On May 31, 1958, the Trail Drive-In in Sarasota, Florida, got creative and booked a “Big Western Show” featuring six pictures with “Gun” in the title. Their resulting “Gun Roundup” offers up a pretty solid night of 50s Westerns:
The Stranger Wore A Gun (1953) Directed by Andre de Toth Starring Randolph Scott, Claire Trevor, Joan Weldon, George Macready, Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine
Top Gun (1955) Directed by Ray Nazarro Starring Sterling Hayden, William Bishop, Karin Booth, James Millican, Regis Toomey, Hugh Sanders, John Dehner, Rod Taylor
Gunslinger (1956) Directed by Roger Corman Starring Beverly Garland, John Ireland, Allison Hayes
Gun The Man Down (1956) Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen Starring James Arness, Angie Dickinson, Emile Meyer, Robert J. Wilke, Harry Carey, Jr., Don Megowan
That’s six hours well spent. Would’ve loved to have been there! (By the way, you can recreate this bill with your DVD and Blu-Ray collection!)
In the last month, the soundtracks to two of my favorite films have shown up in the mailbox. The first one, John Barry’s complete score for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), was one I’d pre-ordered a while back and was eagerly awaiting. The second one, Max Steiner’s original music for The Searchers (1956) — I had no idea this thing existed until a few days before it arrived.
Of course, The Searchers is often held up as the greatest Western ever made. (If you ask me, it’s the greatest movie ever made. Period. Sorry, Orson and Alfred.) And Steiner’s score is a key piece of the film’s success. It elevates the tragedy, suspense, excitement or humor of every scene, never in a manipulative way. That, the way I understand it, is what a film score is supposed to do. Steiner also works in the title song (written by Stan Jones and performed by The Sons Of The Pioneers) and a traditional melody or two.
This new CD presents Steiner’s complete score to The Searchers “preserved on acetate discs in the Steiner Collection at Brigham Young University.” It even has Ken Curtis singing “Skip To My Lou!” The audio cleanup and mastering by Ray Faiola are exquisite. And the 32-page book has some terrific essays and a few photos I don’t think I’d seen before.
So click on the CD cover up top to order yourself a copy. You’ll love it, “just as sure as the turnin’ of the earth.”
The Time Machine Film Festival over at The Hannibal 8 gathers up newspaper ads for interesting double-features (or more). It’s led to some great back-and-forth stuff as folks share what was playing in their neck of the woods.
Over at The Hannibal 8, we have what was playing at the just-opened Center Drive-In on May 18, 1955. Here, we see what was playing north of town that same night — the Forest Drive-In offered up a “grand night of family entertainment.”
Seven Men From Now (1956) Directed by Budd Boetticher Starring Randolph Scott, Gail Russell, Lee Marvin
Girls In Prison (1956) Directed by Edward L. Cahn Starring Richard Denning, Joan Taylor, Adele Jergens, Phyllis Coates
Return To Treasure Island (1954) Directed by E.A. Dupont Starring Tab Hunter, Dawn Addams, Harry Lauter
There were several drive-ins around Raleigh in the 50s. Some hung around into the 80s (saw The Road Warrior at the Forest in 1982).
No offense, but I would’ve headed home after Girls In Prison.
Cheyenne (1955-62) was more than just an excellent 50s Western TV show. It was the first hour-long Western, the first hour-long dramatic TV show to run more than a single season. It was also the first TV series produced by a major studio (Warner Bros.) that wasn’t derived from an established film property.
Now on Blu-Ray from Warner Archive — 107 episodes on 30 discs, Cheyenne is one of the best examples of classic TV in high definition I’ve seen so far. Scanned in 4K from the original camera negatives, these things are just stunning.
In its first season, Cheyenne shared its time slot with King’s Row and Casablanca, two WB shows based on their films. After the first season, those two vanished and Cheyenne had other slot-mates (Sugarfoot in the third season).
Clint Walker plays Cheyenne Bodie, a cowboy/scout riding across the post-Civil War West. Each week, he rides into a new spot and happens upon a new batch of folks. The plots are very much in line with what the laters B Westerns had been — and what we think of today as a 50s Western.
Cheyenne was raised by the Cheyenne after his parents were killed by another tribe. He later lived with a white family (the particulars vary a bit from show to show). He’s fair, kind, strong and always ready to help out those in need. And as if to prove the idea that “no good deed goes unpunished,” Cheyenne’s servant nature often lands him in a real mess.
Warner Bros. put their major-studio muscle behind their TV product, and it shows. Cheyenne fits right in with what Warners was doing with Western features in the late 50s. From the sets to the casts to the music, these episodes play like 50-minute versions of what WB was sending to theaters. For example, James Garner and Angie Dickinson appear in a second-season episode (“War Party”) about the same time they were in Warner’s Randolph Scott picture Shootout At Medicine Bend (1957).
The directors who did episodes of Cheyenne is a bit of a Western Who’s Who, with pros like George Waggner, Paul Landres, Thomas Carr, Joe Kane, Howard W. Koch, Paul Henreid, Lew Landers and Arthur Lubin.
Same with cinematographers. Shooting Cheyenne were folks like Harold E. Stine, Carl E. Guthrie, Bert Glennon, Ted McCord, William H. Clothier, Harold Rosson, William P. Whitley and Ellis W. Carter.
From week to week, the cast was incredible. Here’s just a sample of the folks who turn up over the course of the show: James Garner, Jack Elam, Ray Teal, Myron Healy, Bob Steele, Kathleen Crowley, Leo Gordon, Ann Robinson, Rod Taylor, Marie Windsor (above), Adele Mara, Gerald Mohr, Peggie Castle, Robert J. Wilke, Penny Edwards, Dennis Hopper, James Griffith, Angie Dickinson, John Qualen, Lee Van Cleef, Denver Pyle, Phil Carey, James Coburn, Nestor Paiva, Slim Pickens, John Carradine, Frank Ferguson, Joan Weldon, Tom Conway, Guinn “Big Boy” Williams, Edd Byrnes, Evelyn Ankers, John Russell, Claude Akins, Don “Red” Barry, Don Megowan, Dan Blocker, Adam West, Connie Stevens, Faith Domergue, James Drury, Lorne Greene, Mala Powers, Merry Anders, Alan Hale Jr., R. G. Armstrong, Ahna Capri, Ellen Burstyn, Sally Kellerman, Michael Landon, Harry Lauter and Ruta Lee. In three of the early episodes, LQ Jones (below) is his sidekick Smitty. (I left out dozens because it would’ve made for a pretty ridiculous paragraph.)
Cheyenne was a hit and it made Clint Walker a star. With a hit show, the exacting schedule that came with it, no features on the horizon, and an exclusive contract that paid him just $150 a week, after the third season, Walker was unhappy.
Clint Walker: “… I found out they [Warner Bros.] turned down some pretty nice features that I could’ve done… I heard that when people inquired, they were told, ‘When Clint Walker does features, he’ll do ‘em for Warner Bros.’ So that’s where we had the difference of opinion.” *
So, Clint Walker, well, walked. The show zigzagged to a “fake Cheyenne,” Bronco Layne (Ty Hardin) and kept going until Walker was coaxed back into the saddle. Warners put him in the excellentFort Dobbs (1958), which I’d love to see make the leap to Blu-Ray. Bronco Layne got his own series for a while, called simply Bronco.
This is an excellent TV series, a consistent favorite of fans of 50s Westerns — and for good reason. And Warner Archive has given us all good reason to pick up this set. They look wonderful. The audio has plenty of punch. They’re uncut and have the original WB openings and closings in place. A nice slipcover thing holds the seasons nice and neat.
Cheyenne was a home run back in 1955 — and it’s a home run on Blu-Ray 70 years later. Highly, highly recommended.
*From a phone conversation with this author back in 2010.
Directed by John Ford Executive Producer: Merian C. Cooper Associate Producer: Patrick Ford Screenplay by Frank S. Nugent Based on the novel by Alan Le May Cinematography: Winton C. Hoch Film Editor: Jack Murray Music by Max Steiner
Cast: John Wayne (Ethan Edwards), Jeffrey Hunter (Martin Pawley), Vera Miles (Laurie Jorgensen), Ward Bond (Rev. Capt. Samuel Johnson Clayton), Natalie Wood (Debbie Edwards), John Qualen (Lars Jorgensen), Olive Carey (Mrs. Jorgensen), Henry Brandon (Scar), Ken Curtis (Charlie McCorry), Harry Carey Jr. (Brad Jorgensen), Antonio Moreno (Emilio Gabriel Fernández y Figueroa), Hank Worden (Mose Harper), Lana Wood (young Debbie Edwards)
I am 100% positive that John Ford’s The Searchers is the finest motion picture ever made. (Sorry, Orson. Sorry, Al.) There are movies I like better, for sure, but there’s no better-made film than this one… just as sure as the turnin’ of the earth.
Being the Greatest Movie Ever Made, The Searchers deserves an equally-superior video presentation. Thanks to Warner Archive, that’s exactly that it gets.
Out of all the times I’ve seen The Searchers, probably more than a hundred, most of them were via a pristine 16mm IB Technicolor print. Of course, there’s an obvious leap in clarity from that print to the negatives used for Warner Archive’s new 4K/Blu-Ray set — and a to-be-expected variance from the lab. But I know what this film’s color is supposed to look like, back when people saw it in real Technicolor — which is why I hated the earlier Blu-Ray so much.
There’s a thing that happens sometimes with new scans/transfers of older movies, and it drives me nuts (plus, it’s flat-out wrong). They end up with an ugly, yellow-ish tint to them. That was what ruined the old Searchers Blu-Ray and plagued a few releases of The Good, The Bad And The Ugly — and from what I’ve heard, may have screwed up the latest version of Hitchcock’s To Catch A Thief (1955).
I’m so happy to report that the color on this latest disc of The Searchers is perfect, exactly as I remember from all those viewings on film. It’s bright where it needs to be; pitch black in all the right places. Certain colors really stand out from the sand and the sky — not just the usual Technicolor red. As much as John Wayne faces Scar in his search, he’s also against the land itself. The American West is a major character here, and its importance is made all the more obvious through Ford and Winton C. Hoch’s masterful use of color.
VistaVision was maybe the best of the many widescreen processes that came along in the 50s, and with The Searchers, both the Blu-Ray and the 4K demonstrate just how much sharper it was than your typical film. It’s absolutely stunning here. If you’ve seen recent Blu-Rays of VistaVision pictures like The Tin Star (1957), North By Northwest (1959) or One-Eyed Jacks (1961), you know what I’m talking about. With VistaVision’s deep focus, Monument Valley seems to really go on forever.
The extras have always been a nice part of any previous edition of The Searchers, and they’ve been brought along to the Blu-Ray here. I love the commentary from Peter Bogdanovich — it’s like he knew all the questions we had about the film and made sure they got answered. The old promotional pieces and outtakes are fascinating.
The Searchers is an essential American film, especially for those of us who love Westerns. Warner Archive has come through with a 4K/Blu-Ray worthy of its stature, and I’m so grateful to them for it.
Directed by John Ford Starring John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, Ward Bond, Natalie Wood, Harry Carey, Jr., Hank Worden, Ken Curtis, Lana Wood
There are plenty of folks out there who bestow upon The Searchers (1956) the status of The Greatest Film Ever Made. I’m one of those — even though there are plenty of movies I like better.
The current DVDs and Blu-Rays of the picture are only passable. So I’m really excited about Warner Archive’s upcoming Blu-Ray/4K combo, coming in December. If it gets the same level of care they gave to Three Godfathers (1949), this is really gonna be something — it was shot by Winton C. Hoch in Technicolor and Vistavision.
Directed by Budd Boetticher Starring Randolph Scott, Gail Russell, Lee Marvin
If this rumor proves to be a fact, this will be a dream come true for a lot of the folks who look at this blog (including me). There’s word going around, and it’s looking pretty solid, that Sidonis of out France is preparing a Blu-Ray release for Budd Boetticher’s Seven Men From Now (1956).
Of course, this is the first of the Westerns made by the team of Burt Kennedy, Budd Boetticher and Randolph Scott — a run of terrific pictures that have become known as the “Ranown Cycle.” It was out of circulation for a number of years, one of the Batjac films held in John Wayne’s estate. (Thanks to Blake Lucas for helping nudge it loose!)
While the DVD is the prize of many of our collections, it’s certainly deserving of a Blu-Ray upgrade. What’s a little concerning is the tendency for French releases to have “forced” French subtitles. They say this is a requirement from the studios, not Sidonis’ decision. Keep your fingers cross, folks!
I grew up with an IB Technicolor 16mm print of John Ford’s The Searchers (1956) in the next room. Have seen it countless times and I know what those dye-transfer prints looked like — and it sure ain’t like what the current Blu-Ray looks like.
Warner Bros. is set to unveil a new restoration of The Searchers at the next TCM Festival. No pressure or anything, WB, but please remember this is one of the greatest films ever made (OK, the greatest), and it ain’t supposed to be so yellow!
Directed by Russell Rouse Starring Glenn Ford, Jeanne Crain, Broderick Crawford, Russ Tamblyn, Allyn Joslyn, Leif Erickson, John Dehner, Noah Beery Jr., J. M. Kerrigan, Rhys Williams, Virginia Gregg, Chubby Johnson, John Doucette, Paul Birch, Glenn Strange, Kermit Maynard, Dub Taylor, John Dierkes
Warner Archive has announced The Fastest Gun Alive (1956) for its next batch of Blu-Ray releases (July, I believe). Glenn Ford made so many terrific Westerns around this time — Jubal (1956), 3:10 To Yuma (1957), Cowboy (1958), etc., and I’ve always felt Fastest Gun gets lost in the crowd. (That’s why it gets a chapter in my book.)
It’s a really terrific movie and George Folsey’s cinematography will look great in hi-def. And look at that cast! Highly, highly recommended.
For three nights in June of 1956, Elvis Presley (with Scotty and Bill) performed at Atlanta’s Paramount Theater, between showings of Fury At Gunsight Pass (1956).
Fury At Gunsight Pass is a terrific low-budget Western from Fred F. Sears — and Elvis is, well, Elvis.
It’s coming across stuff like this that makes book research so much fun.
50 Westerns From The 50s.