Gerd Oswald’s excellent Fury At Showdown (1957), a little masterpiece waiting to be discovered by a larger audience, is scheduled to appear on Encore Westerns on Tuesday, June 19, at 9AM (Eastern/Pacific). Don’t miss it.
It stars John Derek, Nick Adams, Carolyn Craig and John Smith. A key 50s Western and a miracle of low-budget film-making — Oswald somehow pulled this picture off in a week (some of it at Iverson Ranch)!
Gerd Oswald (from a terrific Filmfax interview): “That was one of my six or seven day epics… The line producer, John Brett, said, ‘You are only allowed so much money for this picture and tomorrow we’ve got a big lynch scene. We’re supposed to have 50 extras, and I can only give you 12. That’s all — we just don’t have any more money.’ So by necessity I was forced to do certain set-ups that I normally wouldn’t have done. I filled half the screen with the profile of one man, then filled the background. I created a mob scene with just 12 people. The film got tremendous reviews in New York; they praised the inventiveness of the shots — truth was I was forced into it.”
Why hasn’t MGM made this part of their MOD effort (widescreen, please)? In the meantime, if someone out there captures this on DVD-R, please let me know!
Toby, FURY AT SHOWDOWN is one of the few Westerns missing
from MGMs MOD series.I am sure they will get around to it at some
point.I want to see this one real bad!
My copies of the latest German Koch DVDs arrived over the weekend.
MAN FROM BITTER RIDGE is a lovely widescreen transfer.
To be honest the film is the least of Jack Arnolds Universal Westerns.
Fans who like action crammed shoot em ups will love this one.
At least the cast is stellar!
UNTAMED FRONTIER is another matter altogether. A dark tale with
a strong Film Noir influence.As always from Koch the transfer is excellent.
Yet another top-notch production from producer Leonard Goldstein.
Hugo Fregonese was a favourite of Goldstein he used him on quite
a few of his films.The film is very similar to THE HALLIDAY BRAND
a film that I want to love far more than I do. Both films feature a ruthless
patriarch;and his relationship with his son. The Lewis film is marred by
having Ward Bond play Joseph Cottens father! (Bond was two years
older than Cotten) The two directors had similar techniques especially
in the striking way they positioned their actors within the frame.
UNTAMED FRONTIER is the far better film though comparing the
two films is interesting.This has been a good year for Fregonese fans,
earlier we had the beautiful restoration of APACHE DRUMS from
Sidonis. (Koch are rumored to be releasing this one WITHOUT forced
subtitles)We also have THE RAID to look forward to from the new
Fox MOD series. All we need now is for Universal to deliver with
SADDLE TRAMP;though I am not holding my breath.
Dear Blake Lucas,please do not get on my case regarding THE
HALLIDAY BRAND I am a huge Joseph H Lewis fan;its just that I
cannot admire this film as much as I want to;its not without some merits
though; and I am sure with better casting COULD have been a masterwork!
I’ll make a point to record it tomorrow.
I recorded this movie sometime last year, I think it was shown on THIS TV, I’d have to check. Maybe it was TCM.
I haven’t seen this, but THE BRASS LEGEND is one of my discoveries of the year. A perfect B western — unpredictable, authentic-seeming, tough, understated. I’m curious now about the writer, Don Martin, and whether any of his other B movies are as good.
Of the pictures that Don Martin wrote that I’m familiar with, Stranger On Horseback (1955) and The Lone Gun (1954) are both really good. Arrow In The Dust (1954) is pretty good, too. The Storm Rider (1957) is a Regalscope picture I’m dying to see.
Hot Cars (1956) is another one that’s been on my want list for some time.
Oh, and I agree — Brass Legend is a good one. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it, unfortunately.
The MGM MOD of BRASS LEGEND is 4:3, but zoomed acceptably to 1.85 on my TV (a 46″); anything larger, and it’d probably start looking bad. Thanks for the Martin tips — I know there’s a legit DVD of STRANGER, but I assume I’m out of luck on the others. I should track down some of his (surprisingly few) TV episodes. Who was this guy?!
I know pretty much zero about Martin. His name’s on my “Find out about…” list in my book notes.
An early credit, Shed No Tears (1948) is from his novel. He gets story credit quite a bit, so I’m guessing movies weren’t his only bag. Mad Magazine’s Don Martin makes searching for further books a bit of a drag.
Your NEXT book should be about all the forgotten postwar noir and western screenwriters!
I’m not a good enough researcher for such a book, but I’d buy the first copy!
(By the way, I have a bitchin idea for my third book — and maybe 17 people will buy it.)
I had not seen this Fury At Showdown before but I recorded it from the This channel a year or so ago. I finally watched it on my Saturday western movie night. I’m currently watching Laramie, so I’m so used to seeing John Smith as a good guy it was odd seeing him in this movie as a tough bad guy. He really did everything he could to p— off John Derek, but old gunslinger Derek resisted. Nick Adams plays Derek’s innocent good guy brother, who is Derek’s only friend when he returns to town. Gage Clarke, who usually plays the banker, Mr. Botkin, on Gunsmoke plays the main heavy in this movie. He blames Derek for his brother’s death and hires J. Smith to goad Derek into a gunfight. It’s unusual to see Gage in a bad guy role too, usually he plays businessmen or store clerks or cowards, I think I’ve even seen him on the Jack Benny Show. So Gage has an unusual role too. I won’t give the rest of the story away, but it was classic Western all the way, a little High Noon, a little town hates good guy type movie, like Gun For A Coward w/F. MacMurray, a little Quiet Man in a sense. My only complaint is that it wasn’t filmed in color, seems a perfect choice for a color movie. Filmed in b/w it really seemed like a TV western with well known stars rather than a movie. But it was still a lot of fun and if you’re not watching a J. McCrea, R. Scott or Duke movie, this one will get you by. 3 stars from me. Leonard Maltin’s movie book I think gave it 1 1/2 stars, as usual the old opposite rule applies with Maltin’s book, the fewer the stars the better the movie.
I’ve been running a screen shot from “Fury at Showdown” as the lead art on my Iverson Movie Ranch blog for some time now. (iversonmovieranch.blogspot.com) The movie makes cool use, albeit limited to a few scenes, of some of the distinctive rocks at the site. In a mildly interesting coincidence, the movie also features a not very widely seen ranch set at Iverson that’s known as the “Fury Set.” The name has nothing to do with this movie — the set was built for the TV show “Fury.”
And, I think it was in this film, Fury at Showdown, in which I noticed an old Pabst Blue Ribbon beer sign on the outside of a saloon…actually it may not have been Pabst but the forerunner of the Pabst Name…The Best Brewing Company…with a B for a large part of the logo. Watch for it. I believe Pabst Beer still has a B in their logo. I like to see things like that in films. In LAST TRAIN FROM GUN HILL the Marshall(Kirk Douglas) is in a scene in his office early in the film in which one sees a picture on the wall of William McKinley and his vice president as probably the other man. Then later on the side of a building outside is similar poster that is probably Teddy Roosevelt and his running mate. This helps put a time era on the setting of the story. Roosevelt became president when McKinley was assassinated. Anyway, you get my drift.