Ben Johnson

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    I Wonder what role Ben coulda played? The only one I could see him in is possibly Hunter's part, but I don't know if Ford would have thought he was a good enough actor for that large a part.

    I do think Ben could have played Ethan very well except for one thing -- that role absolutely and utterly belongs to John Wayne, whose monumental, iconic presence is unique, and I can't imagine anyone but Wayne in that role. Ben was probably too young for Ethan, anyway.


    And he would have been about ten years too old to play Martin.


    Perhaps Ward Bond's role but then we'd be missing Ward Bond.


    IMHO there's some other great movie that simply didn't get made because John Ford decided he wouldn't make up with Ben Johnson, the one person who wouldn't stand for his insults. (Just to make clear, I *love* Ford's movies.)


    Harry Carey Jr. relates in his book Company of Heroes that Ford was softening towards using Ben again -- he wanted him for The Sun Shines Bright -- but somehow Ben's agent got Ford on the phone and demanded a big sum of money that Ford (who hated agents) refused to pay and that put the kibosh on any plans to cast Ben again, until Cheyenne Autumn. And then it was a minor role.


    Ben did star in a 1977 movie that was kind of a Searchers re-do, called Greyeagle. The kidnapped girl this time was played by Lana Wood, Natalie's sister.

    A last minute reminder (in case you didn't see the news at my Ben Johnson page) -- TCM is running Fort Defiance at 4:30 p.m. EST today. This is a hard to find movie and I'm really looking forward to finally seeing it. The co-stars are Dane Clark and Peter Graves.

    I added some stuff to the Memorabilia section at my Ben Johnson page. First, a publicity photo from Fort Defiance, and second, a real treasure, a photo-essay from the May 1949 issue of Night and Day magazine that lets us see 28 year old new star Ben Johnson in action, demonstrating his riding and roping skills. The scans of this Night and Day article were contributed to the webpage by a longtime fan, "JackFavell." This is one of my favorite pieces of memorabilia and I'm so grateful to JackFavell for agreeing to let me post it to the webpage. http://www.benjohnsonscreencaps.shutterfly.com




    (P.S. I hope I'm not annoying anyone by flogging my site a lot... I really only want to share and let you know what's new.)

    Just uploaded screencaps from an episode of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, called "Top Gun."


    http://benjohnsonscreencaps.shutterfly.com


    This is a hilarious episode in which Ozzie finds himself in a quick-draw contest with TV star "Tex Barton" at a local supermarket opening. Tex of course is played by Ben Johnson. It's little more than an extended cameo -- Ben is first seen on the Nelsons' TV and then for a couple of minutes at the supermarket, but he wears a fancier cowboy outfit than his usual style of western costume and even performs a couple of seconds of gun twirling before he holsters his weapon. Actually the whole episode is a delight, with everyone using classic lines from Western movies and a flashback to Ozzie's famous gunslinging ancestor, "Six Gun Nelson." A dangerous character, that Six Gun. He orders shots of MILK when he goes into a saloon! ;)




    I am glad I connected with this site as it is very informative. Not only am I learning more about the Duke but about others he has worked with.

    Keith, thanks for the great link. Several of the available videos are for entire films, not just trailers. Especially worth checking out is the link for the 1976 film Grayeagle, which has not been released on DVD (except for a now out of print Spanish DVD which I haven't seen; the old VHS release is also at Amazon or ebay).


    That IMDB page links to Hulu where you can watch it in its original Panavision widescreen (2:35:1) aspect ratio. Unfortunately it "expires" on Hulu in 16 days so I guess it will only be available temporarily. Hopefully the MGM-HD cable channel will schedule it for a broadcast.

    Recent additions to the Ben Johnson page:


    Screencaps from Ben's guest appearance on an episode of Navy Log, and, just for Hallowe'en, his scenes from the really-pretty-good Canadian slasher flick Terror Train.


    Scroll down to October 30 for Terror Train and then down to October 27 for Navy Log.


    I also wrote a little tribute to James MacArthur (October 28 entry.)


    http://benjohnsonscreencaps.shutterfly.com.


    (For horror fans who may be interested, I also screencapped Frankenstein for Halloween, that's at http://paulasmoviepage.shutterfly.com)

    Just added screencaps of Ben Johnson's scenes from Hang 'Em High. I also screencapped James MacArthur's one scene as the preacher. This movie is an major exercise in frustration for Ben's fans. He gives such a great performance, they build the character up with lots of close-ups and a couple of big scenes for him, and then suddenly, he's not in the movie anymore. ARRRGHHH.


    http://benjohnsonscreencaps.shutterfly.com



    *slurp* Thanks, exsoldier, I just did! ;) Hope you keep checking back as stuff keeps getting added. Last week in addition to the She Wore a Yellow Ribbon screencaps I posted more memorabilia, including a fabulous article from the October 22, 1949 issue of Collier's and links about the upcoming Criterion set that includes a new transfer of The Last Picture Show, plus a link to a story about a new movie that's filming in Ben's hometown of Pawhuska, OK.


    I'll have screencaps of Ben's scenes from Dillinger (from which that champagne pic above was taken) posted in a day or two at the most.


    Gotta love Dillinger. I don't think there's any other movie where he wears a cravat while eating a popsicle. :) "A popsicle sure is refreshing."



    Edited once, last by Paula ().