CIVIL WAR COMES TO SANTA CLARITA, PLUS MORE TCM FONDA-ON-FONDA, NEW ‘DJANGO’ MINI-SERIES!

CIVIL WAR COMES TO SANTA CLARITA APRIL 18-19!

In addition to the previously announced musical, literary, eating and shopping-related events happening at the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival this coming weekend, something new has been added!  Marking the 150^th Anniversary of the end of the Civil War, for the first time the Festival will include living history encampments, plus at 12:45 and 3:15 on both days, Heritage Junction will be transformed into a Civil War battleground!  These events are peopled by dedicated history buffs, and will immerse you in that time in a way no book or movie ever could – it’s a wonderful way to introduce kids and adults to the history of the Civil War and the American West!      

And you can test your stamina on the mechanical bull, and your skill at hatchet-throwing, archery, and fast-draw laser tag! For a rundown on all of the musical events, go HERE . For my rundown of all the separate-ticket events, go HERE

Once again I’ll have the pleasure of moderating several of the panels and conducting interviews at the Buckaroo Book Shop, starting Saturday at high noon for a talk with author and screenwriter Miles Swarthout, about THE SHOOTIST, THE LAST SHOOTIST, and THE HOMESMAN.  At 2 pm I’ll discuss Unsung Heroes of Film: The Hollywood Stunt Horse, with Karen Ross, senior consultant at the American Humane Society’s Film & TV Unit, authors Petrine Day Mitchum and Audria Pavia, Gene Autry Entertainment president Karla Buhlman.  

Saturday at three I’ll be talking with novelists and screenwriters Miles Swarthout, C. Courtney Joyner, Stephen Lodge and Dale Jackson about their adventures adapting novels into screenplays and screenplays into novels.  At 5 pm I’ll be chatting with Karla Buhlman, President of Gene Autry Entertainment, about the legacy of America's Favorite Singing Cowboy, Gene Autry. 

On Sunday I only have one panel, Name That Horse – Famous Horses and Their Pards, featuring Karla Buhlman and authors Petrine Day Mitchum and Audria Pavia. 

There will be many other interesting panels both days -- for an official schedule of all of the events happening at the Buckaroo Book Shop, go HERE.  Every book mentioned or shown will be available at the Buckaroo Book Shop, And they can all be purchased right now from OutWest -- just click the link at the top left of the page!  

I’m particularly excited that the Buckaroo Book Shop will be located in the cluster of historic buildings called Heritage Junction, in the Pardee House, which was built in 1890, and was used as a film location by Tom Mix, John Ford and Harry Carey among many others.  Other structures at the Junction include the Newhall Ranch House, Saugus Train Station featuring the Mogul Engine, Mitchell Adobe, Edison House, Kingsburry House, Callahan Schoolhouse, and the Ramona Chapel.   

For all of the specifics of the entire Santa Clarita Cowboy Fest, visit  http://cowboyfestival.org/http://cowboyfestival.org/

THE TCM FEST PART 2: MORE WITH PETER FONDA

We think of Peter Fonda as a film actor, but he has worked extensively on stage as well; one of his first successes, in college, was the James Stewart role in HARVEY.  “I was listening to Chris Plummer and Julie Andrews talk about this last night, what it is to share with an audience.  I liked starting my career out, as my dad did, on stage, because it’s a much more defined area of acting.  Film acting is totally different.  One thing I’ve taught to students in colleges, if they are actors, and want to know about stage acting, I tell them this, if you catch this, and let it bleed out to all the other things you do on stage, this is the key:  if you’re supposed to cry, and then the audience cries, you have to be very, very tender with the timing.  Because if you drop a tear first, the audience will let you cry for them.  But if you wait until you hear the first sniffle, the first catch in somebody’s the throat somewhere in the audience, and then drop a tear, the audience goes Niagara.  In movies, it can be helped by editing.  But if you’re on stage, and you want them to laugh, don’t laugh first, don’t cry first.” 

Interviewer Scott Eyman, author of PRINT THE LEGEND – THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN FORD, and JOHN WAYNE – THE LIFE AND LEGEND, noted that Peter’s and Henry’s relationship had been ‘fraught,’ but said that by the time Hank passed, they were ‘very tight’.  What changed their relationship?   Peter replied, “Well, I got to direct him, and act with him (in WANDA NEVADA) – which he thought was totally nuts.  Brooke Shields, me and dad.  I hired my dad.  It was funny, I called him on the phone and asked him, if he’d be able to work with me for one day, and I could only pay him fifteen-hundred bucks.   He said, ‘Is it a good part?’  Yuh, I’ll send you the sides.  ‘Sides, you’ll send me the sides?  You don’t know what sides are!’  Now I do, if you recall me on the road, feeding your cue lines to you from sides. 

That's bearded Hank with Peter and Brooke

“He came and worked with me, and the experience was remarkable.  I don’t have enough time to tell you all of the beautiful details, and how it started to crumble.  He hated the beard, and I don’t blame him, but he didn’t hear me when I said it was a fairy tale, and it didn’t need to be a real beard.  I say Dad, you’re supposed to be chewing tobacco in the scene, and you’re not well, and I’ve got this little bag of ground up licorice.  And he absolutely adored this stuff, and the camera doesn’t know it’s not tobacco.  No, it’s my dad, the perfectionist, the realist.  (He) took out a bag of Red Man Chewing Tobacco.  Don’t take this the wrong way; he said, ‘Bill Cosby gave me this!’ You’re too sick to chew tobacco, and I’ve got this all ready for you.  ‘No.’ I knew when the no meant no further talk.  I popped the licorice in my mouth, got over him, and started to drool the licorice into his beard.  I got a little spirits of mineral oil on it – ‘Close your eyes, Dad!’  Whew -- threw dust into his beard.  ‘You’re ready for your close-up now – see you on-set!’ Went ouside, and Michael Butler, the cameraman said, ‘Wow!  How do you do that?’  I said, ‘First time, I never did it before.  But I was the director, what the heck.’  

“He did the job for me, and three weeks later, I got a letter from him in Page, Arizona. And it was hot.  I was glad Dad didn’t die of the heat; but I knew Dad was dying.   And he wrote me this fabulous letter – perhaps the fifth that he had ever written me.  And it was that he felt bad about the beard, and he wouldn’t blame me if I cut it out of the film, but it would have been such a gas – his phrase.  Here comes the hard part to tell.  It was a five page letter.  And at the end, ‘In my forty-one years of making motion pictures, I have never seen a crew so devoted to the director.  You are a very good director.  And please remember me for your company.’  Now a company is a word we normally use in stage.  But in John Ford’s time, he carried a (stock) company of actors with him from one film to the next.  Ward Bond was one of them.  John Carradine was another.   Great characters.  Walter Brennan.  Great characters that he would have as his company.  And the fact that my dad wanted to be part of my company… How cool is that?”

Peter and Scott Eyman talked about the films they re-watched in preparation for this interview.  Fonda recalled, “I had to watch THE OX-BOW INCIDENT, and THE GRAPES OF WRATH, of course.  And then I blew it on the red carpet last night.  They asked me what my favorite film was, and I said DUCK SOUP.  I should have said BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES.  I should have said EMPIRE OF THE SUN, a great film by Steven Speilberg.  Of course, Groucho loved EASY RIDER.” 

Scott Eyman asked, “When you look at your dad’s work today, one actor to another, what do you see?”

Warren Oates and Peter Fonda in THE HIRED HAND

Peter replied, “I watch his timing.  I watch how his eyes move or don’t.  And I’ve learned that, when you’re in close-up, eye movement can really be disturbing on a big screen.  And I can see, and I always watched him on-stage, he had this tension in his fingers like this (his arms straight down, his fingers drumming on his leg).  He knew how to do hands-down performances day-in and day-out.  There’s a reason I call them hands-down performances. He didn’t have to do this (Peter makes a bunch of hand-gestures).  You just have your hands at your sides, and say the lines, and say them with such fullness and conviction that the audience understands them without any added movements.  I was watching one of my favorite Westerns - and I blew it again on the red carpet.  They asked me what my favorite Western was, and I said (laughs) THE HIRED HAND (which Peter Fonda directed and stars in).  And when my dad finally saw that, by the way, he was thoroughly pleased.  ‘That’s my kind of Western,’ he said.  I couldn’t ask for a better compliment.  But now I see it (the hands) in MY DARLING CLEMENTINE, he’s doing that again, and it doesn’t distract me from the story, from the character.  He is Wyatt Earp.  I believe, and I knew Ward Bond very well, I knew John Wayne, I knew all these guys.  I knew them all, I believe all their characters.  And Victor Mature was so incredible in that film.  It was his best performance.  I don’t know how many of you have seen that film.  It was his finest performance, and he did it for John Ford.  And I’m so thrilled to be able to say that about another actor, even though this talk is called Fonda on Fonda.”

Some questions were taken from the audience.  One man asked if, in making EASY RIDER, Peter Fonda was making references to two of his father’s films, GRAPES OF WRATH, and MY DARLING CLEMENTINE.  “You’re going across-country, but in opposite direction from GRAPES; your scene in the commune is a lot like the WPA camp; your character is names ‘Wyatt’.  The end of EASY RIDER is a bit like the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.  Or am I all wet?”

EASY RIDER

Fonda replied, “You’re not wet; it was unconscious, but thank you, that’s a great compliment.  When I was first writing that, the concept I came up with was two guys -- not one hundred Hell Angels riding to a Hell’s Angels funeral -- which had been WILD ANGELS, because I had been told no more motorcycles-sex-drugs-and-rock-and-roll movies.  As I started writing EASY RIDERS, the first thing that came to my mind was riding through John Ford’s west.  We were going to ride east, as an homage to Herman Hesse’s JOURNEY TO THE EAST.  I didn’t expect the audience to go – “Wow!  That’s Herman Hesse’s JOURNEY TO THE EAST!’  We would have blown it if that happened – I did want to say that line again.   And then watching a couple of shots from CLEMENTINE, and looking at that one rock that Hopper and I would shoot at in the background when we entered Monument Valley, where CLEMENTINE was shot.  Of course, there’s never been a town in Monument Valley except the ones that John Ford dropped there.  Tombstone certainly isn’t there.  But there’s Tombstone.  A town that has a road and buildings.  Not on the other side of the road.  There’s a church being built on the other side of the road. And in this one-sided town you had three bars, one Shakespearean actor doing a play; John Ford was a genius.  And he helped my dad get past THE MAGNIFICENT’S DOPEs and THE IMMORTAL SERGEANTs,  and get to THE GRAPES OF WRATH, MY DARLING CLEMENTINE, YOUNG MR. LINCOLN.  I think Ford released him to do that.”

Another guest asked Peter to comment about his father’s performance in ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST.  “I would love to, in fact.  He was not so sure about working with (Sergio) Leone.  He came in with brown contact lenses.  And Leone flips, because he had hired my dad for his blue eyes.  If you’ve ever seen spaghetti westerns, all of those Italians have really blue eyes.  So Sergio Leone flipped out, but that’s my father.  He would go to those extremes.  So there he is, and (in his first scene) he’s identified.  ‘What are you gonna do with the kid, Frank?’  ‘Well, now that you’ve named me.’  And he shoots the kid in the stomach.   This is the first time my dad had ever done anything like that in any film.  He did some noir films that people don’t know about.  He shot the shit out of the Clantons in CLEMENTINE, but this is a kid – and gut-shooting a kid?  The audience freaked out, because there was Hank Fonda shooting a kid in the stomach.  But because of Sergio and my dad, and the other actors, they just kept the story going.  To take it a little further, I was in Almeria, Spain, to direct a commercial for Citroen cars, and I got my daughter in it, and we would go by the big house from ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST – it’s still there.  And so on the wrap day, which was a week later, I had taken all these pieces of paper together, and written on them ‘ONCE UPON A TIME IN MY LIFE’.  And I got everybody together, start up the camera, run and get in the shot, we all hold up the sign, and I wanted to show it to myself and to my family.  Dad was already gone, but I thought, this is so fff-so-bloody cool.  But I thought it was a very interesting Western.  Very different from the greatness of Ford’s MY DARLING CLEMENTINE, or OX-BOW INCIDENT, or some of the others, but it was very interesting, very entertaining.  I liked it a lot.”

Henry Fonda in once upon a time in the west

The third and, probably, final installment of my coverage of the TCM Fest will include highlights from film introductions by Katherine Quinn, the widow of Anthony Quinn; Oscar winner Christopher Plummer, speaking at the THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING screening about director John Huston and star Sean Connery; and Oscar-winning special effects men Craig Barton and Ben Burtt on the making of GUNGA DIN. 

‘DJANGO’ AND ‘SUSPIRIA’ BOTH TO BE REMADE AS EURO TV-SERIES!

French TV producer ATLANTIQUE PRODUCIONS and Italian indie CATTLEYA will co-produce a pair of series based on the classic Sergio Corbucci spaghetti western that helped ignite the genre, and the hypnotic Dario Argento horror film – and Argento is aboard as artistic advisor!  Each has received orders for twelve fifty-minute episodes.  No more info yet, except that they will be shopped at Cannes next week, at the MIP TV Market!

AND THAT’S A WRAP!

With the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival coming this weekend, I don’t know what I’ll be able to manage for next week’s Round-up.  Did anyone catch the premiere of LEGENDS & LIES – THE REAL WEST, from Bill O’Reilly, on Fox News?  The few minutes I caught looked good, certainly well-produced, but I had to finish writing the Round-up.  Let me know what you thought of it.  One criticism I’ve heard is that it covers the usual suspects – Jesse James, Doc Holliday, Davy Crockett – yet again, but on a news network, I’m hoping it’ll reach a wider audience.  If you’re reading the Round-up, you don’t need to be convinced that Western history is fascinating.  Hopefully this will round up some strays for us, maybe start a stampede, along with TURN, which reTURNs for season two tomorrow.  Still a moronic title that tells you nothing – what’s wrong with the book’s title, WASHINGTON’S SPIES? 

Have a great week, and hope to see you at the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival!

Happy Trails,

Henry

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

MOVIES REWRITE HISTORY AT TCM FEST! PLUS SANTA CLARITA COWBOY FEST UPDATE, WILLIAM WELLMAN FEST AT UCLA, AND MORE!

MOVIES REWRITE HISTORY AT TCM FEST!

The theme of the sixth annual TCM CLASSIC FILM FESTIVAL was “History according to Hollywood,” and a fine time was had by all who attended.  This is the third year that I’ve attended, and nowhere else do I meet so many people so enthusiastic and knowledgeable about movies.  The center of this cinematic orgy is the fabled Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard, it’s next-door multiplex, and the Roosevelt Hotel across the street, but the screenings spill out to quite a few other venues. 

The fun started at 5 pm on Thursday, March 26^th, with a Red Carpet before the Chinese Theatre, leading to the premiere of the new restoration of THE SOUND OF MUSIC, with stars Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, and several portrayers of the Von Trapp kids present.  I enjoyed covering the red carpet the first two years, but could not convince myself that THE SOUND OF MUSIC was a Western.  So I skipped it in order to attend a screening of John Ford’s THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE, introduced by a son of one of its stars, and a major star in his own right, Keith Carradine.  Keith Carradine began his professional acting career with MCCABE AND MRS. MILLER, and went on to play Jim Younger in THE LONG RIDERS, Buffalo Bill Cody in WILD BILL, and many others.  He created the role of Will Rogers on Broadway in THE WILL ROGERS FOLLIES, and was sorely missed by DEADWOOD fans when, as Wild Bill Hickok, he drew aces and eights after only  five episodes – dumbest mistake the series’ producers could have made!   

Keith Carradine introducing THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE

He was delighted to see the theatre entirely packed.  “I cannot tell you what it does for my heart to see this many people here to see this movie – oh my gosh!  I am a huge John Ford fan, and he only made two more feature films after this, DONOVAN’S REEF and CHEYENNE AUTUMN.  I have a particular attachment to this film for a number of reasons.  It has an amazing cast, obviously, with Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne.  Lee Marvin, who was a pal ever since we did EMPEROR OF THE NORTH together – the incomparable Lee Marvin.  And in fact I just paid homage to him.  We did a concert production, the Encore series in New York, of PAINT YOUR WAGON, in which I played Ben Rumson (note: Lee Marvin’s role in the film).  Anyhow, as Orson Welles said when he was asked who his influences were, “Well, I studied the great masters, by which I mean John Ford, John Ford and John Ford.”  This is one of his great works, and in addition to that great cast, and my friend Lee Marvin, my father is in this film.  I can’t thank you all enough for being here to support what TCM has been doing so brilliantly now for lo these many years, burnishing, maintaining; preserving the legacy of the motion picture.  Thank goodness for them, and for what they do.  This stuff is where all the movies came from.  And to give us the opportunity to see them the way they were originally meant to be seen, in a theatre, surrounded by other people, on the big screen – it’s incomparable.  So, enjoy THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE, and I’ll see you down the road.” 

Andy Devine and Woody Strode in LIBERTY VALANCE

As many times as I’d already seen LIBERTY VALANCE, I’d never seen it on a big screen before, and there are a thousand little details that are invisible on a smaller image – like how many flies were on Andy Devine!  Incidentally, Andy’s son Dennis has some fascinating details on the making of this film in his book YOUR FRIEND AND MINE, ANDY DEVINE (read my review HERE), including why it was shot in black and white – to try and hide the advanced age of Wayne and Stewart in the ‘young’ sequences.

As always, the TCM Fest is an embarrassment of riches, and you cannot possibly attend all of the events you wish.  At 9:45 pm, the Australian Western-ish film BREAKER MORANT screened, introduced by its director Bruce Beresford, whose other credits include TENDER MERCIES, BLACK ROBE, and AND STARRING PANCHO VILLA AS HIMSELF.  Fifteen minutes later, Rory Flynn, daughter of Errol Flynn, was introducing one of her dad’s classics, THE SEA HAWK. 

Peter Fonda and Keith Carradine for CLEMENTINE

Friday was the big Western day, starting at 9:30 am with Ford’s MY DARLING CLEMENTINE, featuring an introduction and audience Q & A with Peter Fonda and Keith Carradine, again sons of the stars.  At 12:30 pm, THE PROUD REBEL screened, introduced by David Ladd, who co-starred with his father Alan Ladd in the film.  At 2:30 pm, while Rory Flynn discussed her father at Club TCM, Peter Fonda was introducing another Ford classic, YOUNG MR. LINCOLN, starring Henry Fonda.  Two blocks to the east, at Sid Grauman’s other great Hollywood theatre, The Egyptian, Ann Margaret was introducing her Steve McQueen co-starrer, THE CINCINNATI KID, to a packed house – I know it was packed because I couldn’t get in!  

PINOCCHIO stars Dickie Jones and Cliff Edwards

study character sketches

I headed back to see what I could squeeze into, and entered another movie palace that they were using, the El Capitan, to see Walt Disney’s PINOCCHIO.  I was halfway through the movie before I recalled that Pinocchio was voiced by Dickie Jones, later to star in many Westerns, including Errol Flynn’s best, ROCKY MOUNTAIN, and the series THE RANGE RIDER and BUFFALO BILL JR.  He also had a small role in YOUNG MR. LINCOLN, showing in another theatre at the same time.  Jones just passed away a few months ago.  And Pinocchio’s sidekick, Jiminy Cricket, was portrayed by Cliff “Ukulele Ike” Edwards, who sidekicked for Charles “Durango Kid” Starrett and Tim Holt. 

Another tough choice came at about 6 pm.  Legendary stunt man Terry Leonard was introducing RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, where he recreated Yakima Canutt’s famous under-the-coach whip-drag and climb-up from STAGECOACH.  Instead I attended FONDA THE ACTOR, FONDA THE MAN, with Peter discussing his father Henry with Scott Eyman, author of PRINT THE LEGEND – THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN FORD, and JOHN WAYNE – THE LIFE AND LEGEND.  Put kindly, Henry was not the best or most consistent father, but his son still had many positive memories, and shared them with startling candor; several times he had to stop when his emotions overtook him.  

Here are some of the highpoints.  The first movie he saw his father in was CHAD HANNA, made in 1940, the year Peter was born.  “I think I was five, and there was my father on-screen.  And he wasn’t in the Pacific theatre (of the war) – he’d run away with Linda Darnell to the circus!  We had home movies, but my dad was never in the home movies, because he was operating the camera.  This is the first movie I’ve seen on the big screen.  So I didn’t know about Linda Darnell.  I didn’t know about the circus.  So all these questions are building up in this little boy’s mind.  The moment I remember best is (when) Chad went into the lion’s cage to clean it out.  What Chad didn’t know, and which I could see and the rest of the audience could see – it was a small screening room at Fox – is that the lion was in the cage.  So by this time I don’t think it’s Chad, I think it’s Dad.  And my God, he’s gonna get Dad.  I got so upset I ran down to the screen yelling, ‘Daddy! Daddy!  Daddy!  The lion’s there!’  Of course they had to take me out of the theatre.”  His mother calmed him down, telling him it was not Dad, but Chad Hanna, a character in the movie.  At the time, Henry Fonda was away at war, in Naval Air Intelligence.  When he came home on leave, he went by Peter’s school to pick him up.  “I saw the family’s ’38 Buick limousine.  It opens, and out steps Chad Hanna.  I had a tremendous problem, because here was Chad with the family car, and I sure as Hell did not want to drive with someone who was so stupid that he’d get into a lion’s cage.  So I hid in a bush.  I was a skinny kid and they couldn’t get me.”  Later he gained a much better understanding of his father from watching him do theatre, particularly MR. ROBERTS, rather than in movies.    

He described his first visit to a film set.  “I actually went on the set of FORT APACHE.  I went driving on the set and it was amazing – I told this story to John Wayne, Duke, and he was amazed that I could remember the detail of the car he was driving.  It was a crème-colored Cadillac, with red leather seats, and me and my sister (Jane) sat in the back, which was a smaller seat than in front, with John Wayne driving, my dad, and Ward Bond.  This was the first time I’d gone on a set.  And it didn’t mean anything; nobody explained it.  But I remember the car, John Wayne’s lovely Cadillac, and it was beautiful – four door, convertible, top down.  Now people say, what was it like growing up as Henry Fonda’s son?  My fast remark is, did you see FORT APACHE?  Do you know who Colonel Thursday is?  Do you know what kind of a man he was?  I’m joking – but unfortunately some people think, ‘Oh, he hates his father.’  I loved my father.  I love him now.  I miss him.” 

James Stewart was a good friend of the family.  “Jimmy Stewart was my godfather, and we all called him Uncle Jimmy.  He and my father were very close friends, and before they got heavy into filming, they were flying around in airplanes.  Although politically at opposite ends, they were very tight friends.  Whenever (Dad) was off in the Pacific, Jimmy would come back from his tours in the European theatre, flying a B-17, and come and see us all.  You have to understand that in 1945, ’46, Los Angeles was very small, and the air was extraordinarily clean.  My sister and I used to climb up on the roof – it was a pretty steep roof, on a very big house, but my sister and I had a way of getting up there.  And my mother would freak out if she knew.

“ One day, it’s Christmas Eve, there’s Uncle Jimmy.  He’s at the house, having a wonderful time.  We all knew him, all loved him – he was a funny man.  We were sent up the stairs of course, because it’s Christmas Eve.  We don’t get out until they let us in the morning.  Jane’s in her room, I’m in mine, and I hear some banging around on the roof.  I went to her room, I said, ‘Santa Claus is here, I think!’ We got out the window, on the roof, and there is Santa, at the chimney, with the Santa hat, the big bag.  But on closer observation, it was Uncle Jimmy.   Ho-ho-ho-ho!  But we’re on the roof, no one else is gonna hear this, so this performance is just for us.  And that’s when I stopped believing in Santa Claus, but I kept believing in Uncle Jimmy.”   

Next Round-up I’ll have the rest of my TCM coverage, and part two of FONDA ON FONDA, including Peter’s memories of his father making ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, and directing Henry in WANDA NEVADA.  

FORD’S ‘IRON HORSE’ A ROUSING SUCCESS AT THE AUTRY!

It was quite a week for John Ford!  In addition to all of his films that were screened at the TCM Fest (and I’ve only talked about half of them), Thursday night saw The Welles Fargo Theatre at The Autry packed for the silent THE IRON HORSE, presented with an original score, a combination of live and programmed music by Emmy Award-nominated composer Tom Peters. 

Composer Tom Peters

Curator Jeffrey Richardson told me, “The Autry was proud and excited to host the debut of Tom Peter's score for John Ford's THE IRON HORSE. The audience, myself included, was captivated by the kaleidoscope of sound that magnified the power and intensity of the silent classic.” Senior Manager of Programs and Public Events Ben Fitzsimmons added, “Tom Peters certainly deserved his standing ovation after almost two and a half hours of playing his new score. He took folk songs of the era and combined them with other musical inspirations to create an epic piece of music to accompany an epic movie.”  

  

Although his IRON HORSE score is not yet available to hear, to give you an idea of the work Tom Peters does with silent film, here is a sample of his score from THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI.

GENE AUTRY DISCUSSION ADDED TO SANTA CLARITA COWBOY FEST!

It’s less than two weeks until the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival, on Saturday and Sunday, April 18^th & 19^th, and a new conversation has been added to my schedule at the Buckaroo Book Shop.  On Saturday at 5 pm I’ll be chatting with Karla Buhlman, President of Gene Autry Entertainment, about the legacy of America's Favorite Singing Cowboy, Gene Autry.  Karla knew Gene very well, and I’m sure she’ll have a lot to tell us.  Karla will also be joining the previously announced Saturday 2 pm panel discussion, Unsung Heroes of Film: The Hollywood Stunt Horse, where I’ll also be chatting with with Karen Rosa -Senior Consultant at the American Humane Association's Film & TV Unit, and authors Petrine Day Mitchum, Audrey Pavia, and National Cowgirl Hall of Fame Honoree Shirley Lucas Jauregui.  For a complete schedule of events at the Buckaroo Book Shop, go HERE

For the official Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival site, go HERE

WILD BILL WELLMAN HONORED AT UCLA APRIL-JUNE

One of the most independent voices in the golden years of Hollywood, William Wellman will be honored at UCLA’s Billy Wilder Theatre with a 21 film retrospective, mostly double features.  While many of the ‘social commentary’ directors of the era had a tendency to preach, Wellman entertained while exposing society’s flaws, and certainly won more converts that way.  The series, entitled WILLIAM A. WELLMAN – HOLLYWOOD REBEL opens this Friday, April 10^th, at 7:30 pm with a wonderful double-bill: A STAR IS BORN and NOTHING SACRED.  They’re both in 35mm, both in color, and both from 1937 – can you imagine any director today making two such landmark films in one year?  (Of course, two years later, Victor Fleming made GONE WITH THE WIND and THE WIZARD OF OZ – but with a lot of help!)  Starting at 6:30 pm, William Wellman Jr. will be selling and signing his book, Wild Bill Wellman: Hollywood Rebel. 

On Saturday it’s WINGS (1927), with a live piano score by Cliff Retallick.  Westerns included in the series are CALL OF THE WILD, THE OX-BOW INCIDENT, THE TRACK OF THE CAT, YELLOW SKY, THE GREAT MAN’S LADY and WESTWARD THE WOMEN.  Non-Westerns of particular note include NIGHT NURSE, THE PUBLIC ENEMY, BEAU GESTE and WILD BOYS OF THE ROAD.  You can get the complete schedule HERE.  

THAT’S A WRAP!

Happy Passover and Happy Easter!  Next Round-up I’ll have the rest of my TCM coverage, which will include more Peter Fonda, plus some interesting comments from Christopher Plummer on John Huston, Sean Connery, and the making of Kipling’s THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING; and insights from a pair of Oscar-winning special effects men about the filming of Kipling’s GUNGA DIN in Lone Pine’s Alabama Hills!

I’m sorry I don’t have any good Western Passover clips, but here are three nice Easter pieces from the folks at Gene Autry Entertainment.  Enjoy!

Happy Trails,

Henry

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

INSP PREMIERES ‘HOUSE OF THE RIGHTEOUS’ MONDAY, PLUS 1ST ‘HATEFUL 8’ TRAILER, AND HELP SOLVE THIS WESTERN FOTO MYSTERY!

INSP PREMIERES ORIGINAL WESTERN SHORT, ‘HOUSE OF THE RIGHTEOUS’ MONDAY!

I can’t recall another time when I wrote about a brand-new film, and could conclude with, “and if you want to see the entire film right now, click the link below,” but that is exactly the situation here!

INSP is a channel with a longtime commitment to family entertainment, particularly in the Western genre: they’re the folks who brought back – and exclusively show – the classic HIGH CHAPARRAL and THE VIRGINIAN series.  They also run THE BIG VALLEY, BONANZA, LITTLE HOUSE, and DR. QUINN.  (To learn more about the history of INSP, read my interview with Senior VP of programming Doug Butts HERE )

After years of airing classic shows, they started getting their toes wet with creating original programming in 2012, with a series of short films under the heading of Moments.  Here’s how they describe their mission at the moments.org page: “Moments.org is a web network producing original short films. Our films are designed to inspire, encourage and entertain viewers with stories that celebrate love, faith, redemption, patriotism and other timeless truths in action.”

Starting with the two and a half minute ‘Thank you for your service’ -- which is not exactly the story you expect -- and grouped under the headings ‘A moment of truth,’ ‘A moment of hope,’ ‘A moment of insight,’ ‘A moment of valor,’ and ‘Unbroken soldiers,’ the team of Thomas Torrey, Shea Sizemore, Michelle Wheeler and Jim Goss have produced dozens of short dramas and documentaries which run on INSP as Public Service Announcements, and are also available on-line HERE. 

 But creative filmmakers always want more, including more time, and in 2013 they created OLD HENRY (not me!), as a series of two-minute films about an aging man played by THE WALTONS star – and hence INSP-viewer favorite – Ralph Waite in his final lead performance.  The chapters were later edited into a 22-minute story, the longest Moments film by far, and it’s been extremely popular. 

Now they’ve made a Western, the ten-and-a-half minute HOUSE OF THE RIGHTEOUS, the Moments.org’s tentpole production for 2014, written and directed by Thomas Torrey, and it is by far their most ambitious outing yet.  Set in a sun-blasted desert town, opening with two men on a gallows, it’s a good vs. evil story, starring the Emmy-winning (for MIAMI VICE), Oscar-nominated (for STAND AND DELIVER) Edward James Olmos as someone who has seen a vacuum of leadership in the town, and decides to fill it.  Grant Goodeve, who has toughened considerably since his 8 IS ENOUGH DAYS, is the lawman who stands in his way. 

The air is electric with tension from the first shot to the last, and each of those shots if wonderfully framed by cinematographer Reynaldo Villalobos, who won a Wrangler Award for his work on the Western CONAGHER, shot much of the recent sensation BREAKING BAD, and elegantly lensed one of my all-time favorites, RISKY BUSINESS.  RIGHTEOUS is a tantalizing little film, which fulfills its promise, but leaves you wanting more.  It’s easy to see it as a back-door pilot to a full-length feature, or even a series.

The drama is the work of writer and director Thomas Torrey, who had also written and directed THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE and OLD HENRY.  I asked him if he was originally hired for the Moments.org films. “I got hired in January of 2012 to create this department.  As you know, INSP (presents) all family-friendly content, but it’s all classic, licensed family shows – nothing was original.  Our CEO wanted INSP to have a voice.  So before he was gonna run, he was gonna walk, and before that, crawl, with short films that would air on commercial breaks.  I was hired to create the (short form) department.  We produce ten to fifteen significant pieces a year, both scripted and documentary.”

Cinematographer Villalobos and Olmos sharing 

a laugh between scenes.

HENRY:  Why did you decide to approach Ralph Waite with the OLD HENRY story?

THOMAS:  We had such success with THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE, the veterans piece, because it served an underserved demographic.  We started thinking, what was another underserved demographic that we can honor, in hopes of generating a piece that would have that kind of impact.  I had spent three years working in the retirement industry as a filmmaker – kind of imbedded with a company – and really became a champion for pro-aging causes.  My eyes really opened to the ageism that’s so pervasive in the media and America.  I said, well I know a demographic that’s underserved: the elders among us.  So I came up with the character, and my boss challenged me: why don’t you come up with a longer story, so that we can really explore this.  Ralph Waite was already well-loved by our audience.  THE WALTONS is one of our most-watched programs.  And we already had a relationship with him, so I wrote the piece for him, figuring that if we could afford him, we could probably get him.  I sent him the script, saying I wrote this for you; our audience loves you.  What do you think?  He got back to us real quick, and wanted to jump on-board. 

HENRY:  HOUSE OF THE RIGHTEOUS is a short film, but at ten minutes, it’s five times the length of most of the films you are doing.  What made you make the jump?

THOMAS:  Westerns are dear to my heart, and I knew coming out of last year that I wanted to raise my own bar, and think of something that, if I weren’t working for INSP, I’d want to make by myself.  Well, a Western!  And I knew it would be a good fit for our network, because the western block of programming, Saddle-Up Saturdays, is some of our highest-rated.  So I told my boss, Jim, I want to write a western for 2014.  And he said, “Let’s see if we can find the story.”  Actually I had a whole different concept and story, but it didn’t work; it was too big for the amount of time I had to tell the story.  And Jim said, “Why don’t you think of something more classically Western; think about the battle between good and evil.”    I started writing this character, Mr. Lucey (Edward James Olmos), coming in to town:  he’s the Devil, obviously.  And I got to page three, page four, got to page eight or nine and I thought, I bet I could get away with a longer short if I create a nice sort of cliffhanger by the second or third minute.  And I (went) back to my superiors and said, “I want to try an experiment.  I want to try making the two or three minute version, the thing that we show on-air, end with a cliffhanger, and say, to see the entire film, go to moments.org.”  So it’s a little experimental.  We’re going to see how much traffic we can generate from our on-air viewers to on-line.  So the real answer is, the only way I could get away with a ten-minute film which is only going to be seen on-line is because I’m also creating an on-air short version, which is the opening three minutes.  Another sort of justification for doing it is, next year, INSP is going to begin producing longform original series. Moments.org will continue to produce shorts, but we’re also keeping an eye internally on what are the popular stories among Moments.org that perhaps the network could develop into something longer.  Up until Ralph Waite’s passing, we were developing a feature film version of OLD HENRY.  And so if HOUSE OF THE RIGHTEOUS is really popular with our audience, if people are clamoring for it as a series or a feature film, well then at least we have a little home-made market research that says there may be an audience for this film.   

HENRY:  Sort of a short back-door pilot.

THOMAS:  Exactly.  And you’ve seen the piece – it’s unresolved.

HENRY:  It’s open-ended.

THOMAS:  And that’s by design. 

HENRY:  How long did you shoot?

THOMAS:  This was shot in three days, over two timezones.  We had a two-day shoot out in the desert at Whitehorse Ranch in Landers, California --

HENRY:  That’s Peter Menyhart’s place.  It looks fabulous; wonderfully solid and rough-hewn.

THOMAS:  He did an amazing job – that’s why he gets a set designing credit.  We shot there two days in May, and then we did a third day of pick-ups here in South Carolina last month. 

HENRY:  And you limited your story to one sequence in real time, which I thought was much smarter than trying to compress a feature into ten minutes.

THOMAS:  There’s a whole back-story that’s implied.

Grant Goodeve

HENRY:  What were Edward James Olmos and Grant Goodeve like to work with?

THOMAS:  They were fantastic.  Our cinematographer, Reynaldo Villalobos, who we had through a mutual friend, and who was excited to come on-board, was friends with Edward James Olmos, and that’s how we were able to hire Mr. Olmos.  Grant Goodeves has been a longtime friend of INSP, and I had tried casting Grant in OLD HENRY as Henry’s son, and for logistical purposes it didn’t work out, but we stayed in touch.  And when I thought of this pure hero, he was the first guy I went to.  Grant is a warm, generous, funny man, and he was just a joy to work with.  Edward James Olmos got there just the day before (shooting), and he was just such a warm, inviting, unassuming guy.  You get the impression that he’s very intense, but he’s just doing his process.  And it was hard on the actors, because it was ten hours in the desert sun with their thick clothes.  But he ate with us, and was just so complimentary of the script and the project, that it was just a thrill to work with both of them.

HENRY:  You said you were excited to do a Western.  Are you a longtime fan of the genre?

THOMAS:  Not a longtime fan.  I’m not one of those kids who grew up watching Westerns with his dad.  I grew up with a sci-fi buff, so I was indifferent to the Western genre until I was in my twenties.  Probably ten years ago I saw ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST and THE PROPOSITION, a Western set in the Australian outback, in the same week.  Seeing them just opened up this love for the Western genre, and then I caught up: I watched them all.  Now I’m just a Western junkie, and I love them, the new ones and the old ones, and ever since then, as a filmmaker, it’s a genre I want to explore, both writing and directing.

And you can see the result, HOUSE OF THE RIGHTEOUS, below!

TEASER TRAILER FOR ‘HATEFUL 8’ PREMIERED FRIDAY

If you rushed out to catch SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR, I understand you found yourself to be pretty much alone – but you did get a teaser for Quentin Tarantino’s new Western – a good trick since the cameras haven’t started rolling – and when they do it’ll be 70mm Cinemascope!  It’s a graphic trailer, featuring music, and the names of the film’s characters.  Folks who took part in the dramatic staged reading, who are expected to take part, include Bruce Dern, Kurt Russell, Michael Madsen, Walton Goggins, and Samuel L. Jackson.  Jennifer Lawrence is said to be in talks with Tarantino, to play one of the two female roles, that of Daisy – the role taken by Amber Tamblyn at the staged reading!  Here is a shaky, presumably bootlegged, look at the trailer.

PLEASE HELP ME SOLVE THIS WESTERN PHOTO MYSTERY!

A few days ago I got an email from my daughter with the subject-line, “Who’s the guy who’s not Fonda?”  Attached was the photo above, clearly Henry Fonda in a Western, talking to a man, also in costume, wearing a star.  She’d spotted it, and other nicely signed and framed pictures of movie stars, at an antique store.  They were all signed to ‘Chalkie.’  The signature on the Fonda picture was probably ‘Jack,’ presumably the guy with Henry Fonda.  Did I know who ‘Jack’ was?  Did I want it $20 worth?

My gut said it was from MY DARLING CLEMENTINE, and when I pulled it up on IMDB, the poster they illustrated it with showed Fonda as Wyatt Earp, with that mustache!  But who could ‘Jack’ be?  I checked the credits, looking for Jacks.  Jack Curtis played a bartender, but a bartender wouldn’t wear a badge.  Jack Kenny played a barfly, but a barfly wouldn’t wear a badge either, nor would the stagecoach driver that Jack Pennick played.  A stuntman on the picture was Jack Montgomery, father of child star Baby Peggy.  It could be him – I couldn’t find a picture of him.  Then another possibility occurred to me: maybe it wasn’t ‘Jack,’ maybe it was ‘Lake’ – Stuart N. Lake, who interviewed the real Wyatt Earp at length, and wrote the biography FRONTIER MARSHALL, on which CLEMENTINE was based!  It would make sense for him to be on the set – Morgan Woodward, a regular on the WYATT EARP TV series told me that Lake was a technical adviser, and on-set all the time!  I searched online, and found the photo of Stuart N. Lake below. 

Stuart N. Lake

Looks like the same guy to me!

I called my daughter back and asked her to buy the picture.  Well, she got it, I paid for it, and…the signature is definitely ‘Jack,’ not ‘Lake.’  So, who is the guy with the badge?  My wife looked at the picture, and asked me if it was from JESSE JAMES (1939), where Fonda played Frank to Ty Power’s Jesse.  He had that damned mustache in that one, too, and he wore it again in the sequel, THE RETURN OF FRANK JAMES (1940), as well! 

Now I’m asking you for your help!  What movie is the still from?  CLEMENTINE?  JESSE JAMES?  FRANK JAMES?  Another Fonda Western?  And who is Jack?  And who is Chalky – that certainly isn’t a common nickname?  Anybody know?  Any good guesses?  Please leave a comment at the bottom of the post, or email me at swansongmail@sbcglobal.net .

THAT'S A WRAP!

Please let me know what you think of THE HOUSE OF THE RIGHTEOUS, and if you know who 'Jack' is. And have a great week!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright August 2014 by Henry C. Parke -- All Rights Reserved