JOHN LEE HANCOCK TAKES OVER WRITING CHORES ON 'MAGNIFICENT 7'
MGM,
not satisfied with TRUE DETECTIVE creator/writer Nic Pizzolatto’s script for
the remake of the John Sturges 1960 classic THE MAGNIFICENT 7, scripted by
William Roberts, which is itself a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 classic
SEVEN SAMURAI, have hired a new writer, and Tom Cruise is no longer attached to
star (we never found out if he was going to play Steve McQueen or Yul Brynner –
or Toshiro Mifune).
The
new scribe is writer/director John Lee Hancock, director of the current SAVING MR.
BANKS, who also wrote and directed THE BLIND SIDE, garnering a Best Picture
Oscar nom, plus a Best Actress nom for Sandra Bullock. More to the point, in relation to doing ‘7’,
he scripted and directed THE ALAMO (2004).
GENE AUTRY DVD COLLECTION 4
Volume four of the Gene Autry DVD collections has
been released, and it features four musical westerns Gene made at Republic
between 1938 and 1942, all with the Republic Tower logo (if you’d like to learn
about the history of Republic’s many logos, check out the site HERE ). The four delightful films, THE OLD
BARN DANCE (1938), BLUE MONTANA SKIES (1939), SIERRA SUE (1941) and COWBOY
SERENADE (1942) all feature sidekick Smiley Burnette, America’s wonder-horse Champion,
and a beautiful, spunky girl -- Helen
Valkis, June Storey, and Fay McKenzie twice, respectively.
The plots are varied, and as usual with Gene’s
pictures, a bit more inventive than most of the B westerns of the era – and the
titles almost never give you a clue. THE
OLD BARN DANCE does feature a barn dance, but it’s about the conflict between
unscrupulous tractor sellers and horse-traders like Gene. It’s directed by arguably the best
action-director Republic ever produced, Joe Kane. BLUE MONTANA SKIES takes Gene north into snow
and onto dog-sleds, and concerns pelt-smuggling and murder, and features
villainous Glenn Strange. MONTANA is
directed by B. Reaves ‘Breezy’ Eason, who started helming films in 1915, and is
considered by many to be the greatest director of big action scenes in
Hollywood history. In addition to his
own films, he often did uncredited second unit direction of chases and battle
scenes, including the chariot race in the original BEN HUR (1925), as well as
action scenes in CIMMARON (1931), THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE (1936), GONE
WITH THE WIND (1939) and THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON (1941). He also directed Gene in his Mascot Serial,
THE PAHNTOM EMPIRE, which made Gene a movie star. Needless to say, the
snow-bound action is well-handled and exciting.
SIERRA SUE features Gene and Smiley as state
inspectors trying to stop an outbreak of ‘devil weed’ that could poison the cattle,
banging heads with farmers who don’t trust new, scientific methods. There’s a memorable stampede in this
one. COWBOY SERENADE tells the story of
an innocent young cattle-man who’s given the chance by Gene to negotiate the
sale of a herd, and is swindled by card-sharps and con-men. Gene has to set things right. The young man is Rand Brooks, who in 1939
played Scarlet O’Hara’s first husband in GONE WITH THE WIND, and would become a
sidekick to Hopalong Cassidy in the late 1940s, a TV co-star of Rin Tin Tin in
the 1950s, and starting in the 1960s, built what would become the largest and
most respected ambulance service in the country.
From the frozen north to the Sierras, a highpoint of
all of the films is the stunning, breathtaking photography in dramatic
locations. Back then they knew how to
shoot black and white, using contrast to create every bit as much beauty as you
could with color. All the films run
about an hour each, and have been beautifully restored, taken from Gene’s own
copies. They are complete and uncut. If you’ve ever had the disappointment of
seeing 53-minute bootleg versions of Gene’s films, in addition to the often poor
image quality, you knew right away what was lost in the ten-minutes of missing
footage: Gene’s musical numbers!
Here you get not only the whole movie, with the
proper titles, and good audio quality, but special features that set the mood
as well. Each of the movies is
accompanied by a gallery of images, both stills, lobby cards and posters, from
the film. Each has what is described as ‘Trivia
& Movie Facts’, but they are much more than that. Alex Gordon, who was the President of England’s
Gene Autry Fan Club, came to the U.S. in 1947, and had a considerable career as
a film producer at American International Pictures. He was also advance-man for Gene Autry’s cross-country
tours, and worked for Gene for many years.
He wrote the ‘Trivia & Movie Facts’, which are fascinating time-capsules
of what was going on behind the scenes at the time of each film’s production. Each movie is accompanied by an episode of
the Gene Autry Melody Ranch Radio Show, featuring Gene, Pat Buttram or Smiley
Burnette, and guests like the Cass County Boys, and fellow singing cowboys like
Eddie Dean and Jimmy Wakely.
My favorite special features come from back in 1987,
when The Nashville Network, a
now-gone cable channel, featured a series, MELODY RANCH THEATER. There, Gene and Pat Buttram, sometimes with
guests, would introduce one of Gene’s movies.
These introductions, the middle break, and wrap-up, are included for
each movie (they can’t find the OLD BARN DANCE intro, so another interesting
one has been substituted). The boys were
pretty long in the tooth when they did these, and it sometimes takes them a
while to get the stories out, but it’s a real pleasure to hear them reminisce
about the old days and their co-stars.
You can see that Pat Buttram’s preparation and research are
extensive.
I found this four-film collection a delight, with
pristine copies of exciting films, great music, and packed with the sort of special
features I just gobble up. Here's the link to the official Gene Autry site: http://www.geneautry.com/musicmovies/dvds/geneautrycollection4.html
LIFE, LIBERTY & THE PURSUIT OF HOLLYWOOD by
Michael B. Druxman
A Book Review
Michael Druxman’s new memoir, whose full title is LIFE,
LIBERTY & THE PURSUIT OF HOLLYWOOD; MORE OF MY WACKY ADVENTURES IN
TINSELTON, comes with a very unusual caveat: don’t read it until you’ve already
read his previous memoir, MY FORTY-FIVE YEARS IN HOLLYWOOD…AND HOW I ESCAPED
ALIVE (here’s my review of that tome:
http://henryswesternroundup.blogspot.com/2011/06/unsinkable-debbie-reynolds.html).
It’s good advice, and I strongly recommend reading both books. Druxman has plenty of good, often great, and
frequently outrageous stories to tell, and rather than repeating himself, he’s
eager to plow ahead.
Michael Druxman has had several careers, all of them
aiming at a career in Hollywood. He
acted and directed plays in Seattle, met and worked with dozens of actors when
he became a publicist in Hollywood, wrote several books about the film
industry, became a successful playwright of one-man shows about movie stars,
and finally became a successful screenwriter and director for Roger Corman. He has not won Oscars, but he has made a
living writing fulltime, and has written some outstanding screenplays,
including the excellent CHEYENNE WARRIOR.
It’s not all about stars – several chapters deal
with his experiences directing plays, without big names, in small theatres in
Seattle. But these are the experiences
that made him the writer and director he would become. A born self-promoter, being a publicist came
easy to him, and his stories about those in front of and behind the camera who
hired him are many and varied, from the very funny to the frustrating to the
sad.
He did well for, and was a close
friend of Michael Ansara. He tried to do
as well for the great director Budd Boetticher, who had worked so hard to
protect his star, Randolph Scott, and his material, but still got screwed out
of directing TWO MULES FOR SISTER SARA. He
did well for Eddie Dmytryk, but not as well George Sherman, who John Wayne
hired to direct BIG JAKE. The veteran
director got the interviews he wanted, but his criticism of Mexican film crews
didn’t endear him to the Duke or the Mexican government. Director Paul Landres had a long and
successful career directing western TV series.
He was particularly successful directing difficult animal shows like
FLIPPER and DAKTARI! But when those
shows got cancelled, he had a helluvah time getting any work at all: he’d been
typed as an ‘animal’ director!
Actors he represented, some of whom he loved, and
others he hated, include Reed Hadley; Gale Gordon; Mike Farrell, whom he
regrettably dropped as having no future; voice-actor Daws Butler, who
introduced him to Bud Abbott; Edd ‘Kookie’ Burns; Stanley Myron Handleman; Abe
Vigoda (loved him); HILL STREET BLUES’ Michael Conrad (hated him); and among his
favorites, Steve Kanaly, Henry ‘Manolito Darrow, and Michael Ansara.
Among the writers he grew to know in Hollywood were
the author of LITTLE CAESAR and creator of the gangster movie, W. R. Burnett;
Christopher Isherwood; screenwriting comedy legend Henry Ephron; MUSIC MAN
creator Meredith Wilson; and Tennessee Williams.
On a lighter note, one chapter deals with some of
the…uh…bigger stars in Hollywood, like Uncle Miltie, Forrest Tucker, Gary Cooper,
and especially Rock Hudson. Later
chapters are particularly informative about matters like working for Roger
Corman, trying to get plays produced, and pet projects Druxman has tried tried
to make ‘happen’ for years. Of
particular interest to writers, later chapters deal in a very informative and ‘nuts-and-bolts’
sense with the business of getting your book published, print-on-demand
publishing, e-books, and audio books. I
personally learned plenty, and was encouraged, by these chapters. Michael even takes the reader into the business
of self-publishing and autograph shows.
An eye-opening memoir full of great stories and sage
advice, LIFE, LIBERTY & THE PURSUIT OF HOLLYWOOD is published by Bear Manor
Media, and priced at $19.95. Here's the link to the Bear Manor site:
THAT’S A WRAP!
I hope you’ve all recovered from Christmas, and are
ready for New Years! This is nothing
western, but when I was a kid growing up in New York City, every New Years Eve
a local channel would show the Jack Benny comedy THE HORN BLOWS AT MIDNIGHT
(1945), which I consider a perfect New Years movie. Jack plays an angel sent to New York City to
blow Gabriel’s trumpet at midnight, and destroy the planet. It’s a great Warner Brothers comedy with a
wonderful supporting cast: Alexis Smith, Guy Kibbee, Allyn Joslyn, Reginald
Gardner, Bobby Blake, Franklin Pangborn, Margaret Dumont, Mike Mazurki. The art direction in Heaven is stunning, and
it’s directed with great verve and enthusiasm by Raoul Walsh.
Nonetheless, it was a bomb, that pretty much
ended Jack Benny’s career as a movie star.
Anyway, I have a DVD dub of a lousy, commercial-filled VHS copy off of
channel 5 twenty years ago, and it’s a grand tradition at our house to watch it on New Years. Although, to be really honest it’s become a
grand tradition for me to watch it by myself – my wife and daughter are sick to
death of it. Luckily, my dog has only
seen it once, so I may have some company.
If you get a chance to, some time, watch it! Hey, are there any good New Years westerns?
Happy Trails,
Henry
All Original Contents Copyright December 2013 by
Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved
