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.  

"That'll be the day"

A western double bill, for late autumn afternoons. Only the best western ever: John Ford's THE SEARCHERS, and a routine oater from 1949 MASSACRE RIVER, only of interest now for teaming of the young Guy Madison and Rory Calhoun - see previous on them, below, or at labels.

We have written about THE SEARCHERS here before, and my 2010 appreciation on Jeffrey Hunter is at 'Jeff Hunter 1' label. Looking at Ford's classic again (I also have it on Blu-ray, as Martin would say) it is a timeless American Classic and the climax is as emotionally stunning as the end of CITIZEN KANE or CASABLANCA. Maybe they are the Top Three American Movies Of All Time?  Its certainly in my Top 10 (along with my other favourite western JOHNNY GUITAR)

The images and the scenery - did Monument Valley ever look more iconic? - stun one again, as does Ford's narrative, Wayne is superlative, Jeff Hunter has his best ever role as halfbreed Martin Pawley - he and Natalie are so poignant together, a perfect Fifties pair, Vera Miles excels as ever, and grown men cry when Ethan picks up Debbie at the end ....

Ford has some amusement too with Wayne's son Patrick and the regulars are all here from Ward Bond down. The early sequence when the settlers realise that Scar is about to attack is chilling and brilliantly done too, as is the scene where Ethan and Martin meet Debbie again in the wigwam with those scalps. Ford orchestrates it all perfectly, as per previous reports; and of course that line of Wayne's "that'll be the day" which gave Buddy Holly the title of one of his best songs ... Max Steiner's score is one of his most evocative and complements the images perfectly. 
Ethan Edwards is racist towards the Indians and the depiction of them may be problematic for some now, though Ford 'atoned' for that with his CHEYENNE AUTUMN in 1964; the squaw Martin gets married to is despatched rather heartlessly. 

MASSACRE RIVER on the other hand is pure studio dross, but a very rare film. I had ordered the dvd only to see it crop up on our Western channel, otherwise known as TCM uk. This must be where Guy Madison and Rory Calhoun got pally, as per my previous on them, and the various reports on their longtime relationship, despite their marriages, and some scurrilous rumours, but there are lots of photos of them together - just like Cary and Randy. 
They share a tub in this and one can see the chemistry between them. Calhoun was an ex-con who got into the movies, mainly rememered now for his two with Monroe and with Hayward in WITH A SONG IN MY HEART. Madison continued in westerns and dramas - both were filming in Europe by the early Sixties, Calhoun in the rather good COLOSSUS OF RHODES by Sergio Leone, so maybe they were meeting up then too. 

THE SEARCHERS though will live forever. 

Summer re-views: beach boys

A wet Saturday as summer slips away from us - here in the UK at any rate. How about some beach boy pix to refresh our memories ..... bring on Tom, Tab, Guy, Alain, Rory, Jeff, Fabian and all the rest ....
Alain in PLEIN SOLEIL, and that 1930s nifty swimsuit for THE YELLOW ROLLS ROYCE. 

Thats Guy Madison on the beach, then Rory Calhoun and Jeff Hunter, Tyrone Power with Cesar Romero, Farley Granger, Tab, Fabian, Troy and Sandra go off to A SUMMER PLACE, and lets end with Tom Daley on the beach at Rio before the Games.... go Tom. 
Well, Tom didn't qualify for the final 12 - these things happen on the day - but hopefully the poster boy and media star will return again for Tokyo in 4 years time .... 

'50s /'60s guys: Jeff and Jeff

Another comparison of two actors (see previous on Oliver Reed & David Hemmings, below). I was looking at an old Jeff Chandler picture the other day, and realised how similar his career path was to that other Fifties guy Jeffrey Hunter - plus both died aged 42 and both from complications after surgery (Chandler in 1961, Hunter in 1969). Hunter had the better career, appearing in more prestige films (including 3 by John Ford) while Chandler was mainly consigned to westerns, actioners, programmers, sudsers where he was an ideal co-star for ladies of a certain age: Loretta Young, Joan Crawford, Lana Turner, June Allyson, Esther Williams, Susan Hayward ...

Like Susan (and Stanwyck and Streisand) Chandler (1918-1961) - real name Ira Grossel - was from Brooklyn in New York and he also attended Erasmus High School. His odd good lucks and that premature grey hair soon got him into movies, after his war service in WWII, where he became a Universal-International resident hunk (along with Hudson, Curtis, George Nader): westerns like BROKEN ARROW, THE GREAT SIOUX UPRISING, and TAZA SON OF COCHISE, and 'easterns' like BIRD OF PARADISE, YANKEE PASHA, FLAME OR ARABY, SIGN OF THE PAGAN. There were war films like AWAY ALL BOATS and TEN SECONDS TO HELL, 

He was ideal as the beach hunk with designs on Joan Crawford in FEMALE ON THE BEACH - one of our favourite Trash classics here - and with Esther in RAW WIND IN EDEN in 1957 - Esther rather trashed his reputation in her tell-all memoir, apparantly they had been dating but she discovered he was a cross-dresser with a penchant for polka dot dresses! - it was later suggested this was a fabrication to spice up her book, but who knows now .... He squired Lana in THE LADY TAKES A FLYER and was good with June Allyson, Mary Astor and Sandra Dee in the enjoyable tosh that is STRANGER IN MY ARMS, 1959 (see Jeff label). He also starred in RETURN TO PEYTON PLACE - a real Trash Classic - in 1961, and did that silly western THUNDER IN THE SUN as a favour for old pal Susan Hayward. His last film was San Fuller's tough war movie  MERRILL'S MARAUDERS in 1961. He died from blood poisoning after a slipped disk operation.

Jeffrey Hunter is best remembered today for his roles as half-breed Martin Pawley in John Ford's classic western The Searchers (1956), as Jesus Christ in Nicholas Ray's King of Kings (1961) and as Christopher Pike, the first captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise, in the original Star Trek pilot.

Jeffrey Hunter (1926-1969): I have already featured his career here as a 'Person We Like' - see Hunter label. He must have been one of the best looking actors ever, certainly of his time - but he seems to have had a troubled life with several unhappy marriages. He worked a lot at 20th Century Fox where he was teamed several times with Robert Wagner, and in films like NO DOWN PAYMENT (which also featured his first wife Barbara Rush), DREAMBOAT, as Little Dog in WHITE FEATHER (1955), Nick Ray's THE JAMES BROTHERS, in the all-star THE LONGEST DAY, he is fun in PRINCESS OF THE NILE in 1954, but his memorial remains John Ford's endlessly fascinating classic THE SEARCHERS in 1956 - his Martin Pawley is always on show somewhere, along with John Wayne, Vera Miles and Natalie Wood. 

We also like his war films: NO MAN IS AN ISLAND, SAILOR TO THE KING, HELL TO ETERNITY, IN LOVE AND WAR. The early 60s saw a dip in his career - going to Europe for items like GOLD OF THE CAESARS, which is a better than usual peplum, He also had a TV series TEMPLE HOUSTON which I do not know, and was famously Jesus (with those piercing blue eyes) in KING OF KINGS for Nick Ray in 1961 .... He also had the lead in a new series STAR TREK in 1965 but did not continue after the first pilot episode. 

In 1969 Hunter suffered a stroke (after an accident on set in Europe), took a bad fall and underwent emergency surgery, but died from complications of both the fall and the surgery.

Both Jeffs are always watchable - I have just had to order MAN TRAP, a 1961 thriller with Hunter and the marvellous Stella Stevens, which I have not seen. Lots more at Hunter label ... 

Princess of the Nile, and other exotic treats ...

A fun post today, as we go back to those heady Fifties sword-and-sandal costume movies, often referred to as Peplums, if set in the ancient world, but these I have selected are all Arabian fantasies -  not westerns then, but "easterns": bring on the harem pants and those scantily-clad dancing girls ..... how we loved the in those '50s sunday afternoon duible-bills ... a lot of them could be Trash Classics now.

Few dancing girls were as delectable as Debra Paget - best known now for her sensational numbers in Fritz Lang's 1959 German opus THE INDIAN TOMB (right) - but she also dances up a storm in PRINCESS OF THE NILE, in 1954 with Jeff Hunter - topless and wearing a turban.

Time: A.D. 1249. Shalimar, an Egyptian princess, striving to rid her country of its Bedouin conquerors, forms an alliance with Prince Haidi, son of the Caliph of Bagdad. She practices her intrigues both at the court and, disguised as a dancing girl, in the market place. Here she is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJY0Lr5L8gw

This is delicious fun as Debra's princess also plays the dancing girl, as Jeff Hunter and evil Michael Rennie fight over her. It is all more Ali Baba and Baghdad than Egyptian.  Jeff and Debra are such a good-looking couple too. 

As an IMDB reviewer puts it: A pretty film with lead actors so beautiful, it almost hurts to look at them. Young Jeffrey Hunter and Debra Paget dazzle in this fun faux- Egyptian adventure/romance. Whether you are straight or gay, male or female, you should appreciate looking at them both.It has adventure, romance, a quick-moving plot, and some comic relief. Dancing girls! Evil henchmen! Scimitar fights! What's not to like?  Debra and Jeff were also in that good western from 1955: WHITE FEATHER, pictured here with Robert Wagner. 

SERPENT OF THE NILE falls into the just Trash or B-Movie category - not even amusing enough to be camp. This William Castle clunker from 1953 may be the cheapest, tattiest costumer ever, as Rhonda Fleming essays Cleo, and burly Raymond Burr walks through the role of Mark Anthony, William Lundigan looks so 50s with his brylcreemed hair!. There are few extras and crowd scenes and it all looks like it was shot over a weekend - or maybe I am being too cruel .... It does though have the stunning Julie Newmar (below) as a dancing girl, covered in gold - a decade before Shirley Eaton in GOLDFINGER! - in a terrific number.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG8JcOxBZZc

Another early Cleopatra was the 19-year old Sophia Loren in TWO NIGHTS WITH CLEOPATRA (below) and she was also in ATTILA. Over at Universal, young Tony Curtis and Piper Laurie toiled more varied Arabian Nights fantasies like THE PRINCE WHO WAS A THIEF.

Dale Robertson , a western star (we liked him in SITTING BULL and THE GAMBLER FROM NATCHEZ) took to harem pants quite well too as SON OF SINBAD in 1956, where Vincent Price has a camp time as the poet Omar Khayyam. This one - from Howard Hughes - is full of dancing girls, in fact almost every burlesque queen in L.A. must have worked on it - as per:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8jd8Jzan-8

which makes one wonder who the intended audience for these movies were: kids and adolescents or 'dirty old men' to leer at the lovelies ... 

For real dancing girls try out Anita Ekberg in Terence Young's ZARAK in 1956 - 

 cheesecake does not get much better - Anita of course has the obligatory jewel in her navel - as did Joan Collins, Gina Lollobrigida and others then. 

Anita was sensational then in films like INTERPOL and SCREAMING MIMI - as per other posts on her - Anita label, before heading to Italy and Fellini - LA DOLCE VITA and her giant billboard which comes to life in Federico's episode of BOCCACCIO 70 (where De Sica had Loren, and Visconti Romy Schneider in their episodes) in 1962. I have a Bob Hope comedy she did as well, PARIS HOLIDAY from '57, to see sometime soon. Over 80 now (like her fellow sirens Bardot and Loren) one hopes Anita is doing ok.

John Wayne's THE CONQUEROR in 1956, another Howard Hughes production, is often dismissed as being terrible - and it was certainly a mistake to shoot it near those atomic testing sites in Utah - but Wayne is fun as Genghis Khan with Susan Hayward as his Tartar love - Susie dances up a storm too and there's a terrific exotic dance scene - 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciHbJkb9OKI

(We also like the 1965 GENGHIS KHAN, a rather tatty late epic, with a super cast including Stephen Boyd and Francoise Dorleac as the very '60s Bortai.) 

OMAR KHAYYAM was a treat in 1957 - more harem scenes and Debra Paget again. Debra wa also in Elvis's first film LOVE ME TENDER then and it seems Elvis was smitten..... and of course she was in Cecil's daddy-of-them-all, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, and also in DEMETRIUS AND THE GLADIATORS. She should have had a longer career, but she married well, and she too is over 80 now. Jeff Hunter of course died in 1969 - see label for more. 

Minnelli got into the act with his stagebound film of KISMET, another Arabian Nights fantasy musical, where Dolores Gray shines. 

Other costumers of the time which we like (see Epics/Peplums labels) include the hiliarious THE PRODIGAL, LAND OF THE PHAROAHS, THE EGYPTIAN, THE SILVER CHALICE, PRINCE VALIANT, BLACK SHIELD OF FALWORTH, SIGN OF THE PAGAN, and the stupendous THE VIKINGS, and of course those Steve Reeves movies, before the big epics like BEN HUR, SPARTACUS and EL CID took over. Then we got CLEOPATRA and FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE as the epic genre ran out of favour as the Swinging Sixties took off .... but they provided (and still do) lots of pleasure. Below: KISMET, 1955.

And we couldn't leave out Gina's torrid orgy scene in SOLOMON & SHEBA: 

Top 5: Five beautiful screen actors

Another of the "Sunday Telegraph"'s Critical Lists was "Five Beautiful Screen Actors", and critic/columnist Anne Billson chose:

1 - Paul Newman in CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF / 2 - Christopher Walken in THE ANDERSON TAPES (1971) / 3 - Keanu Reeves in BILL & TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE / 4 - James Dean in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE ("Prettier than Brando, he never had a chance to grow bored with his own beauty")  and 5 - Tony Leung Chiu Wai in IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE, 2000.
Well, that is a female perspective. Now I love IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE, but maybe not in this context.

I would keep Paul Newman in CAT - and Keanu, but for SPEED in 1994 where he is buffed up as every gay's fantasy boyfriend. Dean I would certainly keep, but for EAST OF EDEN, or looking moody in GIANT. So, lets add in two Euro-boys: 

Alain Delon as Tom Ripley in Clement's endlessly fascinating PLEIN SOLEIL shot in 1959, and Jean Sorel at his moodiest in Visconti's 1965 SANDRA (OF A THOUSAND DELIGHTS - where Claudia Cardinale was also at her zenith).

Another day, it might be Dirk Bogarde (at his prettiest in CAMPBELL'S KINGDOM in 1957); Montgomery Clift; Tyrone Power; Erroll Flynn as CAPTAIN BLOOD or THE SEA HAWK; and Gary Cooper - endlessly fascinating and beautiful even as he aged. Cary Grant too at his zenith in NOTORIOUS ... 
and Gregory Peck, maybe Rock in ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS ? or John Gavin. 

Back in the '60s/'70s we liked Michael York and Terence Stamp (Willie Garvin in MODESTY BLAISE) 
and ... Robert Hossein is a relatively new discovery too. 
now there's Matt Bomer .... and Joseph Fiennes, Tom Hollander ... 


plus here, Guy Madison letting rip on the dance floor - there are lots of interesting pictures of Guy around; and Jeffrey Hunter, and the fabulous Kerwin Matthews ... then of course there's Tony Perkins and Tab Hunter and Fabian and ...