FILM FIRSTS (Part the Second: F-K)

Lee Remick in A FACE IN THE CROWD (1957)* and first (only?) great dramatic performance by Andy Griffith
Everyone in FAT CITY (1972)* the first time I saw most of them in a flick
Richard Harris in THE FIELD (1990) first time I saw someone capture so accurately the stubborn hardness I saw in my Irish immigrant grandfather and other Irish peasant immigrant men as Harris did in what I consider his greatest performance, and another perfect performance by John Hurt
Amy Madigan in FIELD OF DREAMS (1989) she’s always good but this was her most endearing performance for me and the first time I recognized how great her talent is
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in FLYING DOWN TO RIO (1933)* first film they did and I saw on TV as a kid and never forgot, because of the nearly naked women dancing on the wings of those old biplanes that my mother had a photograph of herself riding in when she was a young woman!
Rainer Werner Fassbinder in FOX AND HIS FRIENDS (1975)* first time I saw Fassbinder in one of his own films
Boris Karloff in FRANKENSTEIN (1931)* I hated horror movies as a kid and still, but Karloff was so good he won me over amid the mostly overblown melodramatic acting in the film
Everyone in FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953) the first film to make me really think about film acting as an art, maybe because Jersey homeboy Sinatra was pretty familiarly realistic in it, but Borgnine’s porcine bully was equally real to me as a kid. I already loved Lancaster as the epitome of contemporary tough guys, and Clift made me see another way to be a tough guy, little did I know
Half the cast of THE GODFATHER (1972)* first time I saw, or noticed, James Caan, John Cazale and Robert Duvall, as well as first serious role I saw Diane Keaton play, and well
Everyone in THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW (1966)* entirely amateur cast in this literal adaptation of the Gospel by Marxist director Pasolini
John Carradine in GRAPES OF WRATH (1940)* First film I noticed him in, and may be Henry Fonda’s and Jane Darwell’s best performances
Michael O’Keefe in THE GREAT SANTINI (1979)* his first film and I think an Oscar-nominated performance
The Beatles in A HARD DAY’S NIGHT (1964)* I went in to see this flick pissed off at them—for sparking a trend that turned jazz clubs into rock’n’roll venues and had English musicians taking work from R&B and R&R musician friends, as well as me—and came out wanting to be them
All the children actors in A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA (1965)* especially the girl
Katherine Hepburn in HOLIDAY (1938)* First flick I saw her in as a kid on TV and immediately realized how unique and amazing her acting was, and first time I got Cary Grant’s charm and humor
James Edwards in HOME OF THE BRAVE (1949)* saw this as a seven-year-old and the anti-racism message hit home so powerfully, mostly from Edwards’ performance, a pioneer among black screen stars who never really got his due
Jack Benny in THE HORN BLOWS AT MIDNIGHT (1945) First movie I saw him in and though it was an enormous flop, the combination of Benny’s classic comic chops, a story about an angel sent to destroy the earth, with the undertones of the age of the atomic bomb which began that year and dominated my boyhood, plus some semi-surreal sets, made this in many ways my first introduction to the “infinite possibilities” of movies and all art, I loved it then, and may still, though I haven’t seen it in over half a century
Half the cast of HOWARD’S END (1992)* I already knew and recognized the Olympian talent of Vanessa Redgrave and Anthony Hopkins, but a lot of the rest of the cast were unknown to me, and all were perfect, especially the guy who plays Hopkins’ character’s tragically flawed “upper crust” English gentleman-without-a-clue son
Jackie Gleason and Piper Laurie in THE HUSTLER (1961)* Gleason I had been a fan of since his first variety show on TV, but I’d never seen him in a serious dramatic role in a flick before, and Laurie I didn’t know—her performance impressed me so much I can still see the expression on her face when her character tells Paul Newman’s he’s “too hungry”
Malcolm McDowell in IF… (1968)* actually the title was lower case: if…
Victor McLaglen in THE INFORMER (1935) I knew him from John Wayne movies on TV, always playing the hard-drinking, hard-fighting Mick, and later from THE QUIET MAN in a similar role, but this, which won him an Oscar, was the first film I saw that made me realize what an artist he was, how much more he was than the stereotype he played, even though in many ways this film is the origin of that long string of later roles
Theresa Russell in INSIGNIFICANCE (1985)* Playing a Marilyn Monroe type actress in this movie set in 1954, she made me forget who she was supposed to be resembling or reflecting and made the role her own so powerfully I thought she should have won an Oscar for it, one of my favorite underrated and underexposed films
Pete Postlethwaite in IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER (1993)* First time I noticed him, he plays Daniel Day-Lewis’ character’s father, Lewis great as always
Most of the cast of IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946)* First time I saw a lot of these actors as a kid, or first time I got how great they all were
Everyone in JESUS OF MONTREAL (1989)*
Maximilian Schell in JUDGEMENT AT NUREMBERG (1961)* A film that had a profound effect on me, I saw it as a defense of the beliefs I had formulated that were getting me into so much trouble in the Air Force and with my family and friends, my rebellion against their prejudices and acceptance of the racially unjust status quo
Burt Lancastar and Ava Gardner in THE KILLERS (1946)* First time I saw either of them, and this was his debut, I was overwhelmed by their screen charisma
Elvis Presley in KING CREOLE (1958)* First movie I went to see him in, because it was the first that teenage boys, or at least this one, could identify with (as opposed to LOVE ME TENDER which seemed, at the time, more a movie for girls)
Alan Bates in KING OF HEARTS (1966)* The perspective of this flick seemed revolutionary at the time, or at least liberating
Bruno Ganz in KNIFE IN THE HEAD (1978) Confirmed his greatness as an actor after having already seen him in AN AMERICAN FRIEND—his performance in this film was for me, and still may be if I see it again, the greatest single film performance of any actor
John Derek in KNOCK ON ANY DOOR (1949)* Maybe miscast—I saw it after the book became my first real “literary” discovery as a boy, and though the film didn’t live up to the book’s greatness for me, Derek still impressed me in many of his scenes as he struggled to be good while being bad still seemed more rewarding

‘nuff for now