Golden Age of Hollywood Book Club discussion

Format: list at least two films. Three, if possible.
Goal: name any supporting actor who appears in both

Example:

~Twelve Angry Men
~The Odd Couple

No cheating!

Ideally lists should be three for more degree-of-difficulty.

This is a test run.

(2)

'The Hook'
'Picnic'
'Hell is for Heroes'

Jack Klugman for the first one.

I have to think about the second one for a bit.

Incorrect!

Jack Klugman was in the TV series 'Odd Couple'. He wasn't in the movie version.

Of course I might be wrong too --its okay to call me out if you think so --I whipped up that question purely off the top of my head.

In any case, I was thinking of another actor altogether.

You are correct. It was Walter Matthau in the movie. I will have to think about that one again.

Is your second one Nick Adams?

Yes on #2. Nick Adams for sure.

I am at a loss on your #1. I have gone through all the jurors that I remember from 12 Angry Men and just can't connect any of them with The Odd Couple which I have only seen once.

Is it John Fiedler? I think he was in Odd Couple too.

Yes! Fiedler for sure. Good job.

Fiedler is part of Oscar's 'regular weekly poker night' which falls apart in Act 1 when Lemmon shows up suicidal.

He's also in a famous episode of Roddenberry's Star Trek.

#3

~Let's Scare Jessica to Death~
(view spoiler)[~The Exorcist~ (hide spoiler)]
~Valdez is Coming~

I was shocked to discover one lone obscure bit-player has a part in all three of these.

Reason: two of them are among my fave flicks of all time, movies I know scene-for-scene by heart. But I still never spotted him.

I may have posted about this discovery around here before.

Yes you can probably use Goo-Goo to figure it out as I did (by accident), but the trick in this thread is to use memory alone.

[If there's a better way to construct a brain-teaser so as to nullify all the search-engines, I'd like to know....]

Maybe I should arrange it like the famous 'missing middle' of Aristotle

Here is film title 'A'
Here is film title 'C'
...what 'film title B' do they have in common (via what actor)?

Or:

film 'A' this actor plays a priest
film 'C' this actor plays a soldier
name film 'B' where he plays a saint

Since I have never seen "A" or "C", i don't stand a chance on this one. I didn't look at the spoiler since it wouldn't have helped.

I'm curious though............when you say bit player, does the actor actually have any lines? I have always thought that bit player is usually just part of a crowd/gang/etc. and never says anything.

I toss that term around too casually. In my lexicon its interchangeable with 'walk-on' or 'cameo'. I need to be more precise because I typically sling all of these around when I simply mean a 'supporting star' or 'cast-member' in the movie.

OK, that explains it.
Thanks but I still don't have a clue to your +3. :>)