JOHN FORD’S LAST PROJECT, ‘COMANCHE STALLION’ FINALLY TO ROLL!

This weekend, director Vic Armstrong and producer Clyde Lucas headed to Monument Valley to scout locations for one of John Ford’s pet projects which never reached the screen.  COMANCHE STALLION.  Based on the novel by Tom Milstead, it’s the story of the Comanche’s search for a mystical horse, while suffering the wrath of General Lathrop.  Ford wanted Burl Ives for the role of the general, but Ives’ health was not up to the task, and Ford’s own health also failed. 

Now famed stuntman and stunt coordinator Vic Armstrong, who just directed Nicholas Cage in LEFT BEHIND, is preparing to finish Ford’s last planned project.   To outline even a fraction of Armstrong’s credits would take hours, so I’ll just mention that he doubled for Richard Harris in RETURN OF A MAN CALLED HORSE, doubled for Harrison Ford in the INDIANA JONES movies, and was just supervising stunt coordinator on THOR.  Clyde Lucas has produced several documentaries, some involving the late Harry Carey Jr.  Sadly, Carey was set to star in what had been the Burl Ives role, but passed away this year.  I’ve not heard many details of casting, but at the moment Tyrone Power Jr. and Robert Carradine are said to be involved.  I hope to have much more to tell you following the location scouting.

Shortly before his death, James Arness, who appeared in HONDO and WAGON MASTER for Ford, recorded the narration for the film.  Below is a sample.

(Note: this clip was playing just fine last night, but isn't running now, here or on Youtube.  Maybe it will come back up.)

SHADOW ON THE MESA – a Movie Review

Back in March of this year, when SHADOW ON THE MESA originally aired on the Hallmark Movie Channel, I interviewed star Kevin Sorbo (HERE is the link if you missed it  ), and I intended to review the movie as well.  But they were still editing it up to the last minute, so I didn’t get to see it prior to the airing.

 

I don’t know if I would have pursued the film afterwards, but when I heard that the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum had presented it with their 2013 Wrangler Award for best Television Movie, I figured I’d better make an effort to track it down, and I’m very glad I did; it’s a fine piece of work.  And the good news is that it will be released on DVD one month from today, on December 17^th – right on-time for Christmas.

One of the immediate appeals of SHADOW ON THE MESA is that, rather than trying to endlessly draw parallels between the Old West and the modern world (to make it more ‘relevant’ to an unsophisticated audience), its story grows out of a situation you would not have today.  Wes Rawlins (Wes Brown), a sometime bounty hunter who’d been raised by his recently murdered widowed mother, learns that she was not widowed at all.  Just prior to his birth, his parents were in a group of settlers who were attacked by Indians, and his father (Kevin Sorbo) was taken prisoner, though he later escaped.  Without the easy communication of the 21^st century, each spouse wrongly concluded that the other was dead, and started new lives.  Now, more than twenty years later, Wes finds that his mother had only recently learned that his father was still living, and had written him a letter.  Had that letter led to her death?

Meredith Baxter, Barry Corbin

Leaving the older couple who took care of him and his mother (Barry Corbin and Meredith Baxter), he heads off to find his long-missing father; and kill him if necessary.  And when he arrives, he finds himself in the middle of a range war between his father and family, and the Dowdy family, led by patriarch Peter Dowdy (Greg Evigan). 

While the Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movie Channel have long shown a greater commitment to the Western form than any other networks, there has also long been the complaint among oater enthusiasts that Hallmark Westerns were ‘soft’, and lacked action.  Happily, as demonstrated by the recent HANNAH’S LAW, GOODNIGHT FOR JUSTICE – QUEEN OF HEARTS, and now with SHADOW ON THE MESA, Hallmark has upped their game considerably. 

Shannon Lucio, Wes Brown

With forty features under his belt, director David Cass Sr., has a long career in Westerns that goes back to stunting on MCCLINTOCK! and HERE COME THE BRIDES.  He knows his business, and deftly handles the drama, the humor, and the action.  And there is a good deal of action, starting with Wes Rawlins’ work as a bounty hunter, and after a half-hour break, continuing with growing ferocity as  the range war grows uglier.   As a stuntman, Cass worked on eight features and episodes with the quintessential director of fun Westerns of the 1960s, Burt Kennedy, and some of that may have rubbed off, giving the occasional lighter moments a professional glow so often missing in today’s Western fare.  In particular, an exciting and amusing jail-break sequence harkens back to that style of filmmaking. 

Based on a soon-to-be published book by Western novelist Lee Martin, who also scripted, SHADOW is well-plotted, and populated with characters whose depth and range of emotions have attracted a strong and hardy cast of quality actors, both famous and new on the scene.  As Rawlins’ adoptive grandmother, Meredith Baxter brings a mature beauty, and a pioneer’s grace and strength to the role.  As adoptive grandfather, Barry Corbin tells Wes the story of his parents, and what would be dry exposition in other actors’ hands is deeply felt and deeply moving, without getting sappy.  It seems to me that over the last few years Corbin, in Westerns big (NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN) and small (REDEMPTION – FOR ROBBING THE DEAD) has earned himself the sort of sagebrush elder statesman position long held by Ben Johnson and Harry Carey Jr.  He’ll soon be seen in the Western THE HOMESMAN, directed by and starring Tommy Lee Jones, and costarring Hillary Swank and Meryl Streep.

Kevin Sorbo is strong and effective, and I rather regret the story-choice of having him on crutches for most of the movie, as it limits his involvement in the action. However, Sorbo brings that seemingly-effortless James Arness-like gravitas that grounds the film just by his presence.     

Blonde, beautiful and twice Emmy nominated Gail O’Grady plays Sorbo’s second wife, who has an agenda all her own.  Shannon Lucio is their lovely and striving-to-be-independent daughter, who fancies Wes (don’t be cross; she doesn’t know they might be related).  As her brother, Micah Alberti plays a lad who lacks confidence until Wes teaches him the way of the shooting-iron.

One of the true pleasures of MESA is Greg Evigan, who plays the suave, sinister and oddly likeable cattle-baron rival to Sorbo; it’s the sort of role Brian Donlevy and Zachary Scott excelled at, and it reveals the style and sophistication that Evigan has developed.  He was also effective in a very different role in 2010’s 6 GUNS.  Dave Florek, whose Western credits go back to GUNSMOKE: THE LAST APACHE, is solid in a small but memorable role as a ranch-hand named Baldy.

Greg Evigan

Of course, such a movie rises and falls on its cowboy lead, and Wes Brown, as Wes Rawlins carries the picture well on his broad shoulders.  He’s handsome without being a pretty-boy, and has the saddest visage of any cowboy actor since William S. Hart.  He plays his part credibly, as a young man with serious problems. 

I had a chance to do an email Q&A with author Lee Martin, who told me, “I thought the cast was wonderful and just right.  Since I named the hero for my brother Wesley, who died when he was ten, I was delighted that the actor was Wes Brown.  Everyone did a great job, as did David Cass, the director.”

It’s her first screenplay sale, and she had a great time visiting the set.  “We were treated like royalty.  It was great fun.  And a real education.  (Producer) Larry Levinson’s outfit is a well-oiled machine with not a moment’s hesitation.” 

Gail O'Grady

I asked her if there were many changes from book to movie, and if we’d likely see more of Wes Rawlins.  “From novel to script to screen brought a lot of changes, some influence by Hallmark.  I had no hand in changes, but am still happy with the end result.  The novel, reflected in my first screenplay, had Wes as a half breed, but that was also changed along the way.  I can see a sequel, and I have ideas for it.”

SHADOW ON THE MESA can be pre-ordered from Amazon  for under $14 .  

CASTING DIRECTOR MARVIN PAIGE DIES

Marvin Paige with Anne Jeffreys

One of Hollywood’s premiere casting directors has died at the age of 86 after a car crash on Laurel Canyon.  Known for casting STAR TREK and many other TV series and movies, of chief interest to Western fans, he cast the series BRANDED, and movies like RIDE BEYOND VENGEANCE, THE REVENGERS, THE HONKERS, MAN IN THE WILDERNESS, and many others.  He was particularly beloved by actors who gained their fame in the 1930s and 1940s.  The late Marcia Mae Jones told me that she and many of her friends had Marvin to thank for their later roles on TV and in film.  In recent years he was best known for squiring the great ladies of cinema’s golden age to events at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, UCLA screenings, and autograph shows.  Word that he was at an event was quickly followed by the question, “Who is he with?”  The answer was likely to be Jane Russell, Anne Jeffreys, June Lockhart, or another star of that ilk.

THAT’S A WRAP!

Next week I’ll have, among other things, a review of TREASURES 5 – THE WEST, a wonderful collection of films from the National Film Preservation Archives!

Happy Trails,

Henry

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

BORGNINE SHINES IN FINAL ROLE, ‘VICENTE FERNANDEZ’

Ernest Borgnine died this summer at the age of 95.  Few of us make it to that age, and few of those who do have the physical and mental stamina to work to the end like Borgnine did.  He’d continued to act – he made his last Western, NO CHANCE IN HELL, in 2008, and even voiced a continuing character in SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS.  He’d written his autobiography, ERNIE, and over the last few years of his life he’d travelled the country making appearances and discussing his book, his career and his life. 

 

At a jam-packed screening of his Oscar-Winner MARTY at the North Hollywood Library, he reminisced about MARTY, MCHALE’S NAVY, FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, and his unforgettable Westerns like THE WILD BUNCH and VERA CRUZ.  When I spoke to him at the Hollywood Show in Burbank, about a year before his death, I asked him when he was going to make another Western.  He laughed, “I'm doing one right now! It's called THE MAN WHO SHOOK THE HAND OF VICENTE FERNANDEZ. It's a Western, but it takes place in a nursing home.”

 

Barry Corbin turning on the charm

 

Now the public will have the chance to see Ernest Borgnine in his last film, which opens at the Laemmle Theaters in North Hollywood this Friday.  One cannot help but approach such a movie with trepidation.  Fans of Laurel and Hardy will never forget how awful Stan Laurel looked, post-stroke, in UTOPIA.  It’s painful to recall the indignity of the great Basil Rathbone ending his career in HILLBILLYS IN A HAUNTED HOUSE.  Spencer Tracy fared much better with GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER, although studio execs so feared that he would die before the film was finished that he wasn’t paid a dime of his salary until his last scene was in the can. 

 

Happily, there are no such regrets attached to VICENTE FERNANDEZ, nor is Ernest Borgnine reduced to a cameo: it’s his film from start to finish.  He plays Rex Page, who excelled as radio DJ ‘Ricochet Rex’, but is consumed with bitterness at never having made it as a movie actor.  He’s obsessed with A GOOD MAN KILLED BAD, a Western he didn’t get to star in, and he watches his disintegrating VHS tape of the movie every day, repeating the monologues, running the dialogue with his indulgent ten-year-old granddaughter Clementine (Audrey B. Scott).  Although he shows no interest in Clem’s soccer prowess, he’s much closer to her than to her mother and his daughter Denise (Dale Dickey), or his wife of 47 years, Irma (June Squibb).

 

Renaldo Pacheco, June Squibb, Arturo del Puerto, Audrey P. Scott,

Carla Ortiz, Dale Dickey, Ashley Holliday, Ernie

 

A stroke sends Rex to the hospital, then to a nursing home to recover, and to regain the ability to walk.   The nursing home’s staff is entirely Latino, and Rex does not endear himself to them with his ‘wetback’ comments.  But one nurse is grateful to him immediately: beautiful Solena (Carla Ortiz) is being pawed by Dr. Dominguez (Tony Plana) until Rex, coming out of anesthesia, tells him to leave her alone.  When he is recognized as ‘Ricochet Rex’, the staff warms to him.  When he reveals in passing that he once shook hands with ‘The Frank Sinatra of Mexico, Vicente Fernandez’, Rex becomes their hero.  And they need a hero, because the nursing home is run by a patient whose family owns the place and others like it, and he and Dr. Dominguez work together to terrorize the employees and residents.  That patient, Walker, is played with bravura menace by the wonderful Barry Corbin, who was so impressive as the sympathetic judge in REDEMPTION: FOR ROBBING THE DEAD (read my review HERE ).  There are many parallels between the nursing-home folks and the scared town-folk in A GOOD MAN KILLED BAD, and it’s oddly delightful to watch Walker and his two henchmen zipping around on their Rascal Scooters intimidating everyone.  There’s an especially memorable scene where they ride circles around male nurse Alejandro (Arturo del Puerto), Walker menacing him with the bull’s horns mounted on his Rascal, and knocking him off his bike.

 

Rex’s popularity and power at the nursing home grows out of his ability to defeat Walker at the card-game Rat Screw (a variation on War), and as Rex becomes more of a hero to the staff, he has less and less time for his own family.  Much of the story turns on whether, come 4^th of July, he’ll attend his granddaughter’s soccer match of the Vicente Ferandez concert.   

 

Rex's daughter delivers the last existing copy of

A GOOD MAN KILLED BAD

 

Very unusual for today, this modest budget film is handsomely lensed in actual 35mm Fuji Film by Eric Leach, a camera operator and second unit cinematographer on many big pictures.  Written and directed by Elias Petridis, VICENTE FERNANDEZ is a hard film to classify.  While officially called a comedy, much of the film’s tone is more serious than that suggests, dealing with over-medicating and undernourishing patients, and kicking them out on a whim.  One of the funniest elements is the title sequence, which parodies Sergio Leone’s title sequences, accompanied by a song reminiscent of Ennio Morricone’s ‘English-as-a-second-language’ themes like LONESOME BILLY and A GRINGO LIKE ME. 

 

D.P. Eric Leach; writer/director Elia Petridis

 

The film is uneven in its successes, sometimes introducing very interesting notions, and not following through on them.  Rex’s agent, Burt, is forever calling up with pipe-dream plans for Rex’s career, eventually getting him an important audition.  But does he actually believe Rex can ‘make it’, or is he just stringing him along?  You never find out, and even though Emmy and Tony-winning MAD MEN star Robert Morse is prominently billed, you never see him: he’s only a voice on the phone.

 

Also, the actor who beat Rex out for the lead role in A GOOD MAN KILLED BAD, incredibly, ends up in the next hospital bed, but is woefully under-utilized.  The tiny budget is occasionally evident – crowd scenes are sparsely populated, and what is ‘the big game’ first seems to be a girl practicing kicks by herself, with one adult watching.

 

The biggest strengths are in the performances.  Borgnine dominates the film as a man who has long thought his life was worthless, because he hasn’t achieved his loftiest goals.  Corbin gives Borgnine the heightened level of meanness he needs to play off of.  And as the, granddaughter Audrey B. Scott is surprisingly believable, even when delivering dialogue that seems unnatural.  And hardcore Western nerds take note: the man who introduces Rex to Vicente, thus inducing the handshake of the title, is Peter Sherayko, Texas Jack Vermillion from TOMBSTONE.

 

 

We’ll all miss Ernie, but it’s very nice that he could go out on his strong, film-carrying performance in THE MAN WHO SHOOK THE HAND OF VICENTE FERNANDEZ. 

 

 

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?






 

THE AUTRY NATIONAL CENTER

Built by cowboy actor, singer, baseball and TV entrepreneur Gene Autry, and designed by the Disney Imagineering team, the Autry is a world-class museum housing a fascinating collection of items related to the fact, fiction, film, history and art of the American West. In addition to their permanent galleries (to which new items are frequently added), they have temporary shows. The Autry has many special programs every week -- sometimes several in a day. To check their daily calendar, CLICK HERE. And they always have gold panning for kids every weekend. For directions, hours, admission prices, and all other information, CLICK HERE.



HOLLYWOOD HERITAGE MUSEUM

Across the street from the Hollywood Bowl, this building, once the headquarters of Lasky-Famous Players (later Paramount Pictures) was the original DeMille Barn, where Cecil B. DeMille made the first Hollywoodwestern, The Squaw Man. They have a permanent display of movie props, documents and other items related to early, especially silent, film production. They also have occasional special programs. 2100 Highland Ave., L.A. CA 323-874-2276. Thursday – Sunday 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. $5 for adults, $3 for senior, $1 for children.



WELLSFARGO HISTORY MUSEUM

This small but entertaining museum gives a detailed history of Wells Fargo when the name suggested stage-coaches rather than ATMS. There’s a historically accurate reproduction of an agent’s office, an original Concord Coach, and other historical displays. Open Monday through Friday, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. Admission is free. 213-253-7166. 333 S. Grand Street, L.A. CA.


WESTERN ALL OVER THE DIAL


INSP’s SADDLE-UP SATURDAY features a block of rarely-seen classics THE VIRGINIAN and HIGH CHAPARRAL, along with BONANZA and THE BIG VALLEY. On weekdays they’re showing LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE, BIG VALLEY, HIGH CHAPARRAL and DR. QUINN, MEDICINE WOMAN.


ME-TV’s Saturday line-up includes BRANDED, THE REBEL and THE GUNS OF WILL SONNETT. On weekdays it’s DANIEL BOONE, GUNSMOKE, BONANZA, BIG VALLEY, WILD WILD WEST, and THE RIFLEMAN.


RFD-TV, the channel whose president bought Trigger and Bullet at auction, have a special love for Roy Rogers. They show an episode of The Roy Rogers Show on Sunday mornings, a Roy Rogers movie on Tuesday mornings, and repeat them during the week.


WHT-TV has a weekday afternoon line-up that’s perfect for kids, featuring LASSIE, THE ROY ROGERS SHOW and THE LONE RANGER.


TV-LAND angered viewers by dropping GUNSMOKE, but now it’s back every weekday, along with BONANZA.

Just the one lead story for tonight’s Round-up – I have to finish some script revisions, and prepare questions for an interview for next week’s Round-up. Have a great week!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright December 2012 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved

'REDEMPTION' IS HERE!

Movie Review – REDEMPTION: FOR ROBBING THE DEAD

Those who say there are only six or seven Western plots had better hold their tongues until they’ve seen REDEMPTION: FOR ROBBING THE DEAD.  They haven’t seen this one yet. Although not a traditional Western, it is a legitimate one, focusing on a lawman, an outlaw of a sort, and their relationship.  Most remarkable of all, it’s a largely true story.

In 1862, Salt Lake City lawman Henry Heath (John Freeman) follows up a complaint by a dead outlaw’s brother who, in exhuming his grave to bring the body home, finds that his brother has been buried face down and naked.  Heath, having gone to the personal expense of providing a suit for the bandit, now goes to question the grave-digger, French immigrant Jean Baptiste (David Stevens), and at his home finds the man’s brain-addled wife, and evidence suggesting that the man has robbed hundreds of graves for their clothes. 

Baptiste was involved in the recent burial of Heath’s daughter, a loss that has crushed Heath and his wife (Robyn Adamson), and Baptiste barely saves his own life by convincing Heath that his daughter was not among his victims.  Despised by a horrified community, there is no shortage of people who would gladly kill Baptiste, but his grotesque crimes are not a hanging offense, and to punish him without actually killing him, the ghoul is exiled to Antelope Island, in the center of the Great Salt Lake. 

When someone must occasionally bring provisions to the exile, the job falls upon Heath, and the simple decency he shows in his treatment of Baptiste is all that keeps the banished man alive.  It also soon makes Heath nearly as despised as his prisoner. 

REDEMPTION is a haunting and thought-provoking study of one of the strangest crimes in the history of the American West.  Writer-director Thomas Russell, a Slamdance Award-Winning screenwriter, has told the often queasy-making story with a subtle but eerie tone.  While the only truly humorous moments happen early in the film, later scenes like Baptiste’s oblique evaluation of the clothing of a group of mourners are wonderfully sinister.  And Russell has learned, as Val Lewton and John Carpenter did before him, that the unseen but alluded to crimes are much more troubling in the imagination than if they were directly shown.

The leads, though largely unfamiliar, are up to their challenges, and John Freeman is impressive as the lawman who blames his past sins for his daughter’s death.  David Stevens as Baptiste manages to bring pathos and humanity to a character that is inherently revolting.  And there are very familiar faces giving strong performances in supporting roles.   Edward Herrmann appears briefly as the Governor, and Rance Howard plays the physician who can do nothing to save the lawman’s child.  Jon Gries, creepy Uncle Rico from NAPOLEON DYNAMITE, plays a hired gun.  Margot Kidder, Lois Lane to Christopher Reeves’ Superman, is Baptiste’s ‘tetched’ but endearing wife.  The best supporting role, and performance, is by Barry Corbin, as the judge who explains why Heath must protect Baptiste, in a heartbreaking monologue.

I hesitate to say that this could be classified as a faith-based production, as I don’t mean to suggest that you should lower your expectations.  It is not a preachy movie; it’s just that some of the characters are influenced by their faith. 

The art direction and costuming by Melanie Gardner and Bree Evans bring the Utah frontier to life.  Derek Pueblo’s photography is effective whether showing gloomy interiors or startling action, like Baptiste being dragged by the collar through a cemetery to identify each grave he defiled.  But Pueblo especially excels in some of the startlingly beautiful vistas of the sky over the Salt Lake.  You can certainly understand why Brigham Young saw the Salt Lake Valley and concluded this was the place to build his city. 

REDEMPTION: FOR ROBBING THE DEAD is available now from Monterey Media.

NATIONAL DAY OF THE COWBOY A RIP-SNORTING SUCCESS!

Last Saturday, July 28^th, marked the 8^th National Day of the Cowboy, and the celebrations are getting bigger and better with every year.  Last year, Western writer J. R. Sanders convinced the Barnes & Noble in Redlands, California to sponsor READ ‘EM COWBOY, to encourage kids to read about the West.  This year there were several READ ‘EM events in California, five in Texas, and others in Wyoming, Colorado, and South Dakota!

When I went to the READ ‘EM COWBOY event at the Santa Clarita Barnes & Noble, parked in front there was Western wardrobe-designer par excellence Nudie’s customized Cadillac, pulling a wagon he’d designed for Roy Rogers: a sure sign that Julie Ann Ream, who was in charge of the store’s event, was in the building. 

Peter Ford

 

Just beyond the cash registers was a table where Peter Ford, son of stars Glenn Ford and Eleanor Powell, sat signing copies of his book, GLENN FORD, A LIFE (reviewed recently in the Round-up).  I opined that Glenn Ford was one of the screen’s great cowboy icons.  “Thank you.  A lady just came by and bought a book, and said, ‘Your father was one of the three greatest horsemen,’ in her opinion, the others being Ben Johnson and Joel McCrea.  So Dad is in very good company with those two.  He was a quick-draw with his handgun.  Born in Quebec, Canada, it’s about as far away from cowboys and horses and gunplay as you can get, but he became quite proficient.” 

Kid Reno

Farther into the store, a performance area had been set up for a succession of western music-makers.

Ralph and Geri

Ben Costello

 

On the other side of the store, just outside the speaker’s room, author Ben Costello was signing copies of GUNSMOKE: AN AMERICAN INSTITUTION, the product of five years of research and interviews (soon to be reviewed in the Round-up).  Opposite Ben, DEADWOOD regulars Ralph Richeson and Geri Jewell were sitting, Geri signing her autobiography. 

Authors Mark Bedor and Jim Christina

Peter Sherayko

The speaker’s room was filled with a number of western writers signing their books, including Mark Bedor, Jim Christina, and Peter Sherayko, whose excellent TOMBSTONE: THE GUNS AND THE GEAR and THE FRINGE OF HOLLYWOOD were recently reviewed in the Round-up.  As Julie Ann Ream emceed, a succession of Western-related folks took the microphone.  Among them were THE SEARCHERS star Lana Wood; Republic western and serial star Peggy Stewart; Julie Rogers, who talked about grandparents Roy and Dale, and modeled a Nudie skirt; and Ken Berry, who starred in F-TROOP, a delightful comedic take on the cavalry western.  “I’ve been to a couple of these evenings.  As a matter of fact, Bob Steele (Trooper Duffy) was a dear friend.  I loved Bob.  And I went to an evening that was especially fun; Gene Autry was there.  And I’ve met Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.  They meant a lot to me, too.” 

Lana Wood

Peggy Stewart

Julie Rogers

Ken Berry

The very busy Martin Kove, a popular villain and hero, made a splash in CAGNEY & LACEY, and the RAMBO and KARATE KID films.  But his earliest credits include GUNSMOKE and THE WHITE BUFFALO, with Charles Bronson, and westerns have a special place in his heart.  “I was all the way in Beverly Hills, actually.  I said, do I want to show up?  But my commitment is to the rejuvenation  of the west, and trying to do as many westerns (as I can), trying to get our heritage back on track, so kids can remember what it was like when they saw a western, and the values of the western.  So I said, I’ve got to show up; the same reason you beat yourself to death trying to get a western financed; it’s a great uphill battle.  I think from 1920 to 1967, one of every three movies made in Hollywood was a western.  So it’s kind of an over-exposed genre.  I really care about the genre, and the future of it, and I don’t want it to disappear.  This is an indelible part, this National Day of the Cowboy, to keep it alive.”  I asked him about his most recent western project.  “I’m doing an internet series called SIXGUN SAVIOR, (a supernatural western).  I’m going to do a 1950s oil story, called THE FALCON’S SONG.  I leave in about two weeks to go to Montana.”  

Martin Kove

While a group was heading to the local Baja Fresh for lunch – Baja, like the local Ben & Jerry’s, were contributing a portion of the day’s sales to the NDOC – I drove over to the Autry to see how their celebration was going.  There was continuous entertainment in the courtyard, with square-dancing, music by bands like Triple Chicken Foot, and Miss Devon & The Outlaw.  Famed champion gunslinger Joey Dillon was back with his flashing .45 Colt single-actions, and nearby some kids were hammering designs in leather, while others were learning to toss a lariat.  The Wells Fargo Theatre was packed with Saturday matinee fans watching episodes of THE GENE AUTRY SHOW. 

Joey Dillon and a volunteer

Hurry up, kid!   There's a line for that horse!

Curator Jeffrey Richardson

Rarely seen quarter horse!

The gold-panning operators were doing a land-office business, and throughout the museum, docents were giving history demonstrations.  I ran into Jeffrey Richardson outside of the wonderful Colt Gallery, which he curated.  He told me the life-sized Gunfight at the O.K. Corral diorama would soon be closed to make way for an expansion of the gun collection.  I asked him about the importance of the National Day of the Cowboy at the Autry.  “One of the things we like to do here at the Autry, on the Day of the Cowboy and everyday, is let people know that, despite depictions in popular entertainment, cowboys were a really diverse group. It’s a day when people can come and explore the rich history of the American west, specifically seen through the eyes of one of the truly iconic figures of (our) history the American cowboy.”

Meanwhile, J.R. Sanders’ READ ‘EM COWBOY event at the Redlands Barnes & Noble and Starbucks, brought thirteen western authors, had plenty of entertainment for young and old, and featured a Young Writers Cowboy Fiction Contest.

Authors Chris Enss, Nicholas Cataldo and Paige Peyton

Young Writers Cowboy Fiction contest winners, with Jim Meals and J. R. Sanders

One of the very interesting out-of-California events was CRAZY DAYS, at Belle Fourche, South Dakota, the setting for the end of the classic John Wayne western THE COWBOYS (they actually shot it in New Mexico and L.A., but Belle Fourche is where the story is set).  Marking the 40^th anniversary of the film’s release, Belle Fourche welcomed five of the original COWBOYS from the cast: Nicolas Beauvy (Dan), Al Barker Jr. (Fats), Steven Hudis (Charlie Schwartz), Sean Kelly (Stuttering Bob), and Steve Benedict (Steve).  Last week’s Round-up featured an interview with Nic Beauvy about the making of THE COWBOYS, and I called him this afternoon to find out how Belle Fourche worked out. 

“Bell Fouche was wonderful!  It was a treat to see the other COWBOYS, and everybody had a good time: we were treated like movie stars.  It was the first time in forty years I’d seen (them).  Everyone was eager to sign autographs and feel important and to know that you were in a movie that people loved.  It’s so revered over there: it’s like GONE WITH THE WIND in the Midwest.  The people who are fifty, sixty years old now, who were kids when the movie came out, they loved the movie so much that they’ve turned their children on to it.  So I met kids who were 8 years old, 12 years old, 15 years old who have seen the movie many, many times, and know it inside and out.  Because their parents love it.   

“It was just a great experience for me in that I met real Midwestern American people.  You know, coming from Los Angeles you don’t meet too many people like that.  They leave the keys of the car in the ignition.  They don’t lock their doors at night.  It’s a different way of life, not such a complicated life.  In some ways they enjoy life a lot more.  It’s beautiful to be around people like that.”  Like cowboys.

RUSSELL CROWE TO REPLACE JAVIER BARDEM IN ‘DARK TOWER’

"Take that, Javier!"

Work comes from Deadline: Hollywood that Akiva Goldsman has delivered to Warner Brothers a draft of the script for the first part of Stephen King’s THE DARK TOWER, a sci-fi Western.  Based on eight books by King, the project is planned as three theatrical features and two TV miniseries.  Dropped by Universal when it got too expensive, Warners currently has the option, and should decide whether or not to proceed within the next two weeks.     

Imagine Films director Ron Howard and producer Brian Grazer, the team that won Oscars for A BEAUTIFUL MIND, are at the helm, and Howard is no stranger to the Western form, having starred in THE SHOOTIST before directing FAR AND AWAY and THE MISSING.  Javier Bardem, long attached to the project, is no longer, and the talk is that GLADIATOR Oscar winner and A BEAUTIFUL MIND star Russell Crowe will portray gunslinger Roland Deschain.  Crowe has previously ridden the range in THE QUICK AND THE DEAD and 3:10 TO YUMA. 

SPAGHETTI WESTERNS UNCHAINED CONTINUES AT EGYPTIAN

On Wednesday, August 8^th it’s TEPEPA with Tomas Milian and Orson Welles and YANKEE.  On Thursday THE RUTHLESS FOUR, with Van Heflin, Gilbert Roland and Klaus Kinski, with REQUIESCANT.  On Friday, Sergio Corbucci’s COMPANEROS, with Franco Nero and Tomas Milian, with THE PRICE OF POWER, with Fernando Rey and Van Johnson.  Then Saturday, The Main Event: Corbucci’s DJANGO!  Starring Franco Nero, and Lee Van Cleef in THE GRANND DUEL.  Sunday it’s DJANGO KILL…IF YOU LIVE, SHOOT, and Corbucci’s HELLBENDERS, starring Joseph Cotten. 

That's it for this week!  Sorry I'm posting on Monday morning rather than Sunday night, but I lost the internet at midnight.  On the plus side, I got more sleep than I usually do on a Sunday night.

Have a great week!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright August 2012 by Henry C. Parke -- All Rights Reserved