On the American Academy of Dramatic Arts tribute to Kirk Douglas in April of 1987, Burt Lancaster mentioned, “Kirk can be the primary particular person to let you know he is a really tough man.” After a pause, the chaser: “And I’d be the second.” Douglas’ outspokenness turned an extension of his star persona, the main man who would give a blacklisted author full-name credit score on his manufacturing firm’s historic epic “Spartacus.”
In his autobiography, Douglas makes clear that he and Lancaster did not all the time agree on each topic throughout their cherished post-work chats, however they received alongside so properly that generally, all it took was a realizing look from one to interrupt the opposite. When it got here time to movie a taut scene forward of the large gunfight in “O.Ok. Corral,” the 2 could not maintain it collectively lengthy sufficient to get a superb take. Douglas recollects:
“There was a really tense dramatic second within the movie: Burt, alone and and not using a gun, is going through a saloon stuffed with robust cowboys. I are available, pull my gun, snatch a gun from one of many cowboys, toss it to Burt, and the 2 of us subdue the whole room. We exit on the porch and Burt says to me, ‘Thanks, Doc.’ I used to be alleged to say, ‘Overlook it.’ Once I got here to ‘Overlook it,’ the ridiculousness of the scene — our nice bravery, our machismo — made us howl. We did the scene time and again. It simply made us snort tougher. Lastly, we had been laughing so arduous, they needed to cease capturing for the day and ship us house like dangerous boys.”
The scene (a truncated clip is obtainable on YouTube) is a potent pillar of big-screen virility, a microcosm of the Sturges brand of steely-eyed heroism.
