SANTA CLARITA COWBOY FEST, PLUS REMEMBERING STEVE LODGE, LONE RANGER RADIO, THANKS A MILLION!!

SANTA CLARITA COWBOY FEST THIS WEEKEND!  

The Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival will once again take place in Old Town Newhall, at William S. Hart’s own old stomping ground, Hart Park.  The Festival was inspired by a cowboy poetry event in Nevada, and expanded by an earthquake!  Taking their cue from the Elko, Nevada National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, an annual Cowboy Poetry event had been held at the Santa Clarita High School for a few years when, in 1994, the Northridge Earthquake that leveled much of California flattened the school’s auditorium.  The event was going to be cancelled when the Veluzat family, owners of Gene Autry’s old Melody Ranch movie studio, offered their Western street as a location. 

It was a hit, and the Festival would continue there for two decades, growing with each year, shifting its focus beyond cowboy poetry to include cowboy music and shopping and a celebration of cowboy culture and Western life, although the doggie doggerel is still a big part. 

Happily, interest in Western film and TV has had a mighty resurgence, and Melody Ranch, which had been a sleepy hamlet since the cancellation of DEADWOOD, became in great demand:  Quentin Tarantino leased it for a year for DJANGO UNCHAINED, and HBO for two years for WESTWORLD.  The Festival had to relocate, and is now celebrating its 3^rd year among the historical buildings at Hart Park.

Andrea Kidd, Peter Sherayko, Don Edwards, Bobbi Jean Bell

There will be five performance stages, two large shopping areas – Sutlers’ Row and Mercantile Row – living history activities, decidedly Western activities for grown-ups and for the little squirts, a vast array of grub, a tour of Hart’s mansion, and a slew of presentations at the Buckaroo Book Shop and OutWest Stage, right across from Hart Hall.  This venue is presented by Jim and Bobbi Jean Bell of the OutWest Western Boutique and Cultural Center just across the street from Hart Park.  In addition to the opportunity to meet your favorite Western authors and buy their books, there will be events aplenty.  Among the musical talents who will be performing there both days are the legendary John Bergstrom, Almeda Bradshaw, Women on the Move Trio, and Jerry Hall and Trick Shot.  Bobbi Jean and Jim Christina, who co-host the Writer’s Block Radio Show, will be hosting panel and interviewing guests.  Cheryl Rogers-Barnett, daughter of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, will be speaking about growing up among Western royalty, and about the smartest horse in the movies, Trigger.   

Western authors Andria Kidd and Janet Squires will be reading their stories and poems to the youngins, and for grown-ups, Andria and P.W. Conway will share their poetry.  Peter Sherayko, actor, author, and undisputed go-to man for creating historical authenticity in Western films, will share his insights on succeeding in the Western film industry.  Jim Christina will chat with Western non-fiction authors J.R. Sanders and Jeff MacArthur about some of the less-known but fascinating lawmen and characters that enlivened the Old West.

And, yup, I’ll be there, too.  At 1 p.m. both days I’ll be with C. Courtney Joyner, author of the SHOTGUN books series, discussing the odd world of Weird Westerns, sagebrush tales with horror and sci-fi elements.  Sunday at 11 a.m. I’ll be talking with Westerns novelists and screenwriters Dale B. Jackson and Eric Heisner about turning Western books into movies and movies into books!

You can get the full schedule for the Buckaroo Book Shop for SATURDAY and for SUNDAY. 

Cliff Retalick creating a live soundtrack for silents!

For the second year, Tom Barnes, he of the long-running Retroformat series at Hollywood’s Egyptian Theatre, will be back at the Pardee House to present two days of silent Westerns, all in glorious 8mm celluloid.  And once again the films will be accompanied by the keyboard virtuosity of Cliff Retalick.  As Pardee House, built in 1890, was at times a filming location for Tom Mix, Harry Carey and John Ford, any lingering ghosts should be delighted.  Here is the screening schedule, which includes a William S. Hart and an Art Acord feature:

Saturday

10:00 a.m.  Broncho Billy Anderson in Shootin' Mad (1919) (approx. 25 min.)

10:45 a.m. Will Rogers in Hustlin' Hank (1923) (approx. 25 min.)

11:30 a.m.  Stan Laurel in West of Hot Dog (1924) (approx. 25 min.)

12:00 p.m.  William S. Hart in Knight of the Trail (1915) (approx. 25 min.)

12:30 p.m.  William S. Hart in Bad Buck of Santa Ynez (1915)  (approx. 25 min.)

1:30 p.m. Art Acord in The White Outlaw (1929)  (approx. 70 min.)

Sunday

10:00 a.m.  Broncho Billy Anderson in Shootin' Mad (1919) (approx. 25 min.)

10: 45 a.m.  Stan Laurel in West of Hot Dog (1924) (approx. 25 min.)

11:30 a.m.  Will Rogers in The Cowboy Sheik (1924) (approx. 25 min.)

12:15 p.m.  William S. Hart in Bad Buck of Santa Ynez (1915)  (approx. 25 min.)

[Lunch break]

1:30 p.m.  William S. Hart in The Narrow Trail (approx. 70 min.)

3:00 p.m.  Will Rogers in Hustlin' Hank (1923) (approx. 25 min.)

3:45 p.m.  Stan Laurel in West of Hot Dog. (1924) (approx. 25 min.)

4:30 p.m.   Broncho Billy Anderson in Shootin' Mad (1919)

5:00 p.m.  William S. Hart in Knight of the Trail (1915) (approx. 25 min.)

5:30 p.m.  William S. Hart in Bad Buck of Santa Ynez (1915)  (approx. 25 min.)

With more than twenty music acts, American Indian dance by The Wild Horse Dancers, traditional Mexican dance by Ballet Folklorico, rope-twirling by Dave Thornbury, and gun-spinning by champion Joey Dillon, there will be plenty to entertain attendees of all ages and interests. 

The hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, 10 ‘til 6 Sunday.  Daily tickets are $13 for adults, $9 for kids, free if you’re under 3, and you can save more if you buy in advance.  Parking is free, as is the shuttle to the event.  You can learn tons more at the official site,HERE.  I hope to see you there!

REMEMBERING STEPHEN LODGE

This February many of us Western fans lost a dear friend, author Stephen Lodge.  His career was so far-flung that I was trying to figure out what to write about him, and then I realized he told his own story better than anyone else possibly could.  I first met Stephen back in 2011 I reviewed the book that was the story of his life, AND.....ACTION! and interviewed him.  Knowing that many of my current readers weren't reading The Round-up back then, I'm re-running the review and interview below.  If you'd like to read Stephen's books, you can find them all at Amazon, HERE.


BOOK REVIEW:  AND…ACTION!

And…Action! is the story of a fascination with the Western film as seen through the eyes of four people: a kid who grew up on the edge of the film business, an aspiring teenage actor, a TV and movie costumer, and a screenwriter.  The odd thing is, they’re all the same man, Stephen Lodge.

Stephen was eight years old in 1951, and like most American boys of the time, he and his kid brother Bobby were obsessed with Westerns -- the B kind and the TV variety.  But unlike the rest of us, he was in a position to do something about it that went far beyond wearing his cap-gun rig and watching the tube.  Not only did he live in the San Fernando Valley, where so many of the movies were made, his Aunt Bette was a secretary at Monogram Studios, and his Uncle George was a script supervisor for Gene Autry’s Flying A Productions! 

(Steve and Bobby with Johnny Mack Brown)

So Stephen begged and bugged his mom until she finally broke down and got his Aunt and Uncle to arrange a visit to a set.  The first time it was the Iverson Movie Ranch, for a Johnny Mack Brown film, and from that moment on, the kid was hooked.   Soon mom was driving the kids to Corriganville to watch the GENE AUTRY SHOW being filmed, where they met Gene, Pat Buttram and Ray ‘Crash’ Corrigan; the family vacationed at Big Bear Lake, where a small movie town was the location for the WILD BILL HICKOCK series.  Best of all, Stephen’s mom broke all the rules, and always brought a camera to the set: the book is full of snapshots and 8mm frame blow-ups of the boys and all the stars they met.

(Gail Davis shooting ANNIE OAKLEY at Melody Ranch)

And Stephen could be a pretty conniving little cuss: he pretended to have started a Jimmy Hawkins fan club to get into Melody Ranch, where THE ANNIE OAKLEY SHOW was being filmed – Hawkins played Annie’s kid brother, Tagg.  Over the next few years he had the chance to visit Pioneertown, Bell Movie Ranch, Spahn Movie Ranch (yeah, the one the Manson Family moved in on).  As teenagers, he and his friends even got kicked off the set of BAT MASTERSON, although Gene Barry turned out to be such a nice guy that he shared his lunch with the outcasts. 

Though written by an adult, the stories are told from the perspective of the little kid who lived them, which is so much of their charm, although the adult world peeks in occasionally: Dickie Jones, BUFFALO BILL JR., is unhappy with negotiations with Flying A, and after he does his scenes, drives away like a bat out of Hell.  Another time, the family leaves Iverson Ranch, disappointed that a Roy Rogers shoot has been cancelled, only to learn the reason: one of the Rogers children had suddenly died.

(Filming THE ROY ROGERS SHOW)

Stephen pursued an acting career for a time, appearing in TV shows like FURY, THE FARMER’S DAUGHTER, DR. KILDARE and MY THREE SONS, and features like DINO with Sal Mineo.  At age sixteen Stephen spent a summer working as an actor/stuntman at Corriganville, and gives a fascinating and nostalgic description of that summer job most of us would have killed for. (Although maybe not on the day Ken Maynard showed up drunk and belligerent!) 

But his long-term film and TV career was as a costumer, starting in 1963 with THE FUGITIVE, followed by the short-lived John Mills Western series, DUNDEE AND THE CULHANE, which took him to Flagstaff, Apache Junction and Old Tucson Studios in Arizona.  He worked on many series over the years, and even those like the sitcom CAMP RUNAMUCK, which would seem to have no western tie-in, often did.  RUNAMUCK was shot at the Columbia Ranch in Burbank, where Gary Cooper faced down the villains of HIGH NOON.  The RUNAMUCK location was soon the home for another of Stephen’s series, HERE COME THE BRIDES.  No wonder Stephen considers the Columbia Ranch his ‘home’ studio. 

Over the years he worked at all of the studios and ranches, and his passion for them is palpable.  He has plenty to say about which were great, like Republic; which were ridiculously small, like Allied Artists (once Monogram, then a PBS station and now a studio for the Church of Scientology); which were chopped down to nothing, re-dressed until they were unrecognizable, or nearly burned to the ground.  He worked on Western comedies like THE DUTCHESS AND THE DIRTWATER FOX, TV series like THE DEPUTIES (which introduced Don Johnson), TV movies like THE SUNDANCE WOMAN, and has insights into them all.  He worked for Quinn Martin and worked around Andrew Fenady (THE REBEL), and tried desperately to work for Sam Peckinpah.  He hung out at the last of the great Western Cowboy Saloons, the Backstage Bar, right outside the Republic gate.  Now it’s a sushi bar.

And then there was another career, as a screenwriter.  With Steve Ihnat, an actor he met as a guest star on DUNDEE, he co-wrote the rodeo comedy THE HONKERS (1972), starring James Coburn and Slim Pickens.   But aside from co-writing KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS (1977), it was a long time between writing gigs.  When he got RIO DIABLO made in 1993, starring Kenny Rogers and Naomi Judd, it was after more than a decade of trying. 

Now retired from costuming, and writing fulltime, he and his wife have moved to Rancho Mirage, not far from one of his favorites haunts, Pioneertown.  When I spoke to him about AND…ACTION! recently, he told me he hadn’t set out to write a book.  “I wrote every individual story when I felt like writing one.  They were stories that I wanted to share with people, and I’d send them to all my friends.  And finally I decided that maybe I ought to put them all together into one big compilation of stories.”

HENRY: What was your favorite experience as a kid visiting a set?

STEPHEN:  I would have to say it was Johnny Mack Brown at the Iverson Western Town.  (WHISTLING HILLS, 1951) The fact that Jimmy Ellison was there, too.  And I was not even aware of who Noel Neil was until much later.

H: Well, she hadn’t done the SUPERMAN series at that point.  What was your favorite encounter on a set, with a star, when you were a kid?

(Steve with Andy Devine)

S:  I think probably the coolest guy was Andy Devine.  He was nice to my brother and me; let us sit in a chair with him, offered to buy us a Coke.  Pat Brady was just great – he really entertained me. 

H:  You visited pretty much all of the ranches.  As a kid, did you have a favorite?

S: Corriganvile.  And I ended up working there.  That was kind of a dream.  I was sixteen years old, believe it or not, with a .45 tied to my side, out there every weekend.

H: What was Crash like to work for?

S: A very pleasant man.  I mostly worked for a guy named Charley Aldrich, who ran the street shows.  Crash was there every weekend, and had pictures taken with kids, on his horse, and all.  He wanted to do movies in the middle of the week, during the summer, for the people, when there were no movie companies out there.   He had an old script for a Billy the Kid show, an old 16mm camera, and a sound system.  He cast me as Billy the Kid, so I’d go out there every day, and put make-up on – we had a small number of people pretending to be the crew.  We started with film in the camera – and I’d love to get my hands on it, and I think Tommy Corrigan’s got it someplace.  We shot two weeks or so, and I rode Flash, his horse, and he let me borrow his gun for the whole thing.  That went on until September, when I had to leave abruptly, because I got a real job in Hollywood, doing a pilot for a show called THE WRANGLER.  It was the first videotaped Western ever – they shot it out of a truck, with three cameras.  Jesse Wayne was the other stuntman.  They did the pilot right on the KTLA backlot.  He and I had a fistfight, he knocked me down some stairs.  I turned around, pulled my gun and shot him, and he fell off a balcony.  And that was the pilot.  They wanted to see what it would look like on videotape.  Actually, they made (the series) with Jason Evers.  It went for a summer replacement. 

H: You acted on shows like FURY.

S: That was basically a silent bit.  But I did shows like MY THREE SONS, and DR. KILDARE.  And not too many more. 

H: What was it like, after spending so much time on sets, behind the camera, to suddenly be in front of them?

S:  (laughs) It’s a little more scary being in front of them. 

H: You have a lot to say about Pioneertown. 

S: I grew up near Pioneertown.  We were up here in the 1950s, when Pioneertown was in pristine shape.  We never saw Gene Autry shooting here, but he was shooting up here at the same time.  The Red Dog Saloon was open for business, the bowling alley was open for business, the restaurant was open for business – it’s not anymore, but that’s the way it was.  It was kind of nice in the old days.  I haven’t been there lately, but I’ll be going up there this week.  There’s a friend from out of town that I’m going to take up there.  

H: What was your first show as a costumer? 

S: My first was a commercial at Columbia, and then I did two or three days on THE LUCY SHOW, then I got a quick call to replace the set man on THE FUGITIVE, and I stayed there for the next two seasons. 

H: That was a show that was always on the road.

S: We had a lot of fun with that.  It was like being in the Army. 

H: As a costumer, are Westerns more fun than non-period things?

S: Oh, for me it is.  A lot more fun, because that’s what I always wanted to do: whether I was a cowboy or a costumer really didn’t matter. 

H: Is it very different being an in-town costumer, versus being off to the Painted Desert or Old Tucson?

S:  Well, when you’re on location you get a lot more freedom.  So does the director; so do the actors.  You get too far out, and someone will make a phone call.  I enjoyed the locations more than the at-home stuff. 

(Steve at Old Tucson)

H: Do you have any particular memories of Old Tucson?

S: Yeah, that it was awful hot.  I always ended up there in July, and it was in the monsoon season.  It would rain all night, and bake you during the day.  The other little town that Old Tucson owns, I don’t know what they call it now.  They used to call it Harmony.

H: Now they call it Mescal.

S: That’s it.  They used that in TOM HORN, and I was out there on GUNSMOKE.  That was a nice little town.  Looked like it was out in the middle of nowhere, but it was actually not that far off the road.

H: You worked on one of my favorite quirky Western series of the late 1960s, HERE COME THE BRIDES. 

S: Oh yes!  I’m still in touch with a lot of the fans – the middle-aged women.  I was on that for half of the first season, and the last season.  (We shot that at) Columbia Ranch.  And sometimes we’d go up into the mountains of Burbank, or behind Glendale, and we’d go up to Franklin Canyon.  We had a ‘green set’ on the stage, and we had a lagoon set, right close to the town set. 

H: What’s a ‘green set’?

S: That’s where there’s trees and rocks and it looks like outdoors, but it’s really on a stage.  Like WAGON TRAIN, whatever was set up was set up on a green set.  That was a fun show to work on.  A lot of good people to work with, not only in front of the camera, but behind the camera. 

H: In 1972 you went from costumer to screenwriter with THE HONKERS. 

S: (laughs) But didn’t stay too long.  The money runs out and you go back to rag-pickin’ again.  I got three more (movies made) than most.

H:  How did THE HONKERS come about?

S: I’d gotten to know Steve Ihnat, we’d done about four, five shows together, and we’d always talk.  He’d just finished making this little movie he’d shoot on the weekends I said I’d just written a screenplay, called HONCHO, with Dave Cass, who was my writing partner at the time.  I let him read it, and he came back and said, ‘Do you want to write a rodeo script with me?’  I’d go to his place every weekend, write everything down, and during the week I’d put everything into a screenplay format, and come back.  We worked on it four weeks.  Then we went to a rodeo, to see if we got it right, to get the color, to get the announcer’s way of saying everything.  His agent told him to write a script and he could get him a deal directing it, too.  They got us a deal immediately with Filmways, for Martin Ransohoff, but Marty passed on it.  You’ve got to remember when this was, and we were talking about shooting in real locations, in real houses, and he was talking about building sets in the stage.  He passed, and that was a big disappointment. They went to Levy-Gardner-Laven (producers of THE RIFLEMAN and THE BIG VALLEY), and they set up a deal.  And before I knew it we were in Carlsbad, New Mexico, and before you knew it, it was over.  A year later it was the premiere, and a week after that, Ihnat died. 

H: Any particular memories of James Coburn or Slim Pickens on that?

S: Slim Pickens is probably my favorite guy I ever worked with.  And he drove his Mustang like he rode that bomb in DR. STRANGELOVE.  A crazy sonofabitch, I’ll tell you.  All cowboy. 

H: He started out as a rodeo clown.  You can’t get much more dangerous than that.

S: No, and in THE HONKERS he fought the bull a little bit. 

H: You continued as a costumer and a writer – KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS is a notable success.

S: (laughs) They didn’t pay me too much for that; it was a success for everyone else.  But it’s a good credit to have, because it became a ‘midnight classic.’

H:  You didn’t write another western movie until 1993’s RIO DIABLO. 

S:  Actually we wrote that in 1975, and it was optioned a few times here and there – we probably made more off the option money than on the sale.  We made some pretty good money on it when CBS picked it up, but that was way later. 

(Steve with Dickie Jones on the BUFFALO BILL JR. set)

(Steve with Dick Jones recently at Lone Pine)

H: Was that a cathartic experience, to get it made so many years after you wrote it?

S: Yeah, and it’s also a very disappointing thing when they start cutting big chunks out of it.  There was a lot more with Kansas, that was Stacy Keach Jr.’s part.  We had a big scene where they drop bodies off of the stagecoach, and that’s when you first meet Kansas.

H: Are you still writing screenplays?

S: Yes I am, still trying to sell ‘em.  (The one I’m working on) is called SHADOWS OF EAGLES; it’s one of my novels that I turned into a screenplay.  It takes place in Texas during World War II.  I wanted to do a play on THE GREAT ESCAPE, but I wanted to do it in Monument Valley.  One time I’m driving down to Terlingua,  Texas with a friend of mine, and we go through a little town called Marfa, that’s where they shot GIANT, and he says, “Right over there is where the old German prison camp used to be.”  And I did a double-take.  So in my story it’s the furthest prison camp from the east coast, and a very important prisoner gets put in there, he’s a Blue Max guy from the First World War. So he’s an older guy, and now he’s been captured, and the Germans decide if they can break him out it’ll be good for moral.  So they send in some guys who break him out, and maybe fifteen or twenty other Nazis.  And the Army doesn’t have enough men to run the prison and chase escapees.  So the Texas Rangers offer to do that, and it ends up with Texas Rangers with six-guns and Winchester rifles on horseback, against Germans with automatic weapons and quad trucks.  And it’s a big chase across Texas’ Big Bend.  I have a guy who’s publishing it as an e-book. 

LONE RANGER RADIO REVIVAL!

Back in October, with the Presidential election just around the corner, I had the pleasure of taking part, as announcer, in a series of election-themed Old Time Radio reenactments,  One of them was a Lone Ranger episode, 'The Not-So-Crooked Election', and I was delighted to learn that Steven Kirk, who plays the Lone Ranger, had the show video-recorded.  If you're a fan of dramatic -- okay, melodramatic -- radio, watching this will bring back fond memories.  And if you haven't seen how Old Time Radio shows were performed, with live sound effects, it might even be educational, and hopefully funny.  By the way, Jeff Zimmer, who does the sound effects, also directed.




THANKS A MILLION!  

Or make that 1,017,241!  That's how many pageviews the Round-up has had since it began in January of 2010.  I find it astonishing, and hugely gratifying.  As I write, the Round-up is being read in the United States, China, Spain, Turkey, France, Belgium, Lithuania, The Netherlands, South Korea, Germany, and Austria.  Thank you so much to all of my readers, in more than 100 countries, who regularly read the Round-up!

THAT'S A WRAP!

I hope you're all enjoying season two of UNDERGROUND on WGN, and the new AMC Western THE SON.  I've only seen episode one of the former, and one and two of the latter, so don't give anything away!  Coming very soon, video reviews, and my coverage of the TCM Festival!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright April 2017 by Henry C. Parke - All Rights Reserved

‘TEXAS RISING’ REVIEWED, PLUS WORD ON WAYNE, LEE POWELL TRIBUTE

Updated 5-25-2015 -- See Ft. Tejon Civil War Reenactment

DEDICATED TO LEE POWELL

This Memorial Day edition of the Round-up is dedicated to all of our fighting men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.  And in particular to actor Lee Powell, who in 1938 became the screen’s very first Lone Ranger, starring in the Republic serial.  He appeared in several more films, including FLASH GORDON CONQUORS THE UNIVERSE, starring in six ‘Frontier Marshals’ films for PRC, before enlisting in the Marines in 1942.  Sgt. Powell saw action on Tarawa, Saipan, and Tinian, in the Marianas Islands, where he died on July 30, 1944, at the age of 36.  He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart, the Asiatic-Pacific Area Campaign Medal with two stars, and the Victory Medal World War II. 

Chief Thundercloud, Lee Powell

‘TEXAS RISING’ A Miniseries Review

Henry, Deaf and Anderson

The same production team who brought you the five Emmy-winning HATFIELDS & MCCOYS miniseries is back with the story of Texas statehood, and the formation of the Texas Rangers, TEXAS RISING, beginning Memorial Day night on History.  It’s directed by Roland Joffe, twice Oscar-nominated for THE KILLING FIELD (1984) and THE MISSION (1986). It written by Darrell Fetty and Leslie Greif -- Greif created WALKER, TEXAS RANGER,  Bill Paxton is back, now as Sam Houston, and this time he just might win the Best Actor award he lost to HATFIELDS co-star Kevin Costner.  With so many characters stirring about, he is the heart of the story, just as Olivier Martinez, as General Santa Ana, is the anti-heart, a handsome, swaggering, arrogant swine. 

Sam Huston

I am not very knowledgeable when it comes to the history of Texas, and I must admit that a character that I thought was so ‘convenient’, post-DJANGO UNCHAINED, that I assumed she was a contrivance, turned out to be not only real, but the basis of the song, ‘The Yellow Rose of Texas’, and is played by Cynthia Addai-Robinson. 

Santa Ana and Emily

The story opens with the Alamo in ashes, the last few surviving defenders being butchered before the eyes of a handful of their women.  Travis, Crockett, Bowie and all the rest are gone, but Travis’ call for help is still travelling, and many, not knowing it is too late, are still hurrying to answer the call.  Texians, furious at the slaughter at the Alamo, are eager for Sam Houston to attack, but he issues orders to wait, retreating until they can draw Santa Ana into a position where the Texians will have the advantage.  There are accusations of cowardice, and whispers of mutiny.    

The focus moves frequently, from Houston and his men, to a young pair of would-be Texas Rangers trying to prove themselves worthy, to a friendly if mis-matched redneck and aristocrat, to a low-life extorting money to help people flee, to Santa Ana and his ‘take-no-prisoners’ advance.  There are military battles, Indian attacks, seduction, humor, the occasional throat-cutting and eye shooting.  The story doesn’t always move in a straight line, but it moves, with plenty of action. 

The cast is packed with talent, including Brendan Fraser as Billy Anderson, Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Deaf Smith, Thomas Jane as James Wykoff.  JUSTIFIED fans will be happy to see Jeff Fahey as Thomas Rusk and weasely Jeremy Davies and Knowles.  I got a kick out of seeing Darby Hinton, Dan’l’s son Israel from the DANIEL BOONE series, as Texas President Burnet.

Having seen only the first four of ten hours, I can’t review the show as a whole, but I found the first two nights of the show very entertaining, and I’m eager to see the rest.  Not that I am entirely without criticisms.  Occasionally the script strains to be vulgar – there is excessive talk about soiling or wetting ones clothes, things to be shoved up orifices, and Bill Paxton must have it in his contract that he gets to urinate on-camera at least once per episode.  Ray Liotta, an actor I very much admire, plays an ‘angel of death’ character who has escaped from the Alamo, and is on a private killing spree.  He looks great, but when he speaks, his voice is so contemporary that the ghostly characterization evaporates.  They had Kris Kristofferson there to play President Andrew Jackson – they should have had him dub Liotta. 

Finally, if you have seen the teaser spot where various men and woman are reading Lt. Col. Travis’ ‘Victory or Death’ letter, you know how beautiful Texas looks (even if it’s really Durango, Mexico).  It doesn’t look like that in TEXAS RISING at all!  Arthur Reinhart’s composition of shots is beautiful, but for some reason, in post-production, some genius decided the entire movie should be in sepia.  So all of the color has been drained from the image, and a yellowish overlay added.  This sort of ‘make it look like old news photos’ idea works fine in a title sequence, but at least on my screener, the entire movie is like this.  I love black and white films, but when you shoot black and white, you use contrast to make up for the lack of color.  There’s almost no contrast here – there are no solid blacks, just murky greys at the darkest, and there’s so much haze at times that it hurts the eyes to watch.  I’m enjoying TEXAS RISING, and I’ll definitely watch the rest; but I may wear shades.      

FT. TEJON CIVIL WAR REENACTMENT MAY 30-31

This Saturday and Sunday, travel to Ft. Tejon State Historic Park to enjoy battle reenactments, a replay of the Lincoln/Douglas debates, as well as vendors, food and cooking demonstrations.  To learn more, go HERE .

‘WORD ON WESTERNS’ RIDES AGAIN IN JOHN WAYNE TRIBUTE LAST WEDNESDAY!

Rob Word with Johnny Crawford

Rob Word’s ‘Word on Westerns’ luncheon and film discussion programs, such a hit last year at The Autry, are back, starting with this past Wednesday’s tribute to John Wayne, whose birthday is May 26^th.  Among those attending and sharing anecdotes were Johnny Crawford of THE RIFLEMAN, who costarred with the Duke in EL DORADO, and Edward Faulkner, a member of the Wayne stock company, who appeared in MCCLINTOCK!, RIO LOBO, THE GREEN BERTS, CHISUM, THE UNDEFEATED and HELLFIGHTERS.  Also there to remember were actor Frank Pesce, and music was provided by The Suguaro Sisters, accompanied by Will Ryan.  The next event will be in July, and I’ll fill you in as soon as I have the details.

THAT’S A WRAP!

Have a great Memorial Day!  On Tuesday, you can buy your own Blu-Ray copy of MAN, PRIDE & VENGEANCE from the good folks at BLUE UNDERGROUND.  Next week I’ll have details about a new HBO miniseries about lawman Bass Reeves.  And soon I'll have my review of John Farkis' book about the making of THE ALAMO!

Happy Trails,

Henry

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

‘FRONTERA’, ‘WESTERN UNSCRIPTED’ REVIEWED, PLUS ‘TRAIL OF BLOOD’, ‘BONE TOMAHAWK’, ‘WESTWORLD’ CASTING NEWS!

FRONTERA – a Movie Review

Ever since the birth of theatre in ancient Greece, the classical tragedy has always been about people of social importance: if they don’t have social status to begin with, how can they fall?  And implicitly, if they’re not important, who cares about them?  That all changed in 1949, when Arthur Miller wrote DEATH OF A SALESMAN, and showed that the lives of ‘nobodies’ could be as compelling as the lives of ‘somebodies.’ 

FRONTERA is a tragedy about regular working people on both sides of the U.S./Mexico border – a retired lawman and his wife tending their ranch; a family whose father must travel north when there is no work at home, and another hungry mouth to feed on the way. 

To the south, the pregnant wife (a beautiful but de-glamorized Eva Longoria) dreads having her husband (Michael Pena) make the dangerous trek through the desert, even though he’s done it before.  And Pena has an extra worry – his father-in-law is saddling him with the son of a friend (Michael Ray Escamilla) who is stupid and irresponsible at best, and maybe much worse.  To the north, Amy Madigan has saddled her horse for a ride, and while her husband, Ed Harris, would come along, his knee is still healing.  He asks her not to take the best trail, because it runs along the border, but he knows she will.   Her meeting with the two men from the south is both cordial and cautious.  She kindly gives them water bottles, and a blanket from her horse against the coming cold of night.  The difference in the two Mexican men is most clear here: Pena is formal and respectful; Escamilla flirts childishly. 

Michael Pena, Eva Longoria

All would have been fine, each going their separate ways, until a series of gunshots shatter the silent desert air.  The woman is dead.  I am loath to give away too much more, because this is a highly compelling, masterfully told story.  It’s not a mystery – you always know who is committing what act, but not what the results will be, and yet the tale is told by writers Louis Moulinet and Michael Berry and director Berry with a self-assurance that makes the outcome of each scene seem both inevitable and infuriating: you can easily imagine yourself making many of the mistakes that the characters do.  For Moulinet, best known as an art director, and Berry, directing his first feature, it is a highly auspicious debut.

Ed Harris and Amy Madigan are actually husband and wife – they met on the set of PLACES IN THE HEART, and have since worked together frequently, including co-starring in RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE and the recent SWEETWATER.  Though here Madigan’s time on the screen is cut short, in a few strokes she etches a character that you like and miss.  Harris, Longoria, Pena and Escamilla bring humanity and dignity to their characters, and you care about them all.  Longoria in particular, when she tries to join her husband, pays a coyote to take her, and goes through sheer hell. 

And the movie plays fair with the highly controversial subject of unsecure borders, something I did not expect in the politically correct world of Hollywood.  Not all of the ‘secure the border’ crowd are portrayed as redneck racists.  Not all of the illegals coming across are people that anyone would want in their country.  In one stunningly effective but almost throw-away scene, two men out of a dozen traveling across the border with a coyote separate themselves from the others, throw down prayer-rugs and  begin bowing towards Mecca, underlining how little we, or even the coyotes, know about who is coming across the desert, and what their motives might be. 

I’ve described FRONTERA as a tragedy, and it is full of tragic events, yet it is not a ‘downer,’ nor are the characters without hope.  Cinematographer Joel Ransom gets plenty of atmosphere into the often moon-like border desert, and editor Larry Madaras bridges the gaps between places and moments seamlessly.  This fine film is receiving a sporadic release, and is very much worth the trouble of seeking it out. 

WESTERN UNSCRIPTED – A Stage Review

It’s kind of hard to know how much to tell you about Saturday night’s performance of THE WESTERN UNSCRIPTED, because you’re never going to see that story.  In fact no one will ever see it again – because it’s an improvised story, performed by members of The Impro Theatre, and no two performances are alike! 

The FALCON THEATRE, comedy legend Garry Marshall’s venue in Burbank, was packed – all 120 permanent seats were filled, and ten more chairs were put in place.  And no wonder; The Impro Theatre has quite a following, having already tackled CHEKOV UNSCRIPTED, SONDHEIM UNSCRIPTED, and L.A. NOIR UNSCRIPTED among others – coming in December is the return of TWILIGHT ZONE UNSCRIPTED!

As the audience took their seats, the mood was set with instrumental themes from THE WILD WILD WEST, TRUE GRIT, and HOW THE WEST WAS WON.  I was struck by the quality of the sets immediately: a projection screen in the back for the sky, a two-story saloon exterior on the left, and a two story building on the right.  Then the lights went down, a campfire bloomed center-stage, and an old sourdough explained that the rest of the cast would soon come onstage, and they would improvise an evening’s entertainment based on suggestions from the audience.  Then he picked up his campfire and left. 

A moment later, the cast cantered out like SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS, handsomely period-costumed, and one of them, Lisa Frederickson, addressed the audience, asking for suggestions for a reason for a lot of town-folk to gather.  Audience voices called out, “A hanging!”  “A funeral!”  “A shotgun wedding!”  “A shotgun wedding.  I like that,” Lisa responded.  

Having seen a fair amount of improvisational comedy, I thought I knew what was coming: a brief sketch about a shotgun wedding, followed by more audience polling, and more sketches.   But I was wrong – this was a feature western, not a short subject, and they played the story for a full two hours, minus intermission, and never slacked the pace.  Within moments an actor had opted – or been appointed – to be the reluctant spouse.  A reason for the urgent marriage – a baby – was improvised with a rolled-up blanket.  The conflict was created – three other men became his accomplices in a series of train robberies.  There’s a big payroll coming, and they’ve been waiting for him to get this marriage done so they can pull the big job.  He wants to go straight, but this one job could help save her family’s farm…you know, that’s a darn good plot: I can see George Montgomery or even Joel McCrea doing it!  It already made twice as much sense as JOHNNY GUITAR!

It was hysterical -- wonderfully silly fun, without ever being juvenile.  On-the-fly, actors created characters and relationships; clearly the cast is well-versed in the common elements of westerns.  And as has often been said, comedy acting is hard, and if you can do it, you can certainly do drama.  One sequence involved a matriarch who’d disguised that she was dying until one of her daughter’s had married.  As the three daughters gather around their dying mother, even with the jokes, we got choked up: they were that good. 

Many of the jokes grew out of western clichés, and some grew out of anachronisms.  One of the actors, desperate to think up a name for a hideout, came up with Smuggler’s Cul-de-sac; I think they’re still needling him about that.   One of the lead bandit’s sisters-in-law gets the idea of smuggling him back to town dressed like a woman; the idea of seeing him in a dress becomes something of an obsession to several characters, even when it no longer serves the plan.  And the actors certainly challenge each other.   When the bandit’s accomplices taunt him for not re-joining them sooner, one says to him, more or less, “I think you’ve been away from it too long.  I think you've forgotten the plan.”

“I remember the plan.”

“Then tell it to us, all of it, to be sure,” forcing him to create off-the-cuff a four man plan to rob a train!  THE WESTERN UNSCRIPTED plays Wednesday through Sunday, October 5^th.  Wednesday through Friday the curtain is at 8 pm; on Sunday it’s 4 pm.  I loved it, and I’m going to try to catch it once more, to see how different the second performance will be!  Here’s the link for information and tickets: http://improtheatre.com/shows/western-unscripted/

‘LUCKY’ BARRY PEPPER TO FOLLOW ‘TRAIL OF BLOOD’ TO NEW WESTERN SERIES!

Barry Pepper in TRUE GRIT

Barry Pepper, who played Lucky Ned Pepper in the Coen Brothers’ TRUE GRIT, and appeared in THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA and THE LONE RANGER, is set to star in TRAIL OF BLOOD to run on CINEMAX for Endemol Studios, the folks who bring us HELL ON WHEELS!  He’ll portray a frontier preacher in search of his teenage daughter, who has been kidnapped by the Harpe brothers, real-life infamous serial killers who were active in the late 1790s.  It’s written by Ross Parker, and he and Christina Wayne, who was producer on the mini BROKEN TRAIL and the BBC-America series COPPER, will produce. 

‘BONE TOMAHAWK’ STARRING KURT RUSSELL ROLLS CAMERA MONDAY! 

Kurt Russell in TOMBSTONE

Western horror novelist S. Craig Zahler will make his debut as a writer/director with BONE TOMAHAWK.  The western tale of four men trying to rescue captives from a group of cave-dwelling cannibals has long been set to star Kurt Russell and Richard Jenkins, who will now be joined by Patrick Wilson and Matthew Fox.  Peter Sherayko is consulting producer -- he and Kurt Russell last worked together on TOMBSTONE, which turned out rather well.

MICHAEL HORSE GIVES DEPP’S TONTO THE BIRD ON ‘HELL ON WHEELS’!

The Depp Version

The Michael Horse Version

I was catching up on the last three episodes of HELL ON WHEELS – thank goodness for the DVR – and was delighted to see Michael Horse, who was the best thing in 1981’s LEGEND OF THE LONE RANGER, playing Tonto.  In the H.O.W. episode THE BEAR MAN he plays Old Porcupine, and a little bird told me he was poking fun at the new LONE RANGER movie, and Johnny Depp’s dead-bird headdress.    

GILLAM PLAYS SLIM PICKENS IN B’WAY-BOUND ‘BLAZING SADDLES!’

Pickens & Gillam in BLAZING SADDLES

Great news via our good friends at Westerpunk!  They tell me that when Burton Gillam, the toothy and goofy star of BLAZING SADDLES, PAPER MOON, and many comic turns in westerns, appeared at their Weird West Fest, he revealed that he’ll be in the up-coming Broadway musical version of BLAZING SADDLES, playing Slim Pickens’ role from the movie!

SPEAKING OF ED HARRIS – HE TAKES ON YUL BRYNNER’S ‘MAN IN BLACK’ CHARACTER IN ‘WESTWORLD’ REMAKE

Yul Brynner in WESTWORLD

Ed Harris in APPALOOSA

Remakes of terrific shows are usually a bad idea, especially when they involve recasting iconic characters: you don’t want to follow John Wayne or Steve McQueen or Yul Brynner into a role, no matter how good the paycheck.  But whoever thought of casting Ed Harris in Brynner’s role in WESTWORLD is a genius.  Movie also stars James Marsden and Evan Rachel Woods and Anthony Hopkins as the lead humans.  And if you don’t understand that reference, you need to run out and see Saul David’s original 1973 production of Michael Crichton’s WESTWORLD, posthaste.   Here's the trailer from the original.

AND THAT’S A WRAP!

I’m trying to get some script revisions finished this week, but I know I’ll have some interesting news next Sunday, including a review of a new book on the Christmas music of Gene Autry

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Content Copyright September 2014 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved