‘TURN’ PREMIERES ON AMC, COWBOY FEST TICKET GIVEAWAY, PLUS FIRST LOOK AT ‘THE HOMESMAN’!

‘TURN’ - SERIES PILOT REVIEW

Tonight, April 6^th, at 6 p.m. Western time, 9 p.m. Eastern, AMC’s new drama series, TURN, will premier.  Set in the midst of the American Revolution, it is based on the true story of the Culper Ring, a group of grown-up boyhood friends who became a spy network working to get information on Redcoat troop movements for General George Washington.  

Based on the best-selling history book WASHINGTON’S SPIES by Alexander Rose, it is a spy-thriller with three-cornered hats, and I found the pilot enthralling.   Shot in Virginia, and set in New York’s Long Island, the story centers around farmer Abraham Woodhull, a married man with a baby son.  Long Island is occupied by the British, and the Woodhulls are among the families suffering the indignity of having a British soldier quartered in their home. 

Woodhall has other problems as well: his crop of cauliflower is infested with maggots, which makes it unlikely that he’ll be able to pay off his debts – owed to a tavern-owner now married to Woodhall’s former beloved.  With the government controlling commerce, the desperate Woodhall tries to sell a few head of cauliflower on the black market, unsure of whether he has more to fear from British or the gun-toting colonists – and his simple act sets wheels in motion that will change the lives of everyone he knows.

The at-first reluctant spy Woodhall is played convincingly by Jamie Bell – remarkable to realize that at the turn of the last century he amazed us all as the title character of BILLY ELLIOT.  Meegan Warner plays Mrs. Woodhall who wants her husband to have nothing to do with spying.  Heather Lind, who played Katy on BOARDWALK EMPIRE, plays Anna Strong, whom Woodhall would have married if she hadn’t spurned him.  And Seth Numrich, late of the grim comedy series GRAVITY, plays Colonial Army officer and Woodhall’s childhood friend Ben Talmage, who approaches Woodhall to help his country-in-the-making. 

Written by Alexander Rose and producer-writer Craig Silverstein, whose voluminous credits include NIKITA, TERRA NOVA and BONES, the plotting is clever, the telling is smart, quick and sensible, with a fine eye for historical detail that creates reality without screaming about it.  The action is exciting and not for the squeamish – the occupying army is unflinchingly brutal, and the occupied must at times answer in kind.  

Rather than being played as symbols, as is often the case with movies of this historical period, and despite the powdered wigs, the characters are motivated by a mix of practicality and ideals, just like real humans. 

For myself, the most unnerving aspect of the show is that Robert Rogers, of Rogers’ Rangers, is one of the principal villains of the piece!  Having grown up loving the NORTHWEST PASSAGE series, starring Keith Larsen in that role, as well as Spencer Tracy in the feature, it’s troubling to see the rest of his history on the screen.   For hero though Rogers was in the French and Indian Wars, he was fighting alongside the British against the French.  It’s disappointing, but not unreasonable that he sided with the British again during the American Revolution.  Here he is played with gravitas by Angus McFayden, who was excellent in the recent COPPERHEAD, and is perhaps best remembered as Robert The Bruce in BRAVEHEART.  

Tonight’s opener is ninety minutes, and will be repeated later tonight, plus on Monday, and next Saturday and Sunday.  The regular episodes will be an hour.  I’d make a point to see the pilot if I were you – it’s fine stuff, and my guess is it will continue to improve.

FIRST LOOK AT ‘THE HOMESMAN’!

Here are the first images from THE HOMESMAN, which will premiere on May 24^th at the Cannes Film Festival!  Co-written, directed by and starring Tommy Lee Jones, based on the novel my Glendon Swarthout, Jones plays a rustler who takes on the job of transporting three madwomen across the desert to an asylum in Kansas. 

Joining Oscar-winner Tommy Lee Jones are fellow statuette owners Hilary Swank and Meryl Streep, as well as John Lithgow, James Spader, Hailee Steinfeld – Mattie Ross in the TRUE GRIT remake, William Fichtner, and Barry Corbin.  It’s produced by Luc Bresson, the French writer-producer-director who created the LA FEMME NIKTA, TRANSPORTER and THE PROFESSIONAL franchises.

Novelist Glendon Swarthout has an excellent record in the cinema.  Films adapted from his novels include BLESS THE BEASTS AND CHILDREN, WHERE THE BOYS ARE, and the Westerns 7^TH CAVALRY, THEY CAME TO CORDURA and, most famously, John Wayne’s final film, the marvelous THE SHOOTIST.  Glendon’s son, Miles Swarthout, wrote the screenplay for THE SHOOTIST, and was involved in THE HOMESMAN as well. 

I’ll be interviewing Miles Swarthout about his own and his father’s career at the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival, at Melody Ranch, on Saturday and Sunday, April 26^th & 27^th, at the Buckaroo Book Shop.  We’ll talk at 12:30 on Saturday and 2:30 on Sunday. You can learn all about the events at the Buckaroo Book Shop by going HERE.  https://www.facebook.com/events/434317293370585/434413240027657/?notif_t=plan_mall_activity

You can learn all about the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival HERE http://cowboyfestival.org/

WIN TWO TICKETS TO THE COWBOY FESTIVAL!

Speaking of the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival, and yes, I’ve been speaking about it a lot, it’s coming to the Veluzat family’s Melody Ranch on Saturday and Sunday, April 26^th & 27^th.   What started as a working ranch has been a popular location for filmmakers for nearly a century.  Owned at one time by Monogram Pictures, then purchased by Gene Autry and christened Melody Ranch after his radio show, nearly every A or B Western star worked there at one time or another.  A very busy movie ranch, in growing demand with the resurgence of the Western movie and TV series, it was home base for both DEADWOOD and Quentin Tarantino’s DJANGO UNCHAINED, as well as many other films, music videos and TV commercials.

The Festival is an outgrowth of a Cowboy Poetry Festival held annually at Santa Clarita High School.  When the 1994 earthquake demolished the school’s auditorium, the Veluzat family offered the use of their movie ranch, and a twenty-year tradition was born.  There’s still poetry, as well as food, shopping for all things Western, strolling the ranch and visiting its museum.  There activities for children and adults, and all manner of entertainment, including magician Pop Haydn, gun-slinger par excellence Joey Dillon, and lariat-tosser Dave Thornbury.  Then there’s the music – at five different venues big and small throughout the ranch, more than twenty acts will perform, including Don Edwards, Sons of the San Joaquin, Waddie Mitchell, Cow Bop, Dave Stamey and many more. 

Miles Swarthout & C. Courtney Joyner

And at the Buckaroo Book Store, run by the folks at OutWest, Western fact and fiction writers will be meeting fans, signing books, and giving talks.  Among the authors attending will be Cheryl Rogers-Barnett (daughter of Roy and Dale), Margaret Brownley, Jim Christina, Peter Conway, Steve Deming, Edward M. Erdelac, J.P. Gorman, Dale B. Jackson, Jim Jones, C. Courtney Joyner, Andria Kidd, Antoinette Lane, Jerry Nickle (a descendant of Harry Longabaugh, alias the Sundance Kid), J.R. Sanders, Tony Sanders, Peter Sherayko, Janet Squires, ‘Cowgirl Peg’ Sundberg, Miles Hood Swarthout, Rod Thompson, and Nancy Pitchford-Zee. 

And in addition to the interviews I’ll be doing with Miles Swarthout, I’ll also be moderating a pair of authors’ panels.  On Saturday from 1:30 to 2, the topic is THE WEST IMAGINED, and I’ll be talking with Western novelists Edward M. Erdelac, author of COYOTE’S TRAIL; Jim Christina, author of THE DARK ANGEL; and C. Courtney Joyner, author of SHOTGUN. On Sunday, from 1:30 to 2, the topic is THE WEST LIVED, and I’ll be talking to non-fiction writers Jerry Nickle, great-grandson of the Sundance Kid; JR Sanders, author of SOME GAVE ALL; and Peter Sherayko, author of TOMBSTONE – THE GUNS AND GEAR. 

Admission is $20 per day for adults, $10 for kids, but the good folks at OutWest – click their logo at the top of the page to learn all about ‘em – are going to give away a pair of tickets to the event!  Thousands will pay, but you won’t have to if you’re our lucky winner!  How do you win?  Answer this question: For a long time, after Gene Autry had stopped making movies at the ranch, Gene held onto the property to provide a home to one particular horse.  What was that horse’s name?  E-mail your answer, along with your name, address, phone number, and what day you’d want the tickets for, to swansongmail@sbcglobal.net , with ‘Cowboy Festival Ticket Giveaway’ in the subject line.  The winner will be selected randomly from all correct entries, and announced in next week’s Round-up.  Good luck!

ROBERT DUVALL IN ‘A NIGHT IN OLD MEXICO’

Check out the trailer for the new present-day Western starring Robert Duvall, Jeremy Irvine, and Angie Cepeda.

TCM CLASSIC FILM FESTIVAL OPENS THURSDAY APRIL 11

For details on what Westerns are playing, check out last week’s Round-up here: http://henryswesternroundup.blogspot.com/2014/04/free-tcm-movie-locations-tour-heston.html

For details on all films and events, go here: http://filmfestival.tcm.com/

SEE TY POWER AS ‘JESSE JAMES’ SATURDAY, APRIL 12 AT THE AUTRY

As part of the Autry’s ‘What is a Western?’ series, Henry King’s dazzling Technicolor telling of the James Brothers myth will be screened in 35mm!  The original screenplay is by the great Nunnally Johnson.  The cast includes Henry Fonda as brother Frank, Nancy Kelly, Randolph Scott, Henry Hull, Brian Donlevy, John Carradine, Donald Meek and Jane Darwell.  The film will be introduced by curator Jeffrey Richardson, who always provides fascinating background and insights into the films in this fine monthly series.  It’s at 1:30 p.m. in the Wells Fargo Theatre, free with your museum admission.

MICKEY ROONEY DIES AT 93

Just heard that the Mick has passed away.  I saw him at a number of events, but never got to talk to him.  But I had the pleasure of speaking with many child stars of the 1930s and 1940s over the years, and without exception they all held that the most talented and versatile of them all was Joe Yule Jr., a.k.a. Mickey Rooney.  A tremendous talent who will be sorely missed.  I’ll have more in next week’s Round-up.

THAT’S A WRAP!

I’ve got the TCM Festival coming up this week, Rob Word’s Cowboy Lunch @ the Autry saluting THE WILD BUNCH a week from Wednesday, and the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival the week after that!  Should be a lot of interesting stuff coming up in the Round-up!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright April 2014 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved

FREE ‘TCM MOVIE LOCATIONS TOUR’, HESTON GETS A STAMP, PLUS ‘COWBOY FEST’ SHARES MELODY RANCH WITH WARNER BROTHERS!

THE TCM MOVIE LOCATIONS TOUR

Paramount Studio Gates

For exactly zero dollars, I enjoyed a three-hour tour (apologies to Gilligan) of movie locations in Hollywood, Downtown, Edendale, Echo Park, Chinatown and other filming locations; studios; old theaters; and other places of historic interest.  Turner Classic Movies is celebrating their 20^th anniversary with a series of activities, culminating in their 5th Annual TCM CLASSIC FILM FESTIVAL in and around the Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard (more about that later in this Round-up!). 

The RKO globe -- the lot is now part of Paramount

If you are a movie nut anywhere near L.A., you will want to take advantage of this --  there are eleven more available dates, from Friday April 4^th through Monday April 14^th  , and clicking the link below will get you all of the dates and times.  You meet in the footprint-famous forecourt of Grauman’s Chinese Theater, travel on a beautiful roomy bus which holds 45 or 50 passengers, with a knowledgeable tour-guide, and occasional commentary by TCM host Ben Mankiewicz on a big screen.  But the screen is mainly used to show scenes from films shot at the very location you can see through the windshield!  You’ll visit locations from films as old as Keaton and Sennett comedies and as new as FAST & FURIOUS films -- and that contrast is separated by just a couple of blocks! 

The Echo Park Bridge, used by Laurel & Hardy, and Jack Nicholson

in CHINATOWN

You’ll have two walk-around stops, at the Bradbury Building, and Union Station, both stunning and historically important examples of architecture in their own rights, as well as frequently seen movie locations. Now the website will tell you the tickets are all committed, but you can go on standby, AND THERE WERE NINE EMPTY SEATS ON OUR BUS!  And when the guide asked how many passengers were TCM viewers, only six of us raised our hands!  (The guide kept asking us movie questions, and my wife and I tried to restrain ourselves, but we were the only ones who knew the answers.)  Don’t waste this great opportunity to have a lot of fun, and learn a lot – I certainly learned plenty.  Here’s the link: http://www.tcm.com/20/

And if you go, please post a comment or send us an email about it!  Below are a few more peeks at things we saw on the trip…

Once Chaplin Studios, now Jim Henson Studios -- in between

it was Red Skelton Studios and A&M Records

This jewelry store used to be a Warner Brothers Theatre - note

the diamond over the WB logo shield; also the William Fox 

Builiding across the street

Inside the Bradbury Building

Grauman's Million Dollar Theatre, seen through

Bradbury front door

Million Dollar Theatre architectural details

Los Angeles Theatre

Union Station

Union Station interior

City Hall

The Vista Theatre stands at the intersection of Hollywood 

and Sunset Boulevards, where D. W. Griffith's 

INTOLERANCE Babylon sets once stood

The elephant sculptures at Hollywood & Highland, an 

homage to Griffith's INTOLERANCE

Don't miss your bus!

CHARLTON HESTON HONORED WITH A STAMP APRIL 11 AT CHINESE THEATRE!

The late actor Charlton Heston will be honored on Friday April 11^th with the 18^th stamp in the Legends of Hollywood series.  In conjunction with the TCM Classic Film Festival, a dedication ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. at Hollywood’s Chinese Theatre, where the actor’s family will be represented by his son and collaborator on a dozen projects, Fraser Heston.  Best known for his portrayal of the title character in Wyler’s BEN HUR as Moses in DeMille’s THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, and as the last free human in PLANET OF THE APES, Heston had many fine Western roles as well.  Beginning in 1952, heb played a white boy raised by a Sioux chief in THE SAVAGE, and followed with PONY EXPRESS as Buffalo Bill Cody, ARROWHEAD, THREE VIOLENT PEOPLE, THE BIG COUNTRY, THE BUCCANEER as Gen. Andrew Jackson, Peckinpah’s MAJOR DUNDEE, WILL PENNY, THE CALL OF THE WILD, THE LAST HARD MAN, THE MOUNTAIN MEN, THE AVENGING ANGEL, and TOMBSTONE.  The dedication will be followed by a noon screening of Orson Welles’ TOUCH OF EVIL, costarring Heston and Janet Leigh. 

The portrait, based on a photograph by his widow, Lydia Clarke Heston, was Drew Struzman, a master of movie art whose movie posters include all of the INDIANA JONES and STAR WARS movies, as well as Western-themed movie posters including BACK TO THE FUTURE 3, COWBOYS & ALIENS, FRISCO KID, and the up-coming Stephen King, DARK TOWER – THE MIST.  A show of the movie art of Drew Struzman and Bob Peak is currently on display at the Forest Lawn Museum in Glendale, and will continue through May 26^th. 

TCM FEST – WESTERN INTEREST!

The 5^th Annual TCM Classic Film Festival will open at 6:30 on Thursday night, April 11^th, following the red carpet, with a screening of the newly restored Western musical OKLAHOMA! at Hollywood’s Chinese Theatre, with star Shirley Jones attending and discussing the film.  At 10 pm that night, Nicholas Ray’s JOHNNY GUITAR, starring Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden and Scott Brady will screen at the Chinese Multiplex.  On Friday morning at 9:15, STAGECOACH will screen at the Multiplex.  At 9 pm, BLAZING SADDLES will screen at the Chinese, with a discussion with writer/director/star Mel Brooks. 

On Saturday at 2pm, THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY screens at the Chinese while, starting an hour later, across Hollywood Boulevard at the El Capitan, John Ford’s HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY will be shown, with a discussion by the movie’s star, Maureen O’Hara – that’ll be a tough call!  And on Sunday, GONE WITH THE WIND will screen at the Chinese at 1:30, and John Ford’s THE QUIET MAN will screen at 4:30 at the Chinese Multi.  There are dozens of non-Western screenings and events going on, with personal appearances by Jerry Lewis – he’ll have his footprints in cement at Grauman’s Chinese!, Alan Arkin, Richard Dreyfus, Ryan O’Neal, Tim Conway, Bo Hopkins, Candy Clark, Paula Prentiss, Paul LeMat, Bill Hader, Alec Baldwin, Patton Oswalt, Alex Trebek, directors Billy Freidkin, Joe Dante, and Gareth Edwards – he directed this summer’s GODZILLA remake and will introduce the original, composers Quincy Jones, John Williams, and Carl Davis.  I covered last year’s festival for the first time, and had a wonderful time.  The films are wonderful, the opportunities to hear filmmakers are unique, and it’s a delight to meet so many people who are as knowledgeable and passionate about movies as we are.  I highly recommend attending.  Individual tickets are available for any not-sold-out shows.  Learn more here: http://filmfestival.tcm.com/

‘COWBOY FESTIVAL’ TO SHARE MELODY RANCH WITH WARNER BROTHERS SHOOT APRIL 26 & 27!

Just got word that while we’re doing all of our usual Western activities, the folks from Warner Brothers will be shooting a movie at the ranch.  We’re all going to be shifted around a bit, as folks were when DEADWOOD was being filmed, but all activities will go on as scheduled.  Seeing as WB will be shooting on the main Western street, I’m guessing it’s for a Western. 

Ed Erdelac

Here’s what I’ll be doing at the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival: I’ll be moderating a couple of authors’ panels at the OutWest Buckaroo Book Shop.  On Saturday from 1:30 to 2, the topic is THE WEST IMAGINED, and I’ll be talking with Western novelists Edward M. Erdelac, author of COYOTE’S TRAIL; Jim Christina, author of THE DARK ANGEL; and C. Courtney Joyner, author of SHOTGUN – I hope to have my review of SHOTGUN and my interview with Court in next week’s Round-up!

 C. Courtney Joyner (r) with L.Q. Jones

And on Sunday, from 1:30 to 2, the topic is THE WEST LIVED, and I’ll be talking to non-fiction writers Jerry Nickle, great-grandson of the Sundance Kid; JR Sanders, author of SOME GAVE ALL; and Peter Sherayko, author of TOMBSTONE – THE GUNS AND GEAR. 

Peter Sherayko

Also on Saturday at 12:30, and Sunday at 2:30, I’ll be chatting with Miles Swarthout, who wrote the screenplay for THE SHOOTIST from his father, Glendon Swarthout’s novel.  Miles is also involved with the upcoming movie THE HOMESMAN, directed by and starring Tommy Lee Jones, from a novel by Glendon Swarthout.  You can learn all about the events at the Buckaroo Book Shop by going HERE.  

You can learn all about the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival HERE http://cowboyfestival.org/

Hope to see you there!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY 75^th BIRTHDAY TERENCE HILL! 

On Saturday, March 29^th, one of the most talented and entertaining dramatic and comic actors in international cinema marked his 75^th birthday.  Terence Hill was born in Venice of an Italian father and a German mother.  His birth name was Mario Girroti.  He started acting in films at the age of twelve, and before Spaghetti Westerns started he was a well-known villain under his own name in the German westerns films based on Karl May novels.  When Franco Nero refused to do another DJANGO film, Girroti, indistinguishable from Nero in make-up, starred in the excellent DJANGO, PREPARE A COFFIN, and a star was born.  Equally busy in Eurocrime dramas, Hill is best-remembered in the TRINITY films with Bud Spencer, and his films and TV shows as LUCKY LUKE.  A busy actor on Italian TV, where he has starred in 175 episodes of the current series DON MATTEO, he starred in two America-lensed Westerns in 2009, DOC WEST and TRIGGERMAN.

THAT’S A WRAP!

Happy Cesar Chavez Day!  Have a great week!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright March 2014 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved

GERMAN WESTERN ‘GOLD’ REVIEWED, PLUS ‘DOC HOLLIDAY’S REVENGE’ FIRST LOOK!

GOLD – A Film Review

When I heard that a new German-made Western had just been completed, “…visions of Winnetou danced in my head!”  Though most Americans are not aware of it, Germany has a long history of American Western story-telling, Karl May being the most popular Western writer in the world, easily eclipsing American Western writers from Max Brand to Louis L’amour with his non-English-language following. 

Emily and Carl

German Western film, likewise not well known in the States, has been tremendously influential.  The success of a dozen Karl May Western films made in the early 1960s, starring French actor Pierre Brice as Apache Chief Winnetou, opposite American and British actors like Lex Barker, Rod Cameron and Stewart Granger, were such a smash that they inspired the Italians to create the Spaghetti Western genre.  

GOLD, written and directed by Thomas Arslan, could not be further from the melodrama of WINNETOU, but that is by design.  It is a movie that strives for realism and naturalism.  Filmed where the tale is set, in British Columbia, Canada, GOLD surprisingly is not a gold-field story, ala the recent miniseries KLONDIKE, but a tale of people on their way to the gold-fields.  Near the turn of the century, when an improbably large nugget is found by a panner, Argonauts head for the Klondike, and fortune, anyway they can.   (When I saw Indians waiting at the railroad's end, wrapped in blankets with the distinctive design of the Hudson Bay Company, I knew that production designer Reinheld Blaschke knew his stuff. )

German-born Wilhelm Lasser (Peter Kurth), an experienced guide, advertises his services to other German-Americans, assembles five prospective prospectors and, with wrangler Carl Boehmer (Marco Mandic), sets out for glory. Among them is Emily Meyer, who has tired of being a house-maid in New York.  She’s played by Nina Hoss, a major star in German cinema who, appropriate to the role, bears a striking resemblance to Lillian Gish, who frequently played pioneers for D. W. Griffith; not by chance, Hoss wears her hair in the same distinctive manner.

Tension builds, a bit, as the travelers begin to suspect that wagon-master Lasser is no master at all.  He becomes upset when they reach a river that’s not on his map.  It’s almost as if he’s never been there before.  In fact, he’s greatly exaggerated his experience, and it is only through the assistance of the occasional Indian, for a five-dollar payment, that they stay anywhere near on the path.  Further, as we see at around the half-hour mark, in a scene that calls to mind Hemingway’s THE KILLERS, a pair of riders is tracking the group, or rather the wrangler.  It’s a scene with both menace and humor, and it’s about all we see of either element. Because the major flaw of this film is that, beautifully made though it is, not nearly enough happens.  

There is hardship aplenty, but damned little conflict.  The characters are so stoic that they never get impassioned enough about anything to get the viewer involved.  Cinematographer Patrick Orth makes the most of the varied and beautiful forests and vistas of British Columbia – much of the photography is spectacular, especially a scene in a forest of barren trees.  But there are so few close-ups that the viewer rarely has the sense that he knows what a character is thinking.  While the wide-screen process – the image here is more than twice as wide as it is tall – is perfect for landscape, when it comes to actors, as Leone taught us, you have to jam the camera all the way into the center of a face to fill the screen.  We never get half that close.  And I don’t ever recall seeing a movie where more screen-time is spent watching a small group of riders ride across the screen, over and over again.

In a ‘Ten Little Indians’ manner, their numbers drop.  Some give up; one goes mad, strips off his clothes and runs pell-mell into the forest.  In one of the most affecting scenes, a man’s injured leg must be amputated before gangrene sets in.  The use of sound rather than gory visuals is evocative and effective.  Finally we get a sense of passion, and the stoicism is truly moving.  But sadly we quickly soon lose him.  We also get one good shoot-out, but it’s a long time coming.     

If you’ve seen MEEK’S CUTOFF (2010), starring Michelle Greene, Bruce Greenwood and Paul Dano, this may all sound familiar; that film also involves an incompetent wagon-master leading a group of pioneers, and getting them lost.  But while MEEK’S had Rod Rondeaux as the menacing Indian following them, and a dramatic payoff, in GOLD, once we meet the men following the wrangler, they disappear until too late in the story to save it. 

The score by Dylan Carson is portentous and effective, but is often missing in scenes where it could have helped.  And not one of the voice-actors chosen to dub the film into English uses a German accent, a strange choice considering how much their ‘Germanness’ is a part of their character, and how everyone they meet immediately knows they are German.

GOLD will be available in May from Screen Media Films.

‘DOC HOLLIDAY’S REVENGE’ FIRST LOOK!

June 17^th will see the release of DOC HOLLIDAY’S REVENGE, from two very talented and prolific filmmakers, writer Rolfe Kanefsky and director/producer David DeCoteau (pronounced ‘Dakota’).  It’s exec produced by Barry Barnholtz (see my interview HERE  ) and Jeffrey Schenck, who previously produced WYATT EARP’S REVENGE among many other Westerns. 

The film features the very talented and busy Eric Roberts, and Tom Berenger, who won the Outstanding Supporting Actor EMMY for 2012’s HATFIELDS & MCCOYS. 

I’ll be sharing my interview with Kanefsky soon, but in the meantime, here’s the first trailer.

ANTHONY MANN RETROSPECTIVE ENDS SUNDAY 3/30

The final program of the UCLA/Billy Wilder Theater two-month retrospective entitled Dark City, Open Country: The Films of Anthony Mann, will be MAN OF THE WEST (1958) and THE TIN STAR (1957).

SEE YOU AT THE ‘COWBOY FESTIVAL’ APRIL 26 & 27!

After attending the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival and covering it for the Round-up these last three years, this year I’ll be a participant!  At the OutWest Buckaroo Book Shop, in the heart of Veluzat's Melody Ranch’s fabulous Western street, I’ll be moderating a couple of authors’ panels.  On Saturday from 1:30 to 2, the topic is THE WEST IMAGINED, and I’ll be talking with Western novelists Edward M. Erdelac, author of COYOTE’S TRAIL; Jim Christina, author of THE DARK ANGEL; and C. Courtney Joyner, author of SHOTGUN.

And on Sunday, from 1:30 to 2, the topic is THE WEST LIVED, and I’ll be talking to non-fiction writers Jerry Nickle, great-grandson of the Sundance Kid; JR Sanders, author of SOME GAVE ALL; and Peter Sherayko, author of TOMBSTONE – THE GUNS AND GEAR. 

On Saturday at 12:30, and Sunday at 2:30, I’ll be chatting with Miles Swarthout, who wrote the screenplay for THE SHOOTIST from his father, Glendon Swarthout’s novel.  Miles is also involved with the upcoming movie THE HOMESMAN, directed by and starring Tommy Lee Jones, from a novel by Glendon Swarthout.  You can learn all about the events at the Buckaroo Book Shop by going HERE.  

ADOPT A BURRO AT TRONA CENTENNIAL MARCH 28-30!

The mining town of Trona in San Bernadino County’s Searles Valley marks its first century with a historical symposium, parade, car show, street fair, and on-site Bureau Of Land Management Wild Burro adoption!  Learn more by calling 760-372-4091.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ‘RED SUN’ STAR URSULA ANDRESS!

Ursula Andress & Alain Delon in RED SUN

The first gorgeous Bond Girl turns 78 today! She starred in THREE Westerns -- RED SUN, 4 FOR TEXAS, and mexico on fire -- but to me she’ll always be SHE! When I was ten or eleven, and madly in love with her, she was in New York for the premiere. I had this goofy idea to send flowers to her hotel – I had no idea what it would cost – I called MGM’s New York office to find out where she was staying, AND THEY PUT HER ON THE PHONE TO ME! I’ve never fully recovered. Happy Birthday!

THAT’S A WRAP!

Have a great week! 

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright March 2014 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved