MY INTERVIEW WITH BAT MASTERSON – INSP ‘WILD WEST CHRONICLES’ STAR JACK ELLIOT, PLUS ‘NEWS OF THE WORLD’ AT THE AUTRY JULY 13TH, ‘RIP ROARIN’ BUCKAROO’ AT LONE PINE IN OCTOBER!

MY INTERVIEW WITH BAT MASTERSON – INSP ‘WILD WEST CHRONICLES’ STAR JACK ELLIOT

On a day in January, I visited Morning Star’s studio in Acton, California, to watch a day’s shooting of two INSP series, Elkhorn, about the early formative days in Teddy Roosevelt’s life, and Wild West Chronicles.  

For three TV seasons, actor Jack Elliot has brought legendary lawman Bat Masterson to life on INSP’s Wild West Chronicles, and he’ll be returning for a fourth season starting on Wednesday, September 4^th. He plays Bat engagingly, with an air of gravitas backed by a sense of humor, and an unwillingness to suffer fools and liars.

A glance at photos of the historical figure and of the actor reveals another likely reason for his casting.  “It's freakish,” Jack acknowledges with a laugh, referring to his startling resemblance to Masterson. “I assumed I looked a little bit like him.” After all, in 2015 he portrayed Masterson on an episode of Gunslingers. “But then I'll look at photos from set and compare that to the original: even down to the mustache, the nose. It's a little creepy.” Or to put a more positive spin on it, “It was meant to be.”

Jack Elliot...

...and the real Bat Masterson.

Later in life, Bat Masterson became a journalist, and wrote about his friends and acquaintances and adversaries, and his book, Famous Gunfighters of the Western Frontier, was the inspiration to have the character of Bat interviewing his contemporaries, and be the conduit for telling each episode’s story. And in another example of life imitating art, Jack Elliot has become a writer, scripting his first episode of the series.  “I have: The Hunt for John Wesley Harden. So many of the stories from the old West are bad guys, and we don't want to glorify that. We want to glorify the good guys. So it's a buddy cop drama basically, about the hunt for John Wesley Harden. We start filming today. Actually, they're filming it right now. You wouldn't think it'd be such a departure from acting, but writing is truly a departure. Realizing that every single word that goes into a script, especially a 22-minute script, is important. It has to be packed with information. You can't have any fat. And you still have to be able to make it interesting, make the characters compelling.”

Jack Elliot watches himself on playback.

HENRY PARKE: When you were chosen to play the character of Bat Masterson, were you very knowledgeable about him?

JACK ELLIOT: Not super knowledgeable, but I did my due diligence, tried to read as many biographies as I could, and watched a bit of the series, but I also didn't want to do Gene Barry's Bat Masterson. I wanted to make him my own. I didn't want a preconceived notion of who he was.

HENRY PARKE: What do you think the Gene Barry show got right, and what did they get wrong?

JACK ELLIOT: I don't want to judge his work. I think that he had a great character for the time. You know, the, the gambler, suave, debonair. Of course he didn't have a mustache. But I think he did a lot right.  Hopefully we're just kind of adding to the history of the guy. Definitely doing our own thing, but I think they got a lot right.

HENRY PARKE: In your research, were there things about Masterson that surprised you?

JACK ELLIOT: So many things. The guy was a renaissance man. A lot of these guys were renaissance men and women, that didn't just do one thing. He did so many things. And after 40 years of successful life in the Old West he decides to move to New York and become a newspaper man. And he did that successfully for 20, 30 years. And hobnobbed with all these greats. He was great friends with TR, called to the White House. Teddy made him a U.S. Marshall for the district of Manhattan.  I think he had to sit in on trials; just a really interesting cat.

I'M PRESENTING 'NEWS OF THE WORLD' SATURDAY, JULY 13TH AT THE AUTRY!

Come join me at 1:30 pm on Saturday, July 13th for a screening of the excellent 2020 Western NEWS OF THE WORLD, starring Tom Hanks and Helena Zengel, directed by Paul Greengrass, co-written by Greengrass and Luke Davies, based on the wonderful novel by Paulette Jiles. For more details, go to The Autry Museum website HERE. 

I will also be signing copies of my new book, The Greatest Westerns Ever Made, and the People Who Made Them. You may be able to buy them at the Autry Bookstore, or you can buy a copy from Amazon HERE. 

TOM TYLER IS A 'RIP ROARIN' BUCKAROO' AT LONE PINE!

Details are still being finalized for the annual Lone Pine Western Film Festival, October 10th through the 13th, but I've just learned that on Friday the 11th at 11 a.m., I'll be interviewing Sandra Slepski, niece of Wester star Tom Tyler, then we'll be screening his 1936 film Rip Roarin' Buckaroo, which I believe was shot in Lone Pine. I'll have a whole lot more information as the Festival gets closer.

...AND THAT'S A WRAP!

Please check out the July/August issue of True West, featuring my article celebrating the 75th anniversary of She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. 

And here's a link to my most recent article for the INSP blog, about the Joel McCrea Westerns, Stars in My Crown.

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright June 2024 by Henry C. Parke - All Rights Reserved

‘WILD WEST CHRONICLES’ PRODUCERS TELL ALL, TCM FEST STARTS TONIGHT! PLUS DUELING BILLY THE KIDS!

 

THE TCM CLASSIC FILM FESTIVAL IS ON RIGHT NOW!

The TCM Festival began today, Thursday, May 6^th, at 5 pm Pacific time, 8 pm Eastern time, with West Side Story.  The real one, not the one that hasn’t opened yet.  For the second year in a row the Festival is, of necessity, virtual.  They have a terrific line-up of films, both on TCM itself, and on HBO Max.  HBO Max is doing it as a so-called ‘hub’, which apparently means that they list all of their programming, and you can watch any of it whenever you wish, not just during the four days of the festival, but for the entire month of May.   

Following West Side Story, TCM has gathered three of the film’s stars for a reunion: Rita Moreno, who appeared in a lot of Westerns TV series in the 1960s, often playing an Indian; George Chakiris; and Russ Tamblyn, who of course starred in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, as well as the Spaghetti Western Son of a Gunfighter. 

The Western offerings are a little light this year.  Friday morning at 8:45 Pacific time, TCM is premiering a 4K restoration of Irving Berlin’s musical Annie Get Your Gun, from the original Technicolor negative.   It should look great, but it’s a rather stagey musical, and while poor Betty Hutton, the rushed replacement after Judy Garland was fired, works like crazy to please, it’s pretty disappointing.   

Saturday morning at 7, Pacific time, it’s arguably Sam Peckinpah’s finest Western, Ride The High Country, starring Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea, and introducing Mariette Hartley. (Mariette was such a wonderful discovery that two years later, Alfred Hitchcock would also introduce her in Marnie.) The ideal supporting cast includes James Drury, LQ. Jones, Warren Oates, John Davis Chandler, John Anderson, R. G. Armstrong, and Edgar Buchanan.  HBO Max will be featuring John Ford’s The Searchers, which will include a discussion by Ben Mankiewicz and Bruce Springsteen.  That’s it for Westerns.  For the whole TCM Festival schedule, go HERE.

 

‘WILD WEST CHRONICLES’ PRODUCERS TELL ALL!

Every couple of years, a cable channel announces a new series with a title like Old New True Legendary Outlaws Lawmen Gunfights of the Old West.  They’re usually okay; they throw a little income to western movie-town operators, reenactors, and historians.  They’re also interchangeable and forgettable.  When producers Craig Miller of the INSP Network, and Gary Tarpinian of MorningStar Entertainment got together, men who specialize in documentaries and reality shows, they might have done something awfully similar.  In fact, they meant to.  Gary calls it, “How we went from non-fiction to fiction in three shows.”

They were well into preparing just such a show, Craig recalls, “When Gary sent over a short list of the expert historians and authors that he wanted to use.  And these people are great, literally the world's greatest experts on the West.  But you know what? I've seen them in three or four other series already. So why do we want to do this? Is there a way to not use talking head experts, and still do a docu-drama?”

Byron Preston Jackson plays Bass Reeves

Another concern was, “we needed to stay on-brand for INSP, which means to not leave the 1800s.”  Craig explains, “Our viewers like to surf into INSP and get lost in the old West. And every time you put a talking-head historian in there, you're snapping them right out. So I called Gary and I said, what if we had a frontier reporter? And instead of talking-head experts, they're interviewing eye-witnesses to the West's most notorious events?”

Gary liked the idea, even though, “We were going to shoot (our experts) in about a week at The Autry. My partner thought I'd lost my mind when I said to her, we've been wanting to get into ‘scripted’ (shows) for a long time.”

From The Real Lone Star Ranger

Craig remembers, “Gary, a stickler for accuracy and truly an expert on the West, came back with was the solution.  He said, ‘there was a real guy who did this. His name was Bat Masterson.’”

What they’ve created with Wild West Chronicles is a lot less like those previous documentary series, and a lot more like the half-hour Western anthology series of the 1960s, like Zane Grey Theatre and Death Valley Days.  Actually a good deal like Stories of the Century was meant to be, had it stuck closer to the actual history. 

“I knew we would be pretty good at it,” Gary says.  “We are very well equipped to tell a story that's based on a true story, with real people, in a certain time period, faithfully reproduced, based on our research, and tell the story accurately. Because when you're doing non-fiction, that's what you do.  We've taken creative liberties, no doubt about it. We weren't there, so we're putting words in their mouths. But other than that, we're trying to tell the stories accurately and to show how much we love this world and these people, these characters.”

In Wild Bill Hickok and the First Quick-Draw Duel,

flirtation, and a gold watch... 

Another problem they avoided while moving away from the standard talking-heads docudramas was to not be a ‘greatest hits’ show: so far at least, they are NOT doing Jesse James and Billy the Kid and the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.  “I'll let you in on a little inside baseball,” Craig shares. “When we first created the concept, we actually focus-tested three of the episodes and almost unanimously, the respondents said what they were interested in were stories they had never heard, about little-known characters of the West. Or if we were going to tell the story of a famous character, they wanted it to be a little-known story about that famous character. We intentionally kept our format to a half an hour. Because we don't want to do a birth-to-death biography of each character. We just wanted to take one slice of life, one story. And then that also allows us to do multiple episodes with the same characters.”

“Exactly,” Gary agrees. “And we think the audience is going to love it, because we're going to have the same actors play those people. For example, one episode we have a coming up is on the death of Dora Hand, in Dodge City, at the hand of Spike Kenedy. And one of the guys in the posse is Bat's deputy Bill Tilghman. And later on, Bill Tilghman's one of the Three Guardsmen (of Oklahoma), going after Bill Doolin. So it's the same actor.  And Bass Reeves -- there are so many great stories we can do with him, how we used his head to capture people, the story of him going after his own son, who was involved in domestic violence.  It has been particularly enjoyable working with INSP. Diversity is very important to us at Morningstar; my partner is not only a woman, she's Chinese. We met in film school at Loyola Marymount here in LA, and we’ve always felt that it's important to send a proper message and that just meshed perfectly with what the network wanted to do. That same focus group (said) we'd like to hear more about black cowboys, and women.   In season one we've been able to do Bass Reeves, Stagecoach Mary.  We're doing Elfego Bacca, probably the most famous Mexican-American law man. (Pioneer doctor) Susan Anderson.”

...lead to a showdown.

Craig adds, “This sense of diversity also includes the types of stories.  Because this is an anthology series, it allows us to do a wider spectrum of stories from the West. For instance, the last episode this season is on Charles M. Russell, the cowboy artist, and probably not something you're going to see in a traditional series that’s all Jesse James and Billy the Kid. It allows us to paint, no pun intended, a more accurate picture of what the West was like.”

Wild West Chronicles stars Jack Elliot, who doesn’t look or dress much like Gene Barry (who starred in Bat Masterson from 1956 to 1961), but looks a lot like the photographs of the real lawman-turned-journalist.  The episode Dr. Susan Anderson – Frontier Medicine Woman, airs Friday at 9 p.m., Pacific Time.  On Sunday at 2:30 p.m., Pacific Time, Bat Masterson & The Dodge City Deadline, Part 1, premieres.

Jack Elliot as Bat Masterson

If you’d like to read some of Bat Masterson’s actual writing, his collection, Famous Gunfighters of the Western Frontier is available from Dover Books, and other publishers.

 

JUST ONE MORE THING...

COMING SOON – DUELING BILLY THE KIDS!

Emilio Estevez, who was unforgettable as Billy the Kid in 1988’s Young Guns, and 1990’s Young Guns II, has spread the word that he’s coming back!  Screenwriter John Fusco, who wrote both Young Guns films, is hard at work on Guns 3: Alias Billy the Kid, which Estevez will direct as well as star in.  And this week the Epix Channel announced an 8-part limited series about Billy, to be written and produced by Michael Hirst, of The Tudors and Vikings fame.  Updates on both projects coming soon!

AND THAT’S A WRAP!

And please check out the May issue of True West, on newsstands now. It features my interview with author Paulette Jiles, whose News of the World is the basis for what many – including me – consider the best film of the year!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright May 2021 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved

IS FX OPTIMISM 'JUSTIFIED'?

UPDATED 3/17 -- SEVERAL NEW WEEKEND EVENTS -- CHECK BELOW

WE'LL FIND OUT TUESDAY 3/16 AT 10 P.M. JUSTIFIED is a modern-day western spun from the Elmore Leonard story Fire In The Hole. Timothy Olyphant, who spent three years in DEADWOOD as Sheriff Seth Bullock, plays U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, a polite but deadly Kentucky gentleman. If you'd like to see the trailer, click here. Executive Producer Graham Yost has at least ten shows in the can so far, and an interesting collection of behind-the-scenes talent. Tony Goldwyn has directed one episode, and Elmore Leonard has produced one.

TRUE GRIT ROLLS CAMERAS IN TEXAS AND NEW MEXICO

The Coen brothers may have missed out an their own Oscar for their SERIOUS MAN script, but their Rooster Cogburn, Jeff Bridges, goes to the set with a Best Actor Oscar under his arm for CRAZY HEART. Barry Pepper will play Ned Pepper, the role originally assayed by Robert Duvall. Pepper his a long string of notable credits, but I'll always remember him as the sniper in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (1998). Paul Rae will portray Emmett Quincy, and Ed Corbin will play 'Bear Grit'. Cinematographer Roger Deakins, whose eight Oscar noms include THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES (2007) and the Coen's NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (2007) will be behind the camera. The score will be composed by Carter Burwell, who did similar chores so memorably for THE ALAMO (2004) and this year's WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE.

COWBOYS AND ALIENS GETS START DATE, RELEASE DATE

Robert Downey Jr. is out to do another SHERLOCK HOLMES, Daniel 'Bond' Craig is in his place, and with lovely HOUSE star Olivia Wilde in, the Jon Favreau-helmed Scf-Fi western should be before the Universal cameras this July. Favreau, who directed IRON MAN and ELF, won't say yet whether he'll be shooting in 3D. Asked by MTV why she signed on, Olivia Wilde replied, "It's really interesting people who just want to make a great story... Western enthusiasts will be happy. Sci-fi enthusiasts will be happy. Jon Favreau likes to describe it as a mash-up... It's going to have awesome effects, but Jon Favreau and everyone else are concentrating on making a great story and I'm absolutely humbled and excited to be a part of it." The announced release date is July 29, 2011, and be warned, that's also the announced release date for THE SMURFS MOVIE. Decisions, decisions...

ONE MORE WALK-DOWN FOR VIRGIL COLE

Mystery readers around the globe were saddened to learn of the death of prolific author Robert B. Parker, at his home in Cambridge, on January 18th, from a heart attack. Much was said at the time of his very popular three mystery series, SPENSER FOR HIRE, JESSE STONE, and SUNNY RANDALL, but there was little or no mention of his VIRGIL COLE western series, which included GUNMAN'S RHAPSODY and APPALOOSA, the latter leading to the excellent movie of the same title. With the death of his creator, does this mean Virgil Cole is at the end of his tether? Not quite, according to publishers G.P. Putnam's Sons. In May 2010, they will be bringing out the last novel of the series, BLUE-EYED DEVIL, and will simultaneously issue the current hard-cover release, BRIMSTONE, in paperback. I just read APPALOOSA, and I don't ever recall a movie that followed a book more closely -- the dialogue is intact virtually word-for-word. When the film opened, director-star Ed Harris was already talking about a sequel. I've been trying to find out if New Line Cinema has one in the works, but I haven't got a direct answer back. If you have any doubts as to whether a sequel is desirable, click here to see the trailer for APPALOOSA (2008).

WESTERN COMPOSER NATHAN SCOTT DIES

Nathan Scott, a composer, orchestrator and conductor with a staggering 950 professional credits, died at his home in Sherman Oaks, at the age of 94. Born in Salinas, he graduated from UC Berkeley with a music degree in 1939. He worked on radio as the west-coast music director of the NBC BLUE NETWORK until he entered the Army, where he worked on such Armed Forces Radio Service shows as COMMAND PERFORMANCE. In 1946 he went to work at Republic Pictures, and if you've seen the films of MONTE HALE, GENE AUTRY, WILD BILL ELLIOT and ROY ROGERS of that period, you've almost certainly heard Scott's scores. He also composed the music for John Wayne's WAKE OF THE RED WITCH (1948) MONTANA BELLE (1952), where Jane Russell portrayed Belle Starr, and many others. Moving to television, he also composed for episodes of LARAMIE, THE VIRGINIAN, HAVE GUN-WILL TRAVEL, RAWHIDE and GUNSMOKE.

WEEKEND EVENTS - AROUND TOWN - AROUND THE COUNTRY

ERNEST BORGNINE IN PERSON!

On Saturday, March 20th, at 2:00 p.m., The North Hollywood Library, at 5211 Tujunga Ave., at the corner of Magnolia, will host a free screening of MARTY, the movie that earned Borgnine his Oscar -- and he will be present following the screening! (818) 766-7185.

AT THE AUTRY

On Saturday, March 20th at 1 p.m., The Southwest Musueum presents a lecture, The View FRom the Braun:Archeoastronomy, describing how the first Americans used the sky as part of their worldview. The cave-paintings look fascinating. Admission is free to members, $10 to non-members, and NOTE: THIS IS AT THE SOUTHWEST MUSEUM, NOT THE AUTRY MUSEUM IN GRIFFITH PARK. For details, click here.

At the museum in Griffith Park, in addition to the above, and regular weekend family events like gold-panning, there will be a Santa Fe craft show at the gift shop on Saturday at 11:00 a.m., and on Sunday at Noon, the 3rd Sunday Jam with the Western Music Association. Also, in the Wells Fargo Theatre, a play, TALES OF AN URBAN INDIAN, will be performed Thursday, Friday 8:00 p.m., Saturday at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.,and Sunday at 2:00 p.m. For more information, including tickets for the play, click here.

LOS ENCINOS STATE HISTORIC PARK

Sunday 3/20 Living History. From 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. you can step back in time! The living history program features a working blacksmith shop, 19th Century children's games, traditional music, tours of the historic structures, and strolling folks in period costume -- great fun for kids and adults, and you can feed the ducks! They do this program on the third Sunday of every month. Los Encinos is located at 16756 Moorpark St., Encino, CA 91436-1068. (818)784-4849. For more information, click here.


THE ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES - NEW YORK CITY

Buster Keaton
THE GENERAL
1927, 105 minutes, 16mm, b&w, silent. With Buster Keaton, Marion Mack, Glen Cavendar, Jim Farley, and Joseph Keaton.
One of Keaton's best silent features, setting comedy against a true Civil War story of a stolen train and Union spies.
-Saturday and Sunday, March 20 & 21 at 5:30.
Anthology Film Archives | 32 Second Avenue | New York | NY | 10003

LANDMARK THEATRES FEATURES 'A TOWN CALLED PANIC' IN 3 STATES

A TOWN CALLED PANIC. Okay, it's not a traditional western. In fact, it's animation, very limited stop-motion animation, but it does feature a cowboy, an Indian, and a horse, it's a Belgian and French co-production, and except for some cursing in the subtitles, it's supposed to be great for kids! It's playing at the LAGOON CINEMA in Minneapolis, the TIVOLI THEATRE in St. Louis, and the MIDTOWN ART CINEMA in Atlanta. If you want to know more, click here .

PAPERBACK COLLECTOR SHOW AND SALE - MISSION HILLS, CA
Sunday, March 21 9:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.

This is an annual event that I NEVER miss. Dozens of paperback dealers and collectors from around the country converge, bringing pulps and paperbacks exclusively. There is more horror and sci-fi than anything else, but there are a lot of westerns -- I've picked up tons of Luke Short, and seen plenty of Max Brand, Zane Grey, Louis Lamour and the rest. The pristine stuff can be pricey, but you can find lots of great deals if you're not so picky about condition -- I rarely pay more than $2 for anything, and purists sneer at my 'reader copies,' but after all, I'm getting them to read, not to seal them in a vault. They also have forty writers and other guests there to sign books, and THEY DON'T CHARGE for autographs! They're mostly sci-fi and horror people, among them Ray Bradbury, William F. Nolan and Edd "Cookie" Byrnes, who starred in a number of spaghetti westerns. For a complete list of signers and time slots, click here. It's at the Guest House Inn, 10621 Sepulveda Blvd., Mission Hills, CA 91345, and admission is $5. And tell them Henry's Western Round-up sent you.

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 THE LONE RANGER at 1:30 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.

WESTERN MOVIES ON TV
Note:AMC=American Movie Classics, EXT= Showtime Extreme, FMC=Fox Movie Channel, TCM=Turner Classic Movies. All times given are Pacific Standard Time.

BEST DARN THING ON TV ALL WEEK!!!
TCM THURSDAY - O.K. CORRAL-A-THON!

FOUR MOVIES IN A ROW dealing with the Earps, Doc Holliday and the Clantons!

5:00 p.m. - MY DARLING CLEMENTINE (1946) - The John Ford version, with Henry Fonda, Victor Mature and Walter Brennan.

7:00 p.m. - GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL (1957) - The John Sturges version, with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas.

9:15 p.m. - HOUR OF THE GUN (1967) - The NEXT John Sturges version, with James Garner, Jason Robards Jr., and Robert Ryan.

11:00 p.m. - MASTERSON OF KANSAS (1954) - The William 'TINGLER' Castle version, with George Montgomery, Nancy Gates and James Griffith.

SECOND BEST DARN THING ON TV ALL WEEK:
TCM SUNDAY - TWO AKIRA KURASAWA WESTERNS BACK TO BACK!

5:00 P.M. - THE OUTRAGE (1964) - RASHOMAN with Mexican bandits, stars Paul Newman, Claire Bloom and Edward G. Robinson, directed by Martin Ritt, screenplay adaptation by Michael Kanin.

7:00 p.m. - THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1960) - 7 SAMAURI in Mexico, directed by John Sturges, screenplay adaptation by William Roberts, and starring the seven: Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, Brad Dexter, James Coburn, Horst Buchholz and, in the role he was born (in Brooklyn) to play, Eli Wallach as Calvera!

Monday 3/15

FOX FLAMING STAR (1960) An early film from the soon-to-be-great Don Siegal, working from Nunnally Johnson's script of a Clair Huffaker novel. Elvis Presley, playing a role planned for Marlon Brando, is the half-breed son of white John McIntire and Kiowa Dolores Del Rio, forced to take sides in a local war between white and Indian. Surprisingly good, you realize how good an actor Elvis could have been if Col. Parker hadn't steered him into mostly inane crap. With Steve Forrest and Barbara Eden.

Tuesday 3/17

FOX 7:00 a.m. THE MARK OF ZORRO (1940) A delight! Rouben Mamoulian directs John Taintor Foote's adaptation of the Johnston McCulley story. Ty Power, Basil Rathbone, Linda Darnell et al have great fun, and the audience has even more.


Wednesday 3/17

EXT 6:30 a.m. SHADOWHEART (2009) A bounty hunter is out revenge in 1865 New Mexico. Directed by Dean Alioto from his and Peter Vanderwall's script. Starring Justin Ament, Angus Macfayden, Daniel Baldwin, William Sadler, and two great pros, Rance Howard and Charles Napier.

EXT. 4:35 p.m. SHADOWHEART See above.

Thursday 3/18

FOX 3:00 a.m. SHERIFF OF FRACTURED JAW (1959) Comedy western, D:Raoul Walsh, W:Howard Dimsdale, starring Jayne Mansfield, Kenneth More, Henry Hull, Bruce Cabot.

EXT 3:05 a.m. SHADOWHEART (2009) A bounty hunter is out revenge in 1865 New Mexico. Directed by Dean Alioto from his and Peter Vanderwall's script. Starring Justin Ament, Angus Macfayden, Daniel Baldwin, William Sadler, and two great pros, Rance Howard and Charles Napier.


TCM 3:15 a.m. THE TENDERFOOT (1932) An innocent cowboy decides to back a Broadway play. Directed by Ray Enright, from a story by Richard Carle and Broadway comedy master George S. Kaufman, adapted by Earl Baldwin, Arthur Caesar and silent comic-turned comedy writer/director Monty Banks. It stars Joe E. Brown and Ginger Rogers.

FOX 5:00 a.m. O. HENRY'S FULL HOUSE (1952) A collection of five O. Henry short stories directed by five directors: Henry Hathaway, Henry King, Henry Koster, Jean Negulesco, and doing the western segment, The Ransom of Red Chief, Howard Hawks. Writing this one segement, uncredited, were Ben Hecht, Nunnally Johnson and Charles Lederer! Starring Fed Allen and Oscar Levant as the kidnappers, and Rin Tin Tin star Lee Aaker as the 'victim', narrated by John Steinbeck!

EXT 9:00 a.m. THE CLAIM (2000) Michael Winterbottom directs from Frank Cottrell Boyce's screenplay, based on Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge, moved to the American west. Stars Peter Mullan, Wes Bentley, Nastassja Kinsky, Sarah Polley and Milla Jovovich.

EXT 12:35 p.m. GANG OF ROSES(2003) Female rappers Lil' Kim, Macy Gray, Monica Calhoun, LisaRaye play gunslingers in a search for revenge and gold, not necessarily in that order. The locations and production are good, and there's a curious enjoyment to seeing James Coburn's introduction from MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, and Eli Wallach's near hanging from THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY ripped off by women. But the plotting is often moronic, and an awful lot of it is needlessly vulgar -- a woman on the gallows loudly discussing her vagina with the man who's about to throw the switch is a bit much, even by DEADWOOD standards. Written and directed by Jean-Claude LaMarre.

EXT 4:25 p.m. THE CLAIM (2000) Michael Winterbottom directs from Frank Cottrell Boyce's screenplay, based on Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge, moved to the American west. Stars Peter Mullan, Wes Bentley, Nastassja Kinsky, Sarah Polley and Milla Jovovich.

EXT 10:00 P.M. GANG OF ROSES(2003) Female rappers Lil' Kim, Macy Gray, Monica Calhoun, LisaRaye play gunslingers in a search for revenge and gold, not necessarily in that order. The locations and production are good, and there's a curious enjoyment to seeing James Coburn's introduction from MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, and Eli Wallach's near hanging from THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY ripped off by women. But the plotting is often moronic, and an awful lot of it is needlessly vulgar -- a woman on the gallows loudly discussing her vagina with the man who's about to throw the switch is a bit much, even by DEADWOOD standards. Written and directed by Jean-Claude LaMarre.


Friday 3/19

FOX 5:00 a.m. NORTH TO ALASKA (1960) A comic western featuring the romatic triangle of gold-mining partners John Wayne, Stewart Granger and lovely Capucine, with Ernie Kovacs and Fabian. Directed by Henry Hathaway, written by half of the WGA -- screenplay by John Lee Mahin, Martin Rackin and Claude Binyon, from a play by Lazlo Fodor, and an idea by John Kafka, with uncredited work by Ben Hecht and Wendell Mayes.

FOX 9:00 a.m. BANDOLERO! (1968)Great fun with Stewart and Martin as feuding brother outlaws. Featuring Raquel Welch, Harry Carey Jr., Jock Mahoney, Don 'Red' Barry, Roy Barcroft, D:Andrew McLaglen, W:James Lee Barrett (If you want to see an incredible list on stuntmen, check out the listing on IMDB)

FOX 11 a.m. BROKEN ARROW (1950) James Stewart is an ex-soldier, and Jeff Chandler is Apache Chief Cochise, trying together for peace. D:Delmer Daves, W:Albert Maltz(another writer's name may be one the credits -- Maltz was blacklisted and had someone 'front' for him).

TCM 12:30 a.m. DODGE CITY (1939) Errol Flynn decides to clean up the town! Delightful, exuberant fun, written by Robert Buckner and directed by the terriffic Michael Curtiz. It features all of the Warner Brothers stallwarts: Olivia de Havilland, Ann Sheridan, Bruce Cabot, Frank McHugh, Alan Hale, Victory Jory and Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams. (SPOILER ALERT) 8 year old Bobs Watson, the kid who gets dragged to death, told me they tricked the school-teacher off of the set of the picture, so Bobs could do the dragging stunt himself!

EXT 4:45 a.m. THE CLAIM (2000) Michael Winterbottom directs from Frank Cottrell Boyce's screenplay, based on Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge, moved to the American west. Stars Peter Mullan, Wes Bentley, Nastassja Kinsky, Sarah Polley and Milla Jovovich.

TCM 2:45 p.m. BIG HAND FOR THE LITTLE LADY (1966) Joanne Woodward has to step into a high-stakes poker game when her husband is too ill to continue. With Henry Fonda and Jason Robards Jr. Directed by Fielder Cook, written by Sidney Carroll, originally as an episode of the tv series PLAYHOUSE 90. If you'd like to see that version, click here.

Saturday 3/20

AMC 6:00 a.m. BLAZING SADDLES (1974)Mel Brooks directed and co-wrote, with Norman Steinberg, this delightfully broad western comedy about a town getting it's first black sheriff, Cleavon Little, helped only by Gene Wilder as the Waco Kid. With Slim Pickens and Madeline Kahn, and featuring a rousing theme sung by Frankie Laine.

TCM 9:00 a.m. THE OUTLAW (1943) Jack Beutel plays the title character, Billy the Kid, but Jane Russell is the titular head of the cast, which also features Thomas Mitchell and Walter Huston as Pat Garrett and Doc Holliday, respectively. Howard Hawks started directing it, but quit, and Howard Hughes took over, with a script by Jules Furthman. Not brilliant, but worth seeing, especially screen-filling Jane Russell in her first starring role.

EXT 2:35 p.m. SHADOWHEART (2009) A bounty hunter is out revenge in 1865 New Mexico. Directed by Dean Alioto from his and Peter Vanderwall's script. Starring Justin Ament, Angus Macfayden, Daniel Baldwin, William Sadler, and two great pros, Rance Howard and Charles Napier.


Sunday 3/21

TCM 3:00 a.m. GIRL OF THE GOLDEN WEST (1938) Theatre impressario David Belasco's play about a frontierwoman sheltering an outlaw becomes a vehicle for the voices of Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald. With Buddy Ebsen. Directed by Robert Z. Leonard, script by Isabel Dawn.

AMC 3:00 a.m. BLAZING SADDLES (1974)Mel Brooks directed and co-wrote, with Norman Steinberg, this delightfully broad western comedy about a town getting it's first black sheriff, Cleavon Little, helped only by Gene Wilder as the Waco Kid. With Slim Pickens and Madeline Kahn, and featuring a rousing theme sung by Frankie Laine.

EXT 5:00 a.m. SHADOWHEART (2009) A bounty hunter is out revenge in 1865 New Mexico. Directed by Dean Alioto from his and Peter Vanderwall's script. Starring Justin Ament, Angus Macfayden, Daniel Baldwin, William Sadler, and two great pros, Rance Howard and Charles Napier.

That's it for this week! In the coming weeks I'll have a review of Courtney Joyner's book, THE WESTERNERS, info about the upcoming Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival, westerns on the radio and the internet, so don't touch that dial!

Adios,

Henry