William Cayton Movies
- 1971
Brock Peters narrates and Miles Davis provides the musical score of the feature-length documentary Jack Johnson. Using stills, rare film clips and the occasional interview, director William Cayton fashions a commanding, poignant portrait of the black boxing champion who held the heavyweight title from 1908 and 1915. Also examined are the efforts by the racist press of the period to promote a "white hope" who would topple the "uppity" Johnson from his throne. Though Johnson's white tormentors are depicted as the knuckle-draggers that they were, the film is careful to point out that Johnson was often his own worst enemy. Jack Johnson would make an excellent companion piece with the 1970 film a clef based on Johnson's career, The Great White Hope. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1970
- Add Muhammad Ali a.k.a. Cassius Clay to QueueAdd Muhammad Ali a.k.a. Cassius Clay to top of Queue
This documentary combines black-and-white with color photography to tell the story of heavyweight boxing champion Mohammed Ali, formerly known as Cassius Clay before his religious conversion to the Black Muslims. Richard Kiley narrates, and personal accounts from Joe Louis and Ali himself firmly puts Ali in an elite group of boxers that is second only to Louis in the sport's popularity and stature. Fights from director Jim Jacobs film library show Ali against Henry Cooper, Floyd Patterson, Jerry Quarry and the controversial knockdown of Sonny Liston. Ali proclaims himself to be both the greatest and the prettiest fighter ever to enter a boxing ring. Legendary trainer Cus D'Amato is on hand to keep his prizefighter focused and takes his boxer's self-promoting flamboyance in perspective. The late Malcolm X gives his opinion about Ali, and the champ meets one of his childhood heroes from Hollywood, comedian Stepin Fetchit, whom Ali credits with providing him with a knockout punch lifted from the actor's screen antics. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- 1968
Musician/songwriter Harry Chapin was the creative hand behind the sublimely assembled documentary The Legendary Champions. Digging way back to the dawn of movies, the film, which covers the years 1882 to 1929, offers the lucky viewer precious clips of American's greatest heavyweight boxers. Important figures like John L. Sullivan and Jim Corbett are represented via carefully chosen stills. The best moments -- the Dempsey-Tunney "long count" of 1927 among them -- may be familiar to some viewers, but it's always fun to see them again. The Legendary Champions is narrated by familiar TV-commercial voice-over artist Norman Rose. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1966
In this children's fantasy, four young boys visit the dinosaur exhibit at the New York city Museum of Natural History. They then row out onto Central Park Lake where they find a secret cave and paddle into a wondrous prehistoric world filled with the very dinosaurs they had just seen. As they float further into the cave, they find themselves in the Ice Age where they fall asleep. When they wake up, they find they are still in the museum and the whole glorious adventure was naught but a dream. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
