50s Westerns DVD News #121: Showdown At Boot Hill (1958).

John Knight just brought this to my attention. Olive Films has announced Showdown At Boot Hill (1958) for DVD and Blu-ray release in June. For me and many of you out there, a widescreen presentation of a Regalscope picture is a dream come true. To be able to enjoy every bargain-basement, black-and-white Scope detail in high-definition is icing on the cake.

Showdown stars Charles Bronson, Robert Hutton, John Carradine, Carole Mathews and Argentina Brunetti. It’s a very early lead for Bronson — his TV show Man With A Camera would debut in late 1958. Director Gene Fowler Jr. worked as an editor for the bulk of his career, cutting everything from Sam Fuller’s Forty Guns (1957) and Monte Walsh (1970) to Gilligan’s Island and The Waltons. The screenplay is by Louis Vittes, who also wrote I Married A Monster From Outer Space (1958) and a number of episodes of Rawhide.

Olive Films also has the rights to Ambush At Cimarron Pass (1958), a Regalscope starring Scott Brady, Margia Dean and Clint Eastwood. Let’s hope it’s not far behind.

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Samuel Fuller’s Forty Guns (1957) At The Aero.

August 12th would’ve been Samuel Fuller’s 100th birthday, and the Aero in Santa Monica is paying tribute with three double bills. Friday’s is The Shock Corridor (1963) and Forty Guns (1957). Just seeing the title sequence on a big screen is worth price of admission.

Sorry about the short notice, but things move fast with Fuller.

Friday, August 24
7:30pm

Aero Theatre
1328 Montana Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90403

“It’s not even really a Western. I don’t know what it is… Forty Guns doesn’t care.” — Martin Scorsese.

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Both barrels, part 2.

Henry Cabot Beck of True West Magazine brought this to my attention. The through-the-gun-barrel shot had been used in William Wellman’s Yellow Sky back in 1948, predating Fuller’s Forty Guns by nine years. That’s Gregory Peck, and Anne Baxter’s got the bead on him. I’d completely forgotten about it.

Since they’re both Fox pictures, wonder if the Yellow Sky effect/matte/whatever was simply drug out and dusted off for Forty Guns? “Hey Sam, what about this? Worked last time.”

Thanks for the tip, Henry.

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Both barrels.

Samuel Fuller’s Forty Guns (1957) is one of the most visually stunning films I’ve ever seen. Long takes. Mile-long tracking shots. Odd angles. Extreme close-ups in CinemaScope (certainly noticed by Sergio Leone). All in very noir-ish black & white, courtesy of cinematographer Joseph Biroc. Every time I see it, I’m blown away by something new.

It’s a picture that has been listed as an influence by all sorts of people.

But there’s a certain shot, as Gene Barry looks through a gun barrel at the gunsmith’s daughter (Eve Brent), that must’ve made an impression on a handful of English guys in the early 60s.

From the second James Bond film, From Russia With Love (1964).

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Gene Barry (1919 – 2009)

Just saw that Gene Barry has passed away.

So many people think of Gene Barry as either Bat Masterson or Amos Burke — or for starring in War Of The Worlds (1953). That’s all good stuff. But around here, we’re big on Samuel Fuller’s Forty Guns (1957).

You can read his obituary here.

That’s Barry on the right, along with Barry Sullivan and Robert Dix.

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