‘KILL OR BE KILLED’ REVIEW, PLUS MILES SWARTHOUT TRIBUTE, ‘WORD ON WESTERNS’, ‘HIGH CHAPARRAL’ REUNION!

Justin Meeks

KILL OR BE KILLED – A Movie Review

It’s not by chance that, although it was shot in Texas, filmmakers Duane Graves and Justin Meeks have the main credits playing over vista shots chosen to look like Almeria, Spain locations impersonating Texas.  The titles themselves are in the Spaghetti Western style, and the fine score by John Constant and Nick Durham, while not blatantly imitative, is surely influenced by Ennio Morricone.  KILL OR BE KILLED is a Texas Western with roots in Tabernas. 

Graves and Meeks have co-directed and co-written, and Justin Meeks stars as Claude ‘Sweet Tooth’ Barbee, in this story of the aftermath of a train robbery.   It seems the robbery went well, and everyone escaped except for ‘Slap’ Jack Davis (Paul McCarthy-Boyington), who managed to hide the loot near Galveston before his capture.  The gang – to call them a company of rogues is to put it generously – springs ‘Slap’ Jack from a prison railroad construction gang, and they head back to Galveston to claim their booty. 

They have many adventures along the way, with messengers, ventriloquists, parsons, whores, lawmen, children, families, doctors – many of whom they kill.  But then, the gang members themselves start being killed off in eerie ways.  Will any of them be left to find the hidden cache of gold? 

A low-budget indie Western that belies its small cost, the film is highly professional in all technical aspects, with convincing production design.  It’s beautifully shot by Brandon Torres, who makes full use of the richly varied landscape of Texas, from mountain to desert to ocean to forest.  A Horror film as well as a Western, it is unflinchingly brutal: the camera goes in, not away, for dangling entrails and bullet-hits to the head. 

The cast, though largely unfamiliar, are convincing in their roles, and there are a couple of well-known faces: Pepe Serna as a man who runs a strange family business out of his home, and Michael Berryman – the terrifying gargoyle from THE HILLS HAVE EYES – as a kindly town doctor! 

There is a growing, creepy fascination to the tale as it wends its way.  But the story has one striking flaw: with absolutely nothing redeeming about any members of the gang, there is no one for the viewer to care about, or root for, except for some of the victims. 

Michael Berryman

KILL OR BE KILLED is available on Amazon and other VOD services, and on DVD from RLJ Entertainment. 

WEDNESDAY’S COWBOY LUNCH – WESTERNS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED

Wednesday, March 16^th Rob Word again presents A Word on Westerns at the Autry’s Crossroads West Café, his every-other-month luncheon, get together and discussion of Western movies, featuring the folks the folks who made ‘em.  This time the topic is Westerns You Might Have Missed,  and his guests include actor Tom Bower, whose Westerns include BALLAD OF GREGORIO CORTEZ (1982) ,  Louis L’Amour’s SHAUGHNESSY (1996), and APPALOOSA (2008).  Also on board is Mitch Ryan, who starred with Lee Marvin and Jack Palance in MONTE WALSH (1970), THE HUNTING PARTY (1971), and THE HONKERS (1972) with James Coburn.  Rand Brooks Jr., whose father was Scarlet O’Hara’s first husband in GONE WITH THE WIND (1939) will be there to discuss his father’s career as Lucky Jenkins in the HOPALONG CASSIDY movies. And for your musical entertainment, there will be Will Ryan and the Saquaro Sisters.  As always, the event is free – you just have to buy your own lunch.  The fun starts at noon, and if you plan to attend, get there early, because they always have a packed house for Rob’s events! 

Rob attended, and recorded, the ceremony where composer Ennio Morricone received his much-deserved star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  Take a look.  And incredibly, he shot this on his I-phone!

‘HIGH CHAPARRAL’ REUNION STARTS THURSDAY MARCH 17^TH!

March 17^th through the 20^th, Old Tucson Studios, the original home of the HIGH CHAPARRAL series, where Big John Cannon’s ranch-house still proudly stands, will be the site of the HIGH CHAPARRAL REUNION 2016!  Returning to their old galloping-grounds will be series stars Don Collier, Rudy Ramos and BarBara Luna.  They’ll be joined by a posse of stars from other Western series, including Robert Fuller from LARAMIE and WAGON TRAIN, Darby Hinton from DANIEL BOONE and the recent TEXAS RISING, Roberta Shore from THE VIRGINIAN, frequent John Wayne co-star Eddie Faulkner, and Stan Ivar from LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE.  Also on-board are HIGH CHAPARRAL producers Kent and Susan McCray, and writers and historians Boyd Magers, Charlie LeSueur, Neil Summers, and Joel McCrea’s son Wyatt McCrea. 

Even if you haven’t made your reservations in advance, you can still attend!  You can find your options by visiting the official site HERE.

And here’s something special for all HIGH CHAPARRAL fans, and it’s free!  Last year the Reunion inaugurated a live Webcast of the event.  It was not cheap, but it was very entertaining and informative.  HIGH CHAPARRAL REUNION Top Hand Penny McQueen has decided that this year’s Webcast will be FREE!  You’ll be able to watch it HERE starting Thursday! 

‘THE SHOOTIST’ SCRIPTER MILES SWARTHOUT DIES

Me interviewing Miles at the Cowboy Festival

All of us in the Western writing community were stunned and saddened to learn of the death of Miles Swarthout.  A Western novelist in his own right, most recently with the fine THE LAST SHOOTIST, Miles was also the son of legendary authors Glendon and Kathryn Swarthout.  He was a man of humor, and of strong opinions, and mentor to a number of now-successful writers.  I’m re-posting the interview I had with Miles at 2014’s Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival at Melody Ranch, at the OutWest Buckaroo Bookstore. 

MILES SWARTHOUT INTERVIEW

HENRY: It gives me great pleasure to introduce Miles Swarthout, a very talented author whose writing about 90% of you have appreciated, even though you haven’t read it.  Because he’s a screenwriter.  This is the man who wrote the screenplay for THE SHOOTIST, John Wayne’s final film, and one of his finest.  And in scripting THE SHOOTIST, he had the rare challenge not only of adapting a great novel, but a great novel that his own father, Glendon Swarthout, had written.  Glendon wrote sixteen novels, and several became movies, including 7^TH CAVALRY, starring Randolph Scott; THEY CAME TO CORDURA, starring Gary Cooper; BLESS THE BEASTS AND CHILDREN, WHERE THE BOYS ARE, and premiering this May at the Cannes Film Festival, THE HOMESMAN, directed by and starring Tommy Lee Jones, and starring Hilary Swank and Meryl Streep.  Welcome, Miles.  Can you tell us a little about THE HOMESMAN?

MILES: THE HOMESMAN was a novel that my dad wrote, and came out in 1988.  That year it swept the Western genre  awards, winning The Wrangler Award, from the Western Heritage Association, affiliated with the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, and the WWA Spur Award for the Best Western Novel of 1988.  Paul Newman was the original director who bought the film rights to THE HOMESMAN.  I worked on the original drafts, adaptations for Paul Newman.  But Paul jumped around studios; the Writer Guild Strike intervened in 1988 for about six months, and several other screenwriters later on got attached to the project doing different drafts.  Paul became too old to play the title role any more, as the rugged frontiersman, and had different stars attached to play the lead role.  It just didn’t happen.  He sold the rights back to SONY PICTURES/COLUMBIA, when he had Bruce Willis attached to play the homesman, but it fell into what’s called ‘development Hell.’  Nothing happened to it for a number of years – they couldn’t get it financed.  Paul Newman died of cancer a few years after that.  But Tommy Lee Jones was looking around to direct and star in another Western, and he had the same talent agency (as Paul Newman), Creative Artists, that remembered this book that Paul Newman had tried a number of times to get made with different stars.  Tommy got the financing from his buddy, the French director Luc Besson, who has his own films studio outside of Paris, and his own film distribution company.  Luc also financed Tommy Lee’s last western that he directed in 2005, THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA.  That was a contemporary western shot down in Texas.  That won a couple of awards at Cannes in 2005.  Creative Artists helped Tommy put together the cast for THE HOMESMAN.  It’s fantastic: Hilary Swank, the two-time Oscar winner is Tommy’s co-star.  Tommy Lee Jones is an Oscar winner for THE FUGITIVE with Harrison Ford, Best Supporting Actor.  And they’ve got Meryl Streep in the movie – she’s got a cameo role.  And Streep’s youngest daughter, her name is Grace Gummer; she has a bigger part in the film.  John Lithgow, two-time Oscar nominee is in it.  James Spader, who’s in the NBC hit THE BLACK LIST is in the film.  They’ve got an Oscar-nominated cinematographer, and a two-time Oscar-nominated composer, Marco Beltrami, has done the music.  

HENRY:  Speaking of the cast, I understand that Barry Corbin is in the film.  Hasn’t he worked with Tommy Lee Jones before?

MILES: He was in NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, playing Tommy Lee’s father in that. 

HENRY:  The premise of THE HOMESMAN is a little outrageous.  Could you give us a summary of it?

MILES:  The Homesman is a claim jumper.  It’s set in the 1850s, the Great Plains state of Nebraska.  He’s a claim jumper, and some of the local residents take offense that he’s sitting on one of their buddy’s claims, while their buddy has gone back east to find a wife.  They blast him out of this sod home that he’s roosting in, and almost hang him, and a spinster woman, Hilary Swank, comes along.  She decides to let him go, because she’s just been chosen by a lottery system by the community, in this small frontier farming town on the Great Plains, to drive back east four women who have gone insane after this very hard winter.  They’ve gone crazy, and they can’t take care of them in this remote area, so someone has to drive them across the Missouri River, the Big Muddy, and back to civilization.

HENRY: Have you run into any complaints about sexism – why do the women go crazy, and not the men?

MILES: Historically some of the men went crazy, too.  They became raving alcoholics; they couldn’t keep them in the local jails.  If they were disruptive and making people angry or uncomfortable, somebody’d just shoot them, but they wouldn’t do that to a woman.  This is a very unusual story, a female-oriented Western, a mismatched couple running this wagon east with some women who have gone insane. 

HENRY: Let’s talk about THE SHOOTIST.  What was it like to adapt a novel to a screenplay with a man, not just the author, but your father, looking over your shoulder?

MILES: Well, that was my first screenplay adaptation, and you’re talking with the creative genius who made up the story in the first place, so he’s got a lot of good input.  My dad did not write screenplays.  He worked on the very first one for six months at Columbia Pictures, his best-selling novel, THEY CAME TO CORDURA.  He was out in Hollywood, and he got job offers after that, to work for Burt Lancaster’s company Hecht, Hill and Lancaster, but he turned them down.  He said no, I’m going back to Michigan State in East Lansing, to teach honors English.  And I’m going to write other books, and I don’t want people telling me how to make changes and how to write stuff.  So he gambled, and that turned out very well for him.  His second novel was WHERE THE BOYS ARE, 1960, and it was a big hit for MGM, with Connie Francis singing the theme.  But your question was about adapting THE SHOOTIST.  And of course I showed him drafts, and we discussed stuff.  I did get a screen credit on that.  They did make a lot of changes.  Don Siegel, the director, had another writer that he’d worked with before, a guy named Scott Hale, who was making changes on the set constantly, for Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne, and big stars with big egos who wanted things adjusted and changed.  So he wrote just enough of the rewritten script to get screen credit on the film.  But luckily, it turned out, even though it was a very difficult shoot, in Carson City, Nebraska, and on the backlot at Warner Brothers Studio in Burbank.  They had a lot of problems; Wayne came down with the flu and an ear infection.  And he was in the hospital for a couple of weeks.  They shut down filming, and he came back and got sick again, and they put him back in the hospital.  They didn’t know if he was going to live, and if they could even finish the movie.  So a lot of stuff had to be adjusted.  It was the last film he ever made.  His health deteriorated after that, and about two years later, John Wayne died.  But the movie, even though he was feuding all the time of the filming with this tough director, Don Siegel, turned out very well.  They had a great supporting cast.  John Wayne was playing a gunfighter who was dying of cancer in the film.  It was prostate cancer in the film.  But Wayne had lost one lung a couple of years ago to lung cancer, and he knew at the time of shooting THE SHOOTIST that his cancer had come out of remission, and he didn’t tell the doctors and he didn’t tell the filmmakers.  So he was obviously in some pain while making this movie.  He’s playing a gunfighter dying of cancer, and he’s got cancer at the same time: talk about a movie that was hand-tailored for a famous actor as his last film.  It just turned out very well.

HENRY:  It certainly did.  As you said, your father did not write for the screen, but by the time he wrote THE SHOOTIST, he was well aware that he had a real good chance of having his novels filmed.  He’d had several movies already done very successfully.  Do you think he had a movie in mind as he was writing the book?  Do you think he thought of John Wayne?

MILES:  No, he didn’t think of John Wayne.  The original guy that the two producers, Bill Self and Mike Frankovich wanted to play the Shootist, was George C. Scott.  And George C. Scott read the book and screenplay and said, “I’d love to do this.  Don’t change one word of the script.”  We thought that sounds great.  But the producers took it around to all the studios with George C. Scott attached as the shootist.  And all the studios went, ‘No, General Patton can’t be a cowboy.’  He’d already won his Oscar playing Patton, and they wouldn’t bankroll it.  But Wayne at the same time had heard about this story, and he started lobbying for the role, because he was the right age, and with Wayne attached as the shootist, they got half of the eight million dollar budget from Paramount Pictures, for the North American rights.  And they got the other half of the money from the famous Italian producer Dino de Laurentiis.  He made that big monkey movie with Jessica Lange – KING KONG, and a whole bunch of other movie.  Dino didn’t speak English very well, so he couldn’t read it; they had to tell him the story.  And he said, “John Wayne, cowboy?  Ya, he be good.”  The Duke was cast, and then a whole bunch of really good ‘name’ supporting actors – Jimmy Stewart, Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard, Hugh O’Brien, all worked at lower than their normal salaries to be in this, because word had gotten around that Wayne’s health was pretty shaky, and it might be his last picture.  Hollywood supports its own – particularly its legends like John Wayne.  So that’s how they got a great cast, and the rest is film history.   It’s now considered to be one of his five best Westerns.  It’s past the test of time.  

HENRY:  I was just reading where Harry Carey Jr. was saying that while John Wayne got his Oscar for TRUE GRIT, and deserved it, he deserved it even more for THE SHOOTIST. 

‘THE SHOOTIST’ SPOILER ALERT!

HENRY: The book is a very tight 158 pages, but still, no book reaches the screen without edits.  What sort of changes needed to be made, to make it into a movie? 

MILES:  You have to cut out some of the characters.  You have to trim it to get about a 120 page script – about a page a minutes.  The ending of the novel is different than the ending of the movie.  John Wayne dictated the ending of the movie, and there was a lot of controversy over this.  In the ending of the movie, John Wayne has this big shootout in this fancy saloon.  And he shoots Hugh O’Brien, and he shoots Richard Boone – who was a late addition.  That was a different character than the character in the book.  And John Wayne, after shooting these guys, and being wounded, and already knowing he’s dying of cancer – sort of committing suicide – the bartender comes out with a shotgun and shoots him – blows him in the back.  So he’s dying, when Ron Howard comes into the saloon, the bartender is reloading.  Ron takes Wayne’s Remington .44, and shoots the bartender, and kills the guy who shot John Wayne.  And then, as dictated by the Duke, Ron throws the gun away.  This is a kid, the Shootist is his hero, and he wants to be a gunfighter, too.  But now that he’s killed a man, he throws the gun away, renounces violence, and goes home with his mother, played by Lauren Bacall.  The problem with this ending is there’s no possible sequel.  Hollywood loves sequels.  In the book, John Wayne is dying.  The kid doesn’t shoot the bartender, but John Wayne asks Ron Howard to kill him, ‘Finish me off.’  And the Ron Howard character says ‘okay,’ and he shoots him – it’s a mercy killing, and Wayne asked for it.  And they had already made a deal in advance that Ron gets his two Remington .44 pistols.  He takes them, and walks outside of the saloon – it’s a great ending passage.  And people are asking if they can buy the guns, and what happened in there.  The Shootist has killed all the hard-cases in El Paso, and suddenly, the kid is the one who killed The Shootist.  And that’s the sequel –

HENRY: If I ever heard one!  Somebody should write it!

MILES:  (laugh) My new novel is called THE LAST SHOOTIST, and it’s coming out in October from Forge Books-MacMillan in New York City.  And it’s the next six months in this kid’s life.  The Shootist is dead, but this kid has got John Wayne’s matched pistols, and he’s got to flee 1901 El Paso, because the sheriff is after him.  The sheriff wants those guns because they’re very valuable.  The kid’s on the run, and he goes through various adventures in New Mexico with a wannabe novelist, and then on to Bisbee, Arizona, which was a copper-mining boom-town at that time.  The character of the Shootist, my dad loosely based on John Wesley Hardin, who killed 44 men, and was a real gun-spinner.  Hardin in real life had a special vest made up with leather pockets, so that he could cross-draw his guns.  They tried to do that for John Wayne in the movie, made a special vest for him, but Wayne was overweight and too big, and couldn’t get the guns out easily from under his overcoat, so they had to go back to the six-guns in holsters on his waist. But I’ve changed that in my sequel.  The kid is eighteen years old and has terrific hand-eye coordination, and he is the last Shootist.  If you like the original, hopefully you’ll like my sequel.       

 

HENRY: Speaking of your novels, I notice you have another, THE SERGEANT’S LADY. 

MILES:  That was my first novel.  That was based on an extension of one of my dad’s short stories for the old Saturday Evening Post, and that won a Spur back in 2004 as the Best First Western Novel of the Year, from the Western Writers of America.

THE LAST SHOOTIST is now available, and if you’d like a preview, go HERE, to Miles Swarthout’s site, where you can read the end of THE SHOOTIST and the start of THE LAST SHOOTIST.

AND THAT’S A WRAP!

Just as I was going to post, I heard that Robert Horton, who played scout Flint McCullough on 187 episodes of WAGON TRAIN, has died at age 91.  He was a fine actor, with an amused twinkle in his eye, and the only one who was never intimidated by Ward Bond’s Seth Adams.  I’ll have more to say about this versatile actor, and his other roles, in the next Round-up.

Happy trails,

Henry

All Original Content Copyright March 2016 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved

SUTHERLANDS JR. & SR. STAR IN ‘FORSAKEN’; ‘HOLLYWOOD TRAIL 2’ REVIEWED, PLUS OSCARS, LIVE EVENTS!

FORSAKEN – A Film Review 

Star Keifer Sutherland and director Jon Cassar, who together spent nine seasons reinventing episodic television with ‘24’, have abandoned all of their high-tech notions to make a deeply affecting traditional Western with FORSAKEN.  And Keifer has achieved a career-long ambition, co-starring with his father Donald Sutherland, a fine actor, and one of the essential stars of the latter part of the 20th Century.

Keifer and Donald Sutherland

Keifer plays a Civil War Union vet turned gunslinger, who wanders home years after the war’s end, to hang up his guns, and make amends to his family.  Instead he finds his mother dead and his minister father (Donald Sutherland) unforgiving.  The girl he left behind (Demi Moore) is now a woman; in fact she’s married and a mother.  And all of the local landowners are being bought out or run out or burned out by a speculator (Brian Cox) who’s gotten there ahead of the railroad. 

Keifer and Demi Moore

While many of the story elements are undeniably familiar, Brad Mirman’s script, and the cast’s deep-felt performances, create a world where what could be clichés feel like organically grown real-life situations.  At the core of the movie’s success is Keifer Sutherland’s remarkable performance as the heartbroken former soldier.  And there is undeniable magic to the father and son’s co-performances. 

Also worthy of particular note is Michael Wincott’s performance as the lead hired gun to the speculator.  As a Southern gentleman in an embarrassing trade, comparisons can be drawn to George Brent in JEZEBEL (1938), John Carradine in STAGECOACH (1939) and Val Kilmer in TOMBSTONE (1993), but Wincott quietly makes the character his own. 

Michael Wincott

Rene Ohashi’s photography makes full use of the beautiful Alberta locations.  And Jon Cassar handles the western action, from riding to beatings to the best saloon gunfight since THE SHOOTIST (1976), with style and skill.  FORSAKEN, distributed by MOMENTUM PICTURES, is in limited release in theatres.  It’s available now on VOD, from I-Tunes and Amazon.

RIDING THE HOLLYWOOD TRAIL V-2 – A Book Review

Charlie Le Seuer, Arizona’s official Film Historian, has followed up his popular history of B-Westerns, RIDING THE HOLLYWOOD TRAIL: TALES OF THE SILVER SCREEN COWBOYS, with RIDING THE HOLLYWOOD TRAIL V-2, the story of television’s Western pioneers, especially the men and characters who were Hopalong Cassidy, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, The Lone Ranger, and the Cisco Kid. 

He looks primarily at the years 1949 to 1955, and while most of those pioneers’ careers lasted a few more years, 1955 is not an arbitrary cutoff.  All of those stars and characters had made the transition from theatrical B-Westerns, and their TV shows were similar, family-friendly entertainment.  But 1955 was the year that gave birth to the ‘adult’ Western series; the premieres including GUNSMOKE, WYATT EARP, and CHEYENNE.  From then on, the heroes of the past would be ghettoized to Saturday mornings.

Bob Fuller with Charlie La Sueur

While much has been written about, and sometimes by, these heroes of our youth, Le Sueur has assembled their stories to put them in a context.  For example, William Boyd (Hopalong Cassidy), Gene Autry and Roy Rogers all sought to take control over their careers, and all eventually triumphed.  But Hoppy led the way, faltering at times with small-screen productions that have aged badly.  Gene learned from Hoppy’s mistakes, and surpassed the man in black’s output both artistically and financially.  And Roy had the hardest time of all, mired in legal battles over control of his image.   

Then there were the stars who didn’t own their own personas – Duncan Renaldo had a tumultuous life until he became the Cisco Kid.  Though he was no ‘kid’ – he was 52 when the series ended and Leo ‘Pancho’ Carrillo was 75 – their roles were secure.  On the other hand, the producers of THE LONE RANGER thought that because Clayton Moore wore a mask, he could be easily replaced.  Happily, they were wrong.

Charlie goes in depth on all of the characters, from their beginnings in features, serials or radio, through their TV incarnations, and beyond, for characters like Cisco and Lone Ranger, who’ve continued on.  He pays special attention to the oft-ignored sidekicks like Andy Clyde and Smiley Burnett.  He even suggests that Republic Pictures chief Herbert Yates was not above saddling his stars with out-of-place sidekicks – Sterling Holloway for Gene, and Pinky Lee for Roy – to punish them for wanting to leave his stable.

BRONCO's Ty Hardin, CHEYENNE's Clint Walker,

Charlie, LAREDO's Peter Brown

The book also brings to light some of the great early Western TV stars who made a strong initial impression in the new medium, but did not continue.  From Col. Tim McCoy to Gabby Hayes, from Lash LaRue to Russell ‘Lucky’ Hayden, their careers are given the attention they deserve. 

One of the real pleasures of reading Charlie’s book is that he personally knows, or knew, so many of the people he discusses.  A lifelong fan of Westerns since they were his required dinner-time viewing growing up, Charlie has run or participated in film festivals and celebrity programs for decades.  Research is great, but there’s nothing like being able to say what Dale Evans told you, rather than what you read in a newspaper article.  Currently he’s hosting two different film series at the Scottsdale Museum of The West, preparing for the HIGH CHAPARRAL REUNION at Old Tucson next month, and teaching film history at Central Arizona College. 

RIDING THE HOLLYWOOD TRAIL Volume 2 is a breezily written, informative telling of how the Western transitioned from being a nearly played-out big-screen entertainment to the most popular genre on television for a decade.  It's published by Timber Creek Press, and is available from Amazon, and other fine booksellers. 

LIVE EVENTS!

NATIVE FILMFEST, PALM SPRINGS, MARCH 1-6

The 15^th Annual festival of films made by and about indigenous people began today, at the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum.  Clicking the link HERE will bring you to a page that includes not just a schedule films to be shown, but links to several trailers.  Wednesday at 8 pm, MEKKO, starring Rod Rondeaux and Zahn MacClarnon, will be shown.    

‘WINNING OF BARBARA WORTH’ SCREENS AT MISSION INN, SAT., MARCH 5

Harold Bell Wright is thought to be the first author to sell a million books, and to make a million dollars.  A film based on one of his two most famous novels, THE WINNING OF BARBARA WORTH (1926), directed by Henry King, and starring Vilma Banky, Ronald Coleman, and a very young Gary Cooper, will screen in the Grand Parisian Ballroom.  It’s a silent movie, with a live piano accompaniment.  The event is a fund-raiser to help preserve the historic artifacts of the Mission Inn, a place where author Wright frequently stayed.  You can learn more, and buy advance tickets, HERE.

AND THAT’S A WRAP!

It was great to see two Westerns winning Oscars: Best Actor Leo DiCaprio and Best Director Alejandro Inarritu for THE REVENANT, and Best Score Ennio Morricone for THE HATEFUL EIGHT.  I’ve just been too swamped with projects to finish editing my interview with actor Crispian Belfrage, but I hope to have this in the next Round-up, along with my review of a new Indie Western, KILL OR BE KILLED.  And if you’re around Van Nuys this coming Saturday Night, March 5^th, come over to the Elks Lodge, at 14440 Friar Street, for dinner at 6, and Old Time Radio at 7.  Under the direction on Exalted Ruler Mike Gagglio, we’ll be reenacting a FIBBER MAGEE AND MOLLY, a GREAT GILDERSLEEVE, and I’ll be doing announcer Fred Foy’s job on the pilot episode of THE LONE RANGER!  Hi-Yo Silver!  Away!

Much obliged,

Henry

All Original Content Copyright March 2016 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY-JANE-GOT-A-GUN? PLUS LA/ITALIA FEST HONORS MORRICONE, ‘WESTERN RELIGION’ ON DVD, AND MORE!

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY-JANE-GOT-A-GUN?

Did you miss it?  The Natalie Portman, Joel Edgerton, Ewan Macgregor opus that went through Hell to reach the screen came and went in about two weeks.  It’s damned good – you’ll find out when it makes its way to home video.  And you’ll probably join me in wondering why it was dumped by the Weinstein Company like week-old fish. 

This project was Natalie Portman’s baby from the start.  She knows from Westerns – see 2003’s COLD MOUNTAIN.  She snapped up the much-talked-about Black List script by Brian Duffield (Hollywood’s changed so much that The Black List is now where you want to be), pulled together financing, got director Lynne Ramsay (2011’s WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN), a cast…  And on the day shooting was to commence, Ramsay quit.  When she walked so did a lot of the cast, including Jude Law.  That would have killed most small films, but somehow they held it together, director Gavin O’Connor (2011’s WARRIOR) stepped in – dove in is more like it – and grabbed the reins.  On the eve of the film’s release, its distributor, RELATIVITY MEDIA, went bankrupt, and almost took JANE with them.  But The Weinstein Company saved it.  Then they released it with no press screenings, no publicity, and the only TV promotion I saw was Ewan Macgregor’s appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live.   In this business, that’s the way you release a film that reviews can only hurt.  A stinker.  When I caught the movie at the Sherman Oaks Arclight, it was a kick to see three Westerns in the marquee – THE REVENANT, THE HATEFUL 8 – another Weinstein release, and JANE.  There were four other people in the theatre.  We all loved it.  I just don’t get it.

L.A./ITALIA FEST HONORS MAESTRO MORRICONE!

Franco Nero & Joan Collins on the Red Carpet

From Sunday, February 21^st through Saturday, February 27^th, the Chinese 6 Theatres in Hollywood will once again be the home of the 11^th edition of the annual L.A./Italia Film Festival.  Sponsored by the Italian government and various Italian businesses, this week-long celebration of Italian films, fashion and culture features both new and classic Italian films, and films made by Italian-Americans, and all of the screenings are free!  It’s done on a first-come, first-seated basis, and in four years of attending, I’ve never been shut out of a screening.

They’re honoring composer Ennio Morricone, and several films that he’s scored – the current THE HATEFUL 8, THE UNTOUCHABLES, THE MISSION, BUGSY, and DAYS OF HEAVEN.  My only complaint is that HATEFUL 8 is the only Western they’re showing this year.  You can learn all about the event, and find out when the screenings are, by checking out the official website HERE.

Just one word of warning: this event ends the day before the Oscars, which are held right next door at the Dolby Theatre.  In the day before the Oscars, more and more streets get closed off, so when you come to the L.A./Italia screenings, give yourself extra time to find parking.

‘WESTERN RELIGION’ ON DVD MARCH 1^ST!

If you’re a Round-up regular, you’ve been following the progress of WESTERN RELIGION since it first rolled camera in October of 2013, through their screening at Cannes and their L.A. Premiere a few months ago.  You may have read my interview with directorJames O’Brien, or learned about my adventures as a poker-playing extra in the film. 

The story of a sinister mix of gamblers who descend upon a tent city in Arizona to compete in a high-stakes poker tournament, it’s just been released on video-on-demand through iTunes, Amazon, Vudu, Google Play, Youtube, and on March 1^st it comes out on DVD from Screen Media. 

GET-TV ADDS ‘CIMARRON CITY’ TO SATURDAYS FEB. 20^TH!

GET-TV is one of the new antenna digital channels, and it’s also available on some cable and satellite systems.  It’s a SONY channel, with lots of good old movies, and Saturdays they feature their Saturday Showdown Block (read my interview with Get-TV senior programming veep Jeff Meier HERE. Instead of playing often too-familiar Western series, they’ve specialized in quality shows that only ran for a season or two, and have rarely been shown again.  They’re adding CIMARRON CITY, which ran in 1958, a Gunsmoke-style series starring George Montgomery, John Smith who’d go on to fame in LARAMIE, and Dan Blocker who didn’t do too badly on BONANZA.  They continue to show MAN CALLED SHENANDOAH starring Robert Horton, HONDO starring Ralph Taeger, NICHOLS starring James Garner, WHISPERING SMITH staring Audie Murphy, THE TALL MAN starring Clu Gulager and Barry Sullivan, and LAREDO starring Neville Brand, Peter Brown, William Smith and Robert Wolders.  Incidentally, one of my most popular Round-up features is my interview with Robert Wolders.  You can read it HERE.

‘RANGER IN TIME – RESCUE ON THE OREGON TRAIL’ – A Book Review

I got some ribbing after the last Round-up for writing a book-review of a coloring book.  I may get more ribbing for reviewing RANGER IN TIME – RESCUE ON THE OREGON TRAIL, not because it’s a kid’s book, but because it’s about a time-traveling Golden Retriever.      The novel by prolific and talented kid’s author Kate Messner is the first in as series of four thus far.  Ranger is a 21^st century disappointment, a dog flunked from a search-and-rescue program because he was too easily distracted by squirrels.  He’s living with a modern family when he digs up an old first-aid kit in the back yard that somehow zaps him back to 1850 and the Abbotts, a family heading out on the Oregon Trail.  And wouldn’t you know it, that search-and-rescue training comes in mighty handy.

Don’t get bogged down in the science of time travel – maybe it’ll make more sense in the next book, about ancient Rome, but it’s just a MacGuffin to get a modern-day sensibility into a historical tale.   The fact is, it’s hard to get school-kids interested in reading history, and this story, with its nod to Jack London and his brilliant dog’s point-of-view novels, CALL OF THE WILD and WHITE FANG, is exciting, involving, and frank.  I was a little surprised that when other fuel became scarce, the kids had to collect buffalo turds, or chips, to make a fire.  I was startled that, after several family members die along the trail, their graves were purposely driven over by the wagons, to compact the earth, and make it harder for scavenging wolves to dig up.  It’s the kind of creepy but clearly authentic detail that would make a kid want to learn more. 

The book, aimed at 2^nd to 4^th grade readers, ends with an extensive chapter on the historical research behind the story, and suggestions for further reading. 

THAT’S A WRAP!

LAST WEEK THE ROUND-UP PASSED 250,000 HITS!

Thanks to all of my loyal readers, from more than 100 countries, who keep coming back to the Round-up!  I thought I’d have my interview with Crispian Belfrage about the making of THE PRICE OF DEATH, but I ran out of time, so that will be in the next issue.  Hope your Valentine’s Day was romantic, and your Presidents Day was…presidential!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents  Copyright February 2016 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved!

SPAGHETTI WESTERN FACTORY! PLUS ‘THE PRAIRIE’, ‘HOLLYWOOD GOES WEST’ REVIEWED, AND MORE!

Ray Watts in PRICE OF DEATH

‘PRICE OF DEATH’ NEWEST EURO-WESTERN FROM SPAIN’S THRILL-FACTORY!

Production on PRICE OF DEATH wrapped just before the end of 2015.  In it, a bounty hunter hires on to transport a killer to his execution, unaware that the killer has a fortune stashed along the way, and former accomplices will do whatever it takes to recover the loot. 

Many of the same filmmakers are now hard at work both on post-production of PRICE OF DEATH, and pre-production for their next, THOU SHALT KILL.  Their first Western, last year’s 6 BULLETS TO HELL, has been playing the festival circuit for some months, and will soon get a general release.   As the market’s appetite for Westerns is growing, companies like Chip Baker Films and Privateer Entertainment are stepping up to meet that need with a studio/factory approach. 

It all started, appropriately enough, in Spain, at The Almeria Western Film Festival in October of 2012.  Danny Garcia and others from the Chip Baker company were running the event, and met Texas writer/director/actor Tanner Beard, whose Western film, LEGEND OF HELL’S GATE, was screening.  Soon, Tanner and Russell Quinn Cummings, one of his HELL’S GATE stars were co-directing 6 BULLETS, produced by Privateer Entertainment, with a script by Chip, Tanner, Russell, Danny, and Jose Villanueva.

THE PRICE OF DEATH, produced by Chip Baker Films, was directed by Danny.  He scripted, along with Jose, and Aaron Stielstra, an actor who came to the Almeria Festival to promote his American Western, THE SCARLET WORM.  He also stars in 6 BULLETS, PRICE OF DEATH, and will be in THOU SHALT KILL, to be directed by Tanner Beard.  Similarly, British-born America actor Crispian Belfrage, who starred in three U.S.-made Westerns – THE DONNER PARTY, DOC WEST, and TRIGGERMAN (all 2009) – is one of the stars of all three Spanish Westerns.  You get the picture – this close-knit pack of filmmakers, with ever-shifting roles, is working on their third Western in a couple of years, with more in the pipeline.  I spoke to Danny Garcia, director and co-writer of PRICE OF DEATH, and principal in all of the films, about making a string of back-to-back Westerns.

Danny Garcia

HENRY: What does the label ‘independent filmmaker’ mean to you?  

DANNY GARCIA: Well, to me it means freedom, not needing to respond to anyone except yourself. It’s also a huge challenge to put a production together without major support and the hours of work you put into any film is sometimes utterly insane. It’s also an exercise of blind faith as with any other art form.   

HENRY: What are the advantages and disadvantages, especially in making a western?

DANNY: In theory they’d all be disadvantages because any period piece you shoot has already the inconveniences of having to sort out the correct period wardrobe, weaponry, the proper locations, the horses, props, etc to make it look real so the public can immerse themselves in the story you’re trying to tell without breaking their fantasy, because there’s an antenna on top of a hill or something.  But of course, I´m making Westerns because I love the genre, despite it all.

HENRY: Was there any particular inspiration for the story of THE PRICE OF DEATH?

DANNY: Not really; the idea was to write another fun, action packed western that we could shoot within a short time frame and in a few locations within a small region. But the movie has a few references to some of my favorite films like THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY; 3:10 TO YUMA, PLANET OF THE APES and MIDNIGHT RUN.

HENRY: What was it like to direct your first feature, and to do it on locations where Leone and Corbucci worked?

DANNY: It was really a great experience and a lot of fun. Working with actors like Ken Luckey, Crispian Belfrage and Aaron Stielstra, whom I had already worked with on 6 BULLETS TO HELL was very easy, because we were already acquainted and also the chemistry between them gave us some brilliant moments. Shooting in those locations was a pleasure, but it also means a lot of responsibility, because they worked a dream for all those great directors in the past and you know you have to come up with something good. But while we were shooting there, I thought of Leone, envisioned him winking at us and thought to myself: cool, we’re on to something here.

HENRY: This is your first time directing a western, but your second time writing and producing.  What did you learn on the first film that helped you with the second?  What differences were there from one film to the next?

DANNY: I learned a lot working with Tanner Beard and Russell Cummings, who both directed 6 BULLETS. That wasn’t my first rodeo, but I loved the way they worked together because it was very relaxed yet at the same time they put a lot of energy and tension into every scene. Also it was good to see the way they were coaching the actors and the amount of improvisation they were allowing to happen on set.

As a director and producer you have to deal with everybody all the time, and there’s no such thing as a day’s rest during the shoot. On days off I had to prepare the scenes for the following day so it’s nonstop. I tried to apply everything I had learned in the past and studied how people like David Milch worked on the set of DEADWOOD for instance. All you gotta do is watch a bunch of ‘making of’s and learn from the best to figure out how to do it.

HENRY:  What advantages are there for making films, particularly Westerns, in Spain?

DANNY: Working in Spain still has the same advantages it had back in the 1960’s when the great Italian directors made those landscapes world-famous. Basically it’s all to do with the terrain, the light and the amount of hours of daylight you can shoot in one day; plus the economic aspect which of course is also very important. Shooting in Spain is still a lot cheaper than shooting in the US or Canada and that’s why there’s a growing number of foreign films and TV series being shot in Spain every year.

HENRY: In the last two films, and others you have upcoming, you use many actors and crew members repeatedly.  You are creating a stock company, as did Leone, John Ford, and many others.  What are the advantages of having a Danny Garcia stock company?

DANNY: It’s funny because when you shoot a western the cast and crew become a family almost instantly, perhaps a dysfunctional one but still, a family. And that’s what actors like (late Spaghetti Western stars) Frank Braña or Nicoletta Machiavelli told me in the past; that there’s something about shooting  westerns that makes it different from any other genre. It might be the fact that you’re working with animals and gunpowder that turns it into a sort of circus. Anyway, the idea is to work as much as possible with those who you feel comfortable working with and that you know will deliver and bring in new people each time so the family keeps on growing. And I’d call it a Chip Baker Films stock company in any case.

HENRY: In the script you have a climactic shootout in the snow, but I understand that sequence had to change.

DANNY: I’m sure it would have been hard to shoot but the reality is that when we got to the top of the mountain there was no snow whatsoever, although it was late November, so of course we had to shoot it without it. That’s one of the things when you’re producing independent films, the need to adapt to every situation. One of my favorite things is to have part of the crew dress up in period wardrobe as well and have them walk past the camera whenever they’re free. I even do it myself, mainly because it’s a lot of fun.

Aaron Stielstra

HENRY:  What else should I know about you, your life, your vision as a filmmaker?

DANNY: My uncle’s cousin was Otto Preminger, so growing up I’d always heard stories about him, and we watched his movies. Actually, I watched classic Hollywood films with my parents every night when I was a kid so I guess that’s where all my filmmaking fantasies come from. It’s all thanks to them.  My plan is to keep on directing, writing and producing quality films in the next few years. I have a couple of scripts that hopefully will be produced this year. The idea is to continue working and growing as a filmmaker.

HENRY: 6 BULLETS TO HELL was a spaghetti western, an homage to the films that came before, and even had a post-dubbed dialogue track.  Do you consider THE PRICE OF DEATH a spaghetti western in that sense, or would describe it in some other way?

DANNY: 6 BULLETS TO HELL is a full-on spaghetti western, and a tribute as you say to those who rode in that desert 50 years ago. THE PRICE OF DEATH is an action/western film. It’s obviously influenced by our love for  spaghetti westerns, and not only Leone and Corbucci; I personally love the work of Tonino Valerii, Ferdinando Baldi, Antonio Margheriti and Demofilo Fidani as well.  And same goes for Aaron Stielstra and Jose L. Villanueva, who co-wrote the script with me and are also fanatics of the old Italian westerns.

In the next Round-up, I’ll have my interview with one of the stars of all of these films, Crispian Belfrage.

THE PRAIRIE – A Movie Review

So much of what we think of as a Western story comes from Owen Wister’s ground-breaking  novel THE VIRGINIAN that it’s exciting to see a story that predates that overwhelming influence.  James Fennimore Cooper (1789-1851) was the first great Western novelist, best remembered for LAST OF THE MOHICANS, and his final Leatherstocking Tale, THE PRAIRIE (1827), is the basis for this movie.

In 1803, the Bush family has lost their Kentucky farm to taxes, and on the heels of the Louisiana Purchase, head west in a couple of wagons, looking for new land, and a new start.  They’re lead by the well-meaning but tyrannical patriarch Ishmael Bush (Charles Evans).  The rest of the party includes his brawny, shirtless six sons, his pale and vague wife Esther (Edna Holland), and her shiftless brother Abiram (Russ Vincent). 

Their lives are a daily struggle for food, and an endless, monotonous trek through unchanging prairie until Abiram and one of the sons, Asa (Jim Mitchum, in his first film role) witness another group of pioneers all but wiped out by a buffalo stampede.  The lone survivor, a young woman named Ellen (Lenore Aubert), is almost taken by the Sioux until the two men drive them off.  They bring her back to camp, Ishmael begrudgingly agrees to take her along, and with one desirable young woman among seven single and lonely men, tensions quickly rise. 

The inexperienced pioneers are helped by Paul Hover (Alan Baxter), a map surveyor for the government they despise, but the only aid they can find.  It doesn’t help that Ellen is more taken with Paul than with any of the other men in the party.  When Sioux steal their horses, intending to pick the party off one at a time, the pioneers must unite to make a stand. 

Directed by German expressionist Frank Wisbar, who’d fled the Nazis in 1939, this tiny budget, 61 minute film is remarkable, and looks like no other Western I’ve ever seen.  Except for occasional stock footage, the film is shot entirely on one large prairie set of waist-to-shoulder-height grass, against a vast cyclorama of sky.  Artificial though it is, it captures the sense of endless, unchanging prairie to a degree that an actual location never could.

It’s atmospheric, dreamlike, unmistakably Germanic in its starkness.  The almost final sequence, where a character who’s gotten away with murder is overpowered by his own sense of guilt, is nightmarish and haunting.   Storywise, it’s unusual in that the Indians are not all the same – Pawnee are friends and Sioux are enemies.  And they’re played by actual Indian actors: Chief Yalwalachee; Jay Silverheels, TV’s Tonto; and the screen’s first Tonto, Chief Thundercloud.  And Ellen, rather than just being a prize for the men to compete over, has more gumption than any of them.

While the film features no big stars, it’s full of familiar faces.  Alan Baxter was a busy actor since the early thirties, usually playing villains rather than this sort of sympathetic character.  Lovely Austro-Hungarian Lenore Aubert played slinky ladies in comedies with Bob Hope (THEY GOT ME COVERED – 1943), and wielded a sword as THE WIFE OF MONTE CRISTO (1946), but is probably best remembered as the gorgeous doctor who claimed to be madly in love with Lou in ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948).  THE PRAIRIE, from Alpha Video/Oldies.com is available HERE. 

HOLLYWOOD GOES WEST – A Coloring Book Review

No, I’m not kidding: I’m reviewing a coloring book.  The increasing popularity of coloring books among adults is a curious phenomenon, but it’s understandable.  I think we all have an artistic impulse to satisfy, and getting lost in any artistic endeavor is good medicine for a stressed brain – and who doesn’t have one of those?  Some of you may remember from the 1960s the fad of the paint and pencil-by-numbers kits.  With coloring books, you get to choose your own colors, and you can even color outside the lines if it makes you happy!

Jack Palance

Mark O’Neill is a gifted caricaturist and clearly a western nut like the rest of us, and his book is precisely the one we would have made for ourselves.  He celebrates the great Westerns of the big and small screen, focusing on the big stars of films, the casts of the great TV series, and the unforgettable character actors.  While coloring books have for decades featured Roy and Dale, Gene Autry and Hopalong Cassidy, did you ever dream that you’d be able to choose the hues for Royal Dano, John Dehner, Morgan Woodward and Jack Elam?  Or Bruce Dern?   There’s the cast of THE RIFLEMAN, family portraits of the Cartwrights and the Barkleys, a romantic pairing of Leif Ericson and Linda Cristal from HIGH CHAPARRAL, and both Matt Dillons – TV’s James Arness and radio’s William Conrad, and much more, each picture with an explanatory caption. 

Both Matt Dillons!

You can color in The Duke, Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly.  You can decide how RAWHIDE and MAVERICK would have looked in color.  And you can do it all for ten well-spent dollars!  Order it HERE.

Jack Elam

MONDAY IS ‘HIGH CHAPARRAL’ REUNION REGISTRATION!

If you want to attend the Reunion on March 17^th through the 20^th, the registration deadline is Monday, February 1^st!  It’ll be at Old Tucson Studios, where the classic series was filmed.    Coming back to their old galloping-grounds will be series stars Don Collier, Rudy Ramos and BarBara Luna.  They’ll be joined by a posse of stars from other Western series, including Robert Fuller from LARAMIE and WAGON TRAIN, Darby Hinton from DANIEL BOONE and the recent TEXAS RISING, Roberta Shore from THE VIRGINIAN, frequent John Wayne co-star Eddie Falkner, and Stan Ivar from LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE.  Also on-board are HIGH CHAPARRAL producers Kent and Susan McCray, and writers and historians Boyd Magers, Charlie LeSueur, Neil Summers, and Joel McCrea’s son Wyatt McCrea. 

The packages vary from a bare-bones $30-per-day deal to $475 with all the trimmings.  To take your pick and make your reservations, check out the official site HERE.

And here’s something special for all HIGH CHAPARRAL fans, and it’s free!  Last year the Reunion inaugurated a live Webcast of the event.  It was not cheap, but it was very entertaining and informative.  HIGH CHAPARRAL REUNION Top Hand Penny McQueen has decided that this year’s Webcast will be FREE!  

THAT’S A WRAP!

With Friday’s release of JANE GOT A GUN, joining THE REVENANT and THE HATEFUL 8, there are now three major Westerns playing in theatres at the same time.  How many decades has it been since that happened?  I’m guessing the last time was in the 1970s, but it may be even farther back. 

Have a great week, and catch a Western or two.  Or three!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Content Copyright January 2016 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved