Ben Johnson

[pvitari]

Either I've been busy or I've been crashing on the couch all night. ;) My explanation for taking a few days off from posting Ben pics. ;) But things seem to be getting back to normal and here's the first in six more Train Robbers photos I've collected. Actually I posted another version of this photo about a year ago. That earlier one was a cropped reproduction photo -- this new one is an original, vintage publicity still and has better detail and more picture information. (You can see the earlier version at http://benjohnsonscreencaps.shutterfly. ... abilia/517 for comparison purposes -- eventually I'll take it down as today's picture is superior.)

[Sue Sue Applegate]

Thanks, Paula, for the notice about Ben's Bonanza episode! And Jackie, that was some photo with Fay Bainter. I think the man does look a great deal like John Dehner.

[pvitari]

More Train Robbers.

[pvitari]

I've seen this photo posted online at a number of places but it felt like forever until one finally showed up for auction (not ebay, another place). Boy, was I glad to get this one -- it's a great shot of John Wayne and Ben. The publicity blurb exaggerates the number of movies they made together -- my count is 10, and that includes four movies in which Ben worked as either a wrangler and/or stuntman, not an actor.

[pvitari]

Awww! Cute. :) Both Ben and Ann-Margret were Oscar nominees in 1972 (Ann-Margret for Carnal Knowledge.) They were filming The Train Robbers in Durango, Mexico, and John Wayne (finally an Oscar winner himself a couple of years past for True Grit) provided his private plane to take them to Los Angeles for the Oscar ceremony. Ben won for The Last Picture Show. ;)

[pvitari]

That sure was great watching Ben in "Top Hand" this evening. I am in complete awe of his riding and roping -- it's like he's floating in the stirrups, even when his horse is galloping flat out and full tilt. I'm not a horse person or a rider myself but even I can tell he is something super-extra-special. His acting ain't bad either. ;) :) :) :) I wonder if the role of James Kelly was written with him in mind -- an actor who could really cowboy was needed to play that character. By the way, the guest cast includes Richard Farnsworth as the trail cook "Sourdough" and other people Ben had known for years, like Ed Jaregui and Jerry Gatlin.

And now another picture from The Train Robbers. I sure do love this one. How lucky is Ann-Margret? :)

[MissGoddess]

I had a great time watching "Top Hand" yesterday. Wow! What a cowboy. What an unusual episode, too, for "Bonanza". Isn't it neat how when Ben walks in suddenly everything gets REAL, ha? I love that the show featured so much herdin' and ridin' and such. It really is a thing of beauty to watch Ben ride. And that chase at the end, BRILLIANT. I love what Ben did with the stallion, too. I was hoping he'd do that. I bet the actors all had a ball working on this one, you can see the enjoyment in their faces. "Kelly" really does seem like a character tailor-made for Ben, and the whole show really is a tribute to him in a way. One of the best.

[pvitari]

Yes, that definitely was an unusual episode for Bonanza -- usually so stagebound. I loved the wide open spaces, the prairie grass (Ben must have enjoyed riding through prairie again, even though it was shortgrass, not tallgrass), the big skies, the mountains in the background. The episode was filmed at the Lazy RR Ranch near Patagonia, Arizona, and at the Old Tucson movie town.

http://www.headquarterswest.com/listing ... lazyrr.htm

http://ponderosascenery.homestead.com/f ... gonia.html

It's unusual to see what the Cartwrights actually do for a living and I loved all that cowboy stuff too. Ben and the others must have really enjoyed making this one. As for the riding and roping -- just breathtaking. I think this is the ones of the finest showcases for Ben's riding and roping skills since the John Ford movies and Wild Stallion. I wish I knew if if the role was written especially with Ben in mind.

I really enjoyed the story too. I liked that it didn't turn into a bad guy/good guy thing. The other cowboys stuck up for Kelly. It also avoided the usual Chekhovian rule -- you know, they show you something in the first act, then it has to be used in the third act. The first time we see Yates (Roger Davis' character), he's tying the string of his holster around his leg. Uh oh! One might think that it's going to come down to a gunfight. But no, it's all about cowboying and who is best as a cowboy. But Kelly not only proves to be the best, but he also deserves his position of trail boss for his leadership and his upholding of the cowboy code.

I really loved Ben Cartwright in this episode. His unflagging trust in Kelly and his insistence that the agreement that the Cartwright man be trail boss be upheld was absolutely crucial to Kelly's authority with the men and, I think, Kelly's ability to keep himself together. One gets the impression that there is a lot of backstory to these two and although we don't know exactly what that backstory is, we can sense that Kelly wouldn't be where he is today without Ben Cartwright's faith in him.

Ben's acting was every bit as good as his riding. He conveyed perfectly a tightly-held aura of regret and pain under Kelly's no-nonsense exterior that let us know the burden of guilt he carried, and how much he needed to prove himself worthy once more. A very subtle performance.

There was a lot of Ben around here last night... not only the "Top Hand" broadcast, but this arrived in the mail:



This is a print by Western artist William Zivic. It was on eBay last week and I was afraid there'd be a bidding war and it would be priced beyond my budget but to my shock no one else bid on it so I got it for what I thought was "dirt cheep" (as Mad magazine used to spell it) especially considering it's framed and matted.

Finally... here is the last of my latest batch of Train Robbers photos:



Got some good stuff coming up. ;)

[Vienna]

Thanks a lot for great pictures from THE TRAIN ROBBERS which I like a lot. Ben and Rod Taylor made a great team in it.

[MissGoddess]

Paula,
What a beautiful print! And it came framed, how cool! Is this the first "painting" of Ben you've acquired or do you have others?

Agree totally about the "Top Hand" story and character development. This couldn't help but make certain feature films about cowboy life seem lesser in comparison. It could stand alone as a movie about cowboying and I, too, was glad it played out the way it did, and not in a predictable shoot-out. Loved, it, it's now one of my favorite episodes from any western series. Lorne Greene is always best when he's providing that quiet, stalwart support for someone and I liked how the other hands acknowledged in the end "I never said he wasn't a top hand", ha ha.

[pvitari]

Hi, Miss Goddess! I think we're all in agreement about "Top Hand." I am now even more impatient for those Bonanza discs to get released... I wonder how many years we'll have to wait for season 12. ;) Ben's first Bonanza episode "The Gamble" is already out on DVD (screencaps posted) and there is a second Bonanza episode in (I think) season 10 -- "The Deserter." This is also a fine episode with an excellent performance from Ben but most of his scenes take place inside various small buildings or on exteriors shot on soundstages, and only one scene that I recall has him on horseback. Or maybe he's getting off a horse -- it's been a while since I've seen it.

I do have one additional piece of Ben portraiture -- it's a print of a painting by Ron Baker entitled "Country Gentleman." It's based on a shot of Ben from "Outlaws: The Legend of O.B. Taggart" and as you can see, the artist gave Ben brown eyes. :) I spoke with Ron Baker on the phone once and he told me that the photo he had used had been dark and you couldn't really see the color of Ben's eyes and he didn't know what color they were, so he had made them brown.



Check out the "Art" page at my website for lots more depictions of Ben in painting and sculpture. :)

http://benjohnsonscreencaps.shutterfly.com/art

I'll update it soon with the Zivic painting.

[MissGoddess]

that's a great portrait, too, brown eyes and all.

[MissGoddess]

Jonathan Winters is The Wagon Master:

[youtube][/youtube]

[pvitari]

Jonathan Winters is The Wagon Master

ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Especially that last line. :)

Great find! ;)

[pvitari]

Just some news announcements today.

Twilight Time will release Major Dundee on Blu-ray on April 9 -- two disc set. No other info or artwork available yet. This will be a 3,000 copy limited edition so if you want to get it, you should pre-order it when pre-orders become available. I'll post that information when it happens.

MGM is announced it's planning to remake The Town That Dreaded Sundown. "No comment" is my comment on that news!