HARVEY GIRLS, ROUTE 66, PLUS WIN TICKETS TO SEE ‘RED HOT RHYTHM RUSTLERS’!

THE HARVEY GIRLS – OPPORTUNITY BOUND

A Documentary Film Reviewed

Katrina Parks’ documentary, THE HARVEY GIRLS – OPPORTUNITY BOUND, tells the story of entrepreneur restaurateur innovator Fred Harvey, and the story of the more than 100,000 Harvey Girls who braved the wilds of the American frontier starting in the 1880s and continuing for about a century.  And she tells their tale – their many different tales – in the ideal way: in their own voices.  Parks’ film features on-camera interviews with what must be a couple of dozen ladies who were Harvey Girls in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, and the 1960s. 

Many people are aware of the girls, and the Harvey Company through the delightful 1946 MGM musical THE HARVEY GIRLS, starring virtuous Judy Garland, wonderfully wicked Angela Lansbury, and uncivilized males like John Hodiak, Preston Foster and Ray Bolger.  But the true story is even more entertaining.

Fred Harvey

Fred Harvey had come from England as a lad, and learned the restaurant trade working in New York establishments.  He married, opened a restaurant, had two children – and then is a series of bitter tragedies lost his wife and children to disease, lost his business, and had to start his life again in his thirties.  He began working for railroads, and became aware that food service at train stops ran the gamut from spotty to awful to toxic – the knowledge that a customer had to eat in minutes and be back on a train made the food providers indifferent to the eater’s welfare.

Harvey’s bold vision was to create a network of clean restaurants providing healthy and tasty food efficiently served at all the stops along the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad.  Further, the food was to be served by attractive young women of high morals.  The opportunity he provided for these young women was a remarkable one, starting at a time when options for women were startlingly limited.  A woman who went to work could be a teacher if she had the education, a house servant, a waitress, or…that was pretty much it. 

Harvey offered them the chance to be trained – a month to six weeks of serving food Harvey’s way, to travel – rarely were Harvey Girls assigned to their local restaurants, and to be protected.  There were dormitories for the girls, with a den mother to look after them.  And they earned a good living.  Also, there was opportunity to marry: getting hitched to a customer was so common,  some folks called the Fred Harvey Restaurants wedding factories.  And notably, while here or there a negative incident is described, none of the women interviewed has anything bad to say about the Fred Harvey Company.

Harvey Girls relaxing with longnecks

The Harvey company was very selective in who they hired; one Harvey Girl recalls that on her day, nine girls were interviewed, and only she and one other got the job.  The Harvey company stressed that their employees were ‘Harvey Girls’ and rarely used the term ‘waitress.’  In fact, a woman with previous experience as a waitress was unlikely to be hired: it was felt that they’d have too many bad habits to unlearn.  And speaking of ‘habits’, the Harvey Girl uniforms were so modest and covering that, as one of the Harvey Girls describes it, they were dressed like nuns.  But I would add, very cute nuns, and I can’t recall any nun’s habit that included a bow in the hair.

The stories of the individual Harvey Girls, and the eras each represents, are fascinating and revealing of the changes in America.   With the coming of The Great Depression, being a Harvey Girl offered hope for young women who were often their family’s sole support.  During the Second World War, the Harvey Girls became an integral part of the war effort.  With members of all forces criss-crossing the nation, no one was prepared and situated better than the Harvey Company to serve literally millions of quality on-the-go meals. 

Once-shuttered train-stops were re-opened, and whole hotels were taken over by the military.  And as one Harvey Girl remembers, the servicemen were so generous with their tips that when her husband returned from the War, she’d saved enough for a down-payment on a house!

The inclusion of Hispanic and American Indian women in the work force gave them opportunities they wouldn’t have elsewhere, and as one expressed it, made them ambassadors to mainstream America.

Editor Thaddeus Homan has done an elegant job of interweaving a wealth of historic footage and illustrations with the interviews and other new footage lensed effectively by Lara Sievert.  One of the unexpected and charming aspects revealed about the Fred Harvey company is a sort of whimsy.  When they expanded their empire to include hotels, even though they were brand new, they were created with a backstory.  At the beautifully restored La Posada Hotel in Winslow Arizona, where much of the new material is filmed, the story is that it was once the rancho of a wealthy Spanish family, now converted by their descendants to a hotel.

Director Katrina Parks at Union Station for her screening

THE HARVEY GIRLS – OPPORTUNITY BOUND runs its 57 minutes at a comfortable, steady pace, much like the Santa Fe Railroad.  Just last weekend it was screened in Los Angeles, at the normally shuttered Fred Harvey Restaurant in downtown’s Union Station, and attracted an unexpectedly large audience – over 450! – who were very enthusiastic.  Yesterday night it played in Dodge City, Kansas, and on Wednesday, August 2^nd, it will be screened by the Santa Clarita Historical Society.  If you would like to buy or rent this film, or arrange a screening, please go to this link: http://www.harveygirlsdocumentary.com/

If you have had any connection with the Harvey Girls or the Fred Harvey Company, that link will also take you to a place to share your memories.

WIN TWO TICKETS TO SEE ‘THE RED HOT RHYTHM RUSTLERS’!

On Thursday, June 19^th, The Red Hot Rhythm Rustlers will take to the stage of the Repertory East Playhouse at 24266 Main Street in Newhall, CA 91321.  This concert, like all the concerts in this series, are sponsored by Jim and Bobbi Jean Bell, the great folks who run the Outwest Western Boutique and Cultural Center – click the link at the top of this page to learn all about them. 

Marvin O’Dell, who this year won the Will Rogers Award from the Academy of Western Artists for his song, ‘Don Edwards For President’, and the Wrangler Award from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, leads the Western Swing band that is the Rustlers, which also includes Audrey McLaughlin, Gale Borre Rogers, Dawn Borre Pett, and Tom Boyer.  Their harmonies are excellent, their playing first rate, and they play a mix of classics, new material, and songs from the great B-westerns.  Here’s a favorite of mine, the Rustlers performing Ride, Cowboy Ride at the Autry last year.

And that brings us to how to win a pair of free tickets to the show, again courtesy of OutWest!  I was thinking there was a movie called RIDE, COWBOY, RIDE, and there is a short, featuring a young George Reeves before he started sidekicking for Hoppy (and before he became TV’s Man of Steel), but no feature.  But there are two features with similar titles, RIDE ‘EM COWBOY (1942) and RIDE HIM COWBOY (1932).  The first stars a famous comedy team, backed by Dick Foran and Johnny Mack Brown, and the second stars a man who, ironically, rides a horse named Duke.  To win the tickets, send an email to swansongmail@sbcglobal.net, and include the names of the stars of both movies, your name, address and phone number, and be sure to put Red Hot Rhythm Rustlers in the subject line.  The winner will be randomly selected from all correct entries. 

‘ROUTE 66 – THE ROAD AND THE ROMANCE’ OPENS AT THE AUTRY

Opening today at The Autry, ROUTE 66 – THE ROAD AND THE ROMANCE tells the story of the trans-continental road that changed the way Americans travel.  The push started in the 1880s with THE GOOD ROADS MOVEMENT, a campaign to replace the haphazard sprawl of roads and paths that tenuously connected our nation with something safe and efficient .  For forty years, big and small businessmen, bicycle enthusiasts and many others saw its value.  Among its biggest champions was the U.S. Postal Service: with the coming of RFD – rural free mail delivery becoming a legislated right of all Americans – some way to get the mail to them was pretty crucial.

In 1926, Route 66 began taking shape, linking Chicago to Los Angeles, dead-ending at the Santa Monica Pier, at the Pacific Ocean’s edge.  The road was new, but the route wasn’t: it largely followed the path of the Transcontinental Railroad, completed in 1869, which in turn had followed stagecoach roads, which followed centuries-old Indian foot-paths. 

The timing was crucial.  The coming of the automobile, the internal combustion engine, and Henry Ford’s assembly-line to speed up production and lower the cost, gave Americans a freedom to travel that they had never known, or perhaps even dreamed of.  Henry Ford famously said that if you’d asked Americans what they wanted, they wouldn’t have said automobiles – they’d have asked for faster horses.  The change the mass-produced car brought is mind-boggling: in 1900, there were 4,000 cars on American roads.  By 1930, there were twenty-seven million.

The large and comfortably spread-out exhibition touches on many aspects of the fabled route through the years.  In art, both before and after it’s building, Route 66’s path is portrayed by artists like Thomas Hart Benton, Maynard Dixon, and Jackson Pollack – such early Pollack that you can tell what it’s supposed to be! 

The various businesses that sprung up along the way are also noted – obviously gas stations, but also restaurants, gift shops, and other roadside attractions.  No surprise, Fred Harvey is here too, expanding their reach beyond the railways to promote their Indian Tours. 

Among the famous names associated with Route 66, one of the surprises for me was Will Rogers – shortly after his fatal plane crash, as many souvenirs and flyers demonstrate, 66 was re-named The Will Rogers Highway to attach a bit if stardust.  Another Rogers associated with the route was Roy Rogers, who traveled it on his way to Hollywood.  That was during the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, when Okies who’d lost everything loaded family in their jalopies and took to what John Steinbeck described in THE GRAPES OF WRATH as, “…the mother road, the road of flight.”

Much related to Steinbeck and GRAPES OF WRATH is on display.  So are objects belonging to Woody Guthrie, who like Steinbeck documented the lives and suffering of those on the road in search of work and food and hope.  You’ll see Woody’s guitar, hand-penned lyrics, and even sketches.

Woodie Guthrie's guitar

The image of Route 66 took on a very different vibe in the post-war years, a cool jazz vibe epitomized by the King Cole Trio’s version of Bobby Troup’s song, ‘Get Your Kicks on Route 66,’ which would be covered by the Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters, Mel Tormé, the Stones, Depeche Mode, and hundreds of others.

The single most astonishing artifact in the show relates to ‘beat’ author Jack Kerouac.  His most famous novel, ON THE ROAD was written while driving cross-country with friends, much of the time on Route 66.  I’d long heard that, impatient with endlessly having to change paper in his typewriter, he’d adapted it to type on a continuous roll of paper.  Hearing it is one thing, but it’s something else to see the original manuscript of ON THE ROAD – all 120 feet of it – written on a single ‘page’ and unspooled so you can read a couple of yard from the middle!

Jack Kerouac's ON THE ROAD manuscript

Some of the negative aspects are the most fascinating – one cabinet displays ‘colored’ guidebooks and maps showing where African Americans travelers were welcomed to eat and to stay, and by unspoken implication, where they weren’t.  Street signs warned that Negroes are only permitted within town limits until sunset.  With seeing American Indians being a huge tourist attraction, there are some embarrassing items of that sort as well.  I remember as a kid staying in a motel room shaped like a tepee, and thinking it was the coolest thing ever.  I don’t know if a nearby Indian kid would have been equally thrilled to stay in a novelty version of a Brooklyn apartment, and I guess I never will.

If I have one disappointment, it’s that my personal connection with the idea of Route 66 goes back to the TV series of that name, which from 1960 to 1964 followed Tod Stiles (Martin Milner) and Buz Murdock (George Maharis) as they drove cross-country, trying a new job in every town they entered, trying to find a place for themselves.  One small wall cabinet features a TV Guide, board game, a still and a toy Corvette.  I’d like to have seen more.  Then again, there is that big, beautiful real Corvette.

They road was decommissioned in 1985, and started deteriorating immediately – one novel display features chunks of asphalt from different decades, revealed by potholes.  Happily, there has been a revival of interest in Route 66 due to, of all things, an animated movie.   CARS, the Disney film centered on a deteriorating Route 66-like alternative universe peopled by cars, and voiced by Paul Newman and George Carlin in their last film roles, Owen Wilson, Bonnie Hunt and Larry The Cable Guy, has ignited interest in the can’t-drive-yet generation.    

Whether you can drive or not, you’ll enjoy ROUTE 66 – THE ROAD AND THE ROMANCE.  In connection with the exhibit, starting in July, several films will be screened, including John Ford’s adaptation of the Steinbeck novel, THE GRAPES OF WRATH, starring Henry Fonda and Jane Darwell, which won Best Director and Best Supporting Actress Oscars; BOUND FOR GLORY, Hal Ashby’s adaptation of Woody Guthrie’s autobiography, starring David Carradine, which won Best Cinematography and Music Oscars; and you guessed it, CARS.  Lear more here: http://route66.theautry.org/

OTHER HAPPENINGS AT THE AUTRY   

‘THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD’ SATURDAY JUNE 14^th

As part of the ongoing monthly ‘What Is A Western?’ series, this 2007 film, at the beginning of our recent revival of Western film interest and production, is the series’ third Jesse James film in a row, following Henry King’s 1939 JESSE JAMES, starring Tyrone Power and Henry Fonda as Jess and Frank; and Walter Hill’s 1980 THE LONG RIDERS, starring James and Stacy Keach as Jesse and Frank.  This one is written and directed by Andrew Dominik, and stars Brad Pitt and Sam Shepard as the brothers, and Casey Afleck as the dirty little coward, who shot Mr. Howard, and laid poor Jess in his grave, Lord, Lord; who laid poor Jesse in his grave.  And if you consider that a spoiler, you’re reading the wrong blog.

The film, which screens at 1:30 in the Welles Fargo Theatre, will be introduced by series curator Jeffrey Richardson, Gamble Curator of Western History, Popular Culture, and Firearms.

COWBOY LUNCH @ THE AUTRY: THE SPAGHETTI WESTERN!

Robert Woods by one of his posters

On Wednesday, June 18^th, as he does on the third Wednesday of every month, Western historian, filmmaker and raconteur Rob Word will be leading a lively discussion about Spaghetti Westerns, after a delicious lunch.  Rob always manages to get famous and talented actors and other-side-of-the-camera talent for these events, and this time will be no different: Spaghetti Western stars Robert Wood and Brett Halsey will attend, and who knows who else!  Stand by for more details next week!  By the way, lunch is at 12:30, the event is free, but you buy your own grub – and in honor of the special occasion, the menu will include spaghetti and buffalo meatballs in a garlic tomato sauce!  

Brett Halsey as Johnny Ringo

SHOWTIME PRESENTS – A SUMMER-LONG CELEBRATION OF FOOD, MOVIES & MUSIC

Kicking off last night with an outdoor screening of RUSHMORE, this is a series of free screenings at several Southern California locales.  At the Autry they open their doors at 5:30, have a live musical performance at 7, and a movie at 8:30.  More than a dozen food trucks are at each event.  This is outdoors, so bring your own blanket.  Movies being show at the Autry are JAWS on July 5, AMERICAN PSYCHO on July 19, BLAZING SADDLES (an actual western!) on August 2, PURPLE RAIN (not a western, as I recall) on August 16, and DJANGO UNCHAINED (definitely a western) on August 30.  To learn more about these screenings, and others in the series at other venues, go here: http://eatseehear.com/event-schedule/#.U5T3IfldUxF

                                                                                                                                   

THAT’S A WRAP!

Next week I’ll have news of a new Western TV movie, possibly a series, from a very unexpected source, and the story of a new Western about to film at a Western street in Jolly Old England! Have a great week!

Happy trails,

Henry

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

‘MILLION WAYS TO DIE’ AND ‘STOLEN RANCH’ REVIEWED, PLUS ‘LONGMIRE’ RETURNS!

A MILLION WAYS TO DIE IN THE WEST

A Film review

I’m wary of bestowing possessive titles on films:  I’m fine with ‘John Ford’s THE SEARCHERS’ or ‘Howard Hawks’ RIO BRAVO’ because those men have earned that credit over time.  To my surprise, I really think it’s ‘Seth McFarlane’s A MILLION WAYS TO DIE IN THE WEST’, because not only does he direct and star in the film, he co-wrote it, and his fellow writers Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild attest to the fact that MacFarlane is the driving force, the one with the long-term commitment to making a western, in this case a western comedy.  He has done it surprisingly well; A MILLION WAYS TO DIE IN THE WEST is a charming, raunchy delight!

Liam Neeson

From the opening moments, you know the film is no throwaway – Universal loves McFarlane after the money he made them with TED, and it’s said they’ll give him anything he wants as long as he makes TED 2.  Following the unwritten but crucial rule that you can’t successfully parody something if you can’t do it as well, the film is breathtakingly shot and beautifully scored.  Much is shot in Monument Valley, and cinematographer Michael Barrett lenses those John Ford buttes and valleys and mesas as gorgeously as anyone ever has.   Composer Joel McNeely, who won an Emmy for his YOUNG INDIANA JONES scores, creates a score that, while not derivative or imitative, brings to mind the best of Dimitri Tiomkin, Elmer Bernstein, Alfred Newman and George Bassman. 

Set in Arizona in 1882, though largely shot in New Mexico, it’s the story of Albert Stark, a sheep-rancher, and since it is a measure of impressive self-restraint – not something MacFarlane is known for – let me astonish you: there is not even one reference to BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN in the entire film!  Instead, the film opens with poor Albert about to be gunned down by a cattleman for letting his sheep stray and overgraze the prairie – see, MacFarlane has actually seen a lot of westerns!  Portraying a character not unlike Bob Hope’s in his westerns, Albert, with no hope of outdrawing the man, manages to negotiate a deal – and in the process loses the love of his girlfriend Louise (Amanda Seyfried), who now sees him as a coward as well an incompetent sheepherder.  Her affections are stolen by the ultimate mustache-twirling villain, Foy (Neil Patrick Harris), who actually runs a mustache emporium! 

Matt Clark, with and without the fur

In the desert just outside of town, an old prospector is riding along, his donkey pulling a buckboard, the old sourdough telling the animal how their gold strike will make them rich.  Then their way is blocked by a band of outlaws led by Clinch (Liam Neeson), who exudes the kind of smiling menace only a man with supreme confidence can produce.  Despite the protests of Clinch’s wife Anna (Charlize Theron), the old man doesn’t live long.  And cheers for MacFarlane’s love of the genre for casting Matt Clark as the prospector!  The Elisha Cook Jr. of his generation, Clark has played victims and low-level villains in scores of westerns: in 1972 and 1973 alone he appeared in THE COWBOYS, THE CULPEPPER CATTLE CO., THE GREAT NORTHFIELD MINNESOTA RAID, JEREMIAH JOHNSON, THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JUDGE ROY BEAN and PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID.   Displeased at his wife’s behavior, Clinch sends her and one of his men to the nearest town to sit out the next train robbery – they’ll be back for her in twelve days. 

In town Albert and Anna meet, and circumstances free her from her gun-toting wet-nurse.  They become friends, and Anna’s attempts to help him win back Louise, by making her jealous, backfire when the outcome is Albert challenging Foy to a duel.  Of course, Louise has to teach Albert how to shoot.  Now, as a reader of the Round-up, I’m going to guess that, between movies and TV, you’ve probably seen ‘teaching-the-beginner-how-to-shoot- bottles-off-a-fence’ sequences a hundred times – maybe more.  Somehow MacFarlane, who really takes his time with this, manages to make it fresh and convincing and funny, and ultimately romantic.  And the barroom brawl is the best scene of its kind I can recall in twenty or thirty years, all the more because it acknowledges its own absurdity: when the fight breaks out between two characters, all the uninvolved men throughout the bar give a, “Oh well, here we go again” shrug, and start randomly beating each other.

The big 'Mustache' dance number 

A lot of the fun grows out of the history: when Anna and Albert want to sing, they have to acknowledge that there are only about three songs, and all of them are by Stephen Foster.  In fact, in a square-dance sequence that is something of a nod to 7 BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS and CAT BALLOU, Foy leads them in a song about mustaches, which is credited to Foster as well.  When Albert, missing Louise, is leafing through pictures of them together, instead of the sort of snapshots that are usually used, and historically ridiculous, he is looking at tintypes, and much fun is gotten from the fact that you couldn’t smile in them, because the exposures took so long.

Sarah Silverman and Giovanni Ribisi

Wes Studi has a nice part as Cochise, who introduces Albert to the exciting world of peyote. Also enjoyable in supporting roles are Albert’s friends, the local whore, played by Sarah Silverman, and her virginal boyfriend, played by Giovanni Ribisi – they’re saving him for marriage.  Taking a bit of the fun out of them are the frequent references to them being Christians, as if there is some Christian dictate that it’s okay to be a prostitute but not an unmarried non-virgin.  Of all the world’s religions, only Christians – Mormons included – are expected to tolerate this crap incessantly. 

And speaking of the offensive stuff, the obscene dialogue and occasional sheep-urinating-on-the-star’s-face ‘gags’ seem oddly arbitrary, often forced, and usually not funny beyond shock value.  Although maybe this was meant as a jab at DEADWOOD’s excessive obscenity, and the pious and absurd claims that ‘this was how they really talked back then,’ when in truth, using ‘fighting words’ as mild as ‘sonuvabitch’ could get you legally shot.

As opposed to, say, BLAZING SADDLES, which is pure burlesque from start to finish, A MILLION WAYS TO DIE IN THE WEST is at its core a sweet movie with likable characters you grow to care about.   A great deal of its potential rises and falls on Seth MacFarlane’s ability as a leading man, and he carries the movie very well.  Aside from youngsters who do not need to be rushed into adulthood, and adults for whom the obscenity would ruin the fun, I recommend it highly!

THE STOLEN RANCH – A Silent Western

A  DVD Review

Grapevine Video just keeps expanding my knowledge of the silent western, this time with a Fred Humes starrer, THE STOLEN RANCH (1926).  Not familiar with Humes?  He was a pretty big name towards the end of the silent days.  Under contract to Universal in the twenties, in popularity he was a runner-up to the studio’s reigning kings, Hoot Gibson and Jack Hoxie. 

THE STOLEN RANCH is an unusual story, set not in the old west of the 19^th century, but the nearly contemporary – for 1926 – west of the First World War.  Humes plays Breezy Hart, a soldier who befriends another in the trenches, Frank Wilcox (Ralph McCullough).  The stress of endless war has caused Frank to crack: only Breezy’s tight grip and calming talk keeps Frank from an ugly death in ‘no man’s land’.  After the war Frank, suffering from what would be called Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome today – then it was ‘shell-shock’ – is heading to his late Uncle’s  ranch.  Frank expected to be left the ranch, but his uncle’s foreman claims a new will gives the ranch to him. 

Determined to get a look at the inside of the ranch operation, Breezy gets a job there as the cook’s assistant, and does some snooping.  Also in the cast are Louise Larraine as a ranch girl and Humes’ love interest, Nita Cavalier as the lawyer’s daughter and Frank Wilcox’s love interest, and villains like William Bailey, Slim Whitaker and Jack Kirk, who each have more than 300 screen credits, nearly all of them westerns.  Humes is a cheerful, likable performer, and the movie skillfully switches back and forth between the western mystery elements, comic romance, and the trauma of war flashbacks triggered by the sound of a random gunshot.

Admittedly, the film is not a classic in its storytelling: too much plot relies on overheard conversation.  And by today’s standards, the amount of male hugging and other physical bonding borders on the homoerotic.  But overall it is a thoughtful and entertaining movie, with all the action elements you want in a western, and enough unexpected aspects to make it memorable.

Men psychologically damaged by war, and the mixed welcome soldiers received when coming home, were not usually the stuff of western programmers, but then, most western programmers were not directed by the likes of William Wyler.  One of the truly legendary directors of Hollywood, Wyler’s sophistication, intellect, and heart would earn him three Oscars, for BEN HUR (1959), MRS. MINIVER (1942), and most relevant to this discussion, THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946), the story of returning veterans of the Second World War.  For the record, Wyler also directed Walter Brennan to an Oscar playing Judge Roy Bean in THE WESTERNER, excelled in romantic comedies like ROMAN HOLIDAY, and drew two of the best child performances ever – from Bonita Granville and Marcia Mae Jones – in THESE THREE (Merle Oberon, Miriam Hopkins and Joel McCrea are pretty good, too).  He also put aside his career for several years to go to war, making films for the government, entertainingly  detailed in the new book, FIVE CAME BACK: A STORY OF HOLLYWOOD AND THE SECOND WORLD WAR, by Mark Harris. 

Another pro on the project was writer George H. Plympton, an unsung master of entertaining storytelling whose over 300 credits, often shared, include FLASH GORDON, and many of the best Republic serials, plus b-westerns and Bowery Boys films. 

Humes and Wyler would make two more westerns the following year, but the actor, who as a sideline played gorillas in several movies, would have a minor career once sound came in.  Although he worked steadily for many years, it was mostly unnamed characters in uncredited roles.  Humes, who played sidekicks and villains to Hoot Gibson in five of the star’s silents, may have made a personal connection.  In 1935, when Hoot was a big star, and Humes was reduced to playing bit parts, Hoot used him in two more movies. 

THE STOLEN RANCH, which features a lively piano score by David Knudston, is available from Grapevine Video.  http://www.grapevinevideo.com/stolen_ranch.html

‘LONGMIRE’ MARATHON PRECEDES SEASON 3 PREMIERE MONDAY NIGHT!

Monday, June 2^nd, at 10 p.m., LONGMIRE returns to A&E for a third season.  I can’t tell you too much about the new season because I haven’t seen any yet – I hope to have a screener on Monday, and will review it next Sunday.  What I can say for sure is that of all the current dramas of the past several years, there are only two that I never miss: HELL ON WHEELS and LONGMIRE.  If you are behind in your episodes, or you just want to refresh your memory, A&E is running all of season two earlier in the day – check your local listings!

THAT’S A WRAP!

That’s it for today!  Have a great week!

Happy Trails,

Henry

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

CANNES REPORT – TARANTINO ON ‘DJANGO’ MINI; ‘HOMESMAN’ NABS A DOMESTIC DISTRIBER, PLUS ‘B-MOVIE’ REVIEW!

TARANTINO AT CANNES: ‘HATEFUL 8’ AND ‘DJANGO’ NEWS

Franco Nero, Quentin Tarantino, Uma Thurman

picture by Getty Images

Quentin Tarantino was at Cannes to present A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS on closing night, and had plenty to say – or tease – about his upcoming Western projects, according to Deadline: Hollywood.  About THE HATEFUL EIGHT, once cancelled, then revived after doing the live audience reading: “I have calmed down a bit from the knife in the back. The wound is starting to scab.” He said the staged reading was “…a blast. I might do that on every script.  It was great to have three days of rehearsal and hear it out loud.” The second draft is nearly finished, and he’s contemplating a third. “I’m in no hurry. Maybe I’ll shoot it. Maybe I’ll publish it. Maybe I’ll do it on the stage. Maybe I’ll do all three.”

Also, with an hour and a half of unused scenes from DJANGO UNCHAINED, he’s considering a four-hour miniseries.  “The idea is to cut together a four-hour version…cut it up into one-hour chapters like a four-part miniseries and show it on cable television. People love those!”

SABAN FILM ACQUIRES ‘THE HOMESMAN’ AT CANNES

In what was described by Deadline: Hollywood as “a competitive situation,” Saban Films, a brand-new entity of Saban Entertainment, has acquired the North American distribution rights to the well-reviewed Western, for about $3,500,000.  Based on Glendon Swarthout’s 1988 novel, the film is directed by and stars Tommy Lee Jones, co-starring with Hilary Swank, with a supporting cast that includes Meryl Street, James Spader, John Lithgow, Hailee Steinfeld, and Barry Corbin. 

Saban Entertainment has a long history of kid entertainment, long associated with various incarnations of the MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS, but they have had considerable experience in distribution and production of features as well, beginning in 1988 with the remarkable HEATHERS.  They’ve also been involved with at least two previous Westerns.  In 1994 they distributed TRIGGER FAST, based on a J.T. Edson novel, starring Jurgen Prochnow, Martin Sheen and Corbin Bernsen.  That same year they produced the Western comedy SAMAURI COWBOY, starring Hiromi Go, Robert Conrad and Catherine Mary Stewart.  They also own the beautiful Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills, built in 1930 as the Fox Wilshire.

ORIGINAL ‘DJANGO’ ATTENDS CANNES ‘FISTFUL’ CLOSING SCREENING

Franco Nero with DJANGO LIVES producer

David Hollander

Franco Nero, the original DJANGO, soon to star in DJANGO LIVES!, attended the Cannes closing screening of A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS; he’s seen here with DJANGO LIVES! producer Davis Hollander.  The screening was to honor the 50^th anniversary of the Spaghetti Western, and it’s amusing that Nero attended, as the great debate among fans has always been whether the Sergio Leone/Clint Eastwood films or the Sergio Corbucci/Franco Nero films are the greatest of the genre.  I refuse to choose.  But what is inarguable is that Clint Eastwood is the image of the Spaghetti Western in the United States, and Franco Nero is the image in Europe.

‘RESURRECTION OF EL PURO’ STARTS PRE-PRODUCTION

Not all the Western action was at Cannes this week!  Here’s Chip Baker Film’s Cesar Mendez with the original El Puro, Robert Woods in Los Angeles, on the first day of pre-production of RESURRECTION OF EL PURO, the sequel to the 1969 EL PURO (a.k.a. La taglia è tua... l'uomo l'ammazzo io) .  The script is finally locked, and they plan to roll camera in late September, after the 2014 Almeria Western Film Festival has wrapped.  Starring Woods, of course, the cast will include Western stalwarts Brett Halsey, Simone Blondel, Nicolleta Machiavelli, and Antonio Mayans.

B MOVIE – A Play by Michael B. Druxman

A Review

In a way, traveling to the period of B-MOVIE, Michael Druxman’s play about the Barbara Payton/Franchot Tone/Tom Neal scandal, is more of a time-warp than going back to the Civil War: it’s a trip from the Post-Morality present to the 1950s, when a morality clause was something to keep an actor, not a basketball-team owner, in line. 

Today, there may be no such thing as bad publicity – the once-clear line between fame and infamy has been erased.  Kim Kardashian became a media star with no other talent or credentials than staring in a home porn video: this week she and rapper Kanye West had an exorbitantly expensive wedding in Italy, her third, and she wore white.  In the 1950s, one single still photograph was taken of Barbara Payton and Tom Neal doing something similar to Kim’s video: it ended both of their careers.

B-MOVIE is a two-act, three-character play about three very real characters, who suddenly were forced into the spotlight of public moral judgment.  They were all known actors with varying degrees of success.  Franchot Tone was the big star, ever since 1935, and the splash he made with MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY.  Under contract to MGM, and later other studios, he worked regularly with Jean Harlow, Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy.  Suave, elegant, educated; but his character rarely got the girl.  He was Ralph Bellamy until Ralph Bellamy came along.   His first marriage was to Joan Crawford, and he’d have three more, including Payton.  I liked him best, cast against type, in an underrated noir from Universal, THE PHANTOM LADY.  It’s the only role I recall where his character was as dangerous as Tone could really be, when crossed.

Barbara Payton, 22 years Tone’s junior, was a platinum blonde beauty who impressed in the early 1950s opposite Cagney with KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE, opposite Gregory Peck in ONLY THE VALIANT, and opposite Guy Madison in the Civil War drama DRUMS IN THE DEEP SOUTH.  Not coy, she admits in her autobiography that she slept with most of her producers, directors and leading men.  Gregory Peck found her presence so distracting and disturbing that he had her banned from their set when she wasn’t working.  Even when she was going with Tone, she and Guy Madison were less than discreet about their relationship.

from JUNGLE GIRL

Compared to Tone and even to Payton, Tom Neal was a bit out of his league.  Even with a long list of credits going back to 1938, his roles were usually minor, often unnamed characters  – typically, in an episode of THE GENE AUTRY SHOW his character is ‘animal abuser.’  But he was a big, handsome guy with a strong jaw and a great physique, shown off well without a shirt, as the male lead in the Republic serial JUNGLE GIRL.  He was with the Duke in FLYING TIGERS, with Rondo Hatton in THE BRUTE MAN, and his biggest break doubtless was as the star of Edgar G. Ulmer’s no-budget noir, DETOUR.  But what a picture to be the lead in; sometimes described as the best B-movie of all time, it is only considered that by the sort of moviegoer who would rather laugh at a bad movie than enjoy the qualities of a good one.  It is ironic indeed that Neal plays a hapless dope traveling to L.A. to meet up with his fiancé, and en route keeps accidentally killing people.  When he finally did kill someone in real life, he’d claim that was an accident, too.

Druxman’s play starts in the 1960s, with Tone, his career and dignity somewhat recovered, living in a New York brownstone.  Neal is in Palm Springs, in a cell, waiting to go on trial for the murder of his third wife.  Tone is astonished and amused to be asked to contribute money to Neal’s defense – the former Golden Gloves fighter nearly beat Tone to death over Payton.  And yes, it really did happen.  And yes, Tone did contribute.

Gregory Peck and Barbara Payton in

ONLY THE VALIANT

They sometimes address each other, sometimes speak directly to the audience.  The story bounces back and forth between the two men and their memories of Barbara Payton, the woman who loved them both, who made and changed decisions, who made and broke promises, and ruined both men’s lives, and her own.  Although some would say that what ruined Payton and Neal was the photograph, and what ruined Tone was being a husband brought so low that he papered the studios with it.

Payton and Tone

It's a fascinating and tragic story, told with humor and empathy, and a great sense of the people and time and place involved.  After I read it, I watched MUNTINY ON THE BOUNTY, and DETOUR, and Payton in BRIDE OF THE GORILLA, and was struck by how well Druxman captured their voices in his words.  No surprise, really.  After a long career as a publicist, Michael became a very busy writer and sometime-director for Roger Corman, scripting CHEYENNE WARRIOR, one of the best Westerns of the last twenty years. 

As much devoted to theatre as he is to film, Druxman has written and published a series of one-person biographical plays of the stars, called THE HOLLYWOOD LEGENDS, which have seen numerous productions.  Their subjects include Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable, Orson Welles, Errol Flynn, Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald, Clara Bow – his best-selling, and Al Jolson – his most successfully produced. 

In addition to his talent, all of us struggling writers can take a lesson from Michael, who aggressively gets his work out there like no one else I know.  B-MOVIE is in negotiations currently, but it is a very new play, and there have been as yet no stage productions.  If you’re looking for a two male, one female play with simple sets, check it out.  You can purchase this play or his others through Amazon.com.  If you’re interested in licensing a play, write to him: Michael B. Druxman, PMB 142, 6425 S. IH-35, Suite 150, Austin, TX 78744, or email him at druxy@ix.netcom.com.  You can visit his official site HERE . You can read my interview with Michael HERE .

Neal and Payton

SILENT SCREENINGS SAT. AT EGYPTIAN FEATURE MICKEY ‘MCGUIRE’ ROONEY!

On Saturday, May 31^st, the Retroformat folks, the ones who show rare silents in 8mm, are taking a break from their D.W. Griffith series to show a varied program including the role that made Mickey Rooney a star – and no, it’s not Andy Hardy.  It’s the Mickey McGuire films, a silent series capitalizing on the success of Hal Roach’s Our Gang comedies.  They’ll be screening Mickey in MICKEY’S MOVIES; Harry Langdon in SOLDIER MAN, one of his earliest collaborations with Frank Capra; DANGER GIRL, a Mack Sennett Comedy starring Gloria Swanson; Larry Semon (why didn’t he change his name?) in THE SHOW; and chapters 11 & 12 of the serial THE WOMAN IN GREY.  There will be a live musical accompaniment by Cliff Retallick. 

THAT'S A WRAP!

I hope you had a great Memorial Day weekend, and I hope you took time to remember that it's more than a three-day weekend: it's a day to honor the memory of men and women who gave their lives to preserve our freedom!

Happy Trails,

Henry

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