Posted in Andre de Toth, Jeffrey Hunter, Post-1959 on July 31, 2012| 4 Comments »
Warner Archive has come up with a real curio, something I’ve been wanting to see for some time — Gold For The Caesars (1963), an Italian sword-and-sandal picture starring Jeffrey Hunter (The Searchers) and directed by Andre de Toth (Man In The Saddle).
Hunter also made a spaghetti Western, Find A Place To Die (1968), while de Toth made a handful over films in Italy, including Morgan The Pirate (1961, starring Steve Reeves) and The Mongols (1966).
Posted in 1958, 1959, Character actors, Sam Peckinpah on July 30, 2012| 9 Comments »
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.
Posted in DVD reviews, releases, TV, etc., Pre-1950, Republic Pictures, Roy Rogers, William Witney on July 27, 2012| 5 Comments »
Directed by William Witney
Associate Producer: Edward J. White
Original Screen Play by A. Sloan Nibley
Director Of Photography: Jack Marta
CAST: Roy Rogers, Trigger, Jane Frazee (Taffy Baker), Andy Devine (Cookie Bullfincher), Stephanie Bachelor (Jean Loring), Roy Barcroft (Matt Wilkes), Chester Conklin (Old Timer) and Bob Nolan and The Sons of the Pioneers.
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In what has to be one of the worst examples of shortsightedness in Hollywood’s history, Republic Pictures cut the Trucolor Roy Rogers films to a TV-friendly 54 minutes from running times of around 67-75 minutes each. And, of course, the TV prints were black and white. What’s worse, they cut the original negatives and tossed the “scraps,” so the story goes.
Tracking down the King Of The Cowboys’ Trucolor movies is a real challenge for DVD labels and collectors alike (a fact covered in a recent post). So when another turns up uncut and actually in color, it’s a real cause for celebration. Such is the case with the recently-released Springtime In The Sierr
as (1947) from Film Chest. Transferred from an ultra-rare complete 16mm color print, it may not be something you’d use to show off your home theater system to the neighbors, but that’s not the point, is it? It’s Roy, it’s complete, it’s in color and it’s now in your hot little hands.
Roy Rogers is after a gang that’s slaughtering wild game illegally. There’s a lot of money in the meat, and these guys are willing to kill (both animals and people) to keep their operation going. Roy’s old friend Captain Foster (Harry V. Cheshire) is murdered, and Roy takes on the gang — with the usual Roy Rogers/William Witney mix of music, comedy and lots and lots of action. There are at least three fistfights, with one between Roy Rogers and Roy Barcroft taking place in a mammoth freezer full of slaughtered game. (Watching these later Rogers films, you have to remind yourself at times that these were aimed at kids.)
There’s plenty of singing, too, which is a real treat with Bob Nolan and the Sons Of The Pioneers on hand. Andy Devine provides his usual comic relief. Dale Evans isn’t around, but Jane Frazee is — and there’s Stephanie Bachelor as one of the deer-killing villains. Sloan Nibley wrote a number of the later Rogers films. This was one of his first, and it shows his flair for story (usually a somewhat oddball one) and gift for balancing the various elements that make up a Roy Rogers movie. Around the time Roy left Republic for TV, Nibley wrote a few good Western features (Carson City and Springfield Rifle, both 1952) before settling into a busy life as a television writer.
The stars here are Roy Rogers and director William Witney. Working together, they created a tough, lean, fast-paced series of films that are slowly being recognized as the gems they are — something those of us who read and write this blog have known for decades. Witney’s under-cranked action scenes are incredible in Springtime In The Sierras, with a couple riding stunts that have to be seen to be believed. (I’m not one to stop a picture midstream, but there’s a riding/shooting stunt in the last reel I had to stop and really study.)
So what does the DVD look like? I’m happy to report that it’s all there, from Republic logo to Republic logo. It’s a little soft, attributable to the 16mm material and the Trucolor process. (That’s a screen grab to the left.) If you’ve seen Trucolor before (during this period when it was two-strip instead of three), you know what to expect. It’s a long way from Technicolor, with a rather other-wordly range of hues that I find beautiful. The disc also includes Roy and Dale hosting an episode of The Chevy Show from Easter, 1961. It’s a black and white kinescope of a color program, complete with Corvair commercials and appearances by Martin Milner and George Maharis of Route 66.
Film Chest has done us all a favor by helping us check another color Rogers off our Want Lists. The fact that they did it with care makes it all the better. Highly recommended.
Posted in 1954, 1957, Columbia, DVD reviews, releases, TV, etc., George Montgomery, Lex Barker, Ray Nazarro, William Castle on July 24, 2012| 42 Comments »
Columbia Classics has announced a few 50s Westerns for MOD release on October 2. First is The Phantom Stagecoach (1957), directed by Ray Nazarro. It stars William Bishop, Kathleen Crowley, Richard Webb, Frank Ferguson — and plenty of Iverson Ranch location work.
From Sam Katzman’s unit comes a couple from William Castle. Duel On The Mississippi (1955) may not be a Western, since it takes place in Louisiana, but it’s got Lex Barker, Patricia Medina, Warren Stevens and John Dehner, so it’s close enough.
In a post back in March of 2010, I wrote: “I’m not gonna hold my breath waiting for Columbia to release Masterson Of Kansas (1954) on DVD.” Two years later, I’m really happy to be announcing that it’s on its way. To me, this is easily the best of the Westerns William Castle made for Sam Katzman’s unit at Columbia — George Montgomery is Bat Masterson and James Griffith is very, very good as Doc Holliday. Well worth checking out. (Along with Roy Roger’s double-crown hats and Wayne’s ragged hat from Rio Bravo, George Montgomery had some of the coolest hats in 50s Westerns.)
All three films should be widescreen, with the two Castle pictures being in Technicolor. The longest of the three is 74 minutes (Masterson), so you can count on some fast-paced fun.
Posted in 1956, Hank Worden, John Ford on July 23, 2012| 7 Comments »
Hank Worden (born Norton Earl Worden)
July 23, 1901 – December 6, 1992
Back in the early days of this blog, as I was trying to figure out what this thing would and would not cover, I decided to put a real limit on birthdays, which felt a bit like filler. Along the way, I’ve decided not to commemorate the births of some of the genre’s real heavyweights.
Then there’s Hank Worden. There’s no way I could let this one go by. So many films were enriched by his presence, even if his part’s not much more than a cameo. And on the list of people who I’d like to have met, he’d be in the Top 10.
I probably don’t need to point out that the image above is from John Ford’s The Searchers (1956). So, to put a little Hank in your day, which of his many roles is your favorite?
Posted in 1958, George Sherman, Jock Mahoney, Universal (International) on July 20, 2012| 2 Comments »
Here’s Lorne Greene, Linda Cristal and Jock Mahoney in Last Of The Fast Guns (1958), a CinemaScope Universal Western from George Sherman. This film really needs to make its way to DVD.
Be sure to head over to INSP TV to enter their Saddle Up and Getaway Sweepstakes. Greene and Bonanza are part of their extended lineup.
Posted in Theaters on July 18, 2012| 5 Comments »
Another drive-in is lost to “progress.” The Cairo, Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina.
It’s been closed for years, but the screen tower just came down. I’d love to see a list of what played there — or maybe I wouldn’t.
Posted in 1959, Delmer Daves, DVD reviews, releases, TV, etc., Gary Cooper, Warner Bros. on July 17, 2012| 21 Comments »
Released today by Warner Archive — The Hanging Tree (1959) from Delmer Daves. It was George C. Scott’s first film and Daves’ last Western, after a career filled with good ones: 3:10 To Yuma (1957), Jubal (1958) and more.
Karl Malden (from The Actor Within: Intimate Conversations With Great Actors by Rose Eichenbaum): “During the last two weeks of the picture, the director [Delmer Daves] got sick and went to the hospital. So I got a call on a Saturday to come over to Coop’s house. I get there, and he says they might have to close down production. ‘That’s too bad,’ I say. So he says, ‘Why don’t you finish directing the picture?’ ‘Me?’ ‘You can do it. You directed Widmark in Counter Attack. You can do it.’ So I said okay, but if I find that I’m lost and I don’t know how to do it, and we have to sit there and figure it out, don’t scream at me.’ ‘Kid,’ he said. He always called me kid even though I was almost as old as he was. ‘Kid, I’ve never spoken angrily to anyone in my life, and I’m not going to start now.’ So I accepted and directed the picture for two and a half weeks. When it was finished, Gary Cooper went over to Warner’s and said to them, ‘Star billing.’ That’s the first picture in which I got star billing. That’s the kind of man Gary Cooper was.”
Posted in Barbara Stanwyck on July 16, 2012| 4 Comments »
Barbara Stanwyck
July 16, 1907 – January 20, 1990
If there was a Queen of 50s Westerns, it’d be Miss Barbara Stanwyck. Just look at the titles: The Furies (1950), The Moonlighter (1953), Cattle Queen Of Montana (1954), The Violent Men (1955), The Maverick Queen (1956), Trooper Hook (1957) and Forty Guns (1957).
Of making Westerns, she said, “Oh, I love to do them. I just love to do them.”
Posted in 1950, Lippert/Regal, Sam Peckinpah, The Real West on July 14, 2012| 10 Comments »
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.
50 Westerns From The 50s. 