitably immovable as he said it. H
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