Richard Dreyfuss Goes West to Yellowstone City!

His thoughts on Murder at Yellowstone City, his other Westerns, American Films in General, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington in Particular

By Henry C. Parke

Richard Dreyfuss, an Oscar winner for The Goodbye Girl, beloved for Jaws, American Graffiti, Close Encounters and so many more, has finally made a Western movie.  It’s about time: after all, the American history enthusiast is a Civil War reenactor.  “Why wouldn't I be? When you realize how heavy their packs were, and what they did with all that weight on them, it's astounding. We made America to build a different and better country than any other country had ever tried. I have a great deal of pride, however badly we might have done it. I call it an imperfect miracle.”

Isaiah Mustafa and Richard Dreyfuss

In Murder at Yellowstone City, a forlorn former goldrush town in Montana gets a sudden influx of hope when a man dynamites the old mine, and creates a new gold strike!  Then a freed slave (Isaiah Mustafa) arrives in town just as the gold striker turns up dead.  Gabriel Byrne is the law, Thomas Jane is the pastor, and Anna Camp is his wife. Richard Dreyfuss is the Shakespeare-quoting saloon proprietor. Produced by RLJE Films, distributed by AMC, Murder at Yellowstone City is available on AMC+, for rent or sale through Prime, and on DVD and Bluray.  “What appealed to me about the film was that it was a kind of metaphor for America,” Dreyfuss explains. “About people who had come to America, who were being given a second chance.”  It’s actually Dreyfuss’ third chance at a Western; the first two were for television.

   

Svetlana and Richard Dreyfuss on the red carpet

The Big Valley episode, Boy into Man, was a star-turn for young Dreyfuss as a boy trying to protect his younger siblings when his mother disappears.  And in addition to the Big Valley stars, his mother was Diane Ladd, and he was directed by Casablanca star Paul Henreid.  “I worked with Barbara Stanwyck, and that's no small thing: she's part of my innermost fantasy of what it's like to be a movie star. And when I got to work the first morning, she had been there since 4:00 AM, and the crew made it crystal clear to me that they were Missy's crew and they were proud of it. And they didn't want to hear any criticism of Missy. And I had seen every film she'd ever made. So my tongue cloved to the roof of my mouth for most of the time that I was on that show.”

Richard Dreyfuss, Lee Majors, Darby Hinton 

and Margot Jane on The Big Valley

“I walked in and there was Paul Henreid, and I said, ‘Oh my God, it's an honor to meet you, Mr. Henreid.’ And he then asked the question, which is always answered with the actor's oath. The question was, do you know how to ride a horse? And I said, ‘I was raised on a ranch outside of Las Vegas: of course I do!’” Actually, he grew up in Brooklyn. 

There was a scene where Dreyfuss had to drive away in a buckboard with his younger brother and sister beside him.  On the day of the shoot, Dreyfuss pulled the wrangler aside, “And I said, ‘Excuse me, how do you do it?’ And he went, ‘Oh my God, this is really hard, and you've got two little kids sitting next to you on this wagon.’  So I was terrified, and I put the two kids on the buckboard and they yelled, Action!”

Darby Hinton, the boy in the wagon, remembers, “He only had to go three or four feet, pull up, and stop.  But when they said action, he did the only thing he’d seen in the Westerns.  He yelled “Yee-haw!” and they took off!” 

Dreyfuss recalls ruefully, “And away they ran!  Cut! Cut! Cut! I was out of control,” he remembers with a laugh.  “They were afraid that I was gonna kill these kids.”  The wranglers eventually caught up with the wagon, got control of the horse, and brought them back.” Henreid was furious with me. And he said, ‘Do you know why you got this part from me?’ I said, ‘I did a good reading?’ And he said, ‘No!  It is because you said it is an honor to meet you Mr. Henreid!’”

Dreyfuss got through the show somehow, “And at the end of the show, Barbara Stanwyck came up to me and she said, "You know, you're the best actor that's ever guested on this show." And walked away. And I believed her, and I did something I'd never done before, or since. I invited my family and my friends to watch it with me. And I realized, as we all were watching, that what Barbara Stanwyck had done was to say to herself, ‘If I don't say something nice to this kid, he's gonna blow his brains out because he's such a terrible actor.’ So she said this nice thing, and I watched that performance, and I wanted to chop my tongue off. But it certainly did provoke me into being better.

“I did the first Jewish Gunsmoke.” “This Golden Land” won the Mass Media Award from The National Conference of Christians and Jews.  Hal Sitowitz’ script was nominated for a Writers Guild award for Best Episodic Drama. Dreyfuss plays a Russian-born Jewish son who is furious with his father for refusing to bring charges against the three cowboys who killed his brother. Here he gets to ride horses and fire shotguns. It felt good to play a Jewish character in a western, “in the sense that, yeah, I'm Jewish and I like being Jewish. And so it was an opportunity to kind of flaunt my being Jewish. But I didn't think it was a particularly subtle, well-written script.”

Growing up, Westerns were not Richard Dreyfuss’ primary focus. “I was a fan of movies, sound American films. What my daughter disdainfully calls ‘black and whites’. I had probably seen every movie ever made by an American studio between 1931 and ’60, I knew everything about everyone. I used to set my alarm for three o'clock in the morning and watch A Guy Named Joe with Spencer Tracy. And I would sit this close to the TV so I could keep it quiet, but my mother would inevitably wake up and come down the hall looking very much like the Wreck of the Hesperus. She would say, ‘What are you doing?’ And I would say, ‘Spencer Tracy.’ And she said, ‘I'll get some cheese.’ And we would sit there together and watch Tracy, and [Charles] Laughton movies, and wow: they do not make them the way they used to.

“You know the story about when the Germans occupied Paris? They said to the film theater owners, we’ll give you a week to play anything you want. And then the German films will come in. And every theater in Paris played Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. And at the end of the occupation, every theater in Paris again played Mr. Smith. You know why and I know why.  I once was the keynote speaker to a room of about a thousand people, and Jimmy Stewart. And I described Jimmy Stewart as a metaphor for America, that he was the perfectly innocent American before the war. And I was specific about saying, in Mr. Smith, there's this scene when he meets Claude Rain's daughter. And he's so nervous, he keeps dropping his hat. It's hysterical. And then he went to war, a very real war. His war was from the sky. And when he came back, he never made another innocent American film again. And he never made a film that blamed the Indians for everything. He was a complicated guy. At the end of that luncheon, I was on my way out, and his daughters ran up to me and said, our dad can't talk to you right now because he's crying. But he wanted you to know that he never knew that anyone had ever watched him that closely. And I thought, God, this guy's been a star since 1934. And he didn't know that people watched him that closely.”

AND THAT'S A WRAP!

I hope to see many of you good folks starting this Thursday at the TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood! It has the best Western representation in years, beginning at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, with the premiere of the restoration of Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo! And yes, the lovely star Angie Dickinson will be there! They'll also be showing the great noir Western Blood on the Moon, the great musical Western 7 Brides for 7 Brothers -- Russ Tamblyn will be there (!), plus the great silent Western Clash of the Wolves, plus The Wild Bunch, and Treasure of the Sierra Madre!

And the following weekend, it's the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival! It's a wonderful free event -- if you'd like to attend, go HERE for the official website. And be sure to visit the Buckaroo Book Shop at the Festival, where you can meet your favorite Western authors, and hear their presentations.  Click the  Rendezvous with a Writer Facebook Page link to get the details!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright April 2023 by Henry C. Parke. All Rights Reserved

  

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 

‘ZANE GREY THTR’ SEASON 3 REVIEWED, PLUS ‘AUTRY’ MOVIE LINE-UP, ‘SONS OF LIBERTY’ PREMIERE!

ZANE GREY THEATRE – SEASON 3 – A Review

Largely unknown today, the anthology series was a television mainstay for decades.  While most series focus on a group of people seen week-in and week-out, an anthology, like a collection of short stories, told a different story with different characters with each outing.  Interestingly, only the shows based on suspense of the supernatural – TWILIGHT ZONE and ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS and their imitators – persist today.  But there were two particularly notable Western anthology series and, remarkably, after years without exposure, both are now available to enjoy: Encore Western in now airing DEATH VALLEY DAYS, and Timeless Media Group has just released ZANE GREY THEATRE, season three, to home video.  We haven’t been this lucky in years!

The full name is actually DICK POWELL’S ZANE GREY THEATRE, and Powell deserves tremendous credit for creating the series.  He was remarkable talent.  Starting out singing and dancing in Busby Berkeley musicals in the 1930s, he became a big star.  But by the 1940s, those films were considered corny and dated, and his career had been marginalized.  He truly reinvented himself, stunning audiences when he returned to the screen in 1944 as Raymond Chandler’s private eye Philip Marlowe in MURDER MY SWEET.  Overnight he became a convincing tough-guy, and had a long new career. 

With the coming of television, while most film people panicked, Powell and his friends saw opportunity.  In 1952 he, Ida Lupino, David Niven and Charles Boyer joined forces and created FOUR STAR PLAYHOUSE, an anthology series where each star would appear in an episode once a month.  It was highly successful and frequently imitated.   In 1956 he created DICK POWELL’S ZANE GREY THEATRE, telling half-hour western stories from a wide variety of writers and directors.  With twenty-five episodes, Aaron Spelling wrote the most.  Republic and Columbia Western journeyman John English directed the most, at 24, but Budd Boetticher did five and Sam Peckinpah did three.  From the old-timers to the young Turks, Powell attracted them all. 

And did he get actors!  Season 3 opens with TRAIL TO NOWHERE, starring post-Annie Oakley and pre-Victoria Barkley Barbara Stanwyck, and pre-FUGITIVE David Jansen in a tale with noir elements as well as Western ones.  The second episode, THE SCAFFOLD, stars Powell himself as a sheriff standing up to a town that doesn’t want to wait for a trial before their necktie party.  Lloyd Nolan robs a bank out of desperation in #3.  Other stories feature David Niven, Robert Ryan, Harry Dean Stanton, a post-CIRCUS BOY but pre-MONKEE Mickey Dolenz, Julie Adams, Jane Greer, Eddie Albert, Walter Pidgeon, Edward G. Robinson, James Whitmore, pre-HIGH CHAPARRAL Cameron Mitchell, pre-THE TALL MAN Barry Sullivan, Arthur Kennedy,  and Rita Moreno.  Soon-to-be Western stars include James Drury, James Coburn, Michael Landon, Peter Breck, and Dennis Hopper. 

One of my favorites is episode #5, LEGACY OF A LEGEND, starring a pre-VIRGINIAN Lee J. Cobb that could easily have been spun off into a series.   And that happened all the time.  Unlike any other series I can think of, DICK POWELL’S ZANE GREY THEATRE was the launching pad for some excellent series.  THE RIFLEMAN began here as a single episode, as did the series that made a star out of Steve McQueen, WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE.  The same almost happened with the series that made Nick Adams a star, THE REBEL.  The show’s creator, Andrew J. Fenady, told me that he’d already signed a deal with Dick Powell to do the show on ZANE GREY when execs at Proctor and Gamble read it and offered to buy it and commit to a series.  Powell, gentleman that he was, let Fenady out of his contract, saying that he had plenty of shows to do, and wishing him luck. 

In season three there are two episodes which became backdoor pilots for series.  THE LONER became JOHNNY RINGO, starring Don Durrant as the gunfighter-turned-lawman, and Karen Sharpe as his woman.  TROUBLE AT TRES CRUCES, written and directed by Sam Peckinpah, became THE WESTERNER, starring Brian Keith as drifter Dave Blassingame.  Although it only lasted thirteen episodes, many consider it a high water-mark for TV Westerns, and it’s a delight to have one more show, the very first one, and with guest star Neville Brand no less!

Dick Powell appears at the beginning of nearly every episode, after the opening teaser, offering an often pun-filled introduction, and imparting interesting nuggets of history along the way.  Not seen in many years, I don’t know the story of the films’ care and preservation, but I get the feeling we are lucky to have them.  At least one episode is without audio over the end titles, and several episodes have the occasional grease-pencil mark, indicating that they were taken not from finished reels but from editor’s work-print copies.  The quality over-all is excellent.

One of the ironies of the series is that while many plots could be described as in the style or tradition of RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE author Zane Grey, in five seasons, only six of his stories were actually used, and none after season two.  Timeless Media Group and Shout! Factory have taken an unusual step to remedy the situation.  The fourth disc includes the last five episodes of Season 3, plus the feature film ZANE GREY’S FIGHTING CARAVANS (1931), an excellent Western starring an impossibly young and handsome Gary Cooper and the beautiful Lily Damita.

With the level of talent in the writing, directing, acting, and over-all production in DICK POWELL’S ZANE GREY THEATRE, putting on each new episode is like opening a gift – you know you’ll get a surprise of excellent quality.  Season 3, priced at $24.93 (list price $29.93) can be purchased direct from Shout! Factory HERE. 

  

THE AUTRY ‘WHAT IS A WESTERN?’ SERIES SCREENINGS FOR 2015

from THE OX-BOW INCIDENT

For several years now, The Autry has presented a monthly Saturday film screening under the heading of ‘What is a Western?’, with an entertaining and informative introduction by the Gamble Curator of Western History, Popular Culture, and Firearms, Jeffrey Richardson.  I always learn a lot from his talks.  On Saturday, January 17^th, before screening 1969’s TRUE GRIT, he described all the involved machinations that led to the film being made, from losing Mia Farrow, thanks to Robert Mitchum’s kibitzing, to the near casting of Elvis Presley in what became Glen Campbell’s role.

The next film, logically enough, on Saturday, February 14^th, will be the Coen Brothers’ 10 Oscar-nominated 2010 TRUE GRIT, starring Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and Hailee Steinfeld.  (Just to keep the record straight, the ’69 version only had two Oscar nominations, but it won Best Actor for John Wayne.)    

There’s no film planned for March, but two great Westerns directed by Wild Bill Wellman will screen in April and May.  On April 18^th it’s THE OX-BOX INCIDENT (1943), starring Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, Anthony Quinn, and a murderous lynch-mob.  On May 9^th it’s YELLOW SKY (1948) starring Gregory Peck, Anne Baxter, and Richard Widmark, from a story by the great W.R. Burnett (LITTLE CAESAR).

For the summer, it’s three Western comedies in a row!  On June 13^th it’s Bob Hope and Jane Russell in THE PALEFACE (1948); July 11^th James Garner stars in Burt Kennedy’s SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF (1969); and August 8^th it’s MAVERICK, directed by Dick Donner, starring Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, and James Garner.

A new exhibition will open at the Museum on April 25^th, EMPIRE AND LIBERTY: THE CIVIL WAR AND THE WEST.  In conjunction, the three Autumn screenings will highlight the Antebellum, Civil War, and post-war eras: on September 12^th , Ronald Reagan is Custer, Errol Flynn is Jeb Stuart, and Olivia de Havilland is ‘Kat Carson’ Holliday in SANTA FE TRAIL (1940).  On October 10^th, Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman star in the Civil War drama GLORY (1988).  On November 14^th, Clint Eastwood directed and stars in one of the finest – and most shamelessly imitated – post-Civil War dramas, THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES (1976).

Every time you attend a screening, you have the opportunity to fill out a ballot and nominate a ‘Fan Favorite’ for the December screening – 2014’s choice was Peckinpah’s RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY.  There is one more scheduled screening of note, though not part of the series.  On Thursday (not Saturday), March 26^th, at 7 p.m., see THE IRON HORSE (1924), a silent film directed by John Ford, starring George O’Brien and Madge Bellamy, and presented with a new, part live, part ‘computer-synchronized soundscape’ by composer Tom Peters.   

For years the ‘What is a Western?’ series has steadfastly refused to show anything but 35mm prints, but bowing to the reality that in many cases, such prints simply do not exist, they are showing some Blu-Ray and digital versions, but the majority are still in 35mm.  To put you in the mood for February’s screening, I’m placing the trailers from both versions of TRUE GRIT below.

‘SONS OF LIBERTY’ PREMIERES 6 PM TONIGHT ON HISTORY! 

Who would have guessed, in our clueless-about-history time, that we would have a second mini about George Washington and the American Revolution, even as we are waiting for season two of TURN?  That series’ biggest fault was a meaningless title, when they could have used the book’s title, WASHINGTON’S SPIES, and attracted more viewers.  I’d say, at least you know what SONS OF LIBERTY is about, but there will be those who expect a spin-off from SONS OF ANARCHY.    

Starring Henry Thomas as John Adams, Ben Barnes (Caspian from the NARNIA films) as Sam Adams, and BREAKING BAD’s Dean Norris (the big bald brother-in-law cop) as Benjamin Franklin, it looks pretty exciting, going by the trailer. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BOB STEELE AND RANDOLPH SCOTT!

January 23rd was the birthday of two great Western icons.  Bob Steele, was born 108 years ago.  A Saturday matinee star with 239 credits (!), many of us grew up knowing him as the chilling gangster Canino in THE BIG SLEEP, or the hilariously babbling Duffy on F-TROOP.  That he was a big star for decades was a revelation!  The Music & Movie Network is celebrating by sharing his film, SMOKEY SMITH (1935), for free!  Just go to this link: http://www.movieandmusicnetwork.com/content/movieoftheday    This was announced as a one-day-only link on Friday, but I just checked, and it's still up.  Their plan is to post a different free movie to this link every day!  Incidentally, SMOKEY SMITH was written and directed by Bob’s dad, Robert N. Bradbury, and features Gabby Hayes when he was still just ‘George,’ and ‘Our Gang’ graduate Mary Kornman

Fans of Randolph Scott are celebrating his birthday weekend with a blogathon celebrating the great southern gentleman's life and career.  Check it out HERE.   

THAT'S A WRAP!

Have a great week week, and let me know what you think of SONS OF LIBERTY!

Happy Trails,

Henry

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

VOTE FOR MOTHER(S) OF ALL WESTERNS, PLUS TARANTINO DROPS SUIT, ‘SOME GAVE ALL’ REVIEWED, ‘LONG RIDERS’ INSIGHTS!

VOTE FOR THE MOTHER(S) OF ALL WESTERNS!

Karen Grassle in LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE

The Round-up wants to honor the Best Moms’ of Western film and TV.  Please post your choices under comments or send an email -- and your suggestions for great ladies I’ve left out.  And please SHARE this, so we can get more voters!

FOR BEST MOTHER IN A WESTERN MOVIE, the nominees are: Maureen O’Hara in RIO GRANDE, Jean Arthur in SHANE, Jane Darwell in JESS JAMES, Katie Jurado in BROKEN LANCE, Dorothy McGuire in OLD YELLER, Cate Blanchett in THE MISSING.

Dorothy McGuire in OLD YELLER

FOR BEST MOTHER IN A WESTERN SERIES, the nominees are: Barbara Stanwyck in THE BIG VALLEY, Linda Cristal in THE HIGH CHAPARRAL, Karen Grassle in LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE, and Jane Seymour in DR. QUINN, MEDICINE WOMAN. 

Granted, we’d have a lot more to choose from if we were going for ‘Best Saloon Girls,’ but after all, today isn’t Miss Kitty’s birthday, it’s Mother’s Day.  And here are the Honorary Mothers Day awards:

BEST MOTHER IN A MOVIE IF SHE’D LIVED – Mildred Natwick in THE THREE GODFATHERS. 

BEST MOTHER WHO NEVER TOLD THE FATHER THAT THEY HAD A CHILD – Miss Michael Learned, who was impregnated by amnesiac Matt Dillon (not the actor Matt Dillon, but James Arness), in GUNSMOKE – THE LAST APACHE.

BEST MOTHER YOU HEARD ABOUT BUT NEVER SAW – Mark McCain’s mother in THE RIFLEMAN. 

BEST STEPMOTHER EVER, IF THE KIDS HAD LIVED – Claudia Cardinale in ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST.

TARANTINO DROPS ‘HATEFUL 8’ LAWSUIT AGAINST GAWKER

According to Deadline: Hollywood, writer-director Quentin Tarantino has dropped his copyright infringement suit against the website Gawker, for posting his Western work-in-progress screenplay THE HATEFUL EIGHT online.  He has withdrawn his suit ‘without prejudice,’ which is legalese for saying he reserves the right to refile at a later date.

For those who haven’t been following the case, Tarantino, frustrated at how quickly his scripts have been leaked, went to great lengths to make sure this one would not be.  When one of the only three copies to leave his hand turned up on the internet, he cancelled the project, and filed suit.  As the case moved along on the docket, Tarantino decided, as a fund-raiser for the L.A. County Museum of Art, to hold an on-stage script reading of the script, which was held on April1 9^th.  You can read Andrew Ferrell’s review of the event for the Round-up HERE .

As had been hoped by many of us, the days of rehearsal reignited Tarantino’s enthusiasm for the project, and he is now engaged in writing another draft.  Apparently the largest legal hurdle Tarantino’s lawyer’s would have faced would be the fact that Gawker did not post the purloined script on their site, but rather posted a link to where it could be found on someone else’s site.  In a way it is disappointing that the case is not going forward, as it would be useful to have the law clarified.  While I cannot deny having downloaded scripts from the internet, posted by people who often had no authority to put them there, the difference is that they were scripts from completed and released movies: there were no secrets exposed.  But it’s clearly good news that Tarantino is focusing on the re-write rather than problems encountered with the first draft.

AUDIO INSIGHTS FROM ‘THE LONG RIDERS’ AT THE AUTRY

I hadn’t seen this Walter Hill-directed film on a screen since its 1980 release, and it holds up wonderfully.  The trick to this one was casting actor brothers as outlaw brothers: the Youngers are played by David, Keith and Robert Carradine; Frank and Jesse James are Stacy and James Keach; the Miller brothers are Dennis and Randy Quaid; and the dirty little coward Fords are Christopher and Nicholas Guest.  Also of note in the cast are Pamela Reed as Belle Starr, a very young James Remar as Sam Starr, and a great cameo by Harry Carey Jr. as a stagecoach driver held up by the Youngers.

As always, Curator Jeffrey Richardson’s introduction was full of information I’d never heard before.  For instance, the genesis of the project was a 1971 PBS docu-drama about the Wright brothers, which starred the Keach brothers as Orville and Wilbur.  They had such fun working together that they started looking for another project to do together.  Reasoning that they’d enjoyed the ‘Right’ brothers, they decided to play the ‘Wrong’ brothers, Frank and Jesse.  This led to the stage musical, THE BANDIT KINGS, and they decided to try and make it into a film.

The film musical never happened, but they kept trying, and came up with the idea of casting all brothers.  Potential director George Roy Hill blew it off as too gimmicky.  Then in 1975, James Keach was playing Jim McCoy in a TV movie, THE HATFIELDS AND THE MCCOYS, starring Jack Palance as Devil Anse Hatfield.  Robert Carradine was playing Bob Hatfield, and wanted to know from Keach about the project.  Pretty soon it started looking real, and Beau and Jeff Bridges were soon onboard, though schedule conflicts would cause them to be replaced by the Quaids. 

Randy Quaid, Keith Carradine, Stacy Keach

Jeffrey had a surprise guest in LONG RIDER supervising sound editor Gordon Ecker.  The work of a sound editor is much more covert than that of a film editor, and he revealed some fascinating details about how the soundtracks were built.  At Walter Hill’s direction, a slightly different gun-sound was developed for each star – they may all have been firing Winchester rifles, for instance, but no two sounded quite alike.

Hill liked to underplay the audio volume in the non-action scenes, so the LOUD action would really jump out at you.  Foley sound is the recording of live effects synchronized to picture, and to make the horse foot-falls sharper than the usual cocoa-nut shell method, they attached a Lavalier (clip-on) microphone onto a boot’s instep and stamped it in the dirt.

My favorite revelation was about the use of gunshots as a premonition.  There were many shots fired for every hit.  For the gunshots where characters actually got hit, a ricochet effect was used.  Now, as Ecker pointed out, normally a ricochet sound would only be used if the bullet bounced off of something, as opposed to hitting someone.  But what they did instead was play the ricochet sound in reverse before the shot, then the shot, followed by the ricochet played forward.  The unconscious psychological effect is that, amidst all the others shots, you begin to anticipate, like a premonition, the bullets that will hit a victim, a fraction of a second before it happens.  It’s an unnerving effect.  I hope to have a full interview with Mr. Ecker in the near future.

If I were booking film programs, I would love to run THE LONG RIDERS and TOMBSTONE as a double-feature – the two great Westerns about brothers, on each side of the law.   

SOME GAVE ALL by J.R. SANDERS – A Book Review

SOME GAVE ALL – Forgotten Old West Lawmen Who Died With Their Boots On, is a remarkable piece of research and writing by J.R. Sanders, who has previously penned two books, and many articles for WILD WEST magazine.  His fascination with the wild west goes back to his youth, growing up in the once lawless cattle town of Newton, Kansas, and childhood vacation visits to Abilene, Dodge City, and the Dalton Gang’s hideout.

As a former Southern California Police Officer, he takes the subject of his newest book seriously and personally.  He sifted through many possible lawmen to focus on, and selected ten to report on in depth.  In all likelihood, not even one will be familiar to the reader.  And that’s part of the point: plenty has been written about the Earps and the Mastersons, and these ten heroic men have been too quickly forgotten, some seemingly before their bodies had gone cold.  The fate of some of their families is tragic.

Some of the histories are startling for what a different world they seem to take place in.  Others are just as startling for how little has changed.  On the one hand, a U.S. Marshall in Western District, Texas, died because, being a well-raised Victorian gentleman, he assumed a woman would not lie.  On the other hand, a police officer in the mining town of Gold Hill, Nevada, died as a result of what is, to this day, the most dangerous situation for a lawman to get involved in: a domestic dispute.   Some of the cases have unexpected elements that would never occur to a fiction writer, such as the pair of hold-up men who made their getaways on bicycles.

While many non-fiction books of the old west end their tale when the lawman dies, this is often just the midway point in Sanders’ telling.  He writes about the pursuit, capture, trial, and punishment of the killers, and the reader will likely be amazed at how little has changed.  We think of the wild old days as a time when someone uttering, “Get a rope!” was time for the story to end.  In fact, just like today, legal maneuverings often made these court battles go one for years.  Lawyers endlessly debated points such as the difference between ‘stooped’ and ‘round-shouldered’ in the description of a suspect.  And also like today, the longer it took to bring the miscreant to justice, the more frequently the press would start to admire and fawn over the killer, the victims quickly forgotten. 

Some of the whims of justice would be laughable if they weren’t so infuriating.  A convicted murderer and train-robber serving a life sentence turns artist, and sculpts a bust of the governor, who soon after paroles the killer!

Author J.R. Sanders

Sanders’ subjects are meticulously researched with primary sources; his bibliography lists numerous newspapers, periodicals, census and other public records, court transcripts, and books.  His style of story-telling is engaging and accessible, and never dumbed down: hooray for the writer with the courage to use ‘pettifogging’ when no other word will quite do.   

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I strongly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn about the every-day heroics of the lawmen of the old west.

 

On Thursday, May 15^th, from 7 to 10 p.m. at William S. Hart Park in Newhall, California, J.R. Sanders will be taking part in The National Peace Officers Memorial Day.  This is a free and open-to-the-public event, and Sanders will be one of a number of speakers, as well as signing his book.  To learn more, please contact the William S. Hart Museum office at (661) 254-4584 or Bobbi Jean Bell, OutWest, (661) 255-7087.

You can learn more about J.R. Sanders by visiting his website HERE. You can purchase SOME GAVE ALL from OutWest Boutique HERE 

THAT’S A WRAP!

And that’s all for this week’s Round-up!  Have a great Mother's Day!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright May 2014 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved

‘DEAD IN TOMBSTONE’ AND NEW ‘VIRGINIAN’ REVIEWED, PLUS ‘STARDUST COWBOYS’ WINNER!

DEAD IN TOMBSTONE – A Film Review

Danny Trejo

With Red Cavanaugh (Anthony Michael Hall) standing on the gallows, his half-brother Guerro (Danny Trejo) and his gang swoop in, and in a bloody shoot-out, rescue Red.  Then the gang decides to rob the gold-filled vault of a bank in Edendale (the original name of the downtown L.A. area that housed Mack Sennett Studios), and Red, tiring of his brother’s wimpy ‘Let’s not hurt anyone,’ attitude, shoots Guerro to death.  

Mickey Rourke looks like Hell as the Devil

Big surprise, Guerro ends up in Hell, where the Devil (Mickey Rourke) tortures him for a while, then agrees to a deal: Guerro can go back to life for 24 hours, to try and deliver the souls of Red and the other five gang members (i.e., kill them); if he does it, he goes free, and alive.  If not, more eternal torture (the worst kind).

So Guerro returns to the town, re-Christened (the right word?) Tombstone, now run by Red, his gang, and some sassy Brits, and tries to kill the six.  That’s it – end of plot, maybe fifteen minutes in.  From there it’s just killing.  If flashy shoot-outs are enough to satisfy you, then you may enjoy this film.  I found it completely uninvolving, as I didn’t give a damn who got damned and who didn’t.  Danny Trejo is a great screen villain, and I had a momentary twinge of sympathy for him when his brother whacked him.  But it didn’t last long.

Ironically, (and ironically, the word ‘Irony’ uttered by Trejo is the only laugh in the film) except for the early stuff, when the film is so dark it’s hard to make out, most of it is beautifully shot, by Dutch-born director/cinematographer Roel Reine.   Reine and the film’s writers, Brendan Cowles and Shane Kuhn, are specialists in direct-to-home-video sequels to popular franchises – they did SCORPION KING 3 together, as well as the upcoming SEAL TEAM EIGHT: BEHIND ENEMY LINES.  Reine is crazy for weird angles, odd camera placement and multiple camera coverage.  Unfortunately, he’s also crazy for moving camera, whether it reveals anything or not.  Some of the prolonged Hell scenes with Rourke and Trejo in conversation can produce motion sickness, as the cameras spin endlessly around the characters, and the editor cuts randomly from clockwise to counter-clockwise. 

Anthony Michael Hall

Surprisingly (to me) effective is Anthony Michael Hall, the goofy kid from the VACATION/16 CANDLES/WEIRD SCIENCE films, who has matured and developed an unexpected degree of on-screen gravitas, along with leading-man good looks.   Also surprising, not in a good way, is Mickey Rourke, a talented and charismatic actor, whose career had recently revived with THE WRESTLER.  Here he looks fat, his hair hangs limply across his face, and his ‘costuming’ looks like a trench-coat lifted off a homeless man.  And his speeches go on so endlessly and convolutedly that one wonders if they were scripted at all.   

Except for occasional whores, there are no real female characters until Dina Meyer appears far into the picture, seemingly like an afterthought (she has one scene early on, with her soon-to-be-dead lawman husband, but then disappears for over half of the film).  She’s a stunning woman, and if there is nothing particularly interesting or unusual about her role, at least she and Hall play their parts as if they mean it.

Dina Meyer

Produced by Universal for a reported $5,200,000, shot in Bucharest, Romania, on sets built for COLD MOUNTAIN and seen in HATFIELDS & MCCOYS, production designer Christian Niculescu has effectively utilized the unusually long Western street to good visual effect.  The sets and props and costumes and guns are very convincing.  It’s too bad a good look isn’t enough to turn DEAD IN TOMBSTONE into a real movie.  If you do rent this one, make sure you watch the several ‘making of’ shorts.  They’re the best part.

THE VIRGINIAN - A Film Review

I remember my initial reaction when I heard that singer Trace Adkins was about to star as THE VIRGINIAN.  Gary Cooper, Joel McCrea, James Drury, and Bill Pullman, all fine, accomplished actors, had already played Owen Wister’s iconic hero.  I wasn’t overly optimistic.  But I am very pleasantly surprised.  This new VIRGINIAN is small, but sincere and surprisingly effective and moving, in no small part due to Adkins’ stoic and sheepishly understated performance.

Trace Adkins

In a day when most Westerns lean towards the cynical edge of the Spaghetti Western, this is a movie that, without self-consciousness or irony, focuses on men with an inflexible code of honour.  Adkins’ Virginian is the most code-controlled man since George Brent’s deadly southern gentleman in 1938’s JEZEBEL (I always thought he stole that picture from Bette Davis and Henry Fonda).   

This is a re-imagined VIRGINIAN, and while much of the core story and conflicts remain, there have been some major changes, not the least of which is placing author Owen Wister, though called Owen Walton (“Goodnight, John-Boy!”), in the story, as a man who has come West to write a novel.  He’s played effectively by Brendan Penny.  They’ve also given the Virginian, who never had an actual name in the novel, or any of the films or TV series, sort of a name – his friends call him ‘South’, which, come to think of it, is even more vague than ‘Virginian’.

Ron Perlman & Trace Adkins

Ron Perlman, who starred in the MAGNIFICENT 7 TV series, is Judge Henry, the Lee J. Cobb role, and is effectively maddening when he won’t listen to the Virginian.  Blonde beauty Victoria Pratt plays Molly West, the school-marm who catches the Virginian’s eye.  She’s good, but not always well-served by the crew.  Her hair sometimes looks odd, and her costumes, while properly in period, and quite attractive, are often jarringly wrong for her character:  she steps off the stagecoach in Medicine Bow in a dress more suited to a saloon-girl than a teacher.  Croation-born Steve Bacic plays Trampas, the Virginian’s most despised enemy (not his pal, as Doug McClure played him in the series), and the filmmakers have followed the Hitchcock rule of making the villain much more charming and attractive than the hero.     

Virginia Pratt & Brendan Penny 

In the Joel McCrea version, the role of the Virginian’s irresponsible best-friend Steve went to Sonny Tufts: probably the best role and best performance of his career.  Caracas-born John Novak plays Steve in this one, and brings an unexpectedly powerful character and performance to it.  Novak is probably the most experienced Western actor of the cast, having appeared on TV in the series HAWKEYE, LONESOME DOVE – THE OUTLAW YEARS, DEAD MAN’S GUN, INTO THE WEST, and the 1997 version of CALL OF THE WILD.

It’s a small film, made for a fraction of what DEAD IN TOMBSTONE cost.  Medicine Bow’s streets are sparsely populated, the few sets and locations are seen frequently, and after some initial sighting of cattle early on, the much-discussed doggies are rarely seen.  But THE VIRGINIAN has a strong story, solid script by Bob Thelke, a talented cast, and able direction by Thomas Makowski.  The producers, NASSER GROUP NORTH, have made two previous Westerns, ANGEL AND THE BADMAN and THE DAWN RIDER, remakes of John Wayne movies which, like THE VIRGINIAN, are in the public domain.  Seems like a smart way to do strongly-plotted films economically.  I’m looking forward to reviewing THE DAWN RIDER shortly.   

‘STARDUST COWBOYS’ CONTEST WINNER ANNOUNCED!

Larry Hanna of Sherman Oaks is the lucky winner of two tickets to see The Stardust Cowboys perform in their first Los Angeles area concert, on Thursday night, March 20^th .  It’s part of the OutWest Concert Series at the Repertory East Playhouse, at 24266 Main Street, Newhall, CA 91321.   The Stardust Cowboys draw their inspiration from the fabled Bob Wills who, with his Texas Playboys, invented Western Swing, that delightful mash-up of cowboy and big band music.  They play a mix of traditional western songs as well as their own originals, and their live shows are full of humor and high energy.

The challenge was to name the band leader other than Bob Wills, who was also called The King of Western Swing, and who used to be a movie stand-in for Roy Rogers!  The answer, as Larry Hanna and many others knew, was Spade Cooley, who was one of the most successful stars in the early days of L.A. television. 

Spade Cooley

If you’re not lucky enough to be Larry Hanna, you can buy tickets for $20 by calling OutWest at 661-255-7087. This concert is part of the OutWest series -- in case you haven’t noticed, we have a new sponsor here at the Round-up, the OutWest Western Boutique and Cultural Center in Newhall – just go to the top left corner of the Round-up, click their logo, and you’ll be magically transported to their wonderful store.  The doors open at 7 p.m., and the concert begins at 8, and Bobbi Jean Bell, purveyor of OutWest, tells me that Newhall is having their 3^rd Thursday of the month block party, SENSES (as in delighting the same), so you might want to arrive early for dinner from the food trucks, live music – and to find parking.   Bobbi also tells me that if you’re coming to the concert, you might want to dress up!  SCTV will be filming the show, and you just may be on TV! 

WEDNESDAY’S ‘COWBOY LUNCH @ AUTRY’ CELEBRATES GREAT WOMEN OF THE WEST!

Li'l Rob Word met Duke Wayne on the set of THE SEARCHERS

These 3^rd Wednesday of the month events at the Autry have become hugely popular since Western filmmaker and authority Rob Word began them half a year ago.  This month’s topic is a celebration of the Great Women of the West in film.  As always, the event, which starts at 12:30, is free – although you’ve got to buy your own lunch – and is followed by ‘A Word on Film’, with Rob Word leading a discussion among his guests, actors and other industry people associated with the topic.  Rob never announces his guests in advance, but he always comes through with an interesting and talented group – previous luncheons have been attended by Hugh O’Brien, Johnny Crawford, Bruce Boxleitner and many others.  Don’t get there at the last minute – as these events have grown in popularity over the last few months, latecomers have had to be turned away.  January’s salute to the 24^th anniversary of LONESOME DOVE, and February’s celebration of the HOW THE WEST WAS WON TV series both packed the house to the rafters.  Below is a clip from the LONESOME DOVE program, with actor Barry Corbin discussing being directed by Tommy Lee Jones in the soon to be released Western THE HOMESMAN.

MORRICONE INJURS BACK – CONCERTS POSTPONED ‘TIL JUNE

What was to be Maestro Ennio Morricone’s first concert Los Angeles, planned for March 20^th at the NOKIA THEATRE has been postponed until June 15^th.  Surgery to repair a slipped disc necessitated the delay.  Morricone, the 85 year old composer of over 500 scores, who gained fame for his soundtracks to Sergio Leone westerns, issued the following statement: “It deeply saddens me to have to postpone this concert.  I am very much looking forward to my first Los Angeles performance.  Hollywood has been instrumental in bringing my work to American audiences, and my 2007 performance in New York was one of the high points of my career to date.  I’m grateful and sorry to my fans for having to delay this show.  I look forward to seeing you in June.”  Ticketholders will have the same seats in June as they were to have on March 20^th.  Morricone’s New York City concert has also been postponed. 

TODAY’S PAPERBACK BOOK SHOW

William F. Nolan & George Clayton Jackson

Had a good time today at the annual Paperback Book Show at the Glendale Pacific.  My favorite find was a pair of 1960s reprints of Dime Novels (actually nickel novels) from the turn of the century, one featuring Buffalo Bill, the other with Young Wild West, as well stories about Pawnee Bill, and the James Brothers – fake history at its most exciting!  Among the authors signing their books were Twilight Zone contributors William F. Nolan and George Clayton Jackson, and The Waltons creator Earl Hamner. 

Earl Hamner

GREAT BOSSY WOMEN OF THE AMERICAN WEST!

In case you haven’t heard, the ‘word police’ have recently decided that we can no longer describe any girl as ‘bossy’, since it will hurt her self-esteem, and inhibit her attempts to be as pushy as a boy, I thought, before the word disappears forever from our lexicon, we should revisit the great bossy ladies of the American West, particularly the Western Movie.   After all, in the words of the immortal Zane Grey, “Where I was raised a woman’s word was law.  I ain’t quite outgrowed that yet.”  Here are the first four entries of a continuing series.  Please send me your suggestions for bossy gals who deserve inclusion.

#1 BARBARA STANWYCK – Whether as Victoria Barkley in THE BIG VALLEY, THE MAVERICK QUEEN, CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA, all the way back to ANNIE OAKLEY, you never had to ask twice where you stood with her.  Actually, you didn’t have to ask at all.

#2 – JOAN CRAWFORDJ – JOHNNY GUITAR!  While Mercedes McCambridge sits on the sidelines gnashing her teeth, Joan grabs Sterling Hayden and Scott Brady by the short-hairs and smacks them together for 110 minutes!

#3 – GRACE KELLY – in HIGH NOON!  Bossiness at its most gorgeous and infuriating.  As onetime lawman Gary Cooper says, “Don’t ever marry a Quaker – she’ll have you running a store!”

#4 – DALE EVANS – she was Queen of the West, and she ruled the coffee shop in Mineral City with an iron hand.  But with suave, debonair Pat Brady to deal with, would anything but uber- bossiness get the job done?

THAT'S A WRAP!

That's all, folks, until next week, when I'll have a first look at DOC HOLLIDAY'S REVENGE, and an interview with Western writer C. Courtney Joyner for you.

Happy trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright March 2014 by Henry C. Parke - All Rights Reserved