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Rest in peace Mr. Pollard. He is, and always will be to me, 'Mr. C.W. Moss' from 'Bonnie and Clyde'. He is now the first of those Five Oscar nominated Actors and Actresses from that film to leave us.
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Yep c.w.
And Packy the head of the partisan fighters in Hannibal Brooks.
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I remember him in.a PLAYBOY pictorial surrounded by naked playmates!
I was so jealous that a.nerdy guy got so lucky. 
Rip MJP
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I remember him in.a PLAYBOY pictorial surrounded by naked playmates!
I was so jealous that a.nerdy guy got so lucky.
Rip MJP
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Posted: |
Nov 23, 2019 - 2:15 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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In 1962, Pollard had a small role as “George” in Martin Ritt's HEMINGWAY'S ADVENTURES OF A YOUNG MAN. The ten "Nick Adams" stories utilized by screenwriter A.E. Hotchner are "Indian Camp," "The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife," "The End of Something," "The Three Day Blow," "The Battler," "A Very Short Story," "In Another Country," "Now I Lay Me," "The Way of the World," and "A Way You'll Never Be." The latter portion of the film set in Italy is drawn from "A Farewell to Arms." Ernest Hemingway wrote the opening and closing narration and was scheduled to deliver it himself, but his suicide prior to the film's conclusion prevented that. Franz Waxman’s score was released on an RCA LP. It was reissued on CD by Label X in 1985 and La-La Land in 2017.
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Posted: |
Nov 23, 2019 - 2:27 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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William Inge's play A Loss of Roses opened at the Eugene O'Neill Theater in New York on November 28, 1959. The play is a tale set in a Depression both economic and emotional. "Lila Green," a tent show actress who’s traveling troupe has folded, finds refuge with old friends in a small town. "Helen Baird," a respectable widowed nurse and former neighbor, looks on her with motherly affection, and son "Kenny" has fond memories of the “Aunt Lila” who used to babysit him. But Kenny is now a full grown man, full of flirtation and eager admiration, and fragile Lila, dealing with the latest in a long line of abusive men, is sorely tempted by Kenny’s sincerity and youthful ardor.
When producer Jerry Wald (PEYTON PLACE) decided to bring Inge's play to the screen, he originally considered Marilyn Monroe for the role of Lila, the washed-up showgirl. However, upon Monroe's death, she was replaced by Joanne Woodward. The ironic opening sequence (undoubtedly rewritten after Miss Monroe's death) has the bleached blonde title character, upon her arrival in Hollywood, being mistaken for Jayne Mansfield by a tourist. Natalie Wood was announced for the film (then called "Celebration"), as a re-teaming with her WEST SIDE STORY co-star Richard Beymer as “Kenny”. Presumably, she would have played a beefed up version of the supporting role that eventually went to Carol Lynley. And Eleanor Parker was announced for the role of "Helen" that eventually went to Claire Trevor. Repeating his own stage role was Michael J. Pollard, as Kenny's sidekick “Jelly.”
Franklin J. Schaffner made his feature film directorial debut with the 1963 film, which had various working titles ("Woman of Summer"; "A Woman In July"), and was ultimately released as THE STRIPPER. The film featured the first collaboration between Schaffner and composer Jerry Goldsmith, whose score was released by Film Score Monthly in 2001.
Michael J. Pollard in THE STRIPPER
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Posted: |
Nov 23, 2019 - 11:57 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Michael J. Pollard co-starred in and received his first poster credit for the 1963 Disney musical SUMMER MAGIC. In the film, recently widowed “Margaret Carey” (Dorothy McGuire) must move her family from their large house in Boston in order to economize. “Osh Popham” (Burl Ives), the Beulah, Maine, postmaster, constable, and representative of an absentee landlord, receives a letter from “Nancy” (Hayley Mills), Margaret's teenage daughter, explaining the family's plight and asking about the availability of a large, yellow house in Beulah. Osh also happens to have two teenage children of his own, “Lallie Joy” (Wendy Turner) and “Digby” (Michael J. Pollard).
Hayley Mills, James Mathers, Dorothy McGuire, and Michael J. Pollard in SUMMER MAGIC
James Neilson directed the film. The songs were by the Sherman Brothers, and Buddy Baker provided the background score. Buena Vista released the soundtrack LP whose only CD release came as a made-on-demand item available in Disney parks in 2004.
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Posted: |
Nov 24, 2019 - 12:36 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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THE WILD ANGELS focuses on “Heavenly Blues” (Peter Fonda), the leader of the Hell's Angels, a group of California motorcyclists intent on living lives free of all social responsibility. Trouble begins when the motorcycle of one member, “Loser” (Bruce Dern), is stolen by another gang. Loser then loses his construction job because of the Nazi emblems he wears. His group retaliates by raiding a rival Mexican club, inciting a rumble, and stealing one of the rivals' motorcycles. Michael J. Pollard is the doltish biker “Pygmy.”
Michael J. Pollard, Bruce Dern, Peter Fonda and Buck Taylor in THE WILD ANGELS
Roger Corman directed the 1966 film, which cost $360,000 to make and grossed $14 million. Tower Records released a soundtrack LP, which featured music by Davie Allan and the Arrows. A “Vol. II” LP was released in 1967. The original LP was re-issued on CD by Curb Records in 1996.
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Posted: |
Nov 24, 2019 - 10:54 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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In February 1966, director Frank Tashlin decided to unite with DO NOT DISTURB producers Aaron Rosenberg and Martin Melcher (husband and manager of actress Doris Day) for CAPRICE, an industrial espionage/spy comedy. John Kohn was signed to produce the film, which he would write from an original story he developed with Martin Hale. However, a few weeks later, Kohn amicably left the project following disagreements over script revisions. Final screenplay credit went to Tashlin and Jay Jayson, who also developed the story. In March 1966, Richard Harris was cast as Day’s co-star.
Doris Day is assigned to steal the secret formula for a spray that prevents hair from getting wet even when under water. She spends much of her time with a giant pair of scissors trying to swipe a bit of the hair of one of the women used to test the hairspray. In one scene, she encounters “Barney” (Michael J. Pollard) in a movie theater where a Doris Day film is playing on the screen. Pollard makes a play for Day who is sitting behind him while trying to swipe some hair from his girlfriend.
Nearly two months after beginning work, Day suffered a shoulder injury. The 2 August 1966 Daily Variety announced that filming had been stalled, and the production remained shut down until 16 August 1966, when the actress returned to set. Harris, however, had been sent to the hospital for a “series of tests,” causing filmmakers to shoot around his character. Harris completed work on the morning of 17 September 1966 on location at Van Nuys Airport in northern Los Angeles. Second unit filming concluded around mid-Nov 1966.
Although many critics have commented on the lack of chemistry between Doris Day and Richard Harris in the film, the two were said to have got on very well, and enjoyed working together. Harris claimed that he "learned more about comedy from Doris Day, than four years at the Royal Academy". (Actually, Harris attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, not the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.) Nevertheless, Harris was disappointed with the final version of the movie, publicly disowned it, and reportedly never saw it.
CAPRICE premiered in Los Angeles on 23 May 1967. In his review of the film, The New York Times’ Bosley Crowther cattily remarked: "[Day] appears to have reached that stage where massive wigs and nutty clothes and acrobatics cannot conceal the fact that she is no longer a boy." Spy spoofs were already becoming passé, and the film limped to a $5.0 million gross.
Frank Devol’s score for the film was released by Intrada in 2008.
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Posted: |
Nov 24, 2019 - 11:34 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Based on historical events, BONNIE AND CLYDE is set during the Depression in the early 1930s, when Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway) meets Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty) when he tries to steal her mother's car. Intrigued by his brazen manner and bored with her job as a waitress, she decides to become his partner in crime. Together they stage a series of amateur holdups that provide them with excitement but little monetary reward. Eventually they take on “C. W. Moss” (Michael J. Pollard), a dimwitted garage mechanic, who serves as their getaway driver. Finally they are joined by Clyde's brother Buck (Gene Hackman), recently released from prison, and his wife, Blanche (Estelle Parsons), a whining preacher's daughter.
“C.W. Moss” was a fictional conglomeration of all of Bonnie and Clyde's minor sidekicks including: Ralph Fults (their first sidekick), William Daniel Jones (nicknamed "W.D." or "Deacon", who was an attendant at the gas station owned by Clyde's father), Ray Hamilton, and Henry Methvin (whose father made the deal with Frank Hamer to set up Bonnie and Clyde).
Michael J. Pollard, Faye Dunaway, Warren Beatty, Estelle Parsons, and Gene Hackman in BONNIE AND CLYDE
An early version of the script had C. W. Moss engaged in a three-way relationship with Bonnie and Clyde. Co-writer David Newman claimed that Beatty objected to the characterization on the basis that Clyde’s bisexuality might make him less sympathetic to the audience. Jordan Christopher and Dennis Hopper were reportedly considered for Moss before Beatty cast Pollard, his longtime friend. Pollard earned a paycheck of $14,000. He admitted in later interviews that he borrowed his accent from Bob Dylan’s in the "Blonde on Blonde" album.
The scene in which C.W. Moss parallel parks the getaway car while Clyde and Bonnie are in the bank, and then has trouble getting the car out of the space, is based on a true event, but it didn't happen to Bonnie and Clyde. It occurred on June 10, 1933. The bank robbers in question were John Dillinger and William Shaw, and the driver was Paul "Lefty" Parker. This is documented in Bryan Burrough's Public Enemies: American's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the F.B.I., 1933-34, upon which the 2009 film PUBLIC ENEMIES was based.
Even with his years of experience in films and television, Pollard didn't realize that in scenes involving eating, you shouldn’t actually eat all the food because of the possibility of repeated takes. Sure enough, he soon regretted it in the scene in which the outlaws kidnap a couple and eat their lunch in the car. By the twelfth take, Pollard was feeling decidedly ill, having eaten twelve whole hamburgers.
Arthur Penn directed the 1967 film. The score by Charles Strouse was issued on a dialogue-heavy Warner Bros. LP, which has been reissued on CD by Collector’s Choice.
Along with co-star Gene Hackman, Michael J. Pollard was nominated for an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor. He lost to George Kennedy in COOL HAND LUKE. Pollard was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award as Best Supporting Actor, losing to Richard Attenborough for DOCTOR DOLITTLE.
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Posted: |
Nov 24, 2019 - 12:01 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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The Universal film JIGSAW was originally produced for NBC-TV's World Premiere "Project 120" series, but instead was released to theaters, reportedly because the network objected to the film's content. It opened in New York on June 5, 1968, with a "Suggested For Mature Audiences" tag.
The film was a remake of the 1965 Universal film MIRAGE, directed by Edward Dmytryk and starring Gregory Peck and Diane Baker. In JIGSAW, Bradford Dillman plays "Jonathan Fields," who, unaware that he has accidentally dropped some LSD-filled sugar cubes into his cup of coffee, later wakes up in a strange apartment and discovers the corpse of a young woman submerged in the bathtub. JIGSAW was directed by James Goldstone and has an unreleased score by Quincy Jones.
Michael J. Pollard, playing the hippie “Dill,” was listed eighth among the film's cast, but suddenly became the advertised "star" of the film, over Bradford Dillman, when Pollard's February 1968 Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for BONNIE AND CLYDE made him a briefly bankable name.
Michael J. Pollard in JIGSAW
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Posted: |
Nov 24, 2019 - 2:43 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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In the 1969 comedy-drama HANNIBAL BROOKS, English soldier “Stephen Brooks” (Oliver Reed) is captured by the Germans and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp outside of Munich. The senior officer there, “Padre” (James Donald), lets Brooks and his compatriots know that aiding the enemy by volunteering for work details in Munich, will be frowned upon. This warning isn't for American “Paky” (Michael J. Pollard), of course; he's not under the command of Padre, and besides, he's gung ho, in his squirrelly, soft-spoken way, to escape from the Stalag?a dangerous act of rebellion with which the peace-loving Brooks wants no part.
Anti-authoritarian Brooks immediately volunteers for the forbidden work detail and is assigned to the Munich Zoo, where he's taken underwing by elephant keeper “Kellerman” (Ernst Fritz Furbringer). There, Brooks soon begins to regard the sweet-tempered “Lucy” (Aida the Elephant), a Ceylonese elephant, as his beloved friend. When the Zoo is bombed by the Allies, with Kellerman killed and Lucy injured, the director of the Zoo, “Sterne” (Eric Jelde), swings it so Brooks can take Lucy to Insbruck, Austria, where she'll be safe?a quick ride by train that turns into an arduous walking trip thanks to train-commandeering S.S. officer, Colonel von Haller (Wolfgang Preiss).
During filming, Oliver Reed upset the Austrian locals when after a drinking binge, he tore down the Austrian flag from outside the crew's hotel and urinated on it. Director Michael Winner lamented, "In Austria, we had to change the hotel every half an hour because Oliver was always throwing flour over people, running up and down the corridor or pissing on the Austrian flag".
Michael J. Pollard was addicted to drugs and alcohol at the time. Michael Winner confronted the actor about it and told him that he ought to clean himself up. "Why is it that you keep taking drugs and keep taking pills? There's no reason for that". Pollard replied, "You don't share a hotel with Oliver Reed". Winner replied, "Michael, you just won the argument".
Michael J. Pollard in HANNIBAL BROOKS
On Michael J. Pollard's birthday, the unit publicist was asked to organize a party for him to take place during the lunch break on location. There was a huge crew of a hundred and fifty, so she ordered sixty bottles of champagne to be delivered from the hotel. When they arrived, she found only thirty bottles. Michael Winner had halved the order. She protested that there wouldn't be enough for everyone, whereupon he declared, "Those at the front can taste it - and tell those at the back what it's like".
While filming a scene on an Austrian hillside, Pollard slipped and painfully crashed down several feet. Without waiting to see how he was, Michael Winner bellowed, "Get me another fucking actor". Even though he had worked with Roger Corman, Pollard said that Michael Winner was the fastest director he had ever collaborated with.
On the day Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated, the crew was filming up a mountain. Knowing that Michael J. Pollard loved the Kennedys and Bob Dylan, Michael Winner called up to him and tastelessly said - "Michael, Robert Kennedy's been shot - and Bob Dylan shot him".
Francis Lai’s score was released on a United Artists LP, which was first re-issued on CD by EMI in 1990. It later appeared as part of Film Score Monthly’s box set "The MGM Soundtrack Treasury" in 2008.
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Posted: |
Nov 24, 2019 - 4:17 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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LITTLE FAUSS AND BIG HALSEY is a story of two motorcycle racers, the inept, unsuspecting “Little Fauss” (Michael J. Pollard) and the opportunistic, womanizing “Halsey Knox” (Robert Redford). Reportedly, the two stars couldn't stand each other, making their onscreen rivalry all the more convincing.
The stunt double for Michael J. Pollard in the closing road racing scenes was Scottish-born road racing champion Davey Scott. Much of the footage was captured during an actual national race.
Lauren Hutton and Michael J. Pollard in LITTLE FAUSS AND BIG HALSEY
Sidney J. Furie directed the 1970 release. The film had no background score, but instead had songs and instrumentals derived from the songs by Bob Dylan, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash. Columbia released a soundtrack LP, which was re-issued on CD by Bear Family Records in 1999.
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