Western Movie Rambles

[MissGoddess]

I need to re-watch *Yellow Sky* one day. I saw it a long time ago and just couldn't get into it at the time. I'm sure I missed something, as usual.

 

The Scott western I watched was one of his earliest, surely, from 1933. *To The Last Man* was based on a story by Zane Grey and directed by Henry Hathaway. It has a fine cast:

 

Randolph Scott

Buster Crabb

Noah Beery (dad, not Junior)

Esther Ralston

Fuzzy Knight

Barton MacLaine

Gail Patrick (as Barton's wife!)

Shirley Temple

Jack LaRue

 

http://youtu.be/J7ahQiAqFEI

 

If it were filmed in color it basically would make a good companion with Hathaway's other bucolic "hill country" tales, *Trail of the Lonesome Pine* and *The Shepherd of the Hills* since many of the same plot elements and characters (and Fuzzy Knight!) are present. However it's a bit creaky, not as well done as the later two films. Randolph Scott is impossibly handsome and smooth-faced. Interesting to see Scott in the lead of such an early, talkie western.

 

Oh, and it has the longest credit roll I've ever seen in a movie...the last actor's name appears almost 25 minutes in. A bit distracting!

[JackFavell]

Hey! I've seen that one! I think Maven has too, she's a big fan of Gail Patrick, Jack LaRue and now Esther Ralston, we both thought Ralston was darn good and wondered why she didn't make many more sound movies. A victim of the casting couch I fear.

 

I thought certain parts of it were very good indeed, but the plot encompassed too much and too many generations I think. I liked the peaceful father, Ralston, Jack LaRue and Randolph Scott. You are right, he was so smooth faced and young! I kept expecting Gail to give someone a withering glance but she never did - she was so impossibly beautiful in this one as the good sister, it made me wonder what kind of career she would have had if she hadn't been so good at playing the "rival".

 

Yellow Sky has a lot going for it, it's not perfect by any means, but it's got a great cast, including another good role for Pa Clegg (from Wagon Master).

 

I'm so happy Chris that they are playing Randy on April 11th.

 

Would be star and fred, I really love Big Boy, and appreciate the info about him. Glad to hear he was a nice feller as well as good lookin'.

 

Edited by: JackFavell on Mar 12, 2012 3:46 PM

[MissGoddess]

I liked Ralston, too, very pretty and spirited. That LaRue just oozes sleazy, I kept expecting to see him flip a coin. I liked the Hayden patriarch, too, who wanted no more bloodshed. That's a good way to get killed in hill country!

[fredbaetz]

" I kept expecting to see him flip a coin"

 

That's an odd statement, because Jack LaRue was suppose to play the role of the coin tossing friend of Paul Muni in "Scarface", but was replaced by George Raft, because they didn't want the co star to be taller then the star. Whether this is true or not, who knows, but Raft did turn down the role of the sadistic gangster "Trigger" in "The Story of Temple Drake" with Mariam Hopkins and LaRue got the part. As much as I like Raft, I find Jack LaRue a much more menacing figure and he made the role his....

[MissGoddess]

Fred, I'm not a bit surprised to hear that LaRue was being considered for that part in *Scarface*...he seemed to embody it!

[JackFavell]

I'm expecting The Desperadoes on Friday! I mean the movie.

 

I just watched *Fighting Man of the Plains*, with R. Scott (la) which, although it was just a B oater, kept me watching all the way through. It was a little twisty, directed by Edward L. Marin, whose name seems familiar. It ended up being less twisty than I thought it would be, but it was kind of nice to see a backwards western - where the guy starts out seeming to be all bad and ends up completely good, and might have been all along except for one mistake. It's our view of him that changes, not the man.

 

I liked it, in spite of it's pedigree as a lower ranking western. Scott is a fascinating guy. Victor Jory also stars, with a small role by the recently departed Joan Taylor - her first, in fact, arranged by Jory after he saw her in a play at the Pasadena Playhouse.

 

All in all, it was not bad.

[movieman1957]

 

*I'm expecting The Desperadoes on Friday! I mean the movie.*

 

Good. I was ready to call the cavalry! Then I thought how odd that the desperadoes would make an appointment.

[JackFavell]

 

 

[fredbaetz]

Even though they are "Desperadoes", they are very well mannered. ] ] ]

[MissGoddess]

I can't wait to hear what you think about *The Desperados*, Jackie!

 

I just got *Buchanan Rides Alone*, which I'll try to watch by this weekend.

[JackFavell]

Oh, I better watch that one too. I can't wait to see it and hear what you have to say about it.

[MissGoddess]

I watched *Buchanan Rides Alone* and enjoyed it. It is a nice change of character type for Randolph Scott. I thought the ending was the best scene, and the one that I remembered most. The three brothers made a different sort of set of villains, they made Craig Stevens seem almost good.

 

That horse really is a beauty. L.Q. Jones is always fun. His "burial" was a bit on the mordant side. I guess that is Boetticher's humor. I never really saw it on display as much as in this movie.

 

*Buchanan Rides Alone* made me think, more so than the other "Ranown" westerns, of the later Spaghetti westerns. Then I watched that interview with Taylor Hackford (on the DVD) and he said the same thing, ha. Only difference being Clint Eastwood never smiled.

[JackFavell]

I'm definitely going to get to it! Probably tomorrow morning...sorry, I just was so busy this weekend and yesterday. As soon as I watch it tomorrow, I'll come over here and we can chat.

[JackFavell]

Well, I just got done with Buchanan Rides Alone. it's kind of a funny title, don't you think? The guy can't get alone to save his life!

[MissGoddess]

ha! I hadn't thought of that but you're right.

 

I noticed the novel it was based on was called "The Name's Buchanan", a line Scott actually speaks in the film. I don't know why they didn't just use that, unless it wasn't "western" enough. I sometimes wonder at how they arrive at movie titles. The studios seemed to have some little gnome who's only job was to think up lame titles like There's Always Tomorrow, Tomorrow Never Comes, et al.

[JackFavell]

And Now Tomorrow.... oh wait, that one actually WAS a book.

 

I want that job.

 

I think I have to watch this movie over again, since I could barely follow all the twisty backstabbing and side changing in it. But I loved the way it moved and especially Scott's character. He cracked me up, as did Pecos. He seemed much smoother to me than any other of Scott's heroes in the BB movies.

 

I also liked the idea of a town so corrupt that pretty much every single person there had a vested interest in taking over. And all taken down by one man who just wanted to get his money back and be on his way to West Texas.

[MissGoddess]

> I think I have to watch this movie over again, since I could barely follow all the twisty backstabbing and side changing in it. But I loved the way it moved and especially Scott's character. He cracked me up, as did Pecos. He seemed much smoother to me than any other of Scott's heroes in the BB movies.

>

 

Smooth, it is. Buchanan (Scott) hardly ever seemed too put out and the only fellow really in a constant quandry about what to do was the doofy brother, played by Peter Whitney, who I recognize from a thousand western TV shows. Usually playing someone demented. :

 

 

> I also liked the idea of a town so corrupt that pretty much every single person there had a vested interest in taking over. And all taken down by one man who just wanted to get his money back and be on his way to West Texas.

 

It's hilarious, really. There's just one street that seems to run from Mexico across into "Agry" (I kept thinking it was "Angry") and no matter what side of the scurvy little bridge you were on, you got shot at.

 

Edited by: MissGoddess on Mar 21, 2012 4:35 PM

[JackFavell]

> {quote:title=MissGoddess wrote:}{quote}

> Smooth, it is. Buchanan (Scott) hardly ever seemed too put out and the only fellow really in a constant quandry about what to do was the doofy brother, played by Peter Whitney, who I recognize from a thousand western TV shows. Usually playing someone demented. :

 

I knew if I asked, someone here would tell me who that guy was! he looked so familiar! Kinda like Andy Devine mixed with Lon Chaney Jr, with a little bit of that dog in the Bugs Bunny cartoons - "Which way did he go, huh, which way did he go?"

 

> > I also liked the idea of a town so corrupt that pretty much every single person there had a vested interest in taking over. And all taken down by one man who just wanted to get his money back and be on his way to West Texas. It's hilarious, really. There's just one street that seems to run from Mexico across into "Agry" (I kept thinking it was "Angry") and no matter what side of the scurvy little bridge you were on, you got shot at.

 

Angry wouldn't have been far off! At first I thought it was named Agry, as in agri-culture. I wasn't expecting it to be a person's name. I like how in just a few seconds, we get the idea that the town is owned by Simon Agry - who REALLY made me NERVOUS with all his lazy lolling about. I thought he was going to be very evil, the way he made everyone do his work for him, I'm surprised he didn't have someone to feed him, too, lol. I guess old Budd didn't like politicians too much.

[fredbaetz]

Even though he was in a lot of Westerns, the first thing I think of when I see Peter Whitney is "Murder, He Says" with Fred MacMurray. Whitney played the idiot twin sons of Mamie {Marjorie Main} and everyone was running around glowing after drinking the poison... :^0

[JackFavell]

Oh my gosh, thank you, fred! I KNEW I had seen him in something, and couldn't place him. A free floating anxiety has been lifted from my mind.

[movieman1957]

Whitney was good playing the dumb brother. I thought it interesting that every time he would run he would hold on to his chest. It was even more interesting that they said nothing about it.

 

How awful that three brothers would feel that way about each other but it sure makes for interesting watching.

[MissGoddess]

> Kinda like Andy Devine mixed with Lon Chaney Jr, with a little bit of that dog in the Bugs Bunny cartoons - "Which way did he go, huh, which way did he go?"

>

 

Ha!!! That's so true! He was shaggy.

 

> Angry wouldn't have been far off! At first I thought it was named Agry, as in agri-culture.

 

That's funny. The only thing they cultivated was greed. Even this aspect of the movie, the town character, reminds me of the Eastwood westerns.

 

> I wasn't expecting it to be a person's name. I like how in just a few seconds, we get the idea that the town is owned by Simon Agry - who REALLY made me NERVOUS with all his lazy lolling about. I thought he was going to be very evil, the way he made everyone do his work for him, I'm surprised he didn't have someone to feed him, too, lol. I guess old Budd didn't like politicians too much.

 

I imagine, not! I confess I too wasn't sure how bad he (Simon Agry) would turn out to be. Or how bad his gunman (Craig Stevens) might be. Neither seemed as rotten as the Sheriff.

 

Chris---I wondered about that bit of business with him grabbing at his chest (his heart?) that way, too, and why it was never explained. I guess as you say, it's more interesting that way.

[wouldbestar]

Regarding *Buchanan Rides Alone*: I have absolutely got to see this movie. Everything I've read keeps making it more intriguing. Peter Whitney's being in the cast is another incentive; funny or villainous he's always good. As I'm a big fan of Scott and Westerns in general I can't understand how this one's escaped me.

 

I only got to see the last half of *Fighting Man of the Plains* which is also on my to see list. Jack was right that's rather ordinary but it's historical in that it was made in the cusp of movies to TV and so many of the actors were just a few steps away from Western fame thanks to that little box that Hollywood feared but embraced so soon after. I saw Bill Williams, Dale Robertson, an uncredited Jack Kelly and a couple others I've forgotten. This would make a good double feature with another Scott Western made six years later, *Shootout at Medicine Bend*, which gave Angie Dickinson and James Garner a leg up just before they hit it big. I get a kick out of seeing these "who knew" moments. Can't wait to catch up to these two. Right now I need to catch up to some z's.

 

Edited by: wouldbestar on Mar 21, 2012 10:28 PM

 

Edited by: wouldbestar on Mar 21, 2012 10:31 PM

[JackFavell]

I know exactly what you mean about casting, wouldbestar! I love seeing all these folks show up in the background. And you can't really go wrong with Bill Williams... I was shocked at his character here! He was definitely giving Dan Duryea a run for him money in the baby faced bad guy department. He's always highly watchable. I think Jack Kelly only had one line, but I spotted him too. Also Dale Robertson, J. Farrell MacDonald, Herbert Rawlinson and Paul Fix.

[CineMaven]

"I watched Buchanan Rides Alone and enjoyed it. It is a nice change of character type for Randolph Scott. I thought the ending was the best scene, and the one that I remembered most. The three brothers made a different sort of set of villains, they made Craig Stevens seem almost good...."

 

I watched "BUCHANAN RIDES ALONE" and I wanted to like it more than I did. I think I might be --doomed-- ...spoiled by the complex writing of Burt Kennedy, with his semi-good bad guys and plots that twist on their heads.

 

But the movie was okay. I did like Randolph Scott's easy manner. I smiled at his confidence when he pushed aside with one finger, the gun of a drunk, gun-wielding gunman...and still wanted his steak. (Ha!) He just seemed a little bit not too bothered by being jailed and possibly lynched. I liked the bad guy-ness of the bad guys: the sheriff, the politico and bringing up the rear, the chest holding "doofy" brother. Juan was attractive, but his horse was a real beauty! Craig Stevens looked good and convincing as the right-hand man in black...strong-arm for the political guy. I'm not quite sure why the camera cut away when he was giving a man a bit of a beatdown, though.

 

The only time I felt some real tense moments came at the end of the movie when the saddlebag filled with money had to be retrieved. Quelle dilemma! If you don't go out there to pick up the satchel, you'll be shot dead on the spot. If you do go out there to pick up the satchel, you'll be shot dead on the spot.

 

Talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place. All in all, ev'rybody's characterization of good guy or bad guy was spot on. But I think I'll be looking for Burt Kennedy's name.