ORIGINAL 'DJANGO' RETURNS!

THE ORIGINAL ‘DJANGO’ -- LOS ANGELES, ITALIA TO HONOR SERGIO CORBUCCI; FRANCO NERO TO ATTEND 

Los Angeles, Italia, the annual celebration of Italian film and culture, will include several tribute screenings to the great Spaghetti Western director Sergio Corbucci. The event will be held from Sunday, February 19th through Saturday the 25th, in Hollywood, at the Chinese 6 Theatre.

The festival opens on Sunday at 11:00 a.m. with a documentary about Sophia Loren, BECOMING SOPHIA, and will be followed by a 12:30 p.m. screening of Corbucci’s THE MERCENARY (1968), starring Franco Nero, Jack Palance and Tony Musante, with music by Ennio Morricione and Bruno Nicolai.

On Sunday night, at 10:15 p.m., Corbucci’s DJANGO (1966) will be screened, starring Franco Nero, Jose Bodalo and Loredana Nusciak, featuring the wonderful score by Luis Bacalov -- and Franco Nero will attend!

On Monday, at 6:30 p.m., in memory of actor Francesco Quinn, the short film THE TONTO WOMAN will be screened.

Finally, on Wednesday at 11 a.m., Corbucci’s COMPANEROS (1970) will screen, starring Franco Nero, Tomas Milian, Jack Palance, Jose Bodalo and Fernando Rey, and featuring Ennio Morricone’s brilliant score.

This event is FREE, and all seats are given out on a first-come, first-seated basis. You are asked to RSVP by email for the screenings with personal appearances. For more details, go HERE.

And for fans of stylish horror, director Dario Argento will be attending, and there will be numerous screenings of his films, including SUSPIRIA, DEEP RED, THE STENDHAL SYNDROME, CAT O’ NINE TAILS, and a 25 minute preview of his current production, DRACULA 3D.


THEN THERE'S THAT OTHER SERGIO...

Bracing the Corbucci screenings at Los Angeles, Italia,The American Cinemateque will be screening all of Sergio Leone's Westerns at their two theatres.  At the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, on Friday, February 17th, they'll begin with a double bill of A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS and FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE.  On Friday, February 18th, they'll screen THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY.  Then, at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, on Thursday, February 23rd, it's DUCK, YOU SUCKER, AKA A FISTFUL OF DYNAMITE.  On Friday, February 24th, it's ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST.  All screenings start at 7:30 p.m.


TV WESTERNS ALL OVER THE DIAL!

More and more, classic TV Westerns are available all over the TV universe, but they tend to be on small networks that are easy to miss. Of course, ENCORE WESTERNS is the best continuous source of such programming, and has been for years. Currently they run LAWMAN, WAGON TRAIN, HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL, LAREDO, RAWHIDE, GUNSMOKEandMARSHALL DILLON, which is the syndication title for the original half-hour GUNSMOKE.Incidentally, I see on Facebook that a lot of watchers are mad as Hell at losing CHEYENNE and THE VIRGINIAN.

RFD-TV is currently showing THE ROY ROGERS SHOW, first at 9:30 a.m. Sunday, Pacific Time, then repeated several times a week.They show a Roy feature every Tuesday as well, with repeats -- check your local listings.

INSP-TVshows THE BIG VALLEY Monday through Saturday, LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE seven days a week, DR. QUINN: MEDICINE WOMAN on weekdays, and BONANZA on Saturdays.

WHT runs DANIEL BOONE on weekdays from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m., Pacific Time, and on Saturdays they run two episodes of BAT MASTERSON. They often show western films on the weekend, but the schedule is sporadic.

TVLANDhas dropped GUNSMOKE after all these years, but still shows four episodes ofBONANZA every weekday.

GEB is largely a religious-programming cable outlet that runs at least one Western on Saturdays – the ones I’ve caught have been public domain Roy Rogers and John Wayne pictures –and sometimes have weekday afternoon movies as well.

For those of you who watch TV with an antenna, there are at least a couple of channels that exist between the standard numbers – largely unavailable on cable or satellite systems – that provide Western fare. ANTENNA TVis currently running RIN TIN TIN, CIRCUS BOY, HERE COME THE BRIDES, andIRON HORSE.

Another‘in between’ outfit, ME-TV, which stands for Memorable Entertainment TV, runs a wide collection: BIG VALLEY, BONANZA, BRANDED, DANIEL BOONE, GUNS OF WILL SONNETT, GUNSMOKE, MARSHALL DILLON,RAWHIDE, THE RIFLEMAN, and WILD WILD WEST.Some of these channels are hard to track down, but if they show what you’ve been missing, it’s worth the search.

And for those of you on the other side of the pond, our British correspondentNilton Hargrave tells me CBS ACTION has begun showing GUNSMOKE.

THE AUTRY NATIONAL CENTER

Built by cowboy actor, singer, baseball and TV entrepeneur Gene Autry, and designed by the Disney Imagineering team, the Autry is a world-class museum housing a fascinating collection of items related to the fact, fiction, film, history and art of the American West. In addition to their permenant galleries (to which new items are frequently added), they have temporary shows. The Autry has many special programs every week -- sometimes several in a day. To check their daily calendar, CLICK HERE. And they always have gold panning for kids every weekend. For directions, hours, admission prices, and all other information, CLICK HERE.

HOLLYWOOD HERITAGE MUSEUM

Across the street from the Hollywood Bowl, this building, once the headquarters of Lasky-Famous Players (later Paramount Pictures) was the original DeMille Barn, where Cecil B. DeMille made the first Hollywood western, The Squaw Man. They have a permanent display of movie props, documents and other items related to early, especially silent, film production. They also have occasional special programs. 2100 Highland Ave., L.A. CA 323-874-2276. Thursday – Sunday 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. $5 for adults, $3 for senior, $1 for children.

WELLS FARGO HISTORY MUSEUM

This small but entertaining museum gives a detailed history of Wells Fargo when the name suggested stage-coaches rather than ATMS. There’s a historically accurate reproduction of an agent’s office, an original Concord Coach, and other historical displays. Open Monday through Friday, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. Admission is free. 213-253-7166. 333 S. Grand Street, L.A. CA.

TCM FANATIC - WESTERN NOW ONLINE!

That's right, the segment I was interviewed for is now viewable here:

Well, I've got my computer back from the shop, so the Round-up may be 48 hours later than I'd planned, but at least it's posted.  I had a couple of other stories I was going to include, but I didn't want to put this off another day, so I'll add those stories to next week's Round-up!

Happy Trails 'til then!

Henry

All original contents Copyright February 2012 by Henry C. Parke - All Rights Reserved