Edward G. Robinson!

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He was so awesome.

Poll Results

Option	Votes
Double Indemnity	4
Key Largo	2
The Sea Wolf	1
A Slight Case Of Murder	1
Bullets Or Ballots	1
The Cincinnati Kid	1
Black Tuesday	0
The Ten Commandments	0
Robin & The Seven Hoods	0
The Glass Web	0
The Biggest Bundle Of Them All	0
The Stranger	0
Arms & The Woman	0
Scarlet Street	0
The Woman In The Window	0
Tales Of Manhattan	0
Dr.Ehrlich's Magic Bullet	0
Kid Galahad	0
The Whole Town's Talking	0
Tiger Shark	0
Five Star Final	0
Little Caesar	0
Soylent Green	0

― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 13 April 2007 10:43 (nineteen years ago)

Barton Keyes: You know, you, uh, oughta take a look at the statistics on suicide some time. You might learn a little something about the insurance business.
Edward S. Norton: Mister Keyes, I was RAISED in the insurance business.
Barton Keyes: Yeah, in the front office. Come now, you've never read an actuarial table in your life, have you? Why they've got ten volumes on suicide alone. Suicide by race, by color, by occupation, by sex, by seasons of the year, by time of day. Suicide, how committed: by poison, by firearms, by drowning, by leaps. Suicide by poison, subdivided by TYPES of poison, such as corrosive, irritant, systemic, gaseous, narcotic, alkaloid, protein, and so forth. Suicide by leaps, subdivided by leaps from high places, under the wheels of trains, under the wheels of trucks, under the feet of horses, from STEAMBOATS. But, Mr. Norton: Of all the cases on record, there's not one single case of suicide by leap from the rear end of a moving train. And you know how fast that train was going at the point where the body was found? Fifteen miles an hour. Now how can anybody jump off a slow-moving train like that with any kind of expectation that he would kill himself? No, no soap, Mr. Norton. We're sunk, and we'll have to pay through the nose, and you know it.

― ghost rider, Friday, 13 April 2007 12:44 (nineteen years ago)

The Woman in the Window, easy, especially the way he says the line, "I'm tired. So very tired."

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 13 April 2007 12:59 (nineteen years ago)

He's great all over the place, esp DI and Scarlet Street. Also playing an Old World Italian banker in a Jos L Mankeiwicz family melodrama I saw recently, House of Strangers.

― Dr Morbius, Friday, 13 April 2007 13:28 (nineteen years ago)

Let's not forget Dathan in The Ten Commandments: uxorious Hebrew as future used car salesman (care of Jon Lovitz in "SNL")

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 13 April 2007 14:20 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.donthaveacowman.com/Simpsons/Cards/Skybox-1/S-06.jpg

― C. Grisso/McCain, Friday, 13 April 2007 16:30 (nineteen years ago)

The Sea Wolf is totally ace

― Hurting 2, Friday, 13 April 2007 16:31 (nineteen years ago)

and the guy just missed out on playing Dr Zaius

― Dr Morbius, Friday, 13 April 2007 16:39 (nineteen years ago)

O ILX, u r so canonical.

― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 18 April 2007 11:10 (nineteen years ago)

six years pass...

I just saw The Red House, which plays like a sort of precursor to Blue Velvet. EGR is a one-legged farmer with a terrible secret in the woods behind his place, and his adopted teen daughter uncovers it... also Edw's spinster sister is Judith Anderson! and the voluptuous, naughty high-school girl is Julie London. It's not perfect, but a bucolic Freudian funhouse, and he did make me shiver in one speech.

It's hard to track down, so if you must it's on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5EuSpz6l90

― ballin' from Maine to Mexico (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 14 May 2013 02:35 (twelve years ago)

^apparently Scorsese covered this film in his American Cinema doc, but I don't remember his views.

― ballin' from Maine to Mexico (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 14 May 2013 14:43 (twelve years ago)

two months pass...

Interesting double-bill tonight: House of Strangers and Broken Lance. It was House of Strangers I was interested in--Kael mentioned it in her Godfather review, and I think it was more than just Richard Conte being in both. Other than that, I knew nothing, so I had no idea that Broken Lance was a remake. (Funny the way it gradually dawned on me: "Oh, look, a painting of Spencer Tracy just like the painting of Edward G. Robinson in the first film." "Hey, he's just out of jail too." "Wow, three brothers again...okay, now I see.")

I actually thought Broken Lance was better. 1) Robinson and Tracy are both great actors; at his best, in Double Indemnity, Robinson's probably better. But not here--his Italian accent was slightly less cartoonish than Mickey Rooney in Tiffany's. Tracy's just really solid. 2) Even though I thought the oldest son in Strangers (Luther Adler--didn't recognize him) gave the best performance, Richard Widmark's version in Broken Lance was the more shaded character. 3) Broken Lance dove right into the racial events of the day. Maybe not completely--they were careful not to have Tracy and Katy Jurado actually kiss.

Anyway, fascinating watching the one right after the other.

― clemenza, Tuesday, 13 August 2013 04:14 (twelve years ago)

three years pass...

His first line in Soylent Green is "Bullshit."

― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Monday, 27 March 2017 13:53 (nine years ago)

Is his last line "Good lord, choke"?

― Bernie Lugg (Ward Fowler), Monday, 27 March 2017 13:54 (nine years ago)

He died about 10 days after shooting his last scene.

btw Richard Fleischer had Heston and EGR improvise this scene, enjoying an unaccustomed fresh meal in the dystopia of 2022 NYC.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQQ6wNfkcmc

― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Monday, 27 March 2017 13:56 (nine years ago)

and here's a party they had at MGM celebrating him making his 101st film. George Burns drops by.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmVsYojIsxQ

― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Monday, 27 March 2017 13:57 (nine years ago)

I've often wondered how many takes of that suicide-stats monologue Wilder made EGR perform, based on the way he spills a glass of water all down his vest and just rolls with it

― Wet Pelican would provide the soundtrack (Myonga Vön Bontee), Monday, 27 March 2017 19:14 (nine years ago)

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