Happy Birthday, Wayne Morris.

Wayne Morris
(February 17, 1914 – September 14, 1959)

You’ll be seeing a lot of Wayne Morris around here, thanks to a series of releases from Warner Archive. So on his birthday, lets not just remember his movies, but salute his tremendous service to his country during World War II — seven Japanese planes shot down, five ships sunk.

He’s seen here in The Marksman (1953), one of the Westerns Morris made for Allied Artists, which is part of Warner Archive’s Wayne Morris double feature. Any movie that gives Frank Ferguson third billing gets high marks from me.

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50s Westerns DVD News #207: Randolph Scott Roundup, Volume 2.

The first Randolph Scott Roundup was a great thing. And now Mill Creek’s bringing us a second batch of Scott Columbias. There are six good ones here.

The Desperadoes (1943)
Directed by Charles Vidor
Starring Randolph Scott, Glenn Ford, Claire Trevor, Evelyn Keyes, Edgar Buchanan, Guinn ‘Big Boy’ Williams

The Nevadan (1950)
Directed by Gordon Douglas
Starring Randolph Scott, Dorothy Malone, Forrest Tucker, Frank Faylen, George Macready, Charles Kemper

Santa Fe (1951)
Directed by Irving Pichel
Starring Randolph Scott, Janis Carter, Jerome Courtland, Peter Thompson

Man In The Saddle
Directed by Andre de Toth
Starring Randolph Scott, Joan Leslie, Ellen Drew, Alexander Knox, Richard Rober, John Russell

Hangman’s Knot (1952)
Directed by Roy Huggins
Starring Randolph Scott, Donna Reed, Claude Jarman Jr., Lee Marvin, Guinn “Big Boy’ Williams

The Stranger Wore A Gun (1953)
Directed by Andre de Toth
Starring Randolph Scott, Claire Trevor, Joan Weldon, George Macready, Alfonso Bedoya, Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine

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Non-50s Western Blu-ray News #206: The Shootist (1976).

Directed by Don Siegel
Starring John Wayne, Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard, James Stewart, Richard Boone, John Carradine, Scatman Crothers, Richard Lenz, Harry Morgan, Sheree North, Hugh O’Brian, Bill McKinney

Word’s out that John Wayne’s last picture, The Shootist (1976), is finally making its way to Blu-ray — from Germany.

Some folks are hard on this movie, but me, I think it’s great. You got John Wayne. You got Don Siegel. It doesn’t get any better than that. Well, there’s my typical complaint about almost any movie: it should’ve had Hank Worden in it. (I wanted a photo of Wayne and Siegel together, but this was as close as I got. And isn’t that poster terrific?)

Thanks to John Knight for the tip.

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Happy Birthday, Ronald Reagan.

Ronald Reagan
February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004

I’m ashamed to have missed Tim Holt’s birthday on the 5th. I’m not gonna screw up Ronald Reagan’s. He’d be 105 today.

Here he is in Law And Order (1953). I resisted the temptation to post yet another photo from Allan Dwan’s Tennessee’s Partner (1955), a picture I love.

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50s Westerns DVD News #205: The Desperado (1954).

Directed by Thomas Carr
Starring Wayne Morris, Jimmy Lydon, Beverly Garland,Dabbs Greer, Lee Van Cleef, Nestor Paiva, Roy Barcroft, John Dierkes, Lyle Talbot

The B Western was heading for the last roundup when The Desperado (1954) came around. But it’s got a dream cast and Warner Archive is offering it with its original 1.85 framing. Can’t wait.

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Making Movies: Roughshod (1949).

I’ve been working on a review of the Roughshod (1949) DVD from Warner Archive, and my research turned up some pretty cool stuff. This panel from Prize Comics Western shows the cast and crew at work — the whole story is about making the film. Here, cinematographer Joseph Biroc and director Mark Robson prepare to shoot Gloria Grahame and Robert Sterling.

Cast and crew on location.

Here’s Myrna Dell and costume woman Christine Chute. According to the original photo caption, it was 101 degrees in the desert.

Claude Jarman, Jr. and Myrna Dell play cards on location. If you haven’t seen this one, it’s terrific.

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Tim Holt Tuesday #15: The Hillsville Theatre, July 1954.

My wife is from Hillsville and Galax, Virginia. The Galax Gazette recently put its archive online. Jennifer’s been researching her family history, and I’ve been looking up what was playing at the local theaters.

Turns out, Tim Holt made a couple personal appearances at the Hillsville Theatre on July 27, 1954. (The theater was converted to apartments years ago. My brother-in-law lives in one.)

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