KEVIN COSTNER ON HOPES FOR ‘HORIZON 1-4’, CRAIG ‘LONGMIRE’ JOHNSON ON HIS NEWEST NOVELLA, 'GUNSMOKE' AUCTION, PLUS AUSSIE WESTERN SERIES ‘TERRITORY’, UPCOMING ‘FRONTIER CRUCIBLE’!

 

KEVIN COSTNER ON ‘HORIZON’

“I love what I do. I feel privileged to be able to do it. It has been a struggle, but it was a struggle for my crew too. Just to give you an example, I shot Dances with Wolves in 106 days. And Horizon, the first one, is arguably as big as that, if not bigger. We shot it in 52 days. No one stopped working. No one was late. [Everyone] was ready.” -- Kevin Costner

 

On Tuesday night, November 12^th, at the Angelika Theatre in New York’s West Village, Horizon, an American Saga, Chapter One, was screened for an audience of mostly members of various film guilds. Afterwards, star, director and co-writer Kevin Costner took to the stage with actress Ella Hunt, and Mara Webster of In Creative Company. Mara interviewed Kevin and Ella about making Horizon, and the following quotes from Kevin Costner are in answer to Mara’s questions.

Ella Hunt, Kevin Costner, Mara Webster

For those who have not yet seen Horizon, Chapter One, the title is the name of a town-to-be which an unscrupulous and thus-far unseen businessman has promoted as heaven-on-Earth to many would-be pioneers. Costner, who doesn’t appear for the first hour, plays Hayes Ellison, a horse trader who inadvertently gets thrust into a feud. Ella Hunt plays Juliette Chesney, a privileged Englishwoman travelling by wagon-train with her artist husband, both of them woefully unprepared for the trip, and clueless as to what’s expected of them. Costner’s and Hunt’s characters do not meet in Chapter One, but doubtless will in Chapter Two.

Mara Webster began by pointing out that Costner had been trying to put together Horizon since 1988, and wondered how having a 35-year gestation period affected the project. (Note: I spoke to Kevin Costner in 2019 for True West – here’s the link: https://truewestmagazine.com/article/kevin-costner/ -- an updated version of my interview is in my book, The Greatest Westerns Ever Made and the People Who Made Them -- and we had discussed Horizon, a project that he wanted to make: “I have a Western that I really want to make; I just can’t find the rich guys that want to make it—an epic Western.”)
“Well, I was certainly ready to make it. I wasn't sure I'd find somebody like Ella. And I'm not sure Ella was born when I started thinking about this thing (note: Ella Hunt was born in 1998). It's an unusual story about Ella. It hasn't happened to me very often -- it happened to me once in Dances with Wolves. Robert Pastorelli (note: Candice Bergen’s useless apartment maintenance man from Murphy Brown) came in to read a part. And he came in spats, he had his bowling shirt on, and his gold ‘goomba’ stuff. And the part I had picked out for him -- I just looked at him -- he started reading and I said, ‘Robert, just stop for a second.’ I took his sides out of his hand. There was another (role), this dirty teamster, and I handed him those sides, and he made history with it. He was such an incredible actor. (Note: Pastorelli died in 2004, at age 49.) And when I first met Ella, she was going to read for the daughter (of a pioneer family), and I didn't take the sides out of her hand, but I made a switch right there, that she would play this incredible character, that we would be asking to do so much. She just has this incredible beauty and youngness about her. But there's some incredible maturity about her too.”

Tom Payne and Ella Hunt

“I thought he was joking,” Hunt responded. “And then was incredibly flattered, and daunted, as Juliette is a character who is very tested over the course of these films… I think one of the very special things about Kevin as a director is…the belief that he invests in all of the people around him. I'm so grateful that you looked at me and thought that I could do that. And now, because of Juliette, I've gone on to do things that I wouldn't have allowed myself to. I've just played Gilda Radner (note: in the new film, Saturday Night).”

In answer to Webster’s question about how Costner chooses when to shoot closely, intimately, and when to “see the impact of the landscape,” he replied, “Well, we did go to places that still exist in America. It's if you're willing to get out of chasing a rebate. For me, that was important, to have these landscapes that went on forever. But you know, we're not making a travelogue. And eventually it boils down to what is the story, and it shrinks down. And when someone can dominate the horizon, this giant landscape, you have to find scenes that are so intimate to set against it. And so we created scenes where my actors swallow this horizon. They're so strong that you forget about how far the country goes. You realize the pain and what they're going through. I like to think of the Western as our Shakespeare. This is not a series of ‘yeps’ and ‘nopes’. It was a Victorian age and people did have the ability to express themselves really beautifully. You have Danny Houston giving us a speech, which I equate to James Earl Jones' speech in Field of Dreams, Danny explaining Manifest Destiny. And you get someone like Ella, who shows the most intimate moment of a woman who is just tired of being dirty, and just the feel of water. And when you watch her perform that moment, and look in that mirror, (you) also understand how cold that night was. You know, that scene has as much place for me in a Western as a gunfight. It had to be there.”

Asked how he gave familiar genre elements a deeper context, Costner replied, “Well, I tried to break with Westerns because I don't like a lot of Westerns; most of them aren't very good. And the black-and-whites that we grew up with, they were so simple, they were a mainstay of our televisions, our theater. But they often were too simple for me. The black hat, the white hat, the way people dressed. But the thing that stood out for me, what had been missing almost in every way -- and it took a while for it to dawn on me -- is every western has a town. But they're not like mushrooms: they didn't just come up. There was a terrible struggle that took place. And it took place from sea to shining sea. Every inch of that land was fought for, was contested. Where our great cities exist, (there) were (already) people. They know where the good places were to live. And we did too, and we kind of wiped them out. But that was not ever talked about in any Westerns: the towns always exist. And I started wondering, what would it be like to see the beginning of something? There was nothing there, there was a (new) group of people that had found a level of equilibrium that made peace with the (native) people to such a degree that they were getting along. [As the film begins,] the first image is a surveyor stick that goes into an ant hill. And we disrupted their way of life. And what you'll see when you see all four -- and I hope that you do -- is you'll see the struggle: this town burns and is rebuilt and burns and rebuilt, and finally there's a tipping point in the West. And it was just simply numbers. They (the natives) never stood a chance. But I also don't want to be embarrassed about the ingenuity and the bravery and the spontaneity and the courage that it took for people to cross that Mississippi and go there. It's not a land in Disneyland; it was contested, it was real. The country was founded in the East, but its character was really formed in the West with this constant battle.

Tom Payne, Ella Hunt, Kevin Costner 

“I think we've had enough of heroes having buffoons to knock down. When you face formidable people, it makes for a more interesting movie. When you believe in the behavior -- it's not really possible for one guy to beat up everybody in the bar. Everybody assumes that everybody could ride a horse, or fix a wagon, or make a fire. If you stick with the reality, there can be a lot of drama in the West, and a lot of danger. Something that I gravitated to when I was little, was when I saw children in a movie being able to survive in an adult world; I leaned into the movie more. But when children were stupid in movies, where directors or writing made them stupid, I leaned away. And I think that with all our CGI, with all our great effects that we have to build our movies up, when we don't invest in character, in behavior, those things aren't any good to us. When we see ourselves is when our greatest joy happens in the theater.

“I do like to make these movies, and when I started writing this with Jon (Baird) in 1988, it's safe to say that no one really wanted to make it. And in 2003, the studio wouldn't make it for 5 million more dollars. And I was distressed about that. I went on to make other movies, but I couldn't leave this one behind. And I was so mad that they didn't understand the first one, that I decided to write four more. (The audience laughs.) And everybody goes, oh yeah, that's Kevin! Jon and I, we started writing, and again, I wasn't writing to please anybody, I was trying to please myself because I think that's my best chance at pleasing you.

“I do love horses running fast. I do love the mountains and rivers that never end. And I do love the gunfight if it's orchestrated correctly. But what surprised me was when I looked up or looked down, with Jon Baird, who I am completely indebted to, was that every story had women running right down the middle. So here I had these Big Four Cowboy Movies, and women almost dominate -- and Ella dominates Chapter Two.  I just found that I couldn't tell the story that I was trying to, without making women dominant. It was a surprise to me. I don't know if fate was just moving my hand. I go, ‘Not another woman! Come on! Where's the gun fight?’ But I loved how their struggle fit so perfectly in the West. I'm proudest of the script, that Jon Baird allowed these actors to feast on with myself.”

An audience member asked if all four parts of Horizon are written. “They're all written, so this is not a case of ‘we don't know where it's going.’ We know exactly where it's going. I don't know why four movies is what's in my head, but that's what it is. And so I will push the rock uphill to find the money to do this. So that one day you'll have these four, and I hope this is a Treasure Island on your bookshelf of electronic films. I hope you have it to show your friends, to revisit it and see the details, see the nuances and choices that these actors made because it was really extraordinary acting going on in an American Western. There's a notion that things are easy for me. I guess maybe they are, if I do the things that people want me to do, and it's not that I am a contrary person. I'm not even an avant garde person for crying out loud. I make movies with horses and campfires, but I do it with an edge. It's not always in vogue. But I'm so happy to be able to do it. And I won't rest until I'm done. And I will figure it out. If I can't find that billionaire, I will look to myself like I did on One and Two. But there will be four.”

An audience member asked Costner how he made period films seem so contemporary. “Well, I think that in every generation we have abusive people. We have peeping toms -- we had them on the wagon train. So I can blend the same difficulties that we have in life and bring them right into the frontier. We have the sociopath; we have acts of kindness. There were guns and there was alcohol and a lot of times there weren't very many women. People were angry. And you run into a person that's just killed somebody and there's a bloodlust. (Note: the following refers to a scene where he’s going up a hill to see the prostitute Marigold, played by Abbey Lee, and is stalked and goaded by gunman Jamie Bower playing Caleb Sykes.) Jamie Bower, who walked up that hill with me – that actor's amazing. So we have a gun fight -- I’m not trying to reinvent the Western. But what I was really interested in was the walk up the hill; that this was a bully, and we've all encountered them in school and at work. And this was somebody that was coming out of a blood lust. He had just killed someone. He'd just been humiliated by his brother. And that was just as interesting to me. A studio might say, ‘Just get to the gunfight for crying out loud, Kevin!’ And I'm in love with the walk. I think I'm always going to be in love with the walk.”

Jamie Bower and Kevin Costner

An audience member notes the industry’s lack of interest in passion projects, and asks Costner where his wellspring of determination and hope comes from. “I just believe. I believe in story so much. I believe I have a secret in my pocket, and I just can't wait to share it). The only thing that's disappointing to me is I can't be you, and see this for the very first time like you just saw it: I wanted people to make a movie like this for me. But I can't lose my enthusiasm. No one can break me, break my spirit. I do get down, do wonder how I'm going to go on, but I love my actors. I just love that I found my Yellow Brick Road a long time ago, when I didn't figure to have any future. I got D’s and F’s in high school, where you're supposed to at least be kind of good.

“I found myself. And to be here in front of you, to be able to share what I love with people who share and have a passion that runs so deep, it's so personal, every detail. And I hope that you see them, (the Horizon films) and you revisit them the same way. When I watched Wizard of Oz, I didn't know the horses change color. I should have, because there's the line, ‘A horse of a different color.’ Every time I watch that, I see something new. And that's what I want from my movies. My movies. They have to be more than just an opening weekend. They have to be a lifetime.”

 

CRAIG ‘LONGMIRE’ JOHNSON JOINS ‘RENDEZVOUS WITH A WRITER’ TO DISCUSS HIS NEWEST NOVELLA, ‘TOOTH AND CLAW’

On the first Thursday of every month, I have the pleasure of being ‘in the limelight,’ joining hosts Bobbi Jean and Jim Bell on their weekly Rendezvous with a Writer podcast, where I present the month’s news in the world of film and TV Westerns, and take part in their interview with a guest writer. On November 7th, that guest was Longmire creator Craig Johnson, who was announcing the publication of his newest novella, Tooth and Claw. This story takes Longmire and Henry Standing Bear back to the Vietnam War years, and their adventures in Alaska among polar bears and bad men. The link below will bring you to the podcast: 

https://www.facebook.com/bobbi.j.bell/videos/8753051584737954

 

AUSSIE WESTERN SERIES ‘TERRITORY’ ON NETFLIX

Robert Taylor, Sam Corlett

Actor Robert Taylor, who starred as the title character on the phenomenally popular Longmire, has two series this year. He plays Jackson Gibbs, a continuing character on NCIS: Origins, and for Netflix, he stars as Colin Lawson, the patriarch of the Lawson family, who are 5^th generation owners of the largest cattle-station in Australia. (Note: what Americans call ranches, Australians call stations.) It’s stated in the first of six episodes that it’s the size of Belgium, which I suspect is roughly the size of Yellowstone. In the opener, the son that Colin has been grooming to take over the family business meets an ugly fate, and the others scramble to take his position. I found the first episode gripping, and will definitely watch more.    

JANET ARNESS DISCUSSES JULIEN’S ‘GUNSMOKE’ AUCTION

On November 15^th, Julien’s held a Western-themed, largely Gunsmoke auction in the Hollywood Museum, former home of Max Factor glamour empire. There were 568 lots up for bids, 230 from the estate of TV’s Matt Dillon, James Arness. I had the pleasure of discussing the auction before the fact with Jim’s widow, Janet Arness, for an article for the INSP blog. Here is the link: https://www.insp.com/blog/what-janet-arness-thinks-of-the-gunsmoke-auction/

Incidentally, I’m writing another INSP follow-up article on how the auction turned out.

 

THOMAS JANE, ARMIE HAMMER TO STAR IN ‘FRONTIER CRUCIBLE’

Thomas Jane from Murder at Yellowstone City

Johnny Depp and an un-masked Lone Ranger, Armie Hammer

Shooting in Monument Valley and Prescott, Arizona beginning this month, Frontier Crucible will be rolling camera under the direction of Travis Mills, who gained attention when he made good on his audacious pledge to make 12 Westerns in 12 months – during Covid, no less! In the post-Civil War drama set in Arizona Territory, Myles Clohessy is an ex-soldier who throws in with outlaws lead by Jane, and a couple, Mary Stickley and Ed Brown, to fight against common enemies. The role for Hammer, the screen’s most recent Lone Ranger, was not specified. Also in the cast is Eddie Spears. Producer Dallas Sonnier pitched the project as Reservoir Dogs meets Bone Tomahawk, and he in fact produced Bone Tomahawk, as well as 2022’s Terror on the Prairie. (Click HERE to read about my visit to the Bone Tomahawk set, and my interview with Dallas Sonnier https://henryswesternroundup.blogspot.com/2015/10/bone-tomahawk-review-interviews-plus.html )

…AND THAT’S A WRAP!

Please check out the new November/December issue of True West Magazine, featuring my article celebrating the 50^th anniversary of Sam Peckinpah’s classic, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid – I was fortunate enough to interview Peckinpah’s assistant Katy Haber, film editor and historian Paul Seydor, and one of the movie’s last living stars – although he’s the first one killed onscreen – Charles Martin Smith. And the next Round-up will feature my interview with Michael Feifer on the eve of directing his 8^th Western!

Much obliged,

Henry C. Parke

All Original Contents Copyright November 2024 by Parke – All Rights Reserved

 

‘HATEFUL 8’, ‘KEEPING ROOM’ REVIEWED, PLUS BIG DOINGS AT THE AUTRY!

Kurt Russell & Samuel L. Jackson

THE HATEFUL 8 – A Film Review

In Wyoming, in the dead of winter, a chartered stage-coach is flagged down by Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), a bounty hunter with a stack of frozen outlaw cadavers – he needs to get them to town for the rewards.  But the renter of the coach, bounty hunter John Ruth (Kurt Russell), wants no more passengers, living or dead: he’s already transporting murderess Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) whom he intends to hang, and the company of another bounty hunter holds no appeal.  John Ruth finally gives in, and the trio of passengers are barely on the road when who else appears, thumbing a ride, but Sheriff Clay Mannix (Walton Goggins), the new lawman at the town where both Ruth and Warren are expecting to collect their bounties. 

Tim Roth, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh

The group arrives at a stagecoach stop, and find it full of an interesting and sinister mix of characters: Bob (Demian Birchir) is minding the place while the owners are away; Oswaldo Mobray (Tim Roth) is a British traveling hangman; Joe Gage (Michael Madsen) is a hard-looking cowboy and would-be writer; and General Sandy Smithers (Bruce Dern) is a former Confederate officer still clinging to his past status.

Bruce Dern

Guess what?  They’re snowed in: everyone will have to spend the night.  This concerns John Ruth because he’s convinced that someone, perhaps more than one someone, is not who they say.  Someone is there to free Daisy Domergue, and will willingly commit murder to do it.  And he’s right, of course.  From there, 99% of the movie takes place in the one big room of the log house stagecoach stop, as characters confront each other, secrets are revealed, and people die. 

That’s right, it’s what’s known in the TV vernacular as an ‘elevator show’ or a ‘bottle show.’  It’s a funny and audacious decision by Tarantino to do a big-budget theatrical feature version of what is done on TV to save money.  Tarantino explained in an interview with DEADLINE HOLLYWOOD that his influences were series like THE VIRGINIAN, BONANZA, and THE HIGH CHAPPARAL.  “Twice per season, those shows would have an episode where a bunch of outlaws would take the lead characters hostage. They would come to the Ponderosa, or go to Judge Garth's place — Lee J. Cobb played him — in The Virginian and take hostages. There would be a guest star like David Carradine, Barren McGavin, Claude Akins, Robert Culp, Charles Bronson, or James Coburn . I don't like that storyline in a modern context, but I love it in a Western, where you would pass halfway through the show to find out if they were good or bad guys, and they all had a past that was revealed. I thought, 'What if I did a movie starring nothing but those characters? No heroes, no Michael Landons. Just a bunch of nefarious guys in a room, all telling backstories that may or may not be true. Trap those guys together in a room with a blizzard outside, give them guns, and see what happens.”

Samuel L. Jackson & Walton Goggins

What happens, very entertainingly is the HATEFUL 8 – it’s full of the droll characters and crackling dialogue that helped make Tarantino famous.  And this kind of claustrophobic DESPERATE HOURS sort of story is the kind that he excels in, as he proved in RESERVOIR DOGS (1992).  Are the characters over the top?  Sure, but they’re meant to be: this is stylized story-telling, not docudrama, and the ensemble is a delight to watch. 

Tarantino loves to shock us, of course, and there is a lot of blood and vomiting, and there is an extended sadistic story-telling sequence where Warren psychologically tortures General Smithers with what may be a real story, or one as invented as the characters’ identities.  It’s too ugly, and too long, but at least its flashback gets us out of the cabin for a bit. 

Michael Madsen

Of course, Tarantino has fun with his inside jokes.  Samuel L. Jackson’s character, Major Marquis Warren, is a nod to novelist, independent Western filmmaker and screenwriter Charles Marquis Warren, a protégé of F. Scott Fitzgerald, who was one of the great story talents behind GUNSMOKE, RAWHIDE and THE VIRGINIAN series.  Tim Roth plays Oswaldo Mobray as a delightful impression of British character Alan Mobray.  And Michael Madsen’s Joe Gage character is a wink at Nick Adams’ character, Johnny Yuma, from THE REBEL series, a former soldier roaming the West and writing about his experiences.

The acknowledgment of THE REBEL is particularly interesting because, while this sort of snowed in ‘Zane Grey meets Agatha Christie’ story can be found in other series – the STOPOVER episode of THE RIFLEMAN, directed by Budd Boetticher and written by Arthur Brown Jr, is particularly memorable – an episode of THE REBEL, entitled FAIR GAME (1960), written by Richard Newman and directed by Irvin Kershner, is unexpectedly close to HATEFUL 8.  It’s fascinating to see what Tarantino does expanding what was a thirty-minute plot to 168 minutes.  The entire run of the exceptionally good THE REBEL series is available from Timeless Video, and after you’ve seen the feature, it’s definitely worth your time to watch the short, as well as the whole series.

One of the great joys of HATEFUL 8 is the new score by the maestro Ennio Morricone.  Although he made his name putting music to Sergio Leone’s ‘man with no name’ films, he hadn’t scored a Western since MY NAME IS NOBODY, forty years ago. 

One of the great virtues of HATEFUL 8 is the beauty and grandeur of its outdoor visuals for the brief time that the story is out of doors.  Thrice Oscar-winning cinematographer Robert Richardson has shot several other films for Tarantino, as well as for Martin Scorsese and Oliver Stone: he knows how to get details and definition out of what could simply be a whited-out snowscape in other hands.  It may seem like a crazy film to shoot in 70mm Panavision, but that decision halted Kodak’s plan to shutter their movie film stock production entirely. 

The whole presentation sentimentally harkens back to the time of road-show movies of the 1950s and ‘60s, when seeing a big movie was a big deal, like going to the real theatre.  People dressed up, the seats were reserved, there was a musical overture, and an intermission.  Moviegoing, like the rest of life, is less ‘special’ today.   People go to real theatre today attired in a way I wouldn’t dress to mow the lawn.  So, see HATEFUL 8, and if you can, see it in the longer road-show version, with the overture and intermission.  And maybe dress up.  Just take off your Stetson when the lights go down and the curtains part.

THE KEEPING ROOM – a Film Review

Brit Marling takes aim

In 1865, in a location identified only as ‘The American South’, three women survive on a crumbling plantation, trying to keep body and soul together, and just barely managing.  Augusta (Brit Marling), perhaps twenty, is the daughter of the plantation’s owner who has gone off to war.  She hunts rabbits for stew.  Mad (Muna Otaru), a young slave, searches the overgrown fields for edible vegetables.  Louise, (Hailee Steinfeld), is sixteen, Augusta’s baby sister, and unable or unwilling to face the realities of war; she refuses to work, and seems at times to drift into a fantasy world, donning her late mother’s elegant clothes when she should be dressed for picking and planting.  When asked by her sister to work, she refers tersely to the woman who helped raise her.  “The nigger should do it.”

Her sister Augusta responds, “Like I told you, Louise.  We all niggers now.”

Unbeknownst to the three women, greater danger than starvation is on its way.  Union General William Tecumseh Sherman is coming, cutting his bloody slash “…from Savannah to the sea.”  And in advance of his army come his foragers, or as they were known, ‘Bummers,’ men sent to seize supplies or destroy them, to prepare the ground for invasion.  Mostly they are unregulated, many of them destructive, sadistic, and homicidal.   A pair of them, Moses (Sam Worthington) and Henry (Kyle Soller) introduce themselves with an apparent rape and several murders that mark them as men without conscience. 

Sam Worthington

Back at the plantation, the power shifts between the three women with each challenge they face, until everything comes to a head with a potentially disastrous accident: Louise is bitten by a raccoon, and they lack the medicine to treat the infected wound.   Augusta heads to town looking for medicine – the ‘town’ being a single business, a store, saloon and brothel – and comes to the attention of the Bummers.  She barely escapes, and soon the Bummers are on the hunt for Augusta and the other women.

Not a traditional Western or War Movie by any measure, THE KEEPING ROOM is also a suspense and adventure story, and above all a character study of three finely drawn, very different women.  Elegantly written by first-timer Julia Hart, it’s directed by English-born Daniel Barber, whose previous Western, the short THE TONTO WOMAN (2008), from the Elmore Leonard story, garnered Barber an Oscar nomination. 

Muna Otaru

Cinematographer Martin Ruhe, known for filming crime thrillers like HARRY BROWN   (2009 – directed by Barber), and THE AMERICAN (2010), worked with natural light and source light – lanterns and candles – to give an authentic and often beautiful look to  the interiors.  The exteriors, forest and field, are equally convincing.  Remarkable to think that they were found not in Georgia but in Romania, where COLD MOUNTAIN (2003) and HATFIELDS & MCCOYS (2012) were also filmed.

The structure is unusual, and often admirable.  Among the highlights are a pair of intercut sequences where the women are separately stalked.  Author Hart has a fine ear for dialogue, and the script is at times unexpectedly generous, allowing a humanizing of the Bummers, and raising intriguing questions of how life might have been, had the characters met under different circumstances. 

Hailee Steinfeld

The cast is tiny – only seven actors have speaking parts, and only two scenes have any extras at all.  This serves to make the story intimate and personal, and it also puts a great burden on a very few individuals to carry the entire story, which is fraught with tension and suspense.  Fortunately, the triumvirate of actresses are up to it.  Muna Otaru, a relative newcomer, seems all the more powerful for her halting, soft-spoken performance.  Hailee Steinfeld, playing a weak and self-centered character diametrically opposed to her Matty Ross in TRUE GRIT, turns us off, then wins us over when her character rises to the occasion.  And blonde and beautiful Brit Marling, half Matty Ross herself, and the better half of Scarlet O’Hara, is who we all wish we’d be when the chips are down.

Of course, no film is perfect.  The smallness of the cast can be a problem: would Sherman ever send just a two-man force, and if he did, why didn’t the Southerners just pick them off?  And as smart as Augusta is, why does she keep ignoring warnings to leave the store, and why does she keep making eye contact with men she should know to avoid?

Highly recommended, THE KEEPING ROOM, from Alamo Drafthouse, will be available on VOD in early January.

PLENTY HAPPENING AT THE AUTRY IN JANUARY & FEBRUARY

Kenneth Turan, renowned film critic for The Los Angeles Times and NPR, will be introducing the first two film programs for 2016 in the Autry’s monthly What is a Western? series.  On Saturday, January 16^th at 1:30 pm he will introduce the John Ford/John Wayne classic THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE (1962).  On Saturday, February 13^th, at 1:30 pm he will host a double feature, SEVEN MEN FROM NOW (1956) and RIDE LONESOME (1959).  Star Randolph Scott and producer Harry Joe Brown had formed the Ranown production company, and these two films are part of the fabled ‘Ranown cycle’ of exceptionally fine, tiny budget Westerns, all starring Scott, all directed by Budd Boetticher, and written by Burt Kennedy. 

Also screening at the Autry on February 27^th at noon are a double-bill of Gene’s films, BACK IN THE SADDLE (1941 Republic) and RIDERS OF THE WHISTLING PINES (1949 Columbia).

On Wednesday, January 20^th at 12:30 pm, Rob Word will present the Cowboy Lunch @ The Autry.  After lunch it’s Rob’s A Word on Westerns discussion.  This time the topic is KINGS OF THE COWBOYS, and as we get closer to the date I’ll let you know what exciting guests Rob has lined up. 

For folks who still remember how to read (there are still quite a few of us), One Book, One Autry  is a year-long series of programs focusing on Owen Wister’s genre-creating THE VIRGINIAN.  The first two events are Saturdays, Feb. 20^th & 27^th, with more to come.  If you don’t have your own copy, you can get one at the Autry Store.  (And you can read it, and learn that the great HIGH NOON is actually plagiarized from the last seven or eight chapters). 

Sunday, January 3^rd is the last day to see the magnificent exhibit Empire and Liberty: The Civil War and The West.  From February 6^th through March 20^th you can enjoy Masters of the American West, and if you have deep pockets, you can buy! 

Between book signings, performances and other events, I’m barely scratching the surface.  You can learn more by visiting the official Autry website HERE.  

And admission is free on Monday, New Years Day, and free Saturday and Sunday, the 2^nd and 3^rd, to Bank of America card holders.

THAT’S A WRAP! 

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas (see above, a favorite gift from my wife), and I wish you a Happy New Year!  I’ve got a lot of stuff cookin’ but I don’t want to say too much and jinx myself.  But I’m very excited that I’ll be a guest of Jim Christina and Bobbi Jean Bell on THE WRITERS BLOCK radio show on Thursday, January 7^th at 8 pm, when the BIG guest will be LONGMIRE creator Craig Johnson!  If you haven’t tuned in to this entertaining and informative interview show about the art and craft of writing, here’s the link:  http://latalkradio.com/content/writers-block.

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Content Copyright December 2015 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved 

‘LONGMIRE’ PLAY-DATE, ‘JANE’ REPRIEVE, ‘BONE TOMAHAWK’ REVEAL, PLUS ‘EDGE’ TO CUT A PILOT, AMC ORDERS REDFORD WEST SERIES!

‘LONGMIRE’ RETURNS, NOW TO NETFLIX, THURS., SEPT 10!

The long-awaited 4^th season of LONGMIRE is ‘in the can’ and almost here!  What was A&E’s most successful drama ever – until they abruptly dropped it – will premiere in a little over a month on Netflix.   It will NOT be available on broadcast or cable or satellite – you’ll have to subscribe to Netflix to see it through the internet.  The entire ten-episode season will be available on that day, so if you want, you can binge-watch it in a sitting (and have no more LONGMIRE to watch for a year – ulp!).  All the regular characters are back, and season 4 will begin right were season 3 ended.  And here’s some great news: because Netflix is a pay service, there are no commercials, so the episodes will be not 48 minutes, but at least an hour long!  In my LONGMIRE article in the upcoming October TRUE WEST, I’ll be discussing the whole A&E/Netflix TV saga with LONGMIRE-creator Craig Johnson, and actor Zahn McClarnon, who plays Navajo Officer Mathias.

‘JANE’ RESCUED FROM RELATIVITY CHAPTER 11!

Finally some positive news for the long-embattled JANE GOT A GUN.  The film’s principal financier, lawyer David Boises, got JANE extricated from Relativity Media the day before the imploding mini-major filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.  The movie was set to be a co-release by Relativity and The Weinstein Company.  It hasn’t been announced yet if Weinstein is still in the mix.  To say star Natalie Portman’s first film as a producer has been beleaguered is putting it mildly.  It started when acclaimed writer/director Lynne Ramsay quit on what would have been the first day of shooting.  Star Jude Law went with her, the producers scrambled to recast, Acclaimed director Gavin O’Connor stepped in, Ewan MacGregor stepped in and, against all predictions, the movie was made.  The story concerns a woman who turns for help to her former lover when former associates come after her outlaw husband. 

‘BONE TOMAHAWK’ TO PREMIERE AT ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE ‘FANTASIC FEST’!

Kurt Russell, cowboys and cannibals come together in BONE TOMAHAWK, the new dark Western which will have its world launch at the 11^th annual Alamo Drafthouse Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas.  The Fest runs from September 24^th through October 1^st.   The film also features Lili Simmons, Sean Young, David Arquette, Sid Haig, Michael Pare, and Oscar-nominee Richard Jenkins.  I had the chance to visit the set, and you’ll be reading my interview with writer/director Craig Zahler soon. 

ROBERT REDFORD’S ‘THE WEST’ COMES TO AMC SUMMER 2016

When you’re Robert Redford, you don’t need to audition.  No pilot was required for AMC to sign up for eight one-hour episodes of THE WEST, a docudrama series from Sundance Films that had once been announced at the Discovery Channel.  A new look at familiar bad men and good men of all shades, like Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Jesse James and Billy the Kid, the series will feature commentaries by actors known to the genre, including James Caan, Tom Sellick, Ed Harris and Keifer Sutherland.  It’s planned to run in the summer of 2016, alongside the final episodes of HELL ON WHEELS. 

WAYNE DIEHL ON THE ‘WRITER’S BLOCK’ GUEST THURSDAY NIGHT!

On Thursday, August 6th at 8 pm, Wayne Diehl, author of THE MIDNIGHT RIDE OF MISSY MONTAIGNE, will be joining hosts Jim Christina and Bobbi Jean Bell for an hour of talk on their weekly show, Writer’s Block, on L.A.Talk Radio.  You can listen live (at ‘Listen Live 2’) HERE.  You can call in live at 818-602-4929.  And if you miss the live broadcast, or want to catch up on earlier shows, you can find podcasts of them HERE 

PILOT BASED ON ‘EDGE’ BOOKS ORDERED BY AMAZON

George Gilman’s THE EDGE Western novels and characters will be the basis of a series pilot for Amazon.  Written by the prolific English author in the early 1970s, to follow up with his successful novelizations of the Sergio Leone/Clint Eastwood trilogy, they are cold and violent spaghetti westerns on the page.  Shane Black, who wrote and directed IRON MAN 3, will co-write with Fred Dekker, direct and exec produce.  Max Martini, the SEAL Commander from CAPTAIN PHILLIPS, will play Josiah Hedges, aka Edge, out to avenge his brother’s death.  Ryan Kwanten, of TRUE BLOOD fame, will play Edge’s quarry, the likable son of a senator, secretly a sadistic monster.    

AND THAT’S A WRAP!

So much new Western news!  And people keep asking me, ‘Do they make Westerns anymore?’  Duh!  Have a great week, folks!

Happy Trails,

Henry

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

LESTER CUNEO – THE FIRST ITALIAN WESTERN STAR! PLUS TCM FEST, COWBOY FEST, AND SELECTED SHORTS!

LESTER CUNEO – THE FIRST ITALIAN WESTERN STAR!

The idea of an Italian western star immediately conjures up the 1960s, and the image of a handsome European, perhaps with an Americanized moniker, riding a horse through the Tabernas Desert.  But the first, actually a Chicago-born actor of Italian heritage, started his screen career in 1912 in the United States.  Lester Cuneo’s name is largely unknown today, because he died before the transition of films from silents to talkies, and because his films have long been unavailable.  But now Grapevine Video has made two of his starring features, SILVER SPURS and BLAZING ARROWS, both from 1922, available.  His work is overdue for reappraisal.       

Born in 1888, the tall and handsome Cuneo, with dark eyes and a Roman nose, was a stage actor from his teens, and entered movies at the age of 24.  He was lucky to be in Chicago, headquarters of film pioneer Col. William Selig, and went to work at Selig-Polyscope Studios. For more information on Cuneo and Selig, I turned to Andy Erish, author of the definitive biography of the man, and history of the studio, SELIG – THE MAN WHO INVENTED HOLLYWOOD. 

He told me, “(Cuneo) only made a couple of films at Selig's Chicago studio hub before traveling to Colorado to join the company's Western unit. Ironically, one of the films made in Chicago was a comedy/drama about Italian immigrants in the US called ACCORDING TO LAW, but Cuneo played an immigration cop - not one of the immigrants! Anyway, Cuneo appears to have been assigned to the Colorado unit as a replacement for Tom Mix, who decided not to renew his contract early in 1912 in order to help organize and participate in the first Calgary Stampede. Cuneo played the same sorts of roles Mix had opposite William Duncan - occasionally as the hero, but more often as the villain. When the director of Selig's Colorado troupe, Otis B. Thayer, left after a few months, Duncan took over. Cuneo still alternated playing villain and hero with Duncan.

“Mix rejoined the Selig western unit at Canon City, Colorado around Thanksgiving 1912 after sustaining some serious injuries in the Stampede and the rodeo circuit. Now Mix was often cast in the roles that had been played by Cuneo or Duncan, though all three at various times continued to play hero, villain or henchman. The troupe moved to Prescott, Arizona at the beginning of 1913 where they remained for a year and a half. Duncan directed all of the films and wrote most of them, too, until Mix began writing scripts around September 1913 that more fully integrated his cowboy skills and athletic prowess into his characters and plots. Mix had written a handful of scripts since first joining the company in 1910, and suggested bits of business (physical action) to liven up others' scripts (including those written by Duncan). But the movies written by Mix that were made in Prescott in the fall of 1913 completely transformed the movie cowboy into an action hero whose exploits were an outgrowth of rodeo stunts. Mix had already developed an international following in 1910-11, but the content and success of the films he wrote in Prescott put him in a class by himself.

“Cuneo became the odd man out, serving as sidekick or henchman to Mix's heroes or villains. At the end of 1913 Duncan was reassigned to focus his energies solely on directing Mix - no more acting. Mix had brought a couple of old rodeo and ranch pals into the Prescott unit, notably Sid Jordan, further displacing Cuneo. By the time Selig moved the Western Unit to Glendale, California in mid-1914, Mix had already taken over as director, writer, producer, star, (with) Duncan leaving for Vitagraph. Cuneo seems to have remained behind in Prescott, where he starred in a handful of Selig Western shorts directed by Marshall Farnum (brother of better known actors William and Dustin). Sometime during the summer of 1914 Cuneo left Selig for Essanay, and appears to have relocated to their Chicago studio.” 

Lester Cuneo established himself as a star in Westerns, and unlike many of his contemporaries, starred in films of many other genres.  A more versatile actor than most, he was screen-tested by Ernst Lubitsch for the title role of FAUST in 1923 (sadly, the film was never made).  In 1920 he married beautiful co-star Francelia Billington, and they would produce fourteen movies – and two children – together.  Already a notable actress in her own right, the previous year she had what would be her most important film role, as the married woman pursued by Austrian officer Erich Von Stroheim in BLIND HUSBANDS. 

SILVER SPURS, co-directed by Henry McCarty and James Leo Meehan – both first-time directors! – opens in contemporary (for 1922) Manhattan, as the very cosmopolitan Lester, a western novelist, is at his gentlemen’s club, kidded by his friends for wanting to escape to the simpler life of the imagined west.  They surprise him with a good-luck gift of a pair of silver spurs, and he is on his way. 

In the California town of San Vincente he befriends the local padre (Phil Gastrock), and soon becomes embroiled in helping lovely Rosario del Camarillo (Lillian Ward), by inheritance the queen of the rancho, who has been swindled out of her property and position by Juan Von Rolf (Bert Sprotte).  Von Rolf is such a swine that although married, he treats his wife like dirt, and flaunts his relationship with cantina-girl Carmencita (Zalla Zarana), who makes a play for Lester, in part to make Von Rolf jealous.

In BLAZING ARROWS, again directed by McCarty, an Indian couple, Gray Eagle (Clark Comstock) and Mocking Bird (Laura Howard) discover a white couple, dead by their wagon, and a helpless baby.  The childless couple raises the baby – calling him Sky Fire – as their own.  Abruptly the babe has grown into college student John Strong (Lester Cuneo).  He is on the verge of proposing to wealthy co-ed Martha Randolph (Francelia Billington), but in a nod to Conan Doyle, she is an orphan being raised by guardian Lafe McKee.  Lafe has mismanaged her money, is in hock up to his ears to villainous Lew Meehan (who also co-wrote the script), and will do whatever it takes to keep her from marrying, and gaining control of her fortune. 

John Strong is about to reveal to Martha that he is an Indian (he doesn’t know he was adopted) when Lafe announces it, and forbids the marriage.  Crushed, John drops out of college, goes home to his Indian family.  Distraught, Martha is sent away to the country to ‘get over’ John.  And wouldn’t you know it – they end up in the same place where, as luck would have it, Lew Meehan is known and reviled as a crooked exploiter of Indians.  Contrived as it may sound, the film is very entertaining. 

Although not in the Tom Mix league, Cuneo was a talented horseman, and in both films acquits himself well in the saddle.  Both films have plenty of plot-motivated riding and shooting and fighting, and effective villains.  Unusually, the SILVER SPURS villain, Juan Von Rolf, is described as a German and Mexican ‘half-breed,’ perhaps carrying some lingering hostility after the recent Great War.  Ethnicities, and the views of the period, are important in both stories.  In BLAZING ARROWS it is a given that Martha could not marry an Indian.  However, in a switch on the old Cavalry pictures, it is the Indians to the rescue when the good guys are hopelessly outnumbered.  In SILVER SPURS, Cuneo sees Rosario’s devoted Indian servant, Tehana carrying her mistresses’ laundry, and in a courtly manner carries the load for her – but he doesn’t let her ride!  She still walks while he stays on his horse!

Another interesting aspect of Westerns of the early 20^th century is that they didn’t think of the ‘old west days’ as over, and happily mix debonair Manhattan parties with Indians in tepees and every westerner on horseback.    

Lester Cuneo

Tragically, three years later, the very talented and promising actor would be dead, and by his own hand.  He had fallen out of favor as a leading man, and had begun taking supporting roles in poor films.  He had begun to drink to excess.  Francelia filed for divorce; the decree came in November of 1925.  Reportedly, he told his children, “Daddy’s going away,” took a pistol from a closet, locked himself in the bedroom, and killed himself.  He was 37.  After his death, his widow, who had appeared in 140 films, would make only one more without Lester, before the coming of sound, and four years later would make her one ‘talkie’ movie, a supporting role in a Hoot Gibson western, before succumbing to tuberculosis, and dying at age 39.

But SILVER SPURS and BLAZING ARROWS preserve that moment when Fracelia were young, active, attractive, and full of hope.  Each film is available for $16.95 from Grapevine Video HERE  .  BLAZING ARROWS also includes UNCOVERED WAGONS (1923), a one-reel comedy starring Charlie Chase’s kid brother James Parrott.  It features pioneers in Calistoga Model-Ts, and Indians on bicycles, and is an irreverent hoot!

In researching this piece, I came upon an article from the November 1920 issue of Screenland magazine, with Lester Cuneo telling about an adventure in the Mexican desert.  The text is below.

COMING EVENTS!

There are so many interesting events on the near horizon that it’s time to start marking up your datebook, and making reservations!  I’ll have more details on some of these as the dates get closer.

THE PAPERBACK COLLECTOR SHOW – SUNDAY, MARCH 22^ND

For decades fans of soft-back books have met annually to buy and sell, and for the second year in a row this event is being held at the Glendale Civic Auditorium, with a paltry admission price of five bucks.  More than 80 dealers will be showing their wares.  This is a not-to-be-missed event in my book – sorry – and I’ve always had great success filling in missing gaps in my Tarzan, Fu Manchu, Luke Short, and other series here.  You can buy very high end, or be a cheapie like me, and buy what are sneeringly called “reader copies”.  In addition to regular paperbacks, there are many pulp magazines of all genres. 

Earl Hamner signing books last year

Best of all, over 45 artists and authors will be attending and signing their books for free!  Sadly, there are rarely Western authors there, but among writers of particular interest are TWILIGHT ZONE writer George Clayton Jackson, TZ writer and THE WALTONS creator Earl Hamner Jr., sci-fi writers Ib Melchio, William F. Nolan, and Bob and Ray biographer David Pollack.  You can learn more HERE.

THE TCM CLASSIC FILM FESTIVAL – MARCH 27^th  THROUGH MARCH 29^th

History According to Hollywood is this year’s theme.  Turner Classics pulls out all the stops for this annual Hollywood event, which will feature way-more-screenings-than-you-can-see at Grauman’s Chinese with their new IMAX screen, the Chinese Multiplex, Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre, The Ricardo Montalban Theatre, and poolside at The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.  The Red Carpet opening will feature a restored SOUND OF MUSIC with Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer and other stars in attendance.  The current schedule, still in flux, lists 27 movies.  Of particular interest to Round-up readers are the musical CALAMITY JANE (1953), starring Doris Day as Jane, and Howard Keel as Wild Bill Hickok; and the world premiere of the restoration of THE PROUD REBEL (1958), directed by Michael Curtiz, and starring Alan Ladd, Olivia De Havilland, and David Ladd – and David Ladd will attend! 

Among other guests attending will be Ann-Margaret, Dustin Hoffman, Alec Baldwin, William Daniels, Sophia Loren, Spike Lee, Norman Lloyd, astronaut James Lovell, and stunt-man Terry Leonard.  You can learn more, and buy passes, HERE.

MONSTERPALOOZA MARCH 27^th – MARCH 29^th

Julie Adams

The Burbank Marriott Hotel and Convention Center will play host to as creepy a bunch of people and near-people as you have ever seen, at this annual event that attracts horror-movie fans from around the world for screenings, panel discussions, and a tremendous dealers’ room.  Guests of particular interest to western fans will be Michael Biehn and Julie Adams.  Also attending will be NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD director George Romero, Sonny Chiba, Linda Blair, Yaphet Kotto, Teri Garr, Cloris Leachman, Margot Kidder, Valerie Perrine, Sybil Danning, Richard Anderson and Gary Conway.  You can learn more HERE.

MYSTERY AUTHORS’ LUNCHEON – MARCH 29^TH

At the Sheraton Park Hotel in Anaheim, Behind The Badge is the name of the event which will feature a talk by LONGMIRE author Craig Johnson, as well as writers Allison Brennan and Robin Burcell.  You can learn more HERE. 

THE SANTA CLARITA COWBOY FESTIVAL – APRIL 18^TH – APRIL 19^TH

For the 22^nd year, fans of cowboy poetry, cowboy music, cowboy literature, cowboy movies, and art, and clothes, and food, and cowboy everything imaginable will converge on Santa Clarita, an early home to western moviemaking.  For several years now the joyous gathering has been at Gene Autry’s old Melody Ranch, but that venerable movie studio, now run by the Veluzat family, has become so busy with the upswing of western movie and TV production that the celebration will take place in the heart of Santa Clarita proper. 

The action and entertainment will be at several easy-to-walk venues clustered around Main Street, including The Vu Theatre, The Repertory East Playhouse, The Canyon Theatre Guild, The OutWest Boutique and Bookstore, and there will be three stages and many other exciting escapades featured at William S. Hart Park, once home to one of the greatest of cowboy stars. 

In addition to covering the event for the Round-up, I will be for the second year be taking part in events at OutWest, moderating panel discussions and doing one-on-one interviews with writers.  There’s no schedule yet, but among the poets, authors, artists and songwriters taking part will be John Bergstrom, Almeda Bradshaw Al P. Bringas, Margaret Brownley, Karla Buhlman, Jim Christina, Peter Conway, Mikki Daniel, Eric H. Heisner, Dale Jackson, Jim Jones, C. Courtney Joyner, Andria Kidd, Stephen Lodge, Petrine Day Mitchum. Audrey Pavia, Karen Rosa, Katie Ryan, J.R.Sanders , Tony Sanders, Peter Sherayko, Janet Squires, Miles Swarthout, and  Cowgirl Hall of Fame, stuntwoman Shirley Lucas Jauregui. 

Next week I’ll have a run-down of the musical performers.  To learn more, and to buy tickets, go .HERE 

THAT’S A WRAP!

If you haven’t yet read Andy Erish’s book, COL. SELIG – THE MAN WHO INVENTED HOLLYWOOD, there is likely to be a gaping hole in your movie-history education: there certainly was in mine.  The other great movie moguls who outlived him rewrote Hollywood history, and the poor Colonel got largely deleted, but his contribution to cinema is remarkable, and should be known to all who care about our art-form.  You can learn more, and buy it,.HERE

Happy Trails,

Henry

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