Ben Johnson

Discussion of the actors, directors and film-makers who 'made it all happen'
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pvitari
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Re: Ben Johnson

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Mighty Joe Young publicity still.

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pvitari
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Re: Ben Johnson

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Here's another publicity pose for Mighty Joe Young (this was nothing like this in the movie itself). Interesting angle!

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pvitari
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Re: Ben Johnson

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Book news!

Texas author and journalist Kathryn Jones is working on a biography of Ben Johnson, to be published as part of the University of Mississippi Press' "Hollywood Legends" series. Kathryn asks anyone who knew Ben and has anecdotes and memories to share to send her a private message via her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/kathryn.jones. ... Vg&fref=nf

Toby Roan (who writes the great blog 50 Westerns from the '50s) is hard at work on his upcoming book A Million Feet of Film: The Making of One-Eyed Jacks, a production history of the film. I guess things are coming along -- he's unveiled cover art. The design is by Tomas Gardner, based on original pressbook art by Julius Kroll.

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pvitari
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Re: Ben Johnson

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Happy Hallowe'en! Kino Lorber will release Junior Bonner on Blu-ray on October 31. I'm really looking forward to this, as both DVD releases were non-anamorphic.

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Synopsis: Steve McQueen is at his "rugged best" (Entertainment Today) in this "totally captivating" (Leonard Maltin) tale of a fading rodeo champion from acclaimed director Sam Peckinpah and screenwriter Jeb Rosebrook. Co-starring Robert Preston and Ida Lupino in "excellent, well-turned" (Variety) performances, Junior Bonner is "an extraordinarily graceful yet unflinching rendering of a slice of Americana" (Los Angeles Times).

With his bronco-busting career on its last legs, Junior Bonner (McQueen) heads to his hometown to try his luck in the annual rodeo. But his fond childhood memories are shattered when he finds his family torn apart by his greedy brother and hard-drinking father. Now Junior must break the wildest bull in the West to bring his family together for one final moment of cowboy glory in the roughest, rowdiest ride of his life!

Special Features:

Passion & Poetry: Rodeo Time - documentary with screenwriter Jeb Rosebrook, Katy Haber, Ali MacGraw, Garner Simmons, L.Q. Jones (56 min)
Passion & Poetry: Peckinpah Anecdotes - short documentary with Ernest Borgnine, James Coburn, Kris Kristofferson, Ali MacGraw, Isela Vega, L.Q. Jones, R.G. Armstrong, Bo Hopkins and David Warner (26 min)
Audio commentary by Sam Peckinpah Authors Paul Seydor, Garner Simmons and David Weddle, moderated by Film Historian Nick Redman
Junior Bonner Trivia - cameos, in-jokes & more (5 min)
Junior Bonner Remembered - 4th of July rodeo 2016, featurette by Keith Woods & Alyson Titkemeyer (3 min)
Junior Bonner on the set - animated image gallery (5 min)
Junior Bonner in pictures - animated image gallery (4 min)
Junior Bonner - posters & lobby cards
U.S. Theatrical Trailer
Two U.S. Radio Spots
U.S. TV Spot
Reversible Blu-ray Art
Optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature
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pvitari
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Re: Ben Johnson

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I posted this last week but forgot to post it here! Publicity still from Dillinger. Ben's really cramming himself down into his coat collar. ;)

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pvitari
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Re: Ben Johnson

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It's raining and blowing wind a lot here today thanks to (now) Tropical Storm Irma. We get a weather day off from work, hurrah. But I'd happily go to work if it meant no hurricane and no devastation in the Caribbean and Florida. Fortunately here it's just nasty weather, nothing too awful, though I'm sure there are a lot of downed trees, roof tiles, etc. blown off and other sorts of unpleasant damage.

Anyway, here's a still from Wagon Master. Modern reprint, not an original, though.

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pvitari
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Re: Ben Johnson

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Guten tag! A German lobby card for Dillinger (German title: "The Hunt for Dillinger.")

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pvitari
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Re: Ben Johnson

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Two Spanish lobby cards for the 1973 TV movie Runaway! Ben played the engineer of (surprise!) a runaway train. Looks like this received a theatrical release in Spain (a lot of American TV movies got theatrical releases in Europe).

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pvitari
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Re: Ben Johnson

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Publicity still -- The Wild Bunch.

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pvitari
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Re: Ben Johnson

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Here's a publicity still from Mighty Joe Young.

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pvitari
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Re: Ben Johnson

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Here's a behind-the-scenes candid from the set of Hang 'Em High. Photographer is Miguel Miura.

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pvitari
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Re: Ben Johnson

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A double bill!

First, this card for the TV mini-series The Sacketts.

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Second, a Wagon Master publicity still.

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pvitari
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Re: Ben Johnson

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A photo in the September-October 1949 edition of Swing, the official magazine of Kansas City's WHB radio station.

The caption reads: Stars Ben Johnson, George O'Brien, Jane Russell, Alan Hale and Harry Carey, Jr., appear at the premiere of the "R.K.O. Missouri" theatre in Kansas City.

No mention of the film premiere they're attending.

From 1945 to 1953, Swing offered readers an eclectic set of information -- profiles of entertainers, discussions of citizenship in the postwar world, and nightlife offerings in Kansas City, Chicago and even New York.

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pvitari
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Re: Ben Johnson

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Here's a magazine article and two publicity stills from a short film Ben appeared in called The Last Ride (1989). The director was Bill Russ, who instead of going on to a film career, now provides family entertainment under the name "RetroBill" (he has a webpage and Facebook page) and his co-star was Thomas F. Wilson, better known as Biff in Back to the Future. :)

I've never seen this movie. I tried to contact Bill Russ to ask how to get a copy, but he didn't respond to my messages.


From the November 1987 issue of Western Horseman
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pvitari
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Re: Ben Johnson

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Is anyone still reading this board????

For those of you who are, here's a publicity still from Wagon Master. :)

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