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 1952, 1954, 1956, 1959, Barbara Stanwyck, Howard Hawks, John Sturges, Kirk Douglas, Making Movies, Mara Corday, Republic, Rex Allen, Richard Widmark, Robert Mitchum, Ronald Reagan, Roy Rogers on February 25, 2013 | 7 Comments »
Rex Allen and Roy Rogers, somewhere on the Republic lot.
Mara Corday studies the Raw Edge (1956) screenplay.
Donna Reed and Richard Widmark at work on Backlash (1956). That’s John Sturges obscured in the ball cap.
Howard Hawks shows Kirk Douglas how to do a fight scene for The Big Sky (1952).
Ronald Reagan and Barbara Stanwyck discuss the arms situation on the set of Cattle Queen Of Montana (1954).
Satchel Paige and Robert Mitchum shoot the breeze between takes on The Wonderful Country (1959).
Posted in 1959, Festivals, screenings, Howard Hawks, John Wayne, Ward Bond, Warner Bros. on February 8, 2013 | 9 Comments »
My favorite Western, Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo (1959), is coming to The Historic Texas Theater in Dallas — and Angie Dickinson’s coming along with it.
It’s part of TCM’s Road To Hollywood — a series of free screenings leading up to the 2013 TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood.
Rio Bravo (1959)
Hosted by Ben Mankiewicz, with special guest Angie Dickinson
The Historic Texas Theater, Dallas, TX
Tuesday, Feb. 19, at 7:30 (CT), Tickets available Feb. 8.
If my wonderful grandparents from Strawn, TX, Zelma and Flint McCullough, were still with us, it’d be time to pay them a visit!
Posted in 1952, 1953, 1954, 1956, 1957, Anthony Mann, Budd Boetticher, Burt Kennedy, Delmer Daves, Gary Cooper, Glenn Ford, Howard Hawks, Jimmy Stewart, John Ford, John Wayne, Nicholas Ray, Randolph Scott, Sterling Hayden, Van Heflin on December 21, 2012 | 18 Comments »
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?
Posted in 1959, Howard Hawks, John Ford, Locations/Ranches on March 31, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Another great Hollywood landmark is threatened — the Samuel Goldwyn Studio. Dating back to the 20s, it was originally called the Pickford-Fairbanks Studios. Then Goldwyn had it. Warner Bros. bought it in 1980. Now, with a new owner, it’s just The Lot.
I believe some of Howard Hawks’ Red River (1948) and John Ford’s The Horse Soldiers (1959) were shot there, along with countless others.
You can find out more about the whole situation here. If people like Mamie Van Doren (of Star In The Dust), directors Joe Dante (Gremlins) and Monte Hellman (Two Lane Blacktop), and John Doe (of X) are joining the cause, you know it’s worth a click.
Posted in Howard Hawks on November 30, 2011 | 6 Comments »
My wife and I are big fans of Mid-Century architecture, furniture, etc. (Ever seen Gary Cooper’s house?)
Today, Jennifer was reading up on Richard Neutra and this came up. It’s a rendering of a home designed for Howard Hawks, but never built.
Among lots of other incredible homes and buildings, Neutra designed the Cyclorama in Gettysburg. Oh, prints are available of the Hawks house.
Posted in 1959, DVD reviews, releases, TV, etc., Howard Hawks, John Wayne, Warner Bros. on September 19, 2011 | 3 Comments »
Let’s all try not to panic or anything, but it looks like Rio Bravo (1959) is out of print on Blu-ray.
The disc didn’t seem to knock anybody out — grain was a common complaint — and I haven’t heard if a new edition is in the works. Others said it didn’t look as good as The Searchers (1956) — but to be honest, few Blu-rays do.
Anybody know what’s going on? Don’t know about you, but I don’t like the idea of living in a world where Rio Bravo is unavailable.
Posted in 1959, Howard Hawks, John Wayne on September 8, 2011 | 8 Comments »
You’re looking at John Wayne’s script for Rio Bravo (1959). It’s just one of the many incredible things being auctioned off by his family.
You can see more of it here, and I encourage you to do so.
Not just to marvel at things very few of us could ever afford — like his uniform from Sands Of Iwo Jima (1949) or hat from Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) — but to read various contracts, letters from John Ford, get well cards from Hank Worden and much more.
I’m a bit bleary-eyed this morning from hours of doing just that.
Posted in Budd Boetticher, Howard Hawks, John Sturges, Nicholas Ray, Technical on May 16, 2011 | 3 Comments »
Being an Advertising writer, I don’t normally write anything longer than a brochure, and a project rarely lasts longer than six or eight weeks. So this whole book thing — hundreds of pages, years of research and writing — is a trail I’ve never ridden before. Gets kinda scary at times.
My process, if you can call it that — jumping from film to film as sources turns up, and writing when enough stuff accumulates on a particular film — is probably unfocused and inefficient. But from time to time, things come together and I make some real progress.
Recently, CinemaScope has come up quite a bit. An interview with Nicholas Ray (thanks, John). Watching Ride Lonesome (1959) for maybe the 20th time. Reading the John Sturges biography (Escape Artist by Glenn Lovell). Researching the process itself. I’ve developed a new appreciation for it, and a better understanding of why some directors hated it. Here are some 50s Westerns directors giving their thoughts on Scope pictures.
Above: the Hilux-VAL variable anamorphic lens (rescued from a now-demolished Virginia drive-in) that adorns my office.
Nicholas Ray: “I think my appreciation for the horizontal line came through my association with Frank Lloyd Wright, and I like to compose within a horizontal frame. The artistic principal of Mr. Wright’s which has become very much a part of my thinking architecturally has been ‘Try to learn your limitations first of all, and you have to work with them and then learn how to take advantage of those limitations.’ Looked at objectively, the horizontal wide screen has certain limitations. I just try to work within those limitations and I find myself very comfortable within that frame.” Image: The True Story Of Jesse James (1957)
Budd Boetticher: “I loved it. CinemaScope was invented to get rid of television because nobody was going to the movies. And people had a different idea than I had. They thought that CinemaScope, your leading lady should be over here and your leading man should be over there and then you fill the middle with trees. I put them both together over here and it was a choice for the audience: Do you want to look at the trees or the two people in it? But I liked it a lot. And I think that the CinemaScope pictures that I made with Scott are very good.” Image: Ride Lonesome (1959)
Howard Hawks: “I don’t think that CinemaScope is a good medium. It’s good only for showing great masses of movement. For other things, it’s distracting, it’s hard to focus attention, and it’s very difficult to cut. Some people just cut it and let people’s eyes jump around and find what they want to find. It’s very hard for an audience to focus — they have too much to look at — they can’t see the whole thing.”
John Sturges: “Back in the early days of CinemaScope, the wide, wide wide screen was considered desirable only for enormous spectacles using thousands of people and mile-high sets. I thought it ought to be the other way around. Here I was with one man stuck in the desert. (Bad Day At Black Rock, 1955) It occurred to me that the way to show the isolation of this one man in the desert was to use all this space, to surround him with space. The more space you have around him, the more you isolate him. And the more you isolate him, the more suspenseful your story becomes.” Image: Bad Day At Black Rock (1955, not really a Western)
Posted in 1959, Howard Hawks, John Wayne on May 12, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Got a text message from a good friend yesterday. He was returning to Raleigh from San Diego and thought I’d like to know that his in-flight entertainment was Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo (1959), followed by The Cowboys (1972, below).
Let’s hope his snack was a package of beef jerky from John Wayne Stock & Supply Company.
You know, in these days of terrorists and bombs in tennis shoes, it must be comforting to fly with John Wayne.
