ear•nest (adjective) Resulting from or showing sincere and intense conviction.

Forgive my play on words, but one of the late Ernest Borgnine’s finer qualities as an actor was, indeed, yes — his earnestness. Sincerity. Conviction. Borgnine brought both to the many roles he played in movies and television. Two examples:

In one of the best, most thoroughly entertaining World War II films (if any war movie can be termed ‘entertaining’), THE DIRTY DOZEN (1967), I have a sense that Borgnine plays himself. He is a no-nonsense, professional soldier, General Sam Worden. Early in the picture as Worden explains to Major Reisman (Lee Marvin) the task he’s being given–to take 12 irredeemable inmates on a suicidal, behind-the-lines sabotage mission–Borgnine is hard-as-nails tough. He’ll have none of Marvin’s snide sarcasm, even though, as the movie progresses, we’ll see the mutual respect and understanding they have for each another.

“Well you hold it, right there. This war was NOT started for your private gratification! And you can be DAMN sure this Army isn’t being run for your personal convenience either!”

Nothing captures Borgnine’s basic affability (despite the bulldog-like barking) better than the war games sequence, during which he gives a knowing wink and a nod to Lee Marvin’s gang’s clever but barely permissable shenanigans. Realizing just what the Dozen are up to, and he, himself, probably having seen it (and done it) all before, he can’t help himself from showing his jolly, inner core. It seems very unfeigned, and it’s a terrificly memorable moment from Borgnine–one of the best in a movie that has plenty of great ones.

So then, how could anyone not like Ernest Borgnine. Well, in FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953), he plays Sgt. Judson, better known, unaffectionately, as “Fatso” (but yet it’s a moniker he can deal with, in more ways than one). Fatso is in charge of the stockade. He has a reputation, a very bad one, and everyone is aware of it. Borgnine shows his amazing range in this role, making us really and truly despise this lowlife, bigoted bully who abuses his power. (Of course, a bravura performance from Frank Sinatra (as Maggio) helps, too.)

Fatso has set up a nice little fiefdom for himself, one in which he’s free to dole out whatever physical punishment he chooses, while his superiors, who are aware of it, apparently look the other way. The sheer ease with which Borgnine pulls-off this out-of-character role is something to behold. He barely smiles in any of his scenes. But when Borgnine does, it’s somehow not the ingratiating grin we’re used to (as in THE DIRTY DOZEN, above). He makes Fatso into an unquestionably unlikable character–not a single redeeming quality (“I’m gonna cut this Wop’s heart out…”), and then makes it a pleasure for us to watch him get brought down to size by (brilliant) Burt Lancaster. Fatso’s met his match and knows it, but within seconds he’s back to his old, despicable self, taunting and name-calling Maggio once again (“Tough monkey…”).

Sincerity and conviction. It’s found in Borgnine’s other films, too. JOHNNY GUITAR, FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX, MARTY, THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE, and many others.  But if you and/or your friends and family haven’t seen him in anything but McHale’s Navy, you can’t do any better than to start with these two, outstanding films. (FROM HERE TO ETERNITY and THE DIRTY DOZEN are both widely available, including on Netflix and iTunes.) 

To celebrate this 4th of July, 2012 week, you could watch one of the few films about the Revolutionary War. I can’t recommend 1776, however (“The Eagle, The Turkey, The Dove”?? No, thanks!). Maybe James Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy.

You might though, want to delve into the films of John Ford. Ford respected Native Americans, but didn’t always take an even-handed approach (“the audience wants to see them get killed”). He also tended to embellish quite a bit (“When the legend becomes fact, print the legend” –a famous line from THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE— could apply to Ford’s point of view.), and he was notably cantankerous and curmudgeonly (see the clip, below, where Peter Bogdanovich attempts to interview him). But his movies were always representative of America and Americans, with their good points and bad.

Here are just five of John Ford’s greatest, typically “American” films you can’t go wrong with, and some things you may or may not know about each of them. The quotes are from Bogdanovich’s 1968 book, titled “John Ford”.

1. Ford directed only one, excellent segment of the sprawlingly epic HOW THE WEST WAS WON (1962; James Stewart, Debbie Reynolds; “The Ford episode, about the Civil War, is uncommonly good” –Johnathan Rosenbaum), but he was unhappy with the Cinerama process (three strips of film melded together on a wide and curved theater screen):

“It’s worse than CinemaScope, because the ends curl on moving shots and the audience moves instead of the picture. I didn’t care for it.”

2. For one of his greatest Westerns, MY DARLING CLEMENTINE (1946; Victor Mature, Henry Fonda, Linda Darnell; “an American classic” –Leonard Maltin), Ford had some input from an expert: Wyatt Earp himself:

“In the very early silent days, a couple of times a year, [Earp] would come up to visit pals, cowboys he knew in Tombstone… I used to give him a chair and a cup of coffee, and he told me about the fight at the O.K. Corral. So we did it exactly the way it had been.”

3. He regrets that one, particular scene was cut from the outstanding YOUNG MR. LINCOLN (1939; Henry Fonda; “A film which indisputably has the right to be called Americana” –New York Times)

“I had a lovely scene in which Lincoln rode into town on a mule, passed by a theater and stopped to see what was playing, and it was the Booth Family doing Hamlet… [Booth] looked at this funny, incongruous man in a tall hat riding a mule, and you knew there was some connection there. They cut it out–too bad.”

SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER (with Katherine Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift; directed by Joseph L. Manckiewicz; 114 min.; widely available)

“My son Sebastian and I constructed our days. We would carve each day… leaving behind us a trail of days like a gallery of sculpture. Until suddenly, last summer.” 

It’s not quite as tender as Night of the Iguana (my personal favorite of Tennessee Williams film adaptations), as sensual as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (a very close second), or as powerful as A Streetcar Named Desire. Suddenly, Last Summer nevertheless is unforgettable and as steamy as a greenhouse–if only for Katherine Hepburn’s mezmerizing, tour de force portrayal of her character, the nervous and disturbed, slightly-off Violet Venable.

Venable is a wealthy New Orleans woman hiding a web of conflicted feelings and secrets. She brings houseflies (“flown in at great expense”) for her glass-encased Venus Flytrap in her ornate, “Dawn of Creation” conservatory, much like the “flies” (of a human variety) she once attracted for her departed son, Sebastian. Venable blames her son’s cousin, Catherine Holly (Taylor), for Sebastian’s death and, consequently, wants Holly Catherine to pay the price by having a lobotomy. Catherine, even though the handsome Montgomery Clift (Dr. Cukrowicz) would perform the procedure, is understandably a bit reluctant. (“Cut the truth out of my brain… is that what you want Aunt Vi ? Well you can’t. Not even God can change the truth”)

Clift’s acting, in contrast to Taylor’s, is a little on the bland side. But Liz more than makes up for it. Taylor, it goes without saying, is very beautiful in every one of her scenes. She might overact, but this is Tennessee Williams after all–over the top performances are expected and welcome, as are the typical moments of family quarrels and backbiting, and depictions of struggles with sexual identity.

As an example of a character whose every appearance will prompt hissing, look no further than Mercedes McCambridge’s portrayal of the very grating and unlikable Mrs. Grace Holly. The overwrought ending of Suddenly, Last Summer seems out of place given the tone up to that point, and is this movie’s only big drawback. But what comes before is well worth the price. Like the other T.W. films I mentioned, this one’s never dull–a movie for a group of friends to enjoy on a hot, July night, with a Mint Julep or two. 

p.s. One thing to keep in mind during when the movie visits a very Snake Pit-like insane asylum is that the story is set in 1937. Things have improved a lot since then. At least one hopes they have.

“Oh, Sebastian, what a lovely summer it’s been. Just the two of us. Sebastian and Violet. Violet and Sebastian. Just the way it’s always going to be. Oh, we are lucky, my darling, to have one another and need no one else ever.”