Winchester 73 (1950)

Film: Winchester 73 (1950)

Stars: James Stewart, Shelley Winters, Dan Duryea, Stephen McNally, Rock Hudson

Director: Anthony Mann

Oscar History: No nominations

Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2023 Saturdays with the Stars series, we are looking at the Golden Age western, and the stars who made it one of the most enduring legacies of Classical Hollywood.  This month, our focus is on Jimmy Stewart: click here to learn more about Mr. Stewart (and why I picked him), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

Frequently with legendary actors, we don't think of their careers as having lulls, but with Jimmy Stewart, this was the case by 1950.  Though he starred in what would ultimately be the role he was best-remembered for in 1946 (George Bailey in the Christmas classic It's a Wonderful Life), the film had a mixed result at the box office and actually was considered a flop when it first ran.  The next few years brought about movies that are considered to be classics today (specifically Alfred Hitchcock's Rope and the film noir classic Call Northside 777), but it was clear a new generation of actors was replacing Stewart, who had not really had a hit film that had captured the public imagination since before the war.  That changed in 1950, though, when Stewart's career opened a new door.  Stewart made what would end up being his first of eight films with Anthony Mann, which would largely be critical & commercial successes throughout the 1950's, and would reimagine the war hero and Frank Capra's everyman type as a classic cowboy, giving him a spot as one of the most important western stars of Hollywood's Golden Age. The film that started this collaboration was Winchester 73.

(Spoilers Ahead) Winchester 73 is one of many, many big screen takes on the famed Dodge City myth, and starts with Lin McAdam (Stewart) and Dutch Henry Brown (McNally) in a shooting contest to win a famed Winchester 73, the best gun in the west.  Lin wins, but is stood up by Dutch in his apartment and has the Winchester 73 stolen from him.  Thus ensues a chase, which involves both men meeting up with a variety of figures, including a hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold named Lola (Winters), Waco Johnnie (Duryea), a wild-eyed bandit who kills Lola's boyfriend to be with her, and a group of Native Americans led by Rock Hudson of all people as Young Bull (a case of redface that I didn't know happened until I saw his name buried in the opening credits, one of Hudson's very early films before his eventual breakout in 1954's Magnificent Obsession).  As the film goes, we realize that Lin & Dutch are brothers, and Lin is still angry about Dutch murdering their father years earlier after their dad refused to provide cover for Dutch after a bank robbery.  The film ends with Lin killing Dutch with the titular gun, their feud now ended.

I really liked Winchester 73, I'm going to be honest, and two films into Stewart's partnership with Mann (I watched this month's out of order) I'm thrilled by the movies that they made together.  This film doesn't quite hit the mark of an all-time western classic (the stakes are there, but it doesn't have the harrowing nature that something like Shane or The Searchers would bring to their final showdowns), but it's close.  There's something so magnetic about Stewart in this role.  He's not a natural cowboy.  The "awe shucks" charm that he brought to something like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington isn't absent here, but it adds a mystery to him.  He's kind, but capable of great violence.  Stewart plays with this well, making his Lin a man of honor, but a man who is foremost set on his mission.  It's a great juxtaposition, and likely why the public was drawn to him; he struck a different, more intelligent chord than other western figures like John Wayne & Gary Cooper in the same era.

The rest of the film works really well too.  Sadly we are deprived of a song (side note for those who are not well-versed on westerns of this era-they almost always had a great ballad associated with them sung by someone like Tex Ritter or Frankie Laine), but the cinematography from William Daniels (who won an Oscar for The Naked City) is splendid, crystal clear & deliciously shot in medium close-up.  There's a moment about halfway the movie where Jimmy Stewart sees a just-waking up Shelley Winters, her cleavage as low as you could get it in 1950, and you see the lust before he remembers he's a man of honor all in one take-it's a great moment, and indicative of the kind of knowingness that Mann & Daniels would frequently bring to their work.  Duryea, whom I'm fast-realizing might be the best character actor of the Classical Hollywood era who never got an Oscar nomination, is marvelous as a late addition to the movie as Waco Johnnie, totally unnecessary to the plot, but he plays his villain as lusty & has better chemistry with Winters (who is good but, again, unnecessary, which she complained about when reflected on this movie and said (I'm paraphrasing, but not by much) "all these men were more interested in that gun than a beautiful blonde like me!") than Stewart or any of the other actors.  All-in-all, well worth your time if your first reaction to me saying "Jimmy Stewart" for a theme of westerns was one of surprise.

Come September (1961)

Film: Come September (1961)
Stars: Rock Hudson, Gina Lollobrigida, Sanda Dee, Bobby Darin, Walter Slezak
Director: Robert Mulligan
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2020 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different actress known as an iconic "film sex symbol."  This month, our focus is on Gina Lollobrigida-click here to learn more about Ms. Lollobrigida (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

I'm an expert on the Oscars, but while I know a lot about other awards shows (more than the average person), I sometimes struggle with older categories in those awards shows, even Oscar's rebellious younger brother the Golden Globes.  Gina Lollobrigida definitely won a Golden Globe in 1961, and that's why we're going to end her career here, with a film from 1961.  I initially thought she actually won it for this film, but reports online are conflicting on if she won for a film at all, as it was the "World Film Favorite" trophy or the Henrietta Award, which didn't come for a specific movie, but instead was voted on by the public.  So technically Lollobrigida might have won just because she was popular, but it's worth noting that of the two films she made that year, one of them was critically-lambasted & a huge bomb (Go Naked in the World), while the other (Come September) made the Top 10 highest-grossers of the year & was well-received.  So, while she didn't win for Come September technically, practically it's easy to call this a victory for the film.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is a romantic comedy between two different generations.  The older half is led by Rock Hudson's Robert Talbot, a handsome American businessman who in September of every year comes to Italy and stays at his gargantuan villa, run by Maurice (Slezak).  While there, he meets with Lisa (Lollobrigida), a beautiful Italian woman who otherwise makes sound decisions, but can't help always falling back with Robert, even though he never marries her (and she has a reputable British husband lined up in the film's opening scenes).  We find out later, though, that Maurice has rented out the villa as a hotel while Robert is gone (he comes before September this year), thus Robert's house is filled with a group of young American women, including Sandy (Dee), who quickly falls in love with a musician, Tony (Darin), whom Robert has a generational rivalry with, as Robert quickly adapts a paternal attitude toward Sandy.  As happens in romantic comedies, the four couples have their fair share of misdirections & game-playing before ultimately ending up together, albeit with Maurice, at least, not learning his lesson (he rents out the villa once again in the film's final scene to a group of nuns).

The movie is cute, if really dated.  Romantic comedies of this era you kind of have to suspend belief.  We're no longer in the 1930's, where the wordplay was sparkling and the couple were oftentimes on equal footing.  Here, Robert is a lug, and despite looking like Rock Hudson, doesn't really deserve Lisa, as he only is interested in her once a year for her body.  However, their romance is more intriguing than the younger generation's, as Bobby Darrin is still learning his ropes as an actor, and while Dee's Sandy is better, she's a bit too strawberries-and-cream, especially compared to Lollobrigida's Lisa, who is a more intriguing onscreen protagonist (Lollobrigida is best-in-film as a woman who is just crazy horny for Robert, and that's why she falls for him rather than just "wanting love") than the younger actress.

Like I said, we're going to leave Gina in 1961 for this series, but the actress definitely didn't end her career here.  She worked steadily throughout the 1960's, but Loren's stardom did eclipse her rival's (and certainly Loren's ability to be nominated for Oscars didn't hurt her modern cinematic reputation), and her stardom never really stayed at the same level as it had internationally as it did from Beat the Devil to Come September, with the one exception being 1968's Buono Sera, Mrs. Campbell, for which Lollobrigida was nominated for a Golden Globe (truly nominated for it).  After that, she all but disappeared from acting (though she did have a high-profile guest run on Falcon Crest), but not from public consciousness.  She had a serious career in photojournalism in the 1970's, even landing an interview with Fidel Castro of all people during that time frame, and became famous for her philanthropy, selling most of her legendary jewelry in 2013 to benefit stem cell research.  She also has made headlines for the bizarre relationship she had with Spanish businessman Javier Rigau y Rafols, who at one point claimed they were married (and Lollobrigida said that they weren't).  These sorts of stories still dominate Italian tabloids, making Lollobrigida someone that attract headlines at the age of 93, 70 years after she first started making them.  On Thursday, we'll start a new month, and move completely into the 1960's with a pioneering sex symbol who briefly became a major name in Hollywood.

Ranting On...Republicans Misplaced Love of Ronald Reagan

Nancy and Ronald Reagan

One of the hardest things about being friends with Republicans is not that they support Donald Trump, but that they revere Ronald Reagan.  I was reminded of this fact today when Chris Christie decided to proclaim the opioid crisis to be the "AIDS crisis of our time, but worse," a statement that made me swear at my computer and made me pick this article, which I'd been hoping to save for a last-minute insight toward Orrin Hatch's potential retirement or thoughts on the Mueller announcement (I'm writing it in advance, so I'm assuming who got indicted is now common knowledge), and give it to an analysis of why Ronald Reagan to me is a giant splotch on American history, and why Chris Christie can shut up and take a history lesson.

President Reagan is long-revered because he was a president that looked like a movie star (most likely because he was one), and who ushered in an iconic new day for conservatives.  Long associated with either the moderation of Eisenhower or the corruption of Nixon, the Republicans in 1980 did what would have been nearly impossible even four years earlier-elected a very conservative man to the White House.  Reagan's time in office is remembered fondly by conservatives for his economic policies (which I'll quibble caused a lot of the inequality of today, but that's a different article in itself, so I'll leave that alone for now), as well as for the conservative glamour of the era.  Admittedly, not since Jack and Jackie had a couple so well-adapted to the glitz of the White House, with Nancy throwing elegant soirees that brought Bob Hope and Princess Diana to the White House.  Looking at the pictures, it's hard to believe that this wasn't just the best of times, but for thousands of Americans, many just like me, it was hell.

That's because the 1980's for a gay man is about dying.  I didn't grew up in the 1980's, but I was haunted by its specter as a young closeted youth, as AIDS was the first thing I learned about gay people-that this was what was going to kill me.  Had I been born 15-20 years earlier, I almost certainly would have died from the disease.  I look at gay men in their 50's and 60's and marvel how they survived, perhaps out of luck or chance or not getting caught in the Russian roulette of the early stages of the disease, but I view those who stood up for those suffering at the time as true heroes of that age, people who risked their reputations and their careers to help their fellow Americans who were dying all around them.

President and Mrs. Reagan were not those people.  It took President Reagan five years to acknowledge the AIDS crisis and this was only after a question from a reporter, despite at that point thousands of his young gay citizens dying all around them.  Instead, his White House Press Secretary Larry Speakes would laugh and make homophobic jokes when journalists would ask about the AIDS crisis, dismissing it out-of-hand as something that didn't affect the White House, and implying the journalist might have be gay just for knowing about the disease.  Reagan's first policy speech about AIDS happened in 1987, at which point over 20,000 people had died of the disease.  The Reagans knew of the disease first-hand as their longtime friend Rock Hudson was dying from the disease, and yet they refused to acknowledge it publicly or aid him in getting treatment (he famously reached out to Nancy just to get a refusal over wanting to be involved with the "gay disease").  The first significant legislation to help curb the AIDS crisis wouldn't occur until 1990, during the administration of his predecessor (George HW Bush with the Ryan White Care Act), and really AIDS wouldn't be taken seriously by a presidential administration until the tenure of Bill Clinton, who passed a number of measures to help curb the epidemic and find a cure.  Reagan's "Morning in America" didn't account for gay men-they were viewed as criminals and degenerates by his administration.

The fact that he ignored gay people may be an inconvenient fact for Republicans who don't have a more recent president to look at as a hero, but it's a fact.  Had I been born a bit earlier, I would have likely died from a "cancer" that the Reagan administration did nothing to curb and made jokes about in the Press Office; young gay men's immune systems being torn asunder was nothing more than punchline to them.  I'm all for helping to stop the opioid crisis, but don't do it by further marginalizing a group that Reagan and the Republican Party spent a decade ignoring.  In fact, perhaps Christie doesn't need a history lesson after all-dismissing the AIDS epidemic and treating Reagan like a hero seem to go hand-in-hand.

Nancy Reagan (1921-2016)

Growing up, I frequently was fascinated by Nancy Reagan.  I would read through my books of the presidents and first ladies, and while I would focus on the men who sat in the Oval Office, equally intriguing were the women, and in particular Reagan, who was that rare crossbreed of someone who intersected my two favorite passions: movies and politics.  Yes, for those of you who came late to the party, like her husband, before she was a first lady decked in red Mrs. Reagan was a contract player for MGM, appearing alongside the likes of Glenn Ford, Barbara Stanwyck, and Ray Milland, eventually culminating in her most famous role in Hellcats of the Navy where she starred opposite her husband for the only time (a film I hope to view for the first time later this week and which we'll review on the blog in honor of Mrs. Reagan's passing).

Of course, it was as First Lady of the United States that Reagan made her greatest cultural impact, and with her movie star beauty ushered in an age of glamour after several administrations that had lacked in that department, favoring designers like Oscar de la Renta and Adolfo and redecorating the White House.  This focus on style (which was undeniable, whatever you say about the woman-she was a fashion icon), ran counter to some of the beliefs that she held during her administration which receive stinging retribution to this day from liberals.  Mrs. Reagan's "Just Say No" campaign became a major conversation point in the 1980's, to the point that she even made appearances on Dynasty and Diff'rent Strokes to champion the cause, but the drug policies of the Reagan administration did little to deter the economic and societal ills that were the root cause of the spike in drug use during the 1980's, and her work to create tougher penalties for drug users has largely gone out of vogue in the years since.  Additionally, her antipathy toward those suffering from HIV, even when faced with the death of her close friend Rock Hudson from the disease, is appalling in hindsight, and thousands of gay men in America died and we lost untold years of research by the Reagan administration's silence on the epidemic.  Every time President Reagan is held as a near saint of the conservative movement, I feel personally insulted for all of my fellow gay brothers who died while his government did nothing.

That being said, her influence was not all hollow victories, and while she remained silent on behalf of AIDS victims for too long, she later learned her lessons in terms of medical advocacy.  Her mammogram and later mastectomy caused thousands of women to start getting breast cancer screenings.  Perhaps her greatest contribution to society came very late in her life in terms of stem-cell research.  She pushed hard for President George W. Bush to incorporate research into his platform in hopes of helping Alzheimer's patients, and while he didn't, she gave political cover to other Republicans and moderate Democrats who may have been reluctant to support the then-controversial topic, which was eventually approved by President Obama to Reagan's delight.  Her shadow as a First Lady was long and complicated, and while never perfect, she cut a distinctive imprint on American society and politics, and few others can boast the same.

AFI's 25 Greatest Actors, Part 4

This article is part of a 15-Year Anniversary series commemorating the American Film Institute’s 25 Greatest Stars.  For the Actresses, click the numbers for Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.  For the Actors, click the numbers for Parts 1, 2, and 3.

We've now gone through all of the actors that were on the list of the 25 greatest from the AFI.  A crowning achievement, to say the least.  And yet, don't you feel like a few names were missing?  Like I did with the actresses (click through all of the links above if you're catching up, as there's been a lot of discussion centering around this conversation), I thought it was appropriate to chronicle ten superstars of the era who probably just missed the cut.  These ten men were the closest in my opinion (if you disagree, click on the comments below):

Montgomery Clift (1920-1966)

Oscar Nominations: 4 nominations, though he would never win an Academy Award during his short but celebrated career.
Why He Was Close to the List: Montgomery Clift was one of the first leading men to really be emotional or sensitive onscreen.  Paving the way for the likes of James Dean and Marlon Brando (and people like Ryan Gosling and James Franco today), he was intensely beautiful, but also someone with a secret, an introvert with something to tell.  He probably is still referenced so often today not just because of his tragic life and his closeted homosexuality (the gays are taking over this list, for the record-he's not the only one that I'm name-checking), but because his acting style is far more utilized by today's leading men and women than that of Bogie or John Wayne.  He was a pioneer of the hidden emotion.
Why He Missed: Clift's career never fully recovered after his near-fatal car accident in 1956, when his emotional state (already a bit damaged) and his physical appearance became altered and deteriorated quickly as a result.  Consequently, his filmography is impressive but quite brief, costing him against someone as prolific as Edward G. Robinson or Robert Mitchum.
My Favorite Performance: Looking through, I've actually seen almost all of Clift's films (I didn't realize this, but I have well over 50%, better than any other actor we've profiled, male or female, except for James Dean).  I will go with his sensational work in A Place in the Sun, where he plays a social-climber who wants nothing more than to leave his past where it is, but cannot escape it.
Glaring Miss in His Filmography: As I said, I've seen most everything.  I'll go with Hitchcock's I Confess as I'm curious to see what Hitch does with an actor that he knew was gay off-screen (Hitchcock was pretty good about the gay allegory and worked it well with Anthony Perkins).

Bing Crosby (1903-1977)

Oscar Nominations: Crosby received three nominations in his career, winning for Best Actor for Going My Way.
Why He Was Close to the List: Crosby's stature in the film community is still recognized today, particularly with his work in Holiday Inn and White Christmas (it helps when you star in a holiday classic-take note actors wanting longevity).  Crosby's vocal prowess and singing ability was legendary, and his many films with Bob Hope are still remembered to this day.
Why He Missed: A couple of reasons.  For starters, like Hope, his principle fame didn't seem to just be from the cinema, but instead from a different format (for Hope, it was stand-up and television, for Crosby, it was music).  It appears that most of the actors listed by the AFI are chiefly famous for their on-screen ability (only Judy Garland really made the crossover to another medium with an equal level of success).  There's also the little factor that Crosby's reputation has taken a severe downturn since his death due to his parenting skills and bizarre will (much like Joan Crawford's, an actress who probably could have made it to the Top 8 had it not been for Mommie Dearest).
My Favorite Performance: Unlike Clift, I don't love Crosby in quite the same way (I always found Bing a bit stiff onscreen) and so I'll go with a personal favorite from childhood in White Christmas.
Glaring Miss in His Filmography: In one of those rare situations where I haven't seen a Best Picture winner (I've seen over 80% of them), I've never seen Going My Way, which would need to be at the top of the list.

Errol Flynn (1909-1959)

Oscar Nominations: Flynn never received an Oscar nomination or win in his career, a stunning bit of news considering how long he was a Box Office draw.
Why He Was Close to the List: Flynn lives on today as a swashbuckler par excellence.  His name conjures images of dashing technicolor and elaborate sword battles.  It helps when you're creating an on-screen persona if you have one that no one else has ever had or can imitate, and that was the case with Flynn, who was a cad but one that you rooted for onscreen.
Why He Missed: Flynn doesn't have a particularly large list of easily-recognizable classics in his oeuvre, with the obvious exception being The Adventures of Robin Hood.  His extremely questionable relationship with Beverly Aadland (when she was just fifteen) further damaged his reputation in Hollywood, which was already pretty badly damaged from years of pretty open philandering (he reportedly romanced Marlene Dietrich and Delores del Rio while married).
My Favorite Performance: I'm not going to embarrass myself here.  I've seen a spattering of Flynn films, but none of note, and none that I'm going to claim as a favorite for such a legendary actor.
Glaring Miss in His Filmography: Clearly I've got my work cut out for me (there's a chance you do too if my theories about his filmography are to be believed).  Together we can make a point of hitting The Adventures of Robin Hood, Captain Blood, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, and The Sea Hawk.

Charlton Heston (1923-2008)

Oscar Nominations: Heston received only one Oscar nomination in his career, but he won for it in Ben-Hur.  He also received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1978.
Why He Was Close to the List: Heston was one of the biggest and most recognizable stars of the 1950's, frequently leading his way through biblical epics like El Cid, Ben-Hur, and in particular The Ten Commandments that are still watched heavily today (most of these films you can catch on Turner Classic Movies during Easter).  He also made Planet of the Apes late in the 1960's, adding another classic to his list of motion pictures.  All-in-all, there is no one else in the history of the movies that quite had the stature and heroic gravitas that Heston did onscreen (for those unfamiliar with his onscreen work-and for the love of pete, please change that-Russell Crowe in Gladiator probably comes the closest), and with the shift toward more relatable heroes, we probably won't see another one ever again.
Why He Missed: While with Flynn and Crosby I think part of their miss on the list came from their offscreen behavior, I'm utterly confident that Heston's was a result of that as his filmography is too big to ignore otherwise.  Heston's neoconservative beliefs and in particular his strong advocacy for the National Rifle Association alienated him from a generation of moviegoers and bitterly divided public opinion on him, an opinion that only got worse in the years following the creation of this list (particularly after Michael Moore's documentary Bowling for Columbine was released).
My Favorite Performance: I genuinely loved Ben-Hur and think that it's an epic masterpiece, but Heston was better in Touch of Evil, where he has to match wits with Orson Welles and watches his entire world slowly deteriorate.
Glaring Miss in His Filmography: I've seen the Big Five films from Heston (all name-checked above), so I'll go with The Agony and the Ecstasy, an adaptation of the Irving Stone novel where Heston plays Michelangelo.

Rock Hudson (1925-1985)

Oscar Nominations: Hudson received one Academy Award nomination in 1956 for Giant (he lost to Yul Brynner).
Why He Was Close to the List: Hudson's fame comes from two different places.  First was his acting in the 1950's and 1960's in larger-than-life roles romancing Elizabeth Taylor and most frequently Doris Day (he later enjoyed success on television opposite Susan Saint James in McMillan & Wife).  The second source of his fame surrounded his personal life (he was one of the very first major stars in Hollywood to come out as gay) and his bringing AIDS to light in a major way to the public (Hudson ended up dying from the disease, but his admission that he had AIDS was a hugely influential point in the AIDS awareness movement considering now everyone in America knew someone who had the disease).
Why He Missed: Hudson's fame at this point is almost entirely surrounding his sexuality and his association with AIDS.  His filmography hosts films like Giant and Pillow Talk, but it's not really large enough to compete with someone like John Wayne or Kirk Douglas who enjoyed decades of hits and significant movies.  Also, Hudson suffers a bit from that stereotype that pretty men can't act (don't believe this is a stereotype?  Compare the Best Actor lineup to the Best Actress lineup in any given year and tell me I'm wrong).
My Favorite Performance: I love Hudson as the hunky fake Texan in Pillow Talk, where he manages to be both charming and incredibly sexy while wooing Doris Day.
Glaring Miss in His Filmography: Like Clift, I've seen most of Rock Hudson's most significant films. I'll probably pick Ice Station Zebra (which plays constantly on Turner Classic Movies), one of his last major hits.

Charles Laughton (1899-1962)

Oscar Nominations: Laughton earned three Oscar nominations during his career, winning for The Private Life of Henry VIII.
Why He Was Close to the List: One of the great Shakespearean and theater actors, Laughton commanded major respect on the screen in almost everything he did (for those unfamiliar with his persona, think Philip Seymour Hoffman meets Laurence Olivier, with a bit of homosexuality for flavoring).  He brought a theatrical sense to the screen, and had the good sense to play in large epics during most of his career, meaning that his filmography is spattered with major classics from Mutiny on the Bounty to The Hunchback of Notre Dame to Witness for the Prosecution.
Why He Missed: Laughton never quite had THAT film to claim as his own.  All of those films are bona fide classics, but they aren't classics you instantly think of when discussing the term.  As a result, you end up with someone similar to Myrna Loy for the ladies-when you mention them as a candidate for a greatest stars list, you say "of course!" but they don't spring to mind unprompted.
My Favorite Performance: I'm going to cheat here, as I've missed most of Laughton's most significant acting work and don't want to embarrass myself, so I'll go with his sole directorial effort in The Night of the Hunter.
Glaring Miss in His Filmography: If I cannot find a favorite performance that means another marathon list, so we'll put the four films I listed above along with Spartacus and Captain Kidd and make up for lost time.

Steve McQueen (1930-1980)

Oscar Nominations: McQueen received just one Oscar nomination in his career, for 1966's The Sand Pebbles.
Why He Was Close to the List: What James Dean was to the 1950's, Steve McQueen was to the 1960's.  McQueen was a devilishly handsome daredevil who played by his own rules and frequently romanced some of the leading ladies of his day (including Ali McGraw) and played rebellious, modern roles like that of Frank Bullitt in Bullitt, one of his most noted pictures.  His death at only age fifty added a mystique to McQueen's already enormous aura.
Why He Missed: Two reasons: one, McQueen's partying and racecar-driving caused him to miss out on a huge number of classic films, and as a result his filmography is much slimmer than most of the men listed here.  Secondly McQueen was more of an actor that was famous in the 1960's, considerably later than Hollywood's Golden Age and is more in-line with the likes of Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman, and Paul Newman, though his early death occasionally groups him with the stars of an earlier era.
My Favorite Performance: I have always enjoyed him as the totally crushable Rocky in the (admittedly dated, but still enjoyable) Love with the Proper Stranger.
Glaring Miss in His Filmography: I've never seen McQueen in Bullitt, a genre of film that isn't really my cup of tea, but clearly is one that I should hit sooner rather than later regardless of the film subject.

Anthony Quinn (1915-2001)

Oscar Nominations: Quinn received four Academy Award nods in his career, winning twice for Supporting Actor in Viva Zapata! and Lust for Life.
Why He Was Close to the List: Quinn was one of those actors that everyone deeply admired for his tenacity onscreen and his thespian chops.  Though he starred in very few major films (outside of a supporting role in Lawrence of Arabia), he, like Spencer Tracy, was an actor who carefully selected projects that would enjoy prestige and acclaim from critics, audiences, and awards' bodies.  It also helps that he worked for decades, right up until his death, giving multiple generations a chance to see his work in a theater.
Why He Missed: I touched on it, but Quinn never broke out in a specific role like other actors did.  His most famous part would be Zorba the Greek, but that's not a film a number of people see today.  He's well-respected, but not someone who survives in a memorable way in films since then (he also did a number of supporting parts, which may have cost him considering how headliner-heavy the AFI was in creating this list).
My Favorite Performance: It's been years since I saw it, but I have to imagine that Zorba the Greek will age pretty well if I ever re-visit it in the upcoming years, so I'll go with that for Quinn.
Glaring Miss in His Filmography: I've seen neither of his two Oscar-winning roles (though oddly enough I've seen both of the films he lost the Oscar for).

Mickey Rooney (1920-2014)

Oscar Nominations: Rooney received four competitive Academy Award nominations in his career, but won for none of them.  He did win a Juvenile Oscar in 1939 along with Deanna Durbin and then won an Honorary Oscar in 1983 for life achievement.
Why He Was Close to the List: He was the top box office draw of 1939 and 1940!  Okay, that's a joke that has frequently been thrown out (I don't know why Rooney in particular gets hammered with swipes in that regard).  He was clearly a very popular entertainer (his fellow actors adored him), and his star endured for decades (his career ended up spanning over ninety years), ending only this past year with his death.  He is one of those rare actors who did musicals, dramatic pictures, silent films, child star to aging grandpa-he was one of a kind.
Why He Missed: His onscreen (and offscreen) persona was an acquired taste, and one that not everyone was a fan of, quite frankly.  He was a very good actor, though, and I think if this list had been made a decade later, seeing that Rooney would still be working and would become one of the final links to Hollywood's Golden Era, he probably would have made the cut.
My Favorite Performance: I'm going to cheat here, but not in the way that I did with Laughton.  I'm going to pick Rooney's terrific solo effort on The Twilight Zone in "The Last Night of the Jockey"-if you want proof the man could act, here's a fine place to start.
Glaring Miss in His Filmography: I could go with one of the Oscar-nominated roles, but I'll instead go with some of the Andy Hardy pictures, getting a view of what Rooney truly became famous for (he made fifteen of these pictures in the days before television).

Peter Sellers (1925-1980)

Oscar Nominations: Sellers received two Oscar nominations for acting, for Dr. Strangelove and Being There, losing for both.  He also was nominated for his Live Action Short Film The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film, which he also lost the trophy for.
Why He Was Close to the List: Sellers has long enjoyed an enduring fame, particularly amongst comedians, as one of the pioneers of the art form.  Think of how Steve Martin is revered amongst almost all comics now as being a true pioneer and artist-that's largely what Peter Sellers was in his era.  He also starred in Dr. Strangelove in not one but three roles, a comic triumph any actor would be envious of achieving.
Why He Missed: Sellers, like Steve McQueen, enjoyed his principle fame in later years, particularly the 1960's and 1970's, and as a result may not have felt like an appropriate choice for the "Golden Age Stars" list.  He was also very difficult to work with and very reclusive in his personal life, adding mystique but less public consciousness as a result.
My Favorite Performance: Only a fool wouldn't pick his comedic triumph in Dr. Strangelove, one of the most biting, provocative, and cutting films ever made, and Sellers is a key reason for all of that.
Glaring Miss in His Filmography: I've never seen Sellers in his last great film role, that of Chance Gardner in Being There with Shirley MacLaine (who, contrary to some opinions of Sellers, thoroughly enjoyed working with him).

And there are my hunches as to the ten men who just missed the AFI list-what are your guesses?  Who do you think was the closest (my gut is Heston)?  Who are your favorites?  Who did I forget from the just misses?  Share your thoughts in the comments!