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Marlon Brando: Appreciating "Mr. Mumbles"
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<blockquote data-quote="Snarky Oracle!" data-source="post: 389235" data-attributes="member: 57984"><p>I'm quite sure it was a one-sided "feud". Brando really didn't like to fight face-to-face, and probably wound up just exhausted over Frank Sinatra's contemptuous lack of a sense of humor (and his terminal fiancée, Lauren Bacall, said in a '70s TV interview Frank indeed lacked a sense of humor -- like she's one to talk). Brando couldn't really sing, and never denied it, but he was too hot at the time for the studio not to insert him into GUYS AND DOLLS. Sinatra would have been fine with Brando's lack of vocal skills, but Sinatra loved being the slap-you-on-the-back Chairman of the Board while Brando loved to poke holes in such pretentions.</p><p></p><p>So it couldn't have worked. Nichelle Nichols complained that Sinatra "wanted to be found fascinating," and if you didn't, you'd experience his dark side. (Paul Anka wrote a book a few years ago, conceding that Frank's nasty side became more evident as he aged. Which smells true. But Anka also claimed Sinatra and Dean Martin asserted during a steam room bragging session that Angie Dickinson was the single best lay in all of Hollywood, but Angie herself called Anka a liar because she'd never slept with Martin, a guy not prone to boasting about his actual conquests, let alone lie about ones which never happened). </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>There was something about those '50s icons whose shadows loomed over the last-half of the twentieth century, even though most of them checked out early. Like the decade itself.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>It may be the single best filming of a stage play ever realized.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>And, as you said elsewhere, at least Brando had something on which to coast... But Richard Burton?? I always want to like Burton, and have come to appreciate him in BECKET (a film which I was sloooooooow to warm up to, and I rarely tend to change my mind about such things, but eventually was won over by its seance-esque flavor) and he's actually the very best thing in WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOLFE. And THE SPY WHO CAME I FROM THE COLD is a marvelously bleak portrait of Cold War London wrapped in winter's chill. And he and Taylor are at their best camping up Shakespeare in THE TAMING OF THE SHREW in all its chauvinistic glory. But you're always waiting for something more from him.</p><p></p><p>Very early on, in things like MY COUSIN RACHEL, Burton showed promise. And his youthful looks vanished with shocking speed due, no doubt, to his chronic alcoholism. And yet, despite that obvious potential, there is something somehow depressing, or depressed, about even his best screen performances -- and perhaps that was due to the drinking, too.</p><p></p><p>So maybe Brando was coasting on his reputation while Burton was coasting on his potential.</p><p></p><p>To be fair, there was also something depressive about Brando as well, even a wee bit sick-ish. Maybe it was those doughnuts to Burton's booze.</p><p></p><p>That said, Brando didn't care for Burton. One weekend on Richard and Elizabeth's yacht, Burton continually teased Marlon about all his multi-cultural offspring. Later, Burton probably felt a little guilty, but Brando wasn't having it... In contrast, Burton praised Brando publicly by saying Brando could have been a wonderful silent movie star (well, 80% of them were Aries), but I said the same thing about Alec Baldwin in the '80s (also Aries).</p><p></p><p>And speaking of Alec Baldwin, he once told Charlie Rose in an interview that the key to real male stardom was the triangular nexus of intelligence, masculinity and vulnerability, citing Brando as a key representation of that dynamic. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>You should see Brando's 1948 screen test for REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE. He is sooooo fey.</p><p></p><p><img src="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/80/4b/f7/804bf77ca0d066f4b2b215eba304eb4b.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 574px" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Snarky Oracle!, post: 389235, member: 57984"] I'm quite sure it was a one-sided "feud". Brando really didn't like to fight face-to-face, and probably wound up just exhausted over Frank Sinatra's contemptuous lack of a sense of humor (and his terminal fiancée, Lauren Bacall, said in a '70s TV interview Frank indeed lacked a sense of humor -- like she's one to talk). Brando couldn't really sing, and never denied it, but he was too hot at the time for the studio not to insert him into GUYS AND DOLLS. Sinatra would have been fine with Brando's lack of vocal skills, but Sinatra loved being the slap-you-on-the-back Chairman of the Board while Brando loved to poke holes in such pretentions. So it couldn't have worked. Nichelle Nichols complained that Sinatra "wanted to be found fascinating," and if you didn't, you'd experience his dark side. (Paul Anka wrote a book a few years ago, conceding that Frank's nasty side became more evident as he aged. Which smells true. But Anka also claimed Sinatra and Dean Martin asserted during a steam room bragging session that Angie Dickinson was the single best lay in all of Hollywood, but Angie herself called Anka a liar because she'd never slept with Martin, a guy not prone to boasting about his actual conquests, let alone lie about ones which never happened). There was something about those '50s icons whose shadows loomed over the last-half of the twentieth century, even though most of them checked out early. Like the decade itself. It may be the single best filming of a stage play ever realized. And, as you said elsewhere, at least Brando had something on which to coast... But Richard Burton?? I always want to like Burton, and have come to appreciate him in BECKET (a film which I was sloooooooow to warm up to, and I rarely tend to change my mind about such things, but eventually was won over by its seance-esque flavor) and he's actually the very best thing in WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOLFE. And THE SPY WHO CAME I FROM THE COLD is a marvelously bleak portrait of Cold War London wrapped in winter's chill. And he and Taylor are at their best camping up Shakespeare in THE TAMING OF THE SHREW in all its chauvinistic glory. But you're always waiting for something more from him. Very early on, in things like MY COUSIN RACHEL, Burton showed promise. And his youthful looks vanished with shocking speed due, no doubt, to his chronic alcoholism. And yet, despite that obvious potential, there is something somehow depressing, or depressed, about even his best screen performances -- and perhaps that was due to the drinking, too. So maybe Brando was coasting on his reputation while Burton was coasting on his potential. To be fair, there was also something depressive about Brando as well, even a wee bit sick-ish. Maybe it was those doughnuts to Burton's booze. That said, Brando didn't care for Burton. One weekend on Richard and Elizabeth's yacht, Burton continually teased Marlon about all his multi-cultural offspring. Later, Burton probably felt a little guilty, but Brando wasn't having it... In contrast, Burton praised Brando publicly by saying Brando could have been a wonderful silent movie star (well, 80% of them were Aries), but I said the same thing about Alec Baldwin in the '80s (also Aries). And speaking of Alec Baldwin, he once told Charlie Rose in an interview that the key to real male stardom was the triangular nexus of intelligence, masculinity and vulnerability, citing Brando as a key representation of that dynamic. You should see Brando's 1948 screen test for REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE. He is sooooo fey. [IMG width="574px"]https://i.pinimg.com/originals/80/4b/f7/804bf77ca0d066f4b2b215eba304eb4b.jpg[/IMG] [/QUOTE]
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