We figured it was time to have a place to talk about Steve’s latest video subjects that do not have an UMR page.
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We figured it was time to have a place to talk about Steve’s latest video subjects that do not have an UMR page.
In The Tall T, Randolph Scott is more overtly physical in romancing his leading lady than had been traditionally the case. He and Maureen O’Sullivan are alone together in a darkened cave when he suddenly grabs her and says something like “Sometimes you just have to TAKE what you want!” And he does.
Best POSTERS in your video. FL=foreign language one. 1/Killer Shark 2/first two for Wings of the Hawk. I saw it back in 1953 on a double bill with Francis [The Talking Mule] Covers the Big Town 3/1st one for City Beneath the Sea 4/FL one for A Time for Dying 5/Bronco Buster [over here that one was on a 1952 double bill with Jimmy Stewart’s Bend of the River] 6/Horizons West [again a programmer that shared the bill with Jeff Chandler’s Because of You] 7/two for Seminole 8/Red Ball Express 9/two for Westbound 10/first one for Decision at Sundown 11/first one for Killer is Loose 12/FL one for Comanche Station 13/FL one for Legs Diamond 14/two FL ones for Ride Lonesome 15/FL one for Seven Men from Now 16/set for The Tall T.
Classy STILLS in my view 1/Julia Adams who sadly died in Feb this year though she had a good innings at 92 years of age. 2/lobby card for East of Sumatra [another supporting feature – this time to Ann Sheridan/Sterling Hayden’s Take Me to Town 3/Horizons West 4/Seminole 5/The Cimarron Kid [I saw this one back in 1952 as the supporting feature to Abbott and Costello Lost in Alaska 6/Comanche Station 7/Charlie Bill flying the flag in Man from the Alamo 8/Ride Lonesome 9/Seven Men from Now 10/The Tall T.
Your video satisfied me to the extent of a 98% rating. No Work Horse Love for Boetticher but Bruce gives Bud’s seven Scott films an average rating of 75% whereas you are slightly less generous with around 72%. Both are excellent scores for what is essentially a set of B movies. I agree with him that Seven Men from Now was the best of the seven Boetticher/Scott films; whereas you list it second and Tall T first among the seven. Both of you agree that Westbound is the weakest of the seven whereas I go for Buchanan Rides Alone.
Film historians and critics generally mention as the jewels in Bud’s crown the 7 movies that he made with Randolph Scott and indeed many observers opine that it was those 7 movies that right at the end years of Scott’s career cemented Randy’s legend in movie history of The West, so many of Scott’s previous “oaters” having been routine and/or highly repetitive offerings to the extent that Randy might have been generally forgotten had it not been for Bud.
Seven Men from Now was made by Wayne’s Batjac Company and The Duke himself initially intended to take the lead until it was decided to set a low budget for film which made Big John too expensive for himself to hire! Randy’s career was perceived to be in the doldrums when the film was being cast so The Duke was able to hire on the cheap his old pal from The Spoilers and Pittsburgh movies back in 1942!
Indeed the 7 movies were profitable only because their shoots were pared down to the bone and each was made on a shoestring budget. The Work Horse credits the average adjusted gross of the 7 films as a mere $40 million and the average running time per movie was under 76 minutes.
Each of them was shown over here as a 2nd feature and I saw for example The Tall T back in 1957 as the supporting film to Brit comedy How to Murder a Rich Uncle starring England’s Nigel Patrick and Charles Coburn.
Hi Bob, I hope you enjoyed your break I’m looking forward to an extended Xmas break from youtube next month. Thanks for the review, generous rating, info and trivia, much appreciated.
Glad you liked the posters, stills and lobby cards.
Lets put this in perspective – Budd Boetticher’s Randolph Scott westerns are highly rated by western fans but James Stewart’s westerns with director Anthony Mann are generally superior, and Marion Morrison’s John Ford collection sitting comfortably at the top of the totem (Howard Hawks oaters nipping at Ford’s heel).
There is one Boetticher film scoring 9 out of 10 and it doesn’t feature Randy Scott – The Bullfighter and the Lady. Eight more scored 8 out of 10 inc – Seven Men From Now, Rise Lonesome, The Tall T and The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond.
Seven Men from Now tops IMDB charts and The Tall T no.1 at Rotten Tomatoes.
Bruce’s Top 4 –
Seven Men from Now 8.3
Tall T ,The 8.0
Ride Lonesome 7.8
Comanche Station 7.6
And my video top 4 –
Tall T ,The 8.0
Seven Men from Now 7.8
Ride Lonesome 7.5
Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond 7.3
Boetticher on Randolph Scott – “Absolutely the best. If everyone in the world would teach their kids to be just a little bit like Randolph Scott, we’d have a better world. He was the greatest gentleman I ever met.”
Boetticher on Audie Murphy – “He was a great guy. We were very dear friends. Audie didn’t drink, he didn’t smoke, he didn’t do anything wrong. But he was a gambler. He was always in debt.”
Boetticher on Glenn Ford – “Oh, Glenn was great. He was one of my very favorites, but he was very, very difficult for other directors.”
Boetticher on Rock Hudson – “You know, I had no idea he was gay. And you know what? I didn’t care. Rock Hudson was just one of the nicest guys I ever worked with.”
HI STEVE: Thanks for the feedback. I agree in general terms with your “perspective” of the comparisons between Bud/Randy, The Duke and my Jimmy, and I liked all the quotes from Bud. I think though that in Scott’s case what made the Boetticher movies stand out for RANDY’s career was the bleak plots of most of them and Randy departing from the confident hail-fellow-well-met characters that he had often traditionally played.
In Boetticher’s ’s Decision at Sundown for example Scott is an obsessively flawed character who takes to drink at the end, at least momentarily, because he can’t live with his flaws and mistakes. In the Tall T Scott, as I have indicated, all but rapes Maureen O’Sullivan [thus for once justifying his nickname!] Scott of course returned to an against-previous-type characterization in Peckinpah’s Ride the High Country [aka Guns in the Afternoon] Randy’s final movie.
Also it should be remembered that as well as westerns The Duke had his war films, The Quiet Man etc; and my Jimmy’s reputation was well grounded in not just his westerns but in the likes of Wonderful Life, Mr Smith Goes to Washington, Philly Story and especially his Hitchcock classics. Indeed turning to westerns was almost an after thought for Jimmy as when he returned from the war his career didn’t initially go too well.
However Randy’s westerns WERE virtually his career so he needed something special in that genre in his fading years to protect his legend. Finally the accumulative effect of the 7 Scott/Boetticher westerns as a series to some extent impresses many historians/critics. SEE ALSO PART 2 for a definitive opinion about the matter.
Says Joel in THE 1983 book: “In the Scott/Boetticher films, Scott stands for the accumulated sum of worldly wisdom; always self-described as a former sheriff, a former rancher, or former something. Scott arrives on the scene of action as a man on a mission. The combination of Boetticher and Scott was magical; working together seemed to bring out the best in both artists.”
Regarding the “man on a mission” aspect another historian remarked that the Scott character was stoic in keeping going even though he knew that the mission [such as looking all over the West for his wife who had been taken by Indians] was something in which he was likely to fail.
The Master gives 4 stars to each of Scott’s performances in Seven Men, Tall T, Comanche Station and Ride Lonesome; and Joel awards 3 stars to Randy for the other three movies in the series. Is there anyone who follows this site who has the courage to challenge THOSE opinions and ratings? [Not The Work Horse I’m willing to take a bet!]
Thanks again for your kind attentions to my holiday. You in turn were in my thoughts on occasions. For example at the start of my break I was sitting in the Belfast airport lounge waiting for my flight to be called out when I heard the loud-speaker system advise “Boarding now, the 2.30 for Manchester,” and my wife had to restrain me from going there instead of London. It would seem that for the unsuspecting, Manchester has the siren call that Arkham ***has long possessed in folklore.
Nevertheless now that I have returned from holiday I at first opportunity WILL be straying onto part of your turf as I have recorded a TV re-run of John Carpenter’s 1982 The Thing and will be leaving my comfort zone to watch it. Meanwhile keep safe.
*** “Arkham is a fictional city in Massachusetts, part of the Lovecraft Country setting created by H. P. Lovecraft and is featured in many of his stories, as well as those of other Cthulhu Mythos writers.” [Wikipedia]
Another video that is eye opening as I am not too aware of his career. First one I have seen is #19 The Howards of Virginia…one of the worst Cary Grant movies. The second last one I have seen is #1 The Mutiny on the Bounty….which is a classic. I have seen all of the Best Picture Oscar winners except for number 6 Cavalcade…which I want to see…but that is a very hard movie to track down…at least on platforms like VHS, DVD, Blu-Ray or 4K. Voted up and shared.
From Steve’s latest video.
Hi Bruce, well I didn’t do much better with Frank Lloyd’s films I saw three – Mutiny on the Bounty, Blood on the Sun and Wells Fargo. Flora’s tally 7. We should do a lot better with wednesday’s director video.
Thanks for the share, vote and comment, much appreciated.
Hi Steve.
I have been enjoying your latest offerings: bud, Richard and frank; and have been following WHs new pages as well. As I am c**p on a tablet except for short messages replies will have to wait until I return to my trusty laptop.
Meanwhile you will see thatWh has been tormenting me again about Dire Hard being a Christmas movie Uncle Abe was right “You can fool some of the people all of the time!”
a
Aloha Bob, I hate typing comments on tablets too. So you won’t be enjoying Die Hard on Xmas day like the rest of us? Die Hard followed by Tales from the Crypt, a Xmas double bill, there’s a scary scene in the latter where Joan Collins is menaced by an escaped killer disguised as Santa, which automatically makes it a Xmas film for the whole family. [Bob rolls his eyes]
😉
Hi Steve
Thanks for the reply. Looks like a great festive double bill that you mention!
On the internet is a photo of The Great Mumbler in the fifties dressed up as Santa handing out presents to kids. A publicity stunt no doubt but genuinely Christmas nonetheless; so can we no track it down and substitute it for that still of Mr Gimme More on WHs Xmas page crawling about with a silly looking Santa Hat on in Dire HArd? It’s hard to keep looking at – no pun intended of course!
Steve’s Richard Fleischer video has been added to Steve’s video page. Our thoughts on the video and Fleischer’s movies found on his channel…are listed below.
Vaguely remember his name….no idea how many of his movies that I have seen. Seen #35 Ashanti…what a cast…what a bad movie. #34 The Jazz Singer…another stinger….but one of my mom’s favorite movies. #30 Conan 2…bad movie…so disappointing after Conan 1…I blame the decision to make it PG versus R. #27 The Girl In The Red Velvet Swing…the first one on the list that I actually liked. #26 Dr. Doolittle….considered a Golden Turkey. #16 Mr. Majestyk…..one of Bronson’s better leading man movies. #15 See No Evil….good thriller. #13 Barabbas….one of my favorite Quinn movies…at least with him in the lead role. #10 Soylent Green….love this one….huge influence on Cogerson the boy. #9 The New Centurions….good cop drama…Keach out does Scott. #8 The Boston Strangler….another good thriller. #7 The Vikings…one of my dad’s favorite movies. #6 Tora Tora Tora…great war movie. #5 Fantastic Voyage…pretty sure this is one of your favorites. #4 The Trial….Orson Welles at his best. #1 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea…one of the biggest hits of the 1950s. So that is 16 of his movies…more than I would have guessed. Voted up and shared
Hi Bruce, your tally of 16 beats my 12 and Flora’s 13.
Soylent Green was your big Charlton Heston sci-fi of the 1970s and mine was The Omega Man, which I managed to catch at the cinema bunking off school, those albino mutants gave me nightmares as a kid.
Fantastic Voyage is also a big favorite of mine though the special effects have long since dated they were eyepopping in their time. Thanks for the comment, vote and share, always appreciated.