GRINDHOUSE RELEASES ‘THE BIG GUNDOWN’ TUESDAY!

(Updated 12/12/2013 -- see SHANE story)

Grindhouse Releasing will release their new beautiful Blu-Ray edition of THE BIG GUNDOWN (1966), directed by Sergio Solima, and starring Lee Van Cleef and Tomas Milian, on Tuesday, December 10^th.  Lee is a lawman-for-hire who agrees to track down a child-killer, Tomas, but of course, things are not as ‘black & white’ as they are first presented. Scripted by Sergio Donati and Solima, GUNDOWN is considered a high point in the careers of all four men; it is one of the finest of Spaghetti Westerns, and will finally be shown in its complete length for the first time in the United States.  The 4-disc set consists of a Blu-Ray of the expanded 95 minute U.S. cut, featuring three new scenes; a DVD version of the U.S. 95 minutes cut; a DVD of the 110 minute director’s cut of LA RESA DEI CONTI, the original title, in Italian, with English subtitles; and a music CD featuring the marvelous score by Ennio Morricone!  There’s even a companion booklet with liner notes by Joyner, and by Euro-music expert Gergley Hubai. 

Court, Bob Murawski and me

There are other special features, including interviews with Sergio Solima, Tomas Milian, and Sergio Donati, and I had the pleasure of doing audio commentary on GUNDOWN with fellow Western writer and film historian C. Courtney Joyner (keep an eye out for his new Western novel, SHOTGUN), under the direction of Oscar-winning editor Bob Murawski (you can read about that adventure HERE  ), and I’m as eager to see the finished product as anyone else.

GET A GREAT TAX DEDUCTION, AND ‘TREASURES 5 – THE WEST’

As 2013 comes to a close, many of us are looking for a way to do good, and to save on our income taxes.  If you liked the sound of ‘TREASURES 5 – THE WEST’, which I reviewed in last week’s Round-up (if you missed it, HERE is the link ) from the National Film Preservation Foundation, you can contribute to the important mission  of film preservation, and get yourself this wonderful video set, or a different set.  The NFPF is a non-profit public charity, affiliated with the Library of Congress, and for a contribution of $200 or more, you can have your well-deserved tax deduction, and the set of discs of your choice.  For details, visit this site: https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/1397805

ROUND-UP’ ON THE AIR AND ‘AROUND THE BARN’ ON SAT. DEC 14TH!

Bobbi Jean with her commendation from the L.A. County

Board of Supervisors

On Saturday, December 14th, I will be a guest of Nancy Pitchford-Zhe and Bobbi Jean Bell on their Saturday morning show on  KHTS AM 1220, ‘Around The Barn.’  Heard every Saturday from 9 to 10 a.m., they discuss western culture, music and lifestyle.  Nancy is the founder and director of Heads Up Therapy on Horseback, and Bobbi Jean is the lady behind the Outwest Western Boutique and Cultural Center in Santa Clarita:http://www.outwestmktg.com/ 

The topic for Saturday will be ‘It’s all about Gene Autry!’ and Karla Buhlman, President of Gene Autry Enterprises, and I, will be in-studio guests.  Karla is a very interesting woman (you can read my Round-up interview with her HERE  ) , and it’s perfect timing for me, as on Sunday in the Round-up, I’ll be reviewing the just-issued DVD set, THE COMPLETE GENE AUTRY TV SHOW.  

If you’re not in the immediate listening area for KHTS 1220 AM, you can hear the show on-line starting at 9:00 a.m. at www.hometownstation.com, and if you’d like to call-in with a question, you can do so at 661-298-5487.  And if you want to sleep late on Saturday, you can listen to the podcast later.  You’ll find all of the Around The Barn podcasts HERE http://hometownstation.com/podcasts/around-barn .

DON’T MISS ‘SHANE’ SATURDAY AT THE AUTRY

All year, folks attending the monthly ‘What Is A Western?’screenings at the Autry were asked to vote for their all-time favorite Western with the winner to be screened in December.  The big winner was SHANE (1953), the George Stevens-directed classic based on the novel by Jack Schaefer.  Starring Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, Van Heflin and Brandon De Wilde, it is one of the most wholly satisfying films in the genre.  Among other memorable performances are the evil Jack Palance, the conflicted Ben Johnson, and the heroic-as-only-a-doomed-little-guy-can-be Elisha Cook Jr.  If you haven’t seen this, in 35mm, on a big screen, you should.  It starts at 1:30 in the Wells Fargo Theatre.  

LOOKIN’ FOR HELP TO FILM ‘NIETZSCHE OUT WEST’!

I’ve had a couple of very interesting emails from a Swedish-born filmmaker named Sven Anders.  He attended the recent Almeria Western Film Festival, where he worked to promote some interest in a Western version of Nietzsche’s ZARATHUSTRA , “an attempt to put some new wine in old boots, if you like,” to be shot on the Western sets in Spain. 

He tells me he pitched the idea to two of the Festival’s guests, Spaghetti Western stars Robert Woods and Nicola Di Gioia, “an idea which went down well with these charming western icons.”  He started a group-funding campaign through Indigogo, but has had, frankly, not much of a response.  He asked me to share his proposal with the Round-up readers, and I am doing so.  See what you think:  http://indiegogo.com/projects/el-encendero

DON’T FORGET THE BEST WESTERN CALENDAR I’VE EVER SEEN!

Just a little reminder that if you’re Christmas-shopping for someone with a sagebrush-and-pulp frame of mind, you should check out the beautiful Vintage Westerns calendar from the folks at Asgard Press (if you missed my review, HERE is the link). And don’t forget the 10% discount on any calendar for Round-up readers.  Here’s the link:  http://www.asgardpress.com/?promocode=HWR13

And here’s the promo code: HWR13

TCM FANATIC - WESTERN NOW ONLINE!

And speaking of TCM (okay, nobody was), have I mentioned that the segment I was interviewed for is now viewable here?








THAT’S A WRAP!

Next Sunday I’ll have my review of the new COMPLETE GENE AUTRY SHOW DVD collection, and a book review or two, among other things.  Have a great week!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright December 2013 by Parke – All Rights Reserved

BEST OF THE WEST 1898-1938 FROM NAT. FILM PRES. FOUNDATION!

TREASURES 5 – THE WEST, 1898-1938 – Video Review

Cavalry & Indians at Little Big Horn

The wonderful, dedicated folks at the National Film Preservation Foundation, who brought you LOST & FOUND – AMERICAN TREASURES FROM THE NEW ZEALAND FILM ARCHIVES (if you missed my review, HERE is the link . ) have outdone themselves for Western fans, and just in time for Christmas. 

TREASURES 5 – THE WEST, a three disk set, plus a 110 page book, runs for more than ten hours, and contains forty films, from one-minute newsreel clips to several full-length features.  From slapstick to melodrama, from documentary to real drama, they offer a kaleidoscopic view of the American West from a vast range of perspectives.  Additionally, each film has an optional audio commentary, from experts in Western history, filmmaking, and film preservation.  It’s wonderfully entertaining, highly informative, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. 

Nearly every important film company of the era is represented – Biograph, Selig, Nestor, Kalem, Essanay, Vitagraph, Thomas Ince, Famous Players – Lasky (later Paramount).  The stars featured include Tom Mix, Clara Bow, Richard Dix, Bronco Billy Anderson and Mabel Normand.  The directors include D.W. Griffith, Victor Fleming, Gregory La Cava, Mack Sennett and W. S. Van Dyke.  The story sources include authors Bret Harte and Sinclair Lewis. 

Among the unexpected delights are every-day events filmmakers recorded nearly a century ago. HOW THE COWBOY MAKES HIS LARIAT (1917), though only three minutes, shows the entire process, starting with culling the hair from his horse’s tail; it’s probably the only in-depth recording of the all-but-lost process ever made.  LIFE ON THE CIRCLE RANCH (1912), presents typical daily ranch work convincingly.  But wait until you watch it again with the commentary, and realize how much of it was staged for the camera, and all of the rules of ranching that were broken in the process!

from OVER SILENT PATHS

On D. W. Griffith’s very first trip to make films out west, in 1910, he filmed OVER SILENT PATHS: A STORY OF THE AMERICAN DESERT.  Starring Marion Leonard and Dell Henderson, the barren desert also stars; it was an unusual film locale at such a time, when most Westerns were shot in and around lush East-coast forests.  Marion and her prospector father W. Chrystie Miller are a set to pack it in and go to civilization, when her father gets robbed and killed by unsuccessful prospector Henderson.  When she, desperate, meets up with Henderson, she has no idea he killed her father.  Can you see the romance coming?  Shot by the great Billy Bitzer, using the then-ruined and abandoned San Fernando Mission as a location, it’s as emotionally affecting as you expect with Griffith.  And fast?  It was shot in two days the first week in April, and released in May.  And the previous week he’d shot RAMONA, with Mary Pickford, at the ranch where Helen Hunt Jackson had set her story.

from THE TOURISTS

TOURISTS (1912) was also shot by the Biograph Company, by a small ‘B’ unit following the bigger Griffith unit.  Slight but fast and amusing, this one’s directed by Mack Sennett shortly before he left Biograph to start his Keystone company.  Shot entirely in the Santa Fe Train Station in Albuquerque, using the exteriors of Fred Harvey’s (as in THE HARVEY GIRL) Indian Building, and clearly improvised, it stars Mabel Normand as a tourist who gets in trouble with local Indians when she and her friends miss their train, and the chief takes a liking to Mabel.  And going against the not-yet-established Hollywood tradition, many Indians are played by Indians.  Speaking of Fred Harvey, also included is the 1926 film THE INDIAN DETOUR, a how-to film as well as a travelogue, featuring the wonders of ancient New Mexico as seen from modern Harvey trains and buses.  This film helped Harvey introduce and popularize the concept of cultural tourism.

Some sponsored films are more subtle than others.  SUNSHINE GATHERERS (1921), in often stunning color, shows and tells the story of Father Serra bringing Christianity to the beautiful new world of California.  Only gradually do we realize that the ultimate master plan is to make the riches of California available to the world through Del Monte canned fruit.  I felt positively noble eating my canned peaches while watching this with breakfast! 

Many of the fictional films make great use of their exotic locations.  A prime example is THE SERGEANT: TOLD IN THE YOSEMITE VALLEY (1910).  Part of the great treasure-trove of American films discovered in the New Zealand Film Archive, SERGEANT is a Selig-Polyscope film, starring one of the screen’s first great leading men Hobart Bosworth as the title character, trying to rescue his kidnapped  beloved.  Taking full advantage of Yosemite’s remarkable features, the film’s inter-titles both advance the story, and identify where each sequence is shot.  Similarly, SALOMY JANE, A STORY OF THE DAYS OF ’49, PRODUCED IN THE CALIFORNIA REDWOODS (1914), opens with the title gal emerging from a cut in a redwood.  Made by the once-thriving California Motion Picture Corporation of Northern California, it’s the only one of their films known to survive. 

Clara Bow

Among the more unexpected pleasures of this set are a pair of sophisticated comedy features with western settings, MANTRAP (1926), starring Clara Bow, directed by Victor Fleming and lensed by James Wong Howe; and WOMANHANDLED (1925), starring Richard Dix and Esther Ralston, and directed by Gregory La Cava.   When New Yorkers Dix and Ralston meet, she tells him she’s tired of prissy city-men – metrosexuals before the term was coined – and Dix sets out to become the westerner she wants.  Not only does he remodel himself to please her, finding the West she longs for to be gone, his does his best to recreate it.  In MANTRAP, big-city manicurist Clara Bow marries backwoodsman Ernest Torrence, but devoted as they are she soon becomes bored with his life, and falls for his unlikely friend, big-city divorce lawyer Percy Marmont.  It’s set in Canada, but shot around Lake Arrowhead.  And Clara Bow is an absolute delight, playing a woman so independent and naughty and lacking in guilt that she could only exist in Hollywood in the pre-Code days.

BRONCO BILLY AND THE SCHOOLMISTRESS

In fact, one notable feature of many of these westerns is that the women are so plucky and strong.  In BRONCO BILLY AND THE SCHOOLMISTRESS (1912), Billy’s romantic pursuit of the new teacher puts him at odds with every other man in town.  His judgment is so clouded that he nearly gets himself killed – and guess rescues the cowboy hero?  In the similar LEGAL ADVICE (1916), Tom Mix, who wrote, directed and starred in the film, tries to get himself into legal trouble in order to make time with the new lady lawyer!

THE BETTER MAN

Of course, it’s not all hijinks and hilarity.   In THE BETTER MAN (1912), a Vitagraph film shot in Santa Monica, the heroine and her sick child are alone as the worthless husband goes off to drink and gamble.  An Mexican outlaw with a price on his head comes to the house to get food, and is about to make his escape when the plight of the mother and child touches his heart, and he goes out seeking the doctor, not guessing that the erring husband is looking for the outlaw, and a quick reward.

LADY OF THE DUGOUT - Al & Frank Jennings 

question a lawman

Made six years later, the feature THE LADY OF THE DUGOUT (1918) has a similar plot to THE BETTER MAN, but with a remarkable twist: some of the actors are playing themselves!  Ten years earlier, former U.S. Marshal Bill Tilghman, whom, with fellow Marshals Chris Madsen and Heck Thomas rode for Judge Parker, and were known as The Three Guardsmen, decided to make a western movie.  Called THE BANK ROBBERY (not a part of this set), it starred himself, Heck Thomas, Quanah Parker, and bank and train robber Al Jennings.  Jennings found he loved the movie business, at least in part because he could rewrite his own history.  His film BEATING BACK (1904), which is considered lost, set the pattern for films about outlaw do-gooders. 

Al robs the bank

Produced and co-written by Jennings, and starring himself and his brother Frank, and Corinne Grant, LADY OF THE DUGOUT is directed by the great W.S. ‘One-take-Woody’ Van Dyke, and is one of the greatest treasures of this collection.  The plot is much like that of BETTER MAN; a pair of outlaws robs a bank, and when they run short of food, they come upon a woman living in a dugout house on the prairie, she and her child starving as they wait for worthless dad to come home with some food.  The outlaws are so moved that they get provisions and bring them back, endangering themselves.  Director Van Dyke, who would go on to direct TARZAN OF THE APES, the THIN MAN MOVIES, and so many more, is a wonderful visual storyteller, and his use of reflections and night-for-night photography is memorable.  But it’s his collaboration with Jennings that shows off the startling authenticity of the criminal behavior.  There’s a chilling naturalness to a gunman’s stance while shooting away; removing a bullet from a shoulder room is shown unflinchingly by the camera, born indifferently by the wounded man.  Incidentally, the little starving boy grew up to be Ben Alexander, Jack Webb’s first DRAGNET partner.

Lawman in the dust, Al & Frank

make their getaway

Of course, Jennings spins the story his own way.  The criminals are so noble, and the law so venal that when a train is reported robbed, it’s assumed that the sheriff is behind the crime.  Poor real lawman Bill Tilghman must have concluded that he’d created a monster, and he produced and starred in PASSING OF THE OKLAHOMA OUTLAW (1915) as a response to the glorification of the bad guy.  Though not complete, it’s a satisfying chunk of film detailing the apprehension of many of the Oklahoma Territory’s most infamous bandits, and the lawmen are in many cases played by the very men who did the deed: again Bill Tilghman and Heck Thomas, as well as Arkansas Tom Jones.

The travelogues are stunning, some going as far back as 1898, and featuring railroads, Yosemite, Yellowstone, and Hot Springs, Arizona.  Among the remarkable finds is an 8 minutes segment from the feature-length FROM THE GOLDEN WEST, an amateur film made by an unknown Easterner for club screenings.  It’s ‘L.A. as seen from a blimp’ footage is delightful.

Soundstages seen from a blimp in

THE GOLDEN WEST

Newsreel clips are included, some celebrating the American Indian, others patronizing him, and one sequence features 7^th Cavalrymen and Lakota and Cheyenne warriors ‘burying the hatchet’ at The Little Big Horn fifty years to the day after the event. 

In DESCHUTES DRIFTWOOD (1918) we get a travelogue of Oregon trains and waterways from the point-of-view of a hobo who’s been sprung from jail to do the honors.  Eighteen years later, in a Hearst newsreel, we see THE PROMISED LAND BARRED TO HOBOES (1936), showing roadblocks set up in California to keep the unemployed out.   

Made during the Mexican Revolution, MEXICAN FILIBUSTERS (1911) is a romantic tale about gun-smuggling.  AMMUNITION SMUGGLING ON THE MEXICAN BORDER (1914), is also about gun-smuggling, but stars a sheriff re-enacting his own kidnapping and his deputy’s murder, just weeks after it had actually happened. 

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power produced ROMANCE OF WATER (1931), about getting water from the Owens Valley.  It’s followed by a Hearst newsreel clip, A NEW MIRACLE IN THE DESERT (1935), and no matter how loudly you turn up the sound on these two, you can still hear John Huston and Jack Nicholson talking in the back of your head.

I know that I’ve just brushed the surface of this terrific collection – I haven’t even mentioned a great Thomas H. Ince feature, THE LAST OF THE LINE, but hopefully I’ve given you a sense of the wonders to be found in this set.  And I should mention that each of the forty films has an original music score.  I heartily recommend it as a gift for anyone on your list with a love of Western movies or Western history, or American history in general.  At more than ten hours – twice that with the commentary – this is not a set to be consumed at a sitting, but to be savored over days or weeks or months.  Then again, if you’re a binge watcher, have at it!

Although it lists for $59, you can buy it from Amazon for $32 HERE. 

THAT’S A WRAP! 

I apologize again, for the Round-up being several days late again.  I’m still getting over this bug I’ve had for nearly two weeks.  I’m very touched by all the get-well wishes I’ve received.  I don’t want to give the impression that something serious is wrong – it’s just an upper respiratory infection; not even the real flu!

Anyway, I’d better get well soon, as I’ve got a bunch of book and movie reviews coming up, and some very cool giveaways just in time for Christmas! 

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright December 2013 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved

TARANTINO NEWS, NEW WESTERN MINI, A SERIES RENEWAL, AND THE BEST WESTERN CALENDAR EVER!

TARANTINO ANNOUNCES NEXT FILM ‘ANOTHER WESTERN!’

Photo by Paul Drinkwater - NBC

Last night, writer-director Quentin Tarantino guested on the TONIGHT SHOW to reminisce with Jay, who, twenty years ago, had him as a guest on the show, when RESERVOIR DOGS was completed but no yet released, because he loved the idea of a kid who works at a video store directing a movie.  It was his first talk-show appearance – an auspicious start! 

When Jay asked him what his next movie would be, he said, “A western.  It’s not a sequel to DJANGO, but it’s a western.  I had so much fun doing DJANGO, and I love westerns so much. After I taught myself how to make one, it’s like ‘Woo, okay, now let me make another one. Now I know what I’m doing!”  He was also on the show to announce the publication of the graphic novel version of DJANGO.

FX ANNOUNCES DALTON BROTHERS MINI-SERIES

According to Deadline Hollywood, FX will produce a six-hour miniseries about the infamous Dalton gang, best remembered for their disastrous 1892 attempt to hold up two Coffeyville, Kansas banks simultaneously.  Emmett was the only brother to survive, and lived until 1937 in Los Angeles.  His family history, WHEN THE DALTONS RODE is highly entertaining, if understandably self-serving.  He also wrote a novel, BEYOND THE LAW, starred in the film version in 1918, and starred in MAN OF THE DESERT, which you can see below (although you ought to put on some music – 25 minutes of silent movie without music is hard to take).

 

The miniseries will be based on the 1979 novel DESPERADOES, written by Ron Hansen, and tells the story of the Dalton Gang from the point of view of Emmett, at age 65.  Robert Knott adapted the novel; he has teamed with Ed Harris on several projects, and is currently working with him on TULSA, a cable TV project about the oil business, will exec produce, with Josh Maurer and Alixandre Witlin.

A&E RENEWS LONGMIRE

LONGMIRE season three has been green-lit for ten episodes!  While the pick-up by A&E and Warner Horizon was leaked in August, the final deal was not made until now.  No surprise it’s coming back – in addition to being the highest-rated original series A&E has produced, it’s also extremely compelling, well-written and directed.  While each episode features a single crime being investigated, they tend to be about real ‘res’-related issues that are rarely covered in traditional cop shows.  The backstory of Sheriff Longmire (Robert Taylor), as relates to his friendship with bartender Lou Diamond Phillips, the death of his wife, and relationships Katee Sackhoff as one of his deputies, Cassidy Freeman as his daughter, and Bailey Chase as the deputy who wants his job, become more compelling with each episode.

‘COMANCHE STALLION’ HELMER VIC ARMSTRONG BACK FROM MONUMENT VALLEY

I’ve had a huge and enthusiastic reaction to last week’s lead story, about the making of COMANCHE STALLION, John Ford’s last intended project (if you missed that story, go HERE l )

Producer Clyde Lucas tells me, “Vic and I just returned from scouting locations in Monument Valley. We had a wonderful Navajo guide, Larry Holiday. Every time we asked about a location in the script, he took us to the perfect spot.”  Incidentally, in addition to being a movie producer, Lucas is also a talented musician.  At the 2011 John Wayne Tribute at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood, Lucas played guitar accompaniment to harmonica virtuoso Tommy Morgan, whose music has been heard in HOW THE WEST WAS WON, THE WAR WAGON, RIO BRAVO and many others.   Here’s a peek at their location search:

THE BEST WESTERN CALENDAR I’VE EVER SEEN!

When I glanced at my local bookstore calendar rack, and saw a masked cowboy firing his Colt from the saddle of a bucking black horse, I was thrilled – I don’t ever recall seeing a calendar designed just for us Westerners.  Turned out the image was the cover of the December 1947 pulp, MASKED RIDER WESTERN, and all of the pictures are western pulp covers, mostly from the 1940s.  From TEXAS RANGERS, THRILLING WESTERN, WESTERN TRAILS, RANCH ROMANCES, the paintings are florid and beautiful in color and over-heated in action, in the grand pulp style, and will look great on your wall.  Better still, the pictures are big – 11 x 15, and as it says on the back, “…a collection of 12 archival-quality prints, disguised as a calendar.”

Another nice touch, there’s a quote from the lead pulp story on the bottom of each monthly page, and among the days are small black & white illustrations from inside the magazines.   When I contacted the good folks at Asgard Press, they made me on offer I couldn’t refuse: they’re giving a 10% discount on any calendar Round-up readers care to order!  You really should check out their site, as in addition to the Western-themed calendar, they have sci-fi, comic book, sheet music, and many college football-themed calendars.  Here’s the link:  http://www.asgardpress.com/?promocode=HWR13

And here’s the promo code: HWR13

‘WHEN CALLS THE HEART’ SERIES HAS START DATE

The Hallmark Channel announced Sunday, January 12^th as the premiere date for their hourly series, WHEN CALLS THE HEART, based on the Janette Oke book series of the same title.  A two-hour movie, introducing some of the characters, and with the same title, premiered on October  19^th (read my review HERE)

THAT’S A WRAP!

Thanks for your patience with this week’s Round-up!  When I posted here and on Facebook that I was too sick to do the Round-up on Sunday, I was deeply touched by how many of you took the time to send me ‘get well soon’ wishes.  And my wife, who is not a blogger or a Facebook person, was truly impressed (always good when you can surprise you wife somehow after 28 years)!

I’m not 100% done with this upper respiratory infection, but my odds of getting to eat Thanksgiving dinner are looking better.  My odds of getting a drumstick, I cannot say.  HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YOU ALL!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright November 2013 by Henry C. Parke.  All Rights Reserved

SORRY, NO ROUND-UP TONIGHT

 

 

To make a long story short, I’ve got a lot of good stuff to tell you, but I’m too sick to write it!  When I’m feeling better, I’ll post.  Have a great Thanksgiving!

JOHN FORD’S LAST PROJECT, ‘COMANCHE STALLION’ FINALLY TO ROLL!

This weekend, director Vic Armstrong and producer Clyde Lucas headed to Monument Valley to scout locations for one of John Ford’s pet projects which never reached the screen.  COMANCHE STALLION.  Based on the novel by Tom Milstead, it’s the story of the Comanche’s search for a mystical horse, while suffering the wrath of General Lathrop.  Ford wanted Burl Ives for the role of the general, but Ives’ health was not up to the task, and Ford’s own health also failed. 

Now famed stuntman and stunt coordinator Vic Armstrong, who just directed Nicholas Cage in LEFT BEHIND, is preparing to finish Ford’s last planned project.   To outline even a fraction of Armstrong’s credits would take hours, so I’ll just mention that he doubled for Richard Harris in RETURN OF A MAN CALLED HORSE, doubled for Harrison Ford in the INDIANA JONES movies, and was just supervising stunt coordinator on THOR.  Clyde Lucas has produced several documentaries, some involving the late Harry Carey Jr.  Sadly, Carey was set to star in what had been the Burl Ives role, but passed away this year.  I’ve not heard many details of casting, but at the moment Tyrone Power Jr. and Robert Carradine are said to be involved.  I hope to have much more to tell you following the location scouting.

Shortly before his death, James Arness, who appeared in HONDO and WAGON MASTER for Ford, recorded the narration for the film.  Below is a sample.

(Note: this clip was playing just fine last night, but isn't running now, here or on Youtube.  Maybe it will come back up.)

SHADOW ON THE MESA – a Movie Review

Back in March of this year, when SHADOW ON THE MESA originally aired on the Hallmark Movie Channel, I interviewed star Kevin Sorbo (HERE is the link if you missed it  ), and I intended to review the movie as well.  But they were still editing it up to the last minute, so I didn’t get to see it prior to the airing.

 

I don’t know if I would have pursued the film afterwards, but when I heard that the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum had presented it with their 2013 Wrangler Award for best Television Movie, I figured I’d better make an effort to track it down, and I’m very glad I did; it’s a fine piece of work.  And the good news is that it will be released on DVD one month from today, on December 17^th – right on-time for Christmas.

One of the immediate appeals of SHADOW ON THE MESA is that, rather than trying to endlessly draw parallels between the Old West and the modern world (to make it more ‘relevant’ to an unsophisticated audience), its story grows out of a situation you would not have today.  Wes Rawlins (Wes Brown), a sometime bounty hunter who’d been raised by his recently murdered widowed mother, learns that she was not widowed at all.  Just prior to his birth, his parents were in a group of settlers who were attacked by Indians, and his father (Kevin Sorbo) was taken prisoner, though he later escaped.  Without the easy communication of the 21^st century, each spouse wrongly concluded that the other was dead, and started new lives.  Now, more than twenty years later, Wes finds that his mother had only recently learned that his father was still living, and had written him a letter.  Had that letter led to her death?

Meredith Baxter, Barry Corbin

Leaving the older couple who took care of him and his mother (Barry Corbin and Meredith Baxter), he heads off to find his long-missing father; and kill him if necessary.  And when he arrives, he finds himself in the middle of a range war between his father and family, and the Dowdy family, led by patriarch Peter Dowdy (Greg Evigan). 

While the Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movie Channel have long shown a greater commitment to the Western form than any other networks, there has also long been the complaint among oater enthusiasts that Hallmark Westerns were ‘soft’, and lacked action.  Happily, as demonstrated by the recent HANNAH’S LAW, GOODNIGHT FOR JUSTICE – QUEEN OF HEARTS, and now with SHADOW ON THE MESA, Hallmark has upped their game considerably. 

Shannon Lucio, Wes Brown

With forty features under his belt, director David Cass Sr., has a long career in Westerns that goes back to stunting on MCCLINTOCK! and HERE COME THE BRIDES.  He knows his business, and deftly handles the drama, the humor, and the action.  And there is a good deal of action, starting with Wes Rawlins’ work as a bounty hunter, and after a half-hour break, continuing with growing ferocity as  the range war grows uglier.   As a stuntman, Cass worked on eight features and episodes with the quintessential director of fun Westerns of the 1960s, Burt Kennedy, and some of that may have rubbed off, giving the occasional lighter moments a professional glow so often missing in today’s Western fare.  In particular, an exciting and amusing jail-break sequence harkens back to that style of filmmaking. 

Based on a soon-to-be published book by Western novelist Lee Martin, who also scripted, SHADOW is well-plotted, and populated with characters whose depth and range of emotions have attracted a strong and hardy cast of quality actors, both famous and new on the scene.  As Rawlins’ adoptive grandmother, Meredith Baxter brings a mature beauty, and a pioneer’s grace and strength to the role.  As adoptive grandfather, Barry Corbin tells Wes the story of his parents, and what would be dry exposition in other actors’ hands is deeply felt and deeply moving, without getting sappy.  It seems to me that over the last few years Corbin, in Westerns big (NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN) and small (REDEMPTION – FOR ROBBING THE DEAD) has earned himself the sort of sagebrush elder statesman position long held by Ben Johnson and Harry Carey Jr.  He’ll soon be seen in the Western THE HOMESMAN, directed by and starring Tommy Lee Jones, and costarring Hillary Swank and Meryl Streep.

Kevin Sorbo is strong and effective, and I rather regret the story-choice of having him on crutches for most of the movie, as it limits his involvement in the action. However, Sorbo brings that seemingly-effortless James Arness-like gravitas that grounds the film just by his presence.     

Blonde, beautiful and twice Emmy nominated Gail O’Grady plays Sorbo’s second wife, who has an agenda all her own.  Shannon Lucio is their lovely and striving-to-be-independent daughter, who fancies Wes (don’t be cross; she doesn’t know they might be related).  As her brother, Micah Alberti plays a lad who lacks confidence until Wes teaches him the way of the shooting-iron.

One of the true pleasures of MESA is Greg Evigan, who plays the suave, sinister and oddly likeable cattle-baron rival to Sorbo; it’s the sort of role Brian Donlevy and Zachary Scott excelled at, and it reveals the style and sophistication that Evigan has developed.  He was also effective in a very different role in 2010’s 6 GUNS.  Dave Florek, whose Western credits go back to GUNSMOKE: THE LAST APACHE, is solid in a small but memorable role as a ranch-hand named Baldy.

Greg Evigan

Of course, such a movie rises and falls on its cowboy lead, and Wes Brown, as Wes Rawlins carries the picture well on his broad shoulders.  He’s handsome without being a pretty-boy, and has the saddest visage of any cowboy actor since William S. Hart.  He plays his part credibly, as a young man with serious problems. 

I had a chance to do an email Q&A with author Lee Martin, who told me, “I thought the cast was wonderful and just right.  Since I named the hero for my brother Wesley, who died when he was ten, I was delighted that the actor was Wes Brown.  Everyone did a great job, as did David Cass, the director.”

It’s her first screenplay sale, and she had a great time visiting the set.  “We were treated like royalty.  It was great fun.  And a real education.  (Producer) Larry Levinson’s outfit is a well-oiled machine with not a moment’s hesitation.” 

Gail O'Grady

I asked her if there were many changes from book to movie, and if we’d likely see more of Wes Rawlins.  “From novel to script to screen brought a lot of changes, some influence by Hallmark.  I had no hand in changes, but am still happy with the end result.  The novel, reflected in my first screenplay, had Wes as a half breed, but that was also changed along the way.  I can see a sequel, and I have ideas for it.”

SHADOW ON THE MESA can be pre-ordered from Amazon  for under $14 .  

CASTING DIRECTOR MARVIN PAIGE DIES

Marvin Paige with Anne Jeffreys

One of Hollywood’s premiere casting directors has died at the age of 86 after a car crash on Laurel Canyon.  Known for casting STAR TREK and many other TV series and movies, of chief interest to Western fans, he cast the series BRANDED, and movies like RIDE BEYOND VENGEANCE, THE REVENGERS, THE HONKERS, MAN IN THE WILDERNESS, and many others.  He was particularly beloved by actors who gained their fame in the 1930s and 1940s.  The late Marcia Mae Jones told me that she and many of her friends had Marvin to thank for their later roles on TV and in film.  In recent years he was best known for squiring the great ladies of cinema’s golden age to events at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, UCLA screenings, and autograph shows.  Word that he was at an event was quickly followed by the question, “Who is he with?”  The answer was likely to be Jane Russell, Anne Jeffreys, June Lockhart, or another star of that ilk.

THAT’S A WRAP!

Next week I’ll have, among other things, a review of TREASURES 5 – THE WEST, a wonderful collection of films from the National Film Preservation Archives!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright November 2013 by Parke – All Rights Reserved