Many of the obituaries (picked up from the LA Times, I believe) of Patricia Neal — who passed away August 8 at 84 — noted that she was placed on suspension by Warner Brothers for refusing to appear in a “western with Randolph Scott.”
That “western with Randolph Scott” was Sugarfoot (1951). I’m not sure what Neal’s complaint was about being in a Scott picture, but her part went to Adele Jergens.
I didn’t know that about Patricia Neal, I wonder if it was Scott, or just being in a western that bothered her.
Sugarfoot was on UK TV a few weeks ago, it was the first time I’d ever seen it. It’s a good one. Interesting to hear the movie title theme is the same as was later used for the Warner Sugarfoot TV series.
Well, I’ve always said Randolph Scott’s biggest problem is that he was no Gary Cooper, and if anybody was ever in a position to agree with that first-hand, it was Pat Neal!
In the first four years of the Fifties Scott was one of the top
box office draws in Hollywood. The problem was during these years the quality of his films suffered as he churned out mainly what his fans expected.There were signs that
Scott and Harry Joe Brown wanted to make a different type
of Western as early as 1948;check out John Sturges
excellent “The Walking Hills” which is light years away from
traditional Scott fare.Plus a great role for Folk/Blues singer
Josh White.The female roles roles in Scotts early Fifties fare
are more or less “nothing”roles which is probably why Neal
declined to take part in “Sugarfoot” The one exception to
this was Andre de Toths superb “Man In The Saddle” with
its noirish themes of sex,power and greed.Strong female
characters too but a rarity for Scott films of the era.
As for Gary Cooper in “Seven Men From Now” The Tall T” and “Commanche Station” Scott is better than Cooper!
By a twist of irony Cooper was originally to be cast in
“Ride The High Country” no doubt in the Joel McCrea role.
You’re right, Man In The Saddle is excellent. Gets better each time I see it.
Very overlooked little picture.
I really love Richard Robers swaggering gunslinger in
that movie;what a pity that he died(in an auto wreck)
before his career really took off. He is also excellent in
another overlooked gem the film noir “Larceny” and the
ahead of its time social drama “The Well”
It’s amazing to me that Robers’ last credit came five years after his death — since it took Howard Hughes and RKO so long to release Jet Pilot.
To return this thread to Patricia Neal;according to IMDB
she did not find working with John Wayne (on Operation
Pacific) a good experience.
According to IMDB Wayne bullied the director (George
WaGGner) and gave the gay publicity guy a really hard time
too!Furthermore he was in a foul mood throughout the
entire shoot.
I really wish someone had interviewed WaGGner. I can’t come up with much.
From The Wolf Man to Batman to writing stuff like Man From God’s Country — and then that weird capital-G thing, he musta been a fascinating guy.
I strayed from Patricia Neal again, didn’t I?
WaGGner also directed one of Randolph Scotts best
Westerns of the Forties “Gunfighters”
On the other hand he also directed George Montgomerys
worst Western “Pawnee” (a.k.a. Pale Arrow)
Worth seeing only for the blatant and technically inept
insertion of stock footage.Pity because Montgomery is
always good and the supporting cast is decent too!
It’s hard for me to badmouth any 50s Western, even the really cheap ones, but Pawnee is lousy.
For what it is worth P. Neal was in the western, RATON PASS, made in 1951 with Dennis Morgan. It was somewhat of a soap-opera/drama in western garb (but classified as a western, generally) as it had to do with Neal and Morgan being married and then fighting over the ranch empire they owned. Do not know what this has to do with the latter film she refused to star in but it might be pertinent. We will likely never know.