Directed by Jacques Tourneur Starring Joel McCrea, Miroslava, John McIntire, Kevin McCarthy, Nancy Gates, John Carradine
Jacques Tourneur’s Stranger On Horseback (1955) starring Joel McCrea is a Western considered pretty much lost until Kit Parker sorted out and bought the rights — and tracked down what is probably the only surviving 35mm color print (hiding at the BFI).
This new Stranger On Horseback will be a huge improvement over the old DVD. The supplements include a mini-documentary, Thunder In The Saddle: The Making Of Stranger On Horseback; an audio commentary by some dude named Toby Roan; the theatrical trailer; and image galleries that include production photos, the original shooting script, posters, lobby cards and more.
UPDATE: The release date is December 16. Get ready, folks!
Directed by Robert N. Bradbury Produced by A. W. Hackel Supervised by Sam Katzman Screen Play by Perry Murdock Photography: William Hyer Film Editor: S. Roy Luby Production Manager: Glenn Cook
Cast: Bob Steele (Bob O’Neill), Peggy Campbell (June Bowers), Forrest Taylor (Banker Bentley), John Elliott (Rusty Hicks), Georgia O’Dell (Arabella), Perry Murdock (Otto Zenz), Earl Dwire (Sheriff), Frank Ball (Jim Bowers), Cy Jenks (Square Dance Caller), Chris Allen, Silver Tip Baker, Barney Beasley
This post has been adapted from a bit of my book-in-progress Jungle Sam: The Cinema Of Sam Katzman.
One of the things that makes B Westerns so much fun is how they refuse to stay in their own lane when it comes to the trappings of their genre, tossing everything from Nazi spies and mad scientists to secret tunnels and haunted houses into their plots. At the same time, many of these pictures take place in a weird version of modern day (the 30s and 40s) — with cowboys riding horses and carrying six guns, while much of the cast wear contemporary suits and ride around in cars. Big Calibre (1934) does both. It’s a weird concoction that oozes as much pulp as it does cowpoke.
But let’s back up a little.
Sam Katzman joined A.W. Hackel to form Supreme Pictures. Hackel was the money man and Katzman made the movies. In May of 1934, it was announced that Katzman and Hackel had signed cowboy star Bob Steele, who’d just wrapped up a run of pictures at Monogram. The first Supreme Steele film, A Demon For Trouble, opened in August. Big Calibre came along in January of 1935, a few pictures into the series.
Not long after Bob O’Neill (Steele) tells his dad he has the $60,000 needed to save the family ranch, a dark figure tosses a vial of lethal gas through the window, killing Steele’s dad and making off with the dough. Thanks to some footprints found at the scene, Steele suspects a local chemist, Otto Zenz (Perry Murdoch). Zenz uses his poison gas again to escape.
From here, things get complicated. Steele’s friend Jim Bowers (Frank Ball) is shot and robbed while headed to the visit an assayer named Gadski to pay off his mortgage. Bowers’ daughter June (Peggy Campbell) visits Gadski’s partner (Jack Bently), who’s more interested in June marrying him than in finding out what’s happened to her father.
There’s a uranium mine, Steele’s sidekick Rusty (John Elliott), a stage robbery, a masquerade square dance interrupted by an obnoxious drunk, some friendly Indians, more poison and a climactic car chase that ends with Steele dangling off the edge of a cliff on the fender of a bus.
It’s all great fun. And it all plays out in under and hour.
Big Calibre was directed by Bob Steele’s father, Robert North Bradbury — who’d been making pictures with Bob (and his twin brother) since they were teenagers. The picture was written by Steele’s real-life friend Perry Murdock, who also plays the sinister chemist Ottot Zenz (below left). Murdock would eventually focus on work as a set decorator, working on hundreds of television shows, mostly Westerns.
After the first batch of Bob Steele Westerns, Sam Katzman left Supreme Pictures to launch his own Victory Pictures. When Republic absorbed Supreme about a year later, the company had contracts with Steele and Johnny Mack Brown, who were quickly absorbed into the Republic roster. A bit more money went into the Steele films from then on. In 1938, the Supreme name was dropped altogether.
Big Calibre fell into the public domain and can be found all over the place — with varying degrees of quality (or lack of it). It’s certainly worth an hour of your time.
Directed by Harry Keller Written by Burt Kennedy Starring Audie Murphy, Dan Duryea, Joan O’Brien, Roy Barcroft, Phil Chambers, Charlita, Bob Steele, George Wallace
One of those last pictures Audie Murphy did for Universal International and producer Gordon Kay, Six Black Horses (1962) gets a bad rap. For starters, the Kay films have been badmouthed for years — and I kinda wonder if any of these people have actually seen the movies.
While you can tell that the budgets have shriveled up a bit, the films themselves are solid. Next, for decades, it’s been hard to see Six Black Horses, which is a real shame. Written by Burt Kennedy just a couple years after the last of the Ranown pictures, it’s got that lean, mean, efficiency that Kennedy was knocking out so effortlessly back then.
Plus, Audie’s supported by Dan Duryea, Roy Barcroft and Bob Steele. Joan O’Brien, who passed away a few months ago, worked with the likes of John Wayne, Cary Grant, Tony Curtis, Elvis, Jerry Lewis and Sam Katzman. Hard to top that.
Thanks to the new Blu-Ray from the fine folks at Via Vision, Audie Murphy Double Feature Collection, Volume One, Six Black Horses is out there in high definition. Its co-feature is The Wild And The Innocent (1959). Via Vision always does nice work and this is a terrific Murphy movie. Highly recommended.
Here’s to the King Of The Cowboys, Mr. Roy Rogers, on what would’ve been his 114th birthday.
The state of his filmography is a bit of a mess, as most fans are well aware. I’ve been slowly making my way through the videos out there, trying to separate the junk from the jewels. My plan is to put together a guide that builds on the tiny thing I put together years ago. Stay tuned.
Last night’s Game 7 was some of the most nerve-shredding baseball I’ve ever followed (on the radio) — a suspenseful climax to what has to be one of the best World Series in years and years, if not ever. Here’s to the Los Angeles Dodgers for their second consecutive championship.
If there was ever a Series where both teams deserved to win, this was probably it.
It’s been great to see how baseball brings people together and is something shared and cherished by families for generations. We could use a whole lot more of that. (A great friend of this blog has gone through a family emergency over the last week or so, and I think the family’s love of the Dodgers has been a source of comfort throughout.)
Came across this photo years ago, and I’m so happy to be able to use it again (with apologies to whoever took it way back when).
50 Westerns From The 50s.