R. G. Armstrong, 1917 – 2012.

The great character actor R. G. Armstrong passed away on Friday. He was 95.

Mr. Armstrong appeared in a couple 50s Westerns, From Hell To Texas (1958, below) and No Name On The Bullet (1959), but really made his mark in the 60s and 70s. Sam Peckinpah used him a number of times, beginning with an episode of The Westerner, with terrific results. Philip Kaufman’s The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid (1972) is an overlooked gem with a great part for Armstrong. As a kid, he scared me in Race With The Devil (1974).

Originally from Alabama, he got a Masters in English from the University Of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, just down the street. I doubt anybody on campus today knows who he is.

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The Real West #4: I Shot Billy The Kid.

On this day in 1881, Pat Garrett shot and killed William H. Bonney (born William Henry McCarty, Jr.), known as “Billy The Kid,” in Fort Sumner, New Mexico.

Of course, the way this actually happened isn’t known, and it’s been portrayed plenty of different ways in Westerns over the years, from King Vidor’s Billy The Kid (1930) to Sam Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid (1973, below).

Some even theorize that it’s not Billy reposing in the Fort Sumner dirt.

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Post-50s Westerns DVD News #70: The Deadly Companions (1961).

Sam Peckinpah’s first film as director, The Deadly Companions (1961), is coming from VCI in what promises be a nice anamorphic transfer.

Starring Brian Keith and Maureen O’Hara (who’d just appeared together in The Parent Trap) — and shot in 21 days for $550,000 in Old Tuscon, The Deadly Companions has been represented over the years by shoddy, pan-and-scan tapes and DVDs that were an insult to anybody who worked on it.

Brian Keith and Peckinpah had just collaborated on the terrific The Westerner TV series. O’Hara’s brother, producer of The Deadly Companions, approached Keith. Keith requested Peckinpah, thinking he’d patch up the script.

Though Peckinpah was not allowed to do a rewrite or supervise the editing, his direction is assured and bears his strong visual stamp. It deserves more attention than it normally gets — this is more than just a first-picture curio.

It’s based on the novel Yellowleg by A.S. Fleischman, which at one point was optioned by Marlon Brando’s Pennebaker Productions. Nothing came it, though a script was prepared, and Brando’s Western eventually ended up being One-Eyed Jacks (1961).

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