13 Comments

  1. Van Heflin was such an underrated presence in Classic Hollywood, and such a cutie too! I first saw and loved him in Presenting Lily Mars. Love this post!

  2. This movie instantly became one of my favorites as soon as I saw it for the first time. Everybody was fantastic in it and you’re absolutely right about Van Heflin.

  3. Tilly Myers

    My mother actually had a fairly long affair with Van Heflin from the early 1950’s to about 1954. She was married to my father, Van was also married. But she loved him deeply and he was at the very least very enamored of my mom. She loved him until her death in 2013 and said he was an amazing lover and “darling.” I don’t know why I am compelled to share this, I’ve never even told my siblings this.

  4. My first exposure to VH’s magnetic presence was ‘Patterns’. The ‘My Son John’. So I began hunting down his movies and my favourite it ‘The Prowler’. He plays a unsettled man so wonderfully, you melt into the movie and the role, forgetting how he was in ‘B F’s Daughter’, or ‘Seven Sweethearts’, to name a few. Every role that he has undertaken, he seems to add his charisma to it, like in ‘Once A Thief’.
    I am dying to see’ South of Algiers’ and ‘Weekend With Father’.
    Barbara Stanwyck and Van Heflin make a lovely duo.
    Glad to have stumbled upon your post. As you’ve said – ‘The road curved, but I didn’t.” The way he says it, and expresses with his hands is so mesmerising.
    I have to say, it is his voice that catches me, every time. Even in the later movies ..
    Sorry for getting carried away. It is just that when you are ‘self quarantined’ and someone like VH enters your screen, you sort of loose your marbles ..

    • So glad to find another VH fan! Never apologize for getting enthusiastic about him! I haven’t seen The Prowler yet, and have been looking forward to it. I also want to see Johnny Eager. His voice is so amazing. In fact, I just saw that he voiced Marlowe for some radio work, and can’t wait to listen to that, since I’m such a Chandler fan. How good was he in 3:10 to Yuma?

      • Excellent! Superb!! No words to describe the changes he goes through as the movie progresses – there is a lot of inner turmoil and it is brilliantly taken.
        Do see The Prowler – I have made a youtube list of his movies, clips and trailers. also radio dramas ..
        Not yet seen Johnny Eager – quite a few are on the site OK [ok.ru].
        Hoping to see today 🙂
        Yes, his voice is mesmerising, isn’t it … Just close your eyes and listen to his voice as images of his expressions float through your mind ..
        I get dreamy when I talk about him!

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