James Caan: Piers Morgan pays tribute to Hollywood star
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This afternoon Burt Lancaster, the New York City star, leads a stellar cast including Robert Walker and Joanne Dru in the 1951 western drama, Vengeance Valley, which airs at 3pm on TCM Movies. It follows the story of a selfish rancher’s son, Lee, who is constantly having his antics covered up by his adopted brother, Owen. Over time the pair end up hating one another, and when Lee gets a woman pregnant, he convinces his family that Owen is the father, leaving him in danger. Lancaster was already a huge box-office star in Hollywood when the film aired, having seen his breakthrough come alongside Ava Gardner in 1946’s The Killers.
By 1953, Lancaster’s credentials among the acting elite were confirmed as he landed a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his role in From Here to Eternity.
Seven years later, he clinched the Academy Award he craved with his role in Elmer Gantry landing him the top gong. It capped an incredible rise for the New Yorker, who saw his career begin as a circus performer in the Thirties before earning his landmark theatre role as a 32-year-old.
And while Lancaster no doubt enjoyed a stellar career in front of the camera before passing aged 80 in 1994, the BAFTA award winner also admitted to having his share of films he was not proud of, including the one he reflected on most, 1949’s Rope of Sand.
Directed by William Dieterle, and written by Walter Doniger, who would earn a Golden Globe nomination for his script work, Rope of Sand was denounced by some critics as the “poor man’s Casablanca”.
Far Out Magazine’s critic Calum Russell noted in a piece this year that Doniger had “hoped the film would reunite Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman back together in a story that largely reflected the Casablanca plot”.
Instead, they ended up with Lancaster cast. Russell described Rope of Sand as becoming a “strange mix of melodrama, worlds away from the Michael Curtiz classic (Casablanca) starring Bogart and Bergman”.
He added: “The story itself follows another tale of an expatriate American in Africa, seeing Lancaster’s Mike Davis survive a torturous existence as a miner who decides to turn his back on his corrupt business and steal from them instead.
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“Whilst he was certainly a magnificent actor of the 20th century, Lancaster was also well known for his temper, often arguing with filmmakers over creative differences.
“Frequently butting heads with screenwriter Doniger, Lancaster strongly disliked working on Rope of Sand and even recalled in an interview in 1984, ‘When I think of my least favourite, I think of Rope of Sand. I did that thing under great duress. I hated it.'”
Lancaster’s obvious distaste of Rope of Sand didn’t have any impact on the public’s response to the film. It ended up becoming one of his most popular flicks of the Forties, and is still enjoyed today.
Lancaster became highly regarded and type-cast as a result of his huge physical presence. His striking frame was built during his earlier career as an acrobat, the New York Times reported.
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But his career was cruelly ended in 1939 after he sustained a finger injury. His unique body, however, helped him become a Hollywood star, and he was regularly cast in his early days as a rugged, macho character.
His previous time as an acrobat also saw him complete his own stunts, including in the 1950 production The Flame and the Arrow. Reflecting on this, Lancaster once joked that he had “a couple thousand bucks in this picture… what’s a neck?” when asked about his stunts.
As time passed, though, Lancaster hoped to prove that he could perform more layered roles than that of just a “well-toned body with a pretty face”, and would later pick up roles that allowed him to challenge those perceptions. It paid off when he won his Oscar some years later.
Vengeance Valley airs from 3pm on TCM Movies today.
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