Posted in 1952, Ben Johnson, DVD reviews, releases, TV, etc., Monogram/Allied Artists on April 25, 2013 | 11 Comments »
Paula Vitaris, who runs that great Ben Johnson site (and has been a huge help with my One-Eyed Jacks book), is having a good day. Wild Stallion (1952) is a picture she’s been asking Warner Archive about since the beginning. And they’ve announced it for May release.
I’ve never seen it, but anything with Ben Johnson, Edgar Buchanan, Martha Hyer and Hugh Beaumont in it — from Monogram in Cinecolor — is well worth tracking down. Can’t wait.
Thanks to John Knight for another tip.
Posted in 1952, 1954, 1956, Ben Johnson, Dale Robertson on February 27, 2013 | 13 Comments »
Heard last night that Dale Robertson has passed away. He had a very likable screen presence and by all accounts was a really nice man.
Despite making some excellent 50s Westerns, such as The Gambler From Natchez (1954) and A Day Of Fury (1956), it was on TV that he really made his mark — as Jim Hardie in Tales Of Wells Fargo. As a kid, he really impressed me in the TV movie Melvin Purvis G-Man (1974) — a role Ben Johnson played in John Milius’ Dillinger the year before.
The photo above is from The Silver Whip (1952). It is a crying shame that A Day Of Fury isn’t on DVD.
Thanks to Stephen Bowie for relaying the news.
Posted in 1950, Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr., John Ford, Ward Bond on December 29, 2012 | 20 Comments »
Harry Carey, Jr.
(May 16, 1921 – December 27, 2012)
My fingers don’t want to type this, as if that would make it not so. Harry Carey, Jr. has passed away at 91.
Above, he stands between Ben Johnson and Ward Bond in John Ford’s Wagon Master (1950). It’s one of the best Westerns of the 50s, and Carey’s easygoing performance is one of its considerable charms. So many pictures benefited from his presence: Red River (1948), Three Godfathers (1948), Rio Grande (1950), Silver Lode (1954) and The Searchers (1956), to name just a few.
He was the son of silent cowboy star Harry Carey and a member of John Ford’s stock company (his nickname was Dobe). His autobiography Company Of Heroes is one of the finest books on Western filmmaking you’ll ever read.
As far back as I can remember watching movies, I’ve been aware of Harry Carey, Jr. So forget about this stupid blog. Go watch Wagon Master.
Posted in Ben Johnson, Paramount, Post-1959 on September 27, 2012 | 17 Comments »
This is my contribution to the Paramount Centennial Blogathon, hosted by The Hollywood Revue. Be sure to check other bloggers’ pieces celebrating Paramount’s 100 years of great movies.
One-Eyed Jacks (1961), directed by and starring Marlon Brando, is a film Paramount probably wished they’d never made. It cost more than three times its original budget, took six months to shoot and over a year to edit (Brando turned in a cut over four hours long), and was nowhere near the hit they were hoping for. It was even the subject of jokes — Jerry Lewis: “Spend your vacation at One-Eyed Jacks.” But over the years, its reputation has evolved from trainwreck to cult film to maybe even a classic.
It’s the subject of my book-in-progress A Million Feet Of Film: The Making Of One-Eyed Jacks. For this blogathon, I’m focusing on a single sequence — one that was ultimately left out of the film.
Some say One-Eyed Jacks is a film with too many climaxes. If so, one of those climaxes is certainly the sequence where Dad Longworth (Karl Malden) ties Rio (Marlon Brando) to a hitching post, horsewhips him, then smashes his gun hand with the butt of a shotgun. It’s a brutal scene, with Rio striking a Christ-like pose as the whole town watches his torture.
Brando and his partners in crime withdraw to a Chinese fishing village for him to heal up, rehab his gun hand and plot his revenge. During the wait, tensions mount between Rio and a couple members of his gang, Bob Amory (Ben Johnson) and Harvey Johnson (Sam Gillman). In the script and Brando’s rough cut, there were scenes with Brando and a waitress in the village (Lisa Lu).
Marlon Brando: “I was supposed to get drunk, come in out of the rain and rape a Chinese girl. You can’t fake drunkenness in a movie, so I figured the scene would work better if I really got drunk.”
The scene was scheduled for a Friday afternoon, so Brando would have the weekend to recuperate.
Brando: “I started drinking about 4:15 in the afternoon of the day I was going to shoot the scene, after telling the other actors what I wanted them to do.”
Makeup artist Phil Rhodes: “So Lisa Lu brought in the food as instructed, but by then Marlon was so drunk he couldn’t say his lines.”
Brando: “It has never taken much alcohol to put me over the edge, so in no time at all I was staggering around, grabbing hold of the girl…”
Alice Marchak, Brando’s personal assistant: “The shots they did film were unusable.”
It was decided to try again the next Friday.
Brando: “It still wasn’t right and I had to do it a number of afternoons to get it right.”
Alice Marchak: “Each night filming came to a halt because Marlon was falling-down drunk… Mostly, it was Marlon falling out of bed, staggering around thoroughly enjoying himself, having loads of fun along with members of the crew… What nobody knew was that most nights before I left the studio, Marlon was so sick I had to hold his head to keep him from drowning in the toilet as he knelt and hugged while he threw up into the toilet bowl.”
All those weeks, all that money, all those hangovers — and the scene was cut.
Producer Frank P. Rosenberg: “The only sequence that was dropped in its entirety was an ancillary and transient love story between Brando and a Chinese girl. Everything about this episode was admirable except that it brought the film to a standstill.”
SOURCES: The New York Times; Neon; Me And Marlon by Alice Marchak; Brando: The Biography by Peter Manso.
Posted in 1950, Ben Johnson, John Ford, John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara on June 13, 2012 | 9 Comments »
Happy birthday to Mr. Ben Johnson. The cowboy, actor and all-around swell guy would’ve been 94 today.
Here he is having lunch on the set of John Ford’s Rio Grande (1950). Left to right: Harry Carey, Jr., Ben, Maureen O’Hara and John Wayne. (I’ve been dying to put this picture up here, and this seemed like as good a time as any.)
Posted in 1950, 1954, Ben Johnson, DVD reviews, releases, TV, etc., Ernest Borgnine, John Ford, John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Nicholas Ray, Olive Films, Republic, Sterling Hayden on May 11, 2012 | 12 Comments »
Just what we all need — some good news. Olive Films are doing us 50s Westerns fans a real favor these days, and I may need to have my salary direct-deposited into their account.
In recent weeks, they’ve come through with so many cool things: Run For Cover (1954), Denver And Rio Grande (1952), Pony Express (1953), The Hangman (1959), The Jayhawkers (1958), High Noon (1952) and more.
And now they’ve announced two more essential pictures — John Ford’s Rio Grande (1950) and Nicholas Ray’s Johnny Guitar (1954) — with a release date of August 7. Both will be available in standard DVD and Blu-Ray. No info on bonus features as of yet.
Both are Republic pictures. Rio Grande received a nice DVD release several years ago. Laserdisc is the only round silver thing Johnny Guitar has been on in the States.
Thanks to all of you who brought this to my attention.
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.
Posted in 1950, Ben Johnson, Festivals, screenings, John Ford on December 22, 2011 | 3 Comments »
This just in (thanks, Paula). John Ford’s Wagon Master (1950) will be screened December 28, 29 and 30 as part of the Museum Of Modern Art’s An Auteurist History Of Film exhibition.
They say New York is a very special place around the holidays. Indeed.
Posted in Ben Johnson, Blogging, writing, etc., Books, Post-1959 on November 27, 2011 | 18 Comments »
Marlon Brando’s One-Eyed Jacks (1961) is a picture that really seems to divide classic Western fans. To some, it’s a great film; to others, a self-indulgent disaster.
Whichever side you’re on, masterpiece or mess, you probably know something of its troubled production — at least a year behind schedule, a few million dollars over budget, Stanley Kubrick and Sam Peckinpah hired and fired, and so on. It’s been written about quite a bit over the years, and I’ve covered it before on this blog.
As a side project to 50 Westerns From The 50s, I’m at work on A Million Feet Of Film: The Making Of One-Eyed Jacks. It has a tentative release date of March 30, 2012 — the 51st anniversary of its premiere at the Paramount in New York.
Particulars will come as they’re sorted out. In the meantime, there’s a Tumblr page to share some photos and other material I’ve amassed over the years. (That color image up top is from the original trailer.)
Posted in Ben Johnson, DVD reviews, releases, TV, etc., Post-1959 on September 13, 2011 | 3 Comments »
A great Western is coming to Blu-Ray here in the States. Let’s hope it’s a great transfer.
E1 Entertainment has announced a Blu-Ray disc of One Eyed Jacks (1961), with a November 8 street date. It appeared on ClassicFlix yes
terday and it’s now got a listing on Amazon.
If you troll the forums (which I do every once in a while), you may have seen a lot of stuff about recent French and German releases of this public domain picture. There seems to be some of the usual debate about how good they look. Judging from the cover art, this E1 release has some relation to the German one. I’ve lost count of how many DVDs of this film I’ve tried out — the old letterboxed laserdisc is far and away the best it’s ever looked on video. This new release will give me a chance to start blowing money on a new format. Can’t wait.
The merits (of lack of same) of One Eyed Jacks, Marlon Brando’s only picture as director, are a matter of personal taste. (I love it.) The story of its production could fill books (and should) — I covered it briefly a while back. To make a long story short, it could have easily been a 50s Western.
