‘MAGNIFICENT 7’ MEMORIES, PLUS WESTERN PORTRAIT PROJECT, ME ON WRITER’S BLOCK, AND DON RICARDO RETURNS TO THE PICO ADOBE!

PRODUCER WALTER MIRISCH ON ‘THE MAGNIFICENT 7’

On Tuesday night, July 14^th, at Santa Monica’s Aero Theatre, an invited private audience attended the annual James Coburn Movie Night, part of the weekly KCET Cinema Series.  The James Coburn film to be screened was THE MAGNIFICENT 7, and it was that much more special a night, because the movie’s famed producer Walter Mirisch would be attending, and receiving the KCET Lumiere Award, recognizing excellence, artistry and innovation for outstanding contribution to film.

I spoke to Mr. Mirisch on the red carpet, and we talked about his early Western days, when he produced Joel McCrea Westerns at Monogram Studios (if you missed that, HERE is the link).

Also present were Coburn’s son and daughter, James Jr. and Lisa, and Lynda Erkiletian, exec director of the James and Paula Coburn Foundation.  Mirisch’s son and frequent collaborator Andrew Mirisch also attended.

The Coburn family

Onstage, KCET head of development Mary Mazur introduced Mr. Mirisch. “I am particularly pleased to have the opportunity to present this award to Walter tonight.  My first job in television was at NBC, and one of my first executive assignments was as the program executive on a series of TV Movies called DESPERADO, which were produced by Walter and his son Drew.”  There were five DESPERADO movies, the original written by Elmore Leonard.

WALTER MIRISCH: Somehow or other, receiving awards never gets old.  This is a wonderful evening.  It gives me a great opportunity to see one of my really treasured memories, THE MAGNIFICENT 7, which is really a milestone film in my career and in my life.  And I am deeply moved, honored and proud to receive this most distinguished award here this evening.  I am particularly proud to remember that it comes from KCET, whose studio was my home for ten years in the very beginning of my career, and where all the films of my earlier career were made.  (Note: the original home of KCET was Monogram Studios.)  I’m also proud that a sponsor of this event is the James and Paula Coburn Foundation, because Jim was a friend of mine.  I was crazy about him.  We first met when he was in a segment of a television show I was making, that starred Joel McCrea, WICHITA TOWN.  He was in the pilot episode, which was called THE NIGHT THE COWBOYS ROARED.  Jimmy was just great in it, and I remembered him, and as my career progressed, and as his did, I kept looking for opportunities to find a role.  It didn’t happen until THE MAGNIFICENT 7 came along, and then I did find the right role for him, and I think you’ll agree when you see the picture, because he’s just marvelous in it.    Later on we continued to work together, and then Jim appeared in THE GREAT ESCAPE, also a signal film in my curriculum.  And then finally, the last one he did for me was MIDWAY, in 1975.  I’m also proud to be a part of this continuing saga of KCET’s contribution to our community.  I’ve enjoyed it all my life, and I continue to.  So here we go, and if you ask me some questions, I’ll try to answer them, Pete, and I hope they won’t be too embarrassing.

The Mirisch family

DEADLINE: HOLLYWOOD writer Pete Hammond then took the stage, with a recommendation that we all read Walter Mirisch’s autobiography, I THOUGHT WE WERE MAKING MOVIES, NOT HISTORY.

PETE HAMMOND:  Look at the cover: all of those Oscars, and the Thalberg Award, and the Golden Globe.  This is one helluvah career that you’ve had.  I’m curious how MAGNIFICENT 7 came about, because there was this Japanese film, SEVEN SAMURAI.

WALTER MIRISCH:  Kurosawa, the great Japanese director, made THE SEVEN SAMURAI.  I saw it and thought it was wonderful.  It starred the great Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune, who I had the privilege of working with; he appeared in my film MIDWAY many years later.  For those of you who haven’t seen it, it’s the story of Japanese soldiers of fortune, in the medieval period of Japan.  And I kept thinking about whether it could be translated into an American picture, when a friend of mine who was associated with Yul Brynner called me up.  He said, you’d asked me about the rights to SEVEN SAMURI.  It’s funny, Yul Brynner brought the same question up to me, because he also had Japanese connections.  We both thought that perhaps he could intervene with Toho, the Japanese company that had produced it.  I had just succeeded in attracting to our company John Sturges.  I was a great fan of John’s movies, and I called him up and said, John, I think I’ve got the first movie for us to make.  I want you to come over, and I want to run THE SEVEN SAMURAI with you.  The two of us sat alone in a projection room and watched it, and had the best time ever, talking while the movie was running, and translating all of the sequences of Mr. Kurasawa’s movie into the western motif.  So in the projection room we made a western of THE SEVEN SAMAURI.  Then we hit on a marvelous writer, Walter Newman, who did the basic script of THE MAGNIFICENT 7. 

PETE HAMMOND:  I notice Walter Newman is not listed on the posters on the lobby.  Was he a blacklisted writer at that time?

WALTER MIRISCH:  No, he was not a blacklisted writer.  Don’t let that get around.  However, Walter was very stubborn.  While we were shooting the picture, we needed some work done while we were down in Mexico.  I asked Walter to come down, and for one reason or another, he couldn’t come.  I think the Writer’s Guild then had an arbitration, and decided the writer we had brought down had made a significant contribution, and should receive some kind of a shared credit.  Walter resented that; he was angry at his Guild, not at John or I, and he said that if they didn’t give him sole credit, he didn’t want anything.  It was a very serious career mistake that Walter, who was a wonderful writer, made.  And it was Bill Roberts who did the work down in Mexico, and helped us field the suggestions that came from our always cooperative cast, all of whom wanted to enlarge their roles.  That’s how that came about.    

PETE HAMMOND:  Actually I think James Coburn was one member of the cast who liked not having many lines in the film.  Does he have eleven lines?

James Coburn, Horst Bucholtz

WALTER MIRISCH:  I never counted them.  However, he plays this laconic character.  I shall never forget, one day Walter Newman came in to my office and said, I’ve got to ask you about something that I’ve been noodling with, and can’t make up my mind.  If two men faced one another, and one man had a gun and the other had a knife, and they both fired at the same time, which would arrive first?  I said, no question about it, the bullet would.  He said, I was thinking about having the knife-thrower do it.  I said that’s a great idea; and that’s how that got into the movie.  It was showmanship, and Jim was the perfect one to execute it. 

PETE HAMMOND:  Talk about the rest of the cast, because Steve McQueen was starring in a television series, WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE, at the time.  

WALTER MIRISCH:  The casting of THE MAGNIFICENT 7 was kind of a fun exercise for John Sturges and myself.  Because we had these wonderful roles to fill.  And I’d try and get all of my favorite actors in, and John would try and get his.  That’s how Jim Coburn got in, because I had been looking for a really good Jim Coburn role since WICHITA TOWN.  John Sturges had made a movie for MGM with Frank Sinatra called NEVER SO FEW.  And he kept telling me he had this kid in it, and the kid is marvelous, and we’ve got to find a part for the kid.  And the kid, of course, was Steve McQueen.

PETE HAMMOND:  Charles Bronson?

WALTER MIRISCH:  Charlie Bronson I had known for a long time, and the O’Reilley part just cried out for Bronson.  I think the most exciting piece of casting comes with the story.  A couple of years ago, The Museum of Modern Art in New York honored me.  At the event they asked Eli Wallach to come and speak about me.  I hadn’t seen Eli a lot in recent years; he always lived in New York, and we didn’t run across one another too often.  Eli got up and said, I think I owe my whole career to Walter Mirisch.  Well, I perked up.  I didn’t know why he felt that way, but I was interested, as I hope you all are.  And Eli said, before I met Walter Mirisch, I was just another Jewish actor in New York.  After I met him, I became a Mexican bandit for life!

PETE HAMMOND:  It was Sturges’ idea?

WALTER MIRISCH:  It was John’s idea.  And it was brilliant.  I said, are you crazy?  He said no, no, think, and we looked at some film, and then I met him, and it came together.  John and I had a wonderful relationship.  As a matter of fact I am indebted to him for the title of my book.  He had called me once, while I was writing it.  He was retired by then.  He loved boats, and he was down in Mexico someplace, on his boat.  He called me and said, Walter, I’ve been asked to do an article about THE GREAT ESCAPE.   And I don’t really remember some things that I wanted to write about.  And I was wondering if you still have a copy of the script?   I said John; I can’t believe you don’t have a copy of the script: this is one of the best movies of your whole life.  He said, what are you talking about?    I thought we were just making movies, not history.  So that resonated with me, and I used that as the title.

PETE HAMMOND:  You really didn’t think you were making history when you were making all these movies?

WALTER MIRISCH:  No – I was trying to make a living.

PETE HAMMOND:  They say music is the soundtrack of your life; your movies are the soundtrack of my life, from SOME LIKE IT HOT to WEST SIDE STORY.  WEST SIDE STORY and THE APARTMENT were back to back Best Picture winners.  Billy Wilder, you did nine films with him.

WALTER MIRISCH:  Actually he worked for nobody else during the period of seventeen years when we were together.  However, the important thing in my career was not just making those movies with Billy Wilder; what was more important was having a thousand lunches with him.  He was the most interesting, stimulating, brilliant man.

KCET CEO Michael Riley, Mirisch, KCET COO Mary Mazur

PETE HAMMOND:  Can I say how old you are?  Because you’re still working every day, going to the office, developing movies.  And you’re 93 years old.

WALTER MIRISCH:  I have done nothing to deserve that.  It’s probably genetic.

PETE HAMMOND:  I heard you just had a Hallmark movie done.

WALTER MIRISCH:  Yes, they just reran it a couple of weeks ago.

PETE HAMMOND:  And another PINK PANTHER?

WALTER MIRISCH:  Yes, I’m working on the script of that for MGM now.  It’s going to be a combination of live action and animation.  It’s really challenging and something new, and I’m very excited about it.

PETE HAMMOND:  Do you have any favorites among your films?

WALTER MIRISCH:  How many children do you have?  Do you have a personal favorite?  If you have, you won’t tell.

PETE HAMMOND:  Your films really hold up.  They live on.

WALTER MIRISCH:  That’s what classic movies are, I guess.  And that’s the exciting thing about living to this ripe old age.  You get to see how succeeding generations react to your films, and to the things you wanted to say to your audiences.  And it’s particularly true to WEST SIDE STORY, and the message of WEST SIDE STORY.  That message needs to be repeated again and again, because we still haven’t learned our lesson.  IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT, in which attacked the racial issue right in the heart of the civil rights revolution, I hoped would make a real contribution to better understanding, and tolerance.  I like to think that it made some kind of contribution, but it didn’t solve it; the problem is still with us.  Motion pictures, besides entertaining, can be tremendously important in educating people.  Because it’s a way to make people understand issues in a way that’s easy to accept.  And hopefully they will come away from it feeling much more sympathetic to that black detective who is the protagonist. 

PETE HAMMOND:  Now THE MAGNIFICENT 7 lives on; you made three sequels yourself to this movie.

WALTER MIRISCH:  Yes, the first one, Yul Brynner appeared in, RETURN OF THE 7.  Then other people played him.  And over the years we used the franchise a number of times. 

PETE HAMMOND:  The TV series.

WALTER MIRISCH:  And it is now being remade.  We’re shooting it now, down in Louisiana.  It stars Denzel Washington, who plays the part that Yul Brynner played.  Chris Pratt, who plays the lead in JURASSIC WORLD.  And Ethan Hawk.  It’s got a wonderful cast.

PETE HAMMOND:  And you’re going to have an executive producer credit on it.  Is it going to have any of that iconic theme by Elmer Bernstein, one of the most famous pieces of music in movie history?

WALTER MIRISCH:  It was not nominated.  Actually it was nominated in one of the sequels; but not in the original.  It just goes to show you that the Academy Awards are not perfect. (Note: Elmer Bernstein’s scores for MAGNIFICENT 7 and RETURN OF THE 7 were both Oscar-nominated, and both lost)

Mirisch and Hammond admiring a huge poster

PETE HAMMOND:  This coming from a man who used to be president of the Academy.

WALTER MIRISCH:  It is a magnificent piece of music, and it developed its own life.  It became the theme of the Marlboro cigarette company, and they played  it for years and years and years.

JAMES HORNER COMPOSED ‘MAGNIFICENT 7’ REMAKE’S SCORE BEFORE HIS DEATH!

And on the heels of our MAGNIFICENT 7 story, a remarkable surprise!  While composer James Horner recently died in a private plane crash, we will hear more of his music.  During an NPR interview, MAGNIFICENT 7 remake director Antoine Fuqua revealed that Horner, who also scored Fuqua’s just-released SOUTHPAW, surprised him with a completed score for MAGNIFICENT 7 based on the screenplay – currently shooting.  For the complete interview, go 

HERE.  

SPENT SUNDAY WITH BRUCE BOXLEITNER!

watching the GUNSMOKE and HOW THE WEST WAS WON star pose for photographer/action director Steve Carver (LONE WOLF MCQUADE, BIG BAD MAMA).  For his upcoming photography book, UNSUNG HEROES & VILLAINS OF THE SILVER SCREEN, Carver uses 19^th Century photo techniques, and he’s been taking these portraits of stars and characters actors for 22 years!  There aren’t a lot of smiles in them, either: just like the old tintype days, they have to pose motionless for 8 seconds.  Try it!  The whole story, and wonderful portraits, and my interview with Bruce, coming soon to the Round-up!

I’M THE ‘WRITER’S BLOCK’ GUEST THURSDAY NIGHT!

Jim Bell, Bobbi Jean Bell & me

On Thursday, July 30^th at 8 pm, I’ll be joining hosts Jim Christina and Bobbi Jean Bell for an hour of talk about writing and up-coming Westerns on their weekly show, Writer’s Block, on L.A.Talk Radio.  You can listen live (at ‘Listen Live 2’) HERE.  You can call in live at 818-602-4929.  And if you miss the live broadcast, or want to catch up on earlier shows, you can find podcasts of them HERE .

SEE ‘DON RICARDO RETURNS’ FRIDAY NIGHT AT ANDRES PICO ADOBE!

The Andres Pico Adobe Museum is a jewel in the San Fernando Valley.  The headquarters of the San Fernando Valley Historical Society, built in 1853, it is the second oldest home in Los Angeles.  On Friday night, July 31^st, at 8 pm, they will screen the 1946 swashbuckler DON RICARDO RETURNS, starring Fred Coby and Lita Baron (a.k.a. Isabelita).  This rarely seen (I’ve never seen it) PRC Studios Spanish adventure story was filmed in part at the Pico Adobe itself, so seeing it there should be particular fun.  The story is by Johnston McCulley, the creator of Zorro.  The screenplay is co-written by Jack DeWitt, who would later gain fame for scripting A MAN CALLED HORSE, and Renault Duncan, pen-name for the screen’s Cisco Kid, Duncan Renaldo!  The address is 10940 Sepulveda Ave., Mission Hills 91346.  Their phone is 818-365-7810.  Their website is www.sfvhs.com. 

The movie is free, the gates open at 7 pm, so you can come early, and bring snacks or a picnic dinner.  If you’ve never visited the Adobe before, here’s a perfect opportunity.        

AND THAT’S A WRAP!

Have a great week – or what’s left of the week!

Happy Trails,

Henry

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

‘EL ARDOR’, ARGENTINEAN WESTERN REVIEWED, FIRST LOOK AT 'REVENANT', PLUS WALTER MIRISCH ON JOEL MCREA!

EL ARDOR – A Film Review

When you need a savior…

We never learned where Shane came from, or where he went to when his job was done; Clint Eastwood’s characters in HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER and PALE RIDER took the mystery to a nearly mystical level.  In writer/director Pablo Fendrik’s Argentinean Western, EL ARDOR, the hero seems to appear in response to primitive rituals made to river spirits by desperate jungle farmers. 

Set in the rain forest of Misiones, the finger-shaped northern Argentinean province between Paraguay and Brazil, it is much like our wild west in the worst ways – the battle for vast tracts of jungle land has brought about horrifying violence.  Joao (Chico Diaz) is a poor tobacco farmer who has seen neighboring farmers forced to sell their land; seen them burned out; seen them murdered.   He senses the smoke is moving in his direction, and he, his one farm hand, and daughter Vania (Alice Braga), are no match for the three heartless hired guns who descend upon them with a bill of sale they want executed.  Kai (Gael Garcia Bernard), the man from the river, cannot stop the slaughter of the farmer and his hand, but when the gunmen take the daughter, Kai is quickly on the jungle trail, meant to seem as much a spirit as the gorgeous but deadly leopard who seems forever on the edge of camp.

The hired guns

Cinematographer Julian Apezteguia captures the beauty and menace of the jungle in a film which rarely travels indoors.  At times too deliberate in its pacing, it is a story of isolated, frontier lives, and it is a bare bones story in many ways.  There are only eight characters in the tale.  Most of them go through jungle and swamp in bare feet: only the three mercenaries – Jorge Sesan, Julian Tello, and Lautaro Vilo – have boots.   We think of cowboy characters as laconic, but these people redefine the term.  Most is said visually, in expression and gesture: there are perhaps three expository scenes with considerable conversation.  The minimalist approach does not always work to the film’s benefit; with so few turns in the story, there is continuity, but few surprises.  Then again, there is a hauntingly eerie, smoke-filled finale shootout.

Surprisingly, there is no Macguffin.  The real case that inspired Fendrik involved killing farmers and stealing land to grow soy.  Here it could soy, or oil, or wood – we never know, and never know who the hired guns work for.  An interesting and humanizing detail is that the gunmen are brothers, the two older ones trying to bring the youngest into the family business.    

All of the performances are naturalistic and utterly believable.  The unselfconsciously beautiful Alice Braga is the only woman in the cast, strong without being a superwoman, and her character, with so much on her plate, is unaware of the desire she stirs about her.   Gael Garcia Bernard also is not superhuman – he plays his character as the right man in the right place at the right time, despite others seeing him as something more.  The mystical/supernatural element introduced at the beginning, dissipates.  The score by Sebastian Escofet is used sparingly but effectively; sometimes driving, sometimes almost symphonic, sometimes just throbbing bass-notes.  Released on Friday, July 17^th, by Participant Media, it can be found in theatres, and is available on demand.

FIRST LOOK AT 'THE REVENANT'!

Here's the first trailer for Leo DeCaprio's 'mountain man' movie, set to open on Christmas Day!

A SHORT BUT 'MAGNIFICENT' CHAT WITH WALTER MIRISCH

Deadline: Hollywood's Peter Hammond, KCET's Mary Mazur,

Walter Mirisch, James Coburn Jr., KCET's Michael Riley

On Tuesday night, July 14^th, at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, legendary producer Walter Mirisch was honored with the KCET Cinema Series Lumière Award at a screening of one of his finest films, THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1960).  Mirisch, who would go on to produce WEST SIDE STORY (1961), THE GREAT ESCAPE (1963), and a plethora of film collaborations with Billy Wilder and Blake Edwards, and win the Best Picture Oscar for IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT (1967), started out producing at Monogram  in the late 1940s, producing a series of jungle adventures called BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY.  The productions were a cut above the studio’s usual product, and things improved vastly when Mirisch made a deal to produce a series of Westerns starring Joel McCrea. 

On the red carpet on Tuesday night, I had a chance to ask Mr. Mirisch about these early, excellent efforts.

HENRY:  Which of the films that you did with Joel McCrea were your favorites?

WALTER MIRISCH:  I guess WICHITA (1955) and THE FIRST TEXAN (1956).  I think those were the best of them.  I think I actually made six with him.  I loved Joel McCrea.  Wonderful man.

HENRY: How different was it to make those films at Monogram and Allied Artists, with going on to make something as magnificent as what we’re going to watch tonight?

WALTER MIRISCH:  I don’t know.  You cut the cloth to fit the pattern.  You do the best you can with what you’ve got to do it with.  I’m very proud of those pictures; I wouldn’t deny them for a moment. 

HENRY:  They’re delightful.  I’m also a huge fan of the BOMBA, THE JUNGLE BOY films. 

WALTER MIRISCH:  (laughs) My God, you go back a long way!  I was about 22 when I made those pictures!

At that point Mr. Mirisch was introduced, for the first time, to James Coburn Jr., son of one of the stars of both MAGNIFICENT SEVEN and THE GREAT ESCAPE.  I’ll have more about this event, and what Mr. Mirisch had to say about making MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, soon in the Round-up!  Incidentally, WICHITA, THE FIRST TEXAN, and another Mirisch/McCrea collaboration, THE OKLAHOMAN (1957), are all available as MOD (made on demand) DVDs exclusively from The Warner Brothers Archive Collection.  Go HERE for details.

ED ERDELAC ON ‘WRITER’S BLOCK’ THURSDAY

Filling in for Bobbi Jean Bell, dog trainer Russ Avion  will join host Jim Christina at 8 pm on this Thursday's Writer's Block, interviewing the very talented 'Weird West' author Ed Erdelac.  You can listen live (at ‘Listen Live 2’) HERE, And listen to this or any previous programs on podcast HERE .

AND THAT’S A WRAP! 

Have a great week! 

Happy Trails,

Henry

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

‘SWEETWATER’ REVENGE WESTERN COMING SOON!

Coming soon, ‘SWEETWATER’ is a revenge western starring MAD MEN favorite January Jones as the wronged woman; Jason Isaacs, villain of HARRY POTTER films and THE PATRIOT as a doubtful prophet; and four time Oscar-nominee Ed Harris, whose most recent western is the excellent APPALOOSA, as the sheriff.  Other western vets in the cast include Eduardo Noriega of BLACKTHORN, Chad Brummett of 3:10 TO YUMA, Kathy Lamkin of NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, David Manzanares of DJANGO UNCHAINED, Keith Meriweather of JONAH HEX, and Luce Rains of 3:10 TO YUMA, APPALOOSA, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, WILD BILL, and WYATT EARP!  It’s the second film from writer-director Logan Miller, who’s TOUCHING HOME also starred Ed Harris, along with Brad Dourif.     

I hope to have more information soon, but for now, here’s the first trailer –

 

TCM CLASSIC FILM FEST PART 3

Walter Mirisch and Ben Mankiewicz

On Friday, April 26^th, THE GREAT ESCAPE was shown at the opulent and beautiful Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.  Before the screening, the film’s legendary producer, Walter Mirisch, spoke with Ben Mankiewicz about his earlier experience working with director John Sturges and star Steve McQueen, on a film called THE MAGNIFICENT 7.

“(Sturges and I) became friendly, and we decided we wanted to work together.  I always had in mind to find a property that we could do together.  The availability of the SEVEN SAMAURI seemed to present that opportunity to me, because I thought it would be perfect for John.  And I’ll never forget the day that he and I sat together in a projection room and watched THE SEVEN SAMAURI and just spit-balled how it would work as a western.  We were very, very excited.” 

BEN MANKIEWICZ: Did you think then, with Steve McQueen such a big, developing TV star, this early in the process, would be good in that movie? 

WALTER MIRISCH: No, that was never a factor.  Steve was still a television star on the series called WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE, prior to THE MAGNIFICENT 7.  And he was well-received in THE MAGNIFICENT 7, but he had not really achieved star status, so-called, as a result of THE MAGNIFICENT 7.  (John Sturges and I) looked around for another project to do together.  So he suggested some things, and I suggested some things.  Then the idea of THE GREAT ESCAPE came up.  The story had been put on the screen before.   The British had done a picture about that very subject. 

BEN MANKIEWICZ: (archly) If the Americans don’t make it, it doesn’t count!

WALTER MIRISCH: (laughs) Actually, no one could understand those accents, so it didn’t make a damned bit of difference.  There was some resistance, but we (he and Sturges) overcame it because he and I both got very excited at the idea of doing this movie.  Unfortunately the book we acquired, which was by a man named Paul Brickhill, who was himself a prisoner, who was a flyer in the British Air Force, is a factual book.  It’s not a novel.  All of the personal stories, we made up for our film. 

BEN MANKIEWICZ:  Who were you looking at for the two principal characters who would eventually be played by James Garner and Steve McQueen? 

WALTER MIRISCH: First of all, we had decided to tailor the script so that there would be two characters who would carry the story.  Just a few years prior to that, John had made a very, very successful movie called GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL (pause for applause), with Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster.  We were tailoring these roles in THE GREAT ESCAPE for Kirk and Burt.  We talked about that until we reached the point of asking how much they were going to cost.  We were having trouble getting the budget of the picture approved.

BEN MANKIEWICZ:  I heard something like four million dollars.  Is that about right?

WALTER MIRISCH:  Somewhat more than that.  A great deal at that time, I must tell you.  Anyone who has ever made a movie has heard this famous expression, “You’re going to have to cut the budget if you want to get this made.”  So when we got ‘the speech,’ John and I talked it over.  I suggested that two relatively inexpensive actors, named Steve McQueen and James Garner, might be possible for those two parts.  And we could save about two million dollars just with that one stroke. 

BEN MANKIEWICZ:  Do you realize, when you say that, that you are a genius?  (laughter and applause)  Not for saying ‘no’ to Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster.  It’s recognizing that Garner and McQueen could fill them.  It’s impossible now to envision – it would be a very different movie with Lancaster and Douglas. 

WALTER MIRISCH: I got to know Steve very well when we made THE MAGNIFICENT 7.  I was fond of him; I thought he had incredible on-screen personality.  And I liked the idea of going younger.  Prior to that I had made a film called THE CHILDREN’S HOUR, and Jim played the male lead with Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacClaine, so I was more comfortable with Steve and Jim than I would have been with Kirk and Burt. 

BEN MANKIEWICZ:  Let me ask you about Steve McQueen, because as you said he had made a big impression in THE MAGNIFICENT 7, but he was not yet a top star --

WALTER MIRISCH:  He hadn’t jumped that motorcycle over the hill yet!

BEN MANKIEWICZ:  I think one of the reasons all the people in this room cherish Steve McQueen they way we do, is because he had that fierce independence, caused by a significant chip on his shoulder.  A guy who’s filled with the self-doubt that many of us are plagued with.  And all those things made him Steve McQueen.  But they also – and I know you’re somebody who loved him dearly – made him a handful to deal with.

WALTER MIRISCH:  (laughs) Steve has that quality, the French call je nes se quois.  I don’t know why, but he’s got it.  He radiated it, and he radiates it on the screen. 

BEN MANKIEWICZ:  Now, he left the set for some time when he didn’t like the way his part was, he didn’t like James Garner’s turtle-neck.  James Garner had a great line: “He wanted to be the hero, but he didn’t want to do anything heroic.”  He thought his character was corny.  As a producer you got through that; you navigated those waters.  You worked with McQueen again, and he gave one of his best performances in THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR.  How do you deal with a fantastically talented mercurial star, and keep your picture running at the same time? 

WALTER MIRISCH:  Steve always thought there were too many words.  And I came to trust that, because I learned that he especially was able to convey a great deal by his very expression.  So I was open to cutting down the amount of speeches; there was a lot he could convey with his eyes.  John was also well aware of that. And we collaborated on that, and also Steve had a good sense of story.  There’s a very famous incident, of course, where Steve got upset in THE GREAT ESCAPE and went away for a while, but that was overcome by rewriting.  I said we’ll overcome what you’re upset about, and he said, “That sounds fine.  I’ll be back to work tomorrow.” 

BEN MANKIEWICZ: Did those new pages include things like, ‘rides motorcycle,’ ‘carries baseball glove’? 

WALTER MIRISCH:  He conveyed more about independence of spirit, and courage, just by throwing that baseball against that wall, and catching it, than you could do with long speeches. 

BEN MANKIEWICZ: I don’t think this will be giving anything away.  At one point Steve McQueen is chased on motorcycles by some Germans.  One of those Germans chasing Steve McQueen on a motorcycle is Steve McQueen.  Any opportunity to ride a motorcycle –

 WALTER MIRISCH:  (laughs) You know you’re not supposed to give away all the secrets!

Coming soon – the final TCM CLASSIC FILM FESTIVAL entry, featuring Burt Reynolds, Jon Voight, Ned Beatty and director John Boorman discussing DELIVERANCE.

CORRAL GUNFIGHT ‘O.K.’ NO MORE

 

In the twenty-five years since the Autry opened, much has changed, as exhibitions are expanded, shrunken or moved.  But the life-sized ‘Gunfight at the O.K. Corral’ diorama’s only noticeable change over the years has been the replacement of guns, as they were occasionally swiped from the hands of the Earps.  I remember once coming and finding that of all the figures, only one of the Clantons was still packing iron.  (Then again, I once went to a wax museum in Coney Island, and saw Abe Lincoln assassinated by John Wilkes Booth with a Buck Rogers Ray-Gun.) But on June 2^nd, a different kind of packing – packing away – took place.  The Gunfight is being replaced by a new show, Western Frontiers – Stories of Fact and Fiction which, starting on July 25, will tell the story of the West using firearms of great historic and artistic significance.

I’m looking forward to the new show; but I’ll miss the gunfight.  I always thought the narration was a little clunky, but I’ve never gone through that gallery and not pressed the button, to see the show.  And it was a thrill to watch it, then cross to the facing cabinet and see a gun belonging to Doc Holliday, and the sketch of the corral that Wyatt Earp himself had drawn.

Wyatt Earp's sketch of the O.K. Corral

If you’re going to miss it as well, or if you’ve never seen it, click the Youtube link below.  It’s not great – it was shot by an amateur, but it’s only thanks to ‘Ms. Lizzy Borden’ that we have a living record of it at all: http://youtu.be/V1hbHaLyrdk

 

MEMPHIS FILM FESTIVAL - ‘A GATHERING OF GUNS 5’ JUNE 13^TH-15^th

 

At Sam’s Town Resort in Tunica, Mississippi (30 miles South of Memphis, Tennessee), the guns will be gathering, and Boyd Magers has assembled quite a crew!  From HIGH CHAPARRAL, Henry Darrow, Don Collier and Rudy Ramos.  From WAGON TRAIN, Robert Fuller and Denny Miller.  From THE VIRGINIAN, the man himself, James Drury.  SPIN & MARTY – Tim Considine and David Stollery.  ELFEGA BACA himself, Robert Loggia (who was also the lead villain in the first movie I wrote, SPEEDTRAP).  Lisa Lu – Hey Girl from HAVE GUN, WILL TRAVEL.  Dan Haggerty and Don Shanks from GRIZZLY ADAMS, ZORRO star Duncan Regehr, plus Alex Cord, Gregg Palmer, Tommy Nolan, and Terry Moore.  James Best will present a one-man show, and Johnny Crawford of THE RIFLEMAN, who fronts a wonderful swing orchestra, will present a full banquet concert.  To learn more, go HERE.  http://memphisfilmfestival.com/

WGA NAMES 3 ½ WESTERNS AMONG 101 BEST-WRITTEN SERIES

Lists like this always provoke arguments – or in our case, barroom brawls – but the membership of the East and West branches of the Writers Guild of America voted on-line to determine the 101 best-written TV series in the history of television.  First recognized in the Western field was, at #32, DEADWOOD created by David Milch.  Not another sagebrush saga until #84, a tie  between the courtroom drama THE DEFENDERS, created by Reginald Rose, and GUNSMOKE, pilot written by Charles Marquis Warren and John Meston.  At #86 was JUSTIFIED, pretty-much a Western, developed for Television by Graham Yost, based on the Short Story “Fire in the Hole” by Elmore Leonard, in a tie with SGT. BILKO, by Nat Hiken.  Finally, coming in at #96 was LONESOME DOVE, teleplay by Bill Wittliff, based on the novel Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry; this was tied with SOAP, created by Susan Harris. 

To be fair, there was a lot of excellent writing covering a wide array of genres, dramatic and comedic, on the list, and only a couple of series that I personally hated.  But how a list could be compiled of the best of all TV writing, and have no mention of RAWHIDE, or WAGON TRAIN, or THE REBEL, or HAVE GUN, WILL TRAVEL, is beyond me.  Who do you think they left out?  To see the entire list, go HERE.  http://www.wga.org/content/default.aspx?id=4925

 

‘THE NEVADAN’ COMIC STRIP!

Remember a 1950 Columbia film, THE NEVADAN, starring Randolph Scott, Dorothy Malone and Forrest Tucker? My daughter gave me an old western movie magazine, and in it was a comic-strip version of the movie. I thought my Rounders might find it amusing, so I started running it, one panel a day, on the Round-up Facebook page.  The response has been enthusiastic, and it’s now been running long enough that I thought I’d include it here, from the beginning, for people who might have missed a panel or two.  Hope you enjoy it!

 

 

More of 'THE NEVADAN' coming tomorrow!

THE WRAP-UP

On Saturday I had the pleasure of attending an Autry screening of DOUBLE INDEMNITY, hosted by Los Angeles Police Museum President Glynn Martin, novelist (L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, THE BLACK DAHLIA) James Ellroy, and Autry Curator Jeffrey Richardson.  That night I attended a screening of Selig and Fox Tom Mix films at the Egyptian Theatre, introduced by Col. Selig biographer Andrew Erish.  I'll have highlights from both talks next week.

Can't believe I forgot to wish Clint Eastwood a Happy Birthday back on May 31st.  He has without question done more to encourage, improve and preserve on-screen Western story-telling than anyone else in the last half century!  Happy Birthday!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright June 2013 by Henry C. Parke - All Rights Reserved