Ben Johnson

[pvitari]

That probably goes for all of us. ;)

And now a publicity still for Runaway!, a 1973 TV movie which was another one of those disaster stories so popular at the time. This time Ben plays the engineer of a ski train whose brakes and all back-up braking systems have failed and the train keeps picking up speed as it heads down the mountain... uh oh!!! I've read this was based on a true story though I haven't found any info on that story.

As you can see, there are some indelible crop marks around Ben's head but since I have not found any other copies of this photo I decided to get this one.

[pvitari]

Sorry I haven't posted much this week -- another case of "real life" interfering with "reel life." This weekend is going to be super-busy too, which is frustrating as I have a bunch of stuff ready to go -- just no time to upload and post it. Anyway....

Here is another picture from the 1976 Oscars. Ben and Linda Blair were the presenters that year in the Best Supporting Oscar category, which was won by George Burns for his performance in The Sunshine Boys. This is a new print made from a vintage slide of Ben, George Burns and Linda Blair. Ben would work with Linda four years later in Ruckus.



Also, there's a video on youtube of the presentation and you can see Ben and Linda briefly at the beginning and then hear their voices as they name the nominees and announce the winner. I have posted the video link to the Videos section on my Ben page but here it is too.

[youtube][/youtube]

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A bit more Runaway! and if you're guessing that I'm leading up to posting Runaway! screencaps, you would be right.

This is an ad plus listing for Runaway! in the September 29, 1973 TV Guide. I couldn't resist including the ad for Griff, Lorne Greene's first TV series after Bonanza. He played a cop who resigns from the force to work as a private detective. Ben Murphy, who was in Runaway, also co-starred in Griff. (I'm sure you all remember Ben Murphy from Alias Smith and Jones.) Griff only lasted 13 episodes. I guess America wasn't ready yet for Pa Cartwright in a gritty crime series. :)

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Finally... Runaway! screencaps.

Which means... SPOILERS. You are warned.

These are from a DVD recorded from a broadcast of the movie in (I think) Australia. ;) It's a Universal film so who knows, Murphy's Law will probably have its way with me and in six months or so it will turn up as a release of the Universal Vault series and I'll have to redo the screencaps. Won't be the first time.

Here is a sampling. You'll notice that most of the shots are medium shots or close-ups. Ben spent most of the movie on a mock-up of a train cab and only got to do an exterior scene at the end of the movie.

Batch one.











































---->

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Batch 2 from Runaway!



















































And here is one final pic of Vera Miles, who gave the outstanding performance among the actors playing passengers on the train. She plays a middle-aged woman whose marriage is on the verge of divorce (hubby is Ed Nelson). They had gone to the ski lodge to try to rekindle the romance without any success, but what seems like certain death on the train brings out the best in the them and it is in the face of disaster that they realize how much they really do love one another. AWWW! Vera's character starts out brittle, bitter and depressed, smoking and drinking and tossing out sarcastic lines to the soon to be ex, but Miles brings so much warmth to her that her transformation is not so much a surprise as an unfolding or revelation of something that was there all along, just hidden. Alas, she and Ben do not have any scenes together.

[pvitari]

I changed the banner photo again to something appropriate for Hallowe'en:



This is a screencap from Something Big. The banner photo version is unfortunately cropped quite a bit so I thought I'd post the original here. I finished the screencaps from Something Big a couple of weeks ago so they'll be the next ones posted, though not for another week or so at least, since I just posted the ones from Runaway and I like to space them out.

[pvitari]

Hallowe'en is almost upon us... along with Hurricane Sandy. Hope everyone in the upper East Coast area is OK. (Miss Goddess? Cinemaven? JackFavell?) Even here in Atlanta it's very breezy and overcast. And a cold front from the north has also sent temperatures plummeting. ICK.

In the spirit of the week -- the holiday spirit, not the hurricane one -- here is a publicity picture from The Town That Dreaded Sundown. Actually the scariest thing about this picture is how out of focus it is. Even sharpening it didn't help. I wonder why AIP decided on this particuar shot to publicize the film! And presumably those are coffee stains on the left, not something more (insert creepy music) sinister. :)

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A Terror Train lobby card. Ben is in the middle, walking, his collar blown up around his face by the wind.

JackFavell, have you gotten around to watching this one yet? ;) (Though I imagine with the weather you've got other things on your mind right now.)

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Today's appropriate creepy post is all about The Town That Dreaded Sundown. ;) First off...

DVD News!
Shout!Factory will release The Town That Dreaded Sundown sometime in 2013 -- hopefully it will be a Blu-ray/DVD combo like their recent excellent Terror Train release, though I haven't seen anything yet indicating DVD and Blu-ray or just one of those formats.

Today's post is also The Town That Dreaded Sundown -- it's the film's pressbook. Here are some pages from it -- you can find the entire thing (in a bigger size too) in the Memorabilia section on my Ben page.









The tackiness of this is unbelievable -- publicity gimmicks based on REAL-LIFE murders. That's AIP for you.

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For some reason my computer is not talking to my scanner/printer tonight, so instead of scanning the picture I had planned to post today, here instead is a scan of a lobby card for Slim Carter. Fortunately I had scanned this last week on the oversize scanner at work. ;) Ben's on the right hand side wearing the brown suit.

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Publicity picture for Slim Carter.

[Sue Sue Applegate]

Julie Adams is adorable in that photo, Paula! I have never seen Slim Carter.

[JackFavell]

Hey Paula! Lost the thread again! And no I haven't seen Terror Train yet, I should have for Halloween! Hope you had a good safe one.

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Julie Adams is always adorable and I wish Ben had made another movie with her in which HE was her love interest. :) Speaking of Julie, the Warner Archive Collection will be releasing at some point the one-season sitcom she did with Jimmy Stewart, The Jimmy Stewart Show. They're releasing Stewart's Hawkins TV movies (he plays a folksy lawyer) in a couple of weeks, and I asked on the WAC Facebook page if they'd consider releasing The Jimmy Stewart Show. They replied they had thought about releasing it at the same time as Hawkins, but decided that might be confusing, so they held off on The Jimmy Stewart Show for now -- but they do plan to put it on the release schedule soon. YAY!!! Jimmy plays a college professor and Julie is his wife in the sitcom. Wonder if Jimmy's college professor ever ran into Ronald Colman's college president from The Halls of Ivy. Can't you see the two of them sitting around swapping stories about "kids today!" :)

Back to Ben -- who of course made one movie with Jimmy, The Rare Breed. Now if only we could figure out which movie he doubled Jimmy on. He always claimed in interviews he had doubled him.

November is the month for the annual Ben Johnson Days held by the Goldfield Ghost Riders in Apache Junction, AZ. This is a charity event that started out when Ben joined the club for a charity poker ride in 1994 and it eventually turned into a three-day event named in Ben's honor. Here's the 2012 flyer -- you can find more stuff on my webpage.



This is the Ben Johnson Memorial Barn, dedicated in his honor on April 19, 1997 (a year after his death) at the Sunshine Acres Children's Home. This home in Mesa, AZ takes in children from broken and abusive homes and provides loving care, healing and schooling. One of their most important programs is their Horse Program in which the children learn to care for horses and how to ride. Ben spent a lot of time raising funds for the home and spending time out there with the kids. The Home is also one of the organizations for which the Ben Johnson Days raises funds.



A newspaper article about the 2009 Ben Johnson Days.

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Monday-blah. But this helps. :)