hardened cops and ruthless villains: ROBERT RYAN POLL

ugh, struggled to get this down to 50, hard when you haven't seen a bunch so forgive if a fav was left out

also, overheated film studies talk in the description but it covered most of the bases so lol

http://www.lileks.com/bleats/archive/07/0807/0803art/noir/1d.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3287/2743902928_b164d01700.jpg?v=0

Jim Wilson: Why do you make me do it? You know you're gonna talk! I'm gonna make you talk! I always make you punks talk! Why do you do it? Why?

"The Woman on Pier 13" is more infamously known as I Married A Communist iirc

Some fantastic titles here but I gotta go with De Toth's Day of the Outlaw, one of the five greatest westerns of the classical Hollywood era. Or maybe it's not so classical. The brilliant, Beckett-esque final third is one of those places where the genre went to die. And Ryan was perfect in it for this very reason: "he could never be totally sympathetic or likable, which was both his blessing and his curse."

have to check that one out

wanna go On Dangerous Ground

Chose Clash by Night; he's terrific opposite Barbara Stanwyck. So many good films.

One of my favourite actots ever.
I saw On Dangerous Ground when I was 9 or 10, it scarred me forever.

I do love 'The Set-Up', but lots of good stuff here. I read a description of Ryan somewhere saying something like "Robert Ryan was so noir he ate bullets and shat Venetian blinds."

He's mean as hell in The Naked Spur IIRC. Also great in Bad Day At Black Rock.

I'm inclined toward On Dangerous Ground, The Set-Up or House of Bamboo. Still have never seen Billy Budd, which is supposed to be a contender, or Iceman Cometh, which would seem to be a great part for him.

he's perfect in Billy Budd; that movie's rather underrated.

Peter Ustinov is too genteel, though, which adds to the proto Merchant Ivory air.

on dangerous ground

http://tbn0.google.com/hosted/images/c?q=832ef61bc167eec5_landing

If he had been on the "Doomsday Machine" episode of Star Trek: TOS as Norman Spinrad wanted, I would vote for that.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/film-noir-icon-robert-ryan-his-chicago-childhood-the-ryan-construction-fire/Content?oid=1223003

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/actor-robert-ryans-letter-to-his-children/Content?oid=1223014

Centennial of birth last week.

NYC retro:

http://www.filmforum.org/films/robertryan.html

http://www.thelmagazine.com/gyrobase/in-praise-of-robert-ryan/Content?oid=2167949&showFullText=true

Inferno in 3-D!

"The Outfit" is one of his last great roles. Wish it was showing at the Film Forum retro.

I had never seen Billy Budd til tonight, probably bcz I've often been annoyed by Ustinov's weakness for self-amusement, but it's really strong, particularly this Ryan-Stamp "What do you know of loneliness?" scene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOuY0cW4kcA

I saw it long ago in grad school when the prof assigned the novel. It's a rather straight movie, pun intended; I don't like how Captain Vere becomes a New Deal-era Supreme Court justice. But I don't see any other way of filming a novel whose language piles on the ambiguities.

Plus, if I'm not mistaken, Ustinov doesn't shy away from a queer reading either.

In other words, a honorable try in the best sense.

meh, I think it's better than that, and Ustinov is actually good in the trial scene, I thought, outside of his light-comedy comfort zone. (I haven't read Melville in at least 20 years.)

I hope I don't sound condescending -- this is a very difficult novel! Ustinov gets the essentials right: Claggart's self-hatred, Vere's impossible position, and what marvelous jail bait Billy muts have been.

as for Ryan, he manages to make Claggart's dying smile of triumph convincing, not a melodramatic stunt.

totes wouldve voted for Crossfire

have you actually seen it?

I think I have to take a shot with God's Little Acre tom'w night. I mean, Buddy Hackett AND Michael Landon as an albino teen.

duh why would i vote for a movie i ahvent seen e_e

A fine Kent Jones essay:

http://mubi.com/notebook/posts/lonelyheart

a new biography

http://chicagoist.com/2015/05/21/jrjones_explores_the_lives_of_rober.php

Ryan gave a tremendous performance in a live TV adaptation of The Snows of Kilimajaro in 1960, as the writer dying of gangrene in the jungle while his life flashes before his eyes. The production is a story in itself; the present-tense narrative and flashbacks were supposed to be taped and edited for broadcast. About a week before the air date, however, director John Frankenheimer learned that for legal reasons he would have to stage the play live, which required all manner of last-minute improvisations. At the center of all this, Ryan was giving his first live television performance, and he’s excellent. Broadcast on CBS, the play has never been issued to home video; you can see it only at the New York and Los Angeles facilities of the Paley Center for Media.

I am determined to see him in the '53 3-D Inferno tonight... even though it begins at 10:20 at Film Forum.

Ryan's Larry Slade in The Iceman Cometh is hard and pitiable, one of his best (next-to-last film, I think; he looks like hell). Makes it clear that while Hickey is the catalyst, Slade is the center.

was somewhat stunned to find out that Ryan was probably only 58 when The Wild Bunch was shot. Smoking is bad for you.

Morbs, come nominate some films in the crime poll!

Very disappointed The Love Machine was left off this list. (Kidding, velko--it is on the short-list of my favourite bad movies, though.)

William Holden was 49 or 50 in The Wild Bunch. Alcohol bad too.

Ryan had also played the father in Long Day's Journey on the stage.

One great thing about the Iceman film is most of Jeff Bridges' scenes are dialogues with Ryan, and they play real well together, even tho Bridges has the worst-written character in the play.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-Rkfi_GhM4