Sad news to the movie world yesterday as the king of the epic movie Charlton Heston died at the age of 84. I remember watching "The Ten Commandments" for the first time as a kid, and actually being scared at the sight of Heston in his long grey beard and deep commanding voice as Moses where he smashes the ancient stone tablets down on Edward G. Robinson and the rest of the idol worshipers. Although he is best known for his biblical roles such as Moses and his Oscar winning "Ben Hur", and of course his immortal "Damn dirty Ape" line from that little known Sci-Fi movie, my favorite Heston film is Orson Welles' classic noir "Touch of Evil" where he doesn't quite pull off the role of a Mexican, but he's probably the only straight arrow with a clear conscience in the whole film. But still thanks to Heston, I will probably never worship any false idols ever in my life.
Also since I was so busy I failed to mention the passing of another movie icon Richard Widmark who died last week. I first saw Widmark as the prosecuting attorney in the all star film "Judgement at Nuremberg", but he made a lasting impression in film noir for me particularly in his Oscar nominated turn as Tommy Udo in "Kiss of Death". His sadistic laugh and crazy actions such as pushing a lady in a wheelchair down a flight of stairs is what makes that film so memorable today.
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