July 8 1968
GOOD MORNING: Angie Dickinson forewarned director Burt Kennedy before the start of “Who Rides With Kane”: “I’m very uncomfortable doing a nude scene or — riding a horse.” Kennedy: “At the same time?” P.S. She won’t ride in “Kane”… Of her recent “Whiskey’s Renegades” semi-nude scene, Angie claims, “The kids love it — it’s honest!”… Miss Dickinson, by the way, was turning heads with her (well-covered) beauty at the Vine St. Derby where Bob Cobb himself helped park her car!… Enough about sex, how about violence from her femme point of view? “I object to a scene in ‘Kane’ where I’m supposed to cringe while I’m being beaten up. No girl is going to cringe — she fights back and that’s what I want to do! Sure I’m against violence — but you still have to depict life, without glamorizing the unpleasant. Evil should be punished. On another tack, for example, pregnancy stories would help me from getting pregnant — say at 15″… Lest we think Angie is not her truly gentle self, she was unable to look at a mauled Marlon Brando in “The Chase,” and recalls Dean Martin’s shocker in “Rio Bravo”: “I killed nine guys this morning — and I never met one of ’em”…2008 Update: I interrupted Angie Dickinson with my phone call to read her the above account of mayhem. She had been peacefully tending to her garden between personally tending to her fan mail — of which she receives tons. She delights in both sidelines when not catching the latest movies — either as an Acad member at the member screenings — or in the theaters — like you and me. She had just seen “Man on Wire,” f’rinstance, at the Landmark. And for “live” entertainment, she joined the Larry Gelbarts at the Kodak to see Eddie Izzard. They had all been members of the poker bunch at the Frank Sinatra beach house — or Wilshire Boulevard condo. The ranks have thinned to Barbara Sinatra, Dolly (Mrs. Dick) Martin, Felicia (Mrs. Jack) Lemmon, Veronique (Mrs. Gregory) Peck. “We’ll never laugh like that again,” Angie admitted… As for nude scenes she recalled, “I had to be nude in a bathtub in ‘Young Billy Young’ with Bob Mitchum, also directed by Burt Kennedy.” Angie reminds of Mitchum, “He was a very sensitive — and very fascinating man.” Her comment about director Burt Kennedy: “He was madly in love with me — 35 years ago — “I finally said no!” she laughed. Who wasn’t in love with Angie?
