193 thoughts on “Marlon Brando Movies”

1. JOEL AND MARLON

   When in 1954 Marlon Brando reached the critical heights with his Oscar winning performance in On the Waterfront he plunged to the depths with criticism of the 1954 film “Desiree in which he played Napoleon.

   Always being more than willing to jump on any bandwagon that Brando was being thrown under, Joel Hirschhorn this site’s seemingly most-admire film critic rolled up his sleeves and joined in the fun of putting-down Brando and the film, loftily opining “nobody cared about Desiree and Brando’s Napoleon.”

   A contributor to this site has mentioned several times that he was intrigued by Joel’s definition of “nobody” as Laurence Olivier had notably gone public in praising Brando’s Napoleon and the movie was a massive box office hi.-

   We can now know exactly what Olivier said at the time, because, as part of a wider article on films and plays devoted to Napoleon, from Abel Gance’s 1927 six-hour silent classic (restored a few years ago by Francis Coppola) until the present time,

   writer Richard Luck in the 27 July edition of the New European political and cultural weekly publication has reproduced the Olivier’s words verbatim for us.

   Asked by a television interviewer who had been discussing specific American actors with Oliver “And what about Brando?” Olivier replied “Lots about Brando,” and then went on –

   “Marlon’s genius is that he is able to play a genius. His Napoleon is immeasurably the best Napoleon I have ever seen. It was simply marvellous, simply because of his own particular quality of being so easily able to bring his genius to a character who was a (military) genius.”

   On another occasion Olivier also pointed out that Napoleon in real life had been a poseur and that came out beautifully in Brando’s performance.

   The New European’s Richard Luck’s take on the Napoleon performance lines up with Olivier’s and not Joel’s. It is reproduced below and you will see that in relation to Olivier’s reference to Napoleon the poseur-

   Richard Luck expresses that vanity differently by referring to Napoleon swanning about like a “rock star”. After informing us that Montgomery Clift and Louis Jourdan had also been considered for the part, here is a reproduction of the rest of what Luck says in the New European:

   “In Desiree Brando’s understanding of genius extends to frustration with the inadequacy of others and boredom at the ease with which the impossible is accomplished.
   Brando’s Bonaparte at times carries himself like a rock star, at other times possesses the bearing of a chess grandmaster, always at least 2 moves ahead.

   It’s a compelling piece of work that not even a fake nose can foil; so I would suggest that Lord Olivier’s take was more accurate than those of Brando’s detractors.”

   By coincidence Louis Jourdan whom mention as having been a possible Napoleon in Desiree was not one of those detractors: Brando was his idol and he said about Marlon “He is our Don Quixote. Always tilting at windmills for us. Showing us what works. What doesn’t. What we can dare!”

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   1. Hey Anonymous. Interesting discussion about Brando’s Napolean performance. As you mentioned, Joel Hirschhorn, the great and well-respected film critic, was not a fan of Brando in Desire.
      Granted the movie was a box office success, but if you asked people to name their Top 5 Brando performances, his Napolean would not make many people’s list. I think The Godfather, Last Tango In Paris, On The Waterfront, A Streetcar Named Desire and Apocalypse Now would be named on most lists.

      I think the Ridley Scott/Joaquin Phoenix Napolean movie will shine some light on Brando’s Napolean. After just suffering through Joaquin’s 3 hour Beau Is Afraid, I am thinking his Napolean might not be too interesting…but I hope I am wrong.

      Since this argument first showed up on this website, I have seen Desire. I was not too impressed with it. Brando’s Napolean seems more of a supporting character, and his story which should be fascinating is pretty much in the background of the story. It makes me wonder what the movie would have been if his Napolean was the main character. Good information in your comment…..hope all is well.

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2. HI BRUCE: Like I have said to you previously it has been ascertained that the longer a controversial internet debate about politics or current affairs goes on there will come a point where someone will try to clinch the argument by making comparisons with Hitler and the Nazis.

   And so it is that when the subject of screen mumbling comes up Brando getting a mention at some point is a given – “No show without Punch” as the saying goes.

   Anyway I thank you for sharing that article with your site as [whilst in my responses I concentrated on Marlon -now there’s a surprise; The Duke don’t mumble!] I agree with a lot of what is said generally by the author(s).

   Today diction in movies and on television is so abysmal that for me it is like listening to a foreign language film at times. As I am getting on a bit in years now I became concerned for my hearing and consulted my doctor.

   After tests she told me that there was nothing wrong with my hearing and she asked me if I was having problems in understanding what was said in EVERY production I watched and I told her just the modern ones so that if a watched a rerun of say The Virginian [and why not!] or the sitcom Frasier I could hear everything very clearly. She retorted that if my own hearing was at fault I would have difficulty all the time.

   A film historian recently said in an interview that he felt that when acting out their roles before the cameras today’s performers were speaking just as clearly as they ever did but the problem could often be that today many young production technicians had their own ideas about what was “artistic” and they were maybe not giving enough priority to sound mixing.

   I did not have the technical expertise to completely follow what he was saying but it seems that these “wiz kids” [think the young Spielberg!] have control of some kind of large instruments board where they can twiddle about with all kinds of knobs to give artistic preference to this aspect of the filming over that aspect with the consequence that a final clear sound print is being interfered with.

   He went on to say that very young people such as today’s teenagers have grown up with the new techniques and have no problem making out what the stars are saying whereas older persons – and especially ‘veterans’ such as I !- have been used to different methods of filming and are therefore penalised by the ‘revolutionary’ sound mixing techniques of modern film-making.

   Good point about costumes. Certainly when I watched Hardy as The Kray Twins and in Myrna Antoinette I had no problem in following what he was saying.

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   1. Hey Bob….good breakdown on today’s movie making and audio challenges. Christopher Nolan, probably the hottest “whiz kid” seems to love to drown out his actors with music or background sounds. In my mind that is his greatest weakness…..his movies and plots are very complicated…and he seems to want to be very vague in telling the audience what is happening. That is why many of his most recent movies have been one and done movies to me. I saw The Dark Knight Rises, Interstellar, Inception, Dunkirk and Tenet in theaters….yet….have never re-watched any of them a second time…and Sir Michael Caine is in all of them.

      FYI – Our boy, Sir Mike, seems to be struggling with health issues….saw some recent photos of him…and he finally is looking like he is almost 90. Not sure there are many more Caine movies coming. Good stuff as always.

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3. “Hey Bob….hey Bob….that last quote looks so smart….that most have been done by somebody that knows something about movies..oh wait that is from me” – Bruce Cogerson today.

   HI BRUCE: THanks for the multiple replies to my posts over the past few days. Regarding your comments which I have just now quoted back at you, I am reminded of Dick Van Dyke’s Dr Mark Sloan in Diagnosis Murder TV series explaining that to trap the murderer he had borrowed a ruse from The Sherlock Holmes stories of Conan Doyle and Dr Sloan adds “I only steal from the best!”

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   1. Hey Bob…good comment….good thoughts from DVD.

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4. In short, Bruce in my experience invariably takes great pains to be fair and even-handed whereas the tone and content of some of Joel’s remarks about Brando sound to me like an intended hatchet job.

   Again, I have on a number of occasions recorded on this site that the respected New Yorker film critic Paula Kael wrote a long and detailed article explaining that because of Brando’s perceived rebel tendencies and independent-mindedness Hollywood declared “open season” on him and that its outriders among critics and in the press repeatedly took their cue and tended to demonised Marlon when an opportunity arose.

   So, when Joel wrote his 1983 book Tinsel Town and its disciples were -understandingly – still pushing-back at Marlon for his antics at the 1973 Oscars; and numerous critics and pundits in those days seemed to be clamouring to get in on the act. As the saying goes “You don’t live in Rome and fight with [His Holiness] The Pope!”

   In short I think it’s fair to say that for many years after his shenanigans at the 1973 ceremony Marlon wouldn’t exactly have been considered Team Player of the Year at the Academy whilst in those years Joel, on the back of his 1974 Best Song Oscar, may have regarded himself as “one of the boys”. at the Academy.

   EDWARD LIONHEART [Ham actor Played by Vincent Price]
   “That award was mine the greatest Shakespearean actor who ever lived. Instead you gave it to Wilbur Warburton a mumbling, twitching boy. Say I am better than he and you shall live!”

   PEREGRINE DEVLIN [Lead critic played by Ian Henry]
   “Never!. You played Shakespeare in the stale old way he has always been played whereas Wilbur Warburton brought a freshness and new lease of life to the acting of the Bard’s works.”

   EDWARD LIONHEART
   “Then die! Die! Die!” The sharp blade of the pendulum swings ever menacingly downwards -but the police arrive in the nick of time and Lionheart commits suicide.
   THEATRE of BLOOD – 1973 movie.

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   1. Good information. I like how you retitled Joel’s book.

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5. I suggested in part 2 how critics like Joel can be given to making sweeping negative and possibly incorrect statements about movie stars, maybe because of prejudice or as a consequence of preconceived notions handed down by others.

   For example as I have mentioned before on several occasions, Joel in his 1983 book makes the following sweeping statements about Brando.

   1/1954’s Desiree. “NOBODY cared about Brando’s Napoleon,” in that film. Actually Desiree was the 12th biggest box office hit of 1954 and Laurence Olivier publicly praised Brando’s performance.

   2/Brando was a “liability” to Guys and Dolls in 1955. However Variety certified Guys N Dolls as the biggest money maker of 1956; and Barbra Streisand was so impressed with Marlon in it that on one of her live shows she used a video to superimpose herself in the Jean Simmons part and seemingly sing along with Marlon in a clip from the film. “I always envied Jean in that film,” Babs told her audience. In his criticism of Marlon Joel though snidely refers to him as a mumbler. I wonder if Hirsch actually ever saw that movie: Brando in it actually speaks -appropriately – in clear Damon Runyon-esque tones and the diction in his singing is also clear. Check out the Streisand video on U tube for yourself. Maybe though Hirsch simply didn’t understand at a technical level what he was supposed to be listening to.

   If Bruce Cogerson hadn’t liked those two performances, as would be his entitlement, he would most likely have balanced his criticism by adding that Brando’s box office pull had nonetheless helped the movies become big box office hits.

   Indeed Bruce credits Desire with a magnificent $270 adjusted domestic gross and Guys n Dolls with a whopping one of $350 million; and in the lead-in above to this page it will be seen that The Work Horse says:

   “Marlon Brando owned the 1950s as an actor. He received 5 Oscar nominations for Best Actor between 1952 and 1958. He had it all…. blockbusters, critical acclaim, and an Oscar win. His movies generated over 200 million ticket sales in the 1950s.”

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   1. Hey Bob….hey Bob….that last quote looks so smart….that most have been done by somebody that knows something about movies..oh wait that is from me…..lol. Good feedback on all of your Brando mumbler thoughts. Hope your weekend was awesome.

      Reply

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