SILVER SPURS HONORS GUNSMOKE’S 60TH ANNI, PLUS GUNSMOKE BOOK REVIEWS, WORD ON WESTERNS!

SILVER SPURS HONORS GUNSMOKE'S 60TH ANNIVERSARY

At about 5 pm this past Friday, September 18^th, the folks who make the Westerns and the folks who love them, began gathering at Studio City’s famed Sportsmen’s Lodge for the 18^th Annual Silver Spur Awards.  (The Sportsmen’s, which will soon close its doors, has been the location for the Awards for many years, and in fact predates the film business in Los Angeles.  In the old days, you could fish in their ponds for trout, and have them cooked for your dinner.)

While the Silver Spurs, presented by The Reel Cowboys, has always honored Western film and television in general, this year’s Awards were much more specific, celebrating the 60^th anniversary of the longest-running live action series in television history, GUNSMOKE.  Reel Cowboys President Robert Lanthier rode shotgun, but handed the reins over to Julie Ann Ream, combining the event with her Western Legends Awards.  Julie grew up around GUNSMOKE – her grandfather, Taylor ‘Cactus Mack’ McPeters, appeared in 48 episodes, and her cousin Glenn Strange was Sam the bartender at the Long Branch in 238 shows. 

I’ve done a number of red carpets, but this time was a little different for me: Julie assigned me a cameraman, and asked me to do interviews from five ‘til six as the guests arrived, for a DVD of the event.  I was very happy to do it.  After that hour, I continued doing interviews with just my recorder, and those are what you’ll read below.  You’ll have to wait to hear what Mrs. James Arness, Bruce Boxleitner, Angie Dickinson, Morgan Woodward, and Martin Kove had to say until the DVD is ready.

Mariette Hartley flanked by costumed escort, husband Jerry Sroka

When I asked Mariette Hartley which of her three GUNSMOKES was her favorite, without hesitation she said COTTER’S GIRL (1963), in which she played a wild girl found living in the trees, and in need of civilizing.   

MARIETTE HARTLEY:  COTTER’S GIRL.  The very first.  It just stretched me to the limit.  Because I was doing a play, a very heavy play, at UCLA, at the same time as I was doing GUNSMOKE.  Jim Arness never reads the (script).  He reads the page that he’s doing that day, rips it up and throws it away.  The character I played is Clarey, and Jim was very nervous about hiring somebody to actually be on the trail with him for that long a period of time.  He didn’t want Matt to be accused of, I guess, child molestation or whatever.  So he actually insisted on meeting me, reading with me, which is very unusual.  So I got the part of this character who lives in the trees and eats berries.  Ends up getting dressed up.  But I can’t walk – they have to teach me how to walk, how to eat.  And in that particular scene, the eating scene, which was so funny, I end up grabbing a steak and shoving it into my mouth.  Now Jim, having not read the scene, had no idea what was going to happen.  And when these guys, and Kitty, got together, and started laughing, that was the end of the scene.  And it took us four hours to get that scene.  I had to leave, do the play, come back in the morning, we started again, and the minute they said ‘action’ we started laughing, and we were done, just done.  That’s one of the reasons I loved it.  Also it was a wonderful script by Kathleen Hite, who writes a lot of the ones on Sirius XM.  (Note: Sirius XM plays old time radio shows.  Kathleen Hite wrote more than eighty radio scripts, including many GUNSMOKES, and 36 FORT LARAMIE episodes.)

Four-time Emmy-winner Miss Michael Learned may be best known for playing Olivia Walton, but she also appeared on GUNSMOKE.  The first time she played, as she told me, “a hooker.”  The next time, also in 1973, she played Matt’s love interest in MATT’S LOVE STORY.  She was called upon to play the same role in 1990 in the TV movie GUNSMOKE: THE LAST APACHE.   

HENRY: You had a relationship with Matt Dillon like no one else did.

MICHAEL LEARNED: Yes I did, but we don’t talk about it.  He had amnesia, so he could be forgiven.  I knew what was going on, but I didn’t know who he was.  I didn’t know about Miss Kitty.

HENRY:  Would you have cared?

MICHAEL LEARNED: (laughs) Probably not.

HENRY:  What was it like continuing a story with so many years in between?    

MICHAEL LEARNED:  It was kind of weird, to tell you the truth, because I never knew what had happened.  I didn’t know we had a daughter until (producer) John Mantley called me and said, “We’re doing a movie of the week, and you had a daughter.”  I said oh; okay.  It was a little strange, but just being with James, he’s such a calming person.  It was wonderful.  Nice to have a second chance to be with him.

L.Q. Jones and Tanner Beard

Miss Learned has been doing a lot of theatre lately.  “I just got back from doing MOTHERS AND SONS in Austin, Texas, and I’m going off in the summer to do another play in Canada.” 

Not all of the GUNSMOKE fans were old enough to have seen it in its original run.  Tanner Beard, who directed and co-starred in 6 BULLETS TO HELL was there with co-star Ken Lukey.  Their second Western together, 6 BULLETS was shot in Spain on Leone’s sets, and is probably the first Western to replace helicopter and crane shots with drones for dramatic pull-ups.  Actress Mindy Miller, all in buckskin, was eager to speak to L.Q. Jones.  Back in 1983, they starred together in the Charles B. Pierce Western SACRED GROUND. 

L.Q. Jones and Mindy Miller

L.Q. Jones is an accomplished writer and director as well as an actor.  I asked him about his thoughts on the GUNSMOKE writers.   

L.Q. JONES:  They had the best on GUNSMOKE. And you learn very quickly, you may think you can write, and you might be able to.  But can you write for GUNSMOKE?  Can you write for thirty minutes?  Can you write for an hour show?  I can’t. I have a tough time doing an hour and a half or two hours.  That’s a very special thing.  And they knew the people, and they knew their work.  Almost everything I’m in, they ask me to change (my lines) to fit me.  And I do a lot of it over the years.  But not on GUNSMOKE.  You take what they give you, hit your marks, say your words, and pick up your check.  The writers, the producers, the crew, they were so professional in what they did.

HENRY:  You did so many Westerns series at that time.  How did the atmosphere of the sets vary?

L.Q. JONES:  What do I say?  The people had become a family on GUNSMOKE.  Now I also did a lot of VIRGINIANS; and we became a family there.  I was a regular on about seven Westerns.  I’m not saying that GUNSMOKE was the only enjoyable series – I don’t mean that.  But they were the best of the best. They had great budgets.  They could afford to do the things they wanted to do.  And a lot of the other shows…  THE VIRGINIAN bear in mind, we were putting on a new western every other week.  That means you had two weeks to make an hour and a half show, which is a full motion picture.  So we had to clip a few things here and there on budgets.  We did some changes on the scripts.  Not that nobody did any changes on GUNSMOKE; they did.  But by and large you hit your marks, said your words, because what they gave you is what they wanted, and what worked.  And that’s what you’re out there to do, to please first the director, then the producer.  And I got so familiar with them that I could pretty well do it without having to ask them what to do next.  It’s hell to beat family, and I had family on two or three others.  I started out on CHEYENNE.     

HENRY:  What’s your favorite episode of GUNSMOKE

L.Q. JONES:  I know this sounds Pollyana-ish, I don’t mean to, but any show I do is my favorite at the moment.  If I didn’t, I’d have quit the business long ago.  What for me was the greatest fun, I did the first black episode of GUNSMOKE, where except for the regulars, it was all black.  And I was a terrible person.  I literally kicked dogs.  I beat kids.  I chased women, I drank, everything you could do.  They showed it on a Sunday as opposed to a Saturday.  That Monday I went to work; we lived in Camarillo.  I had about a forty-five minute trip to get to the studio.  I was driving my MG.  The top was down.  And I was booed and hissed for the entire twenty or thirty miles.    They had all seen the show the night before.  And they were throwing things and hissing and booing.  It was great fun to work under something like that.  That is my favorite, because of what happened after the fact, but I enjoyed the others as much as that. 

Then it was time for everyone to move in to the banquet hall.  I’ll have the highlights of what was said there in the next Round-up.  For my own interest, I was trying to explain the incredible longevity of the series.  It’s easy to just say ‘it was the best,’ and it was.  But why?  It’s worth noting that this past week also marked the 50^th anniversary of the premieres of both THE BIG VALLEY (112 episodes) and LAREDO (56 episodes).  In fact, yesterday, September 20^th, marked the 60^th anniversary of the first hour-long Western drama, CHEYENNE, which ran for 108 episodes.  Why did GUNSMOKE last for more than twenty years as a series, producing 635 episodes, and four TV movies?  I believe it was the writing as much as the cast, and the secret to the writing was that it began on radio.  Radio is a much more intimate, less ‘showy’ medium than film, and with no visuals, story rather than action had to carry the interest.  And the thirty-minute running time meant that the shows had to rely on character at least as much as plot, since there was simply no time to get complicated.  The first six seasons of GUNSMOKE were half hours, most based on radio episodes, and even when the time ran up to an hour, the writers had already established the lead characters, and learned that stories about people were much more compelling than stories about events.

‘GUNSMOKE – AN AMERICAN INSTITUTION’ BY BEN COSTELLO

‘THE GUNSMOKE CHRONICLES – A NEW HISTORY OF TELEVISION’S GREATEST WESTERN’ BY DAVID R. GREENLAND

TWO BOOK REVIEWS

GUNSMOKE is everywhere, from TV-LAND to ME-TV to ENCORE WESTERNS, and with the new interest peaked by the television series’ 60^th anniversary, it’s a perfect time to pick up these two fine reference books, and deepen your knowledge, and thus your enjoyment, of the greatest Western series ever to grace the small screen. 

Each book devotes hundreds of pages to episode guides, listing cast and crew and a brief synopsis of all 635 episodes, as well as the TV movies.   Ben Costello’s book is a lavish coffee-table book, with photographs, black and white as well as color, on nearly every page.  Costello’s book, clearly a labor of love done over many years, begins with a foreword by story editor Jim Byrnes, who wrote 34 episodes, and a preface by Oscar-winner and three-time GUNSMOKE guest star Jon Voight.  

Opening chapters detail the Gunsmoke story from its beginnings as a ground-breaking radio show created by John Meston and Norman Macdonnell, how western screenwriter Charles Marquis Warren would help craft it into a television series, the casting, and the real people behind the roles of Matt, Kitty, Chester, Doc, Festus, and all of the others.  Chapters are devoted to the many fine writers and directors who crafted the show.

Among the high points are interviews with the series stars, Dennis Weaver (Chester), Burt Reynolds (Quint) and Buck Taylor (Newly).  And there are two chapters of reminiscences by guest stars, including Morgan Woodward, Paul Picerni, Anthony Caruso, James Gregory, Adam West, William Windom, William Schallert, David Carradine, Loretta Swit, Earl Holliman, William Smith, Harry Carey Jr., and many more.   There are chapters about live performances by the cast, a staggering array of toys and collectibles, and even favorite recipes of the stars – I’m definitely going to try Jim Arness’ chili if I can find enough venison! 

‘GUNSMOKE CHRONICLES’ is by David R. Greenland, whose previous excellent books include BONANZA – A VIEWERS’ GUIDE TO THE TVLEGEND  and RAWHIDE – A HISTORY OF TV’S LONGEST CATTLE DRIVE. His trade paperback-sized book opens with a long chapter about the members of the GUNSMOKE acting family.  It’s followed by a look at Dodge City’s familiar faces, a season-by-season overview of the series, and a look at the GUNSMOKE movies.  Also included are lengthy interviews with actress Peggy Rea, actor Jeremy Slate, and a particularly in-depth talk with GUNSMOKE’s greatest and most frequent villain, Morgan Woodward. 

Ben Costello’s GUNSMOKE – AN AMERICAN INSTITUTION, is published by Five Star Publications, and is available from Amazon in hardcover, softcover and Kindle HERE. 

David R. Greenland’s THE GUNSMOKE CHRONICLES, published by Bear Manor Media, is available from them HERE.

LIVE EVENTS

COWBOY LUNCH @THE AUTRY  WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 23^RD

Morgan Fairchild & Patrick Swayze 

in NORTH AND SOUTH

THE REEL CIVIL WAR will be the topic of Wednesday’s WORD ON WESTERNS.  From THE BIRTH OF A NATION, to GONE WITH THE WIND to Ken Burns’ nine-part documentary and beyond, what were the best portrayals of the Civil War?

Bruce Boxleitner in GODS AND GENERALS

Confirmed guests include:  Bruce Boxleitner (GODS & GENERALS), Alex Hyde-White (G&G, IRONCLADS), Morgan Fairchild (NORTH AND SOUTH), Lee de Broux (THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE) and historian Phil Spangenberger.  The program begins at 12:45pm.  Come early to buy lunch and get a seat!  

TWENTY MULE TEAM DAYS, BORON, SAT, OCTOBER 3!

Borax fans unite!  Activities will include a parade, games, music, food, and vendor booths!  It’ll be held at the Boron Community Park.  To learn more, call 760-793-4139.

MOJAVE TRAIL DAYS, HELENDALE, SAT & SUN, OCT. 3&4

The celebration features sagebrush songstress Belinda Gail, plus Southern Caliber and the Billhilyz.  Trick-roper, whip-cracker and gun-spinner Will Roberts will perform, and there will be reenactments and other Western entertainments courtesy of the Tombstone Legends and the Sweetwater Outlaws.  Not to mention equestrian events, stagecoach rides, a kids’ zone, vendors, food, and a beer garden.  It all happens at the Helendale Community Parke.  Learn more at 760-951-0006, ext. 230, or visit http://mojaverivertraildays.com/index.html

THAT'S A WRAP!

Here's lookin' at you!

See you back here in a couple of weeks!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright September 2015 by Henry C. Parke - All Rights Reserved

‘6 BULLETS TO HELL’ ONE HELLUVAH RIDE!, PLUS ‘HIGH NOON AUCTION’, CONTEST WINNER

‘6 BULLETS TO HELL’ – A Film Review

‘6 BULLETS TO HELL’ is one helluvah ride!  I wasn’t sure if they could pull it off, but Tanner Beard and company have done it – made a movie that is both an homage to the Spaghetti Westerns of yore, as well as an exciting, involving and entertaining stand-alone Western in its own right.  And they did it the traditional way – shooting in Almeria, Spain, on the same locations and sets that Leone, Corbucci, Clint Eastwood and Franco Nero made famous.  They did it, as the Europeans did, without synch sound, featuring a cast speaking four different languages, all post-dubbed later.  And they did it all in twelve shooting days! 

To put you in the grindhouse mood, the movie opens with a pair of well-chosen 1960s Western trailers.  Then, against soaring mountains, and a Western street some of us have seen a hundred times, into town ride Bobby Durango (co-writer and co-director Tanner Beard) and his gang (Ken Luckey, Nacho Diaz, Norberto Moran, Jack Queralt and Aaron Stielstra), who invade a church, terrorize the priest, and when he doesn’t have enough money to satisfy them, they head out of town for the bank where the church’s money is held.  Their actions leave no doubt that they are without morals, and Bobby Durango has no respect for human life.

We move to the desert, where Billy Rogers (Crispian Belfrage), a former fast-draw lawman has hung up his guns, married the beautiful Grace (Magda Rodrguez), and is eking out a bare existence as a farmer.  But they are in love, happy and hopeful, excited that she is carrying their first child.  No sooner is Billy Rogers off to town for supplies then the Bobby Durango Gang appears, looking to water their horses, and finding Grace alone.  She’s raped and killed.

Billy Rogers returns home to find his dreams shattered.  Strapping on his guns, sometimes with the help of Sheriff Morris (co-writer and co-director Russell Quinn Cummings), he sets off to track down and kill the entire Bobby Durango Gang.

The rest of the story details the gang’s man-by-man pursuit by Billy Rogers, and manages never to be repetitive.  There’s plenty of action – hard-riding, gunfights and fistfights – set against Olivier Merckx’s stunning cinematography.  Merckx makes full use of the beautiful vistas and stark expanses of the Tabernas region, giving you a better sense of the vastness of the land than you usually had in the classic Spaghetti Western era, making extremely effective use of aerial photography and, when shooting indoors, allowing the white heat of the outdoors show unfiltered through the windows. 

London-born Crispian Belfrage is no stranger to the cinema West, having previously appeared in DONNER PARTY, WEST OF THUNDER and DOC WEST.  His character’s quest for vengeance must carry the movie, and he is utterly convincing in his pain and his rage.  Tanner Beard is the self-obsessed villain who never cracks a smile, and his brutal confidence make him a worthy adversary – we’ve seen many an innocent used as a human shield, but the sight of him effortlessly carrying a squirming woman while firing around her is something lovely to behold.  Other performances are all convincing, except when minor characters are purposely ‘over-the-top’, as is the tradition of the Euro Western. 

Tanner Beard and Russell Quinn Cummings have previously collaborated on the fine LEGEND OF HELL’S GATE, shot in West Texas.  6 BULLETS is a film whose genesis was the result of chance meetings at the Almeria International Western Film Festival between Beard and Cummings, and festival men Chip Baker and Danny Garcia, both credited writers as well as producers on the film.  The fifth writer is Jose Villanueva.  Many from the same group of men are currently working to produce two more Westerns, THOU SHALT KILL, and REVEREND COLT, the latter to star James Russo.  

6 BULLETS – The Red Carpet Interviews

CRISPIAN BELFRAGE – Lead Actor

Crispian Belfrage & Catherine Black

HENRY:  Now, this is not your first Western movie. 

CRISPIAN BELFRAGE:  That’s right.  I did DONNER PARTY, with Catherine Black, actually (Crispian’s date this night).  That was more of a proper American history film, but it is a Western, isn’t it?  Then I did another one, an Italian Western with Terence Hill, DOC WEST, for Italian television.  So that was good fun.  And now 6 BULLETS TO HELL.  I think that’s it.

HENRY: So far.  Most actors today haven’t had your Western experience.  What draws you to the genre?

CRISPIAN BELFRAGE:  I don’t know.  It’s one of those things – I remember when I was a boy, looking at a poster of OUTLAW JOSIE WALES every day, when I was about 6, 7, and I just wanted to be Clint Eastwood in OUTLAW JOSIE WALES.  And it’s just weird that I kind of have a slight affinity for that kind or area, that period.  I have a great love for it.  It’s one of those things that came around, one of those things in your life where you can go, oh my God, I actually get to do a lead in a – especially a spaghetti -- Western, shooting them where they did THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY, FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE, A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS.

HENRY:  So that historical location really meant something special to you.

CRISPIAN BELFRAGE: Right there; it was really strange, Spain, the only desert in Europe.  Incredible.  And to have no licenses there?  Well, there were licenses, but a license to do whatever you want.  Making a cowboy film, a Western film in America, there are so many rules and regulations.  Out there we could just do anything we wanted.   

HENRY:  What’s your next Western going to be?

CRISPIAN BELFRAGE:  I’ve just been offered another Western; it’s actually being written at the moment.  Five women in a gang, and five men in a gang, with a spiritual sort of ghost backdrop.  It’s a film that I’m working on in London, at the moment, with the same director.  And a couple of other movies – a horror movie called CUTTER, and one other film called THE RECTORY, about Harry Price, who was a parapsychologist in the 1930s, so a very different kind of odd character.  Are you going to watch (6 BULLETS)?

HENRY:  Absolutely.  I saw the first twenty minutes, but then I had computer problems. 

CRISPIAN BELFRAGE:  It’s much better to see it blown up.  You’ll love it.

TANNER BEARD – Writer, Director and Lead Villain

Russell Quinn Cummings & Tanner Beard

I’d interviewed Tanner Beard over the phone, and we’d exchanged many emails, but this was our first face-to-face-meeting.

HENRY:  Hi, I’m Henry Parke from Henry’s Western Round-up.

TANNER BEARD:  Henry, how are you – finally in the flesh?

HENRY:  How are you doing?

TANNER BEARD:  Great, really hard to complain. 

HENRY:  This is very exciting.  So now tell me, now that you’ve shot a Western in Texas and one in Spain, how do the two experiences compare?

TANNER BEARD:  Polar opposite, believe it or not.  One thing about it, in Spain it’s called ‘Texas Hollywood’, which are the two places I’ve lived in my life.  So when I got there, I thought the sign was for me at first.  They’re both so historical.  But shooting in Spain was like the Clint Eastwood version, and shooting in Texas was kinda like the John Wayne version, the different styles of filmmaking.

HENRY:  In the original spaghetti westerns, they often had problems with people not speaking the same language when they’re acting together.  Did you run into that?

TANNER BEARD:  We had four different languages being spoken on-set, and that’s just between ‘cut’ and ‘action.’  That was the actors and crew.  There were probably eleven or twelve different countries involved in the film as far as cast and crew goes.  So it was very true to the way they used to make them back in the sixties.

HENRY:  Now you shot in Spain, you edited in Texas.  What was the editing process like?

TANNER BEARD:  Familiar, thank goodness, because Silver Sail is also in Texas, we’re based in L.A. and Austin.  So it was very cool for us to be working on footage from a different country, in your home-town neighborhood.  Made it easier for us to do all the a.d.r. (dubbing) – we had three months of a.d.r. because we shot it in the tradition of shooting without sound, just like they used to do back in the day.

HENRY:  What’s your next project, hopefully a Western?

TANNER BEARD:  We do have another Western in the works, called THOU SHALT KILL, that we’re working on, but in front of that we have a Christmas movie called JUST BECLAUSE, that I co-wrote with the co-director of this one, Russell Cummings.  Flipping the coin a bit, going 180 degrees and doing a Christmas movie, and jumping back in the saddle. 

HENRY:  Thank you so much.

TANNER BEARD:  Thank you; so good to finally meet you, man. 

RUSSELL QUINN CUMMINGS – Writer, Director and Actor

HENRY:  This is your second Western, one in Texas, one in Spain.  What are the differences.

RUSSELL QUINN CUMMINGS:  Well, there’s no rules over in Spain, so shooting a western is very different.  You’ve got people speaking different languages.  Where we shot at was the only desert in Europe, so it’s a lot like America in a way, but you know it’s something special when you’re there.  I can’t really explain it – it’s the lighting, it’s the spirit of all those old westerns that are there.

HENRY:  Did you grow up watching spaghetti westerns?

RUSSELL QUINN CUMMINGS:  I grew up watching all westerns. 

HENRY:  What are your favorites.

RUSSELL QUINN CUMMINGS:  My favorites?  Have to go TOMBSTONE, FISTFUL OF DOLLARS, ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST.  I love HONDO. 

HENRY:  I saw HONDO here in the Chinese a couple of months ago, in 3D. 

RUSSELL QUINN CUMMINGS:  Did you?

HENRY:  Any more westerns in your future?

RUSSELL QUINN CUMMINGS:  We have a couple in development.  Hopefully we can go back to Spain and do another one.

JOSE VILLANUEVA - Writer

Jose Villanuevo

JOSE VILLANUEVA:  Oh hi, Henry.  Nice to meet you.  I read your stuff all the time.

HENRY:  What was it like making a Western in Spain?

JOSE VILLANUEVA:  Actually I wasn’t there.  I wrote it out here in California.

HENRY:  I got tricked by your name – until you spoke I thought you were Spanish. 

JOSE VILLANUEVA:  I’m Cuban, I was born in Cuba, but I’ve been here for a long time.  (Writer/Producer) Danny Garcia contacted me, and we started a collaboration, and this script came out of one of our collaborations.  You know we love Spaghetti Westerns, so it’s our homage, and he wanted to shoot it al Almeria Studios, and so it’s really our love of that genre that got us to write the film.  So I’m very proud.  I haven’t seen the finished film – I’ve only seen a working print, so I’m very excited to see it tonight on the big screen.

HENRY:  Do you think you have any other Westerns in your future?

JOSE VILLANUEVA:  I’ve got three or four that Danny and I have been working on.  And Tanner actually has one of them – he actually wrote the screenplay from our story.  So hopefully in the next two or three years I’ll see my name on other westerns.

HENRY:  I know that Danny’s been putting together REVEREND COLT with James Russo – is that one of your?

JOSE VILLANUEVA:  That’s one of ours.

HENRY:  Jimmy Russo and I worked on films together when we were in high school.

JOSE VILLANUEVA:  Wow, that’s fantastic – I’m a big fan of his.  So when Danny said, ‘Hey, I’m gonna give James Russo our script,’ and he loved it, that was a thrill.  Hopefully we’ll see that film some day, get it made.

OLIVIER MERCKX - Cinematographer

Olivier Merckx and me

HENRY:  Is this your first Western?

OLIVIER MERCKX:  Yes; actually I did some music videos we shot at the same place, it was Western, but this is my first Western feature. 

HENRY:  What was it like shooting in Almeria?

OLIVIER MERCKX:  I love it.  It was the fourth or fifth time I shot there.  The first time was in ’96, and nobody knew this place.  It was really different at that time; no highway, no internet.  I was not especially a western fan – I saw Westerns when I was a kid, and I saw SILVERADO in theatre, but after spending one week there I became a western fan, a true one.  Finally I end up doing this movie there, and I hope I will do more there.

HENRY:  How did you become part of this project?

OLIVIER MERCKX:  It’s funny; because I love Almeria, and I heard about the Western Film Festival.  It was the first one.  I took a ticket and went there alone as a tourist.  And I met Danny (Garcia) there, he was the organizer.  And we talked, and he said, “I really want to do a Spaghetti Western here.”  And I said I’m really interested to work with you on that.  Give me a call.  Two years after, he called me.  “We had some problems; we were expecting to get more money.  But we’re going to do it anyway, because the actors are coming.  Are you in?”  I said okay, I’m in.  And I was not supposed to be the cinematographer.  I was just supposed to do Steadi-cam.  And like two weeks before we shoot, Danny calls me.  "We don’t have a cinematographer because he got a bigger job.  You want to do it?"  I said, yeah why not?!  And so I went there, and my biggest problem was that I didn’t have a lot of preparation for the project.  But I knew the place, and I was such a Western fan I said, I want to do it. 

HENRY:  How long a shooting schedule did you have?

OLIVIER MERCKX:  Only twelve days.  I know it’s crazy, and I never worked so hard in my life.  We had to shoot really fast, but that was the only way we could do it.

HENRY:  Was a lot of this story-boarded in advance?

OLIVIER MERCKX: No – nothing!  No storyboard, no shot-list!  And sometimes you had to deal with the people there.  Because we shot during the summer, during the tourist season, and they didn’t want to close the park for us.  I show you an example.  We are shooting the bank.  And in MiniHollywood, they have this Coke machine in front of it.  I said let’s move the machine.  They move it in front of the window.  What do you do, guys?  I need the window for the light.  “No more, buddy; we won’t change it anymore.”  Every day was a surprise you had to deal with.  Every day you were trying to find a solution.  Sometimes you are supposed to have extras, and they don’t show up.  That’s why I was in the movie, as the priest in the beginning.  They were supposed to have an actor from France, but he got a more interesting project.  So I did the lighting, set the camera, did the scene, then take off the costume and get back behind the camera.

HENRY:  Do you think that it helped, working for speed, that you didn’t have to stop to record dialogue?

OLIVIER MERCKX:  That’s all they did in the ‘60s, and it works in the spirit of Spaghetti Westerns.  But the funny thing, because we were shooting that in a tourist attraction, whenever we start to shoot, they put on the music.  But it was Morricone music!  So you’re shooting a western and great Lord, you have Morricone music! 

HENRY:  That’s what Leone had done --

OLIVIER MERCKX:  That’s right, for the  third one (THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY) he had the music already recorded, and played on the set. 

HENRY:  I was struck by how much you used light contrast, how you let things white out in windows and doorways. 

OLIVIER MERCKX:  I didn’t have enough equipment, and we had to shoot so fast that I can’t put flags around the actors because it took too much time, so I had to deal with that. 

HENRY:  But it really worked; it was a great effect.  That and the steady-cam, and some of the aerial photography gave it a very unique look.  You really used the desert so well.  Sometimes in films you get a quick look at the desert, and they zoom in on the character.   

OLIVIER MERCKX:  But it’s so beautiful there you have to use it.  For the big screen you have to see the beautiful landscape.  That’s what I like to see when I see a western.  Even in the western town we try to use everything.  Because we shot in two places.  We shot in Mini-Hollywood, which Leone built for FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE.  And the other one, Fort Bravo, it’s more like a studio, now.  It’s a tourist attraction, but the other one is more like Disneyland.  In Fort Bravo you can shoot every any direction almost.  In Mini-Hollywood it’s more difficult.  It’s still beautiful, but you have to be more careful.  You think, ‘I’m going to shoot there,’ and suddenly there are fifty tourists there.  And you cannot say, ‘Go away.’

JACK QUERALT - Actor

Olivier Merckx with Jack Queralt

HENRY:  In the film you play Bad Boy, one of Bobby Durango’s gang.  How did you get involved with 6 BULLETS?

JACK QUERALT:  I’m from Spain, and it happened because I shot a movie called ORSON WEST, also shot in Spain – a kind of homage to Orson Welles, who wanted to make a film in Spain.  Later on we went to the Almeria Film Festival, and one of the producers knew me, and said, “I want you to play one of the characters in my Western.”  And I was so excited, because with my father I was always talking the Sergio Leone movies with Clint Eastwood.  And I really as an actor was wanting to be a part of it.  Especially in Almeria and Tabernas, where they had shot all of those movies – hundreds of them. 

HENRY:  What was the bst part of doing a Western?

JACK QUERALT:  Just to be there, to feel that atmosphere when you are in Almeria, and you perceive all the people that passed their time there, all the shooting.  It was a big challenge, because I was wanting to be my best.  My father always said to me, “Son, you should do a Western, because your eyes get the right expression for it.” 

HENRY:  Has your father seen it yet?

JACK QUERALT:  My father watched it in the Almeria Film Festival.  He was real impressed.

HENRY:  How do you like playing such a mean guy?

JACK QUERALT:  The last movies I’m shooting in different parts or Spain and Italy, I’m always playing a bad guy.  But I want to change a  little bit, because my eyes and my expression can give a lot, and not just a bad guy; as a good guy too.

HENRY:  What’s the next movie we should be watching for you in?

JACK QUERALT:  Right now I’m shooting a scary movie called EVIL BEHIND ME.  We’re shooting in English, but it’s a Spanish film.  We shoot already the trailer last weekend, and I’m the lead character.  The shooting starts in April, for about a month.  Later on we’re going to present it at the Sitges Film Festival in Barcelona, just for horror films.   

HENRY:  There’s a lot of connection between Westerns and horror films.  People who work in one often work in the other. 

JACK QUERALT:  Actually this is my second horror film.  The first one was shot in Roma, SUHERIO, with Fabio Testi, one very popular actor in Italy.  Do you know him?

HENRY:  Absolutely.

JACK QUERALT:  I think he shot some Westerns in the past. 

HENRY:  In the seventies, yes. 

JACK QUERALT:  Exactly, like with Franco Nero, too – I know him.  My part was very short.  I was the bad guy, just five or six scenes; no more than this.  But good scenes are good enough. 

MIKE SCHNAPP – DJ turned Actor

Mike Schnapp

MIKE SCHNAPP:  I was lucky enough to play Deputy Johnny Green in 6 BULLETS TO HELL.  I’m somebody who grew up watching movies my whole life, and watched Westerns and Spaghetti Westerns.  To be honored, to be able to be any part of that was so interesting.  And rewarding, because I got to work with professionals and actors – and I’m no actor.  I’m just some dude who looks kind of crazy.  And Danny met me and said, “Hey, you’d look great in red underwear, with my hat on sideways,” and I said, okay.  And it actually happened.  I DJ’d for his film festival in Madrid, and he said, “Stick around and be in my movie!”  And to be able to come to Hollywood, and see the movie become a real entity at the most real theatre ever is a freakout. 

BAI LING – Actress

Bai Ling

Not involved in 6 BULLETS TO HELL, Bai Ling is none-the-less a Western aficionado, featured notably in the WILD WILD WEST movie.  She’s currently starring in and producing a Western, called YELLOW HILL (go HERE to see my Round-up article).  

BAI LING:  I like your shirt.

HENRY:  Thank you.  I’ve been covering YELLOW HILL in the Round-up.  How do things stand?

BAI LING:  We did the short film, and we want to do the feature film.  Right now we’re in the process of making it.  So I’m very excited, because it’s about this woman who comes back for revenge.  So it’s very challenging, very very fun.  Kind of like Clint Eastwood in the early movies.  But it’s more than that.  It’s really exciting.

HENRY:  Well, I’ve spoken to your director, Ross Bigley, and seen the short version, and I was very impressed.

BAI LING:  You like it?  That’s cool.

HENRY:  What other projects are you working on?

BAI LING:  I’m very excited for 2015 – I have many movies to present to you.  The first one is called THE KEY, based on a prize-winning novel.  I got the lead, which was written for a white actress.  It’s very provocative, very sexy, very sophisticated, so I’m looking forward to it.  Right now I’m shooting SAMAURI COP 2, which is action and comedy – I’m very excited about that.  

HIGH NOON AUCTION JAN 24-25 IN MESA, ARIZONA

Amsel's 'Shootist' art

Steve McQueen's MAGNIFICENT 7 gun

As it does every year, Brian Lebel’s High Noon Show and Auction presents an astonishing array of historical west and fictional west items up for bid.  With 410 lots to bid on, I can only give you a taste of the variety of their offerings, but if you go HERE , you can preview every amazing item – and buy it, for that matter.  There are pages of wonderful guns, but two stand out: Tom Horn’s Winchester Model 1894 30-30 (est. $125,000 - 175,000), and Steve McQueen’s MAGNIFICENT 7 prop shotgun (est. $12,000 -14,000).  There’s a beautiful letter and sketch by Charlie Russell to Harry Carey (est. $90,000-150,000), many other items from the Harry Carey Jr. estate, and Amsel’s original painting for the poster from John Wayne’s final film, THE SHOOTIST.  Among many items from the estates of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans is Dale’s charm bracelet presented to her on THIS IS YOUR LIFE (est. $12,000-16,000).  There are spurs, saddles, beautiful Indian beadwork, a Dentzel carousel horse, Andy Anderson wood carvings, Bohlin bridles and Ortega hackamores.  There are Kurt Russell costume and prop items from TOMBSTONE.  Why not buy yourself a piece of history?

Dale Evan's charm bracelet

Charlie Russell letter to Harry Carey

Kurt Russell's Wyatt Earp costume from TOMBSTONE

Tom Horn's Winchester

LISA MCNUTT WINS OUR CALENDAR CONTEST!

There will be much celebrating in Gilbert, Arizona when word reaches its inhabitants that local favorite Lisa McNutt has won the beautiful Western Calendar from the delightful folks at Asgard Press.  She correctly identified Max Brand’s most famous character as Dr. Kildare, Luke Short as the pen name of Frederick Gilley Glidden, and Zane Grey’s favorite sport as fishing.  If you haven’t won, you might want to break down and buy one for yourself.  Here’s their link: http://asgardpress.com/15-Westerns

AND THAT’S A WRAP!

Have a great week, and I’ll see you in the same spot next week!

Happy Trails,

Henry

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