Been having a great time with old Halloween movie ads over at my other place, The Hannibal 8. When I came across this one, featuring one of the only Westerns you might find running on Halloween, it made sense to share it here.
Edward Dein’s Curse Of The Undead (1959) is a vampire Western from Universal International that’s a far better movie than you’d expect. That’s largely due to the performances of Michael Pate and Kathleen Crowley, who don’t look down at the material but do their best to put it over.
Padding out the program in Auburn, Alabama that night are two terrific Hammer films, Brides Of Dracula (1961) and The Mummy (1959). This is about the only way I’d ever be able to get the great Peter Cushing in this blog. It’s also the first time we’ve featured anything about a pie-eating contest.
Happy Halloween, y’all. And save me some Raisinets!
Cheyenne (1955-62) was more than just an excellent 50s Western TV show. It was the first hour-long Western, the first hour-long dramatic TV show to run more than a single season. It was also the first TV series produced by a major studio (Warner Bros.) that wasn’t derived from an established film property.
Now on Blu-Ray from Warner Archive — 107 episodes on 30 discs, Cheyenne is one of the best examples of classic TV in high definition I’ve seen so far. Scanned in 4K from the original camera negatives, these things are just stunning.
In its first season, Cheyenne shared its time slot with King’s Row and Casablanca, two WB shows based on their films. After the first season, those two vanished and Cheyenne had other slot-mates (Sugarfoot in the third season).
Clint Walker plays Cheyenne Bodie, a cowboy/scout riding across the post-Civil War West. Each week, he rides into a new spot and happens upon a new batch of folks. The plots are very much in line with what the laters B Westerns had been — and what we think of today as a 50s Western.
Cheyenne was raised by the Cheyenne after his parents were killed by another tribe. He later lived with a white family (the particulars vary a bit from show to show). He’s fair, kind, strong and always ready to help out those in need. And as if to prove the idea that “no good deed goes unpunished,” Cheyenne’s servant nature often lands him in a real mess.
Warner Bros. put their major-studio muscle behind their TV product, and it shows. Cheyenne fits right in with what Warners was doing with Western features in the late 50s. From the sets to the casts to the music, these episodes play like 50-minute versions of what WB was sending to theaters. For example, James Garner and Angie Dickinson appear in a second-season episode (“War Party”) about the same time they were in Warner’s Randolph Scott picture Shootout At Medicine Bend (1957).
The directors who did episodes of Cheyenne is a bit of a Western Who’s Who, with pros like George Waggner, Paul Landres, Thomas Carr, Joe Kane, Howard W. Koch, Paul Henreid, Lew Landers and Arthur Lubin.
Same with cinematographers. Shooting Cheyenne were folks like Harold E. Stine, Carl E. Guthrie, Bert Glennon, Ted McCord, William H. Clothier, Harold Rosson, William P. Whitley and Ellis W. Carter.
From week to week, the cast was incredible. Here’s just a sample of the folks who turn up over the course of the show: James Garner, Jack Elam, Ray Teal, Myron Healy, Bob Steele, Kathleen Crowley, Leo Gordon, Ann Robinson, Rod Taylor, Marie Windsor (above), Adele Mara, Gerald Mohr, Peggie Castle, Robert J. Wilke, Penny Edwards, Dennis Hopper, James Griffith, Angie Dickinson, John Qualen, Lee Van Cleef, Denver Pyle, Phil Carey, James Coburn, Nestor Paiva, Slim Pickens, John Carradine, Frank Ferguson, Joan Weldon, Tom Conway, Guinn “Big Boy” Williams, Edd Byrnes, Evelyn Ankers, John Russell, Claude Akins, Don “Red” Barry, Don Megowan, Dan Blocker, Adam West, Connie Stevens, Faith Domergue, James Drury, Lorne Greene, Mala Powers, Merry Anders, Alan Hale Jr., R. G. Armstrong, Ahna Capri, Ellen Burstyn, Sally Kellerman, Michael Landon, Harry Lauter and Ruta Lee. In three of the early episodes, LQ Jones (below) is his sidekick Smitty. (I left out dozens because it would’ve made for a pretty ridiculous paragraph.)
Cheyenne was a hit and it made Clint Walker a star. With a hit show, the exacting schedule that came with it, no features on the horizon, and an exclusive contract that paid him just $150 a week, after the third season, Walker was unhappy.
Clint Walker: “… I found out they [Warner Bros.] turned down some pretty nice features that I could’ve done… I heard that when people inquired, they were told, ‘When Clint Walker does features, he’ll do ‘em for Warner Bros.’ So that’s where we had the difference of opinion.” *
So, Clint Walker, well, walked. The show zigzagged to a “fake Cheyenne,” Bronco Layne (Ty Hardin) and kept going until Walker was coaxed back into the saddle. Warners put him in the excellentFort Dobbs (1958), which I’d love to see make the leap to Blu-Ray. Bronco Layne got his own series for a while, called simply Bronco.
This is an excellent TV series, a consistent favorite of fans of 50s Westerns — and for good reason. And Warner Archive has given us all good reason to pick up this set. They look wonderful. The audio has plenty of punch. They’re uncut and have the original WB openings and closings in place. A nice slipcover thing holds the seasons nice and neat.
Cheyenne was a home run back in 1955 — and it’s a home run on Blu-Ray 70 years later. Highly, highly recommended.
*From a phone conversation with this author back in 2010.
Directed by James Clavell Starring Jack Lord, Nobu McCarthy, James Shigeta, Mel Tormé, Josephine Hutchinson, Rodolfo Acosta, Benson Fong, Michael Pate, Don “Red” Barry
Walk Like A Dragon (1960), a cool Paramount Western directed by James Clavell, is (finally) coming to Blu-Ray from Imprint. Watch for it in January. It’s a solid tale of racism in the Old West, focusing on Chinese immigrants instead of the usual Indians.
Jack Lord gets an early lead, not long before Stoney Burke and almost a decade ahead of Hawaii Five-O. (Even in 19th Century California, he has great hair!) James Shigeta, who was terrific in Die Hard (1988), is good here — and Mel Tormé gets an interesting part as a scripture-quoting gunslinger. And, of course, Loyal Griggs’ photography is as good as ever.
Imprint always does a great job with things like this, even though they went slummin’ and got me to do a commentary. Recommended!
Directed by John Sturges Written by Michael Pate Phillip Rock Frank Fenton Music by Jeff Alexander Cinematography: Robert L. Surtees Film Editor: George Boemler
Cast: William Holden (Captain Roper), Eleanor Parker (Carla Forester), John Forsythe (Captain John Marsh), William Demarest (Campbell), William Campbell (Cabot Young), Polly Bergen (Alice Owens), Richard Anderson (Lieutenant Beecher), Carl Benton Reid (Colonel Owens), John Lupton (Bailey), Forrest Lewis, Howard McNear, Glenn Strange
Director John Sturges made lots of really good movies, but he had a real thing for Westerns. One of his earliest was Escape From Fort Bravo (1953). It’s now available on Blu-Ray from Warner Archive.
It’s the Civil War. William Holden is a captain at Fort Bravo, a Union prison camp filled with Confederate soldiers (John Forsythe, William Demarest, William Campbell). There are Mescalero Apaches outside the walls of the fort and Confederate spies (Eleanor Parker, Howard McNear) inside. The spies help Forsythe mount an escape, and Holden heads out after them.
It all comes to a head when Holden, Parker and the recaptured prisoners are pinned down in a dry creek bed by who-knows-how-many Apaches.
To tell you much more might get in the way of Sturges’ finely-crafted suspense. The last reel of this thing is as good as anything Sturges ever did. It’s terrific.
Quite a few 50s Westerns made good use of the climactic pinned-down-by-Indians thing. A few that come to mind are Apache Drums (1951), Dakota Incident (1956) and Dragoon Wells Massacre (1958).
Holden is really good as the hard-nosed captain. He was an avid outdoorsman, and it looks like he’s in his element here. Eleanor Parker makes a good spy, and she’s beautiful in both an evening gown and leather jacket. William Demarest and William Campbell have some good, well-written scenes together. And it’s great to see Howard McNear, Floyd from The Andy Griffith Show, as a Confederate spy. Where things get a little wonky is in the middle — the romantic scenes between Holden and Parker seem like a studio-dictated addition. They slow the movie down as it makes its way to its tight conclusion. (Sturges was never all that adept with the mushy stuff.) Of course, the thrilling final attack makes up for it.
Escape From Fort Bravo was one of the first pictures shot in the Ansco Color process. It’s no Technicolor, or even Eastmancolor, but it gets the job done. It was John Sturges’ first color film, period. It was shot in Death Valley, Gallop, New Mexico, Corriganville and the MGM backlot in April and May of 1953. The great Robert Surtees was the cinematographer. There was talk at one time of the picture being shot in 3-D. It was not, with MGM making it an early widescreen release instead. In some places, it played in three-track stereophonic sound.
Warner Archive’s Blu-Ray is a marked improvement over the DVD. Here, we get the original widescreen (1.75) and a surprisingly vivid look at Ansco Color’s pastel shades. Like so many stereo movies from the early 50s, the original directional tracks are probably long gone. The mono sound, however, is clean and clear.
Escape From Fort Bravo has everything going for it. A great cast. Meticulous direction. Incredible location photography, in color. And now it has a Blu-Ray that really does all that justice. Highly, highly recommended.
Of course, John Sturges would make another POW escape film, The Great Escape, in 1963. By the way, he was trying to get that one off the ground while Escape From Fort Bravo was being put together. It took him 10 years to get The Great Escape to the screen.
Directed by John Sturges Starring William Holden, Eleanor Parker, John Forsythe, William Demarest, William Campbell, Polly Bergen, Howard McNear, Glenn Strange
Warner Archive is working their Blu-Ray magic on John Sturges’ Escape From Fort Bravo (1953), a taut, suspenseful picture starring William Holden and Eleanor Parker.
Shot in Anscocolor, I’m looking forward to what WAC can do with it. Escape From Fort Bravo was originally shown in 1.66, just as the widescreen era was cranking up. But don’t let this make the movie sound like just a technical curio — it’s a damn good 50s Western. Highly recommended.
Directed by Sam Peckinpah Starring Charlton Heston, Richard Harris, Jim Hutton, James Coburn, Michael Anderson Jr., Mario Adorf, Brock Peters, Senta Berger, Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, L.Q. Jones, R.G. Armstrong, Slim Pickens, Dub Taylor, Michael Pate
Western fans and Peckinpah nuts have spent decades debating the merits of Major Dundee (1965). Nowadays, we also debate the merits of one DVD or Blu-Ray release of the picture over the other. It’s coming in a nice new set from Imprint out of Australia in October.
For me, the participation of Mr. Glenn Erickson puts an immediate Seal Of Approval on anything to do with Major Dundee. It’s his favorite movie, he’s certainly an authority on it (along with lots of other movies), and he’s a really nice guy. Nick Redman and Paul Seydor are also represented.
Special Features and Technical Specs: • Limited 2-Disc hard box edition with unique artwork on the first 1,500 copies • Includes the 2005 4K extended cut scan and original theatrical cut • NEW 2020 Audio Commentary by film historians Glenn Erickson and Alan Rode (Extended Cut) • Passion & The Poetry: The Dundee Odyssey – Mike Siegel ‘s 2019 feature length documentary on the making of Major Dundee with L.Q. Jones, James Coburn, Lupita Peckinpah, Chalo Gonzalez and more • Mike Siegel: About the Passion & Poetry Project – New English language version. Filmmaker Mike Siegel talks about his beginnings and his ongoing film historical project about Sam Peckinpah • Passion & Poetry: Peckinpah Anecdotes: Nine actors telling stories about working with Sam Peckinpah • English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (new score by Christopher Caliendo) (Extended Cut) • English DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 (original score by Daniele Amfitheatrof) (Extended Cut) • English DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 (original score by Daniele Amfitheatrof) (Theatrical Cut) • Audio Commentary with Film Historians Nick Redman, Paul Seydor, Garner Simmons and David Weddle • Isolated score by Christopher Caliendo in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo (Extended Cut) • Isolated score by Daniele Amfitheatrof in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo (Theatrical Cut) • Extended deleted scenes/outtakes with commentary by Glenn Erickson • Original Trailers • Trailer Artwork Outtakes • Exhibitor Promo Reel Excerpt • Vintage featurette: “Riding For A Fall”
That’s a lot of stuff. I’m getting really excited about this one. Not sure what the Region info is on it.
UPDATE (8/4/2020): The word is, Imprint Blu-Rays are Region Free.
Directed by Edward Dein Starring Eric Fleming, Kathleen Crowley, Michael Pate, John Hoyt, Bruce Gordon
Kino Lorber has announced an October release for the terrific Western/Horror mashupCurse Of The Undead (1959). The story of vampires in the old West, it’s a better picture than you’d expect it to be — pictures like Billy The Kid Vs. Dracula (1966) set the cowboy/monster bar pretty low. U-I excelled at both Westerns and monster movies in the 50s, and Curse Of The Dead succeeds as both.
Ellis Carter’s cinematography is really nice on this one, and it should look terrific on Blu-Ray. Can’t wait to get my hands on this thing!
Directed by Edward Dein Starring Eric Fleming, Michael Pate, Kathleen Crowley, John Hoyt, Bruce Gordon, Edward Binns, Jimmy Murphy, Helen Kleeb, Jay Adler
If somebody’d told me way back when I started this blog that Curse Of The Undead (1959) would be coming to Blu-Ray, I would’ve told ’em they were nuts. But low and behold, Kino Lorber has announced it.
Curse Of The Undead is a real oddball in the 50s Westerns corral — a Western and vampire picture nailed together. It somehow stays fairly true to the conventions of both genres, and it’s a lot of fun.
Michael Pate is terrific, and Ellis W. Carter’s cinematography is perfectly suited to the material. He was a wise choice, since he’d done Universal sci-fi pictures like The Mole People (1956), The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957), The Deadly Mantis (1957) and The Land Unknown (1957, in CinemaScope) — along with 50s Westerns like The Texas Rangers (1951) and A Day Of Fury (1956). It should look great in high definition.
Not sure when this is coming, but I’m really glad it is.
Oh, and Reynold Brown’s poster art is really cool.
Directed by Sam Peckinpah
Starring Charlton Heston, Richard Harris, Jim Hutton, James Coburn, Michael Anderson Jr., Mario Adorf, Brock Peters, Senta Berger, Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, L.Q. Jones, R.G. Armstrong, Slim Pickens, Dub Taylor, Michael Pate
Over at Cinesavant.com, the mighty Glenn Erickson has spilled the beans on the glories of the upcoming Blu-Ray of Sam Peckinpah’s Major Dundee (1965) from Germany’s Explosive Media.
It’ll be the longer cut — the version that was previewed in the States and that ran in some parts of the world, accompanies by documentaries, commentaries, interviews and all sorts of cool stuff. The mangled masterpiece certainly deserves the attention it’s getting here. Can’t wait.
Kathleen Crowley and Michael Pate on the set of Curse Of The Undead (1959).
Kathleen Crowley
December 26, 1929 – April 23, 2017
I’m sorry to report that Kathleen Crowley has passed away. She was in so many movies I really love — The Silver Whip (1953), Ten Wanted Men (1955), The Quiet Gun (1956), Curse Of The Undead (1959) and Showdown (1963) are the Westerns. Then there’s the sci-fi stuff: Target Earth (1954) and The Flame Barrier (1958). And on TV, she appeared in Cheyenne, Maverick, The Lone Ranger, Batman and tons more. No matter how small the part, she always seemed to give it her all.
Ms. Crowley represented her home state of New Jersey on the 1949 Miss America Pageant, and gave up on Hollywood in the late 60s. “To be honest with you, I didn’t like the direction the cinema was going.”
50 Westerns From The 50s.