Posted in 1955, Anthony Mann, Jimmy Stewart on May 20, 2013 | 2 Comments »
James Maitland Stewart
(May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997)
Happy birthday to one of the greatest actors Hollywood ever came up with. Here his is in a publicity photo from one of his best roles, and one of the 50s finest Westerns, Anthony Mann’s The Man From Laramie (1955).
Posted in 1951, 1952, 1954, 1955, 1956, Andre de Toth, Delmer Daves, DVD reviews, releases, TV, etc., Gary Cooper, Glenn Ford, Guy Madison, Joel McCrea, Randolph Scott, Robert Taylor, William Wellman on January 10, 2013 | 1 Comment »
Did your aunt Suzy put a twenty in your Christmas card? Well, here’s a good place to use it.
Warner Archive is having a Thank You sale through the 14th, with more than 1,000 titles at five DVD-Rs for just $45. And free shipping. The link is here.
There are some really fine films in the Warner Archive Collection, including some terrific 50s Westerns like Westward The Women (1951), Carson City (1952), The Command (1954), Wichita (1955), The Fastest Gun Alive (1956) and The Hanging Tree (1959). Columbia’s Choice Collection and sets like the Tim Holt RKOs are not part of this promotion.
So have at it. And remember, it’s only good through the 14th!
Posted in 1955, Columbia, DVD reviews, releases, TV, etc., Fred F. Sears, James H. Griffith on January 5, 2013 | 9 Comments »
I’ve always felt that Fred F. Sears’ work was sadly overlooked. So what do I do when Apache Ambush (1955) is announced for DVD release? I overlooked it.
Coming out the same day (February 5) as Sears’ Ambush At Tomahawk Gap (1952), which is very good, Apache Ambush stars Bill Williams, along with Richard Jaeckel, Ray Teal, Ray “Crash” Corrigan and Tex Ritter. Its big appeal for me is James Griffith as Abe Lincoln. Can’t wait.
Posted in 1955, Allan Dwan, DVD reviews, releases, TV, etc., Joel McCrea, VCI Entetainment on November 28, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Maybe you missed an Allan Dwan picture last week. Or you just realized you’ve gone all these years without a copy of Stranger On Horseback (1955). Well, now’s the time to right these, and other, wrongs — the fine folks at VCI Entertainment have extended their Annual Holiday Sale. Here’s how they tell it —
Due to the high volume of traffic on our website, we are extending our Annual Holiday Sale through December 5th at 11:59 pm (CST). All DVDs and Blu-rays are 50% off our suggested retail price! Visit www.vcientertainment.com and enter coupon code CYBEREXT on the “Checkout” page to receive your discount. If you have any problems placing your order, please call 800-331-4077 during regular business hours (M-F 8:30 am – 5:30 pm CST) and we will honor the coupon over the phone.
Posted in 1955, Forrest Tucker, Randolph Scott, RKO, The Real West on October 6, 2012 | 3 Comments »
On this date in 1866, the Reno brothers gang robbed the Ohio and Mississippi Railway. This was the first train robbery. The contents of the safe were insured by the Adams Express Company, who hired the Pinkerton Detective Agency to track down the robbers. Life for the Reno boys would never be the same.
The photo is from Rage At Dawn (1955). Randolph Scott is a detective hired by the railroad to track down the Reno brothers (Forrest Tucker, J. Carrol Naish, Myron Healey and Denver Pyle). It’s a solid mid-50s Randolph Scott picture, which means it’s plenty good indeed.
Thanks to Shay for bringing this to my attention.
Posted in 1955, Television on August 22, 2012 | 2 Comments »
These beautiful Hopalong Cassidy cap pistols (the subject line is what the original box called them) were manufactured by the All Metal Products Co. from Wyandotte, Michigan in 1955. By then, of course, Hoppy was out of theaters (the last of the features was released in 1948) and well-established on TV.
Today, it’s hard to believe kids used to go to the movies wearing these things.
Posted in 1955, Ernest Borgnine, Making Movies, Republic, Sterling Hayden on July 12, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Ernest Borgnine’s passing brought to mind The Last Command (1955) — Republic’s version of the Alamo story, made after John Wayne left the studio. (Yates strung Wayne along for a while, then turned the project down as too expensive. Once his contract expired, Wayne never worked for Republic again — and made his own The Alamo in 1960.)
Above, Sterling Hayden and Borgnine on the set.
Ernest Borgnine (from his book Ernie): “Sterling Hayden was a great Jim Bowie… I died with a bayonet stuck in me, in a pool of my own blood. It was a pretty dramatic death — but they cut it out because the picture was too long.”
Next, a model of the mission set.
Cast and crew working on that set.
Richard Carlson outside the mission in costume (as Col. Travis) and sunglasses.
Posted in 1955, Andre de Toth, Books, Hank Worden, Kirk Douglas on June 4, 2012 | 16 Comments »
Kirk Douglas has a new book on the way from Open Road Media — I Am Spartacus: Making A Film, Breaking The Blacklist. I’m really looking forward to this one.
Here’s a brief sample I came across on making The Indian Fighter (1955) —
“The first Bryna production was a Western called Indian Fighter. I would star in it, along with a new film actor named Walter Matthau. Matthau was a trained stage actor, very successful on Broadway. We got on well. Like me, Walter was the son of Russian immigrants. There we were, two Jewish cowboys from New York riding horses together on a wilderness trail in Oregon. This is how good an actor Walter was. His first two pictures were Westerns and he hated horses. He was afraid of them. Every time Walter got up on a horse, he’d start cursing… in Yiddish: ‘G******, mamzer! You worthless piece of drek, you should be in a glue factory.’ But on film, he was as convincing as Tom Mix. Brilliant actor, funny guy.”
If you haven’t seen The Indian Fighter, you should. Any picture with Douglas, Matthau, Lon Chaney and Hank Worden is worth checking out. It’s also interesting to see how Andre de Toth used CinemaScope.
Mr. Douglas, I yanked out all your paragraph breaks. Sorry.
Posted in 1955, 1958, Blogging, writing, etc., George Sherman, Rhonda Fleming, Rory Calhoun, Technical on May 14, 2012 | 6 Comments »
One of our knowledgeable friends out in Bloggywood maintains an amazing Flickr photostream — and it’s high time you were all introduced to it.
His name’s David Raynor from Stoke-On-Trent, Staffordshire, England, UK. He’s been uploading his collection of film stills, posters, handbills, scans and personal photographs — as TheBrinkswayBoy — providing us all with an incredible resource and hours of obsessive fun. David was a projectionist, so he’s not only got a ton of film paper, but he knows how these pictures were exhibited. (For instance, he solved the mystery of how Davy Crockett, King Of The Wild Frontier played theaters: 1.66. He knows because he ran it.)
A couple examples, chosen almost at random. Above, Rory Calhoun in George Sherman’s The Treasure Of Poncho Villa (1955), is a scanned frame from a Technicolor SuperScope print. (Be sure to read his comments for a lesson in anamorphic processes.)
Below is Rhonda Fleming in Bullwhip (1958). In his notes on this one, David even tells you when and where he saw it. By the way, Bullwhip was scored by the great character actor James Griffith.
There’s plenty more where these came from.
Posted in 1955, 1957, 1958, Bel-Air Productions, Ben Johnson, DVD reviews, releases, TV, etc., George Montgomery, Lesley Selander, Post-1959 on April 3, 2012 | 5 Comments »
MGM and 20th Century Fox have announced a few more 50s Westerns for their MGM Limited Edition Collection. George Montgomery and Bel-Air Productions feature prominently in this batch. While it’s terrific to have these pictures available, most of the transfers thus far have been full-frame rather than the 1.85 ratio that was becoming standard (and still is today) — and that make good use of our new widescreen TVs.
Robbers’ Roost (1955, above) stars George Montgomery, Richard Boone, Bruce Bennett, Warren Stevens (who passed away a week or so ago) and Peter Graves. Based on a Zane Grey novel, it was directed by Sidney Salkow. Montgomery’s Westerns from the latter part of the 50s are a mixed bag. This one isn’t one of his best — I’d recommend Masterson Of Kansas (1954) and Black Patch (1957). His hat in this one is really, really cool.
Tomahawk Trail (1957) puts Chuck Conners in a Bel-Air picture directed by Lesley Selander. This was one of Harry Dean Stanton’s first films.
War Drums (1957) stars Lex Barker, Joan Taylor (who also recently passed), Ben Johnson and Stuart Whitman. Reginald LeBorg directed for Bel-Air Productions.
Toughest Gun In Tombstone (1958) is another George Montgomery picture, with support from Beverly Tyler, Don Beddoe, Jim Davis and Hank Worden. It was directed by Earl Bellamy.
Noose For A Gunman (1960) comes from director Edward L. Cahn and stars Jim Davis, Ted De Corsia, Barton MacLane, Lyn Thomas, Harry Carey, Jr. and Kermit Maynard. It runs a brief 69 minutes — my kinda movie.
Thanks to Paula for passing along the announcement.
