RIP, continued ...

Sir Roger Moore (1927-2017), aged 89. Lots of people's favourite James Bond, Roger parlayed his astonishing good looks into a long career, aided by his debonair charm and those famous raised eyebrows. Like Sean Connery he too was a male model posing in all those cardigans and sweaters, before Hollywood came calling in the mid-Fifties, where he was soon co-starring with Elizabeth Taylor in THE LAST TIME I SAW PARIS, Eleanor Parker in INTERRUPTED MELODY, Lana Turner in DIANE, a splendid MGM costumer, as was THE KING'S THIEF with David Niven, another of those debonair actors of whom Moore seemed the latest incarnation. Soon he was IVANHOE (I think I would have liked seeing that series) and in THE ALASKANS and MAVERICK

and hilariously out west in the rather homoerotic comedy western GOLD OF THE SEVEN SAINTS with Clint Walker (below) in 1961, where he sports a funny cod Oirish accent. One also fondly remembers THE MIRACLE, camp heaven with Carroll Baker, and THE SINS OF RACHEL CADE with Angie Dickinson. Then of course he was THE SAINT, which is still a treat to see those early 60s episodes now. And there was that famous marriage to Dorothy Squires ...

Bond of course was his greatest role and he played it eight times, I did not see them all, but liked THE SPY WHO LOVED ME most and VIEW TO A KILL where Roger and Grace Jones were an odd team.  He sauntered through other adventures (GOLD, ESCAPE TO ATHENA and more) before retiring from acting and becoming an UNICEF Ambassador, like his good friend Audrey Hepburn. (We will have to overlook BOAT TRIP and another dreadful one with Michael Caine which I imagine not many saw). It was also a pleasure to see him sending himself up in a VICTORIA WOOD TV SPECIAL. The tribures and obituaries are of course fulsome for this charming, funny, self deprecating stalwart of the movie scene, ever since I was a kid. 

Dina Merrill (1923-2017), aged 93. Socialite, heiress, philanthropist and actress, Dina probably had her best role as the neglected wife in 1960's BUTTERFIELD 8, and also scored in DESK SET, OPERATION PETTICOAT, and was quite effective in THE SUNDOWNERS, THE COURTSHIP OF EDDIE'S FATHER, THE YOUNG SAVAGES, A WEDDING, THE PLAYER. She also did a lot of television. She had been launched as 'a new Grace Kelly' ....

White Feather, 1955

WHITE FEATHER is a perfect mid-'50s western, which somehow I never saw at the time. I was 10 or so then and seeing all those early 50s westerns with my father: JOHNNY GUITAR (the first film I saw aged 8, what a vivid introduction to cinema), SHANE, THE COMMAND, DRUM BEAT, SITTING BULL, THE GAMBLER FROM NATCHEZ, GARDEN OF EVIL, CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA, THE MAVERICK QUEEN, THE LAST WAGON, RIVER OF NO RETURN, BROKEN LANCE etc. We kids loved anything with covered wagons and Indian attacks on forts, and heroes like Dale Robertson, Clint Walker, Audie Murphy or Guy Madison, or as teamed several times, Robert Wagner and Jeffrey Hunter. 

My father also took me to all those John Wayne and James Stewart westerns, like NIGHT PASSAGE and Ford's THE SEARCHERS, where Hunter had his immortal moment as half-breed Martin Pawley (Wagner had tested for that for Ford would not cast him, it would have been Wagner's first teaming with Natalie Wood if he had).  

WHITE FEATHER: The story of the peace mission from the US cavalry to the Cheyenne Indians in Wyoming during the 1870s. The mission is threatened when a civilian surveyor befriends the chief's son and falls for the chief's daughter.

Wagner is the  lead here, and Jeff is Little Dog, the Indian brave, with Hugh O'Brien as his sidekick.  Debra Paget is the indian princess and stodgy John Lund also features. 

We have covered Jeff Hunter several times before - he is one of "People We Like" - he of course died aged 42 in 1969, Wagner is still here and writing entertaining books, at 86, while Hugh died last year aged 91. Wagner and Hunter appeared in at least 5 films together, as well as the all-star THE LONGEST DAY, while Hunter also did five with Debra Paget - we are very partial to their 1954 PRINCESS OF THE NILE where Deb does one of her torrid dances, and Jeff wears a turban and harem pants, in old Cairo, right. Debra was back out west with Elvis in his first film LOVE ME TENDER in 1956.

WHITE FEATHER though is well done, scripted by western maestro Delmar Daves, but directed by one Robert D. Webb.  

Fort Dobbs, 1958

Having eluded a posse, a wanted man rescues a woman and her young son from a Comanche attack. He then escorts them to the presumed safety of a U.S. Cavalry fort. Trouble develops along the way when the woman comes to believe that her rescuer was responsible for the recent death of her husband.

That late '50s period was that great time for westerns - not only on tv, but at the movies: 1956 - THE SEARCHERS; 1957 - 3.10 TO YUMA, GUNFIGHT AT THE OK CORRAL, NIGHT PASSAGE; 1958 - MAN OF THE WEST, THE BIG COUNTRY, COWBOY, THE LAW AND JAKE WADE; 1959 - RIO BRAVO, THE HANGING TREE, WARLOCK, THESE THOUSAND HILLS; 1960 - THE UNFORGIVEN, NORTH TO ALASKA, 1961 - Brando's ONE EYED JACKS; 1962 - HOW THE WEST WAS WON, etc. after of course those great early '50s westerns like HIGH NOON, SHANE, JOHNNY GUITAR (the first movie I saw, aged 8 - as per other reports here), DRUMBEAT, WHITE FEATHER etc, and of course Ford with Wayne, James Stewart with Anthony Mann, Randolph Scott and Budd Boetticher - see Western label for more on these. Now lets mix in Clint, who while no Wayne or Cooper has an agreeable Western presence, like Randolph Scott, or Dale Robertson or Guy Madison, and whose films while programmers are not without interest:

Sterling Hayden as JOHNNY GUITAR has a line: "Sometimes all a man wants is a smoke and a cup of coffee" - well, sometimes all I want for a snowy afternoon indoors is an unpretentious western ... 

FORT DOBBS, 1958 – A pleasing, tense if minor western from that great era for oaters. I remember this as a kid - we didn't get to see cowboy stars like Clint or Dale Roberston in their tv shows (no tv in Ireland then!) so caught their movies. Directed by the ever reliable Gordon Douglas (studio hack supreme) it casts man of few words Clint Walker as Gar, a wanted man on the run who stops to assist lone Virginia Mayo and cute kid Richard Eyer, as the Commanches attack their homestead. She thinks he killed her husband so tensions mount as they cross Indian territory – then Brian Keith and his guns turn up! The surprise here is that this is in black and white, when even routine westerns were in colour, but the monochrome is surprisingly effective. Walker soon removes his shirt to display that impressive physique, 

Eyer is as good as he was in FRIENDLY PERSUASION, but Mayo impresses the most – shorn of her usual glamour she delivers a compelling portrayal, particularly when she wakes and realises she is naked under her blanket and her wet clothes are drying (there's more than a few nods to RIVER OF NO RETURN here). The Indians of course are just faceless savages … its nicely worked out, there is no overt romance as such between the leads but a nice slow burn as she has to trust him, its one western that delivers. I liked it almost as much as SEVEN MEN FROM NOW! Clint went on to other oaters like YELLOWSTONE KELLY in '59 and the ridiculously enjoyable GOLD OF THE SEVEN SAINTS in 1961 (if only for Roger Moore's godawful Oirish accent) and NIGHT OF THE GRIZZLY, as well as co-starring with the likes of Rock and Doris (SEND ME NO FLOWERS) and Sinatra, and is still here in his late-80s. Then it was time for that other Clint to step to the fore, with all those spaghetti westerns ...

McCabe & Mrs Miller,1971, again

Staying with westerns, a blissful another look at Robert Altman's McCABE & MRS MILLER, that dreamy but very realistic western from 1971, it is still unlike any other western - maybe only the comic John Wayne NORTH TO ALASKA in 1960 conveys the same idea of what living in a gold rush frontier town would be really like - and that was played for laughs. 

Few laughs here in this bleak Pacific Northwest mining town as winter sets in .... Altman's regulars are present and correct and Leonard Cohen's songs like "Travelling Lady" and "Sisters of Mercy" add an extra layer of lament and regret, as does Vilmos Zsigmond's photography. Keith Carradine is the young cowboy who does not last long here, and Shelley Duvall is the widowed wife who has to turn to prostitution, working for Mrs Miller - the laconic madam played by Julie Chrstie. Warren Beatty is John McCabe the gambler and businessman who thinks he can make it big in this bleak western community, with its half built church. He goes into business with the enterprising Mrs Miller who knows how to run a decent brothel and keep the girls clean and in order. Soon they have a thriving business as the miners settle in for the long winter, but their whorehouse/tavern attracts big business who want to take over the mining interests of the town and buy out McCabe, but on their terms, and then when he refuses, their gunmen are let loose, as the snow blankets everything and Mrs Miller is taking opium to blank out her bleak life ...

It is not a traditional western but is one to cherish and return to, and maybe Altman's most accessible film after MASH or NASHVILLE where his overlapping dialogue fits in perfectly here, and it remains a key Seventies movie. It is a study of place and character rather than a typical western - no redskins attacking forts or stagecoaches in Monument Valley here! but the bleak and grubby west as it must have been as the miners, the women and the gold-diggers made the best of it. Beatty and Christie are in their element and have a lot of fun creating these characters of the two-bit gambler and realistic madam as they and Altman subvert the Western genre as the wind howls through the trees and the snow and rain endlessly fall ... 

Now for 2 other top westerns: Clint Walker in YELLOWSTONE KELLY, 1959 and Budd Boetticher's 1960 classic COMANCHE STATION where Randolph Scott as Jefferson Cody (a perfect Western name) searches for his missing wife, abducted by Comanches ...

Out west with Clint - no, not that one, the other one ...

Before Eastwood there was another Clint - Clint Walker, star of CHEYENNE tv series. We did not see those tv westerns in Ireland at the time, but luckily Clint has been preserved in a few late '50s westerns: FORT DOBBS, YELLOWSTONE KELLY and GOLD OF THE 7 SAINTS ... let's have a look at them (and I have just ordered his 1966 NIGHT OF THE GRIZZLY with Martha Hyer).

 

First though some context: that late '50s period was that great time for westerns - not only on tv, but at the movies: 1956 - THE SEARCHERS; 1957 - 3.10 TO YUMA, GUNFIGHT AT THE OK CORRAL, NIGHT PASSAGE; 1958 - MAN OF THE WEST, THE BIG COUNTRY, COWBOY, THE LAW AND JAKE WADE; 1959 - RIO BRAVO, THE HANGING TREE, WARLOCK, THESE THOUSAND HILLS; 1960 - THE UNFORGIVEN, NORTH TO ALASKA, 1961 - Brando's ONE EYED JACKS; 1962 - HOW THE WEST WAS WON, etc. after of course those great early '50s westerns like HIGH NOON, SHANE, JOHNNY GUITAR (the first movie I saw, aged 8 - as per other reports here), DRUMBEAT, WHITE FEATHER etc, and of course Ford with Wayne, James Stewart with Anthony Mann, Randolph Scott and Budd Boetticher - see Western label for more on these. Now lets mix in Clint, who while no Wayne or Cooper has an agreeable Western presence, like Randolph Scott, or Dale Robertson or Guy Madison, and whose films while programmers are not without interest:

FORT DOBBS, 1958 – A pleasing, tense if minor western from that great era for oaters. I remember this as a kid, but didn’t get to see it then. Directed by the ever reliable Gordon Douglas (studio hack supreme) it casts man of few words Clint Walker as a wanted man on the run who stops to assist lone Virginia Mayo and cute kid Richard Eyer, as the Commanches attack their homestead. She thinks he killed her husband so tensions mount as they cross Indian territory – then Brian Keith and his guns turn up! The surprise here is that this is in black and white, when even routine westerns were in colour, but the monochrome is surprisingly effective. Walker removes his shirt to display that impressive physique, Eyer is as good as he was in FRIENDLY PERSUASION, but Mayo impresses the most – shorn of her usual glamour she delivers a compelling portrayal, particularly when she wakes and realises she is naked under her blanket and her wet clothes are drying (there's more than a few nods to RIVER OF NO RETURN here). The Indians of course are just faceless savages … its nicely worked out, there is no overt romance as such between the leads, its one western that delivers. I liked it almost as much as SEVEN MEN FROM NOW!

YELLOWSTONE KELLY - a discovery from 1959. I would have loved this as a kid - but its terrific now too. Like FORT DOBBS its also scripted by Burt Kennedy and captures the wide open spaces, and men in the wilderness, in vivid colour. The blurb says:

"Big man, big land, big adventure. Western fans get all three in YELLOWSTONE KELLY, a strife-torn saga of American soldiers and Sioux warriors in the days after Little Big Horn. Clint stars as a trapper and US military scout drawn into the conflict when he saves the life of a beautiful Arapaho girl (Andra Martin) held captive by the Sioux. She runs off, Kelly gives her shelter and all hell-for-leather breaks loose on the plains. Rich Technicolor photography provides the stunning backdrop for brawling, hoof-pounding frontier action delivered by two genre greats: director Gordon Douglas and screenwriter Burt Kennedy."

That ignores the other sub-plot featuring Ed Byrnes as the young guy who latches on to mainly silent Walker on the riverboat (its almost a pick-up scene), where he has been selling his pelts, and turning down an army request to join their side. Kelly declines to take Ed along with him, but the kid proves useful in a fight. Kelly survives on his mountain territory by keeping peace with the Indians but this will be no longer possible. Ed complete with his "Kookie" quiff joins Yellowstone at his mountain cabin out in the wildneress (but can neither cook nor make coffee) where the boys bunk down at night .... then the wounded Indian maiden joins them - she wants to rejoin her own people so works on Ed to get him to let her go .... Then the Indians, led by wicked Ray Danton attack - while the U.S, Cavalry are also heading into a trap. This is all nicely worked out in 90 minutes and is a terrific treat now.   Another IMDB comment says:

"Arguably the movie's most interesting feature is the way the relationship between Kelly (Walker) and Anse (Byrnes) is handled. Now, if the masterly muscular Kelly is added, on one hand, to the submissive pretty-boy Anse, on the other, the sum is two iconic stereotypes of the gay community. Of course, production could have plunked a hat on Byrnes like everyone else and lessened his looks. But that would have outraged fans of the teen idol whose trademark had become a comb. So, the visual earmarks remain. At the same time, the screenplay puts this suggestive two-some into a wilderness cabin for the winter, where the big-hair half does womanly duties like cooking and cleaning, while the macho trapper brings home the bacon. So, together you've got an unmistakable situation for perceptive 50's audiences that putting a woman into the mix doesn't erase. Plus, these visual hints are compounded with the homoerotic bed scene. My point is that toying with this taboo could not have been lost on the filmmakers, causing me, at least, to wonder what their reasoning was. After all, the Western is about the most macho of all movie genres".
(For UK viewers, YELLOWSTONE KELLY is screened by BBC2 on Saturday 21 September, 8.40 am.)

GOLD OF THE SEVEN SAINTS is the most amusing of the three - another black and white 'Warnerscope' western, but its almost a comedy. Clint's sidekick here is a young Roger Moore with a grating Irish accent which quickly becomes tiresome. The boys have struck gold and after Moore foolishly giving a nugget for a horse in town, they are followed by several types after the gold, as they hole up out in the desert, and at Mexican Robert Middleton's hacienda ..... here Leticia Roman (the only female in the cast) gets to scrub Client in those large tubs, while Roger looks on longingly - though whether at Clint or Leticia remains open to question. Neat ending too with our two guys heading off together, they have lost the gold, but they can get some more, and they seem happy together. Clint refers to Roger as his partner, and admits to Chill Wills that after 3 years together they get on very well ....

Poseidon-3 (of that terrific blog POSEIDON'S UNDERWORD) says of it, over at IMDB:

Rog & Clint scrub up 
while Letitia holds the soap

"the movie is rife with homoerotic images and subtext ...The pair have a sort of Batman and Robin dynamic ... The one major drawback to the film is its lack of color. The striking scenery and Walker's polar blue eyes deserved to be shot in vivid Technicolor. This was director Douglas' third time at bat with Walker, so he knew the value of Walker's treasure chest. Did Walker realize his own appeal and understand the way he was being presented? His gentle, "aw shucks" personality in interviews would suggest not. Thank God, however, that he exists on celluloid for later generations to appreciate."

Clint was 6' 6" with that massive 48" chest, which he regularly displayed. His man of few words persona is a western icon akin to that other Clint's. He also had a fun role in Rock & Doris's SEND ME NO FLOWERS, and other dramatic roles in movies like Sinatra's NONE BUT THE BRAVE and THE DIRTY DOZEN. He was also a captain in DeMille's THE 10 COMMANDMENTS - we will have to look for him next time we see it! In his mid-80s now, more on Clint at www.clintwalker.com. 

Fun with Doris & Irene + Rock, Cary, Randolph, Clint

I had not seen SEND ME NO FLOWERS since its release in 1964 when I was a teenager, but it remained a pleasant memory, particularly of daffy Doris accidentally locked out of her house in her nightie and fluffy slippers, as oblivious husband Rock Hudson showers with earplugs in .... I thought LOVER COME BACK in 1961 was the best of their comedies, particularly when Edie Adams was around (more on her soon, in LOVE WITH THE PROPER STRANGER), but SEND ME NO FLOWERS, Rock and Doris's third and final comedy, is blissfully funny, well scripted by Julius Epstein (from a play) and directed by Doris regular Norman Jewison. Its conjures up a perfect suburban world of lawns and country clubs, sexy paper boys and gossiping milkmen, as our married couple (no kids to spoil the scenario...) have misunderstandings and fall out with all the cliches perfectly in place.

Rock is a hypochondriac forever taking pills and potions, he overhears his doctor (splendid Edward Andrews) talking about another patient who has not long to live and Rock thinks doc is talking about him .... amusement follows as he and neighbour Tony Randall (whose family are conveniently away) plan his funeral and good old Rock wants to find another suitable husband for Doris, so we get amusing scenes of the 2 men eyeing up other suitable men, and sleeping in the same bed - and then they discover Clint Walker, even more perfect than Rock. Clint has some fun here away from his usual western surroundings. Doris meanwhile thinks Rock is having an affair ...

Paul Lynde is bliss as usual as the unctious undertaker where Rock wants to buy 3 plots, for himself, Doris and her new husband ... Doris of course misunderstands and all the usual complications follow until the blissful ending. Poignant moments too as Rock has lines like she will be sorry when he is in his bed of pain at some future date ....

 I did a piece on Doris last December (Day label) as the London BFI was doing a tribute to her, but only 12 of her films (back in 1980 they showed 30 of hers!) - they only showed PILLOW TALK of her later comedies. The early to mid 60s was Doris's great period and she was a top box office attraction, with these with Hudson, the 2 with James Garner, Cary Grant etc.
(I love THE THRILL OF IT ALL but never want to see MOVE OVER DARLING, that re-heated remake of Marilyn's aborted SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE from 1962 which itself was a reheated version of Irene Dunne's 1940 MY FAVOURITE WIFE ..... with Cary and Randolph Scott. (Doris's 2 with Rod Taylor were not quite in the same league, and I shall be seeing CAPRICE with, er, Richard Harris in 1966 before too long - it is though a Frank Tashlin comedy). 

As fate would have it MY FAVOURITE WIFE is being screened again tomorrow morning, so I can catch it again then, and needn't dig out the dvd. I simply adored Dunne when I discovered her a few years ago, THE AWFUL TRUTH remains sublime, up there with the best of the 30s Screwballs, and MY FAVOURITE WIFE is more of the same. (Above, how do those swim trunks conceal any sign of male bulge?)

Irene is blissfully funny and glamorous here, its the one where the wife comes back after years missing and pronouced dead only to find her husband has just re-married. 
Garson Kanin handles the material perfectly and Cary Grant and Randolph are ideal as the husband and the man Irene was shipwrecked with for all those years .... Cary and Randy were of course still buddies, if not housemates, in 1940 and they all play perfectly together. Gail Patrick has a few moments as the latest wife... An ideal double bill then - it would have been interesting to have seen what Marilyn and Cukor would have made of it (fantasy poster, right) but the the 1962 fragments that remain are spell-binding.  Instead, Michael Gordon helmed MOVE OVER DARLING!