‘THE OUTSIDER’ – THE NEW TRACE ADKINS WESTERN, REVIEW AND INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR, PLUS 3 JOHN FORDS YOU’VE NEVER SEEN, UPCOMING SILVER SPUR AWARDS, AND MORE!

THE OUTSIDER – A MOVIE REVIEW

By Henry C. Parke

With the Marshal out of town on business, a Deputy (Mitchell Johnson) jails Chinese railroad worker Jing (John Foo) so friend James (Kaiwai Lyman) can assault Jing’s wife (Nellie Tsay). Marshal Walker (Trace Adkins) returns to town to find Jing has slaughtered many of James’ friends, and won’t stop until James is dead. The Marshal sympathizes, but knows he must bring Jing in. He knows James is an unrepentant swine; but James is also his son.

THE OUTSIDER is a dark, grim, but involving revenge Western that avoids the trap of the endless clones of THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES by focusing more on the Marshal and company, and their motives and motivations, than on Jing, who we already understand. Relationships change in unexpected ways, and characters who seemed incidental don’t always stay that way.

The direction and performances are consistently strong, and Trace Adkins demonstrates again, as he did in both THE VIRGINIAN and STAGECOACH: THE TEXAS JACK STORY, that he can carry a Western, although here he has ample assistance. This is a physically dark movie: three quarters of it happens at night, half of it in the rain -- it’s the wettest movie I’ve seen since the original DJANGO. But cinematographer Pablo Diez’s gift for color and composition finds beauty throughout, working in perfect visual harmony with production designer Markos Keyto.  This third Western from director Timothy Woodward Jr. is his strongest yet.

‘OUTSIDER’ DIRECTOR TIMOTHY WOODWARD JR.

Off the top of my head, I can think of only four living directors who have made three Westerns: Kevin Costner, Walter Hill, Simon Wincer (LONESOME DOVE, etc.) and Timothy Woodward Jr. Woodward is 36, or will be soon, and has already directed sixteen features, from Horror to Sci-fi to Crime Drama to Westerns. His first, TRADED, was a very impressive entrance into the genre, and his newest, THE OUTSIDER, is even better. “I love the genre. I grew up watching Westerns; my grandfather would have them on all the time after school. There's something magical about their kind of moral, where all the branches of government are on your hip. It was a simpler time in certain ways and more difficult in other ways. Just the complexity of it, the scenery -- I love all of it.”

In 2016’s TRADED, a father (Michael Pare) must find his daughter, who’s been lured with the opportunity of becoming a Harvey Girl, then sold into prostitution. It also stars Kris Kristofferson, Trace Adkins and Tom Sizemore. In 2018’s HICKOK, Luke Hemsworth plays Wild Bill at a time early in his career, when he becomes a lawman. It also features Kris Kristofferson and Trace Adkins, as well as Bruce Dern.

In 2019’s THE OUTSIDER, Trace Adkins moves from villain to lead. I was in Alabama recently, speaking to Adkins on the set of THE ULTIMATE COWBOY SHOWDOWN, which he hosts, and which premieres on INSP October 14^th.  He was very excited about THE OUTSIDER, and told me, “It's a really interesting character to play because, well, I was a bad guy, but now I've kind of seeking redemption. But his seed is bad and there's just nothing to do about it. My son is a lost cause. It's a really interesting role.”

Trace in the rain

THE OUTSIDER arrives on Blu-Ray and DVD on Tuesday, August 6^th. It’s already available digitally.

Henry Parke:   You said you watched Westerns with your grandfather. What were you watching?

Tim Woodward:  He used to watch GUNSMOKE all the time. And then, I loved TOMBSTONE, BUTCH CASSIDY.  We used to watch everything. He was a huge John Wayne fan, from STAGECOACH to THE SEARCHERS, but he would watch whatever was on TV, and there was always a lot of stuff on Saturdays.

Henry Parke:   Did the script for THE OUTSIDER come to you or did you develop it?

Tim Woodward:  My distributor was saying, we really would like for you to do another Western; here's a couple of ideas. So the idea was that, at this time period, the Chinese were coming through, building the railroad, and we just started doing some research.

Henry Parke:   This is your fourth film with screenwriter Sean Ryan. You two most to have a really exceptional rapport.

Tim Woodward:  I like Sean a lot; some of my earlier films are with him. I hadn't worked with him in a couple of years and I thought he'd be a great for this because his detail for action and his detail for character, he can create conflict. Sometimes it's not the word spoken, but the word unspoken that means a lot. So we kind of bounce off each other. And there's ideas that come to me, on-set, and Sean has no, no problem with that. Being able to allow me to adjust these things by saying, what if this character resists this way or that? We work really well together.

Henry Parke:   Revenge stories are familiar and popular, especially in Westerns, but the structure of yours is very unusual. Characters that seem to be minor become major; characters that traditionally would be there until the end, die. And revelations about characters change how you feel about them. So your story does not play it safe and predictable. Did the fact that you were not going on a traditional straight line for a Western concern you?

Tim Woodward:  It didn't, because I'd done two before, and my goal is always to challenge myself to do something different. TRADED was a very classical story, a nice throwback to some of the 1940s, 1950s westerns that I loved. Then with HICKOK we wanted a different approach. More of the myth, the way the comic books used to play Hickok, instead of the traditional, exact history of how he looked at things.  With THE OUTSIDER, this is a dark time for the Chinese. Let's take these characters and let's put them in a very bad situation, bad for everyone involved. Where the bad guy's not necessarily the bad guy, or at least he believes what he's doing, and everyone is affected by this. Our central protagonist, he's affected, but all these other characters, they're just as much in the mix and they have just as much conflict. Telling that kind of story was interesting and I think you hit it on the head: there's so many times where you know exactly what's coming. And I really just wanted to try something new where we just mixed it up a little bit and we said, okay, let's keep you engaged, but let's throw you off a little bit, not let you know the next step of what's happening, and let's bring certain character flaws to light later in their traits.

Henry Parke:   I was talking to Trace Adkins a couple of months ago, and he was telling me how much he enjoys working with you. Trace has been in all your westerns, and now he's moved up from villain to protagonist. What does he bring to your films in particular?

Tim Woodward:  Trace Adkins is a star. I mean, he has such a big presence. In person, he's the nicest guy you'll meet. But when he gets on camera, I don't even think Trace realizes how good he is. He really is his toughest critic, but he has just an aura about him. He draws people in. I mean, it's the voice, the height, it's the intensity that he can bring. He's just got it, you know? Whatever character he is playing, he comes in and he just manhandles it. Without going too detailed in the story, he has a lot of inner conflict going on,  he's very conflicted, and I think he did a great job; I was super happy with his performance.

Henry Parke:   In addition to Trace, you work with certain actors a lot: Kris Kristofferson, Danny Trejo, Kaiwi Lyman, John Foo. Are you trying to do the John Ford thing and create your own stock company?

Jon Foo and Sean Patrick Flanery

Tim Woodward: (laughs) A little bit. You know, I like working with people that I trust. It’s such a collaborative effort. If I get along with them and I can see the picture with them, I continue to work with them. Michael Pare is another person that I've worked with a lot, and Johnny Messner. There's certain roles and certain films that I feel like soon as I read them, this would work great for them and I know they can bring performance. Kaiwai Lyman's a guy that's on the rise, he's a star in the making. And John Foo’s got something special about him too.

Henry Parke: Pablo Diaz has shot nine films for you. I'm just struck by the beauty of his work. What’s special about his work, and your working relationship, that you'd have done so many pictures together?

Tim Woodward:  Well, we have a friendship, we have a trust in each other. We have a bond. When I say hey, here's this western, and I want to shoot it where 75% of it's night, and I want 50% of it to be pouring rain. First thing is Pablo is like, “Uh, okay. Here's what we should do. Here's how we can make it look beautiful.”  And Pablo is also just extremely gifted in the fact that he doesn't like to settle. Neither one of us do. So we will sit there and we will try as hard as we can with the resources we have available to make something that we both feel like has a chance of being special to everyone else -- it's already special to us. We really push ourselves hard. I know it's gonna be cold nights and 30 degree weather, but I'm here with you. Pablo has been there for me on that journey and he's helped me grow as a director, and I've watched him grow as a DP. I hope I do 20 more 30 more films with Pablo. Cause I love being on set all the time, and I love working with him.

Henry Parke:   Speaking of how dark and how wet the film is, it's always more expensive shooting at night. And rain effects are tricky, and run up expenses. Why, when you're doing a film that you have to be able to deliver on a budget, were those choices so important to you?

Tim Woodward:  Because for me, it was the movie. This tragic event happens and it's dark. The future is uncertain. The rain blocks what we can see. So besides trying to do something completely different than what I'd done before, it's just not something you think about when we imagine cowboys and horses. The first thing that pops in your head, small town, the brown dirt.  We don't think about mud and a horse riding through the rain.  Visually, I think it's striking, but I also think when you had those components to it, it adds an element of, like “trappedness”.  I wanted you to feel the character's emotions, feel this darkness.

Henry Parke:   Do you storyboard a lot?

Tim Woodward:  I don't storyboard. I like to get on set. I want to breathe it in, I want to look at it, I want to feel around it. I want to communicate with my DP and my actors. And then figure out a way of making it look as good as we can with the environments we have.  I've tried to story board before and found that it traps me on smaller budget film because I get this stuck in my head, maybe it takes two hours to do the shot. I'm trying to build it from the ground up. We have this amazing landscape here already, that works great for the character. Now let's figure out within that world, how do we make this look amazing and work for the story.

Trace Adkins and Kaiwi Lyman

Henry Parke:   Do you have a sense of how many pages a day you do, or how many setups a day on an average?

Tim Woodward:  It really depends on what type of scene it is. I've done scenes where I've only done three pages a day because it's calls for tons of extras. And I've done some where we've been at seven to eight pages a day. It just really depends on what we're doing and how smart we're blocking it off. Usually in these types of budgets, we'll shoot all of our town exteriors over the course of a couple of days, where we've got 50 extras. What we don't have is a ton of time; we're talking three, four-week shoots for these westerns, and when you have live animals and action, all this stuff, it's definitely tough to do. But it's also really rewarding.

Henry Parke:   The majority of your audience will not be seeing it on a big screen, but at home. Does that change the way you shoot and compose your shots?

Tim Woodward:  Not as much, just because you really hope they're going to see it on a big screen. But it does make you a little more conscious of the close-ups just because with streaming especially things can get compressed.  Someone on a big screen, in a medium shot, standing tall, you can see him really well. Then you get to the small screen and it's a little bit harder to see. So sometimes we go a little bit tighter in certain conversations for that, but I just feel like content is content now. People are watching it every which way. So we just try to make it the best we can.

Henry Parke: You shot at Big Sky Ranch, Caravan West, and were you the last film at Paramount Ranch before it burned?

Tim Woodward:  Yes, we were. We’d taken a few days to shoot at Big Sky, and were scheduled to go back to Paramount Ranch the next Friday, and the fire struck.  I had to recreate certain buildings. Jon Foo in the prison cell; we had to recreate that prison set. We were able to use the wide shot from an earlier scene that established the two characters, a little bit of manipulation and split screening and then do the closeup somewhere else.

Henry Parke:   What was the biggest challenge to making THE OUTSIDER?

Tim Woodward:   The wind, the rain effects and the fire going at one time. The mountains were blazing while we were filming at Big Sky. We had the fire department down below, I'd come out from being under these rain machines, the wind was going about 40 to 50 miles an hour -- so it would blow the rain any which way. We had to have a rain-tower set up 30 feet, behind the actors, then one in another direction, one in another direction, just in case, whichever way the wind blew. But you would come out from this rain and then all of a sudden the mountain would be on fire and you're just looking at it in awe. So that was challenging for sure. And I did a lot of “one-takers” in this movie, where we were on one character -- there's a six minute one, a one take scene.

Henry Parke:   Do you know what your next Western's going to be?

Tim Woodward:  I'm looking at a few things. I've got a story of John Wesley Harden that I really like a lot, and we may incorporate some of the guys from HICKOK in that. Someone has brought up, but the idea of a sequel for TRADED, and then I've got a story about Belle Starr as well. I can say with certainty that I'm going to do another western for sure. 

Henry Parke:   Anything else I should know?

Tim Woodward: I just want to say that the cast did a great job. I think it's on screen. Sean Patrick Flannery, this is my first time working with him, but I was so impressed by him. Nellie NeeYa, who played John Foo's wife, she needs a tremendous amount of credit for what she gave to the story. And again, we're not on a soundstage shooting this where it's a nice environment. We have 40 mile-an-hour winds, we've got rain flying everywhere. We've got dirt, dust. We've got a very tough environment. I think everybody did really well in my crew.

THREE JOHN FORDS YOU HAVEN’T SEEN!

Alpha Video never ceases to amaze me! Month after month they come out with the oddest and most intriguing films, and they all list price for under $10! Here are three new releases, all directed by John Ford.

JUST PALS – a 1920 silent starring the formidable but endearing Buck Jones was the first film Ford directed when he switched studios from Universal to Fox. Jones plays Bim, an aimless layabout who wants to reform when he befriends 10 year old Bill (Georgie Stone). Bim sends Bill to school, to become something better than Bim himself has, an honorable act not unnoticed by teacher Mary (Helen Ferguson). It’s well-made and charming, and if the plot sounds similar to that of Chaplin’s THE KID, which made a star of Jackie Coogan, keep in mind that JUST PALS was made a year earlier.

SEX HYGIENE – In the collection SEX EDUCATION FILMS FROM WORLD WAR II is John Ford’s SEX HYGIENE, which is about – you guessed it – what not to do if you’re a soldier or sailor who doesn’t want to catch something awful. Ford directed the non-clinical scenes, mostly of military types shooting pool and discussing whether or not to go out and have a good time. The players include George Reeves, later TV’s Superman, and Robert Lowery, later the Columbia serial’s Batman. The clinical footage is done by Otto Brower, a talented Western director who helmed FIGHTING CARAVANS (1931) starring Gary Cooper, and many others. BUT BE WARNED, THE MEDICAL SECTIONS ARE NOT FOR THE YOUNG AND/OR IMPRESSIONABLE! You will see more diseased penises in ten minutes than a brothel-worker sees in a lifetime.  Also included in the set, directed by Oscar-winner Lewis Milestone is KNOW FOR SURE, featuring John Ford regulars Ward Bond, Tim Holt, and J, Carrol Naish. And TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES stars Jean Hersholt, of DR. CHRISTIAN fame, Robert Mitchum, Noah Beery Jr., and is directed by Arthur Lubin, of PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and FRANCIS THE TALKING MULE fame. Ford’s is the only one of the three you need to cover your eyes for.

THIS IS KOREA – John Ford had made a number of fine gung ho documentaries for the War Effort during Word War II (besides SEX HYGIENE), including THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY and DECEMBER 7^TH, and in 1951 went to Korea to do it again. At first it seems like his WWII films, only in color, but it is a much more grim film as it progresses. Ford didn’t like anything he saw about how the war was handled. The conditions of the citizenry are awful, and those of our military were not much better. Some of the commentary on the action is jarring – a soldier fires a flame-thrower into a cave while the narrator says, “Fry ‘em out! Burn ‘em out! Cook ‘em! We found ‘em dug in ten feet deep!” Later the camera shows a large cemetery of American soldiers, as a narrator whispers, “Remember us…Remember us…”  The government wouldn’t release it, but finally Republic Pictures did. Not fun, but fascinating.

All Alpha Video's can be found here: https://www.oldies.com/collection-view/Alpha-Video-DVDs.html

SILVER SPURS IN SEPTEMBER!

On Friday, September 20^th, the Reel Cowboys will host the 22^nd Annual Silver Spur Awards, which will celebrate three TV series marking their 60^th anniversaries: BONANZA, LARAMIE, and RAWHIDE. After many years at The Sportsman’s Lodge, the event is moving to Burbank, and the Calamigos Equestrian Center. Honorees will be Bobby Crawford of LARAMIE, Clint Eastwood (hope he comes!), Darby Hinton of DANIEL BOONE, Margaret O’Brien of BAD BASCOMB (and MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS), stuntman Jack Gill, and RIDE THE HIGH-COUNTRY star Mariette Hartley. Others planning to attend include Morgan Brittney, Dawn Wells, Johnny Crawford, L.Q. Jones, Pat Boone, Cathy Garver, Rosey Grier, and Robert Carradine. 

There’s always a delicious dinner, a silent auction, lively entertainment.  This year the event will be benefiting The Gary Sinise Foundation. Tickets are $200 for general, $250 for premium. You can learn more, and buy tickets, by calling 818-395-5020, or going to SilverSpurAwards.com.

AND THAT’S A WRAP!

HAPPY TRAILS,

HENRY

ALL ORIGINAL CONTENT COPYRIGHT AUGUST 2019 BY HENRY C. PARKE – ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

SCHWARZENEGGER’S COMING, WESTWORLD’S RETURNING, ‘HIGH CHAPARRAL’ P.M. IS TALKING, TCM’S FEST-ING, AND MORE!

UPDATED 10:11 AM 2-16-18 -- SEE 'LOS ANGELES ITALIA FESTIVAL'

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER TO STAR IN WESTERN ‘OUTRIDER’

Okay, he’s not the King yet, but maybe the Kaiser of the Cowboys? The body-building champ, movie star and former Governor of California, whose only previous Western was Hal Needham’s 1979 comedy THE VILLAIN -- in which he played Handsome Stranger to Ann-Margaret’s Charming Jones, and Kirk Douglas’s Cactus Jack -- will be heading to the Amazon West, to star in the series OUTRIDER, for Producer Mace Neufield, who previously produced GODS AND GENERALS.

Set in the late 1800s, when Oklahoma was still Indian Territory, the story centers on a deputy assigned to capture a famous outlaw, with the help of a ruthless Federal Marshal (Schwarzenegger). As the tale progresses, alliances will shift, and the demarcation between hero and villain will be obscured.  The show will be co-written and exec-produced by Trey Callaway and Mark Montgomery.

‘WESTWORLD’ RETURNS IN APRIL!

As Superbowl fans learned last Sunday, WESTWORLD will be starting its second season, on HBO, on April 22^nd. The teaser trailer, seen below, doesn’t give too much story away, but it does confirm that it will be a western WESTWORLD, not the eastern Samurai variation last season’s ending hinted at (Whew!). As with season one, HBO remains tight-lipped. So fasten your seatbelts!

AUTRY ‘SERGEANT RUTLEDGE’ SCREENING 2/17 INTRO’ED BY ‘LEFTY BROWN’ DIR.

As part of the Autry’s long-running ‘What is a Western?’ film series, they will be screening John Ford’s classic Western courtroom mystery, 1960’s SERGEANT RUTLEDGE. Tremendously daring for its subject matter even today, and one of the high points of Woody Strode’s career. He star as a Buffalo Soldier on trial for the rape and murder of a white child. The film also stars Constance Towers and Jeffrey Hunter.  I wrote an article on RUTLEDGE, and other Buffalo Soldier films, for True West Magazine, and had the privilege of speaking to both Ms. Towers, and Olympic Decathlon Gold Medalist Rafer Johnson, who played a Buffalo Soldier in the film. To read ‘Ford Set The Bar High’, click HERE.  The film will be introduced by Jared Moshé, director of the current Western THE BALLAD OF LEFTY BROWN. The program in the Wells Fargo Theatre begins at 1:30 pm, and admission is free with your museum admission. 

‘L.A. ITALIA FESTIVAL’ FEB. 25TH!
UPDATED 10:12 AM 2-16-18 -- DIRECTOR/STAR RICHARD HARRISON WILL INTRODUCE HIS FILM 'TWO BROTHERS IN TRINITY'

In two weeks the L. A. Italia Festival, the 13^th annual celebration of Italian culture and especially Italian cinema, will begin on Sunday, February 25^th, at the Chinese 6 Theatres in Hollywood, and run for a week, through Saturday, March 3^rd, Oscar eve. This year’s festival will be dedicated to legendary Italian directors Franco Zeffirelli and Lina Wertmuller.  There are screenings of dozens of Italian movies, both new and classics, all free, on a first come, first seated basis. There are also special programs that require reservations, and the red carpet is often packed with stars. The schedule of films was announced last night, and there is just one Italian Western on the bill. On Saturday, at 4:50 pm, TWO BROTHERS IN A PLACE CALLED TRINITY, starring Richard Harrison, will be screened. The program notes, “Harrison wrote, produced and directed the film, and understandably, it is his personal favorite among the Italian westerns he appeared in.” It doesn’t say whether or not Harrison will attend; I’ll try to find out. To find out about all of the films being screened, and their times, go HERE.

TCM FESTIVAL – LOOKING FORWARD AND BACK

I was surprised to find this shot of me and Shirley

Jones on the Red Carpet at the TCM site!

The annual TCM Classic Movie Festival returns to the Chinese Theatre Complex and elsewhere around Hollywood, starting April 26^th, and running through the 29^th. This year’s theme will be that all-too-often ignored aspect of movies, the written word. According to TCM, “From original screenplays to unique adaptations to portrayals of writers real and imagined, we will celebrate the foundation of great film: the written word.”  The Fest will open with a screening at the Chinese IMAX of THE PRODUCERS, with writer/director Mel Brooks attending. Other guests already announced include writer/director Robert Benton, and actress Marsha Hunt.  

Dick Cavett introducing a film

Last year, although the number of Westerns featured was small, what there was, was choice. DAWSON CITY – FROZEN TIME is a fascinating documentary by Bill Morrison. A boomtown in the heart of the Yukon Gold Rush that started in1898, Dawson’s movie theatres were not only the hub of entertainment, they were the end of the line for movie prints that had made their way around the world. In 1978, a construction crew bulldozed an old sports club, and found hundreds of reels of film buried, some of them preserved, in the permafrost, most of them films thought to be lost forever. And that’s only the beginning of the story. The film is available from Kino-Lorber.

A frame from POLLY OF THE CIRCUS (1917)

partly decomposed, from DAWSON CITY

1952’s THOSE REDHEADS FROM SEATTLE was re-premiered at the Fest, not just restored, but seen in 3-D for the first time since its release. This lively movie from Paramount’s famous ‘Dollar Bills’, Bill Pine and Bill Thomas, was the first 3-D musical. It stars Gene Barry, Rhonda Fleming, Agnes Moorhead, and a bevy of singers and dancers, including the Bell Sisters, one of whom, to the audience’s delight, attended. It tells the story of a family of women that head to -- you guessed it -- Dawson City during the Gold Rush to be entertainers. This one is also available from Kino-Lorber. With their story overlap, I’m surprised REDHEADS and DAWSON aren’t offered as a set. 

Paramount Studio Head Archivist Andrea Kalas presented a talk, and clips from dozens of Republic Pictures in all imaginable genres. Paramount has acquired the entire Republic Library (minus, I assume, Gene Autry’s films, as he acquired all of them), and have for seven years been restoring them at the rate of 100 a year. Needless to say, this left all the Western fans in attendance salivating, but at the moment, no definite plans for releasing the films has been announced.

Peter Bogdonovich and Illeana Douglas

And speaking of things not yet announced, thus far only eighteen films have been announced for this year’s Fest, and there’s not a Western in the bunch. But last year they showed 83 films, so there’s plenty of space to squeeze in some oaters. Stand by for updates as we get closer to the event.

SPEND ST. PATRICK’S DAY WITH KENT MCCRAY!

Kent McCray with High Chaparral stuntwoman

Jackie Fuller

On Saturday, March 17^th, Kent McCray, who produced or production-managed BONANZA, THE HIGH CHAPARRAL, and THE LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE, will be au the Autry, speaking about his career, and signing his new autobiography, KENT MCCRAY: THE MAN BEHIND THE MOST BELOVED TELEVISION SHOWS. A Q&A will be hosted by Dean Butler, who played Almanzo Wilder on LITTLE HOUSE, and other guests from McCray shows are expected. In addition to his extensive Western work, McCray spent years managing Bob Hope’s travels to entertain our troops around the globe. His friendship with Michael Landon, developed on the BONANZA set, led to a producing partnership on LITTLE HOUSE and HIGHWAY TO HEAVEN.

My next Round-up will feature an interview with McCray. And HERE is a link to the current True West Magazine, about McCray’s recent celebration of HIGH CHAPARRAL’s 50^th Anniversary.

TWO-GUN HART – BY JEFF McARTHUR

A Book Review by Henry C. Parke

It’s not so surprising that a young man’s early association with Western actor William S. Hart would inspire him to become a real-life western lawman. It’s not the first time a man changed his name in tribute to his idol – magician Eric Weiss dubbed himself Harry Houdini after French illusionist Robert-Houdin. The stunner is the name that he changed: lawman and prohibition agent Richard ‘Two-Gun’ Hart had been Christened in Sicily as Vicenzo Capone, and his brother, Al Capone, would make quite a name for himself on the other side of the law!

Jeff McArthur tells a fascinating, and entirely fresh, story of a man who reinvented himself totally, yet could never totally escape his family’s influence. Hart was a remarkable complex man, and his successes and struggles throughout the Great Depression are, by turns, inspiring and infuriating.

As a teenager, I was obsessed with Depression-era gangsters, and I devoured every word I could find on Al Capone. There is more information on the life of Scarface Al, and insight into his character and personality here, than I have ever seen before, and with a good reason. For the first time, the Capone family has opened up to an author, and granted unprecedented access to MacArthur.

Whether your interest is in lawmen, criminals, or simply humanity, you will be astonished. TWO-GUN HART is published by Bandwagon Books.               

HEAVIES PLAY HEROES IN ALPHA RELEASE

Tom Tyler had a few standout sympathetic roles, as Captain Marvel in the Republic serial, and as Stony Brooke in some of the THREE MESQUITEERS entries. But most of his other outstanding, and best remembered roles were villains: Luke Plummer, the man who killed John Wayne’s brother in 1939’s STAGECOACH; King Evans in William Wyler’s THE WESTERNER (1940); and as the seemingly soulless gunman in POWDERSMOKE RANGE (1935). Likable, strong-jawed Kermit Maynard was as good an actor, and handsomer, than his superstar brother Ken Maynard, but no one else could do what Ken could with a horse. Kermit played countless drovers and henchmen and stagecoach drivers.  But once in a blue moon, these supporting players got a chance to shine, and in a new double-bill from Alpha Video, each man proves that he could carry a movie on their own.

In RIDIN’ THRU (1934), Tom Tyler and sidekick Ben Corbett come to the aid of a rancher-turned-dude-rancher friend whose horses are being rustled, and determine they’re being led away by a mysterious white stallion. In FIGHTING TROOPER (1934) Kermit Maynard stars as a Mountie sergeant whose superior, and personal antagonist, is murdered. While undercover, investigating a likely suspect, fur trapper LeFarge (LeRoy Mason), he grows to suspect LeFarge is being framed.

Also from Alpha is the long-thought-lost B Western DESERT MESA (1935), starring Wally West, a stuntman-turned-actor who pretty quickly turned back to stuntman. It's a story about two men, West and an old rancher (William McCall), whose paths cross as both seek the same man, who ruined their lives by killing West’s father and McCall’s wife. Not a great movie, but a surprisingly good print, it’s curious to note that as late as 1935, some poverty row Westerns felt almost like silents, between the stilted performances and West’s mascara. One of the more natural performances, as an unbilled sidekick named Art, is the film’s producer and director Art Mix, real name Victor Adamson, who was sued by Tom Mix to stop borrowing his last name.  It’s double billed with THE TEXAS TORNADO, aka RANCH DYNAMITE, from 1932, starring Lane Chandler as a Texas Ranger who takes on the identity of a Chicago gangster to infiltrate a gang. Master stuntman Yakima Canutt plays a henchman, and does stunt doubling in the spirited fights. It’s written and directed by Oliver Drake, who decades later would co-author Canutt’s excellent autobiography, STUNTMAN.

…and that’s a wrap! 

For your amusement, here are a few not quite 2” by 3” Swedish gum cards. My favorite is the one that identifies our most decorated soldier of World War II, and a fine Western actor, as Audrey Murphy. Things get lost in translation.

In the next Round-up, I’ll have my interview with Kent McCray, and a look at two upcoming Spaghetti Westerns from the folks who brought you 6 BULLETS TO HELL! And I’ll be updating this Round-up as titles become available for the TCM Classic Movie Festival.

Happy Trails!

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright February 2018 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved

CIVIL WAR COMES TO SANTA CLARITA, PLUS MORE TCM FONDA-ON-FONDA, NEW ‘DJANGO’ MINI-SERIES!

CIVIL WAR COMES TO SANTA CLARITA APRIL 18-19!

In addition to the previously announced musical, literary, eating and shopping-related events happening at the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival this coming weekend, something new has been added!  Marking the 150^th Anniversary of the end of the Civil War, for the first time the Festival will include living history encampments, plus at 12:45 and 3:15 on both days, Heritage Junction will be transformed into a Civil War battleground!  These events are peopled by dedicated history buffs, and will immerse you in that time in a way no book or movie ever could – it’s a wonderful way to introduce kids and adults to the history of the Civil War and the American West!      

And you can test your stamina on the mechanical bull, and your skill at hatchet-throwing, archery, and fast-draw laser tag! For a rundown on all of the musical events, go HERE . For my rundown of all the separate-ticket events, go HERE

Once again I’ll have the pleasure of moderating several of the panels and conducting interviews at the Buckaroo Book Shop, starting Saturday at high noon for a talk with author and screenwriter Miles Swarthout, about THE SHOOTIST, THE LAST SHOOTIST, and THE HOMESMAN.  At 2 pm I’ll discuss Unsung Heroes of Film: The Hollywood Stunt Horse, with Karen Ross, senior consultant at the American Humane Society’s Film & TV Unit, authors Petrine Day Mitchum and Audria Pavia, Gene Autry Entertainment president Karla Buhlman.  

Saturday at three I’ll be talking with novelists and screenwriters Miles Swarthout, C. Courtney Joyner, Stephen Lodge and Dale Jackson about their adventures adapting novels into screenplays and screenplays into novels.  At 5 pm I’ll be chatting with Karla Buhlman, President of Gene Autry Entertainment, about the legacy of America's Favorite Singing Cowboy, Gene Autry. 

On Sunday I only have one panel, Name That Horse – Famous Horses and Their Pards, featuring Karla Buhlman and authors Petrine Day Mitchum and Audria Pavia. 

There will be many other interesting panels both days -- for an official schedule of all of the events happening at the Buckaroo Book Shop, go HERE.  Every book mentioned or shown will be available at the Buckaroo Book Shop, And they can all be purchased right now from OutWest -- just click the link at the top left of the page!  

I’m particularly excited that the Buckaroo Book Shop will be located in the cluster of historic buildings called Heritage Junction, in the Pardee House, which was built in 1890, and was used as a film location by Tom Mix, John Ford and Harry Carey among many others.  Other structures at the Junction include the Newhall Ranch House, Saugus Train Station featuring the Mogul Engine, Mitchell Adobe, Edison House, Kingsburry House, Callahan Schoolhouse, and the Ramona Chapel.   

For all of the specifics of the entire Santa Clarita Cowboy Fest, visit  http://cowboyfestival.org/http://cowboyfestival.org/

THE TCM FEST PART 2: MORE WITH PETER FONDA

We think of Peter Fonda as a film actor, but he has worked extensively on stage as well; one of his first successes, in college, was the James Stewart role in HARVEY.  “I was listening to Chris Plummer and Julie Andrews talk about this last night, what it is to share with an audience.  I liked starting my career out, as my dad did, on stage, because it’s a much more defined area of acting.  Film acting is totally different.  One thing I’ve taught to students in colleges, if they are actors, and want to know about stage acting, I tell them this, if you catch this, and let it bleed out to all the other things you do on stage, this is the key:  if you’re supposed to cry, and then the audience cries, you have to be very, very tender with the timing.  Because if you drop a tear first, the audience will let you cry for them.  But if you wait until you hear the first sniffle, the first catch in somebody’s the throat somewhere in the audience, and then drop a tear, the audience goes Niagara.  In movies, it can be helped by editing.  But if you’re on stage, and you want them to laugh, don’t laugh first, don’t cry first.” 

Interviewer Scott Eyman, author of PRINT THE LEGEND – THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN FORD, and JOHN WAYNE – THE LIFE AND LEGEND, noted that Peter’s and Henry’s relationship had been ‘fraught,’ but said that by the time Hank passed, they were ‘very tight’.  What changed their relationship?   Peter replied, “Well, I got to direct him, and act with him (in WANDA NEVADA) – which he thought was totally nuts.  Brooke Shields, me and dad.  I hired my dad.  It was funny, I called him on the phone and asked him, if he’d be able to work with me for one day, and I could only pay him fifteen-hundred bucks.   He said, ‘Is it a good part?’  Yuh, I’ll send you the sides.  ‘Sides, you’ll send me the sides?  You don’t know what sides are!’  Now I do, if you recall me on the road, feeding your cue lines to you from sides. 

That's bearded Hank with Peter and Brooke

“He came and worked with me, and the experience was remarkable.  I don’t have enough time to tell you all of the beautiful details, and how it started to crumble.  He hated the beard, and I don’t blame him, but he didn’t hear me when I said it was a fairy tale, and it didn’t need to be a real beard.  I say Dad, you’re supposed to be chewing tobacco in the scene, and you’re not well, and I’ve got this little bag of ground up licorice.  And he absolutely adored this stuff, and the camera doesn’t know it’s not tobacco.  No, it’s my dad, the perfectionist, the realist.  (He) took out a bag of Red Man Chewing Tobacco.  Don’t take this the wrong way; he said, ‘Bill Cosby gave me this!’ You’re too sick to chew tobacco, and I’ve got this all ready for you.  ‘No.’ I knew when the no meant no further talk.  I popped the licorice in my mouth, got over him, and started to drool the licorice into his beard.  I got a little spirits of mineral oil on it – ‘Close your eyes, Dad!’  Whew -- threw dust into his beard.  ‘You’re ready for your close-up now – see you on-set!’ Went ouside, and Michael Butler, the cameraman said, ‘Wow!  How do you do that?’  I said, ‘First time, I never did it before.  But I was the director, what the heck.’  

“He did the job for me, and three weeks later, I got a letter from him in Page, Arizona. And it was hot.  I was glad Dad didn’t die of the heat; but I knew Dad was dying.   And he wrote me this fabulous letter – perhaps the fifth that he had ever written me.  And it was that he felt bad about the beard, and he wouldn’t blame me if I cut it out of the film, but it would have been such a gas – his phrase.  Here comes the hard part to tell.  It was a five page letter.  And at the end, ‘In my forty-one years of making motion pictures, I have never seen a crew so devoted to the director.  You are a very good director.  And please remember me for your company.’  Now a company is a word we normally use in stage.  But in John Ford’s time, he carried a (stock) company of actors with him from one film to the next.  Ward Bond was one of them.  John Carradine was another.   Great characters.  Walter Brennan.  Great characters that he would have as his company.  And the fact that my dad wanted to be part of my company… How cool is that?”

Peter and Scott Eyman talked about the films they re-watched in preparation for this interview.  Fonda recalled, “I had to watch THE OX-BOW INCIDENT, and THE GRAPES OF WRATH, of course.  And then I blew it on the red carpet last night.  They asked me what my favorite film was, and I said DUCK SOUP.  I should have said BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES.  I should have said EMPIRE OF THE SUN, a great film by Steven Speilberg.  Of course, Groucho loved EASY RIDER.” 

Scott Eyman asked, “When you look at your dad’s work today, one actor to another, what do you see?”

Warren Oates and Peter Fonda in THE HIRED HAND

Peter replied, “I watch his timing.  I watch how his eyes move or don’t.  And I’ve learned that, when you’re in close-up, eye movement can really be disturbing on a big screen.  And I can see, and I always watched him on-stage, he had this tension in his fingers like this (his arms straight down, his fingers drumming on his leg).  He knew how to do hands-down performances day-in and day-out.  There’s a reason I call them hands-down performances. He didn’t have to do this (Peter makes a bunch of hand-gestures).  You just have your hands at your sides, and say the lines, and say them with such fullness and conviction that the audience understands them without any added movements.  I was watching one of my favorite Westerns - and I blew it again on the red carpet.  They asked me what my favorite Western was, and I said (laughs) THE HIRED HAND (which Peter Fonda directed and stars in).  And when my dad finally saw that, by the way, he was thoroughly pleased.  ‘That’s my kind of Western,’ he said.  I couldn’t ask for a better compliment.  But now I see it (the hands) in MY DARLING CLEMENTINE, he’s doing that again, and it doesn’t distract me from the story, from the character.  He is Wyatt Earp.  I believe, and I knew Ward Bond very well, I knew John Wayne, I knew all these guys.  I knew them all, I believe all their characters.  And Victor Mature was so incredible in that film.  It was his best performance.  I don’t know how many of you have seen that film.  It was his finest performance, and he did it for John Ford.  And I’m so thrilled to be able to say that about another actor, even though this talk is called Fonda on Fonda.”

Some questions were taken from the audience.  One man asked if, in making EASY RIDER, Peter Fonda was making references to two of his father’s films, GRAPES OF WRATH, and MY DARLING CLEMENTINE.  “You’re going across-country, but in opposite direction from GRAPES; your scene in the commune is a lot like the WPA camp; your character is names ‘Wyatt’.  The end of EASY RIDER is a bit like the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.  Or am I all wet?”

EASY RIDER

Fonda replied, “You’re not wet; it was unconscious, but thank you, that’s a great compliment.  When I was first writing that, the concept I came up with was two guys -- not one hundred Hell Angels riding to a Hell’s Angels funeral -- which had been WILD ANGELS, because I had been told no more motorcycles-sex-drugs-and-rock-and-roll movies.  As I started writing EASY RIDERS, the first thing that came to my mind was riding through John Ford’s west.  We were going to ride east, as an homage to Herman Hesse’s JOURNEY TO THE EAST.  I didn’t expect the audience to go – “Wow!  That’s Herman Hesse’s JOURNEY TO THE EAST!’  We would have blown it if that happened – I did want to say that line again.   And then watching a couple of shots from CLEMENTINE, and looking at that one rock that Hopper and I would shoot at in the background when we entered Monument Valley, where CLEMENTINE was shot.  Of course, there’s never been a town in Monument Valley except the ones that John Ford dropped there.  Tombstone certainly isn’t there.  But there’s Tombstone.  A town that has a road and buildings.  Not on the other side of the road.  There’s a church being built on the other side of the road. And in this one-sided town you had three bars, one Shakespearean actor doing a play; John Ford was a genius.  And he helped my dad get past THE MAGNIFICENT’S DOPEs and THE IMMORTAL SERGEANTs,  and get to THE GRAPES OF WRATH, MY DARLING CLEMENTINE, YOUNG MR. LINCOLN.  I think Ford released him to do that.”

Another guest asked Peter to comment about his father’s performance in ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST.  “I would love to, in fact.  He was not so sure about working with (Sergio) Leone.  He came in with brown contact lenses.  And Leone flips, because he had hired my dad for his blue eyes.  If you’ve ever seen spaghetti westerns, all of those Italians have really blue eyes.  So Sergio Leone flipped out, but that’s my father.  He would go to those extremes.  So there he is, and (in his first scene) he’s identified.  ‘What are you gonna do with the kid, Frank?’  ‘Well, now that you’ve named me.’  And he shoots the kid in the stomach.   This is the first time my dad had ever done anything like that in any film.  He did some noir films that people don’t know about.  He shot the shit out of the Clantons in CLEMENTINE, but this is a kid – and gut-shooting a kid?  The audience freaked out, because there was Hank Fonda shooting a kid in the stomach.  But because of Sergio and my dad, and the other actors, they just kept the story going.  To take it a little further, I was in Almeria, Spain, to direct a commercial for Citroen cars, and I got my daughter in it, and we would go by the big house from ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST – it’s still there.  And so on the wrap day, which was a week later, I had taken all these pieces of paper together, and written on them ‘ONCE UPON A TIME IN MY LIFE’.  And I got everybody together, start up the camera, run and get in the shot, we all hold up the sign, and I wanted to show it to myself and to my family.  Dad was already gone, but I thought, this is so fff-so-bloody cool.  But I thought it was a very interesting Western.  Very different from the greatness of Ford’s MY DARLING CLEMENTINE, or OX-BOW INCIDENT, or some of the others, but it was very interesting, very entertaining.  I liked it a lot.”

Henry Fonda in once upon a time in the west

The third and, probably, final installment of my coverage of the TCM Fest will include highlights from film introductions by Katherine Quinn, the widow of Anthony Quinn; Oscar winner Christopher Plummer, speaking at the THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING screening about director John Huston and star Sean Connery; and Oscar-winning special effects men Craig Barton and Ben Burtt on the making of GUNGA DIN. 

‘DJANGO’ AND ‘SUSPIRIA’ BOTH TO BE REMADE AS EURO TV-SERIES!

French TV producer ATLANTIQUE PRODUCIONS and Italian indie CATTLEYA will co-produce a pair of series based on the classic Sergio Corbucci spaghetti western that helped ignite the genre, and the hypnotic Dario Argento horror film – and Argento is aboard as artistic advisor!  Each has received orders for twelve fifty-minute episodes.  No more info yet, except that they will be shopped at Cannes next week, at the MIP TV Market!

AND THAT’S A WRAP!

With the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival coming this weekend, I don’t know what I’ll be able to manage for next week’s Round-up.  Did anyone catch the premiere of LEGENDS & LIES – THE REAL WEST, from Bill O’Reilly, on Fox News?  The few minutes I caught looked good, certainly well-produced, but I had to finish writing the Round-up.  Let me know what you thought of it.  One criticism I’ve heard is that it covers the usual suspects – Jesse James, Doc Holliday, Davy Crockett – yet again, but on a news network, I’m hoping it’ll reach a wider audience.  If you’re reading the Round-up, you don’t need to be convinced that Western history is fascinating.  Hopefully this will round up some strays for us, maybe start a stampede, along with TURN, which reTURNs for season two tomorrow.  Still a moronic title that tells you nothing – what’s wrong with the book’s title, WASHINGTON’S SPIES? 

Have a great week, and hope to see you at the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright April 2015 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved