Ray Watts in PRICE OF DEATH
‘PRICE OF DEATH’ NEWEST
EURO-WESTERN FROM SPAIN’S THRILL-FACTORY!
Production on PRICE OF
DEATH wrapped just before the end of 2015.
In it, a bounty hunter hires on to transport a killer to his execution, unaware
that the killer has a fortune stashed along the way, and former accomplices
will do whatever it takes to recover the loot.
Many of the same filmmakers
are now hard at work both on post-production of PRICE OF DEATH, and
pre-production for their next, THOU SHALT KILL.
Their first Western, last year’s 6 BULLETS TO HELL, has been playing the
festival circuit for some months, and will soon get a general release. As the
market’s appetite for Westerns is growing, companies like Chip Baker Films and Privateer
Entertainment are stepping up to meet that need with a studio/factory
approach.
It all started,
appropriately enough, in Spain, at The
Almeria Western Film Festival in October of 2012. Danny Garcia and others from the Chip Baker company
were running the event, and met Texas writer/director/actor Tanner Beard, whose
Western film, LEGEND OF HELL’S GATE, was screening. Soon, Tanner and Russell Quinn Cummings, one
of his HELL’S GATE stars were co-directing 6 BULLETS, produced by Privateer Entertainment, with a script by
Chip, Tanner, Russell, Danny, and Jose Villanueva.
THE PRICE OF DEATH,
produced by Chip Baker Films, was
directed by Danny. He scripted, along
with Jose, and Aaron Stielstra, an actor who came to the Almeria Festival to
promote his American Western, THE
SCARLET WORM. He also stars in 6
BULLETS, PRICE OF DEATH, and will be in THOU SHALT KILL, to be directed by
Tanner Beard. Similarly, British-born
America actor Crispian Belfrage, who starred in three U.S.-made Westerns – THE DONNER
PARTY, DOC WEST, and TRIGGERMAN (all 2009) – is one of the stars of all three
Spanish Westerns. You get the picture –
this close-knit pack of filmmakers, with ever-shifting roles, is working on
their third Western in a couple of years, with more in the pipeline. I spoke to Danny Garcia, director and
co-writer of PRICE OF DEATH, and principal in all of the films, about making a
string of back-to-back Westerns.
Danny Garcia
HENRY: What does the label ‘independent filmmaker’ mean to
you?
DANNY GARCIA: Well, to me it means
freedom, not needing to respond to anyone except yourself. It’s also a huge
challenge to put a production together without major support and the hours of
work you put into any film is sometimes utterly insane. It’s also an exercise
of blind faith as with any other art form.
HENRY: What are the advantages and disadvantages, especially
in making a western?
DANNY: In theory they’d all be disadvantages because any
period piece you shoot has already the inconveniences of having to sort out the
correct period wardrobe, weaponry, the proper locations, the horses, props, etc
to make it look real so the public can immerse themselves in the story you’re
trying to tell without breaking their fantasy, because there’s an antenna on
top of a hill or something. But of
course, I´m making Westerns because I love the genre, despite it all.
HENRY: Was there any particular inspiration for the story of
THE PRICE OF DEATH?
DANNY: Not really; the idea was to write another fun, action
packed western that we could shoot within a short time frame and in a few
locations within a small region. But the movie has a few references to some of
my favorite films like THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY; 3:10 TO YUMA, PLANET OF
THE APES and MIDNIGHT RUN.
HENRY: What was it like to direct your first feature, and to
do it on locations where Leone and Corbucci worked?
DANNY: It was really a great experience and a lot of fun.
Working with actors like Ken Luckey, Crispian Belfrage and Aaron Stielstra, whom
I had already worked with on 6 BULLETS TO HELL was very easy, because we were
already acquainted and also the chemistry between them gave us some brilliant
moments. Shooting in those locations was a pleasure, but it also means a lot of
responsibility, because they worked a dream for all those great directors in
the past and you know you have to come up with something good. But while we
were shooting there, I thought of Leone, envisioned him winking at us and
thought to myself: cool, we’re on to something here.
HENRY: This is your first time directing a western, but your
second time writing and producing. What
did you learn on the first film that helped you with the second? What differences were there from one film to
the next?
DANNY: I learned a lot working with Tanner Beard and Russell
Cummings, who both directed 6 BULLETS. That wasn’t my first rodeo, but I loved
the way they worked together because it was very relaxed yet at the same time
they put a lot of energy and tension into every scene. Also it was good to see
the way they were coaching the actors and the amount of improvisation they were
allowing to happen on set.
As a director and producer you have to deal with everybody
all the time, and there’s no such thing as a day’s rest during the shoot. On
days off I had to prepare the scenes for the following day so it’s nonstop. I
tried to apply everything I had learned in the past and studied how people like
David Milch worked on the set of DEADWOOD for instance. All you gotta do is
watch a bunch of ‘making of’s and learn from the best to figure out how to do
it.
HENRY: What
advantages are there for making films, particularly Westerns, in Spain?
DANNY: Working in Spain still has the same advantages it had
back in the 1960’s when the great Italian directors made those landscapes world-famous.
Basically it’s all to do with the terrain, the light and the amount of hours of
daylight you can shoot in one day; plus the economic aspect which of course is
also very important. Shooting in Spain is still a lot cheaper than shooting in
the US or Canada and that’s why there’s a growing number of foreign films and
TV series being shot in Spain every year.
HENRY: In the last two films, and others you have upcoming,
you use many actors and crew members repeatedly. You are creating a stock company, as did
Leone, John Ford, and many others. What
are the advantages of having a Danny Garcia stock company?
DANNY: It’s funny because when you shoot a western the cast
and crew become a family almost instantly, perhaps a dysfunctional one but
still, a family. And that’s what actors like (late Spaghetti Western stars) Frank
Braña or Nicoletta Machiavelli told me in the past; that there’s something
about shooting westerns that makes it
different from any other genre. It might be the fact that you’re working with
animals and gunpowder that turns it into a sort of circus. Anyway, the idea is
to work as much as possible with those who you feel comfortable working with
and that you know will deliver and bring in new people each time so the family
keeps on growing. And I’d call it a Chip
Baker Films stock company in any case.
HENRY: In the script you have a climactic shootout in the
snow, but I understand that sequence had to change.
DANNY: I’m sure it would have been hard to shoot but the
reality is that when we got to the top of the mountain there was no snow
whatsoever, although it was late November, so of course we had to shoot it without it. That’s one of the things when
you’re producing independent films, the need to adapt to every situation. One
of my favorite things is to have part of the crew dress up in period wardrobe
as well and have them walk past the camera whenever they’re free. I even do it
myself, mainly because it’s a lot of fun.
Aaron Stielstra
HENRY: What else should
I know about you, your life, your vision as a filmmaker?
DANNY: My uncle’s cousin was Otto Preminger, so growing up
I’d always heard stories about him, and we watched his movies. Actually, I
watched classic Hollywood films with my parents every night when I was a kid so
I guess that’s where all my filmmaking fantasies come from. It’s all thanks to them. My
plan is to keep on directing, writing and producing quality films in the next
few years. I have a couple of scripts that hopefully will be produced this year.
The idea is to continue working and growing as a filmmaker.
HENRY: 6 BULLETS TO
HELL was a spaghetti western, an homage
to the films that came before, and even had a post-dubbed dialogue track. Do you consider THE PRICE OF DEATH a
spaghetti western in that sense, or would describe it in some other way?
DANNY: 6 BULLETS TO
HELL is a full-on spaghetti western, and a tribute as you say to those who rode
in that desert 50 years ago. THE PRICE OF DEATH is an action/western film. It’s
obviously influenced by our love for
spaghetti westerns, and not only Leone and Corbucci; I personally love
the work of Tonino Valerii, Ferdinando Baldi, Antonio Margheriti and Demofilo
Fidani as well. And same goes for Aaron
Stielstra and Jose L. Villanueva, who co-wrote the script with me and are also
fanatics of the old Italian westerns.
In the next Round-up, I’ll have my interview with one of the
stars of all of these films, Crispian Belfrage.
THE PRAIRIE – A Movie
Review
So much of what we
think of as a Western story comes from Owen Wister’s ground-breaking novel THE VIRGINIAN that it’s exciting to see
a story that predates that overwhelming influence. James Fennimore Cooper (1789-1851) was the
first great Western novelist, best remembered for LAST OF THE MOHICANS, and his
final Leatherstocking Tale, THE
PRAIRIE (1827), is the basis for this movie.
In 1803, the Bush
family has lost their Kentucky farm to taxes, and on the heels of the Louisiana
Purchase, head west in a couple of wagons, looking for new land, and a new
start. They’re lead by the well-meaning
but tyrannical patriarch Ishmael Bush (Charles Evans). The rest of the party includes his brawny,
shirtless six sons, his pale and vague wife Esther (Edna Holland), and her shiftless
brother Abiram (Russ Vincent).
Their lives are a daily
struggle for food, and an endless, monotonous trek through unchanging prairie
until Abiram and one of the sons, Asa (Jim Mitchum, in his first film role) witness
another group of pioneers all but wiped out by a buffalo stampede. The lone survivor, a young woman named Ellen
(Lenore Aubert), is almost taken by the Sioux until the two men drive them
off. They bring her back to camp,
Ishmael begrudgingly agrees to take her along, and with one desirable young
woman among seven single and lonely men, tensions quickly rise.
The inexperienced pioneers
are helped by Paul Hover (Alan Baxter), a map surveyor for the government they
despise, but the only aid they can find.
It doesn’t help that Ellen is more taken with Paul than with any of the
other men in the party. When Sioux steal
their horses, intending to pick the party off one at a time, the pioneers must
unite to make a stand.
Directed by German
expressionist Frank Wisbar, who’d fled the Nazis in 1939, this tiny budget, 61
minute film is remarkable, and looks like no other Western I’ve ever seen. Except for occasional stock footage, the film
is shot entirely on one large prairie set of waist-to-shoulder-height grass,
against a vast cyclorama of sky.
Artificial though it is, it captures the sense of endless, unchanging
prairie to a degree that an actual location never could.
It’s atmospheric,
dreamlike, unmistakably Germanic in its starkness. The almost final sequence, where a character
who’s gotten away with murder is overpowered by his own sense of guilt, is nightmarish
and haunting. Storywise, it’s unusual
in that the Indians are not all the same – Pawnee are friends and Sioux are
enemies. And they’re played by actual
Indian actors: Chief Yalwalachee; Jay Silverheels, TV’s Tonto; and the screen’s
first Tonto, Chief Thundercloud. And
Ellen, rather than just being a prize for the men to compete over, has more
gumption than any of them.
While the film features
no big stars, it’s full of familiar faces.
Alan Baxter was a busy actor since the early thirties, usually playing
villains rather than this sort of sympathetic character. Lovely Austro-Hungarian Lenore Aubert played
slinky ladies in comedies with Bob Hope (THEY GOT ME COVERED – 1943), and
wielded a sword as THE WIFE OF MONTE CRISTO (1946), but is probably best
remembered as the gorgeous doctor who claimed to be madly in love with Lou in
ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948).
THE PRAIRIE, from Alpha Video/Oldies.com is available HERE.
HOLLYWOOD GOES WEST – A
Coloring Book Review
No, I’m not kidding:
I’m reviewing a coloring book. The
increasing popularity of coloring books among adults is a curious phenomenon,
but it’s understandable. I think we all
have an artistic impulse to satisfy, and getting lost in any artistic endeavor
is good medicine for a stressed brain – and who doesn’t have one of those? Some of you may remember from the 1960s the
fad of the paint and pencil-by-numbers kits.
With coloring books, you get to choose your own colors, and you can even
color outside the lines if it makes you happy!
Jack Palance
Mark O’Neill is a
gifted caricaturist and clearly a western nut like the rest of us, and his book
is precisely the one we would have made for ourselves. He celebrates the great Westerns of the big
and small screen, focusing on the big stars of films, the casts of the great TV
series, and the unforgettable character actors.
While coloring books have for decades featured Roy and Dale, Gene Autry
and Hopalong Cassidy, did you ever dream that you’d be able to choose the hues
for Royal Dano, John Dehner, Morgan Woodward and Jack Elam? Or Bruce Dern? There’s
the cast of THE RIFLEMAN, family portraits of the Cartwrights and the Barkleys,
a romantic pairing of Leif Ericson and Linda Cristal from HIGH CHAPARRAL, and
both Matt Dillons – TV’s James Arness and radio’s William Conrad, and much
more, each picture with an explanatory caption.
Both Matt Dillons!
You can color in The
Duke, Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly. You can decide how RAWHIDE and MAVERICK would
have looked in color. And you can do it
all for ten well-spent dollars! Order it
HERE.
Jack Elam
MONDAY IS ‘HIGH
CHAPARRAL’ REUNION REGISTRATION!
If you want to attend
the Reunion on March 17th through the 20th, the
registration deadline is Monday, February 1st! It’ll be at Old Tucson Studios, where the
classic series was filmed. Coming back to their old galloping-grounds
will be series stars Don Collier, Rudy Ramos and BarBara Luna. They’ll be joined by a posse of stars from
other Western series, including Robert Fuller from LARAMIE and WAGON TRAIN,
Darby Hinton from DANIEL BOONE and the recent TEXAS RISING, Roberta Shore from
THE VIRGINIAN, frequent John Wayne co-star Eddie Falkner, and Stan Ivar from
LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE. Also
on-board are HIGH CHAPARRAL producers Kent and Susan McCray, and writers and
historians Boyd Magers, Charlie LeSueur, Neil Summers, and Joel McCrea’s son Wyatt
McCrea.
The packages vary from
a bare-bones $30-per-day deal to $475 with all the trimmings. To take your pick and make your reservations,
check out the official site HERE.
And here’s something special
for all HIGH CHAPARRAL fans, and it’s free!
Last year the Reunion inaugurated a live Webcast of the event. It was not cheap, but it was very
entertaining and informative. HIGH
CHAPARRAL REUNION Top Hand Penny McQueen has decided that this year’s Webcast
will be FREE!
THAT’S A WRAP!
With Friday’s release
of JANE GOT A GUN, joining THE REVENANT and THE HATEFUL 8, there are now three
major Westerns playing in theatres at the same time. How many decades has it been since that
happened? I’m guessing the last time was
in the 1970s, but it may be even farther back.
Have a great week, and
catch a Western or two. Or three!
Happy Trails,
Henry
All Original Content
Copyright January 2016 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved
