Tuesday, February 28, 2023

Poseidon Quickies: "Kid"-ing Around

Lord knows that over the past several years now I have watched countless things on TV, always attempting to dig up something different or interesting or otherwise captivating. Often, I come up short and move on. Other times, I discover something totally unexpected, such as with the 1955 British film A Kid for Two Farthings, directed by Carol Reed. It's a gentle tale of city life as seen through the eyes of a sweet-hearted young boy (who believes that his one-horned baby goat - the kid of the title - is a unicorn that can bring people luck!) And while I can recommend it as a bit of warm and charming entertainment on that score alone, there was an unexpected benefit that came from viewing it. 

The boy (Jonathan Ashmore) lives with his mother above a tailor's shop where she works. Also on hand is a stitcher played by Joe Robinson who spends much of his free time bodybuilding and dreams of becoming a professional wrestler.


Robinson (a real-life wrestler-turned-actor) is idolized by the young boy.

He doesn't exactly escape the notice of nearby shopgirls either!

He's about to catch a break in the wrestling ring and a photographer shows up (with a tacky backdrop) to capture some promotional pictures.

And there's more to come as he's shucked down to some leopard-print briefs over at the training ring.





Robinson has also caught the eye of voluptuous Diana Dors, who dreams of living as his wife in a newly-furnished home and who doesn't want to see him beaten up.

While this post concerns Robinson and his physique, it must be said that Dors is also always worth watching and is another benefit that comes from watching the film. This was one of her early roles that revealed she could be more than a frothy Marilyn Monroe type.

She and Robinson make an appealing couple to root for.

The day of the big wrestling match arrives and so we're treated to even more 1950s beefcake.


It's not exactly and easy day on the job!

At one point he's hurled all the way out into the crowd.


The camera gets up close and personal at times.

As do the wrestlers.


I wasn't expecting to see so much burly bicep and so on when I turned on this vintage movie. It certainly helped to perk up the proceedings, charming as they were. Robinson was busy, but only acted for about 15 years or so, ultimately appearing in several foreign adventure flicks (including an unauthorized rendition of Tarzan called Taur, il re della forza bruta, 1963.)

Looks like a lot more desert than jungle in this approach to the part.

His final role came when he fought Sean Connery in an elevator in Diamonds Are Forever (1971.)

Robinson did generate a latter-day headline in 1998 when the 70 year-old was attacked by eight thugs after exiting a bus in Cape Town, South Africa. Though they were armed with knives and bats, he beat the shit out of half of them while the other half fled...! Mr. Robinson passed away in 2017 at age 90 from undisclosed causes, leaving behind four grown children.

The End!

11 comments:

  1. I know this movie! How bizarre. Is this colorized because when I saw it a few years ago it was black and white. Oddly at my job, a British born colleague was retiring and someone referenced this movie in a speech as an inside joke. I guess it was her favorite as a child. I digress!
    He's hot, I like them big and dumb looking. I love Diana Dors and think she was so pretty all on her own, no comparison to anyone else. Same with Jayne Mansfield, both pretty girls with great lips.

    You really do dig up some surprises here!

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  2. Somehow it took me this long to find out about Joe Robinson. I'll be in my bunk.

    Actually, I think I kind of remember the news story about him getting mugged and chasing off the attackers.

    Thanks for all the great posts. You're really turning them out lately and for that I am very grateful!!!

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  3. Another "camera got close up and personal" with Joe Robinson at some point-- he did some physique work for the photographer "Lon" (Alonzo Hannigan), including this frontal nude:

    https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eFykmY1sd44/Wf4RlLYxU3I/AAAAAAAAh-k/9ljo1SP6Il8KukXSVOQo1639W_fQLqBDgCLcBGAs/s1600/Lon%2BJoe%2BRobinson%2B001.jpg

    I haven't been able to find other images from this session, or determine when and under what circumstances Robinson was posing for "Lon," who was a pioneer in that line based in NYC and shot many bodybuilders and athletes.



    Briefly, Robinson had been under consideration for the role of "Red Grant," the brawny henchman first seen getting an oil massage in a skimpy towel in FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, but the role went to Robert Shaw.

    Still, Robinson contributed stunt work to some of the Bond films before getting that final acting appearance in DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER-- which not only involved a memorable fight scene, but also had James Bond briefly taking over Robinson's identity as "Peter Franks."

    When Bond strips down shortly after the fight-- alas, more nudity is implied than actually shown-- as he's about to bed Tiffany Case (Jill St. John), the camera cuts to her reaction as she widens her eyes and says, "Peter-- there's more to you than I expected!"



    Thanks for another great post, Poseidon, and for all you do! Love to all and be safe and well, everyone!

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  4. I know I've seen this film but quite a long time ago. I do remember liking it but not much else, I'll have to try and track it down. I would think I'd have a clear picture of Joe Robinson especially in that leopard get-up!

    I agree Diana Dors is always worth seeing, whether in this early bombshell phase or later when she embraced her gift for characterization. She also, from what I've read about her and interview clips, seemed self aware and realistic about her strengths and shortcomings such as this quote "The figure was fabulous, but my face was never much, little eyes and lips like rubber tires, I did well because I was the first and only British blonde bombshell". That sort of attitude is probably what enabled her to move into character work confidently when the figure began to soften.

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  5. I love the connections you are able to make and continue to be impressed by your powers of super-observation! I would never have connected him to "Peter Franks" in Diamonds are Forever.

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  6. The gladiator physique has never done much for me - but, oh that head of hair!

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  7. Gingerguy, I do believe the movie was always in color, so somehow you must have gotten cheated when you saw it previously! There was a popular book prior to the movie, which may have helped make it more memorable to British folks. It remains pretty obscure over here. Thanks!

    A, I found a rare moment in time in which I could put up more posts than usual. I also went through my laptop at home and sent a raft of pics that had been collecting dust there to my work pc, so that I could dash off some of these Quickies! ;-) Thank you!

    hsc, leave it to you to uncover all the scoop on Robinson! Sometimes I wonder what on earth ever became of so many UN-published photos of famous and semi-famous people in the raw... You know... if a guy did Playgirl or FoxyLady or Venus, we only saw maybe 6 to 10 photos, but you know that there were dozens more that didn't make the cut to publication!! Same with most any photo shoot. No one shows up and takes "a" photo. It's always rolls of film. I thought that "FRWL" was Robert Shaw's finest hour, if not as an actor than as a man. Thank you!

    joel65913, for so, so long I ONLY knew Diana Dors from "Berserk!" which is hardly a bright spot on her resume (though she's entertaining nonetheless!) It's been fun to catch up with her many fascinating roles over the years and an utter delight to watch her in television interviews. She was so funny and clever and charming...!

    Scooter, thank you, my friend! There isn't much that I dig up which is important or earth-shaking, but at least hopefully fun and a welcome distraction from our weary world. Take care.

    Dan, I am really sort of the same, though sometimes I can be taken with muscles if they aren't "roided" and overly-enhanced looking. I guess Steve Reeves comes to mind. He was so beautiful. Thanks!

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  8. Poseidon, I totally concur about nudes "floating around out there somewhere"-- if one exists, there were obviously more at some point, because *no* professional photographer takes just *one* photo. (Okay, other than school photographers shooting yearbook photos!)

    Photographers like "Lon" had to keep the full-frontal shots hidden and limited to a discreet circle of "connoisseur" customers. He (and other "physique photographers" at the time) actually used to ink "posing straps" on those shots to be able to send them through the mail or print them.

    And yet, at a surprisingly early point, these photographers also managed to get shots of the models at full erection, something that took until the early '80s for newsstand magazines to cross into!



    Also, I agree about Diana Dors-- for the longest time, I'd only seen her in her later period where she'd become a character actress along the lines of Shelley Winters, in films like BERSERK, DEEP END (where she has a great scene) and THE AMAZING MR. BLUNDEN.

    But then I found a YouTube link to PASSPORT TO SHAME (aka ROOM 43, 1958), a gritty melodrama about a forced prostitution ring, where Dors was still mind-bogglingly gorgeous and sexy. And what stunned me was that while she looked like the typical Hollywood "blonde bombshell," she didn't have the vocal quality that goes along with it-- she had the voice of a "serious" actress that brought depth into her performance, even at this early stage. Quite an eye-opener!

    (I'm not sure if it's okay to link a YouTube video, but a Google Videos search of the title still pops it up.)

    So I'm going to have to watch A KID FOR TWO FARTHINGS soon-- I'd read good things about it for years, and seeing these beefcake shots of Joe Robinson gives me even more incentive!


    One other thing that has flashed into my head: the premise here is that a boy finds a young goat with one horn and believes it's a "unicorn."

    Believe it or not, about 40 years ago Ringling Brothers actually promoted a "real live unicorn" in one of their circus tours that turned out to be a set of ordinary goats (star "Lancelot" and his backups) that had been subjected to having their horns fused into a single horn in the middle of their heads! (Apparently, this can be done in an early stage before the horn buds fully form and attach to the skull.)

    You can read about it and see photos here:

    https://starcasm.net/do-unicorns-really-exist-the-story-of-lancelot-the-ringling-bros-live-unicorn/

    Oddly enough, while the modern conception of a "unicorn" is a beautiful white horse with flowing mane and tail and a horn, medieval representations showed a much smaller animal, more like a goat with a longer tail.


    Anyway, thanks again for a great post and all you do! Love to all and be safe and well, everyone!

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  9. I always found Diana Dors to suffer from the same thing as Yvonne De Carlo. It was their mouths, was it their teeth or their lips being to puffy for their faces? I cannot place it, was it was glaring at me everytime I see them.

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  10. I love this little gem of a film and, as a longtime Diana Dors fan, it gave her one of her best roles. Highly underrated, classically trained, actress.

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  11. hsc, thanks for the further background info on photographers. I will have to look up both "Deep End" and "Passport to Shame." Very true about her voice and demeanor not being like some of the more breathy, helium-like blondes of the day. Circuses, whether purposeful or not, could really do some cruel shit to animals (and perhaps people, too!) in their day...! LOL

    SkippyDevereaux, to each his own, said the woman who kissed the cow. Ha ha ha!! I can see some of what you refer to, but it's Diana's personality that draws me in. And like I say, she was SO charming on talk shows, too!

    Thanks, BryonByron!

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