The Guns of Navarone (1961): The ultimate men on a mission movie, Quinn joining a group of WWII commandos assigned a suicidal mission on a small island in the Mediterranean. Quinn is a scene-stealer as Andrea Stavros, a Greek officer who's worked with the resistance. The cast also includes Gregory Peck, David Niven, Anthony Quayle, James Darren, Stanley Baker and Irene Pappas. One of the all-time great, entertaining war flicks.
Viva Zapata! (1952): A biography based in the Mexican Revolution with an interesting choice in casting.....Marlon Brandon is Emiliano Zapata? Go figure, but it works, Quinn earning an Oscar nomination in a supporting role as Zapata's brother. A little rushed at times -- covering 20-plus years in 2 hours -- but a beautiful movie from director Elia Kazan with memorable performances from Brandon, Quinn and mysterious Joseph Wiseman.
Guadalcanal Diary (1943): A good example of a 'unit picture,' a story that follows a group of men (squad, platoon, regiment, division) through their war-time efforts. Quinn is one of the group, a Latino ladies man, trying to survive the hellish situations during the battle for Guadalcanal early in WWII. Richard Conte, Richard Jaeckel, scene-stealing William Bendix, Lloyd Nolan, and Preston Foster fill out the ranks.
R.P.M. (1970): I appreciate the 1960s/1970s were a time of social upheaval, but this pretentious, talkative current issues movie is downright dull. Quinn plays a popular professor (alliteration, yeah!) at an unnamed university where the student body is holding a protest gaining national attention. It doesn't know quite what it wants to say, and it's painful at times going along for the ride.
La Strada (1954): A neorealist drama from Italian director Federico Fellini that features a great -- if unlikable -- performance from Quinn. A movie that should be watched more than it entertains, it is dark, realistic, and did I mention dark? A difficult movie.
Tycoon (1947): An RKO movie with John Wayne and Quinn, a little too long in the tooth. Wayne is solid in a somewhat atypical role for him (an over-reliance on a love story doesn't help), Quinn, Paul Fix and several other familiar faces filling out Wayne's team as they try and create a railroad tunnel straight through a South American mountain. A pretty movie to look at, but not anyone's strongest ventures.
Warlock (1959): Pretty typical of so many 1950s westerns. Very good in the moment, not particularly memorable down the road. Great cast -- Quinn, Henry Fonda, Richard Widmark -- leads the way, but as the western genre was changing, the movies were trying to figure out where to go too. A more adult, darker story, but it ends up being a tad melodramatic at times. Still a pretty good western and one worth seeking out.
Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962): One of the great, under-appreciated sports films. Quinn plays Luis 'Mountain' Rivera, an aging, past-his-prime boxer at a career crossroad. Jackie Gleason is his semi-sleazy manager, Mickey Rooney playing his cut-man, an Army vet struggling with his own issues. Not even 90 minutes, this is a short and sweet, to the point sort of movie. Definitely need to give this one a rewatch.
Across 110th Street (1972): An aggressive, dark, gritty cop drama that doesn't shy away from any hard-hitting issues. Quinn and Yaphet Kotto are two NYC detectives investigating a series of mob-related murders, possibly a connection between the Italian mobsters and a group of African American gangsters. A very real movie filmed on location in New York City, well worth a watch.
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