How The West Was Won (1962)

John Wayne et Harry Morgan

These pictures make one want to drag out the movie, and watch it again !

Chester

Hi

Fabulous photographs from a fabulous movie thanks

Regards

Arthur

two thumbs up

Hello again, all, I was one of 800-plus lucky people who saw How the West Was Won at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood on Sunday morning, as part of this year's TCM Classic Movie Festival. Not only that, but I think I had the best seat in the house! -- dead center, first row of the balcony. Anyway, as you can all imagine, HTWWW was an overwhelming experience, seeing it on that giant curved screen projected in the original Cinerama format. The print was beautiful and the extremely wide field of vision made for unbelievably spectacular vistas, especially during the amazing buffalo stampede. Sometimes the joins of the three pictures was very noticeable, sometimes not at all. I don't have to tell anyone here what a great and epic picture it is and my only beef is -- not enough John Wayne, of course.

The sound was also spectacular in the Dome and what a thrill to hear that great score on that sound system.

Debbie Reynolds was interviewed by TCM host before the movie and was quite the character. Actually I had seen her the day before interviewed by Osborne before a screening of Singin' in the Rain, and she is one very colorful (to put it mildly) lady -- she just says whatever she thinks, in very salty language too! The normally unflappable Osborne was at a loss for words. She was a little more restrained at HTWWW but she is decidedly a let it all hang out type, and tons of fun! We all loved her to bits. And she was wonderful in both movies.

Paula,
Do they have these festivals every year? If so, how would one keep track, and possibly go next year?

Chester

Hi, Chester, yes, TCM has been holding the classic film festival in Hollywood for three years now and I've been very very lucky in that I've been able to attend all three. Usually they show some westerns though not always with John Wayne. Last year they programmed four restored Roy Rogers movies and Roy's daughter Cheryl Rogers-Barnett was there to introduce them. (And Herb Jeffries, the Bronze Buckaroo and the last living singing cowboy, attended the screenings! I was absolutely dumbstruck with awe seeing him in person.)

Here is the link to the TCM festival page: http://www.tcm.com/festival/

Click on the link for the "festival video gallery" to see the interviews with Debbie Reynolds (HTWWW) and Angie Dickinson (Rio Bravo).

Here is the link to sign up with TCM so you'll get all their e-mail newsletters and announcements about the festival and other TCM information: https://audience.tcm.com/servi…r?url=http://www.tcm.com/

TCM is OUR FRIEND. They love John Wayne! They were selling John Wayne bobble-head dolls at the festival boutique too.

Quote from Paula

TCM is OUR FRIEND. They love John Wayne! They were selling John Wayne bobble-head dolls at the festival boutique too.

Now that's what I was really after ! A John Wayne bobble-head doll

Seriously, Thank you so much for "filling us in" on the Classic Movie Channel,
and how to get affiliated with them.

Chester

Quote

Now that's what I was really after ! A John Wayne bobble-head doll

LOL! Just so you know -- when I got into line for Rio Bravo, I noticed the guy in front of me had the bobble-head doll in his bag (I could see the box). I remarked that he must be a real John Wayne fan and we struck up a conversation about Wayne and Rio Bravo that (as many of these conversations do) soon veered off onto other topics. Now if only they made a Ben Johnson bobble-head doll, I'd get one of those. I do have a Wolverine bobble-head doll!

Watched "How the West Was Won" again yesterday in flat screen "living room Cinerama".

Deb's Meadow where the "True Grit" showdown shootout would take place 7 years later in 1968/69 played center stage in many of the scenes of this same "West Was Won" movie as did "Courthouse Mountain" and "Chimney Peak" (all True Grit locations). Even the creek-side campsite where Rooster says to LaBoeuf ~ "If ever I meet one of you Texas waddies who ain't drunk from a hoofprint, I think I'll, I'll shake their hand or buy'em a Daniel Webster cigar!" ~ is also the very same location where a major scene is played between Robert Preston and Debbie Reynolds almost 7 years earlier.

Henry Hathaway was one of several directors on this movie and he would later go on to also direct True Grit. He obviously fell in love with the scenery there in the San Juan mountains and thanks to that ~ a beautifully photographed True Grit would go on to become a movie classic.