LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Ray Danton: Directing
built 654 days ago
Beginning with Onionhead Danton worked with both Warner Bros. film and Warner Bros. Television This led to his most famous role The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond where he played the gangster of the title for director Budd Boetticher. Danton played his role with dynamic body language with his smooth persona fitting the character like a glove. Danton reprised the role in Vic Morrow's Portrait of a Mobster. Danton ... kept up his gangster persona with the title role in The George Raft Story, a screen biography of 1930s actor/dancer George Raft.
Source:
A[C]tor Ray Danton is probably best known for playing the title role in “The George Raft Story.” He ... has the distinction of having played mobster “Legs” Diamond in two films. But stardom ultimately eluded Danton in the U.S.
Source:
The vampire plague spread by Hannah goes on at the end, at least in the US export version recut by Wolf Schmidt and Ray Danton. Lou Shaw is credited as the scriptwriter in this version. He wrote a few new scenes involving US actors emoting stateside that were cut into the action. Schmidt and director-of-credit Danton must have removed a lot of footage from the Salvador's version, which is reported to have clocked in at 99 minutes (the re-edit runs 83). It's unclear just what was cut, but Juan Gelpi's brooding, rust colored scheme provides a kind of visual integrity which survives the tampering.
Source:
Throughout The Ballad of Billie Blue, Danton has the opportunity to sing many awful and hilarious country tunes. Towards the end of the picture when he is finally released from prison, he can hear gospel music in the air. Following the gospel music, he is lead to the doors of a church. The camera zooms in on a giant cross, the frame freezes, and on the screen, instead of the words The End, instead appears the phrase: The Beginning.
Source:
Danton formed a production company in Europe producing films like The Last Mercenary and began directing with Deathmaster (1972). Danton contnued directing as well as acting and started producing films such as Triangle in 1971.
Source:
Danton's performance was restrained, ably showing that his clamor for normalcy was a driving force for both his progresss and ultimately his downfall. But Danton' fine performance does not a picture make. The film's too many clichéd moments, uninteresting melodrama and heavy-handed enlightened view are just too much to overcome by the actor.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Directing