FIRST FULL ‘BEN HALL’
TRAILER!
Here is the first full
trailer for THE LEGEND OF BEN HALL, Matthew Holmes’ terrific Western about the
Bushranger who was Australian equivalent of America’s Jesse James. The parallels between the frontier periods of
both countries are fascinating. Interestingly,
this is actually the second
trailer. As you can read in my True West
article HERE, a Kickstarter campaign
raised the money to make the first trailer, which was used as a ‘proof-of-concept’
to raise the money for the feature itself!
MOMENTUM ACQUIRES
‘BRIMSTONE’ FOR MARCH RELEASE
Dakota Fanning
Writer/director Martin
Koolhoven’s dark Dutch Western BRIMSTONE, starring Dakota Fanning and Guy
Pearce, will hit U.S. theatres and VOD in March 2017. Pearce plays a vengeful preacher and Fanning
an innocent woman who goes on the run when framed for a crime. The sagebrush psychological
thriller was shot in Germany, Hungary, Tyrol Austria, and the Motherland of
Spaghetti Westerns, Almeria Spain. British-born
Pearce is no stranger to the genre, having cut his teeth on the Aussie SNOWY
RIVER: THE MCGREGGOR SAGA series, and made an indelible impression in the
Aussie Western feature THE PROPOSITION. Also
in the cast are GAME OF THRONE stars Kit Harington and Carice van Houten.
Guy Pearce
GET-TV ADDS ‘THE
OUTCASTS’ TO WEEKEND WESTERN LINE-UP!
Get-TV is adding the
1968 Western series THE OUTCASTS, starring Don Murray and Otis Young, to their
Saturday Western line-up. The one-season
hour-long drama features Murray as a former Confederate officer turned bounty
hunter, and Young as an ex-slave and Union soldier who partners with him. Don Murray first made a splash as Beau in BUS
STOP (1957), followed by HATFUL OF RAIN (1958), and his Westerns include THESE
THOUSAND HILLS (1958), FROM HELL TO TEXAS (1959), and his portrayal of Buffalo
Bill in the 1966 remake of THE PLAINSMAN.
Otis Young, a fine actor who rarely got the quality of roles he deserved,
soared when he was cast opposite Jack Nicholson and Randy Quaid in THE LAST
DETAIL (1973).
Don Murray & Otis Young
Get-TV has consistently
shown high quality short-run Western series that have rarely been seen since
their initial release – see my Round-up interview with Programming Veep Jeff
Meier HERE.
OUTCASTS is being added
to their current playlist, which includes Audie Murphy in WHISPERING SMITH,
CIMARRON CITY, TOMBSTONE TERRITORY, THE RESTLESS GUN, and LAREDO.
Keep your eye for the OUTCASTS
episode TAKE YOUR LOVER IN THE RING: it won a ‘Best Edited Television Program’ Eddie for Norman Colbert; Anthony
Lawrence’s script was nominated for a WGA Award; and Hugo Montenegro’s score was
nominated for an Emmy.
AMERICAN INDIAN ARTS
MARKETPLACE NOV. 12 & 13 AT THE AUTRY
If you care about
Indian art, this is an annual not-to-be-missed event! Two-hundred artists from over forty tribes
will be presenting their work in an immense tent. Painting, sculpture, jewelry,
textiles – every medium and every form imaginable. And it’s included with the price of museum
admission.
AND THAT’S A WRAP!
I’ll have plenty more
to tell you about in the next Round-up – the next Word of Westerns, an upcoming
animated Western, video reviews and more.
Baby Peggy
But I wanted to
acknowledge the birthdays of a pair of great silent film child stars. October 29th was the 98 birthday
of Baby Peggy, now called Diana Serra Cary, the still
wonderfully vital last of the silent stars, and author of THE HOLLYWOOD POSSE
and WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY PEGGY?
Coogan with Charlie Chaplin
in The Kid
And
the 26th would have been the 102nd birthday of Jackie
Coogan, who died in 1984. The
movies’ first great child star was the son of vaudevillians. Both stars sadly share the tragedy that they
were robbed blind by their parents, leaving them broke when childhood stardom
ended. ‘The Coogan Law’ was written to
protect kid actors. Jackie had a long
career, four kids, four wives – and one of them was Betty Grable! He became a star again in the ‘60s playing
Uncle Fester on THE ADDAMS FAMILY, but is best remembered by Western fans as Stoney
Crockett on COWBOY G-MEN. My mentor in
the film business, Saul David, was in the Army with Coogan during World War II,
and told me this story. Coogan was still
frequently recognized, and once, when they and several other soldiers were
showering, a soldier asked him, “Aren’t you Jackie Coogan?”
“Yes,” he replied, and
with a chuckle added, “Take a good look, kid.
That’s the one that was in Betty
Grable.” The
soldier was so shocked at Coogan’s disrespect towards his own dreamgirl (and
Coogan’s ex-wife) that he threw a punch that knocked Coogan out cold!
Happy Trails,
Henry
All Original Contents
Copyright November 1, 2016 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved
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