On the American Academy of Dramatic Arts tribute to Kirk Douglas in April of 1987, Burt Lancaster stated, “Kirk could be the primary individual to let you know he is a really tough man.” After a pause, the chaser: “And I’d be the second.” Douglas’ outspokenness grew to become an extension of his star persona, the main man who would give a blacklisted author full-name credit score on his manufacturing firm’s historic epic “Spartacus.”

In his autobiography, Douglas makes clear that he and Lancaster did not all the time agree on each topic throughout their cherished post-work chats, however they acquired alongside so nicely that typically, all it took was a realizing look from one to interrupt the opposite. When it got here time to movie a taut scene forward of the large gunfight in “O.Ok. Corral,” the 2 could not hold it collectively lengthy sufficient to get take. Douglas recollects:

“There was a really tense dramatic second within the movie: Burt, alone and with no gun, is going through a saloon stuffed with powerful cowboys. I are available, pull my gun, snatch a gun from one of many cowboys, toss it to Burt, and the 2 of us subdue your entire room. We exit on the porch and Burt says to me, ‘Thanks, Doc.’ I used to be alleged to say, ‘Neglect it.’ Once I got here to ‘Neglect it,’ the ridiculousness of the scene — our nice bravery, our machismo — made us howl. We did the scene time and again. It simply made us snicker more durable. Lastly, we had been laughing so exhausting, they needed to cease taking pictures for the day and ship us residence like unhealthy boys.”

The scene (a truncated clip is on the market on YouTube) is a potent pillar of big-screen virility, a microcosm of the Sturges model of steely-eyed heroism.