#Ragtime movie nude series#

I remember thinking, 'How the hell do you make a movie of a book where the central characters are named 'Mother,' 'Father,' and 'Mother's Younger Brother?'' Milos Forman showed how: In a word, beautifully. I finished reading Doctorow's novel just before it was announced that production had started on the movie. I doubt they'll be saying that about the first decade of this century. It seemed that America had limitless possibilities then. Milos Forman gave us a remarkable evocation of an exciting time in American history. Maybe one day we will have a definitive film version just concentrating on the murder and it's aftermath for the three principals. Author Norman Mailer plays Stanford White, fulltime architect and hedonist and Robert Joy plays the demented millionaire Harry K. She was an actress before she married Pat, but gave up her career to raise their four children. O'Brien plays Thaw's mother under her maiden name of Eloise Taylor. This was also the final joint appearance as it turned for the team that invented the buddy film, James Cagney and Pat O'Brien even though they have no scenes together. It's nothing like the bouncing Cagney of old, but light years better than Terrible Joe Moran. Note that he's sitting down during most of his performance and when he has to stand the camera is a discreet distance. Cagney is clearly aged, but he gets through the role because unlike that television film Terrible Joe Moran, he's not the center of the film, though he's first billed. Ragtime was eagerly awaited because of the anticipated return of James Cagney to the screen after being off for 19 years. Her circus act led to White's death, Thaw's commitment to an insane asylum and a vaudeville career for her. Thaw and her upscale lover, society architect Stanford White. She's basically a goldigger who juggled two men, her husband Harry K. McGovern's performance is probably closer to the real Evelyn than Joan Collins was in that earlier film. Elizabeth McGovern is the famous Evelyn Nisbet, the girl on the red velvet swing which was the title of another film that dealt with the Stanford White murder. He died way too young from AIDS contracted from a lot of intravenous drug use.

#Ragtime movie nude series#

This was a great start to a short, but brilliant career that included his long running role as Virgil Tibbs in the TV series In the Heat of the Night and the film A Soldier's Story. But a whole lot of things, some of them peripherally connected to the true events and people previously mentioned that lead him and a gang to take possession of the Morgan Library and threaten to blow it up. She has his baby and they'd like to get married. The main story is about Coalhouse Walker, Jr.

Doctorow's book is made into a fine film which got a whole bunch of Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Director for Milos Forman and Supporting player nominations for Howard Rollins, Jr. And Rhinelander Waldo was not NYPD Police Commissioner until 1910 and he was much younger than James Cagney. Simpson were given that dubious distinction. The Stanford White murder took place in 1906 and was then called the crime of the century. He succeeded to the presidency when Willima McKinley was assassinated. Fairbanks was running for Vice President because Roosevelt had no Vice President in his first term. He wasn't even Vice President then, just a Senator from Indiana. It's quite a blend because Roosevelt and Fairbanks ran for re-election in 1904 as Fairbanks is shown delivering a campaign speech. Washington is here too, as are the principals of the Stanford White murder, and New York City Police Commissioner Rhinelander Waldo. Teddy figures into this briefly as does his Vice President Charles Fairbanks. Doctorow's novel about the Teddy Roosevelt years of the first decade of the last century. Ragtime revives some of that dubious tradition in filming E.L. Back in the day when Hollywood was grinding out B westerns it wasn't unusual at all to see famous folks of the west in stories that had absolutely nothing to do with their own lives or to see many famous people interacting when they never even met in real life.