Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for August, 2019

This blog, as some of you might remember, was begun (almost 10 years ago) when I started work on a book to be titled 50 Westerns From The 50s. The thought was to “chronicle the book’s progress and have a place to stick some of the cool images and quotes and stuff I’ve come across.” That idea hasn’t changed, though the book’s been put on the back burner more than a few times. Life, work and that One-Eyed Jacks book got in the way.

Over the last couple weeks, the 50s Westerns book has returned to the top of the to-do list. And after all this time, I’ve rethought things a bit. Mainly, the 50 films themselves.

Hell Canyon Outlaws HS

My preference has always leaned toward the more obscure, often smaller pictures. I’d rather extol the virtues of something like Hell Canyon Outlaws (1957) than be the 637th person to blather on about High Noon (1952). Nothing against High Noon, but how much can I actually add to anybody’s appreciation of that one? This idea has become the book’s un-official mission statement.

There’ll be more updates as this thing moves along. I’m not going to repeat the mistake I made on the last book by tossing out release dates only to miss them time and time again.

Read Full Post »

Directed by Anthony Mann
Starring James Stewart, Ruth Roman, Corinne Calvet, Walter Brennan, John McIntire, Jay C. Flippen, Henry Morgan, Steve Brodie

It’s always a good day when another James Stewart/Anthony Mann movie makes its way to Blu-Ray. Arrow Academy has announced The Far Country (1954) for release this November.

The Far Country was Mann and Stewart’s fourth Western together, and it’s a good one. The cast and crew were well-acquainted and the movie feels like a well-oiled machine. Set in Alaska, though shot in Canada, the picture lets Mann and DP William H. Daniels make the most of the locale in widescreen. Speaking of widescreen, Arrow has promised to give us the movie two ways, in both 1.85 and 2.0 aspect ratios. Universal-International at this time was often using 2.0 — Man Without A Star (1955), Mole People (1956), etc.

Like the other Mann/Stewart Westerns, this one’s essential, folks.

Read Full Post »

Roy Rogers At Woodstock?

Jimi Hendrix closed the Woodstock Festival on the morning of August 18, 1969. 50 years ago today. Michael Lang, one of the brains behind the three-day event, wanted Roy Rogers to close out the show with “Happy Trails,” but Roy and his management turned him down.

Lang grew up with Rogers and saw it as a perfect closing. It was not to be.

Read Full Post »

Let’s Go, Dodgers!

Directed-by-John-Ford2-e1537209065884-1

As the Dodgers continue their incredible season — their best winning percentage since moving to L.A., it seemed like time for another photo of John Ford in his Dodgers cap.

Read Full Post »

Directed by George Sherman
Starring Van Heflin, Joanne Woodward, Phil Carey, Raymond Burr, Allison Hayes, Myron Healey, Nancy Kulp, James H. Griffith

Van Heflin comes home from the Civil War an ordained minister. It doesn’t go over too well since he was known in his hometown as a real hell raiser. George Sherman directed, Burnett Guffey shot it in ‘Scope and Technicolor, and it’s got a great supporting cast: Phil Carey, Raymond Burr, Allison Hayes, Myron Healey, Nancy Kulp, James H. Griffith. But it’s known today for being Joanne Woodward’s first film. It goes without saying that Heflin is terrific.

Sony has announced its September Blu-Ray release.

Read Full Post »

Rory Calhoun
(Francis Timothy McCown, August 8, 1922 – April 28, 1999)

Rory Calhoun was born 99 years ago today. Here he is with Peggie Castle in The Yellow Tomahawk (1954).

The Yellow Tomahawk is a pretty good picture. It’s not on DVD or Blu-Ray — and when you find it somewhere, it’s never in color.

Read Full Post »

Sorry, kids, but the Dora movie coming out this week is really bogus. We all know The Lone Ranger already found the Lost City Of Gold. Unless, of course, somebody lost it again.

I’ll take Jay Silverheels over a CGI monkey any day.

Read Full Post »

At long last, my book A Million Feet Of Film: The Making Of One-Eyed Jacks is actually available. All told, it took Brando five years to make the movie — and me almost 10 to write about it.

What Happens When “The World’s Greatest Actor”
Directs A Cowboy Movie?

We expected the unexpected, and that’s what we got.” — Martin Scorsese
More than three years from contracts to premiere. Six months of shooting. A thousand takes. Almost 200 miles of negative exposed. A revolving door of personnel, including Rod Serling, Sam Peckinpah and Stanley Kubrick — all of them gone before the first frame was shot. A budget that ballooned from $1.8 million to $6 million. And the eventual takeover of the film by Paramount.

If we’d made it the way Marlon wanted it made… it could have been a breakthrough Western.” — Karl Malden

A Million Feet Of Film is the story of One-Eyed Jacks (1961), Marlon Brando’s first, and only, time as director and a picture that may be better known for its troubled production than its merits as a film. 
It was an ass-breaker.” — Marlon Brando


A Million Feet Of Film
is now available from Amazon. Click the sign to get yours today.

Read Full Post »