We looked at Exhibitor magazine’s top cowboy stars for 1951 a while back. Here’s the 1950 list.
By the way, this was the year that Gabby Hayes left theaters with the Randolph Scott picture The Caribou Trail.
Archive for the ‘Tim Holt’ Category
The Exhibitor, 1950.
Posted in 1950, Charles Starrett, Gene Autry, George "Gabby" Hayes, Hopalong Cassidy, Randolph Scott, Roy Rogers, The Durango Kid, Tim Holt, William Boyd on February 17, 2023| 3 Comments »
The Exhibitor, 1951.
Posted in 1951, Gene Autry, George "Gabby" Hayes, Rex Allen, Roy Rogers, Tim Holt, William Boyd on January 12, 2023| 24 Comments »
Happy Birthday, Tim Holt.
Posted in Tim Holt on February 5, 2020| 5 Comments »
Tim Holt
(February 5, 1919 – February 15, 1973)
Happy birthday to one of my favorite cowboy stars, Mr. Tim Holt. His series of Westerns for RKO, some of the last B Westerns made, are a complete joy.
Screening: Stagecoach (1939).
Posted in Andy Devine, Claire Trevor, Festivals, screenings, John Carradine, John Ford, John Wayne, Tim Holt, Yakima Canutt on February 4, 2020| 5 Comments »
Directed by John Ford
Starring Claire Trevor, John Wayne, Thomas Mitchell, Andy Devine, John Carradine, George Bancroft, Louise Platt, Donald Meek, Berton Churchill, Tom Tyler, Tim Holt
The Graham Cinema in Graham, North Carolina, is running John Ford’s Stagecoach (1939) next week. I don’t have to tell you what a terrific, landmark movie it is.
John Wayne and Andy Devine on location. John Ford’s back there with the pipe.
Monday & Tuesday, February 10 & 11
7:00 & 9:00 pm.
The Graham Cinema
119 N Main Street
Graham, NC
And if that wasn’t cool enough, on February 24th and 25th, they’ll be running She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (1949). The Graham Cinema is a great old movie house. If you’re anywhere nearby, be sure to check it out.
A Little Over 60 Years Ago.
Posted in 1954, 1956, 1959, Audie Murphy, Columbia, Jack Arnold, Monogram/Allied Artists, Phyllis Coates, Sam Katzman, Tim Holt, United Artists, Universal (International), Whip Wilson, William Castle on December 20, 2019| 2 Comments »
Came upon this the other day and thought it was worth sharing.
The Morningside Theatre in New York City has quite a lineup on Saturday, April 16, 1959. First, there was Tim Holt in The Monster That Challenged The World (1957), then Audie Murphy in Jack Arnold’s No Name On The Bullet (1959) and finally Running Target from 1956, starring Doris Dowling, Arthur Franz and Myron Healey. Tossed into the mix were a few cartoons and Marshall Reed in a chapter of the Columbia serial Riding With Buffalo Bill (1954), produced by Sam Katzman.
Of course, the stuff coming up after it — William Castle’s The Tingler (1959), The Warrior And The Slave Girl (1958) and Whip Wilson, Fuzzy Knight and Phyllis Coates in Monogram’s Canyon Riders (1951) — sounds pretty good, too.
RIP, Nancy Gates.
Posted in 1952, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1958, 1959, Budd Boetticher, Jacques Tourneur, Joel McCrea, Nancy Gates, Randolph Scott, RKO, Tim Holt, William Castle on April 14, 2019| 6 Comments »
Nancy Gates
(February 1, 1926 – March 24, 2019)
Nancy Gates has passed away at 93. She was from Dallas, signed with RKO at just 15, and made some really good movies before retiring in 1969 to concentrate on her family.
She was particularly strong in Westerns such as Masterson Of Kansas (1954), Stranger On Horseback (1955), The Brass Legend (1956), The Rawhide Trail (1958), The Gunfight At Dodge City (1959) and Comanche Station (1960). Her other pictures include Hitler’s Children (1943), At Sword’s Point (1952), Suddenly (1954), World Without End (1956) and Some Came Running (1958). She was busy on TV, too, with everything from Maverick and Wagon Train to Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Perry Mason.
Around here, we’ll probably always remember her as Mrs. Lowe in Comanche Station. She’s really terrific in that one.
50s Westerns Flea Market Finds.
Posted in John Ford, John Wayne, Tim Holt, Yakima Canutt on March 18, 2019| 91 Comments »
A trip to Raleigh’s flea market yesterday turned up a couple of arcade cards I was really stoked to find. You see these things all the time, but it’s usually the same stars over and over again. This time, the selection was a little more varied.
First, a Yakima Canutt card from Exhibit. Dates from the 30s, I’d guess.
Canutt went from rodeo champion to cowboy star to the absolute master of movie stunts — going from doubling John Wayne in Stagecoach (1939) to doing second unit direction on my favorite movie, Where Eagles Dare (1969).
Next was a more common card, from the 40s, featuring Tim Holt. Of course, Holt’s Western series for RKO is hard to beat.
Tim Holt Tuesday #17: Tim Holt At Sunset Ranch.
Posted in 1952, Lesley Selander, Richard Martin, RKO, Tim Holt on November 13, 2018| 2 Comments »
Newark, Ohio, was the place to be on June 8, 1952.
By this time, Desert Passage (1952) — the last of the Tim Holt/Richard Martin RKO pictures, had been in release for about a week.
Tim Holt Tuesday #16: Trail Guide (1952).
Posted in 1952, DVD/Blu-Ray Reviews, Lesley Selander, Richard Martin, RKO, Tim Holt, Warner Archive on July 24, 2018| 14 Comments »
Directed by Lesley Selander
Screenplay by Arthur E. Orloff
From a story by William Lively
Cinematography: Nicholas Musuraca
Music by Paul Sawtell
Film Editor: Samuel E. Beetley
Cast: Tim Holt (Tim Holt), Richard Martin (Chito Rafferty), Linda Douglas (Peg Masters), Frank Wilcox (Regan), Robert Sherwood (Kenny Masters), John Pickard (Dawson), Kenneth MacDonald (Wheeler), Wendy Waldron (Maria), Patricia Wright (Saloon Girl), Tom London (Old Timer), John Merton (Dale)
__________
I’m way overdue for a Tim Holt Tuesday. Sorry, Mr. Holt.
By 1952, series Westerns were winding down, and Trail Guide (1952) would be one of the last of Tim Holt’s pictures for RKO. As the series began its ride into the sunset, the budgets got smaller — leaving Holt and Richard Martin, along with director Lesley Selander, to keep things going by simply being so damn good at what they do. And that’s what you have here, some real pros bringing effortless skill and charm to each and every one of the picture’s 60 minutes.
Tim and Chito lead a wagon train to Silver Springs (thanks to stock footage from Wagonmaster), a town where ranchers detest homesteaders. Tim encounters brother-and-sister ranchers (Linda Douglas and Robert Sherwood) and a crooked saloon owner (Frank Wilcox) as he tries to help the settlers stake their claims.
There’s a great fistfight, plenty of riding and the usual back-and-forth with Tim and Chito. It looks like they stayed closer to LA, probably for budget reasons, so we don’t have those stunning Lone Pine vistas. But DP Nicholas Musuraca makes the most of any location. His work is stunning in some of these things. When God’s your set decorator, budget doesn’t matter.
Linda Douglas consults the script.
Linda Douglas had a very short film career. She’d later marry Hank Greenberg of the Detroit Tigers. (There’s a great documentary on him, 1998’s The Life And Times Of Hank Greenberg. Look for it.) She’s fine here, and very pretty.
Frank Wilcox makes a great bad guy. (Why are saloon owners always crooks?) It was funny to have Wilcox talking about the oil found on the range, when a decade later, he’d play Mr. Brewster, the oil company executive who makes Jed Clampett a millionaire on The Beverly Hillbillies. Lighting isn’t around this time. Tom London is funny as an old codger with a supposedly trained dog.
It’s a shame that the series Western left us as things were getting so good — look at these Holts, the Monogram Wild Bill Elliott pictures or the Witney-directed Roy Rogers movies. Luckily, they made a lot of ’em, and they’re turning up on DVD and sometimes Blu-Ray looking terrific. Trail Guide can be found on Tim Holt Western Classics Collection, Volume 4 from Warner Archive. While there’s a fleck of dust or damaged frame here and there, it’s served up well. The four volumes leave a few pictures orphaned, probably due to problems with the available material. Hopefully they’ll turn up someday, and a fifth set will wrap ’em up. These sets are essential.
Music From The Westerns Of John Wayne And John Ford.
Posted in 1950, 1956, 1959, Andy Devine, Ben Johnson, Claire Trevor, Edmond O'Brien, Hank Worden, Harry Carey Jr., Henry Fonda, J. Carrol Naish, Jeffrey Hunter, Jimmy Stewart, John Agar, John Carradine, John Ford, John Wayne, Lee Marvin, Lee Van Cleef, Maureen O'Hara, MGM, Music, Sons Of The Pioneers, Tim Holt, Vera Miles, Ward Bond, Warner Bros., William Holden on June 29, 2018| 12 Comments »
The music label Cherry Red out of the UK has released (or is about to release) a 3-CD set Music From The Westerns Of John Wayne And John Ford. Featuring music from Stagecoach (1939), Fort Apache (1948), Three Godfathers (1948), She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (1949), Rio Grande (1950), The Searchers (1956), Horse Soldiers (1959) and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). Of course, music is always a huge part of a John Ford picture, so there’s plenty of good stuff here.
Sometimes it’s the original soundtrack (Rio Grande, Horse Soldiers), sometimes it’s from other sources. You can see a track listing here. This promises to be a very cool set. Can’t wait.
Thanks to Mr. Richard Vincent for the tip.
50 Westerns From The 50s. 