A few announcements from the Nick Ray front.
The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin has announced that it will be the home of Nicholas Ray’s archives. You can read about it here. Be sure to look at the photos (including this one of Nick and Jane Russell). And be sure to check out Ray’s address book.
Next, Cinema Viewfinder is organizing a Nicholas Ray blogathon in September. I’m using this event as a reason to get my notes together on The True Story Of Jesse James (1957). Ray split for Europe (where he’d make Bitter Victory) before Jesse‘s editing was completed, leaving 20th Century Fox to mangle the picture’s complex flashback structure. Ray claimed he never saw the picture as it was released.
The True Story Of Jesse James is often dismissed, but there’s something about it that I find absolutely fascinating. Maybe it’s the incredible use of CinemaScope. Maybe it’s how good Jeffrey Hunter is in it. Or maybe I like it so much simply because everyone else doesn’t.
Thanks, for the plug, Toby. I look forward to reading more on this underrated Western. (I’m a big fan of Jeff Hunter, too.)