A wife beater with a taste for under-age starlets. Still, thought it was worth doing a top ten.
1) Red River (1948) - superb supporting role, flashy and eye catching. It's unsatisfactorily resolved because Ireland annoyed Howard Hawks.
2) All the King's Men (1949) - overshadowed by Broderick Crawford but Ireland has a forceful presence.
3) The Fast and the Furious (1955) - not a great film but historically important as the first production from Roger Corman. Ireland directed as a condition of appearing and does a decent enough job. It feels more like a Corman picture. Ireland was clearly smart and had ambition I think maybe he didn't have the right temperament. That's just a guess.
4) The Good Die Young (1954) - some excellent characters and ideas in search of a better movie but Ireland gives a very good performance as a veteran who takes part in a bank robbery.
5) I Shot Jesse James (1949) - in addition to being there at the beginning of Roger Corman's career, Ireland was in at the start of Sam Fuller's.This is has some excellent, thought provoking moments. Not as good as later Fuller classics but still pretty good.
6) I Saw What You Did (1964) - enormously fun William Castle film, which is known as Joan Crawford movie but actually Ireland has the bigger part as a killer who is prank called.
7) My Darling Clementine (1946) - Ireland's stock in trade was baddies in Westerns. He's superb as one of the villainous Clantons. Not a big part but a showy one in a classic.
8) Raw Deal (1948) - another showy "support baddy" part in an interesting noir. Good film. Ireland suited this world as well as westners.
9) Gunslinger (1956) - Ireland was an ideal male lead to female stars because he had presence and didn't necessary overshadow the woman. He should've done that more. This is an ideal performance where he's up against Beverly Garland. It's Johnny Guitar esque, an early Roger Corman effort.
10) Spartacus (1960) - this is a very good movie but Ireland isn't very good as Crixus. to be fair to him, the role of Spartacus' bestie is taken by Tony Curtis so Ireland doesn't have much to play.
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