Peggy Cummins, who died at age 92, was an English actress known for that most American of roles, a pretty gal who gets a sexual thrill out of gun violence. That was in 1950’s Gun Crazy, a low budget B movie that has become a film noir cult classic.
In dismissing the movie, one contemporary critic wrote, “Looking as fragile as a Dresden doll, Miss Cummins bites into her assignment like a shark.” If you watch the famous 3-minute shot of the bank heist from the back seat of the getaway car, wait for the moment John Dall asks Cummins to look back for pursuers – when she turns to look, she presses up against him and her face reveals an excitement that is both sexual and predatory. By all accounts a delightful person, Peggy attended a Film Noir Foundation event in San Francisco in 2013. And she could eat a hamburger, too.
Actress Dorothy Malone has died at age 93. She began making films in 1943 with a series of small parts, of which the most indelible came in 1948’s The Big Sleep with Humphrey Bogart. Malone plays a bookstore clerk who takes a liking to Bogie’s Sam Spade and initiates a quickie. As has been noted by many, it’s one of the sexiest moments in cinema and all she takes off is her glasses.
Actress Stéphane Audran was best known for best known for the surreal Buñuel masterpiece The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and the art house hit Babette’s Feast (scroll down from link). But her best performance may have come in her husband Claude Charbol’s 1970 serial killer classic Le Boucher; she plays a teacher in a small village who is courted by the local butcher who may be the serial killer. Audran brought a singular austere beauty and dignity to her roles.
Actress Susan Anspach starred in some of the most audacious films of the 1970s, most notably Five Easy Pieces.
Actor David Ogden Stiers will always be remembered as Major Charles Emerson Winchester III in TV’s M*A*S*H* . Stiers’ voice was often heard in the movies, such as when he narrated THX 1138 and voiced Cogsworth the clock in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.
The actress Margot Kidder starred in the extremely popular Superman franchise and The Amityville Horror. More impressively to me, she rebounded to amass over fifty screen credits after her very public breakdown from bipolar disorder.
The actress Barbara Harris is best remembered for the memorable finale of Robert Altman’s masterpiece Nashville, where her seemingly loser character Albuquerque takes advantage of her one big break. She also got the most out of what is usually a thankless role, the scorned wife, in The Seduction of Joe Tynan. In Freaky Friday, she was the mom involuntairly switchng bodies with her teen daughter Jodi Foster. And she shone in Peggy Sue Got Married, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Who Is Harry Kellerman yada yada – remember, comedy is hard.
Character actor Scott Wilson’s 81 screen credits spanned from Robert Blake’s partner in 1967’s In Cold Blood to the role of Sam Braun, the casino owner dad of Katharine Willows (Marg Helgenberger) in CSI. My favorite Scott Wilson role was as Ashley Judd’s father in the alcoholism drama Come Early Morning.
I’m gonna miss Burt Reynolds – both for being a movie icon and for being one of the greatest guests ever on Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. He solidified that icon status in Deliverance, brandishing a bow-and-arrow and clad in a sleeveless neoprene vest – there has never been a more studly image in the history of cinema.
The key to Burt Reynolds’ appeal is that unique combination of virility and charm, his stunning physicality leavened by his not taking himself too seriously. I’m ridiculously handsome, and isn’t that just ridiculous?
To celebrate Burt’s rollicking Smokey and the Bandit era, I recommend The Bandit, a documentary about Burt’s collaboration with stuntman/director/roommate Hal Needham. You can stream The Bandit from Amazon, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
In his last film, this year’s The Last Movie Star, an aged action movie star (Burt Reynolds playing someone very similar to Burt Reynolds) examines his life choices. It’s very funny and sentimental (in a good way), and you can stream it on Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
