{"id":3243,"date":"2011-07-18T15:08:39","date_gmt":"2011-07-18T19:08:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mondomark.com\/wordpress\/?p=2233"},"modified":"2011-07-18T15:08:39","modified_gmt":"2011-07-18T19:08:39","slug":"the-films-of-stephen-boyd-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=3243","title":{"rendered":"The Films of Stephen Boyd, Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a moment in the 2011 documentary Stephen Boyd: The Man Who Never Was<\/a><\/strong> [M<\/a>], produced & broadcast by BBC Northern Ireland, where director John Turtletaub quips \u2018Stephen who?\u2019 but he\u2019s being only half-serious, and yet most film fans \u2013 certain younger film fans – may not connect the name with the actor who co-starred in Ben-Hur<\/strong> (1959), The Fall of the Roman Empire<\/a> <\/strong>(1964), and Fantastic Voyage <\/strong>(1966), because unlike co-stars Charlton Heston, Christopher Plummer and Raquel Welch, respectively, Boyd didn\u2019t want to be a part of the star machine, and perhaps his love of golf overtook time he could and perhaps should have spent seeking out better roles, or at least returning to his stage roots to maintain a profile connected with quality.<\/p>\n

Whether Boyd was a great<\/em> actor is debatable; he was perfectly suited to play charismatic characters, but there was the odd grand physical gesture which could render a role a bit too grandiose, and yet physically and vocally he was tailor-made for the movies. Imposing with a chiseled jaw, a smile that could be warm or hideously sadistic, and a voice armed with precise tonal power, Boyd worked his way up the contract system, playing small roles and supporting parts until Woman Obsessed<\/strong> (1959), his first big starting role where he held his own against Susan Hayward, fresh from her Oscar win from I Want to Live! <\/strong>(1958).<\/p>\n

A contract actor with Fox, Boyd also appeared in The Best of Everything<\/a><\/strong> and the brooding western The Bravados<\/strong> (1958), but it was MGM\u2019s international blockbuster Ben-Hur<\/strong> that made him a star\u2026 and yet within 10 years the roles weren\u2019t so good, and Hollywood was struggling to figure out what audiences wanted, sometimes succeeding with trippy epics by independent-minded directors such as Stanley Kubrick (2001: A Space Odyssey<\/strong>), or making giant duds like Dr. Doolittle<\/strong> (1967), Finian\u2019s Rainbow<\/strong> (1968), and Star! <\/strong>(1968).<\/p>\n

He was well-cast in The Oscar<\/a> <\/strong>(1966), but one wonders if he realized his energetic, hypnotizing performance was part of the fromage that made the film one of the best worst films ever made, and a sublime guilty pleasure of perfectly realized awfulness.<\/p>\n

Like many former contract actors and stars, Boyd appeared in international productions, TV, and Italian genre efforts during his final years, but it\u2019s his death at a young age which makes his career so tragic. Among his 61 credits in film and TV (1954-1978), there are genuine nuggets of gold, but it\u2019s like his acting colleague from Ireland says at the end of the BBC doc, \u2018If he\u2019d been alive today he\u2019d be my age,\u2019 and he should\u2019ve had a few more good performances preserved on film.<\/p>\n

While the BBC doc is currently unavailable on DVD, it probably does the rounds on U.K. TV stations, and is worth catching, if not making its way to home video as a worthy bonus to accompany one of his films.<\/p>\n

Ben-Hur<\/strong>, in turn, is slated for a massive Blu-ray release this fall via Warner Home Video, but I get a feeling the attention among any new extras will go towards Heston, director Wyler, composer Miklos Rozsa, and the chariot race sequence, which is all justified, but it means fans wanting some background on Boyd\u2019s career will have to track down the BBC doc, and scour merchants (or TCM) for the actor\u2019s other work.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Actually she won the Oscar LAST YEAR, snapphead.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Luckily his best films remain in circulation, but we\u2019ll begin this peek at his celluloid C.V. via Woman Obsessed<\/a><\/strong> [M<\/a>], newly (and exclusively) released by Twilight Time on DVD in a swanky anamorphic transfer with Hugo Friedhofer\u2019s excellent score isolated in bouncy-bouncy stereo. (Stereo is bouncy<\/em>, whereas mono is simply<\/em> not<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

One thing I should point out for film fans curious about why they can\u2019t find TT\u2019s products on Amazon or in stores: they\u2019re available exclusively<\/em> from Screen Archives Entertainment<\/a>. I\u2019ve seen many posts where people say films such as The Egyptian<\/strong> \u2018are coming\u2019 or \u2018will be out \u2018or are available\u2019 but few follow up and are aware (or bother to mention) the titles are exclusive to SAE\u2019s online website.<\/p>\n

Yes, they ship internationally, and yes, they ship to Canada. I\u2019ve been using them for their other business streams \u2013 mail order soundtracks \u2013 since the company began operations with a pair of Albert Glasser LPs in 1986, and they have excellent customer service. This isn\u2019t advertorial. Just a confirmation of where you can get the TT DVDs and their new line of BRs, and confirmation the company is legit. People get funny ideas when message boards are filled with vague comments and assumptions, so call this a point or two for clarification.<\/p>\n

That is all.<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>, Editor
\nKQEK.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part 1 of this spanking new series examines the work of Stephen Boyd, one of Hollywood’s forgotten stars of the late fifties and early sixties. First up is a review of his pre-Ben-Hur co-starring role in Woman Obsessed (Twilight Time), plus a review of the new BBC documentary Stephen Boyd: The Man Who Never Was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[502,590,594],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-Qj","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3243"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3243\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}