Glenn Ford Tagged Articles at Cinematical

This just might turn out to be a remake of The Little Engine that Could. First, Sony Pictures dropped director James Mangold's proposed remake of 3:10 to Yuma for unknown reasons, even with Russell Crowe attached to the project, and Tom Cruise and Eric Bana reportedly interested in separate roles in the film. Then the picture ended up at Lionsgate, who trimmed the budget from $80 million to $50 million, and added Christian Bale in the process.

Lionsgate announced today that Peter Fonda, Gretchen Mol and Dallas Roberts have been added to the cast, and shooting (literally) is expected to start in October. Crowe will never be able to replace Glenn Ford in the lead role, but it will give him a chance to atone for his turn in Sam Raimi's The Quick and the Dead. Okay, that was a cheap shot (no pun intended), because I actually really liked that movie. No word on whether Crowe will be wielding a telephone handset or a shooting iron in his holster, but he's deadly with either one.

Over the course of his 50 year career, Glenn Ford -- best known to modern audiences as Jonathan Kent in 1978's Superman -- appeared in nearly 100 films, most of them in the 1950s and 60s, during which he was almost ubiquitous in Hollywood. A big post-war box office draw, Ford was also deceptively talented, turning in equally solid, very different performances in films as wide-ranging as 3:10 to Yuma, Gilda, and Fritz Lang's The Big Heat. His work in Yuma, in particular, is a fitting legacy for Ford: He often appeared in westerns, but was rarely asked to display the terrifying charisma he employs in that film as Ben Wade, an outlaw who spends 90% of the film simply waiting for a train. It's a brilliant, nuanced performance from a man whose roles didn't always allow him so much room to work.

In addition to a Hollywood mainstay, Ford was also a military man, serving three years during World War II (his first film after the war was Gilda -- not bad for a guy who just returned from combat) and returning to the U.S. Naval Reserve during the Viet Nam War.

Ford was found dead in his home yesterday afternoon; he was 90 years old.

It's amazing how much attention a Hollywood remake of a little western can get from the trades -- but I guess that happens when names like Tom Cruise and Russell Crowe are associated with the film. As we've told you in our periodic updates on James Mangold's 3:10 to Yuma remake, the news that Cruise wasn't making the film broke at the same time that a)Crowe supplanted him as the movie's baddie, Ben Wade, and b)Sony dropped the movie, apparently due to major concerns about its ability to make a profit.

Even thought the film didn't actually have either a home or financing, however, casting evidently continued. Kim reported way back in February that the Incredible Hulk himself, Eric Bana, was interested in playing the good guy -- rancher Dan Evans -- to Cruise's/Crowe's Wade (played with frightening charm by Glenn Ford in the original). Just as with Cruise, though, the early reports proved wrong, and it was revealed today that Christian Bale is seconds from signing on to play Evans. Hmm. While I'm still pissed about the remake in general, and would much rather see Bale play Wade, at least he's a good actor. That's something, I guess.

In other Yuma news, the movie looks to have secured financing through Relativity Media, but is still in search of a distributor.

I was so caught up in The Loved One yesterday that I didn't notice it was Glenn Ford's 90th birthday. The actor has been leading a very private life since his last films in 1991. He was supposed to appear at a retrospective of his films Monday night, but his poor health may have prevented a public appearance.

The above photo is a publicity still for the 1946 film Gilda, one of five movies from 1940 to 1965 that starred both Ford and Rita Hayworth. This film noir is the best-known and probably the best of their films together. Ford is working in a casino when his boss walks in one night newly married to Hayworth, and it turns out that Ford and Hayworth have ... A Past. The film is currently available on DVD. If you're my age and the first movie in which you ever saw Glenn Ford was Superman (as Jonathan Kent), you might want to rent Gilda and watch Ford as a young, handsome leading man. If you want to know more about Ford, Classic Hollywood Bios has posted a good interview from 1990 along with a number of photos.

Martha wished Jerry Lewis a happy birthday last week, while I was out covering SXSW. I'm returning to Vintage Image of the Day postings just in time to wish a happy birthday to another longtime actor-comedian, also a successful film writer-director: Carl Reiner. These days, he might be recognizable to many filmgoers from his role as Saul Bloom in Ocean's Eleven, but Reiner's film career goes back to 1959, and his TV career began nearly a decade earlier.

Carl Reiner has become so well-known later in life that it's difficult to remember him even in his thirties. The above photo is from one of the first films in which Reiner appeared, The Gazebo, released in 1959. He's the guy on the left kissing Debbie Reynolds; the guy on the right is Glenn Ford. Reiner's character is named Harlow Edison, which sounds weirdly like a science-fiction writer if you have a cold. He progressed from playing Gidget's dad in Gidget Goes Hawaiian to comic roles in It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World and The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming!. Reiner was more successful in TV at that time, writing and directing The Dick Van Dyke Show. And I haven't even mentioned the 2000 Year Old Man routine with Mel Brooks.

Reiner's best decade in film was the 1970s, in which he directed popular comedies like Oh God! and The Jerk. Where's Poppa?, a very dark comedy he wrote and directed in 1970, still has a large cult following. Reiner's directorial efforts in the 1990s were far less memorable (Sibling Rivalry, Fatal Instinct). However, throughout the years he's always been visible onscreen in small, hilarious roles. My favorite is probably his role as Alan Arkin's brother in the 1998 film Slums of Beverly Hills. I hope he's not done yet, and that we'll see him onscreen again soon.

3:10 to Yuma is a fantastically tight little western about honor and duty, starring Van Heflin and a frighteningly charismatic Glenn Ford. It's a perfect example of the the great things that can be done in film when you've got about $6, 90 minutes, a solid story (written by Elmore Leonard), and a pair of great actors. But, because Hollywood a) is out of ideas, and b) can't leave well enough alone, James Mangold has decided to follow up Walk the Line by remaking a movie that's been pretty much perfect for almost 50 years. Oh, and he's going to kick it up a notch, don't you worry. Apparently, you see, "There are a lot of good-bad themes that were only touched on in the original...This is a total struggle culminating in a showdown, which has the potential to be one of the great movie gunfights." So, let me get this straight: a movie that's all about acting, honor, and subtly is going to be turned into a huge shootout? Fan-freaking-tastic.

Mangold and his wife Cathy Konrad will also produce the film, which is expected to begin shooting this summer.