Jimmy Stewart, James Cagney and Orson Welles talking shop at Universal.
Judging from the vest, Stewart’s making Night Passage, Cagney’s in his Lon Chaney clown getup from Man Of A Thousand Faces and Welles sports his Man In The Shadow suit and hat.
All three pictures came out in 1957.
And in four years time by 1961,stewart would be working on liberty valance,his last true starring classic,cagney would retire and orson would be taking the money and run in europe while trying to get his own pictures made.Boy,I would like to know what they said.For a brief time stewart was up for the western writer role played by joseph cotton in the third man.Other than donning beatle wigs and appearing on the dean martin show,stewart and welles sadly never worked together.The original casting for the good guys and the bad guys instead of robert mitchum and george kennedy was suppose to be stewart and cagney.Coming out of retirement for a western would have really put little jimmy in the public eye again.Maybe if andrew v.Mclaughlin had directed it,big jimmy would have done it.Who knows.
Man, I’d love to hear that conversation.
Sorry Toby;to hi-jack your blog (yet again!) but as this is a sort of
Universal International thread I thought I would report on THE GREAT
SIOUX UPRISING that I have just received from Germany.
It is on the excellent Koch imprint and is the first Universal Fifties
Western that we have had from them in some time.
It is packaged in lovely “hardback book” slimline digipak type packaging
and includes the original trailer.
The film seems to have been a “works in progress” for famed Universal
producer Leonard Goldstein who was now doing his own thing with his
very fine Panoramic Productions.(Filmed on the RKO lot but released
by Fox.) The Universal Westerns Mr Goldstein made with George
Sherman were traditional family friendly fare.On this title (TGSU) producer
Albert Cohen and Warners veteran Lloyd Bacon seem to have allowed
a tremendous amount of violence and cruelty to filter through into
the mix.It is just about the most violent Universal Fifties Western that
I can remember seeing!
SPOILER ALERT!
A one armed man is repeatedly stabbed in the back with a scalpel
by a one-eyed man! A prized horse is left, on purpose, in a burning
barn by the bad guys.(the bad guys in this film are really bad!)
Jeff Chandler is not only badly beated by the bad guys but is forced to
run a gauntlet through Indians armed with heavy wooden clubs.
A child is shot in the back in cold blood.Hero Jeff Chandler does remove
Lyle Bettgers dodgy appendix halfway through the film while Bettger
is still awake!Native American Confederate General (Glenn Strange)
ill-treats his Black servant.
In the midst of all this we do get a couple of sermons on racial equality
and medical ethics!
A most odd mixture but Chandler is excellent as usual through the
entire film.The transfer as always from Koch is fine although there
are signs of neg damage on a couple of the interior shots though this
is a minor quibble.Also there are no darned subtitles to contend with.
To return to the thread;a Western with the two Jimmies would have
been wonderful!
Just seen the May release schedule for more fine Universal
Westerns from Sidonis,France.
At this rate they will release the entire Universal Fifties Westerns
catalog.
FRENCHIE (1950)
WINGS OF THE HAWK (1953)
MAN FROM BITTER RIDGE (1955)
SAGA OF HEMP BROWN (1958)
MONEY WOMEN AND GUNS (1959)
Europe is where its at for great Westerns these days;just got the
Spanish DVD of CORONER CREEK a nice looking transfer in glorious
Cinecolor.One of Randolph Scotts all time best!
By the way, has anyone noticed that the Warner Archive are now selling
the MGM Limited Edition series.
John K,
Where did you get the Spanish DVD of CORONER CREEK? I’m not finding it on line at any of the European Amazon sites. The American Amazon site shows some sort of bootleg copy for sale, but I don’t think it’s from Spain.
Is this being marketed under another title? Thanks.
Mike,
I got my copy from Amazon Spain (Amazon es)
The film is listed as CORONEL CREEK I dont know if this is a typo
or a Spanish translation!
It does not seem to be an “official” release as there is no mention of
Columbia or Sony on the packaging.
The quality of the transfer is pretty good IMO.
I love Cinecolor and of course the process was much improved in the
early Fifties and even better when Supercinecolor came along.
As a Cinecolor film from 1948 I found the DVD exceeded my expectations!