Been having a great time with old Halloween movie ads over at my other place, The Hannibal 8. When I came across this one, featuring one of the only Westerns you might find running on Halloween, it made sense to share it here.
Edward Dein’s Curse Of The Undead (1959) is a vampire Western from Universal International that’s a far better movie than you’d expect. That’s largely due to the performances of Michael Pate and Kathleen Crowley, who don’t look down at the material but do their best to put it over.
Padding out the program in Auburn, Alabama that night are two terrific Hammer films, Brides Of Dracula (1961) and The Mummy (1959). This is about the only way I’d ever be able to get the great Peter Cushing in this blog. It’s also the first time we’ve featured anything about a pie-eating contest.
Happy Halloween, y’all. And save me some Raisinets!
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.
A while back, Warner Archive dug the series Colt .45 out of their vaults for a stunning Blu-Ray set. They’ve done it again with a Warner Bros. series that’s been even harder to see over the years — The Alaskans (1959-60) starring Roger Moore and Dorothy Provine.
Roger Moore stars as Silky Harris, a con man in Skagway, Alaska during the state’s Gold Rush. Jeff York is his cohort Reno McKee and Dorothy Provine is the saloon singer Rocky Shaw. It looks and plays much like the other Westerns WB was putting on TV in the late 50s, only this one trades the Wild West for gold-crazy Alaska (which had recently become a state).
Of course, the Alaska we see here is actually the WB backlot. One of Roger Moore’s complaints about the show was how miserable it was wearing a parka in the California sun.
A TV show is almost like a living thing. It’s born, it grows and hopefully it finds its way. Most shows’ early episodes are a far cry from that first season’s final ones. With The Andy Griffith Show, for instance, Andy’s take on his character is almost completely different going from Season 1 to Season 2. And look at how The Man From UNCLE changed as it went to color (and maybe the suits saw the success of Batman).
Though The Alaskans was part of a terrific ABC Sunday-night lineup (all Westerns!), and it boasted an incredible roster of guest stars — from Julie Adams and Claude Akins to Frank Ferguson and Leo Gordon to Ray Teal and Lee Van Cleef to Marie Windsor and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., the show never quite took off. After a single season, it was done. (Moore was then coerced into joining the cast of Maverick when James Garner left).
The Alaskans has the look and feel of the other WB TV Westerns of the period (and reportedly some recycled Maverick scripts), but something never quite clicks. (Jeff York’s character often seems totally unnecessary.) Close, but no cigar.
But all these years later, with this nice Blu-Ray set at our disposal, it’s easy to give The Alaskans some grace. There’s that cast, directors like Jesse Hibbs, Leslie H. Martinson, Jacques Tourneur and George Waggner, and gorgeous 4K transfers from the camera negatives. I’ve longed to see it (never thinking I would), and even though its shortcomings were what I’d been warned about, it’s easy to recommend it.
It’s more than just a curio from the early days of Moore’s career, and I’m grateful to Warner Archive for putting it out.
And back to that idea of TV shows being like living things. The Alaskans didn’t get a second season, but here’s its chance at another life. Check it out.
Henry Earl Holliman (September 11, 1928 – November 25, 2024)
When I think of Earl Holliman, I see him either handcuffed to the bed frame in Last Train From Gun Hill (1959) or laying in the creek with that big splinter in him in The Sons Of Katie Elder (1965).
Take a look at all the movies he was in. It’s really something — Scared Stiff (1953), Broken Lance (1954), The Bridges At Toko-Ri (1954), The Big Combo (1955), I Died A Thousand Times (1955), Forbidden Planet (1956), Giant (1956), The Rainmaker (1956), Gunfight At The OK Corral (1957), Anzio (1968), The Desperate Mission (1969) and Sharky’s Machine (1981).
He was terrific on Police Woman. All in all, he lived a long, certainly fascinating life.
I’ve stated about 14 million times that Last Train From Gun Hill is one of my favorite films (and a big fat reason why this blog exists). He’s so good in it — we hate him and pity him in equal measure. RIP, Mr. Holliman.
Warner Archive has announced a Blu-Ray set of the complete Colt .45 TV series. One of Warner Brothers’ Western shows of the 50s, airing on ABC from October ’57 to September 1960, it’s been hard to see for quite a while.
Loosely based on the 1950 Randolph Scott movie directed by Edwin L. Marin, the series has 67 half-hour episodes. It originally starred Wayde Preston as Christopher Colt. Preston left the shows and was replaced by Donald May as Preston’s cousin Sam Colt. Wayde Preston eventually returned, but he was made a minor character. The directors include Edward Bernds, George Waggner, Oliver Drake, Paul Landres and Lew Landers.
Warner Archive has restored all 67 episodes from their camera negatives, so this should be a real treat. It’s exciting to think what might follow from the WB TV archives. Coming in February.
Marion Robert Morrison (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979)
John Wayne was born 116 years ago today. Here he is on the set of Howard Hawks’ magnificent Rio Bravo (1959). Even when he’s just screwing around between takes, Duke’s as cool as they come.
Directed by Howard Hawks Starring John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, Angie Dickinson, Walter Brennan, Ward Bond, Claud Akins, John Russell
Warner Bros. is bringing their new restoration of Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo (1959) to 4K disc in July. Haven’t seen any info on a new DVD or Blu-Ray. This is my favorite Western and it has never been all that stellar-looking on video, so I’m really stoked about this. Hope and pray it doesn’t have that sickly yellow tint that infects so many restorations of older films lately.
The Criterion Collection has announced an upcoming 4K set of Randolph Scott and Budd Boetticher’s Ranown Cycle: The Tall T (1957), Decision At Sundown (1957), Buchanan Rides Alone (1958), Ride Lonesome (1959) and Comanche Station (1960).
It’s coming in July, so get to shopping for 4K players and TVs!
Wish someone would convince the John Wayne estate to pave the way to get Seven Men From Now (1956), the film that launched the Scott-Boetticher collaboration, out on Blu-Ray.
Marion Mitchell Morrison (born Marion Robert Morrison) May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979
John Wayne was born 115 years ago today. Here he is with Gary Cooper and Gene Autry. Judging by what they’re wearing, it looks like Coop was shooting The Hanging Tree and Duke was working on Rio Bravo (both 1959).
This has to be one of the coolest photos ever stuck on this blog.
50 Westerns From The 50s.