BRUCE DERN IN ‘SIEGE AT RHYKER’S STATION’ - FIRST WESTERN MOVIE SET WITH COVID PRECAUTIONS, PLUS KENNY ROGERS BIO, LAST OF THE P.R.C. WESTERNS, ‘COMEBACK TRAIL’ TRAILER, AND MORE!

 

Bruce Dern, Michael Welch, Cam Gigandet

A VISIT TO ‘SIEGE AT RHYKER’S STATION’ - FIRST WESTERN MOVIE SET WITH COVID PRECAUTIONS

At first I thought maybe Western films could go on even as the rest of the film industry screeched to a Covid-19 halt.  After all, in a Western, it’s no shock when a gang of masked men burst into a bank with drawn guns. But when the bank tellers are also masked, you know something’s wrong.   So, it’s been a waiting game, and the great news is that the waiting is over, and cameras are, cautiously, rolling again! 

Last week I had a chance to drive out to Peter Sherayko’s Caravan West Ranch, and watch some filming on what I am pretty sure is the first Western to shoot in California since March.  Here’s how the director of Siege at Rhyker’s Station, Michael Feifer, tells the story. “This movie is about a girl named Jocelyn Miller (Skylar Witte), who marries a kind of pretentious, impetuous, annoying young man named Jody Callahan (Michael Welch). And right after the wedding, Jocelyn hears her father-in-law (Bruce Dern), and brother-in-law (Cam Gigandet) talking about how they actually killed her father. She had no idea. So she takes off -- she just gets on a horse and leaves. And they go after her.”  Reminds me a little of Mariette Hartley and James Drury’s wedding in Ride the High Country.  The Callahans and their gang catch up with Jody at a stagecoach stop, Rhyker’s Station, where she’s befriended Billy Tyson (Brock Harris), Red Lindstrom (Peter Sherayko), and Joe Rhyker (David DeLouise), who aren’t about to hand her over without a fight.  

On the set, everyone on the show was Covid-tested twice a week – videos of actors having cue-tips driven through their noses and seemingly into their brains are on Facebook – and masks are everywhere.  But one of the real health advantages is that Westerns are, as John Ford called them, “outdoor pictures,” with plenty of circulating air: the Monday before I was there, there was so much wind that sets were blowing over. 

I arrived at 3 in the afternoon, in time to watch several takes of a half-dozen bad-guys galloping their horses down a hill, firing away, then stopping, regrouping, and heading back.  For the first time on a set, I watched a mortar repeatedly fired for explosive effects.  Though convincing on camera, especially with sound effects, the mortar is powered by compressed air, and fires a mixture of Fullers Earth and chunks of cork.  Best of all, I got to obliquely watch, but clearly hear, Bruce Dern shooting his final scene of the film.  Dad is none too pleased at all the trouble his briefly-wed son has made for the family, and hearing Bruce Dern blow his top will long be a favorite memory of my film-set visits.  It was met with thunderous applause by the crew.  Oh, and Dern was cracking jokes constantly between takes. 

Michael Feifer has directed an astonishing 67 feature movies since 2005.  I’d first met him back in 2012, when I visited the set of his first Western, Wyatt Earp’s Revenge.  He’s directed quite a few since then, especially in the past year or so.  I asked him about the challenges of making a film during the COVID crisis.

Michael Feifer directing Caia Coley

MICHAEL FEIFER:  Well, nothing stops me. I shot a movie in July in Georgia. I shot a movie in August in Wyoming, and now here we are in October, shooting another movie in Los Angeles. And what more perfect movies to shoot during COVID than Westerns? The one in July was not a Western, it was like a Lifetime thriller. I've been averaging about six movies a year. Hopefully this year I'll end up with five. So it's slowed me down. Right before this whole thing. I was shooting a movie in Hawaii in February, and then we get on the plane to go home and people start wearing masks and it's starting to happen. So at least I was in Hawaii right before it all happened.

HENRY PARKE: I understand Siege at Rhyker’s Station is one of a group of Westerns.

MICHAEL FEIFER: I don't know if I'd call them a series, but a company hired me to make three Westerns in a row. By the way, (post production for) Shooting Star is going to be done in a week or two.

HENRY PARKE:  And that’s another Western, not part of the group of three.  I’d love to see it.

MICHAEL FEIFER: It's pretty cool. Do you know it's in black and white?  It's beautiful. So, I had three Westerns in a row to do.  The last one was called Catch The Bullet. This is called The Siege at Rhyker’s Station. And then the third one is called Desperate Riders. They're not related to each other, but it's an opportunity, and we like making westerns. I like them when they're not in the cold and the wind, but otherwise. 

HENRY PARKE:  For this one, what particular challenges are you facing?

MICHAEL FEIFER: This one is challenging because there's a lot of characters stuck in this little stagecoach station. There's a lot of characters up on the hill shooting at them. A lot of disparate moments and actions. It's easy to shoot a scene where you have a finite beginning, and a finite end, and dialogue that sort of resolves itself. You understand what the characters are doing and what their points are. When you're shooting an action scene where one person shoots here, one person shoots there, another person's shooting from over there, it makes it a little harder to keep the continuity of the scene, the consistency of it. A lot of that material, I'm going to shoot over a period of time, but I only have Bruce Dern for a short time and Cam Gigandet for a time. So that makes it more challenging.

HENRY PARKE: Have you worked with Bruce Dern before?

MICHAEL FEIFER:  I have not, and he's been a joy. I've heard more Hollywood stories in two days than I've heard in my entire life, except for maybe when I worked with Peter Bogdanovich,

HENRY PARKE:  What did you direct Bogdonavich in?

MICHAEL FEIFER:  A movie called Abandoned, starting Brittany Murphy, Dean Cain, Mimi Rogers, and Peter. Super-nice guy. One of the few actors that, when we finished, he says, Mike, you have everything you need? Are you good?  Just a really giving guy, really nice.

Cash Parrott keeps firing!

HENRY PARKE:  Tell me a about shooting Catch the Bullet in Wyoming.

MICHAEL FEIFER: Actually it's kind of interesting. I made a deal with a ranch in Wyoming called the TA Ranch. It’s 8,000 acres. Kirsten Giles, her family owns it. I didn't scout it ahead of time. I had somebody else scout it, so I'd seen pictures, seen video. When we got there, Peter Sherayko and I were sitting out by what they call the milk house, a building you'll see at the beginning of the movie, with Tom Skerritt, that looks out over their ranch, And Kirsten, who runs the ranch says, you know, this is the location of Johnson County War.  Peter's like: what? She says, this is the exact location. The barn here is where they actually fired guns from. She showed us the bullet holes. She showed us the holes where they put the rifles through.  I swear Peter almost cried because you know, the history means so much to him. Peter has one scene in that movie, and I made his scene start off in the barn.  It was a neat moment, to see Peter so affected.

HENRY PARKE:  Your previous Western, A Soldier’s Revenge, was released in June. 

MICHAEL FEIFER:  We just won The Wild Bunch Film Festival.  We won best picture, best director, best produced feature, best ensemble cast, best actress, best lead actor.

HENRY PARKE: You've cleaned the slate.

MICHAEL FEIFER: We did quite well there. I was very appreciative of Rock Whitehead and his wife, what they put together, and we had a good time. Soldier's Revenge came out on DVD, so people can pick that up. And if you have Amazon Prime, you can watch it for free.

 

Peter Sherayko and Mike Feifer

Peter Sherayko and I sat down – at least six feet apart – and I asked him if this was his first time working with Bruce Dern.  It was not. 

PETER SHERAYKO: No, it's the fourth. We did Badland last year, and we did Hickcok couple of years before.  And Traded.  So it's my fourth time working with Bruce.

HENRY PARKE: So what's he like to work with?

PETER SHERAYKO:  You know, he is really good, and he's a wealth of stories on the old west, and on different movies that he did.

HENRY PARKE:  Who are you playing in this picture?

PETER SHERAYKO:  Actually the third lead, a guy named Red Lindstrom who runs a freighting outfit.

HENRY PARKE: I've never been on a film set where you were acting, where you weren't also doing a few other things. What else are you doing on this picture?

PETER SHERAYKO:  The costumes, the location and the guns; I'm the armorer. Kevin (McNiven) came down from Wyoming with the horses, he and Addie (Ardeshir Radpour) are the wranglers, and all the guys that they hired to ride are The Buckaroos (Peter’s group of horsemen).  They can ride and shoot, so that's what they're doing. And Dan Dietrich brought the stagecoach in from Shingle Springs, California.  He taught me how to drive the wagon, which I hadn't done in 20 years, and I totally was inept then. But now I feel very competent.  We have a three-picture deal to do for the same company. The Desperate Riders is the third one, probably in December and probably in Arizona. We were going to do Rhyker’s (in Wyoming), but one day it was 90 degrees, two days later we had five inches of snow, and Mike said, I can't film here.

HENRY PARKE:  Not good for continuity.

PETER SHERAYKO: (laughs) There's no continuity. It's bad enough here with the wind yesterday, fog in the morning, today's a totally different day than yesterday.

Bruce Dern

(At that moment, Molly the costumer appeared to ask Peter if he has a pair of 1880s period glasses, the kind with circular lenses, for one of the actors.  He assured her he’d bring them the next day.)

PETER SHERAYKO:  This is why I started the business. Because as an actor, I always brought whatever props I needed. I would look at my character, saying this I want, this I want. I want to have a match-safe with matches, or I want to have a cigar or I want to have glasses. Or a walking stick. So I would bring them. And I started bringing my own guns, talking to the director saying, can I use these guns? It drives me crazy when actors come in and then all of a sudden, they go, can I have this? Especially on small budget movies that we do, the prop people have no time to pull everything for every character. There's one actor I've worked with six times. We've been friends for 30 years. And when we're working on a movie, I'll call and I'll say, Marty, what do you want? And he'll say, I don't want anything.  The day he's there, oh, can I have this? Can I have that? It's not in the script. So that's why I started the business, because I wanted to make things more efficient.

HENRY PARKE:  How many pictures have you done with Michael Feifer?

PETER SHERAYKO: Eight; the next one will be the sixth one as an actor. I like Michael because he doesn't shoot fast, but he gets everything he wants done.  We had a nine o'clock call today and we'll be out of here by six.

David DeLuise waiting for "Action!" The power

lines will not be in frame.

(We were interrupted a few times by phone calls.  A man wanted to rent props.  Another wanted to rent the ranch to shoot a rock video.) 

HENRY PARKE: You’ve got your ranch working all the time.

PETER SHERAYKO:  You know, on a normal year without COVID we do 40 to 60 shoots: commercials, music videos, TV, movies. Last year we did six movies, and they brought two stagecoaches in for one of them. We keep on working because everybody knows that I'm cost-effective. A producer called me this morning; he's having a hard time raising $500,000 to do a movie. He used to work for Showtime, and now he's been trying to independently produce. He said a couple of years ago, shows were a million and a half. Now the low budget shows are all down to four, five, $600,000. They're not bigger than that.  Even all the shows for Hallmark are way down. This year, their budgets had to go up $2 million just for COVID testing. And they had to cut a lot of other stuff because Hallmark says, no, we're not giving you any more money. So they had to really pull back, all those networks: USA, Lifetime, all those movies are less than a million dollars.  A couple of years ago they were one or two million dollars. He says, the biggest budget you can have is a million two. If you go over a million two, they won't be able to recoup the money, because there is so much product out there.

HENRY PARKE:  That's very interesting. I'd never thought that protection from COVID would be pulling money directly out of a budget, that that would not be something added on.

PETER SHERAYKO:  Well, they already have a budget, and a budget is a pie, cut up in pieces. Line producer says, okay, camera's going to get so much. We have so much for props. We have so much for costumes. We have so much for talent. We know that we have to have your A-list person, your major star, or you're not going to sell it. We were going to film this movie a couple of months ago, but the money people gave Michael a list of 10, 12 actors. You have to get these. Some of them turned it down because it wasn't enough money. Bruce was on the list, and we had to increase his pay to to get him, or they wouldn't get the money (for the movie).

All photos from Siege at Rhyker's Station are by www.barryjholmes.com.

 

‘THE COMEBACK TRAIL’ DECEMBER 18^TH!

Back in 1982, a very talented, quirky filmmaker name Harry Hurwitz, who’s The Projectionist (1970) became a cult classic, made the wonderful but rarely seen black comedy, The Comeback Trail. It starred Chuck McCann as a failed movie producer who tries to get rich by hiring a broken-down former Western star, played by Buster Crabbe, to star in a movie, insure him for a fortune, and kill him.  It’s been remade, and while I usually don’t get excited about remakes, the trailer looks hysterical.  And it stars, as the producers, Robert DeNiro, Morgan Freeman, Zach Braff and, as the broken-down Western star, Tommy Lee Jones. 

 

ALPHA VIDEO’S BOB STEELE, EDDIE DEAN, ‘END OF AN ERA’ RELEASES

Alpha Video always seems to come up with something unusual, and this pair of new releases is no exception.  After 120 starring roles in B-Westerns since 1927, Thunder Town, a 1946 Producers Releasing Corporation film, would be Steele’s last.  Two years later, P.R.C.’s The Tioga Kid would not only be star Eddie Dean’s final B-Western, it would be the last B-Western that P.R.C. would ever make.

Steele had begun his career as a kid, co-starring with his twin brother in a series of shorts, The Adventures of Bill and Bob, directed by their father, Robert N. Bradbury, who would later direct John Wayne’s Lone Star Bs.  Bob starred in Western Bs for fly-by-night outfits, as well as Poverty Row ‘majors’, often one-offs, but also in series like The Trail Blazers for Monogram, Billy The Kid for P.R.C., and in the final years of The Three Mesquiteers at Republic. 

Though not so well remembered as his contemporaries, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and Hopalong Cassidy, Steele was extremely popular in his day, especially with young boys. Their sisters may have liked his good looks, warm smile, and wavy brown hair, but the boys loved Steele because, while standing no more than five and a half feet tall, he could convincingly whip the tar out of six foot six villains. 

He was also a far better actor than most B-Western stars.  In 1939’s brilliant Lewis Milestone production of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, he plays hateful Curley Jackson, working amongst some of the finest of America’s stage and film actors: Burgess Meredith, Betty Field, Lon Chaney Jr., and Charles Bickford.

In his final B, Thunder Town, Bob Steele plays Jim Brandon, who receives a cold reception in his home town when he returns from prison on parole.  Of course, Brandon says his bank-robbery conviction was a frame-up, and although his ranching partner committed suicide, supposedly over guilt in letting him take the rap alone, Brandon thinks it wasn’t suicide, but murder.  And who might be behind it all but the Duncan brothers, led by the older brother, played by hissable villain Charles King.  And Duncan just happens to be legal guardian to Brandon’s girlfriend (Betty Morgan), and is pressuring her to marry his kid brother. 

It’s an interesting film, and a nice performance by Steele, who is shunned by many and, being on parole and having to keep out of trouble, has to eat a lot of dirt.  This is one of the few times he wears a mustache, which not only makes him seem all of his 39 years, but makes him resemble J. Carrol Naish. Syd Saylor is adequate as the sidekick.

After Thunder Town, Steele’s next part would be arguably his greatest A role, in Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep.  Acting opposite – and beating up – Humphrey Bogart, he plays Canino, the sadistic henchman who grins as he bullies Elisha Cook Jr. into drinking poison.  Maybe Steele, about to turn forty, wanted to move to character roles in bigger pictures.  Sadly, it didn’t happen. He would work steadily for years, but mostly lending support in Bs until they petered out.  Surprisingly, in the 1960s he achieved his most enduring fame, and showed his comedy skills, on F-TROOP, playing Trooper Duffy, who endlessly bragged about his time at The Alamo.  The Golden Boot Awards, which from 1983 to 2007, celebrated the contributions of actors and crew members to Western film, was the brainchild of Gene Autry’s sidekick, Pat Buttram.  He created them specifically to acknowledge Bob Steele, whom he felt had not gotten the credit he deserved.  Along with Thunder Town is a fascinating short also from 1946, Shanghai: The Falling Horse, featuring ace stuntman Fred Kennedy training his horse to take convincing falls without being injured.  You can buy Thunder Town here: https://www.oldies.com/product-view/8361D.html

 

Eddie Dean, maybe the best singer of all the singing cowboys, stars in 1948’s The Tioga Kid as himself, a lawman; and as the outlaw he’s sent after, the infamous Tioga Kid.  The movie opens with a montage of the Kid’s privations, and PRC must have lifted shoot-outs, chases, bank-robberies, and blown-up houses from a dozen movies, some of them silent, and including an outstanding nighttime train wreck, interspersed with Tioga Kid newspaper headlines.  With the help of sidekick Roscoe Ates, Eddie tries to save the ranch of feisty and lovely Jennifer Holt, and bring his evil twin (might they really be brothers?) to justice.  A remake of Dean’s 1946 film Driftin’ River, much of the cast and plot – and footage – was repeated.  The one song that is added, “Ain’t No Gal Got a Brand on Me,” is definitely the best of the three featured. 

It would be P.R.C.’s last B-Western not because of collapse, but because of a change of business model. The studio was absorbed into British filmmaker J. Arthur Rank’s Eagle-Lion Pictures, to produce low-budget second-features to be teamed with their British releases.  While superior competitor Republic would continue making B’s into the 1950s, it was the end of the trail for most.  While sidekick Roscoe Ates would move to Republic for a time, and have a very busy career in television, Dean would never do another movie, and precious little TV, aside from an unsuccessful try at a Western series, The Marshall of Gunsight Pass, costarring with Roscoe Ates, which you can find on Youtube, if your eyes can take it.  It was Jennifer Holt’s last film as well.  Tioga Kid is accompanied by a 1949 short, Hold ‘Em Cowboy, featuring cowboys preparing for a rodeo, and some very interesting early footage. 

You can buy Tioga Kid here:  https://www.oldies.com/product-view/8363D.html

 

BIOGRAPHY – KENNY ROGERS – A DVD REVIEW

The A&E biography of music superstar Kenny Rogers, who passed away this March at the age of 83, is built around his 2017 Farewell Concert in Nashville, and its cavalcade of stars paying tribute to Rogers.  The 86-minutes film traces his career from his early days with The New Christy Minstrels, splitting off to form the more rock-oriented First Edition, his ups and downs professionally as he struggled to make it as a single, and his career-making shift from rock and pop to country.  The interviews with former bandmates, producers, and songwriters are illuminating, and his friendships with Lionel Richie and Dolly Parton are illuminating, not only of Rogers’ character, but of his professional technique. 

But the gaps in this telling of his story are jarring. An ex-wife is interviewed, their child mentioned, and Rogers’ widow is seen, though not spoken to.  But Rogers had five wives and leaves five children.  While too much time is spent on some songs, other important hits like “Coward of the County” are not even mentioned.   Neither is Rogers’ hugely successful (for a time) foray into the restaurant business, the Kenny Rogers Roasters chain. 

Much is made of his hit song “The Gambler”, and the fact that it was made into a TV movie.  Not mentioned is that there were four sequels, a film based on “Coward of the County”, as well as the Westerns Wild Horses and El Diablo, a couple of crime dramas, and the theatrical film Six Pack.

In addition to being a wonderful singer and entertainer, Rogers also had a sense of humor, and put up with friend Johnny Carson’s frequent needling about his chicken restaurants.  And while he had a well-crafted image that he was careful to maintain, he could still laugh at himself. In an article about performers and plastic surgery, he confided to TV Guide that he’d had so many face-lifts that his sideburns were now behind his ears, requiring him to shave there.  In fact, in later years he had so much plastic surgery that if not for his voice, he would have been unrecognizable.  As an informal celebration of Kenny Rogers’ music, the documentary is very entertaining.  As a biography, it falls short.

One more thing…

A lot of famous people have passed away recently, including the great Sean Connery, and Jeopardy host Alex Trebek.  But often, important people who work behind the scenes pass away with little notice.  Screenwriter William Blinn died in October, at the age of 83.  He created several TV series, including Starsky and Hutch, wrote the groundbreaking mini-series Roots, and Brian’s Song.  He wrote for a number of Western series, including being the story editor on the short-lived but excellent TV series Shane, which starred David Carradine and Jill Ireland, and is available from Shout Factory.  He gave me a great interview about his Western writing career.  Here is the link: https://henryswesternroundup.blogspot.com/2015/05/carradines-shane-series-plus-interview.html

 

And please check out the November issue of True West magazine, featuring my interview with Earl Holliman!

And that’s a wrap!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright November 2020 by Parke – All Rights Reserved

 

NEW WESTERN – ‘A SOLDIER’S REVENGE’, INTERVIEW W/DIR. MICHAEL FEIFER, PLUS RANDOLPH SCOTT DOUBLE-FEATURE REVIEW!

WRITER-DIRECTOR MICHAEL FEIFER ON 'A SOLDIER'S REVENGE':

GUN-RUNNING, AND POST-CIVIL WAR P.T.S.D.

With 64 feature directing credits, and 37 screenwriting credits since 2005, you can safely call Michael Feifer prolific.  From action films to true crime to horror to Christmas movies, to ‘dog-who-saved-various-holidays’ movies, he’s delved into most genres. On Tuesday, June 16^th, just in time for Father’s Day, his newest film will be coming out on home video, from Well Go U.S.A., available from Walmart and other retailers, as well as VOD download. It’s Michael’s third Western. His first was the contemporary SODA SPRINGS (2012), starring Jay Pickett and Tom Skerritt, followed the same year by WYATT EARP’S REVENGE, whose cast includes Val Kilmer and Trace Adkins. Partnered with co-producer and Western expert Peter Sherayko, in addition to A SOLDIER’S REVENGE, Michael has a fourth Western, SHOOTING STAR, in the can, to be released later this year, and three more Westerns set to go before camera: one would be rolling by the end of this week if not for the Coronavirus.

A SOLDIER’S REVENGE is a post-Civil War tale of a former Confederate soldier, Frank Connor (Neal Bledsoe), whose PTSD has made him unable to adapt to civilian life. He’s lost his marriage, isolated himself, and survives by taking assignments as a paid gunman.  The unwanted responsibility thrust upon him by a chance meeting with two desperate children leads him to uncover a gun-running scheme operated by former friend and comrade-in-arms Briggs (Rob Mayes).  

Back in 2011 I had the pleasure of spending a few days on the set of WYATT EARP’S REVENGE, at Caravan West Ranch and Paramount Ranch.  (If you'd like to read those articles, go HERE and HERE.) Just a day ago I had the chance to catch up with Michael, telephonically, about A SOLDIER’S REVENGE, and his other Westerns in the pipeline.

Frank (Neal Bledsoe) and Griggs (Rob Mayes) as 

Rebel comrades 

HENRY: You wrote the script for A Soldier’s Revenge some years ago, and as another genre.

MICHAEL: I just wrote a low-budget action movie. There wasn't particularly a plan; I was just starting to write scripts. I've written now 40 or so scripts. It's just been sitting around for 10 years. And then, Peter Sherayko called me up and said, Hey, I have an investor, Rick Pihl, for a Western. You got any Westerns sitting around? I said, I don't, but I do have this action movie that I think I can convert into a Western. So I made a bunch of changes, but it’s basically a similar storyline. The action movie was based on an Iraq War soldier. It was a PTSD story. I changed the SUVs into wagons and horses, and changed the city of L.A.  into a Western town. The original script had a DARPA, secret Defense Department compound, and that changed to Briggs' compound. Peter read it, and brought in all his Western-isms: Frank saying, I roll my own hoop, a hard-boiled egg is yellow on the inside, stuff about a curly wolf -- things like that. Peter brought that actual Western lingo to the script, which was really nice.  And Peter's like, if you want to be true to the timeline, the men who ran guns, they ran women, too. So there's the scene where Frank pulls up the stagecoach, and my wife, Caia Coley, plays one of the prostitutes. Peter came in and brought in his lingo and the right types of guns and the right timeline and the right geographical settings,  we changed Briggs into a gun runner.

HENRY:  How did you like shooting the Civil War scenes?

MICHAEL:  I really enjoyed them. You know, usually on a low-budget movie, you really don't have the money for practical effects (note: practical effects are effects that are done on-set and on-camera, as opposed to CGI). Most of the effects you see in a movie are visual effects. But we actually had Christian Ramirez, my production designer, put together some canons to blow material in the air, which is really, really nice. The civil war reenactor guys, they come ready to go with all the accoutrements and costumes, and so truly quick and easy to get into and start shooting. I would love to shoot another war movie that's just Civil War, trench warfare, or a  World War One movie.  It's just so visual and visceral and textured.

HENRY: Frank Connor's character, today we would say he had PTSD. What did they call it after the Civil War?

MICHAEL: They called it Soldier's Heart, the original name of the film.  Peter was the one who named the film Soldier’s Heart. They didn't really have an understanding of what it was, but they knew that something traumatically would happen to you in war, and seeing such terrible things. The movie is being released as A Soldiers Revenge because that title had a little more of an action feel to it than a drama feel to it.

HENRY: When I talked to Peter about it, having been a Vietnam War veteran himself, and  having friends who suffered from PTSD, the theme was very important to him. I was wondering if you've had a response from any other vets.

MICHAEL: Oh, you know it's interesting. Peter's a gang of background actors that work on the movies, we call them Peter Sherayko's Buckaroos, many of them are vets, and many of them came to me during the shoot and thanked me for making a story where you have a character who's suffering from PTSD, suffering from soldier's heart. They found a lot of moments that really expressed their feelings, and appreciated that it was being explored. And the more light you put on the subject, the more people could come out from their own personal shadows and get help and feel that there's others like others like them. So a lot of guys actually came up and, and, and thanked me.

Neal Bledsoe and AnnaLyne McCord

HENRY: You've certainly taken us far out of the 21st century with this one. Where did you film it?

MICHAEL: We filmed on three ranches in Los Angeles. Caravan West Ranch, which is Peter Sherayko's production facility, in Agua Dulce. We filmed at Big Sky Ranch in Simi Valley, which is where The Little House on The Prairie was filmed. We shot at Rancho Deluxe, in Santa Clarita. Big Sky Ranch is where the yellow house that's where Briggs' house is. People might be familiar with that from Westworld ‘s first season. There used to be more Western towns in Los Angeles. In fact, Paramount Ranch burned down, and another fantastic West town was torn down. So there were more options, but you know, L.A. is where they shot all the old westerns and what we're still doing here.

HENRY:  How long was your shooting schedule?

MICHAEL:  17 days.

HENRY: Wow -- that's tight!

MICHAEL: Not for me, (laughs). Actually that's four days longer than my normal schedule. Shooting Star, the last one, I actually did that in 19 days, which was even nicer. You know, a studio film, they might shoot 45 to 90 days. When you shoot independent films, specifically Western, you’ve just gotta work fast, you've got to have a well-oiled crew working together. You could tell when a movie is gonna really work out when you're on on-set, when everybody's really enjoying the process.  And the fruits of our labor will be revealed to the world on June 16th.

Val Kilmer, Michael Feifer, Neal Bledsoe

HENRY : What part of making a film is the most fun, or the most challenging?

MICHAEL: Actually the most fun and the most challenging is directing. I just thoroughly enjoy putting the pieces together, conceptualizing scenes, picking my lenses, camera movement, telling my crew, my cast what I need them to do. Everybody works together for one final goal. It’s just the complete creativity of directing a movie. I went to school for architecture, I was a graphic designer as a kid. I was a photographer and sculptor and drew, and directing movies is the aggregate of all of that together into one. If I couldn't direct movies, I would want to be a professional baseball player. It's like being a pitcher on the mound and you're in control of that game. And you only have those 17 days. That's it. There's no pickups or re-shoots on independent films; there's no budget for it. I'm so hyper-vigilant about getting the day started as quick as possible and shooting everything I can within a day.

HENRY: What is your favorite part of the finished film?

MICHAEL: There's a part where the kids are sleeping on a horse, and Frank leads them, comes to a spot and stops. He's leaning on the horse and he tells the kids, basically tells himself, and tells the kids while they're sleeping (something crucial that would give too much of the plot away!) There's something about the scene's really beautiful to me. I think Neil Bledsoe, his performance just hearkens back to Westerns of the ‘40s and ‘50s and ‘60s. It's just a sweet moment, one of the kids kind of looks up and then looks down again cause she was listening. That’s Savannah Judy -- Savannah and Luke Judy play the kids. You know making moments where people are shooting each other and riding quick and killing somebody are really fun to do and really exciting. But when you could draw the emotion in the middle of a big Epic Western, and it's just him with the two kids, I think I might like that scene the best.

Luke and Savannah Judy

HENRY:  I was delighted to see Jimmy Russo in the film.

MICHAEL:  Well, he's a fascinating guy, really a legendary actor. I was just watching him in Open Range the other night, with Robert Duvall and Kevin Costner. My favorite part of his was in Extremities, with Farrah Fawcett. We have a friend in common, Jay Pickett, who's also in Soldier's Heart, and Jay Pickett and James Russo coached baseball together; their kids were on the same baseball team. I needed a really, really strong actor to start off the movie. Frank goes to take care of one of his bounty hunting jobs, which is to take out James Russo's character, Artemus Walsh. It's a long scene and it's a tension-filled scene and it has great moments. I needed someone to really start the movie off with a bang, no pun intended, and a really strong performance. Someone who's gritty and just real, and James came to mind.

And onset was actually fascinating to watch him. We get onset, rehearse it, block the scene, and once we shoot the master, you kinda know what you're doing. When you get to the mediums and close-ups, you can evolve the moments more. Russo grabbed Neil and just set out a couple of directors chairs while the guys are lighting the set and just started working with Neil: let's work it, let's work it, let's do it again, let's do it again. Generally with independent films there's no rehearsals, there's no money to do rehearsals ahead of time. But we had this moment in time because we were lighting the set and James was just working with Neil and was like, let's do it again, and Mike, do you mind if I change the words here?  And Neil's really an actor's actor too, and he was loving it.

HENRY:  It was so nice to see Val Kilmer as Frank's father. Haven't you guys worked together before?

MICHAEL:  We worked together on Wyatt Earp's Revenge. And I did that in 2011 and filmed him at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. One day, 13 pages. It's one of those just sort of amazing experiences. But we had so much material to do. I didn't have time to get to know Val, to talk to him. Fast forward, eight years later, and I emailed him and said, Hey Val, do you remember when we got together for Wyatt Earp's Revenge? I’ve got another Western. And he emailed me back, yeah, I remember, good times.  In fact, if you watch, I'm sure a lot of people recognize that Val's gone through some health issues, but there's a certain sort of pathos to his character, that he was able to bring out, that I think is really just fascinating to watch. Even with the health issues he's been having. I'm just so impressed with Val, he's such a good guy. Such a nice, a nice person who's really very giving and just wants to do the best he can and help his fellow actor. And it was a pleasure to work with him.

HENRY:  I understand you have several other Western movie projects in the works.

Mike Feifer and Peter Sherayko

MICHAEL:  We shot Shooting Star in October, and it's in post. Shooting Star stars Drew Waters, Heather McComb , Peter Sherayko and Michael Pare, Jake Busey, but it also stars two young actresses who've never acted before and just blew me away. They were brilliant. One is Lyana Ferrino who plays the young girl, Blaze, who gets hurt at the beginning of the film, and is sort of the impetus for the entire story of the film. And then the lead actress is Brooklin Michelle. We'll probably complete post production in a couple of months. Then I have three more Western's coming up: Catch the Bullet, Desperate Riders, and The Siege at Rhyker's Station. We were supposed to shoot Catch the Bullet April 6th, but unfortunately with the Coronavirus and the quarantine, we have to delay that. And Val Kilmer was going to be in that movie too.

You asked about something challenging. Probably the most challenging thing other than just directing a Western movie, is the horse-riding. It's very hard to find experienced actors who can also ride horses; not just ride a horse, like gallop a horse, but control a horse. And it's very difficult to get. So on Catch the Bullet, there's a gang of bad guys and there's three good guys chasing down the bad guys and they all have to ride horses. So for Catch the Bullet, I'm hiring cowboys and stunt men who ride horses to play the roles, rather than actors and teaching them how to ride. I want these guys to be able to ride like there's no tomorrow, so the scenes just feel more dynamic and more real.  (laughs) In Shooting Star, I used a yoga ball. I’d put the actors on a yoga ball and have them bounce up and down, and make like their on a running horse. Sometimes we put the yoga ball in the back of the pickup truck and drive the pickup truck with the yoga ball. There's all sorts of techniques you have to use.

Jake Busey takes aim!

Shooting Star is going to be entirely in black and white, going to be reminiscent of westerns of the fifties and sixties, and we're going to do the music a very similar way. It looks spectacular in black and white. I'm really excited, really excited, and I'm not going to change it. People think, if you do it black and white, you're not gonna make any money. I'm like, ah, no, we're actually going to make a lot more money!"

“TO THE LAST MAN” AND “THE FIGHTING WESTERNER”

A RANDOLPH SCOTT DOUBLE FEATURE FROM ALPHA VIDEO DVD $7.98

Jack LaRue and Randolph Scott

Back in the early 1930s, Paramount brought ten Zane Grey Westerns to the screen, all starring young leading man Randolph Scott. Low-budget, but not B-Westerns in the usual sense, not aimed strictly towards kiddie matinees, some very fine films were made, all with strong casts, some with fine directors. Alpha-Video has released a double-feature pair, TO THE LAST MAN (1933), and THE FIGHTING WESTERNER (1935).

TO THE LAST MAN, directed by the wonderful Henry Hathaway (TRUE GRIT 36 years later!), it opens after the Civil War, with Mark Hayden (Egon Brecher), going home to the Kentucky hills, but only long enough to take his three kids to live somewhere away the deadly feud that has killed many in his family, and the opposing family, the Colbys, led by Jed Colby (Noah Beery Sr.). When Jed murders Mark’s father, Mark’s decision to have Jed arrested and tried rather than shooting him, is considered cowardly and dishonorable by both sides, and when Jed gets out of prison after fifteen years, he’s determined to destroy Mark as slowly and painfully as possible.

Randolph Scott, as Mark’s eldest son, doesn’t appear until 20 minutes into this just-over-an-hour movie, but when he does the film belongs to him, and to lovely Esther Ralston as Jed’s daughter Ellen – if you sense a Romeo and Juliet vibe, you’re not wrong. The supporting cast is delightful, with many actors you’ve never seen so young before, including Fuzzy Knight, Jack LaRue as Jed’s former cellmate, Buster Crabbe as Mark’s kid brother, Gail Patrick as their sister, and Barton MacLane as Mark’s son-in-law. It features a very early role for John Carradine, and the very first screen appearance for Shirley Temple, who is utterly charming.

Delmar Watson, Randolph Scott, and in her very first

scene in a movie, Shirley Temple

It’s a pre-Code film, which means, yes, Esther Ralston really seems to be skinny-dipping, and some of the violence is startling brutal. There’s one moment as tough as the scene in LITTLE CESAR when the gangster is brought home. Most interesting is a moment where Ellen asks cousin Eli (James Eagle) how a fine lady dresses. As he describes how his mother would dress, we realize what neither he nor Ellen do, that his mother was working in a brothel.

THE FIGHTING WESTERNER was originally released as THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN MYSTERY, and is in fact more of a Mystery than a Western, and not a very involving one at that. Randolph Scott is a mining engineer who arrives at a radium mine to find he’s there to replace a murdered man. All of the heirs have come for the reading of the will, and someone is bumping them off. Scott plays Watson to Sheriff (and vaudeville comic) Chic Sale’s Holmes. Also in the cast are lovely Ann Sheridan very early in her career; lovely Kathleen Burke, best remembered as the Panther Woman in ISLAND OF LOST SOULS; and David Belasco discovery Mrs. Leslie Carter.  It was the second film directed by talented journeyman Charles Barton, who the previous year won an Oscar for Best Assistant Director – yes, they used to give Oscars for that job. He would make his reputation directing some of Abbott & Costello’s funniest films, including ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN. He has one wonderful sequence here, a fight-to-the-death at the mine’s stamp mill. Both films are from badly scratched but high-quality prints. Alpha Video’s offices are currently closed due to the Coronavirus. But when things get back to normal, you can order them HERE.

…AND THAT’S A WRAP!

Have a great week, keep washing your hands and hiding from your neighbors!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Material Copyright Mach 2020 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved

ON-SET WITH WYATT EARP -- PART 1

PLEASE EXCUSE THE DELAY in this week's Round-up, but some personal business, of a very positive nature, has come up. If anything pans out, I'll let you know, and I'll have this week's Round-up up Monday night or Tuesday.

I think Henry’s Western Round-up has earned bragging rights for scooping all other media with the story of THE FIRST RIDE OF WYATT EARP. The Daily Variety, the first in mainstream media to announce the production, did so this past Thursday, March 17th. We announced it on February 27th – eighteen days earlier! There’s a lot of buzz over the casting of Val Kilmer as the fabled lawman. Kilmer has played real Wild West figures to great effect – his performance as the title character in BILLY THE KID (1989) established him as a leading man, and his portrayal of Doc Holliday in TOMBSTONE (1993) is the stuff of legend.

EARP is such a new production that tonight, Sunday, March 20th, is the last scheduled day of shooting. The screenplay by Darren Benjamin Shepherd is based on a true crime that Earp faced early in his career as Dodge City Marshall, the murder of actress Dora Hand. When Earp took off after suspected killer Spike Kenedy, he had a posse of young men that is incredible to contemplate: Bat Masterson, Charlie Bassett, Bill Tilghman and Doc Holliday. The film opens in San Francisco, 1907, where a 60ish Earp, played by Val Kilmer tells the story to a reporter.

(Photos: three lawmen confer, director Feiferabout to call 'Action', all action is covered by two cameras, make-up artist Katerina Ramirez, art director Christiam Ramirez, Peter Sherayko confers with exec. prods. Jeff Schenck and Barry Barnholtz, villain Daniel Booko gets the drop on me, wrangler Adeshir Radpour and a wooly horse brought from Nevada, Zack Smith attaches a camera to Kevin McNiven's stirrup, insert car tracks back on riders, insert car again - note boom camera and steadi-cam, Happy Trails)

Earp’s story takes us back to Dodge, 1878, and a younger Earp, portrayed by Shawn Roberts, recently seen in comedies like I LOVE YOU, BETH COOPER (2009), and dark thrillers like EDGE OF DARKNESS (2010) with Mel Gibson. Levi Fiehler, recently starring in WOLF TOWN (2010) and PUPPETMASTER: AXIS OF EVIL (2010), plays lawman Bill Tilghman. Bat Masterson is Matt Dallas, who starred as the title character in the sci-fi series KYLE XY. Charlie Bassett is played by Scott Whyte of MIGHTY DUCKS #2&3. Wilson Bethel of THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS and GENERATION KILL is Doc Holliday. Daniel Booko, recently seen on MEDIUM and DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, is the villain of the piece, Spike Kenedy. They’re a young and handsome bunch, and the filmmakers are no doubt hoping for the kind of lightning that struck with the casting of YOUNG GUNS (1988), which featured Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen, Lou Diamond Phillips and Dermot Melroney.

Also featured in the cast are country music star Trace Atkins, currently seen in THE LINCOLN LAWYER, who plays Spike’s cattle-baron father Miflin Kenedy, and AMERICAN IDOL finalist Diana DeGarmo in her first film role as Dora Hand.

On Wednesday, March 9th, I found my way on mountain dirt roads to Caravan West Ranch in Agua Dulce. The production assistant who picked me up steered around steers on the way to base camp. Peter Shereyko, whose Caravan West is supplying guns, saddles, horses, costumes and set dressing, did the same job on YELLOW ROCK(http://henryswesternroundup.blogspot.com/2010/09/yellow-rock-part-2-on-monday.html) (CLICK HERE to read about it), so I was pleased but not surprised to see some familiar faces: art director Christian Ramirez, set dresser and propmaster Zack Smith, and wranglers Kevin McNiven and Ardeshir Radpour. Base camp was on the bottom of a canyon, and halfway up the sagebrush-covered hills that ringed it, I saw the crew working with four men on horseback. The crew was tiny – two cameramen, soundman, the woman with the slate, and director Michael Feifer, a tall man with a bullhorn, parka and backwards baseball cap. In rapid succession he directed several scenes of lawmen riding by in various directions and groupings, with and without dialogue. The action was always covered by two cameras, one shooting the master, the other picking up close-ups and two-shots, the actions repeated often without stopping the camera. Feifer directs with an efficient but unhurried decisiveness. He knows what we wants, gets it, moves on, cheerfully joking with cast and crew. He rarely has to check his notes to see what’s needed. Never standing on ceremony, he grabs the script and an apple-box and is on his way to the next setup. I assume he owns a director’s chair, but on two days in two locations, I never saw him use one, or even sit down, except when they called lunch. It was during lunch that I got to talk to him.

Henry: I understand you’ve directed 21 films now?
Michael Feifer: This is the twenty-third.
H: You’ve done a lot of stuff with animals and serial killers. Is this your first Western?
M: Yes, my first Western. Well, I’ve done two contemporary Westerns. I did SODA SPRINGS (2011), in Idaho, that’s a contemporary Western. And a Hallmark-type Western called VALENTINE’S DAY. I don’t know if they call it a Western, but a girl goes to New York, then goes back to Texas, and they’re riding horses.
H: Is a Western something you’ve wanted to do for a long time?
M: I just like to make all sorts of movies, all sorts of genres, and I’m a big fan of any genre, whether it be Western or whatever -- (laughs), but I’m not like Peter Sherayko! But I like a lot of Westerns.
H: What are your favorite Westerns?
M: HIGH NOON (1952) – probably HIGH NOON and MAGNIFICENT 7 (1960) are my favorites. I never liked STAGECOACH, never understood the fascination with it. Because STAGECOACH was made in 1939, the same year that GONE WITH THE WIND and THE WIZARD OF OZ were made, and I don’t think you can put STAGECOACH up against those movies.
H: Where did this particular project come from?
M: Well, my executive producers names are Jeff Schenck and Barry Barnholtzs, and the writer is Darren Shephard. Barry had sold some Westerns that did okay. Westerns are a tough sell, but if you do them correctly, they can do well). The thing about Westerns is they’re an evergreen type of product. You make a good, watchable one, it’ll play for years. They’re not trendy, like serial killer or horror movies. A Western has a life to it.
H: Why are Westerns a tough sell?
M: Because they don’t sell in foreign markets. Westerns are such an American phenomenon that foreign territories aren’t interested. So nobody wants to put the money up to make them. If people bought them, they’d be made.
H: How did you go about casting?
M: One of the first thoughts was to get Val Kilmer to star in it, and that worked out -- we shot Val Kilmer in San Francisco, at the Fairmount Hotel, set in 1907. And then, casting (the rest) was a matter of auditioning. And we have a great group of actors – I’m very excited. These guys are very experienced actors. There’s a misnomer about how movies are made, mostly lower budget movies. When you direct a film, they like to blame you for the edit, the final product. I’m not always in control of the final product, because it’s a producer’s medium. An executive producer chooses an actor, and I haven’t seen some of the actors in the movie. It’s their money, it’s their product. So sometimes that happens.
H: How did you like working with Val Kilmer?
M: Amazing, a great guy – very nice. Actually, it was funny; I talked to him on the phone briefly. I didn’t meet him in person until he was on-set, dressed as Wyatt Earp. He had the mustache on, and you really can’t recognize him as Val Kilmer with the mustache. And he didn’t take it off until we wrapped him. And the moment he takes the mustache off, okay, it’s Val Kilmer. It’s almost like he’s an impostor all the way through, until he takes that mustache off. He was kind, compassionate, helpful. He was very into it, very excited by it. I’ve even heard from him since then, saying how much he enjoyed doing it.
H: What should I have asked you that I haven’t asked yet?
M: How much I love my wife.
H: How much do you love your wife?
M: I love her more than anything.
H: What else should I know?
M: I have a degree in architecture. University of Colorado, Boulder. I was a graphic designer. I started producing movies after I graduated from architecture school, with my father, who was also a film producer. I consider him a film producer – not a film-maker. He made WITCHCRAFT, parts one through thirteen. I produced WITCHCRAFT parts 5,6,7,8 and 9. I ran his video label. Went all over the world -- Cannes, Mifed. I didn’t want to start directing films until I had a full grasp of everything to do with production. My relationship with Barry Barnholtz started when I used to see Barry around Mifed and AFM (American Film Market). There was an opportunity to make some movies for him, I started making these movies about serial killers, true crime movies. Boston Strangler, Ted Bundy, Ed Gein, BTK -- movies like that. And the relationship’s just grown. Jeff Schenck, my other executive producer, came in with him, and the first movie we did was called THE CHRISTMAS PROPOSAL, with Tom Arnold, Nicole Eggert.
H: How many set-ups do you usually do in a day?
M: I try to do fifty to a hundred in a day. But you can’t really count set-ups any more, with digital cameras. When you were there just now, we shot a shot, I had the camera rolling, and I moved the camera while the camera was rolling, and did another setup. So how do you count setups? I had three guys go through, one goes through, another goes through – is that three setups or one setup?
H: What kind of video system are you using?
M: We’re shooting on the brand new Panasonic 8GAF 100 cameras. The big thing now with video is DSLR cameras; they’re basically single-lens reflex cameras that shoot hi-def, so your old Nikon camera can suddenly shoot hi-def. We have a PL mount, which allows Panavision lenses, Zeiss lenses to go on it, so it’s a better setup for shooting movies. These cameras – the SLRs, the AF 100s – the reason why people love ‘em, is they’ve got one single big chip, and that one big chip allows for a shallow depth of field. Shallow depth of field is shallow focus, and that’s more cinematic.

The end of lunch was called, and as Michael went back to work, I met a small blond woman with bit of a German accent, whose name is Katerina Ramirez. “I am key hair and make-up artist. I have not done a Western before – this is my first. We’re trying to recreate the period look of the late Victorian era, so we’re trying to do the mustaches and the period hair – especially for the women.” The day wasn’t cold, but the wind was strong. I asked her if it was a problem. “It’s kind of tough, but you get used to it. As long as you keep yourself warm, and keep your sunscreen on, Chapstick and everything.”

Katerina’s husband, Christian Ramirez, is the art director, which he also was on YELLOW ROCK. “This one involves a lot more travelling. There’s a lot more chase type stuff, chasing after a wanted man. Not a whole lot of really big sets. We’re going to be shooting at Paramount Ranch. We’re going to be dressing the saloon, a sheriff’s office, we’re going to be doing a dance-hall where the actresses perform. We’re going to be doing an Indian burial ground, and an Indian reservation, only we’re only doing one teepee, and it’s going to be a brief scene. It always feels good to do another Western – I’m a big fan of Westerns, I know a lot of people are, and there’s not enough being made these days. Did you see the new TRUE GRIT?
H: I loved it. I loved the original, too.
C: What I really liked, which surprised me, was most (period) movies today, they speak in modern language. And in TRUE GRIT they used more of the Victorian tongue, which I thought was really neat. And also it was kind of dirty and gruff – he takes the dead body, and, “I just want the teeth – you can have the rest!” They found value in everything, you know? Nothing was wasted. With the WYATT EARP script, I love the fact that they actually deal with time, with the traveling aspect of the west -- that horses overheat, you’ve got to feed them, that you can only travel so far in a day. With a lot of Westerns, they’re in a town, and a cut later they’re in another town, and a cut later they’re at the campfire. Like they’re taking helicopters. And this movie deals with the travel-times, which I thought was an interesting twist. It’s a super-tight schedule. Ten days total of shooting. We’re doing ten to twelve pages of script per day. Normally you do three, four, maybe five. We’re doubling it, so it’s gonna be tough.

When I sat down with Western consultant and stunt coordinator Peter Sherayko, I complimented him on the look of the production in general, and the pretty, shaggy horses.
PETER: Well, it’s wintertime, and they have their winter coats on. Probably another month, when I start brushing down the horses, I’ll have enough hair to fill a mattress. Which is what they used to do. I purposely brought the same horses we used on YELLOW ROCK. It’s still being edited – and they have to do a couple of pick-up shots, so I can do a little pick-up shot while we’re all here.
H: Any different challenges on this project?
P: We’re doing the same thing – costumes, props, set dressing, horses, guns, getting everything together.
H: In addition to wrangling, Kevin McNiven seems to have a substantial role in the picture.
P: No one can outride Kevin – Kevin’s poetry on horseback. I believe he’s going to be a deputy who gets killed this week, but he’s going to be doing a lot of riding. Kevin and Adeshir, who’s my other wrangler -- Adeshir’s a professional polo player – they will be doubling the actors. So in the long shots, when you see these guys really riding, it’ll be Kevin and Adeshir. I get killed in this one too, unlike TOMBSTONE.
H: This story is based on historical fact. Are there major challenges doing that versus a fictional story.
P: It doesn’t matter– I like seeing it correct. So I did have a lot of notes for the director because of little (bits of ) misinformation in the script. That’s why I’m doing my new book, to help writers out, to help directors, actors, so that they get it right. THE FRINGE OF HOLLYWOOD – THE ART OF MAKING A WESTERN. That’s my new book, which will be out this summer. There was one line in the script, when Dora Hand is killed, and they’re investigating the next day, and find 30-30 shells outside the window. Well, 30-30 shells weren’t invented in 1878 – they weren’t invented until 1894. The other one that stands out, Wyatt Earp is looking at the hoof marks on the ground, and says, “Looks like a heavy horse – probably a Palomino.” And I had to bring up that ‘palomino’ is the color of a horse, not a kind of a horse. All these little things that I love to go through in a script and correct. Fictional or real – this of course is the killing of Dora Hand, which in Hollywood the phrase is ‘based on a true story,’ which means that they’ve got somebody’s real name in there. There’s a girl named Chris Esenss who’s written a lot of good historical books on the west. Her most recent one was THE MANY LOVES OF BUFFALO BILL, where I wrote the forward, and she has another book coming out this year, called THUNDER OVER THE PLAINS, which is exactly this story, but not the same treatment. This script has all the facts in there, but it takes a little poetic license, which is fine with me. What I try to do is put the right guns in it, the right saddles and good horses, the right costumes as much as we can. On March 24th I’m going to the Palm Springs WestFest, signing books, but I’ll also be talking at two seminars about western movies and the real west. And after that I go to Old Tucson for their Western Festival, April 1st, 2nd and 3rd. I’m bringing a display down with guns, saddles, and sunbelts that we used in TOMBSTONE.
H: Are they ever going to rebuild their soundstage? (It was destroyed in an arson fire years ago. For details, read OLD TUCSON GAINS MUCH-NEEDED STARDUST HERE
P: That’s one of the things that a friend of mine has been trying to do, to make it a real movie studio like it used to be. He wants me to come in and design everything, so it’s movie-friendly.

I spoke for a few minutes to executive producer Jeff Schenck, whose previous films include AMERICAN BANDITS: FRANK AND JESSE JAMES. He thinks THE FIRST RIDE is a particularly good project for Val Kilmer. “I think audiences remember him from TOMBSTONE, he gave such a brilliant performance, really an iconic performance, and I think they’re going to be excited to see Val Kilmer playing another iconic character again, like Wyatt Earp.” He also believes the film will have particular appeal to a younger audience. “Unlike some other Westerns that are somewhat unrelatable, with Wyatt Earp, you’ve got this character that everyone knows, yet we’re going back to a time when no one really knew of him, where you’ve got Wyatt, Charlie, Bill and Bat in a young, hip way – and I think it makes the genre relatable to a new generation. As opposed to an older Western, where it’s the audience that you expect to have, we hope to bring in that CW audience, and graduate them into a fun Western genre.”

In two weeks I’ll have part two of my on-set report on THE FIRST RIDE OF WYATT EARP, about my visit to the Paramount Ranch location.

FIRST ANNUAL LOS ANGELES SPAGHETTI WESTERN FESTIVAL

Next week I’ll have a report on the event, where I happened to learn that the week before WYATT EARP arrived at Paramount Ranch, a western pilot was shot there, starring Bruce Boxleitner and Robert Davi.

PALM SPRINGS ‘WESTFEST’ MARCH 24TH-27TH

There’s going to be so much going on at the Palm Springs Convention Center from Thursday through Sunday that I hardly know where to begin. There will be a PRCA Rodeo every day – including bareback riding, steer wrestling, team roping, saddle bronc riding, tie-down roping, barrel racing and bull riding; the Twangfest musical festival; Western Design Expo; a rodeo parade; barbecue; chili cook-off; a carnival; a Gene Autry Film Fest; talks by Bob Boze Bell of True West Magazine, Golden Boot Award creator Rob Word, Western movie consultant Peter Sherayko, author Julie Ream and John Wayne co-star Eddie Faulkner remembering the Duke…. So much more than I can’t begin to fit it all in here – and aside from the rodeo, admission to everything is just five bucks a day! Also, although they officially say Westfest starts on March 24th, their event schedule starts on March 20th. CLICK HERE to go to the official site and learn more!

PAPERBACK COLLECTOR SHOW AND SALE SUNDAY, MARCH 27th

If you’re a reader of Westerns as well as a watcher, here is an event you should not miss! From 9:00 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. you can search the wares of dozens of book dealers from around the country. They run from the very rare and pricey to the battered and cheap. Serious paperback collectors go for unopened books in perfect condition, but I go for what are disparagingly called ‘reader copies,’ and have found dozens of obscure Luke Shorts and Zane Greys for a dollar or two each. Also, more than 45 authors will be signing their books, and unlike other autograph shows, THERE IS NO CHARGE! Most of the authors are sci-fi and mystery types – for a complete list and schedule, click HERE. The event is at the Valley Inn and Conference Center, 10621 Sepulveda Blvd., Mission Hills, CA 91345. For more information, call Tom Lesser at 818-349-3844 or Black Ace Books at 232-661-5052.
http://www.la-vintage-paperback-show.com/

BREAKING INTO WESTERN PRINT (BOTH ‘E’ AND PAPER) MARCH 27TH

If you’ve ever wanted to write a western novel or story – of if you’ve written it, but don’t know how to get it published (my hand is raised), make plans to go to Out West, at 24265 Main Street in Newhall on Sunday, March 27th at 2:00 p.m. Author C. Courtney Joyner, the very talented and prolific screenwriter and western film historian, will discuss breaking into the western print market, agents, editors, networking, the changes at Leisure Books, ‘E’ publishing, university presses, contests, and publishers across the pond. Mr. Joyner knows whereof he speaks: in addition to a long string of screen credits, both as writer and director, he wrote the fascinating interview-book THE WESTERNERS (see my review HERE), and his excellent tale, The Two-bit Kill, is featured in the new western story collection, LAW OF THE GUN. The event is free. For reservations call 661-255-7087.

CONTINUING

THE AUTRY NATIONAL CENTER

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

HOLLYWOOD HERITAGE MUSEUM

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

WELLS FARGO HISTORY MUSEUM

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


FREE WESTERNS ON YOUR COMPUTER AT HULU

A staggering number of western TV episodes and movies are available, entirely free, for viewing on your computer at HULU. You do have to sit through the commercials, but that seems like a small price to pay. The series available -- often several entire seasons to choose from -- include THE RIFLEMAN, THE CISCO KID, THE LONE RANGER, BAT MASTERSON, THE BIG VALLEY, ALIAS SMITH AND JONES, and one I missed from 2003 called PEACEMAKERS starring Tom Berenger. Because they are linked up with the TV LAND website, you can also see BONANZA and GUNSMOKE episodes, but only the ones that are running on the network that week.

The features include a dozen Zane Grey adaptations, and many or most of the others are public domain features. To visit HULU on their western page, CLICK HERE.

TV LAND - BONANZA and GUNSMOKE

Every weekday, TV LAND airs a three-hour block of BONANZA episodes from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. They run a GUNSMOKE Monday through Thursday at 10:00 a.m., and on Friday they show two, from 6:00 to 8:00 a.m.. They're not currently running either series on weekends, but that could change at any time.

NEED YOUR BLACK & WHITE TV FIX?

Check out your cable system for WHT, which stands for World Harvest Television. It's a religious network that runs a lot of good western programming. Your times may vary, depending on where you live, but weekdays in Los Angeles they run DANIEL BOONE at 1:00 p.m., and two episodes of THE RIFLEMAN from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.. On Saturdays at 2:00 p.m. it's THE RIFLEMAN again, followed at 2:30 by BAT MASTERSON. And unlike many stations in the re-run business, they run the shows in the original airing order. There's an afternoon movie on weekdays at noon, often a western, and they show western films on the weekend, but the schedule is sporadic.

That’s all for now!

Adios amigos!

Henry

All contents copyright March 2011 by Parke – All Rights Reserved