Richard Crenna on Steve McQueen's performance

Mr. McQueen is pitch perfect in what I consider a perfect film.

"Thus, we began our longest journey together."
Adult Scout, 'To Kill A Mockingbird'

Having liked both actors very much since my childhood early in their careers, I was very pleased by Crenna's assements of McQueen's performance and talents within that audio commentary. But I'll share a "consumer" story of my own.

THE SAND PEBBLES is one of my top-10 favorites; and once in the early '90s I showed my 16mm print to two friends who had never seen the film. During the first reel change I mentioned that I had forgotten to tell them that McQueen received his only Oscar nomination for this picture -- and didn't win. The husband said, "Gee ... I wonder why," to which I heard the wife giggle.

I had not been in the same room with them while I was rethreading the projector; but when I stuck my head through the doorway, I saw they were both grinning at me. During the five or six years we had known each other, I had enjoyed a number of film conversations with them both -- but I never knew until they confirmed right then that both shared a low opinion of McQueen's range as an actor.

Well, that's a very uninformed opinion to hold, and I simply couldn't resume the movie without trying to set them straight. We were only a quarter of the way into the film, but I told them they would not appreciate it fully if they couldn't understand why McQueen had been a BRILLIANT actor: how he conveyed more emotions, thought, and attitude physically, through eyes, face and body, posture and movement, than many performers could get across through a page of dialogue -- and how the Jake Holman role was a specifically introverted character to start with. Then I pointed out a few different moments they had seen so far to demonstrate what I meant.

Then, to resume my role as a good host I apologized for interrupting the movie for that lecture, and we resumed the film. We had no more conversation before the picture ended; and I'm glad to relate that by then, both husband and wife agreed that the movie had gained in strength -- and that McQueen's performance WAS better than they had first believed.

We could all remain friends.

But now comes a still happier epilogue: Very late that evening after my guests had gone, I got a phone call from a friend in California. Because he was then writing a "bio-bibliography" of director Robert Wise, I recently had lent him my pressbooks and roadshow souvenir programs for SAND PEBBLES and STAR TREK - THE MOTION PICTURE for his convenient, pre-Internet reference.

In fact, he was phoning me to tell me that just that week he finally had watched THE SAND PEBBLES for the first time, from a letterboxed laserdisc. From past conversations I knew he hadn't seen it because in his youth, he had expected it would be "three hours of people sitting around talking on boats." But because for years my friend had known MY love of the movie, he wanted to share that there had been moments while watching it that he had asked himself: "Am I looking at the greatest actor who ever lived?"

I explained to him why that message had come at just the right time for me!


Most great films deserve a more appreciative audience than they get.

Listening to the commentary on the dvd gave me a whole new insight into this film that I've loved for many years.

McQueen's best? .. Maybe, but Love With A Proper Stranger has to also be considered as his best.

Crenna's best? .. Maybe, but The Flamingo Kid has to also be considered as his best.