This afternoon, New York City star Burt Lancaster leads a cast of stars including Robert Walker and Joan Drew on the 1951 Western drama, Vengeance Valley, which airs at 3 p.m. on TCM Movies. The film revolves around the story of the son of a selfish farm owner, Lee, who constantly hides his antics from his adopted brother, Owen. Over time, the pair end up hating each other, and when a woman bears me, he convinces his family that Owen is the father, leaving him in danger. Lancaster was already a huge star at the Hollywood box office when the film aired, having seen his success with Ava Gardner in The Killers in 1946.
By 1953, Lancaster’s credentials among the acting elite were confirmed as he received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor for his role in From Here to Eternity.
Seven years later, he landed the Academy Award he longed for with his role in Elmer Gantry, bringing him to the fore. This capped the astonishing height of the New Yorker, who saw his career begin as a circus performer in the 1930s before landing his historic stage role at the age of 32.
And while Lancaster undoubtedly enjoyed a star career in front of the camera before turning 80 in 1994, the BAFTA award winner has also admitted to having had his share of films he wasn’t proud of, including the one he most often mirrored, Rope of 1949’s Sand .
Directed by William Dietrell, and written by Walter Doniger, who will receive a Golden Globe nomination for his script, some critics have denounced “Rob of Sand” as “poor Casablanca.”
Far Out critic Callum Russell noted in this year’s article that Doniger “was hoping the film would bring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman together in a story that very much mirrored the Casablanca plot”.
Instead, they ended up with the Lancaster team. Russell described Rope of Sand as “a strange mixture of melodrama, worlds away from the Michael Curtiz classic (Casablanca) starring Bogart and Bergman.”
He added, “The same story follows another tale of an American expatriate in Africa, who sees Mike Davis of Lancaster survive a tortured life as a miner who decides to turn his back on his corrupt business and steal from them instead.
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While he was certainly a great actor of the 20th century, Lancaster was also known for his temper, often arguing with filmmakers about creative differences.
Frequently bobbing heads with screenwriter Doniger, Lancaster deeply hated working on Rope of Sand and even remembered in an interview in 1984, ‘When I think of my least favorite things, I think of Rope of Sand. I did this thing under a lot of pressure. I hated her.”
Lancaster’s apparent dissatisfaction with Rope of Sand had no effect on audience response to the film. It ended up becoming one of his most popular flicks in the 1940s, and it’s still enjoyed today.
Lancaster became highly regarded and rated as a result of its massive physical presence. The New York Times reports that its striking structure was built during his previous career as a stuntman.
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But his career ended harshly in 1939 after he sustained a finger injury. However, his unique body helped him become a Hollywood star, and he was regularly cast in his early days as a tough, rugged character.
It also saw him the last time he played acrobat complete his stunts, including the 1950 production of The Flame and the Arrow. Thinking about it, Lancaster once joked that he had “a few thousand dollars in this picture…what a neck?” When asked about his stunts.
Over time, though, Lancaster hoped to prove he could take on multi-layered roles as more than “a well-toned body and pretty face,” and would later choose roles that allowed him to challenge those perceptions. It paid off when he won an Oscar a few years later.
Vengeance Valley airs from 3pm on TCM Movies today.
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