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I took the bait with irritating curiosity last night after a friend texted me that rumor and indeed traced it back to an anonymous poster on a gossip site. Reading a lot of the "evidence" from hearsay around a Big Star making claims also traced back to random assumptions and guesstimations without confidence or seriousness taken at face value and twisted like a game of 'telephone.' Guilty til proven innocent culture, gotta love it

When I'm dead you're allowed to say I raped Natalie Wood, I won't notice

mfunk9786 wrote: Thu Feb 06, 2020 4:49 pm When I'm dead you're allowed to say I raped Natalie Wood, I won't notice

You've just lodged in my head the most tasteless "I'm Spartacus!" gag imaginable, so. . . thanks?

Have to admit I haven't seen any of his more well-known performances. I really just remember him mostly from his Simpsons episode and Greedy. There was a really good HBO documentary on his and Michael's career from a little over a decade ago, the movie it made me most curious about now that I think about it is Lonely Are The Brave which he saw a parallel to his son's role in Falling Down. The underlying family drama in the doc was something that fascinated me in that sort of rubbernecking way America has developed to the dark side of fame.

I've heard both Stallone and Schwarzenegger say Kirk was a big influence on them watching movies growing up and from what clips I've seen I can certainly make the connection. More with Stallone since he did that sort of silent, simmering anger so well in his action movies.

domino harvey wrote: Fri Feb 07, 2020 6:52 am Wonkette writer pens effusive... denouncement of the rumor and general tenor of the outraged responses

Terrific and cathartic read, really in response to cancel culture in general beyond this recent shameful case, thanks

Champion and Man without a Star are two others of his films that come to mind where he's memorable. Honestly I can't remember seeing a film of his where he wasn't good in it. Really a unique presence.

There are so many great Kirk Douglas performances, but his roles in two of the best films about filmmaking in the mid 20th century, both directed by Vincente Minelli really stand out to me: The Bad and the Beautiful and its spiritual sequel taking in the international epics of the period in the year just before Cleopatra, Two Weeks In Another Town. It's fascinating to double bill Two Weeks In Another Town with Godard's Contempt. Minelli also directed Douglas as Van Gogh in Lust For Life.

It feels like the late 40s to mid to late 60s were Kirk Douglas's prime period, working with all of the big directors such as Howard Hawks, King Vidor, John Sturges (twice) and of course Kubrick: after 1958's The Vikings (his second film with Richard Fleischer after 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea) and 1960s Spartacus there is The Last Sunset (for Robert Aldrich, co-starring with Rock Hudson), Seven Days In May for John Frankenheimer, Otto Preminger's In Harm's Way, and The War Wagon (for Burt Kennedy just before his Support Your Local Gunfighter/Sheriff western comedies and co-starring with John Wayne. That's really the period in the mid to late 60s where we were getting the comedy-westerns, most exemplified by the Support Your... films and Cat Ballou). There's also the politically iffy and almost immediately outdated (but perhaps valuable because of what it is capturing about the mindset of that moment) Cast A Giant Shadow, about the creation of Israel (that coincided with the Six Day War that created the modern situation in the Gaza Strip and made it hard to play the underdog any more), but that's a key last 'epic' film too. He's also playing Patton in René Clément's film Is Paris Burning.

After that he inevitably did a lot of exploitation films, which of course I find a bit more interesting than some of the westerns and epics! I am pretty sure that the first Kirk Douglas film that I saw as a kid was Saturn 3, which is a rather uncharacteristic film for all of the cast and director Stanley Donen! And The Final Countdown from 1980 is an enjoyable "what if a modern aircraft carrier was transported back in time to pre-Pearl Harbor and has to debate whether to let the attack get carried out or change history?" tale, though its more obviously interested in showing all of the military equipment and airplanes taking off from the aircraft carrier that the production was given permission to film on than the moral dilemma that perhaps should be taking precedence!

The more bizarre title is the obviously post Omen, Exorcist and Medusa Touch influenced The Chosen (aka Holocaust 2000), which works great in a double bill with The Fury!

I would also quite like to see The Master Touch at some point!

flyonthewall2983 wrote: Sat Feb 08, 2020 5:08 am ...I've heard both Stallone and Schwarzenegger say Kirk was a big influence on them watching movies growing up and from what clips I've seen I can certainly make the connection.

Schwarzenegger and Douglas were even in a film together, a woeful Hal Needham comedy called The Villain (1979) which, belatedly, attempted a Mel Brooks' style send-up of Western tropes. I saw this stinker in the theater (summer vacation; little-to-do). I suppose Douglas was the highlight with his attempt at becoming a human cartoon character (modeled on Wile E. Coyote); Paul Lynde playing a Native American was probably the lowest point!

Siskel and Ebert actually reviewed the film on their "Sneak Previews" show (the review starts around the twenty-minute mark) and the clip shown is a good example of what well may be Douglas' worst film.

My mother loves that film and she had it on VHS. I recall watching it with her a few times and, despite being a fan of Looney Tunes and being 9, finding it painfully unfunny.

Roger Ryan wrote: Mon Feb 10, 2020 4:59 pm

flyonthewall2983 wrote: Sat Feb 08, 2020 5:08 am ...I've heard both Stallone and Schwarzenegger say Kirk was a big influence on them watching movies growing up and from what clips I've seen I can certainly make the connection.

Schwarzenegger and Douglas were even in a film together, a woeful Hal Needham comedy called The Villain (1979) which, belatedly, attempted a Mel Brooks' style send-up of Western tropes. I saw this stinker in the theater (summer vacation; little-to-do). I suppose Douglas was the highlight with his attempt at becoming a human cartoon character (modeled on Wile E. Coyote); Paul Lynde playing a Native American was probably the lowest point!

Siskel and Ebert actually reviewed the film on their "Sneak Previews" show (the review starts around the twenty-minute mark) and the clip shown is a good example of what well may be Douglas' worst film.

Kirk has a cameo at the beginning of John Landis' Oscar as the father of the titular character played by Stallone

flyonthewall2983 wrote: Sat Feb 08, 2020 5:08 am Have to admit I haven't seen any of his more well-known performances. I really just remember him mostly from his Simpsons episode and Greedy. There was a really good HBO documentary on his and Michael's career from a little over a decade ago, the movie it made me most curious about now that I think about it is Lonely Are The Brave which he saw a parallel to his son's role in Falling Down. The underlying family drama in the doc was something that fascinated me in that sort of rubbernecking way America has developed to the dark side of fame.

I've heard both Stallone and Schwarzenegger say Kirk was a big influence on them watching movies growing up and from what clips I've seen I can certainly make the connection. More with Stallone since he did that sort of silent, simmering anger so well in his action movies.

Kirk Douglas fighting the one-armed man in Lonely Are the Brave is one of the best fight scenes ever. Everything is just perfection. The set up, the pacing and the anticipation, the one-armed man’s dirty tricks with fine balance of sadistic violence and humour, bar crowd reactions, the character built-up involved and of course Douglas’ performance. The movie on whole is obviously huge influence on First Blood, though wether it comes from David Morrell or Stallone I don’t know.

therewillbeblus wrote: Sat Feb 08, 2020 5:24 am

domino harvey wrote: Fri Feb 07, 2020 6:52 am Wonkette writer pens effusive... denouncement of the rumor and general tenor of the outraged responses

Terrific and cathartic read, really in response to cancel culture in general beyond this recent shameful case, thanks

I hate to pile on the guy, but it’s also been believed for a long time that Kirk Douglas “seduced” and slept with his own son’s mother. Can you believe it? He’s the father of his own son! These Hollywood types...

Ha! That took me longer to get than it should have this fine hungover morning

Same, and I’m not even hungover. Thanks for the prompt for more coffee

In all seriousness, there was also a nice tribute last week from Jamie Lee Curtis, who he apparently saved from drowning as a child

Douglas left all $61 million of his fortune to charities. Funny how the rape rumor spreaders are silent on him doing more to further social causes with these gifts than all of them combined could ever do

What do you mean? They yell at people on the internet. Totally changing things for the better.

Can confirm. I got yelled at on the internet in May of 2003. Changed my life.