The Unlikely Heartthrob
Richard Widmark. 1914–2008.
He’s been in my Fantasy Film League ever since I saw Pickup on South Street, still one of my all-time favorite movies, many years ago. Sam Fuller, what else do you need to know? I think it’s a perfect film. And Widmark! My god the man had talent by the fistfuls.
(stills pinched from Jump Cut.)
Talent, and integrity. Here he is quoted in the Times.
“The businessmen who run Hollywood today have no self-respect. What interests them is not movies but the bottom line. Look at ‘Dumb and Dumber,’ which turns idiocy into something positive, or ‘Forrest Gump,’ a hymn to stupidity. ‘Intellectual’ has become a dirty word.”
He also vowed he would never appear on a talk show on television, saying, “When I see people destroying their privacy — what they think, what they feel — by beaming it out to millions of viewers, I think it cheapens them as individuals.”
Anyway, the sadness never ends. Until it ends!
One Response to “The Unlikely Heartthrob”
1 Inspector corset 28 March 2008 @ 10:49 am
I so agree, Widmark. He had it.
His stare could boil an agg.
Loved him in Kiss of Death.
And Pickup on South Street! Yes, such a great film.
Thanks for the tribute. xo
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