The Final Four in the 2nd Annual Favorite Classic Movie Actor Tourney is now set and underway

Well we started with 64 classic movie actors and now are down to the final four. An what an interesting final four it is. William Powell, who won the 30's bracket will face 50's era winner John Wayne while 40's era winner James Stewart will face 60's era winner Jack Lemmon.  William Powell is the only previous final four finalist to make it back to the big dance.  The matches will run through Friday afternoon. And I want to thank my good friend John Parker of Mythical Monkey who helped me put on this tourney.

FINAL FOUR MATCH 1

Classic Stars Match Play #2 - John "The Duke" Wayne vs Gary "Coop" Cooper

While these two men made not have had a rivarly ala my last match competitors (Bette Davis, Joan Crawford), there was a little gruff between them. Wayne and director Howard Hawks didn't appreciate High Noon or the fact that Cooper's character Sheriff Will Kane was seeking help from townsfolk. Ironic that Wayne accepted the Best Actor award on Cooper's behalf for High Noon. And since the two didn't meet in my actors tournament, how about we pair them up now in a little match play? The match starts now and will run through Thursday October 6th at 7 pm EST. Good luck gentlemen.

JOHN WAYNE

Name: Marion Robert Morrison
Birth Date:  May 26, 1907
Height: 6'4"
Academy Awards: 3 nominations, 1 win ( Best Actor - True Grit (1969))
Monties: none so far....
My favorite John Wayne film: Rio Bravo
Match Play record: 1-1 (beat Glenn Ford in the 50's era of the
Favorite Classic Actor Tournament before losing to Kirk Douglas)

CLASSIC STARS MATCH PLAY


GARY COOPER

Name: Frank James Cooper
Birth Date: May 7, 1901 (Helena, Montana)
Height: 6'3"
Academy Awards: 5 nominations, 2 wins (Best Actor - Sergeant York (1942) and
Best Actor - High Noon (1953))
Monties: 1 nomination so far (Best Actor - Sergeant York)
My Favorite Gary Cooper film: Ball Of Fire
Match Play Record: 2-1 (beat Tyrone Power and Robert Montgomery in the 40's era of
the Favorite Classic Actor Tournament before falling to Cary Grant)

The Morning Movie: She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (1949)

Before leaving for work, I'm watching the classic John Ford western, She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (1949) on TCM. Starring John Wayne and the underrated Joanne Dru.

Happy Birthday John Wayne (1907 - 1979)

Happy Birthday to The Duke, John Wayne, who happens to be my classic movie actor of the month. My favorite Wayne films include RIO BRAVO (my all time Duke favorite), THE QUIET MAN, McLINTOCK!, THE COMMANCHEROS, THEY WERE EXPENDABLE, THE SHOOTIST, THE SONS OF KATIE ELDER and THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERT VALANCE, just to name a few.

Photo Of The Day - John Wayne and Gail Russell

Here is a great pic of John Wayne and the lovely Gail Russell in Angel and The Badman (1947)

John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara in the sweet and entertaining The Quiet Man (1952)

While I am working on my top 10 list of favorite John Wayne films, since he is my classic movie actor of the month, I decided to write a little something about one of his best films, The Quiet Man. Directed by John Ford and pairing him with his frequent and best co-star, Maureen O'Hara is a treat to watch. Wayne is boxer Sean Thornton who returns home to Ireland to reclaim his land and promptly falls for Mary Kate Danaher (O'Hara) a feisty and beautiful maiden. She also happens to be the sister to one "Red" Will Danaher (played with gusto by Victor McLaglen). Sean and Will take an immediately dislike to one another which will set up the rousing fight of the century that spreads across the countryside. It is one of the most engaging and thrilling fist fight scenes you will ever see. The performances are all top notch and the cinematography is gorgeous. The Quiet Man is one of the best films ever made. Co-starring Barry Fitzgerald, Ward Bond and Mildred Natwick. And isn't Maureen O'Hara just about the loveliest woman ever?
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Ten Reasons why RIO BRAVO is my favorite western...

The 1959 Howard Hawks directed Rio Bravo is my favorite western of all time. Here are ten reasons as to why:

1.) John Wayne at his most macho as Sheriff John T. Chance, who likes charging ahead into any dangerous situation.
2.) The wonderful music score by Dimitri Tiomkin is just epic in every way.

3.) Dean Martin as Dude, Chance's deputy who has become the town drunk thanks to a woman who left him hanging dry. This is one of Martin's best screen performances.
4.) Angie Dickinson as Feathers, the lady gambler who falls hard for Chance. Angie is easy on the eyes but is also full of sass and brass.

5.) Loads of unbelievable action through-out this movie as gunfights break out on a regular basis.
6.) Some despicable bad guys led by Claude Akins and John Russell as The Burdette Boys.
7.) The rascally Walter Brennan as Chance's other deputy Stumpy.
8.) Ricky Nelson as the cocky young gunfighter Colorado Ryan.

9.) The duet by Martin and Nelson singing the catchy My Rifle, My Pony and Me.
10.) And finally Rio Bravo rocks because of the simple nature of it's story..good vs evil. And the men and women who stand up against the bad desperadoes.

Here's the video clip of Martin and Nelson singing My Rifle, My Pony and Me

Classic Movie Actor Of The Month: JOHN WAYNE

The Duke kicks off the first in my series of classic movie actors. Hey, I've been featuring the women for almost two years now, it's time to give the men their due. Especially when my Classic Movie Actor tourney starts on May 28th. John Wayne's birthday is also this month on the 26th, so it was destiny that made him my choice to be the first actor to be featured. For this post I just wanted to list some of my favorite Wayne things. So here we go.

Favorite Wayne film: RIO BRAVO
Favorite non-Western Wayne film: THE QUIET MAN
Favorite Male co-star: WARD BOND
Favorite Female co-star: MAUREEN O'HARA (that was an easy one)
Favorite Military Film: THEY WERE EXPENDABLE
Favorite Director: JOHN FORD
Not so Favorite Film: THE CONQUEROR (what was John thinking?)
Favorite Role: JOHN T. CHANCE (RIO BRAVO)

ALL GOOD THINGS in MAY

I thought I might catch a breather in May but things are steadily popping up even as I write. The Classic Movie Goddess will be Lee Remick. A talented actress and one of my favorites. Starting next month I will also be doing a classic movie actor spotlight and John Wayne has the honor of being the first actor represented. Makes sense since his birthday happens to fall in May. My guest for the month will be Audrey of Fedoras and High Heels. Can't wait to hear her answers. My classic movie line-up of films that I will be watching and reviewing will tie in with several Remick and Wayne films among others. Leading the way will be Experiment in Terror (1962) starring Lee and Glenn Ford; Anatomy of A Murder (1959) with Jimmy Stewart and Lee; The Wheeler Dealers (1963) with Lee and James Garner; and Loot (1973) with Lee one more time. Other films to be viewed include Two Mules For Sister Sara, Red River, The Pleasure Seekers, Sex and the Single Girl, The Seven Year Itch, After The Thin Man, Rome Adventure, The Wild Bunch and Cash McCall. You will notice a lot of 60's movies amid that group as I gear up for my July homage to that great decade of yesteryear. Oh and May 30th will kick off my much anticipated Classic Movie Actor Tournament, which has had buzz building ever since the women's concluded a few weeks ago. So another busy month here on All Good Things, which is the way I like it.

Now Showing

This is my week's lineup of films I plan to watch.

RIO BRAVO (1959) Just bought this new collector's edition, so I will definitely be watching this one.
THE GAUNTLET (1977) The Clint Eastwood macho fest that ends with that awesome shoot-out in downtown involving a bus and scores of police officers.
HANDS ACROSS THE TABLE (1935) The Carole Lombard/Fred MacMurray screwball comedy is one of my favorites.
AND THEN THERE WERE NONE (1945) The Agatha Christie whodunit.

Bargain of the Day...

I shop at this video store called Movie Stop and you can trade and buy DVDS and Blu-rays there. You can also reserve copies of upcoming releases. Well I had reserved Harry Potter and The Deathly Hollows Part 1 (which by the way is the best Potter film yet) and went there to pick it up. While I was waiting I perused the store and found Rio Bravo (Two-Disc Ultimate Collector's Edition). Now I already own Rio Bravo on a regular DVD since it's my favorite western of all time but when I saw this bad boy I had to get it. When it first came out about 3 years ago it was listed at $34.95. They had it marked down the first time to $17.99. Then marked down again for $5.99. I was like whoa!, I can't pass up a deal like that. Check out all what came with this awesome movie:

2 Discs

Commentary by John Carpenter and film critic Richard Schickel



Wayne trailer gallery


"The Men Who Made the Movies: Howard Hawks" (1973 documentary)


Two all-new featurettes: "Commemoration: Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo," "Old Tucson: Where the Legends Walked"


Press book


Dell comic book


Lobby cards

New Feature: Classic Movie Actor Of The Month

Since I will be having a Classic Movie Actor Tournament beginning on May 30th, I thought it would be the perfect time to start a monthly feature on classic movie actors. Similar to my Classic Movie Goddesses, I would focus on one actor each month and post reviews, photos, facts, videos, etc. Since there are so many great actors, this will be a long running series just like the women's. And the actor I have chosen to kick off things is the legendary Duke himself, John Wayne.  It works out because May happens to be Wayne's birthday month. I love westerns so there are lots of John Wayne movies that I like and my all time favorite western in Rio Bravo. So May will be quite action packed now that The Duke is coming to All Good Things.

Happy Birthday John Wayne

(1907-1979)
The Duke Himself..

Rio Bravo is my favorite western of all time....

Flixster - Share Movies

My favorite western of all time. A slam bang film which has John Wayne as Sheriff John T. Chance who has a murderer locked up in the jail and must withstand repeated attempts to free the bad guy. It's a whole posse of hired thugs and all Chance has is an old crippled deputy and another deputy Dude (played by Dean Martin) trying to stay sober. Chance eventually gets more help in the form of bad girl turned good (Angie Dickinson) and a young hotshot named Colorado (Ricky Nelson) who is quick with his mouth and his gun. This is how you make a great western. Terrific heroes, evil bad guys, rousing action, and frequent humor. All involved give solid performances especially Martin, Nelson, and Dickinson. Of course, The Duke is awesome as usual.
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Flixster - Share Movies

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Pat Wheeler: I told him you were one of the best.
Colorado Ryan: Well, I'll tell you what I'm a lot better at, Mr. Wheeler... that's minding my own business.