Westerns

[MissGoddess]

Hi Judith,

My mom was (still is) a huge fan of "Dallas" so I grew up watching it and I confess that I stuck with it only because of Jim Davis. I just loved him and when I discovered his movies it was quite a surprise. Remember the offbeat paring of him with Bette Davis in Winter Meeting? Not a great movie but I find myself fascinated by their odd coupling.

I find his presence very comforting, and love his voice.

I was considering watching Noose for a Gunman but ended up popping
in a DVD of this movie instead:

THREE VIOLENT PEOPLE. It's about a Confederate soldier who returns to his ranch after
four years away fighting only to have to fight off the "provisional government" who want to
tax him out of existence. On the way home he meets and marries a former prostitute (though
he doesn't know about her past). The movie stars Charlton Heston, Ann Baxter, Gilbert
Roland and Tom Tryon as Heston's brother, with whom he fights more than he did with
the Yankees. Incredibly, Tryon and Heston really do look like brothers in a way. They
both have those square jaws and similar builds. Gilbert Roland, however, steals the
show for me as usual---and equally as usual he is the man I wish the leading lady had
chosen over the leading man. No, I do like Chuck in this but he gets pretty tough
on her at one point and Gilbert, his friend of 30 years, turns on him for it. I was all for
Ann leaving with Gilbert at that point (but you'll have to see the movie to figure out
what happens. I'm sure it won't surprise you.)

The script is what kind of makes it above average. James Edward Grant (John Wayne's
favorite script writer and the director of Angel and the Badman) wrote it and he
has some choice, terse lines that do lift the procedeeings up from the ordinary. I like
his western scripts because they have lots of humor but they also are very sparse,
which just feels right for westerns.

Annie is ok in her role, kind of cute in fact and very spunky as usual. She's also
very "actressy" as usual but she makes it work for her part, believe it or not, and
the script, as I said, helps, giving her some pretty good lines that she doesn't ruin
altogether with her airs.

Rudolph Mate is the director. For some reason this director keeps crossing my path
lately. I think ChiO is a fan of his, he did some noirs and worked in other genres, and
I think he also started out as a cinematographer if I'm not mistaken. He does a fine
job on this western and I give it a hearty recommendation.

[ken123]

In a book that I bought many, many years ago James Edward Grant said " all the Duke need in his films is a some jerk that he ( Wayne ) would punch every few minutes and a gal with big tits who the Duke chases around a lot ".
I dont remember the name of the book, but I think that it had something to do with the art of screen writing.

[MissGoddess]

Sounds like the criteria for every James Bond movie.

[ken123]

Sounds like the criteria for every James Bond movie.

So true Miss G. Now how come I didnt make the connection ? I guess the reason is that I only watch films with a very high cultural content.

[mrsl]

Miss Goddess:

Ordinarily I gt angry with Heston when he pulls that 'I'm the lord of the manor' attitude, but in this I loved that he got his back from Ann with aces. The whole idea of Three Violent People was how the three of them could live together. The brothers were such opposites, personality wise, it was hard to believe they were even related. You're right in that they fit well as brothers, but Tom Tryon was the reserved, proper guy, while Heston was the shoot first and ask questions later type, as he proved in the first 5 minutes he knew Ann. I saw this a lot of years ago, and have mentioned it in a few posts I've written. I never saw Gilbert as anything but a friend to all three which was quite a feat in itself, and I was glad for the ending. I just wish they had had a girl for Tom, and was always sorry he quit acting to write - he certainly had the looks for movies but I guess he found writing more lucrative, and he really filled the TV screen up as Texas John Slaughter.

Anne

[ChiO]

MissG wrote:

Rudolph Mate is the director. For some reason this director keeps crossing my path lately. I think ChiO is a fan of his, he did some noirs and worked in other genres, and I think he also started out as a cinematographer if I'm not mistaken.

Right, again. Mate directed across genres and directed some noirs, most notably D.O.A. and UNION STATION. As a cinematographer, however, Mate belongs in the film Hall of Fame: GILDA, TO BE OR NOT TO BE, STELLA DALLAS, DODSWORTH and, two of the most stunning works of cinematography ever, VAMPYR and THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC.

If his name is associated with a movie, it is worth checking out.

[movieman1957]

I got to see "Westbound" with Randolph Scott (cue chorus) and Andrew Duggan and Karen Steele.

It is probably the weakest of the Scott/Boetticher films. It is more like Scott's early 50's films than the rest of the group. Andrew Duggan is not a great villain. Certainly not like Lee Marvin, Richard Boone or Claude Akins.
There just didn't seem like a lot of excitement to it. It plays more like a TV episode. Watching Karen Steele sure was nice enough though.

Not bad just not great.

[moira finnie]

I know that this isn't in the same league as John Ford or Budd Boetticher's Westerns, but if you like the genre, I thought that you might like to know that Encore Western Channel has announced that Cheyenne with Clint Walker is going to start airing on that cable outlet as of Jan. 1, 2009. They are kicking this off with a 24 hour marathon of episodes that day.

This show also featured a slew of Warner Brothers contracted actors and wonderful character actors from that same period, including James Garner, L.Q. Jones, Ray Teal, Robert Wilke, Dennis Hopper and even Regis Toomey. I have only seen one episode in recent years and it was not the greatest dramatically, but it was fun to spot the familiar faces among the actors and, even if you don't care for Westerns, Mr. Walker is easy to like and not too hard to look at, either.

[MissGoddess]

Hi Moira! I've seen a few "Cheyennes"---they're entertaining though not exactly great. I wish they could air "The High Chaparral" or "The Virginian" instead. I was disappointed that Encorce decided to dump my favorite, "The Rifleman", entirely from the lineup when it was the main reason I decided to pay extra for this network in the first place. Oh well, hopefully along with "Cheyenne" they'll add some more unfamiliar movies instead of the same 70s and 80s ones they've been showing over and over.

[MissGoddess]

I watched Robert Taylor's Billy the Kid (1941) today and it was better
than I remember. I mean, apparently the story bears little
resemblence to the truth but the Technicolor photography is quite
pretty, especially the shots of Monument Valley. I wonder if this
is the first Technicolor movie shot there? There is one sequence
showing the posse (all black horses except Brian Donlevey, the
leader's, which is white) riding along a high ridge and below them
the valley is filled like a soup bowl with mist. Quite spectacular.
The ranch belonging to Ian Hunter is really beautiful, too. I think
it was in Utah. These are the several locations IMDb.com lists
for the film:

Flagstaff, Arizona, USA
Kanab Movie Ranch - 5001 Angel Canyon Road, Kanab, Utah, USA
Monument Valley, Utah, USA
Paria Canyon, Kanab, Utah, USA
Sedona, Arizona, USA
Tucson, Arizona, USA

It's an entertaining oater, not much more than that, but mighty pretty
to look at.

It's when I see movies like this that I want to make a
trip out there to see the old western locations.

[movieman1957]

I thought I'd post a little more about Ford's 3 Bad Men here. This is fine film. In some ways it has a split personality. On the one hand it wants to be a big scale western. It succeeds very well. It has a huge extras cast that gives you a sense of the boom of the town as people arrive by seemingly the thousands. The land rush scene is great. Again a huge cast of stunt people driving all kinds of rigs. Great action and several shots to establish the massiveness of the undertaking.

A fine cast of lead actors. The bad guys never really come across as bad guys. You're told some about their past but hey never really show it. They take their respnsibilites very seriously. Protect her, try to find her a husband and ultimately lay down their lives for her thus earning their redemption.

We've talked about a code of honor in westerns and how their is one even among the bad people. So too here the three have a deep and respectful friendship that goes beyond any sense of banding together just for survival. There is a good amount of humor floating through and it adds to the enjoyment of this fine picture.

One drawback for me is the musical score. It is a small quartet that seems to be the wrong style music at some of the wrong places. I found it a distraction.

[mrsl]

A couple of weeks ago Miss Goddess posted some disenchantment with the Western Channel on Encore and I tended to agree with her, but now it looks like it's time for a new slew of movies and programs to kick off. I guess they go through a 6 month rotation of movies and stars they honor, with only a couple of new ones each month. In January they are having another tribute to Randolph Scott, and if they show the movies that the advertisement is taken from, it will be quite new to me. Some of the scenes are ones I know I have never seen before, and if I have, they are such vague memories, they must be movies I haven't seen since I was a child, and saw it in black and white, sometimes color makes it like a whole new movie.

They are also showing a couple of Robert Mitchum movies. One is The Wonderful Country, introduced as a little known film and one that critics now say was one of Mitchum's best roles. The other is one where he co-stars with Rita Hayworth - I never heard of that one.

What can I say about Cheyenne? My TV has been tuned to #342 since about 2:00 a.m. and I am properly happy watching that lovely hunk of male anatomy walking around my screen. The man was utterly beautiful in those years!!! He definitely deserves all those shaded looks he gets from the ladies in the shows. That chest alone is . . . . !!!

Anne

[ken123]

What can I say about Cheyenne? My TV has been tuned to #342 since about 2:00 a.m. and I am properly happy watching that lovely hunk of male anatomy walking around my screen. The man was utterly beautiful in those years!!! He definitely deserves all those shaded looks he gets from the ladies in the shows. That chest alone is . . . . !!!

Anne[/quote]

I've watched a number of episodes of Cheyenne today & personally I prefer watching Gail Kobe,Dianne Brewster, & Andrea King, as a dancehall gal, and the other ladies who have appearred in the Western Channels 24 Hour Marathon than Mr. Walker.

[ken123]

Last night, actually early Thursday morning The Western Channel was showing an episode of Cheyenne ( episode #3 ) that was a remark, of sorts , of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, in some places the dialogue was exactly word for word, with Edward Andrews uttering the Bogart lines. I watched only about 15 minutes of this episode

[MissGoddess]

Hi Anne, I'm looking forward to some fresh films in January on Encore.
Though am I mistaken, but have they now removed "Bat Masterson"
and "The Big Valley" from the schedule? So it's only "Gene Autry", "Maverick" and "Cheyenne" for prime-time western TV shows?

The Wonderful Country is one of my favorite Mitchum movies. I
didn't see any ad for one with Rita Hayworth---that should be
interesting! I thought they only were paired in Fire Down Below.