Van Johnson-Three Days To a Kill-1992

After a childhood spent escaping painful realities by going to the movies, Charles Van Dell Johnson slowly found his way onto the stage and into the movies, all in small, generally uncredited roles. He was, however, friends with one of his stage co-stars, Desi Arnaz, and it was Desi’s wife, Lucille Ball who brought the renamed Van Johnson to the attention of her then home studio, MGM.

Van was cast in a leading role opposite the great Spencer Tracy in a film entitled A GUY NAMED JOE in 1943 but just as it looked like his career was about to take off it nearly all came to an end. A near fatal car crash necessitated the actor having a metal plate inserted in his head and left a noticeable scar. The Lion was ready to recast the role with another actor when Tracy and the film’s female star, Irene Dunne, reportedly threatened to walk from the project unless Johnson was given the chance after his recovery. Such was their star power that the biggest studio in Hollywood gave in…and A GUY NAMED JOE made Van Johnson a huge star!

Johnson’s type of star is often fleeting and thus today, he is often relegated to a second tier but make no mistake. At that initial point, he was literally the idol of millions.

The studio used makeup, lighting and camera angles to conceal his scar but it can still be seen from time to time in many of his film appearances. Although his injury had left him 4-F in real life, Van starred in a quick succession of musicals, romantic comedies and war propaganda pictures, almost always in uniform in the mid-forties. With many of the cinema’s biggest stars away in the war, his popularity grew enormously. He was easygoing and could do comedy or serious drama, equally at home in pictures such as WEEKEND AT THE WALDORF or THIRTY SECONDS OVER TOKYO.

In real life, he was said to be closeted throughout his entire life and went through an arranged marriage that eventually ended in bitter divorce. As his initial p

opularity faded in films, he developed into a reliable character actor and even returned often to his stage roots. In 1954, he gave what may be the performance of his career in the star-studded film version of Herman Wouk’s THE CAINE MUTINY starring Humphrey Bogart. Unlike many of the bigger stars, Van embraced the rise of television and would go on to appear in scores of roles over the next three decades while still turning up every once in a while on the big screen.

Then in 1991, Van Johnson made THREE DAYS TO A KILL.

Make no mistake; THREE DAYS TO A KILL is a Fred Williamson vehicle. The former blaxploitation star created a brand for himself in pictures and continued to exploit that brand in low budget action films for many years after his initial popularity. Here, he writes, directs and stars. THREE DAYS TO A KILL reuni

tes Williamson with Bo Svenson, with whom he had starred in 1978’s INGLORIOUS BASTARDS (not the Tarantino flick). This time, though, their roles are reversed with a rather rough looking Svenson taking on the sidekick role in an almost reversal of the Nick Nolte/Eddie Murphy 48 HOURS roles.

The story deals with Williamson’s undercover agent being hired under the table by the US Navy to rescue a kidnapped ambassador. For reasons never made clear, he requests the release and help of Svenson’s convict character. The kidnapper is Henry Silva and his muscle is Sonny Landham, later an

extremely controversial Kentucky politician, philanthropist and alleged con man.

THREE DAYS TO A KILL would also prove to be the final film of another co-star, TV’s RIFLEMAN, Chuck Conners. Van Johnson appears only in two scenes as the Naval Commander directing the case and both are with Conners. It’s a safe assumption that they were probably both shot at the same time even though one is at the beginning of the picture and the other at the end.

What’s impressive to watch is that Johnson, the old pro, doesn’t seem to look down on the material. His performance may be nothing special but his acting is good, his line readings are in character and he shows what seems to be some genuine emotion. This as opposed to Conners who sadly reads his lines as if he’s doing just exactly that—reading them. Even though he’s given some emotional context—more so than Johnson—you detect nothing but a bland reading from him. By contrast again, Fred Williamson, with whom Conners shares another scene, has never been an actor of great range and yet here seems to tower above the obviously aged cowboy star.

THREE DAYS TO A KILL serves as a footnote to Van Johnson’s long career of easygoing stardom. Plagued by emotional and health issues in later years, Johnson would die at the age of 92 late in 2008, leaving behind an impressive legacy of film, TV and stage performances that any actor would covet.