News

Will Hutchins, the star of ABC’s Sugarfoot, thought to be a contender for TV’s first comedy western series, died Monday, April 21, at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, New York. He was 94.

His death was announced by Western film and TV historian Boyd Magers.

Running on ABC for 69 episodes from 1957 to 1961, Sugarfoot starred Hutchins as Tom Brewster, an Easterner who comes to the Wild West of the Oklahoma Territory to become a lawyer. His lack of cowboy skills, which the show played for laughs, earned him the nickname Sugarfoot. The show’s lighthearted approach to the TV western genre preceded that of Maverick starring James Garner, which debuted five days after Sugarfoot.

Born Marshall Lowell Hutchason in Los Angeles on May 5, 1930, Hutchins served in the United States Army Signal Corps during the Korean War, and subsequently enrolled as a graduate student at UCLA to study cinema arts. His...

Will Hutchins, the eccentric actor who portrayed the wholesome sharpshooter and frontier lawyer Tom Brewster on the 1957-61 ABC Western Sugarfoot, has died. He was 94.

Hutchins died Monday, his wife, Barbara, told Western film and TV historian Boyd Magers.

Hutchins also starred as Woody Banner, who inherits a Manhattan brownstone from his uncle, on the 1966-67 NBC sitcom Hey, Landlord, created by Garry Marshall and Jerry Belson, fresh off their work on The Dick Van Dyke Show.

Two years later, the blue-eyed Los Angeles native played Dagwood Bumstead opposite Patricia Harty on the 1968-69 CBS comedy Blondie. Based on the comic strip and following a set of films and a 1957 NBC series, it lasted just 16 episodes before being canceled.

On the big screen, Hutchins appeared opposite Elvis Presley in two movies: as the gourmet cop Tracy Richards (the name was a Dick Tracy pun) in Spinout (1966) and as buddy Tom Wilson...

One of the most successful actors and directors that the world has ever witnessed, Clint Eastwood remains a pop-culture icon even at the age of 94. Bursting onto the scene with his ice-cool breakout turn in Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy, Eastwood would go on to cement his status as cinema's quintessential badass with his bow as anti-hero cop Harry Callahan in the wildly popular Dirty Harry movie series. Complementing his best movie character roles with a string of acclaimed directorial efforts over the years, the American also boasts four Academy Award wins from 11 nominations.

A Western icon, many of Eastwood's best movies take place within the genre he made his name in. However, the actor has also demonstrated a penchant for starring in or directing a number of prominent war movies throughout his career. Typically bringing his accomplished style of film making to the table with great effect, Eastwood's performances,...

Few figures in Hollywood can match Clint Eastwood's towering legacy as an actor and director with nearly 70 years in the industry. From his 1955 debut in Revenge of the Creature to 73 different acting roles and 45 directorial efforts, Eastwood transformed from Sergio Leone's stoic Western hero to the iconic Dirty Harry before emerging as one of cinema's most accomplished filmmakers. His instantly recognizable delivery of lines like "Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?" helped cement his status as a cultural icon. But his versatility allowed him to inhabit roles across every conceivable genre.

Behind the camera, Eastwood developed a distinctive minimalist style marked by patient film noir-inspired cinematography and understated dramatic tension. This approach, favoring action over dialogue and subtle character development over exposition, has earned him numerous accolades, including Academy Awards for Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby, and Oscars nominations for Mystic River, Letters from Iwo Jima, and American Sniper.

Quick Links Jack Nicholson Was a Man of Many Genres The Shooting is More Arthouse Than Western It's Legacy Survives As A Lesson Early-Career Jack Nicholson had a variety of very interesting roles in different genres between the 50s and 60s. The Shooting was largely considered an experimental film in comparison to most Westerns in the era that was filled with grand set pieces and big stunts. The film was not well-received but remains a hidden classic that survives in academic archives and is shown in film schools.

Often, when Jack Nicholson comes to mind, it's his ear-to-ear smile, sly, rasping voice, and maddening eyebrows behind indoor sunglasses that are the first things fans associate him with. Yet back in his earlier career in the 50s and 60s, he had a solid range doing plenty of diverse character roles in Western films and other off-shoot genres that used similar plot mechanisms.

What's the best Jack Nicholson movie? Ask a group of film fans, and you'll likely get a half-dozen different answers. The actor's most historically significant movie may be "Chinatown," the sun-baked California noir from 1974 that earned 11 Oscar nominations and a permanent spot in the American Library of Congress' National Film Registry. Or it might be "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," the beloved adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel that swept the Oscars in 1975 and turned the already-popular Nicholson into Hollywood's hottest commodity.

The actor's most popular films according to Letterboxd users are Stanley Kubrick's horror masterpiece "The Shining" and Martin Scorsese's crime saga "The Departed." His highest-grossing role at the box office came in 1989, when Tim Burton cast him as the rictus-grin supervillain The Joker in "Batman." Other popular moneymakers featuring the veteran performer include James L. Brooks' "As Good As It Gets," Nancy Meyers' "Something's Gotta Give,...

Influential director Monte Hellman, whose 1971 film Two-Lane Blacktop starring musicians James Taylor and Dennis Wilson became a counterculture cult classic, died Tuesday. He was 91.

His death at Eisenhower Health hospital in Palm Desert followed a fall at his home, his daughter, producer Melissa Hellman, told The New York Times.

While not as well known as other directors of the New Hollywood of the late ’60s and early ’70s, Hellman was nonetheless influential. His sparse Two-Lane Blacktop , a post-Easy Rider character study about two street racers became a cornerstone among American existentialist road movies.

Hellman worked with the best actors of that New Hollywood generation, including Jack Nicolson and Warren Oates. He made his feature debut like so many other filmmakers of his generation – on a Roger Corman film, in his case called Beast From Haunted Cave.

Since I’m on holidays, let’s look at a mode of transport I won’t be using this year: The Terror at 37,000 Feet (1973), which fits snugly in the ‘70s Disaster Sweepstakes, television division. A star-studded goof fest, it’s a fun destination vacation; or at the very least a pleasant diversion with a solid supernatural bent.

Disaster movies were all the rage; Airport (1970), The Poseidon Adventure (‘72), Earthquake (’74) and many more kept people lined up at the box office. But what about those staring intently at their little boxes at home? TV always reflected what was happening on the big screen, and Terror loads its craft with as many of the tropes as possible.

Originally broadcast on Tuesday, February 13th as part of The New CBS Tuesday Night Movies, Terror’s competition was movies from the other two networks; Tuesday’s were not exactly prime Prime Time.

So, open up...

Great news for fans of obscure old action films. The Daredevil Drivers (1938) is available on DVD From Warner Archives

Racecar driver Bill Foster (Dick Purcell) has the talent to collect racing trophies, but his reckless stunts on the track get him banned from the racing association altogether. Hitting the road with his loyal sidekick, mechanic “Stub” Wilson (vaudeville veteran Charley Foy), Bill crashes into a bus owned by Neeley Transport. Bill is determined to sock Neeley’s president in the nose because of the damage to his race car, only to discover that the president is the attractive Jerry Neeley (Beverly Roberts) – a woman immune to Bill’s charms. Bill goes to work for Tommy Burnell (Donald Briggs), the owner of a rival bus company that is sabotaging Neeley Transport. Once Bill learns he’s working for the wrong side, he goes out of his way to help Jerry save her company.

Great news for fans of director Sam Fuller. His 1962 classic Merrill’S Marauders is available on Blu-ray From Warner Archives

Writer/Director and decorated Army Veteran Sam Fuller lends his considerable storytelling talent and gift for hard-charging understatement to the true tale of one of the most extraordinary and harrowing military campaigns in human history. Brigadier General Frank Merrill (Jeff Chandler) leads Unit Galahad, officially named the 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional), deep behind enemy lines and through miles of dank, dense, disease ridden jungle in a desperate bid to ensure the enemy will never have the ability to link up. Ty Hardin Will Hutchins and Claude Akins play some of the dogfaces that were part of this all-volunteer force in this Sam Fuller production that stands alongside Steel Helmet and The Big Red One as boots-on-the-ground recreations of the misery and the heroics of military life. And all the glory...

Is this Samuel Fuller’s biggest production? He tries to convey the harrowing reality of a military campaign that tested the limits of endurance and punishment that troops could absorb. In his last movie, Jeff Chandler is the famed commander who must ask his special forces to march hundreds of miles in the unforgiving jungle, and then fight a pitched battle. Although Warners interfered with the final cut, it’s still a fine picture.

Merrill’s Marauders

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1962 / Color / 2:35 anamorphic widescreen / 98 min. / Street Date July 23, 2019 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Jeff Chandler, Ty Hardin, Peter Brown, Andrew Duggan, Will Hutchins, Claude Akins, Luz Valdez, John Hoyt, Pancho Magalona.

Cinematography: William Clothier

Film Editor: Folmar Blangsted

Original Music: Howard Jackson

Written by Milton Sperling, Sam Fuller from a book by Charlton Ogburn Jr.

Produced by Milton Sperling

Directed by Samuel Fuller

Writer/producer/director Samuel Fuller must...

Once Upon A Time In The Existential West

By Raymond Benson

I never had a chance to see these two legendary westerns that were made back-to-back in the mid-1960s, presented by Roger Corman, directed and co-produced by Monte Hellman, and starring a young Jack Nicholson (among others), for they were elusive. I’d heard they were quirky, moody, and very different takes on the western genre, so I was excited to hear that The Criterion Collection was releasing both pictures as a double-bill on one Blu-ray disc. Now you, too, can view these strange little movies in all of their high definition glory.

Hellman was one of the few directors that producer Corman would let helm pictures for his studio, which at that time was famous for low-budget horror films, youth-in-rebellion pictures, and, later, rock ‘n’ roll counterculture flicks. Jack Nicholson was also involved with Corman since the late fifties,...

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Nov. 11, 2014

Price: DVD $29.95, Blu-ray $39.95

Studio: Criterion

Jack Nicholson in the 1966 western The Shooting.

In 1966, the maverick American director Monte Hellman (Two-Lane Blacktop, Road to Nowhere) conceived of two westerns at the same time – The Shooting and Ride in the Whirlwind.

Dreamlike and gritty by turns, the two films would prove their maker’s adeptness at brilliantly deconstructing genre. As shot back-to-back for famed producer Roger Corman (The Wild Angels), they feature overlapping casts and crews, including Jack Nicholson (Chinatown) in two of his meatiest early roles.

The Shooting, about a motley assortment of loners following a mysterious wanted man through a desolate frontier; and Ride in the Whirlwind, about a group of cowhands pursued by vigilantes for crimes they did not commit, are rigorous, artful, and wholly unconventional journeys into the American West.

Criterion’s double-feature DVD and Blu-ray editions of the films include the following...

Updated: We have been advised that guests previously announced came from a page relating to last year's show that was still appearing on the event web site. The following information relates to the 2010 show. 

This year's Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention will take place in Hunt Valley, Maryland on September 23-25. Guests include Dawn Wells, Mark Goddard, Will Hutchins and Ed Nelson. There will be seminars on The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (hosted by Cinema Retro reader Bill Parisho), The Green Hornet, Nancy Drew and the restoration of classic movies. For info click here...