TCM FEST, INTERVIEW WITH ELKHORN'S TR - MASON BEALS, PLUS JOIN ME AND GREATEST WESTERNS EVER MADE AT L.A. BREAKFAST CLUB!

COME TO THE L.A. BREAKFAST CLUB ON WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, FOR ‘THE GREATEST WESTERNS EVER MADE’, WITH TRUE WEST’S HENRY C. PARKE

That’s right, my book, The Greatest Westerns Ever Made, and the People Who Made Them, has been published by TwoDot, and I’ve been asked to speak about it. If you like Westerns, and you wouldn’t be reading this blog if you didn’t, and you’re in the L.A. area, we’d love to have you join us, have a delicious breakfast, and you can purchase a book if you’d like. The Los Angeles Breakfast Club is a fascinating organization, started 99 years ago, to promote friendship, and the illustrious members over the years have included all of the studio heads, from Disney to Zanuck, not to mention Tom Mix. You can buy tickets, and learn all about the Club, here: https://www.labreakfastclub.com/event-details/greatest-westerns-ever

I’ve been the Film and TV Editor of True West magazine for nine years, and the book is based on about eighty of my articles. I don’t mean to brag, but here are a few reviews:

“Film and TV critic for True West, Parke presents a collection of his essays that will be a treat for western film fans… There’s plenty of behind-the-scenes detail and also sharp examination of the cultural impact of western films and of the social changes that affected their content… Parke’s enthusiasm is infectious.”

― Booklist

"A great read... a comprehensive, carefully curated look at the western genre on film and television. Chock full of personal anecdotes that bring humanity to its pages."

-- Patrick Wayne, Actor, The Searchers

"Honored to be featured in this new book by Henry C. Parke, film and TV editor for True West magazine. It’s an in-depth, on point, and eclectic review of the Western film and TV genre, from John Ford to Taylor Sheridan. If you love Westerns, you’ll get lost deep in this one."

-- John Fusco, Writer, Young Guns and Young Guns II

Here are links to a couple of places where my book is available:

https://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Westerns-Ever-Made/dp/1493074393?_encoding=UTF8&linkCode=sl1&tag=insptv-20&linkId=40670747d047d3241c54003bcabb179f&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl

https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-greatest-westerns-ever-made-and-the-people-who-made-them-henry-c-%20parke-true-west-magazine/18667151?ean=9781493074396

TCM FESTIVAL BEGINS THURSDAY!

The TCM Classic Film Festival is back in Hollywood, from Thursday, April 18^th, through Sunday the 21^st, and as usual, they will be headquartered at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The venues where films will be screening are the Chinese Theatre IMAX, several of the Chinese Multiplex Theatres, the Egyptian – newly refurbished by Netflix, the El Capitan, and there will be poolside screenings at the Roosevelt.   Check out their website here -- https://filmfestival.tcm.com/programs/schedule/20240418/

They have, as always, a wonderful array of films that are almost never shown in theatres. While the packages are insanely expensive, if you go on the stand-by line for a movie that isn’t THAT popular, or one that’s in a HUGE theatre, you can often get in: those tickets are only $20, and with a valid student i.d., only ten!

Among the screenings that will be of particular interest to Western fans, on Friday at 9:30 a.m., at the Multiplex 4, they’re showing MIGHTY JOE YOUNG, the 1949 follow-up to SON OF KONG. A western? No, but it stars Ben Johnson, and it’s introduced by John Landis, director of not only ANIMAL HOUSE, but THE THREE AMIGOS! At 12:15 p.m. in the same theatre, Leonard Maltin is introducing the 1936 version of THREE GODFATHERS. This is not the John Ford, John Wayne 1948 Technicolor version. It’s directed by Richard Boleslawski, and stars the movies’ Boston Blackie, Chester Morris in the Wayne role, plus Walter Brennan before he was cute and folksy, and Lewis Stone, when he was playing outlaws instead of Mickey Rooney's father in the HARDY family films. Very tough, very gritty, very good.

That night at 6, still in theatre 4, it’s John Ford’s 1936 film THE PRISONER OF SHARK ISLAND, starring Warner Baxter as Dr. Mudd, who treated John Wilkes Booth after he assassinated Lincoln, and was sent to prison for it. The cruel prison guard is the great John Carradine, and his son, Keith Carradine, will introduce the film.

Robert Taylor teaches the women to shoot in

WESTWARD THE WOMEN

Saturday morning they’ll be showing a rare 35mm nitrate print of ANNIE, GET YOUR GUN at the Egyptian Theatre. At 6:15 at the Egyptian, it’s WESTWARD THE WOMEN, with Robert Taylor leading an all-female wagon train, directed by William Wellman, and written by Frank Capra – he wanted to direct it himself, but couldn’t get it set up. Its premise might sound cute, but it’s a serious film, beautifully done, and Robert Taylor does some of his best work as a man who truly doesn’t expect many of his charges to survive. If you’d like to read the article I wrote about Robert Taylor’s Westerns for the INSP channel, here’s the link: https://www.insp.com/blog/robert-taylor-hollywood-star-husband-to-barbara-stanwyck-and-cowboy/. WESTWARD is introduced by this year’s honoree for the Robert Osborn Award, Jeanine Basinger. I was not familiar with her until I interviewed Dana Delaney, who told me of her college experience, “Wesleyan is more of an academic school than a theater school. But they had a wonderful film department run by Jeanine Basinger, and that was where I really developed my love of westerns.”

Sunday at 9:30 a.m. in the Multiplex 6 they’re showing 1932’s LAW AND ORDER, the first talkie version of the Gunfight at the OK Corral, starring Walter Huston as Wyatt Earp, and Harry Carey as Doc Holliday, introduced by Brendan Connell Jr., C.O.O. of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.

And at 3:15 p.m. at the Egyptian Theatre, see the premiere of the 70mm restoration of John Ford’s THE SEARCHERS, introduced by the director of THE HOLDOVERS, and two-time Oscar-winner for scripting SIDEWAYS and THE DESCENDANTS, Alexander Payne.

 

MASON BEALS – THE MAN WHO WOULD BE TEDDY ROOSEVELT

ELKHORN, the new INSP series which airs on Thursday nights, stars Mason Beals as 25-year-old Teddy Roosevelt, a well-educated, socially prominent urban up-and-comer with a happy homelife and a growing political career, who saw his life shatter when, in one day, his mother died of Typhoid, and his wife died giving birth. Determined to rebuild his life, the frail, sickly young man abandons east coast city life and travels west, settling in the Dakota Territory.

Mason Beals, who plays Teddy has, to put it mildly, followed a non-traditional route to stardom. His self-generated career began as a reaction to desperate boredom. “For about nine months, I lived in the middle of nowhere, Idaho, in this town called Bonners Ferry. That’s because my dad had traded a Jeep for an acre and a half of property. My parents wanted to live debt free, so we built this place that looked like Noah's Ark, and lived there when the building was three-quarters finished. We were really trapped inside in the wintertime, and my younger brother and I were as bored as could be. I was just chopping and stacking firewood all winter, and I just started making YouTube videos, doing silly little vlog type things, and eventually started making stuff that was more scripted. That's where I learned how to edit and shoot.”

Mason Beals as Teddy Roosevelt

When his family moved back to his hometown of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, the performing bug had bitten him, “but there wasn't much of an acting scene out there, so if you wanted to act, you had to make your own stuff.” He moved to Austin, “and I worked for a production company as an editor, as a shooter, sometimes producing, directing, and continued to make short films,” until his final move to Los Angeles, when he “started to do work with other people.”

Unlike many men his age, the Western genre is not foreign to Mason. “My dad’s a really big movie fan. He’s a blue-collar guy, did hardwood floors for 30 years.  I was reminiscing about how we were going to Blockbuster every week, and I remember he and I had watched 3:10 TO YUMA for the first time and I just loved it. And TRUE GRIT is great. So there were a handful of westerns, and I always enjoyed them. And now having done one, anytime I watch a Western, it's very much like, now I know how the sausage is made a little bit more. So it's very fun to watch it from that angle; they’re such a fun genre.”

He credits his father’s example in preparing to take on the responsibility of playing a lead in a series. “A hard work ethic is needed for something like this, and I definitely got that from my dad. I did hardwood floors with him for a good period of time. I mean, he's just the hardest worker that's ever graced this earth, and so learning from him, it teaches you a little bit of grit, and learning how to be a little bit rough and tumble, going with the flow of things. Keeping a positive attitude when things go wrong; he would always keep a good demeanor. That kind of psyche skill.”

In what ways was does Mason think he and Roosevelt are alike? “You know, when I was reading about his time (in Elkhorn), he talked about how scared he was when he came out here. And he said, by pretending to not be afraid, he became not afraid. I really did relate to that, because the role is intimidating in a lot of ways because he's such an icon. It's definitely an adventurous kind of a shoot. I really relate to the fish out of water element. I was bullied in school and TR was bullied.”

Teddy at his wife's deathbed

Mason brought some Western-ish skills with him, but others he’s had to learn as he goes. “Horseback riding was definitely new for me. Even though I had grown up around people who had horses, I just had never had the opportunity. But it was a pretty quick learning period; I had just a handful of lessons, and then the experience came just being on-set. I learned a lot; I feel very comfortable on horses now in a way I didn't really think I was going to. I'm kind of a coward in a lot of ways. Riding, that's probably the biggest skill that I've like taken away from this. But I grew up shooting guns, growing up in Idaho.”

 

AND THAT’S A WRAP!

Coming in the next Round-up, my interview with TOMBSTONE costume designer Joseph Porro!

Happy Trails!

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright April 2024 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved

 

 

  

‘LONGMIRE’ PLAY-DATE, ‘JANE’ REPRIEVE, ‘BONE TOMAHAWK’ REVEAL, PLUS ‘EDGE’ TO CUT A PILOT, AMC ORDERS REDFORD WEST SERIES!

‘LONGMIRE’ RETURNS, NOW TO NETFLIX, THURS., SEPT 10!

The long-awaited 4^th season of LONGMIRE is ‘in the can’ and almost here!  What was A&E’s most successful drama ever – until they abruptly dropped it – will premiere in a little over a month on Netflix.   It will NOT be available on broadcast or cable or satellite – you’ll have to subscribe to Netflix to see it through the internet.  The entire ten-episode season will be available on that day, so if you want, you can binge-watch it in a sitting (and have no more LONGMIRE to watch for a year – ulp!).  All the regular characters are back, and season 4 will begin right were season 3 ended.  And here’s some great news: because Netflix is a pay service, there are no commercials, so the episodes will be not 48 minutes, but at least an hour long!  In my LONGMIRE article in the upcoming October TRUE WEST, I’ll be discussing the whole A&E/Netflix TV saga with LONGMIRE-creator Craig Johnson, and actor Zahn McClarnon, who plays Navajo Officer Mathias.

‘JANE’ RESCUED FROM RELATIVITY CHAPTER 11!

Finally some positive news for the long-embattled JANE GOT A GUN.  The film’s principal financier, lawyer David Boises, got JANE extricated from Relativity Media the day before the imploding mini-major filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.  The movie was set to be a co-release by Relativity and The Weinstein Company.  It hasn’t been announced yet if Weinstein is still in the mix.  To say star Natalie Portman’s first film as a producer has been beleaguered is putting it mildly.  It started when acclaimed writer/director Lynne Ramsay quit on what would have been the first day of shooting.  Star Jude Law went with her, the producers scrambled to recast, Acclaimed director Gavin O’Connor stepped in, Ewan MacGregor stepped in and, against all predictions, the movie was made.  The story concerns a woman who turns for help to her former lover when former associates come after her outlaw husband. 

‘BONE TOMAHAWK’ TO PREMIERE AT ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE ‘FANTASIC FEST’!

Kurt Russell, cowboys and cannibals come together in BONE TOMAHAWK, the new dark Western which will have its world launch at the 11^th annual Alamo Drafthouse Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas.  The Fest runs from September 24^th through October 1^st.   The film also features Lili Simmons, Sean Young, David Arquette, Sid Haig, Michael Pare, and Oscar-nominee Richard Jenkins.  I had the chance to visit the set, and you’ll be reading my interview with writer/director Craig Zahler soon. 

ROBERT REDFORD’S ‘THE WEST’ COMES TO AMC SUMMER 2016

When you’re Robert Redford, you don’t need to audition.  No pilot was required for AMC to sign up for eight one-hour episodes of THE WEST, a docudrama series from Sundance Films that had once been announced at the Discovery Channel.  A new look at familiar bad men and good men of all shades, like Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Jesse James and Billy the Kid, the series will feature commentaries by actors known to the genre, including James Caan, Tom Sellick, Ed Harris and Keifer Sutherland.  It’s planned to run in the summer of 2016, alongside the final episodes of HELL ON WHEELS. 

WAYNE DIEHL ON THE ‘WRITER’S BLOCK’ GUEST THURSDAY NIGHT!

On Thursday, August 6th at 8 pm, Wayne Diehl, author of THE MIDNIGHT RIDE OF MISSY MONTAIGNE, will be joining hosts Jim Christina and Bobbi Jean Bell for an hour of talk on their weekly show, Writer’s Block, on L.A.Talk Radio.  You can listen live (at ‘Listen Live 2’) HERE.  You can call in live at 818-602-4929.  And if you miss the live broadcast, or want to catch up on earlier shows, you can find podcasts of them HERE 

PILOT BASED ON ‘EDGE’ BOOKS ORDERED BY AMAZON

George Gilman’s THE EDGE Western novels and characters will be the basis of a series pilot for Amazon.  Written by the prolific English author in the early 1970s, to follow up with his successful novelizations of the Sergio Leone/Clint Eastwood trilogy, they are cold and violent spaghetti westerns on the page.  Shane Black, who wrote and directed IRON MAN 3, will co-write with Fred Dekker, direct and exec produce.  Max Martini, the SEAL Commander from CAPTAIN PHILLIPS, will play Josiah Hedges, aka Edge, out to avenge his brother’s death.  Ryan Kwanten, of TRUE BLOOD fame, will play Edge’s quarry, the likable son of a senator, secretly a sadistic monster.    

AND THAT’S A WRAP!

So much new Western news!  And people keep asking me, ‘Do they make Westerns anymore?’  Duh!  Have a great week, folks!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright August 2014 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved

‘LONGMIRE’ RETURNS MEMORIAL DAY, PLUS ME & ‘MR. UGLY’

‘LONGMIRE’ RETURNS MEMORIAL DAY WITH KNOCK-OUT OPENER
Updated 5/20/2013 -- See Burt Lancaster item

Season two of ‘LONGMIRE’, A&E’s present-day Western lawman series based on the Craig Johnson novels, returns on Memorial Day with a terrific season opener.  I just saw the rough-cut last night, and high as the standards of this series have always been, Unquiet Mind is one of their very finest, and one of their most ‘western’, episodes. 

It’s the start of winter as a group of hard-core felons from various jurisdictions are being transferred to a maximum security facility.  When the transfer is fatally botched at the start of a blizzard, Longmire (Robert Taylor) must track them on foot, his personal quarry being a serial killer of Indians, who had just been in his custody.  It is very GUNSMOKE in all the best possible ways – and of course Marshall Dillon didn’t have to worry that meanwhile back at Dodge, Newly was trying to take his job, and sleeping with his daughter besides!

The solid ensemble cast is back, featuring Lou Diamond Phillips as Longmire confidante and saloon-owner Henry Standing Bear (Miss Kitty and Sam combined, minus the romance), Katee Sackhoff in the ‘Chester’ role of Deputy Vic Moretti, Bailey Chase as Branch ‘Newly’ Connally, and Adam Bartley as The Ferg, a heftier ‘Festus.’

LONGMIRE is set on the edge of ‘The Res,’ and the series treats the varied and distinct lifestyles of American Indians with an interest and knowledge that is unique on television.  Previous episodes have looked at tribal disenrollment and jurisdictional issues – often with Zahn McLarnon as hostile Indian Police Officer Mathias.  In this particular episode and many others, mystical and religious elements are brought in, handled with a style and grace that make them compelling, which in less-skilled hands would come off as sappy. 

There were a couple of story-beats that were a little unclear in what I saw last night, but that was a rough cut; I’m sure they’ll be ironed out before Memorial Day.  If you’ve been unaware of LONGMIRE, or simply missed an episode or two, you have a chance to catch up on Saturday, May 25^th, when A&E will run the entire ten-episode season one to prep you for the season two premiere.  Don’t miss it!

A GREAT SATURDAY SPENT WITH ‘MR. UGLY’!

 

Yesterday, fellow Western writer C. Courtney Joyner and I spent the morning doing audio commentary for THE BIG GUNDOWN (1966).  This excellent and often overlooked Spaghetti Western, directed by Sergio Sollima and co-written by Sollima and Sergio Donati, and starring Lee Van Cleef and Tomas Milian, is being issued by GRINDHOUSE RELEASING in an extended English-language version, including three major sequences that were never theatrically shown in the U.S.     

Lee on the hunt for Tomas

Spaghetti Westerns tended to run long by American standards, usually around two hours, and would be shown in Europe with an intermission.  American distributors routinely ‘cut to the chase,’ often removing important character and plot scenes if they slowed up the action; they wanted them short enough to play in double features.

The Academy Award-winning editor (for HURT LOCKER) Bob Murawski, President of GRINDHOUSE, explained to me that some parts of the film were dubbed into English but cut out of the theatrical release.  They were kept aside for when the film would be released to television, and further cuts would be required because of the violence; then these sequences would be put back, to pad out the running time.  Now, for the first time in the U.S., those scenes -- two in a monastery, and one with Milian and his wife – will be seen.  Also included in the release is the complete Italian-language version of GUNDOWN, including even more scenes that have never been dubbed into English. 

C. Courtney Joyner, Bob Murawski, Henry Parke

Photo by Jim Kunz

GUNDOWN was an extremely important film in Lee Van Cleef’s career.  A busy character actor in American film and TV for many years, work was petering out in the mid 1960s – he’d just played a supporting role in an episode of MY MOTHER THE CAR!  Van Cleef recalled that he was 24 hours from having his phone disconnected for non-payment when the phone rang, and it was Sergio Leone, asking him to do FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE.  He went to Europe, made the film, and became an international star overnight.  His very next film was THE BIG GUNDOWN.  Interestingly, his costar, Tomas Milian, was in a very similar situation.  A Havana-born, New York-raised, Actor’s Studio-trained actor, he’d had parts in THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY and BOCCACIO ’70, but he hadn’t made an impression.  He was planning to give up acting when Sergio Sollima offered him THE BIG GUNDOWN, which made him a star.  Incidentally, although Lee Van Cleef died in 1989, Tomas Milian is still alive and well, and  will soon be seen playing John Leguazamo’s grandpa in FUGLY!

Tomas has a laugh at Lee's expense

The Sergio Leone/Clint Eastwood westerns were a huge success in most of the world for several years before they came to the United States, and although BIG GUNDOWN was made before THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY, it was released after, in the U.S.  The Columbia Pictures slogan for BIG GUNDOWN,‘Mr. Ugly Comes To Town!’ often triggers derisive comments from GBU fans because Eli Wallach’s character was ‘The Ugly,’ and Lee Van Cleef’s was ‘The Bad.’  (For any novices, Clint Eastwood was ‘The Good.’)  And while it’s true that some of the American publicity for GBU mixed up the names, I always figured Columbia called Van Cleef ‘Mr. Ugly’ in the poster because it brought up the association with the previous hit, and sounded cool in a way that ‘Mr. Bad’ would definitely not.  I’ll have more about THE BIG GUNDOWN when it gets nearer to release.   

ERNESTO GASTALDI FOLLOW-UP

 

 

I received a lot nice comments after last week’s interview with screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi.  But as Tom Betts, who writes the excellent site Westerns... All'Italiana! reminded me, I should also have asked about MASSACRE AT FT. HOLMAN, starring James Coburn, Telly Savalas and Bud Spencer.  I’d been regretting not inquiring more about Terence Hill, so I decided to run both questions by Mr. Gastaldi:

 “Ugly title for "UNA RAGIONE PER VIVERE, UNA PER MORIRE" (“A REASON TO LIVE, A REASON TO DIE.”). This is one of the best movies directed by Tonino Valerii; for many people the absolute best. The Telly Savalas death I think is one of the best scenes in all Italian western movies.

“Terence Hill ( Mario Girotti) was great in Trinità and in MY NAME IS NOBODY. I told him to try to become our Cary Grant, acting in comedies. He answered me he hasn't this kind of talent. He was right.”

‘SIERRA SUE’ AND ‘SADDLE PALS’ SATURDAY 5/25 AT THE AUTRY

Every 4^th Saturday of the month the Autry presents a double-bill of Gene’s movies at noon.  This time it’s two Republics, pre-war SIERRA SUE (1941), and post-war SADDLE PALS (1947).  SUE features Champion, Smiley Burnette, Fay McKenzie, and westerners like Kermit Maynard, Rex Lease and Eddie Dean.  SADDLE PALS is on the wacky side, with eccentric millionaire Sterling Holloway swapping identities with Gene.  It’s directed by the very talented Lesley Selander, and edited by Harry Keller.  (Now I will digress.)  Keller quickly became a director at Republic, later moved to Universal, where he directed several memorable western films, including two with Audie Murphy.  He directed THE LORETTA YOUNG SHOW and several TEXAS JOHN SLAUGHTER episodes for Walt Disney.  He produced the wonderful noir MIRAGE, starring Gregory Peck.   He retired for a while, then went back to work as an editor when Sidney Poitier asked him to.  I had the pleasure of being his assistant editor on test scenes for THE CHALLENGE, a film written and directed by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright (for THE SUBJECT WAS ROSES), Frank D. Gilroy.  Sadly the film, which starred David Keith and Dee Wallace Stone, never got beyond the test-scene stage.

‘COURAGE, NEW HAMPSHIRE’ PREMIERES MEMORIAL DAY ON INSP

A new Revolutionary War era four-hour miniseries will premiere on INSP on Memorial Day.  Check out the preview below.

BURT LANCASTER – A CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION CONTINUES AT UCLA

This three month-long retrospective at UCLA’s Billy Wilder Theatre, under the auspices of their archive and the Hugh M. Hefner American Film Program, began in April and will continue through June, and includes some of his finest westerns. On Friday, June 7^th, see GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL (1957) and I WALK ALONE (1948); on Saturday June 15^thit’s THE SCALPHUNTERS (1968) and CASTLE KEEP (1969); on Sunday June 23^rdit’s ULZANNA’S RAID (1972); on Friday June 28^th it’s CATTLE ANNIE AND LITTLE BRITCHES (1981). To see the complete schedule, go HERE .

BURT LANCASTER CELEBRATION AT LINCOLN CENTER!

Just heard from Pittsburgh-based film editor Tom Dubensky (NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD 1990), that New York’s Film Society of Lincoln Center is also marking Burt’s century with screenings, several of them westerns, some this week!  Missed APACHE today, but on Tuesday it’s VERA CRUZ at 1pm, THE LEOPARD at 3pm (not a western, but Terence Hill is in it), and THE SWIMMER at 9pm.  On Wednesday it’s ULZANA’S RAID at 2pm, CRISS-CROSS at 4:15pm and THE KILLERS at 9pm.  Thursday it’s TWILIGHT’S LAST GLEAMING at 1:15pm, THE SWIMMER at 4:15pm, ELMER GANTRY at 6:15pm and ATLANTIC CITY (I love this movie) at 9pm.  Learn more here: http://www.filmlinc.com/press/entry/fslc-celebrates-burt-lancasters-100th-birthday-with-a-7-day-salute

THE WRAP-UP

I know, once again I don’t have the rest of my coverage of the TCM Classic Film Festival.  The opportunity to do the commentary on BIG GUNDOWN came up very suddenly, so other things had to be pushed back.  I’ll try hard for next week!

In the meantime, have a great week, and don’t forget to check out LONGMIRE and COURAGE, NEW HAMPSHIRE on Memorial Day!

 

Much obliged,

Henry

 

All Original Contents Copyright May 2013 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved

LONGMIRE, LINCOLN VS. ZOMBIES REVIEWED

TV Series Review – LONGMIRE

With the success of TRUE GRIT and HELL ON WHEELS, and the anticipation for Quentin Tarantino’s DJANGO UNCHAINED, every network, and many cable outlets, announced pilots for Western series.  In the recently posted TV schedules, however, these new Westerns are conspicuously absent with one exception, and that is LONGMIRE, a present-day Western which premieres on Sunday, June 3rd, for a ten episode first season on the A&E Network. 

Craig Johnson has written eight Walt Longmire mystery novels since he began with the critically acclaimed THE COLD DISH in 2004, and he set the stories in modern-day Wyoming.  This is a familiar world to Johnson, whose ranch borders both Crow and Cheyenne reservations.  The TV series is likewise set in Absaroka County, Wyoming, where Walt Longmire is sheriff.  Australian actor Robert Taylor plays Longmire, and he’s fine casting as the easy-going-until-you-cross-him sheriff.  He seems like an amalgam of all the young guys who populated 1960s Warner Brothers Western series – CHEYENNE, BRONCO, LAWMAN, LARAMIE – but now he’s in his late forties, with joys and sorrows in his past.   His wife died a year ago, and he still has her outgoing message on the answer-machine.  His daughter Cady (Cassidy Freeman) can’t even get him to give up her mom’s ashes so they can be buried.  She worries about him.  Everyone worries about him, especially after a car wreck: is he drinking too much?  Is he cracking up?

Longmire is assisted by three deputies.  Blonde Katee Sackhoff, lately of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, plays Vic Moretti, who is doing her best, but would be much more comfortable back in a big city police department.   Adam Bartley plays ‘the Ferg,’ young and soft and inexperienced, and looking for a chance to work in the field.  Handsome and ripped Bailey Chase, whose career got kick-started by BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, plays Branch Connally, the kind of co-worker you’d only learn was gunning for your job if you spotted a campaign poster.

The pilot episode centers on a sheep-killing that leads to a man-killing, prostitution on the res, a runaway Indian girl, and an old Sharps rifle.  It’s a tight and logical mystery, and populated with the kind of rural characters not found in cop shows.  It’s not a cop show, after all, but a sheriff show, even more so than JUSTIFIED is. 

Lou Diamond Phillips

Among the people Longmire turns to for help is friend and saloon owner Henry Standing Bear, played by YOUNG GUNS’ Lou Diamond Phillips.  Happily, he’s a continuing character.  The guest cast includes the lovely Irene Bedard from SMOKE SIGNALS, and Zahn McClarnon as Mathias, a res cop who has no patience when Longmire steps onto the res and out of his jurisdiction. 

If the pilot is a fair indication, LONGMIRE successfully balances having satisfying and thought-provoking mysteries, and characters worth thinking about after the end-titles have rolled.  I’m setting my DVR for the series now.

Movie Review – ABRAHAM LINCOLN VS. ZOMBIES

Before you try to correct me, no, I don’t mean ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER.  That Tim Burton-produced movie, which opens on June 22^nd, is reportedly budgeted at $85 million.  ABRAHAM LINCOLN VS. ZOMBIES, which will be available on video May 29^th, reportedly cost $150,000.  I watched it last night, and found it morbidly delightful.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN VS. ZOMBIES is a production of The Asylum Film Company, which is currently celebrating its 15^th year and 100^th movie.  If you are not familiar with The Asylum, they’ve created a kind of movie called ‘The Mockbuster,’ a movie that follows on the publicity coattails of big budget movies, either making fun of them, or frankly trying to confuse the consumer into renting the wrong one.  Their ALMIGHTY THOR is based on the Norse myth rather than the comic books; their SHERLOCK HOLMES, while lacking Robert Downey Jr., was shot in Ireland and featured a tyrannosaurus rampaging through London; their JOHN CARTER OF MARS is based on the same public domain Edgar Rice Burroughs novel as JOHN CARTER; and yes, they produced TITANIC 2.  They’ve also made 6 GUNS, a very low-budget but very watchable western starring Barry Van Dyke.

I cannot say how close the ZOMBIES version is to Seth Grahame-Smith’s best-selling novel, ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER, because I haven’t read it, and my impression (possibly wrong) is that few people have.  It’s the sort of book you buy not to read, but to give to your history teacher to amuse or upset her.  But the story in this one is by Karl T. Hirsch and J. Lauren Proctor, and it’s scripted and directed by Richard Schenkman, who first made a splash when he wrote and directed THE POMPATUS OF LOVE.  As someone says in the ‘making of’ featurette, it’s not historically accurate so much as an alternative to historical accuracy.

As the movie begins, we first see the future Great Emancipator killing a zombie as a child.  Then later, now president, in the midst of Civil War, while calming Mary Todd Lincoln’s fears about his safety as he prepares his Gettysburg Address, what stuns the viewer is the absolute seriousness with which the filmmakers attack their story.  While the premise is obviously nutty, this movie is a comedy with not one spoken joke, with not a wink to the audience in the entire film.  Bill Oberst Jr., who plays Lincoln, is not a familiar actor to me – no one in the entire cast is – and yet he brings a seriousness, dignity and heart to his performance that moves you, and compares well with Royal Dano (Disneyland’s GREAT MOMENTS WITH MR. LINCOLN) or any of the hundreds of previous Lincoln portrayals.    

A group of soldiers have been sent by the White House on a secret mission down south.  Only one comes back, and he has become a zombie.  The president, fearing a zombie outbreak could decimate the country’s population, assembles a dozen of his best men and, as the only one with first-hand zombie-fighting experience, leads them into the deep South, to the fort where the outbreak began, and there he must fight not only zombies but Confederate General Stonewall Jackson (Don McGraw).  The fort is where most of the film occurs, and it was shot in Savannah, Georgia, at Ft. Pulaski National Monument, the site of an early battle of the Civil War, and the first post of Robert E. Lee after he left West Point. 

From this point on, the story resembles Romero’s NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, except that the small group being attacked by zombies is the president and his team in a fort, rather than a group of random people in a Pittsburgh farmhouse.  If your suspension of disbelief lets you accept that people can be menaced by zombies in the first place, it’s no more of a stretch to have the president in that situation than anyone else.  And the cast members, while not familiar, are uniformly convincing in their performances. 

Cinematographer Tim Gill makes excellent use of the Georgia locations, and the color has been adjusted to frequently make the images nearly black and white, which lends a nice subconscious Matthew Brady effect.  The art direction, costumes and props all feel correct for the period, and the make-up, zombie as well as normal, is convincing.  My only criticism of the look of the film is that, while two of the female leads, played by Baby Norman and Hannah Bryan, are quite beautiful, their hair is much too modern for the period.

While you don’t need to be an expert on Lincoln to enjoy the movie, the writers have utilized enough of his words to give the savvy viewer a wry grin, especially in the speech by another character that inspires what will become the Gettysburg Address.  There are also some great cameos by real historical figures,  some that are funny for their logic and some for their arbitrariness. 

While I doubt it will replace our memories of Henry Fonda in YOUNG MR. LINCOLN or Raymond Massey in ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS, it’s entertaining in its silly earnestness, and certainly worth what Redbox will charge you.  Mr. Oberst’s performance of the Gettysburg Address near the end is beautiful in its delivery and simplicity.  And the audacity of the very end of the movie – once you get it – will make your jaw drop.

‘LEGEND ON HELL’S GATE’ FINDS A DISTRIBUTOR!

Back in February, I reviewed THE LEGEND OF HELL’S GATE (you can see it HERE ), and offered readers a discounted on-line screening of the movie.  I’m very happy to report that HELL’S GATE has been picked up by for distribution by LIGHTNING ENTERTAINMENT, and will be released on DVD on June 19^th.  I’ll be featuring my interview with writer/director/costar Tanner Beard here in the Round-up within the next couple of weeks!

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 WESTERNSis the best continuous source of such programming, and has been for years. Currently they run LAWMAN, WAGON TRAIN, HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL, LAREDO, RAWHIDE, GUNSMOKE, THE REBEL, and MARSHALL DILLON, which is the syndication title for the original half-hour GUNSMOKE.

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 Royfeature 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 WOMANon weekdays, and BONANZA on Saturdays.


WHT runs DANIEL BOONE on weekdays from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m., Pacific Time, but they’ve just stopped showing BAT MASTERSON. They often show western films on the weekend, but the schedule is sporadic.


TVLAND has dropped GUNSMOKEafter all these years, but still shows four episodes of BONANZAevery weekday.

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 TV is currently running RIN TIN TIN, HERE COME THE BRIDES, and IRON HORSE.


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.

That's it for now, pardners!  Next week I'll have my review of the HATFIELDS & MCCOYS miniseries, and all about the Spaghetti Western Festival at FILM FORUM in New York.

Happy Trails!

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright May 2012 by Henry C. Parke -- All Rights Reserved