Audience Member
George Peppard is Howard Hughes in this sordid soap opera drama. Carroll Baker is Jean Harlow (a role she later played in the biopic); Martha Hyer is Lana Turner; and Elizabeth Ashley is Jean Peters. Of course, those the actors aren't identified in the film as the reel life counterparts, but just put 2 + 2 together. Bad acting abounds, except for Ashley's, who was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe and a BAFTA. The film is extremely watchable and thus justifies its box office status as a major hit.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
02/06/23
Full Review
delysid d
kind of a boring story, but not bad
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
06/16/21
Full Review
steve d
Cringe-worthy story that gives its cast little to work with.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
03/30/23
Full Review
Audience Member
A forerunner to Aviator, this film has an unlikely George Peppard AND Alan Ladd dominating in this 1964 huge hit. A grand expose of ambition and unhappiness at the top in the 30's. It has been described as a Howard Hughes bio-drama by Harold Robbins * .
And what a climax this films has! Stay with this and watch the fight, the brutal fight between Alan Ladd and Peppard. It's one for the ages!
SEE the trailer here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=atBdy_7hoWo
[img]http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSMvpaKvof1n2HLkAAirjW6PjDJqdMaQxUIU4l-m95iW1Hy3mX8[/img]
This film alone probably set the stage for some of television's biggest night-time hit soapers like DALLAS, in particular. Television however already had its huge hit night soaper in the early sixties, Peyton Place, which was the beginning of Ryan O'Neil's (Paper Moon) career.
SEE THE FULL FILM HERE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVG1T0fVh3c&list=PLA9A100D8378C4329&index=53
A claw your eyes out dialog in this very 1960ish style this film along with so many others in its day were of a certain panoramic quality. I mean, they were shot as though everything was bigger than life itself on the screen. But then, the screen sizes were huge compared to today.
[img]http://images.angusrobertson.com.au/images/ar/97803409/9780340952849/180/0/plain/the-carpetbaggers.jpg[/img]
Contrary to RT's "movie info" synopisis, I really don't see any dirt-dishing best seller here. For its time maybe, but not now. Now all we really have is dirt-dishing constantly, whatever that truely means that is.
[img]http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS6eZhS6pQNvw8VEEZm3a4YydWaq2wjel1ZLVpQUHj19jfg44tI[/img]
Interesting to see an older Alan Ladd (Shane) in the beginning of this one, but he bows out early in the film only to reappear as a Western movie star. He is the ONLY person our lead actor George Peppard admires, perhaps because in the film Ladd was more of a father to Peppard than his real one who dies early in the film.
Actress Ashely early in the film seems like Audrey Hepburn in this. The voice, the personality, the grace... its all Hepburn! Later, not so much. But the poor girl gets Peppard to marry her and in the end regrets it as Peppard is in love with the single life and the freedom he needs to build his many corporations.
He is all about ambition and greed and always self-centered.
REVIEWS:
60% A high class soap opera, and oddly entertaining because of that. The whole movie is overdone and loosely based on Howard Hughes.
not rated% The novel was an immense bestseller in its day and had a pre-existing audience so there was no way it was going to flop commercially. Knowing that is what attracted a very good cast of players to support Peppard and Baker who give some really good performances.
STORYLINE:
George Peppard plays a hard-driven industrialist more than a little reminiscent of Howard Hughes. While he builds airplanes, directs movies and breaks hearts, his friends and lovers try to reach his human side, and find that it's an uphill battle.
The film's title is a metaphor for self-promoting tycoons who perform quick financial takeovers, impose dictatorial controls for short-term profits, then move on to greener pastures. Written by Jeanne Baker
NOTES:
1 Harold Robbins,(May 21, 1916 - October 14, 1997) was an American author of popular novels. One of the best-selling writers of all time, he penned over 25 best-sellers, selling over 750 million copies in 32 languages.
2 * Among Robbins best-known books is The Carpetbaggers - loosely based on a composite of Howard Hughes, Bill Lear, Harry Cohn, and Louis B. Mayer
CastGeorge Peppard - Jonas Cord
Alan Ladd - Nevada Smith
Carroll Baker - Rina Marlowe Cord
Robert Cummings - Dan Pierce (billed as Bob Cummings)
Martha Hyer - Jennie Denton
Elizabeth Ashley - Monica Winthrop
Lew Ayres - 'Mac' McAllister
Martin Balsam - Bernard B. Norman
Ralph Taeger - Buzz Dalton
Archie Moore - Jedediah
Leif Erickson - Jonas Cord, Sr.
Arthur Franz ... Morrissey
Tom Tully - Amos Winthrop
Audrey Totter - Prostitute
Anthony Warde - Moroni
Charles Lane - Denby
Tom Lowell - David Woolf
John Conte - Ed Ellis
Vaughn Taylor - Doctor
Directed by Edward Dmytryk
Produced by Joseph E. Levine
Written by John Michael Hayes
Harold Robbins (novel)
Running time: 150 minutes, color
Not finished with this review but will be today!
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/19/23
Full Review
david f
A shallow but pretty, actually gorgeous, film about a Howard Hughes-like businessman who starts out in chemicals, moves along into airlines, airplane construction and finally to running a Hollywood movie studio. In his wake he leaves an assortment of damaged relationships and unhappy, disappointed friends and family. Itâ(TM)s a colorful soap opera with a large cast of characters that spans decades of the history of the American West. The psychoanalytic underpinnings to his drive for success, revealed near the end, canâ(TM)t make this pretty parade of gorgeous blondes, fast cars and fast planes into anything more than the high-gloss tombstone for the waning studio production system that it is. Itâ(TM)s beautiful but itâ(TM)s empty headed.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
Audience Member
I absolutely love this film for it's unadulterated trashiness! Gripped from beginning to end. I've never enjoyed the films of these types of books before, but this one wins through.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/30/23
Full Review
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