WILLIAM SHOCKLEY CASTS ‘LONG SHADOWS’ AND TALKS ‘DR. QUINN’ REVIVAL, PLUS WESTERNS ON BROADWAY!

AN INTERVIEW WITH LONG SHADOWS DIRECTOR WILLIAM SHOCKLEY 

Long Shadows is the story of a boy, Marcus Dollar, who sees his parents murdered. He grows up with no life experience outside of an orphanage. When he’s old enough to leave, Marcus (Blaine Maye), is determined to track down the killers. He falls for Dulce (Sarah Cortez), a concert pianist tricked into a brothel. A retired gunfighter (Dermot Mulroney) reluctantly takes Marcus under his wing. The local brothel is run by Vivian Villere (Jacqueline Bisset), who is a master manipulator.

There are certain movies – think Psycho, Chinatown, The Sixth Sense, A Beautiful Mind – which contain startling 3^rd act revelations: the sort of thing that, if someone spoiled it for you, you might fling them down the nearest flight of stairs. So I won’t be saying anything about what happens late in the new Western Long Shadows. It’s the first feature directed by William Shockley, but he is not new to Westerns – he’s produced 4, cowritten 6. And you’ll know his face if you watched Dr. Quinn – Medicine Woman: for 6 seasons and 120 episodes, he played the handsome, longhaired, leering bartender Harry Lawson.  On Friday, November 7^th, while most movies, Westerns included, go straight to streaming, his Long Shadows premiered in 77 theaters in 50 cities across the country. I told him that, for all of us yet-to-be first-time-directors, his taking the helm after over 35 years of acting is inspiring.

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY: Thanks. It's a blessing and a privilege and an honor, to be honest with you. I watched a bunch of directors throughout my career, and it was beautiful to get to be behind the camera for a change. So inspiring. I just absolutely loved it,

HENRY PARKE:  Did you grow up with Westerns as a kid? Did you have favorites?

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY:  Maybe I watched Bonanza; That was required. I watched Gunsmoke. I was taken by Clint Eastwood with Unforgiven. And I grew up in Texas as a kid, so it's kind of like you listen to country music, and you have a toy rifle that you play with <laugh>. But really, I was fortunate enough to be on Dr. Quinn - Medicine Woman. And that's really where it sunk into my bones; six and a half years of my life on a Western. And then I did a TV movie, playing General George Armstrong Custer, Stolen Women, Captured Hearts that Lee Murray produced and Jerry London directed. And reading up on Custer, and sinking my teeth into the West, on the research level, and then co-writing a bunch of Westerns. So, I really immersed myself in the historical side of it all. And I thought, my gosh, I wish I would've known this much when I was a kid, like in high school or college, and really appreciated the history of the American West. It was a brutal time, but there was such beautiful simplicity with it. You know, your word was your bond. If you messed with a man's wife or his cow, you got shot

HENRY PARKE: <laugh>. There wasn't a debate.

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY:  There was no debating. It was a really hard-scrabble life. But with that difficulty, I have found, at least in my opinion, the beautiful simplicity of it all. It fascinates me.  I'm enamored with it.

HENRY PARKE: What was your first professional acting job?

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY: I was in Dallas, Texas, doing free theater. The producer of the play said, do you have an agent? I said, no. So she signed me, and about a week later, a movie came through Dallas called Robocop. My first audition, and BOOM! -- Paul Verhoeven hires me! And that was that. I got a Screen Actors Guild card, went to Los Angeles, and moved into an apartment. My second night in L.A., I walked the red carpet for Robocop!

HENRY PARKE: I thought that Dr. Quinn was your first Western, but you did a Young Riders –-

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY: -- And a Paradise.

HENRY PARKE:  And after that, you were writing films like The Gundown, Ambush at Dark Creek, Hot Bath an’ a Stiff Drink.

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY: Hot Bath was a fun movie to co-write and be a part of. And Ambush with Kix Brooks, and The Gundown with Peter Coyote. It's all pretty great <laugh>.

HENRY PARKE: What was the best thing about making Dr. Quinn?

Joe Lando, Jane Seymour, William

Shockley on Dr. Quinn -- Medicine Woman

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY:  The people. To this good day. I just had lunch with Jane Seymour and Joe Lando, like last week. We're still great friends. Joe and I were thick as thieves! And Jane Seymour was fantastic, and Helen Udy (who played Myra Bing) and the whole cast -- and Beth Sullivan, the creator. So my memories were just sharing such amazing time with amazing people and being blessed. I mean, a six-and-a-half-year run, it's cliché, but we were family. And, I’m happy that I met a lot of cool directors along the way. And of course, the writing was so good. I’m biased, but that was a great series.

HENRY PARKE: Dr. Quinn was a great way to introduce kids to Westerns, because it was not childish, but it was family appropriate. Most Western today, even the good ones are often so rough, you can't really take kids to them.

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY:  It's so true. It is still a generational show. People that grew up watching Dr. Quinn ended up having children, and they've introduced the show to their kids. So 30 years later, I'm still talking to fans, whether they saw it originally or whether it was ‘my mom and dad turned me onto that show.’ It still has life, still has a global presence. It had such beautiful stories. It mirrored problems of society that were written and reflected into an 1800s environment, which was pretty cool.

HENRY PARKE:  Yes, indeed. I understand that Beth Sullivan created a spinoff pilot for you, California. She certainly went all out on the cast: John Saxon, James Brolin, Eddie Albert, Edward Albert. I'm surprised it didn't click.

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY: That was a darn shame. CBS decided that a spinoff of my character would be a good idea. So Beth wrote and produced a great pilot, and for whatever reason, CBS didn't pick it up. Of course, it broke my heart, because it was a great show, and great to be number one on the call sheets. But the deal was, if California went; great. If California did not go, you're still Hank Lawson on Dr. Quinn. So it was a win-win opportunity.

HENRY PARKE:  So while you were on Dr. Quinn, you started co-writing movies with one of the show’s writer/producers. How many have you written?

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY: I think I've probably written 12 or 13 scripts that have been made into feature films.

HENRY PARKE: Which is amazing as you know.

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY: <laugh>. Yeah, <laugh>The harder you work, the luckier you get, you know what I'm saying?

HENRY PARKE: How did Long Shadows start?

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY: Long Shadows has been a long journey. Grainger Hines, great actor, from Hot Bath an’ a Stiff Drink, probably 13 years ago, calls me like three years ago. “I saw Common Threads (note: Shockley’s award-winning Western short). I just read this script by Shelley Reid. I think you need to direct it.” I read it. I called him. This is really good. There's a twist in here that is so unique. Let's work on it. So Grainger and Shelley and I worked on it for a year, maybe more. I showed it to my partners, they dove in with some great notes, and said, let's green light it. So we landed at old Tucson Studios, that I was very familiar with from past projects. Then it goes into casting and pre-production, production and post, and we're in theaters November 7th of this year.

HENRY PARKE: A grown son seeks revenge on the people who killed his parents. It’s classical, but it's also familiar. How would you describe what sets your film apart?

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY: Well, it's a story about good over evil. It's a story about redemption, love of family, a second chance at life and love. And the twist sets the story apart. I watched a bunch of European films to be inspired. French, Russian, Italian, Polish, British, because I love the landscape, the texture, the feel of those kinds of films. So in Long Shadows, and you've seen it, the costume design is so rich and beautiful. I wanted it to look like a European film, the production design. I wanted it to be textured and layered and beautiful. I didn't wanna make a dirt Western. Besides the twist in the story, I think the look, the score. I didn't want fiddles and banjos, I wanted classical music -- Tommy Fields, created a beautiful classical-inspired score. Paula Rogers’ costume designer -- just genius. So I think that sets us apart. And the acting is really darn good. I told Blaine and Sarah, the two young leads, I said, there's nowhere to hide with me guys. <laugh>, I'm an actor by trade <laugh>, so I'm gonna see it and I'm gonna smell it. And they laughed and, and they were brilliant. And then surround them with Dermot Maroney, Jacqueline Bisset, Dominic Monaghan, and Grainger Hines, Chris Mulkey, Ronnie Blevins, Mike Markoff: a bunch of really great actors, and you have a chance, you know?

HENRY PARKE: Absolutely. It's got so much more depth than you expect going in.

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY: Don't check your phone, don't go to Instagram, because every word means something in the movie. If you miss a couple minutes, you're gonna be like, what happened?

HENRY PARKE: What was Jacqueline Bisset like to work with? She looks wonderful; she's a beautiful 81.

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY: She's still, I mean, I had a crush on Jacqueline back in the day. Every red-blooded male had <laugh>. She was so stunning, and she still is gorgeous. She's so elegant and eloquent: she's a serious actress. She was intrigued by the story, wanted to do a Western, really liked the character, but she wanted the character fleshed out. And some of her notes really took her character to a much better place. She was very pointed and very specific and very, like I said, serious about her role, her costume, interaction with the other actors. I mean, you, you saw the movie. She's wonderful.

HENRY PARKE: She is. And what is Dermot Mulroney like to work with?

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY: Dermot is awesome, he's a great guy. He's been around the block, I've been around the block, so he came in knowing we were both veterans and pros.I told him what I thought about his character, and he told me what he thought about his character. He basically was already on point, the second he landed. Dermot is the kind of actor, when you say action, there's something that vibrates. And he bubbles just enough, 'cause he's a movie star. That's what Dermot did. He has that essence about him, the je ne sais quoi of it all. So he was a delight and such a sweet guy.

Dermot Mulroney coaches Blaine Maye

HENRY PARKE: Did you consider giving yourself a role?

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY: You know, I had a role and I cut myself out. I was the barkeeper inside the bar where Marcus encounters the man who killed his father. I just cut all my dialogue out, so I'm a featured extra <laugh>.

HENRY PARKE: I’ve never seen Blaine May or Sarah Cortez before, and their characters carry most of the story. Where'd you find them?

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY: Tiiu Loigu, our casting director found both of them. Blaine had a small part in a movie called Joe Bell with Mark Wahlberg. We had, you can imagine, 2000 submissions for the male lead. And Tiiu scrubbed through every one of them, boiled it down to a bunch of names, did a bunch of zooms, watched a bunch of tapes. And Blaine just, he had the essence. He's from Oklahoma. He rode a horse. His mom and dad were in the rodeo world. He's the nicest guy. He's really smart. He's good looking. He had longy hair, which was nice.

HENRY PARKE: You partial to long hair on guys? Anything to do with 6 years on Dr. Quinn?

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY: <laugh>, Well, I didn't watch some clean-cut guy. I wanted a guy that was a little bit shaggy looking. And Blaine did a really great audition. And then I Zoomed with him. I said, I want you to do the courtroom scene. He did it, and he was great, and so he won that job. Sarah Cortez was the same. I had actually found an actress that I really liked, another 2000 submissions for the Dulce Flores role. And I was really intent; this woman was great. And Tiiu said to me, I found Dulce. I said, we already got Dulce -- I really like this girl. And she goes, no, sit down and press play.  I pressed play, and Sarah Cortez came on and she just, she's so nuanced, so believable, so real. And I was like, oh my gosh, Sarah Cortez is Dulce. On the set, I'm sitting there with a little monitor, and I would just whisper something in Sarah's ear, like a little thought. And she would bring a whole new color to the performance. She's a fine actress. She trained at University of Houston Theater. She’s the real deal. I really hope that this is his and her star-maker moment; I think it will be.

HENRY PARKE: Since the 1980s, when you started acting, there's been such a change in the whole casting procedure. From open calls and callbacks, to self-taping, and Zoom. Has this made it harder, easier, better, worse?

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY: Well, I think it's easier for the actors, because they can do 50 takes until they get one right, and send in their tape. I came up the old way: you walk into a room with a bunch of people and you perform, you audition. I know how hard that is. I know the preparation it takes. And I respect that with COVID, the world changed, changed to Zooming. So I think the actors have it easier, 'cause they can keep just doing it and doing it, doing it, until they get a great one. The problem is, do they really kill it when they get on the set? Was that a hundred takes on their self-take, or are they really great? Fortunately, we didn't have that problem: we hired great actors across the board. But on my next film that I get to direct, if you live in Los Angeles, you’re gonna come into a room and we're gonna go old school. 'cause I love that. All my other films that I produced, I read with the actors. I'm right there with them. It's just a whole ‘nother dynamic, a truthful and an honest dynamic. And there's nowhere to hide.

HENRY PARKE: Obviously you came into your directorial debut a lot more prepared for a Western than most people would. Were there any surprises? Anything you didn't anticipate?

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY:  I don't think so, because honestly, A.J. Raitano, the cinematographer and I are great friends for like 15 years. We worked together on many things, so he and I were just cocked and loaded. We shot-listed, storyboarded -- we both knew Old Tucson, so we knew what we were up against for exterior shots, for horse riding shots. We found the gully where the shootout takes place, and had that shaft built. When you're prepared, I mean, we knew every single setup, every single angle, every single lens prior; we were out there at four in the morning waiting for the sun to come up for some scenes. We were out there all day long seeing where the shadows were, where the sun was going. Everything was mapped out, so honestly there were no surprises. And the actors came totally prepared; the only enemy was time, time and money.

HENRY PARKE: How many days did you shoot?

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY:  20 days. It was quick, considering the horse-chases and the gunplay; it was a lot. But because we were so prepared and the actors were so prepared, we were able to do it; just sheer force of will. You get out there  before sunrise, and you shoot for 12 hours, then A.J. and I scouted every weekend before and during production. Because a lot of the interior sets were being built as we went. Unless the set is built, it's kinda hard to know where your camera's gonna go. <laugh> So every Saturday and Sunday, we'd go out there when a new interior had been built out, kept preparing. A ton of work, but incredibly joyful experience.

HENRY PARKE: Any final thoughts?

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY: Long Shadows, it's a beautiful movie and I hope that people go to the movie theater to watch it. Because there's nothing greater than a theatrical experience for a film. You can take your family, your kids, your grandkids. It was designed for that kind of audience. Share it that way. And so I hope people go experience it and talk about it. And we were on the Dr. Quinn topic. Part of Jane and Joe having lunch, the three of us is there's a concerted effort to bring the show back. So we're walking that road right now and trying to get the pieces aligned.

HENRY PARKE:  That'd be terrific.

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY:  That would be pretty special. So it takes a few pieces of the puzzle and certain dominoes to fall the right way, but the effort is being made on all fronts. A conversation with Beth Sullivan is coming up. I actually wrote a pilot script to bring the show back, and Beth's giving me notes. And Jim Johnson, the producer, is doing what he can on the business side, and Jane and Joe are in, if we can figure it out. So we'll see what fate holds for us.

WESTERNS ON BROADWAY 2025

When it comes to theater, 2025 was a busier year for the stage than the screen. There were two new Western-adjacent musicals on Broadway, and a revival of a Western drama. Dead Outlaw is the story of Elmer McCurdy, a minor outlaw who died in a shoot-out with police after a bungled 1911 train robbery.  His mummified corpse was displayed in traveling shows for years, then misidentified as a dummy, and finally rediscovered hanging from a noose at a Long Beach amusement pier, during the filming of a Six Million Dollar Man episode. Called “The surprisingly feel-good musical of the season,” by the New York Times, it received 7 Tony nominations and numerous Best Musical awards.

 

Floyd Collins, which would receive 6 Tony nominations, is based on the tragic story of a Kentucky spelunker who in 1925 became trapped in a cavern. Despite the media circus, and well-meant rescue attempts, he died underground. The incident inspired Billy Wilder’s enthrallingly cynical film Ace in the Hole (1951), wherein rotten reporter Kirk Douglas prolongs the man’s entrapment to keep selling papers. Without that nasty edge, the musical seems dreary and pointless; “Is That Remarkable? (The real straight poop),” performed by a chorus of cynical reporters, is the only time the show comes to life.

 

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is adapted not from the John Ford film, but its source, the Dorothy M. Johnson novella, and like Floyd Collins, suffers from not being able to borrow from the movie version. While the play benefits from the more contained story, the film is both more grand and more nuanced, and story elements, including Liberty Valance’s attack on the local newspaper editor, and the campaign for statehood, are sorely missed.  

AND THAT'S A WRAP!

Please check out the November/December 2025 issue of True West, featuring my article, Val Kilmer in His Cups, about the making of Tombstone from the point of view of costume designer Joseph Porro, and my review of the new Blu-Ray reease, Hopalong Cassidy, the Legacy Collection, Volume 1. 

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright November 2025 by Henry C. Parke -- All Rights Reserved

EXCLUSIVE: ‘ELKHORN 2’ RED CARPET PREMIERE! PLUS ‘RUSTLER’S RHAPSODY’, RON HOWARD’S ‘EDEN’ REVIEWED!

 

‘ELKHORN’ SEASON 2 RED CARPET – TR’S TRIUMPHANT HOMECOMING!

 

Elkhorn Abby Road -- Mason Beals, Elijah Mahar,

Jeff DuJardin, Ashton Solecki

Photo by Morgan Weistling

On Saturday, September 27^th, at 6:30 p.m., the entire population –and then some -- of Medora, North Dakota turned out to welcome favorite son Theodore Roosevelt back to the Badlands, the frontier outpost that played such a part in developing the man who would become our 26^th President. In Roosevelt’s own words, “I would never have been President but for my experiences in North Dakota.”

Elkhorn, the INSP series, begins in 1884, the time TR spent in the Badlands at his two ranches, the Elkhorn and the Maltese Cross, so it seems fitting that the series should hold its second season premiere in Medora. I’d had the pleasure of visiting the set for some of the filming of season one – you can read my interview with series star Mason Beals HERE -- and I was delighted to be invited to cover the events in Medora for True West Magazine.

Just as surely as Teddy is the protagonist of the tale, French cattle baron the Marquis de Morès and his bride Medora, are the antagonists. I asked Ashton Solecki, who plays Medora, how it feels to attend a red carpet in a town that’s named after her. “Wow! To say it's surreal is an understatement. To be named Medora in the city of Medora, whose children -- many children here are also named Medora! I've met many fans of the show. It's an honor. Happy to be here!”

Ashton Solecki

I asked Ashton what was her favorite thing she’d done during her visit. “Definitely visiting the Chateau,” the actual, still-standing mansion where Medora and the Marquis lived. “Our guides were so kind, so gracious, so knowledgeable. Obviously, I was already a super-fan of Medora, being that I play her, but I got to learn so much more about Medora. For example, I found out that on one bear hunt alone, Medora shot three bears, and she faced down a bear that was charging right at her calmly, coolly, collectedly. The coolest thing was being in their house with her things everywhere, and feeling their love -- it's next level. Honestly, meeting all the locals here, that's been really great because it's one thing to play a role on tv, but to understand how important this person is to the locals and to the history of the area, that was really transformational.” Then, looking into the crowd, she exclaimed, “Oh, my grandma's over there! She's so cute!”

I asked Mason Beals, who plays TR, if this was his first time on a red carpet for his own show. “100%, yes. It's incredible. This is so much fun. Seeing everyone so excited, it just fills my heart. We've been doing this show for a few years now, and to see real love and support in person is just, it makes every hour of work worth it, you know?”

Two Teddys -- Mason Beals and

Joe Weigand

When I asked him what was the most interesting thing he’d seen so far, he agreed with Ashton. “The Marquis' chateau we just saw today; just to see how preserved it is, and that he called that ‘a cabin’! And how huge it was – it just says everything you need to know about him. We had such great guides, and it gave me a lot of perspective on the Marquis. This town knows a lot about Teddy Roosevelt, but to learn even more about the Marquis is just great.” I asked if what he had learned made him like the Marquis more or less. “I actually have more sympathy for him. Definitely. I think that he tried really hard; he had a lot to prove and he was unlucky in those endeavors. He wasn't probably the greatest human being on earth, but I have a little bit more sympathy for the villain after this.”

Matt Wiggans plays William Merrifield, a tough man who already lives in Medora, and wises up not only the future President, but his Maine-born associates, on the ways of the West. Matt had visited the location of TR’s Elkhorn cabin, now gone save for the massive rocks of the foundation, which outline where it once stood. “We shoot the show just north of Los Angeles, in a place called Acton, and I was pretty amazed at how close the sets come to the real thing. But what's been magical is to go out and experience the actual locations. The Elkhorn cabin isn't there anymore, but you can visualize it there. And what Theodore Roosevelt was experiencing in that solitude, that was so imperative in his life, it was goosebump-inducing.

Matt Wiggans

“I spent a lot of my childhood in Spearfish, in Brookings, South Dakota. I played hockey in North Dakota. But this is my first time in Medera, and my wife and I are already super-excited to come back for the opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library. I warn people that when I go to historical places or museums, just prepare for hours, because I like to read everything. I love history. This is not just a premiere, it's an experience: <laugh>, it's The Teddy Roosevelt Experience! Understanding how real it is to people -- Eli (Elijah Mahar), who plays Sewell, and I were talking yesterday about how this just makes you want to be better, just step it up even more.”

Sam Schweikert

One of the startling elements of the Elkhorn story is the youth of the people involved: when Roosevelt and the Marquis first clashed in 1884, they were both 26. Newspaper editors in Westerns tend to be Edmond O’Brien or Thomas Mitchell, usually portly drunks in their 50s. Sam Schweikert, who portrays editor Arthur Packard, couldn’t be less like that cliché. As Sam points out, “Arthur Packard was 22 years old when he came out and opened up the Badlands Cow Boy, which is amazing, to be that young and to have that sense of wherewithal to say: I'm gonna go to a place that is lawless and scary, and help spread the word. And given that we're here in this flourishing town of Medora today, I think Arthur had a lot of foresight.”

Elijah Mahar

Next on the red carpet was Elijah Mahar, who plays William Sewall, one of two friends TR sends for from Maine to help build his cabin. Elijah notes, “I grew up in a small town in Washington, a logging, dairy, farming town.” Logging? Does he have the kind of experience his character has? “I have not chopped down trees. I've sawed down trees with a chainsaw, and I have chopped them into logs.” And while he isn’t from Maine, “My wife, her family, have a house in Maine. So we go there every summer for a few weeks. And Sewell’s house is still there. I go see the house, I called the number, left a message saying, Hey, my name's Eli. I'm on a show called Elkhorn. I play Bill Sewell, the man who built your house. I'd love to come see it. Within minutes, there was a message from the woman, who's Bill Sewell's great-granddaughter! She was so excited. ‘I'm a huge fan of the show!’ The next day, my wife and I spent a couple hours there. It was kinda like coming here. I got to be in his bedroom, sit at his desk, saw his bassinet from when he was a baby. It was a great experience. When it's a real person you’re playing, you feel like you have to kind of honor them.”

Brittany Joyner

William Sewell spends some time in the first season pining for his wife, Mary, whom he has left back in Maine. In season 2, he gets his wish, rejoined by his wife in the person of Brittany Joyner, who is a fiery redhead in reality, but a brunette as Mary. Looking at the premiere’s turnout, far more than Medera’s population of 160, she gushed, “This is fantastic! I can't believe that all these people showed up just for little old us -- I'm so glad! It's a really, really cute town, lovely people, lovely food and coffee and experiences. But getting to see the threshold stones of Elkhorn, that has such a close memory for me of filming, and our entire series hinging around this location. The Chateau de Mores was wonderful. It really gave us a good glimpse of how differently they were living than Teddy was, in his rustic cabin in the middle of the woods.” Architecture is not just of passing interest to Brittany.  “I spent the summer in France, doing carpentry on a medieval castle, so I'm recovering from that.”

Jeff DuJardin

Jeff DuJardin plays the Marquis, a Frenchman, of course. Jeff was born somewhat closer, “In the smallest state, in Providence, Rhode Island. I was the very last person who was cast in the project. And part of it might have been, someone who could do a French accent, but maybe not too French.” The rumor is, they auditioned some French actors, whose accents were too thick, and some Americans, of the Pepe le Pew school. “I got an email from my agent. ‘Can you put yourself on tape for this role? You have to do a French accent.’ My mother spoke it fluently. I would hear her on the phone growing up, speaking to my grandmother, so I knew what the French accent was supposed to sound like. So I recorded this audition, and heard back a few days later that they really loved it, and they wanted me to do a chemistry read with Mason. And the rest is history.”

North Dakota First Lady Kjersti Armstrong

Soon it was time for everyone to find seats in Medora’s Old Town Hall Theater for the screening of Elkhorn, season 2, episode 1, A Fine Welcome. The audience loved the show, cheered every star’s entrance, and on the big screen it was striking how beautifully the series is photographed. A second screening would be held to accommodate the overflow crowd. Historian, entertainer and TR impersonator Joe Wiegand had emceed on the red carpet. Inside, the hosting duties were handled by Elkhorn producer Gary Tarpinian, who introduced North Dakota First Lady Kjersti Armstrong, people from various foundations and organizations who had helped with event, the executives of the INSP Channel, and the cast members who took the stage for a spirited Q & A, which is available tonight on the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library’s Youtube page, and below.

 My favorite moment was when someone asked, “What will you remember about your time in North Dakota?”

When series star Mason Beals spoke about how welcoming the town was, and how “incredibly beautiful it is out here. Driving in from Dickinson, passing all those canyons, it's just mind-blowing,” Brittany Joyner commented, “I'm actually 100% shocked you didn't say breakfast sandwiches. They have not stopped talking about them!” The cast took a deep, rhapsodic dive into the merits of the spectacular food available at the C-Store.

Producer Gary Tarpinian

From the audience, Rolf Sletten, author of Roosevelt’s Ranches, and one of the great movers and shakers in making Medora a hub of Roosevelt history, raised his hand. “I wanted to tell you (that) those breakfast sandwiches are made by a woman named Robin Griffin. And Robin Griffin is Margaret Robert's great-great granddaughter. And Margaret Roberts was TR's nearest neighbor at the Maltese Cross Ranch.” In Medora, yesterday, today and tomorrow, Teddy Roosevelt history runs deep!

INSP's Doug Butts, Rolf Sletten, Emily Sletten,

ELKHORN creator Craig Miller, INSP's Dale Ardizzone

Season 2 of Elkhorn will premiere tonight, October 2^nd, at 9pm Eastern time – check your local listings – and will continue Thursdays at 9. If you want to catch up on season 1 – and you should – it’s streaming on Prime and Tubi and Plex.

RUSTLERS’ RHAPSODY

Kino Lorber – BluRay $29.95

 

Tom Berenger's 1930s singing cowboy 

doesn't blend in easily.

Since you obviously read Henry’s Western Round-up, I know you’re going to love a lot about Rustler’s Rhapsody – maybe even the whole thing. But your friends may not, if they haven’t got the background. Writer and director Hugh Wilson, had already more than proven himself as a comedy writer, creating WKRP In Cincinnati, and as a comedy director: his first time at bat was the low-cost, hugely profitable, and grossly funny Police Academy, which spawned a 7-film franchise.  Perhaps that’s why he was given a free hand for his next production, writing and directing Rustlers’ Rhapsody. It’s the sort of film that, under normal studio procedures, would never have been green-lighted, not because it wasn’t good, but because most studio execs would never have enough Western movie knowledge to get the jokes.  When Blazing Saddles was made 11 years earlier, Westerns in theatres and on TV were so ubiquitous that viewers couldn’t help knowing all that was required. But Rustlers’ Rhapsody is specifically a sweet celebration of B-Westerns which likely went over the heads of its 1985 audience, and would certainly go farther over the heads of an average audience today.

Tom Berenger, who in 1979 had played Butch Cassidy in the prequel Butch and Sundance: The Early Days, stars as Rex O’Herlihan, not a singing-cowboy B-Western movie actor, mind you, but a singing-cowboy B-Western movie character. A lot of the humor comes from the similarity of so many B’s – Rex wistfully notes that he can see the future, because the future is always the same: every town he enters has the same stores and sheriff’s office, interchangeable schoolmarms and henchmen. He has a fabulous wardrobe but we have no idea where he carries it. He diligently practices shooting guns out of bad guys’ hands – he wouldn’t think to shoot at a person, nor would they be able to shoot him. It’s all begins in exciting, chasing-the-stagecoach-robbers black and white, but a narrator wonders what would happen if Rex had moved from the B’s of the ‘30s and ‘40s to the Westerns of ‘today,’ and guess what: suddenly we are in widescreen Technicolor, and the bad guys are shooting awful close!

Berrenger and Patrick Wayne seem too evenly matched!

The problem is, we never quite learn which ‘today’ they mean – ‘today’ doesn’t seem a whole lot grittier than 1960s TV – certainly not Peckinpah ‘today’. It’s sort of like if Mark Twain wrote A Connecticut Yankee in Somewhere Other Than Contemporary Connecticut. If you don’t know he’s in King Arthur’s Court, you don’t know what to base the gags on. It’s well-worth seeing, and lots of the jokes are very clever but a lot are just not focused enough to pay off.

G.W. Bailey – Lt. Harris from the Police Academy films – is Peter, the town drunk and prototypical sidekick-to-be, who takes naive Rex under his wing. Rex’s kindness is endearing when he lies to Peter, assuring him that, while everything and everyone else is the same going from town-to-town, he’s never met anyone like Peter before.

Berenger plays it as straight and as straight-arrow as he should, with Marilu Henner and Sela Ward both lovely to look at and very funny. Patrick Wayne plays a good-guy who is as good as Rex, and their interplay is great fun. Andy Griffith, as the wealthy cattle baron is under-utilized, because his part was drastically cut: he was supposed to be a gay cattle baron, but 1985 audiences weren’t ready for that. Incredibly, it’s shot in Almeria, Spain – Fernando Rey is included for some funny nods to Spaghetti Westerns – but looks more American than European.   

EDEN – A Film by Ron Howard

Ana de Armas, supported by Felix Kammerer 

and Ignacio Gasparini, photo by Jason Boland

Currently streaming on Prime for $19.95

(Note: I realize that Eden is not a Western, but it’s a pioneering story, about people moving away from civilization, so I say, close enough!)

The fact that it’s based on the truth notwithstanding, the premise of Eden, the very dark new film directed by Ron Howard and co-written by him with Noah Pink, could have been a wonderful comedy: post-World War I, a pompous German philosopher and his lover move to an unpopulated island in the Galapagos Archipelago, to be completely alone, to work out a plan to save humanity. And when word of his plan spreads – making them among the first media stars -- true-believers flock to join him, making his work impossible. I feel like re-writing it for Charlie Chase, or Clifton Webb!

Daniel Bruhl and Jude Law

photo by Peter Jowery

We are immediately sympathetic to Jude Law as Ritter, the philosophoid who, despite his pomposity, is trying to accomplish something important, along with Dore, played by Vanessa Kirby, who won’t even let her MS derail her. Without warning they are joined by the unwanted, unprepared and destitute Wittmer family – Margaret (Sydney Sweeney), Heinz (Daniel Bruhl) and young son Harry (Jonathan Tittel). They’re about as welcome as Blondie, Dagwood, and a tubercular Baby Dumpling. No sooner are they settled than the arrogant “Baroness”, played by Ana de Armas, arrives with her entourage of 3 lovers, and her lunatic plan to build an exclusive hotel on the island’s shore.  You have an inkling of what’s coming, as the opening titles tell us that it is a true story, as told by the survivors.

While not a popular theme in recent years, stories of “civilized” people alone on jungle islands have been the subjects of several memorable films: various versions of The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Most Dangerous Game, Lord of the Flies, Swiss Family Robinson – even comedies like The Tuttles of Tahiti. In fact, this group of castaways is the subject of a fascinating 2013 documentary, The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden, currently streaming on Amazon Prime, from directors Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine. Incredibly, it’s full of footage of the actual islanders, as newsreel companies and narrative filmmakers visited them. There is even a brief dramatic film starring the Baroness!

The ultimate flaw of Ron Howard’s film is that there is no one to care about. Unlike all of the fictional jungle films I’ve mentioned, there is no likable character – our sympathy for Ritter quickly dissipates. The irony is that you don’t like anyone in The Galapagos Affair either, but you don’t lose patience with that film because it’s a documentary, and the appeal is intellectual. We’ve all watched true crime stories where the victims are as hateful as the killers, but the truth, sympathetic or not, keeps our interest. But our interest in drama is not intellectual but largely emotional: we want to root for someone. The closest we come to caring is about young Harry Wittmer, and there is a promising moment between him and the Baroness, when she’s befriending him, and we immediately distrust her motives. But the set-up is never paid off. Instead, the plot becomes an uninvolving scorecard of who gets killed in what order.

Sydney Sweeney, photo by Roger Lawson

In spite of this, Ron Howard’s direction is excellent. Jude Law’s character’s deterioration, his transition from pretentious philanthropist to psychotic fascist, is Oscar-worthy wonderful. I wanted to choke de Armas’ Baroness, but I found her fascinating. Eden is beautifully photographed by Mathias Herndl, particularly the strangely ominous cutaways to the animal life on the island. We don’t see a single Galapagos Tortoise, but in fact, filming is not permitted on the islands, so it was shot in Australia.

The most powerful sequence by far is Sydney Sweeney’s character giving birth while her cabin is being burglarized, and then being attacked by blood-smelling dogs! That had me not only on the edge of my seat, but gnawing on my knuckles.

AND THAT’S A WRAP!

Please check out the September/October True West, featuring my article, A Century of Disenrollment, and my interview with author Anne Hillerman. And here’s the link to my newest INSP blog, What TV and Movies Get Right and Wrong About Cowboys.

Much obliged,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright October 2025 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved

 

 

ALEXANDER NEVSKY ON HIS SUMO-SIZED WESTERN, ‘THE WIDE WEST’, RUTA LEE ON AUDIE MURPHY AND ‘BULLET FOR A BADMAN’, PLUS ‘EDDINGTON’ AND ‘BURY ‘EM DEEP'’ REVIEWED!

 

HIGH, WIDE AND HANDSOME!

ALEXANDER NEVSKY ON HIS NEW FILM, THE WIDE WEST, AND HIS LONG, EVENTFUL JOURNEY FROM MOSCOW TO AN ARIZONA MOVIE RANCH!

(The Wide West trailer. A link to the film follows the article)

The Wide West, following Gunfight at Rio Bravo and Taken from Rio Bravo, is the 3^rd Western movie collaboration of star and producer Alexander Nevsky, director Joe Cornet, screenwriter Craig Hamann, composer Sean Murray, and cinematographer Sam Wilkerson. The seemingly absurd premise of a pair of Sumo wrestling stars stranded in the Old West is, surprisingly, based on – or suggested by – facts: U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt negotiated the end of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. In gratitude, and knowing the President’s interest in martial arts, particularly Judo and Jiu-Jitsu, a contingent of Japanese athletes, including Sumo wrestlers, was dispatched to Washington to entertain Roosevelt, sailing to California, then making their way to the East Coast.  In The Wide West, two of those Sumo wrestlers, Daiki (Hiroki Sumi) and Ichi (Takashi Ichinojo) find themselves stranded in a Western desert town, in mortal conflict with an outlaw gang led by villain Jarrett Kingrey (director Joe Cornet), and reluctantly befriended by a Russian immigrant, a gambler known as Max (Nevsky). It’s an amusing film that, happily, doesn’t take itself too seriously, except when it comes to action.

Alexander Nevsky is himself a world-class athlete and an immigrant. The three-time Mr. Universe, actor, producer, director, grew up picturing himself in movies, but not necessarily in Westerns. He loved the genre, but getting access to them in Russia was no simple task. “When I was a kid, we couldn't watch westerns from the United States, but we still watched some Easterns, as they call it, because in East Germany, they will make westerns. In Yugoslavia, they made westerns with Gojko Mitic, who was a big star at the time, playing Chingachgook (note: from James Fenimore Cooper's The Deerslayer). And in Easterns, Indians were good guys, and all the cowboys, the army, they were bad guys, so basically it was all in reverse. But we loved it and we loved the culture.”

Don't mess with Max!

Nevsky wouldn’t have a chance to see the real Hollywood product in Russia until the 1990s, with the rise of bootleg videotapes. “The Soviet Union was collapsing, and pirated videos suddenly appeared at all those kiosks close to subway stations. They put two Hollywood movies on one video tape, and I was buying them every evening when I was going back home from my University or from the gym. I had old Korean VCR with my old Russian tv, only black and white picture,” he recalls with a laugh. “But even in black and white, it was almost like a window to completely different, magic world. And the funny thing is, those Soviet pirates who made those tapes, they didn't understand the difference between huge movies and small movies, right? They can put like Arnold's $40 million Commando or Predator, and second movie could be Lady Dragon with Cynthia Rothrock, or a Don “the Dragon” Wilson picture, because it was also action picture. It was all Hollywood, right? It was all magic. And now as a producer, I understand that piracy's bad. But sometimes it could be good, and it could give a lot of people a great escape, at least for a couple of hours. So you never know.”

He wasn’t a natural-born Mr. Universe. “I had a little scoliosis. I was tall already, but when I started to lift weights, I was young and very skinny, I didn't have muscles at all.” So he trained.

“My background in bodybuilding and in boxing taught me to be prepared for hard work. I was happy when I won Mr. Universe, and when I won a second and third one, but before I started to win, it was like decades of preparation and training.”

He came to the United States in 1999 well-prepared not only physically, but educationally. “I graduated from Moscow State University of Management, and I had my PhD in Economics.”  He’d already had considerable success at home. “I was established TV star in Russia, a bodybuilding star. I had my own TV show on Channel One Russia, and 20 million people watched my TV show every week. I already wrote three books about bodybuilding and believing in yourself, and they sold like hundreds of thousands of copies.  When I moved to Los Angeles, I just had student visa, because I became a student at the UCLA, I started to study English, and later, I transferred to Lee Strassberg Theater Institute where I started to learn acting.

“It was kind of like trip to the moon, because Russian Americans all knew who I was, but Americans, they didn't have a clue. I started from scratch and, like six months after I came, I started to get some callbacks from auditions.”

Max's nemesis, played by Joe Cornet

His first big opportunity was an athletic competition series. “Battle Dome was Columbia Tristar TV show, kind of like American Gladiator. It was open call. I saw probably 300 huge guys. They told me, just wear black t-shirt, blue jeans. So when I came, I saw like hundreds of huge guys in black t-shirts and blue jeans. Someone was a little taller, someone was a little shorter, someone had smaller biceps, someone had bigger biceps, but volumes of them! So when they call us back a month later, it was just fifty guys, just 15 guys two months later, then it was just five of us who they want to sign. When I saw the contract, of course it was almost no money. It was scale and whatever, but it was the first time when they described my character. It was like stupid stereotypical Russian, wearing a red star on the back. And when I said to casting director and to producers, I cannot play it, they looked at me like I was an idiot, because they chose me out of 300, and I didn't want to do it. But again, Henry, I didn't come here to promote stereotypes. I came here to crush stereotypes, but to be completely honest with you, it was heartbreaking.

“Then one of my idols, Jean Claude Van Damme, invited me to make a movie with him, called The Order, with Charlton Heston and Brian Thompson, in 2000. Jean Claude was playing an adventurer who was stealing things from museums. The great, late Jack Gilardi, vice President of ICM, introduced me to Jean Claude and Sheldon Lettich, the director of the film, who directed, in my opinion, best of Jean Claude's films in ‘90s, like Double Impact. Sheldon and Jean Claude right away created a part for me. I was happy, but when I read it, it was a security guard in some museum in Kazakhstan: just scream something in Russian, and fight with Jean Claude, and get killed by Jean. I explained it to them that I couldn't play these stereotypical roles, because my Russian audience will not understand it. And it was Sheldon who told me that, if I want to be a star, I should find a way to produce, because here, unfortunately, if you big Russian, you will play stereotypical roles. Back then it was heartbreaking. But I still think it was the right choice because, how Sinatra sang it, I did it my way. And 11 years later, Sheldon became executive producer of my director debut, Black Rose.”

I told Nevsky that my first job as a screenwriter had been a film called Speedtrap (1977), which I’d co-written with producer and Romanian immigrant Fred Mintz: we worked out the story together, I did the actual writing, particularly the dialog, and we’d rewrite it together. Nevsky’s first film as producer and star came in 2004. “I co-wrote my very first English-language motion picture, Moscow Heat, which was the great Michael York, and Joanna Pacula. It was the film which opened the door for me into action genre. I was executive producer, it was my first starring role and I co-wrote it with my American friend, Robert Madrid exactly the way you worked with your friend from Romania. I'm proud to say that I also created a story for my biggest one, Maximum Impact, which was written by Ross Lamanna, who wrote the Rush Hour movies for Jackie Chan.”

Max riding to the rescue!

So, how did Alexander Nevsky move on to Westerns? It was because of a meeting between Nevsky and Western director Joe Cornet, who were brought together by their composer. “Sean Murray, great composer, introduced us to each other. Sean wrote music for Joe's Western, The Promise, and he wrote music for my Black Rose. Sean told me that he wants me to meet with his friend because he wants me to try a Western. Sean, he's a great composer, but also he's a great friend. So I was honest with him. I told him, of course I'll meet you with your friend, I'll be happy to, but come on: me in a Western?” But they hit it off immediately.  “Joe’s like a walking encyclopedia of Westerns. I mean, all the knowledge he gave me, it was amazing. (With the) pirated videos in Russia, that's when I became a huge fan of spaghetti Westerns, of Clint Eastwood, the Sergio Leones, and John Wayne. John Wayne, I like him a lot because he was tall and big, right? And his movies, they were kind of like, if I can say, like clean Westerns, not so down-to-earth, like Sergio Leone kind of Westerns. John Wayne's Westerns were bigger and brighter and more positive. I just love him. But my point is, I was huge fan of Westerns, but I never really imagined myself in a Western. So going back to end of 2020, those conversations with Joe, he told me we should do a Western. ‘Trust me, you will love the experience, you will love the film.’ And I told him, Joe, if we doing something together, it shouldn't be just straight Western. Because my background is in sport and bodybuilding. I was a boxer and kick-boxer. And good thing about sport: sport will give you discipline.  So you always know your strong points and your weak points. I said, Joe, if we're making a movie together, it shouldn't be just a Western. It should be an action western, so we can bring together my favorite genre, which is action, and your favorite genre, which is Western.

“And that's how Gunfight at Rio Bravo was born. And Joe did an amazing job because he was always positive, he was always prepared, he was always very supportive. And before we started, we had like four-and-a-half months, and he even gave me his horse to train with, because I never rode a horse before. I never shot Western guns like Winchester or Colts. Of course I shot a lot of modern guns. He helped a lot. And by June, 2021, when we came to Arizona to make our first Western, I was prepared. And it was complete fun. It wasn't easy at all, but it was complete fun. And I brought my action guys with me. I brought Olivier Gruner and I brought Art Camacho, who is a great fight choreographer, and I brought Matthias Hues, and we all had fun. And thanks to Joe, we got a Western, like a real Spaghetti Western. And thanks to my team, we also got an action movie.”

Nick Baillie as the Judge, Tatiana Neva as a stylish shopkeeper

Also turning in a dynamic guest performance in one of Nevsky’s Westerns is another martial arts legend, “My great friend and colleague Cynthia Rothrock. I hope it was me and Joe who inspired her to make her great action Western, Black Creek. Because right before that, she made our Taken from Rio Bravo, and she was amazing in it. We introduced her to everyone over there in Arizona, to John Marrs, our armorer and also costar, and to other guys. She made her own Western, which is great.” You can read my article about Black Creek, and my interview with Cynthia Rothrock, here:  https://henryswesternroundup.blogspot.com/2025/04/black-creek-action-star-cynthia.html

Now that he’s had extensive experience in both Action films and Westerns, which genre presents more challenges? “To be honest with you, making Westerns is harder. It's much more fun, but it's harder, because every time you're doing a film about something which happened many years ago, you really should be authentic.” I wasn’t going to say anything about his somewhat anachronistic costume, but he brought it up.  “Now, saying that, of course you know I was criticized because of my outfit in the films. Because even in the Westerns, I always have cool leather jackets. With one simple reason, Henry, and again, I'll be completely honest with you, because if we talk about business for a second, I understand that a lot of your readers, they're huge fans of Western genre, and they don't want to read about business side of film making. But we both understand that it’s really important. If you talk about sales, if you make any Western, you will almost always sell it in the United States. Because United States has a huge culture of Westerns, huge fan base for Western genre historically. But internationally, it's really hard to sell the Western, even if it's a huge studio Western. And that's the reason why studios actually stopped making big Westerns. So what I was doing as a producer, I was trying to put together Action and a Western. So in America, film will be sold because it's a Western, but internationally, we can sell it because it's an Action picture, because Action always sells. And that's why even in Gunfight at Rio Bravo, last 25 minutes of the film, I don't have my hat anymore. I just have my leather jacket, and I’m killing people, right and left, in very cool way. It's an Action picture, not just a Western. It's kind of the same thing in the Wide West, because in the end I have, yes, old-fashioned sunglasses, old-fashioned jacket, but still, I look like a Terminator,” he laughs, “in the Wild West. The cigar, of course, is in homage to Arnold's movies. So that's how I approach it.”

ICHI takes aim!

As international as The Wide West is, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that one of Nevsky’s major influences in creating it was the Western that James Bond specialist Terrence Young directed in 1971, Red Sun. “I think it was first Charles Bronson film released in Japan. And it was first Toshiro Mifune film that really made him popular in Europe and the United States. And Ursula Andress, she already did the Bond picture, Dr. No. The producers, they played their cards so smart, because they got American star, they got Japanese star, they got established European star -- because Alain Delon wasn't just a French star. He was one of the biggest European stars at the moment. They basically sold all the territories, even before they made the movie. So it was a terrific business model. Bronson, in Red Sun, he was my inspiration for my character Max. Because when you watch my action pictures, and both Rio Bravo movies, I always played like a stoic, hard-boiled action heroe. You don't have to ask me twice to protect you, to help you,

In this one, I was playing a different character, and Charles Bronson was my inspiration because in Red Sun, if you remember, he is not playing your hero. No, he's just the guy who's having fun. He wants to make money, he wants to get some revenge, but mostly the money. And of course, basically, he's changing over the course of the movie, but it's a different Charles Bronson.”

The Wide West is currently available exclusively on XUMO Play, for free!

In this one, I was playing a different character, and Charles Bronson was my inspiration because in Red Sun, if you remember, he is not playing your hero. No, he's just the guy who's having fun. He wants to make money, he wants to get some revenge, but mostly the money. And of course, basically, he's changing over the course of the movie, but it's a different Charles Bronson.”

The Wide West is currently available exclusively on XUMO Play, for free! Just click the link below:

https://play.xumo.com/free-movies/the-wide-west/XM0XFMQGKZICWS

RUTA LEE REMEMBERS AUDIE MURPHY AND MAKING 'BULLET FOR A BADMAN'

Here's the trailer!

 Kino Lorber has just issued Collection V – that’s 5 for you non-Romans – of the Westerns which Audie Murphy starred in at Universal in the 1950s and ‘60s. Each collection features 3 films, and this set contains Seven Way from Sundown, Walk the Proud Land, and Bullet for a Badman.

While I’ll soon write reviews for all 3, I recently had the pleasure of discussing one film from the set, 1964’s Bullett for a Badman, directed by R.G. Springsteen, with one of its stars, the still-lovely Ruta Lee, who recently turned 90. I highly recommend her hilarious, fascinating memoir, Consider Your Ass Kissed.

Ruta with Berkeley Harris

In Badman, Ruta plays the third point of a, while not a truly romantic triangle, a practical one, between Audie Murphy and Darren McGavin. If the other actors’ names that she mentions are not familiar, their faces would be. Alan Hale, Jr. was Skipper on Gilligan’s Island. Genial George Tobias, a comic character in 100 movies, mostly at Warner Brothers, is best remembered as Elizabeth Montgomery’s neighbor, Mr. Kravitz, on Bewitched. Skip Homier made his name as a child actor playing a Hitler Youth in Tomorrow, The World, and played many Western villains, memorably in The Gunfighter. If you haven’t seen Bullet for a Badman, you’re warned that there’s a big spoiler in Ruta’s first sentence. “Audie was of course the good guy, Darren was the bad guy, and I got shot with a bullet in my forehead somewhere in the movie. And my little grandmother, that I had brought over from Lithuania, had never seen television or the movies. She went screaming to my mother that I had been shot, and having hysterics when she saw that movie. I had such fun, because Alan Hale was in that movie, George Tobias, Skip Homeier. We laughed so hard. You know, it's surprising that they ever got a clear shot of us not laughing because we'd be out there and R. G. Springsteen, and God love him, he had a sense of humor too, but we laughed and laughed and laughed. And darling, the leading man of course was Audie, who was somewhat remote. You know, he didn't mix and mingle a lot, which is kind of sad because he would have had such laughs with us. When you have someone like George Tobias, who's been there, done it, seen it all, and has a story to tell about everything he's ever done, when you've got Alan Hale Jr., who carries on like a lunatic about things, and of course, Skippy Homeier as well. And my darling, Darren McGavin who's full of piss and vinegar, oh God, it was such fun! We were in St. George, Utah, but we travelled to a lot of different places. But I loved the Westerns. I didn't like the idea of having to get up at four to make it to the studio by five, so that you could be out on location at six. But what was really nice was that chuckwagon, the trailer that was the cooking wagon would be there at the location already. And you learned from the cowboys what to eat and you'd have every day, a bacon and egg and sausage and onion and tomato sandwich for breakfast. Boy, was that good! I can smell it now. You know, when you're sitting outside and it's cold and the coffee is there, and the sandwich is ready when you want it. Oh, that was great!”

Some of the spectacular mountain scenery!

You can read my Ruta Lee Western career article at the INSP blog, by clicking the link below:

Ruta Lee – Lithuanian-American Queen of the West

You can find Ruta Lee’s memoir at Amazon by clicking the link below:

Consider your Ass Kissed

And you can purchase Audie Murphy Collection V from Kino Lorber, including Bullet for a Badman, by clicking the link below:

https://kinolorber.com/product/audie-murphy-collection-v-walk-the-proud-land-seven-ways-from-sundown-bullet-for-a-badman?srsltid=AfmBOor-p5NVTnb6lc8ZBY9YcjU-Sq5B04LP4CPXhG6ujmhd-yWnNObF

 

FILM REVIEWS:

EDDINGTON

EDDINGTON TRAILER

Eddington is the new ‘Contemporary Western’ from the much-lauded writer-director of the Horror films Hereditary and Midsommar, Ari Aster. He has a wonderful cast – Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix, double Oscar winner Emma Stone, 4-time Emmy nominee Pedro Pascal, Oscar nominee Austin Butler. There are strong performances, and an intriguing premise – what happens in a tiny New Mexico town when Covid divides its mask/no mask residents politically during an election? I guess all that it lacks is a plot. There are countless mystifying loose ends, absolutely no characters you care about, and nothing Western besides the locale. It’s pointlessly, brutally in-your-face violent, and if you’re going to call your movie a ‘black comedy’, you need something comic to happen at some point. I counted 3 smirks in two and a half hours.  It’s currently in theaters.

 

BURY ‘EM DEEP

 

Bury ‘Em Deep is as unexpectedly enjoyable as Eddington is disappointing. A slim-budget, legitimate period Western, it stars Robert Bronzi, a Hungarian-born actor who has built a leading-man career – over a dozen films so far – based on his uncanny resemblance to Charles Bronson. Here he plays legendary bounty hunter Link Maddock; the kind they wrote dime novels about. He makes a bad choice when he delivers a corpse to Sheriff Michael Pare for the reward: the stiff is a relative of the lawman, and Maddock is shot down, only to revive some 3 weeks later, nursed back from the brink by an orphanage-running nun, Sister Marie (Rosanna Wyant). And wouldn’t you know it? The bank is foreclosing on the orphanage. Maddock heads out for his hidden cache of bounty cash, but is jumped, beaten, and again left for dead.

With the mortgage clock ticking, Maddock is hunting down each member of the ‘posse’ that robbed him. While in lesser hands, a simple checklist of killings would follow, the script by Eric Zaldivar, from a story he devised with Mike Malloy, gives each malefactor their own personal vignette, ala Hang ‘Em High or Chato’s Land. The actors are not familiar, but the performances are varied and original. Wisely, they are given most of the dialog, keeping Bronzi’s speeches down to semi-intelligible bon mots. Incredibly, it’s the 60^th feature Michael Fredianelli has directed since 2008, and his skills as an editor and cinematographer are also very much on display. It’s an often-stunning looking film, and the final shootout in a pumpkin patch, while perhaps too long, is a remarkable accomplishment of direction, photography and cutting.

Bury ‘Em Deep is available on Amazon Prime, currently for $4. Below is the trailer.

AND THAT’S A WRAP!

Please check out the July/August True West – here’s a link to my column looking at Val Kilmer’s first starring Western, Billy the Kid, an update on the progress of Young Guns 3, a DVD review of Was Once a Hero, and a chat with the director of the new Pierce Brosnan/Samuel L. Jackson Western, Unholy Trinity.

https://truewestmagazine.com/article/val-kilmers-billy/

Here’s my most recent INSP blog, Grit, Guns & Getting it Right!

https://www.insp.com/blog/what-tv-and-movies-get-right-and-wrong-about-cowboys/

And coming soon to the Round-up, I’ll be reviewing Ron Howard’s new film, Eden, looking at recent Westerns on the Broadway and Off-Broadway stage, and sharing my Lone Pine interview with Robert Carradine, remembering John Wayne and The Cowboys!

Much obliged,

Henry

Copyright August 2025 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved

This material is not to be used for Artificial Intelligence training.