The Alamo (1960)

Howdy folks, well here is the first film fact that I have put on this group and I would like to start off with - The Alamo.

Producers: John Wayne, Michael Wayne, James Edward Grant, Screenplay: James Edward Grant, Cinematographer: William H. Clothier, Art Director: Alfred Ybarra, Editor: Stuart Gilmore, Distribution: United Artists, Location: Brackettville, Texas, Cost of production: $12 million, US Box office takings: $7.9 million, Date of production: 1960.

During filming, a bit part player, LeJean Eldridge, was stabbed to death by her boyfriend Chester Harvey Smith, an extra on the film. Smith was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Twelve million adobe bricks were used in the construction of The Alamo’s sets, along with one million sq ft of timber, 200,000ft of steel, 125,000sq ft of concrete flooring and 30,000sq ft of Spanish tiles. The set still stands and is now a tourist attraction.
At least 100 head of Longhorn cattle, 400 mules and 1,500 horses were bought or borrowed for the film.
Argentinian-born actress Linda Cristal, who plays Mexican lady Flaca, went on to television fame in “The High Chaparral”. Denver Pyle, who plays Thimblerig, found belated success as Uncle Jessie in “The Dukes of Hazzard”.

I hope you liked it and I will post some more film facts in the near future. Chester has copied four film facts from my website johnwaynefans, and in time I will go through the film facts I have posted on that site and put them on to this site as well. So keep your eyes open for more film fact. Chisum2

What a movie! Our eleven year old pulled this one out the other day to watch on his own. I think he's having fun watching the movies now that he's a little older and better able to understand what's going on.

Anyway, I was looking at the different posters for the different films (on a CD), and thought I'd share these two -

Alamo-poster.jpg

The second one, a 1967 reissue is a little different in that it showcases the star line-up more than on the original poster.

Alamo- 1967 reissue poster.jpg

great movie....too bad it wasn't recognized as such at the time

It seems that i saw uncut version of this movie at last and was completly captured by it. I don't know why, but it was different impression an Entrance music added so much for the athmosphere of the movie in the whole. Must see it another time in nearest days.
Regards,
Senta

Quote from Jay J. Foraker

Well, October is almost gone and I never saw any announcement that "The Alamo" was going to be shown on the big screen at the Woodlawn Theater. This has been the most frustrating non-event for me in recent times!!!!
Cheers - Jay

Jay,

Sorry to hear it didn't work out. Did they just not have it, or is there a possibility you missed it? Have you called the theater to find out anything?

Who knows? Maybe we would have flown down to watch it with you!

Chester

Jay, the reason it was canceled was because the Woodlawn Theater was not in good enough shape to show it. I guess it needed alot of work. It was set up for stage plays, not movies. They didn't have enough room for a wide screen. The folks putting it on were to say the least, peeved. They were under the impression that the theater would be all fixed up and ready to go and it wasn't. They had a number of people connected with the movie coming. Dean Smith, Jim Brewer and Rudy Robbins were all slated to be there as was Churro and Theresa Champion. She was the flamenco dancer on the table in the cantina and her husband Churro was the guitar player for her. Invites were also sent out to Aissa Wayne, Joan O'Brien and, Linda Cristal. There were alot of disappointed people connected with this but, they are still hoping that maybe next year things will work out and it'll be a go.

Hey, Jim, thanks for the update. How is that you, in Michigan, are so in the know about the film? Were you one of the disappointed folks, or in the group trying to arrange it?

Not trying to pry, just curious.

Chester

Neither. I'm a member of thealamofilm.com site and I had followed the info they had posted over there. A couple of those people were in on the planning of the event and a number of others were planning to attend. If you haven't checked the site out, do so. It's pretty good and we're all big Alamo nutcases. Quite a few of them meet up in San Antonio every March in time for the anniversary of the battle or as some of them refer to it, The High Holy Days. Unfortunately, I've never been able to make it down there at that time. I was there just last month, my son and I. We even rented a car and drove out to Alamo Village. Took me my whole life to finally get to see the real Alamo in 2000 and to see Alamo Village also. Since then, I've been there twice more, 2004 and in October. Never tire of seeing them places.

WaynamoJim,

Thanks for that - very interesting. We'll have to check it out.

I hope that if there are any John Wayne fans over there, you send them in our direction.

I'm glad you were able to realize your dream of going to the Alamo. Not everyone gets that life opportunity. How special that you were able to share it with your son!

Chester

The first time I went, in 2000, my wife also went along with me and our youngest son. All these years she said she had no desire to go see the Alamo and thought it really belonged to Mexico anyway. That is was taken out from under them. But, since that trip, she says it was the nicest trip we've ever had and she really liked seeing the Alamo and San Antonio. She hasn't changed her opinion on it but, she like going down there. Except for Alamo Village, she thought it was to hot and desolate out there for anyone to live. I'd also like my two older boys to see it and they want to also but, they have families and work and money issues keep them from taking a trip like that.

Dumb Question for anybody with with film knowledge. - Can't they make a restored version from the directors cut on VHS? I watched a special on how they restored Daniel Boone tv shows by copying it to a computer , and editing the sound and pictures on a computer. Like a previous poster said you can copy the vhs to dvd, or to a dvr harddrive. It seems like they could use computer software to clean it up once they got it copied to the computer harddrive. If they can make computer animated life like dinosaurs, and color black and white movies seems like they could do that. I can't think of another movie that deserves a special edition more then the Alamo. Thanks for reading!

Billy

Hoosierfan,

You pose some good points. We've talked about this before, and the biggest concern is the time difference between the VHS and the DVD version. The DVD is shorter and that has been the question. I think that over 40 minutes are missing, and I'm not sure what it is that's missing. The discussion is that the original negative has been damaged and some of the time was destroyed. Copying from a VHS copy would result in a grainy copy to DVD. And the studio and John Wayne Estate has not made this a priority to correct this issue.

We're not sure why, but this seems to be the only answer we can provide. Some of us made contact to the John Wayne estate, but to my knowledge there has been no response. I know you wanted more than I've been able to provide to you, but that is all I have to response to your question.

Cheers Hondo

There something regarding this movie that has puzzled me, at the end when the three non combatants leave the Alamo after the battle, one of them is a young black boy, where did he come from? I don't remember him being in the movie prior to this, but I have could have missed something.

ROBBIE! the young black boy was in a few scenes that were edited out. the birthday party for travis's daughter and right before the battle. i think he was a son of a slave owned by travis. odd thing they were fighting for freedom yet some were slave owners.the mexican govt.had outlawed slavery at that time.

I made a 2-Disc set for my private collection. Picture quality is very good, and less overscan too (you see more on the left and on the right side).
Doesn't look, like it's gonna be restored soon officially.

Mine is PAL though, not NTSC.

Mike,

Is your 2-disc set copied from VHS? If so, did you use a computer to do it?

I'm sure I'm not the only one who may not know - what is the difference between PAL and NTSC? I know I've been told before, but I confess I don't remember.

Also, since you were so extensively involved in the new book about the Alamo movie, perhaps you might be able to answer some of the questions above, regarding the difference in time between the original VHS version and the DVD version.

Thanks!

Mrs. C

Quote from chester7777

Mike,

Is your 2-disc set copied from VHS? If so, did you use a computer to do it?
------- Yes, because the PAL-VHS I found better than the NTSC-LaserDisc (see below). Also I worked on the quality. For ex. I zoomed out of the picture 8% so the so-called 'over-scan' is gone. Means that you see the whole width of the picture now. (the overscan zooms in on the actual film to make sure that all those different TV-sets don't show the frame of the film, soundtrack as worst scenario :))-----------

I'm sure I'm not the only one who may not know - what is the difference between PAL and NTSC? I know I've been told before, but I confess I don't remember.
NTSC we call in Europe Never The Same Color. Actually it became much better over the years. That's your TV-system (& Japan). Uses 525 lines on the TV-monitor. PAL is europe and uses 625 lines. Better therefore. ------------------------

Also, since you were so extensively involved in the new book about the Alamo movie, perhaps you might be able to answer some of the questions above, regarding the difference in time between the original VHS version and the DVD version.
---Which questions for instance? I thought everything has been said?
The version I digitalized runs 203 PAL-minutes (oh yes, PAL runs with 25 frames per Second. NTSC is better there - runs with 24, like the actual 35mm theatrical projections).
203 PAL-minutes therefore equal some 211 / 212 NTSC-minutes. Overture, Intr'act, Exit music included.-------------

Thanks! MIKE
Mrs. C

Display More

---------------------