More Chick Flicks — 50s Westerns Style.

Here we go again. Another gang of Westerns with female leads. (Check out the first one here.) Couldn’t resist starting things out with Marie Windsor. Here’s the insert for Dakota Lil (1950) co-starring George Montgomery and directed by Lesley Selander.

Bandit Queen (1950) was a cheap Lippert picture. Aren’t they all? Barbara Britton had been in The Virginian (1946) with Joel McCrea — and both Gunfighters (1947) and Albuquerque (1948) with Randolph Scott.

Republic Pictures gave us Woman They Almost Lynched (1953), directed by Allan Dwan. Audrey Totter was a veteran of some prime 40s film noir — The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), Lady In The Lake (1947) and The Set-Up (1949).

Last, we’ve got The Buckskin Lady (1957) starring Patricia Medina from The Beast Of Hollow Mountain (1956, which we covered yesterday). Carl K. Hittleman produced and directed Gun Battle At Monterey, starring Sterling Hayden, the same year. The Buckskin Lady runs just over an hour, was shot at the Iverson Ranch, and has Hank Worden in it, putting it pretty high up on my Want List. It’s out on DVD from Alpha, but their quality’s all over the place. Anybody know what it looks like?

That, my friends, is a great poster.

Cowboys and vampires aren’t your thing? How about cowboys and dinosaurs?

Reading up on The Command (1954) with Guy Madison, I was reminded of this one.

As a kid, I’d seen stills from The Beast Of Hollow Mountain (1956) in various monster magazines and books — like the one below — and I was dying to see it. Cowboys, dinosaurs, CinemaScope — what’s not to like?

I was an adult by the time it turned up on laserdisc. Of course, as so often happens with this kinda thing, I was disappointed. But there’s a lot to recommend The Beast Of Hollow Mountain. It’s got cowboys and a dinosaur (just one). It was shot in Mexico. It was based on a story by the great Willis O’Brien, and he spent years trying to raise the money to do it himself, unsuccessfully. It’s got Patricia Medina from The Buckskin Lady (1957) in it. And once it finally gets to the dinosaur, it really delivers the goods — even if the special effects ain’t so special.

Curse Of The Undead (1959) is a better example of how to mix the Western and Horror genres. But this one’s fun if you don’t expect too much. You can see for yourself here. (Sorry it’s pan and scan.) You can also seek out The Valley Of Gwangi (1969) — a better-mounted version of O’Brien’s story, with excellent stop motion stuff from Ray Harryhausen. However, it doesn’t offer as much cheesy fun as Beast does.

Lesley Selander

I’m a big fan of Lesley Selander. His films are short, smart, fast — and they always look great. When it comes to action, he’s one of the best — right up there with William Witney (high praise indeed).

From the Buck Jones pictures and the Hopalong Cassidy series to the Red Ryders and Tim Holts, there’s a lot to like. Going through Close Up: The Contract Director the other day, I flipped through Les’ filmography. Amazing. Here’s a handful.

He directed 29 of the Hoppy pictures starring William Boyd. Forty Thieves (1944) was the last.

A number of the Red Ryder films starring the great Wild Bill Elliott.

All those terrific Tim Holt pictures for RKO, which sent the Series Western out on a high note.

Randolph Scott and Dorothy Malone in Tall Man Riding (1955). There aren’t many Western stars of the Fifties that didn’t make a film with Dorothy Malone. Lucky guys.

The Lone Ranger And The Lost City Of Gold (1958) was the second of the Clayton Moore Lone Ranger films.

Along the way, there were War films and other stuff — Selander even shot second unit on Buffalo Bill (1944) — in a career that went from silent to sound and on to TV.

Tonight’s the Night!

I believe this was February of 1948 — something like that. Two premieres, same day, same town. Of course, that town is Albuquerque.

Randolph Scott, Lon Chaney, Gabby Hayes, Russell Hayden and William Demarest make an appearance. Wait a minute, Demarest isn’t even in the picture!

Thanks to a hot tip from Henry Cabot Beck (and snagging a photo from Western Clippings), here are the VIPs in action. Henry also says both theaters are still going strong.

From Iwo Jima to Iraq.

A friend just sent me this, sent to him by a chaplain friend stationed in Iraq. It’s hanging up somewhere over there (and I’ll fill in the details if I get ‘em). Y’all stay safe!

It’s a line from Sands Of Iwo Jima (1949). I’m sure Duke would love to see this.

Gun Fury-ous

Working in Advertising, I see art directors and designers crop, manipulate, combine and do all sorts of stuff to photos every day, as they work to make them fit the project they’re working on — and the idea they’re trying to illustrate. Sometimes the results are truly stunning.

Other times, not so much. Take the DVD release of Raoul Walsh’s Gun Fury (1953), for example. Above is an original still from the film. That’s Donna Reed and Rock Hudson. Now, look at the DVD package below. First, they moved Reed and Hudson closer together, no doubt to work better with the vertical shape of the DVD case. I’m OK with that, even though it makes her appear about three feet tall. They did a decent job coloring it, too. Next, look at Rock’s right hand. Photo, no gun. DVD, gun. They dropped someone else’s hand on the end of Rock’s sleeve. Perhaps they figured you can’t have a movie called Gun Fury and not have a gun in the hero’s hand. Now study the pistol — it’s way too modern. And if you look a little closer — Rock’s still got a pistol in his holster!

Most of these old films had such beautiful posters and ads (Reynold Brown’s work is a favorite of mine), so it really gets me when Columbia or whoever decides to take a still and just throw some Photoshop at it.

Good movie, by the way.

My kinda place.

Here’s a quick photo from Raleigh’s Watkins Grill.

This is my favorite restaurant — for an obvious reason. Another reason is the incredible food.

If you’re in town, stop by. And if you run into John T. Chance, be sure to say hello.

50s Westerns DVD News #6

Warner Archive has announced another promotion, this one called the War & Peace Sale. One of the featured titles, offered at 35% off, is Quantrill’s Raiders (1958). This 68-minute Allied Artists picture, in CinemaScope, stars Steve Cochran as the head of the band of Confederate raiders. It’s directed by Edward Bernds.

Bernds started out as a soundman, then became a director of Columbia short subjects. He directed the later Curly-starring Three Stooges shorts (his first day as a director was trying to get the ailing Curly — he’d had a series of strokes — to hang wallpaper), then made the transition to the Shemps. Leaving Columbia for Allied Artists, he handled a number of Bowery Boys pictures — and stuff like Quantrill’s Raiders and Elvis in Tickle Me (1965).

Back to Warner Archive. There’s still a couple days left for their Wild Western Sale.

The Bushwhackers (1952)

Producer Herman Cohen: “Lawrence Tierney, Wayne Morris (he’d just left Warner Brothers), Dorothy Malone, John Ireland … for a cheap picture, it had a hell of a cast. And we signed a young guy who had never directed before, named Rod Amateau… For The Bushwhackers, we rented the Western Street from Warners, and we also used the Western Street at Columbia a couple days. We shot in and around town, we didn’t go on location any further than the Western Streets.”

From a Tom Weaver interview found at The Astounding B Monster — he forgot to mention Lon Chaney!

more about “YouTube – The Bushwhackers (1952)“, posted with vodpod

Pernell Roberts, 1928 – 2010

Pernell Roberts, Bonanza’s Adam Cartwright, has passed away. Originally from Waycross, Georgia, Roberts came to Hollywood via the Marines and Broadway.

He’d appeared in an episode of Have Gun Will Travel before landing a prime part in Budd Boetticher’s incredible Ride Lonesome (1959), the next-to-last of the Boetticher-Randolph Scott pictures. (See above.) He’s excellent in it.

That same year, he’d start his run as Adam Cartwright. Roberts left the Ponderosa in 1965, over a number of creative differences — the same year he participated in the Montgomery-to-Selma marches. A number of TV appearances came next, followed by Trapper John, M.D.

I really hate filling this blog with news like this.