Cary Grant. Even in a really drecky movie like Houseboat he’s so natural and funny. I also love the scene in To Catch a Thief when he drops his gambling marker down the woman’s ample cleavage. Smooooooth, baby!
Also a big Marx Brothers fan, and for some reason my brother and I really loved Go West which was late in their career and fairly tired, but had such great quotable lines. (“It’s a funny thing; I’m not drunk, but what’s the ceiling doing on the floor?”)
Oh, here’s another one: the great Veronica Lake. Didn’t make a lot of movies, but what she made was memorable, especially Sullivan’s Travels and The Glass Key.
Vincent Price, Chritopher Lee and Peter Cushing. I like old, bad horror movies. Besides, how can you not love the man responsible for building and using the Death Star.
Actresses. I have to go, too, with Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Crawford (underrated—she really could act!). Lillian Gish was probably the most talented all-round. Lyda Roberti was a great, now-forgotten comedy actress—and you can’t beat Claudette Colbert, either.
Actors. For comedy, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd; Ramon Novarro and Valentino for silent drama, Jimmy Cagney in the talkies.
Great choices, evilskippy. Those old Corman quickies were wonderful - and let’s not forget Lionel Atwill or John Carradine! (Okay, maybe not Carradine, who was in more bad films than just about anyone.)
“Rudolph Valentino looks very much alive/And he looks up ladies’ dresses as they sadly pass him by…”
First thing I thought when I saw the thread was to wonder when Eve would show up. More correctly, it was “Lord, I wonder what obscure folks Eve is going to pull out of thin air to shame the rest of us?”
So let’s see, I’d have to go with, for actresses: Bette Davis, Myrna Loy, Thelma Ritter, Mercedes McCambridge, Theda Bara and probably about a dozen others who will come to me as soon as I hit “post.”
For actors: I’ll second Bogart (based on some of the lesser-known parts rather than the biggies like Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon), William Powell and I’m sure there are others whose names escape me.
Gods but I miss those films. You Hardly ever see them anymore and nothing even remotely entertaining has been released in the past 20 years.
Put me down for a six pack of Kathryn Hepburn, a side of Fred Astaire, a double scoop of Bogey and a heapin’ helpin’ of Jimmy Stewart.
Runners up would be:
James Cagney
The Marx Brothers
Henry Fonda
Judy Holiday
Ingrid Bergman
William Powell
Myrna Loy
Bing Crosby
Walter Brennan
Edward Everett Horton
Spencer Tracy
Marjorie Main
Rosalind Russell
Robert Ryan, equal if not better an actor than Burt Landcaster, Kirk Douglas or Robert Mitchum, but underappreciated because he didn’t have their level of sex appeal.
Lawrence Tierney, because he explored a new dimension in the type: “Tough Guy as Moron.” I give him extra credit because he carried this into his personal life (He and Frances Farmer would have made a cute couple).
Can I make a foreign entry? Jean Gabin, who created the orginal character type later Americanized by Steve McQueen (or at least that’s what I think when I watch Papillon). Even with Bogart on our side, the French always beat us at looking good with a cigarette stuck in their mouths.
