Ford obit omissions
As Lewis Beale pointed out this morning, the author of Glenn Ford‘s N.Y. Times obit, Richard Severo, failed to mention Ford’s role in Fritz Lang‘s The Big Heat (’53) — a significant listing on its own, but also a major career-accelerator for Ford. Severo and his editors also left out Delmer Daves ‘ 3:10 To Yuma (’57), an above-average Ford film that received some attention earlier this year after it was reported that Walk the Line director James Mangold was intending to remake it, first with Tom Cruise and then with Russell Crowe playing Ford’s bad-guy role. These are fairly significant omissions, Times guys!
God, that obit reads like it’s written by someone who’s never seen any movie, let alone knows Ford’s career well. It’s technically accurate, but hardly represents the modern view of Ford’s career, quoting one of Crowther’s more obtuse judgements (I think Ford’s youthful callowness is used brilliantly in Gilda, he’s so obviously amoral and on the make and, it is strongly implied, sleeping with his male boss to get ahead), and mentioning clodding blockbusters like The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse and some damn TV movie.
Why don’t they have Dave Kehr write that sort of thing? Or at least check it to make sure it isn’t off?
God, that obit reads like it’s written by someone who’s never seen any movie, let alone knows Ford’s career well. It’s technically accurate, but hardly represents the modern view of Ford’s career, quoting one of Crowther’s more obtuse judgements (I think Ford’s youthful callowness is used brilliantly in Gilda, he’s so obviously amoral and on the make and, it is strongly implied, sleeping with his male boss to get ahead), and mentioning clodding blockbusters like The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse and some damn TV movie.
Why don’t they have Dave Kehr write that sort of thing? Or at least check it to make sure it isn’t off?