Favorite Kirk Douglas films from my movie pix list, for the record:   Lust For Life, Spartacus, Ulysses, Greedy, and Seven Days in May.
Favorite cameo in Oscar, as  Eduardo Provolone

 

Angels are working here   thank you for your patience

    

Speech by Kirk Douglas on the net April 23, 2001

Heroes With Solid Feet

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Recently, I journeyed to Berlin to accept the Golden Bear, a lifetime achievement award, from the Berlin Film Festival. Those awards make me smile — lifetime achievement? Is this the end? Not long ago my son Michael received a lifetime achievement award. If you last long enough, you may get dozens.

I accepted the Golden Bear because I was curious to see Berlin again. During my earlier visits there, the city had been divided by a wall.

In a press conference at the film festival, one journalist asked loudly, "As a Jew, how does it affect you to be in Berlin?" A montage of pictures we have all seen raced through my mind. Shattering glass windows, Hitler salutes, Jews being herded into freight cars, piles of emaciated Jews, ovens, dark smoke coming out of chimneys.

"The last century has been a disaster," I said. "My generation did not do a good job — so many wars, so much killing and of course, here in Germany, the Holocaust, perhaps the worst crime of all, the attempt to annihilate a people as a final solution."

 

They were all listening.

"But I don't think children should be punished for the sins of their fathers.
We should do all we can to give our children that chance."

The questioner persisted. "So why did you come back to Berlin?" I ignored him. But the question bothered me.
I didn't know a proper reason for a Jew to be in Berlin.

The audience at the awards ceremony gave me a standing ovation when I gave my speech in German, a language I learned when I made two movies in Germany. The papers were filled with my smiling face. The television reports were very complimentary. That night my wife and I had a wonderful Wiener schnitzel with some friends and a Jewish friend of theirs, Inge Borck, who lived in Berlin throughout the war. She was such a happy person, smiling and laughing. But when I was told that her parents and grandparents had all been killed in the concentration camps, I blurted out, "So why do you stay in Berlin?"

Smiling, she gave me this answer: "I owe that to the little heroes."
"I don't understand," I said. With a sigh, she came over and sat closer.

"When the Gestapo came to get them, my parents sent me to a small hotel to save my life. The owner was the first little hero. She kept me safe for a couple of nights. When it became dangerous, I met my second little hero. Or should I say heroine? She was our former housekeeper. She hid me for a while and endangered her own life. Then I lived in a cloister. My little heroes were the nuns who took care of me when I was very sick. They never asked questions. When the situation became dangerous, my next little hero was a policeman who didn't agree with the Nazis. All through the war, I was lucky to find little heroes who helped me till the Russians came in."

"So, why do you stay here?" I asked again. She looked at my perplexed face and said, "I thought about it, but I feel I owe it to the little heroes who helped me. Not everyone here was wicked."

Her story had a great impact on me. Of course, we are always looking for a big hero to emulate, and very often we see them topple from clay feet. How much better to reach for the little heroes in life — and to try to be one. It's not always as hard as it was for the people in wartime Berlin. You aren't obligated to save a life — you only need to try to help other people.

And if everyone tried — well, just think of the lifetime achievements.

 

Kirk Douglas, the actor, is author of My Stroke of Luck
The Ragman's Son: An Autobiography, New York, 1988.
Dance with the Devil (novel), New York, 1990.
The Gift (novel), New York, 1992.
Last Tango in Brooklyn (novel), New York, 1994.
Climbing the Mountain: My Search for Meaning, 2002

Larry King 8/10/05

 

van Gogh comment  - A critic wrote that, "Minnellian heroes are all hyper-sensitive people, therefore artists," which makes the problem of the artist the dominant theme of his work.

Van Gogh wrote of "the endless variety of grays: red-gray, yellow-gray, blue-gray, green-gray, orange-gray and violet-gray."  
Visit van Gogh [with Leonard Nimoy} and second Vincent van Gogh  page

 

A 1969 Interview with Stanley Kubrick
 by Joseph Gelmis

 JG: How many men did you use in the trench battle of Paths of Glory?

SK: That was another story entirely. We employed approximately eight hundred men, all German police -- at that time the German police received three years of military training, and were as good as regular soldiers for our purposes. We shot the film at  Geiselgesteig Studios in Munich, and both the battle site and the chateau were within thirty-five to forty minutes of the studio.

Our next film was Paths of Glory, which nobody in Hollywood wanted to do at all, even though we had a very low budget. Finally Kirk Douglas saw the script and liked it. Once he agreed to appear in the film United Artists was willing to make it.

JG: How'd you get that great performance out of Douglas?

SK: A director can't get anything out of an actor that he doesn't already have. You can't start an acting school in the middle of making a film. Kirk is a good actor.

JG: What did you do after Paths of Glory?

SK: I did two scripts that no one wanted. A year went by and my finances were rather rocky. I received no salary for The Killing or Paths of Glory but had worked on 100 per cent deferred salary -- and since the films didn't make any money, I had received nothing from either of them. I subsisted on loans from my partner, Jim Harris. Next I spent six months working on a screenplay for a Western, One-Eyed Jacks, with Marlon Brando and Calder Willingham. Our relationship ended amicably a few weeks before Marlon began directing the film himself.

Comment by Jean-Pierre Coursodon with Pierre Sauvage, "Kubrick’s detachment is the most chillingly consistent in film history Irony – coming in all shades from mild to bitter, sly to biting –  seems to be not just his favorite but his only mode of response to the foibles of the human race.
His visual style is as coolly formalized as his scripts are coldly engineered; the computerlike, geometrical necessity of his camera moves echoing the clockwork mechanism of the narratives.
His vision of humanity is relentlessly pessimistic. The past, either distant [Spartacus] or recent [Paths of Glory], is the realm of injustice, cruelty, indifference to suffering, senseless massacres."

 

 

left, Barbara Walters gets her news from the source, beaming patriarch Kirk Douglas. New York reception for Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Wedding pictures indicate this event is on record, 'one of the top ten' beautiful weddings of the decade! Additional posted versions of Douglas Clan star charts will be restored to this page as we find our original disk copy.

 

 

 

 

 

CNN  LARRY KING LIVE
    

Interview with Michael Douglas, Kirk Douglas, Lee Grant Aired August 10, 2005 - 21:00   ET

KING: Tonight, exclusive: Kirk Douglas, a living legend and his son Michael Douglas, a super star himself, in a rare hour together. Exclusive, next on LARRY KING LIVE.

This Saturday night on HBO, they will premier and extraordinary documentary, "A Father, A Son, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood."

 I've had the distinct pleasure of seeing an advance screening of this. It is one of the best.

Joining us to discuss it are the participants, Kirk Douglas himself, the Hollywood legend, three-time academy award nominee, recipient of the 1996 honorary Oscar for 50 years as a creative and moral force in the motion picture community.

In Washington, D.C., where he's currently filming, is Michael Douglas, the Academy Award-winning actor and producer and the son of Kirk.

And in New York is the famed Lee Grant, actress and director of this documentary. She is also an Academy Award winner. Lee, how did you come to be involved in this project?

LEE GRANT, DIRECTOR: Michael and I have been friends with my husband Joe Furry, for about 30 years and we've talked about doing a film with Michael and his father, since he wanted to have something that they really did together that was exciting and that was wonderful.

And of course, Kirk, I did my very first film with, "Detective Story," when he was the greatest, greatest star in the world and he was so extraordinary in that movie. And I fell in love with him, had a crush on him then.

And Christmas, about three years ago, since Michael and I had talked about doing a film, he finally said let's do it and it's been a great journey for me.

KING: Kirk, why did you agree, especially this -- for the benefit of the viewer, when you see this Saturday -- is so open?

K. DOUGLAS: Well, if we weren't open, I wouldn't like to do it. I was anxious to do something with my son that was honest, that revealed both of us.

KING: So, it was no holds barred?

K. DOUGLAS: No. And I wanted something that maybe my grandchildren can look at and see us, not as stars in a motion picture, but together.

KING: Michael, why did you agree?

M. DOUGLAS: I thought, Larry, that there was an interesting history between my father, as an immigrant, arriving in this country from Belarus, his incredible arc of an immigrant family and all that he's accomplished and then, my generation and picking it up.

 <snip - video clip>

M. DOUGLAS: You know, when you -- when you reach a certain point of success in your career, and are blessed and fortunate enough to have something that's more nourishing or more -- more important than that, which is love, and a family, and a bond, and just the joy that all you want to do is spend times with your kids.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" won an Oscar. Certainly one of the great movies ever made. And the original story, Kirk bought the rights to the book, Ken Kesey wrote it,  starred in a very acclaimed stage version of the story back in 1963. No studio wanted [to follow up on] it. Michael Douglas got the film made and starred Jack Nicholson in it.

That ticked you off, right?

K. DOUGLAS: That put it mildly. That was the biggest disappointment in my life. And also the biggest triumph. Because I was so glad that my son Michael made the movie. I tried to make it for over ten years. He made the movie. And everybody won an Oscar. And the most important to me was that Jack Nicholson was so good in it.  I wanted him to be bad. He was so good.

 KING: Michael, Kirk was not cast because what? Too old?

 M. DOUGLAS: Yes. I mean, truthfully, at the time...  K. DOUGLAS: I could play the part now.

M. DOUGLAS: You could still play the part now.  And all of a sudden a producer now that's got more control than anybody, it's the director. But Larry, it was incredible that dad, at the height of his movie career, went back to Broadway and took the time out to adapt this book into a play. And try to make it happen. The play did not succeed at the level that they'd hoped to. And it was difficult to make it into a feature film.

By the time that I got around to it, and everything else, people's careers had changed. The business had changed. And I do know that my father and I shared equally in the production back ends. And it was a very, very beneficial picture for all of us, and something we're proud of.

K. DOUGLAS: Made a lot of money.

M. DOUGLAS: It made a lot of money. But it was the best part that he never had. That he never had.

KING: How did he do it on Broadway? Was he very good, Michael?

M. DOUGLAS: He was fantastic. He was dynamic. He was perfect for R.P. McMurphy. He had that larger than life quality and character that he had. But the great thing about dad is as you can see, Larry, he doesn't hold a grudge. We're only talking about 30 years ago. And it's still right on the edge of his seat. Right there. KING: As I remember, it was a successful play in San Francisco, wasn't it, Michael?

M. DOUGLAS: What happened...

KING: Wasn't there a production there that was successful?

M. DOUGLAS: Exactly. What happened is when I was in college, the book now became kind  of a contemporary American classic that was read. And the play was revived about, you know eight or ten years later -- eight years later from the Broadway production. And it was successful in San Francisco, and then it was in New York.

K. DOUGLAS: Very well done.

M. DOUGLAS: Very well done in off Broadway productions. And actually Danny DeVito, who is a dear friend of mine, played one of the roles in the production in New York. And that's how he was cast in the movie to play Martin. KING: Lee Grant, were you surprised that this existed for so many years over this one show?

GRANT: You know, Larry, that's one of the things that you'll see when you watch the HBO documentary, because this is something that they freely interact about in the documentary. So I don't want to say too much about it. But what goes on between a father and a son, which is usually such a private matter, that these two men are so secure in themselves, that they are able to be honest, be honest with each other, and be honest with me, as a director,
 is -- is just remarkable.

K. DOUGLAS: Lee would very often let the camera roll, and Michael and I ignored the camera and started talking, arguing.

KING: It comes through.

<snip> [read Spartacus for more of the interview - scroll to picture]

Spartacus - slaves escape

 

Douglas collaborative style

It Runs In The Family

 

On Paul Harvey's news and comments, a list was read from "Flex" magazine, of legitimate actors from "Golden Age" Hollywood, who had the best physique. This is the list: 

12  Rock Hudson

11  Jeff  Chandler 

10  Robert Ryan 

  9  Jack  Palance 

  8  Cornel Wilde 

 7  Burt Lancaster

  6  Sean Connery

  5  Charles Bronson

  4  Yul Brynner

  3  Charleton Heston

  2  Marlon Brando

 

  1  Kirk Douglas

Above,  gladiator slave-friends ~ Draba [Woody Strode] forced into the arena with Spartacus [Kirk Douglas]
during an event staged for the party of Roman Marcus Licinius Crassus [Laurence Olivier

 

SPARTACUS   continued

CNN LARRY KING LIVE interview with Michael Douglas, Kirk Douglas, and Lee Grant

KING: '60s.

K. DOUGLAS: The McCarthy era. People were frightened and then, McCarthy was blackballing all of these writers with the liberal views and soon, they all fell in line. And they wouldn't hire these writers.

KING: They took assumed names, some of them, right?

K. DOUGLAS: Of course. And when Dalton Trumbo was working with us at the beginning, he had an assumed name and it bothered me. I said, "Why do they do that?" They wouldn't allow to go in the movie, but the hypocrisy was that the studio would look the other way if the blacklisted writer a script and that made me mad one day and we were discussing who should...

KING: Whose names should go on it?

K. DOUGLAS: Yes and my director was...

KING: Stanley Kubrick.

K. DOUGLAS: And he said, "use my name." I said, "Stanley, wouldn't you feel awful if they degraded (INAUDIBLE)?" He said, "Well, I will help you out.: And that made me mad and the next day I said, "Dalton Trumbo will be on the screen."

KING: Lee, weren't you proud of that?

GRANT: I am proud of Kirk. I think he drums to his own drummer in every way and it's -- of course, I mean, to take a chance like that, could have blacklisted Kirk very easily.

A lot of very, very big stars were going down and not being seen or heard from again. So, Kirk took a huge chance in putting a blacklisted writer's name on the screen and somehow or other, he survived it, like he survives everything.

KING: And now Michael, people watch it and they wonder, "what political overtones? -- what?" Right? I mean, it was a heck of a grand film.

M. DOUGLAS: It was -- yes and the fact to make a risk with a picture that turned out to be as great as that movie was,
was a milestone. But I agree with Lee, I'm a big fan of dad's. 
<snip> 

CNN LARRY KING LIVE     Interview with Michael Douglas, Kirk Douglas, Lee Grant
Aired August 10, 2005 - 21:00   ET