#Toshiro Glenn

[dare-g]

T Blockers (2023)

[moviemosaics]

T Blockers

directed by Alice Maio Mackay, 2023

[hotvintagepoll]

Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford (Gilda, Affair in Trinidad)—Has there ever been anyone hotter ever than rita hayworth manhandling this guy?

Toshiro Mifune and Yoshiko Yamaguchi (Sword for Hire, Last Embrace, Foghorn)—Ho ho ho coming in with the big gun: Toshiro Mifune & Yoshiko Yamaguchi. they're romantic couples in at least Foghorn 1952, Sword for Hire 1952, and The Last Embrace 1953. i'm having trouble adding image links but there was this yamaguchi propaganda post a while back of TLE stills that sums up their insane hotness together pretty well [link, with some pics also under the cut]. these two were the backbone of hollywood style raw sexual energy in jp postwar cinema and i also really wanna post that xmas song clip of them from Scandal

This is round 4 of a mini tournament. Each poll lasts for a week. Please reblog with propaganda for your favorite hot couple. To vote in all the polls, click here.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut]

Hayworth and Ford:

Mifune and Yamaguchi:

[theblindninja]

Toshiro Mifune and Scott Glenn on the set of The Challenge (1982) Steven Segal also worked as a technical advisor and stunt coordinator for any of the scenesthe movie.

[rosencrantzsguildenstern]

At their five-year college reunion, four bros swear off dating in favor of a return to their studies - a plan that goes awry when a group of girls from their past arrive...

Possibly the best-kept secret in Shakespeare adaptations. Michael Friedman and Alex Timbers blend the original text with modern music and lyrics in a way that, against all odds, feels natural, as well as heartfelt and hilarious. The cast is stacked with names familiar to Broadway fans (Daniel Breaker! Patti Murin! Bryce Pinkham! Rebecca Naomi Jones! Kimiko Glenn! Colin Donnell!) - but even though you probably missed this one during its brief run in Central Park in 2013, the album is all on Spotify.

The music slaps so hard! Highlights include "Change of Heart" and "Love's a Gun".

A retelling of MacBeth set in feudal Japan. Returning to their lord's castle, samurai warriors Washizu and Miki are waylaid by a spirit who predicts their futures. When the first part of the spirit's prophecy comes true, Washizu's scheming wife, Asaji, presses him to speed up the rest of the spirit's prophecy by murdering his lord and usurping his place.

Overall this just translates the rising sense of the doom and drama of Macbeth so well! The film is also beautifully atmospheric. It really leans into using mist and darkness to set an eerie feeling tone. Shoutout to Washizu’s (Macbeth’s) absolutely wild death scene in this version.

Moody, atmospheric, visually beautiful film that captures the vibe of Macbeth better than any I've seen. The illusion of the trees moving is astonishing (especially if you're lucky enough to see this on a big screen) and Lady M's hand-washing scene is as creepy as you'll ever see. And Toshiro Mifune gives a splendid performance (and is extremely hot).

[byneddiedingo]

Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950) Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyo, Masayuki Mori, Takashi Shimura, Minoru Chiaki, Kichijiro Ueda, Noriko Homma, Daisuke Kato. Screenplay: Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, based on stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa. Cinematography: Kazuo Miyagawa. Production design: Takashi Matsuyama. Film editing: Akira Kurosawa. Music: Fumio Hayasaka. When I was growing up, Rashomon was one of those films like Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita (1960) and Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal (1957) that you had to have seen just to be considered culturally literate. Among other things, it's often cited as the career breakthrough of Akira Kurosawa and his frequent star, Toshiro Mifune. But if there's a key to the success of Rashomon as drama it's the performance of MIchiko Kyo in the female lead. Kyo was the star of another 1950s imported hit, Teinosuke Kinugasa's Gate of Hell (1953), and gave memorable performances for Kenji Mizoguchi in Street of Shame (1956) and especially Ugetsu (1953) as well as for Yasujiro Ozu in Floating Weeds (1959). She even crossed the Pacific to play opposite Glenn Ford and Marlon Brando (in yellowface) in the film version of The Teahouse of the August Moon (Daniel Mann, 1956). The nuances of Kyo's performance make Rashomon work; they keep us guessing whether she was the dutiful wife or the savage wanton. As I watch more and more Japanese film of the late 1940s, '50s, and '60s, it becomes clearer that this was a great period for female actors like Kyo, Setsuko Hara, Kyoko Kagawa, Kinuyo Tanaka, Isuzu Yamada, Hideko Takamine, and many others -- most of whose names are unknown to Americans today. As for Rashomon itself, while it remains essential viewing for the cinematically literate, I don't hold it in as high esteem as I do such Kurosawa/Mifune collaborations as  Drunken Angel (1948), Stray Dog (1949), Seven Samurai (1954), Throne of Blood (1957), The Lower Depths (1957), The Hidden Fortress (1958), Yojimbo (1961), Sanjuro (1962), or High and Low (1963). Rashomon feels arty and remote in ways that those don't.

gifs by talesfromthecrypts

[inflatuati0ons]

Fandom list (WiP)

Anything crossed out can't be requested for at the moment but can be requested for in the future.

If you want to request for a character/Fandom that isn't there please ask if it is alright with me first. Not every Fandom I will do.

-> Anime/Manga:

One piece -> Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, Nami, Robin, Franky, Brook, Usopp, Vivi, Law, Kidd, Killer, Ace, Whitebeard, Roger, Rayleigh, Shanks, Oden, Yamato, Kiku, Izou, Katakuri, Jimbei, Kuzan, Sengoku, Garp, Kizaru, Akainu, Mihawk, Perona, Crocodile, Doflamingo, Corazon, Eneru/Enel, Lucci, Kaku, Hancock, Hawkins, Bartolomeo, Beckman, Cavendish, Pudding, Koby, Smoker, Dragon, Paulie, Fujitora, ...

Bleach -> Ichigo, Rukia, Sado, Orihime, Rangaiku, Kenpachi, Unohana, Yoruichi, Aizen, Urahara, Shunsui, Toshiro, Byakuya, Jugram, Gin, Ishida, Stark, Grimmjow, Shinji, Renji, Ukitake, Isane, Yumichika, ...

Naruto -> Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi, Obito, Madera, Hasirama, Minato, Kushina, Garaa, Neji, Shikamaru, Guy, Yamato, Tsunade, Itachi, Shisui, Sasori, ...

Demon slayer -> Rengoku, Uzui, Obani, Mitsuri, Shinobu, Tomioka, Genya, Sanemi, Muzan, Kokushibo, Gyomei, Akaza, Douma, Haganezuka, Shinjuro, Hinazuru, Kagaya, Sabito, Makio, Yoriichi, ...

Vagabond -> Musashi, Sasaki, Otsu, Yoshioka, Kohei, Rindo, Gennosuke, ittosai, Honiden, ...

Berserk -> Guts, Griffith, Casca, Serpico, Fernese, ...

Baki -> Baki, Yujirou, Orochi, Katsumi, Hanayama, Retsu, Musashi, Pickle, Alai, Kureha, ...

Attack on titans -> Eren, Mikasa, Armin. Levi, Erwin, Hange, Zeke, Reiner, ...

Jujutsu kaisen -> Yuji, Megumi, Nobara, Gojo, Getou, Shoko, Nanami, Sukuna, Choso, Maki, Inumaki, Yuta, Kamo, Naoya, Kashimo, Hiromi, Kong, Toji, ...

Black butler -> Undertaker, Sebastián, Vincent, Charles, Lau, Williams, ...

JoJo's bizarre adventures -> Jonathan, Joseph, Ceaser, Dio, Jotaro, Josuke, Johnny, Gyro, Jolyne, Kira, Rohan, Bruno, Diavolo, Avdol, Fugo, Mista, Trish, Anasui, Giorno, ...

Blue lock -> Oliver, Sae, Chigiri, Nagi, Rin, Michael, ...

Castlevania -> Alucard, Trevor, Sypha, Dracula, Lisa, ...

One punch man -> Saitama. Genos, Garou, Sweet mask, ...

Black clover -> Yuno, Yami, Julius, William, Fuegoleon, Nacht, ...

Mob Psycho 100 -> Reigen, Shigeo, Katsuya, Sho, Ritsu, ...

HunterxHunter -> Chrollo, illumi, Meruem, Feitan, Kite, Shizuku, Machi, Killua, Gon ...

Avatar the last air bender -> Sokka, Zuko, Azula, Hakoda, ...

Death note -> Light, L, Misa, ...

Howl's moving castle -> Howl, ...

Neon Genesis evanglion -> Kaji, Nagise, ...

Vinland saga -> Thorfinn,

Record of Ragnarök -> Thor, Loki, Adam, Eve, Aphrodite, Shiva, Buddha, ...

Veil -> Aleksander, Emma

-> Manhwa/Manhua/Webtoons:

Windbreaker -> Jay, Owen, Vinny, Dom, Joker, ...

Ennead -> Seth, Horus, ...

Solo Leveling -> Jinwoo, Thomas, Il-hwan, Jongin, Baruka, ...

Heeran love song -> Yato, Soru, Ja hyun, ...

Villains are destained to die -> Penelope, Callisto, Winter, Reynold, ...

Trash of the count's family -> Cale, Choi han, Rok soo, ...

Omniscient reader's Veiwpoint -> Dokja, Joonghyuk, ...

Operration true love -> Eunhyeok, Dohwa, ...

Heavens' official blessing ->

Under the oak tree -> Riftain, ...

The beginning after the end -> Arthur, kathyln, ...

19 days -> Jian Yi, Zhan Zheng Xi, He Tian, Mo Guan Shan, She li, He cheng, Brother Qiu, ...

The boxer -> Injae, Manuel, Yuto, Ryu, Yu, J, ...

-> Comics(+ any adaptations):

DC comics -> Batman, Superman, Nightwing, Red hood, Wonder woman, Aquaman, Joker, Deadshot, ...

Marvel comics -> Ironman, Thor, Captain America, Deadpool, Wolverine, ...

-> Games:

Call of duty -> Price, Ghost, Soap, Gaz, Konig, Roach, Nikolai, Alejandro, ...

Arcana -> Asra, Nadia, Julian, Muriel, Portia, Lucio, Valerius, Namar, Nazali, Navra, Nahara, Aisha, Morga, Salim, ...

Five nights at freddy's -> William, Micheal, ...

God of War -> Kratos, Freya, Heimdall, Thor, Týr, ...

Love and Deepspace -> Zayne, Raphael, Xavier, Tara, ...

-> TV Shows/Movies:

The walking dead -> Rick, Daryl, Shane, Glenn, Negan, Maggie, Michonne, Tyreese, Ezekiel, Jesus, Dwight, Gabriel, Rosita, ...

The rookie -> Tim, ...

Grey's anatomy -> Derek, Mark, Christina, Owen, DeLuca, Burke, Denny, Nico, Lincoln, Alex, Arizona, Meredith, George, Izzie, Lexi, Jo, Jackson, April, Amelia, Denny, Bailey, Maggie, Addison, ...

Bridgerton/Queen Charlotte -> (king)George, Charlotte, Daphne, Simon, Eloise, Will, Anthony, ...

Game of thrones -> Jon snow, Daenerys, Jaime, Oberyn, Tryion, Robb, Sansa, Ned, ...

Vikings -> Harald, Bjorn, Ragnar, Lagartha, Ubbe, Athelstan, Ivar, Rollo, Heahmund, Harbard, Hvitserk, Sigurd, Ecbert, ...

Vikings: Valhalla -> Harald, Leif, Freydis, ...

Big mouth -> Leah, Judd, Val, ...

House of dragons -> Aemond, Aegon, Daemon, Rhaenyra, ...

Avatar/ Avatar: The way of the water -> Jake, Neytiri, Neteyam, Lo'ak, Kiri, Aonung, Tonowari, Tsireya, Miles, ...

It's Okay not to be Okay -> Moon-young, Gang-tae, Sang in, ...

Strangers from hell -> Moonjo, Jong-woo, ...

Hannibal -> Will Graham, Anthony, ...

-> Celebrities:

Snowfall -> Franklin, Andre, Teddy, Leon, Melody, Gustavo, Alejandro, ...

Supernatural -> Dean, Sam, Castiel, ...

Formula 1 -> Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Daniel Riccardo, Lewis Hamilton, Carlos Sainz, ...

If I have watched/read/played it (or know the celeb), I'm writing about it because there is at least one breedable character.

[theharpermovieblog]

I'm#HARPERSMOVIECOLLECTION

2025 MOVIE LIST

www.tumblr.com/theharpermovieblog

I watched The Challenge (1982)

Let's watch some lesser known 1980's action.

A small time boxer takes a job delivering a sword to Japan, which leads hint to the middle of a gang war between brothers.

John Frankenheimer is a well known and well respected director, despite his later films never reaching the greatness of his earlier work.

Here, Frankenheimer gives us a very typical 1980's action film, with a slightly more believable Everyman than you get with Stallone and Schwarzenegger.

Actor Scott Glenn is somewhat of a real life badass. A former Marine who apparently indulges in martial arts, ice climbing, open water spear fishing and punching sharks. However, his character in this film is a bit meak and reserved. The character shows his fear and he isn't easily capable of overcoming all the odds stacked against him.

He plays a boxer who gets involved in the middle of a dangerous war between dangerous brothers. His character is laid back, almost sleepy, and looks like a bit of a shaggy bum. It's an interesting kind of hero, if for no other reason than we don't see it often in action films.

Appearing alongside Glenn are several great Japanese actors, including the legend that is Toshiro Mifune.

America has an obsession with Asian cultures, whether it be their cultural mysticism or warring aspects. We think swords and martial arts are cool, and we like movies about them. Of course, our way of making action films about martial arts culture and samurais and ninjas, is to insert a white guy who is the absolute best at fighting in those styles. The 1980's aren't the only period to do this, but they sure did it a lot. Look not further than the "American Ninja" films.

So, I'll give this particular film some credit. Scott Glenn's character isn't the best at anything, and he's a blowhard and a jerk. The stupid American is often the butt of the joke, and has to learn a bit of respect through Japanese culture. It makes for some interesting enough fish-out-of-water moments and gives the character a nice arc to follow.

All in all, "The Challenge" is a pretty basic action movie, but it's decent enough. It feels slightly less mindless than some other similar stuff from the 80's and features some very memorable moments. However, it's also a bit slower and a bit less fun if you're craving a thrill a minute action flick.

[omercifulheaves]

The Challenge (1982)

[theactioneer]

“TOSHIRO MIFUNE gives SCOTT GLENN a painful lesson in self-defense in ‘THE CHALLENGE.’ The contemporary action spectacle is directed by John Frankenheimer.”

[albertserra]

Robert Mitchum telling Glenn Ford to “chew his [toshiro mifune’s] ass”… I need THAT movie

[watching-pictures-move]

Movie Review | Silverado (Kasdan, 1985)

After a certain point, probably sometime in the '70s, westerns had become so scarce that a new one, by virtue of being made, functioned as a kind of statement. Certainly movies like Unforgiven and The Proposition are designed as reflections on the genre rather than mere exercises in the form (and this reflective quality extends to movies that traffic in western aesthetics, like No Country for Old Men). But even movies eager to bask in the simple, unpretentious pleasures of the genre come off like statements through omission, by virtue of being so rare. Silverado is one such film, and a pretty good one at that. This is a movie about good guys being good, bad guys being bad, spinning pistols and being crack shots, hopping on horses and riding into the sunset. If any of those things sound good to you, you're likely to have a good time with this anyway, but some astute casting goes a long way in making this work.

The heroes are played by Scott Glenn, Danny Glover, Kevin Kline and Kevin Costner, who are roughly given equal weighting, although Glenn is perhaps the most alpha. Glenn is perfect for westerns, with a face so leathery it might as well match his boots and so craggy it blends into the harsh landscape. (I've heard him described as weird looking, which is a bit unfair. Rugged is a better term, and if you squint, he's maybe even a little handsome.) He has a certain low key presence that suggests confidence without overplaying it, and is instantly credible as a man who's averse to violence but awful good at it if the need arises. He's also the coolest looking of the bunch, with a hairdo and wardrobe that look stylish and modern without compromising the period. (Black Friday is coming up and I can't promise I won't order some western wear as a result of this movie, although I suspect the short jacket he wears for much of the movie would not look flattering on me.) This was during the period when Glenn was being pushed as an action hero, and his work here fits nicely with The Challenge, a pleasingly excessive swordplay movie with a well used Toshiro Mifune, Man on Fire, a thriller whose artfulness better matches the samurai-inspired quality of its source novel than the more jagged Tony Scott adaptation, and Wild Geese II, the sober followup to the cheerful mercenary shoot 'em up. Glenn had also donned a cowboy hat in Urban Cowboy, where he stole the movie from John Travolta, and it's nice to him put on a hat and play a good guy this time around.

Glover is someone I always think of as very old, likely because his best known role includes a famous line of dialogue commenting on his age. This is the role I've seen him where he comes off the least geriatric, and like Glenn, he brings an unforced heroic quality (and his character is a better shot too). His introduction can remind viewers of the extremely lame ways modern movies will try to pander to righteous sensibilities by having a character face racial injustice (or some other kind) in an awkwardly written scene, but the one here works because of two indisputable facts: One, Glover is kind of cool in this, and two, watching him beat up racists is objectively enjoyable. Compared to him and Glenn, Kline comes off as relatively genteel, but in a way that creates tension between his desire for respectability, his violent past, and his need to pick up a gun again for the sake of justice. His might be considered the Henry Fonda role, and he has some nice, maybe romantic chemistry, with a saloon operator played by Linda Hunt. And in contrast to all of them, Costner is the most excitable, bringing some of the spontaneity and anarchic energy of a young Tom Hanks. I've usually seen him cast as an everyman, which can help ground a movie (like in the frantic, paranoid JFK), but it's nice to see him in a completely different mode. (In contrast to Glenn's costuming, Costner's is a little more flamboyant and goofy, in keeping with his character's youthful indiscretion.) If you like these actors, you'll get a lot out of the way the movie savours their distinct presences.

The strong casting carries over to the rest of the film as well, including the aforementioned Hunt, Brian Dennehy as the heavy, a purposefully incongruous Jeff Goldblum, and the list goes on. To borrow a phrase from the We Hate Movies podcast, this was made in an era when studio movies had deep casts (good, recognizable actors all the way down). This is directed by Lawrence Kasdan, and like Raiders of the Lost Ark, for which he wrote the screenplay, this is deeply nostalgic for the films of yore, although the innate significance of a western made in this era probably forces it to be more sprawling and quite a bit less terse than the B-westerns that would have inspired it. It's not as good as that movie, as Kasdan lacks Spielberg's immaculate action direction. (Consider a scene where Costner guns down two foes, one on each side. Kasdan chooses to cut when holding the shot would have made the punchline land better.) But at the same time, the baseline of craft in studio pictures at the time was a lot better than it is today, and on the whole this is quite enjoyable, especially if you like hanging out with the stars and spending time in this setting. I know I did.

[smol-sirens-garden-tobemoved]

Mobile About Pages

Hello Everyone, Ashley here!

So I figured I could use some about pages that are better viewed by mobile tumblr users so that is what this is. I am trying to make sure they have the same info as the other about pages but some things may be different based on the template I am using (AKA not on there). It is organized like my muses page- Alphabetical by series and then character. Hope this helps!

AMNESIA - Ikki - Ukyo

BANANA FISH - Ash Lynx - Bones - Shorter Wong - Yut Lung Lee

BLEACH - Rangiku Matsumoto

BROTHERS CONFLICT - Louis Asahina

BUNGOU STRAY DOGS - Christopher Paolini (OC) - Chuuya Nakahara - Doppo Kunikida - Hansuke Saito (OC) - Lirael Nix (OC) - Ogai Mori - Osamu Dazai - Ranpo Edogawa - Ryunosuke Akutagawa - Yoko Tawada-Fukuzawa (OC) - Yukichi Fukuzawa

CASE STUDY OF VANITAS - Jeanne - Luca - Noe Archivste - Roland Fortis

DIABOLIK LOVERS - Reiji Sakamaki - Subaru Sakamaki - Yuma Mukami

FAIRY TAIL - Bisca Connell - Freed Justine - Frosch - Lahar (Canon Divergent) - Levy McGarden - Rufus Lore - Yukino Aguria

FATAL FRAME - Ren Hojo - Rui Kagamiya

FINAL FANTASY - Aerith Gainsborough - Madam M - Merle - Reno

GENSHIN IMPACT - Baizhu - Beidou - Kaeya Alberich - Kazuha Kaedehara - Lisa Minci - Miko Yae - Razor - Zhongli

HAIKYUU - Kenma Kosume - Kiyoko Shimizu - Koshi Sugawara

HETALIA - America - China - Finland - Germany

HOWLS MOVING CASTLE - Howl Jenkins Pendragon

HYPNOSIS MICROPHONE - Gentaro Yumeno - Haruki Ishii (OC) - Hifumi Izanami - Ichijiku Kadenokoji - Ichiro Yamada - Iris Innocent Traitor - Jakurai Jinguji - Jyushi Aimono - Kuko Harai - Ramuda Amemura - Rosho Tsutsujimori - Saburo Yamada - Sasara Nurude - Tom Whisper Weathercock

K/K PROJECT - Saruhiko Fushimi

KINGDOM HEARTS - Isa/Saix

THE LAST OF US - Dina

LEAGUE OF LEGENDS - Evelynn (KDA)

MY HERO ACADAMIA - Hitoshi Shinso - Mina Ashido - Mirio Togata - Rei Todoroki - Shota Aizawa

MYSTIC MESSENGER - Mariah (MC) - Saeran Choi - Yoosung Kim - Zen

OURAN HIGHSCHOOL HOST CLUB - Mitsukuni "Honey" Haninozuka

PERSONA 4/5 - Nanako Dojima - Akira Kurusu - Yusuke Kitagawa

ROKKA NO YUUSHA - Hans Humpty

RWBY - Neopolitan - Nora Valkyrie

SERVAMP - Snow Lily

SK8 THE INFINITY - Kaoru Sakurayashiki

VISUAL PRISON - Dimitri Romanee - Elizabeth Veuve - Mist Flaive - Robin Laffite

VOLTRON - Krolia - Pidge/Katie Holt

YURI ON ICE - Otabek Altin - Yuri Plisetsky

MULTIFANDOM OC'S - Alastair Glenn (OC) - Alphonse Dupont (OC) - Chikeo Shirayuki (OC) - Daisuke Hattori (OC) - Dimitri Volkoc (OC) - Dorian Allard (OC) - Elias Pohl (OC) - Finn Krause (OC) - Isamu Hirota (OC) - Kai Takashi (OC) - Noah Pohl (OC) - Souta Matsuda (OC) - Tomoni Matsuda (OC) - Toshiro Denholm (OC)

[hotvintagepoll]

Congrats to the ultimate winner of the Hot & Vintage Movie Men Tournament, Mr. Toshiro Mifune! May he live happily and well where the sun always shines, enjoying the glories of a battle hard fought.

A loving farewell to all of our previous contestants, who are now banished to the shadow realm and all its dark joys and whispered horrors—I hear there's a picnic on the village green today. If you want to remember the fallen heroes, you can find them all beneath the cut.

What happens next? I'll be taking a break of two weeks to rest from this and prep for the Hot & Vintage Ladies Tournament. I'll still be around but only minimally, posting a few last odes to the hot men before transitioning into a little early ladies content, just like I did with this last tournament. The submission form for the Hot & Vintage Ladies tournament will remain up for one more week (closing February 21st), so get your submissions in for that asap! Once the form closes, there will be one more week of break. The first round of the Hot & Vintage Ladies Tournament will be posted on February 29th, as Leap Year Day seems like a fitting allusion to leaping into these ladies' arms.

Thanks for being here! Enjoy the two weeks off, and send me some great propaganda.

In order of the last round they survived—

ROUND ONE HOTTIES:

Richard Burton

Tony Curtis

Red Skelton

Keir Dullea

Jack Lemmon

Kirk Douglas

Marcello Mastroianni

Jean-Pierre Cassel

Robert Wagner

James Garner

James Coburn

Rex Harrison

George Chakiris

Dean Martin

Sean Connery

Tab Hunter

Howard Keel

James Mason

Steve McQueen

George Peppard

Elvis Presley

Rudolph Valentino

Joseph Schildkraut

Ray Milland

Claude Rains

John Wayne

William Holden

Douglas Fairbanks Sr.

Harold Lloyd

Charlie Chaplin

John Gilbert

Ramon Novarro

Slim Thompson

John Barrymore

Edward G. Robinson

William Powell

Leslie Howard

Peter Lawford

Mel Ferrer

Joseph Cotten

Keye Luke

Ivan Mosjoukine

Spencer Tracy

Felix Bressart

Ronald Reagan (here to be dunked on)

Peter Lorre

Bob Hope

Paul Muni

Cornel Wilde

John Garfield

Cantinflas

Henry Fonda

Robert Mitchum

Van Johnson

José Ferrer

Robert Preston

Jack Benny

Fredric March

Gene Autry

Alec Guinness

Fayard Nicholas

Ray Bolger

Orson Welles

Mickey Rooney

Glenn Ford

James Cagney

ROUND TWO SWOONERS:

Dick Van Dyke

James Edwards

Sammy Davis Jr.

Alain Delon

Peter O'Toole

Robert Redford

Charlton Heston

Cesar Romero

Noble Johnson

Lex Barker

David Niven

Robert Earl Jones

Turhan Bey

Bela Lugosi

Donald O'Connor

Carman Newsome

Oscar Micheaux

Benson Fong

Clint Eastwood

Sabu Dastagir

Rex Ingram

Burt Lancaster

Paul Newman

Montgomery Clift

Fred Astaire

Boris Karloff

Gilbert Roland

Peter Cushing

Frank Sinatra

Harold Nicholas

Guy Madison

Danny Kaye

John Carradine

Ricardo Montalbán

Bing Crosby

ROUND THREE SMOKESHOWS:

Marlon Brando

Anthony Perkins

Michael Redgrave

Gary Cooper

Conrad Veidt

Ronald Colman

Rock Hudson

Basil Rathbone

Laurence Olivier

Christopher Plummer

Johnny Weismuller

Clark Gable

Fernando Lamas

Errol Flynn

Tyrone Power

Humphrey Bogart

ROUND 4 STUNGUNS:

James Dean

Cary Grant

Gregory Peck

Sessue Hayakawa

Harry Belafonte

James Stewart

Gene Kelly

Peter Falk

QUARTERFINALIST VOLCANIC TOWERS OF LUST:

Jeremy Brett

Vincent Price

James Shigeta

Buster Keaton

SEMIFINALIST SUPERMEN:

Omar Sharif

Paul Robeson

FINALIST FANTASIES:

Sidney Poitier

Toshiro Mifune

and ok, sure, here's the shadow-bracket-style winner's portrait of Toshiro Mifune.

[galway-bae]

ever since glenn close referenced yojimbo I’ve been picturing him like “mifune toshiro but a stoner”

[buzzdixonwriter]

Hoo U?

A spirited discussion is raging on Facebook now, the good kind of spirited discussion, an enthusiastic exchange of ideas and ideals, not a snark fest.

The top is a deceptively simple one:  Who are the characters various actors played?

Let me clarify:   It began as a trivia challenge to name actors who have won Oscars for playing the same character.

And there in lays the debate.

How exactly are we defining a character.

This all sounds trivial, and to be frank this part of the discussion is, but it’s gonna get deep by the end.  

Trust me.

So here’s the kickoff:

Marlon Brando won a Best Male Performance Oscar for playing Vito Corleone in The Godfather; Robert DeNiro won a Best Male Supporting Performance Oscar for playing Vito Corleone in The Godfather II

Heath Ledger won a Best Male Supporting Performance Oscar for playing the Joker in The Dark Knight; Joaquin Phoenix won a Best Male Performance Oscar for playing the Joker in Joker.

(Trivia bonus: Kate Winslet and Gloria Stuart received Oscar nominations for playing the same character at different stages of her life in Titanic, and Winslet and Judi Dench were both nominated for playing the same character at different stages in Iris as well; plus Peter O’Toole was nominated twice for playing Henry II in Beckett and The Lion In Winter which technically counts as a sequel…)

The Facebook debate is over whether Ledger and Phoenix were actually playing the same character.

Now in the case of the former, The Godfather II is a continuation of the same story in The Godfather by the same creative team with much of the original cast reprising their roles, the Oscars going to two actors who played the same character at different stages of their life (BTW, where's the love for Oreste Baldini, who played Vito as a young boy?).

The two films were re-edited and combined with The Godfather III to make a nine-hour and 43-minute miniseries The Godfather Trilogy.

It is clear the creators’ intent from the beginning was for audiences to accept Baldini / DeNiro / Brando as the same person at various stages of his life.

The Ledger Joker and the Phoenix Joker cannot possibly be the same character for a wide variety of internal continuity issues separating the two films.  The creators of Joker went out of their way to state their version of the character was not The Dark Knight version.

Unlike The Godfather movies, you can’t link up the various live action Batman / Suicide Squad / Joker stories into a single coherent narrative (especially since you have to drag in the live action Supeman and Wonder Woman movies and TV shows as well).

. . .

Can different actors play their version of the same character in otherwise unlinked productions?

Of course they can.

Stage plays do it all the time.

If you start with the same exact text, then clearly any number of actors can play Hamlet or MacBeth or Willy Loman.

The problems arise when one goes afield of the text.

. . . 

In 1932 Constance Bennett made a movie called What Price Hollywood? that did okay but really didn’t set the world on fire.

In 1937 Janet Gaynor remade that film as A Star Is Born, the story changed to give it a tragic yet uplifting conclusion; her version was a big hit and Gaynor received an Oscar nomination.

In 1954 Judy Garland remade A Star is Born as a musical and that proved a big hit, and Garland received an Oscar nomination.

In 1976 Barbara Streisand took a swing at the material with a country-western version of A Star Is Born and while she got an Oscar nomination, audiences were unreceptive.

In 2018 Lady Gaga remade A Star Is Born and received both an Oscar nomination for her role and an Oscar win for her song.

Question: Are they all playing the same character?  Each played a character that started their film with a different name than the other versions, but the Gaynor / Garland / Streisand / Gaga versions all end with the central character proudly proclaiming they are “Mrs. Norman Maine.”

Same character?

. . .

There’s no argument that William Gillette, Basil Rathbone, and Benedict Cumberbatch all played Sherlock Holmes, even when their productions took certain liberties with the stories.

But Sherlock Holmes is not an idiot, and Michael Caine played Holmes as an idiot in Without A Clue.

Was he playing the same character as Gillette / Rathbone / Cumberbatch?

(Ironically Peter Cook played a very recognizable and wholly credible Holmes in his farcical send up of The Hound Of The Baskervilles with Dudley Moore.)

Did George C. Scott play Holmes in They Might Be Giants?  Almost everybody else in the story thinks he’s a New York banker who’s suffered a nervous breakdown and only thinks he’s Holmes, but Scott believes he is Holmes 100% and throughout the film other people he encounters accept him as Holmes at face values.

He functions as Holmes throughout.

And in the end, the audience is left in a weird place, not really knowing what his fate may be, not absolutely sure if he is a bonkers banker but maybe…somehow…he is Sherlock Holmes…

. . . 

Did John Cassavettes in Tempest and Walter Pidgeon in Forbidden Planet play the same character?  Were either of those roles Shakespeare’s Prospero?

Did Christopher Lee play the same character in Horror Of Dracula and its sequels, in Count Dracula, and in In Search Of Dracula?   (The producers of Count Dracula sure went to great pains to explain their version was a different and more accurate version than the Hammer version of the character, and In Search Of Dracula cast Lee as Vlad Tepes who was the real life historical figure Bram Stoker based his novel on.)

For that matter, is Count Orlok in Nosferatu:  A Symphony Of Terror actually Dracula?  A European court awarding lawsuit damages to Bram Stoker's widow sure thought so.

Along similar lines, was Bela Lugosi playing Dracula in Columbia's Return Of The Vampire? Universal's lawyers sure thought so.

Did Jim Caviezel in Passion Of The Christ, Max von Sydow in The Greatest Story Ever Told, Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke, and Michael Rennie in The Day The Earth Stood Still all play the same character?

Did Toshiro Mifune, Clint Eastwood, and Bruce Willis all play the Continental Op?

Did Clint Eastwood play the same character in all three Dollar films?

Did Vincent Price, Charlton Heston, and Will Smith all play the same character?

Did Leonardo DiCaprio play the same character Steve McQueen played in The Great Escape (even if just for one brief scene) or did he play a character who played a character Steve McQueen played in The Great Escape?

Ooh, here's a good one!

Lon Chaney Jr starts Ghost Of Frankenstein playing the same monster Boris Karloff played in the original Frankenstein / Bride Of Frankenstein / Son Of Frankenstein trilogy, but by the end gets Ygor's brain (Bela Lugosi) transplanted into his body and speaks / thinks / acts briefly as Ygor in Frankie’s body.

However, Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman while maintaining continuity with all four previous films cast Lugosi as the monster (because Chaney had to play the Wolfman, duh) without dialog.  Glenn Strange then assumed the role again in continuity with all previous films for House Of Frankenstein, House Of Dracula, and Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein, occasionally speaking briefly in the role.

Who was Strange playing in his films?  The original Karloff monster or Ygor in Frankie's bod?  Are those two distinct characters?

. . .

All the above is fun trivia to debate, but it links to a much more serious question:  Who are you?

That’s not a trivial matter.  What constitutes out identity?  What makes us who we are?

I lost my father years ago to Alzheimer’s.  As my brother Robert observed, the only member of a family not affected by an Alzheimer’s diagnosis is the person suffering from it themselves.

I would talk to my father on the phone, and he was always pleasant and cheery, but about three years before he died I realized he had no idea who I was, I was just some voice on the other end of the line that mom wanted him to talk to.

My father was by nature and easy going kinda guy, and that certainly made his last few years easier for my mother and brother Rikk to cope with, but one night when I was visiting, trying to get their affairs straightened out so he could enter a nursing home, he got irritated with my mother as she was trying to help him and raised his hand as if to slap hers away.

My father never raised his hand against my mother.  

Ever.

He taught me and my brothers that was something no real man ever did.

He might sound gruff on occasion but he never raised a finger, much less truck our mother.

The fact he did so in the throes of Alzheimer’s indicated that whoever he once was, he wasn’t that person anymore.

We got him into a nursing home and he lasted a little less than a year there, his mind and his memory and his personality deteriorating rapidly.

Who was he at the end?

I didn’t go to his funeral.

What was the point?

The father I knew and loved had departed long before they buried his shell.

My grandmother, on the other hand, remained her cranky, irascible self until a week and a half before she died, finding the wit to crack one last memorable joke before her body began shutting down.

. . .

The question of identity is related to consciousness, and these are referred to as “the hard question” by physicians and physicists and philosophers alike.

What makes us “us”?

How do we know who we are?

What constitutes identity?

There are no easy, pat answers.

We have textbook definitions that dance around the issue of identity and consciousness, providing enough of a foundation for us to recognize what it is we’re discussing, but no one has yet come up with a clear, concise explanation of what either phenomenon is.

It’s like saying “apples are a red fruit.”

Okay, we know what you’re talking about, but we also know that description falls far, far short of what an apple actually is.

That’s why trivial discussion like whether or not Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix are playing the same character is a lot more important than it seems.

(BTW, they aren’t. Phoenix won his Oscar for his version of the Rupert Pupkin character in a violent remake of The King Of Comedy.)

    © Buzz Dixon