Paul Colt's Blog, page 11

The Big Trail

The Big Trail blazed more than historical portrayal of the Oregon Trail. In 1930 twenty-three year old John Wayne got his first starring role. The film was shot in cinematographically innovative 70mm wide-screen Grandeur rendering big country landscapes of seven states breathtaking. The United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry for its historic and aesthetic significance. Moreover, pains were taken to give the film historic authenticity in costuming, Ox-drawn wagons and countless period correct features of staging. Imagine that. What could possibly go wrong?

Depression. The film died at box offices laboring to deal with the conversion to talkies never mind a wide-screen extravaganza. John Wayne’s career went from feature film star to nine years of B western oaters. He didn’t reemerge in a starring role until Stagecoach in 1939.

The film portrays the epic trek pioneers blazed along the Oregon Trail. Trapper Breck Coleman (Wayne) is on the trail of two men who killed a fellow trapper for his furs. He catches up with Red Flack and his henchman, Lopez, at a trading post where they are hired to drive freight wagons to a new trading post in Oregon. Coleman agrees to scout for a wagon train of settlers also bound for Oregon. Coleman plans to keep an eye on the suspected murderers, who in turn suspect Coleman is on to their guilt.

On the trail Coleman finds romance with young Ruth Cameron (Marguerite Churchill). Fleck and Lopez plot to remove Coleman from their trail before frontier justice avenges their crimes.

Next Week: Seraphim Falls
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Paul

Calaway Went Thataway

Regular readers of these posts know I love the story of how William Boyd’s phenomenal Hopalong Cassidy success prompted an attempt by publisher Harper Collins to resurrect author Clarence Mulford’s original Hoppy only to discover that crusty old reprobate had nothing to do with Boyd’s cleaned up for prime time Hoppy. Along comes Callaway Went Thataway, a film spoof of the Hopalong Cassidy phenomenon with overtones of the literary conflict.

Mike Frye (Fred MacMurry) and Deborah Patterson (Dorothy McGuire) co-own an ad agency with a hot hit on their hands, based on re-releasing vintage western films starring “Smokey” Callaway (Howard Keel). The show’s sponsor is primed for more. Frye and Patterson have a problem. No one has seen Smokey in ten years. Frye hires Smokey’s agent to find him.

Enter cowboy “Stretch” Barnes (Keel again) who complains his pals claim he looks like Smokey. Frye and Patterson take one look and convince Stretch to impersonate Smokey who they say is dead. Stretch agrees. If he has to look like the guy he might as well get paid. Patterson and Stretch head out on a smokey PR tour that turns romantic for Stretch if not for Patterson.

Matters complicate when Smokey’s agent George Markham finds his old drunk, womanizing client in a Mexican cantina. Markham persuades Smokey to get cleaned up and go back to work. Smokey agrees to the money, the cleanup – not so much. Meanwhile Stretch decides to establish a charitable foundation for needy kids, leaving him a small salary for his work. He hires a law firm to draw the papers.

Things take a turn when Stretch and Smokey meet by chance. Stretch realizes he has been used and plans to throw in the towel. Patterson convinces him to make one last public appearance at an event in the L.A. Coliseum. When the lawyer delivers the foundation papers, Stretch decides to sign them at the event in front of a stadium full of witnesses. Smokey gets wind of the plan and gets himself knocked out in a brawl over his objection, as do Frye and Markham. Patterson on the other hand decides she loves Stretch after all.

Oh, and for those of you new to these posts – Harper Collins found a ghost writer for the four book Hopalong Cassidy series Mulford refused to do because he objected to Boyd’s ‘cleaned up’ Hoppy. That ghost writer, Louis L’Amour, went to his grave denying he wrote the books.

Next Week: The Big Trail
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Paul

The Indian Fighter

A bad actor named Todd (Walter Matthau) and his partner Chivington (Lon Chaney) trade whiskey for gold with Red Cloud’s Sioux, when a wagon train rolls by a nearby fort and the scene is set for The Indian Fighter, Johnny Hawks (Kirk Douglas).

Not satisfied with trading, Todd and Chivington scheme to find the source of Sioux gold, though Red Cloud has sworn his people to secrecy under penalty of death. The gold seekers kill a tribal member who refuses reveal the source of the gold, provoking drums of war. When Todd is captured by the Sioux, Hawks intervenes, persuading Red Cloud to let him take him to the fort and white man’s law to avoid war. Red Cloud agrees and a peace treaty is signed.

Hawks leads the wagon train west taking Todd and Chivington with him by order of the fort commandant who wants rid of them before they cause more trouble. Hawks takes a side trip to see Red Cloud’s daughter Onahti (Elsa Martinelli) with whom he has fallen in love. Meanwhile Todd and Chivington resume trading enough whiskey to get a tribal member drunk to the point of revealing the source of the gold. Grey Wolf, another warrior comes on the scene and realizes what has happened. Todd kills him. With the treaty broken, the Sioux go to war.

Hawks and the wagon train make it back to the fort where they are besieged under a shower of flaming arrows. Hawks sneaks out of the fort to seek peace. He persuades Onahti to take him to the source of the gold. There Todd is captured and Chivington is killed trying to escape. Hawks takes Todd to Red Cloud. Todd is cut down with a fire arrow while running for his life. Hawks tells Red Cloud to give up the warpath as it will only lead to the death of his people. Red Cloud is not persuaded. Hawks asks, then which side will his grandson fight on? Onahti declares her love for Hawks. Red Cloud gives up the war.

Filmed in Bend Oregon, The Indian Fighter was published as a comic book in 1956 – just shy of an academy award.

Next Week: Callaway Went Thataway
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Paul

Red River

Inspired by a cattle drive from Texas to Abilene Kansas along the Chisholm Trail, Red River evokes strong themes of love and loss along with turbulent coming of age conflict between a tough demanding father and adopted son. The film stars John Wayne as Tom Dunson with Montgomery Clift as his adopted son, Mathew. Wayne should have been the first classic clue.

Dunson adopts Mathew as the sole survivor of a wagon train attacked by Indians that claimed the life of Dunson’s intended. Dunson takes the boy to south Texas where they establish a cattle ranch. Fourteen years later, facing hard economic times, Dunson determines to drive a heard north to market in Missouri. He hires a tough crew and sets out on the trail.
The trail throws all the hardships cattle drives were known for at Dunson and his crew, from a stampede, confrontations between crew members and a trail boss who becomes increasingly tyrannical. With the crew in the mood for mutiny, Matthew takes over and sends his father packing. The drive resumes, headed for a rendezvous with Deja vu.

Matthew and his crew come upon a wagon train under Indian attack. The train is saved, and Matthew meets a grateful Tess Millay, who promptly falls in love with him. Mathew gives her an heirloom bracelet that belonged to his father’s mother. Dunson had given the same bracelet to his intended before she was killed, and the bracelet recovered. The drive resumes.

Dunson catches up with the wagon train in pursuit of Matthew and his ‘stolen’ herd. Dunson sees Tess wearing his mother’s bracelet and tells her all he really wants is a son. She offers to give him one, if he will give up his pursuit of Matthew. Dunson sees his lost love in Tess but continues his pursuit with Tess accompanying him.

Dunson and Tess reach Abilene to discover Matthew has sold the herd at a ranch saving profit. Father urges son not to make the same mistake he made, marry Tess, and come home to his share of the ranch.
Red River was a commercial and critical success.

Wayne’s performance so impressed John Ford he said, “I didn’t know the big ‘s – o – b’ could act!” Shot in black and white to achieve Howard Hawks’ artistic effect, Red River is enshrined in the Library of Congress National Film Registry.

Next Week: The Indian Fighter
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Paul

The War Wagon

Tau Jackson (John Wayne) sets out to settle a score with felonious businessman Frank Pierce who swindled him out of a gold mine by sending him to jail. Tau recruits his team. Gunslinger safe cracker Lomax (Kirk Douglas), that’s as far as the (Notables) go, along with Pierce's driver Wes Fletcher, Kiowa Levi (?) Walking Bear and alcoholic explosive man Billy Hyatt. One, two, three, four, and Jackson makes five. Pierce plans to ship a half million in gold – real money in the nineteenth century – secured by War Wagon, an armored stagecoach equipped with a gatling gun and a squad of outriding gun hand guards. Knocking this one over will take some doing, but Jackson has a team that knows what it takes.

Jackson and Levi convince the Kiowa to help based on Pierce starving them off their land. Matters get off on something of a wrong foot when Fletcher shows up with a hostage teenage wife Kate who takes a shine to Hyatt. Jackson steps in to keep Fletcher and Hyatt in their places temporarily. Hyatt plans to use nitroglycerin for his part in the caper. The only place to get it is Pierce’s mine operation. Jackson pays him a visit while Lomax cracks his safe and Hyatt pinches his soup. I’ll take my nitro toting drunk in the next county thank you.

Jackson and his team prepare the route the War Wagon will take. They booby trap a bridge followed by a fallen tree on the road to divert the wagon into a narrow gorge mined with you guessed it – nitro. With all in readiness it’s time for Pierce to ship. Kiowa attack drawing off the guards. The bridge blows isolating the wagon. A second Kiowa wave are driven off by the gatling gun. The tree diverts the wagon to explosive effect, dumping War Wagon and gold into the gulch. Jackson hides a personal gold stash. Fletcher is killed when the Kiowa decide they’d like the gold and accidently get most of it from flour barrels in which it was hidden. Hyatt gets Kate. Levi goes back to his people. Lomax gets a promise to pay later.

OK here is the kicker for a novelist who responds to a question about one of his books being made into a movie – why wish for that when lottery tickets are so cheap? It never happens. Unless your name is Clare Huffaker. War Wagon is based on his book, Badman, a book he wrote in ten days. Ten Days? It was the e l e v e n t h book Huffaker sold to a film studio. I thought L’Amour had that market cornered. When it comes to market, timing is everything!

Next Week: Red River
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Paul

Hathaway's Golden Age

Hathaway hit his western stride with a trio of memorable star powered features. Let’s have a look starting with the star-crossed story behind The Sons of Katie Elder. Optioned for one thousand dollars, you might ask, was it money well spent? Probably not. By the time all the said was done, the film bore no resemblance to the story. The title character, a deceased ‘Katie Elder’ borrows an alias from Doc Holliday’s moll ‘Big Nose’ Kate Elder but no further connection to the story. Meanwhile, while all the saying was doing, the story hung around Hollywood with no takers until Alan Ladd picked it up with John Sturgis to direct. That lasted until Ladd backed out. Dean Martin stepped in to replace Ladd but shooting never got off the ground until John Wayne took the lead with Hathaway to direct, and Martin stepped back to a co-starring role. Even then shooting was interrupted by Wayne’s bout with lung cancer. That said, the film got done.

Next came Hathaway’s Nevada Smith, a tale of vengeance starring Steve McQueen, Karl Malden, Brian Keith, Arthur Kennedy, and be still my heart, Suzanne Pleshette. The film, panned by critics on release – what do they know – still enjoyed commercial success and a later following likely due to McQueen’s charism.

Which brings us to Hathaway’s masterpiece, True Grit. I love this story. Wayne championed the film for wanting the Rooster Cogburn role after reading Charles Portis’ book by the same title. Wayne gave an iconic Oscar winning performance as Rooster Cogburn, a role he continues to own even after the film was remade with Jeff Bridges as Cogburn. The same can’t be said for the rest of the cast. Hathaway had a tough time casting Le Boeuf and Mattie Ross. A long string of actors and actresses turned down the parts for various reasons including Hathaway’s reputation for being difficult to work with. They finally settled on Glen Campbell and Kim Darby, neither of whom brought much to their respective roles. Darby in particular couldn’t do a convincing fourteen year old. We saw better versions of both roles in the remake.

The screen play was credited to Marguerite Roberts, though Hathaway as director deserves both credit and blame. Credit goes with the fact the film uses Portis’ brilliant dialog virtually word for word. Kudos for that. The screen play abandoned the poignant ending of Portis’ book for a weaker scene where Rooster rides off to the prospect of a sequel that didn’t do justice to the original body of work. The remake shows Hathaway missed a golden opportunity there.

Next Week: Return to Not-so-Classics with The War Wagon
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Paul

Henry Hathaway

Henry Hathaway’s filmography reads like a history of the genre, particularly to a western writer. Hathaway’s career began in silent film, broke into talkies with B westerns, and rode into the golden age of western features. Why is that so pronounced for a western writer? It starts with those B oaters. Hathaway made a passel of them.

Most of Hathaway’s B western talkies starred Randolph Scott. I remember those with great nostalgia as a young kid growing up with my best days spent on the back of a horse. I came to western writing later in life only to discover the authors selling books in the genre I knew, were mostly . . . dead. Hathaway’s films with Randolph Scott in the ‘30’s were almost all based on novels by Zane Grey. Go to your local Walmart book department today – Walmart is, by the way, the largest seller of western literature these days – and you’re sure to find titles by Zane Grey, Louis L’Amour, and Wm. W. Johnstone. Why? Cause folks still buy them. Johnstone’s titles are being or have been ghost written for years by some of my author friends, but Louis and Zane? Original work. I digress.

Hathaway’s Randolph Scott films include Heritage of the Desert, Wild Horse Mesa, Sunset Pass, To the Last Man, and Man of the Forrest. Remember any of those films? How about the books? They are all based on Zane Grey novels. Hathaway’s Scott films also include The Thundering Herd and The Last Roundup. The 30’s also saw Hathaway westerns Brigham Young, with Tyrone Power and Linda Darnell and Rawhide, again with Power this time with Susan Hayward.

Hathaway’s western run took a break while he devoted his considerable directing talents to more contemporary action adventure, war, crime, and even a smattering of comedic films. He got back to westerns with Garden of Evil, staring Gary Cooper and Richard Widmark in1954, in time for the golden age of the western feature and three films we will fondly remember next week.

Next Week: Hathaway’s Golden Age
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Paul

Garden of Evil

With Garden of Evil director Henry Hathaway crossed the bridge from B westerns to features. Shot with the first outdoor use of widescreen CinemaScope the lush Mexican jungle landscape near Acapulco captured critical acclaim for the film.

Three American adventurers find themselves stranded in a small Mexican fishing village when their California bound steamer is docked for engine repair. What to do? Find the nearest cantina and sort out your prospects from there. Enter Leah Fuller (Susan Hayward) in need of help. Her husband is trapped by a volcanic eruption at a gold mine some distance away. She offers $2,000 a man to rescue him. Mexican macho hombre Vincente accepts, as do American ex-lawman Hooker (Gary Cooper), gambler Fiske (Richard Widmark), and gunslick kid bounty hunter Luke Daly (Cameron Mitchell).

They make it to the mine site at the ruins of a church to find Leah’s husband John alive but injured. They remove him to the shelter of a cabin where Hooker sets his broken leg. Meanwhile the volcano has attracted the interest of a local Apache band who now regard the land as sacred. As the Fuller party make their way back to civilization, they are stalked by the Apache. Luke takes an arrow in the back, followed by Vincente. Fuller’s husband is captured and crucified.

Leah, Hooker, and Fiske make a run for it. On a high mountain trail, they come to a defile certain to slow their pursuers. Fiske and Hooker cut cards to see who will fight a rear guard action to allow the other to see Leah to safety. Fiske wins the right to fight. Hooker escorts Leah to safety while Fiske halts the Apache, killing more than a few before he is mortally wounded. Hooker returns to Fiske too late. Fiske tells him to go back and take care of Leah. He does and together they ride off to a Hollywood ending.

Research for this post was interesting. Having seen the film some time ago, I remembered very little of it except for the final scenes on the mountain trail with Widmark and Cooper doing some of their finest work. Finally, in the category ‘What was Hathaway Thinking?’ All those hostile Apache wore Mohawk topknots. Now we know why they were hostile. With that Hathaway moment in hand, let’s step away to take a look at some of this iconic director's finer moments.

Next Week: Henry Hathaway.
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Paul

The Villain

After that epic last week, I deserve a break . . . did I mention Ann-Margret? The Villain is billed as a western comedy, a spoof on western cliche with overtones of a Roadrunner cartoon. How could that miss? Then I looked at the cast. Ann-Margret, I repeat myself, Kirk Douglas, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Paul Lynde, Jack Elam, Ruth Buzzi, Foster Brooks, and Mel Tillis. With Lynde cast as an Indian – really? Buzzi as a damsel in distress – are you kidding? Yes, and Foster Brooks as a banker, this should be pretty funny. Should be.

The beautiful Charming Jones (guess) squired across the west by Handsome Stranger (Schwarzenegger) comes into a large sum of money from her father. The cash is delivered by Avery Simpson (Elam) who decides on further reflection he’d rather have the loot for himself. He hires outlaw Wile E. Coyote, aka Cactus Jack Slade (Douglas) to steel the money for him. Slade proceeds to plot one holdup – ambush – accident – after another, all of which end up in western versions of an Acme Packing disaster. What would you expect from a western cartoon?

Now here’s the part to strain credulity. You say your credulity is already sprained? Buckle up. While Cactus Jack is laying his traps, Charming lays one amorous trap after another for the dullard Handsome Stranger who never manages to get the message. You’re talking Ann-Margret, Arnold? Run for governor of California or something, why don’t you? So much for typecasting. Finally in frustration Charming turns to her charms on Jack who reacts with blood in his veins.

Filmed in iconic Monument Valley and Old Tucson; because where else would you go to spoof all things western? Critics savaged The Villain. Gene Siskel lavished one star on his rating, setting a low bar others followed. With a star-studded cast of genuinely funny folks and A-M for eye candy one wonders how this one could have gone so wrong. Directed by former stunt man Hal Needham, we are left to speculate he may have taken one too many concussive falls.

As films go, last week’s saga may have gotten better reviews than The Villain, but as reviews go this one was a lot more fun. Did I mention Ann-Margret? Sure, I did.

Next Week: Garden of Evil
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Paul

The Sacketts

Made for TV, The Sacketts is the saga of the Sackett brothers who go west from Tennessee to start a new life in New Mexico. Sounds simple enough right? Not so fast. The film, based on a novel by Louis L’Amour, Sackestts, features a cast forty one strong, some stellar including an appearance by Louis L’Amour as . . . himself. Others include Sam Elliott, Tom Selleck, Glen Ford, Ben Johnson, Gilbert Roland, Jack Elam, L.Q. Jones, Mercedes McCambridge, Slim Pickens, Buck Taylor, and Pat Buttram just to name a few you might have heard of.

The brothers mountain man Tell (Elliott), former lawman Orrin (Selleck) and young gun Tyrel (Jeff Osterhage) go west. Their adventures bifurcate into enough plot twists and turns to produce two films if not three. Hang on if you can follow the trail. Can’t get all of it in one post.

Tell finds himself in a Texas mining camp. He kills a man named Bigelow in a gambling dispute, launching a feud with the Bigelow family. Tell hits the trail west. Meanwhile Tyrel signs on with a cattle drive, befriending cowboys Cap Roundtree (Johnson) and Tom Sunday (Ford). Orrin catches up with the drovers in Abilene.

There Orrin is captivated by the daughter of wealthy and powerful Johnathan Pritts, while Tyrel is taken with the granddaughter of Pritts’ rival Santa Fe landholder Don Luis. The four decide to gather wild cattle along the Purgatoire River on their way to Santa Fe. They catch up with Tell in the small town of Purgatoire Colorado. Cap joins Tell prospecting for gold, while the others continue on to Santa Fe. Ira Bigelow (Elam) follows with his brother Jack (Pickens) hunting Tell. With us yet?

Cap and Tell’s prospecting leads to New Mexico where the Bigelow’s and their men trap them in a cave along with a woman they have rescued. Meanwhile Orrin, Tyrel, and Sunday come across a massacred family and a thousand dollars leading to a dispute between Orrin and Sunday over what to do with the money. The dispute festers in Santa Fe when Orrin and Sunday oppose each other in an election for sheriff that falls in the face of their romantic interests and the rivalry between Pritts and Don Luis. Still with us? From here the plot gets complicated.

One thing leads to another until Don Luis dies. Tyrel guns down Sunday. Pritts is exposed for a killing he ordered. Cap and Tell show up in Santa Fe followed by the Bigelow’s and a shootout the Sackett’s walk away from. The End. Parts of this film have been edited for review.

Next Week: The Villain
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Paul