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Post by brutalis on May 7, 2020 13:30:40 GMT -5
Love McCrea westerns. Considering McCrea grew up around horses and in high school was a horse handler and stunt double for William S. Hart and Tom Mix as well as being a true to life rancher (3,000 acres and other smaller ranches) and McCrea himself would list his occupation as rancher rather than actor he should know how to ride! Proof of his horsemanship can be seen in Fort Massacre from 1958 Prince Hal. There is a scene in there where the cavalry troop comes across a husband/wife team selling their wares to Indians and McCrea chases after an escaping Indian on horseback, trying to catch the native before he can report back to his tribe. Where the Indian is hunched in close to his horse and forward across the shoulders, McCrea is simply leaning back, easy and relaxed in the saddle staying in the middle and providing his horse with better balance and gait. THAT is a man who knows how to ride and keep his horse safe from injury.
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Post by Prince Hal on May 7, 2020 16:03:10 GMT -5
Love McCrea westerns. Considering McCrea grew up around horses and in high school was a horse handler and stunt double for William S. Hart and Tom Mix as well as being a true to life rancher (3,000 acres and other smaller ranches) and McCrea himself would list his occupation as rancher rather than actor he should know how to ride! Proof of his horsemanship can be seen in Fort Massacre from 1958 Prince Hal . There is a scene in there where the cavalry troop comes across a husband/wife team selling their wares to Indians and McCrea chases after an escaping Indian on horseback, trying to catch the native before he can report back to his tribe. Where the Indian is hunched in close to his horse and forward across the shoulders, McCrea is simply leaning back, easy and relaxed in the saddle staying in the middle and providing his horse with better balance and gait. THAT is a man who knows how to ride and keep his horse safe from injury. Great information here, brutalis. never knew that about McCrea. Thanks! Another excellent rider was Cooper, as I mentioned before. I've read that his excellent posture in the saddle was the result of a lower back injury he'd suffered (not sure if it was from being thrown). He, of course, grew up a rider in Montana and followed a path similar to McCrea's in Hollywood. I love McCrea in Ride the High Country, too, as well as a batch of other Westerns, one of which, Cattle Drive, I only saw last year for the first time. It's essentially Captains Courageous on horseback and well worth the effort to find it. (I hope you also like McCrea in three of my non-Westerns: Foreign Correspondent; Palm Beach Story; and Sullivan's Travels.)
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Post by brutalis on May 7, 2020 16:31:34 GMT -5
Oh yes Prince Hal , Ride the High Country was probably my 1st ever McCrea movie. I just saw Cattle Drive last month myself (recorded from GritTV of course) and I really enjoyed it. Was glad to see at the end how McCrea's character re-connected Jagger with his father and they all go of together. Great coming of age story that should be shown to kids of today s they can learn what it means to grow up properly and being honest for standing up when you make mistakes while learning and growing from a child to an adult. Funny you mention his other movies as I have seen Foreign Correspondent a few years back. Was looking at lunch on Amazon and the internet making up a list of his movies so I can watch for them on television or for used DVD's. I have one of his westerns, The San Francisco Story (with Yvonne DeCarlo YUM) which I found used for $3 at Brass Armadillo (kind of antique store where people "rent" space to sell their wares) and it is sitting in my to watch pile. Looking through the list I created there is still plenty of movies to search for and enjoy from him. I think I read somewhere he did something like 80 movies altogether?
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Post by Prince Hal on May 7, 2020 16:39:49 GMT -5
Oh yes Prince Hal , Ride the High Country was probably my 1st ever McCrea movie. I just saw Cattle Drive last month myself (recorded from GritTV of course) and I really enjoyed it. Was glad to see at the end how McCrea's character re-connected Jagger with his father and they all go of together. Great coming of age story that should be shown to kids of today s they can learn what it means to grow up properly and being honest for standing up when you make mistakes while learning and growing from a child to an adult. Funny you mention his other movies as I have seen Foreign Correspondent a few years back. Was looking at lunch on Amazon and the internet making up a list of his movies so I can watch for them on television or for used DVD's. I have one of his westerns, The San Francisco Story (with Yvonne DeCarlo YUM) which I found used for $3 at Brass Armadillo (kind of antique store where people "rent" space to sell their wares) and it is sitting in my to watch pile. Looking through the list I created there is still plenty of movies to search for and enjoy from him. I think I read somewhere he did something like 80 movies altogether? He worked hard for his money. Glad you enjoyed Cattle Drive!
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Post by Slam_Bradley on May 7, 2020 16:49:17 GMT -5
I really love Ride the High Country. Probably my favorite Pekinpah western. But I'm a nut for those type of "end of the West" films.
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Post by brutalis on May 7, 2020 16:51:30 GMT -5
Oh yes Prince Hal , Ride the High Country was probably my 1st ever McCrea movie. I just saw Cattle Drive last month myself (recorded from GritTV of course) and I really enjoyed it. Was glad to see at the end how McCrea's character re-connected Jagger with his father and they all go of together. Great coming of age story that should be shown to kids of today s they can learn what it means to grow up properly and being honest for standing up when you make mistakes while learning and growing from a child to an adult. Funny you mention his other movies as I have seen Foreign Correspondent a few years back. Was looking at lunch on Amazon and the internet making up a list of his movies so I can watch for them on television or for used DVD's. I have one of his westerns, The San Francisco Story (with Yvonne DeCarlo YUM) which I found used for $3 at Brass Armadillo (kind of antique store where people "rent" space to sell their wares) and it is sitting in my to watch pile. Looking through the list I created there is still plenty of movies to search for and enjoy from him. I think I read somewhere he did something like 80 movies altogether? He worked hard for his money.Glad you enjoyed Cattle Drive! He was a multi-millionaire by the end of the 40's. Knew how to make money and save money. A real self made man indeed!
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Post by berkley on May 8, 2020 1:01:57 GMT -5
It's always interesting to me how so many of the old Hollywood stars had such varied backgrounds and life-experiences outside acting - even those who'd been in show business from childhood had usually done all kinds of different things within that world.
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2020 19:27:56 GMT -5
Got back to the Kurosawa/Mifune films I recorded off of TCM, with The Hidden Fortress this afternoon... I had not seen this one before, but was aware of it through discussions of its influence on George Lucas. I quite enjoyed it and I tried to take it in on its own merits and not to focus on picking out the bits Lucas riffed off of in the various Star Wars films over the years (which proved difficult as some were blatantly obvious and one seen reminded me of a scene from Indiana Jones and Temple of Doom). Even without its role in Star Wars lore, this was a magnificent film. It felt and looked a little different from the two earlier offerings I watched, and felt more akin to Seven Samurai and Yojimbo which were the only Kursosawa films I remember having seen before I started this block of films. It featured strong characters, an engaging story and stunning visual work. -M
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Post by berkley on May 15, 2020 23:20:04 GMT -5
I think "riff" is the right word - as opposd to "rip", which I've also seen used or implied. It's been many years since I watched The Hidden Fortress, but I remember my feeling at the time was that Lucas definitely took a few ideas from it for Star Wars, but it's the kind of borrowing I think more of as "inspiration" and I don't have any problem with it. Regardless, The Hidden Fortress is a great movie that any film fan will want to seek out.
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Post by codystarbuck on May 15, 2020 23:29:01 GMT -5
I think "riff" is the right word - as opposd to "rip", which I've also seen used or implied. It's been many years since I watched The Hidden Fortress, but I remember my feeling at the time was that Lucas definitely took a few ideas from it for Star Wars, but it's the kind of borrowing I think more of as "inspiration" and I don't have any problem with it. Regardless, The Hidden Fortress is a great movie that any film fan will want to seek out. He did more than riff on it, as early script drafts were pretty much a copy of the plot; to the point he began to explore the idea of optioning the film, to avoid a lawsuit. However, he moved further and further away from it as he revised the script. The idea of a princess trapped in enemy territory, two bickering comic characters, and a legendary general, who fights a former protege all come from here.
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Post by berkley on May 16, 2020 0:47:17 GMT -5
I think "riff" is the right word - as opposd to "rip", which I've also seen used or implied. It's been many years since I watched The Hidden Fortress, but I remember my feeling at the time was that Lucas definitely took a few ideas from it for Star Wars, but it's the kind of borrowing I think more of as "inspiration" and I don't have any problem with it. Regardless, The Hidden Fortress is a great movie that any film fan will want to seek out. He did more than riff on it, as early script drafts were pretty much a copy of the plot; to the point he began to explore the idea of optioning the film, to avoid a lawsuit. However, he moved further and further away from it as he revised the script. The idea of a princess trapped in enemy territory, two bickering comic characters, and a legendary general, who fights a former protege all come from here. I can see where you're coming from, but for me, the "moving further and further away from it" was enough to make it riffing rather than ripping. Looking at the two films, they feel like very different entities to me, rather than one, Star Wars, being a bad (or even a good) imitation of the other, Hidden Fortress. I love them both, but I don't feel a really strong connection between them, as a viewer.
To take a relatively trivial example, the two dunderheads in HF that inspired C3PO and R2D2 in SW were totally different in personality and motivation and therefore how they related to the princess, etc. Yes, structurally they performed a similar function to the SW androids, but I can't see it as a straight lift.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 11, 2020 6:33:45 GMT -5
Yul Brynner was born 100 years ago today: www.imdb.com/name/nm0000989So many great films, particularly The Ten Commandments, Westworld, The Magnificent Seven, etc.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 11, 2020 10:57:31 GMT -5
Yul Brynner was born 100 years ago today: www.imdb.com/name/nm0000989So many great films, particularly The Ten Commandments, Westworld, The Magnificent Seven, etc. And then there's The Ultimate Warrior...... Gotta exhale at some point, Yul. So much insanity spawned from a pretty mediocre movie....
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 11, 2020 19:11:23 GMT -5
Our local theater is locally owned and has really struggled during the COVID shutdown. Initially they survived by doing curbside concessions, selling theater popcorn. They have reopened, but since Hollywood isn’t releasing any movies they are showing old films. We haven’t gone so far but we are going to brave it tonight and see The Empire Strikes Back.
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Post by berkley on Jul 11, 2020 21:06:57 GMT -5
Our local theater is locally owned and has really struggled during the COVID shutdown. Initially they survived by doing curbside concessions, selling theater popcorn. They have reopened, but since Hollywood isn’t releasing any movies they are showing old films. We haven’t gone so far but we are going to brave it tonight and see The Empire Strikes Back. Possible a good half or more of the films I see are at the local repertory theatre nearby here, which is why my movie-watching has dropped off so much since the pandemic. Still not sure if I'll start going again whenever they re-open but the temptation will be enormous.
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