'VIRGINIAN' ROUND 3; JARROD BARKELY HOLDING HIS OWN!

On Saturday, September 22^nd, The Autry and INSP marked the 50^th anniversary of the ground-breaking television series THE VIRGINIAN with a day-long event, and by returning the series to the airwaves.  (To read part one of my coverage, go HERE   To read part two, go HERE . ) One of the highpoints of the Virginian 50^th Anniversary Celebration was the panel discussion, featuring all eight VIRGINIAN cast attendees, moderated by Boyd Magers.  Boyd is best known as the author and publisher, for over nineteen years, of WESTERN CLIPPINGS MAGAZINE, and maintains the WESTERN CLIPPINGS WEBSITE (HERE), which can be searched for any western-related topic. 

The Wells Fargo Theatre at The Autry was completely packed, and thunderous applause greeted each member of the panel as they were introduced: Diane Roter (Jennifer Sommers), Randy Boone  (Randy Benton),  Sara Lane (Elizabeth Grainger),  Gary Clarke (Steve Hill), Roberta Shore (Betsy Garth), Don Quine (Stacey Grainger), Clu Gulager (Sheriff Emmett Ryker), and the Virginian himself, James Drury.  Boyd’s first question was to Gary Clarke. 

BOYD:  What did being on THE VIRGINIAN, and being part of this reunion, fifty years later, mean to you?

GARY: Getting THE VIRGINIAN was a hoot, a huge, huge step forward in the career.  I remember we would talk about it on the set.  We hope people like it, we hope it’s going to be good, that we’re contributing something.  And now, fifty years later, when we show up at a convention like this, and hundreds of fans come up and say how much they enjoy the show, and how much their children and grandchildren are enjoying the show…that’s what it means to me.

BOYD:  Clu, what did it mean to you?  Plus, I know you have a few words to say about Gene Autry, too.

 

Clu Gulager and Gary Clarke

CLU: When you’re in the public eye, people ask you a lot of questions.  And the question most people ask me is, what’s with your name?  Clu?  Well, that’s my name, I’m an Indian, a Cherokee Indian.  In my day, most Indian babies were named the first thing their mother sees after the child is born.  They tell me that when I was born my mother looked out the window and saw a red bird flying, and the Cherokee name for the red bird is ‘clu.’   So they call me Clu.  I’m always glad she didn’t look out and see an out-house. 

Gene Autry came to my home town, Muskogee, Oklahoma, when I was a kid.  And he brought Smiley Burnette with him.  He sang and danced and told stories, and I believed him.  And Smiley bulged out his eyes, and talked like a bull-frog sometimes.  And he could play any musical instrument you put in front of him.  And I believed him.  So when I came out of the Marine Corps, I became an actor, because I believed Gene Autry, and I believed Smiley Burnette.  And what is an actor if it is not someone who has the ability to make us believe?   Gene was a mess on a horse, when he started his pictures at Republic for Herb Yates, and later on for Columbia.   Herb Yates smelled money, but he said, ‘This singing cowboy lacks virility.’  So he hired a guy that I knew, named Yakima Canutt – a lot of people felt he was the greatest stuntman that ever lived.  So was Davy Sharpe.  Herb had Yak take Gene behind the barn and teach him about horses. (aside to Gary Clarke)  Like they should have taught you.   They had to teach him how to sit a horse; how to mount a horse; how to dismount a horse; how to fight; how to throw a punch; how to receive a punch.  And one thing he taught Gene, and very few people can do this even to this day: how to mount a horse from the back.  You run up to the horse’s butt, you spring up, you put your hands on their flanks, you pull yourself up, jump into the saddle, and just ride like Hell.  And Gene could do that.   Gene, who was from Oklahoma, actually became a very good horseman.   But (with a grin), not as good as me.  I’m a cowboy from Oklahoma.  And I used to ride the fences.  When the weather was below freezing, my hands would turn grey, and sometimes my fingers would turn black.  But when I saw a hole in that damned fence, I got off my pony, cut that wire, and foxed that hole.  And I’ve got to tell you, not one white face (steer) got out of any of those pastures on my watch.  Not one.  And that’s the thing I’m most proud of in my life.  That and my two children, John and Tom. 

BOYD: Roberta, I think Diane and Sara owe an awful lot to you; because if you hadn’t gotten married, they probably wouldn’t have been on the show. 

ROBERTA: (laughs)  I hadn’t thought about that!  I just want to say how fun it is to be with Clu!  This is the first thing he has ever done with us, and oh my gosh…  When I left the show I was under a seven year contract.  After I left I was put on two or three years of suspension.  And when I left, they honestly didn’t believe I would leave, so they didn’t write me out of the script.  And when they realized I was leaving the did bring me back, and married me off to handsome Glenn Corbett. 

BOYD: Jim, you’re all here except for one particular person, who is missing.  I’d like you to pay tribute to him.

JAMES:  I don’t know how I can start that.  Doug McClure was a man who would ride the rivers with you. He had my back for nine years, and I had his.  And there was never a day or a moment when he wasn’t dedicated to the task at hand.   He couldn’t walk into a room without everyone breaking out into a great big smile.  If they didn’t know him, they knew him pretty soon.  He was a great man, a great actor, and a great friend.  And he would be so happy if he could be with us.  Because the resurgence of the show – they were showing the episodes on Encore for a couple of years, and now the Inspiration Channel, just starting today, as a matter of fact, a three year run of the show.  He would be so pleased and so proud and so much in the middle of it.  I really don’t know how we get along without Doug – it’s damned hard.  I loved him; that’s all I can say.

 

James Drury, Roberta Shore, Clu Gulager, Gary Clarke

BOYD:  Diane, you were actually underage when you came to work on THE VIRGINIAN.

DIANE:  (melodramatically) Yes: I was underage. But I looked older.  And I never told Clu that.  Or Gary.  But I wouldn’t have to have told you anyway, because you’re such a gentleman.  What is the expression – a gentleman and a clown?  

BOYD:  Were the other guys on the show protective of you?

DIANE:  Everyone on the show was just so nice; it’s like having big brothers.  And it’s still like family.  And Jim is my go-to wisdom man.  And every time I call him it’s, ‘No, it’s okay.  Sure I can talk.  I’m going about 65, 70 on the freeway.’ 

JAMES: She always gets nervous when I’m driving.  I never get nervous when I’m driving.  

BOYD:  Randy, when did you realize you wanted to be a singer and an actor?

RANDY:  My last year of high school I was at a summer camp, and I was doing some waterskiing.  I got a funny feeling from this one ski, and it was a parasite that got into my toe.  Now our school was crazy about football, an I wanted to get my school letter in football, because you can’t get a girl if you can’t get a letter.  And the doctor said if I get the parasite cut out of my foot before early practice, then I couldn’t run for a while.  But he had some pills he could mix with water, soak my foot in, and that would poison it, and I could still practice.  Six hours a day he wanted me to do it.  I had a friend from camp who would play Kingston Trio songs on his guitar.  And I’d tied a couple of coffee cans together as bongos, and played along with him.  So he’d sit with me, with my foot in the poison, and play the guitar.  I don’t think I would have learned to play the guitar if I didn’t have to sit still all that time. 

 

Randy Boone, Diane Roter

BOYD:  Sara, you’re a horsewoman.  Did that come from your father?  I don’t know if everyone’s aware that your father was an actor named Rusty Lane. 

SARA:  If my father not been an actor, he probably should have been a vet.  He loved animals; he took care of animals.  When I was ten years old we lived in a place where I could have a horse; everyone in the neighborhood had a corral.  And I got a horse that was right on his way to the glue factory.  His saddle sores were so bad that you couldn’t put a saddle on him anymore.  So we got this horse home, and I didn’t know how to ride.  I got a bridle on her, and the first time I rode her, I rode her into the house.  It was a sort of rustic house, but momma was not too happy, so that’s the last time we did that.  But I really learned to ride on a backyard horse. 

BOYD:  Did you ever get to work with your dad?

SARA:  Yes; it seems to me we did a VIRGINIAN together, when I was still on the show, but I’m not sure.  He came with me every day to the set.  I started also underage, as a minor, and had to have a chaperone with me, in addition to a welfare worker/teacher.  And Dad came every day; and he had a certain way of learning lines.  And he taught me.  He was from the theatre, and boy was he strict: you didn’t mess around.  You knew your lines, you got there on time.  So even though I didn’t get to work with him on camera very much, I sure did work with him a lot.  He did 500 live TV shows in New York in five years.  He moved out here when TV moved out here, and he had to be in every western at least once.

BOYD:  Don, one person who often gets overlooked in the producer.  Don, what are your memories of Frank Price?

DON:  Frank Price was a very talented man.  He was responsible for starting THE VIRGINIAN.  He got it going, and they brought him back in the fifth season.  Things had sort of fallen down in the fourth season, when they replaced Lee J. Cobb with John Dehner. 

 

Don Quine, Sara Lane

CLU:  Frank Price was my best friend at that time.  He worked for a subsidiary of Columbia, which I considered Gene Autry’s home.  And these subsidiary companies, like Screen Gems for Columbia, were interested in properties and material and stories for television.  So Frank found a property that he liked.  He said, ‘I like this book, THE VIRGINIAN.’  This was a long time before the big show came.  Looking for a half-hour subject, free and clear, meaning it was unencumbered.  For some reason Owen Wister, the writer’s, family had given up the rights to it.  He said I’ve got to have a guy to play the Virginian who’s warm.  He has to come into people’s living rooms every week.  And he found a guy who seemed like he was perfect, to Frank.  He had a square jaw like Charlton Heston.  He had a baritone voice like Orson Welles.  He could act, he could ride, he had a good personality.  It was James Drury.  (big applause)  Now I’m coming to the bad part. (laughs)  He hired James, and James did a helluvah job, and it failed.  He couldn’t sell it.  So skip to Universal a few years later, and that was the home of the grey fox, Lew Wasserman.  That was his empire.  And Frank Stanton of NBC called Lew and said, ‘We’ve got a problem.  Our big show fell out.’   So Lew called Frank Price, who worked for him as a writer-producer.  Genius in film creativity in my view.  He said, ‘Frank we have to come up with something for Wednesday nights, for NBC.  I think I have the solution.  Let’s do a movie.  Every Wednesday night, let’s put a movie on in that slot.’  Frank said, ‘That’s a good idea.  We’ve got a lot of good pictures we’ve made over the years – ’    ‘No, that’s not what I meant.  I want us to MAKE a full length motion-picture to show each week, on that vacant slot on NBC on Wednesday night.’  And then Frank had a long silence.  He sh*t his britches.  Then he said, ‘Okay.’  Lew said, ‘I want you to make a format.  I want you to come up with something that will be viable for us.  I don’t care what subject you pick.  I want to know how long it’ll take, hoe much money it’ll take.’  Frank went outside, got to work, and fell in love with this long form.  He said, ‘This is something else, that damned genius Lew Wasserman came up with.  I think I’m going to use THE VIRGINIAN again.’

Well, he did.  And he made kind of a prototype of Gene Autry’s films.  Five days at Republic to shoot a film, twelve days at Columbia: I’ll put it in the middle.  We’ll do it in eight days.  And he took the format into Lew, and Lew said, ‘That’s terrific.’  And Frank Stanton, President of NBC, ‘That’s terrific.  Let’s go with it.’  So they had to find a cast.  Lew said, ‘I’ll leave it up to you.’  And he put together the damndest cast you’d ever seen.  He got James Drury again – there’s no one better; he can do everything.  Then he had to have someone to match his acting prowess.   He’d just done RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY for Sam Peckinpah, with Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea, and almost buried the other actors, he’s that good.  So they got Lee J. Cobb, considered the second or third best actor in the nation.  And he hated television.  He hated the concept of THE VIRGINIAN – he hated everything about it.  He hated everything we did out here in Hollywood.  And he signed on.  And the show needed someone to help this guy, good as he was.  So they found a volleyball player from Hawaii, who had made a little splash in Hollywood, Doug McClure.   He could smile, he could ride a horse better than me – and I’m not chopped liver.  He could do anything with a horse.  He was the Smiley Burnett to James Drury.  He was the Pat Buttram.   They hired probably the handsomest young actor in town at that time (indicating Gary Clarke).  They hired a cast second to none, and all through THE VIRGINIAN they kept adding people like this great actor Quine;  Sara Lane.  In a bonnet she looked more like a pioneer woman than anyone I’d ever seen except this girl (indicating Roberta Shore).  She became beloved as the epitome of the pioneer woman in the west.  And I will never forget her work; it was so pure.  Randy was so natural in his acting, I never knew when he was acting; he was like Will Rogers.  He’d go up there and mumble, and I’d say, ‘What did you say?’  ‘I gave you my first line in the script.’ That natural; that good.  That’s called film acting.  He was brilliant in front of the camera.  He could sing.  That’s the kind of quality they started with.  I wasn’t in it for two years; they wouldn’t have succeeded had I been there.  It was an amazing amalgamation of great acting talent.  Frank brought this together, and I will never ever forget Frank’s work.  And I wish he’d call me up some time.

Next week I’ll have part 4 of THE VIRGINIAN 50^th Anniversary Celebration, featuring the rest of the panel discussion highlights, and my interview with INSP Senior Vice President of Programming Doug Butts.  My thanks to Melissa Prince for the panel photographs! 

JARROD IS STAYING IN ‘THE BIG VALLEY’

As detailed in the September 9^th Round-up (see it HERE) , the feature film of THE BIG VALLEY, partially in the can, has met some serious roadblocks, but as producer Kate Edelman Johnson, daughter of co-creator Louis Edelman put it to me, “I desperately want to see this film made.”  A side issue was that the character of Jarrod, played by Richard Long in the series, had disappeared from IMDB and other on-line listings, leading to speculation that his character has been dropped from the story.  Kate assures me this is not the case.  “Jarrod was being played by Stephen Moyer and, subject to his availability I'd still love him in that part.”  Moyer is going into his 6^th season as the male lead in the hugely popular vampire saga TRUE BLOOD. 

 

GOOD NEWS DELAYS ‘DEAD MEN’ WEB SERIES

If you read my September 16^th Round-up (and if you didn’t, you get another chance HERE ) you learned from my interview with director Royston Innes that the new Western web-series DEAD MEN was about to premiere on-line on Wednesday, September 26^th.  Only it didn’t.  Which may have led you to wonder what went wrong.  The fact is, it isn’t online because something went right. 

Royston tells me they have a producer attached, are talking to distributors, and won’t make a move until they hear all offers and consider all options.  While DEAD MEN may go on-line eventually, it may very well get expanded into a feature.  Stay tuned!

 

VIRGINIAN’S DON QUINE ADDS ANOTHER WESTERN TO HIS RESUME’

In part one of my coverage of the VIRGINIAN 50^TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION (see it HERE) , Don Quine, who played Stacy Grainger in THE VIRGINIAN, confirmed to me that his only other western acting role was a single episode of RAWHIDE.  After reading the article, Don emailed me: “About an hour ago I was going through some old photos and came across one that had me in a cowboy outfit where I was a member of an outlaw gang in the ‘Foley’ episode of 20th Fox's LANCER TV series.  So I was in three, not two, westerns.” 

 

Don't strain your eyes -- Don Quine

is not in this shot.

 

For those who might not remember, LANCER was a solid series that ran for two seasons, from 1968 to 1970.  It starred Andrew Duggan as the patriarch Murdoch Lancer, with his two sons by different mothers, James Stacy as Johnny Madrid Lancer, Wayne Maunder as Scott Lancer, Elizabeth Baur as Teresa O’Brien, and RAWHIDE’S Paul Brinegar as Hop Sing – I mean as Jelly Hoskins.   

DISNEY PLAYS ‘HIDE AND SEEK’ WITH LONE RANGER TRAILER
 

 

Those who watched JAY LENO on Tuesday night were treated not only to an interview with Armie Hammer, who plays the Lone Ranger to Johnny Depp’s Tonto, but the first-ever airing of the LONE RANGER trailer.  I linked it up to the Round-up Facebook page on Wednesday morning, got a lot of comments, then got the word that Disney had yanked it off of Youtube!  Well, the good news is, it’s back!  Enjoy (unless they yank it again!)

 
IMPATIENT FOR JOHNNY DEPP?  ENJOY JAY SILVERHEELS!
 

 

As Gore Verbinski’s take on the Masked Man chugs its way towards its July 3^rd 2013 release, you can renew your relationship with everyone’s favorite “…faithful Indian companion Tonto,” by catching THE LONE RANGER weekdays on WHT-TV, at 1:30 p.m. Western time. 

 

NEWEST ‘LINCOLN’ TRAILER UNVEILED
 

Here's the re-cut LINCOLN trailer, with a bunch of 1960s stock footage thrown in. I have great respect for Steven Speilberg, and for Daniel Day Lewis, but I have grave doubts about the voice he's using. It seems incredibly weak, especially in the opening narration. I thought Bill Oberst Jr.'s voice was much more effective in ABRAHAM LINCOLN VS. ZOMBIES, especially delivering the Gettysburg Address. Let me know what you think!

ALMERIA FILM FESTIVAL FEATURES ROUND-UP FAVORITES
 

 

This coming weekend, October 10^th, 11^th and 12^th, the festival, taking place in Almeria, Spain, home of the Spaghetti Western, will focus on several films long followed and championed by the Round-up Rounders: YELLOW ROCK  (review HERE , on-the-set visit HERE), GOOD FOR NOTHING (review HERE) , LEGEND OF HELL’S GATE  ( review HERE , interview with writer/director HERE ), HEATHENS AND THIEVES (interview with director HERE , review HERE ) , and GOODNIGHT FOR JUSTICE – THE MEASURE OF A MAN (Luke Perry interview HERE. ).

And that's all for this week's Round-up!  Can you believe that tonight's HELL ON WHEELS was the finale for season two?  Thank goodness I'm four episodes behind, so with my DVR I'll still have something new and western to watch for a few more weeks.  There is much talk about this being a new 'golden age' of TV writing, and I think it's true.  But one reason is that seasons for cable series are ten episodes long -- a far cry from when producers were expected to crank out 39 or more episodes per season.  So don't dis the old-timers -- everyone could do better work if they had four times as long to do it!

Happy Trails,

Henry

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

  

VIRGINIAN ON SATURDAY, DEAD MEN COMING SOON

 

AUTRY & INSP CELEBRATE ‘THE VIRGINIAN’S’ 50^TH ANNIVERSARY!

 

On Saturday, September 22^nd, the Autry will mark the landmark television series’ half century with a day and night of activities.  Simultaneously, the INSP network will present a marathon of episodes, to welcome the series to its regular Saddle-Up Saturday programming.  The series was a landmark for many reasons.  The first non-anthology series to run 90 minutes, it was essentially a whole movie every week.

 

Happily, many of the stars of the series will be attending the Autry event, including James Drury, who played the title character of The Virginian (his character had no other name), in all 249 episodes.  Also attending will be Clu Gulager (Emmett Ryker), Randy Boone (Randy Benton), Gary Clarke (Steve Hill), Sara Lane (Elizabeth Grainger), Diane Roter (Jennifer Sommers), Roberta Shore (Betsy Garth), and Don Quine (Stacey Grainger).

 

James Drury

 

From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., THE VIRGINIAN stars will be signing autographs in the lobby (I assume on a rotating schedule, and they charge for this). 

There will be screenings of episodes in the Wells Fargo Theatre, and at 1 p.m., the stars will take part in a panel discussion, moderated by the Western Clippings website author Boyd Magers.

From 2 to 4 in the Autry Cafe, Stuart Nisbet, the bartender in the series, will present ‘Saloon Stories From Bart the Bartender.’   

And from 5 to 9 p.m. in the Heritage Court there will be a chuck-wagon dinner with the cast (this even is sold out).  To learn more about the event at the Autry, go HERE.

INSP will begin their marathon at ten a.m. western time, with THE EXECUTIONERS, the first episode of the first season.

Incidentally, THE VIRGINIAN is, of course, based on the novel by Owen Wister, published in 1902, and which has been filmed at least five times, starting with Cecil B. DeMille’s 1914 film, starring Dustin Farnum.  It was filmed again in 1923 starring Kenneth Harlan, and the first talkie version was in 1929, with Victor Fleming directing  star Gary Cooper.  It was done again in 1946, starring Joel McCrea, and a TV movie version, starring Bill Pullman, in 2000. 

If you’ve only seen the series, you’d be surprised to read the novel, and learn that Trampas, Doug McClure’s character, and close pal of the Virginian, is his deadly enemy in all of the other versions, my favorite being Brian Donleavy opposite Joel McCrea.  And if you read the book, then watch HIGH NOON, also with Gary Cooper, you’ll be struck by the fact that, despite its claims of being based on the story THE TIN STAR, the movie is largely plagiarized from the last few chapters of THE VIRGINIAN. 

 

SPEAKING FOR THE DEAD (MEN – THE SERIES) – An interview with director Royston Innes

 

To see the DEAD MEN: THE SERIES TRAILER, go HERE.

 

On Wednesday, September 26^th, the first two episodes of a new Western web series will premiere on the internet.  It’s entitled DEAD MEN – THE SERIES, and if you click on the link above, and watch the trailer, you will have seen as much as I have.  But while 2 ½ minutes can’t tell you everything, it can tell you this: it looks like a real movie.  Unlike most of the made-for-the-web western and pseudo western programming I’ve seen, it isn’t green-screened, it isn’t CGI’d, and it doesn’t have any zombies.  It’s clearly shot on real locations, with professional camerawork and costuming and art direction.

 

It’s the brain-child of a pair of men, Australian co-creator and director Royston Innes, and Texan Iraqi War vet co-creator, producer and co-star Ric Maddox.  It’s the story of a man named Roy Struthers and his family, a Civil War and Indian Wars veteran who left the battlefield owning precious little until a small piece of land in the Arizona Territory turned out to hold an immensely valuable gold vein.  Needless to say, there are folks willing to do whatever it takes to steal the claim away from the Struthers family. 

When I spoke to director Royston Innes, he told me how the project came to be, and what he and Ric Maddox envision for its future. 

ROYSTON: The time is right for westerns, although my next project is a film noir.  For me, it’s not so much about the Western; it’s more what’s behind it.  I go to films these days, and there’s just no real men.  I’m Australian, so you grow up with a certain ruggedness.  Every child has moments when you come home from a fight, and you’ve gotten mangled.  And your dad says, “Well, you did good.”  There’s something a little tougher.  But you find with so many actors these days, they come out to L.A., and they get ‘into the program.’  And slowly but surely they become part off the machine, and they lose what was so interesting about them.  Know what I mean?

 

HENRY: Yes, it sorts of vacuums the personality out of them.

R: Yes it does.  And I believe it’s because they think there is something further ahead of them, almost like an idea of who they should be.  It’s all created by fear.  So when we decided to go to Arizona to shoot, it was really important to me to get real cowboys.  And my strength, because in my youth I was very devoted to acting, and I studied with the very best in the world – I spent two years studying with Mike Nichols.  I went to the Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, and I sought out the best teachers around.  I was very happy to finish it at the time I came out to L.A., I quit.  What I really like to do is (work with), I wouldn’t say unknown actors, but with people who just aren’t actors.  But what they are is they’re character.  For example, the gentleman who plays Virgil (friend of Roy Struthers), Brent Rock, you would have seen him in the trailer –

H: He reminded me of a younger Sam Elliot.

 

Brent Rock

 

R: He is; he’s got the presence -- he’s on-screen, and he electrifies.  And he’s a real cowboy, a real horseman who lives in Tombstone, Arizona.  He’s on his horse every day; he does it for a living.  That’s who I want in my films: real men.  Because of the, as you say, the vacuum of personality that happens, you have to go and search these people out.  And I want to give them the opportunity.  Because if you cast right, and they trust in you, and they believe in you, and I do my job, you’re going to get a better performance than any actor could give you. 

 

H: That’s very interesting, that you’ve devoted so much time to your study of acting, and concluded that you don’t need professional actors. 

 

R: Well, yes and no.  It takes time.  I have another picture I’m doing next year, a semi-western very similar to LEGENDS OF THE FALL, shooting in Canada.  And I have an unknown in the lead role.  And it’s going to take time.  Vulnerabilities in untrained actors, they take more time.  But when you have someone, in this case a Virgil, who is a leading-man cowboy, you just have to get him to get out of the way of himself.  Because it’s already there; he already has the grit in his fingernails.  It’s one of those things that bug me, in westerns in particular, is they’re too bloody clean.  At a time that was so rough and tumble – I want to see the sweat!  Back in the pioneering days of the Wild West, water was as expensive as a dollar a glass.  You could drink liquor for cheaper.  It does something to the way they look, the way they smell, the way they sweat.  And authenticity is very very important to me.

 

H: I understand you grew up, in Australia, watching an awful lot of movies.

 

R: I was obsessed with film.  I’d watch three movies a day, every day.  Obviously you had to go to school, but every waking moment I could, I watched.  I was a bit of a shut-in child, really, I was very anti-social.  I’d go to the video store each and every day, and in the ten-minute walk it took me, I’d audio-taped movies, and I listened to them on my Walkman.  They’d become such a huge part of my life that even when I wasn’t watching them, I was listening to them.  SCENT OF A WOMAN had a huge impact on me.  Because it had a standard first act.  And you think you know where it’s going, then suddenly they pack for New York.  It’s electrifying; and I don’t know what it was, but it sparked something in me.  I didn’t actually fall in love with acting until I saw a man named Daniel Day Lewis in a film called MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDERETTE.  I was 11 or 12, and it had a real impact on me.  And not long after I saw him in MY LEFT FOOT.   I didn’t know acting could be like that.  And that is what I aspired to.  And it took me away from my real love, which is film, and I eventually found my way back.  Life has a funny way, in retrospect, of showing you, ‘see, this is where I was leading you all along.’ 

 

H: Any particular western filmmakers have an impact on you?

R: You know who had a big impact on me?  It was about ten seconds, in a film by Jim Jarmusch called DEAD MAN.  It’s a fantastic film; it’s one where you can almost sense the sweat and the grime.  There’s a scene when he’s coming into town, and it’s his point of view, what he’s seeing through the carriage door.  And it’s so dangerous, it almost feels unlivable, and pioneering, and there are no rules.   That moment had a massive impact on me.  Is there a western director who’s had a massive impact on me?  No.  It’s more about authenticity, and celebrating the real man. 

H: How did you and Ric Maddox get together?

R: I directed Ric in a play, here in Los Angeles.  Ric had been in the armed forces in Iraq, and this was a play about Iraq, and I chose him specifically and another fellow who had just come back, and they were amazing.  Ric and I struck up a friendship, and we were talking one day about business, and what films he’d seen recently.  And gotten a bit nostalgic about certain actors, like the Yul Brynners, the John Waynes, and where have these men gone?  We live in an amazing time where there’s no excuse now for anyone not to pick up a camera and create something.  There’s so much available.  So on that idea, of the real man, and there’s no better genre (for that) than the western, we started to create something.  We kind of inspired each other, and one would write, wouldn’t it be great if this would happen?  And it turned into a series that I’m really proud of.  Each episode is ended with a little twist. 

 

H: Did you always see DEAD MEN as a web series, or did you see it as a feature, and figure out how to break it down? 

 

R: I was enticed to the web because it was still underground.  It still hadn’t laid its roots yet.  I wanted to come along and shock them.  I really think that this is going to be one of the premiere quality pieces on the web.  We put a lot of effort and a lot of energy and a lot of money to make it that good, so it could be real entertainment, and it’s for the web.  Eventually the web and web series are going to be the norm, and people will get most of their content there, just right now people don’t know how that’s going to happen.  And if I could say that DEAD MEN contributed to that, I’d be very very happy.

 

Ric Maddox

 

H: How long is each episode?

R: From seven to ten and a half minutes.  We’re premièring the first two episodes on Wednesday, September 26^th.  I’m not going to give anything away, but the first episode sets up where things are going, and I just wanted to give people a little bit of a taste of the speed and the action that they can expect with episodes. 

 

It has a genuine viciousness to it.  There’s a lot of knife fights, and a lot of spilled blood.  Eventually we’re going to get this done in all the different languages, so people can enjoy it.  Westerns are huge in Asia and France and Germany. 

 

H: I’m very aware of that because the Round-up is read everywhere around the globe.

 

R: Well, tell them that they can expect it to be translated into German, French, Japanese and hopefully Cantonese as well. 

 

H: I’ve heard that you’re planning to do five seasons of DEAD MEN.

 

R: Yeah.  It’s funny, we’re getting a lot of heat from this trailer, and because it’s taking web series where they haven’t been before; we’re getting a lot of heat from distributors who want to turn it into something else, something bigger.  Maybe a TV show.  I’m going to all these meetings.

 

Aiming low

 

H: You wouldn’t object to that, would you?

 

R: (laughs) Are you kidding?  Given a bigger budget, this could be amazing.   We already have episodes through season two planned out, and it’s going to take it to a different level – I wish that I could tell you what’s going to happen.  We have it all planned out – guaranteed five seasons.  And if TV picked it up I’d be so happy!  I’m particularly a fan of TV shows where it doesn’t stay in the typical three or four locations.  Almost like an on-going movie. 

 

H: Speaking of locations, how did you like shooting in Arizona? 

 

R: Loved it.  It’s my people.  I love communities.  I moved from Australia to New York when I was nineteen.  I love communities and eventually, my films are going to be more of the inspirational film type.     When you’re walking through Tombstone…some of my actors really got into it.  One of them, he plays Billy Walters, every day after shooting he loved to walk the planks of Tombstone, still in his costume, and it gave him a real thrill.  If you’re going to shoot a western you should shoot it in Arizona, because this is where it all happened.  When I was an actor, I did a war film called THE GREAT RAID (2005), and we did an eleven-day boot camp, and nothing could have been better to get us into the mind-set, what it felt like to be a soldier during World War II.  I would love to have done a western boot-camp for these guys, in Arizona.  It would shock their system in a way that nothing else can.

 

H: I’ve been talking to some actors in the new LONE RANGER movie, and they had a crash course, and they absolutely loved it. 

R: Going back to Arizona, Ric had shot a film there before, called MATTY, and when he told me about the people in Arizona, it just felt right.  We made a half dozen trips up there, scouting locations, and our budget, while big for a web series, is rather small.  And when people understood what we were trying to do, for the western, they opened up their homes to us; they opened up their land to us.  Amazing group of people called the Bell Boys, they have a livestock company, and they helped us with all the horses and the cattle, for next to nothing.  Amazing individuals –friendships that I will keep.  Couldn’t find a better place to shoot than Arizona – now I’ve just got to get those damned tax credits. 

 

(We talked a bit about the perils of the tax credit money that states provide to encourage filming, particularly that director Daniel Adams is in prison for inflating his expenses to get bigger tax credits – read last week’s BIG VALLEY article for details.)

 

R: I grew up with strong principles, and I was taught to hold on to your principles at all costs.  And it’s a daily struggle.  Part of it is believing in a higher force, and that you’re answerable.   That’s one thing I loved about Arizona is I’m a straight-shooter; I’m dealing with straight-shooters. 

 

H: How long a shoot was it?

 

R: It was a decent one; it was close to a month.  (laughs) And it was a tough one, Henry.  Low-budget; everyone doing everything.  Putting the scarves in the ice water, and putting it around my camera-operator’s neck so he doesn’t pass out.  We were there in June, We’d put ourselves in a position where we had to come back for something, and our locations were rough.  We had a thirty-minute four-by-four ride down to these locations.  Someone put a porta-loo down there, and that was it.  If the car went down, you were in trouble!  But again, no place better to get real vista shots.  We didn’t have all those luxuries, and at lunchtime we didn’t even always have shade.  But we came together as a unit, and it was a helluvah experience for an up-and-coming director like myself. 

 

H: Who is your cinematographer? 

 

R:  I actually had two D.P.s.  Bruce Logan, who shot the original TRON, and was involved with the original STAR WARS and 2001.  And Paul Hudson, he has a place called Lizardland Studios in Phoenix.   We shot on the Red One and the Scarlet.

Director Innes, D.P. Hudson

 

H: It’s been so long since I talked to anyone who actually shot film.

 

R: I’d love to shoot film.  There’s just a couple of things; when I’d be taking takes, in the back of my mind I’d be thinking of the cost.  I want to get the best performance, the best take, and sometimes that takes ten or fifteen takes. 

 

H: As you said, there’s really no excuse to not go out and make a movie, now that the changes in technology have brought the prices down. 

 

R: There’s no excuse not to be the master of your own creation right now.  If you’re not creating your own reality right now, you’re being a little lazy, to be blunt. 

 

H: What do you think of recent westerns?

 

R: TRUE GRIT was wonderful – I’m a huge fan of the Coen brothers.  And they’re writing – they’re in my top five.  They have an amazing D.P. in Roger Deakins, who gets them exactly what they want, and they take care of the rest.  3:10 TO YUMA was fantastic, and a real inspiration to me.  I still love the original 3:10.   You know, I take it back (about not being influenced by western directors); there are certain things I love from those old westerns.  I was recently watching Leone’s ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, and I just love the starting.  I’m doing an homage to that; where they’re waiting in the station for the train to come, for (Charles) Bronson to get off the train.  There’s just that little vignette, the water tapping on the cowboy-hat brim -- it’s just brilliant!  And they don’t take that kind of time anymore.  They’re all in a rush, and that’s what he did so damned well.   He was amazing.  He was a man’s man.

 

H: And as you say, there are so few actors that you can take seriously as a man.

 

R: And that’s why there are so many cuts.  Because the camera doesn’t lie.  And if you’re comfortable in your own skin, and comfortable as the man that you are, the camera can stay on you for that much longer.  We need to be on the lookout for more of those kinds of actors. 

 

To learn more about DEAD MEN: THE SERIES, visit their website HERE. 

 

CHEYENNE WARRIOR II, HAWK -- Screenplay reviews

 

There’s a saying among magicians that if you know a hundred ways to control a selected card, but only one way to produce it, you know one card trick; but if you only know one way to control a card, but a hundred ways to produce it, you know a hundred tricks.

In some ways screenwriting – in fact any kind of writing – is like performing magic.  While there are a limited number of plots, there are infinite ways to tell them.  As Alexander Pope said, you should write, “…what oft was thought, but ne’er so well expressed.”

Michael B. Druxman proved his abilities as a story-teller with his screenplay to CHEYENNE WARRIOR (1994), which I have described here as not only the best micro-budget western I’ve ever seen, but also one of the best Westerns of the last twenty years.  The movie, directed by Mark Griffiths, is one of the most successful that Roger Corman has ever produced.  It’s combination of solid western qualities, plotting and believable romance has generated a considerable international following and fan base. 

Not surprisingly, Druxman immediately set to work plotting the sequel.  Unfortunately, Corman, who owned the characters in the story, was not convinced a sequel was warranted.  When Corman couldn’t be convinced, Druxman rewrote the sequel to make the characters similar, but not the same, with an eye towards making it with the same leads, Pato Hoffman and Kelly Preston.  Sadly this did not produce a movie, but it did produce a very fine script, entitled SARAH GOLDENHAIR.  Thinking it some of his finest work, Druxman took the very unusual step of publishing this unfilmed screenplay.

Well, no follow-up to CHEYENNE WARRIOR has happened yet, but Michael Druxman has revealed the further machinations involved in the attempt, with the publishing of his new book, CHEYENNE WARRIOR II / HAWK.  You see, Roger Corman eventually came around and hired Druxman to write a sequel after all, and he wrote CHEYENNE WARRIOR II.  Upon reading it, Corman felt certain changes were necessary, in order to give the film a stronger female lead – ironic considering he had grave doubts about the original CHEYENNE WARRIOR because Kelly Preston’s part was so prominent.  

The second draft became HAWK, and as Corman was getting ready to put it into production, Canadian tax-shelter problems stalled and eventually killed the project.  Druxman has printed both drafts of the screenplay in one volume, providing readers, and especially writers, with the rare opportunity to compare different versions of what is substantially the same story. 

The similarities are obvious: both versions, as well as SARAH GOLDEN HAIR, revolve around the infamous Sand Creek Massacre of 1864.  Many of the characters are the same.  The differences are often more subtle: a white man is caught by Cheyenne poaching rabbits on their land.  In one version, the action is seen from the white man’s perspective; in the other, from the Indians’.  A Scandinavian couple are father and daughter in one version, and husband and wife in the other.  Then there are the major changes: Rose, a ‘Calamity Jane’ sort of character, is one of the two leads in one version, and doesn’t exist in the other.

CHEYENNE WARRIOR II / HAWK is a terrific read, and one of them would make a terrific film (and one would make a good film).  Michael Druxman’s character, Soars Like a Hawk, usually just called Hawk, was one of the great strengths of the original film, and he’s a great strength here, because he is a ‘noble’ Indian, but not of the incredibly stoic, humorless sort. 

Over the years, I’ve always warned beginning screenwriters to make a script the absolute best that they can before showing it to a potential buyer, since it’s nearly impossible to get them to read another draft: you get one shot.  Here you can compare two different versions of the same story, and see which you prefer.  I have a strong opinion as to my favorite, but ironically, I believe the other version is the more commercial. 

Reading CHEYENNE WARRIOR II / HAWK, whether you’re a fan of the original CHEYENNE WARRIOR, and wanted to know what happened to those characters, or whether you want to deepen your understanding of the screenwriting process by comparing the two different versions, offers a unique opportunity for the reader that should not be passed up.  If you’d like to read my interview with Michael Druxman, and  my review of CHEYENNE WARRIOR, go HERE. For my review of the SARAH GOLDEN HAIR screenplay, go HERE. To purchase CHEYENNE WARRIOR ll /HAWK, or any of his other published screenplays, contact Michael B. Druxman at druxy@ix.netcom.com or PMB142, 6425 S. IH-35, Suite 150, Austin, Texas 78744.    

 

KIRK DOUGLAS ATTENDS ‘LONELY ARE THE BRAVE’ AT EGYPTIAN WEDNESDAY NIGHT!

 

Just found out that on Wednesday, September 19^th (tomorrow) at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, Kirk Douglas will be appearing before the movie, at 7:30.  Details HERE.

SEE ‘NOW THEY CALL HIM SACRAMENTO’ ON THE BIG SCREEN!

 

If you’re going to be in Portland, Oregon on Sunday, September 23^rd, run, don’t walk, to the Mission Theatre to see NOW THEY CALL HIM SACRAMENTO (1972).  This rarely seen and quite amusing Spaghetti Western comedy is a fake ‘Trinity’ film, with Michael Forest playing the Terence Hill role, and Fred Harrison as Bud Spenser.  And Michael Forest, famous for STAR TREK, and various Spaghetti Westerns and Roger Corman movies, will attend!  Also, Roger Browne, the English voice for Terence Hill, and former president of the E.L.D.A. (English Language Dubbers Association) will attend.  To learn more, go HERE.  To read my review of SACRAMENTO, and to contact video distributor Dorado Films, go HERE.

Okay, that’s gotta be it for this week’s Round-up!  Sorry for delaying this until Tuesday night. 

Next week I’ll tell you about a Cowboy Church you can attend, a partial staging of the RAMONA pageant at the very place where the book was written, and more!

 

Happy Trails,

 

Henry

 

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