Not sure what this is from, but it’s Roy Rogers lassoing a bat. Seems like the perfect way to mark Halloween.
Happy Halloween.
October 31, 2018 by Toby
Posted in Roy Rogers | 47 Comments
47 Responses
Leave a reply to john k Cancel reply
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Pages
There couldn’t be a more perfect way. Have a fun day.
Toby, THE CURSE OF THE UNDEAD(1959) with Eric Fleming, Michael Pate, and Kathleen Crowley would fit right in on “Hallows Eve.”
On a lighter note, the “V Is for Vampire” episode of F Troop, which first aired on February 2, 1967 would also fit in. Forrest Tucker, Larry Storch and Vincent Price is quite a combination.
Love Curse Of The Undead. Wrote a decent post on it several years ago —
When I go back and look at some of the older stuff, I hate it. This is one I still like.
With the once mighty pound falling on a daily basis (due to this accursed
Brexit) against the dollar American discs are getting more and more
beyond the reach of UK buyers.
You can however always rely on Germany to come up with something
interesting . Spirit Media have announced a late January release
on Blu Ray for Earl Bellamy’s impressive INCIDENT AT PHANTOM HILL.
The DVD of this film was pretty good,so the Blu Ray should really
be something. Spirit’s discs are “official” releases,i.e. licensed from Universal.
The script was by Frank Neugent,no less and it’s an engaging tale.
Robert Fuller makes a no-nonsense Western hero,Jocelyn Lane is very
easy on the eye-(she cannot act a lick,but she sure can pout) and the great
Dan Duryea is up to his usual tricks throughout.
Top drawer supporting cast,with a supremely creepy William Phipps who
passed away recently,aged 96.
All this and jaw dropping Joshua Tree locations which should look sensational
in high-def.
While we are on the subject of all things Universal I highly recommend a
visit to Laura’s 13 great Universal Westerns.
I hope this is an on-going series,next covering the late 50’s and finally the
“last gasp” Universal Westerns of the early 60’s,like INCIDENT AT PHANTOM
HILL.the Tony Young pictures and the later Audie Murphy Westerns..
Walter,thanks for the F Troop info…wow! Forrest Tucker and Vincent Price
together!
Great news about Incident at Phantom hill ! I really like Robert Fuller in it as well as the fact that in 1965 these kind of Universal westerns were getting more and more rare.
Laura G’s selection features many fine westerns.
I also recommend the 2 seasons of F Troop which is for me the “Get smart” of the West. If you can enjoy the – sometime over the top – performances by Larry Storch and Forrest Stucker then this show is for you.
It’s amazing what one can turn up on imdb….
Talking about INCIDENT AT PHANTOM HILL I thought who was that
engaging young actor in the picture, Tom Simcox.
According to the imdb trivia all sorts of people including The Beatles are
drawn into the mix. Simcox,apparently once saved tough guy William Smith’s
life,and John Lennon,no less, called him “That Yankee Cowboy”
If my memory serves me well,and it’s been ages since I’ve seen the film,
did not Simcox play a pacifist in INCIDENT AT PHANTOM HILL,perhaps
Walter can help me out here.
I was in Joshua Tree a few years back, and Incident At Phantom Hill was one of the films l bought to bring back the memories of such a wonderful place.
The Phantom Hill DVD is a very nice widescreen print. It also up scales well on the Blu ray player.
I’m having so much trouble making replies lately. Most of my replies on Jeff Arnold’s great site seem to get lost in cyberspace. So just in case, my very innocent reply, without any references to bloody Brexit, is here again.
I was in Joshua Tree a few years back, and Incident At Phantom Hill was one of the films I bought to bring back memories of the wonderful place.
The Phantom Hill DVD is a very nice widescreen print. It also upscales well on the Blu ray player.
Cole,
If you are with this thread,
Great review of LAW AND ORDER (1932)
Super idea from Sidonis to pair it with the remake (1953)
As you note the master material is not in good shape but an important
release,nonetheless.
Shame about those “forced” subs,once again.
Would it not be wonderful to have both these films restored and released on
Blu Ray…a project for Mr Scorsese’s Film Foundation,perhaps.
Interesting review on DVD Classik of Sidonis’ THE TRUE STORY OF JESSE
JAMES with lots of screen grabs. They look exactly like the Koch Media
version which I have.
Considering it’s a NIck Ray picture the French critics ratings are rather lower
than I would have thought…I adore the film I might add.
Hi John,
I am not sure about the outcome on video of Law and order. The print used isn’t in a sufficient condition for a Blu-Ray but you never know…
It so sad that Universal isn’t as active as other studios in their restoration efforts. Also, they lost some prints in the 2008 fire such as The Saga of Hemp Brown starring Rory Calhoun. I would pay a lot of gold to get a clean cinemascope blu-ray of this film. For now, all we have is the Sidonis pan and scanned version sadly.
We covered The True story of Jesse James a few months back. The french Blu-Ray is a great master (probably the same as the forthcoming one from Twilight Time) which I suspect to be sourced from a recent restoration by fox (possibly in 4K).
I believe the French critics are more fond of Mr Ray’s dramas & films noirs as well as Johnny Guitar and The Lusty Men. As a result, The True Story of Jesse James is forgotten.
There is a wonderful book by French critic Bernard Eisenschitz about Nicholas Ray (that has been translated in English) and reveals the ups and downs on the making of this western and studio chief Buddy Adler’s involvement.
Big fan of the old “Law and Order” (1932). Hasn’t it had a new remastering? I seem to recall the title was included in one of those recent retrospectives of Leammle-era Universals at the Museum of Modern Art. Another excellent grim and gritty title from that same year, Tom Mix’s “Rider of Death Valley” (1932) has apparently been remastered, probably in coordination with that above retrospective.
I’d be in seventh heaven if those two could come to Blu-ray.
Thanks for the info. Apparently, the Moma showed it in 2016.
John K ,speaking of pairing originals and remakes together ,I have ordered WINCHESTER 73 ,original which is BLU RAY and remake which is DVD from Sidonis ,so maybe that’s what they’re doing with LAW AND ORDER.
The Aussie dollar is also taking a beating.I went to buy one of those Twilight Time BLU RAYS and by the time it got to checkout it was almost twice as much.
Yes, they also released Destry rides again with the 1954 Destry starring Audie Murphy.
Thanks,Cole for great feedback.
I too would love a restored CinemaScope version of SAGA OF HEMP
BROWN as well as the other “lost” Universal widescreen Westerns THE
WILD AND THE INNOCENT and DAY OF THE BADMAN.
There are several other Universal CinemaScope pictures with major
stars that have never even had a DVD release:
ISTANBUL Errol Flynn
NEVER STEAL ANYTHING SMALL James Cagney.
I see that Hollywood Scrapheap have just released SMOKE SIGNAL
another Universal picture in dire need of a decent restoration especially
in the correct ratio (2.0 ?)
John, there has been a french DVD in the correct 2.00:1 ratio of Smoke Signal since 2014 (Filmedia). The good news is that subtitles are not forced and the master is quite good. It is sold out now but you should find a second hand copy easily. Our review here : https://www.westernmovies.fr/dvd/testdvd-594-smoke-signal-dana-andrews.html
I personally prefer the open matte version (used on the spanish Suevia DVD).
Thanks,so much for the link Cole,
I think I will hold out,hopefully, for a future Blu Ray release,
as I am doing for so many Universal titles-heaven knows
there are enough companies licensing titles from Universal
these days.
Love That VERY SUCCESSFUL Brexit, IF only the anti-Brexit fools would give it an honest chance.
Well done Johnny. The anti-Brexiteers are indeed foolish because they’re essentially undermining their own country and playing into the hands of profoundly corrupt and greedy foreign power.
Wow, I’m not sure, but I hope this post works. It’s been a long time since your old pal Johnny Guitar has be able to post. One day several months ago I tried to sign in like usual and something I still can’t explain happened where the system here would not accept my name or my email. So just now I tried to sign in as Johnny Guitar again and maybe it worked, but I had to use an old email of mine that is no longer valid. Every time I use my real email the system immediately tells me it doesn’t recognize me and won’t even allow me to change the password or anything. I don’t even know if this post will show up. This is an experiment. If I can’t get back in again, know that I still enjoy reading comments here. Hope I’ll be able to get thru the WordPress red tape again.
Johnny Guitar,we were wondering where you were.Good to have you back again.Cole Armin ,I just bought the 2 seasons of F TROOP for $10 each .I don’t normally like comedy westerns,with a few exceptions but these might be ok.
Shout Factory is releasing a 50th Anniversary edition BLU RAY of HANG ÉM HIGH in December with extras to be announced at a later date .The same story with COBRA to be released in January ,so I will buy them if the extrs are worth it.
Good to see you on the trail again, Lee. We all wondered where Johnny Guitar was these days.
I’ve got my Colt 45’s loaded,my flak jacket on and boy, am I pissed
(the USA version not the UK meaning…)
I thought the Beatles/John Lennon reference would bring our enigmatic
blogmeister into the mix but never mind.
Toby hates us getting all political but today I don’t care.
What’s more I’ve brought Johnny G back into the mix…Johnny your take on
UK politics sucks brother.
Brexit will NEVER work because a huge majority of the population have lost
the work ethic. We need immigrants to do all the jobs our lazy feral underclass
refuse to do.Even if their benefits were withdrawn they would still be unemployable because their minds are destroyed by the new breed of drugs like
crack,skunk and spice.
The UK actually gives disabled benefit to junkies alcoholics and folk who
gorge themselves on burgers and pizzas.
Without immigrants the national health service would crumble as well as
most of the service industry sector.
The feral,racist underclass are going to be hit hardest if we go for a “hard”
brexit as we import so much of our food anyway. The pound will sink even
further.
That’s my whole point when I gripe about the high cost of Kino Lorber
and Twilight Time releases,when the pound was $1.75-$1.60 things were fine
but now it’s dipped to $1.27 that’s a whole different matter.
The only person who talked any sense regarding Brexit was the great Will Self
who stated “not everyone voting for Brexit is a racist,but you can be sure
EVERY racist in the country will vote for Brexit.”
I hate having my future decided by “meatheads”
To be frank I’d much rather talk about Tom Simcox and I’m sorry my comments
did not drawer others into the conversation,furthermore I don’t give a damn
if Toby deletes this post or closed the thread down.
Well said, John! Spot on!
John, I assume all you have written is so, but your conclusion is to let an unproductive underclass se the economic and political agenda?
Barry, it’s great to have the cool breeze of rational insight blow away some of this hot air! Your statement querying why a nation should allow (an undoubtedly real) feral underclass to set any kind of political agenda is absolutely on the money. Probably there are also more pressing issues when considering a great nation’s future than the ability to cheaply import old Cowboy pictures. Excellent though they might be. Also they idea of feral (there’s that word again!), Leftist, spluttering ex-junkie Will Self being any kind of credible political commentator raised a wry smile if not a LOL. Will being a kind of faux-academic ‘meathead’.
typo … ‘the idea’ … rather than ‘they idea’… whoops!
BTW….Welcome back Johnny,even if sometimes we differ.
It’s Charles Bronson’s birthday today-a great day for a showdown!
It didn’t let me in again. Trying again now. Testing.
It seems to be a regular roulette wheel spin as to whether I will be able to post here or not. Wrote a brilliant bit here, but PLINK, it disappeared and wouldn’t let me post. Sheesh.
Well, I’ll be brief in case I’m out again. John K, I really don’t like to have to argue with you esp. here since this ain’t the roundup for it. But I do enjoy your western commentaries, so let’s just say we will agree to disagree.
As a kid, I did use to watch F Troop when it was originally broadcast on TV, but haven’t seen it in a long time. I remember it was funny though, sort of like a western version of Sgt. Bilko.
In the spirit of (hopefully) catching up, Toby, I recently saw Sunset in The West, WOW, the color was fantastic, I felt like it was almost as good as Technicolor. And your commentary was the perfect kind of commentary one goes to listen to commentary for. It was very informative and interesting throughout. Thanks for not doing a Marlo Thomas That Girl DVDs style commentary. She’d sit in silence most of the time, breaking it up with an occasional “I don’t remember that. or a “I don’t remember this episode.” or “Which episode is this?” or “Who’s that actor?”!!!!(She doesn’t remember??) or the silence could have been broken up with an occasional titter or snort with the insightful remark, “That was funny.”
Great job Toby and congratulations on a job done exceedingly well.
While I’m able, here’s a great picture of the man of the hour, if you can’t see it, click on it.
Hi Johnny. Thanks for posting this nifty image of Old Stone Face. Recently I’ve found myself (for-no-particular reason) enjoying a season of Bronson pictures including the latter-day Golan-Globus thick-ear urban massacres as well as the great man’s extremely varied Western output. Amidst the undoubtedly enjoyable dross (such as the pretty dreadful WHITE BUFFALO) I chanced upon an earlier picture I had previously overlooked – THE VALDEZ HORSES from 1973. Modest yet beautifully directed by the great John Sturges it features excellent performances by Charlie and even the inevitable Jill Ireland. The very decent UK R2 DVD looks open matte to my eye and zoomed up well to 16 x 9. Well worth a look and obviously well worth a Blu -Ray upgrade.
Oh, and while the iron is hot (I’m currently making it in here) I wanted to tell everyone of a find I came across quite by accident. I am a big fan, all my life starting when I was a little kid, of background music, I mean the good background music you hear in some TV shows. Some of my favorite background music can be heard in Adv. of Superman (George Reeves ’50’s series Seasons 1 & 2), also from Mission: Impossible, Dark Shadows, Hanna Barberra ’50’s and early ’60’s toons ex. Flintstones and Yogi Bear etc., and the Wild Wild West TV show, of course, not the abomination recent movie. Speaking of movies, also love soundtrack of “Thunderball”.
Well, I love collecting soundtrack CDs or records. In recent years I’ve been able to find soundtracks to all my favorite shows (all those listed above) EXCEPT one stubbornly elusive CD collection, that is the music from Wild Wild West. For years I’ve been checking to see if the Wild Wild West soundtrack is available yet or not. Then about 3 weeks ago, in doing another search I was shocked and thrilled to see that the one TV favorite soundtrack never available before is NOW available, it’s the original soundtrack to TV’s Wild Wild West!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here’s a picture of the 4 CD set!!:
It’s a limited edition CD set created by La La Land Records, who do a great job at putting out all kinds of original soundtracks, including the excellent TV Mission: Impossible multi-CD set.
My favorite Wild Wild West songs are the ones used for the fight scenes, really great stuff there. I haven’t heard all 4 CDs yet, only the first 2, but I’ve already heard one of the fantastic fight songs, hopefully the other CDs will have the other fight song. Here’s La La Land’s information:
https://lalalandrecords.com/wild-wild-west-the-limited-edition-4-cd-set/
Here’s the great fight song (hopefully this works):
[audio src="http://johndadlez.com/MP3/WildWildWest/2-20.mp3" /]
This is the music I’ve been looking for since I was old enough to collect records in the ’60’s and have been searching for for decades since. It’s finally, on a limited basis (so buy while you can) available, another answer to my prayers.
Here’s to Jim & Artie and even to loveable Dr. Loveless.
Lee R, welcome back and thanks for the good information about background music.
John K, INCIDENT AT PHANTOM HILL(1966) is a good solid and competently done Western with a really good cast. I first saw this movie on TV back in 1967. It was shown quite a lot in the late 1960’s and early ’70’s. Of course, any
Western benefits from the presence of Dan Duryea and Robert Fuller. Fuller turns in a solid performance in a rare leading role in a Western movie. He did his own stunts and looked good at it.
Dan Duryea had previously worked with Fuller on three episodes of LARAMIE(1959-63). “Stage Stop” the first episode of the new series, which was directed by Herschel Daugherty and aired on September 15, 1959; “The Long Riders” episode aired October 25, 1960, which was directed by Lesley Selander; and “The Mountain Men” episode aired October 17,1961, which was directed by Joe Kane. All good and worth watching.
The supporting cast are top notch good, Claude Akins, Noah Beery, Denver Pyle, Tom Simcox, Linden Chiles, and William Phipps registered themselves very well. Jocelyn Lane didn’t really have the acting chops to create any real acting chemistry with Fuller, but she was okay. Lane’s homage to Napoleon Bonaparte on the cover of LUI(February, 1966) magazine is, needless to say, quite different.
Director of photography William Margulies works well within Technicolor-Techniscope. The movie is filled with the natural beauty of Joshua Tree and Lake Piru, California locations. I’m envious of Mike Richards being able to visit Joshua Tree.
Tom Simcox was one of the talented actors, whose presence made many TV shows and movies better, In INCIDENT AT PHANTOM HILL Simcox portrayed a cavalry lieutenant, who was no pacifist. Linden Chiles portrayed the pacifist doctor. I remember seeing Tom Simcox a lot during the 1960’s, ’70’s, an ’80’s. He was in a lot of Western TV shows, especially GUNSMOKE. That is why John Lennon , of The Beatles, called Simcox that “Yankee cowboy.” Apparently Simcox was into Transcendental Meditation and he and other so-called celebrities traveled to India in February, 1968 to learn the proper way to meditate from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the “Giggling Guru.”
John Lennon accused his wife, Cynthia, of having an affair with Simcox. In her book JOHN(2005), Cynthia wrote that the idea of her having an affair with Simcox was preposterous! So, Tom Simcox, the “Yankee cowboy’s” brush against John and Cynthia Lennon.
So to sum up, Tom Simcox never actually brushed against Cynthia but still managed to rub John up the wrong way?!
Nick, who knows? In her book JOHN(2005), Cynthia related that John was probably looking for a get out of their marriage clause by using her as the villain. John and Yoko Ono had become an item before the trip to India.
That’s interesting background info re Tom Simcox and the Lennons, Walter.
It’s just a pity that Robert Fuller came along too late to make many western films as he was a ‘natural’ who loved (and still does) the western genre. He always seemed to do his own stunts in the fine “LARAMIE” TV series too. I have more than once ‘banged on’ here about that TV western as I loved it from the day it was first shown in the UK on 17th October 1959. Dan Ullman was heavily associated and many episodes directed by either Joe Kane or Les Selander, which I think is why it was such a good action series. I am sure Robert Fuller is proud of his work there.
Thanks Walter,
For the Simcox feedback and my error regarding Linden Chiles.
I was hoping you would comment in detail on INCIDENT AT PHANTOM HILL
and indeed you have.
Germany seem to love releasing these Universal programmer Westerns
in high-def and it’s really good to see them release a later one.
I feel that Neugent’s script is good enough to have been made 10 years
earlier with James Stewart,Duryea and Joanne Dru,or perhaps Julia Adams.
I do like to point out to Toby about his non appearance on his own blog,
but as we all know he has a fistful of commentaries to contend with,as well as
a day job.
At any rate his fame is spreading-Glenn Erickson’s review of LISBON has
two full paragraphs waxing lyrical about our “Homeboy”
Glenn is not over impressed with certain elements of the film-he seems most
impressed with supporting player Yvonne Furneaux. (who can blame him)
Glenn loves the transfer and Toby’s commentary.
“Toby does not let his ego get in the way of his opinions-unlike so many
so called “experts” doing commentaries these days”
Glenn (at Cinesavant) has Toby’s A MAN ALONE to be reviewed soon.
Toby will love the way Glenn highlights supporting player Francis Lederer’s
great screen moments-PANDORA’S BOX; RETURN OF DRACULA. Quiet so!
That’s the best review one of my commentaries has gotten so far. I was very stoked, and flattered to read it. Thanks for bringing it up, John.
Jerry, you are so right about the major contributions of the talented writer/producer/director Daniel B. Ullman to the making of LARAMIE(1959-63). This show has always been one of my favorites. Thank you, John Smith and Robert Fuller and everyone else involved in making this top notch Western series. I agree in that Robert Fuller was a natural for Westerns and he did manage to keep his hand in Westerns throughout his career, but not as much as he would have liked.
Some more good information on Tom Simcox can be found on IMDb. I usually don’t go by their trivia items, unless a source is named, from which the info came from. In Tom Simcox’s case the sources are listed. i hope someone is interviewing him, because he would be a wealth of information.
John K, I agree with you about Frank Nugent’s script being good enough to have been made 10 years earlier with James Stewart,Dan Duryea, Joanne Dru,or Julia Adams. Looking back I appreciate the movie makers that were trying to keep the traditional Western movies going in the mid and late 1960’s. Universal Studios was still releasing traditional Westerns, even after Audie Murphy was no longer at the studio.
I would like to point out Producer Howard Christie. He had produced the Legendary Western TV series WAGON TRAIN(1957-65) and produced the first season of LAREDO(1965-66). What he did was to produce re-makes of previous Universal Western movie hits from the past. Not identical, but loosely based on re-makes. The first out of the chute was GUNFIGHT IN ABILENE(1967) starring Bobby Darin, Emily Banks, Leslie Nielsen, and Don Galloway. It was a re-make of SHOWDOWN AT ABILENE(1956) starring Jock Mahoney; RIDE TO HANGMAN’S TREE(1967) starring Jack Lord, Melodie Johnson, James Farentino, and Don Galloway. It was a re-make of BLACK BART(1948) starring Dan Duryea; A MAN CALLED GANNON(1968) starring Anthony Franciosa, Michael Sarrazin, Judi West, and Susan Oliver. It was a re-make of MAN WITHOUT A STAR(1955) starring Kirk Douglas; and JOURNEY TO SHILOH(1968) starring James Caan, Michael Sarrazin, Brenda Scott, Don Stroud, Paul Peterson, Michael Burns, Jan-Michael Vincent, and Harrison Ford. This movie wasn’t a re-make. The screenplay was written by Gene L. Coon from the 1960 novel by Will Henry.
I first saw these movies on TV in 1968-69. Yes, they were released to the theaters and then the next year they were on NBC-TV. I later saw the originals and they were better, but these late 1960’s Westerns were good solid entertainment made in the traditional ways. I thought A MAN CALLED GANNON was a really good one. In my opinion, they are worth watching. We talk more about A.C. Lyles’ Westerns made for Paramount, but I think we should give Howard Christie his over due credit, for these Universal Westerns.
I’d love to see those Christie pictures. I’ve somehow missed most of them over the years.
The long,long Halloween………………
Firstly I feel I owe Johnny Guitar a word or two regarding my “rant”
now,thankfully he seems to be back on board….
This is my FINAL word on the subject,honest!
Although I voted remain,I am also a firm believer in democracy the people
have decided and that should not be questioned.
Furthermore I predicted the outcome of the vote,well knowing the mood
of the Nation.
I feel all these protests,demos and marches are as futile as they are pointless.
The problem is,the two people who should be steering the Brexit talks
and indeed leading the country are either confined to the backbenches or
have resigned from the government….a sad situation indeed.
Regarding Mr Self,part of me has always wanted to be Will Self as I have
always wanted to be urbane,raffish and louche but sadly I’m none of these.
Hello Walter,
Nobody could be less urbane,raffish and louche than myself sadly,
a North London Working Class “oik” is more to the point,but it’s rather cool
that a “NLWCO” can communicate on these pages with someone from
a rural background in America’s heartland.
Yet again your Howard Christie/later Universal comments cover ground
few,if any have covered before.
GUNFIGHT IN ABILENE cannot overcome Darin’s total mis-casting,
the best one can say,is that at least he was earnest.
I agree A MAN CALLED GANNON was pretty good,not a patch on the
original,but not without interest as well.
I’m also rather fond of the two Tony Young Westerns HE RIDES TALL and
TAGGART especially the latter.
I wonder if Jane Asher was present during the Beatles/Tom Simcox
meditation sessions-I always had a crush on Jane and still do,wonderful
underrated British actress. She was even good playing the moppet who
encounters Richard Wordsworth’s plant/man mutant in the classic
THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT (The Creeping Unknown)
I fondly remember seeing Jane on the London stage with Tom Conti in
Who’s Life Is It Anyway, I had a hard time wondering who I was more smitten
by,Jane or my girl friend at that time.
According to the stuff on imdb Tom Simcox did ask Cynthia Lennon if she
had a twin sister….would that count as harassment in the current climate.
I could be wrong, maybe I had a ‘senior moment’. But I could swear that I saw THE SAGA OF HEMP BROWN in what appeared to be a one-time showing on a western channel lately — and I thought it was in CinemaScope! And if it WASN”T in ‘SCOPE, It was really a strong wish that it WAS….Well, maybe it was a dreadful Pan & Scan, but I enjoyed , anyway, seeing that Rory Calhoun western again after so many years! I thought it to be one of his best.
That would be great as I’m unaware of any home video release or recent showing in the rightful format.