BOOK SIGNINGS, AWARD SHOWS, ME ON RADIO, AND ‘LONE RANGER’ CONTEST WINNERS!

BOOK/DISC SIGNING BRINGS OUT THE CELEBS

Saturday afternoon’s book signing at Burbank’s Dark Delicacies produced an interesting crowd on both sides of the tables.  Last-minute Christmas-shoppers and die-hard fans filled the place.  First at the table was Michael Druxman, longtime Hollywood publicist-turned-screenwriter and director for Roger Corman.  CHEYENNE WARRIOR, which he wrote, is one of the best western films of the last twenty years.  He was signing his short-story collection, DRACULA MEETS JACK THE RIPPER AND OTHER REVISIONIST HISTORIES, plus his Basil Rathbone biography, and his newest volume of memoirs, LIFE, LIBERTY & THE PURSUIT OF HOLLYWOOD, which I’ll be reviewing soon in the Round-up.

C. Courtney Joyner and Michael Druxman

Next to him was C. Courtney Joyner, whose first Western novel, SHOTGUN has just been published.  The press has been excellent (you’ll be reading my review shortly), and publisher Pinnacle is delighted – they’ve already signed Court for several more.  Court was also signing the Grindhouse Releasing new release of Sergio Sollima’s THE BIG GUNDOWN, starring Lee Van Cleef (read about it HERE), which Court wrote the liner notes for.  Court and I did the audio commentary on BIG GUNDOWN, and he kept signing them and sending them to me.  It was my first time signing autographs, an ego-swelling experience!  And who turned up for a couple of copies of SHOTGUN by Bob Murawski, Oscar-winning editor of THE HURT LOCKER, and President of Grindhouse Releasing.

Bob Murawski getting SHOTGUN signed

L.Q. Jones and Courtney Joyner

Sitting beside Court was the biggest draw of the event, Western screen legend L.Q. Jones.  Beloved and remembered for dozens of eccentric and frightening characters, from CASINO to THE WILD BUNCH – where he and Strother Martin played the most revolting bounty hunters in history –  many fans don’t realize he’s a very accomplished writer and director as well.  He was signing new BluRay releases of three of his films, THE BROTHERHOOD OF SATAN, A BOY AND HIS DOG (and featuring interviews with Jones and story author Harlan Ellison), both written and directed by Jones, and THE BEAST WITHIN, in which he costars.  Beside L.Q. Jones was BEAST WITHIN director Philip Moran, who also directed the Australian western MAD DOG MORGAN.  Beside Moran was actor Paul Clemens, also of THE BEAST WITHIN. 

John Gulager, L.Q. Jones, Paul Clemens, Philip Moran,

Courtney Joyner; seated, Dave Del Valle

Rolfe Kanefsky

Signing BluRays of his new movie ZOMBIE NIGHT, starring Anthony Michael Hall, Daryl Hannah and Shirley Jones, was director John Gulager.  John is the son of Western legend Clu Gualger, who also dropped by for the event.   Also by to get some books signed was prolific writer-director Rolfe Kanefsky.  He told me that STAND YOUR GROUND, now retitled DOC HOLLIDAY’S REVENGE, which he scripted and David Decoteau directed, is now edited and ready for release from Lionsgate.  I’ll have more details on this project, including my interview with Rolfe, in the near future.

Clu Gulager signing a scroll

LONE RANGER CONTEST – THE WINNERS!

I am truly impressed with my Round-up readers’ knowledge.  I didn’t want the contest to be ridiculously easy, so I did the match-the-Ranger-to-the-Tonto, figuring most folks couldn’t answer it off the top of their heads – I know I couldn’t.  Well, I posted at 11 p.m. on Sunday night, and at 1:50 a.m., Monday morning, I received my first entry – and it was a winner.  The next entry, a 5:15 a.m., was also a winner, and as the entries began to come in faster, I kept checking them, and after a dozen, I saw that every one was correct! 

For the record, here are the correct answers:

1.       1.  Robert Livingston, B. Chief Thundercloud in THE LONE RANGER RIDES AGAIN (Republic serial, 1939)

2.      

      2. William Conrad, F. Ivan Naranjo in THE TARZAN/LONE RANGER/ZORRO ADVENTURE HOUR (1980 Filmation animation)

3.      

      3. Brace Beemer, E. John Todd in THE LONE RANGER radio show (WXYZ Radio in Detroit, from 1933)

4.      

      4. Lee Powell, A. Chief Thundercloud in THE LONE RANGER (Republic serial, 1938)

5.       

      5. Clayton Moore, A. Jay Silverheels in THE LONE RANGER (TV series and movies, 1949-1958)

6.      

      6. Klinton Spilsbury, C. Michael Horse in LEGENED OF THE LONE RANGER (ITC, Wrather Productions 1981)

7.      

      7. Armie Hammer, D. Johnny Depp in THE LONE RANGER (Disney, 2013)

8.      

       8. John Hart, A. Jay Silverheels in THE LONE RANGER (TV series 1952-1953)

And now, the winners!  The first winner of the LONE RANGER set, including a Blu-Ray, DVD and Digital copy in Ronald Wallace of Rochester, New York!  Our second winner is Yusuf S. Nasrullah of Boston, Massachusetts!   I will be sending them their prizes as soon as they come from the Walt Disney Company, and I’m grateful to them, and to everyone who entered.  Aside from movie premiere tickets a couple of years ago, this is our first giveaway, and I’m happy to say we’ll be doing more very soon.  But now, having had a little experience, I think I have a more fair way of choosing winners than just the first correct entries.  Instead, I’ll be accepting entries for several days, and randomly choosing winners from among all correct entries.

MY APPEARANCE ON ‘AROUND THE BARN’ AVAILABLE ON PODCAST!

I had a wonderful time on Saturday, December 14^th, as a guest on ‘Around The Barn,’ on KHTS radio 1220 AM in Santa Clarita.  The topic was ‘It’s all about Gene Autry,’ the regulars were hosts Nancy Pitchford-Zhe and Bobbi Jean Bell, and Roy Rogers’ and Dale Evans’ granddaughter Julie Fox Pomilia.  The guests were Gene Autry Enterprises President Karla Buhlman, and myself.  We listened to some of Gene’s great Christmas music, and discussed his music and TV career, and also spoke quite a bit about me and the Round-up.  I was fascinated!  If you, too would like to be fascinated, follow the link below and you can hear the podcast: http://hometownstation.com/on-air-features/podcasts/around-barn/around-barn-december-14-2013-39565

Julie Fox Pomilia, Nancy Pitchford-Zhe, Karla Buhlman, Bobbi Jean Bell

SONY MOVIE CHANNEL PLANS WEST FESTS IN JANUARY

In addition to showing Westerns scattered throughout their schedule all through the month, Sony Movie Channel is offering a fine mix of sagebrush binge-viewing fun!  On New Years Day, starting at 7:30 a.m. Eastern time, and running for about twenty hours, they’ll be playing  THE LONGEST DRIVE (from the 1976 series THE QUEST, starring Kurt Russell and Tim Matheson); three Randolph Scott’s, THE NEVADAN, THE TALL T, and COMANCHE STATION; two Karl May Winnetou westerns, FRONTIER HELLCAT featuring Elke Sommer and RAMPAGE AT APACHE WELLS featuring Terrence Hill when he was still playing villains, and both starring Pierre Brice and Stewart Granger;  three Columbia westerns starring Philip Carey before he became the boss on LARDEO, MASSACRE CANYON, WYOMING RENEGADES, and THE NEBRASKAN; Louis L’Amour’s THE SHADOW RIDERS starring Tom Sellick and Sam Elliot as the Traven brothers; Richard Brooks’ exuberant BITE THE BULLET, starring Gene Hackman, James Coburn and Candice Bergen; and ending with MACKENNA’S GOLD, featuring a great cast, including Gregory Peck, Omar Sharif, Telly Savalas and Julie Newmar – she told me it’s her favorite of all her western appearances.    

Then on Saturday, January 25^th, through Sunday the 26^th, starting at 5:10 a.m., they reprise

BITE THE BULLET; FRONTIER HELLCAT; RAMPAGE AT APACHE WELLS; then add THE TEXICAN, Audie Murphy’s only Spaghetti Western; LAND RAIDERS, a Budapest-shot Western starring Telly Savalas, George Maharis and Arlene Dahl; THE LONGEST DRIVE; THE SHADOW RIDERS; Lawrence Kasdan’s SILVERADO, starring Kevin Costner, Kevin Kline and Scott Glenn; THE MASK OF ZORRO starring Antonio Banderas, Anthony Hopkins and Katherine Zeta Jones; THE SHADOW RIDERS; CONSPIRACY (don’t know which movie this is); THE LONGEST DRIVE; THE NEVADAN; THE TALL T; COMANCHE STATION; Richard Brooks’ brilliant THE PROFESSIONALS, starring Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Jack Palance, and Claudia Cardinale; Martin Ritt’s contempo western MURPHY’S ROMANCE, starring James Garner and Sally Field; A MAN CALLED SLEDGE, a James Garner Spaghetti Western co-directed and co-written by Vic Morrow; and MACKENNA’S GOLD one more time.

WESTERN LEGEND AWARDS JOINS SO. CAL. MOTION PICTURE COUNCIL AWARDS

On Monday night, December 16^th, movie makers and movie fans gathered at the famous Sportsmen’s Lodge for the Southern California Motion Picture Council’s Halo Awards.  Begin in 1936, the Council is one of the oldest civic-minded industry organizations in town, and annually they give out their Halo lifetime achievement awards.  Julie Ann Ream has been presenting her Western Legend Awards for several years, a tradition she began to honour her late uncle Rex Allen, the last of the great singing cowboys.  For the first time, the Western Legend Award has been made a part of SCMPC’s awards, and Julie is delighted at the prospect of Western Legend having a permanent home, as it has been hopscotching across the nation.  The Western Legend to be honoured that night was actress Angie Dickinson, the award presented by her POLICE WOMAN co-star Earl Holliman. 

I’ll have details about that part of the event later (I’m waiting to get my hands on some photos), but I had the great pleasure of chatting with a pair of stars who were ‘Halo’ honorees that night, Stuart Whitman and Julie Newmar.   Whitman, who had come with his lovely wife from their home in Santa Barbara, still with still-boyish smile and clear, cultured voice, is best remembered by Western fans for two roles; as Paul Regret, opposite John Wayne – who keeps calling him ‘Mon-sewer’ – in THE COMANCHEROS, and as Marshal Jim Crown in the short-lived but excellent CIMARRON STRIP; you’ll never see any actor sit a horse better than Stuart Whitman in the opening credits of that series.  But of course, he didn’t start with those leading roles.

Stuart Whitman (not a great shot, but my head-on

shots were all washed out.  I'm asking Santa for a new camera)

HENRY: I was just watching a ROY ROGERS SHOW, and so surprised to see you in it.  Did doing shows like that, like THE RANGE RIDER, kid stuff, help prepare you for the more adult, serious Westerns later on?

STUART WHITMAN: Oh, absolutely.  That’s where we learned to do it all.

HENRY: Did you like westerns when you were a kid?

STUART WHITMAN:  Oh yes. And what was that theatre on Hollywood Boulevard?  The Hitching Post.  And we could bring our cap-guns.  I’d just come from New York.  I was born in San Francisco, I’d just come from New York.  And wow, we could have our cap-guns!  Pow!  Pow!  Shoot all the bad guys and the Indians.   Henry, I understand there’s a bar around here.

Julie Newmar

A few minutes later, beautiful Julie Newmar, the best Catwoman of them all, appeared.  I tried to think of her Western credits.  She was lovely in 7 BRIDES FOR 7 BROTHERS, and she was positively stupefying in LI’L ABNER (okay, a stretch for a Western). 

HENRY:  What is your favorite of all your westerns?

JULIE NEWMAR: MACKENNA’S GOLD!  In the most beautiful part of America, Utah, Arizona.  Even Robert Kennedy came there to visit us.  He was there with a family of about thirty people.  Omar Sharif, Gregory Peck, Edward G. Robinson – marvelous cast!

AND THAT’S A WRAP!

Here’s wishing you a very Merry Christmas!  I hope everything you want the most turns up under your tree!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright December 2013 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved

GRINDHOUSE RELEASES ‘THE BIG GUNDOWN’ TUESDAY!

(Updated 12/12/2013 -- see SHANE story)

Grindhouse Releasing will release their new beautiful Blu-Ray edition of THE BIG GUNDOWN (1966), directed by Sergio Solima, and starring Lee Van Cleef and Tomas Milian, on Tuesday, December 10^th.  Lee is a lawman-for-hire who agrees to track down a child-killer, Tomas, but of course, things are not as ‘black & white’ as they are first presented. Scripted by Sergio Donati and Solima, GUNDOWN is considered a high point in the careers of all four men; it is one of the finest of Spaghetti Westerns, and will finally be shown in its complete length for the first time in the United States.  The 4-disc set consists of a Blu-Ray of the expanded 95 minute U.S. cut, featuring three new scenes; a DVD version of the U.S. 95 minutes cut; a DVD of the 110 minute director’s cut of LA RESA DEI CONTI, the original title, in Italian, with English subtitles; and a music CD featuring the marvelous score by Ennio Morricone!  There’s even a companion booklet with liner notes by Joyner, and by Euro-music expert Gergley Hubai. 

Court, Bob Murawski and me

There are other special features, including interviews with Sergio Solima, Tomas Milian, and Sergio Donati, and I had the pleasure of doing audio commentary on GUNDOWN with fellow Western writer and film historian C. Courtney Joyner (keep an eye out for his new Western novel, SHOTGUN), under the direction of Oscar-winning editor Bob Murawski (you can read about that adventure HERE  ), and I’m as eager to see the finished product as anyone else.

GET A GREAT TAX DEDUCTION, AND ‘TREASURES 5 – THE WEST’

As 2013 comes to a close, many of us are looking for a way to do good, and to save on our income taxes.  If you liked the sound of ‘TREASURES 5 – THE WEST’, which I reviewed in last week’s Round-up (if you missed it, HERE is the link ) from the National Film Preservation Foundation, you can contribute to the important mission  of film preservation, and get yourself this wonderful video set, or a different set.  The NFPF is a non-profit public charity, affiliated with the Library of Congress, and for a contribution of $200 or more, you can have your well-deserved tax deduction, and the set of discs of your choice.  For details, visit this site: https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/1397805

ROUND-UP’ ON THE AIR AND ‘AROUND THE BARN’ ON SAT. DEC 14TH!

Bobbi Jean with her commendation from the L.A. County

Board of Supervisors

On Saturday, December 14th, I will be a guest of Nancy Pitchford-Zhe and Bobbi Jean Bell on their Saturday morning show on  KHTS AM 1220, ‘Around The Barn.’  Heard every Saturday from 9 to 10 a.m., they discuss western culture, music and lifestyle.  Nancy is the founder and director of Heads Up Therapy on Horseback, and Bobbi Jean is the lady behind the Outwest Western Boutique and Cultural Center in Santa Clarita:http://www.outwestmktg.com/ 

The topic for Saturday will be ‘It’s all about Gene Autry!’ and Karla Buhlman, President of Gene Autry Enterprises, and I, will be in-studio guests.  Karla is a very interesting woman (you can read my Round-up interview with her HERE  ) , and it’s perfect timing for me, as on Sunday in the Round-up, I’ll be reviewing the just-issued DVD set, THE COMPLETE GENE AUTRY TV SHOW.  

If you’re not in the immediate listening area for KHTS 1220 AM, you can hear the show on-line starting at 9:00 a.m. at www.hometownstation.com, and if you’d like to call-in with a question, you can do so at 661-298-5487.  And if you want to sleep late on Saturday, you can listen to the podcast later.  You’ll find all of the Around The Barn podcasts HERE http://hometownstation.com/podcasts/around-barn .

DON’T MISS ‘SHANE’ SATURDAY AT THE AUTRY

All year, folks attending the monthly ‘What Is A Western?’screenings at the Autry were asked to vote for their all-time favorite Western with the winner to be screened in December.  The big winner was SHANE (1953), the George Stevens-directed classic based on the novel by Jack Schaefer.  Starring Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, Van Heflin and Brandon De Wilde, it is one of the most wholly satisfying films in the genre.  Among other memorable performances are the evil Jack Palance, the conflicted Ben Johnson, and the heroic-as-only-a-doomed-little-guy-can-be Elisha Cook Jr.  If you haven’t seen this, in 35mm, on a big screen, you should.  It starts at 1:30 in the Wells Fargo Theatre.  

LOOKIN’ FOR HELP TO FILM ‘NIETZSCHE OUT WEST’!

I’ve had a couple of very interesting emails from a Swedish-born filmmaker named Sven Anders.  He attended the recent Almeria Western Film Festival, where he worked to promote some interest in a Western version of Nietzsche’s ZARATHUSTRA , “an attempt to put some new wine in old boots, if you like,” to be shot on the Western sets in Spain. 

He tells me he pitched the idea to two of the Festival’s guests, Spaghetti Western stars Robert Woods and Nicola Di Gioia, “an idea which went down well with these charming western icons.”  He started a group-funding campaign through Indigogo, but has had, frankly, not much of a response.  He asked me to share his proposal with the Round-up readers, and I am doing so.  See what you think:  http://indiegogo.com/projects/el-encendero

DON’T FORGET THE BEST WESTERN CALENDAR I’VE EVER SEEN!

Just a little reminder that if you’re Christmas-shopping for someone with a sagebrush-and-pulp frame of mind, you should check out the beautiful Vintage Westerns calendar from the folks at Asgard Press (if you missed my review, HERE is the link). And don’t forget the 10% discount on any calendar for Round-up readers.  Here’s the link:  http://www.asgardpress.com/?promocode=HWR13

And here’s the promo code: HWR13

TCM FANATIC - WESTERN NOW ONLINE!

And speaking of TCM (okay, nobody was), have I mentioned that the segment I was interviewed for is now viewable here?








THAT’S A WRAP!

Next Sunday I’ll have my review of the new COMPLETE GENE AUTRY SHOW DVD collection, and a book review or two, among other things.  Have a great week!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright December 2013 by Parke – All Rights Reserved

MCQUEEN’S BACK, ‘DEAD OR ALIVE’ ON ME-TV, plus COMIC WESTERN ‘QUICKDRAW’ NEW ON HULU!

UPDATED 9/4/2013 – See change of date on ‘AROUND THE BARN’ story.

UPDATED 9/2/13 11:08 A.M.

Labor Day triggers a new schedule for the Me-TV network – and they’re bringing back Steve McQueen in his star-making role of bounty hunter Josh Randall in WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE.  A series not seen on television for many years, McQueen did 94 episodes from 1958 to 1961, and in my humble opinion it was one of the great half-hour westerns, right up there with HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL, THE REBEL, THE RIFLEMAN, and the first six years of GUNSMOKE.  It’ll play weekdays at 5 am, and Saturdays at 4 pm. 

F-TROOP, the delightful western comedy series, will play Monday through Thursday nights at 9:30 pm.  It stars Forrest Tucker as Sgt. O’Rourke, and Larry Storch – soon to be seen in the new Western feature KNIGHT OF THE GUN – as Cpl. Agarn, playing a pair of lovable Bilko-like old west connivers, with Ken Berry as the well-meaning but clueless Captain Parmenter, their hapless foil, and beautiful, feisty Melody Patterson – jail bait at the time! – as Wrangler Jane.  Also standouts in the cast are James Hampton as Dobbs, Frank DeKova as Chief Wild Eagle, Don Diamond as Crazy Cat, and in a tremendous break from his B-western heroics, Bob Steele in a terrific comic turn as Duffy.

WAGON TRAIN will continue Saturdays, but at 11:30 am; RAWHIDE will be seen Saturdays at 3 pm; THE RIFLEMAN continues with its hour block weeknights at 6 pm, plus Saturdays at 5 pm; and DANIEL BOONE will continue weekdays at 9 am.  

‘QUICKDRAW’ – a TV Review

The folks at HULU have been making new and old movies and TV shows available online for a few years, but only recently decided to produce their own exclusive content.  I got word in February that they were set to make a western comedy series, QUICKDRAW.  The show stars John Lehr, who toplined the series 10 ITEMS OR LESS, but is perhaps most familiar as one of the resentful cavemen in the very dry and funny series of GEICO INSURANCE commercials.   He and Nancy Hower created QUICKDRAW; they write it together, and she directs. 

Under considerable secrecy their company took over Paramount Ranch in Agoura for the month of March, and shot a season of eight half-hour (okay, 23 minutes) episodes.  I so wanted to see what was going on that, when they wouldn’t permit press, I tried to get on as an extra, but they were a SAG show, so that didn’t work either.  Well, with virtually no fanfare, the shows have been completed, and the first five episodes are available for free right now online – here’s the link to episode 1 on HULU:   http://www.hulu.com/#!watch/511696#i0,p0,d0

John Lehr plays lawman John Henry Hoyle, newly appointed sheriff in a town where you can place a bet at the local saloon on the time and day that the new sheriff will die.  Sheriff Hoyle, unlike his predecessors, is a Harvard man, and absolutely full of himself, convinced that, being an educated man, he knows more about everything – include subjects he knows nothing about -- than any of the simple dolts in town.  In truth, he is a horse’s ass, although good with a gun.  He is assisted by Deputy Eli Brocius (Nick Brown), who is also not that bright, but not self-deluded.  (Whenever Oliver Hardy, the fat one of Laurel and Hardy, was asked whose character was dumber, he always said his own.  He reasoned that Stan was dumb, and knew it.  Ollie was dumb, and thought he was smart, which made him really dumb.)  In fact, every man in the show is a dimwit, and every woman is smart, sassy, sexy, and a whore.  This is a PC updating of the old burlesque tradition where the men were dumb but sly, and all the women were sexy, but dumber than the men. 

In tone, QUICKDRAW is BLAZING SADDLES meets ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT.  It’s vulgar like BLAZING SADDLES, but played largely straight-faced like ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, and a lot of the humor comes from having very modern-seeming characters, especially Hoyle, in a period situation where, in reality, they wouldn’t survive long.  Surprisingly, while the show has no intention of being ‘good history,’ there is an obvious awareness of history in the setting up of gags.   Cole Younger, Belle Starr, Pearl Starr, and the Bender family all turn up, as do small-pox-infested Army blankets. 

The production makes optimum use of the Paramount Ranch facilities, and costume and art direction credits are admirable.  There is a bit of riding and frequent gunplay, the latter not surprisingly played for laughs. 

One of the stand-outs in the supporting cast is Bob Clendenin as Vernon Shank, the undertaker; his bald pate and long, sorrowful face are as familiar from neo-noirs like L.A. CONFIDENTIAL and THE 13^TH FLOOR as they are from comedies.  Also notable are Allison Dunbar as a whore and saloon-keeper named Honey, and Alexis Dox as Pearl. 

A couple of years ago, when the success of the 3:10 TO YUMA and TRUE GRIT remakes brought heat to the Western genre, every network had at least one series in development, and at least two proposed drama series dealt with an educated easterner going west to apply modern scientific methods to crime investigation.  I’d be willing to bet the creators of QUICKDRAW saw the obvious humorous possibilities in the premise, and accidentally had their parody beat the dramas to the marketplace. 

I wouldn’t recommend showing this ‘DIRTY F-TROOP’ to kids, as the language tends to be, perhaps in a nod to DEADWOOD, but more likely as an easy laugh, peppered with not four-letter words, but the occasional ‘vagina,’ ‘testicle’ and ‘intercourse.’  And the visuals often go for shock-value; one episode opens with a stage-coach riding into town driven by a decapitated driver, the coach full of corpses that are later handled without a modicum of respect. 

The show is a continuing saga, so it makes sense to watch it from the beginning.  I’ve seen the first three episodes, and I plan to watch the whole season.  My biggest reservation with the show is also my most basic.  While I found many things to amuse me, moments to smile about, I don’t know that I laughed out loud even once. 

R.I.P.D. ARRIVES D.O.A.

The Round-up had been following this comic-book adaptation ever since it was announced a couple of years ago.  Granted, a sci-fier about dead cops tracking dead criminals for the Rest In Peace Department isn’t exactly a natural for the Round-up.  But I figured with Jeff Bridges playing a long dead old-west lawman, partnered with newly dead partner Ryan Reynolds, it would be of interest to Western fans. 

I was a little annoyed when all of my requests for a screener copy, or admission to a press preview, were ignored.  Then I found out there were no screeners or previews, and I understood it was nothing personal.  Then last night I caught the film at a ‘dollar’ theatre, and I understood completely.  The filmmakers had nothing to gain by letting the press get an early peek.

R. I. P. D. is sewn together from stolen parts in much the same way Frankenstein’s monster was.   If you remove the elements jacked from GHOSTBUSTERS, GHOST and the MEN IN BLACK films, what you have left is…Jeff Bridges.  And typically, the filmmakers don’t understand the films they steal from.  (‘GHOST’ spoiler alert!)  It took a long time, and was a helluvah shock, to realize that Tony Goldwyn was the villain of the piece; but Kevin Bacon, playing that role in R.I.P.D., is revealed in the first few minutes, and as a result has virtually nothing to do for the rest of the film except cackle with glee. 

In a nutshell, Ryan Reynolds is an almost-clean Boston cop who, with partner Kevin Bacon, stole a big gold whatsit from some meth dealers they were busting.  Reynolds feels guilty, wants to turn it in, hence Bacon can’t afford to let him live.   The whatsit turns out to have much greater significance than its monetary value, and saying more would give away what painfully little non-obvious plot there is.

Some of the technical credits are very good.  The art direction goes from the so-so to the occasionally stunning – a tornado of souls traveling to and from the other side is particularly memorable.  The endless effects are competent, and some of the chase stuff at the end is very exciting, except that by that point you’re looking more closely at your watch than the screen.  And the design of the creatures is so obviously copied from the previously sited films that it’s embarrassing.

While Jeff Bridges is amusing in his swagger, and particularly enjoyable in his by-play with Mary Louise Parker as a emotionless and hyper-competent office-runner who regrets their dalliance, there is little sense of chemistry between Bridges and Reynolds.  For me, the most pleasant surprise was the simple sincerity of Reynolds’ performance.  Whenever he played to the pain of the cop who had lost the love of his life (Stephanie Szostack), all the crap fell away, and for all-too-brief moments the story became utterly believable. 

‘ROUND-UP’ ON THE AIR AND ‘AROUND THE BARN’ ON SAT. DEC 14TH!

Bobbi Jean with her commendation from the L.A. County

Board of Supervisors

(Please note:  I would not normally plug my radio appearance three months in advance.  It was originally scheduled for this coming Saturday, but we were just preempted by a Dodger baseball game.  Go Dodger Blue (I guess)!

On Saturday, December 14th, I will be a guest of Bobbi Jean Bell on her Saturday morning show on  KHTS AM 1220, ‘Around The Barn.’  Heard every Saturday from 9 to 10 a.m., hosts Bobbi Jean Bell and Julie Fox Pomilia discuss western culture, music and lifestyle.  Bobbi Jean is the lady behind the Outwest Western Boutique and Cultural Center in Santa Clarita:

http://www.outwestmktg.com/  But don't wait until December -- you can hear the program live every Saturday (except September 7th) by clicking the following link, and clicking on ‘Listen Live.’  http://hometownstation.com/content/saturday-program-schedule

‘RAMONA DAY(S)’ SATURDAY, SEPT. 7^TH!

I had a great time last year attending RAMONA DAYS, at Piru, the home of Rancho Camulos, also known as The Home of Ramona.   The del Valle family received is as a huge land- grant (48,612 acres!) from the government of Mexico in 1839; it achieved international fame when author Helen Hunt Jackson visited in 1882, and decided to set her novel, RAMONA, there.  (You can read my detailed description of my visit HERE . )

I understand that this year’s celebration will feature the Ramona Pageant Players and Dancers, Flamenco dancers, historical re-enactors, tours of the beautiful grounds and gardens, and the historic 1853 adobe, special children's activities, food, specialty vendors, and an exciting raffle with great prizes. Advance tickets are now on sale for only $7 per adult ($10 at the gate). Children are free. To learn more, and to purchase tickets, go here: http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e7zw7m3k37d4d78c&llr=nvg6ppmab

THE CONTINUING SAGA OF JAMES FENIMORE COOPER’S HOME AND PLAQUE!

The onetime address of James Fenimore Cooper, a

gay steam-bath, and a video store.  Col. Hamilton's

home is on the right.

What an interesting can of worms I opened up!  As regular readers know, when I was back in New York City a couple of weeks ago, I hiked with fellow NYU alum and Round-up contributor Jonathan Boorstein over to St. Marks Place, an old block on the Lower East Side.  In our college days we would often walk past a building, The St. Marks Baths, which a plaque announced had been the home of Leatherstocking Tales author James Fenimore Cooper; I thought I’d snap a picture of the building and plaque for the Round-up.   

We trudged up and down the two-block length of St. Marks Place, but never found the plaque.  I snapped a picture of what I thought to be the right building, at 4 St. Marks.  I’d sent an inquiry to the folks at the James Fenimore Cooper Society, about the address and the plaque, and received a response from Hugh MacDougall, Corresponding Secretary:

“You are quite correct. Cooper lived at 4 St. Marks Place (pictured in your attachment) for a time after his return from Europe in 1833. Specifically, he lived there from May 1, 1834 until May 1, 1836 (May 1 was the standard period for leases in New York to begin and end). He, and sometimes his family also, made a number of trips to Cooperstown during that period, as he arranged to buy back and remodel his old family home (Otsego Hall) originally built about 1800 by his father William Cooper.”  He also included a photograph of the house from Mary Phillips’ 1913 biography, JAMES FENIMORE COOPER.  “It is clearly the one you photographed.”  (Click HERE to see the photos and article from last week’s Round-up. )

I pressed him for information on the plaque, and heard back from Mr. MacDougall with details about the building’s history.   The entire block of St. Marks Place between 2^nd and 3^rd Avenues was built by English-born real estate developer Thomas E. Davis in the 1830s.  The house at 4 St. Marks is known as the Hamilton-Holly House as it was bought in 1833 by Colonel Alexander Hamilton, son of the former Secretary of the Treasury, who had been killed in a duel with Vice President Aaron Burr.  It was a very elegant block of one-family homes, but had become run-down, and most of the grand homes had become boarding-houses by the time of the Civil War (you know a house is old when you talk about the neighborhood going bad in the 1860s).

Mr. MacDougall told me that he’d passed my inquiry about the plaque to the New York Historical Society.   A couple of days later I received a startling update: we were looking at the wrong building!  The house pictured in a century-old photograph and described in the Cooper biography, described in numerous historical texts, and by myself, the Hamilton-Holly is next door to Cooper’s home!  The correct address is 6 St. Marks Place.  Mr. MacDougall forwarded the letter from Joseph Ditta, Reference Librarian of the NYHS, to me.  It contains several links to documents and articles.  One, by Jeff Weinstein for his Out There blog in 2008, detailed that until fairly recently, 6 St. Marks had been the home of Kim’s Video, a vast and fabled New York video store that catered to knowledgeable and voracious movie-lovers much as Eddie Brandt’s Saturday Matinee does to West-coasters to this day.  “Kim branches opened and closed, but the move to a spacious site at 6 St. Marks Place allowed the addition of CDs and digital paraphernalia. But only the videos drew me and other addicts into the moldy elevator week after week. The building had before housed the New St. Marks Baths, a gay-sex meeting place shuttered because of AIDS (a complex story in itself), and a semigay Turkish bath before that. Mr. Kim had plenty of cleaning to do — not all of it completed, as far as I could tell. I also recall a plaque on the old building: ‘On this site stood the winter residence from 1834-1836 and the last New York City home of the novelist James Fenimore Cooper.’”  You could in fact rent LAST OF THE MOHICANS in the former home of its author. 

Well, that answers that.  And I am grateful to The James Fenimore Cooper Society, and The New York Historical Society, and Jeff Weinstein, for setting the matter straight.  Now if we could only get the plaque put back up!  And one more postscript.  I also asked Mr. MacDougall how far west Cooper, whose western tales were often set farther east than later writers, had travelled.  “The farthest west Cooper ever traveled in America was Kalamazoo, Michigan and its area – which he visited several times towards the end of his life because of some property he had acquired there, and (as was often the case) made use of the occasion to scout out the background for a novel (The Oak Openings, or The Bee Hunter, published in 1848, and the last of his “Indian” tales).”

THE WRAP-UP

That's it for this week -- hope you're having a great Labor Day Weekend!  I know -- here's a salute to both the Jerry Lewis MD Telethon, and the King of the Cowboys!

Happy trails!

Henry

All Original Content Copyright September 2013 by Henry C. Parke -- All Rights Reserved