Posted in Denver Pyle, Dimitri Tiomkin, Hank Worden, John Dierkes, John Wayne, Richard Boone, Richard Widmark, The Real West, United Artists on March 6, 2020| Leave a Comment »
On this day in 1836, The Alamo fell as Mexican forces led by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna stormed the fortress after a 13-day siege. All of the Texan defenders (almost 200 of them), including William Travis, James Bowie and Davy Crockett, were killed in battle.
The image is the 24-sheet poster (or billboard) for John Wayne’s epic tribute to those who served at The Alamo. Today’d be a good day to watch it.
Posted in 1957, Dimitri Tiomkin, Hank Worden, James H. Griffith, John Wayne, Paul Landres, Richard Boone, Richard Widmark, Tim Holt, United Artists, William H. Clothier on March 31, 2018| 11 Comments »
This is the last shot in Bedazzled (1967), the very funny Peter Cook/Dudley Moore film. Presley and I watched it recently, and I noticed the theater marquee on the right. John Wayne’s The Alamo (1960) is playing.
I reached out to some of our UK division, and as you’d expect, John Knight came through: “The cinema in question was The London Pavilion. It mainly served as a West End showcase for United Artists releases. They showed lots of United Artists horror double bills like The Monster That Challenged The World and The Vampire (both 1957). My first solo visit to a West End cinema was to the London Pavilion to see Phantom Of The Opera with Captain Clegg (both 1962).”
Posted in 1957, Allan Dwan, Burt Lancaster, Dimitri Tiomkin, John Ford, John Sturges, Kirk Douglas, Old Tucson, Paramount, Rhonda Fleming, The Real West on October 26, 2017| 42 Comments »
The gunfight at the O.K. Corral took place 136 years ago today — around 3 PM to be exact, as Wyatt Earp, his brothers and Doc Holliday took on a group of outlaws called the Cowboys.
Over the years, it’s spawned some terrific movies, from Allan Dwan’s Frontier Marshal (1939) to John Ford’s My Darling Clementine (1946) to John Sturges’ Gunfight At The O.K. Corral (1957, above) to Tombstone (1993).
Posted in 1950, Dale Robertson, Dimitri Tiomkin, DVD reviews, releases, TV, etc., Edwin L. Marin, George "Gabby" Hayes, James H. Griffith, Jim Davis, Kino Lorber, Nat Holt, Pre-1950, Randolph Scott on January 19, 2016| 35 Comments »
Directed by Edwin L. Marin
Starring Randolph Scott, George “Gabby” Hayes, Bill Williams, Victor Jory, Karin Booth, Douglas Kennedy, Jim Davis, Dale Robertson, James Griffith
Kino Lorber has announced they’ll have Randolph Scott in The Cariboo Trail (1950) out on DVD and Blu-ray sometime this year. With a great cast (it was Gabby Hayes’ last movie), solid direction from Edwin L. Marin, and Cinecolor’s gloriously funky hues, it’s a load of fun and not to missed.
Directed by Edwin L. Marin
Starring Randolph Scott, Jane Wyatt, J. Carrol Naish, Victor Jory, Nancy Olson
First, Scott, Marin and producer Nat Holt gave us Canadian Pacific (1949). It’s not as good as the second picture, but I’m looking forward to seeing its Cinecolor in high-definition.
Thanks to Mike Kuhns and Vitaris for the tips.
Posted in 1959, Angie Dickinson, Ben Johnson, Burt Kennedy, Dean Martin, Denver Pyle, Dimitri Tiomkin, DVD reviews, releases, TV, etc., Hank Worden, Harry Carey Jr., Howard Hawks, Marie Windsor, Neville Brand, Old Tucson, Post-1959, Walter Brennan, Ward Bond on February 27, 2015| 15 Comments »
Rio Bravo (1959)
Directed by Howard Hawks
Starring John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, Angie Dickinson, Walter Brennan, Ward Bond
My favorite Western, Rio Bravo (1959), has been missing from Blu-ray for some time now (I’d heard it had something to do with music or story rights). Was really happy to find out it was being reissued. However, I’d heard the old Blu-ray wasn’t anything to write home about, and there’s no news yet on if this new edition is remastered or not (I’m assuming not). A new 2K transfer was done not long ago, but there’s been no mention of it for the Blu-ray.
Regardless, Rio Bravo is a terrific movie and certainly worth adding to your high-definition shelf. When it arrives June 2, I’d love to toast my copy with a bit of Duke bourbon (haven’t located it in North Carolina yet).
The Train Robbers (1973)
Directed by Burt Kennedy
Starring John Wayne, Ann-Margret, Rod Taylor, Ben Johnson
Also coming to Blu-ray are a couple of later Wayne pictures. The Train Robbers (1973) is a lot of fun, Burt Kennedy at the top of his game. Wayne and Ben Johnson are terrific together, of course. As a kid, the train stuck in the sand, on the big Panavision screen, was a striking image that really stuck with me.
Cahill: U.S. Marshal (1973)
Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen
Starring John Wayne, George Kennedy, Neville Brand, Clay O’Brian, Marie Windsor, Harry Carey Jr., Paul Fix, Hank Worden
In some ways, Cahill: U.S. Marshal (1973) isn’t a very good movie. But as a John Wayne extended-family reunion, it can’t be beat (take a quick look at that cast). Wayne’s interplay with Neville Brand is worth the price of admission, and it’s always good to see Marie Windsor in anything.
These three titles are available separately (highly recommended, at a great price) from Warners, and as part of a John Wayne Westerns Collection set.
Thanks to Dick Vincent for the tip.
Posted in 1956, 1959, Angie Dickinson, Dean Martin, Dimitri Tiomkin, Festivals, screenings, Hank Worden, Harry Carey Jr., Howard Hawks, Jeffrey Hunter, Jimmy Stewart, John Ford, John Wayne, Lee Marvin, Old Tucson, Pre-1950, Richard Boone, Richard Widmark, Tim Holt, Walter Brennan, Ward Bond, William H. Clothier on October 30, 2014| 6 Comments »
The Cary, a newly-renovated theater in downtown Cary (naturally), North Carolina, has put together a weekend of John Wayne pictures, which includes many of his best. If anybody’s planning on going to some of these, let me know.
All of a sudden, I’m kinda glad I live here.
The Searchers (1956)
Thursday, November 6, 7 PM
Donovan’s Reef (1963)
Thursday, November 6, 9:30 PM
Rio Bravo (1959)
Friday, November 7, 7 PM
Stagecoach (1939)
Friday, November 7, 9:30 PM
Red River (1948)
Saturday, November 8, 7 PM
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
Saturday, November 8, 9:30 PM
The Alamo (1960)
Sunday, November 9, 2 PM
The Cary
122 E. Chatham Street
Cary, NC 27511
(919) 462-2051
Thanks for the tip, Jennifer.
Posted in 1955, Dimitri Tiomkin, DVD reviews, releases, TV, etc., Harry Carey Jr., John Ford, Mervyn LeRoy, Warner Archive, Warner Bros. on August 23, 2014| 16 Comments »
Produced and Directed by Mervyn LeRoy
Screenplay by Frank Butler
Cinematography by Harold Rosson
Music by Dimitri Tiomkin
CAST: Greer Garson (Dr. Julia Winslow Garth), Dana Andrews (Dr. Rourke O’Brien), Cameron Mitchell (Lt. David Garth), Lois Smith (Spurs O’Brien), Walter Hampden (Father Gabriel Mendoza), Pedro Gonzales Gonzales (Trooper Martinez Martinez), Robert J. Wilke (Karg)
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Strange Lady In Town (1955) is, well, a strange lady in town. An odd mixture of melodrama, romance, feminism and all the usual Western riding and shooting stuff, I didn’t know what to make of it at first. Watched it a second time a couple days later and decided I really did like it. Somehow it all seems to come together.
While the picture itself is certainly interesting, and we’ll get to that in a bit, the story of its production has even more melodrama. Greer Garson had left MGM for Warner Bros. At a WB dinner party she told writer Frank Butler about her love of the Santa Fe area, and Butler put together a story of 1880 Santa Fe perfectly tailored for Garson.
Warner Bros. started construction of 34 new sets around Old Tucson and got to work on casting the picture. Dana Andrews was signed, along with Cameron Mitchell and Lois Smith (in a part Natalie Wood had tried out for). Smith had just appeared in East Of Eden (1954). Shooting began in August of 1954 in Old Tucson, with snakes having to be evicted from the sets each morning and temperatures climbing into the hundreds every afternoon. Then there were some health issues.
Mervyn LeRoy (seen above with Greer Garson): “In those days, Andrews had a drinking problem… that made my life difficult… Possibly more serious was Greer Garson’s health. She isn’t the complaining sort, so when she said she felt poorly, I knew she must have felt rotten. We called the company doctor, and he got [four] doctors from the Tucson clinic for consultation. It was unanimous; she had appendicitis. The doctors agreed she really should have the appendectomy immediately. ‘No,’ Greer said, with her red-headed stubbornness. ‘I can’t do it now. There is an entire company depending on me. They’d have to shut down for a few weeks. It wouldn’t be fair to them.’ That’s what they used to call a trouper. Every night, they piled bags of ice on her abdomen. Every day, they fed her pills and the nurse was there, sticking a thermometer in her mouth between every scene.”
Back in Hollywood, Jack Warner was having a fit, as the picture went behind schedule and over budget. Finishing their Tucson work, the cast and crew headed back to California. In October, Greer Garson was rushed to the hospital for an emergency appendectomy. Production was shut down for 27 days. During that time LeRoy filled in for an ailing/bingeing John Ford on Mister Roberts (1955).
Harry Carey, Jr.: “I don’t think he had an inkling of what Mister Roberts was, but he took over. In fact, he shares directorial credit with Ford.”
When Strange Lady In Town resumed production on Stage Two at Warner Bros., LeRoy was under pressure to get it done. Scenes taking place in Boston were struck to save time and money. The picture finally wrapped, and was previewed in February 1955. It premiered in Austin, Texas, on April 12. Greer Garson hit the road for the film, something she’d never done before. It seems to have worked. Strange Lady In Town earned back its $3 million cost and turned a healthy profit.
Garson plays a doctor from Boston who, tired of being looked down on for being a woman, heads to Santa Fe in 1880 to be near her brother (Cameron Mitchell), a lieutenant in the cavalry. She quickly butts heads with the local doctor (Dana Andrews) over how to practice medicine—and about everything else. The picture packs in everything from glaucoma to bank robbery to domestic violence to Billy The Kid (Nick Adams)—and somehow it all works.
Dana Andrews, drunk or sober, is very good here. His extended fistfight with Robert J. Wilke is one of the best scenes in the film. This may be Wilke’s slimiest villain of them all, which is really saying something. Lois Smith is excellent; so is Cameron Mitchell (he never got his due). Nick Adams doesn’t have enough screen time to make much of an impression. He’d be a lot better in The Last Wagon (1956) and wonderful in Fury At Showdown (1957). Of course, this is Greer Garson’s movie, and she carries it with ease.
Warner Archive has done it again, giving us an early CinemaScope picture exactly the way it ought to be seen: widescreen with its stereo intact. Old Tucson looks terrific (even in WarnerColor) and Dimitri Tiomkin’s score is full and rich. Strange Lady In Town is an offbeat Western, for sure. Maybe it’s not for all tastes. And though it took me a while to wrap my head around it, I came away really liking it.
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Sources: A Rose For Mrs. Miniver: The Life Of Greer Garson by Michael Troyan; Take One by Mervyn LeRoy; Company Of Heroes: My Life As An Actor In The John Ford Stock Company by Harry Carey, Jr.
Posted in 1952, 1956, 1959, Ben Johnson, Burt Kennedy, Dean Martin, Dimitri Tiomkin, Festivals, screenings, Hank Worden, Harry Carey Jr., Henry Hathaway, Howard Hawks, Jeffrey Hunter, Jimmy Stewart, John Ford, John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Lee Marvin, Maureen O'Hara, Republic Pictures, Richard Widmark, Ward Bond on April 24, 2014| 11 Comments »
Posted in 1957, Burt Lancaster, Dimitri Tiomkin, DVD reviews, releases, TV, etc., Howard Hawks, John Ireland, John Sturges, John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Post-1959, Rhonda Fleming on November 11, 2013| 2 Comments »
VistaVision is a wonderful thing on Blu-ray, and here’s one I’ve been waiting for — Gunfight At The O.K. Corral (1957).
It’s coming from Warners and Paramount on March 11, 2014. Also on the way are a couple John Wayne – Howard Hawks pictures, Hatari! (1962) and El Dorado (1967).
Thanks for the tip, Paula.
Posted in Dimitri Tiomkin, John Wayne, Making Movies, The Real West on March 7, 2013| Leave a Comment »
This week marks the 177th anniversary of the fall of The Alamo. I’d just typed John Dierkes’ name when my wife brought the anniversary to my attention. So as a tiny tribute to those who fought and died in the Texas Revolution, a photo of Dierkes in John Wayne’s The Alamo (1960) seemed an obvious choice.
And it seemed downright wrong to not include Wayne, too. (Plus, Dimitri Tiomkin turned up in a Jack Benny episode last night.)
As long as this country values freedom and bravery — we still do, don’t we? — we’d better not forget these “Texians.”
50 Westerns From The 50s. 