The Silver Screen Oasis

On Sunday, June 26th, the Encore Western Channel will highlight the Westerns of Yvonne de Carlo. Already a sultry presence in classic film noirs, (Criss Cross), and around the time that she made her mark as exotic types in sword and sandals flicks (Song of Scheherazade) and long before she became completely identified with Lily Munster, the likable de Carlo showed her cowgirl skills, sense of humor and feistiness in several B Westerns and one A Western opposite the genre's stalwarts, including John Wayne (natch), Joel McCrea, John Russell, and even Dan Duryea (in one of that talented actor's few starring roles). Many of these films are rarely broadcast and are not available on Region 1 DVDs, and are marked so. All times shown are EDT.

The only one that I've seen part of was The Gal Who Took the West (1949), which was a hoot. Myrna Dell is featured too! Has anyone seen any of these?

10:30am & 9:30pm
Calamity Jane and Sam Bass (1949)

The feisty cowgirl shares a brief romance with dude-turned-outlaw Sam Bass before a bullet finally ends his lawless career. Vintage Western, starring Yvonne de Carlo and Howard Duff as the legendary pair, with Dorothy Hart and Willard Parker.

3pm
McClintock! (1963)
A cattle baron is forced to take action when homesteaders overrun the town with the connivance of a corrupt land agent and government officials, who are also intent on banishing the neighbouring Native Americans to a reservation. Meanwhile, the rancher's estranged wife turns up wanting a divorce. Western, starring John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Yvonne de Carlo and Patrick Wayne


5:05pm
Black Bart (1948) Not Available on DVD

Two bandits attempt to "take over" Wells Fargo...the famous Lola Montez is their undoing. Starring: Yvonne De Carlo, Dan Duryea, Jeffrey Lynn Directed By: George Sherman

6:30pm
The Gal Who Took the West (1949) Not Available on DVD

An opera singer travels west in the frontier days of 1890, and soon finds herself the object of attraction for rival suitors, leading to all manner of romantic complications. Western drama, starring Yvonne de Carlo, Charles Coburn, Scott Brady and John Russell. Directed by Frederick de Cordova

8:00pm
Border River (1954) Not Available on DVD

A Confederate officer takes part in a daring mission to buy weapons to aid in the hard-fought battles against the Yankees, but things go awry, forcing his one true love to save him. Western, starring Joel McCrea, Yvonne de Carlo, Pedro Armendáriz and Howard Petrie

9:30pm
Calamity Jane and Sam Bass (1949) See Earlier Time Above for More.

I recorded "The Gal Who took the West" a while ago, but haven't seen it yet...

I'd love to see your impressions after you have time to see it, 'Nando!

Oh, Joel McCrea. I'll record that one. Apart from "McLintock" I didn't really know there were other westerns.

"Black Bart" is really a lot of fun. Not so much because of de Carlo, but Dan Duryea is a blast as the scheming bad guy. There are double crosses galore in this film, but it is handled in a light-hearted not noirish way.

MikeBSG wrote:"Black Bart" is really a lot of fun. Not so much because of de Carlo, but Dan Duryea is a blast as the scheming bad guy. There are double crosses galore in this film, but it is handled in a light-hearted not noirish way.

I thought it was kind of a tongue-in-cheek Western, Mike. I really like Duryea and am looking forward to him taking center stage for once. Thanks and here's a link to Mike's expanded comments on Black Bart from January of this year.

moirafinnie wrote:I'd love to see your impressions after you have time to see it, 'Nando!

Okay Moira, your wishes are a command to me

feaito wrote:

moirafinnie wrote:I'd love to see your impressions after you have time to see it, 'Nando!

Okay Moira, your wishes are a command to me

That'll be the day!!!

movieman1957 wrote:
Oh, Joel McCrea. I'll record that one. Apart from "McLintock" I didn't really know there were other westerns.

As for Joel McCrea...I'm with ya, pardner!

As for Yvonne DeCarlo in other Westerns, from a post long ago:

PASSION (Allan Dwan, 1954), with cinematography by John Alton, which is why I bothered. Yvonne De Carlo portrays sisters. Cornel Wilde, Raymond Burr, Lon Chaney Jr. and John Qualen also star. Definitely not up to the standard that Dwan-Alton set earlier in that year with SILVER LODE.

"Definitely not up to the standard" was a very kind way of saying, "Thank goodness TCM isn't showing it."

She was the female lead for Parnel Roberts in Bonanza pilot

Well Moira I've just wacthed "The Gal that Took the West" (1949) and it's a highly entertaining and well done film. A Western with many touches of comedy, which will keep you guessing until the end...In my opinion, Yvonne De Carlo never looked lovelier than in this film and I knew I was in for a treat in terms of (Technicolor) cinematography when I saw the legendary name of William Daniels on the opening titles...This man could make a woman look like a milliond dollars and with such a beautiful woman as Yvonne De Carlo it mustn't have been difficult for him to make her look even better!

The film is told via flashback as three inhabitants from the O'Hara town in Arizona, reminisce about the story of the feuding O'Hara cousins (John Russell and Scott Brady). They are both very good, but Russell impressed me the most, because I'd never seen him play a romantic lead and he was slightly- the tougher of the two, in terms of the treatment of the lady. Besides, these characters' three different viewpoints concerning De Carlo's arrival to town, complement each other perfectly.

De Carlo arrives in town as an Opera singer hired by General O'Hara (the guys' grandpapa) to sing at the Opera Theatre he built....but oh, oh...both guys see the lady and fall for her and their feud is worsened...the whole town is divided in two sides and General O'Hara has a hard time keeping the two guys in line...he even has to call the Cavalry's troops. The comedic touches are excellent and the story's conclusion is no that obvious at all...in fact I changed my mind twice as I was watching the film and the ending was different from what I expected...totally took me by surprise. Charles Coburn is superb as always as the General and De Carlo's musical numbers are very good (I guess she was dubbed). Myrna Dell has a small role as a saloon singer who's Russell's girl at the beginning. She's fine. Watch it, it's grand entertianment!

Yvonne de Carlo ...
a Western Movie Actress?

One thing about this forum - it's never ceases to amaze me of the wide variety of subject that pops up time and after time. I never in a million years to come to realize that Mrs Addams of the the Addams Family did Westerns in her early years as an actress. I will be definitely be watching some of her movies on June 26th with great deal of curiosity & interest.

Moira, your thread caught me to my attention after being gone for four days in Vancouver B.C. and I will definitely will share my thoughts of Yvonne de Carlo as a Western Actress in her early days before she did Mrs. Addams. I have never seen any of these movies at all!

mrsl wrote:I only wish they had scheduled Band of Gold, circa Civil War starring Yvonne and Clark Gable. Ii know I'll be stationed in front of the TV on Sunday, and will be back on Monday to give my impressions of the movies I will see. I hope others of you will do the same..

Anne, could you mean Band of Angels (1957) with Gable, de Carlo, and Sidney Poitier? This was recently shown on TCM and we talked about it a bit here before it was broadcast several weeks ago. This movie is scheduled to be aired on TCM again on Sunday, July 17 @ 12:15 AM (EDT). You can set a reminder of that upcoming broadcast over on TCM if you'd like.

feaito wrote:Well Moira I've just wacthed "The Gal that Took the West" (1949) and it's a highly entertaining and well done film. A Western with many touches of comedy, which will keep you guessing until the end...In my opinion, Yvonne De Carlo never looked lovelier than in this film and I knew I was in for a treat in terms of (Technicolor) cinematography when I saw the legendary name of William Daniels on the opening titles...This man could make a woman look like a milliond dollars and with such a beautiful woman as Yvonne De Carlo it mustn't have been difficult for him to make her look even better!

Thanks for the detailed account of your impressions, 'Nando. Based on the few minutes of this movie that I've seen, I thought it had more comedy touches than the average movie. Yvonne had a real flair for the comic, didn't she? It's not a Western, but the one movie I've always thought she had a chance to blend her appealing sultriness with sparks of humor was The Captain's Paradise (1953) as the Gibraltar-based spouse of Alec Guinness, whose naval career enables him to have two wives (the other is the lovely Celia Johnson). I hope you have seen that one. It was great fun.

Kingme, I hope you enjoy them too.