trivia:
he was for gun control, a political liberal. by all accounts
a truly nice guy. sandy koufax was his son-in-law.
--- Steve Novak <
Cinefrog@comcast.net> wrote:
> The best answer to your question is the article in
NYT yesterday...and
> the
> assesment of The Night & the City is
perfect...probably the most
> accomplished noir film of that
>
era...(cast/direction/DP/locations-decors/themes/script-screenplay....you
> name it)
>
> Montois
>
>
> March 29, 2008
> AN APPRAISAL
> A Star Who Mastered a New Moral Ambiguity
>
> By DAVE KEHR
> Of the generation of leading men who emerged in the
aftermath of World
> War
> II, quite a few began their careers playing
villains. Kirk Douglas,
> Anthony
> Quinn, Robert Mitchum, Jack Palance and Lee Marvin
were among the
> postwar
> stars who served apprenticeships ‹ some long, some
short ‹ as outlaws
> gunned
> down in the last reel of westerns or as hoodlums
crumpling under police
> fire
> in crime pictures. Richard Widmark, who died at 93
on Monday, was
> another.
>
> Unlike many of his contemporaries, Mr. Widmark never
quite shook the
> dark
> associations of his early roles, even after his
studio, 20th Century
> Fox,
> rehabilitated him as a leading man. The obituaries
that followed Mr.
> Widmark¹s death almost invariably began by evoking
his first and still
> most
> famous film appearance, as the psychotic killer
Tommy Udo in Henry
> Hathaway¹s 1947 film noir, ³Kiss of Death² ‹ a role
that required Mr.
> Widmark to giggle and grin as he bound an old woman
(Mildred Dunnock) to
> her
> wheelchair and shoved her down a flight of
stairs.
>
> The sadistic, unhinged Udo was something new in
American movies, and the
> impression he left was indelible. ³Mr. Widmark runs
away with all the
> acting
> honors,² The New York Times said, and Mr. Widmark
was rewarded with an
> Oscar
> nomination for best supporting actor ‹ the one and
only time the Academy
> took notice of him. (On Friday night, Turner Classic
Movies is set for a
> Widmark triple feature: ³Alvarez Kelly,² ³Take the
High Ground² and ³The
> Tunnel of Love.²)
>
> Mr. Widmark, then 33, had fourth billing in ³Kiss of
Death²; his Oscar
> nomination earned him better billing but similar
roles in three 1948
> films:
> William Keighley¹s ³Street With No Name,² Jean
Negulesco¹s ³Road House²
> and
> William Wellman¹s ³Yellow Sky.² Only with Hathaway¹s
³Down to the Sea in
> Ships² (1949) did Mr. Widmark get a heroic role and
his name on top, but
> the
> public didn¹t seem interested in this bright, blond,
squeaky-clean
> figure:
> they wanted their morally flawed, unpredictably
violent Widmark back.
>
> And so, through much of the 1950s, Mr. Widmark moved
back and forth ‹
> shuttling between heavies and heroes ‹ with a
freedom mostly unknown to
> other performers of the period. He was a selfless
Public Health Service
> doctor searching for a gangster (Jack Palance)
infected with plague in
> Elia
> Kazan¹s 1950 ³Panic in the Streets²; that same year
found him as a
> racist
> street punk taunting a black doctor (Sidney Poitier)
in Joseph L.
> Mankiewicz¹s ³No Way Out.²
>
> Mr. Widmark¹s richest roles were those that placed
him somewhere in the
> middle ‹ in that great swamp of moral ambiguity that
four years of
> active
> conflict and a shadowy new cold war had made
Americans ready to
> acknowledge.
>
> In Samuel Fuller¹s ³Pickup on South Street² (1953)
Mr. Widmark is Skip
> McCoy, a New York pickpocket who unknowingly lifts a
microfilmed roll of
> government secrets from a fallen woman (Jean Peters)
working for a cell
> of
> Soviet agents. Smirkingly antisocial to the last
(Skip has learned to
> taunt
> cops into hitting him, as a way of invalidating
arrests), he ends by
> lending
> his criminal skills to the side of law and order,
motivated less by
> patriotism than by a desire for revenge.
>
> In ³Hell and High Water² (1954) Mr. Widmark again
worked with Mr.
> Fuller,
> and the film helped to move Mr. Widmark¹s screen
personality in a
> different
> direction. In this slightly mad cold war fantasy, he
is a former Navy
> officer hired by a group of civic-minded scientists
to pilot a submarine
> to
> the Arctic Circle, where, they suspect, the Red
Chinese are constructing
> a
> nuclear missile base. The military lent a new
context to Mr. Widmark¹s
> moral
> equivocality: in films like ³Halls of Montezuma,²
³The Frogmen,² ³Take
> the
> High Ground!² and ³Destination Gobi² Mr. Widmark
played hard-bitten
> commanders whose apparent coldness and cruelty
masked a deeper concern
> with
> the safety of their men.
>
> His psycho killers and military leaders shared one
prominent character
> trait: callousness, a quality Mr. Widmark portrayed
with disdainful
> ease.
> From the mid-¹50s on, his filmography was filled
with colonels,
> captains,
> lieutenants and even a couple of
generals.
>
> In Robert Aldrich¹s 1977 ³Twilight¹s Last Gleaming²
Mr. Widmark had his
> last
> great role, as a senior officer whose job it is to
persuade a renegade
> general (Burt Lancaster, Mr. Widmark¹s contemporary
and fellow
> recovering
> gangster) to relinquish control of the nuclear
missile silo he has taken
> over as a political protest. The casting is
impeccable: here are two
> actors
> whose careers have run in parallel, just as their
characters¹ lives
> have.
>
> As an actor, Mr. Widmark fell between the
presentational style of prewar
> filmmaking and the inner-directed, psychological
focus of the Method
> actors,
> who came into vogue in the 1950s. With his prominent
teeth and tight
> skin,
> his face had a certain skull-like quality that
suggested Conrad Veidt in
> the
> German Expressionist films of the ¹20s, yet there
was a watery,
> vulnerable
> quality in his large blue eyes that could sometimes
make him seem almost
> childlike.
>
> The role that best combined these two sides of Mr.
Widmark was, perhaps,
> that of the naﶥ American boxing promoter, Harry
Fabian, who is
> devoured by
> the London underworld in Jules Dassin¹s 1950 noir
masterpiece, ³Night
> and
> the City.²
>
> It¹s hard to imagine another tough-guy actor of the
period allowing
> himself
> to come as close to tearful impotence as Mr. Widmark
does at the end of
> that
> film, at the moment his character realizes that
there is no escape from
> the
> vengeful associates he has betrayed. Running toward
the camera, as well
> as
> toward his death, Mr. Widmark allows his face to go
slack and his limbs
> to
> loosen; he seems to become a panicked child before
our eyes, shrinking
> into
> infantile helplessness. A jump cut might take us to
the opening scene of
> ³Rebel Without a Cause,² when James Dean¹s drunken
teenager collapses on
> the
> sidewalk, playing with a toy monkey.
>
> A great star, perhaps, is someone who embodies a
cultural moment while
> nudging us on to something new, to feelings not yet
explored and
> contradictions not yet expressed. By that
definition, as well as by many
> others, Richard Widmark was a great star.
>
>
> Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
>
>
> On 3/30/08 9:41 AM, "Jack Bludis" <
buildsnburns@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> >
> > Eric Chambers said:
> >
> >>> >> ... I would have expected, in
a forum dedicated to Noir amoung
> other
> >>> things, that more would have been made
of Richard Widmark's
> passing.<<
> >
> > Mea Culpa. You're right, Eric.
> >
> > Widmark could get as down, dark, and dirty as
any of them, and we
> certainly
> > owe him the honor of a mention.
> >
> > Sorry.
> >
> > I'm curious to know if Widmark was a tough
"little guy" a la Allan
> Ladd?
> >
> > Anyone?
> >
> > Jack
> >
> > http://crimespace.ning.com/profile/JackBludis
> >
> >
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been
removed]
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
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