Alan Ladd popped into the world on 3 September 1913. He died young. He was the victim of the pox of barbiturates. Doctors seemed to have given them out like candy to actors in the 1950s and 1960s.
Ladd starred in four crime dramas with Veronica Lake. For years, people have claimed this is because he was short and she was one of the few female actors who made him look tall. This makes no sense.
For one thing, Ladd wasn’t that short. He was 5’7″. This was the average height of men his age. And there were plenty of actors the same height or shorter: Humphrey Bogart, John Garfield, James Cagney — to name a few.
But more important, there were plenty of petite female actors. Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Joan Fontaine, and Lana Turner were all just a smidge over five feet. (Sources claim Lake was anywhere from 4’11” to 5’2″. Take all quoted heights of all actors with a grain of salt. Actors are notoriously neurotic about their heights and numbers usually come from their publicists.)
Anyway, I don’t especially care about Alan Ladd as an actor. But he was in a lot of good films. And I think he was impressive in Shane because he doesn’t especially look the part. Here’s a hot take: he did it better than Clint Eastwood, who had several tries.
Let’s celebrate Alan Ladd’s birthday by watching probably my favorite of his films, The Blue Dahlia. Here’s an excellent print from Archive:
Other 3 September Anniversaries
Filmmakers
- Mantan Moreland (1902-1973): Character actor known to psychotronic fans as the messanger in Spider Baby.
- Eileen Brennan (1932-2013): Actor known especially for comedic roles like Murder By Death and The Cheap Detective.
- Charlie Sheen (1965-): Actor known for a lot of good stuff but especially the two weakest Major League films.
Films
- Cat-Women of the Moon (1953): Astronauts discover a race of telepathic women on the Moon.
- The Vampire Lovers (1970): A female vampire feeds on the rich.
- Kalifornia (1993): Two journalists tour sites of serial killings not knowing that one of their companions is a serial killer.
- Martyrs (2008): Two women try to get revenge against people who tormented them in their pasts.
- Mechete (2010): A Federale is betrayed by his boss so he is back for revenge.
- Clownado (2019): A spell goes wrong and makes all the circus clowns go on a killing spree.
- Tenet (2020): An agent uses time travel and other nonsense to make the world safe.
Alan Ladd via Wikimedia. It is in the public domain.
