Gunsmoke or Bonanza...discuss

[MissGoddess]

I think he basically had a career because of his size! I remember he was also in The Farmer's Daughter, comedy/drama with Loretta Young...he played one of her giant, Swedish brothers.

The other night I saw someone I never expected to on "Gunsmoke": Marsha Hunt. I don't think she ever did a western movie, or did she? Anyway, she didn't seem too much at ease, though she looked nice in the garb of the day. Kent Smith played her lover. He's another I never figured for westerns but he's turned up in several of the television series. He was really convincing as an ex-peace officer and wild west sharp shooter who couldn't face growing old and losing face. Interesting episode.

[movieman1957]

I saw that one but didn't really know who she was. If we are talking about the same episode James Best was also running around looking for a reputation so he could be someone.

[MissGoddess]

I saw that one but didn't really know who she was. If we are talking about the same episode James Best was also running around looking for a reputation so he could be someone.

Yes, that is the one. I hated James Best's character! He was great in it. What an actor. I've really come to appreciate how skilled he was. In another epi, "Goober" from "The Andy Griffith Show" shocked me by playing a straight character. He was the son of a pscho hillbilly type who stood up to his old man. I couldn't beieve it was the same actor.

[movieman1957]

I saw that one too.

I also saw Best in a "Wanted: Dead or Alive" episode. He played a straight but tough guy. Another good role. It is hard to imagine most people will only know him from "Dukes of Hazzard."

I even got to show Carolann Jeanne Cooper in "Gunsmoke." She plays in "The Young and The Restless."

Half the fun of these are seeing who shows up from other shows I've been watching or what movie stars take a turn out west.

[JackFavell]

Kent Smith can be downright awful, but sometimes he is really good! I thought he was fabulous in This Land is Mine with George Sanders. It must be the director. That role on Gunsmoke sounds like it fit him perfectly.

I'm looking at pictures of James Best, but cannot for the life of me figure out who he is. Maybe I need to hear his voice, or I actually don't know him.

Never mind. Dukes of Hazzard. I got it now.

[MissGoddess]

Best usually played "hill" folk or southern "good old boys".

[JackFavell]

This explains it, I usually turn off the TV when it comes to that type of show.

[moira finnie]

I think he basically had a career because of his size! I remember he was also in The Farmer's Daughter, comedy/drama with Loretta Young...he played one of her giant, Swedish brothers.

The other night I saw someone I never expected to on "Gunsmoke": Marsha Hunt. I don't think she ever did a western movie, or did she? Anyway, she didn't seem too much at ease, though she looked nice in the garb of the day. Kent Smith played her lover. He's another I never figured for westerns but he's turned up in several of the television series. He was really convincing as an ex-peace officer and wild west sharp shooter who couldn't face growing old and losing face. Interesting episode.

I saw the last half hour of this episode (darn it!) but I loved the scenes between Kent Smith and Marsha Hunt. They were quite believable as a former couple. I liked the way that Marsha kept her heart and commitment close to her vest, avoiding the pain that she sensed would come again when her former beau arrived in town. She had such a closed quality in that story, and managed to convey quite a bit with her stillness.

Marsha did do at least one other Western very early in her career--but it is one that I don't think anyone except Paramount has access to--called Thunder Trail (1937). It starred Gilbert Roland, Charles Bickford and James Craig




Though Kent Smith's character may have been an unlikely Westerner, I sort of saw him as a Bat Masterson type, who would wind up as a sports reporter and barroom raconteur-blowhard in NYC. A bit of a phony, but with some considerable experience behind the facade, but someone who knew how to make a good impression on people. I particularly liked Smith's comment to Arness about the simpleton character, whom he envied because he would be a child only once, while men like the two of them would be children twice, before and after their adult years.

I have a weakness for Kent Smith and I'm not sure why and always watch him when I come across something with him in it. Those eyebrows, I suspect...or maybe his role as the unimaginative Hubby-Dad in the Cat People movies, and as the Doctor-Fugitive in Nora Prentiss, and an unimaginative (yes, again) CPA in The Damned Don't Cry, when he brings a house of cards tumbling down. It might also have something to do with the fact that when he was interviewed years later about his time with the University Players, (the theatrical group that produced Henry Fonda, James Stewart, Margaret Sullavan, Joshua Logan and more), he laughed uproariously when biographers mentioned Jimmy Stewart and Logan's claims that there was little sexual tension or activity among the young actors and crew.

I also watched that episode of Gunsmoke because of the simpleton character who was played by Robert Sorrells, an actor who played in a great Twilight Zone epi about a likable robot who could pitch far better than any human. Sorrells unfortunately, found renewed fame a few years ago when he shot two people for no discernible reason--other than his acute alcoholism. He's now in prison for the rest of his life. Most people seem to mellow with age. Too bad he didn't.

[ken123]

Marsha Hunt also appearred in 2 John Wayne C level westerns .

[MissGoddess]

Fascinating, Moira. I thought the Sorrells character was a nice touch, but what a sad end. like Smith okay and as he got older I think he defintely got better. He's perfect as "Oilver" in Cat People. His bland, easy going Americanness contrasts nicely to Simone Simon's worked up "stranger in a strange land".

I particularly liked Smith's comment to Arness about the simpleton character, whom he envied because he would be a child only once, while men like the two of them would be children twice, before and after their adult years.

That was one of the best lines.

I've never seen or heard of that western with Marsha and Gilbertito...I can't imagine them as a couple!

I wonder if I've seen those "c-level" westerns with the Duke. I really can't see him with Marsha, either, ha!

[mrsl]

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You have to keep in mind the Wagon Train and the Gunsmoke episodes were mostly post-HUAC. Except for work in foreign countries, actors who had been given a hard time by HUAC, had a twenty year lay-off, and many of them had to take TV work in order to get back to movie work, and I think some of them thought, 'the heck with movies, TV came through when nobody else would', and just stayed making guest appearances where they were again treated as 'The Star'. I SUre can't say I would blame them.

Ms Goddess wrote: "Yes, that is the one. I hated James Best's character! He was great in it. What an actor. I've really come to appreciate how skilled he was." James Best is one who usually plays a whiny, 'poor-me', bad guy, but because he is so good, I don't dislike him, in fact, I'm surprised when his role is not a criminal but a hero.
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[klondike]

You have to keep in mind the Wagon Train and the Gunsmoke episodes were mostly post-HUAC. Except for work in foreign countries, actors who had been given a hard time by HUAC, had a twenty year lay-off, and many of them had to take TV work in order to get back to movie work, and I think some of them thought, 'the heck with movies, TV came through when nobody else would', and just stayed making guest appearances where they were again treated as 'The Star'. I SUre can't say I would blame them.

Nope, ya can't blame them, but one sure can make a case to blame good ol' Ward Bond, aka Major Seth Adams, who was so enthusiastic about ridding America of the insidious Red Threat, he volunteered his "insider services" directly to Tailgunner Joe, and thereby became the House Unamerican Activities Commission's official Hollywood liaison, forwarding entire lists of names to the esteemed Senator & his cabal of crusaders.
Don't get me wrong, Friends & Neighbors, I'm a big Ward Bond fan, from his days as a Warner Bros. bit player, to his great roles for John Ford, to his iconic character on "Wagon Train" (which I started watching in short britches, back when it was new) . . I think his contributions to vintage cinema, & the mythology of TV westerns, is nothing less than Olympian . .
But his politics, and his abusive exploitation of his colleagues, make me angry, and frequently, a little nauseous . .

[mrsl]

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Right back at ya with the can't blame bit, Klonny. Every word you wrote makes me angry just like you. Nothing was ever made more clear to me, regarding old hurts and fears as about a year after seeing Guilty by Suspicion, Elia Kazan was honored at the Oscar awards, and half of the audience stood up for a tribute to him, and the other half kept their seats because he did basically the same thing. But because of their acting ability and the joy they give me, I'm prone to ignore the true facts in many cases of my favorite stars.

This is off track here, and I know it, but it's not worthy of it's own thread (I Don't think). The new channel I mentioned, METV, out of Chicago, held a tribute this evening for Anne Francis (who passed away this past week), by playing programs in which she had guest starred, like Perry Mason, Gunsmoke, etc. That was kind of nice. I'm used to seeing stars in old classic movies on their birthdays, but seeing them in TV shows leaves a different sort of feeling.
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[pvitari]

I'm currently screencapping On Dangerous Ground for the Film Noir blogathon in February, and I really have to wonder how Ward Bond, the archconservative of archconservatives, got along with Robert Ryan, a noted Hollywood liberal/pacifist/civil rights activist who also spoke out against the witchhunts. (Ryan would often note how in real life he abhorred the values of the dark, troubled characters he frequently played on screen.)

Anyone have information on this relationship? (Or was there a complete lack thereof?)

[movieman1957]

If you haven't checked in the "Archived Guests" on the menu page there is an interview with Ryan's daughter Lisa. There might be some information there but I'm not sure.