I’m getting tired of writing these posts.
Fess Parker — Walt Disney’s Davy Crockett and later TV’s Daniel Boone — has passed away at 85. Before those iconic roles, he appeared in The Bounty Hunter (1954, starring Randolph Scott) and the giant-ant masterpiece Them! (also ’54). It was in the later picture that Walt first saw him.
Parker was considered for the part in The Searchers (1956) that went to Jeffrey Hunter, but Disney was hesitant to loan him out in the middle of the Crockett craze. Fess told Michael Barrier that story (and others) in an excellent interview.
The title card above is for the feature Davy Crockett, King Of The Wild Frontier (1955), edited from the first three Crockett episodes of Disneyland.
Parker had a neat pre-stardom role in another Andre de Toth Warner Western “Springfield Rifle”.
I am hoping that Olive Films will sometime release a couple of interesting Paramount Westerns that he also starred in “The Jayhawkers” and the very offbeat “The Hangman”
I’ve been trying to find a copy of The Hangman, with no luck.
I love The Great Locomotive Chase.
It is a shame that in the first wave of Paramount Films
reissued by Olive Films the only Western is the dreadful
“Hannie Caulder” Hopefully in the future we might see
“The Hangman” and many others too.Some of the
films Pine-Thomas did for Paramount would be good
as well. It looks as if Paramount in Spain are slowly
putting out some vintage films also; they have “Arrowhead”
(still available in the USA) and “The Rainmaker” in the
pipeline.Spain does seem to be a treasure trove for
vintage film fans at the moment.
I find it shocking and totally uncalled for the way Disney treated Fess Parker. He had a great opportunity to have Parker doing significant things, but instead chose to under utilize him.
For those who might not know this yet. HANGMAN came out on dvd in 2012.