Triple Play!

 

 (themoviedb.org)

MARTIN MULL: TALENT TAKES A HOLIDAY-1994-This disaster of an HBO special can't even be saved by Penn & Teller appearing near the end. Apparently, Martin Mull thought of himself as a big enough comedy per- sonality that he could carry any nonsense used on this parody of the now defunct genre called the TV variety show. There's not much info available on this debacle and in fact it doesn't even show up on either of Mull's IMDB film or TV show listings!

 (themoviedb.org)

COPPER BILL-2020-This confused muddled movie about 2 losers looking for some hidden money builds up to a stupid ending that makes no sense. If you're a pro wrestling fan you might want to check it out because Dustin Rhodes is one of the stars. But I wouldn't recommend it. Director Brett Bentman directed a lot of Sci-Fi and westerns I never heard of.

 (imdb)

THE GENE AUTRY SHOW-1950-1955-This show starred the singing cowboy who crooned at least one tune in nearly every show. The series format (especially in the first season) changed from show to show. Sometimes, Autry was a ranch foreman, ranch owner, a sheriff, or a US Marshall. For nearly the whole run, Pat Buttram was his sidekick (except for a short time when Buttram was ill). Keeping with the un-continuity of the show, there are at least 2 episodes where Autry and Buttram meet for the first time! But really, it would have been better for everyone if they hadn't met at all! 

By the middle of the second season, Buttram's character had become a real buffoon, dabbling in barbering or astrology. His favorite was to open a door while Autry had on a gun on the bad guys and knock the gun out of Autry's hand. And lots of the same actors played different characters on different episodes. It was almost like a stock company. Alan Hale, Denver Pyle, Gail Davis, Keene Duncan, Myron Healy, Harry Lauter, Sheila Ryan to name a few. Although it ran 5 seasons, only 91 episodes were produced. The last season was in color.

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Your Guess Is As Good As Mine

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Karloff in The Wild West

 

 (imdb)

THE WILD WILD WEST-"The Night of the Golden Cobra"-1966-Intrepid government agent Jim West (Robert Conrad) and his equally intrepid partner Artemus Gordon (Ross Martin) meet Mr. Singh (Boris Karloff), maharajah head of "The Golden Cobra", who wants West to teach his sons to kill. He also has a daughter, Veda (Audrey Dalton). West's assignment was to rescue a Col. Mayo (Simon Scott). Of course, Singh has an ulterior motive...

 Karloff is good in the lead, older but still Boris. Audrey Dalton a few years earlier was in three TV episodes of Thriller (One acting alongside Karloff). She also co-starred in the horror movies THE MONSTER THAT CHALLENGED THE WORLD (1957) and MR. SARDONICUS (1961). One of Singh's sons is played by James Westmoreland who under another name was in THE UNDERTAKER AND HIS PALS, also in 1966. Years later he was one of the asshole cops in DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE (1980). It's all over the internet that English actor Michael York plays another son but it's some other actor with the same name. 

One of 26 “Wild West” episodes directed by Irving J. Moore. Karloff was very active and memorable in the year of 1966, voicing the lead role in the classic “How The Grinch Stole Christmas”, also playing Mother Muffin on TV's “The Girl From U.N.C.L.E.” and appearing 3 movies (including THE GHOST IN THE INVISIBLE BIKINI)!

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Out West

 

 (imdb)

CONVICT STAGE-1965-A gunslinger named Latimer (familiar TV actor Harry Lauter) searches for the two outlaws who killed his sister. The US Marshall (Don “Red” Barry who also co-scripted) arrests them. He puts them on a stagecoach to take them to trial along with some other passengers (including the outlaws' mother (Hanna Landy) who wants to help them escape). They hold up in an abandoned town and talk a lot. The rest of the gang closes in.

 Low budget black & white little western that seems like a TV episode but longer. Director Lesley Selander may hold some kind of record for directing the most western movies, though he did step out of the genre to make THE VAMPIRE'S GHOST in 1945.

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Post-Horror Western

 

GUN FIGHT-1961-This low budget western has former Calvary soldier Wayne Santley (James Brown from TV's "Rin Tin Tin") joining his brother Brad (Gregg Palmer) in the cattle business. Unfortunately Brad lied. He's actually outlaw leader of "The Night Hawks". They even robbed the stagecoach Wayne came to town in. Brad wants bro to join his gang but Wayne will have none of it. Nora (Joan Staley), a saloon singer, her missing brooch and a money hungry gambler named Cole (Charles Cooper) all spell trouble in this quickie produced by Robert Kent and directed by Edward L. Cahn after they stopped making horror films.

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Noose Hangs In Between

 

NOOSE FOR A GUNMAN-1960-Routine western with gunslinger Case Britton (Jim Davis) returning to a town where he killed 2 men, to meet Della Haines (Lyn Thomas), his bride to be. He also warns the Marshall (Walter Sande) that outlaw Jack Cantrell (Ted DeCorsia) and his gang are heading for the money in their bank. Town big shot Avery (Barton McLane) and his hired gun Link (Leo Gordon) are in cahoots with the gang. Harry Carey Jr is also in it and Victor (father of Al) Adamson has a bit role. The year before NOOSE director Edward L. Cahn and screenwriter Robert Kent also teamed to make the far superior THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE.

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TV Special

 

THE PHIL SILVERS SPECIAL: THE SLOWEST GUN IN THE WEST-1960-A gas station attendant (George Chandler) relates to some tourists how the town they are in, Primrose, Arizona was the toughest town in the west. Billy the Kid Blake (Robert Wilke) Wild Bill Monk (John Diekes), Ike & Jake Dalton (Jack Elam & Karl Lukas), Doc Henley (Mauritz Hugo), Jud McCory (George Keymas), Dick Nolan (Bruce Cabot) and Black Bart (Ted DeCorsia) all hang out in town. Two concerned citizens (Parley Baer & Jack Albertson) try to find a sheriff tough enough to stand up against Nolan. Coming into town, bespectacled and dressed in black, is The Silver Dollar Kid (Phil Silvers). He picks a fight with Black Bart but when it comes to a showdown he faints. It turns out the Kid is "the yellow-est man in the west", a coward who would ruin any famous gunslinger's reputation if they killed him. Kathy (Jean Willes),a saloon worker helps him. Later they make him sheriff because no one wants to kill him. Nolan hires Sam Bass (Lee Van Cleef) to do the killing but the Kid convinces Bass to turn on Nolan and he kills the Clantons (he's killed too). Later they search for Chicken Finsterwall (Jack Benny), a worse coward than the Kid (he shot an 84 year old woman in the back). The kid makes Finsterwall his deputy but they have an argument and decide to have a shootout. Neither of them want to draw first. This is the big gag of the whole show. They stand for years waiting for the other one to draw! Byron Foulger is a hotel clerk. Marion Ross is the kid's almost wife and Kathy (Kathie) Brown is a show girl. This was written by Nat Hiken who also created the TV series “Bilko” in the mid-1950's that Phil Silvers starred in. The prolific Herschel Daugherty directed.

                             

Low Budget Minimalist Western

 

THE SHOOTING-1966-A bounty hunter (Warren Oates) and his dumb friend (Will Hutchins) meet a mysterious woman (Millie Perkins; earlier the title role in THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK) who wants them to accompany her on a journey. The two try to figure out her motive and later meet up with her friend Billy, a gunfighter (Jack Nicholson). There's a lot of talk in this moody Western by director Monte Hellman. The ending may seem contrived but pay attention to the minimalist dialogue. Nicholson & Perkins were in RIDE THE WHIRLWIND for Hellman the same year. 

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Van Cleef vs. Palance

GOD'S GUN-1976-Sam Clayton (Jack Palance) and his gang stop over at the town Juno after a bank robbery. One of Clayton's men kills a man and they take off. The sheriff (Richard Boone) wants to let them go but the local priest (Lee Van Cleef) goes after them. He brings the killer back to the jail but the gang breaks him out and shoots up the town and the priest is killed. A young boy named Johnny (Leif Garrett) who helped the priest around the church goes to Mexico to find the priest's brother Lewis (also Van Cleef). It seems the trauma of the killing leaves him mute but he finds Lewis and they go back to Juno. Along the way we get a flashback to the last time the two brothers met. Meanwhile Clayton's men molest the womenfolk until Johnny's saloon owner mother (Sybil Danning) reveals that Sam is her son's father. A flashback shows that as a Union soldier he raped her. Sam's pretty happy about this but before anything can happen Lewis returns in his brother's robes and some of the dumb outlaws think he's come back from the dead. Lewis gets his vengeance in a gun fight and Johnny gets his voice back. 

Great cast, terrible drawn out movie. Boone left before filming was completed so he only shows up sporadically with a dubbed voice that sounds like it's on helium. Palance usually makes anything he's in worth watching and his elation at finding out he has a son is the movie's highlight. 

This Italian-Israeli production (filmed in Israel) was directed by Gianfranco Parolini/Frank Kramer had early made THE RETURN OF SABATA with Van Cleef.

Also known as DIAMANTE LOBO.

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Short Western

 

OKLAHOMA OUTLAWS-1943-The Kincaids battle corruption led by bad guy Whip McCord (Warner Anderson) and his gang of thugs (including Charles Middleton). When Pop Kincaid (Erville Alderson) is framed for murder, son Nate (Robert Shayne) finds evidence that proves his innocence but while he's off finding the judge (Addison Richards) McCord leads a lynch mob that hangs dad. He and McCord have a furious fist fight and McCord is killed. Nate becomes sheriff and marries the judge's daughter Jean (Juanita Stark). 

First in a Warner Brothers series called "Santa Fe Trails", most starring Shayne but playing different characters. This 20 minute short was directed by B. Reeves Easton who made many westerns and short subjects and the serial UNDERSEA KINGDOM (1936) starring Crash Corrigan.

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Demon Mountain

THE CURSE OF DEMON MOUNTAIN-1977-Trader to his country and slave loving turncoat Confederate captain Wishbone Cutter (Joe Don Baker) returns from the war his people started to find his wife and house lost to the Yankee bastards. Sore loser!

 He and his "half breed" partner Half Moon (Joy Houck Jr.) team up with a geologist Amos (Ted Neeley) to find some "stones" buried in a cursed mountain in Arkansas by a dying rebel (Slim Pickens). After coming upon the remains of an Indian massacre they pick up Drusilla (Sondra Locke), a rape victim left for dead. On their way, they seem to be followed. Half Moon thinks it's evil spirits. They have an encounter with three bush-whackers Posey (Dennis Fimple), Rafe (John Chandler) & Dancer (Grady Wyatt) who they bury in a landslide. When they get to the mountain Half Moon says it's cursed by an eagle killed by an Indian chief. They lose all their horses and Half Moon is killed. After Drusilla is rescued from falling off a mountain, the trio find the diamonds. Amos is killed by an arrow through his neck. 

This is the only directorial effort by Earl E. Smith who wrote THE LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK and THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN. 

CURSE OF DEMON MOUNTAIN is also known as THE SHADOW OF CHIKARA and was distributed by Howco Int., the company founded by Joy Houck Sr. 

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Rex Lease

THE UTAH KID-1930-In this early sound western na outlaw Cal Reynolds (Rex Lease) Is forced to marry a woman named Jenny (Dorothy Sebastian) in order to save her life from his cutthroat pals at their secret hideout. With his help, she returns home and to her fiance Jim the sheriff (Walter Miller) who's been chasing the outlaw! Returning to the hidden lair, Reynolds beats up the mean and bigger Butch, the kind of leader despite Butch using chair and a broken bottle in their fight. Cal visits Jenny and is arrested by Jim but Jenny convinces Jim to let Cal go since he saved her life and she admits the marriage was not consummated. Later Jim uses a horse Cal gave Jenny to find the outlaw hideout. A big gun battle ensues and Cal, not sure who to help rides away. One of the outlaws follows him. When things don't look so good Butch and his bestie Baxter (Boris Karloff)) hightail it themselves. They also take the preacher that earlier married Cal and Jenny. Butch goes to Jim’s house where Cal is now his prisoner. Jim kills Butch and plans to ride away but Jenny stops him and they declare their love for one another. Jim is pushed aside and Baxter gets away! The preacher is shot and seems to be dead but in the next scene is being helped up. 

Star Rex Lease co-starred in many silent films and had a successful transition to talkies. He starred in several movies and serials but also appeared in bit roles, usually uncredited  (A CHUMP AT OXFORD, THE GRAPES OF WRATH). He appeared in 6 Abbott & Costello movies (and one episode of their TV show) which leads me to believe he and Lou Costello could have been friends since the team would try to get old timers work. Lease was married at least 5 times and died in 1966. (Director Richard Thorpe started out on silent films and later made some Tarzan entries. 

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Tombstone

TOMBSTONE TERRITORY-Another TV western that ran from 1957 to 1960 . It took place in Tombstone, Arizona, "the town too tough to die" and was supposedly based on actual stories taken from The Epitaph, the real town newspaper. Pat Conway starred as the swaggering smirking sheriff Clay Hollister who has his hands full keeping law and order while occasionally feeling bad about killing someone. Robert Eastham played Harris Claibourne, the owner of the newspaper and narrator of each episode. The catchy theme song was composed and sung by Richard Backer. Most of the stories aren't too special but of course there are enough guest stars to keep it interesting. They include John Carradine, Lon Chaney Jr., John Anderson, Anthony Caruso, James Coburn, Jack Elam, Michael Landon, Leonard Nimoy, Angie Dickerson and Elisha Cook.

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The 3 Mesquiteers

RIDERS OF WHISTLING SKULL-1937-In this strange western 3 cow pokes Stoney Brook (Robert Livingston), Tucson Smith (Ray “Crash” Corrigan) and Lullaby Joslin (Max Terhune) known collectively as "The Three Mesquiteers" help Betty Marsh (Mary Russell) locate her missing archaeologist father (John Van Pelt) who's disappeared while investigating a secret cave and a lost Indian tribe. After several battles with hostile Indians the group finds professor Marsh being held prisoner in the cave because he won't spill the beans about a hidden treasure to a half breed named Rutledge (Roger Williams). In the cave they seem to encounter a living mummy. Before Smith is "sacrificed" he's saved by his buddies who also cause an avalanche that destroys the bad guys. Lullaby also has dummy named Elmer. With all the talk about hieroglyphics, maps, lost tribes, it seems more like a forerunner of the much later Jungle Jim series than a western! 

This weird western was directed by Mack Wright who'd made THE SINGING COWBOY with Gene Autry and the bizarre serial ROBINSON CRUSOE OF CLIPPER ISLAND. He did more work as assistant or second unit director and was also an actor.

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Boss

BOSS NIGGER-1975-Two black bounty hunters Boss (Fred Williamson also the screenwriter) and Amos (D'Urville Martin) who hunt only white people become sheriff and deputy of a town and basically harass all the white people and give the mayor (RG Armstrong) a hard time. Later Williamson is kidnapped and tortured by Jed Clayton (William Smith) but Amos and Clara Mae (Carmen Haywood) rescue him. A doctor (Don “Red" Barry) patches him up. Later after Clayton kills Clara the townspeople help fight off Clayton's gang and Boss kills Clayton but he seems to be killed at the end (I think...??) 

Despite being directed by the great Jack Arnold (as noted previously he was doing lots of TV shows around this time), BN seems to tread a thin line between drama and parody. Many critics seem to think it's a set up. I personally think it's a disaster and the filmmakers had no idea where they were suppose to take the film.

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Let Sitting Bull Lie

SITTING BULL-1954- In the Black Hills of Dakota “once again the white man comes”. The great Indian chief Sitting Bull (J. Carroll Nash) leads his Sioux Nation against the invading, gold seeking white men. His second in command is Crazy Horse (Iron Eyes Cody). They attack some grubby prospectors who'd been on their land. Major Parrish (Dale Robertson) is concerned about the Indians' fate but locks horns with General Custer (Douglas Kennedy) and gets transferred to an Indian agency and is dumped by his fiancee Kathy (Mary Howell from THW WILD ONES; she was in THE MAD MAGICIAN the same year as this) for a reporter Wentworth (William Hopper). The minute he gets to the new post he locks horns with Webster (Thomas B.Henry), the head agent who calls the captive Indians “renegade dogs”. After Parrish sticks Webster's head in a pot of gruel, the Indians revolt. Parrish lets them go but Webster kills Sitting Bull's son. President Grant (John Hamilton, acting very “Perry White-ish” in a highlight role) wants to meet with Sitting Bull so with the help of an ex-slave Parrish tries to set it up. To gain the chief's trust Parrish has to fight Crazy Horse in a knife fight. They have a pow-wow but it doesn't go as planned and Gen Custer leads his men to slaughter at The Little Big Horn (conviently Wentworth goes with them). Parrish is almost shot by a firing squad but Kathy brings Sitting Bull to Grant and convinces him to spare Parrish's life. It all ends happily but as we know in real life that was not to be. 

I guess this low budget technicolor western was trying to be sympathetic to the Native American tribes but the stiff acting and cliched script undermine the whole thing though I don't think it's as bad as I've been led to believe. Director Sidney Salkow was working on TV's LASSIE at the time he made this.

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The Alamo

THE LAST COMMAND-1955-Jim Bowie (Sterling Hayden) arrives in the Texas/Mexican territory just in time for an uprising of Texicans against Mexico. William Travis (Richard Carlson) tries to convince a committee to resist Mexico's iron fist. When Santa Ana (J. Carroll Nash) rejects the Texicans demands Austin (Otto Kurger) decides it's time to take up arms against them. But when his wife and kid die Bowie becomes a wanderer. Later he and his small group (including Jim Davis and Slim Pickens) decide to fight. Ernest Borgnine is a tough guy named Mike who has a knife fight with Bowie at the beginning of the story and later they become friends. Edward Franz (THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE) is the Mexican representative living with The Texicans. Anna Maria Albergetti (an actress I only remember for doing salad dressing TV commercials in the late '60's)is the senorita love interest who comes between Bowie and Travis. Things really get rowdy when Davey Crockett (Arthur Hunnicutt) shows up. Great battle finale at The Alamo. I won't reveal what happens...

Roy Roberts, Virginia Grey, John Russell and Morris Ankrum also have roles.

THE LAST COMMAND was once of the most expensive pictures ever produced by the low budget Republic Pictures studio. It was suppose to star John Wayne as Bowie but he also wanted to direct it. However when the studio hired the workman like Frank Lloyd (IF I WERE KING, BLOOD ON THE SUN) instead Wayne bolted. He'd get his chance to star in and direct his own version several years later with THE ALAMO (some argue THE LAST COMMAND is more historically accurate).

This version has lots going for it. Action, a strong cast and good direction.

Here's Lorne Greene's version of the historical battle:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZu5T1VbVs

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Cool TV

 
A TV show I've been watching recently on ME TV is the western WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE starring Steve McQueen as Josh Randall, a tough but not so ruthless bounty hunter who sometimes helped out needy people for free and/or sometimes proved his charges innocent of the crimes they were said to commit. A few episodes have comedic overtones and Randall is kind of a buffoon but usually after killing a man he had some remorse. It ran for three seasons on CBS from 1958-1961.

 I like to watch these kind of shows mainly for the guest stars and WANTED had it's share: DeForest Kelly, Lon Chaney, Warren Oates, Martin Landau, Jay North (in a strange Christmas episode), Michael Landon, John Dehner (in several episodes), Jay Silverheels, John Carradine and James Coburn to name a few. For around a dozen episodes in 1960 Wright King was also featured as fellow bounty hunter Jason Nicholls (he played a different role in an earlier episode), King had a featured role in Elia Kazan's A STREET CAR NAMED DESIRE (1951), hosted a TV kid's show JOHNNY JUPITER (1953-54) and was in two episodes of THE TWILIGHT ZONE. Later he had a small role as a simian doctor in the original PLANET OF THE APES.

 McQueen of course went on to super stardom with roles in THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, THE GREAT ESCAPE, BULLITT and others.

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60's Western

HOSTILE GUNS-1967-This AC Lyles production features George Montgomery as US Marshall Gid McCool who transports convicted criminals to the state pen. He needs a deputy but can find no one willing so he "recruits" bad boy Mike Reno (Tab Hunter). Their first prisoner is Hank Pleasant (Leo Gordon) on his way to the gallows for killing a child. They later pick up a corrupt railroad official (Robert Emhardt) and a goat thief (Pedro Gonzales-Gonzales who croons a tune). Their fourth pick up is Laura Mannon (Yvonne DeCarlo), who shot her boyfriend. Laura (she and McCool had once been lovers) manages to come between the duo which leads to them fighting and almost being killed by Pleasant's brother (John Russell) and other family members.

This low budget western has lots of witty dialogue and a great cast which also includes smaller roles with Brian Donlevy, Richard Arlen, James Craig, Fuzzy Knight, William Fawcett, Emile Meyer and Don Barry. It was directed by RG Sprignsteen, a veteran of Westerns since the late forties but by this time (not untypically) he had done a lot of TV. Unfortunately the low budget shows through several times especially with camera crew lights reflecting off the scenery at times!

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Hey Abbott?

WAGON TRAIN-"The Tobias Jones Story"-1958-This episode of the long running western about a wagon train crossing the western plains to California features the only dramatic role by comedian Lou Costello! He plays Toby Jones, a drunken itinerant who stows away on a wagon with a little girl name Midge (Beverley Washburn) who's devoted to Toby like a daughter to a father. Due to his drinking the wagon master Seth Adams (star Ward Bond) has Midge stay with Mrs. Folsom (June Clayworth) and her mean, abusive husband (Morris Ankrum). Things don't work out too well as Toby's drinking gets him into a lot of trouble. It comes to a head when Folsom is stabbed to death (with Toby's knife) and 10,000 dollars is stolen. The would be settlers want to string Toby up but Adams makes sure cooler heads prevail. Except Toby feels it would be better for him, Midge and everyone else if he was dead. Of course Toby is innocent and it's up to Adams to find out the truth. This episode also features Peter Breck as a rabble rousing cowboy and Harry Von Zell (who wrote the script) as a level headed easterner. The story itself is typical of the time but Costello is very good in the serious role. It was directed by Herschel Daugherty. Lou Costello made one more filmed appearance the next year in his only solo effort THE 50 FOOT BRIDE OF CANDY ROCK. He died of a heart attack at age 52 before it was released. Ten years later Beverley Washburn would co-star as one of the Merrye sisters in Jack Hills' SPIDER BABY! TV and radio announcer Harry von Zell was featured on THE BURNS AND ALLEN SHOW at the time.

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