TOMMY LEE JONES' 'HOMESMAN' PREMIERS AT CANNES
‘THE HOMESMAN’ had its world premiere Sunday night at the
Cannes Film Festival. While hundreds of
films will screen during the festival, and thousands will be bought and sold, only
a handful of films are accepted into competition every year, and THE HOMESMAN
is one of the few. Based on the novel of
the same name by Glendon Swarthout, who also wrote the novel THE SHOOTIST, it’s
the story of a man set to be hanged as a claim-jumper, who is given the chance
to redeem himself by helping transport three madwomen to an insane asylum. The star and director is Tommy Lee Jones, and
the woman he’s helping is played by Hilary Swank. Both Oscar-winners, they are joined by a third,
Meryl Streep, and the rest of the exceptional cast includes Hailee Stanfield
from TRUE GRIT, Oscar nominee John Lithgow, James Spader, William Finchner,
Barry Corbin and Grace Gummer. At the
recent Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival I had the opportunity to interview Miles
Swarthout, son of Glendon, who scripted THE SHOOTIST, and has plenty to say
about both films. You’ll be reading that
interview soon in the Round-up.
Tommy Lee Jones and Hilary Swank Sunday at Cannes
CANNES TO HONOR SPAGHETTI WESTERN’S 50TH
ANNIVERSARY
Acknowledging that the explosion of Western action
with a Italian/Spanish flavor began five decades ago, the Cannes Film Festival
will feature screenings of two of Sergio Leone’s classic films. THE GOOD, THE
BAD, AND THE UGLY was screened on Saturday night. The one that started it all, A FISTFUL OF
DOLLARS, will screen on Sunday, May 24th, after the Awards
Ceremony, and will be hosted by Quentin Tarantino. The copy will be a new restoration done from
the original Techniscope camera negative.
And what better way to honor the subgenre than to
demonstrate that the Spaghetti Western is alive and well. Franco Nero, the screen’s original DJANGO
(1966) will star in DJANGO LIVES! and producer Mike Malloy (of THE SCARLET WORM
fame) is at Cannes with Resolution Entertainment hoping to
wrap up financing. In the sequel –
actually the third Franco Nero/DJANGO outing following 1987’s DJANGO STRIKES
AGAIN – the gunman will have turned up in Los Angeles in the early days of the silent movie industry, working, as many former lawmen and outlaws did, as a technical
advisor on westerns. I am very eager to
see this movie made, so if you’ve got a hankering to invest, drop me a line and
I’ll put you in touch with Mike.
DJANGO LIVES director Joe D'Augustine & Franco Nero
MEL BROOKS AT THE TCM FEST ON ‘BLAZING SADDLES’
Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder
One of the high points of this year’s TCM CLASSIC
FILM FESTIVAL for Western fans was on Friday night, April 11th, when
the tremendous Chinese Theatre, now with a huge IMAX screen, was 100% packed to
see Mel Brooks introduce his 1974 western comedy sensation, BLAZING
SADDLES. There are quite a few western
comedies when you think about it. Among
my favorites are CAT BALLOU, CITY SLICKERS, the Burt Kennedy comedies like
SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF, and the TRINITY films. That’s not to mention Bob Hope’s THE
PALEFACE, and recent entries like SHANGHAI NOON and THE THREE AMIGOS. There was once a time when every comedy movie
star did a western comedy, like Jack Benny in BUCK BENNY RIDES AGAIN, Laurel
and Hardy’s WAY OUT WEST and THE MARX BROTHERS GO WEST. Almost every series eventually had one – from
OUT WEST WITH THE HARDYS to BOWERY BUCKAROOS with the Bowery Boys. In twelve days we’ll have another, A MILLION
WAYS TO DIE IN THE WEST. But few would
argue that the best known, and one of the funniest, is Mel Brooks’ BLAZING
SADDLES.
One serious note about Mel Brooks. Speaking as a transplanted New Yorker who
loves the city and loves Broadway, we can never applaud Mel Brooks enough,
following the 911 attack, for having the courage and independence to open THE
PRODUCERS on schedule, not only bringing much needed laughter to a terrified
city and nation, but letting the terrorists know that they hadn’t broken our
spirit, and couldn’t change our way of life.
As always, practically everything Mel Brooks says is
actually shouted, and should be followed with an exclamation point. In a town of false modesty, his very real
immodesty is wonderfully refreshing. After
he walked onto the stage to deafening applause, singing the theme of the movie,
and before he was joined by Robert Osborne, Mel spotted some very young
audience members.
MEL BROOKS: You
kids have never seen BLAZING SADDLES.
They’re in for a weird surprise. It
may be my favorite movie. It may be the
funniest movie ever made. Bless you for
all coming here and being a part of this night.
I really appreciate it. I’m going
to talk to Mr. Osborne,
ROBERT OSBORNE:
That standing ovation was well-deserved.
I think it’s also amazing that this movie came out in 1974, as did YOUNG
FRANKENSTEIN.
MEL BROOKS:
The same year, and they were #1 and #2 for the year.
ROBERT OSBORNE:
Two of the funniest movies of all time – no question about it. This was a difficult movie to sell, wasn’t
it?
MEL BROOKS: I
remember the first screening for the executives at Warner Brothers. John Calley was running the studio. Dick Shepherd had left, and there were like
eight other guys, all executives at Warner Brother, and they all said (with
expressions of disgust), “Oi! Oooh!
Ay!” This one said, “We can’t release
it. It’s too vulgar for the American
public.” At any rate, John Calley said,
“Let’s try it in New York, Chicago and L.A., and if there’s any love for it,
we’ll release it.” So they released it
in those cities, and believe it or not, it was the biggest hit Warner Brothers
had that year.
ROBERT OSBORNE:
Before they released it, did they ask you to cut anything from the
picture?
MEL BROOKS:
That’s a good question, Robert. He
knows his stuff. The truth is, the head
of Warner Brothers at the time, who will go nameless, was Ted Ashley. The preview was really great. We had cattle in the lobby. We had cowboys riding up and tying up their
horses outside the theatre. We had tons
of Raisenetts. And the audience loved
it. And Ashley took me by the scruff of
the neck, threw me into the manager’s office, handed me a legal pad and pencil,
and said, “Take these notes!” I said
yessir. He said, “No farting! You can’t punch the horses! You can’t beat old ladies up!” There were like twenty of those notes. And if I followed all of these notes the
movie would have been twelve minutes long.
So when he left, I crumpled up all my notes. And I threw the balled-up notes across the
office, into a wastebasket, and John Calley said, “Good filing!” I didn’t cut a sentence, or a word, or even
an expression. A lot of people don’t
know that. So keep it under your hat.
ROBERT OSBORNE:
That was a daring movie to make at that time, the (scatological) jokes
and stuff; that was dangerous territory to go into.
MEL BROOKS: It
was beyond vulgar. It was dirty.
ROBERT OSBORNE:
Where did you get the courage to do that?
MEL BROOKS: I
didn’t know better. You know, if I was
wiser, if I was more diplomatic, or smarter, or if I realized what the rules of
courtesy and kindness were, I never would have made the movie. I was a scruffy little kid from Brooklyn, and
there are no rules, or there are just a few.
And there were some things that I just had to say. I’d been watching westerns all my life –
three westerns on a Saturday morning. Hoot
Gibson, Tim McCoy, Ken Maynard! I loved
westerns! And they’d sit around the
campfire. And they’d eat straight beans
off a tin plate -- a lot of
beans. And they’d drink black coffee
from a tin cup. And you never heard a
sound across the prairie! I decided
to…let the boot drop. I wanted to tell
the truth about westerns.
The German version
Richard Pryor, one of the writers, I asked Warner
Brothers to hire him as the black sheriff, to play Black Bart. And they said no, we can’t get him insured
because he was arrested for drugs; we can’t do it. Richard and I did a lot of auditions, looking
for our sheriff. Finally there was this
guy from Broadway, and his name was Little, Cleavon Little. And he was absolutely wonderful. And beautiful. And Richard said something really
profound. He said, “If I had the part, I
could be Cuban, light as I am; I’m coffee-colored. And I’ve got a mustache; I could be the Cuban
sheriff. This guy is so black, and he’s gonna
scare the shit out that town. And he’s
what you want – he’s so damned handsome and so talented.” And we were so lucky to get him, to play the
lead. And by the way, a lot of the
people in that movie are long gone (note: of the top-billed stars, Cleavon
Little, Slim Pickens, Harvey Korman, Madeline Kahn, and David Huddleston are
all gone. Only Mel, and Gene Wilder are
still around). But in the audience
tonight is the school marm who punches one of the bad guys -- Carol Arthur is
sitting somewhere out there! (Carol
Arthur, who will be 80 in August, once married to Dom Deluise, and a veteran of
four Mel Brooks movies as well as THE SUNSHINE BOYS, stands for tremendous and
well-earned applause)
ROBERT OSBORNE:
Also you had a lot of casting changes.
Gig Young was originally going to play the Waco Kid, right?
MEL BROOKS: I
hired Gig Young to play the Waco Kid. He
was a great actor, he’d won the Academy Award for THEY SHOOT HORSES DON’T THEY,
and I knew he was a recovering alcoholic, so he was perfect for the Waco Kid.
Unfortunately he was not really…recovered.
So we’re in the first scene, there’s something green on his mouth. And he’s spraying the jail-cell all green,
and I said, I don’t think he’s ready yet.
I was stuck, and I didn’t know what to do. So I called my best friend in New York, I
called Gene Wilder and said, what am I going to do? And he said just get a costume for me to
wear, and a gun, and a horse to ride on, and I’ll be there tomorrow. And he did.
And he saved me, and he saved the picture. It was fate.
ROBERT OSBORNE:
And fate that you had Madeline Kahn.
MEL BROOKS: She came to my office, and after I heard her sing,
I said, raise your skirt; I want to see your legs. She said, “Oh, it’s that kind of an audition.” I
said no, no. It’s just that you’re
playing like Marlene Dietrich, and you’ve got to straddle that chair. She said okay, she raised her skirt, she straddled
the chair. She sang I’m Tired, and I fell madly in love with her. She was so good, so talented, so richly
talented. You know, Madeline could have
been a coloratura in opera. That’s how great a voice she had. Also she had a sense of comedy, with her own
strange timing, and her own weird little takes – she was just amazingly
talented. And she died of ovarian cancer
– just awful. And Harvey, the great
Harvey Korman. One of my favorite
moments is Harvey making love, physically, to the globe. And when he says, “My mind is aglow with
whirling, transient nodes of thought careening through a cosmic vapor of
invention.” And Slim Pickens says,
“Ditto.” And Harvey says, “Ditto? Ditto, you provincial putz?” There are some moments that tickle me so
much. I think this could be the funniest
picture of all time.
ROBERT OSBORNE:
One last question. Could this
motion picture be made today?
MEL BROOKS: Well,
you couldn’t say the ‘n’-word. You know, I said we don’t have to use the
‘n’-word, but Richard Pryor said, “No.
We are writing a story about racial prejudice. It’s a fact; it’s real. And the more we use it, from the bad-guys and
redneck side, then the more the victory of the sheriff, the black sheriff, who
in the end is loved by the townspeople.”
And I said okay Richard. The
‘n’-word will be all over the screen.
ROBERT OSBORNE:
Thank you for this movie. Thank
you for being here. Thank you for Mel
Brooks.
WEDNESDAY’S ‘COWBOY LUNCH @ THE AUTRY’ SALUTES JOHN
WAYNE!
At 12:30 pm on Wednesday, May 21st, Rob
Word’s third-Wednesday-of-the-month Cowboy
Lunch @ The Autry will salute John Wayne just a week short of what would
have been 107th birthday.
Admission is free (although you have to buy your own lunch) and after
the feed, Rob will lead a discussion with folks who worked with the Duke in various
capacities, and are admirers of his work.
Last month’s luncheon celebrated THE WILD BUNCH, and Rob brought
together actors Bo Hopkins and L.Q. Jones, master horse and car stunt-man Gary
Combs, and costumer-turned-screenwriter-turned-producer for Peckinpah Gordon
Dawson.
As people’s schedules can change at the last minute,
Rob understandably plays it cagey as to who will take part. But I can tell you that among the folks he’s
invited are one of Wayne’s greatest romantic co-stars, a co-star in Wayne’s
best TV comedy turn, a fine character actor who did six films with the Duke, and
the man who scripted Wayne’s last movie.
And you never know who will turn up in the audience. Last time I found myself sitting among actors
Paul LeMat, Morgan Woodward, and GUNSMOKE writer Jim Byrnes.
Below is a poignant teaser, with director Rupert
Hitzig talking about directing Mickey Rooney and Ben Johnson in a western at
the end of the trail.
THAT’S A WRAP!
That’s it for now – have a great week!
Happy Trails,
Henry
All Original Contents Copyright May 2014 by Henry C.
Parke – All Rights Reserved
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