Elijah Veluzat & Bree Wall at Melody Ranch Saturday
Saturday and Sunday, April 21st and 22nd,
the Veluzat family’s Melody Ranch Motion
Picture Studio hosted the 20th Annual Santa Clarita Cowboy
Festival. I was there on Saturday, and
while they haven’t compiled official figures yet, there’s no doubt that
attendance will top all previous records.
But the Ranch is so big that once you got in, you never felt
crowded. I’ll have complete coverage of
the event in next week’s Round-up, but there’s one story I wanted to share
right now. I was talking to Daniel
Veluzat, trail-boss of the outfit, and he pointed out an attractive couple
standing on a porch and posing for pictures.
The story actually goes back about a decade, because that’s how many
years ago the tremendously popular and influential HBO series DEADWOOD was shot
at Melody Ranch.
Bree Wall, Molly Parker & Paula Malcomson in DEADWOOD
“The young lady is Bree Wall, who is the actress who
played Sofia in DEADWOOD.” Sofia was the
little girl whose parents were killed, and much of the series turned on how
much she might or might not be able to remember. “She was about ten years old at the
time. And the boy with her, ElijahVeluzat, he was the snot-nose trouble-maker boy in the show.” He’s also Daniel’s son. “They just stayed in touch over the years,
and here we are a decade later, reuniting at the house she grew up in with
Alma, and they’re going to the prom.”
Daniel Veluzat
It’s been a good, busy time at the ranch, which
gained recent attention when Quentin Tarantino shot much of DJANGO UNCHAINED
there. “They were here, had close to six
months of prep, and they shot about fourteen, fifteen days; they got a lot shot
in that short time. It’s good to keep a
big movie, a big production like that, in our state, let alone here (at the
Ranch). Quentin shared an interesting
story with us on a tech scout. His
mother named him ‘Quentin’ after a character on GUNSMOKE. We were standing right in front of the
saloon, the Longbranch, and he said, ‘Longbranch!?’ And we told him this is where they did
GUNSMOKE. I don’t know if that made up
his mind (to shoot here), but it excited him.”
Incidentally, Burt Reynolds, who
played the half-Indian blacksmith ‘Quint’ also named a son ‘Quentin’ after the
character.
If you’d like a look at the ranch, here’s a link to
a current T-Mobile commercial that was shot there:
TCM CLASSIC FILM FESTIVAL OPENS AT THE CHINESE THTR THURSDAY NIGHT
On Thursday night, April 25th, the Annual TCM Classic Film Festival will
open with a red-carpet gala event, the world premiere of the digital
restoration of FUNNY GIRL. Throughout
the weekend there will be numerous screenings, panel discussions and other
events, with many star appearances. The
Chinese Theatre has several screens, so as many as six different films may be
screening at once. Of particular
interest to Western movie fans, on Friday at noon, THE RIVER OF NO RETURN will
be screened, with producer Stanley Rubin attending, and there will be a
discussion. At 2:30, RUGGLES OF RED GAP
will screen, with Norman Lloyd and Todd McCarthy in attendance. At 9:15, HONDO will screen in 3D.
On Saturday at 11:45 a.m., DELIVERENCE will screen,
with a discussion including Burt Reynolds, Jon Voight, and director John
Boorman. At 2:00 p.m., a new digital restoration
of GIANT will screen, with a discussion by Jane Withers. At 7p.m., SHANE will screen, with Kid
Essentials host Bill Hader attending. At
the same time, THE TALL TARGET, an Anthony Mann-directed film about an attempted
assassination of President Lincoln, starring Dick Powell, screens, with writer
Donald Bogle attending. On Sunday night
at 7:15 a digital restoration of Buster Keaton’s THE GENERAL will premiere,
with a live musical accompaniment by the Alloy Orchestra. I want to stress that Westerns are the tip
of the iceberg here – there’s a tremendous array films of every imaginable
genre screening, most that are very rarely seen on a screen, and individual
tickets are available. For more
information, please go HERE. http://filmfestival.tcm.com/
‘THE SCARLET WORM’ - A Movie Review
What do you expect from a Western entitled THE
SCARLET WORM? Something unusual; and
something unusual, to say the least, is what you get. THE SCARLET WORM is a remarkable, compelling,
fascinating western film, though not for the easily shocked, and especially not
for kids.
The story makes no compromises to meet the viewers’
expectations. The story is the story:
take it or leave it. The hero, or rather
the protagonist, is neither hero nor antihero – he’s the guy who moves the
action along, often at a puzzling and erratic pace. He doesn’t look like a western lead – Aaron
Steilstra as ‘Print’ has nothing rural about his face; he looks like a
sociopathic Tony Shaloub, and dresses like a cross between a New York gangster
and an over-paid country parson. He
works for a rancher named Mr. Paul, and his job is to discourage rustlers. That is, until Mr. Paul has a more urgent
assignment for him: to kill Heinrich Kley, a brothel-owner who has the temerity
to perform abortions on his pregnant whores.
If it sounds a little odd that Mr. Paul should be so
up-in-arms about Mr. Kley’s actions, that’s not a mistake. SCARLET WORM resembles the stories of Jim
Thompson (THE KILLER INSIDE ME, THE GRIFTERS) far more than it does any
traditional western story-teller. As
with Thompson’s tales, you’re getting the story from the point-of-view of someone
who’s not all there, and doesn’t understand what is often more clear to the
viewer. It’s a maddening and enthralling
sort of suspense.
Aaron Steilstra and Brett Halsey, alias Montgomery Ford
Some of the desert locales are beautiful, but not
all, and in a startling nod to realism, the people of the desert are often
remarkably dirty. Even the whores, who
you see completely, unself-consciously, and anti-erotically naked, all need a
bath badly. Even more queasy-making is
the unflinching scene of Mr. Kley performing an abortion, his seeming
kindliness making it all the more unnerving.
This is a film by very talented filmmakers who know
precisely what effects they are going for, and how to achieve them. Remarkably, writer David Lambert and director
Michael Fredianelli have pulled it off for what co-producer and actor Mike
Malloy tells me was a budget of $7500.
No, there are no missing zeroes: they shot it for under eight grand!
Dan Van Husen and Eric Zaldivar
And what an eclectic cast! Spaghetti Western fans will delight to see
the three stars, Brett Halsey as Mr. Paul, performing under his Eurowestern non-de-plume
of Montgomery Ford; Dan Van Husen as Heinrich Kley; and Michael Forest as a
judge. Also worth noting is Kevin
Giffin as Hank, who knows Mr. Paul better than Print does, but whose advice is
often unheeded.
The action is exciting and well-handled, as are the visuals
by cinematographer Michael Martinez. The
use of locations as familiar as Vasquez Rocks, and the streets of Pioneertown,
give the picture a grounding in the familiar elements of the western, then spin
it off-balance, and give it a shove. If
you are a purist and a traditionalist, this is not the western for you. But if you have an open mind and a wish to
see something truly different, you’ll find it here. Highly recommended. This film has been ‘out’ for some time – I
found out about it late, so I don’t know where it would be currently available
to rent or to stream, but it is available for sale at Amazon HERE. Also, the enthusiastic critical reception it
received has led to another very intriguing project. Producer Mike Malloy confirmed to me that they
are developing DJANGO LIVES, a follow-up not to the Tarantino film, but to the
Sergio Corbucci original, and the original Django, Franco Nero, has confirmed
that he’s interested in playing the character again. All that I’ve heard beyond that is that it
would be set in Los Angeles in the early 20th century, and Django
would be working as a technical expert on westerns.
‘VIRGINIAN’ CAST FAVORITES MARATHON ON INSP APRIL 27TH
The good folks at INSP have interviewed THE
VIRGINIAN cast members to find their personal favorites among the 248 episodes,
and will be sharing them in an all-day marathon on Saturday, April 27th starting
at one p.m., Eastern time. Gary Clarke
(Steve Hill), Diane Roter (Jennifer Sommers), Don Quine (Stacy Granger), Sarah
Lane (Elizabeth Granger), Roberta Shore (Betsy Garth), and the original ‘Man
With No Name,’ James Drury, all took part.
And who could have guessed that Roberta Shore’s fave would also happen
to be the episode where Robert Redford was her romantic interest? To get a good overview of THE VIRGINIAN
series, and where the stars are today, here are the links to my multi-part
series on the VIRGINIAN 50TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION at THE AUTRY. Part ONE; Part TWO; Part THREE ; and Part FOUR.
TWO WEEKENDS LEFT TO CATCH ‘RAMONA’!
The 90th season of the Ramona Pageant, at
the Ramona Bowl Amphitheatre in Hemet, will have four more performances, on the
weekends of April 27th & 28th, and May 4th
& 5th. Based on Helen Hunt Jackson’s
fabulously popular novel, attending, and participating in this program has been
a tradition for generations of Californians. It’s a remarkably colorful
presentation, with about 350 participants, and only the two leads are usually
professional actors. Some locals have taken part, in various roles and
positions onstage and behind the scenes, for decades. Among the famous actors
who have taken part are GONE WITH THE WIND villain Victor Jory, who played the
lead early in his career, and was associated with the show for years, and
Raquel Welch, who played Ramona in 1959. To learn more, and buy tickets, call
800-645-4465 or go HERE.
R.I.P.D. FIRST TRAILER!
Jeff Bridges plays a dead old-west
lawman and Ryan Reynolds plays a dead S.W.A.T., working for the Rest In Peace
Department. Here's the first look!
NEW LONE RANGER TRAILER
Here's the link to
the 'Final Official Trailer'. Speaking
as an editor, I thought it was a terrific piece of work, but I’m startled,
after posting it on Facebook, how many people absolutely hate it. Take a look and tell me what you think.
The writer and star of the CROCODILE DUNDEE movies
and the Western LIGHTNING JACK had been in trouble with the Australian
government – in 2010 he was kept from leaving the country until he settled a
$150 million tax debt. In 2012, Hogan
and tax advisor Philip Eggilshaw reached a settlement with Aussie tax
authorities. That’s the good news. The bad news is Eggilshaw, who is named on an
international arrest warrant, is nowhere to be found, and Hogan claims Eggilshaw
has cleaned out Hogan’s $34 million Swiss bank account. Details comin’, mate!
TCM FANATIC - WESTERN NOW ONLINE!And speaking of TCM (okay, nobody was), have I mentioned that the segment I was interviewed for is now viewable here?
THE
Built by cowboy actor, singer, baseball and TV entrepreneur 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 permanent 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.
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
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.
WESTERNS ALL OVER THE DIAL
INSP’s SADDLE-UP SATURDAY features a block of rarely-seen classics THE VIRGINIAN and HIGH CHAPARRAL, along with BONANZA and THE BIG VALLEY. On weekdays they’re showing LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE, BIG VALLEY, HIGH CHAPARRAL and DR. QUINN, MEDICINE WOMAN.
ME-TV’s Saturday line-up includes THE REBEL and WAGON TRAIN. On weekdays it’s DANIEL BOONE, GUNSMOKE, BONANZA, BIG VALLEY, WILD WILD WEST, and THE RIFLEMAN.
RFD-TV, the channel whose president bought Trigger and Bullet at auction, have a special love for Roy Rogers. They show an episode of The Roy Rogers Show on Sunday mornings, a Roy Rogers movie on Tuesday mornings, and repeat them during the week.
WHT-TV has a weekday afternoon line-up that’s perfect for kids, featuring LASSIE, THE ROY ROGERS SHOW and THE LONE RANGER.
TV-LAND angered viewers by dropping GUNSMOKE, but now it’s back every weekday, along with BONANZA.
AMC usually devotes much of Saturday to westerns, often with multi-hour blocks of THE RIFLEMAN, and just this week began running RAWHIDE as well. Coming soon, LONESOME DOVE and RETURN TO LONESOME DOVE miniseries!
THE WRAP-UP
That'll have to do for today. Next week I hope to have a full report on The Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival, the Western Fictioneers nominees for their Peacemaker Awards, and a review of the new DVD release of THE GRAND DUEL, starring Lee Van Cleef. And a report on the TCM Fest will be coming soon!
Happy Trails,
Henry
All Original Contents Copyright April 2013 by Henry C. Parke -- All Rights Reserved
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