Happy Birthday, Glenn Ford.

Glenn Ford
(May 1, 1916 – August 30, 2006)

Glenn Ford (Gwyllyn Samuel Newton Ford) would be 97 today. Here’s a frame from the Criterion Blu-ray of 3:10 To Yuma (1957) to mark the occasion.

Much like Jimmy Stewart, Randolph Scott or John Wayne, Ford made Westerns throughout his career, but the ones from the 50s — such as The Fastest Gun Alive (1956), Jubal (1956) and of course 3:10 To Yuma — were really something special. There was something about him that really fit the darker themes of the decade’s Westerns.

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50s Westerns DVD News #119: Warner Archive Wild West Hero Sale.

You’ve got till 4/6 at 11:59PM PST to head ‘em off at the pass. Mount up!

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Screening: The Man From The Alamo (1953).

To mark the anniversary of the siege of the Alamo, The Egyptian is running Budd Boetticher’s The Man From The Alamo (1953), starring Glenn Ford and Julie Adams.

It’s good. It’s in 35mm. And Miss Adams will be in attendance.

Saturday, February 23, 7:30PM
The Egyptian Theatre
6712 Hollywood Boulevard 
Hollywood, CA 90028

 

 

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50s Westerns Blu-ray News #115: 3:10 To Yuma (1957) and Jubal (1956).

Delmer Daves’ great 3:10 To Yuma (1957) arrives on Blu-ray from Criterion on May 14. A key 50s Western, one of Glenn Ford’s greatest performances (though some don’t like him being a bad guy), yet another masterful turn from Van Heflin, one of the best-looking black and white movies ever (thanks to Charles Lawton Jr.) and just an all-around swell thing.

Ford and Daves had already worked together on Jubal in 1956, which added Technicolor, CinemaScope and Ernest Borgnine to the mix. Criterion’s serving that one up, too.

Thanks to Mr. Richard Vincent for making my day with this news.

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50s Westerns DVD News #110: Warner Archive’s 5 for $45 Thank-You Sale.

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!

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The 3:10 To Yuma (1957) Pulls Into The Library Of Congress.

Blake Lucas pointed this out, and it’s certainly worth highlighting here — 3:10 To Yuma (1957) has been added to the National Film Registry by the Library Of Congress.

It’s the seventh 50s Western to make the Registry, the others being High Noon (1952), Shane (1953), The Naked Spur (1953), Johnny Guitar (1954), The Searchers (1956) and The Tall T (1957). While you can maybe argue the titles (I would’ve gone with Winchester ’73), you certainly can’t complain about the directors they’ve chosen to honor.

So when’s Rio Bravo (1959) gonna get in there?

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Screening: 3:10 To Yuma (1957) In Durham, NC.

The Carolina Theatre in Durham, NC will run Delmer Daves’ 3:10 To Yuma (1957) on June 7, 2013. Is seven months enough advance notice?

If you’re the type that passes through this blog, I don’t have to tell you this is one of the crown jewels of 50s Westerns. Glenn Ford and Van Heflin were never better — and you’ll never look at Ford quite the same way again.

Also running that night is Clint Eastwood’s High Plains Drifter (1973), a film that seems to be getting a bit of a reappraisal of late. It deserves it. Though I’ve seen both of these films many, many times, this will be my first time in a theater. What a treat.

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Ernest Borgnine (1917 – 2012).

This one really hurts. Ernest Borgnine, the incredible character actor/actor/force of nature, passed away today at 95.

From early roles in 50s Westerns such as The Stranger Wore A Gun (1953), Vera Cruz (1954) and Johnny Guitar (1954) to later things like Marty (1955), The Dirty Dozen (1967), The Wild Bunch (1969) and The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Borgnine was always good (even if the rest of the film wasn’t).

Putting that list together, I realized how many great things I missed — From Here To Eternity (1953), Bad Day At Black Rock (1955), Emperor Of The North (1974) and, of course, Jubal (1958, with Glenn Ford, above). My daughter loves him in McHale’s Navy and as Mermaid Man on Spongebob Squarepants. What a body of work.

He won an Oscar for Marty, but I’d hold up Dutch in The Wild Bunch as the finest of his fine performances. In a film filled with terrific acting, he really stands out.

Lucky for us, he covers many of these pictures in his autobiography Ernie, which I liked a lot. I really recommend it, especially since I’m not doing him any justice here tonight. One more photo: with Randolph Scott in The Bounty Hunter (1954).

 

 

 

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Elmore Leonard On 3:10 To Yuma (1957).

3:10 To Yuma (1957) came up today. (My wife flipped past it on TV this morning.) So I dug up something I’d squirreled away — an interview with writer Elmore Leonard.

Elmore Leonard: “Originally, I heard that Glenn Ford had turned down the role. He thought he was going to be the good guy, which Van Heflin played, the guy who is taking him to prison. But when he found out he was the bad guy, he wanted to do it. I thought, ‘God, he’s gonna be great.’ In the ‘40s and ‘50s, he was kind of a role model, someone you could enjoy or perhaps even imitate to some extent. I remember when we were in high school, we used to button our sport coats and single-breasted suits with the top two buttons because Glenn Ford buttoned his that way in Gilda.”

Ford’s performance in this one is one of the best in 50s Westerns, as good as Stewart in The Man From Laramie (1955) or Wayne in The Searchers (1956). And on the creepy scale, he’s right up there with Mitchum in Cape Fear (1962).

UPDATE: How dare I mention this film and not bring up Van Heflin? To me, this and Shane (1953) would make a nice double bill, with Heflin as shades of more or less the same character.

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3:10 To Yuma At The Film Forum

Showing all next week at New York’s Film Forum is Delmer Daves’ 3:10 To Yuma (1957). Above, Daves and Glenn Ford discuss just how creepy Glenn Ford will be in the next scene. Ford, playing against type, gets all the attention, but Van Heflin is just as good as the rancher in way over his head.

Below, the US one sheet. This picture had one of the best advertising campaigns of any 50s Western. “Time for another great one…” indeed.

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