Pic of the Day: “Bayou” revisited

Posted by Marisa on December 26, 2014

Today’s pic takes another look at Ulysses, the hot-tempered Cajun of Harold Daniels‘ Bayou (1957) (re-edited and re-released as Poor White Trash in 1961). Here we see him bullying hapless booze hound Emil Hebert (Douglas Fowley), father of the woman Ulysses covets, by stealing his much-loved watch.

Fowley, a native of the Bronx, was a dependable and always entertaining character actor in films and on television for nearly fifty years. He was hilarious as the put-upon silent film director having extreme difficulty making the transition to sound in Singin’ in the Rain (1952). Married seven times, he was the father of legendary rock impresario Kim Fowley.

Pic of the Day: “Andrew Johnson” revisited

Posted by Marisa on May 24, 2013

The Memorial Day weekend begins with another look at the Profiles in Courage episode “Andrew Johnson,” first airing on February 28, 1965. Hartwick and his band of torch-bearing ruffians are intent on harassing President Andrew Johnson (Walter Matthau), embroiled in the vicissitudes of reconstruction after the Civil War.

This episode was helmed by veteran television director Alexander Singer. He attended high school in the Bronx and became good friends with another young man who would also end up directing Timothy. That young man’s name was Stanley Kubrick.

Pic of the Day: “Finger Man” revisited

Posted by Marisa on April 5, 2013

We close out this rather eventful week with another look at Lou Terpe, the ill-tempered torpedo of Finger Man (1955). His boss, Dutch Becker (Forrest Tucker), is attempting to restrain him from going gonzo on the “finger man” of the title, Casey Martin (Frank Lovejoy).

Lovejoy, from the Bronx, built a solid reputation as a dependable “square-jawed, intense, no-nonsense” type of actor who entered the profession as a teenager, after the stock market crash of 1929 ended his budding career on Wall Street. After stints on Broadway and radio, he made his film debut in 1948. He worked steadily until his death at age 50 in 1962 of a heart attack.

Pic of the Day: “Revolt in the Big House” revisited

Posted by Marisa on March 19, 2013

It’s time that we took another gander at the prison potboiler Revolt in the Big House (1958). Timothy’s Ed “Bugsy” Kyle is not happy that Al (Sam Edwards) is turning chicken. Red (John Dennis, on the right) and an unidentified actor look on uneasily.

Dennis found himself incarcerated with Tim in two other films: Convicts 4 (1962), this time as a prison guard; and Shock Treatment (1964), like Tim, uncredited as a mental patient. He also appeared in Head (1968), again uncredited, as a cop. He too was from one of New York City’s boroughs, the Bronx.