best film: I’m overdue for a Kubrick retrospective and haven’t seen Paths of Glory in years but I think I’m giving the edge here to Jacques Tourneur’s Out of the Past. Out of the Past is a seminal film for film noir. Perhaps only Double Indemnity is more often listed as both a better work and a clearer architype of the genre. It’s Robert Mitchum’s film from an acting standpoint but Douglas eviscerates the screen when he’s on it. He’s a star. Detective Story is also up there as a contender here as it’s Wyler’s (69th best director of all-time) #1 film!
best performance: Paths of Glory has it all. He’s not a bastard here (which was atypical for a Douglas role) but it has his trademark fury during the courtroom scenes. Kubrick makes it an art film (even more than a war or a courtroom drama film). There’s also the great scenes of Douglas looming and pacing in the trenches. I think most will go with Spartacus as his best or Ace in the Hole and both are fine choices but to me this has everything without being purely a one-man show.
stylistic innovations/traits: Douglas had the unfortunate position of always being compared to his frequent co-star Burt Lancaster (three archiveable films together) and for peaking at the same time as Marlon Brando (and the rise of Method). Douglas was on absolute fire from 1951 (two of the best 5 performance that year—both in top 5 of the year quality films) to about 1960. He worked with Kubrick, Hawks, Wilder, Hawks, Wyler and Minnelli in this stretch. In fact, during his entire prime- a 20 year stretch (1946-1965) he was in a total of 21 archiveable films—there’s a 15 year stretch in there from 49 to 64 where he’s one of Hollywood’s biggest stars.. It’s a great sign for Douglas’ depth of strong performances that Spartacus and his turn in Out of the Past didn’t make the top 5. He famously said “I made a living playing sons of bitches” and indeed he did. He was great at playing wrath, arrogance, selfishness, and ruthlessness.
directors worked with: Kubrick (2)- the only actor to lead two Kubrick films, Minnelli (2), John Sturges (2) and then Wilder, Wyler, Hawks and Preminger once
Top 5 Performances:
- Paths of Glory
- Detective Story
- Ace in the Hole
- Lust for Life
- The Bad and the Beautiful
Archiveable films
| 1946- The Strange Love of Martha Ivers |
| 1947- Mourning Becomes Electra |
| 1947- Out of the Past |
| 1947- I Walk Alone |
| 1949- A Letter To Three Wives |
| 1949- Champion |
| 1951- Ace in the Hole |
| 1951- Detective Story |
| 1952- The Bad and the Beautiful |
| 1952- The Big Sky |
| 1954- 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea |
| 1955- The Indian Fighter |
| 1956- Lust For Life |
| 1957- Gunfight at the O.K. Corral |
| 1957- Paths of Glory |
| 1958- The Vikings |
| 1959- Last Train from Gun Hill |
| 1960- Spartacus |
| 1962- Lonely Are the Brave |
| 1964- Seven Days in May |
| 1965- In Harm’s Way |
| 1982- The Man From Snowy River |
I agree that Lancaster is better than Douglas, i’ve seen the movies where they appear together.
But is it Douglas’s best performance in paths of glory? I’d go for Detective Story, Douglas is good on POG, but the one moment where he’s truly impressive is the scene where he yells at the general.
Aside from being the literal last one in 1957, there are too many top performances that year (Sjöström, Sydow)
It’s probably just me, but i don’t like Douglas, when you consider that he is the only one who acted in 2 Kubrick films but he was a tyrant believing himself the director.
@Aldo- Douglas is very good throughout Paths of Glory– and I don’t have these 1957 performances in order– sorry if that was confusing.
Are you talking about lead actors in Kubrick films? I don’t understand the last point. Certainly quite a few actors worked on multiple Kubrick films https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_recurring_cast_members_in_Stanley_Kubrick_films if we’re talking lead performances- Sellers is pretty central to multiple Kubrick movies (Dr. Strangelove, Lolita)… Sterling Hayden not far behind
It might be a little biased with Douglas because i do not like, so i might underestimate him.
What i mean is that he is the only one who starred in two Kubrick films and could have done more but instead he acts like a tyrant, believing himself more important than the director.
I guess you know what i mean? to the filming of Spartacus, where Douglas told Kubrick what to do, acting as the director.
And i really wouldn’t count Selles twice as the protagonist. It is a small role in Lolita.
Unless we count his three roles in Strangelove haha
@Aldo- ok– the comment was “the only one who acted in 2 Kubrick films” so I was just correcting that
Funny story:
Watched Ace in the Hold (1951) 2 years ago and loved it, thought it was such a brilliant performance, he played mean and nasty better than just about anyone. After watching it I looked into Kirk Douglas to see some of his other movies to check out and I noticed in his Wiki bio it said “Kirk Douglas IS an actor” NOT “Kirk Douglas WAS an actor”. I thought it was just an error on Wiki but out of curiosity looked further and realized he was still alive….at age 102! It was so bizarre I mean it would be like finding out Humphrey Bogart was still alive, I mean Kirk Douglas this guy who starred in a movie as an adult in 1951 was still alive, he was like a relic from Hollywood’s Golden Era. So strange
Well he is dead now.
It sounds like you haven’t looked at that Wikipedia page again since two years ago. Kirk Douglas died on February 5, 2020. Unfortunately, many great actors died in 2020, though few of those passings, surprisingly, were directly related to the pandemic.
No, I know he’s dead now, my point was simply that it was amazing to me that an actor who starred in a movie in 1951 was still alive back in 2019. He spanned multiple generations which is pretty amazing was my only point. Sorry for the confusion.
It always amazes me to know that Godard is still alive, considering that all the directors of the French wave are dead.
It’s a shame that he pretentious, he wasted his talent on political ideals, just imagine that he continued to make films much more artistic than political.
Yes, sorry for my misunderstanding. I assumed you were implying in the original comment that he was still alive. I apologize for the confusion.
@James Trapp- I get your point- I felt somewhat the same way in the early 2000’s with Lauren Bacall (since passed on as well). She was in Dogville and Birth- big films in back to back years and it just blew my mind that the ex-wife of Bogart was in a contemporary film. Her debut was like 1944– just felt like another life. I somewhat view this differently than like Michael Caine who has just been around so often for so long I kind of forget just how long it has been
@Graham – no problem
@ Drake – here’s a clip of Christopher from the Sopranos robbing Lauren Becall in a Sopranos episode – hilarious – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HNO7ATCKP8
Looking at his filmography I see he did a few TV movies in the 90s but had stopped having any major roles for a while. Generally when I watch old movies and see actors in them I just assume they’ve pasted on since that’s almost always the case. With Douglas I used assumed the same until I checked his Wiki page was the only point I was making.