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Having recently joined in celebrations with other Widmark fans in the 100th anniversary celebrations, I also celebrate another anniversary now.  It's been a year since I rediscovered Richard Widmark, a year since the memory of a film that had intrigued me enough to keep the memory of a certain Comanche Todd with me for about thirty years finally got me to google it... yes a year since I ordered my own copy of 'The Last Wagon' and got to see it for the first time since I don't know when. I had no idea what that was starting, when, out of sheer curiosity I ordered a couple of other Westerns to see what this buckskin-wearing character was like in other films and finding that Backlash achieved the impossible and topped 'Last Wagon' as my favourite film.  Then I started reading about what else Widmark had done and branched out into other genres, even watching the films I thought I never would; Kiss of Death in particular, in which his character just sounded too horrible to bear (and he was!  But brilliant...)

It's been an adventure of a year in which I really have learned a lot, reading about the history behind the battle at the Alamo (and discovering that Texas really was a republic once, for a little while); who wore grey and who wore blue in the Civil War; finding out about the geography of the States, if only to discover how one gets from Arizona to Texas, or where Oregon is, or Montana; finding out about other great stars of that era, and also the great film-makers, producers and directors.  I got to read 'Warlock', one of the best novels I've picked up in a very long time.  In fact I read it twicce.  And 'The Secret Ways'.  Alistair MacLean is brilliant (and also had a right to be quite annoyed about what that film did to his book). Best of all, prompted in part by a desire to sit at a piano and sing 'one for my baby' like Ida Lupino, I've finally taken up piano lessons.  Would I have done so without the input and influence of Richard Widmark?  Possibly... but there wouldn't be a certain piece of sheet music dating from 1948* sitting on my shelf, waiting for me to get good enough to play it.  Nor would there be a picture by my piano, a screenshot taken from 'Street with no name' of a very debonair Widmark as the gangster Alec Stiles, sitting at his piano over fifty years ago.

*('Again' - the romantic tune from Pickup on South Street and another made memorable by Lupino's gravelly voice in Roadhouse).

I've met some great people, other fans, generous with their time, their friendship, and their resources, particularly Val, she of the incredibly rare DVD collection to whom I am incredibly indebted. I haven't yet seen everything and there are still some on my shelf waiting to be watched.  But there are so few now, I kind of want to make them last.

This blog has been a way of expressing my great admiration for Richard Widmark and hoping that people might trip over it who wouldn't otherwise have heard of him.  Perhaps they'll get to like him too, I hope so.  He'll always be very special to me, but apart from tweaks and updates, this will probably be my last post here now.  There's still stuff to do, particularly on 'whatever happened to...' which could go on for a while, and maybe adding in more screenshots.   There are many other blogs, no doubt many better, but this is mine, a labour of love, dedicated to a truly fine and very underrated actor, to whom I (as a cyclist) can only say chapeau. 

Thank you, Richard Widmark.