Posts by Gorch

Ninetyeight is a pretty good run, but I'm sorry that he will not appear in any more films. Mr. Wallach always made me smile, even when he was playing a psycho killer in "The Lineup".
He never knew why John Sturges selected him to play Calvera in "The Magnificent Seven", after all he was a Jewish stage actor from New York City who had never rode a horse before. He also drove Sturges nuts because he always had to look down whenever he holstered his six gun.
"Tough Guys" was a comedy pairing of two screen icons - Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster - but Eli stole the movie as Leon B. Little, a myopic shotgun toting loony hell bent on killing them both.

Thanks for all the fond memories Eli, and Vaya con Dios.

Thanks for "crossing the line" Kevin. This whole write in campaign probably won't have much of an impact, but I know how lousy I'd feel if I didn't say my piece.

Please follow Paula's advice and go to MGM Studios on Facebook and enter a polite message about restoring the director's cut of Duke's "The Alamo".
The film is deteriorating from within and MGM is reluctant to take any steps to halt it's turning into industrial waste. Perhaps enough public outcry can make them reconsider.
Remember the Alamo!

Well, My Keith, I'm sure you were smiling most of the way through "The Mountain Men". It's very uproarious and one of my favorites. Brian Keith's character is raucous, profane and lovable. The scenery is pretty magnificent as well and I wish it would be released in a widescreen format.
TCM ran "Sergeant Rutledge" yesterday and I thought I'd watch the first few minutes but ended up for the whole shebang. I could pick up the horse stunts of Bad Chuck and Good Chuck easily. Good Chuck repeated that backwords flip off his horse that he did in "The Alamo" when he charged alone at Travis. Also a great performance by Woody Strode. Too bad Ford allowed overacting from some of his other stock company members.

We deal in lead, friend.

Keith, if you weren't depressed before your double feature, you must be now.
Since I've been binging on Have Gun Will Travel, I had a Richard Boone double header and watched A Thunder of Drums and Rio Conchos.
Now if we both watch The Alamo I can see Boone again and you can see Duke bite the dust yet again.

We deal in lead, friend.

We went to the multiplex with another couple and saw "Last Vegas". Although it didn't receive rave reviews, we (and the packed audience) loved it. Not much of a plot, but very funny. Kevin Kline steals the whole movie.

We deal in lead, friend.

Well said, Peridot.
I saw that same episode and noticed it was directed by Richard Boone. I had told my wife that Boone must have decided to showcase Needham's acting talents as well as his dexterity. Only learned later about his passing. Quite sad.

Vaya con Dios, amigo.

You idiot! I said to pull my FINGER!

We deal in lead, friend.

"I told you, a real man never stops and asks for directions. Not even from John Wayne!"

We deal in lead, friend.

Paula, I'm afraid to get my hopes up again, but that is great news.
I've been on Home theater Forum but can't find Mr. Harris' reply. Could you please forward where this nugget is located?

We deal in lead, friend.

I am truly happy that quite a few of you enjoy this film. I like Eastwood and think he's a superior actor and director. It's my own personal hangups about mixing genres (as I see I posted three years ago - holy ***t)
that prevent me from embracing this and Pale Rider. They seem like cop outs to me.
As Stumpy once replied to my defense of The Wild Bunch - one man's treasure is another man's trash. I regret that I can't share your enthusiasm about this one. I saw it when it was first released and felt cheated then.

We deal in lead, friend.

Hola, amigos.
While I really do appreciate brevity, and the Duke was a man of few words - unless James Edward Grant was writing them - just dropping the name of a TV series episode or a film shouldn't be enough for these entries.
Did you like what you viewed? Would you recommend it? Can you even summarize it? Who else was in the sucker?
We - meaning me - don't give a damn what your daily calendar looks like when you drop in a couple of TV episodes. or an esoteric movie. That, however, is what most of the posts imply - I saw this - period!
I think it should merit an elaboration if you're going to bother to post the time that you spent.

We deal in lead, friend.

Jim, I thought that Star Trek Into Darkness was a great 3D presentation and I enjoyed how they twisted and riffed on the references to The Wrath of Khan.
That being said, I have never been a true fan of Star Trek in general and have never seen any of the seemingly infinite number of spin off series. But, being a sucker for a good deal, Amazon had a one day sale of the first 6 Trek films on Blue for $29.00. They arrived today and I plan to counterbalance them by watching some of Duke's prime films.

We deal in lead, friend.

Always liked this one. The cast is better than usual and director Sturges really knew how to stage an action scene. Not many used the entire screen as well as John. Just recall "Bad Day at Black Rock" and "The Magnificent Seven". In the first, he uses space to isolate the town and even the characters. In the second, he does the opposite and shows groups - gunfighters, farmers and bandits - interacting yet spread all over the screen.
Also in Escape, he has a visual reprise of the actors at the end of the movie. This always made it easier for me to recognize new actors. Sturges did the same thing in his other movie with Escape in the title - "The Great Escape". Wish more movies would do this.

We deal in lead, friend.

Well, I'm a mere child of 64 years of age and I have to agree with Stumpy.
I recall most of the glut of western shows from the '50s and Rawhide was never a favorite. I'm going to make some enemies here, but I also thought Gunsmoke stunk to high heaven. I never even thought of it as a western, but more of a soap opera. Watching the reruns has only enforced that opinion.
Have Gun Will Travel, Wanted: Dead or Alive, The Rebel, Maverick, Yancey Derringer, The Dakotas and a much later series called The Outcasts were my favorites.
Probably forgot a few, but that's a perk at my age.

We deal in lead, friend.

Well, I'm a mere child of 64 years of age and I have to agree with Stumpy.
I recall most of the glut of western shows from the '50s and Rawhide was never a favorite. I'm going to make some enemies here, but I also thought Gunsmoke stunk to high heaven. I never even thought of it as a western, but more of a soap opera. Watching the reruns has only enforced that opinion.
Have Gun Will Travel, Wanted: Dead or Alive, The Rebel, Maverick, Yancey Derringer, The Dakotas and a much later series called The Outcasts were my favorites.
Probably forgot a few, but that's a perk at my age.

We deal in lead, friend.

I'm from a real life family of policemen. My grandfather was Chief of Detectives, my Dad was an old fashioned beat cop (when he drove the paddy wagon he was dubbed "The Wagonmaster"), my uncle was a desk sergeant and my brother served on the city force as well. I was an investigator with New York State.
I've never missed an episode of Blue Bloods, but we do joke that NYC could fire the rest of the force and just let the family handle every crime in the city.

We deal in lead, friend.

Hello Nordy. The wording of your post is unfortunate in that your "What a Dog" comment seemed to refer to Janet. Obviously, that is not your intent and you are clearly referring to the barker that is the movie.
Ms Leigh impressed me in my tender youth when I saw the re-release of "The Vikings" in the early sixties. Decided on the spot that I would forever long for gorgeous, statuesque blonde women, who wore bras that could poke your eye out. Luckily enough, I married one.

We deal in lead, friend.

Encore Westerns runs two episodes of Have Gun Will Travel every afternoon. Today I had a chance to run a batch of them and was reminded of the number of "stars to be" that were featured, many of whom appeared again together. One had Strother Martin as a whining town official who was murdered by James Coburn (of course, who hasn't killed Strother on film). They both later appeared in the fine Walter Hill Film "Hard Times".
Charles Bronson showed up to have a fistfight with George Kennedy, both of whom were in "The Dirty Dozen"
Ron Soble tried to maul Jack Weston with fighting spurs long before "The Cincinnati Kid".

I always try to identify at least one supporting player in every episode and scan the credits to confirm my guesses - these are about 50 years old, after all, and some of the actors. like Louise Fletcher and Dyan Cannon are very young. My fallback is stuntman/director Harold (Hal) Needham who performed most of the stunt work and was an all purpose Indian lurking in the background.

We deal in lead, friend.

Kevin, I want to thank you for all the work and time you devote to this site. If not for you, none of us would ever had connected and had the chance to share our thoughts about Duke.
Please keep up the good work.

Bill