Roy Rogers and Bob Hope.

Yesterday, I spoke with Cheryl Rogers-Barnett, daughter of Roy Rogers, about appearing alongside her dad in Trail Of Robin Hood (1950).

Son Of Paleface (1952) also came up, and she explained the culture shock of going from Republic to Paramount.

Cheryl Rogers-Barnett: “Poor Dad, when he worked on Son Of Paleface, that was just so totally different. He was used to being in every scene and the set-ups just going bang, bang, bang. Forty set-ups a day was nothing for Republic. Over at Paramount, if they did five in a day, they thought they were being overworked… I know working with Mr. Hope just drove him nuts, because at Republic, you did not get to rewrite your script. You knew your lines before you arrived in the morning. They hardly ever changed anything, because they didn’t have time to do much in the way of changes. Mr. Hope never gave the same line twice, so Dad was always waiting for his cue. It took him a couple of days to find a rhythm and be able to work with that. Ad-libbing wasn’t something Dad had done.”

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Yvonne DeCarlo at Universal.

Yvonne DeCarlo made a ton of movies at Universal, from Arabian adventure pictures to, of course, Westerns.

In The Raw Edge (1956), she’s paired with Rory Calhoun, who gave her away at her 1955 Reno wedding to stuntman Bob Morgan in the middle of shooting Shotgun (see inset). That same year, she’d appear as Sephora in The Ten Commandments.

Some of Yvonne’s U-I Westerns are better than others, but you can’t really go wrong with any of them. And while none are available Stateside on DVD, Spain’s doing her proud. Out, or on the way, are Border River (1954) with Joel McCrea, Black Bart (1948, co-starring Dan Duryea and Percy Kilbride) and Calamity Jane And Sam Bass (1949) with Howard Duff. It’s a good start.

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Only a dime?

Came across this on eBay.

A ride on Trigger’s gone up a bit. The Buy It Now price is $8,500.

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Leslie Nielsen, 1926 – 2010

Leslie Nielsen has passed away at 84. His career is an odd one, almost two careers, going from handsome leads and second leads in serious films (Forbidden Planet and The Poseidon Adventure are two I love) to endearing goofball in pictures like Airplane! (1980) and The Naked Gun: From The Files Of Police Squad (1988). I’m sure there’ll be lots of “stop calling me Shirley” cracks over the next few days, but I prefer the “Is this some kind of bust?” gag.

His lone 50s theatrical Western (there was a lot of TV) is a good one — The Sheepman (1958) with Glenn Ford and Shirley MacLaine.

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50s Westerns DVD News #28

Tis the season for the Deep Discount Winter Sale. Through December 10, you’ll get an additional 25% off their “everyday low prices PLUS FREE SHIPPING.”

So far, two codes have emerged — 25MORE and DVDTALK25.

Do I have any recommendations? Not really (there’s so much good stuff), but I’ll be going for Apache Territory (1958) with Rory Calhoun and John Dehner. I’ve heard the Columbia DVD-Rs look great, and I’m on a bit of a Calhoun kick after watching the terrific Red Sundown (1956) again the other night. (Man, I wish Universal would put that one out.)

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50s Westerns DVD News #27

The next wave of titles in Columbia’s DVD-R program has been announced, with release dates of January 2011. Among the pictures are a handful of 50s Westerns, including Randolph Scott in The Nevadan (1950), co-starring Dorothy Malone and Forrest Tucker. Directed by Gordon Douglas, in Cinecolor, it’s one of the better non-Kennedy/Boetticher Scott-Brown productions.

Also coming are three Ray Nazarro Westerns — Streets Of Ghost Town (1950, wth Charles Starrett, The Black Dakotas (1954) and Return To Warbow (1958) — and two from Sam Katzman and William Castle: The Battle Of Rogue River (1964, with George Montgomery) and The Gun That Won The West (1955).

You’ll find these already listed for pre-order on Deep Discount.

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50s Westerns DVD News #26

This one may look like a stretch, but it’s not really. Warner Archive has done us a huge favor by adding The Outfit (1973) to its roster. This tough crime picture, based on a Richard Stark novel (as was the mighty Point Blank) and starring Robert Duvall, boasts a cast full of 50s Western (and film noir) veterans.

Marie Windsor (my all-time favorite actress) from Little Big Horn (1951), Bounty Hunter (1954) and others.

Timothy Carey of The Last Wagon (1956) and One-Eyed Jacks (1961).

Elisha Cook, Jr. from Shane (1953) and The Lonely Man (1957).

Those three were all in Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing (1956). Then, for good measure, there’s Robert Ryan from The Naked Spur (1953). That’s quite a supporting cast, folks.

It was directed by John Flynn, who also gave us the disturbing, excellent Rolling Thunder (1977, which is also making its way to DVD-R).

The Outfit used to turn up on TCM every once in a while, badly needing its 1.85 framing. Warner Archive seems to have taken care of that.

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