RIO CONCHOS: Book to Movie

Sometime back, Dale Goble ran this dual review in the Western apa OWLHOOT, and I thought it deserved a wider audience. Coincidentally, around that same time OWLHOOT alumnus Steve Lewis reviewed the film over at Mystery*File. Both guys did a great job. After you read Dale's review here on the Almanack, I suggest you click HERE to see how Steve handled the subject.

GUNS OF RIO CONCHOS
by Clair Huffaker, 1958
a review by Dale Goble

I've always felt that Clair Huffaker was a cut above most western writers. So eventually I wondered why I had never read anything other than THE COWBOY AND THE COSSACK. So I hunted up another.

Our story begins in post-Civil War Texas with our hero, Riot Holiday, and another fellow with a not-exactly-felonious reason to avoid the law, being attacked by a marauding band of Comanche. These were the days of evil Indians, when they were always marauding. The Comanche chief is named Blood Shirt--so we know how we stand right out of the chute. Huffaker let's us know right away that Riot Holiday isn't one of them John Wayne cowboys; Riot happily abandons his saddle pal to the Comanche while he escapes. Said saddle pal had done the same to him just a few minutes before, so Riot can be practical-ruthless without being villainous-cruel. Riot escapes, but is critically wounded. He is found and rescued by the McCallister boys, a family of settlers who nurse him back to health.

Here Huffaker uses a familiar literary device, but one I wouldn't automatically associate with westerns; our hero has six months to live. Seems like when young Thaddeus (Tad) McCallister pulled the Comanche arrow out of Riot's shoulder, the metal arrowhead was left in the wound, just fractions of an inch from Riot's heart. This was before centimeters. The Doc tells Riot that if he takes it easy he might live six months before the arrowhead works its way to his heart and kills him.

Riot decides to eschew the cautious living part and to go out with a riot--sorry--of hootin', hollerin' and high livin'. Except Blood Shirt and his marauding Comanche warriors attack the McCallister place and, well, Riot and young Tad McCallister are kinda forced into a situation where they feel the need to track down Blood Shirt and take him to task.  Their odyssey leads to Comancheros, stolen guns, chases, gun battles and whiskey. There's a subplot about Tad--the proverbial innocent farm boy--learning the ways of the world.

I found it interesting that Huffaker lets Riot waver from the vengeance trail once or twice, unlike most of the vendetta stories I've read. But I guess I expected that from Huffaker.  This is a traditional western with a twist or two in the tale, and I quite enjoyed it.

RIO CONCHOS (1964)
review by Dale Goble

Early in July I read GUNS OF RIO CONCHOS by Clair Huffaker. When the Fox Movie Channel screened RIO CONHOS in early August, I wondered if they were connected. I was in the Navy in '64, so I hadn't seen the movie. They were, indeed, the same story. Mostly. The film was based on Clair Huffaker's book, and he coauthored the screenplay with Joseph Landon. I saw this in the credits--I avoided looking at sources that might reveal anything about the movie.

The movie starred Richard Boone, Stuart Whitman, Anthony Franciosa, and Jim Brown. I have not been a fan of two of the three actors, and Jim Brown is in a separate category. I watched.  Riot Holiday and Tad McCallister have been transmogrified into Richard Boone's character, renamed Jim Lassiter, and aged about thirty years. So, forget the first third of the book--all that's important is that we know Lassiter hates Comanche . . . uh, make that Apache. He hates Injuns, kills them whenever he can.

Comanche chief Bloodshirt has become Apache chief Bloodshirt, played by the ubiquitous Rodolfo Acosta, who wears a blue shirt in the film. The young, innocent, idealistic, Tad McCallister is morphed into cavalry Captain Haven, woodenly portrayed by Stuart Whitman. The cavalry unit is never mentioned, but Jim Brown plays Sergeant Franklyn, so it must have been the Ninth or Tenth. We're in Texas, so I guess that makes sense.

Brown plays the Sergeant as a competent non-com without any blaxploitation elements. I was pleased. (His character wasn't in the book. Neither was Capt. Haven's. Nor was the Anthony Franciosa character, the sterotypical irascible Mexican bandit stereotype. His character might have been added to show the less reverent side of Riot Holiday in Huffaker's book, I think. Rodriguez/Franciosa does a lot of the things the Riot Holiday character did in the book's non-vengeance sections.

The story then proceeds with the quest for the guns and the desperate need to keep them out of the hands of the marauding Comanche--oops--bloodthirsty Apache. The film adds an Indian maiden to the mix, I can only guess that she was sleeping with the producer, she doesn't do much acting. Or, to be less judgmental, there has always been that particularly idiotic Hollyweird notion that you can't make a movie without dames, even WWII submarine movies have dames in them, POW camp movies got dames, and so forth and so on, sheesh.

The film turns the Comancheros into Civil War Secesh holdouts down in Mexico, and Edmond O'Brien does a little southern Colonel bit. (Boone's character is an ex-confederate officer, and by fortunate happenstance, knows the Colonel. Wow, who'd have guessed?) In case I'm sounding a little harsh, let me just say that Hollyweird turned a better-than-average book into an ordinary film. It wasn't bad, but it could have been better.

Clair Huffaker bibliography
Badge For a Gunfighter
Badman
CH's Profiles of the Old West
Cowboy
The Cowboy and the Cossack
Flaming Lance
Guns from Thunder Mountain
Guns of Rio Conchos
One Time, I Saw Morning Come
Posse From Hell
Rider from Thunder Mountain
Seven Ways from Sundown
The War Wagon

Clair Huffaker filmography
The Valdez Horses (1973) (screenplay)
The Deserter (1971) (screenplay) (story)
... aka The Devil's Backbone (USA)
Flap (1970) (novel "Nobody Loves a Drunken Indian") (screenplay)
100 Rifles (1969) (screenplay)
Hellfighters (1968) (writer)
The War Wagon (1967) (novel "Badman") (screenplay)
Tarzan and the Valley of Gold (1966) (screenplay)
"The Virginian" (2 episodes, 1964-1966)
- Ride a Cock-Horse to Laramie Cross (1966) TV episode (writer)
- The Hero (1964) TV episode (writer)
"Daniel Boone" (2 episodes, 1965)
- The Trek (1965) TV episode (writer)
- A Place of 1000 Spirits (1965) TV episode (story)
"12 O'Clock High" (1 episode, 1964)
- Decision (1964) TV episode (teleplay and story)
Rio Conchos (1964) (novel) (screenplay)
"Destry" (3 episodes, 1964)
- The Infernal Triangle (1964) TV episode (written by)
- Deputy for a Day (1964) TV episode (written by)
- Big Deal at Little River (1964) TV episode (written by)
The Second Time Around (1961) (screenplay) (as Cecil Dan Hansen)
"Outlaws" (3 episodes, 1961)
- The Brathwaite Brothers (1961) TV episode (writer)
- My Friend, the Horse Thief (1961) TV episode (writer)
- Chalk's Lot (1961) TV episode (writer)
The Comancheros (1961) (screenplay)
Posse from Hell (1961) (novel) (screenplay)
Flaming Star (1960) (novel "Flaming Lance") (screenplay)
Seven Ways from Sundown (1960) (novel) (screenplay)
"Lawman" (18 episodes, 1958-1960)
- Man on a Mountain (1960) TV episode (writer)
- Girl from Grantsville (1960) TV episode (writer)
- The Ugly Man (1960) TV episode (writer)
- To Capture the West (1960) TV episode (writer)
- The Stranger (1960) TV episode (writer)
(13 more)
"Bonanza" (1 episode, 1960)
- The Avenger (1960) TV episode (writer)
"The Rifleman" (1 episode, 1959)
- The Coward (1959) TV episode (story) (teleplay)
"Rawhide" (1 episode, 1959)
- Incident at Spanish Rock (1959) TV episode (story)
"Riverboat" (1 episode, 1959)
- Strange Request (1959) TV episode (writer)

Thanks, Gobe, for letting me share this!

The Story With No Name Part 23 by Paul Dellinger

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Owlhoot Paul Dellinger delivers another fine installment of The Story, as this round-robin saga nears its climax. You'll find Part 23 on Spirit of the Snake, a blog wrangled by western author Mark Engebretson, whose latest book is called, coincidentally, Spirit of the Snake. The first 22 parts are on display over at The Culbin Trail. The smashing finale is coming soon! Be sure to check out Spirit of the Snake and its predecessor, The Golden Amulet, on Amazon's Mark Engebretson page.

Western Roundup: SWNN 18 by Cap'n Bob Napier, A Fistful of Legends, More!

THE STORY WITH NO NAME
OWLHOOT editor (and celebrated mystery writer) Robert S. Napier brings a touch of old-time religion to Part 18 of the round-robin Story With No Name this week on The Cap'n's Blog. Parts 1-16 of this thrilling saga have been assembled on The Culbin Trail, and Part 17 appears on Open Range. Watch for next week's installment, penned by Richard Prosch, on Meridian Bridge.

A FISTFUL OF LEGENDS
Express Western's follow-up anthology to Where Legends Ride takes another step forward with the announcement it will be available for online purchase on January 31. For more info see The Culbin Trail and Writealot. Still more details, including the cover art, will be released Dec. 12.

ONLINE FICTION
Another fine tale in the Haxan series by Kenneth Mark Hoover has popped up on The Western Online. And Frontier Tales Magazine has new stories by Kathi Sprayberry and Elmer Fralick, Jr. Check them out!

WESTERN MOVIE HISTORY
Laurie Powers' fascinating "Movies in the Santa Clara Valley" series is at 11 chapters and counting on Laurie's Wild West.

SHERLOCK HOLMES MEETS CALAMITY JANE?
Howard Hopkins fills us in on his upcoming crossover story on Dark Bits.

BOOK REVIEWS
Duane Spurlock turns in a fine review of David Robbin's "Ralph Compton" novel For the Brand over at Spur & Lock.  And in the past week alone, Steve M has posted reviews of books by James Reasoner, David Thompson, Billy Hall and Bill Williams at Western Fiction Review.

ARE YOU AN OWLHOOT?
As mentioned a couple weeks back, the Old West APA (amateur press association) OWLHOOT is open to new members. Now preparing for its 30th issue, OWLHOOT is a quarterly publication featuring wide-ranging discussions of all things West: Books, movies, TV, pulps, history, OTR, comics, music and more. And it's done the old fashioned way - in print. Each member prints their own pages (a minimum of four for every other mailing) and mails them to Cap'n Bob Napier, who assembles the issue and mails it back. The current roster includes: Fred Blosser, Bill Crider, Paul Dellinger, Frank Denton, Dale Goble, Jim Griffin, A.P. McQuiddy, Richard Moore, Bob Napier, James Reasoner, Thom Walls and me, and with #30 we're pleased to welcome Laurie Powers and Richard Prosch.  Interested? Comment here or shoot me an email.

What's Up in the Wild Wild West

THE STORY WITH NO NAME
Ray Foster (aka Jack Giles) has posted Part 16 of this round-robin western on Broken Trails. Nice job, Ray! The previous installment and links to the whole shebang can be found here.

A FISTFUL OF LEGENDS
Express Westerns' follow-up to the fine anthology Where Legends Ride is now at the printer and a publication date will be set very soon. A Fistful of Legends will feature 20 outstanding new tales of the West, plus one by me. Watch for the big announcement from editor Nik Morton.

SHORT WESTERNS ON THE WEB
Short-Barrel Fiction, the online western mag fired up early this year by Gnubill, has a cool new story by Charles D. Phillips. Matthew Pizzolato's The Western Online came along in September and already has five stories up, the latest by Kenneth Mark Hoover.  Now there's Duke Pinnell's new Frontier Tales Magazine, with fiction by Dusty Richards and Ellen Gray Massey. And a recent issue of David Cranmer's Beat to a Pulp featured cowboy star Buck Jones and his pal Bela Lugosi in a tale penned by James Reasoner.

PEOPLE ARE TALKING
Richard Prosch ran a two-part interview with Wild Bill Crider on Meridian Bridge, the first part focusing on Bill's classic novel Ryan Rides Back. Gary Dobbs (aka Black Horse author Jack Martin) was interviewed here by Avril Field-Taylor. Gary himself interviewed Black Horse writer Ed Ferguson (Lee Walker) on The Tainted Archive. And Steve M has an interview with super-prolific Australian western writer Keith Herrington on Western Fiction Review.

BEST IN THE WEST
For a daily dose of what's best in the West, now, then or in between, do not fail to visit Laurie Powers at Laurie's Wild West.

RIDE WITH THE OWLHOOTS
The Old West APA (amateur press association) OWLHOOT is open to new members. Founded in 2003 by Cap'n Bob Napier, OWLHOOT is a quarterly publication featuring wide-ranging discussions of all things West: Books, movies, TV, pulps, history, OTR, comics, music and more. And it's done the old fashioned way - in print. Each member prepares four or more pages of material, prints copies and mails them to Cap'n Bob, who assembles the issue and mails it back. The current roster includes: Fred Blosser, Bill Crider, Paul Dellinger, Frank Denton, Dale Goble, Jim Griffin, A.P. McQuiddy, Richard Moore, Bob Napier, James Reasoner, Duane Spurlock and Thom Walls (all gents to ride the river with), and me. If you're interested in joining this wild and woolly crew, shoot me an email and we'll talk details.

The Story With No Name Part 10 by Paul Dellinger

The saga of Walt Arnside continues, this time over at Laurie's Wild West, in the capable hands of my fellow Owlhoot Paul Dellinger. Our treasure hunters face still more twists and turns in this latest installment, and where it will end no one knows. Do not fail to bop over and check it out. Laurie also provides links to the first 9 parts.

As of this writing, Part 11 of this Wild Bunch Wednesday Story Challenge is still up for grabs. Are you up to the challenge? To join the ranks of I.J. Parnham, Jack Giles, Chuck Tyrell, Evan Lewis, Jack Martin, James J. Griffin, Joseph A. West, Robert S. Napier, Richard Prosch and Paul Dellinger, just say so in a comment on Laurie's blog.

Editor's Note: Rumors surfaced last year in the pages of the Old West APA (amateur press association) OWLHOOT that Paul Dellinger once worked as a pulp magazine cover model. The allegations are thus far unsubstantiated, but the claim jumping victim on this cover of Big-Book Western does bear an uncanny resemblance to Paul, while the guy trying to remove his head looks a lot like Owlhoot Richard Moore (the reviewer of the Richard Boone bio).

The Story With No Name: Part 9 by Richard Prosch

Walt Arnside's bad day just got worse. Richard Prosch has swatted him with a whole new brand of trouble over at Meridian Bridge.  Fallen behind on this round-robin tale? No problem. Richard has provided links to the first 8 parts.

If you're not familiar with Meridian Bridge, now's the time to get acquainted. From his base camp in Jefferson City, MO, Richard regularly explores the Old West, and his discoveries are always fascinating.

The Wild Bunch Wednesday Story Challenge is the brainchild of Black Horse and Avalon author I.J. Parnham. He wrote the first 500-odd words and challenged others to carry on. Thus far, the roster of intrepid storytellers includes:
I.J. Parnham, Jack Giles, Chuck Tyrell, Evan Lewis, Jack Martin, James J. Griffin, Joseph A. West, Robert S. Napier, and now Richard Prosch.

And this just in... My fellow Owlhoot Paul Dellinger has volunteered to pen Part 10. Watch for it next week on a yet-to-be-determined blog. Want to write Part 11? Be ready to stake your claim next week.

Richard Boone, A Knight Without Armor in a Savage Land

A review by Richard Moore (another member of the OWLHOOT amateur press association gang). Thanks Richard!

Richard Boone, A Knight without Armor in a Savage Land By David Rothel (Empire 2000)

I have read quite a few Hollywood biographies/appreciations lately of western actors and the two best were by David Rothel. In addition to this book, there was his Those Great Cowboy Sidekicks. Rothel starts with “Milestones and Minutiae in a Man’s Life” that presents the basic facts in detail but organized in a Q&A format. Chapter Two consists of interviews with Boone’s sister, his widow and his son. The questions are respectful but not fan-boyish. For example, he asks the son about his father’s drinking, which grew worse as he got older.

The next section consists of interviews with people who worked with Boone including the obvious (Johnny Western and Andrew McLaglen) to a host of actors who were in Boone’s acting classes or played supporting roles on Have Gun Will Travel. These included Peggy Stewart, Harry Carey Jr., Peggy Webber (who met him while both worked on radio’s Dragnet), Robert Fuller, Bruce Gordon, Peter Breck, John Mitchum, Bethel Leslie, Harry Morgan and others.

Carey, Stewart, Western and McLaglen are excellent interviews, but oddly enough, Morgan who may have known Boone best is disappointing. He did two HGWT episodes but couldn’t remember either nor a movie he did with Boone. There is a touching handwritten note Morgan sent Boone when he knew his old pal was desperately ill. Accompanying a photo taken of Morgan, Boone and Milburn Stone at a party in the 1970s, is says, in part: “I miss you Goddammit! I wish… we could work together again and have a few laughs. In my whole life the times working with you have been the most satisfying and the best and most fun in the deepest sense. Love Harry.”

On the drinking, Carey says it never interfered with the work on HGWT. He never saw Boone blow a line. Others say the same thing. I recently watched one of Boone’s last movies Winter Kills with John Huston, Jeff Bridges Anthony Perkins, Eli Wallach and someone on the commentary track says that Boone was completely smashed every day on the set but when he was in a scene and the camera went on, he delivered the goods. Carey met Boone in 1953 when he played his son in the movie Beneath the Twelve Mile Reef with Gilbert Roland, Robert Wagner and Terry Moore and later did many HGWT episodes and the Wayne movie Big Jake. Carey summed Boone up well. “Dick had a powerful personality, overwhelming personality. He had probably the most - how can I put it - exquisite sense of humor I have ever seen. He just liked to laugh at things; he laughed at life, but he wasn’t a total renegade or anything. He just got a kick out of people and situations… I never met a guy like him before. He was a fascinating guy and physically very powerful. He’d been a boxer in the Navy and you wouldn’t want to tangle with him. He knew exactly where he wanted to go and what he was doing.” Carey attended some of Boone’s acting classes and wished he had gone more often. (Others attending included James Whitmore, Robert Fuller, Shelley Winters, and others).

The balance of the book is a detailed listing of all of Boone’s work and description of each of his films, roles on television anthology series, and each of his own series. There are several that I would love to view if the ever expanding world of DVDs catches up to them. There is a 1968 movie Kona Coast, filmed in Hawaii in the decade Boone lived there, that is based on a John D. Macdonald story and costars Vera Miles and Joan Blondell. Another is a United States Steel Hour episode called “Little Tin Drum” from 1959 that co-starred Fritz Weaver and Gene Hackman where Hackman and Boone played hospital patients. There is also a Playhouse 90 episode from 1960 called “Tomorrow” which is based on a William Faulkner story with a script by Horton Foote. It costarred Kim Stanley, Chill Wills, Beulah Bondi, Arthur Hunnicutt, Andrew Prine and Charles Bickford. Now that’s quite a cast and it’s hard to beat Horton Foote scripting from a William Faulkner story! Maybe one day we’ll get to see it on DVD.

It’s a fine book and I recommend it to anyone interested in Boone’s career or more broadly on acting (and especially series television) in the 1950s and 1960s.

--Richard Moore

Coming Attraction: James J. Griffin

Yes, prolific western writer Jim Griffin (still another member of the Owlhoot gang) will appear on these pages next week to present Part 6 of the Wild Bunch Wednesday Story Challenge, otherwise known as The Story with No Name. Jim (seen here with Yankee the Wonder Horse) is the author of seven Texas Ranger novels and a passel of short stories. Visit him at jamesjgriffin.net.

At the Bijou with Gobe: Fort Massacre.

A WORD FROM THE EDITOR: For the past several years Mr. Dale Goble and I have been contributors to the Old West APA (amateur press association) Owlhoot. (Other Owlhoot members who’ve popped onto the Almanack recently include Mr. James Reasoner, Mr. Bill Crider, Mr. Steve Kaye (aka Clay Burnham) and the head Owlhoot himself, Cap’n Bob Napier.) Anyway, I’ve long admired Dale’s movie reviews, and he’s kindly agreed to let me share a few with you. Thanks Gobe! Here’s the first:

It can't just be my bad memory. I have always assumed that I saw every movie made between 1955 and 1962. Lately, evidence is gathering that this might not be correct, because I sure don't remember seeing FORT MASSACRE. And I can't remember Joel McCrea ever being old--until RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY--or being anything but the white hat hero until TALES OF THE TEXAS RANGERS. Sorry, that last part just slipped out. I was joking. Erase, erase. Here we have Joel McCrea in a cavalry movie. He's older, and the luster seems to be a bit tarnished.

Here's what the tagline was:
THE WEST'S MOST SAVAGE STORY OF HATE, PRIDE AND CUNNING! (original print ad - all caps)
The poster reads "The West has never known a "Hero" like the killer who commanded "Fort Massacre." In 1958, the quotation marks around Hero wouldn't have raised any flags for me. Cavalry good, Injun bad. Here's the synopsis:
During the Indian Wars in the Southwest, a sergeant assumes command of a cavalry detachment after it is mauled in an Apache ambush that killed its captain and seriously wounded its lieutenant. The surviving troopers must reach either a larger cavalry column or a wagon train the column is to escort. But first they need water and the nearest water hole is in Apache hands....

Joel McCrea is the sergeant, Sgt. Vinson, a three striper who is both driven and unsure of himself, and who takes a lot more guff from his troopers that any sergeant since Joey Bishop. Vinson has, predictably, a rag-tag bunch of troopers, each with their own past and peculiarities. This is standard "Lost Patrol" stuff, but the individual histories are somewhat unique. Well, not all of the characters are totally clichéd. McCrea is supported by Forrest Tucker as Pvt. McGurney, John Russell as Pvt. Robert Travis, Denver Pyle as Pvt. Collins, and the usual cavalry ensemble. Anthony Caruso plays the faithful Paiute scout. The bad guys are the Apache. The campaign Sgt. Vinson is engaged in is pure fiction, there was never a large confrontation with the Apache. Susan Cabot gets third billing but doesn't appear much or do much. Russell gets fourth billing, but is actually the co-star. If you're a thirteen year-old or me, the ending is a little unexpected.

See, there's this here problem. Sgt. Vinson/Joel McCrea is the hero. Every kid born in the Forties knows that Joel McCrae is a cowboy hero. But some of the stuff he does here seems a little hard to understand, since he's the white hat and all, and it confuses a young teenager to try to figure it out. Remember, also, that these were the days that the Injuns were the bad guys, all bad, savages, they can't even speak'um good. So probably Sgt. Vinson is justified, I mean, he's got to be justified, he's trying to save his men and the wagon train and the column and the fort. The dumb Privates just don't understand the ways of the Injuns. Joel McCrea knows better, right?

The movie is more than I expected from a 1958 cavalry film, and required more attention than the usual boots-and-
saddles second feature. I would suggest that it's worth a watch if you run across it. I give it three guidons.

Jumpin' catfish! It's James Reasoner!

See that little cowpoke in the Wyatt Earp vest on the Followers roster? Yep, that's James Reasoner. Davy is in awe of this guy. And why not? James is one of the true Fictioneers of the modern age. He’s written so many books, under so many names, that if I started listing them now I’d still be typing next week. In any given year, he writes more books than most humans even read. There's a list on his web site to prove it. I’m particularly fond of his 10-volume Civil War saga. Start with Manassas and you’ll see why. Somehow he also finds time to blog, at Rough Edges. His latest books under his own name, as far as I know, are Dust Devils (a mystery) and Death Head Crossing (a western). His latest under other names, are (I think) Longarm and the Valley of Skulls and The Trailsman 325: Seminole Showdown. Of course, he probably has a couple more coming out next week. Plus, as this unretouched photo illustrates, he’s a snappy dresser. I'm with Davy. I’m in awe of this guy, too.

A big frontier howdy to Cap'n Bob.

Davy salutes his newest Follower, the world-renowned author of Love, Death and the Toyman (and a soon-to-be sequel), hard-driving ramrod of the Old West APA Owlhoot, leading candidate to play Curly in the new Stooges flick, die-hard Custer enthusiast, swell tap dancer, and one of the premier collectors of plastic toy soldiers on the planet. Pull up a stool and bite into a b'ar steak, Cap'n.