Classic movie site with rare images, original ads, and behind-the-scenes photos, with informative and insightful commentary. We like to have fun with movies!
Archive and Links
grbrpix@aol.com
Search Index Here




Wednesday, March 06, 2019

Here's Your Hat, Hodiak, What's Your Hurry?


Never Mind The Billing --- Desert Fury Was All About Lancaster



Name a crueler aspect of the biz than billing. I can’t offhand. A star might assume he's the noise until the picture is out and lo/behold, it ain't so. John Hodiak learned this a hardest way between Desert Fury in production (1946) with him as the lead, and belated release in August, 1947, during which interim third-billed Burt Lancaster shot to stardom of his own in The Killers. Hodiak became less than a tail to this meteor. He had been borrowed from Metro by Hal Wallis, his name advertised behind Lizabeth Scott’s, but above Lancaster, per contract. Scott was a Wallis discovery made prominent by well-received parts in You Came Along, The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers, and lately opposite Bogart in Dead Reckoning. Lancaster got third placement, OK when agreements were drawn because he had not been seen in movies to that point, but baffling by 8/47 when Desert Fury was out and Lancaster was a best reason to go see it. He too was pacted with Wallis, an uneasy alliance as the two did not much like each other. Lancaster, it seems, felt his oats from the moment he entered a sound stage. The confidence was not misplaced. Anyone who saw Lancaster perform, on stage when Wallis found him, knew that this was a rocket just waiting for Hollywood to light the fuse. For purpose of selling Desert Fury, Hodiak would be the grass, Lancaster the lawn mower.








Lancaster hated Desert Fury and his vapid part in it, looking all the more a smack-off for playing a deputy sheriff, badge and all. Hapless Hodiak is well short of reach for dynamism, which bless his heart, this actor, though competent, never had. Support players (Mary Astor, Wendell Corey) and Technicolor on vivid locations took whatever laurels were issued, though critics still called Desert Fury a cluck, and word is, it lost money. Reception got warmer amidst re-estimate of Desert Fury as frustrated bromance between Hodiak and Corey, a sub-theme that, if sensed by 1947 watchers, would drive them further into Lancaster clutch. Ads plus Paramount’s pressbook did the rest, BL dominating all art with a featured image of him preparing to beat tar out of Hodiak. Billing was cheated too by cast montage that saw Lancaster alone on a top row, Scott beneath him, and Hodiak to the right, and below, her. Did MGM legal examine this publicity, or regard objection as an act of futility? Complaints might sway Paramount’s home office, but showmen in the field knew their berries, and so far as they figured, Lancaster was a sole name here, Lizabeth Scott and certainly Hodiak junior to him.








1958 Reissue One-Sheet for Desert Fury
Individual ads, as provided by Para’s pressbook, were replete with Lancaster/Scott in sizzling embrace. I could not find one of her in similar posture with John Hodiak, even though they kiss constant through Desert Fury. I just hope Hodiak’s mother gave him the talk about life not being fair, or maybe it didn’t matter. He was paid after all, and would go back to Metro where there still were starring parts for him to graze on. Most diminishing for Hodiak was ad art where he is either on receiving end of Lancaster’s fist, or knocked down, with an oversized Lancaster head issuing the threat, “Keep away from her … far away … or I’ll kill you where you stand.” Fans who had seen The Killers knew Burt meant business. An even unkinder cut came with Desert Fury’s reissue in 1958, three years after John Hodiak had died. Bets (and contracts) were all off now, his billing below Lancaster (first) and Scott (second). Poster art was given over entirely to Lancaster, who by 1958 was undisputedly the biggest name Desert Fury had to sell. Now we’re in receipt of a Blu-Ray from Kino, with its lovely pouring of Technicolor. I checked the billing on the box, and to Kino credit, it is correct to 1947 placements, even if contradicted still by that familiar image of Burt laying the haymaker to forever also-ran Hodiak.

3 Comments:

Blogger Mike Cline said...

Reminds me of billing Tony Curtis & Jerry Lewis in Boeing, Boeing and Newman & McQueen in THE TOWERING INFERNO.

7:12 AM  
Blogger Scott MacGillivray said...

And it reminds me of Gloria Jean, on her way out at Universal, billed second to Olsen & Johnson in GHOST CATCHERS, only to be demoted to sixth billing in the posters and trailer.

Two years later, when Gloria was no longer at the studio, Universal reissued IF I HAD MY WAY. The original 1940 billing had the names of Bing Crosby and Gloria Jean in equal size and prominence. The reissue had "Bing Crosby" in giant letters and "Gloria Jean" about as prominent as "monosodium glutamate."

Gloria herself never cared about billing at all -- she told me it made no difference to her.

11:10 AM  
Blogger CanadianKen said...

Hodiak and Hollywood never seemed to be a very good fit. I suspect he was one of those actors more charismatic in person than on screen. Fine voice. Tall, fit and clearly intelligent. After all, lovely Anne Baxter –one of Golden Age Hollywood’s brightest, most perceptive observers – actually married him.
I’d say his best screen performance was the one that put him on the map. Working with Hitchcock and Bankhead in “Lifeboat”, studly and spirited - he definitely generated sparks. No wonder people expected big things would follow. For some reason, he never really communicated that kind of intensity again. Post “Lifeboat” there was always something stiff and guarded about Hodiak’s onscreen work. And audiences seldom worked up any real interest in decoding the reasons behind it. The actor often had to make do with mediocre material, but – that said – he seldom did much to elevate it. Case in point “Desert Fury” where Burt Lancaster – in a nothing part - oozes barrels of charisma.
Whatever its shortcomings, though, I’d say “Desert Fury” is an absolute must-see for Lizabeth Scott fans. Her unusual beauty was at its peak; that husky essence of noir voice was intoxicating. And with powerhouse producer Hal Wallis fully behind her, major-league stardom seemed all but assured. The Technicolor in “Desert Fury” is mind-blowing. Never more so than in the constant, ravishing close-ups of its leading lady. Decked out in an eye-popping parade of Edith Head creations, she gets the same loving visual treatment Tierney and Monroe did in their own color noirs “Leave Her to Heaven” and “Niagara”. Lancaster, Astor and Corey all deliver nicely. But “Desert Fury” is – above all - a visual love letter to Lizabeth Scott. And – as that – it’s a honey.

7:05 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home

grbrpix@aol.com
  • December 2005
  • January 2006
  • February 2006
  • March 2006
  • April 2006
  • May 2006
  • June 2006
  • July 2006
  • August 2006
  • September 2006
  • October 2006
  • November 2006
  • December 2006
  • January 2007
  • February 2007
  • March 2007
  • April 2007
  • May 2007
  • June 2007
  • July 2007
  • August 2007
  • September 2007
  • October 2007
  • November 2007
  • December 2007
  • January 2008
  • February 2008
  • March 2008
  • April 2008
  • May 2008
  • June 2008
  • July 2008
  • August 2008
  • September 2008
  • October 2008
  • November 2008
  • December 2008
  • January 2009
  • February 2009
  • March 2009
  • April 2009
  • May 2009
  • June 2009
  • July 2009
  • August 2009
  • September 2009
  • October 2009
  • November 2009
  • December 2009
  • January 2010
  • February 2010
  • March 2010
  • April 2010
  • May 2010
  • June 2010
  • July 2010
  • August 2010
  • September 2010
  • October 2010
  • November 2010
  • December 2010
  • January 2011
  • February 2011
  • March 2011
  • April 2011
  • May 2011
  • June 2011
  • July 2011
  • August 2011
  • September 2011
  • October 2011
  • November 2011
  • December 2011
  • January 2012
  • February 2012
  • March 2012
  • April 2012
  • May 2012
  • June 2012
  • July 2012
  • August 2012
  • September 2012
  • October 2012
  • November 2012
  • December 2012
  • January 2013
  • February 2013
  • March 2013
  • April 2013
  • May 2013
  • June 2013
  • July 2013
  • August 2013
  • September 2013
  • October 2013
  • November 2013
  • December 2013
  • January 2014
  • February 2014
  • March 2014
  • April 2014
  • May 2014
  • June 2014
  • July 2014
  • August 2014
  • September 2014
  • October 2014
  • November 2014
  • December 2014
  • January 2015
  • February 2015
  • March 2015
  • April 2015
  • May 2015
  • June 2015
  • July 2015
  • August 2015
  • September 2015
  • October 2015
  • November 2015
  • December 2015
  • January 2016
  • February 2016
  • March 2016
  • April 2016
  • May 2016
  • June 2016
  • July 2016
  • August 2016
  • September 2016
  • October 2016
  • November 2016
  • December 2016
  • January 2017
  • February 2017
  • March 2017
  • April 2017
  • May 2017
  • June 2017
  • July 2017
  • August 2017
  • September 2017
  • October 2017
  • November 2017
  • December 2017
  • January 2018
  • February 2018
  • March 2018
  • April 2018
  • May 2018
  • June 2018
  • July 2018
  • August 2018
  • September 2018
  • October 2018
  • November 2018
  • December 2018
  • January 2019
  • February 2019
  • March 2019
  • April 2019
  • May 2019
  • June 2019
  • July 2019
  • August 2019
  • September 2019
  • October 2019
  • November 2019
  • December 2019
  • January 2020
  • February 2020
  • March 2020
  • April 2020
  • May 2020
  • June 2020
  • July 2020
  • August 2020
  • September 2020
  • October 2020
  • November 2020
  • December 2020
  • January 2021
  • February 2021
  • March 2021
  • April 2021
  • May 2021
  • June 2021
  • July 2021
  • August 2021
  • September 2021
  • October 2021
  • November 2021
  • December 2021
  • January 2022
  • February 2022
  • March 2022
  • April 2022
  • May 2022
  • June 2022
  • July 2022
  • August 2022
  • September 2022
  • October 2022
  • November 2022
  • December 2022
  • January 2023
  • February 2023
  • March 2023
  • April 2023
  • May 2023
  • June 2023
  • July 2023
  • August 2023
  • September 2023
  • October 2023
  • November 2023
  • December 2023
  • January 2024
  • February 2024
  • March 2024