Paul Colt's Blog, page 7
July 7, 2024
Sam Peckinpah
Some observe a fine line between genius and mental disorder. Sam Peckinpah may be poster child for the theory. Peckinpah battled alcoholism, drug addiction, violent temper, depression, and possibly paranoia throughout his career. Still, he left a film legacy among the brightest of those to occupy a western film director’s chair. His hard bitten lifestyle comes through on the screen and in a litany of battles with the studios who employed him. His 1965 production of Major Dundee illustrates.
The film came in $1.5 million over budget, with Peckinpah and the producer at loggerheads. The studio cut and reedited the final film to an unrecognizable shadow of Peckinpah’s work. He drank heavily throughout production and was so abusive to cast and crew that at one point, normally mild mannered Charlton Heston threatened to run him through with a cavalry saber. For all the bad PR, Peckinpah had his defenders. Actors who followed his career in film after film thought his reputation overblown. They included among others James Coburn, Ben Johnson, L. Q. Jones, Kris Kristofferson, and Warren Oates.
For all the off screen distraction the work Peckinpah put on film was both brilliant and groundbreaking. Peckinpah pictures featured revisionist western themes, conflicting human and societal values, corruption, violence, and later salvation. Cinemagraphically, he innovated blending fast motion, slow motion, and still photography to extract the last measure of violence from a scene. Techniques he perfected in two epic gunfights in The Wild Bunch, An American Film Institute Top 100 Film (80). Not just western, top 100 all time. The 1969 film shares themes and events with Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, prompting a production studio race to theaters.
Peckinpah wrote the screenplay for Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Peckinpah, who got his film start as a dialog coach, cast Garrett and the Kid as friends, a historical chip added to the longstanding controversy surrounding the circumstances of the Kid’s death.
Once again Peckinpah’s off screen abuses tainted production. The film came in $1.6 million over budget. The studio cut it from two hours to an hour and forty minutes earning critical disdain. Peckinpah’s original cut was later released to critical acclaim as a classic. Bedlam bordered brilliance at every twist and turn on the Peckinpah path.
Next Week: Two Rode Together
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Ride easy,
Paul
The film came in $1.5 million over budget, with Peckinpah and the producer at loggerheads. The studio cut and reedited the final film to an unrecognizable shadow of Peckinpah’s work. He drank heavily throughout production and was so abusive to cast and crew that at one point, normally mild mannered Charlton Heston threatened to run him through with a cavalry saber. For all the bad PR, Peckinpah had his defenders. Actors who followed his career in film after film thought his reputation overblown. They included among others James Coburn, Ben Johnson, L. Q. Jones, Kris Kristofferson, and Warren Oates.
For all the off screen distraction the work Peckinpah put on film was both brilliant and groundbreaking. Peckinpah pictures featured revisionist western themes, conflicting human and societal values, corruption, violence, and later salvation. Cinemagraphically, he innovated blending fast motion, slow motion, and still photography to extract the last measure of violence from a scene. Techniques he perfected in two epic gunfights in The Wild Bunch, An American Film Institute Top 100 Film (80). Not just western, top 100 all time. The 1969 film shares themes and events with Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, prompting a production studio race to theaters.
Peckinpah wrote the screenplay for Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Peckinpah, who got his film start as a dialog coach, cast Garrett and the Kid as friends, a historical chip added to the longstanding controversy surrounding the circumstances of the Kid’s death.
Once again Peckinpah’s off screen abuses tainted production. The film came in $1.6 million over budget. The studio cut it from two hours to an hour and forty minutes earning critical disdain. Peckinpah’s original cut was later released to critical acclaim as a classic. Bedlam bordered brilliance at every twist and turn on the Peckinpah path.
Next Week: Two Rode Together
Return to Facebook to comment.
Ride easy,
Paul
June 30, 2024
Sergio Leone
Over the years western film treated us to the work of some of film makings most talented directors. Name another among them ever to create a subgenre of its own. Italian director Sergio Leone gave us the spaghetti western. A prolific film maker, westerns comprise a small, four film chapter of significance in Leone’s filmography. The Dollar Trilogy, also known as the Man with No Name series, created the ‘spaghetti western, but that’s not where Leone got his start.
Sergio Leone began his film making career writing screen plays and assisting in direction of ‘sword and sandal’ epics. Many of us recall titles like Quo Vadis (’51), Ben Hur (’59), and The Last Days of Pompeii (’59). Film making has runs. In the 60’s these historical epics gave way to the western. In 1960, Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samuri burst on the scene in John Sturges Magnificent Seven. Sergio Leone was paying attention.
Leone turned to another Kurosawa samurai work (couldn’t kick the sword thing), Yojimbo for a genre changing creation, 1964’s A Fistful of Dollars. Leone cast TV actor, Clint Eastwood as the antihero man with no name. Under Leone’s creative hand the western protagonist transformed from the ‘good guy’ in a white hat, riding a distinctively beautiful co-star quality horse, to a more realistic edgy character driven by motives somewhere short of goodness for goodness’ sake. To be sure the bad guys were still bad, though without black hat stereotypes. At Leone’s direction, Eli Wallach and Lee Van Cleef brought evil to life.
Cinematographically Leone set unshaven tense closeups, violence, and spare dialog, against sweeping vistas, grandeur and musical scores compelling in their own right. If you listen, you can hear those moving bars now. Leone had a winner with Dollars. He followed it up For a Few Dollars More (’65), and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (’66). At that, Leone thought he’d said all he needed to say in western film, until Paramount Pictures came along with an offer that became Once Upon a Time in the West as we saw last week.
Hard to believe we are coming to the end of this Not-so-Classic Western series. There are more films – 35 by my count, with too little history to review. We will finish up with the directors and a couple of actor profiles that jumped out of the series. Stay tuned.
Next Week: Peckinpah
Return to Facebook to comment.
Ride easy,
Paul
Sergio Leone began his film making career writing screen plays and assisting in direction of ‘sword and sandal’ epics. Many of us recall titles like Quo Vadis (’51), Ben Hur (’59), and The Last Days of Pompeii (’59). Film making has runs. In the 60’s these historical epics gave way to the western. In 1960, Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samuri burst on the scene in John Sturges Magnificent Seven. Sergio Leone was paying attention.
Leone turned to another Kurosawa samurai work (couldn’t kick the sword thing), Yojimbo for a genre changing creation, 1964’s A Fistful of Dollars. Leone cast TV actor, Clint Eastwood as the antihero man with no name. Under Leone’s creative hand the western protagonist transformed from the ‘good guy’ in a white hat, riding a distinctively beautiful co-star quality horse, to a more realistic edgy character driven by motives somewhere short of goodness for goodness’ sake. To be sure the bad guys were still bad, though without black hat stereotypes. At Leone’s direction, Eli Wallach and Lee Van Cleef brought evil to life.
Cinematographically Leone set unshaven tense closeups, violence, and spare dialog, against sweeping vistas, grandeur and musical scores compelling in their own right. If you listen, you can hear those moving bars now. Leone had a winner with Dollars. He followed it up For a Few Dollars More (’65), and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (’66). At that, Leone thought he’d said all he needed to say in western film, until Paramount Pictures came along with an offer that became Once Upon a Time in the West as we saw last week.
Hard to believe we are coming to the end of this Not-so-Classic Western series. There are more films – 35 by my count, with too little history to review. We will finish up with the directors and a couple of actor profiles that jumped out of the series. Stay tuned.
Next Week: Peckinpah
Return to Facebook to comment.
Ride easy,
Paul
June 23, 2024
Once Upon a Time in the West
After the Dollar Trilogy Sergio Leone was done with westerns. He concluded he’d said all he had to say on the genre. Then Paramount came calling with a checkbook and a Henry Fonda film in tow. Mamma Mia! There must be more to say. Sergio and a couple of screenwriter pals spent the best part of a year studying classics like The Searchers, High Noon, and The Comancheros looking for the right voice. They found Once Upon a Time in the West.
Part of the voice he found cast Fonda as outlaw hired gun gang leader Frank. When Eastwood turned down the romantic lead, the mysterious gunman ‘Harmonica’ role went to Charles Bronson, opposite Claudia Cardinale as ranch widow Jill McBain and Jason Robards as Frank’s rival gang leader Cheyenne. Love Bronson. Might not have been Clint’s best move. Claudia?
With the railroad headed to pass through the McBain ranch, Frank and his gang are hired by a railroad baron to force McBain to sell his ranch. Frank and the boys lean too hard, killing McBain and his children, leaving his newly wed widow sole heir to the ranch.
Harmonica arrives on the scene in time to save widow Jill from Frank’s gang, though the killings are blamed on Cheyenne and his men. Harmonica discovers the connection between Frank and the railroad baron but is captured. Harmonica knows who Frank is, but the outlaw chief doesn’t recognize a now grown man or the instrument from his past. Cheyenne rescues Harmonica, clearing himself of the killings. Together they help the widow save the ranch.
Frank forces Jill to auction the ranch, using intimidation by his gunmen to hold down the bidding so he can steal it for himself. The plot twists back and forth between ambush and gunfight until the showdown pits Cheyenne and his men against Frank and his gang. When the gun smoke clears, Frank is left to face Harmonica. Years ago, Frank hung Harmonica’s older brother by standing him on the young boy’s shoulders. As the boy’s strength is giving out, Frank shoves a harmonica in the boy’s mouth as exhaustion and gravity take over. Realization dawns as death takes Frank.
Critically considered one of the best westerns of all time, Once Upon a Time in the West is enshrined in the Library of Congress National Film Registry.
Next Week: Sergio Leone
Return to Facebook to comment.
Ride easy,
Paul
Part of the voice he found cast Fonda as outlaw hired gun gang leader Frank. When Eastwood turned down the romantic lead, the mysterious gunman ‘Harmonica’ role went to Charles Bronson, opposite Claudia Cardinale as ranch widow Jill McBain and Jason Robards as Frank’s rival gang leader Cheyenne. Love Bronson. Might not have been Clint’s best move. Claudia?
With the railroad headed to pass through the McBain ranch, Frank and his gang are hired by a railroad baron to force McBain to sell his ranch. Frank and the boys lean too hard, killing McBain and his children, leaving his newly wed widow sole heir to the ranch.
Harmonica arrives on the scene in time to save widow Jill from Frank’s gang, though the killings are blamed on Cheyenne and his men. Harmonica discovers the connection between Frank and the railroad baron but is captured. Harmonica knows who Frank is, but the outlaw chief doesn’t recognize a now grown man or the instrument from his past. Cheyenne rescues Harmonica, clearing himself of the killings. Together they help the widow save the ranch.
Frank forces Jill to auction the ranch, using intimidation by his gunmen to hold down the bidding so he can steal it for himself. The plot twists back and forth between ambush and gunfight until the showdown pits Cheyenne and his men against Frank and his gang. When the gun smoke clears, Frank is left to face Harmonica. Years ago, Frank hung Harmonica’s older brother by standing him on the young boy’s shoulders. As the boy’s strength is giving out, Frank shoves a harmonica in the boy’s mouth as exhaustion and gravity take over. Realization dawns as death takes Frank.
Critically considered one of the best westerns of all time, Once Upon a Time in the West is enshrined in the Library of Congress National Film Registry.
Next Week: Sergio Leone
Return to Facebook to comment.
Ride easy,
Paul
June 16, 2024
Shenandoah
Human interest often finds a backdrop in war. Set against the 1860’s backdrop of civil war, Shenandoah’s human interest and antiwar themes found audience in 1960’s antiwar sentiment. The film offers striking perspectives seen through lenses of some 60 and 160 years. Many of us remember the sixties vividly. Antiwar sentiment brought by an unpopular war drew sharp divide between patriotism and the tragedy of conflict lacking will to win. Those who served or offered service did so with mixed emotion. Patriotism won out for most, though without the imperative of duty that sent our fathers and grandfathers to two great wars.
None of us today experienced the conflict that was our civil war 160 years ago. We studied it in history class, read about it in books, or watched portrayals in films like Shenandoah, but the brutalities of brother against brother conflict are muted in the mists of time passed. Shenandoah depicts a family, scratching out the necessities of life, on the front lines of a nation divided. A nation divided in mortal conflict they cannot escape, try as they might. Much as they wish otherwise, they are swept up a maelstrom not of their making.
Jimmy Stewart stars as Charlie Anderson, widower patriarch to six sons and a daughter. Anderson struggles to keep his family out of the war, determined to remain neutral, a position the conflict cannot conscience. Daughter, Jennie (Rosemary Forsyth) marries confederate officer Sam (Doug McClure) who is taken prisoner. When youngest son, 16 year old Boy, is mistaken for a rebel he too is taken captive. Charlie leads four of his sons and Jennie in search of the boy. They leave their farm in the care of the oldest son James (Patrick Wayne) and his pregnant wife (Katherine Ross). While searching for Boy, they find Jennie’s husband among a trainload of confederate prisoners they liberate. Boy escapes from another prison camp but is wounded. The farm is raided by confederate scavengers who kill James and his wife. The film ends as wars do with poignant scenes in the family cemetery and Boy limping home in time for Sunday Services.
The film is considered one of Stewart’s finest. High praise by the standard of his body of work.
They say history repeats itself. I’m struck here by parallels. Chilling parallels, echoing the halls of history. Time to pray they are no more than echoes.
Next Week: Once Upon a Time in the West
Return to Facebook to comment.
Ride easy,
Paul
None of us today experienced the conflict that was our civil war 160 years ago. We studied it in history class, read about it in books, or watched portrayals in films like Shenandoah, but the brutalities of brother against brother conflict are muted in the mists of time passed. Shenandoah depicts a family, scratching out the necessities of life, on the front lines of a nation divided. A nation divided in mortal conflict they cannot escape, try as they might. Much as they wish otherwise, they are swept up a maelstrom not of their making.
Jimmy Stewart stars as Charlie Anderson, widower patriarch to six sons and a daughter. Anderson struggles to keep his family out of the war, determined to remain neutral, a position the conflict cannot conscience. Daughter, Jennie (Rosemary Forsyth) marries confederate officer Sam (Doug McClure) who is taken prisoner. When youngest son, 16 year old Boy, is mistaken for a rebel he too is taken captive. Charlie leads four of his sons and Jennie in search of the boy. They leave their farm in the care of the oldest son James (Patrick Wayne) and his pregnant wife (Katherine Ross). While searching for Boy, they find Jennie’s husband among a trainload of confederate prisoners they liberate. Boy escapes from another prison camp but is wounded. The farm is raided by confederate scavengers who kill James and his wife. The film ends as wars do with poignant scenes in the family cemetery and Boy limping home in time for Sunday Services.
The film is considered one of Stewart’s finest. High praise by the standard of his body of work.
They say history repeats itself. I’m struck here by parallels. Chilling parallels, echoing the halls of history. Time to pray they are no more than echoes.
Next Week: Once Upon a Time in the West
Return to Facebook to comment.
Ride easy,
Paul
June 9, 2024
Yellow Sky
These days selling book rights for a screen play is just this side of lottery ticket time. In 1947 W. R. Burnett sold the movie rights to an unpublished book that became Yellow Sky for $35,000. Therein we have a beginning almost as unlikely as the movie ending.
Bank robber Stretch Dawson (Gregory Peck) and his gang evade pursuit crossing Death Valley. They stagger into the ghost town of Yellow Sky near death from the ordeal. There they find cactus tough desert flower Mike (Anne Baxter) and her prospector grandfather. While the fugitives draw water at a spring, Dawson’s gang leader rival Dude (Richard Widmark) discovers grandad and Mike have been mining a small fortune in gold. The film turns on who gets to keep how much of the gold. When Stretch falls for Mike, Dude sees his chance to take over the gang along with the gold.
Dude makes no secret of his rivalry with Stretch. Mike backs Stretch in Dude’s first gun play. Stretch returns the favor when gang member Lengthy (John Russell) tries his way with Mike. Mike is spared when Stretch cools Lengthy off near drowning in the spring. Grandpa agrees to split the gold on Stretch’s word he will hold to the bargain. Dude of course has other ideas. He turns the rest of the gang against Stretch with a promise of all the gold, a promise he plans to keep for himself. That’s where the shootouts start.
Thinking Stretch killed in a gunfight with the gang, Dude turns his guns on his friends. He kills one gang member. When Stretch turns out alive, two gang members find honor among thieves and throw in with Stretch against Dude. Dude and Lengthy head for the saloon in town where Stretch puts an end to the gun play, killing both. Mike nurses Stretch back to health. He and the good thieves return the bank’s stolen loot, riding off into the sunset with Mike and grandpa.
Critics largely loved the film, overlooking the unlikely ending – bank robbers returning the loot for a ride to happily ever after. Kidding right? Paraphrasing critical consensus sounds like ‘guns blaze, passions tangle, tough, taut, classy western style action’. A crew of 150 built a ghost town backdrop to rugged cinematography. Great cast given an award winning Lamar Trotti script spare on dialog and long on drama. Some say the screenplay is a screenwriter’s seminar.
Next Week: Shenandoah
Return to Facebook to comment.
Ride easy,
Paul
Bank robber Stretch Dawson (Gregory Peck) and his gang evade pursuit crossing Death Valley. They stagger into the ghost town of Yellow Sky near death from the ordeal. There they find cactus tough desert flower Mike (Anne Baxter) and her prospector grandfather. While the fugitives draw water at a spring, Dawson’s gang leader rival Dude (Richard Widmark) discovers grandad and Mike have been mining a small fortune in gold. The film turns on who gets to keep how much of the gold. When Stretch falls for Mike, Dude sees his chance to take over the gang along with the gold.
Dude makes no secret of his rivalry with Stretch. Mike backs Stretch in Dude’s first gun play. Stretch returns the favor when gang member Lengthy (John Russell) tries his way with Mike. Mike is spared when Stretch cools Lengthy off near drowning in the spring. Grandpa agrees to split the gold on Stretch’s word he will hold to the bargain. Dude of course has other ideas. He turns the rest of the gang against Stretch with a promise of all the gold, a promise he plans to keep for himself. That’s where the shootouts start.
Thinking Stretch killed in a gunfight with the gang, Dude turns his guns on his friends. He kills one gang member. When Stretch turns out alive, two gang members find honor among thieves and throw in with Stretch against Dude. Dude and Lengthy head for the saloon in town where Stretch puts an end to the gun play, killing both. Mike nurses Stretch back to health. He and the good thieves return the bank’s stolen loot, riding off into the sunset with Mike and grandpa.
Critics largely loved the film, overlooking the unlikely ending – bank robbers returning the loot for a ride to happily ever after. Kidding right? Paraphrasing critical consensus sounds like ‘guns blaze, passions tangle, tough, taut, classy western style action’. A crew of 150 built a ghost town backdrop to rugged cinematography. Great cast given an award winning Lamar Trotti script spare on dialog and long on drama. Some say the screenplay is a screenwriter’s seminar.
Next Week: Shenandoah
Return to Facebook to comment.
Ride easy,
Paul
June 2, 2024
The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
John Huston might-a, could-a, should-a thought it over. A comedy thinly akin to The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean. Really? The self-proclaimed “Law west of the Pecos,” did have an unlikely affection for 1890’s vaudeville singer actress Lillie Langtry. So much so, he named the saloon where he gaveled his ‘court’ into session the Jersey Lilly. There is a hint of humor in that. But a Hollywood western spoof, based Bean’s slice of history? Given a phenomenal cast a serious director like Huston had better things to say cinematically.
The film stars Paul Newman as Judge Roy Bean, a character portrayed as quick with a gun as a gavel. The screen play, described as ‘episodic’, bounces from one unlikely encounter – say a mountain man with a pet bear, to a gang of outlaws turned deputies, to shootouts and hangings followed by fines for the dead and court confiscation of ill-gotten gains. The cast? Tab Hunter, Stacy Keach, Roddy McDowall, Anthony Perkins, and Ned Beatty; that’s before we come to Ava Gardner as Lillie, Jacqueline Bisset as Bean’s grown daughter, and Victoria Principal making her film debut as mother to Bisset’s character. That is a ton of talent even before notable cameos too numerous to mention in four hundred words.
Huston stepped out of character as a director with this one, snatching critical defeat from the jaws of serious human condition themes like greed, power, and idyllically fantasized celebrity romance. Themes that might have benefited from the ‘Huston look’ rather than feeble association with semi-bawdy suggestions of humor interspersed with gratuitous murder, mayhem, and picnic setting for an Andy Williams serenade, lacking only a whimsical bicycle ride to romance in mimic of Butch Cassidy and Etta Place.
Huston said, “I think we have a hell of a picture, . . . Of course I’ve been wrong before.” Critics agreed – sort of. Roger Ebert gave the film two-and-a-half stars on a four star scale. Gene Siskel’s two stars came with a generous helping of “Marmalade, molasses, and honey (coated) musical interlude sung by Andy Williams” with no hope of saving the film. Others thought it overlong and drowsy. Frankly I wasn’t prepared for this critique given Huston’s talent and a superb cast. The cast alone may account for Huston’s misjudgment of the film.
Next Week: Yellow Sky
Return to Facebook to comment.
Ride easy,
Paul
The film stars Paul Newman as Judge Roy Bean, a character portrayed as quick with a gun as a gavel. The screen play, described as ‘episodic’, bounces from one unlikely encounter – say a mountain man with a pet bear, to a gang of outlaws turned deputies, to shootouts and hangings followed by fines for the dead and court confiscation of ill-gotten gains. The cast? Tab Hunter, Stacy Keach, Roddy McDowall, Anthony Perkins, and Ned Beatty; that’s before we come to Ava Gardner as Lillie, Jacqueline Bisset as Bean’s grown daughter, and Victoria Principal making her film debut as mother to Bisset’s character. That is a ton of talent even before notable cameos too numerous to mention in four hundred words.
Huston stepped out of character as a director with this one, snatching critical defeat from the jaws of serious human condition themes like greed, power, and idyllically fantasized celebrity romance. Themes that might have benefited from the ‘Huston look’ rather than feeble association with semi-bawdy suggestions of humor interspersed with gratuitous murder, mayhem, and picnic setting for an Andy Williams serenade, lacking only a whimsical bicycle ride to romance in mimic of Butch Cassidy and Etta Place.
Huston said, “I think we have a hell of a picture, . . . Of course I’ve been wrong before.” Critics agreed – sort of. Roger Ebert gave the film two-and-a-half stars on a four star scale. Gene Siskel’s two stars came with a generous helping of “Marmalade, molasses, and honey (coated) musical interlude sung by Andy Williams” with no hope of saving the film. Others thought it overlong and drowsy. Frankly I wasn’t prepared for this critique given Huston’s talent and a superb cast. The cast alone may account for Huston’s misjudgment of the film.
Next Week: Yellow Sky
Return to Facebook to comment.
Ride easy,
Paul
May 26, 2024
John Huston
Westerns number but three among John Huston’s prolific body of work, yet they are cinematic achievements of substance and credit to his artistry. We recognize his contributions to the genre for the excellence he brought to the director’s chair. Huston was a visual artist, once described as the ‘Hemingway’ of film. He was known to tackle tough issues as we shall see in his 1960 film, The Unforgiven. Huston brought a perspective to the human condition some describe as the ‘Huston look’ we shall uncover in 1948’s The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.
Houston artistry starts with cinematography. Huston made films with the camera. He did not rely on the cutting room to piece together a finished work. He was known to sketch scenes on paper before framing the shots as he saw them. Some speculate Huston’s technique stems from youth spent as a street artist in Paris. Directors of his time commonly shot perspectives, angles, and effects to mix and match in editing. Huston filmed what he saw economically and efficiently.
The human condition is central to Huston films. Themes include heroic quests, often doomed to fail by circumstances, forces, or events beyond the protagonists capacity to overcome. Huston filmed the human condition facing forces of evil and character flaws forged of greed, treachery, betrayal, cowardice, and tragedy. No stranger to controversy, Huston took on issues of political and social significance regardless of their sensitivity.
The Unforgiven, starring Burt Lancaster, Audrey Hepburn, Charles Bickford, Lillian Gish, Doug McClure, and Audie Murphy, tackled racial discrimination against Native Americans and prejudice toward anyone half-bred by birth. Huston found human character on the western frontier carved out of harsh conditions and brutal life and death circumstances. The west bred tough, resilient, rugged individuals. Huston’s 1948 film
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, starred Humphrey Bogart, Tim Holt, and Huston’s father Walter as prospectors amassing a fortune in gold. Greed and distrust grind as hard as harsh, high desert mountains.
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre received four Oscar nominations with Huston taking home Best Screenplay and Best Director. Best Supporting Actor controversially went to Huston’s father, overlooking a performance many thought Bogart’s best. The film is recognized in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
Next Week: Huston’s The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
Return to Facebook to comment.
Ride easy,
Paul
Houston artistry starts with cinematography. Huston made films with the camera. He did not rely on the cutting room to piece together a finished work. He was known to sketch scenes on paper before framing the shots as he saw them. Some speculate Huston’s technique stems from youth spent as a street artist in Paris. Directors of his time commonly shot perspectives, angles, and effects to mix and match in editing. Huston filmed what he saw economically and efficiently.
The human condition is central to Huston films. Themes include heroic quests, often doomed to fail by circumstances, forces, or events beyond the protagonists capacity to overcome. Huston filmed the human condition facing forces of evil and character flaws forged of greed, treachery, betrayal, cowardice, and tragedy. No stranger to controversy, Huston took on issues of political and social significance regardless of their sensitivity.
The Unforgiven, starring Burt Lancaster, Audrey Hepburn, Charles Bickford, Lillian Gish, Doug McClure, and Audie Murphy, tackled racial discrimination against Native Americans and prejudice toward anyone half-bred by birth. Huston found human character on the western frontier carved out of harsh conditions and brutal life and death circumstances. The west bred tough, resilient, rugged individuals. Huston’s 1948 film
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, starred Humphrey Bogart, Tim Holt, and Huston’s father Walter as prospectors amassing a fortune in gold. Greed and distrust grind as hard as harsh, high desert mountains.
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre received four Oscar nominations with Huston taking home Best Screenplay and Best Director. Best Supporting Actor controversially went to Huston’s father, overlooking a performance many thought Bogart’s best. The film is recognized in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
Next Week: Huston’s The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
Return to Facebook to comment.
Ride easy,
Paul
May 19, 2024
Comanche Station
Boetticher and Scott wrapped up the Ranown Cycle with the 1960 production of Comanche Station. Filmed in the Sierra’s with picturesque Mount Whitney for a backdrop the film made a fine finish to an historically important series, though not necessarily the crown jewel in the Ranown claim to fame. An Indian rescue story, perhaps inspired by The Searchers (1956), the screen play sported enough twists to avoid copycat territory, still …
Jefferson Cody (Randolph Scott) is in pursuit of Comanches who have taken his wife. He manages to rescue Nancy Lowe (Nancy Gates), also a Comanche captive. On the trail returning her home they encounter gentleman outlaw Ben Lane (Claude Akins) and his gang. Lane is out to rescue Mrs. Lowe for the $5,000 reward her husband has offered for her ‘return’, being shorthand for ‘return dead or alive’. Nice fella. Nasty twist. The news makes Nancy suspicious of Cody’s intentions.
Lane and Cody have a history going back to the war and Cody’s hand in Lane’s courts martial. Not surprisingly Lane’s plans include getting even with Cody and the ‘dead’ end of Mrs. Lowe’s return reward. Dead witnesses tell no tales and with the Comanche on the warpath, they can easily be blamed for the murders.
Comanche peck away at Lane’s gang until all that’s left is the inevitable showdown between Lane and Cody. We can likely guess who wins. No twist there. Cody returns Mrs. Lowe to Mr. Lowe on the ‘alive’ side of the return offered reward. For the twist of it, Mr. Lowe turns out to be blind. In a dubious twist, Cody rides off without collecting the reward, leaving us to wonder whatever happened to his wife? Oh well, the Ranown Cycle came to an end.
The abrupt ending feels like the film ran right up to the budget and turned off the cameras. Last week I closed one eye without commenting on Boetticher’s choice in outfitting Scott with a ’74 Colt Peacemaker prop for a ball and cap era Civil War film. This week we have to defend the Comanche from a wardrobe and make up department malfunction turning the Comanche cast out in ‘Mohawk’ topknots. James Fennimore Cooper would have been offended, never mind the annals of history.
Next Week: John Huston
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Ride easy,
Paul
Jefferson Cody (Randolph Scott) is in pursuit of Comanches who have taken his wife. He manages to rescue Nancy Lowe (Nancy Gates), also a Comanche captive. On the trail returning her home they encounter gentleman outlaw Ben Lane (Claude Akins) and his gang. Lane is out to rescue Mrs. Lowe for the $5,000 reward her husband has offered for her ‘return’, being shorthand for ‘return dead or alive’. Nice fella. Nasty twist. The news makes Nancy suspicious of Cody’s intentions.
Lane and Cody have a history going back to the war and Cody’s hand in Lane’s courts martial. Not surprisingly Lane’s plans include getting even with Cody and the ‘dead’ end of Mrs. Lowe’s return reward. Dead witnesses tell no tales and with the Comanche on the warpath, they can easily be blamed for the murders.
Comanche peck away at Lane’s gang until all that’s left is the inevitable showdown between Lane and Cody. We can likely guess who wins. No twist there. Cody returns Mrs. Lowe to Mr. Lowe on the ‘alive’ side of the return offered reward. For the twist of it, Mr. Lowe turns out to be blind. In a dubious twist, Cody rides off without collecting the reward, leaving us to wonder whatever happened to his wife? Oh well, the Ranown Cycle came to an end.
The abrupt ending feels like the film ran right up to the budget and turned off the cameras. Last week I closed one eye without commenting on Boetticher’s choice in outfitting Scott with a ’74 Colt Peacemaker prop for a ball and cap era Civil War film. This week we have to defend the Comanche from a wardrobe and make up department malfunction turning the Comanche cast out in ‘Mohawk’ topknots. James Fennimore Cooper would have been offended, never mind the annals of history.
Next Week: John Huston
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Ride easy,
Paul
May 12, 2024
Westbound
Westbound is a testament to the importance of the Ranown Cycle. If Ranown weren’t important, one wonders if Boetticher ever would have made the film. He didn’t consider Westbound a Ranown Cycle film and would only discuss it if that point was clearly stated. Why? Boetticher didn’t like the film. Didn’t think it was particularly well done. Then why did he put his name on it? To save the Ranown collaboration with Randolph Scott. Scott had a lingering one film contractual obligation to Warner Brothers hanging over the Ranown productions. Westbound provided a low budget performance to close out the contract. Boetticher agreed to direct to save the Ranown brand.
Union army Captain John Hayes (Scott) is sent to Julesburg Colorado, his hometown, to take over eastbound Overland Stage operations and protect California gold shipments financing the union war effort. Hayes is assigned to replace Clay Putnam who resigned the position, secretly turning to aid the confederacy. He is assisted by an outlaw gunman known as Mace (Michael Pate) and his gang. In a further twist to the connection, Putnam is married to Hayes’s former sweetheart Norma (Virginia Mayo).
Mace has an easy answer to the new Overland Stage master. Kill him. Putnam is afraid of the union response, directing Mace to destroy Overland station and steal gold shipments. Hayes moves Overland operations to a farm owned by union veteran Rod Miller and his wife Jeannie (Karen Steele). Miller lost an arm in combat, making him an easy target for Mace and his men.
Things go bad when Mace drives a stage off a cliff, killing the passengers. Norma blames Putnam for the tragedy. She leaves him, threatening to see him hang if anything happens to Hayes. Mace takes matters into his own hands but mistakes Rod Miller for Hayes and kills him. Putnam, convinced Norma still has feelings for her old flame, confronts Mace in an attempt to stop him from killing Hayes. Mace kills Putnam for his trouble. Able to take care of himself, Hayes kills Mace. In the end it is Norma or Jeannie. You guessed it. Jeannie.
Critical reaction to Westbound may have taken a cue from Boetticher with terms like ‘subdued’ and ‘forgettable.’ With Scott’s obligation cleared it was time to return to the cycle.
Next Week: Comanche Station
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Ride easy,
Paul
Union army Captain John Hayes (Scott) is sent to Julesburg Colorado, his hometown, to take over eastbound Overland Stage operations and protect California gold shipments financing the union war effort. Hayes is assigned to replace Clay Putnam who resigned the position, secretly turning to aid the confederacy. He is assisted by an outlaw gunman known as Mace (Michael Pate) and his gang. In a further twist to the connection, Putnam is married to Hayes’s former sweetheart Norma (Virginia Mayo).
Mace has an easy answer to the new Overland Stage master. Kill him. Putnam is afraid of the union response, directing Mace to destroy Overland station and steal gold shipments. Hayes moves Overland operations to a farm owned by union veteran Rod Miller and his wife Jeannie (Karen Steele). Miller lost an arm in combat, making him an easy target for Mace and his men.
Things go bad when Mace drives a stage off a cliff, killing the passengers. Norma blames Putnam for the tragedy. She leaves him, threatening to see him hang if anything happens to Hayes. Mace takes matters into his own hands but mistakes Rod Miller for Hayes and kills him. Putnam, convinced Norma still has feelings for her old flame, confronts Mace in an attempt to stop him from killing Hayes. Mace kills Putnam for his trouble. Able to take care of himself, Hayes kills Mace. In the end it is Norma or Jeannie. You guessed it. Jeannie.
Critical reaction to Westbound may have taken a cue from Boetticher with terms like ‘subdued’ and ‘forgettable.’ With Scott’s obligation cleared it was time to return to the cycle.
Next Week: Comanche Station
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Ride easy,
Paul
May 5, 2024
Buchanan Rides Alone
Returning to Texas with money to buy his own ranch, Tom Buchanan (Randolph Scott) thinks he’s ‘just passing through’ Agry California when he encounters hot tempered dunk Roy Agry. The town has a family name for a reason. The dust-up ends with the bloodied kid threatening to kill Buchanan. Before Agry can make good his threat, Juan de la Vega rides into town, looking for Agry who assaulted his sister. Knowing what’s coming, Roy goes for his gun. De la Vega kills him. Whereupon Sheriff Lew Agry arrests Juan. When Buchanan objects, Agry arrests him as an accessory to his nephew’s murder.
Juan is taken before Judge Simon Agry, the victim’s aggrieved father, who sees opportunity to extort ransom for Juan’s release from his wealthy father. Juan is duly tried, found guilty and sentenced to hang. Sheriff Agry releases Tom, impounding his ranch money with orders to leave town. The sheriff sends two of his deputies to escort Tom out of town and kill him. One of the men, Pecos Hill turns against the murderous plot. Tom vows to return to Agry for his money with Pecos a partner in his ranch.
Judge Agry’s negotiation with Juan’s Father settles on $50,000, an amount too rich for Sheriff Agry to overlook. – can you imagine an Agry family reunion? Wait for it . . . The sheriff arranges to hide Juan in a shack, Tom and Pecos happen to be using. They overcome the sheriff’s men and spring Juan. Pecos and Juan head for the border while Tom returns to town for his money. The sheriff’s men get loose, kill Pecos and recapture Juan.
Back in Agry the ransom arrives. The Judges sends to the jail for Juan only to be met by his brother’s demand for the ransom. Tom gets the drop on the sheriff forcing him to return his money just in time for the deputies to return with the prisoner. Both Juan and Tom are locked up. The Judge goes to town looking for Juan and the money. The family reunion between judge and sheriff goes to gunplay killing both. Juan returns to Mexico with the ransom. Tom passes through Agry on his way to a ranch in Texas.
Next Week: Westbound
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Ride easy,
Paul
Juan is taken before Judge Simon Agry, the victim’s aggrieved father, who sees opportunity to extort ransom for Juan’s release from his wealthy father. Juan is duly tried, found guilty and sentenced to hang. Sheriff Agry releases Tom, impounding his ranch money with orders to leave town. The sheriff sends two of his deputies to escort Tom out of town and kill him. One of the men, Pecos Hill turns against the murderous plot. Tom vows to return to Agry for his money with Pecos a partner in his ranch.
Judge Agry’s negotiation with Juan’s Father settles on $50,000, an amount too rich for Sheriff Agry to overlook. – can you imagine an Agry family reunion? Wait for it . . . The sheriff arranges to hide Juan in a shack, Tom and Pecos happen to be using. They overcome the sheriff’s men and spring Juan. Pecos and Juan head for the border while Tom returns to town for his money. The sheriff’s men get loose, kill Pecos and recapture Juan.
Back in Agry the ransom arrives. The Judges sends to the jail for Juan only to be met by his brother’s demand for the ransom. Tom gets the drop on the sheriff forcing him to return his money just in time for the deputies to return with the prisoner. Both Juan and Tom are locked up. The Judge goes to town looking for Juan and the money. The family reunion between judge and sheriff goes to gunplay killing both. Juan returns to Mexico with the ransom. Tom passes through Agry on his way to a ranch in Texas.
Next Week: Westbound
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Ride easy,
Paul
