MICHAEL HORSE – FROM TONTO TO DEPUTY HAWKS!

Michael Horse & Klinton Spillbury

More than a year ago I was at the Autry’s Annual American Indian Marketplace, where I met artist, actor and musician Michael Horse.  He’d starred on David Lynch’s cult TV series TWIN PEAKS, as Dep. Tommy ‘Hawk’ Hill, but first gained fame playing Tonto in the infamous THE LEGEND OF THE LONE RANGER (1981).  (That’s the one that caused an uproar before they even rolled camera, when the producers forced former Lone Ranger Clayton Moore to stop wearing his mask.  They went on to cast virtual non-actor Klinton Spillsbury as LR, and continued downhill from there.) 

While Spillsbury never acted onscreen again, Michael Horse has had a long, successful acting career on big-screen and small, worked extensively as a voice actor, a stuntman, and as both a graphic and jewelry artist.  When the more recent infamous LONE RANGER came out, responding to Johnny Depp’s headgear, Horse Facebooked a picture of himself with a chicken on his head.  When we met, he was very excited to have just guested on an episode of HELL ON WHEELS, where he actually wore a bird on his head. 

Michael Horse at the Autry

Time flies!  When we did this interview, there was talk of a possible revival of TWIN PEAKS.  Now the show is in pre-production, and Michael Horse is back as Deputy Hawk.

HENRY:  Playing Tonto is a pretty big way to start an acting career. 

MICHAEL: Yuh, went right into a huge movie.

H: Was that your first acting role?

M:  No, I did a couple of MARCUS WELBYs.  I was a musician with Universal Records, and once in a while they’d throw me something, but I never wanted to be an actor.  I still don’t know if I am.  Recently I was working on something, and the guy goes, “Give me this look.”  I go, “Look, I’ve got two looks: I’ve got this way and this way.  I can give ‘em both to you all day long, but that’s about the extent of what you’re gonna get from me.”  Olivier I ain’t.

H:  As a musician, what do you play?

M:  I was a fiddle and bass player.  I did a lot of bluegrass and rock & roll for years, and just got tired of it.  It sounds very glamorous, but you’re doing these big tours and staying in Holiday Inn, and we used to travel by bus – and we’re not talking the buses they have now, we’re talking by bus.  It was pretty hard traveling.  We didn’t have a lot of electricity when I was a kid, so everybody played music; we entertained ourselves.  When I was growing up everybody in my family played something. I am an artist; I’m a jeweler, a painter.  That’s what I do.  

Counting Coup - Ledger Art by Michael Horse

H:  I know you grew up near Tucson.

M:  Yes, on the Yaqui reservation. 

H:  What was your childhood like?

M:  It was wonderful.  It was hot, not a lot of amenities.  But I went out and played in the desert.  We had goats and horses and mules.  It was nice; it was my playground.  We moved to Los Angeles when I was about ten.   We’d go back and forth.  My grandpa had moved there a long time before us to get a job at Lockheed; they had a relocation program.  So I would go back and forth from Arizona to Los Angeles as a kid.  I grew up in the San Fernando Valley, in the Sunland Tujunga area.  My stepdad was an outfitter, took people on hunting guides.  We had a little ranch there; it was a great place to grow up.  There were bears up there, and you could fish.  They built the Hanson Dam.  Los Angeles has the biggest urban Indian population in the United States, especially in the Burbank area.  So there were powwows there.  I grew up in kind of an inter-tribal culture.  That’s why I know a lot about Plains people.  I grew up with a lot of Lakota, Cheyenne and Comanche people.  I bought my first house in Topanga Canyon in 1974 for $35,000 bucks cash – it was a shack, but had an ocean view.  I couldn’t get a p.o. box down there for that kind of money now.

H:  What were you doing when you were asked if you wanted to play Tonto?

M:  I was just renting my art studio from an agent.  She said they’re casting a big movie; they’re doing THE LONE RANGER and looking for someone to play Tonto.  Are you interested?  I said no. She said that’s too bad because they’ll pay a lot of money.  And she quoted a figure at me, and I went, “Oh, Kemosabe!”  I looked up (director William) Fraker, and he had shot some of my favorite films.    

H:  Not a very experienced director then, but a great cinematographer – ROSEMARY’S BABY, PAINT YOUR WAGON, BULLITT, and later TOMBSTONE. 

M: I went down to talk to Mr. Fraker; I didn’t think they’d hire me.  I said you send Tonto to town one time, you’ll have more Indians on your lawn than Custer saw.  And Bill Fraker, who I really admired, kind of talked me into doing it.  The only thing, I said I never wanted to hear the words ‘faithful companion’ ever.  But it was a hoot for me.  And I had family in New Mexico, and I’d gone to the Union Art Institute, so we were filming in my home town, Santa Fe area and around Monument Valley, so it was a blast. But it was not well-written.  And the casting was really wrong. 

H:  Klinton Spillsbury?

M:  Yeah, they knew that (was wrong) right into the picture.  They should have let him go, and got somebody else.  James Keach had to dub his whole voice in.

H:  The budget was $18 million, which was a lot of money in 1981.  And Lazlo Kovacs did a beautiful job shooting it.

M:  Beautifully shot, just badly cast and badly written.  It was so funny making THE LONE RANGER.  I said, I don’t care how much money these people have.  I don’t care where they’re filming it: we’re going to end up at Vasquez Rocks.  And then at the last minute we had to shoot some stuff out there.  That’s where I did most of my commercials and most of my stunts, most of my horseback stuff, and I chased so many people around those rocks. 

H:  Did you have a sense while it was shooting, did you think it was going to be a hit, or were you worried?

M:  I was just hoping that I could show my face at a powwow again! (laughs)  Please, please get me out of here alive!  I mean, I was on the box of Cheerios.   I’m thinking, I’m an old American Indian Movement member.  Oh God, what have I done here?  A lot of my friends said look, you can do some stuff here.  I lobbied for the Indian Child Welfare Bill, I went to D.C., I did a lot of stuff for both reservation and inner city kids, so it worked out okay for me.   I escaped, and actually had a career from it.

H:  And you’re good in it.

M:  I did okay!  They were worried about me, because I was telling them, you can’t do this, you can’t do that.  But (Spillsbury) was so bad he screwed up before I could do anything wrong.  It had potential, but I think, especially after the Johnny Depp thing, none of us Indian people ever have to see Tonto again.  I think he’s put away for a long time.

H:  A young man named Patrick Montoya played the young Tonto, but I’ve never seen him in anything again.  Do you know what ever happened to him?

Sketch by master poster-artist Drew Struzman

M:  Oh yeah, I see him.  He lives in Santa Fe, he comes up once in a while.  I think he has a print shop.  They still call him Tonto.  It was fun to do.  Made some good friends, Mr. Fraker and I became good friends.  Ted Flicker played Buffalo Bill; we became really good friends.  He created improvisational theatre.  He wrote BARNEY MILLER.  He moved to Santa Fe and became a sculptor.  He would tell me stories about making films in the old days.  He and Fraker were friends, so he gave him a part.  And he told Fraker look, this is not well-written.  Why don’t you let me re-write it?  But Fraker didn’t want to rock the boat.  I was lucky to have it, and lucky to escape from it! (laughs).  Not a very good film.  I wasn’t even really an actor.  I just wanted to do okay.  But I thought, one day they’re going to do a really good one, and I’ll be known as the guy who did the crummy one my whole life. 

H: Flash-forward to 2013.

M: And the Creator went, “I’m going to make this one worse than the one you did!”  I’m a huge Johnny Depp fan.  But something went wrong – I don’t know what it was.  The jokes weren’t funny; the story wasn’t all that good; the special effects looked all digitized.  The Lone Ranger is an icon you don’t really want to mess with.  Just because you want to make Tonto a more interesting character, you don’t want to dumb down the Lone Ranger.   I think that was a mistake.

H:  That’s well put, and that’s exactly what they did.  They made him foolish, to make Tonto more important.

M:  And even though Jay Silverheels had some of that stilted dialogue, he still was such a dignified man that it shined through.  You know, that was one of the few real native people we had seen as kids in the fifties. 

H:  I was doing an interview with Dawn Moore, Clayton Moore’s daughter.  She was talking about how people forget that when they started doing THE LONE RANGER series, it was Jay who was the star, who had been in KEY LARGO and lots of big movies, while Clayton Moore had just been playing heavies and doing Republic serials.   

M:  I knew Jay. I loved him dearly.  He had an acting workshop that was for native people.  That’s how I knew about KEY LARGO and all that stuff.  I knew Jay and really liked him.  He was in the Motion Picture Hospital when they said they were going to remake it.  He asked, who’s going to play me?  They said Michael Horse, and he laughed!  He thought that was very funny.  Later I met Mr. Moore – I was at one of the rodeos, and I went up and introduced myself – (this was) after we had done THE LONE RANGER.   I said, “I’m really sorry, sir, for what they did.  You’ll always be the Lone Ranger to me, and long may you ride.”  He said, “How sweet,” and we had a picture taken together.  I said, how come they didn’t use you?  And he said, “Well, I asked them for some money.  I didn’t ask them for an outrageous amount of money, but look, you’re going to kind of retire me.  I want a cameo and I want some money.” And they just put them out to pasture.  He approached them with this idea.  “Look, I’m getting ready to retire as the Lone Ranger, and I find this kid that’s who’s on the fence between right and wrong.  And when I think he’s going in the right direction, I’ll turn my back to the audience, and I’ll hand him the mask.”  And I went, and they didn’t go for that?  They’re idiots: it would have been an iconic, chilling moment!

H:  Absolutely; they needed to make that connection.  When I re-ran your movie, there was the role of the newspaper editor, and I thought it would be a perfect role to give Clayton Moore as a cameo.  And of course it was John Hart, the man who replaced Clayton Moore for a year on the TV series when he wanted a raise. 

M:  Clayton Moore had been such a role model all those years.  Even in the police department, they used to teach the Lone Ranger rules – you never shoot to kill unless you have to.  A lot of those old westerns, when you go back and look at them, they had a certain ethic to them.  They meant well.

Michael Horse with bird headpiece

H: Let’s talk a little about your appearance on HELL ON WHEELS.  About the headpiece, was that a comment to Johnny Depp?

M:  No, it wasn’t.  The lady who did it, she went through a lot of books on the Comanche.   And there were a lot of people who wore birds: we just didn’t wear them that big.  And when he wears something like that, that’s a piece of medicine.  That’s something to be respected.  

H: You seem very happy to be associated with the show.

M: Well, it’s so well written, number one; it’s well-acted, and it’s historically interesting.  The railroads were one of the first of the big corporations that started pushing everybody around. Especially indigenous people.  If you know anything about herd animals, if you put anything in their way, not just a fence, anything, they’re almost autistic.  The railroad actually changed the migrations of the buffalo and elk.  And then from the east came this big piece of iron that was smoking and making noise, and people were killing animals just for the sake of killing.  To the Plains people it must have been the Devil incarnate.  I do this kind of artwork like you saw at the Autry, like the Ledger art.  I was painting something from the same week as The Battle of Little Bighorn.  And I realized from all these periodicals that I read that when that happened, in the east the Civil War had been over for four years; the Brooklyn Bridge was built; the first baseball game between Kansas City and Missouri had been played; Edison was showing the first light-bulb at a symposium.  But that’s how wild it still was in Montana and Wyoming and Colorado.  And the Plains people had no idea what was coming their way.

H:  Then it came, and it was Hell on wheels.

M:  And the Comanche, they were pretty bad boys.  There’s a book out on the Comanches, and I have a lot of Comanche friends.  And I said, “You guys were pretty bad.”  And they said, “Yeah, but basically we just said, ‘Don’t come here.’”  That’s why the Mexican government allowed a lot of the migration into Texas: they figured it would be a buffer between them and the Comanche.  Some of the finer flight cavalry to ever exist were the Comanche people.  There’s one piece that I’ve always wanted to do.  They’ve always done Sitting Bull’s story; they’ve done Crazy Horse’s story.  But they haven’t done the story of Quanah Parker, which is a really interesting piece.  I did a one-man play last year, down in Buffalo Gap, Texas, about Quanah, and he was an amazing man, a person that lived in two worlds like me, a person of mixed blood, and understood both worlds, and how they had to come together.  Actually a pretty wise man for the Comanches when they finally decided to come to the reservation.  He made some pretty interesting deals with the United States government.

H:  Yes he did.  It would have helped if the government had been a little better at keeping those deals.

M:  Well, all governments do that; not just ours.  I liked back in the ‘60s, when all these young people were going, ‘The government lies,’ and all us indigenous people were saying, ‘No kidding?’ 

H:  News flash!

M:  What an epiphany that is!  The railroads, it made this country, connected this country.  Ran goods from point to point – that’s what actually made the whole money-machine of this country work; the railroad.  It was a pretty grand scheme.  But a lot of times progress rolls over the people that live on the land.  Not just the indigenous people, but ranchers and farmers.  It’s kind of the same thing that’s happening now, with the energy needs.  It’s what makes the engine run, but it’s kind of screwing up a lot of ranchers and farmers and indigenous people.

H:  Who’d have guessed they’d all end up on the same side?

M:  Yuh, it happens.  And that Swedish villain on HELL ON WHEELS, that’s one of the greatest villains I’ve ever seen on TV! 

H:  Oh man, isn’t he fun!?

M:  I met him recently; he’s a very sweet man.

H:  He’s like a train with no brakes and no tracks – you just don’t know where he’s going!

M:  Well, I imagine there were probably a lot of people like that back then.  It was pretty open; you could do pretty much whatever you wanted to do back then. 

H:  And of course, in the Indian Territories, once you got there, there was nothing much the government could do about it.

M:  No.  But they gave the railroads a hundred acres of land on both sides of the (tracks) that they could do whatever they wanted to with them; they could sell it, they could develop it.  It’s really good to see that – like I said, I’m a big fan of Westerns.  I grew up with Westerns; I think they’re going to come back.  It’s just how they’re written.  But TV’s doing these small, little mini-series, with big stars that don’t really want to commit to a full series.  Doing nine-episode things like TRUE DETECTIVES was brilliant, it was really good.  FARGO was freakin’ hysterical.  Cable’s really allowed for some really fine television.  Last year they did a seminar at USC about how TWIN PEAKS changed television.  And what it did was, it showed people that anything was possible on television.  It opened all kinds of doors, and changed formats.  It had pretty-much been a formula kind of thing until that went, and people went, ‘Oh, you can do anything.’

H:  I think all of the miniseries, and shows like HELL ON WHEELS, which they don’t call a miniseries, but it’s a continuing story; none of them would have happened, none of them would have been the same without David Lynch being ahead of them.

M:  He opened that door, and said there’s huge audiences for different things.  It’s really funny; there’s a lot of young kids who are seeing it now on the internet.  So it’s more popular than it ever was.  We live in the Berkeley area, and I’ll be going to the movies, and my wife goes, “Those kids are following you.”  Usually young film students.  I’ll go, “Can I help you?”  They’ll go, “Are you Deputy Hawk?”  “Yuh.”  And then they go crazy.  My wife thinks it’s hysterical.

H:  What was David Lynch like to work with?

As Deputy Hawk

M:  David is the sweetest man, such a sweet man.  He’s like Jimmy Stewart with Salvador Dali’s intestines.  He’ll go, “That was really keen, whatcha did!  But this time, could you get naked, and bark like a dog?”  David is an artist.  Both as an indigenous activist, a native activist, and as an actor you don’t get a chance to do art in television that often; and TWIN PEAKS was art.  And that was a wonderful native character.  It got rid of stereotypes, and held some mirrors up to the others, you know.  I’m still looking.  I’ve been turning down a bunch of stuff, but there’s a couple of scripts out there that I’m getting ready to do.  And I’ve been doing all these student films.  It’s nice in my career that I can afford to do this.  These film students will get in touch with my wife.  I don’t get on the internet – I’m such a Luddite, I just learned there’s a redial button on my phone.  My wife’ll go, “This film student is looking for you.”  They won’t go to my agent, because he won’t return their call, because they don’t have any money.  I’ve done three or four of these little films for these kids.  And it reminds me that filmmaking is art.  It’s been very nice.   

H:  I know you did some stunt work.

M:  I used to be around horses.  I did a little stint at rodeo riding; wasn’t very good at it.  The first time somebody paid me to fall off a horse I said, “I can do that!”  Staying on’s the hard part.  Then we started the Native American Stunt Association. We didn’t get the work we thought we were gonna get.  I dabbled in it, did a lot of fight stuff, and it was fun.  Did some stuff in PASSENGER 57 with Wesley Snipes. 

H:  You acted in a few WALKER, TEXAS RANGERS.

M: And God bless Chuck (Norris), I love him, I knew him for years, and friends ask why do you WALKER?  I said it’s so bad, I can’t suck.  But there are some wonderful scripts out there.  Some guy sent me a script from Washington State about a little native kid in the 1950s who worships Elvis, and wants to win a talent contest.   It is so sweet and so well done I told them I’d do it for free.  But working on HELL ON WHEELS, that’s a class act.  The series I did in Canada, it was on for seven years, I did three years of it, called NORTH OF 60.  It was strictly for Canadian television.  It was so well done, so well written – some of it written by native people, directed by native people.  It had all these great native actors, Gordon Tootoosis, Tantoo Cardinal, and Graham Greene.  I was one of only two Indian people from the States ever to be on it.  It was a joy to do.  It was contemporary, about people who live way above the 60 parallel.  I play a therapist and a bush pilot.  I’m hoping to squeeze out a couple of things before I retire.  I’ve done three or four of these little sci-fi films, but I’m not going to do anymore because it’s the same thing.  My wife laughs, the last one, “You’re the holy man, you’re inside by the fire, with these two beautiful girls bringing you food.”   I go, “Yeah, I’m not going outside – the monster’s outside!”

H:  In 1982 you were the star of THE AVENGING, and I’m sorry it’s not better known, because it’s a very impressive independent film.  How did this project come about? 

M:  They just got in touch with me, I said send me the script.  It wasn’t a lot of money, and I’d just finished the LONE RANGER, and I said I’d do it, I like this.

H:  And you got to work with Ephrem Zimbalist Jr.

M:  Yeah, we became pretty tight too.  I love working with these old guys, and make them tell me stories.  Wranglers are the best – they’ll tell you everything.  My favorite thing to do is I do cartoon voices.  It’s all those people who used to make gas-noises and got sent to the principal’s office.  It’s all old stand-up comics, and guys who used to have imaginary friends.

H:  What is your favorite of the voices you’ve done?

M:  It’s probably SPIRIT: STALLION OF THE CIMARRON (2002), the horse.  I’m fifty voices in that, even the old Indian woman; she didn’t show up.  “I’ll do my very best.”  I’m such a fan of animation.  And usually you record and then they do the animation.  But we were watching them as they were making it, so there were drawings that moved, and half-painted things.  It’s almost a classic old Disney kind of piece.  There was a series I did for a while called COWBOYS OF MOO MESA.  I played this buffalo called J.R.  He was a Rube Goldberg kind of guy; he used to make all these inventions.  I just loved him. 

H: In 1990 you starred in BORDER SHOOTOUT for Ted Turner’s TURNER PRODUCTIONS.  It’s adapted from an Elmore Leonard novel.

M:  That was fun too.  Elmore Leonard – I didn’t realize until the last five years that he wrote HOMBRE, one of my favorite movies.  Just (Paul) Newman sitting in the bar listening to those two rednecks hassling those two native guys.  Him and Richard Boone, just amazing.  That was an interesting little film.  And working with Glenn Ford.

H:  On his last Western, too.

M:  It took him a little while to get ready.  One of these young kids was complaining.  We’re working in the middle of the night, and it’s freezing.  Finally they get him outside and the kid said, “You had me waiting outside for him!”  And I said, “It’s Glenn Ford.  I’ll wait as long as it takes.”

H:  What was he like to work with?

M:  I was in awe.  I liked the character actors, too.  I used to go to the Beverly Garland Hotel, have breakfast with Monte Hale, and he would tell me stories about the old days.  Same with the old fiddle-players.  I’d say, I’ll buy all your drinks, just tell me about the old days – I’m fascinated by it. 

H: In BORDER SHOOTOUT, you also worked with Michael Ansara.  Although he was from Syria, he spent much of his career playing American Indians.  A number of non-Indian actors have specialized in Indian roles – in addition to Ansara, X. Brands and Iron Eyes Cody. 

M: A lot of them.  Ricardo Montalban, Sal Mineo.

H: Any problems with that?

M:  You know, the process of acting is to portray something that you’re not.  But if you’re doing a cultural piece, and you don’t bring somebody who comes with that culture, you’re going to cheat yourself.  I’ve talked to casting people, and they’ll say, we’ve seen a hundred guys, and they’re not doing what we want them to do.  And I said, if you’ve seen a hundred Indian guys, and they’re not doing this, maybe they don’t do that.  Will Sampson was more interesting just standing there, not saying anything, than all the non-native actors that ever played anybody.  And there were exceptions.  Paul Newman nailed it.  Charles Bronson used to come pretty close.  A really good actor can do it.  But the native guys, the full-blood guys don’t get a chance to play anything else.  But it’s changing.  Digital film has put it back in the hands of filmmakers.  There are a lot of native filmmakers that are making films out there.  And they don’t need Hollywood, they don’t need big money, they don’t need the big stars.  And there are wonderful, wonderful films.  

H:  What’s your favorite film?

M:  LITTLE BIG MAN.  That was the first time I saw one of those funny old elders that I grew up with (on the screen).  Those little people are just so funny, and Chief Dan George was just magic.  “Am I still in this world?”  “Yes, grandpa.”  “Ahhh!”  Dustin Hoffman tells him, “I have a white wife.”  “Does she show enthusiasm when you mount her?” 

I really know how you make a bad movie, but I’m really trying to figure out how you make a good movie.

THAT’S A WRAP!

Just one topic this week, so I hope you enjoyed it! 

Happy Trails,

Henry

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

TWO BIG WESTERNS FOR CHRISTMAS, PLUS BIG GENE AUTRY GIVEAWAY, NEW FONDA/SORBO OATER, GLENN FORD WEST FEST, WE LOSE CHRIS & PIERRE

2 BIG WESTERNS – THE REVENANT & HATEFUL 8 – TO OPEN CHRISTMAS DAY!

We’re getting a wonderful pair of gifts in our stocking this December 25th: two big Westerns opening on Christmas Day!  The last time this happened, Tom Mix was going up against William S. Hart (don’t do research – I’m making it up!)!  THE REVENANT, starring Leo DiCaprio and Thomas Hardy, is the true story of Hugh Glass, a mountain man who was mauled by a bear and left for dead.  It’s written and helmed by Mexican-born Alejandro Gonzalez Inarruti, who swept the Oscars this year, winning Best Picture, Director and Original Screenplay for BIRDMAN.  A previous version of the Hugh Glass story, MAN IN THE WILDERNESS (1971), starred Richard Harris and John Huston, directed by Richard Sarafian from Jack DeWitt’s script. 

While REVENANT had long been heralded as a Yuletide release, just this Friday the Weinstein Company announced that Quentin Tarantino’s THE HATEFUL 8, will also open on December 25^th.  Featuring a huge cast of Tarantino favorites – Kurt Russell, Samuel L. Jackson, Walter Goggins, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Bruce Dern, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, et al – it’s an all-star ‘bunch-of-people-caught-in-a-snowstorm’ Western.  The writer/director cheerfully revealed that his inspiration was the sort of BONANZA/BIG VALLEY/HIGH CHAPARRAL episodes that would happen mid-season when budgets were tight, and plots would be crafted around a bunch of people caught in a small place.  In spite of those close quarters, the Christmas premiere will be exclusively in 70 mm – the largest 70 mm opening in at least two decades!  It’s been said that Tarantino’s determination to release the movie on actual film, in 70 mm, is what lead Kodak to reverse their decision to shut down their film-stock production entirely.  HATEFUL 8 will broaden its release to crummy new digital theatres on January 8^th. 

I’M IN THE NEW ‘TRUE WEST’ PANCHO VILLA ISSUE!

I’m very proud that my first article as TRUE WEST MAGAZINE’s new Film Editor is in the July ‘All Pancho Villa Issue’, which has just come out.  No surprise, my piece is about the best and worst of the movies about Villa.  Buy several copies today! 

GENE AUTRY FANS!  ENTER THIS GREAT FREE GIVEAWAY!

Gene Autry Entertainment wants to get a verification check-mark on its Youtube channel, and increase their Google + numbers, and they’re giving away THREE great collections of Gene Autry merchandise and collectibles to do it!  Each collection contains DVDs, CDs, books, scarves – each is worth well over a C-note – and to enter to win one, all you have to do is click HERE to subscribe to the Official Gene Autry Youtube Channel, then come back and click HERE to be a Google + follower!  Everyone who does so will be automatically entered to win !  Do it soon – the giveaway ends on June 19^th!

GLENN FORD WESTERNS AND CUSTER FLICKS AT THE NEW BEVERLY!

June is a great month for Westerns at Quentin Tarantino’s New Beverly Cinema!  Sunday and Monday, June 14^th & 15^th , a rarely seen pair of Westerns about Custer will screen, THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON (1941), starring Errol Flynn as Custer, with Olivia DeHavilland, directed by Raoul Walsh; and CUSTER OF THE WEST (1967), starring Robert Shaw as Custer, with Mary Ure and Ty Hardin, and directed by Robert Siodmak. (That latter film was shot in Spain at the height of the spaghetti western Renaissance, and Ty Hardin told me some very interesting stuff about the making of the film – including what director was fired the first day.  Read that interview HERE )  

On Wednesday and Thursday, June 17^th & 18^th see Glenn Ford in Edna Ferber’s CIMARRON (1960), starring Glenn Ford, directed by Anthony Mann.  Then on Wednesday and Thursday, Jne 24^th & 25^th, catch the Glenn Ford double bill THE FASTEST GUN ALIVE (1956), and the original Elmore Leonard’s 3:10 TO YUMA (1957), directed by Delmer Daves, and co-starring Van Heflin.  Then Sunday, June 28^th through Saturday, July 4^th, you have a full week to catch Sergio Leone’s masterpiece ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST.  Get all the details HERE.

JOIN ‘COPS & COWBOYS’ JULY 18^TH AT LEONIS ADOBE!

After the tremendous success of last year’s event, the annual ‘Cops & Cowboys’ fundraiser for The Mid-Valley Community Police Council will again be held at the historic Leonis Adobe Museum in Calabasas, CA.  Built in 1844 as the home to a Basque farmer and his bride, daughter of a Chumash Chief, the Adobe is one of the oldest existing buildings in Southern California, and the C&C is a wonderful time to visit it!  You can learn about ranch life, bid at the regular and silent auctions, play blackjack and poker, have a few drinks in the saloon, enjoy barbecue, country music, line dancing, and more!  Tickets are $150 each ($50 if you’re in the LAPD), and there are opportunities for sponsorship, buying tables, and buying space in the program.  To learn more, please call 818-994-4661, FAX 818-994-6181, email info@theproperimageevents.com or visit http://www.midvalleypolicecouncil.org/event/cops-cowboys-july-18th-2015/ .

SOLIMA’S ‘BIG GUNDOWN’ INTRO’D BY JOE DANTE JUNE 18 AT LINWOOD DUNN

As part of their THIS IS WIDESCREEN series, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences will screen Sergio Solima’s THE BIG GUNDOWN, starring Lee Van Cleef, Thursday, June 18^th, at the Linwood Dunn Theatre in the Mary Pickford Center, 1313 Vine Street, Hollywood, CA 90028.  (Note, this is the Hollywood venue, not the Academy headquarters in Beverly Hills).  It’s a very unusual, well-told story, with lawman-turned-politician Van Cleef on the hunt for a degenerate criminal (Tomas Milian) who may be not as bad as the men who want him dead.  This is the new restoration from Grindhouse Releasing which Courtney Joyner and I got to see when we were doing audio commentary for their BluRay release, and it looks spectacular.  The ticket price range is from $3 to $5, and you can learn more about the film, and order tickets HERE  

If you’d like to buy the fabulous 4-disc set from Grindhouse, including a CD of the brilliant Ennio Morricone soundtrack, go HERE .

Also featured with THE BIG GUNDOWN at the Linwood Dunn is the martial arts film DRAGON INN (1967), written and directed by King Hu.

FONDA & SORBO STAR IN ‘JESSE JAMES: LAWMAN’

Based on history you may have missed, outlaw Jesse James pins on a badge, working for a lawman who figures you need the help of a bad man to catch a very bad man in JESSE JAMES: LAWMAN, coming soon from Barnholtz Entertainment (read my interview with producer Barry Barnholtz HERE ) .  Starring Andrew Galligan as Jesse, he’s joined by Peter Fonda as the mayor, and Kevin Sorbo as J. Frank Dalton.  Director Bret Kelly and screenwriter Janet Hetherington collaborated last year on another Western, THE LAST OUTLAW.     

FAREWELL PIERRE BRICE AND CHRISTOPHER LEE

One day apart, we lost two of the true icons of International film.   On June 6^th, Pierre Brice passed away at age 86.  Though French, he gained undying fame in German cinema playing a fictional American, Winnetou, the Apache Chief created by the father of the German Western, Karl May.  Starting in 1962 with THE TREASURE OF SILVER LAKE, Brice would play the role eleven times in the original series of films, often opposite American and British stars like Lex Barker, Herbert Lom, Stewart Granger, and Rod Cameron, and indelibly etched his persona as the heroic, dignified and stunningly handsome chief upon the consciousness of non-English-speaking cinema.  He played many other characters, including Zorro twice, but he will always be Winnetou to his loyal fans. 

On June 7^th, Christopher Lee passed away at the age of 93.  To a younger audience he was Count Dooku in the STAR WARS films, or Saruman in the LORD OF THE RINGS movies, but to us grown-ups he will always be Dracula, a role he first played in 1958’s HORROR OF DRACULA.  For Hammer and other studios he would play every conceivable horror-related character; Fu Manchu five times, and he had the unique distinction of playing Sherlock Holmes twice, as well as his brother Mycroft, and Henry Baskerville.  His imposing form, chiseled features, and deadly stare, combined with his inherent dignity and sense of humor, made all of his screen work a delight, sometimes the only thing worth watching in his films.  For those of you with an interest in astrology, someone on Facebook noted that he and Vincent Price shared the same birthday, May 27^th, and Peter Cushing’s birthday was May 26^th.  Not known for a lot of Western roles, he was very effective as the gunsmith in HANNIE CAULDER (1971), and played a Grand Duke opposite James Arness in the HOW THE WEST WAS WON TV series.  On Monday, June 22^nd, TCM will air eight of Lee’s finest films.  Both men shall be sorely missed around the world. 

THAT’S A WRAP!

TEXAS RISING ends today (or next week if you, like me, DVR almost everything you watch).  Let me know what you think of the conclusion (not that I’ll read it for a week), and tell me if you’re enjoying STRANGE EMPIRE so far.  And who’s been watching Hallmark’s WHEN CALLS THE HEART?  One of the downsides of having so many channels is that you lose track of stuff on channels you don’t regularly watch.  How far are we into season two?  Have a great week!

Happy Trails,

Henry

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

INTERVIEW WITH JULIE ADAMS, UNIVERSAL’S QUEEN OF THE WEST, AT 3-D EXPO!

Van Heflin & Julie Adams in WINGS OF THE HAWK

Conducted September 7^th, 2013

For Hollywood, the 1950s and 60s were the era of the blonde bombshell.  But it was also a time of some striking brunettes, and few made a more lasting impression than the lady whose long black tresses and white one-piece swimsuit made her Fay Wray to THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, Julie Adams. 

But Julie Adams was much more than catnip to a 3D lizard; a stunning beauty with a sultry voice that could portray sincerity or scheming, she always portrayed intelligence.  She was the thinking man’s western beauty, and her characters were rarely the type who just reloaded while her man fired out of the cabin window.  In at least fifteen Western features and dozens of Western TV episodes, she played the sort of strong three-dimensional women that previously only Barbara Stanwyck got to play – and sometimes she played them with Barbara Stanwyck!

And speaking of three-dimensional characters, she starred in two 3D movies, both of which are being featured in the WORLD 3D FILM EXPO III, which opened on Friday night at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, and will run for ten days.  CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON played on Saturday night, and on this Friday afternoon at 3:30 pm, WINGS OF THE HAWK will be shown.  This Budd Beotticher-directed classic is rarely seen in any version, and it’s been years since it played in 3D.   Miss Adams, who stars with Van Heflin in the film, will attend, and take part in a Q&A.  She will also be signing her autobiography, THE LUCKY SOUTHERN STAR – REFLECTIONS FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, which I will be reviewing here shortly.  In it she discusses, along with CREATURE, and her other films, all of her Western movies, and many of her TV appearances.

After some parts in early live TV, and before she became a contract star at Universal, she cut her celluloid teeth working in Westerns for the small independent, Lippert Pictures.  She graciously spent an hour talking to me until she had to rush off for her BLACK LAGOON screening.     

HENRY PARKE:  Miss Adams, it’s great to talk to you.  I’ve been a fan of yours for a long time, and oddly enough, I like your westerns even more than I like THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON.

JULIE ADAMS: Well that’s great, because I love doing westerns.  I loved seeing western movies when I was a kid, so my dream came true, and I actually got to act in westerns, and ride those beautiful horses. 

HENRY:  Before you started acting in them, what westerns did you like in particular?

JULIE:  I loved them all.  I went to Saturday westerns mostly, with different stars, but I was more in love with the horses than the actors.  I loved the stories, I loved the outdoors.  I just loved it all.

HENRY:  As far as I know, the first western you did was with Don ‘Red’ Barry, THE DALTON GANG, in 1949. 

JULIE:  You’re absolutely right.

HENRY:  Don Barry’s always been a personal favorite of mine.  What was he like to work with?

JULIE:  I loved to work with him; he was wonderful.  A very nice fellow, extremely polished in the western genre. 

HENRY:  You did a half dozen Westerns for an independent company, Lippert Pictures, in 1950.  I understand that they were shot simultaneously, with the same casts.  They’d do the saloon scenes for all six films, then the ranch house scenes for all six, and so forth. That must have been a crash course in acting.

JULIE:  Well, it was exciting.  Because we did six or seven westerns in just five weeks.  So it was exciting, and it was extremely concentrated.  It was great training for me, because you didn’t have time to think about things too much; just went and did it! (laughs)  I went out and took some riding lessons before I started.  Within the western genre, the horses that are trained for westerns are so easy to ride; you can guide them, and they respond to anything you do, whichever way you want to go.  Horses can really make you look good. 

HENRY: In 1952 you were under contract to Universal Pictures, and you starred with Jimmy Stewart in one of the legendary Stewart and director Anthony Mann collaborations, BEND OF THE RIVER.  Which was quite a substantial step up from Lippert.  What was Anthony Mann like to work with?

James Stewart and Julie in BEND OF THE RIVER

JULIE:  Anthony Mann was really a wonderful director.  He knew what he was doing, and he knew what he wanted, and he made you feel very secure.  You had a good man at the head of the chain.  Everything he directed you to do made sense.  He really knew the western genre so well.  I was very happy working with him; I loved doing BEND OF THE RIVER, and of course to work with James Stewart was great. 

HENRY:  The first action in the film is your character, Laura, getting shot with an arrow.  Which was really unexpected – you don’t usually shoot the beautiful people early; you shoot the little guys.  Laura is so tough and resourceful – much more than you expect western women of that movie era to be. 

JULIE:  I loved that, because I had done some of the Lippert westerns where the women were more – well, the guys were just looking after them.  I loved that she was that active, and could take care of herself.

HENRY:  Almost twenty years after that you were again starring with James Stewart in THE JIMMY STEWART SHOW. 

JULIE:  Oh yes!  Well, my idea of heaven was going to work with Jimmy Stewart every day for six months.  He was a wonderful actor and a wonderful man.  A charming person, very easy to work with and just so good at what he did.  He was a wonderful screen actor, or course.  I enjoyed it enormously.

HENRY:  How did you like Jay C. Flippen, who played your father? 

JULIE:  Jay was a great guy – funny and fun and great to work with. 

HENRY:  In real life, would you have had a hard time choosing between Jimmy Stewart and Arthur Kennedy?

JULIE:  (laughs)  Fortunately I never had to make that decision. 

HENRY:  HORIZONS WEST was the first of three exceptional westerns you starred in for Budd Boetticher, followed by MAN FROM THE ALAMO, and a film featured in the current 3D expo, WINGS OF THE HAWK.  Boetticher frequently used his male stars again and again, but not his leading ladies.  I’m wondering, what made you different, that he used you so often?

JULIE:  I don’t know; I guess he just thought that I fit into the Westerns very well.  And also, in one of them I did a great deal of riding.  I think he was impressed that I could do that.  We got along very well, very well indeed.  And I love to work, so we had a good time, and it was exciting.

Shades of LAURA -- Julie with her portrait

in HORIZONS WEST

HENRY:  In HORIZONS WEST, you’re married to despicable Raymond Burr. 

JULIE: (laughs) He was really a lovely man!

HENRY:  As with Jimmy Stewart, you later worked with him frequently on PERRY MASON. 

Julie guesting with Raymond Burr on PERRY MASON

JULIE:  I worked with him on IRONSIDES, too.  He was also with me on the USO Tour of Korea.  He was just wonderful.  I still get a lot of mail about THE CASE OF THE DEADLY VERDICT, the case that Perry Mason lost.  I was supposed to go to the electric chair, but they finally solved it at the last minute, so I didn’t have to get executed.  It’s a very popular episode in law schools – they all love that one! 

HENRY:  Like Anthony Mann, Budd Boetticher was one of the giants of the Western.

JULIE:  Boetticher was fun to work with, because he was so into the action of it all, to make things exciting.  In other Westerns they’d take more time for the plot, and other things, but Boetticher loved the action, and I enjoyed that too.  He was a very good director for westerns, because he knew how to keep it going; keep it all moving.  You slow down, and people, viewers, drop out. 

HENRY:  In WINGS OF THE HAWK, how did you like playing a Mexican Revolutionary? 

JULIE:  I loved it!  (laughs) Only thing I didn’t like  was going to make-up and getting that black greasepaint put in my hair every day.  Bud Westmore did my make-up, and Joan St. Oegger did my hair.  The two heads of the department really fixed me up for that role.  So they wouldn’t have to dye my hair, she put black greasepaint in the edges of my hair, and pinned it back, and on top I had two black switches, so it looked like I had a lot of hair.  They were very very good in make-up and hair in Universal.  I loved the character, and I had a great outfit to wear – the clothes were great – and I got to go out with a wrangler.  At Universal they had wranglers to help people out.  And I rode Pie, the horse that James Stewart always rode; I got a great horse to ride.  I went on every day for three weeks.  And I learned to do running dismounts and all sorts of things on the horse.   So I had a great time. 

HENRY:  I believe that was your first 3D movie – there’re not too many people who have, like you, done more than one.  What challenges did the 3D process present? 

JULIE:  It was all up to the camera people.  As far as acting went, I felt comfortable because we played the scenes as always.  All the 3D problems had nothing to do with me; that was there problem, to make the 3D work.  But I enjoyed it as I enjoyed everything.

HENRY:  How did you like working with Van Heflin?

JULIE:  What a wonderful actor Van Heflin was – I loved working with him.  He was a charming man, and just a fine actor.  So I loved playing scenes with him; I liked him as a person. 

HENRY:  How did you like working with Glenn Ford in THE MAN FROM THE ALAMO? 

Julie and Glenn Ford in MAN FROM THE ALAMO

JULIE:  Once again, a real pro, and very good.  He was not, I don’t know, quite as loose and charming as some of the other actors.  But very good at his job, and I enjoyed working with him.  He was very good in the picture. 

HENRY:  You co-starred six times with Rock Hudson, four of them westerns.  How did you like working with him?

JULIE:  Rock Hudson was a pal, a great friend.  We worked together in BEND OF THE RIVER, where Rock and Lori Nelson and I were the young people, and after that there was such a big audience reaction that they put Rock and me together in THE LAWLESS BREED as the stars. 

HENRY:  With Rock as John Wesley Hardin. 

Rock Hudson and Julie in THE LAWLESS BREED

JULIE:  I had great fun playing a dancehall girl.  I got to have sort of a drop-shoulder thing, and I was serving up drinks at the bar to men, and that was fun.

HENRY:  Universal seemed very careful to give you really good wardrobes all the time.  Your clothes are just so striking.

JULIE:  For that we have to give credit to the Universal people, to Rosemary Odell, who designed most of the clothes – and they made them right up in wardrobe.  They did a great job; that wonderful department.  They made sketches of the costumes, that were submitted to the producer and the director and me, and then they were custom-made. 

HENRY: Hugh O’Brien had supporting roles in three of your westerns before WYATT EARP made him a star.  Did he seem to have star-potential back then?

JULIE:  In those days, we never thought about that exactly, when we were working.  I wasn’t a big star in it: I was the girl in it, and Hugh always did his job well, and later I was delighted when he got a show of his own.  Hugh O’Brien actually was with us at the MAN FROM THE ALAMO screening at The Egyptian back in February.  He’s got a good part in ALAMO; he’s a good actor. 

Julie's pinned with a flaming arrow in

THE STAND AT APACHE RIVER

HENRY:  After CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, you started branching out into many other kinds of stories that were not Westerns.  Were you glad to get out of a rut?

JULIE:  Because I grew up as a kid loving westerns, I never felt that I was in a rut when I was in a Western; I felt very much at home, and had a good time doing it.  But I was also delighted to expand my genre, to work in other kinds of films, with other kinds of actors.  I just plain love to work.

HENRY: In the fifties and sixties you guest-starred on many western series – CHEYENNE, MAVERICK YANCY DERRINGER, BONANZA, BIG VALLEY, THE RIFLEMAN, THE VIRGINIAN.  Were any particularly memorable? 

JULIE:  The three that really stand out are Nora, in THE RIFLEMAN, where I play a mysterious woman from McCain’s – that’s Chuck Connors – past.  There was The Courtship episode of BONANZA, where I’m engaged to Hoss briefly, before they find out I’ve got a gambling addiction.  I had scenes with each of the BONANZA stars, interrogating me.  They didn’t want me to marry Hoss and gamble away the Ponderosa! Then there’s The Emperor of Rice episode of THE BIG VALLEY.  I’ve got a showdown with Barbara Stanwyck, in a basement fire, coming through the smoke.  I was pushing Barbara Stanwyck around.  Those three kind of helped me break out of that ‘good girl’ image at I had in the Universal westerns. 

HENRY:  How did you like Chuck Connors?

JULIE:  I liked him a lot; very good at his job, and a really nice fellow.

HENRY:  Aside from those three, were there any western TV shows that were particular favorites?

JULIE:  I did two MAVERICKs with Jack Kelly that were fun. 

HENRY:  Was the pace of TV production a lot faster than feature work?

JULIE:  Well, of course, but there was really not a lot of difference, because I prepared the same way all the time.  I tried to get the character as fully developed as I could, whoever she was.  And so I’d just kind of take it in stride. 

HENRY:  In 1959 you starred opposite Joel McCrea playing Bat Masterson in THE GUNFIGHT AT 

DODGE CITY.  What was McCrea like to work with?

JULIE:  I can only say it was absolutely wonderful, because he was such a pro at what he was doing.  So you could completely relax, and just play your part.  He was very much at home in the western genre, and he was so good.  I guess I just loved to work, and I was very lucky I worked with so many good people.  Joel McCrea was the real McCoy – he was just what you saw on the screen.  Very handsome, and fun to work with.  I met his grandson, Wyatt McCrea, in Arizona this past March.  A very sweet guy who loves westerns, too. 

Julie with Elvis in TICKLE ME

HENRY:  I understand you did a movie with Elvis.

JULIE:  TICKLE ME.  I run a dude ranch, and he works at the dude ranch.  It’s like the boss and the secretary: I called him into my office and chased him around the desk.  What a delightful young man.

WORLD 3D FILM EXPO III CONTINUES AT THE EGYPTIAN

The festival of 3D movies which began on Friday night with John Wayne in HONDO will continue through next Sunday night – ten days and nights of things flying at you from the screen!  Of particular interest to Western fans is TAZA – SON OF COCHISE, on Wednesday, at 4:15 pm.  This Douglas Sirk – directed western stars Rock Hudson, Barbara Rush, and Rex Reason. 

And of course, on Friday, at 3:30 pm, WINGS OF THE HAWK, directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Van Heflin and Julie Adams will screen – and Julie Adams will be there to answer questions, and sign her book – see details in the interview above.    To see a complete schedule for the Expo, go HERE.

‘FISTFUL OF DOLLARS’ SATURDAY SEPT. 14^TH AT THE AUTRY

As part of the Autry’s ‘What is a Western?’ series, the film that rejuvenated an aging and ailing genre, Sergio Leone’s ‘A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS’ will screen at 1:30 pm.  While in much of Europe, the original ‘DJANGO’ was the more celebrated, it is impossible to overstate the influence of ‘FISTFUL’, and the Man in Black trilogy as a whole, on American and European Western films.  There is virtually no Western film to come after, including the work of Sam Peckinpah  and Don Seigal, that was not measurably affected by Leone.  Incidentally, on October 12^th, they’ll screen ‘FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE’, and on November 2^nd, ‘THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY.’  While you’re at the Autry, check out the IMAGINATION GALLERY, with many artifacts on display relating to Leone, Clint Eastwood, and their films.

AND THAT’S A WRAP

That’s it for this weekend’s Round-up.  If you’re in L.A. this week, I urge you to check out the 3D Expo, and FISTFUL at the Autry.  The chance to see movies the way they are meant to be seen, on a big screen, with a 35mm print, are getting more and more rare.  Don’t pass ‘em up!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright September 2013 by Henry C. Parke – All Right Reserved