Western TV Week: Have Gun, Will Travel

Bueno dias campers and welcome to Day 2 of Western TV Week so let’s saunter on through.  This time we move towards San Francisco to a professional gunfighter, a trouble shooter if you will.  The Enigmatic Paladin has his own calling card.  So saddle up, have an ace in the hole and have your wits about you.  This is Have Gun Will Travel.

hmm methinks this young lady is from the F-Troop tribe.

Paladin: I don’t think you got a good look at this spoiler while you had it. The balance is perfect.  This trigger responds to a pressure of one ounce.

Former West Point graduate and Civil War Veteran Paladin (Richard Boone of Halls of Montezuma, Call Me Mister, Return of the Texan, Pony Soldier, Medic, Hombre and Big Jake) has emerged from the war in favor of the finer things in life with his care free hotel room in the Carlton.  When he wasn’t enjoying a series of poker or a bottle of Dom Perignon and seats at the opera; a professional gunslinger with his business card over a picture of a chess knight piece that reads: Have Gun, Will Travel…Wire Paladin, San Francisco.   

Brisco's got nothing on Paladin!

This man was characterized as an anti-hero. I assume this is due to the fact he is constituted as a bounty hunter, gunfighter and everyman’s hero.  Traveling from town to town on horseback or by train he found his mission objectives and earned his money.  To me, he came across as a necessary evil. The final justice in a land that had no real law was at the barrel of his balanced and weighed .45 revolver, his derringer and a lever-action Marlin rifle. His marksmanship was second to none.  His training, intelligence and tactical analysis gave him a massive edge.

The only other reoccurring character is handy boy and bellhop Hey Boy (Kam Tong of The Hunters, Who Was That Lady, Walk Like a Dragon, The Virginian, Women of the Prehistoric Planet and Dimension 5) who Paladin harassed but it was good natured ribbing.

Now we discuss a few interesting notions of the show. Most of the character Paladin is shrouded in mystery.  You get the concept that he is not proud of being a soldier in the Civil War and his personal honor is greatly tarnished from this. 

 So many TV actors cut their teeth under this show and many other have furthered their existing careers such as: Ken Curtis of Gunsmoke, Charles Bronson of The Dirty Dozen and the Mechanic, Jacqueline Scott of Gunsmoke and Ironside, character actor George Kennedy of Gunsmoke, Dr. Kildare and the Naked Gun trilogy and Norma Crane of Fiddler on the Roof and They Call Me Mister Tibbs! 

Ow landed on my keys!

Once again Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park, Iverson Ranch and Bronson Canyon Griffith Park were being used as background trails from horse thieves and bushwhackers.   The series was filmed in 35mm Spherical and recorded in mono for audio. Paramount once again is the production for the CBS entertainment as it was with Gunsmoke, The Jack Benny Program and The Red Skelton Show.  A darker storyline but justice always prevailed in one form or another.

Western Week: Rio Bravo

Hey all!  We as we end Western Week I thought we’d finish on a Howard Hawks Film of notoriety.  What do you get when you put two singing legends alongside the Duke in a heaping round of gunfights and fist fights and toss in some eye candy by the name Angie Dickinson?   Well pardners, grab your six guns, check your ammo and board up those windows.  This is Rio Bravo.

Why yes it is only a one horse town.

Dagnab Spoilers!!

Small town sheriff John T. Chance (John Wayne of Red River, 3 Godfathers, Rio Grande, The Sea Chase, The Searchers, El Dorado, Chisum, Rio Lobo and Big Jake) arrests a gutless well connected man Joe Burdette (Claude Akins of Gunsmoke, Battle for the Planet of the Apes, Movin’ On, Kiss Me, Kill Me, B.J. and the Bear, The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo and Murder, She Wrote) prepares to take him to stand trial to the Presidio for murder. His brother Nathan (John Russell of Soldiers of Fortune, Lawman, It Takes a Thief, Alias Smith and Jones, and Pale Rider) will not abide by that decision and shells out plenty of dinero to buy himself a helluva posse to bottleneck the town so Chance can’t take Joe to trial.  His steadfast backup deputies consist of a crippled old grump named Stumpy (Walter Brennan of To Have and Have Not, How the West Was Won, The Real McCoys, The Tycoon, The Guns of Will Sonnett and To Rome with Love) an washed up drunk named Dude (Dean Martin of That’s My Boy, Road to Bali, The Caddy, Living It Up, Some Came Running, The Silencers, 5 Card Stud and Airport).  A well meaning citizen, Wheeler offers his gun hand but Chance can’t accept because he knows his friend has never known the life.   A slick kid with a pretty boy face and twin six shooters name of Colorado (Ricky Nelson of Here Come the Nelsons, Love and Kisses, The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet, The Over-the-Hill Gang and The Streets of San Francisco) seem to need not prove himself to Chance and Chance respects that. 

That hippie went this away. git 'em!

That evening at The Robantes’ Saloon, they register a complaint (No it was not a Norwegian Blue) about some card sharks at the gambling table.   A dishy redhead name of Feathers (Angie Dickinson of I Married a Woman, Cry Terror!, Big Bad Mama, Police Woman, Dressed to Kill, Death Hunt, Cassie & Co., Wild Palms and Sabrina) has less than standing in Lady Luck’s circle as her husband is a known card hustler.  She claims innocence and tells Chance to toss her room if he still thinks she is a cheat.  Colorado steps in pointing out that it may be a different rascal after all.  Chance aided of Colorado’s keen eye spots the swindler and has him locked in his room.   Wheeler gets gunned down in the back and Colorado offers his support.     Chance and Dude manage to get the back shooter but the week isn't over yet.

Nathan claims to visit his brother the next day and Chance points out how he and his men to need to disappear or there could be an accident to befell Joe.     Colorado clearly with not enough sense throws in with Chance and his lot as the odds is stacked pretty high against them.  

Dammit, what is my line?

And now comes the part of my need to make a few observations of our movie.   Most of the film was in location of Old Tucson in Tucson Arizona as well as Stage 5 and 26 in Burbank California.  This film had such an impact on writer/director/editor/composer John Carpenter he said the whole basis of this movie is the reason he created Assault on Precinct 13.   What I have always found fascinating about Howard Hawks movies is the staging.  His characters are always in unusual and interesting places where they are constantly moving throughout streets or the collection of buildings.  Bit like it is a performance art piece.  Not necessarily with dialogue spoken but there is always an array of expressions and emotions on their faces as it seems they are mentally preparing themselves for the day ahead.  This is another film were I would recommend to film students to get some blocking technique down.

Heh one last note, John Wayne just hums along with Ricky and Dean as they clearly can carry a tune in a bucket but hey we can’t have every talent now, can we?

Western Week: Invitation to a Gunfighter

Hey Y’all!  Welcome back for Day 4 of the Western Week. Well we have tackled revenge, bank heists, train heists and even some good old fashioned land grabbing… so why not some more of that?   So tighten up your spurs and make that jingle jangle jingle.   This is Invitation to a Gunfighter.

Scruffy fella, ain't he?

Spoiler’s deceitful and downright no good!!

Our story following disgraced Southern man, Matt Weaver (George Segal of Ship of Fools, King Rat, Death of a Salesman, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Southern Star, Fun with Dick and Jane, Murphy’s Law and Just Shoot Me) who had the audacity to sign for the Union cause that after the war he returns home on foot to find his house has been ceased, bought and sold and his fiancée has married another man.  After a heated argument with John Medford, the now new owner of his home he finds out that town official Sam Brewster (Pat Hingle from Hang ‘Em High, Bloody Mama, If Tomorrow Comes, Gunsmoke, The Super Cops, Elvis, Batman and the The Quick and the Dead) stole his family land and home, grabs his shooting iron and proceeds to raise holy hell at Brewster’s.   Gets winged by the man that stole his girl and slapped in the pokey and the sawbones of the town fixes his arm and heck even the sheriff cuts him some slack and tells him to just leave town.  Off camera Weaver drops John Medford and the town is in uproar.  

I tells ya the Batman ain't to be trusted!!

But enough of all that saddening history and worldly nonsense, let’s talk about Yul Brynner’s character. Jules Gaspard d’Estaing(Yul Brynner of The King and I, The Ten Commandments, The Magnificent Seven, Westworld, The Ultimate Warrior and Death Rage), a well-mannered, cultured dandy that also happens to be have the reflexes of a rattler and willingness to blow a man’s head off.  The town’s “savior” gunfighter bails after seeing d’Estaing, jumps on the very coach he came it to town and hightails it.  Hope they didn’t agree on half up front. 

Ruth now Ruth Adams (Janice Rule of Starlift, Gun for a Coward, Bell Book and Candle, The Subterraneans and The Chase) conflicted on her former feelings of Weaver but her convictions to her husband Crane Adams (Clifford David of The Last Mile, Hamlet, The Party’s Over, A Woman Called Moses, Blind Ambition and Ebony, Ivory and Jade), a one armed man that is a drunk and apparently lousy shot makes for a difficult path for Ruth.  

Brewster is typically the wrong man in at the right time.  A coward and a rabble rouser that keeps his town in check by pointing out the horrors of the Civil War and how they must remain united in their upstanding ways.  He calls out for blood and demands the town put cash together for a gunfighter.  God forbid they take pity on another battered soldier even if he was on the other side.  So poor Matt Weaver is truly on his own, scared and armed. 

Face it, this is a cool cat.

I would like to take this time to point out a few things about the film.  One thing I noticed was Sam Brewster’s house is unmistakably the Bates house above the Bates Motel via Psycho. Producer Stanley Kramer (High Noon, Judgment at Nuremberg, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and The Defiant Ones) apparently loves films of a message of racism, sexism and realism if you will.  The fiction is better represented with a touch of reality.  Frankly this has to be the filthiest town on the US soil. Gritty living conditions, battered and beaten men from the war and the war widows, this town wouldn’t know hope if it bit them in the keister.  Love the crane work, low pans and killer dolly track work.   This is a much underrated film and deserves much more credit than it got, the characters are complex and could go any direction.  A forgotten gem of a movie.