Posts from alamo221 in thread „Ken Curtis“

Well, even on The Alamo, Ford was deeply involved-tho uncredited. He was at a number of casting sessions, plus he was on set with Duke almost thru the entire shoot (many photos exist attesting to that).

Luckily for Curtis he was heavily involved in TV guesting and such, then having his regular Gunsmoke role (I think in '64).

I honestly don't know if they were close or not. I don't necessarily find his comments on Duke's direction as sign he didn't like Duke. He just offered his opinion, and it was taken during the context of an interview. I would like to see the entire interview to see the type questions that led up to it.

That makes sense. Ford WAS at all of the casting meetings that I've read about, so I wouldn't be surprised if he suggested Curtis.

I've never seen anything one way or the other on this, but just the fact that Duke gave Curtis a decent role in The Alamo led me to believe they had some type of friendship.

You're SO right. But considering his age and illness at the time of Curtis' filmed interview from The Alamo, even tho he criticized Duke's direction, it didn't mean they were estranged. Plus Ken, after The Alamo had the RipCord TV series, 2 Rode Together, Cheyenne Autumn, the Wagon Train, episode, guest spots of TV shows, How The West Was Won, then Gunsmoke, so he may have been unavailable for any further film work. Off hand I can't think immediately of any roles that "jump out" as fitting Curtis in any of Duke's films at that time.

You're SO right. But considering his age and illness at the time of Curtis' filmed interview from The Alamo, even tho he criticized Duke's direction, it didn't mean they were estranged. Plus Ken, after The Alamo had the RipCord TV series, 2 Rode Together, Cheyenne Autumn, the Wagon Train, episode, guest spots of TV shows, How The West Was Won, then Gunsmoke, so he may have been unavailable for any further film work. Off hand I can't think immediately of any roles that "jump out" as fitting Curtis in any of Duke's films at that time.

Since Arness was already doing Gunsmoke, I doubt he dropped out of Alamo because of that. He always managed to schedule around things he wanted to do, so if he had wanted to do The Alamo, he would have. A similair thing happened with Undefeated-he dropped out of that too on short notice. As for Curtis, the comments he made on Duke's direction were on the documentary, which was filmed long after Duke died. I've never seen or heard of any critical comments he made of Duke while Duke was alive. And it wasn't Arness' salary Curtis wanted to top on the Gunsmoke: Return To Dodge TV movie, it was Amanda Blake's salary. He was to have the part that was eventually rewritten for Earl Holliman (so it was a sizable role-bigger than Blake's). I think, like a number of other actors, Curtis was either tied up or otherwise unavailable for further film roles. Of course Duke, a number of times, cut people out for personal reasons (Harry Carey Jr, Ted White, Grant Withers, Paul Fix, etc) so who really knows?

Since Arness was already doing Gunsmoke, I doubt he dropped out of Alamo because of that. He always managed to schedule around things he wanted to do, so if he had wanted to do The Alamo, he would have. A similair thing happened with Undefeated-he dropped out of that too on short notice. As for Curtis, the comments he made on Duke's direction were on the documentary, which was filmed long after Duke died. I've never seen or heard of any critical comments he made of Duke while Duke was alive. And it wasn't Arness' salary Curtis wanted to top on the Gunsmoke: Return To Dodge TV movie, it was Amanda Blake's salary. He was to have the part that was eventually rewritten for Earl Holliman (so it was a sizable role-bigger than Blake's). I think, like a number of other actors, Curtis was either tied up or otherwise unavailable for further film roles. Of course Duke, a number of times, cut people out for personal reasons (Harry Carey Jr, Ted White, Grant Withers, Paul Fix, etc) so who really knows?