JACK COLE and the "Vengeance of the Mounted" (1948)

Owlhoot Dale Goble is a fan of the great Jack Cole, and has a particular interest in tales of the Northwest Mounted Police. This one's for you, Gobe! From True Crime Comics #3, July-Aug 1948. Thanks to nonny moose and ComicBookPlus.

Chief Crazy Horse Wins the Battle of the Little Big Horn (1950)

This here history lesson appeared in the Avon one-shot Chief Crazy Horse back in 1950. Owlhoot Dale Goble oughta dig it, 'cuz it tells the tale from the winners' point of view. Art by Rudy Palais. Thanks to scanner "snard" and comicbookplus.

I Go To A Model Show (Part 1)

Misters D. Goble and B. Napier visited our fair city recently to attend a model show, so Mister T.J. Gaston and I dropped in to visit the visitors. And thereby saw a passle of models. The vast majority of them were WWII tanks and planes, with a few subs, ships and WWI planes thrown in for seasoning. There were also plenty of cars. Most of that stuff was very skillfully done, but failed to float my boat. I did, however, spot a few oddball items that did.

This one was a flight down memory lane. When Space: 1999 was on the air, Rick Bilyeu and Mike Eisenbies used to come over to my place to watch it. One day they presented me with this same model kit. I painted every panel a different color, making it look way spacier than the original. Do I still have it in a box somewhere? Maybe so.

After seeing this, I learned that Arsène Lupin III is the subject of a Japanese manga series. Jeez, I haven't gotten around to reading Lupin I yet. 

All I know about Tintin is that Rick Robinson has a picture of him in his bathroom. Makes a model plane more interesting, though. 

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!

Classics Illustrated: The Three Musketeers & Twenty Years After

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Some years back Owlhoot Dale Goble sent me a CD full of Classics Illustrated covers.  Every time I come across it I get hooked into clicking through all the great art. Here's a look at just a couple of titles. Thanks again Gobe!

Happy New Year, 1923

I'll admit I'm easily amused. But each of these Argosy covers from 1923 gave me a smile, and that seemed a good way to start the year.

My fellow Owlhoot (and fellow Oregonian) Dale Goble sent me a disc of Argosy cover scans some years back, and there's some great stuff on it. I'll be posting many more as the Almanack rolls merrily into the new decade. Thanks, Gobe!

 

 

At the Bijou with Gobe: Arizona Raiders

The Almanack once again welcomes ace film critic Mr. Dale Goble:

I couldn't pass up a chance to see Ben Cooper and Audie Murphy together, so I got a copy of the movie when Turner Classic Movies played an uncut version of ARIZONA RAIDERS (1965) a while back. "Audie Murphy as a new kind of action-man . . ." the poster says, "Raider-Turned-Ranger."

Another chink in the White Hat Ranger legends, and not by some Eastern Revisionist Historian, but by Audie Murphy hisownself. Can't argue with that. Granted, these are Arizona Rangers, but the origins are the same as Ranger origins are all over. I feel verified and vindicated.

Also in the cast is Buster Crabbe, as Captain Tom Andrews, head of the Arizona Vigilantes, who recruits his Rangers from the dregs of Quantrill’s band after the War of Southern Insurrection. Gloria Talbot plays the Mexican girl Martina, and Michael Dante plays the lone bad apple from Quantrill’s gang of Dixie cut-throats. Fred Graham is Quantrill.

It was good to see Ben Cooper in a role where he wasn't the punk kid, but otherwise the picture was ordinary at best. Filmed at the Apacheland Movie Ranch, Gold Canyon, Arizona. Frank Gruber and Richard Shayer are credited with the story, Mary & Willard Willingham worked on the screenplay. Willard Willingham also had a role in the film.                                                                                --Gobe

At the Bijou with Gobe: War Drums

Another trip to the movies, courtesy of Mr. Dale Goble...

WAR DRUMS (1957) Ben Johnson, Joan Taylor, Lex Barker.
Okay, somebody tell me why didn't Ben Johnson never become a leading western star? Damn. Here he loses the girl to a wild Injun, played by Tarzan. I guess he needed better scripts. The guy who wrote this also wrote the screenplay for THE BIG STEAL. This is not in that league. But it is interesting, in spite of my frustration about Ben Johnson.

Lex Barker is the Apache chief Mangas. He doesn't become Mangas Coloradas until late in the film, a clever plot device. He is the noble savage, and friends with Luke Fargo, a friendly trader who respects the Indians and their ways. (With screen names like Luke Fargo, no wonder Johnson never made it to the Bigs.) Enter trouble, in the guise of Riva, a Mexican maiden (?) played by Joan Taylor. She is rescued from captivity by evil Mexicanos into captivity by Mangas. Luke Fargo is smitten with her. He tries to buy her from Mangas, to make her his wife. She seems okay with the deal, but Mangas declines. Back in the Injun camp, Mangas declares that they will marry. Riva acquiesces only after Mangas agrees that she will be a fellow warrior and not a stay-at-home squaw. She learns to hunt and fight and wear a push-up bra. Everyone is happy but Luke Fargo, but he's too nice a guy to make a fuss.

Then some shit happens: Gold is discovered, the Civil War, nose-rubbing.  Mangas is captured by villainous bad guys, gets horse-whipped and gives up his peaceable ways. (Peaceable to everyone but the Mexicanos. It is always open season on Mexicanos for the Apache.) Mangas paints for war. (Did Apaches paint for war?) It's all a big misunderstanding, but people get killed, and so forth and so on. Luke Fargo, now a Captain of cavalry, rides out to do what he can. Big battle.

I wouldn't depend on this very heavily as a history lesson. It's not big on battle scenes either. The love story is semi-tragic but otherwise rather lame. Mangas wears his pants up to his armpits. Ben Johnson gets shafted again, but not by the Injuns. The scenery is good. Everyone wears clean, new clothes. It's in Technicolor. The horses are not named. The smoke signals are really badly done. No microphone booms or airplanes appear. Not awful.                                                                                -Gobe

At the Bijou with Gobe: Man with the Gun

Another fine film review from Dale Goble...

What we have here is Robert Mitchum and Jan Sterling supported by the usual suspects. Directed by Richard Wilson, with story and screenplay by N.B. Stone Jr. and Richard Wilson. The IMDb synopsis reads:
A stranger comes to town looking for his estranged wife. He finds her running the local girls. He also finds a town and sheriff afraid of their own shadow, scared of a landowner they never see who rules through his rowdy sidekicks. The stranger is a town tamer by trade, and he accepts a $500 commission to sort things out.

The estranged wife description spoils about fifteen minutes of suspense in the film, it's supposed to be a surprise, but not much of one. The storyline is routine, town hires gunman, stuff happens, the townspeople get cold feet, gunman refuses to be fired. The back story is another stock plot; the bitter exchanges with the estranged wife (Sterling) are routine, but, aw shucks, you just know they still love each other.
The difference in the film from all the others is in the method Clint Tollinger (Mitchum) uses in bringing justice to the town. I will let that part of the movie be a surprise for you. Karen Sharpe and John Lupton provide the clean cut young couple. Leo Gordon is the principle trouble maker, Claude Akins turns in a few minutes of grinning menace, Henry Hull, Emile Meyer, Ted de Corsi, and James Westerfield are the supporting players.

The synopsis says Nelly Bain (Jan Sterling) "runs the local girls," which is definitely not a contemporary description. The film is very careful to point out that Nellie's girls are dancers and nothing else. They work in the saloon but they live in Nelly's house and are chaperoned and there's no hanky panky and male visitors are restricted to the front porch. One of Nelly's "girls" is the uncredited 24 year-old Angie Dickenson in her third movie. Ms. Dickenson plays yet another saloon girl, with bestockinged legs displayed to advantage, practicing for RIO BRAVO four years later.

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.