For once, not films, but favourite physical features; an idea kickstarted by Katherine's comment on the Backlash page (that it wouldn't be his throat she'd go for)!
Well, keeping it clean in the spirit of 1950's Hollywood, here are my favourite bits of Mr Richard Widmark.
1. The voice.
Has to be, doesn't it? Deep, resonant, every word laden with meaning, often with those long pauses in between - you could practically listen to him reading the phone book and it'd be wonderful. No wonder he started a successful career in radio drama - and thank goodness a lot of those episodes are still available. Strangely, the voice doesn't seem to fit his physical looks. Last Wagon was the first film of his I watched, and for the first few viewings I was always caught out by how deep his voice was in the first words he spoke - about 20 minutes into the film! And I love the scene in Warlock when Clay Blaisdesdell is talking to Gannon in the deputy's office, just before the expected shoot-out with McQuown. At the end of his talk Blaisdell asks Gannon: You know what I mean, Deputy? And Gannon takes a long time to reply and it's as if his answer is being dredged up from the deepest depths before emerging in a low, deep affirmation: I know. Lots more examples, but let's leave it there.
2. The face
Specifically, cheekbones (wonderful, you could strop a knife on them). Eyes (blue in good light, otherwise slate grey and very dark-looking in the b/w films) but always used to great effect; either hooded and distant, angry, soft with longing or filled with hurt. He could put so much into his eyes, even when he only had one to work with - just look at Alvarez Kelly when Kelly tells him about Liz.
Mouth - I've often thought he had the most perfect mouth, curving into a ready smile or a sinister sneer, but it's let down (IMO) by a too-pendulous lower lip, especially in later age. Apparently in Pickup on South Street they had to do the really smoochy kissing scenes at the unromantic time of nine in the morning. Volunteers for kissing RW at any time of the day, please form an orderly queue ..... I'm sure it'll be a very long one!
As to ears, of course RW was quite deaf; Jean Widmark mentioned in an interview that he'd had a mastoid operation when he was young and it seems to have made his left ear permanently damaged. He was barred from military service in WWII due to a perforated eardrum, but he said in a later interview that in effect, he had a hole in his head and it need to be drained every six months. This must have been pretty nasty - and also painful apparently. Often in movies his character was slapped across the face and he almost got into a fight with Dorothy Malone in Warlock after she slapped his bad ear too often in rehearsal. (I think if they ever recorded that scene it was cut; there's nothing like that in the final film).
If you watch the 'What's my line' episode from 1954, you can see him turn his whole body in order to hear - http://tinyurl.com/pdevvv9
3. Hair
The hair should get a special mention all of its own, as very often it seemed to have a life of its own. Most of the time it was perfectly groomed and barbered and perfectly in place but then something violent would occur and BAM the hair was all over the place in a most engaging way. When Karyl brushes the hair out of his eyes in Backlash I'm sure there's a world of people wanting to do it too. He seems to have had pretty much the same hairstyle through most of his career, though sometimes a bit shorter for the military (Frogmen and Take the High Ground! in particular) and rather longer in later life. There are a few exceptions to the standard hairstyle: Down to the Sea in Ships - I don't know what they did with it; curled it perhaps, cut it short, layered it, I don't know but it looks engagingly cute and helps make him look quite young. Another is Cobweb where it's dyed a most unconvincing grey. When his hair's shorter it looks a lot darker, again, especially so in the b/w films.
4. Hands and feet
He had lovely large, and very expressive hands, with long fingers. Often he'd be poker-faced, either unable to express his anger or reining it in, but his hands would do the talking, clenching and unclenching as if he wanted to thump whoever it was standing in front of him. (Good examples are from Last Wagon and The Trap.) Or, when he was talking about something very personal, he'd look away and pick at something with his finger. (Last Wagon again, Warlock). He played the piano (see Street with no name) and there's also a nice real-life family photo of him sitting at his piano with his daughter Anne. His hands made it more real, somehow, especially when he's in prison in Backlash and holding the bars; just the way his thumb's upright against the bars makes that moment come alive.
His feet were equally elegant, if far less expressive and far less seen. You get a good shot of the uncovered Widmark foot in Frogmen when he's being treated for coral poisoning and also in The Secret Ways when he's been picked up and taken home by the street girl./informer. I'd like to point out that I don't have a foot fetish, he really did just have rather beautiful feet.
5. Elbow
Yes I know, odd much, but bear with me. It all fits in with the 'being real' thing and it's only in Warlock. Blaisdell's asked Gannon to demonstrate that he can draw, and the camera shot is from his back as he puts the gun away, and then holds his injured hand. Suddenly the elbow shows through the shirt and and it's as if he's just there ....
6. Height
Any biography of RW you read will probably mention that he played football in college despite being the smallest and lightest member of the team, and only making the team through sheer tenacity and determination. As to height, he was 5'10", not exactly short, but not as tall as most of the leading men of the era who tended to top 6' and who were usually dark haired to boot. Being slight and slender nearly lost him his first job in Kiss of Death but Widmark proved that you don't need size to be menacing. I don't think it's accidental that very often his character is surrounded by taller and bigger men, but that he is always the toughest. (Backlash, Alamo and The Law and Jake Wade spring to mind). He famously lost weight during each movie, probably due to the sheer amount of running around he had to do, and none more so than on Night and the City where he lost about two stone during filming. It worked well though, as his next film (No Way Out) featured him as Ray Biddle, a psychotic, violent, racist thug - made more intense by his extreme slenderness. Being on the thin side also adds to his air of vulnerability, particularly in Halls of Montezuma. Widmark kept his figure all through his career and though he put on some weight, he certainly never got fat and he was still fit enough to throw golf clubs around in his last film True Colors in 1991.
7. Shoulders.
He had small shoulders, which again helped make him look small and vulnerable, a look usually set against a very tough-guy character. There's nothing like a tension like that to keep a viewer interested :-) In Westerns the waistcoat showed his frame as it was, whereas the 1950's/contemporary suites had padded or overlarge shoulders that disguised it. You can guess which I prefer.
8. Speed
Damn, that man could move fast. Just look at him stamp on the gun in Law and Jake Wade, or draw first against the badman (Alamo, Clarion Call, Backlash, Death of a Gunfighter ... ) and he had a real intensity too that often broke out in what could seem like nervous movement. Again - Clarion Call or Kiss of Death where he's often practically jigging on the spot at one point. For facial expressions, you can't beat Tunnel of Love where his facial expressions play like sunlight on moving water. Compare with ...
9. Stillness
Amazing, the contrast. I don't think it comes up better than in Backlash where Slater is sitting on the Sheriff's desk and just looking steadily at him. The camera cuts away and then back again, but Widmark hasn't actually moved a muscle; that's not the only example but possibly one of of the best.
Well, keeping it clean in the spirit of 1950's Hollywood, here are my favourite bits of Mr Richard Widmark.
1. The voice.
Has to be, doesn't it? Deep, resonant, every word laden with meaning, often with those long pauses in between - you could practically listen to him reading the phone book and it'd be wonderful. No wonder he started a successful career in radio drama - and thank goodness a lot of those episodes are still available. Strangely, the voice doesn't seem to fit his physical looks. Last Wagon was the first film of his I watched, and for the first few viewings I was always caught out by how deep his voice was in the first words he spoke - about 20 minutes into the film! And I love the scene in Warlock when Clay Blaisdesdell is talking to Gannon in the deputy's office, just before the expected shoot-out with McQuown. At the end of his talk Blaisdell asks Gannon: You know what I mean, Deputy? And Gannon takes a long time to reply and it's as if his answer is being dredged up from the deepest depths before emerging in a low, deep affirmation: I know. Lots more examples, but let's leave it there.
2. The face
Specifically, cheekbones (wonderful, you could strop a knife on them). Eyes (blue in good light, otherwise slate grey and very dark-looking in the b/w films) but always used to great effect; either hooded and distant, angry, soft with longing or filled with hurt. He could put so much into his eyes, even when he only had one to work with - just look at Alvarez Kelly when Kelly tells him about Liz.
Mouth - I've often thought he had the most perfect mouth, curving into a ready smile or a sinister sneer, but it's let down (IMO) by a too-pendulous lower lip, especially in later age. Apparently in Pickup on South Street they had to do the really smoochy kissing scenes at the unromantic time of nine in the morning. Volunteers for kissing RW at any time of the day, please form an orderly queue ..... I'm sure it'll be a very long one!
As to ears, of course RW was quite deaf; Jean Widmark mentioned in an interview that he'd had a mastoid operation when he was young and it seems to have made his left ear permanently damaged. He was barred from military service in WWII due to a perforated eardrum, but he said in a later interview that in effect, he had a hole in his head and it need to be drained every six months. This must have been pretty nasty - and also painful apparently. Often in movies his character was slapped across the face and he almost got into a fight with Dorothy Malone in Warlock after she slapped his bad ear too often in rehearsal. (I think if they ever recorded that scene it was cut; there's nothing like that in the final film).
If you watch the 'What's my line' episode from 1954, you can see him turn his whole body in order to hear - http://tinyurl.com/pdevvv9
3. Hair
The hair should get a special mention all of its own, as very often it seemed to have a life of its own. Most of the time it was perfectly groomed and barbered and perfectly in place but then something violent would occur and BAM the hair was all over the place in a most engaging way. When Karyl brushes the hair out of his eyes in Backlash I'm sure there's a world of people wanting to do it too. He seems to have had pretty much the same hairstyle through most of his career, though sometimes a bit shorter for the military (Frogmen and Take the High Ground! in particular) and rather longer in later life. There are a few exceptions to the standard hairstyle: Down to the Sea in Ships - I don't know what they did with it; curled it perhaps, cut it short, layered it, I don't know but it looks engagingly cute and helps make him look quite young. Another is Cobweb where it's dyed a most unconvincing grey. When his hair's shorter it looks a lot darker, again, especially so in the b/w films.
4. Hands and feet
He had lovely large, and very expressive hands, with long fingers. Often he'd be poker-faced, either unable to express his anger or reining it in, but his hands would do the talking, clenching and unclenching as if he wanted to thump whoever it was standing in front of him. (Good examples are from Last Wagon and The Trap.) Or, when he was talking about something very personal, he'd look away and pick at something with his finger. (Last Wagon again, Warlock). He played the piano (see Street with no name) and there's also a nice real-life family photo of him sitting at his piano with his daughter Anne. His hands made it more real, somehow, especially when he's in prison in Backlash and holding the bars; just the way his thumb's upright against the bars makes that moment come alive.
His feet were equally elegant, if far less expressive and far less seen. You get a good shot of the uncovered Widmark foot in Frogmen when he's being treated for coral poisoning and also in The Secret Ways when he's been picked up and taken home by the street girl./informer. I'd like to point out that I don't have a foot fetish, he really did just have rather beautiful feet.
5. Elbow
Yes I know, odd much, but bear with me. It all fits in with the 'being real' thing and it's only in Warlock. Blaisdell's asked Gannon to demonstrate that he can draw, and the camera shot is from his back as he puts the gun away, and then holds his injured hand. Suddenly the elbow shows through the shirt and and it's as if he's just there ....
6. Height
Any biography of RW you read will probably mention that he played football in college despite being the smallest and lightest member of the team, and only making the team through sheer tenacity and determination. As to height, he was 5'10", not exactly short, but not as tall as most of the leading men of the era who tended to top 6' and who were usually dark haired to boot. Being slight and slender nearly lost him his first job in Kiss of Death but Widmark proved that you don't need size to be menacing. I don't think it's accidental that very often his character is surrounded by taller and bigger men, but that he is always the toughest. (Backlash, Alamo and The Law and Jake Wade spring to mind). He famously lost weight during each movie, probably due to the sheer amount of running around he had to do, and none more so than on Night and the City where he lost about two stone during filming. It worked well though, as his next film (No Way Out) featured him as Ray Biddle, a psychotic, violent, racist thug - made more intense by his extreme slenderness. Being on the thin side also adds to his air of vulnerability, particularly in Halls of Montezuma. Widmark kept his figure all through his career and though he put on some weight, he certainly never got fat and he was still fit enough to throw golf clubs around in his last film True Colors in 1991.
7. Shoulders.
He had small shoulders, which again helped make him look small and vulnerable, a look usually set against a very tough-guy character. There's nothing like a tension like that to keep a viewer interested :-) In Westerns the waistcoat showed his frame as it was, whereas the 1950's/contemporary suites had padded or overlarge shoulders that disguised it. You can guess which I prefer.
8. Speed
Damn, that man could move fast. Just look at him stamp on the gun in Law and Jake Wade, or draw first against the badman (Alamo, Clarion Call, Backlash, Death of a Gunfighter ... ) and he had a real intensity too that often broke out in what could seem like nervous movement. Again - Clarion Call or Kiss of Death where he's often practically jigging on the spot at one point. For facial expressions, you can't beat Tunnel of Love where his facial expressions play like sunlight on moving water. Compare with ...
9. Stillness
Amazing, the contrast. I don't think it comes up better than in Backlash where Slater is sitting on the Sheriff's desk and just looking steadily at him. The camera cuts away and then back again, but Widmark hasn't actually moved a muscle; that's not the only example but possibly one of of the best.
