THE MAKING OF ‘THE
MAGNIFICENT SEVEN’ by Brian Hannan – A Book Review
With Antoine Fuqua’s
remake of the THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN on the horizon this September, it’s the
perfect time for a reappreciation of the 1960 classic. Author Brian Hannan, whose previous books
have looked at directors Alfred Hitchcock and Steven Spielberg, has
meticulously researched the history of THE MAGNIFICENT 7, and details it with
enthusiasm and insight, from its Japanese inspiration, Akira Kurasawa’s SEVEN
SAMAURI, onward. More than that, he
gives an in-depth picture of the entire movie industry at the turn of the ‘60s,
when studios were imploding under the weight of TV competition, long-term
studio contracts were vaporizing, money locked in foreign banks was
necessitating overseas production, and actors with muscle were starting their
own production companies.
The Kurasawa film is
the story of medieval farmers who hire Samurai to protect them from bandits who
rob their harvests; farmers who are so poor they cannot pay for the help beyond
feeding their defenders. Many who saw
the film immediately grasped that the concept would work beautifully as a
Western, moving the locale to turn-of-the-century Mexico, exchanging the
samurai for gunmen who are working for a pittance; they are working for
redemption rather than profit.
Before reaching the
screen, the property passed through many hands and versions. Originally the 7 were to be an older,
world-weary group, led by Spencer Tracy.
Anthony Quinn hoped to produce and star, but his role, Toshiro Mifune’s
comic character in SAMURAI, was re-tooled into the romantic lead for young
German actor Horst Bucholtz. Quinn took
the production to court over his exclusion.
Eli Wallach likewise wanted the Mifune part, but instead played bandit
leader Calvera, a performance which re-defined his career. Yul Brynner, the one member of the 7 who was
already an above-the-title name, hoped to direct the film, rather than play the
lead.
Hannan describes all of
the hubbub that went into the hiring of director John Sturges and casting the
leads. He details the careers of each
actor. He separates fact from fiction
about the stars’ attempts to jockey for the lead position. And he tells the remarkable story of how a
film that was already written off as a flop domestically by MGM became such a
hit overseas that it got a new release and a new life in the U.S.
Not that he considers
the film flawless – Hannan points out the film’s few glaring mistakes, the
greatest being Horst Bucholtz getting excessive screen-time in a role and
performance that was supposed to be charming, but is almost universally
considered irritating. Although I do
think he goes too far. When he complains
that this trio of minor characters needed to be separately delineated, or that character
should have had a close-up, it strains the reader’s patience: John Sturges knew
damned well what he was doing. That’s
why you wrote the book.
This is truly a
one-movie book – you’ll find scant reference to the three sequels or the TV series. You may actually learn more than you wanted
to know about the making of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, but you certainly will have
at least 95% of your questions answered.
THE MAKING OF THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN is published by McFarland, and available HERE.
LAST CHANCE
TO CATCH THE END OF ‘HELL ON WHEELS’ AND ‘AMERICAN WEST’ COURTESY OF AMC!
If you missed any of
the final seven-episode season of HELL ON WHEELS – my DVR somehow erased the
second-to-last episode before I could see it – or if you want to binge-watch
‘em all over again, AMC is making them all available on-line, for free, for
about a month. Go HERE to watch.
And they’re doing the same
for the Robert Redford-produced THE AMERICAN WEST documentary series. Go HERE to catch up.
‘THE HUNGER’ FEEDING ON
DONNER PARTY LEGEND.
You may remember that
last year The Weather Channel had a
miniseries DEAD OF WINTER, based on The Donner Party tragedy, starring Darby
Hinton as George Donner. Now 20th Century Fox and director
Ridley Scott’s company, Scott Free, have just announced a Donner Party movie,
based on a net-yet-published, not-yet-written novel by THE TAKER author Alma
Katsu called THE HUNGER. It will be
directed by Luke Scott, whose first movie, MORGAN, will be released by Fox
later this week. It’s being described as
‘DONNER PARTY MEETS THE WALKING DEAD’. I hope it’s not in poor taste.
‘LONESOME DOVE’ AUTHOR
MCMURTRY’S LIBRARY ON THE AUCTION BLOCK!
Heritage
Auctions always feature unusual items, and their September
15th session is no exception.
This one includes a 1788 edition of THE FEDERALST, by Alexander
Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay, seeking an opening bid of $85,000; and there’s
a first edition of Joseph Smith’s THE BOOK OF MORMON, with $38,000 already
bid.
While not nearly so
old, among the unexpected and unusual offerings are from LONESOME DOVE author
Larry McMurtry’s legendary research library.
They’re grouped by subject, and while there are nearly twenty days to
bid, at the moment there are a lot of bargains.
Fifty volumes of Depression-era WPA guides are at $12. A collection of 150 poetry books are at
$1. On the other hand, when it comes to
McMurtry’s forte, Texas, the bidding is a bit more lively. A group of Texana history books is at $320,
but considering that it contains 180 books, that’s one helluvah bargain! And an uncorrected proof of LONESOME DOVE is
currently at $1! HERE is the link to the
auction site.
CINECON FESTIVAL 52
LABOR DAY WEEKEND!
Once again, Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood
Boulevard will be the home of the Cinecon
Classic Film Festival. Their special
guest this year is Marsha Hunt. As usual
they have a great schedule of both silent and talkie films, and for Westerners
that includes 1928’s RAMONA, the first talkie version of Helen Hunt Jackson’s
classic novel, starring Dolores Del Rio and Warner Baxter, Ken Maynard in THE
FIGHTING LEGION, and Gary Cooper starring in the first talkie version of Rex
Beach’s THE SPOILERS. The dealers rooms
across the boulevard at the Loews Hotel is a wonderful place to hunt for stills,
posters, DVDs, and book signings. You
can learn more HERE.
‘HATEFUL 8’ AND MORE AT
THE AUTRY!
There are two excellent
new exhibits at The Autry. The
photography show Revolutionary Vision:Group f/64 and Richard Misrach –
Photographs from the Bank of America Collection, highlights a movement in
photography, started in the late 1920s, moving away from ‘pictorializing’, an effort to make photographs look like
paintings, in favor of sharp, unadulterated images, and featuring the works
of Edward Weston and Ansel Adams among
others.
New
Additions, Featuring the Kaufman Collection, covers a wide
range of works by past and contemporary painters and sculptors and American
Indian artists.
And on Saturday,
September 3rd, on the large, grassy lawn of the Autry you can, at 5:30pm
enter and grab a patch to sit in, at 7pm you can hear music, and at 8pm you can
see Quentin Tarantino’s THE HATEFUL 8 on their immense outdoor screen. There will be food trucks, and there will be
a bunch of morons who will talk through the whole movie. To my way of thinking, it’s the most hateful
possible way to see a movie, but folks who don’t give a damn about film think
it’s great. Enjoy!
JOHN MITCHUM CD RELEASE
PARTY AT PARAMOUNT RANCH, SUN SEPT 4TH!
A star-studded celebration
will be held at the Paramount Movie Ranch to mark the release of the new CD
JOHN ‘THE HUMBLE’ MITCHUM’S LEGACY’, featuring over fifty Western film and TV
legends performing their favorites Mitchum songs and poems. A man with nearly 160 film and TV credits,
best known as Clint Eastwood’s partner in all of the DIRTY HARRY movies, he was
also a fine writer, and first gained attention in that realm when John Wayne
recorded his poem, America, Why I Love
Her, which became a hit record.
The kid brother of
Robert Mitchum, John died in 2001. His
daughter, Cindy Azbill Mitchum, has worked for 13 years to make this event
happen. A glance at the list of contributors
reveals that some – Ann Rutherford, Ernest Borgnine, Dick Jones, Herb Jeffries,
Robert Easton – are no longer with us.
But happily, most are, and a great many will be attending the
event. And a few tickets are
available. The contact info is on the poster.
If you’d like to learn
more about John Mitchum, the event, and hear some of the recordings, including
one by the great James Drury (John appeared on THE VIRGINIAN many times), click
the link HERE for Equestrian Legacy Radio, then click on the episode entitled ‘Dirty
Harry, Josey Wales’ to hear a lively discussion with Cindy.
‘COPS & COWBOYS’
2016 SEPT. 10 AT LEONIS ADOBE!
The annual Cops & Cowboys fundraiser for the Mid-Valley Community Police Council will
once again take place at the historic Leonis
Adobe Museum in Calabasas, on Saturday, September 10th. You’ll
have a chance to tour the Adobe, built in 1884, one of the oldest buildings in
the San Fernando Valley; enjoy the hosted libations; place your bids in the
silent auction; place your bets at the poker and blackjack tables, with cards
handled by the Dealer Dolls; have a delicious barbecue dinner; dance to the
music of Eli Locke and the Locke and Loaded Band, and get a line-dancing
lesson! To learn more, and order
tickets, go HERE.
STAR-STUDDED ‘SILVER
SPUR’ SEPT. 16!
Friday, September 16th,
join the Reel Cowboys at The
Sportsmen’s Lodge in Studio City for the 19th annual Silver Spur
Awards. This is always a glamorous and
exciting event, and this year’s emcee will be one of the greats of Western TV,
Bruce Boxleitner. Among those being
honored will be the late, great King, Elvis Presley, star of FLAMING STAR and
ROUSTABOUT; and the late, extremely talented Western character actor Gregg
Palmer. Those honorees attending are frequent
John Wayne co-star Eddie Falkner, stuntman and actor Ben Bates, WALTONS mom
Miss Michael Learned, and characters actor and frequent Western guest star
Richard Herd, who tells me he’s especially excited that his presentation will
be made by the great Morgan Woodward. Other
presenters include Edie Hand, Western costumer (BIG JAKE, THE SHOOTIST, CHISUM)
Luster Bayless, Janet Arness, Wyatt McCrea, and the WALTONS’ eldest daughter,
Judy Norton. Contact info is on the
poster. See you there!
AND THAT'S A WRAP!
Had a great time on
Thursday interviewing Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy Nolan about their upcoming
HBO mini-series, WESTWORLD – you can read about it soon in True West. In the meantime, the current True West, with
the Tombstone walk-down on the cover, includes my article on the excellent new
modern western HELL OR HIGH WATER, starring Jeff Bridges, Ben Foster and Robert
Pine. Have a wonderful week, and a
wonderful Labor Day Weekend!
Happy Trails,
Henry
All Original Contents
Copyright August 2016 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved
One of the true
pleasures of home video viewing is discovering a hidden treasure-trove from a
series you thought you knew completely.
Fess Parker, fresh from his success playing Davy Crocket on Disney’s Wonderful World of Color,
starred as DANIEL BOONE for six TV seasons, from 1964 to 1970. There
were 165 episodes in all, and you can catch one daily on INSP. But you can’t
catch the first season – no one airs it because it was in black and white! Now that entire first season is available from
TIMELESS VIDEO, and it’s not only entertaining, it’s something of a
revelation.
Just as the black and white GUNSMOKEs are a
different animal from their color descendants, these early BOONEs, while as
warm as the later tales, are tougher, more historically based adventures.
While most Western
series and movies center around the post-Civil War era, the real Daniel Boone
lived from 1734 to 1820, and that’s the time period the plots are drawn
from. These stories have the novelty of
an earlier time, when relations with different tribes varied, and where the
English and the French were still involved.
In the pilot episode KEN-TUK-E, Daniel is sent by General Washington to
build a fort, soon to be known as Boonesborough, in the Kentucky Territory (not
yet a state), located to hopefully prevent several Indian tribes from joining forces
with each other, and with the
British. Here he rescues and befriends
Mingo (Ed Ames), an Oxford-educated Cherokee half-breed who will be Dan’l’s
closest friend throughout the series.
(While I always thought the Oxford business was pretty random, I suspect
the idea was to have an Indian character that didn’t speak like Tonto.)
At the end of the pilot,
Dan’l is joined by his family; his wife Rebecca Boone (beautiful Patricia
Blair), daughter Jemima (Veronica Cartwright) and son Israel (Darby
Hinton). It was scripted by the
brilliant Borden Chase, who wrote WINCHESTER ’73 (1950), and was
Oscar-nominated for adapting RED RIVER (1948) from his own short story. It was
directed by George Marshall, one of the all-time great studio directors, who
started out making Westerns with Harry Carey Sr. in 1916! A master of Westerns, comedies, and noirs, he directed some of the best work
of Hope and Crosby, Martin and Lewis, Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake, and directed
both James Stewart and Audie Murphy as Destry.
His skill at combining good-natured humor with serious danger was ideal
for Fess Parker’s personality and talent.
With the pilot, Marshall and Chase set the adventurous tone for the
series – and they set the bar high.
The second episode concerns
a white girl, stolen by one tribe as a child, rescued by another tribe later
on. In what world does she truly belong? In succeeding episodes Daniel deals with a
Welsh family trying to escape indentured servitude, an accusation of murder
against Mingo, a French river pirate who was once a friend, a seemingly minor
injury that gets infected, leaving daughter Jemima to have to protect her
father against outlaws. There is a
powerful sense of home just under the surface, which makes the adventures of
the Boone kids that much more compelling.
One of my personal favorites is the Val Lewton-like, atmospheric DAUGHTER
OF THE DEVIL, which was broadcast in April, but is ideal around Halloween.
Albert Salmi with Fess
The talented Albert
Salmi plays Yadkin, Boone’s often blustery right hand aside from Mingo, but
only in the first season. Dal McKennon,
who runs the fort store, a very busy voice-actor in cartoons, was in the show
from the first season to the last. So
were Patricia Blair and Darby Hinton, but Veronica Cartwright only lasted a few
episodes into season two, and another brother didn’t survive the pilot – read
my interview with Darby to find out why.
Interestingly, while Ed
Ames was in until the last season or two, Mingo changes quite a bit. In season one he is surprisingly, and
cheerfully, bloodthirsty, always eager to slay one or many Shawnee, enemies. And his weapon of choice is a bullwhip!
The set from TIMELESS
MEDIA/SHOUT FACTORY contains all 29 hour-long episodes from season one, as well
interviews with Darby Hinton, Veronica Cartwright, Ed Ames, and the late great
man himself, Fess Parker. Of particular
fun are the kids’ memories of working with animals on the show, especially
bears, panthers, and Israel’s pet goose, Hannibal. The set is available exclusively from
Walmart, either in-store or HERE.
SON OF DAN’L – A CONVERSATION WITH DARBY HINTON
Fess and Darby
Looking at the
muscular, handsome bearded man who plays George Donner on The Weather Channel’s THE DONNER PARTY, and who portrays Texas’
first president in the blockbuster mini-series TEXAS RISING, it’s hard to
reconcile the fact that said man was once a tow-headed sprite named Israel on
DANIEL BOONE, back in the 1960s. But
they’re both Darby Hinton, an actor before he was a year old, and an
international TV star before he was 7.
When I made contact
with Darby, to discuss Fess Parker, the series, and his career since, he was in
the midst of putting together an awards banquet. I asked him who it was for.
DARBY: It’s called Looking Ahead. It’s an
organization I’ve been involved with since the beginning – over a dozen
years. It looks out for young performers
in the business. We make a nice little
community; we take them down to community service, and take them
paint-balling. Child actors can be very
isolated, and feel left apart, so this is an organization that tries to do
things for them to make them feel better, and then we look ahead and see what
they might want to do after acting.
HENRY: That’s a terrific cause, because as you say,
child actors do get very isolated, and it’s not a kind business when they get a
little older.
DARBY: I know, because I’ve lost quite a few
friends, so that’s why I’ve gotten involved, and glad to do it.
HENRY: I talked to Paul
Peterson (note: Jeff Stone on THE DONNA REED SHOW) about his organization, A Minor Consideration, about similar
concerns.
DARBY: I’ve been a member of that for a long
time. As a matter of fact, Paul Peterson
will be at my table for the awards on Thursday night, along with Tony Dow (note:
Wally Cleaver on LEAVE IT TO BEAVER) and some other fun people.
Darby today
HENRY: What was the earliest
show you remember doing?
DARBY: I started when I
was six months old. The earliest one
that really stands out was a MR. ED (1963) I did, because I remember watching
the show, and I was a little disappointed to learn how they made Mr. Ed talk
(note: pulling a nylon string under Ed’s lip made him appear to talk). I
remember when I did BROTHERS GRIMM (1962), they had a fake snow-machine, and
they kept saying, “Don’t look up at the snow.”
So of course I would look up at the snow. And I would have to keep going to the nurse
because I would have these plastic pieces of snowflake stuck in my eye. (LAUGHS)
So I guess it’s those painful things that stick out.
HENRY: Before DANIEL BOONE, you did a couple of
episodes of Western series, WAGON TRAIN and BIG VALLEY. Were you a fan of the genre as a kid?
DARBY: Oh sure, I still am. I think it’s great; I love being a cowboy.
HENRY: Do you remember how
you got the part of Israel Boone?
DARBY: Yeah. My mom came and picked me up, said “Come on,
we’ve got an interview at Fox. It’s for a movie.” And she dressed me up in lederhosen and knee-high socks, and all the way to 20thshe had me singing ‘Edelweiss’,
because it was for THE SOUND OF MUSIC. In
the original (story) the youngest one was a boy, and that was what they were
casting. And my mom, God bless her, was
always late to everything. We were late
to the interview, we got to the casting building, and she said, “Quick, go run
in there! They’ll be waiting. I’ll park the car and I’ll come right
in.” I ran in; saw a line of kids, so I
jumped in that line. I saw the
secretary, and she saw me, and she must have cracked up. All of a sudden she took me to the front of
the line, into a room full of adults. “I
think you might want to see this guy.”
And that was it. Fess was in
there. They didn’t really even have a
part for me. I had an older brother
called Israel Boone, and they wrote a part for me for the pilot, called Nathan
Boone. I came out of there, my mom saw
me in the hall, and was upset. “What are
you doing? They were just looking for
you!” I said, “I don’t know, but
whatever’s in there, I just got that!”
And that’s how I got the DANIEL BOONE SHOW. I’m sure I made a sight in lederhosen.
HENRY: What happened to your older brother? I don’t remember him.
Fess, Darby, Veronica Cartwright, Patricia Blair
DARBY: It’s really funny. Now thanks to DVDs you can see all this. If you watch the pilot, the last shot,
Daniel’s walking out of the fort with his family, he’s got two kids (Israel and
Jemima) in tow. But in the very
beginning, there’s two boys (and the girl).
George Marshall was the director – he was one of those old-time
directors who yelled and screamed at everybody.
I liked him; we got along great. Anyway,
he got to like me, and halfway through it he added a scene to the pilot, where
a flaming arrow goes into a powder-keg, and I run out, grab the flaming arrow, pull
it out, stomp on it, put the fire out, run back to Becky, who goes,
“Awww!” They saw that in dailies and
said, “We don’t need the older one. The
little one seems able to handle all this stuff.
Let’s just go with him.” So right
in the middle of the pilot, Daniel went from having two sons to having one son.
HENRY: You were
certainly involved in a lot of action.
Was that a plus or a minus?
DARBY: Loved it!
Are you kidding? That’s all the
fun of it. I remember when I did that
BIG VALLEY (BOY INTO MAN 1967) you were talking about, Richard Dreyfus was my
older brother. They had asked him, can
you drive a team of horses? He said, “Oh
sure I can. No problem.” (LAUGHS) He was a New York actor just out
here: he didn’t know which end of the horse to feed. We got on the set to do the scene, we’re on
the wagon. There was a little girl
between us, playing my sister, and I was on the outside. Ricky had the reins, and when they said ‘action’,
he only had to go a three or four feet, pull up, and stop. But when they said action, he did the only
thing he’d seen in the Westerns. He
yelled “Yee-haw!” and they took off! That
was quite a stunt scene, even though it wasn’t supposed to be.
HENRY: After the first
season, the show went from black and white to color.
DARBY: I remember
everyone as very excited about it. They
knew it was a real tip of the hat by NBC because we were one of their first to
go to ‘living color.’
HENRY: How old were you
when the show started?
DARBY: For that pilot I
was five and a half. By the time we
started shooting the full lot of thirteen, I had just turned six.
HENRY: Did you attend
school at the studio?
DARBY: Three hours a day with my tutor. It was interesting. You know, Veronica (Cartwright) was my sister
for a couple of years, so I had her. But
then she left the show, and it was just me and any young kid guest stars. So it was good one-on-one education, but I
kind of missed the sports, being with the kids, playing on a playground and
having that kind of fun.
HENRY: So you weren’t with a group of kids from other
shows or movies.
DARBY: We filmed out at
Sunset and Western Avenue, which was the smaller lot for Fox. So there was LANCER and
HIGH CHAPARRAL and 12’OCLOCK HIGH, but nothing else with kids, so any time we
were shooting there it was just me. Now
if I was off the show for a number of days, then they would have me come to the
Fox lot (in Century City), and I went
to the schoolhouse there, with the teacher who taught everyone from Shirley
Temple on up. And at that time there was
Billy Mumy, Angela Cartwright, Veronica’s sister, doing LOST IN SPACE. All the young actors at Fox came through there. Tammy Locke with THE MONROES was another.
HENRY: Did you have kid
friends who were not in the business?
DARBY: One; there was
one guy who lived down the street for a while, and we got along really well. But there was just no time.
HENRY: What was your
schedule like on an average week? How long
did it take to shoot a show?
DARBY: I believe they
could work me – was it eight hours? And
one hour off for lunch. Once we were on
location we had an hour and a half for lunch.
Then it just depended what we were filming. I might be there all day to shoot one
shot. The teacher would go out with me,
and I might have school in the back of a car, or on a walk, or in a trailer
somewhere. That’s the thing about the
business. You never know what you’ll do
– there is no normal.
HENRY: Looking back,
are you satisfied with the education you got?
DARBY: Oh sure.
I’m dyslexic, and back then they didn’t even know what that meant. But it actually served me to be able to have
a teacher to work with one-on-one. Because
I could communicate and learn and study, but when it came to getting something
from the chalk-board to the paper, that’s where it gets tricky, and I didn’t
have to do that so much. And my mom is
also a schoolteacher, so education was always important to her. And as I got off (the show), I went to a
junior high school, found out what real life was like, got beat up and
everything. Then I got myself to
Switzerland, so I graduated high school from The American School in Switzerland.
I came back and went to college on World
Campus, which was the floating college that went around the world. You’re only supposed to go once but I loved
it so much I went three semesters on that.
Then I studied at Pepperdine
under Cousteau with Project Ocean Search.
I kept my studies up at UCLA. I
still consider myself learning.
HENRY: That’s terrific. Because I’m sure you’re aware, when you speak
to former child actors, they often missed out on a lot of education. You said that you shot in the Fox lot in Hollywood. Was that for interiors or exteriors?
DARBY: Both. They had two sound stages, and one was the
Boone cabin interior, and the Cincinnatus interior; all the interiors. And the other soundstage was for all the
exteriors. And when they needed bigger
exteriors we would got to the Fox Ranch
out in Malibu. We shot some of the pilot
and one other episode in Kanab, Utah. And
we went to Fraser Park up in the snow a couple of times.
HENRY: What was the best part of doing the show?
DARBY: I think Fess, and
the family that I just kind of had there.You know, I lost my father when I was a year old.I only had my mom and two older sisters, so I
really liked the male influence.One of
the prop guys was an Eagle Scout leader, so when we worked together he would
show me knots.So when you talk about
education, it might not all have been calculus and reading, but I had great
pyrotechnics teaching me about gun powder and all different kinds of
weapons.Indian history I always found
fascinating, and I got to spend time on Indian reservations.I look on it as a rounded thing more than the
academics.
HENRY: What was Fess
like to work with?
DARBY: Fess was a lot
like what you saw on the screen. A great
family guy – look how long he was married to Marcie all thorough his successful
career. Two great kids. Ron Ely, who was a great friend of his, spoke
at his wake right before I did. And one
of the things that got me was he said, “When I came to visit on the BOONE set, I
couldn’t believe that it was a working set.
Nobody was yelling at anybody, there were no tempers flaring, there were
no drama queens.” And that was all Fess. You did your job, we had fun, and that was
it.
HENRY: Were you close with Fess after the show?
DARBY: Yes, I was.
There were a number of years in between when I didn’t see him as
much. We would run into each other and
it would be great. But towards the end, I
started going up to Santa Barbara a lot and having fun up there – Ely, his son,
and Ashley I really enjoyed. I know it
sounds weird, but on Marcie’s birthday, I just woke up and I told my wife I
have to go up and wish Marcie a happy birthday. She said, were you invited? I said no, but I just feel that I really need
to go up and wish Marcy a happy birthday and give her a kiss, and see
Fess. And she said if you feel that
strongly, go do it. I’m driving up, and
just as I’m at the spot where you hit the Pacific Ocean, Ashley called me up
and said, “Darby, I just wanted to tell you before you hear it on the news that
Fess just passed away.” I said, “You know what? I’m driving up there
now. Is it okay if I just swing by?” She said, “We’d love to have you.” So yes, we were close.
HENRY: You mentioned Veronica Cartwright, who played
your sister Jemima. What was your
relationship like?
DARBY: She was a lot of
fun. You know I had sisters, so I didn’t
need any more of them. (laughs) I still see her today, and we have fun doing
things. I think she’s a wonderful
actress.
HENRY: Why did her
character disappear after the second season?
DARBY: (laughs) For all
these years, I was always told that she left because she asked for too much
money. It wasn’t until Fess has us up
when he got the DVDs released, and he had a big party at the vineyard. We tried to get everybody back – we had Ed (Ames)
and Rosey (Grier), and a lot of people; it was fun. I sat down with Veronica, hadn’t seen her in
ages, and we started talking about that.
And she laughed, and said, “Darby, we didn’t ask for too much
money. We were thrilled to be on the
show – that’s not what happened.” (On
one episode), a young Robert Logan was flirting with her; actually gave her a
kiss. Evidently Pat Blair said, “No! No!
No! I don’t have a daughter old enough
to be dating, and becoming a love interest.
Either she goes or I go.” And
that’s why, Veronica told me, she was off the show. But they told my mom she had asked for too
much money, so Mom didn’t ask for any more money.
HENRY: Over the years there were several players that
came and went, and I was wondering what they were like to work with, starting
with Ed Ames.
DARBY: Wonderful.
Saw Ed not too long ago. He sang
at Fess’s internment up on the hill in Santa Barbara. He broke into Amazing
Grace, and it was just spiritual. His
voice is still that dreamy; wonderful.
Great guy.
Fess and Ed Ames
HENRY: Rosey Grier?
DARBY: Fabulous guy; talked to him not too long ago. You know he’s a pastor now, doing wonderful
things. Actually I shouldn’t say anything,
because it was one of the world’s worst movies, but we did a thing called (THE
TREASURE OF JAMAICA REEF, and we got Rosey to come down to Jamaica for that.
HENRY: Jimmy Dean?
DARBY: Jimmy was fun. Evidently
they had warned him, ‘There’s a minor on the set; you’ve got to watch your
humor.’ I could tell he was a little
like – uh-oh, it’s the kid. So I just came
out with the dirtiest joke I knew at the time.
It cracked him up, and we had a little thing every morning in make-up,
where we would trade dirty jokes with each other. Which I’m sure didn’t make the school teacher
happy, but it was sure fun. Jimmy was a
great guy, great talent.
HENRY: Dal McKennon?
DARBY: Dallas was great
fun. He did a lot of voicework, Archie
and Jughead, lots of cartoons. He’d
always get me cracked up telling me stories in the different cartoon voices –
it would just come alive in front of me.
We used to have the stretch limo, and he would get in the back, and he
could do such a great police siren that he kept pulling the driver over.
HENRY: Did you have favorite
episodes?
DARBY: ‘THE OLD MAN AND
THE CAVE (1965) is one. I liked the one
with Vincent Price (COPPERHEAD IZZY, 1969), because there were a lot of other
kids; that meant I got to hang out with a lot of kids for that week. One was Butch Patrick; he went on to do THE
MUNSTERS, and we’re still friends today.
We had great guys that did come through: Kurt Russell, Ron Howard. Jodie Foster was going to be Jimmy Dean’s
adopted daughter if the show had gone another year, because I was getting too
old to be the kid in danger any more – I’d hit my teens. So they brought her in and a young boy, in
one of the last episodes, where Jimmy had found them in the forest and was
going to adopt them.
HENRY: I remember one with you and Michael Dante as
a Shawnee Chief who’s kidnapped you.
You’re really the center of that one, working one-on-one with a very
interesting actor.
Neville Brand with Darby
DARBY: I remember
that one; that was a lot of fun, and the one where Neville Brand kidnapped
me.That was a really great one – I
loved working with Neville.I did a show
called HERO’S ISLAND (1962) with him when I was maybe 3 ½ or 4.Then we worked on DANIEL BOONE together. Then I did two or three for Greydon Clark that
Neville was in.It was fun that I got to
touch base with him all along the way.It kind of amazes me: I’ll go back and see some of the DVDs and I forget
that I worked with Dick Sargent, Darrin from BEWITCHED, and all these people
who went on to do other things.
HENRY: Did you have any
favorite directors?
DARBY: George Marshall, who directed the pilot, and
for a couple of years after he would just pop and in out (of the series) a
lot. I got along with all of them. Like I said , I got along with adults really
well; I grew up in an adult world, and learned to take direction early.
HENRY: In the late 1960s there was a lot of pressure
to tone down the violence on TV. Were you aware of that? Did that affect DANIEL BOONE?
DARBY: Absolutely: I think it’s what killed
BOONE. Once Martin Luther King was shot,
there were no more gunfights on the show.
There was no more shooting Indians – there were no more heathen savages
either; there were just Indians. Couldn’t
call them redskins, couldn’t say anything derogatory. You took all the gunplay and Indian fighting
out of the show, and it basically became a family show, and for that they had
FAMILY AFFAIR, and other places to go.
HENRY: What was the
work schedule like? How many days did
you have to shoot a show?
DARBY: Usually we did
it in a week, which means the five days.
Occasionally it would go over to six days, but usually you’ try to get
it wrapped up in a week.
HENRY: What was working
at Fox like compared with other
studios?
DARBY: Well, the
smaller lot was like my back yard; I knew everything there. The big Fox
lot was fun because Friday was ‘arts & crafts day’, so we’d go where we
wanted. It was huge! We’d go to the metal shop and use the
welders. Or the wood shop. I loved going into make-up – I helped make
the masks for all the PLANET OF THE APES movies. I used to have a great collection of everyone,
all the way down to the mutants. VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA also had great
sea monster that we would make masks for.
That always seemed like home because I grew up there. Disney
was fun; I did things there. I love a
movie lot: once you get behind the guard gate, it’s a very freeing feeling for
me.
HENRY: I’ve asked you about the best part of doing
the show. Was there a worst part?
DARBY: No; I could harp on some bad things, but it
was great! I was a very lucky kid, and I
feel very blessed that I had that opportunity, so I don’t spend any time
visiting the negatives.
HENRY: Between 1964 and
1970, 165 episodes were produced, and eventually folks run out of ideas. Some of the ‘lost civilization’ episodes were
kinda out there. Did you feel there was
a point when DANIEL BOONE jumped the shark?
Patricia Blair
DARBY: You know it’s funny. I think Pat (Blair) was the one who first
pointed it out to me. “We just did this
script two years ago. All they did was
change the names.” I guess that’s what
happens.
HENRY: You all had a
good, long run, but after 6 seasons, the series was cancelled. Were you surprised, or did you see it coming?
DARBY: No, I didn’t see
it coming. Mom just said, it looks like
we’re not going back there to work.
HENRY: How old were you
then?
DARBY: I was twelve.
HENRY: At that point,
did you want to keep acting, or did you want to do something else?
DARBY: I was very curious to see what school was
like.
HENRY: Having been so
visible for so long as Israel Boone, did you have trouble with typecasting?
DARBY: I got to do THE
BOLD ONES: THE NEW DOCTORS (1970). I got
to play a young drug addict in that, which was a lot of fun, and helped me to
shake that image. Then of course on DAYS
OF OUR LIVES I was ‘The Salem Rapist.’ I guess I kind of had the gamut of
characters.
HENRY: You mentioned earlier about going to school
and getting your ass kicked. Was that
just average school rough-housing, or was it the problem of being a well-known
kid star?
DARBY: Oh no; I got my
nose broken a couple of times. As I
said, I only had two sisters, so I didn’t have any brothers to rough-house
with. I grew up in an adult world, so I
did what I was told. I kind of
identified with the teachers more than I did the kids. And you know, kids can be bullies. ‘Let’s see if you’re as tough as you are in
DANIEL BOONE,’ or, ‘My girlfriend thinks you’re cute.’ And they pushed me, and I didn’t know to fight
back. But it was great; it led me on a
quest to learn martial arts. Which
lasted quite a long time, so I was very happy with it.
HENRY: How did you get involved?
DARBY: On the Fox lot, one of the sets I liked to
visit was THE GREEN HORNET (1966/67). I
used to love to watch this little Kato (Bruce Lee). They told him, you need to
slow down your attacks; the camera isn’t catching it. He said, “I don’t slow down my attacks: you
slow down your camera.” That was one of
the first times they started using slow motion for fights. He intrigued me so much that I went to Hong
Kong, found out who he studied under, which was Grand Master William Chung,
who’s now in Australia. We became good
friends. Then out here Danny Inosanto,
who was Bruce’s number one student – I studied under him for many, many years.
HENRY: I don’t know if
you have kids, but if so, would you want them to act?
DARBY: I have five kids, and one of them is at Cal
Arts; he’s an actor getting ready to open in a play. All my kids, I told them, if you want to do
it, that’s great, but you’re going to wait until you’re sixteen, so you’re old
enough to drive yourself to the interviews.
I’m a lousy stage mother. But
he’s the only one who’s got the acting bug and pursued it.
HENRY: You attend a
number of film festivals and western events.
What are these events like? What
is it like to meet fans?
DARBY: Oh, it’s fun; I
love that. That’s how Dan Haggerty (GRIZZLY
ADAMS) and I became such good friends. I
shied away from doing those for a long time.
Then somebody invited me to go, and all of a sudden it was all the kids
I knew, and all the actors I’d grown up with.
It was like having a school reunion, and I never had that, because I
never stayed in one school long enough. During
the day, meeting everyone’s lots of fun.
It’s nice to be appreciated, and people are coming up to you and appreciating
you. And the fun really starts
afterwards at the bar, when we sit down, trading war stories and talking shop.
HENRY: Last year you
were in the blockbuster mini-series TEXAS RISING, playing Texas President Burnet. How did that come about?
DARBY: I’d taken a lot of time off from making movies
and doing things that kept me away from home, because I’d be ten weeks in
Romania, and off to Bulgaria, and my kids started having birthdays and stuff
that I was missing. I had my four boys,
and then my littlest, my little girly, when she came around… Without stating it, I started backing away, except
I kept doing a play that I love, that I do in Beverly Hills, called THE MANOR,
which is up at Greystone Manor, and all about the Dohenys, and we get to
actually do it in the Doheny Estate.
It’s such a wonderful, fun, dynamic play that I enjoy doing that. That’s the only thing I did to keep the acting
chops up, that and commercials that are done locally. This casting director I love came to see the
play, and then she came back a couple of nights later with the producers. They said, we have this thing that we think
you’d be great for. Would you like to go
down to Mexico and do it? And I said,
you betcha! Because now my daughter’s
old enough where she’s got her driver’s license and ‘see ya’, so now I’m having
fun getting back into it. And I’ve just
done THE DONNER PARTY.
HENRY: I was just watching that. It’s very good, and you’re excellent in it. You’ve played a lot of real people – Israel
Boone, the first President of Texas, George Donner. How do you feel about playing real people
over invented characters?
DARBY: It’s great,
because I love history. I’d heard about
the Donner Party in school, but I didn’t read up on it, because it was gross, and
who cared? So I didn’t appreciate it back then. But to go up there and live it
for a few weeks, oh my goodness! As soon
as I knew I was going to play the role I read three or four books and did the
homework. It’s fun to keep this alive
and show it in a way that people might really get it. What it took to come out here and settle
this. We should be so grateful that
we’re already here. Think of that every Thanksgiving, as we
overeat, and here’s people stuck in the snow that didn’t eat for four
months. When I’d heard about the
cannibalism before, I thought that’s terrible.
Until you realize that the little girls are there; six, seven, eight-year
old daughters. You’re going to watch
them starve? I think it’s great, any
time you can bring a thing to life like that, shine a light on it, that people
haven’t seen. I think it’s a good thing.
HENRY: Did working on a period piece again spark a
lot of memories?
DARBY: Oh yeah; it’s all fun. The equipment is a lot different from when I
was a kid, that’s for sure, but a set is still a set. It’s the circus comes to town.
HENRY: What’s next on
the horizon?
DARBY: We’ve got things in the fire. Nobody likes to talk about those things until
they’re done. I just voiced a video game
I can’t talk about until it’s released.
But my kids’ll be happy about that because they’ll be playing it. We just move onward and upward, and are grateful
for each day.
CLIMB AN ANGRY MOUNTAIN - a DVD Review
Fess Parker’s final
film performance came just two years after the end of DANIEL BOONE’s run, after
which he devoted himself fulltime to his business interests. Available from the Warner Archive Collection, CLIMB AN ANGRY MOUNTAIN (1972), a
made-for-TV movie, is a modern-day Western.
It’s a variation on TELL THEM WILLIE BOY IS HERE, of two years earlier,
which starred Robert Redford and Robert Blake as white lawman and Indian
escaped killer. In this version, shot in
and around the beautiful snowy peaks of Mt. Shasta, Fess is Sheriff Elisha
Cooper (Elisha was Fess’ real middle name), a pre-LONGMIRE lawman going after Indian
acquaintance Joey Chilco (football legend Joe Kapp), an escapee convicted of
manslaughter.
Chilco is planning to
scale the highest mountain in the range, following his peoples’ belief that if
he does so, his sins will be forgiven. And he wants to meet his baby son, and see his
wife Sheila (Stella Stevens). The Sheriff must track him, at the same time dealing
with snow-related problems, and an intrusive New York City cop (Barry Nelson),
who lost Chilco in the first place.
A feature-length unsold
pilot for a TV series, there are extraneous characters who would no doubt have
become regulars, the most welcome being Western stalwart Arthur Hunnicutt as
housekeeper and babysitter to the widowed Sheriff’s two kids. One of the writers, Sam Rolfe, had already
created THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. and co-created HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL.
While it seems
contrived that, of all possible kids, it’s the Sheriff’s son that Chilco
happens to be forcing to help him climb the mountain, it’s all played with
sincerity. Stella Stevens is memorable as the wife who doesn’t want Chilco
there, but can’t bear to keep saying no.
While it didn’t go to series, the
movie works fine as a stand-alone, and is a cut above most TV movies of the
period. CLIMB AN ANGRY MOUNTAIN is
available from Warner Archive as a
made-on-demand DVD HERE.
WESTERN WEEKEND
CELEBRATION AT THE AHRYA FINE ARTS!
The Ahrya Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly
Hills, part of the Laemmle family of theatres, was recently the venue for two
Western premieres, TRADED and OUTLAWS AND ANGELS. This Friday, Saturday and Sunday they’re celebrating
a Western weekend as part of their Anniversary Classics series. On Friday night at 7:30, they’ll be showing
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY, celebrating its 50th anniversary. Saturday
at 2:15 pm, DANCES WITH WOLVES, 25th anniversary, will screen, and
star Mary MacDonnell will be a guest speaker.
That night at 7:30, they mark the 50th anniversary of THE
PROFESSIONALS. Sunday at 2:15 they’ll
mark the 60th anniversary of THE SEARCHERS, with Lana Wood, the
little girl kidnapped at the beginning, as a guest speaker. Then at 5:30 pm, it’s the 55th
anniversary of THE MISFITS. All films
will be introduced by Hollywood Reporter film critic Stephen Farber. To learn more, and order tickets, go HERE.
AND THAT’S A WRAP!
In the next Round-up I’ll
have details about a whole slew of new and returning Western and Westernish TV
series on the way!
Happy trails,
Henry
All original contents
copyright August 2016 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved
