50s Western Scores By Paul Dunlap And Bert Shefter.

I’m really happy to have been involved, even to a tiny extent, with the CD release of a couple of 50s Western scores — Paul Dunlap’s score for Hellgate (1952) and Bert Shefter’s music for The Tall Texan (1953) — from David Schecter’s label Monstrous Movie Music. Both are Lippert pictures, available on DVD from Kit Parker and VCI.

Over the course of his career, Paul Dunlap scored over a hundred films, mostly B movies of various sorts — from I was A Teenage Werewolf (1957) to Shock Corridor (1963). There were lots of Westerns: Jack Slade (1953), Stranger  On Horseback (1955), The Quiet Gun (1956) and Oregon Trail (1959), to name just a few. While Dunlap wasn’t a big fan of some of the films he worked on, his name’s on some films I love. Every seen Big House U.S.A. or Shack Out On 101 (both 1955)?

Hellgate is an excellent film, a low-budget reworking of John Ford’s Prisoner Of Shark Island (1936). Sterling Hayden, Ward Bond, Joan Leslie and James Arness are directed by Charles Marquis Warren. It’s obvious Dunlap liked this film, and he came through with a terrific score. The CD presents the music in sequence, cue by cue, from a set of original acetates (a few cues have been lost to time). Dunlap’s score for The Lost Continent, a 1951 sci-fi picture starring Cesar Romero, is also included.

Bert Shefter was a Russian-born concert pianist and conductor. He scored his first film in 1950 and by the time he retired, had more than 60 movies and hundreds and hundreds of TV shows to his credit. His scores include Cattle Empire (1958), Return Of The Fly (1959) and Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965). His work on It! The Terror From Beyond Space (1958) really knocked me out. Like Dunlap, Shefter never coasted, never give less than 100% — even if if the picture didn’t really deserve it.

The Tall Texan was directed by Elmo Williams, the Oscar-winning editor of High Noon, and shot by Joseph Biroc. A solid, low-budget 50s Western (it cost just $100,000), it stars Lloyd Bridges, Marie Windsor and Lee J. Cobb. Shefter gives themes to several of the main characters, including a menacing piece for the Indians, and makes good use of a couple popular tunes, “Yankee Doodle Dandy” and “Blow The Man Down.”

I really like these films, and it’s easy to recommend these CDs. Monstrous Movie Music has assembled a nice package, with thorough notes and some fascinating archival material. David Schecter says that if these titles do well, there are other 50s Western scores he’d like to get around to. Let’s help make sure he can.

Read Full Post »

Happy Birthday, Sterling Hayden.

Sterling Hayden
(March 26, 1916 – May 23, 1986)

Let’s remember one of my favorite actors on what would’ve been his 97th birthday.

The fact that Hayden claimed he was acting only because the money was good, and would support his love of sailing, didn’t keep him from making some great films — The Asphalt Jingle (1950), Nicholas Ray’s Johnny Guitar (1954), The Killing (1956), Dr. Strangelove (1964),  The Godfather (1972), etc. — and appearing in a string of medium-budget 50s Westerns like Gun Battle At Monterey (1957). What a fascinating man he was. His books, the autobiography Wanderer and novel Voyage, are still in print.

He’s seen above in Gun Battle At Monterey with Lee Van Cleef and Ted de Corsia. What casts some of these cheap things had!

Read Full Post »

The Longboards: Theme From Johnny Guitar.

Here’s The Longboards, a Surf band from Bilbao, Spain, doing a beautiful cover of Peggy Lee and Victor Young’s theme from Johnny Guitar (1954). The Norwegian band The Spotnicks released a great version of this back in 1962.

And since we’re on the subject of Johnny Guitar, here’s an interview with Ernest Borgnine where he brings it up.

Read Full Post »

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?

Read Full Post »

Gallery: Making The Last Command (1955).

Ernest Borgnine’s passing brought to mind The Last Command (1955) — Republic’s version of the Alamo story, made after John Wayne left the studio. (Yates strung Wayne along for a while, then turned the project down as too expensive. Once his contract expired, Wayne never worked for Republic again — and made his own The Alamo in 1960.)

Above, Sterling Hayden and Borgnine on the set.

Ernest Borgnine (from his book Ernie): “Sterling Hayden was a great Jim Bowie… I died with a bayonet stuck in me, in a pool of my own blood. It was a pretty dramatic death — but they cut it out because the picture was too long.”

Next, a model of the mission set.

Cast and crew working on that set.

Richard Carlson outside the mission in costume (as Col. Travis) and sunglasses.

Read Full Post »

50s Westerns DVD News #87A: Johnny Guitar Update.

A number of recent posts have pondered what the Olive DVD and Blu-ray of Nicholas Ray’s Johnny Guitar might be like. DVD Beaver has reviewed the Blu-ray, answering many of our questions along the way.

• The Sedona, Arizona scenery appears behind the titles, which is how it played theaters.

• It’s presented 1.33:1, which is how it’s often seen, though it was shot for cropped widescreen presentation (up to 1.85). If it bothers you, the zoom feature on your HDTV should take care of that.

• It includes the “appreciation” by Martin Scorsese, who loves the film.

As you can tell here, frame grabs from it are quite impressive. Order with confidence, folks!

Read Full Post »

From The 50s Westerns Department Of Useless Knowledge.

Kit Parker and I were going back and forth about Johnny Guitar (1954) recently. He brought up that when his company distributed 16mm films for Republic, the Johnny Guitar prints had Arizona scenery behind the titles, while the restored 35mm prints did not. (Martin Scorsese had a hand in the restoration, by the way.)

Did a little looking, and there it was. You can find anything on the Internet. Wonder what the story is on this?

Thanks to Kit Parker for giving me something to obsess about today.

Read Full Post »

Colin on Johnny Guitar (1954).

Colin over at Riding The High Country recently posted a great writeup on Nicholas Ray’s Johnny Guitar (1954). Be sure to read it.

With a Blu-ray of Johnny Guitar coming from Olive in August, I’m getting excited about seeing the picture again (it’s been almost a year). It’s one of those films that, as Colin points out, shows us something each time we see it. A friend once described it as “the damnedest thing I ever saw” — a concise and completely accurate appraisal.

Any Western where Frank Ferguson and Ward Bond are in a group of vigilantes lead by Mercedes McCambridge has to have its merits.

Read Full Post »

50s Westerns DVD News #87: Rio Grande (1950) and Johnny Guitar (1954).

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.

Read Full Post »

50s Westerns Blu-ray News #82: More Blu-rays From Olive Films.

I figured it’d be years before relatively minor films started cropping up on Blu-ray. Olive Films is proving me wrong.

They’ve recently announced that Run For Cover (1954), Silver City (1951) and Denver And Rio Grande (1952) — which they’d already slated for DVD — are coming on Blu-ray as well.

The first, of course, is a Nick Ray picture. The other two are from Byron Haskin. Thanks to all who passed this tip along.

 

Read Full Post »