Ben Johnson

[JackFavell]

Awesome caps, Mary Kate!

[pvitari]

Wow, those are amazing! What movie is that? I have to add that to the website!! Thanks Mary-Kate!!

[Mary-Kate]

Awesome caps, Mary Kate!

Wow, those are amazing!

Thanks, glad you enjoyed them.

What movie is that? I have to add that to the website!!

Umm... let me think a minute; those titles really tend to run together... Death Valley Manhunt (1943)! That's the one.

And I found this the other day; I don't know if the link has already been posted, but here it is in case it hasn't:



The complete A Head of Hair episode from Have Gun Will Travel

[pvitari]

Dear Mary-Kate,

You have just confirmed for me something I have suspected for a long time, and that is that Ben did a stuntwork in a lot of movies that are not listed anywhere on the IMDB or a couple of other places where the titles of his stuntman movies have been compiled. Death Valley Manhunt is not on any list of movies he did stunts in that I've ever seen. He used to say in interviews he did LOTS of doubling for Bill Elliott and comments like this made me think that there had to be more movies out there that never got onto a list. Now I'm thinking I should do a systemic viewing of Wild Bill's movies from the early to mid 40s to see if there is any more Ben to be spotted. And I bet there are more unknown ones than just Wild Bill's, too.

Anyway, I will certainly get a copy of this movie and do up some screencaps for it! THANK YOU MARY-KATE.

I've raved about that Have Gun, Will Travel episode "A Head of Hair" in past posts. It's one of Ben's best performances, period, in *anything*. I screencapped the entire episode some time ago and it's on the website in the TV Shows section. It is available on DVD (fourth season) as is his fifth season episode "The Race." For some reason they haven't released the rest of the Have Gun, Will Travel episodes so sadly Ben's third and final HGWT episode, "The Fifth Bullet" (another excellent episode, sixth season) remains unreleased, although it shows up periodically on TV.

[pvitari]

Another question for Mary-Kate -- what was the source for your copy of Death Valley Manhunt? Just wondering. It's a really nice looking picture.

[Mary-Kate]

You're so welcome, fellow Fan of Ben.

He also doubled for Monte Hale, which fact I know you've already noted, and Sunset Carson. Monte Hale is such a good match-up, it's hard to tell the differance sometimes. Ben is easier to spot when doubling a hatless Sunset, because Sunset's hair is curly, whereas Ben's of course is straight. My brother is a big B-Western fan (I like some of them myself) and I think he mentiond seeing Ben in one of the Carson B-Westerns (where he wasn't credited with the stunts). I tend to avoid Sunset's films myself, gosh that boy could murder lines!

I remembered your writeup of Head of Hair, so I kept an eye out for it precisely because of what you said! I didn't notice a link to the youtube video in your site's video links, so I guessed you might not have been aware it was on youtube. I was fortunate to find a copy of Five Bullets on YT a while back. I don't think it's there anymore, though.

And oh, I just PM'd the answers to your questions.

[pvitari]

I know "Head of Hair" is on youtube, but if something's on DVD I'm not all that interested in providing a youtube link. I'd much rather people bought the DVDs because otherwise they're going to stop releasing them -- which seems to be the case anyway with HGWT, alas. :(

[knitwit45]

could someone copy and paste the link to the Have Gun Will Travel Youtube? For some reason, I can't view youtube videos anymore posted on this site, on my home computer only. If I check in at work , they are visible, but of course the boss thinks I should be doing his stuff, not mine....I went to Youtube just now, but couldn't bring up the episode, and not sure what season it was shown.

Thanks!

[Mary-Kate]

I know "Head of Hair" is on youtube, but if something's on DVD I'm not all that interested in providing a youtube link. I'd much rather people bought the DVDs because otherwise they're going to stop releasing them -- which seems to be the case anyway with HGWT, alas.

You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din.

could someone copy and paste the link to the Have Gun Will Travel Youtube?

Here 'ya go:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQMdJxrzwAg

[knitwit45]

thanks!!!!!!

[pvitari]

Looks like "Head of Hair" was just posted a few days ago... so I couldn't have put it on my web page before even if I wanted to.

I kind of doubt it's out of "copywright" despite the poster's disclaimer.

Great episode, hope anyone seeing it for the first time via youtube enjoys it!

[knitwit45]

Just watched it. Ben was good, but 23 minutes (or so) just didn't do justice to the story. What happened to John Anderson (Ben) before we see him drawing in the dirt? Maybe it sailed right past me, but was it because he wanted so desperately to return to the Sioux that he started to scalp the chief's son? guess that 'head of hair' was key to the whole plot. It's late and I'm tired...I'll bet it will all be clear tomorrow Thanks again, Mary Kate, for the link.

[pvitari]

Just watched it. Ben was good, but 23 minutes (or so) just didn't do justice to the story. What happened to John Anderson (Ben) before we see him drawing in the dirt? Maybe it sailed right past me, but was it because he wanted so desperately to return to the Sioux that he started to scalp the chief's son? guess that 'head of hair' was key to the whole plot. It's late and I'm tired...I'll bet it will all be clear tomorrow Thanks again, Mary Kate, for the link.

No, actually, you're right. This is something we talked about a while back. ;) -- that the character was such an interesting and rich one and it really should have been a hour-long episode. Important information was missing. Presumably Anderson had left the Army and joined the Sioux because of his revulsion of the killing of the Native Americans (though that is never exactly spelled out) but we never learn exactly what happened that precipitated his departure from the Sioux. It must have been drastic, given his complete self-identification as an Indian. (We speculated that it might have had something to do with his Sioux wife.)

But actually one thing we do know is why Anderson wanted to scalp the chief's son... or if not the son, then Paladin, and that's because if he brings an enemy scalp back to the Sioux, that will make them accept him back into the tribe (or so he apparently believes). Although that's another thing we don't exactly know, why is he so desperate to return to the tribe, after he left? I'm guessing he didn't want to leave but was ejected/exiled for some reason, and all he's thought about since is how he can return.

I sure do wish they'd had more time to explore Anderson's story but at least what's there drew a great (if largely unheralded) performance from Ben. Kudos also to writer Harry Julian Fink (who also wrote Major Dundee, Dirty Harry and Big Jake and created one of my favorite short-lived series of yore, T.H.E. Cat) and director Andrew MacLaglen.

[knitwit45]

aha. As George Kennedy tells Paladin, "no one is better at wiping out the Indian nations than the US Army." (or words to that effect) curiouser and curiouser... I know there was a discussion here, but I avoided it, as I had not yet seen the episode. Then once I saw it last night, I was too tired to go hunting for it...thanks for the updates!

[pvitari]

Anderson (Ben) also has a line in which he says something like exterminating the Indian Nation is a dirty job and the army is as good as anybody at doing it. (Not an exact quote but fairly close, I think.) The matter-of-fact tone in which Ben delivers this line is chilling-- a statement of fact that if you bother to spend a moment thinking about it, is horrifying.

Well, things are finally back to normal ("normal" meaning the usual level of craziness around here, rather than the elevated level of the past couple of weeks) so posting has resumed at the webpage -- ironically, with some screencaps from a movie in which Ben worked as a stuntman. ;) I've had these ready to go for a week but literally couldn't find time to do a little write-up and post them. :) But it's all done now. The movie is Riders of the Rio Grande, the last of Republic Pictures' Thee Mesquiteers series. Ben doubled for Tom Tyler, but I'll eat the Stetson hat my friend Cherie gave me when I went to Oklahoma last year if that's not Yakima Canutt (who worked on a lot of Three Mesquiteers pictures) doubling for Tyler on the big stagecoach sequence. Trivia: John Wayne played Stony Burke in 8 Three Mesquiteers films back in the 1930s. The series had what one might call call a revolving cast.





That's supposed to Tyler's character, Stony Burke, holding the reins, but it sure looks like Canutt to me. In a few seconds he'll jump off the stagecoach and onto the back of a horse.