REDEMPTION OF HENRY MYERS – A Movie Review
THE REDEMPTION OF HENRY MYERS is an unexpectedly
powerful and effective Western, with uniformly strong performances by a largely
unfamiliar but very talented cast. Its
co-writer and director Clayton Miller – he wrote with Charlie Shanian and Chris
VanderKaay – has only directed one feature before, but he draws absolutely natural
and effecting performances from the early-teenaged Jaden Roberts and Ezra Proch
who, while not the leads, drive a great deal of the story.
Drew Waters, who had a small but showy role as Champagne
Charlie Austin in LEGEND OF HELL’S GATE, plays Henry Myers who, with
accomplices Clay (Beau Smith) and Mac (Rio Alexander), pull a bank job that
turns needlessly bloody. They separate,
and Henry is trying to hide the loot in a church, when he’s startled by the minister
(Michael McCabe), and accidently shoots and kills him.
A year later, his accomplices track him down,
looking for the loot and all but kill him before he escapes. A family finds his nearly lifeless form, and
the young girl, Laura (Jaden Roberts), overrides her brother Will’s (Ezra Poch)
and their mother Marilyn’s (Erin Bethea) doubts, and insist they take him in
and nurse him back to health. And while
Henry heals, now living with the first real family he’s ever known, he is being
hunted by his ex-accomplices for the loot, and by Sheriff Tom (Luce Rains), for
the robbery, and the murder of the minister.
Erin Bethea & Drew Waters
This is an elegant production, and a savvy one. The filmmakers have mounted the size of movie
that they can effectively afford to produce: not too many characters, not too
many locations. Filmed at Bonanza Creek
Ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the breathtaking cinematography is by Reynaldo
Villalobos, who also shot HOUSE OF THE RIGHTEOUS, which premiered on INSP in
August (read my review HERE http://www.henryswesternroundup.blogspot.com/2014/08/insp-premieres-house-of-righteous.html
) Special credit also goes to production
designer Sean Cunningham and his crew for unself-conscious realism, and the
make-up crew headed by Mandy Danielle Benton for giving us some of the truly
dirtiest, scummy-bearded villains I’ve ever seen outside of a Sergio Corbucci
Spaghetti Western.
This is a faith-based production, and while that
used to be a warning to expect poor production values, amateur acting and sappy
plots, faith-based filmmaking has improved tremendously over the last several
years, I believe because Tyler Perry showed the way, his films bursting from
church screenings to mainstream theatres by virtue of the fact that they were
hysterical and accessible comedies.
Though not a big box-office name, Erin Bethea is a superstar in the
faith-based film world, having starred opposite Kirk Cameron in the
ground-breaking FIREPROOF, and several others.
Among the supporting players, Rio Alexander has been seen in INTO THE
WEST, 3:10 TO YUMA, LONGMIRE and the modern Western THE LAST STAND. Luce Rains has had the most sagebrush
experience, having been seen, often with a star, in DESPERADO: AVALANCHE AT
DEVIL’S RIDGE, INTO THE BADLANDS, THE YOUNG RIDERS, LIGHTNING JACK, WYATT EARP,
WILD BILL, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, 3:10 TO YUMA, APPALOOSA, SHOOT FIRST AND
PRAY YOU LIVE, DOC WEST, DEAD MAN’S BURDEN, and last year’s SWEETWATER!
Jaden Roberts & Drew Waters
If I have any criticism of the recent crop of
faith-based Westerns, it is that too many have ‘redemption’ in the title: there
was 2011’s excellent REDEMPTION: FOR ROBBING THE DEAD, the current THE
REDEMPTION OF HENRY MYERS, and last month I acted in BOONVILLE REDEMPTION. It gets confusing!
REDEMPTION OF HENRY MYERS has appeared on the
Hallmark Movie Channel, and is also available on DVD.
NAMES YOU NEVER REMEMBER – WITH FACES YOU NEVER
FORGET by Justin Humphreys – A Book Review
It’s been said that since the passing of the
cinema’s Golden Age, roughly from the coming of sound to the 1950s, character
actors are a dying breed – even a dead breed.
Author, interviewer and raconteur
Justin Humphreys has given the lie to that claim, with his fascinating,
informative, and wonderfully entertaining collection of interviews, NAMES YOU
NEVER REMEMBER – WITH FACES YOU NEVER FORGET.
Published by Bear Manor Media, it should take its rightful place on your
bookshelf, beside Leonard Maltin’s REEL STARS and Jordan Young’s REEL CARACTERS,
tomes which interviewed and profiled the great character actors from previous
decades.
Mark Lawrence on THE RIFLEMAN
The final interview of the book, with the
wonderfully villainous and delightfully gutter-mouthed Marc Lawrence, is the
only conversation that goes back to the early 1930s. The rest are with actors whose careers began
post-war, and I was particularly surprised and pleased to learn quite a bit
about two men I’d seen, but never known their names – Don Pedro Colley, whose imposing
height and menacing presence made him a natural for sci-fi films and
Blaxsploitation; and Buck Kartalian, whose diminutive stature on a
body-builder’s frame has given him a long career in action, horror and
sci-fi. Both men have unforgettable
roles in PLANET OF THE APES films – Buck as the cigar-puffing ape who abuses
Heston, and Don, in BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES, as one of the ‘A’
bomb-worshipping mutants – and James Franciscus’ torturer.
Royal Dano on THE RIFLEMAN
This is clearly a labor of love done over a long
string of years – many of the books’ ten subjects are gone; one, Royal Dano, to
whom it is dedicated, for two decades.
Western fans will be particularly interested in the interviews with
Dano, R.G. Armstrong, Bo Hopkins, and L.Q. Jones – all Western specialists on
the big and small screen, all frequent collaborators with Sam Peckipah, and
L.Q. even wrote the forward.
These are not Red-Carpet chats but detailed career
discussions – R.G. Armstrong’s at 34 pages is only a little longer than
average. And in it you’ll learn about
his desire to be a poet rather than an actor, how his time spent as a hobo
would inform his performances as a lawman dealing with hoboes, how Peckinpah
used Armstrong’s serious religiosity to create his hypocritical and fanatical
religious roles in films like RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY.
Dick Bakalyan takes the kill-shot in CHINATOWN
Dick Bakalyan, the pre-eminent juvenile delinquent
of the 1950s, later Jack Nicholson’s nemesis, Detective Loach, in CHINATOWN,
really grew up as a tough-guy – hence the famously flattened beak – and is
endlessly cheerful discussing his strings of Sinatra films and Disney
films. But as with many of the interview
subjects, his projections for the future of the industry are bleak for
directors as well as actors.
Many of the subjects’ best stories are not about
themselves, but about their co-workers.
Don Pedro Colley’s adventures working with Jack Palance in the deep
south, and Palance’s sticking his neck out for the black members of the cast,
are all the more impressive for being so unexpected. High points of both Royal Dano’s and Mark
Lawrence’s interviews are their memories of ‘Cookie,’ the great Elisha Cook
Jr., the movies’ perennial victim and, to my surprise, a drunkard of epic
proportions. Another surprise is to find
how funny in real life Royal Dano, almost always a tragic figure on-screen,
really was. His insights into working
with directors Nicholas Ray on JOHNNY GUITAR and Alfred Hitchcock on THE
TROUBLE WITH HARRY are revealing as well.
Roger Corman made Jonathan Haze a genre star,
casting him as the lead in the original LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, and he starred
in easily a dozen more for the low-budget mogul. But I was surprised to learn that, rather
than sinking into obscurity afterwards, he moved behind the camera, often partnered
with Oscar-winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler, and has had a series of
successes.
Bo Hopkins in THE WILD BUNCH
Bo Hopkins had just as tough a beginning as Dick
Bakalyan, a frequent runaway, in and out of homes, then reform schools, then
given the choice of jail for a robbery, or joining the Army. He fought in Korea, came back with acting
scholarships that led to do plays from Kentucky to South Carolina to New York
to Hollywood. He made a smash in his
first film role, playing Crazy Lee in THE WILD BUNCH, but he actually earned
his S.A.G. card on THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW.
L.Q. Jones in THE WILD BUNCH
Speaking of THE WILD BUNCH, L.Q. Jones, half of my
absolute favorite bounty-hunting team (with Strother Martin), reveals that he
took his name from the character he played in his first movie, BATTLE CRY. His story of how, as a non-actor, he got the
part, and his dealings with director Raoul Walsh on BATTLE CRY and THE NAKED
AND THE DEAD are too delicious to give away.
He also credits his buddy Fess Parker with getting him in the door and
having his back (Morgan Woodward would tell me the same about Fess). A man with many more facets to his
personality than his screen villainy would suggest, L.Q. would also write and
produce the wonderfully creepy THE BROTHERHOOD OF SATAN, and write, produce and
direct the sci-fi classic A BOY AND HIS DOG, from Harlan Ellison’s
novella.
Buck Kartalian’s story of how we went, with no
intervening steps, from being a professional wrestler, to acting onstage
opposite Olivia De Havilland and Jack Hawkins in ROMEO AND JULIET is alone
worth the price of admission.
German-born, Canadian-raised Paul Koslo became a
familiar, menacing face starting with OMEGA MAN, and has done a wide range of
horror, action, sci-fi films, and Westerns like JOE KIDD, ROOSTER COGBURN and
HEAVEN’S GATE. His stories about Charles
Bronson are as astonishing as they are disappointing – Mr. Deathwish comes off
as an absolute bastard. And yet, Bronson
would hire Koslo for two more films! Of
equal interest is Koslo’s convincing analysis of the demise of the character
actor: the tremendous rise of star salaries has reduced everyone else,
regardless of their fame, experience and talent, to scale – take it or leave
it.
It’s clear in the tone that some of the subjects
were more eager to talk than others – Marc Lawrence continually interjects
comments like, “I think you’ve got enough there to write fifteen articles. What else do you want?” But author Humphreys charmed and persuaded and
cajoled the anecdotes out of them. Along
with the faces, there are a hundred stories you will never forget. NAMES YOU NEVER REMEMBER – WITH FACES YOU
NEVER FORGET, will give you hours of pleasure, ten unique perspectives on the
film industry, and will send you searching for dozens of movies – ones that
you’ve never seen before, and others you know well, but will appreciate on a
whole new level. I recommend it
highly.
SAM ELLIOT JOINS CAST OF ‘JUSTIFIED’!
Sam Elliot, the actor with the best ‘western’ voice
to come along since Bill Conrad voiced Matt Dillon on radio’s GUNSMOKE, will be
joining the cast of JUSTIFIED as a continuing character for its sixth, and
final, season. His character is Markham,
an ex-gangster who has turned over a new leaf – the cannabis kind – and made a
fortune growing legal weed in Colorado. Also joining the cast is Garret Dillahunt, who
played Ed Miller in THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES, Wendell in NO COUNTRY FOR
OLD MEN, and Sheriff Baskin in WINTER’S BONE.
His character, Walker (not a
Texas Ranger), is a special ops-turned-security maven for a not-so-clean
businessman. JUSTIFIED returns to FX in
January.
‘DANIEL BOONE’ JOINS INSP LINE-UP ON 50TH
ANNIVERSARY!
Fess Parker
This coming Sunday,
September 28th, INSP will bring back DANIEL BOONE, within four days
of its NBC premiere in 1964. In the title role, Fess Parker had become a
superstar on early television as Davy Crockett on a series of WALT DISNEY’S
WONDERFUL WORLD OF COLOR episodes, and for insurance, NBC decided to have him
wear the same wardrobe playing Boone, coonskin cap and all. (As a result, virtually no member of my
generation can separate the exploits of Boone and Crockett.)
Fess Parker and Ed Ames
For six seasons and 165
episodes, the series told the sometimes true, sometimes fanciful tales of the
pioneer frontiersman who lived from 1734 to 1820, fought in the Revolutionary
War, was captured by Shawnee warriors who planned to kill him and ended up
adopting him, and who blazed his famous Wilderness Trail through the Cumberland
Gap in the Appalachian Mountains. Most
of the stories take place in the town of Boonesborough, Kentucky.
Starring along with
Fess Parker was Patricia Blair as his wife Rebecca, Veronica Cartwright as their
daughter Jemima, and Darby Hinton as their son Israel. (For the record, Boone and Rebecca actually
had ten children, and this past Friday at the Silver Spur Awards, host Darby Hinton explained that there were going
to be two sons in the series. But the
producers were so pleased with his work in the pilot that they wrote the other
son out.)
Over the years, Dan’l
had several friends and sidekicks that drifted in and out, refreshing the
series, including Ed Ames, of the singing Ames Brothers, as Mingo, Boone’s
Oxford-educated half-Cherokee friend; crusty old Dal McKennon – incredibly, the
voice of Archie Andrews in cartoons – as Cincinnatus; Albert Salmi as Yadkin;
pro-football player Rosey Grier as Gabe Cooper; and country singer and sausage
purveyor Jimmy Dean as Josh Clements.
Patricia Blair, Darby Hinton, Fess Parker, Veronica Cartwright
Daniel Boone’s life,
and hence the series, covered a period in American history that was not often
shown, and the battles with the British military, and stories about slavery in
a pre-abolitionist society, are pleasantly unfamiliar. It started in black & white, and I prefer
these tougher and darker tales than the later ones. (I feel the same way about the first noir-ish episodes of SUPERMAN for that
matter.) But there is plenty to recommend
in the entire run of the series.
As Doug Butts, SVP of
Programming at INSP says, “DANIEL BOONE is not only entertaining. It embodies
the timeless values and positive entertainment audiences have come to expect
from INSP. We couldn't be more thrilled to bring DANIEL BOONE to our
lineup during the 50th anniversary of the series, and we believe it
will be a great opportunity for a whole new generation of viewers to enjoy this
family drama.”
INSP will begin with a
star-studded 6-hour marathon on Sunday, September 28th, opening with the
two-parter from the second season, THE HIGH CUMBERLAND, about the blazing of
the Cumberland Trail. It’s directed by
Western specialist (he directed John Wayne eleven times) George Sherman, and
written by D.D. Beauchamp, who started out with Abbott & Costello before
becoming a Western pro. The series will
run Monday through Thursday at 10:00 a.m., ET.
If you don’t know if you get INSP, follow the link: <http://www.insp.com/insp-channel-finder>.
GET-TV TIM MCCOY MARATHON NEXT SATURDAY!
On Saturday, September 27th, Get-TV will
present an eight-film marathon featuring some of the very best of Col. Tim
McCoy’s Columbia Westerns! These were the absolute zenith of his career
in talkies, and to have such a block of them is unprecedented! It starts off with a bang at 9:00 a.m. PDT
with 1932’s END OF THE TRAIL, featuring both an involving a story and,
remarkable for its time, the Colonel speaking, as I recall, direct to camera,
delivering a stunning indictment of the Federal Government’s failure to honor the
terms of virtually any of the treaties it made with the Indian tribes. It’s followed by THE PRESCOTT KID, SHOTGUN
PASS, THE FIGHTING FOOL, TEXAS CYCLONE, TWO-FISTED LAW, DARING DANGER, and
FIGHTING FOR JUSTICE, all from 1930-1933.
And they’re followed at 7:30 by three westerns I don’t know, RELENTLESS (1948) starring Robert Young, THE
PHANTOM STAGECOACH (1957) starring William Bishop and directed by Ray Nazarro, REPRISAL
(1956) starring Guy Madison, and one we all know, THE OUTLAW (1943ish) starring
Jack Beutel, Jane Russell, Walter Huston, Thomas Mitchell, and directed by the
two Howards, Hughes and Hawks. And here’s
a link to find out if you can get GetTV: http://get.tv/get-the-channel
‘SPIRIT OF THE COWBOY’ FESTIVAL!
This great picture from the ‘Spirit of The Cowboy’,
held in McKinney, Texas on September 14th, was sent to me by
CHEYENNE WARRIOR author Michael Druxman.
What a great gathering!
Upper row: Dan Haggerty, Michael
Druxman, Clu Guhlager, James Stacey
Middle row: Marshal Teague, Robert Fuller, Darby Hinton, Ken Farmer, Bo Hopkins
In front: Alex Cord
Middle row: Marshal Teague, Robert Fuller, Darby Hinton, Ken Farmer, Bo Hopkins
In front: Alex Cord
THAT’S A WRAP!
Coming to the Round-up ASAP
are an article on BOONEVILLE REDEMPTION, THE CINECON SALUTE TO CLAYTON MOORE,
THE SILVER SPUR AWARDS, and tons of other good stuff!
Have a great week!
Happy Trails,
Henry
All Original Content
Copyright September 2014 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved
Excellent! Lots of good stuff here, Henry! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteGreat stuff! Thanks Henry!
ReplyDelete