Use App to Track Your Classic Movie Finds + 3 Obscure Rod Steiger Greats

Classic Movie Buzz #1 mentioned an app my husband uses to keep track of all the great classic movies he finds. This post will introduce you to that app. PLUS, I’ll tag three classic films starring Rod Steiger that you probably aren’t familiar with but won’t want to miss.

CLZ is a subscription web-based tool that helps you organize and manage your movie collection (hard copies or streaming) and includes a cloud service that allows users to import and export data, create backups and sync to mobile apps.

You can keep track of what you’ve seen and when plus upload all IMDb data, such as plot, genre, run time, cast, year released and average rating. You can enter your own rating, too, and add tags, such as “watch again.” If streaming is your game, there’s also a place to add links. CLZ offers customer support by email seven days a week for $1.99 per month or $19.99 annually. But there’s a free seven-day trial so you can try the app’s features and online services. Watch this video to get a feel for how it works.

CLZ also offers apps for maintaining music, games, books and comic collections for additional fees. There are other movie apps out there, but my hubs (a certified geek) liked CLZ best.

The Rod Steiger you may know

I admit Rod Steiger has never been one of my favorite actors. Yes, he is an EXCEPTIONAL actor; it’s just that he often plays rotten characters.

He’s typically remembered for these three movies:

1967’s In the Heat of the Night, in which he played the southern police chief Bill Gillespie and for which he won his only best actor Oscar,
1965’s Doctor Zhivago, in which he played the well-connected deflowerer of young girls Victor Komarovsky, and finally,
1957’s Oklahoma!, in which he played the despicable farmhand and arsonist Jud Fry (his only singing role, “Poor Jud is Daid.”)

But the three I want to share with you are more obscure, though they shouldn’t be. In one, I even LIKE his character, while in another he displays some redeeming qualities. So here we go…

Across the Bridge

RELEASE DATE: 1957 DIRECTOR: Ken Annakin STUDIO: Rank HEADLINERS: Rod Steiger, David Knight, Noel Willman, Marla Landi RUN TIME: 1 hour, 43 minutes FILMED IN: Black & White IMDb RANK: 7.2

SYNOPSIS: Wealthy New York businessman Carl Schaffner absconds to Mexico by train to avoid capture for embezzlement. On the way, he steals the identity of another man, with ironic, unforeseen consequences.

NOTES: Adapted from a Graham Greene short story, which speaks loads. You can always depend on Greene for great writing (he aided in the screenplay version too) and unexpected twists. Steiger’s character is definitely rotten, but he plays it so well and the story is so compelling you’ll be fascinated. A soulful springer spaniel named Dolores in the supporting cast is a compelling foil when she attaches herself to an inhospitable Schaffner for reasons you need to see the film to find out.

LINKS: Full film

The Mark

RELEASE DATE: 1961 DIRECTOR: Guy Green STUDIO: Continental Distributing HEADLINERS: Stuart Whitman, Rod Steiger, Maria Schell RUN TIME: 2 hours, 7 minutes FILMED IN: Color IMDb RANK: 7.2

SYNOPSIS: A man who served prison time for intent to molest a child tries to build a new life during prison and after release with the help of a sympathetic psychiatrist.

NOTES: Stuart Whitman, though easy to look at, was never my idea of a great actor. But I’m thinking I need to reconsider, that perhaps he just fielded a lot of bad scripts, because he’s great in this tense psychological drama as the ex-convict. Steiger plays Dr. McNally, his sympathetic psychiatrist in one of the few likeable character roles I’ve seen him do. Maria Schell is Whitman’s love interest. If you’re thinking a movie about child molestation isn’t your idea of entertainment, you should know that none occurs in this movie. What’s really going on psychologically is a bit more complex and worth seeing as it unfolds. Particularly interesting are the flashbacks to prison group therapy and Whitman’s one-on-one sparring with Steiger.

LINKS: Trailer | Full film

Back from Eternity

RELEASE DATE: 1956 DIRECTOR: John Farrow STUDIO: Warner HEADLINERS: Robert Ryan, Anita Ekberg, Rod Steiger RUN TIME: 1 hour, 37 minutes FILMED IN: Black & white IMDb RANK: 6.5

SYNOPSIS: A South American plane loaded with an assortment of characters crash-lands in a remote jungle area in the middle of a storm. The passengers then discover they are in an area inhabited by vicious cannibals and must escape before they are found. As in most “stranded” scenarios, survival brings out the worst in some and the best in others, though not always as expected.

NOTES: A remake of the 1939 film Five Came Back. Steiger plays Vasquel, a convicted murderer being brought to justice, who takes matters into his own hands. If you watch the opening airport scene closely, you may spot Barbara Eden (I Dream of Jeannie TV series) playing a college newspaper photographer speaking to a departing professor, an uncredited role that was her screen debut.

LINKS: Trailer | Full film