Hopalong

For my birthday I received the Hopalong Cassidy Collector's Edition. It's a digitally remastered box set of 25 classic Hopalong Cassidy films with William Boyd. Now I am to young to have seen any of these on TV (Except for the Western Channel) but those of you who read this blog know I love movies, especially old classics and these are the best of the westerns.

I watched Border Patrol last weekend with my 4 year old daughter who loved it. It was a lot of fun to explain to her about the "good guys" and "bad guys" and she got a kick out of the character California.

Anyway, if you get a chance pick this up. it's well done, good transfer, and of course it stars Hoppy my favorite of the b-western cowboys!

3:10 to Yuma, pulling into the station!

I think the best thing about remakes is that they usually spark interest in the originals which help bring them to DVD. 3:10 to Yuma staring Glen Ford and Van Heflin has finally made it into your local Chinese Communist PX. Pick it up, you'll be glad you did.

CandyGram for Mongo

I always thought Jose should have gone with Mongo for an alias.



Best comedy ever.

Elmore Leonard

He's probably better known for his gritty crime drama, but Elmore Leonard has always been a cowboy writer to me. I was first introduced to Leonard's work when I picked up a copy of Hombre a couple of dozen years ago. Cuba Libre is one of my favorites and I find it does a great job of walking the line between his westerns and crime novels.

Over Christmas I picked up a copy of The Complete Western Stories of Elmore Leonard and have been slowly making my way through them. Of course I started out with 3:10 to Yuma. I knew that Leonard had been the screenwriter on the original Hollywood incarnation of the story, but I was surprised at how different the short story was from the movie.

The story was first published in Dime Western Magazine in March of 1953. Leonard had already started to master the short story and you can tell by the sparseness of the tale. The plot and location are the same, the main difference is the protagonist and the pacing.

In the movie, Van Heflin plays Dan Evans a rancher forced to take up a gun and escort the notorious criminal Ben Wade to hang at Yuma Prison. In the book, the main character is Paul Scallen a sheriff's deputy just doing his job and making sure that the outlaw Jim Kidd makes it to Yuma prison to serve out his 5 year sentence.

In the story Leonard manages to get across much of the ideas that he fleshed out for the movie with just a few sentences.

"And then one night a drunk cowhand you've never seen will be tearing up somebody's saloon and you'll go in to arrest him and he'll drill you with a lucky shot before you get your gun out." "So you're telling me I'm crazy." "If you don't already know it." Scallen took his hand off the shotgun and pulled tobacco and paper from his shirt picket and began rolling a cigarette. "have you figured out yet what my price is?" Kidd looked startled, momentarily, but the grin returned. "No, I haven't. Maybe you come higher than I thought."

In the end it's an excellent short story without all of the Hollywood additions. It's stripped down and bare and reminds me of a good stiff shot of bourbon. It goes down quick, burns a little with lots of flavor...and gives you something to think about.

B Movie Bonanza

Are you looking for a way to pass the time this holiday season? Since the shooting year is over in most places north of the Mason Dixon many of you are surfing the web and looking for cowboy stuff to pass the time until we start throwing lead down range in the spring. Boy have I got just the thing for you. Check out this little fun site. They have all of your B-Western Cowboy needs until the Judge shows back up for the "bling" category. And if you want a little Horror, Sci-Fi, or Kung Fu they got that as well.

Turn the lights down low, grab a bag of popcorn and enjoy!

The Judge Mint Day Story

Mint Day first stumbled on the scene quite literally as an extra in WESTERN ROUNDUP (1929). Listed in the credits as Gilbert O’Day he made little impact on the film, but a big move on the leading lady Dina Might.

By the end of the year he co-starred with Dina Might in GUNS FROM THE BORDER (1929) as “Mint” Day and never looked back. His publicist refused to provide background information for Mint Day saying only that a mysterious cowboy with no past sold more tickets than a law school dropout from the Midwest.

Mint Day made 11 movies from 1929 - 1931 all of them for Monogram Pictures and most opposite the lovely Dina Might. TRAIN TO ABILENE (1930), GHOST PASS (1930), OVER THE VALLEY (1930), DYNAMITE TRAIL (1930), CROSSED BADGES (1930), UNDER A BAD MOON (1931), THREE ON A MATCH (1931), HOMEWARD WAGON (1931), AND LONSOME HOMBRE (1931). All were of the western faire with Mint Day saving the town/girl/wagon train/fort from destruction from Indians/cutthroats/rebels. Only GHOST PASS (1930) had a substantially different feel from a first time writer/producer Al Hitch (pseudonym for Alfred Hitchcock).

In 1932 Mint Day signed with Republic Pictures and dove headfirst into the western serial. The first 15 part serial SIXGUN JUDGE (1932) not only gave Day movie star status, but also his moniker “Judge”. For the rest of his movie career he would be “Judge Mint Day”. He went on to star in 6 more serials for Republic before dropping out of Hollywood altogether. Little has been heard from Judge since his departure from the movie industry. Still married to Dina Might he purchased a horse ranch in the Sierra Nevada’s and lived a quiet and happy life.

3:10 to Yuma

Well I finally managed to free some time up to go see 3:10 to Yuma. It just happened to be the very last showing of the movie in our local theater. I'm glad I managed to go and see it since it met most of my expectations.

In short it's a good movie. If you get a chance see it our pick up the DVD when it comes out. The acting is solid and better then the first version. Russell Crowe and Christian Bale continue to impress me and the best parts of the movie are when these two great actors interact.

The story follows the first movie and I can only assume the original work pretty closely. I need to pick up a copy of Elmore Leonard's short story and see which version is more true to the work. One of the things I really enjoyed about the first version was the fact that the Dan Evans character was pretty much an everyday man. He was down on his luck, but not any more then most people and while he needed the 200 dollars to get by and needed it badly doing the right thing was more important to him. In this version the character is truly beat down with a missing leg from the war and a son with TB and an evil neighbor trying to steal his land. It's almost like Hollywood doesn't believe in the everyday man...what am I saying of course they don't.

The movie adds a few action sequences like a dangerous apache pass that wasn't any more dangerous then Dan Evans ranch and a run in with some other railroad people both of which seemed to be in there for the MTV generation. The only thing that really bugged me about the movie however was the overt approach to telling the audience that putting Ben Wade in the 3:10 to Yuma did not mean that he would get hanged. At one point Russell Crowe has to say that he's broken out of Yuma twice before. It just dumbs it down to much and generally pisses me off.

The action was solid, the acting was great, the costumes and guns were fun and the movie was enjoyable. Ben Foster did a great job playing the part originally done by Richard Jaeckel and definitely stole a couple of scenes. It's not the best western I've ever seen, even in the modern era, but it is well worth the price of admission.

More Westerns

Well it looks like Hollywood has decided to try its hand at westerns again. Every few years they dust off the genre and come up with a few
major motion pictures. I have found that when Hollywood dumps a lot of money into a western the end result is pretty entertaining. I’m not sure why, maybe it’s the storylines, maybe the quality of actors that jump on board, maybe it’s production qualities, but no matter what it is they are usually worth checking out. This year’s 2 big budget westerns come out in September which starts off on the 7^th with 3:10 to Yuma.

“3:10 to Yuma” is a remake. The original was released in 1957 and starred Glenn Ford and Van Heflin. The dialogue is fantastic in this film which isn’t surprising since much of it is taken from Elmore Leonard’s novel. The remake intrigues me because of the actors involved. Russell Crow and Christian Bale are very good actors and can really chew up a scene. If they keep most of Leonard’s narrative this could be a fantastic film, on the flip side if they make this all about action then…oh well watch the trailer and decide.

“The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” also has a strong group of actors and might be very good if done right. The problem seems to be that audiences didn’t like the first 3+ hour action-less drama so the troubled picture is being re-cut by Brad Pitt himself. This quickly reminds me of how Sharon Stone ruined a good Sam Rami picture when she edited “The Quick and the Dead.” Anyway, here is the trailer.

One way or the other I say get out to the theater and see the movies. The more money they make the more westerns Hollywood will produce and that earns more for us to enjoy.