Posted in 1959, Andre de Toth, Howard Hawks, John Wayne, Making Movies, Ward Bond, Warner Bros. on May 8, 2013 | 8 Comments »
Eric Hilliard “Ricky” Nelson
(May 8, 1940 – December 31, 1985)
Ricky Nelson only made one Western, but what a Western he made — Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo (1959). His birthday seems like a good excuse to post this rather odd behind-the-scenes photo from my favorite cowboy movie.
Incidentally, Ricky’s older brother Dave also made a great Western in ’59, Andre de Toth’s Day Of The Outlaw.
Posted in 1954, Andre de Toth, Ernest Borgnine, Marie Windsor, Randolph Scott, Warner Bros. on May 7, 2013 | 21 Comments »
Directed by Andre de Toth
Screen Play by Winston Miller
From a story by Winston Miller and Finlay McDermid
Director of Photography: Edwin DuPar, ASC
Music by David Buttolph
Film Editor: Clarence Kolster, ACE
CAST: Randolph Scott (Jim Kipp/James Collins), Dolores Dorn (Julie Spencer), Marie Windsor (Alice Williams), Howard Petrie (Sheriff Brand), Harry Antrim (Dr. R.L. Spencer), Robert Keys (George Williams), Ernest Borgnine (Bill Rachin), Dubb Taylor (Eli Danvers), Tyler MacDuff (Vance Edwards), Archie Twitchell (Harrison), Paul Picerni, Phil Chambers, Mary Lou Holloway.
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Randolph Scott made six films with director Andre de Toth — two for Columbia, four for Warner Bros. The first two, Man In The Saddle (1951) and Carson City (1952) are quite good. But by the time they got to The Bounty Hunter (1954), their sixth collaboration, a noticeable fatigue was beginning to set in.
It’s a shame because the story’s a good one (Winston Miller also wrote Ford’s My Darling Clementine), with Scott a notorious bounty hunter recruited by the Pinkerton Agency to find some murderous train robbers and recover their loot. Scott’s a cold, hard, driven man here — a prototype for his later work with Budd Boetticher. He rides into Twin Forks and starts nosing around, putting the entire town on edge — an idea we’d see again with Audie Murphy in No Name On The Bullet (1959). Red herrings come fast and furious, making it impossible to figure out who the bandits are, which builds tension as it heads toward a satisfying end.
De Toth’s action scenes in The Bounty Hunter are uninspired, surprising since action’s usually his strong suit.
De Toth: “I had the feeling that I was at a dead end. There was less and less left in me to give.”*
There’s less cutting, slower pacing, clumsy staging and a noticeable sloppiness to the action sequences. For instance, the 3-D effect when Randy shoots off the the sheriff’s hat (sending it sailing, lazily, toward the camera) is not only silly, but poorly done. It would never have made the cut in, say, Carson City.
De Toth was one of the best of the stereoscopic directors, if not the best — he also directed House Of Wax and Scott’s The Stranger Wore A Gun (both 1953). He was blind in one eye and therefore unable to see depth. Shot in the summer of 1953, The Bounty Hunter wasn’t released until September 1954. By then, the 3-D craze has peaked and was on its way out, so there were no 3-D engagements. Interestingly, the transfer I saw still contained 3-D’s necessary intermission card. 
As usual, Scott is joined by an able cast. Dolores Dorn has a good part as the good girl, and Marie Windsor is typically wonderful as the bad one.
Marie Windsor: “Randolph Scott was such a gentleman, and as for Ernest Borgnine, I sure like that man—he’s a good actor, too!”**
Borgnine is one of the townspeople under suspicion by Scott (and us), along with Dub Taylor (listed as “Dubb” in the credits) and Howard Petrie. They’re every bit as good here as you’d expect.
While it’s easy to find fault with The Bounty Hunter, it’s impossible for me to be completely objective about it. After all, it’s a 50s Western starring my favorite actor and actress: Randolph Scott and Marie Windsor. The Scott-Boetticher pictures (the Ranown Cycle) showed us just what a Randolph Scott movie could be, and films like The Bounty Hunter — solid, entertaining medium-budget Westerns — suffer by comparison today. There can only be one Seven Men From Now (1956). The intriguing story and Scott’s early attempt at an anti-hero make The Bounty Hunter maybe more interesting than good — but like any chance to spend 75 minutes or so in the company of Scott, Windsor or de Toth, well worth your time.
The Bounty Hunter is unavailable on DVD or Blu-ray in the States. It falls under the jurisdiction of Warner Archive. I contacted them about it through their Facebook page and was told it’s on hold, as they consider a 3-D Blu-ray release.
SOURCES: * De Toth On De Toth by Andre de Toth and Anthony Slide; ** an interview appearing on Western Clippings,
Posted in Andre de Toth, Audie Murphy, Budd Boetticher, Burt Kennedy, Charlton Heston, Delmer Daves, DVD reviews, releases, TV, etc., Fred MacMurray, Gary Cooper, George Montgomery, Glenn Ford, Jeff Chandler, Jeffrey Hunter, Joel McCrea, John Ireland, Johnny Mack Brown, Kirk Douglas, Lee Van Cleef, Lesley Selander, Randolph Scott, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan, Robert Taylor, Rory Calhoun, Tim Holt, William Castle, William Elliott on April 4, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
Posted in 1959, Andre de Toth, Robert Ryan on January 25, 2013 | 5 Comments »
Here in Raleigh, it’s looking like Day Of The Outlaw (1959). No movie that I know conveys cold as well as that one.
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 Andre de Toth, DVD reviews, releases, TV, etc., Joel McCrea, Olive Films, Pre-1950 on September 7, 2012 | 4 Comments »
Olive Films is continuing its string of Westerns on DVD and Blu-ray with Andre de Toth’s Ramrod (1947), which will arrive on November 20.
Based on a Luke Short story, Ramrod is an early example of the kind of psychological Western the 50s would be full of, taking a strange approach to the usual cattle ranchers vs. sheepherders story. Veronica Lake inherits her fiance’s ranch (when he’s run out of town), and hires Joel McCrea to help her run it and deal with pressure from the cattle ranchers. Before long, things get rough.
Veronica Lake was married to Andre de Toth at the time, a union that sounds rather hellish. Of course, she and McCrea had already appeared together in Preston Sturges’ Sullivan’s Travels (1941). Not long after Ramrod, her career would go into decline.
The press release from Olive Films says a 35mm fine grain was used for the transfer. It’ll be nice to see this film looking like it should.
Posted in Andre de Toth, Jeffrey Hunter, Post-1959 on July 31, 2012 | 4 Comments »
Warner Archive has come up with a real curio, something I’ve been wanting to see for some time — Gold For The Caesars (1963), an Italian sword-and-sandal picture starring Jeffrey Hunter (The Searchers) and directed by Andre de Toth (Man In The Saddle).
Hunter also made a spaghetti Western, Find A Place To Die (1968), while de Toth made a handful over films in Italy, including Morgan The Pirate (1961, starring Steve Reeves) and The Mongols (1966).
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 1952, 1959, Andre de Toth, Budd Boetticher, DVD reviews, releases, TV, etc., George "Gabby" Hayes, Pre-1950, Randolph Scott, Ray Enright, Warner Bros. on January 27, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Many of you have already nabbed these pictures for your collections, but I like the box. Warner Archive has corralled their Randolph Scott releases and slid them into a nice-looking slipcover. It contains:
Badman’s Territory (1946) I’ve always liked the chemistry between Randy and George “Gabby” Hayes, and this may be their best picture together (though I’m a big fan of 1950′s Caribou Trail). Lawrence Tierney’s also on hand.
Trail Street (1947) casts Scott as Bat Masterson. Robert Ryan and Gabby Hayes lend support. Ray Enright directs, with an emphasis on action and pacing.
Return Of The Bad Man (1948) adds Robert Ryan as a very nasty Sundance Kid to the Randolph Scott/Gabby Hayes mix.
Carson City (1952) is a good one from Andre De Toth, which has been covered here before. The transfer’s gorgeous, showing that WarnerColor isn’t the end of the world. It was the first picture in WarnerColor, by the way.
Westbound (1959) stirs up a bit of controversy among 50s Westerns fans, since it’s a run-of-the-mill Scott picture that happens to be directed by Budd Boetticher. Scott owed Warners a picture and asked Budd to help him make the most of it. If you can come at it not expecting another Ride Lonesome (1959), you’ll really enjoy it.
Posted in 1950, 1952, 1959, Andre de Toth, Anthony Mann, Clint Walker, DVD reviews, releases, TV, etc., Randolph Scott, Robert Taylor on January 12, 2012 | 3 Comments »
Have at it, folks! Five Warner Archive titles for just $45 with free shipping.
Lots of good stuff to choose from, from Devil’s Doorway (1950) to Yellowstone Kelly (1959) — with Carson City (1952) somewhere in between. Unfortunately, those Tim Holt sets don’t count.
And if you want a non-50s non-Western, I’d recommend On Borrowed Time (1939). What a wonderful little movie it is.
