NEW CHARLES LUMMIS DOC., ‘6 BULLETS’ FILM & GAME RELEASE, PLUS ‘UNDERGROUND’ FINALE, MEL GIBSON’S ‘BARBARY COAST’, AND MORE!

MUST-SEE TV -- CHARLES LUMMIS DOCUMENTARY AIRS ON KCET TUESDAY!

On Tuesday, May 10^th, at 9 pm, the California arts documentary series ARTBOUND returns to KCET with CHARLES LUMMIS: REIMAGINING THE AMERICAN WEST.  While not a name on the tip of many tongues today, Lummis’ contributions to the history of the Southwest United States, particularly Los Angeles, would be hard to overstate.  On Saturday, a panel featuring many of interviewees in the film discussed Lummis and the documentary at the first museum in Los Angeles, which Lummis built, The Southwest Museum, surrounded by one of the world’s finest collections of American Indian art and artifacts, which Lummis collected.

Lummis watches over producer Juan Devis' shoulder

Charles Fletcher Lummis, born in Massachusetts in 1859, grew up at a time of individualists.  He was classmate of Theodore Roosevelt at Harvard, but dropped out, wrote for a Cincinnati newspaper, but quit when he got a better offer – working for the Los Angeles Times.  He proposed that he walk to L.A. from Cincinnati, and became a media sensation from the newspaper columns he posted en route.  His contact with American Indians along the way would greatly influence the rest of his life. 

Lummis' granddaughter, poet Suzanne Lummis

After 143 days afoot, he arrived and was made city editor of Times.  It was 1885, which was, as Lummis’ granddaughter pointed out, the year that RAMONA-author and Indian rights activist Helen Hunt Jackson died.  It was a passing of the torch.  Los Angeles was in a time of transition – it had a population of only 12,000 when Lummis arrived – and he saw, with concern, that as the numbers quickly swelled, the history of the Indian and Mexican and Spanish people who had lived there before the Anglos was disappearing.  While a sincere and enthusiastic booster for Los Angeles, he did not want to see a homogenized city, and used his skills as an anthropologist, writer, poet, and photographer to both preserve the rapidly fading past, and make a convincing argument that this past should be incorporated in the city’s future.  Neither a paralyzing stroke – he healed, nor blindness – it proved temporary, could slow him down.  I highly recommend this documentary, and hope it will soon be available for viewing outside of L.A.

‘6 BULLETS TO HELL’ MOVIE AND VIDEO GAME PREMIERE TUESDAY!

In a very clever bit of synergy and cross-promotion, Tuesday, May 10^th marks the release of both 6 BULLETS TO HELL the movie on iTunes, and 6 BULLETS TO HELL the video game.  The film stars Tanner Beard, Crispian Belfrage and Russell Cummings, and Round-up readers have been following 6 BULLETS since it rolled camera in 2013, and as I said in my review – read it HERE – 6 BULLETS is a new Spaghetti Western filmed in the holy ground of Almeria, Spain, and masterfully captures the spirit of the originals.  Here’s the trailer from the movie.

CHECK OUT MY MOTHER’S DAY COLUMN AT INSP

I had the pleasure of writing a guest Mother’s Day column for the INSP-TV blog, honoring actress Barbara Stanwyck, and one of her most famous characters, Victoria Barkley from THE BIG VALLEY.  It gave me the opportunity of interviewing her co-star from TROOPER HOOK, Earl Holliman, and Kate Edelman, whose father, Louis Edelman, co-created and produced THE BIG VALLEY, who both shared their memories of ‘Missy’ with me.  You can read it (and I wish you would) HERE.

‘UNDERGROUND’ SEASON ONE ENDS WED. WITH A MARATHON

If you, like me, were late to discover WGN’s series about slaves escaping through the Underground Railroad, you can catch up starting Wednesday, May 11^th at 10 a.m. (check your local times).  As I reported in the last Round-up, UNDERGROUND has been picked up for a second season.  

MEL GIBSON, KURT RUSSELL, KATE HUDSON TO STAR IN WESTERN SERIES ‘BARBARY COAST’!

Mel Gibson will be co-writing and directing as well as starring with Kurt Russell and Kate Hudson in BARBARY COAST, based on the history book of the same title by Herbert Asbury, whose GANGS OF NEW YORK was filmed by Martin Scorcese.  The story of the wicked early days of San Francisco during the Gold Rush of 1849, it will be produced by the Mark Gordon Company , who currently produce QUANTICO, CRIMINAL MINDS and GREY’S ANATOMY. 

While the beautiful and talented Hudson is a newcomer to the genre, her co-stars are not.  Mel Gibson played the lovable scoundrel MAVERICK (1994), the Revolutionary War hero in THE PATRIOT (2000), and even voiced John Smith in Disney’s animated POCAHONTAS (1995).  Kurt Russell is a Western icon ever since playing Wyatt Earp in TOMBSTONE (1993), has recently starred in both HATEFUL 8 (2015) and BONE TOMAHAWK (2015), but hasn’t done a Western series since he co-starred with Tim Matheson in THE QUEST (1976).

CELEBRATE JOHN WAYNE’S BIRTHDAY WED. MAY 18 AT THE AUTRY!

Rob Word’s Word On Westerns will salute the Duke with a gathering of friends and family, including son Patrick Wayne, granddaughter Anita Wayne LaCava Swift, and co-stars Robert Carradine (THE COWBOYS), Paul Koslo (ROOSTER COGBURN), and author and historian Chris Enns.  These one-of-a-kind events have been so packed of late that there have been some wise changes made.  It will begin at eleven – not noon – and at the Wells Fargo Theatre.  The program will begin with a performance by Will Ryan and the Saguaro Sisters, and eventually everyone will segue across the courtyard to the Autry Crossroads Café for lunch.  Doors open at 10:30 a.m. – don’t be late!

DOUG FAIRBANKS IS ‘WILD AND WOOLLY’ SAT. MAY 21 AT THE EGYPTIAN!

Douglas Fairbanks stars in this delightful comedy from nearly a century ago, as a sophisticated New Yorker who wants to experience the Wild West – and boy, does he!  It was written by Anita Loos, the first brilliant screenwriter, and her husband John Emerson.  Loos started her career  young – some say as young as 12 – when, hanging out in her father’s nickelodeon theatre, she wrote a scenario and sent it to the name and address on a film can in the projection booth – to D.W. Griffith at Biograph Pictures.  (Forgive my digression, but back in the 1970s, Anita Loos became a good friend of my mother’s, and although I only met her briefly, it was a thrill – and I can remember every word she told me about a nightmarish dinner party with Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.) The film is directed by Emerson, and the cinematographer is Victor Fleming, who in 1939 would direct both GONE WITH THE WIND and THE WIZARD OF OZ!  Presented with a live piano accompaniment by the Cliff Retallick, this is part of the Egyptian Theatre’s long running Retroformat series, showcasing long-unavailable silent films shown in 8mm or 16mm.  Learn more HERE. 

THAT’S A WRAP!

Coming soon to the Round-up I’ll have coverage of my visit to the set of IMPULSION, the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival, the TCM Festival, and a bunch of great interviews I haven’t had a chance to transcribe.   Have a great week or two!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Material Copyright May 2016 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved 

SPAGHETTI WESTERN FACTORY! PLUS ‘THE PRAIRIE’, ‘HOLLYWOOD GOES WEST’ REVIEWED, AND MORE!

Ray Watts in PRICE OF DEATH

‘PRICE OF DEATH’ NEWEST EURO-WESTERN FROM SPAIN’S THRILL-FACTORY!

Production on PRICE OF DEATH wrapped just before the end of 2015.  In it, a bounty hunter hires on to transport a killer to his execution, unaware that the killer has a fortune stashed along the way, and former accomplices will do whatever it takes to recover the loot. 

Many of the same filmmakers are now hard at work both on post-production of PRICE OF DEATH, and pre-production for their next, THOU SHALT KILL.  Their first Western, last year’s 6 BULLETS TO HELL, has been playing the festival circuit for some months, and will soon get a general release.   As the market’s appetite for Westerns is growing, companies like Chip Baker Films and Privateer Entertainment are stepping up to meet that need with a studio/factory approach. 

It all started, appropriately enough, in Spain, at The Almeria Western Film Festival in October of 2012.  Danny Garcia and others from the Chip Baker company were running the event, and met Texas writer/director/actor Tanner Beard, whose Western film, LEGEND OF HELL’S GATE, was screening.  Soon, Tanner and Russell Quinn Cummings, one of his HELL’S GATE stars were co-directing 6 BULLETS, produced by Privateer Entertainment, with a script by Chip, Tanner, Russell, Danny, and Jose Villanueva.

THE PRICE OF DEATH, produced by Chip Baker Films, was directed by Danny.  He scripted, along with Jose, and Aaron Stielstra, an actor who came to the Almeria Festival to promote his American Western, THE SCARLET WORM.  He also stars in 6 BULLETS, PRICE OF DEATH, and will be in THOU SHALT KILL, to be directed by Tanner Beard.  Similarly, British-born America actor Crispian Belfrage, who starred in three U.S.-made Westerns – THE DONNER PARTY, DOC WEST, and TRIGGERMAN (all 2009) – is one of the stars of all three Spanish Westerns.  You get the picture – this close-knit pack of filmmakers, with ever-shifting roles, is working on their third Western in a couple of years, with more in the pipeline.  I spoke to Danny Garcia, director and co-writer of PRICE OF DEATH, and principal in all of the films, about making a string of back-to-back Westerns.

Danny Garcia

HENRY: What does the label ‘independent filmmaker’ mean to you?  

DANNY GARCIA: Well, to me it means freedom, not needing to respond to anyone except yourself. It’s also a huge challenge to put a production together without major support and the hours of work you put into any film is sometimes utterly insane. It’s also an exercise of blind faith as with any other art form.   

HENRY: What are the advantages and disadvantages, especially in making a western?

DANNY: In theory they’d all be disadvantages because any period piece you shoot has already the inconveniences of having to sort out the correct period wardrobe, weaponry, the proper locations, the horses, props, etc to make it look real so the public can immerse themselves in the story you’re trying to tell without breaking their fantasy, because there’s an antenna on top of a hill or something.  But of course, I´m making Westerns because I love the genre, despite it all.

HENRY: Was there any particular inspiration for the story of THE PRICE OF DEATH?

DANNY: Not really; the idea was to write another fun, action packed western that we could shoot within a short time frame and in a few locations within a small region. But the movie has a few references to some of my favorite films like THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY; 3:10 TO YUMA, PLANET OF THE APES and MIDNIGHT RUN.

HENRY: What was it like to direct your first feature, and to do it on locations where Leone and Corbucci worked?

DANNY: It was really a great experience and a lot of fun. Working with actors like Ken Luckey, Crispian Belfrage and Aaron Stielstra, whom I had already worked with on 6 BULLETS TO HELL was very easy, because we were already acquainted and also the chemistry between them gave us some brilliant moments. Shooting in those locations was a pleasure, but it also means a lot of responsibility, because they worked a dream for all those great directors in the past and you know you have to come up with something good. But while we were shooting there, I thought of Leone, envisioned him winking at us and thought to myself: cool, we’re on to something here.

HENRY: This is your first time directing a western, but your second time writing and producing.  What did you learn on the first film that helped you with the second?  What differences were there from one film to the next?

DANNY: I learned a lot working with Tanner Beard and Russell Cummings, who both directed 6 BULLETS. That wasn’t my first rodeo, but I loved the way they worked together because it was very relaxed yet at the same time they put a lot of energy and tension into every scene. Also it was good to see the way they were coaching the actors and the amount of improvisation they were allowing to happen on set.

As a director and producer you have to deal with everybody all the time, and there’s no such thing as a day’s rest during the shoot. On days off I had to prepare the scenes for the following day so it’s nonstop. I tried to apply everything I had learned in the past and studied how people like David Milch worked on the set of DEADWOOD for instance. All you gotta do is watch a bunch of ‘making of’s and learn from the best to figure out how to do it.

HENRY:  What advantages are there for making films, particularly Westerns, in Spain?

DANNY: Working in Spain still has the same advantages it had back in the 1960’s when the great Italian directors made those landscapes world-famous. Basically it’s all to do with the terrain, the light and the amount of hours of daylight you can shoot in one day; plus the economic aspect which of course is also very important. Shooting in Spain is still a lot cheaper than shooting in the US or Canada and that’s why there’s a growing number of foreign films and TV series being shot in Spain every year.

HENRY: In the last two films, and others you have upcoming, you use many actors and crew members repeatedly.  You are creating a stock company, as did Leone, John Ford, and many others.  What are the advantages of having a Danny Garcia stock company?

DANNY: It’s funny because when you shoot a western the cast and crew become a family almost instantly, perhaps a dysfunctional one but still, a family. And that’s what actors like (late Spaghetti Western stars) Frank Braña or Nicoletta Machiavelli told me in the past; that there’s something about shooting  westerns that makes it different from any other genre. It might be the fact that you’re working with animals and gunpowder that turns it into a sort of circus. Anyway, the idea is to work as much as possible with those who you feel comfortable working with and that you know will deliver and bring in new people each time so the family keeps on growing. And I’d call it a Chip Baker Films stock company in any case.

HENRY: In the script you have a climactic shootout in the snow, but I understand that sequence had to change.

DANNY: I’m sure it would have been hard to shoot but the reality is that when we got to the top of the mountain there was no snow whatsoever, although it was late November, so of course we had to shoot it without it. That’s one of the things when you’re producing independent films, the need to adapt to every situation. One of my favorite things is to have part of the crew dress up in period wardrobe as well and have them walk past the camera whenever they’re free. I even do it myself, mainly because it’s a lot of fun.

Aaron Stielstra

HENRY:  What else should I know about you, your life, your vision as a filmmaker?

DANNY: My uncle’s cousin was Otto Preminger, so growing up I’d always heard stories about him, and we watched his movies. Actually, I watched classic Hollywood films with my parents every night when I was a kid so I guess that’s where all my filmmaking fantasies come from. It’s all thanks to them.  My plan is to keep on directing, writing and producing quality films in the next few years. I have a couple of scripts that hopefully will be produced this year. The idea is to continue working and growing as a filmmaker.

HENRY: 6 BULLETS TO HELL was a spaghetti western, an homage to the films that came before, and even had a post-dubbed dialogue track.  Do you consider THE PRICE OF DEATH a spaghetti western in that sense, or would describe it in some other way?

DANNY: 6 BULLETS TO HELL is a full-on spaghetti western, and a tribute as you say to those who rode in that desert 50 years ago. THE PRICE OF DEATH is an action/western film. It’s obviously influenced by our love for  spaghetti westerns, and not only Leone and Corbucci; I personally love the work of Tonino Valerii, Ferdinando Baldi, Antonio Margheriti and Demofilo Fidani as well.  And same goes for Aaron Stielstra and Jose L. Villanueva, who co-wrote the script with me and are also fanatics of the old Italian westerns.

In the next Round-up, I’ll have my interview with one of the stars of all of these films, Crispian Belfrage.

THE PRAIRIE – A Movie Review

So much of what we think of as a Western story comes from Owen Wister’s ground-breaking  novel THE VIRGINIAN that it’s exciting to see a story that predates that overwhelming influence.  James Fennimore Cooper (1789-1851) was the first great Western novelist, best remembered for LAST OF THE MOHICANS, and his final Leatherstocking Tale, THE PRAIRIE (1827), is the basis for this movie.

In 1803, the Bush family has lost their Kentucky farm to taxes, and on the heels of the Louisiana Purchase, head west in a couple of wagons, looking for new land, and a new start.  They’re lead by the well-meaning but tyrannical patriarch Ishmael Bush (Charles Evans).  The rest of the party includes his brawny, shirtless six sons, his pale and vague wife Esther (Edna Holland), and her shiftless brother Abiram (Russ Vincent). 

Their lives are a daily struggle for food, and an endless, monotonous trek through unchanging prairie until Abiram and one of the sons, Asa (Jim Mitchum, in his first film role) witness another group of pioneers all but wiped out by a buffalo stampede.  The lone survivor, a young woman named Ellen (Lenore Aubert), is almost taken by the Sioux until the two men drive them off.  They bring her back to camp, Ishmael begrudgingly agrees to take her along, and with one desirable young woman among seven single and lonely men, tensions quickly rise. 

The inexperienced pioneers are helped by Paul Hover (Alan Baxter), a map surveyor for the government they despise, but the only aid they can find.  It doesn’t help that Ellen is more taken with Paul than with any of the other men in the party.  When Sioux steal their horses, intending to pick the party off one at a time, the pioneers must unite to make a stand. 

Directed by German expressionist Frank Wisbar, who’d fled the Nazis in 1939, this tiny budget, 61 minute film is remarkable, and looks like no other Western I’ve ever seen.  Except for occasional stock footage, the film is shot entirely on one large prairie set of waist-to-shoulder-height grass, against a vast cyclorama of sky.  Artificial though it is, it captures the sense of endless, unchanging prairie to a degree that an actual location never could.

It’s atmospheric, dreamlike, unmistakably Germanic in its starkness.  The almost final sequence, where a character who’s gotten away with murder is overpowered by his own sense of guilt, is nightmarish and haunting.   Storywise, it’s unusual in that the Indians are not all the same – Pawnee are friends and Sioux are enemies.  And they’re played by actual Indian actors: Chief Yalwalachee; Jay Silverheels, TV’s Tonto; and the screen’s first Tonto, Chief Thundercloud.  And Ellen, rather than just being a prize for the men to compete over, has more gumption than any of them.

While the film features no big stars, it’s full of familiar faces.  Alan Baxter was a busy actor since the early thirties, usually playing villains rather than this sort of sympathetic character.  Lovely Austro-Hungarian Lenore Aubert played slinky ladies in comedies with Bob Hope (THEY GOT ME COVERED – 1943), and wielded a sword as THE WIFE OF MONTE CRISTO (1946), but is probably best remembered as the gorgeous doctor who claimed to be madly in love with Lou in ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948).  THE PRAIRIE, from Alpha Video/Oldies.com is available HERE. 

HOLLYWOOD GOES WEST – A Coloring Book Review

No, I’m not kidding: I’m reviewing a coloring book.  The increasing popularity of coloring books among adults is a curious phenomenon, but it’s understandable.  I think we all have an artistic impulse to satisfy, and getting lost in any artistic endeavor is good medicine for a stressed brain – and who doesn’t have one of those?  Some of you may remember from the 1960s the fad of the paint and pencil-by-numbers kits.  With coloring books, you get to choose your own colors, and you can even color outside the lines if it makes you happy!

Jack Palance

Mark O’Neill is a gifted caricaturist and clearly a western nut like the rest of us, and his book is precisely the one we would have made for ourselves.  He celebrates the great Westerns of the big and small screen, focusing on the big stars of films, the casts of the great TV series, and the unforgettable character actors.  While coloring books have for decades featured Roy and Dale, Gene Autry and Hopalong Cassidy, did you ever dream that you’d be able to choose the hues for Royal Dano, John Dehner, Morgan Woodward and Jack Elam?  Or Bruce Dern?   There’s the cast of THE RIFLEMAN, family portraits of the Cartwrights and the Barkleys, a romantic pairing of Leif Ericson and Linda Cristal from HIGH CHAPARRAL, and both Matt Dillons – TV’s James Arness and radio’s William Conrad, and much more, each picture with an explanatory caption. 

Both Matt Dillons!

You can color in The Duke, Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly.  You can decide how RAWHIDE and MAVERICK would have looked in color.  And you can do it all for ten well-spent dollars!  Order it HERE.

Jack Elam

MONDAY IS ‘HIGH CHAPARRAL’ REUNION REGISTRATION!

If you want to attend the Reunion on March 17^th through the 20^th, the registration deadline is Monday, February 1^st!  It’ll be at Old Tucson Studios, where the classic series was filmed.    Coming back to their old galloping-grounds will be series stars Don Collier, Rudy Ramos and BarBara Luna.  They’ll be joined by a posse of stars from other Western series, including Robert Fuller from LARAMIE and WAGON TRAIN, Darby Hinton from DANIEL BOONE and the recent TEXAS RISING, Roberta Shore from THE VIRGINIAN, frequent John Wayne co-star Eddie Falkner, and Stan Ivar from LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE.  Also on-board are HIGH CHAPARRAL producers Kent and Susan McCray, and writers and historians Boyd Magers, Charlie LeSueur, Neil Summers, and Joel McCrea’s son Wyatt McCrea. 

The packages vary from a bare-bones $30-per-day deal to $475 with all the trimmings.  To take your pick and make your reservations, check out the official site HERE.

And here’s something special for all HIGH CHAPARRAL fans, and it’s free!  Last year the Reunion inaugurated a live Webcast of the event.  It was not cheap, but it was very entertaining and informative.  HIGH CHAPARRAL REUNION Top Hand Penny McQueen has decided that this year’s Webcast will be FREE!  

THAT’S A WRAP!

With Friday’s release of JANE GOT A GUN, joining THE REVENANT and THE HATEFUL 8, there are now three major Westerns playing in theatres at the same time.  How many decades has it been since that happened?  I’m guessing the last time was in the 1970s, but it may be even farther back. 

Have a great week, and catch a Western or two.  Or three!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Content Copyright January 2016 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved

‘6 BULLETS TO HELL’ ONE HELLUVAH RIDE!, PLUS ‘HIGH NOON AUCTION’, CONTEST WINNER

‘6 BULLETS TO HELL’ – A Film Review

‘6 BULLETS TO HELL’ is one helluvah ride!  I wasn’t sure if they could pull it off, but Tanner Beard and company have done it – made a movie that is both an homage to the Spaghetti Westerns of yore, as well as an exciting, involving and entertaining stand-alone Western in its own right.  And they did it the traditional way – shooting in Almeria, Spain, on the same locations and sets that Leone, Corbucci, Clint Eastwood and Franco Nero made famous.  They did it, as the Europeans did, without synch sound, featuring a cast speaking four different languages, all post-dubbed later.  And they did it all in twelve shooting days! 

To put you in the grindhouse mood, the movie opens with a pair of well-chosen 1960s Western trailers.  Then, against soaring mountains, and a Western street some of us have seen a hundred times, into town ride Bobby Durango (co-writer and co-director Tanner Beard) and his gang (Ken Luckey, Nacho Diaz, Norberto Moran, Jack Queralt and Aaron Stielstra), who invade a church, terrorize the priest, and when he doesn’t have enough money to satisfy them, they head out of town for the bank where the church’s money is held.  Their actions leave no doubt that they are without morals, and Bobby Durango has no respect for human life.

We move to the desert, where Billy Rogers (Crispian Belfrage), a former fast-draw lawman has hung up his guns, married the beautiful Grace (Magda Rodrguez), and is eking out a bare existence as a farmer.  But they are in love, happy and hopeful, excited that she is carrying their first child.  No sooner is Billy Rogers off to town for supplies then the Bobby Durango Gang appears, looking to water their horses, and finding Grace alone.  She’s raped and killed.

Billy Rogers returns home to find his dreams shattered.  Strapping on his guns, sometimes with the help of Sheriff Morris (co-writer and co-director Russell Quinn Cummings), he sets off to track down and kill the entire Bobby Durango Gang.

The rest of the story details the gang’s man-by-man pursuit by Billy Rogers, and manages never to be repetitive.  There’s plenty of action – hard-riding, gunfights and fistfights – set against Olivier Merckx’s stunning cinematography.  Merckx makes full use of the beautiful vistas and stark expanses of the Tabernas region, giving you a better sense of the vastness of the land than you usually had in the classic Spaghetti Western era, making extremely effective use of aerial photography and, when shooting indoors, allowing the white heat of the outdoors show unfiltered through the windows. 

London-born Crispian Belfrage is no stranger to the cinema West, having previously appeared in DONNER PARTY, WEST OF THUNDER and DOC WEST.  His character’s quest for vengeance must carry the movie, and he is utterly convincing in his pain and his rage.  Tanner Beard is the self-obsessed villain who never cracks a smile, and his brutal confidence make him a worthy adversary – we’ve seen many an innocent used as a human shield, but the sight of him effortlessly carrying a squirming woman while firing around her is something lovely to behold.  Other performances are all convincing, except when minor characters are purposely ‘over-the-top’, as is the tradition of the Euro Western. 

Tanner Beard and Russell Quinn Cummings have previously collaborated on the fine LEGEND OF HELL’S GATE, shot in West Texas.  6 BULLETS is a film whose genesis was the result of chance meetings at the Almeria International Western Film Festival between Beard and Cummings, and festival men Chip Baker and Danny Garcia, both credited writers as well as producers on the film.  The fifth writer is Jose Villanueva.  Many from the same group of men are currently working to produce two more Westerns, THOU SHALT KILL, and REVEREND COLT, the latter to star James Russo.  

6 BULLETS – The Red Carpet Interviews

CRISPIAN BELFRAGE – Lead Actor

Crispian Belfrage & Catherine Black

HENRY:  Now, this is not your first Western movie. 

CRISPIAN BELFRAGE:  That’s right.  I did DONNER PARTY, with Catherine Black, actually (Crispian’s date this night).  That was more of a proper American history film, but it is a Western, isn’t it?  Then I did another one, an Italian Western with Terence Hill, DOC WEST, for Italian television.  So that was good fun.  And now 6 BULLETS TO HELL.  I think that’s it.

HENRY: So far.  Most actors today haven’t had your Western experience.  What draws you to the genre?

CRISPIAN BELFRAGE:  I don’t know.  It’s one of those things – I remember when I was a boy, looking at a poster of OUTLAW JOSIE WALES every day, when I was about 6, 7, and I just wanted to be Clint Eastwood in OUTLAW JOSIE WALES.  And it’s just weird that I kind of have a slight affinity for that kind or area, that period.  I have a great love for it.  It’s one of those things that came around, one of those things in your life where you can go, oh my God, I actually get to do a lead in a – especially a spaghetti -- Western, shooting them where they did THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY, FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE, A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS.

HENRY:  So that historical location really meant something special to you.

CRISPIAN BELFRAGE: Right there; it was really strange, Spain, the only desert in Europe.  Incredible.  And to have no licenses there?  Well, there were licenses, but a license to do whatever you want.  Making a cowboy film, a Western film in America, there are so many rules and regulations.  Out there we could just do anything we wanted.   

HENRY:  What’s your next Western going to be?

CRISPIAN BELFRAGE:  I’ve just been offered another Western; it’s actually being written at the moment.  Five women in a gang, and five men in a gang, with a spiritual sort of ghost backdrop.  It’s a film that I’m working on in London, at the moment, with the same director.  And a couple of other movies – a horror movie called CUTTER, and one other film called THE RECTORY, about Harry Price, who was a parapsychologist in the 1930s, so a very different kind of odd character.  Are you going to watch (6 BULLETS)?

HENRY:  Absolutely.  I saw the first twenty minutes, but then I had computer problems. 

CRISPIAN BELFRAGE:  It’s much better to see it blown up.  You’ll love it.

TANNER BEARD – Writer, Director and Lead Villain

Russell Quinn Cummings & Tanner Beard

I’d interviewed Tanner Beard over the phone, and we’d exchanged many emails, but this was our first face-to-face-meeting.

HENRY:  Hi, I’m Henry Parke from Henry’s Western Round-up.

TANNER BEARD:  Henry, how are you – finally in the flesh?

HENRY:  How are you doing?

TANNER BEARD:  Great, really hard to complain. 

HENRY:  This is very exciting.  So now tell me, now that you’ve shot a Western in Texas and one in Spain, how do the two experiences compare?

TANNER BEARD:  Polar opposite, believe it or not.  One thing about it, in Spain it’s called ‘Texas Hollywood’, which are the two places I’ve lived in my life.  So when I got there, I thought the sign was for me at first.  They’re both so historical.  But shooting in Spain was like the Clint Eastwood version, and shooting in Texas was kinda like the John Wayne version, the different styles of filmmaking.

HENRY:  In the original spaghetti westerns, they often had problems with people not speaking the same language when they’re acting together.  Did you run into that?

TANNER BEARD:  We had four different languages being spoken on-set, and that’s just between ‘cut’ and ‘action.’  That was the actors and crew.  There were probably eleven or twelve different countries involved in the film as far as cast and crew goes.  So it was very true to the way they used to make them back in the sixties.

HENRY:  Now you shot in Spain, you edited in Texas.  What was the editing process like?

TANNER BEARD:  Familiar, thank goodness, because Silver Sail is also in Texas, we’re based in L.A. and Austin.  So it was very cool for us to be working on footage from a different country, in your home-town neighborhood.  Made it easier for us to do all the a.d.r. (dubbing) – we had three months of a.d.r. because we shot it in the tradition of shooting without sound, just like they used to do back in the day.

HENRY:  What’s your next project, hopefully a Western?

TANNER BEARD:  We do have another Western in the works, called THOU SHALT KILL, that we’re working on, but in front of that we have a Christmas movie called JUST BECLAUSE, that I co-wrote with the co-director of this one, Russell Cummings.  Flipping the coin a bit, going 180 degrees and doing a Christmas movie, and jumping back in the saddle. 

HENRY:  Thank you so much.

TANNER BEARD:  Thank you; so good to finally meet you, man. 

RUSSELL QUINN CUMMINGS – Writer, Director and Actor

HENRY:  This is your second Western, one in Texas, one in Spain.  What are the differences.

RUSSELL QUINN CUMMINGS:  Well, there’s no rules over in Spain, so shooting a western is very different.  You’ve got people speaking different languages.  Where we shot at was the only desert in Europe, so it’s a lot like America in a way, but you know it’s something special when you’re there.  I can’t really explain it – it’s the lighting, it’s the spirit of all those old westerns that are there.

HENRY:  Did you grow up watching spaghetti westerns?

RUSSELL QUINN CUMMINGS:  I grew up watching all westerns. 

HENRY:  What are your favorites.

RUSSELL QUINN CUMMINGS:  My favorites?  Have to go TOMBSTONE, FISTFUL OF DOLLARS, ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST.  I love HONDO. 

HENRY:  I saw HONDO here in the Chinese a couple of months ago, in 3D. 

RUSSELL QUINN CUMMINGS:  Did you?

HENRY:  Any more westerns in your future?

RUSSELL QUINN CUMMINGS:  We have a couple in development.  Hopefully we can go back to Spain and do another one.

JOSE VILLANUEVA - Writer

Jose Villanuevo

JOSE VILLANUEVA:  Oh hi, Henry.  Nice to meet you.  I read your stuff all the time.

HENRY:  What was it like making a Western in Spain?

JOSE VILLANUEVA:  Actually I wasn’t there.  I wrote it out here in California.

HENRY:  I got tricked by your name – until you spoke I thought you were Spanish. 

JOSE VILLANUEVA:  I’m Cuban, I was born in Cuba, but I’ve been here for a long time.  (Writer/Producer) Danny Garcia contacted me, and we started a collaboration, and this script came out of one of our collaborations.  You know we love Spaghetti Westerns, so it’s our homage, and he wanted to shoot it al Almeria Studios, and so it’s really our love of that genre that got us to write the film.  So I’m very proud.  I haven’t seen the finished film – I’ve only seen a working print, so I’m very excited to see it tonight on the big screen.

HENRY:  Do you think you have any other Westerns in your future?

JOSE VILLANUEVA:  I’ve got three or four that Danny and I have been working on.  And Tanner actually has one of them – he actually wrote the screenplay from our story.  So hopefully in the next two or three years I’ll see my name on other westerns.

HENRY:  I know that Danny’s been putting together REVEREND COLT with James Russo – is that one of your?

JOSE VILLANUEVA:  That’s one of ours.

HENRY:  Jimmy Russo and I worked on films together when we were in high school.

JOSE VILLANUEVA:  Wow, that’s fantastic – I’m a big fan of his.  So when Danny said, ‘Hey, I’m gonna give James Russo our script,’ and he loved it, that was a thrill.  Hopefully we’ll see that film some day, get it made.

OLIVIER MERCKX - Cinematographer

Olivier Merckx and me

HENRY:  Is this your first Western?

OLIVIER MERCKX:  Yes; actually I did some music videos we shot at the same place, it was Western, but this is my first Western feature. 

HENRY:  What was it like shooting in Almeria?

OLIVIER MERCKX:  I love it.  It was the fourth or fifth time I shot there.  The first time was in ’96, and nobody knew this place.  It was really different at that time; no highway, no internet.  I was not especially a western fan – I saw Westerns when I was a kid, and I saw SILVERADO in theatre, but after spending one week there I became a western fan, a true one.  Finally I end up doing this movie there, and I hope I will do more there.

HENRY:  How did you become part of this project?

OLIVIER MERCKX:  It’s funny; because I love Almeria, and I heard about the Western Film Festival.  It was the first one.  I took a ticket and went there alone as a tourist.  And I met Danny (Garcia) there, he was the organizer.  And we talked, and he said, “I really want to do a Spaghetti Western here.”  And I said I’m really interested to work with you on that.  Give me a call.  Two years after, he called me.  “We had some problems; we were expecting to get more money.  But we’re going to do it anyway, because the actors are coming.  Are you in?”  I said okay, I’m in.  And I was not supposed to be the cinematographer.  I was just supposed to do Steadi-cam.  And like two weeks before we shoot, Danny calls me.  "We don’t have a cinematographer because he got a bigger job.  You want to do it?"  I said, yeah why not?!  And so I went there, and my biggest problem was that I didn’t have a lot of preparation for the project.  But I knew the place, and I was such a Western fan I said, I want to do it. 

HENRY:  How long a shooting schedule did you have?

OLIVIER MERCKX:  Only twelve days.  I know it’s crazy, and I never worked so hard in my life.  We had to shoot really fast, but that was the only way we could do it.

HENRY:  Was a lot of this story-boarded in advance?

OLIVIER MERCKX: No – nothing!  No storyboard, no shot-list!  And sometimes you had to deal with the people there.  Because we shot during the summer, during the tourist season, and they didn’t want to close the park for us.  I show you an example.  We are shooting the bank.  And in MiniHollywood, they have this Coke machine in front of it.  I said let’s move the machine.  They move it in front of the window.  What do you do, guys?  I need the window for the light.  “No more, buddy; we won’t change it anymore.”  Every day was a surprise you had to deal with.  Every day you were trying to find a solution.  Sometimes you are supposed to have extras, and they don’t show up.  That’s why I was in the movie, as the priest in the beginning.  They were supposed to have an actor from France, but he got a more interesting project.  So I did the lighting, set the camera, did the scene, then take off the costume and get back behind the camera.

HENRY:  Do you think that it helped, working for speed, that you didn’t have to stop to record dialogue?

OLIVIER MERCKX:  That’s all they did in the ‘60s, and it works in the spirit of Spaghetti Westerns.  But the funny thing, because we were shooting that in a tourist attraction, whenever we start to shoot, they put on the music.  But it was Morricone music!  So you’re shooting a western and great Lord, you have Morricone music! 

HENRY:  That’s what Leone had done --

OLIVIER MERCKX:  That’s right, for the  third one (THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY) he had the music already recorded, and played on the set. 

HENRY:  I was struck by how much you used light contrast, how you let things white out in windows and doorways. 

OLIVIER MERCKX:  I didn’t have enough equipment, and we had to shoot so fast that I can’t put flags around the actors because it took too much time, so I had to deal with that. 

HENRY:  But it really worked; it was a great effect.  That and the steady-cam, and some of the aerial photography gave it a very unique look.  You really used the desert so well.  Sometimes in films you get a quick look at the desert, and they zoom in on the character.   

OLIVIER MERCKX:  But it’s so beautiful there you have to use it.  For the big screen you have to see the beautiful landscape.  That’s what I like to see when I see a western.  Even in the western town we try to use everything.  Because we shot in two places.  We shot in Mini-Hollywood, which Leone built for FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE.  And the other one, Fort Bravo, it’s more like a studio, now.  It’s a tourist attraction, but the other one is more like Disneyland.  In Fort Bravo you can shoot every any direction almost.  In Mini-Hollywood it’s more difficult.  It’s still beautiful, but you have to be more careful.  You think, ‘I’m going to shoot there,’ and suddenly there are fifty tourists there.  And you cannot say, ‘Go away.’

JACK QUERALT - Actor

Olivier Merckx with Jack Queralt

HENRY:  In the film you play Bad Boy, one of Bobby Durango’s gang.  How did you get involved with 6 BULLETS?

JACK QUERALT:  I’m from Spain, and it happened because I shot a movie called ORSON WEST, also shot in Spain – a kind of homage to Orson Welles, who wanted to make a film in Spain.  Later on we went to the Almeria Film Festival, and one of the producers knew me, and said, “I want you to play one of the characters in my Western.”  And I was so excited, because with my father I was always talking the Sergio Leone movies with Clint Eastwood.  And I really as an actor was wanting to be a part of it.  Especially in Almeria and Tabernas, where they had shot all of those movies – hundreds of them. 

HENRY:  What was the bst part of doing a Western?

JACK QUERALT:  Just to be there, to feel that atmosphere when you are in Almeria, and you perceive all the people that passed their time there, all the shooting.  It was a big challenge, because I was wanting to be my best.  My father always said to me, “Son, you should do a Western, because your eyes get the right expression for it.” 

HENRY:  Has your father seen it yet?

JACK QUERALT:  My father watched it in the Almeria Film Festival.  He was real impressed.

HENRY:  How do you like playing such a mean guy?

JACK QUERALT:  The last movies I’m shooting in different parts or Spain and Italy, I’m always playing a bad guy.  But I want to change a  little bit, because my eyes and my expression can give a lot, and not just a bad guy; as a good guy too.

HENRY:  What’s the next movie we should be watching for you in?

JACK QUERALT:  Right now I’m shooting a scary movie called EVIL BEHIND ME.  We’re shooting in English, but it’s a Spanish film.  We shoot already the trailer last weekend, and I’m the lead character.  The shooting starts in April, for about a month.  Later on we’re going to present it at the Sitges Film Festival in Barcelona, just for horror films.   

HENRY:  There’s a lot of connection between Westerns and horror films.  People who work in one often work in the other. 

JACK QUERALT:  Actually this is my second horror film.  The first one was shot in Roma, SUHERIO, with Fabio Testi, one very popular actor in Italy.  Do you know him?

HENRY:  Absolutely.

JACK QUERALT:  I think he shot some Westerns in the past. 

HENRY:  In the seventies, yes. 

JACK QUERALT:  Exactly, like with Franco Nero, too – I know him.  My part was very short.  I was the bad guy, just five or six scenes; no more than this.  But good scenes are good enough. 

MIKE SCHNAPP – DJ turned Actor

Mike Schnapp

MIKE SCHNAPP:  I was lucky enough to play Deputy Johnny Green in 6 BULLETS TO HELL.  I’m somebody who grew up watching movies my whole life, and watched Westerns and Spaghetti Westerns.  To be honored, to be able to be any part of that was so interesting.  And rewarding, because I got to work with professionals and actors – and I’m no actor.  I’m just some dude who looks kind of crazy.  And Danny met me and said, “Hey, you’d look great in red underwear, with my hat on sideways,” and I said, okay.  And it actually happened.  I DJ’d for his film festival in Madrid, and he said, “Stick around and be in my movie!”  And to be able to come to Hollywood, and see the movie become a real entity at the most real theatre ever is a freakout. 

BAI LING – Actress

Bai Ling

Not involved in 6 BULLETS TO HELL, Bai Ling is none-the-less a Western aficionado, featured notably in the WILD WILD WEST movie.  She’s currently starring in and producing a Western, called YELLOW HILL (go HERE to see my Round-up article).  

BAI LING:  I like your shirt.

HENRY:  Thank you.  I’ve been covering YELLOW HILL in the Round-up.  How do things stand?

BAI LING:  We did the short film, and we want to do the feature film.  Right now we’re in the process of making it.  So I’m very excited, because it’s about this woman who comes back for revenge.  So it’s very challenging, very very fun.  Kind of like Clint Eastwood in the early movies.  But it’s more than that.  It’s really exciting.

HENRY:  Well, I’ve spoken to your director, Ross Bigley, and seen the short version, and I was very impressed.

BAI LING:  You like it?  That’s cool.

HENRY:  What other projects are you working on?

BAI LING:  I’m very excited for 2015 – I have many movies to present to you.  The first one is called THE KEY, based on a prize-winning novel.  I got the lead, which was written for a white actress.  It’s very provocative, very sexy, very sophisticated, so I’m looking forward to it.  Right now I’m shooting SAMAURI COP 2, which is action and comedy – I’m very excited about that.  

HIGH NOON AUCTION JAN 24-25 IN MESA, ARIZONA

Amsel's 'Shootist' art

Steve McQueen's MAGNIFICENT 7 gun

As it does every year, Brian Lebel’s High Noon Show and Auction presents an astonishing array of historical west and fictional west items up for bid.  With 410 lots to bid on, I can only give you a taste of the variety of their offerings, but if you go HERE , you can preview every amazing item – and buy it, for that matter.  There are pages of wonderful guns, but two stand out: Tom Horn’s Winchester Model 1894 30-30 (est. $125,000 - 175,000), and Steve McQueen’s MAGNIFICENT 7 prop shotgun (est. $12,000 -14,000).  There’s a beautiful letter and sketch by Charlie Russell to Harry Carey (est. $90,000-150,000), many other items from the Harry Carey Jr. estate, and Amsel’s original painting for the poster from John Wayne’s final film, THE SHOOTIST.  Among many items from the estates of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans is Dale’s charm bracelet presented to her on THIS IS YOUR LIFE (est. $12,000-16,000).  There are spurs, saddles, beautiful Indian beadwork, a Dentzel carousel horse, Andy Anderson wood carvings, Bohlin bridles and Ortega hackamores.  There are Kurt Russell costume and prop items from TOMBSTONE.  Why not buy yourself a piece of history?

Dale Evan's charm bracelet

Charlie Russell letter to Harry Carey

Kurt Russell's Wyatt Earp costume from TOMBSTONE

Tom Horn's Winchester

LISA MCNUTT WINS OUR CALENDAR CONTEST!

There will be much celebrating in Gilbert, Arizona when word reaches its inhabitants that local favorite Lisa McNutt has won the beautiful Western Calendar from the delightful folks at Asgard Press.  She correctly identified Max Brand’s most famous character as Dr. Kildare, Luke Short as the pen name of Frederick Gilley Glidden, and Zane Grey’s favorite sport as fishing.  If you haven’t won, you might want to break down and buy one for yourself.  Here’s their link: http://asgardpress.com/15-Westerns

AND THAT’S A WRAP!

Have a great week, and I’ll see you in the same spot next week!

Happy Trails,

Henry

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