Davy Crockett, King Of The W I D E Frontier.

You all probably know the story of the Davy Crockett episodes of Disneyland — and how they became the feature Davy Crockett: King Of The Wild Frontier (1955). Three black and white episodes on TV, re-cut and released to theaters, due to popular demand, as a 90-minute feature to big box office. In Technicolor and “Wide Screen.”

But what does “Wide Screen” really mean? Shot for television (Walt was sure smart to shoot in color), they were full frame 1.37:1. But how did it play theaters? Disney didn’t include projection instructions in their pressbooks, so it’s hard to say. Playing around with the DVD, a 1.66 or 1.78 cropping looks great. 1.85 seems a little crowded.

Maybe “Wide Screen” was just marketing, and it ran full frame.

Can anybody out there shed any light on this? If so, Fess up (sorry, couldn’t resist).

UPDATE: John McElwee at Greenbriar Picture Shows says Variety listed it as 1.85 in its review.

Read Full Post »

From the desk of —

In case you ever wondered what Gene Autry’s letterhead looked like. What a beautiful illustration, complete with camera crew.

Read Full Post »

Coming August 2nd: Curse Of The Undead

Curse Of The Undead (1959) is a picture I’ve written about before — a cheap, but clever mixing of the Western and the monster movie, two things Universal-International did better than about anybody else in the 50s. It’s certainly no classic, but it’s got plenty going for it. As a kid, I thought it was one of the coolest things I’d ever seen — and Reynold Brown’s poster art is incredible.

As part of the 50s Monster Mash Blogathon, owned and operated by Nathaniel at Forgotten Classics Of Yesteryear, I’ll revisit this picture — by simply posting the chapter-in-progress on it. (Not sure the chapter will actually make the book’s final cut.) Nathaniel recently organized the Roger Corman Blogathon, which I was stoked to be able to participate in.

Read Full Post »

50s Westerns DVD News #53: The Longhorn

This is not a new release, just one I didn’t know about — so it might as well be a new release. Last week, I wrote about the terrific B Westerns Wild Bill Elliott made for Monogram and Allied Artists in the early 50s.

Well, I just found out that one of them, The Longhorn (1952), is available from VCI Entertainment. It’s paired with Stampede (1936), Charles Starrett’s first Western — in a set called Cowboy Heroes Volume 1.

Not sure if it’s presented in sepia tone or not, but after I get a copy, I’ll let you know.

Read Full Post »

50s Westerns DVD(R) News #52: Clark Gable

Warner Archive has announced a handful of Clark Gable pictures as their newest DVD-R releases. Two of them are Westerns.

Across The Wide Missouri (1951) is an excellent film from William Wellman. The story goes that after a preview, MGM got a little scissor-happy with it, leaving us with a fast, tough, beautiful 78 minutes. Joining Gable in the top-notch cast are Ricardo Montalban, J. Carrol Naish, Jack Holt and Timothy Carey (uncredited in one of his first films).

Timothy Carey (from a Psychotronic interview): “I was just an extra in Across The Wide Missouri. Gable had a home up there they rented for him. I went up there and said I was working on the picture. They invited me in and gave me tea and crumpets and were very hospitable to me. I started working on the show three days later and he was a little embarrassed that he wined and dined an atmosphere player at his home. I worked on the show, I played a dead man in it; it was a great part! You could only see my back, I was lying in the water. I’ll never forget the director (William Wellman,) he was a great director, a tough director. I had two arrows in my back lying in the water. I couldn’t hold still, it was so cold and my teeth were chattering. The director said, ‘Keep that jerk still, he’s supposed to be dead.’ I had just come from dramatic school in New York. I thought I was a great actor; I’m the only one who did.”

Also on its way is Lone Star (1952) which puts Gable up against Broderick Crawford, with Ava Gardner in the female lead. Directed by Vincent Sherman, it’s not one of Borden Chase’s better scripts.

Read Full Post »

50s Westerns DVD(R) News #51: Rebel In Town

The Bel-Air pictures continue from MGM’s DVD-R program.

Rebel In Town (1956) has a great cast — John Payne, Ruth Roman, J. Carrol Naish, Ben Cooper and Ben Johnson. It was directed by Alfred Werker. This is one I’m really looking forward to.

The Broken Star (1956), directed by Lesley Selander, stars Howard Duff and Lita Baron. It was available on Hulu for a while, in a nice-looking, though full-frame transfer.

Outlaw’s Son (1957), another one from Lesley Selander, stars Dane Clark, Ben Cooper and Lori Nelson.

The Iron Sheriff (1957) is a Grand Production, not a Bel-Air, with Sterling Hayden, John Dehner and Constance Ford — directed by Sidney Salkow.

Hopefully, these will be widescreen. By 1956-57, 1.85 was pretty much the standard, and these pictures really benefit from that cropping.

Read Full Post »

A Regalscope Picture

Not long after I started working on 50 Westerns From The ’50s, the book, I became really interested in the Regalscope pictures Robert Lippert made for 20th Century-Fox. The process was the subject of one of my earliest posts.

These short (normally around 70 – 75 minutes) Westerns are usually pretty talky — talk’s a lot cheaper than action — and they seem to have spent $12 and five minutes to prop out the sets, but they feature some great casts: John Agar, Forrest Tucker, Brian Donlevy, Charles Bronson, Jim Davis, Beverly Garland, Mara Corday, Kathleen Crowley, Mari Blanchard, Hank Worden, James Griffith, Lee Van Cleef, Robert Strauss, Barton MacLane and Morris Ankrum.

Lately, I’ve contracted the Regalscope bug all over again — partly due to seeing a letterboxed copy of Frontier Gun (1958). Not a bad little movie. Kit Parker has dedicated a lot of his recent blog posts to organizing a Lippert filmography, including the Regal Films productions. He’s also chatted with Robert L. Lippert, Jr. and Maury Dexter, who actually worked on these things, and a few film historians — there’s a real mystery to sort out with these things. Kit’s posts are fascinating, though they ultimately add to the frustration of these films being so hard to see.

Read Full Post »

Julie Adams and Bend Of The River (1952)

With the Western Film Fair starting tomorrow in Winston-Salem, and with one of my favorites, Julie Adams, among the guests, I got to thinking about Bend Of The River (1952), the second Western Jimmy Stewart made with Anthony Mann. Miss Adams appeared in plenty of Universal Westerns, from The Lawless Breed (1952) to Wings Of The Hawk (1953).

This one has a good early part for Rock Hudson and a typically fine performance from Arthur Kennedy (the same year he did Rancho Notorious). Stewart is his usual loner trying to overcome a dark past — showing yet again why he was maybe the finest screen actor of the 50s.

The scene in Bend Of The River where Miss Adams is hit by an arrow always gets to me — thanks to the great special effect, Mann’s tense direction and a very convincing job from Julie. (Doesn’t that look like it’d hurt?) That’s Aunt Bea, Francis Bavier, tending to her.

Came across this on eBay this morning — a ticket from the picture’s Portland premiere (it was shot in Oregon), signed by Stewart.

Read Full Post »

Night Passage (1957) and 150,000 hits.

Here’s Jimmy Stewart from Night Passage (1957), delivering a wallop to commemorate 150,000 hits at 50 Westerns From The 50s.

That’s quite a few, and to all you clickers out there, thanks.

Read Full Post »

Wild Bill Elliott — In Glorious Sepia Tone.

After a string of excellent little pictures for Republic like personal favorites Hellfire (1949) and The Showdown (1950), William Elliott signed a six-picture deal with Monogram (later to become Allied Artists). These six films, which included Kansas Territory (1953), while certainly cheap, are surprisingly adult — and boast some real talent on both sides of the camera. Directors like Lewis Collins and Thomas Carr. Casts that include Peggy Stewart, Fuzzy Knight, Denver Pyle, Robert J. Wilke, George Wallace and Phyllis Coates. Scripts often by Dan Ullman. And top-notch cinematography by Ernest Miller — “filmed in glorious sepia tone.”

When you come across these things, which is seldom these days, they’re inevitably presented black and white. Which is a real shame, since the novelty of sepia tone makes these intriguing films even more, well, intriguing — and gives them a distinguished look. (My less-than-glorious attempt at approximating the sepia look can be seen in the still above.) What a great multi-disc DVD set these would make.

Seems like just as the B Western was getting good — as these and the RKO Tim Holt pictures show — TV killed them off. What a drag.

Read Full Post »