Studio-bound, for the most part, but expertly crafted by John Ford, with great performances from John Wayne, James Stewart, Vera Miles, Woody Strode, and the superb, as always, Lee Marvin.
It’s interesting to note that Lee Marvin’s sidekicks in ‘The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance’ are played by Lee Van Cleef, and Strother Martin.
The year before, these same three iconic actors appeared together in a Western-themed episode of Rod Serling’s famous ‘The Twilight Zone’, entitled ‘The Grave’, which aired on TV on October 27th, 1961.
I feel that Lee Marvin was already practising here for his ‘Lib. Valance’ role, the following year.
In the pic below, from ‘The Grave’, Lee Van Cleef and Strother Martin are accompanied by actor, James Best.
It’s worth checking out, if you haven’t yet seen it.
Note: What I love about the scene above is that we have an instance where Lee Marvin and Lee Van Cleef are chatting away together - two actors tied together by the character of 'Colonel DouglasMortimer’. Sergio Leone originally wanted Lee Marvin to play the role, but it eventually went to LVC. Great to see them both together here…
I watched the 1951 western, The Secret of Convict Lake, with Glenn Ford, Gene Tierney, and Ethel Barrymore. There wasn’t a bad performance among the actors and my attention didn’t lag once while watching it. This mystery thriller is about a group of escaped convicts who seek food, warmth, and shelter during a snow storm from a village of distrusting women, whose men are away for work. One of the convicts (Ford) has a secret in his past that is tied to the village.
Watched Hugo Blick’s miniseries The English a few weeks ago and was well entertained, if not thrilled. However, there was one dialogue I didn’t get at all:
“She always so mouthy?”
“Like a coon dog down a gurney.”
So, a coon dog is a dog trained to hunt raccoons, and a gurney is a wheeled cot or a stretcher. But what does the above figure of speech mean?
Watched Day of The Outlaw a week ago. Still thinking about it. Very disturbing. It starts off with a bit of melodrama, but then it gets better and darker. I think Corbucci loved Day of The Outlaw.
Finally watched Sugar Colt…
What a great movie, I tried a few years ago to watch it on YouTube, but found the stuff where Hunt Powers is undercover as the Doctor distracting… Giraldi had a great eye for the Almeria landscape, it looked stunning in blu-ray quality
An AIP produced 1950s b-western starring john agar of 1950s squared jawed sci-fi b-movie leading man fame seeking revenge on his identical brother’s murderer! Its pretty fun and like if a 1930s or 1940s poverty row western had a slight bit more grit and john agar in it, but like a really solid and well made poverty row western!
Re-watched “the white buffalo” (1977) via the blu-ray from kino lorber today!
A great “jaws” cash-in, a real banger of a gritty winter western starring Charles Bronson, that moves at a really great clip, and feels as cold as the landscape it is set in!
The best attempt by producer Dino De Laurentiis to compete with jaws in the 1970s? I think so!
Saw this listed on Tubi, and couldn’t resist. Some of the clips are very poor quality, and some are just “meh” in general. But some of them are laugh out loud hilarious, to me.
I watched the German blu-ray of Black Jack.
It was nice. Nasty, gritty, sadistic, bleak, just the way I like it.
I watched it with english audio, I think it worked better than italian.
