Alas, Warner Bros. has decided to go ahead strip-mining its cinematic legacy. The remake of The Wild Bunch is in the works again. :( Tony Scott had been in talks to direct but then he died... now Will Smith is in talks to star and produce. This "remake" involves "a disgraced D.E.A. agent who assembles a team to go after a Mexican drug lord and his fortune."
Love this beautiful hand-tinted British Tomboy and the Champ still. Alas it is not in my personal collection, this is a scan by David Raynor from his collection. He is a British projectionist who has an amazing collection of movie memorabilia which he has been posting to his Flickr page, The Brinkswayboy. http://www.flickr.com/photos/35455749@N06/
You want to go there, it's a stunning collection. Posters, photos (both personal and movie publicity), handbills, lobby cards, comic books, programs and much much more. Warning -- if you go there, you may not come up for air for HOURS. :)
Here is the direct link to David's post of this still:
David kindly shared a large size scan of the Tomboy and the Champ lobby card with me (the bigger one is at my website in the new "Tomboy and the Champ Photos and Lobby Cards" album in the Photo Gallery section.
Last edited by pvitari on May 16th, 2013, 10:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
Here's a pic of Ben at the ceremony for his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, June 2, 1994. Harry Carey Jr. to the left and Gene Autry to the right. I don't know who the gentleman behind him is -- if you know, please let me know. Probably someone famous who I will be embarrassed to have not recognized. Anyway, the star is at 7501 Hollywood Boulevard, right in front of a rather nondescript office building.
;)
In case anyone's interested, I just listed all the recently released titles with Ben (a lot of them!) on the front page of the Ben site, with screencaps. (Lots more screencaps to come, it's going to be a busy summer.) :) Plus two screencaps taken from reviews of The Town That Dreaded Sundown, which will be released tomorrow.
At the moment the only two titles still forthcoming with Ben that I can think of are Blu-rays of Shane (August 13) and The Undefeated (December 3).
There are still a lot of Ben's titles unreleased on DVD and Blu-ray. Top of my list for release are My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys (I have a lovely HD version of it saved on my DVR); a remastered, official version of One-Eyed Jacks; four TV-movies: Bonanza: The Return, Blood Sport; Wild Times, and Wild Horses (the latter would probably come from the Warner Archive Collection); a remastered Soggy Bottom (silly movie, but a lead role for Ben); Kid Blue; a remastered Blu-ray of Junior Bonner; the other two episodes of Bonanza ("The Deserter" and "Top Hand" -- they are probably in the pipeline as Bonanza is being released rather rapidly in season sets); Sam Peckinpah's Noon Wine; Slim Carter (the one remaining feature from the 50s that's not on DVD); and Back to Back, a completely obscure movie that is quite a bit of mysterious fun with a great twist at the end.
Though I think what would make me happiest is a box set of The Monroes: The Complete Series. I'm not expecting that any time soon -- or ever.
More info about The Town That Dreaded Sundown release at my website today. My copy arrived yesterday (a day early -- yay!)
The Blu-ray/DVD has a commentary which I won't have time to listen to until next week, but I did watch the interviews with actors Andrew Prine (who looks remarkably well preserved), Dawn Wells (ditto) and cinematographer James Roberson. Both Prine and Roberson had Ben stories and they were both great -- especially Roberson's. :) Ben -- a knight in shining cowboy boots. :)
Prine:
I did two pictures with Ben and I knew him quite well and he was the best cowboy. He and Harry Carey, Jr. were the two best cowboy actors in my opinion that ever walked. And he was the real deal. What you got on the screen was Ben, and he was a wonderful Oklahoma guy, raised out there, and man, could he cowboy up. Andhe had that great gift that's beyond acting, he simply -- when he talks on camera or off, he simply tells you the truth. There is nothing around it. And that's a great natural gift that he had and I just thought the world of him.
Roberson:
Ben Johnson -- Ben was from Oklahoma and I'm from Oklahoma and I guess we were brought up similarly. And it was "Yes, ma'am," "no, ma'am," you better be the real deal, you better tell the truth. And Ben was that way. I did another picture with him a little bit later, and I won't mention the actor, but Ben was sitting in his, in his -- I think he was in Charlie's bus at the time and another actor in the movie went to this wardrobe girl outside the bus and he just lit into her. I mean, lit in to her. And Ben saw all this. And Ben got up off the bus, walked off the bus, over to the actor and picked him up off the ground. He goes, "If you ever -- if I ever see you talk to a lady like this again, you'll not talk anymore." And set him down and walked back on the bus. That was the kind of guy Ben was. He was the real deal. What you got was Ben, and Ben -- Ben, Ben was good.
If this information has appeared here before, I apologize, but I found this bit of casting background for THE LUSTY MEN to be interesting:
"Initially, for the part of Mitchum's protege, [producer Jerry] Wald tried to whip up a general enthusiasm for Ben Johnson, a genuine ex-rodeo man who'd done impressive work in John Ford pictures. But Ray argued for his own personal discovery, twenty-two-year-old Casey Tibbs, a fast-rising bronco rider he'd befriended at Pendleton [Oregon, where background footage was shot]. Tibbs, from South Dakota, would win the first of two World All-Around Rodeo Champion titles in 1951 and decorate the cover of Life."
".... Tagged 'the male Katharine Hepburn' by [Hedda] Hopper, the tall, lanky Tibbs made for good press, driving around Hollywood with Ray in his fuschia-colored Cadillac. But Wald couldn't see an amateur in the part, and he vetoed Tibbs after viewing his camera test. Tibbs ended up with a walk-on."
"When RKO passed on Tibbs, a disappointed Ray switched to lobbying for the more cerebral Arthur Kennedy, arguing that the stage-trained actor would make an intriguing contrast with the manlier Mitchum. .... Wald said yes to Kennedy."
-- Nicholas Ray: The Glorious Failure of an American Director (Patrick McGilligan 2011) at p. 221.
Everyday people...that's what's wrong with the world. -- Morgan Morgan I love movies. But don't get me wrong. I hate Hollywood. -- Orson Welles Movies can only go forward in spite of the motion picture industry. -- Orson Welles
Fascinating -- thanks, ChiO! Boy, you never know where Ben's name will pop up. I would have loved to have seen him in a Nicholas Ray film. Imagine a young Robert Mitchum and a young Ben Johnson together (an even younger Ben had doubled for Mitchum and worked as an extra in the 1944 RKO oater Nevada.) It's too bad he didn't get the role, he could have used an A-level movie and serious dramatic role like that at that point after getting dumped by Ford. As far as I can tell, The Lusty Men is not available on DVD but I think you can watch it at mubi.com. http://mubi.com/films/the-lusty-men
Ben and Casey Tibbs were very good friends, and Tibbs' production company was one of the producers of that rodeo series Stoney Burke in which Ben made a guest appearance.
Update: The Warner Archive Collection just posted in response to my query: "THE LUSTY MEN will be remastered from newly-manufactured film elements which have been 'in the lab' for quite some time. Once the new elements arrive, the work will begin."
I also asked about another rodeo movie, Born Reckless, staring Mamie Van Doren. Ben is not in the movie or listed on the credits, but he was technical advisor for the rodeo sequences. WAC stated, "BORN RECKLESS in also on the docket for remastering."
Of course all this can take some time but it's nice to know both are on the way.
I'm off to Winterset, Iowa to the John Wayne Birthday Celebration where I am plan to go absolutely nuts when I first clap eyes on Maureen O'Hara. That is, I will be perfectly well behaved even while inside I am fainting dead away. ;)
Hubby kindly lent me his ipad so I am online. I'm in Winterset at the Super8 and about to go find some lunch. Nothing's happening here until tomorrow so I can lie around and relax all day. :)
Betcha she's not but I heard a member of her entourage is.
Beautiful weather today. Hung out with Cathy and Doug, who are professional reenacters of Annie Oakley and Frank Butler. I met them in 2011 at that year's John Wayne birthday event. Cathy had met Ben at a western festival and she sent me a photo of herself and her daughter with Ben. It's in the photo gallery section of the Ben page.
What a day! Beautiful weather.And--I wandered over to the John Wayne Birthplace just as Maureen O'Hara made an unscheduled appearance in front of the statue to symbolically break ground for the new museum.(Construction is supposed to start in late summer or sometime in the fall.) She is frail and uses a wheelchair now, but she is still absolutely gorgeous and definitely Maureen O'Hara. I took a lot of great pics which you will all see eventually. Her grandson, his wife and kids were there too as well as Aissa Wayne.
I also met a gentleman who told me that his mother-in-law's brother had been a country-western musician and had known Ben fairly well.The one thing that he could remember his M-I-L's brother telling him about Ben was that he (the brother) used to visit Ben and they'd have dinner and that Ben LOVED pinto beans and cornbread.:)
Also Rio Grande at the Iowa Theater --they were just projecting the DVD but it was still nice to see on the big screen.Also saw The Wings of Eagles (also DVD).
