Musings on daytime Western TV

[klondike]

OOh. I will have to check the 5buck bin next time I am at Walmart!

Wendy, at the risk of sounding like a rabid Anit-Walmartist [which wouldn't be too far from the Truth], I'd encourage you to check the register dumps at the cashier line in Borders as well - in fact, if you haven't found "W:DoA- Season 1" by midweek coming, remind me & I'll nose around for you at the one down in Keene, which I visit every Thurs or Fri. (Although typically I run dead-set against national chains & franchises, besides being a ravenous-but-frugal reader, I'm also a hardcore magazine addict, and no-one rivals the selection @ Borders!)

Thanks for the info on the Bronson episodes of HGWT too. You know, except for the seventies, I really like him.

I know how you feel - modern settings for Bronson never worked for me either (esp. those grimy Death Wish films!) - but don't overlook two of his best Western roles, which happened to grace the late 70's - as a middle-aged, fugitive Bill Hickock, partnered with Will Sampson as Crazy Horse, in The White Buffalo (featuring cameos by Clint Walker, Stuart Whitman & Kim Novak), and as a relentless, undercover railroad agent locking horns with Ben Johnson [heard o' that guy?] & Ed Lauter in Alistair MacLean's Breakheart Pass.

He's a riot in Pat and Mike . . .

Yup, especially as the arresting trooper in that scene's played with great drollery by Chuck Connors!

and I absolutely love his character in The Great Escape. There you get both Bronson and Mcqueen!

You had 'em first in Magnificent Seven, but that's old ground isn't it?

[JackFavell]

Hey, Klonny, I will probably check out Netflix first anyway. I am quite averse to buying anything, sight unseen.

I'm embarrassed to say I have never seen The Magnificent Seven.

The Will Sampson movie sounds great, and I have Breakheart Pass, but haven't been able to watch it yet. I guess it's about time, since I need a new Ben movie to ogle.

[movieman1957]

Boone was in the Scott picture "The Tall T." Not at all like Paladin but very much like the outlaw he played in "Hombre." As good a character as Paladin is it is intriguing to see how well he played evil people. He did it with such dripping sarcasm and sounded like he meant every word. "Nasty" fit him well too.

[klondike]

As good a character as Paladin is it is intriguing to see how well he played evil people. He did it with such dripping sarcasm and sounded like he meant every word. "Nasty" fit him well too.

Couldn't have said it better, Chris!
In fact, I accidently caught him (screeching halt while surfing) just last night in an early 60's B&W "inspired cheapie" called I Bury the Living, sort of a better-than-Ed-Wood psycho-horror thriller, wherein he was cold-sweating his way very effectively through alternating fits of ghoulishness & debilitating neurosis . . until, that is, I changed the channel again!

[mrsl]

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Hey movieman1957:

Only one thing I have to quibble about re: Mr. Boone. You said something to the effect that his part in The Tall T was different from Paladin, but think about it. He often quoted lines from famous poems, and he wanted Randolph Scott to sit out with him over coffee because Scott offered 'adult' actions and opinions because " he spent so much time with the other two nit-wits he often felt a bit goofy himself. " Paraphrasing, but close to what he said.

Reminder: If you've never seen The Great Race, by all means make a copy tomorrow night, your family will love it.
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[JackFavell]

I am recording the Great Race tomorrow - it was a favorite of mine when I was a kid, so I think my daughter might like it.

I thought he was a very sympathetic villain in The Tall T, in which the real nasty piece of work was Maureen O'Sullivan's dastardly husband. I couldn't wait for Boone to take him out.

[mrsl]

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So, I'm wondering if anyone watched The Great Race last Monday and what their reaction was? I will give my opinion after I hear a few others, but let me say, I still think it is a fine movie for the whole family to sit down and watch together. Peter Falk steals the whole show of course, but he and Lemmon together were just great. Also, as I mentioned before, I love watching Natalies changes of costume every other scene.

Jack Favell: What did you think?
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[JackFavell]

I had a hoot watching my daughter watch it.

It was one of my very favorites as a child, so I had special pleasure watching it with her.

Something I hadn't noticed before was the number of coats Natalie had during the snowstorm sequence. There were at least three different full length fur trimmed coats before they got off that iceberg. Hysterical!

She liked my favorite parts - "Push the button, Max!" and Jack Lemmon as the idiotic prince of Potts - Dorf. For me, it held up well. Over the years, I have come to appreciate the Women's Suffrage parts of the movie a lot more, and find them to be really funny. I didn't think so as a kid. This time, when the editor turns around in his chair and it is Vivian Vance smoking a cigar, I just howled.

[mrsl]

GUNSMOKE:

Once again, I need some answers because I wasn't there at the original viewings of these TV shows. I know that Gunsmoke went from an hour show to 90 minutes, and I know Chester went on to bigger and better things, as did Quint, and Festus, I believe Milburn Stone, the wonderful Doc Adams passed away during the last transition, but I also know that MIss Kitty made a few of the 90 minute 'movies'. My question is; Miss Kitty was around for all of the 90 minute B & W shows, and a few of the color ones, but one day last week, and today, I saw a color 90 minute where Matt had taken up ranching, and had a daughter about 20 years old. - - - - Where did she come from? - - - - - Did Matt cheat on Miss Kitty at one time with someone else? In this one today, the wife died and they were at her funeral and Matt was saying how much he had loved her - - - WHAT? - - - - I see it this way: Marshal of Dodge City for 20 years in his 40's and 50's, retired and built ranch in early 60's, met and married, BUT . . . . . that makes him in his 80's during the color Gunsmoke episodes!!!! WOW.

Another thing. What's with the dyed hair? It not only looked phony, but when you consider Peter's premature grey, it's also kind of dumb. However, even with my questions, I am still learning why Gunsmoke was on TV for such a long time, and why it was so popular. But I do wish they had softened Miss Kitty's makeup a little in the 90 minute shows.
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[mrsl]

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THE GREAT RACE:

In my mind I see this movie being made in the image of the early talkies. Of course there is the matter of Natalies' wardrobe which just goes without saying is gorgeous. Then there is how they get from one place to another. There is the desert where they run into Dorothy Provine and her terrific section. I always thought she was born about 30 years too late, because she would have made a wonderful flapper. But then, how do they end up on that frozen glacier? Did they just drive up and off the shore and cross the frozen ocean and land in Alaska? (Maybe Professor Fate could see Alaska when his car was raised up and he spotted it in his spyglass from North Dakota? ha-ha.

The one thing they could have left out was that Russian part, which was totally useless and lost, very much like the Jimmy Stewart section in How the West Was Won. I do know one thing, either I fell asleep for five minutes or the song was cut in the garden. Oh, I know she was singing it, but I remember the second time she sang, the words were on the screen and the little white ball bounced from word to word. Again, reminiscent of the 30's was the cream pie fight and how Leslie was never hit until the very end.

If you keep in mind that this movie was made strictly to let you have fun, you should enjoy it a lot. It's not there to teach or help in any way other than to raise you out of any doldrums you might be in.
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[Lzcutter]

Anne,

When Gunsmoke debuted in the mid-1950s, it was a half hour show in black and white. In 1961, it went to an hour and was still in black and white. In 1966, the show was shot in color but was still only 60 minutes.

The 90 minute color ones might be the made for tv movies that James Arness made in the early 1990s.

As for Kitty and Matt, I remember Kitty left Dodge towards the end of the show's run, around 1974. She and Matt never married but I am surprised that one of the TV movies had him married to someone else and a father.

I always think of Matt and Kitty together.

[ken123]

A few years ago Gunsmoke was airing on the former Christian Brodcasting Network, that a lot of activity on the show was taking place in a house of ill repute & being aired on CBN was something I just coudn't get over.

[movieman1957]

Anne:

To follow up with Lynn's answer there were five made-for-tv movies. Amanda Blake was only in the first film as she died a year or so after that one. That one was a sequel to one of the color episodes. That one starred Steve Forrest who played the role in the movie.

The one you saw with the daughter also involved a sequel to an episode. In the original episode Matt, while suffering from amnesia, has an affair with Michael Learned (The Waltons) which later in the film included the daughter. The daughter was in three or four of the films.

[mrsl]

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Thanks guys, I did see the one with Michael Learned, but I must have been listening with only half an ear because I recall thinking Matt was the father, but didn't hear any verification.
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