Wonderland Burlesque's Let's All Go To The Movies: Cowboys - Hollywood Style! Part I

Wonderland Burlesque's

Let's All Go To The Movies:

Cowboys - Hollywood Style!

Part I

Everybody loves a cowboy!

Especially those of the Hollywood variety.

How do those fancy six-shooters manage to dazzle on the big screen?

Well, today we'll be rounding up a herd of films which aim to give us a behind the scenes look of how those men in spurs make it all look so effortless and manly.

So, saddle up, boys and git along little doggie.

We're going riding!

Yee Haw!

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Scarlet River

(1933)

Unable to find open range near Hollywood, western actor Tom Baxter and his troop head to Judy Blake's ranch to shoot their film. Tom soon learns her foreman has been rustling and poisoning her cattle. When Tom threatens to expose him, Judy is kidnapped and the troop told to leave. With an expert makeup man available. Tom poses as one of the outlaws in an attempt to rescue her.

Released on March 10, 1933, by RKO Pictures., this pre-Code Western was directed by Otto Brower, written by Harold Shumate, and stars Tom Keene, Dorothy Wilson, Roscoe Ates, Lon Chaney Jr. and Edgar Kennedy.

Myrna Loy, Joel McCrea, Bruce Cabot and Rochelle Hudson have brief, uncredited cameos in an early scene at the film studio.

Stuntman Yakima Canutt broke his shoulder while doubling for Tom Keene in a transfer from a horse to a wagon team.

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The Cowboy Star

(1936)

Movie cowboy star Spencer Yorke, tired of the Hollywood life and refuses to sign the new contract offered him by producer Jack Kingswell. Then he and his pal Buckshot go to Arizona in search of a ranch to buy. The cow-town of Taylorsville is so dull that Sheriff Clem Baker bemoans the lack of criminal activity, and his daughter Mary, a real estate agent, finds the town equally boring. Her kid brother Jimmy, a big fan of Spencer Yorke, tries to persuade his father to let him visit the Ghost Town nearby, which is deserted. Upon his arrival, Jimmy recognizes Spencer, even though the star insists his name is George Weston. Mary discovers his true identity when she sells him a ranch, but she promises to keep it a secret. Three big-city gangsters, Johnny Sampson, Pretty-Boy Hogan and Midget, fleeing their latest crime, are hiding out in the closed saloon in the Ghost Town. Jimmy, disobeying his father, rides into the town and is taken prisoner by the criminals as they believe he has been sent to spy on them. They plan to ambush and kill the Sheriff and Yorke, whom they think is a G-man, when they come looking for the boy.

This American Western was directed by David Selman and stars Charles Starrett and Iris Meredith. 

This the second in a series of films starring Charles Starrett, produced by Columbia Pictures.

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Hollywood Roundup

(1937)

 Buck Kennedy is the stand-in and double for star Grant Drexel and is fired when he has a fight with the bullying Drexel over Drexel's treatment of leading lady Carol Stephens. The movie company is on location, and a group of gangsters, posing as another movie company, come to the location town and talk the banker into letting them film a fake holdup in his bank, but the holdup is real and the out-of-work Buck, whom they hire as the fall guy to cover their getaway, is left holding the bag and jailed by town sheriff Slim Whitaker. Things get worse for Buck before they get better.  

This Western was directed by Ewing Scott and starring Buck Jones, Helen Twelvetrees and Grant Withers.

This Coronet production with Buck Jones devotes more footage to actual film-making both on studio sets and locations. One out-of-the norm plot incident has the studio head Lew Wallace offering a job to a fading star Carol Stevens, with a semi-apology for casting her in what he calls an 'outdoor special' and she calls a 'horse opry'. This scene leaves no doubt that the B-western and its people were near the bottom of Hollywood's pecking order.

The stereotypes are there, with Shemp Howard's over-zealous assistant director, the ego-ridden star in Grant Drexel, and the deserving-to-be-the-star relegated to stand-in and stunts Buck Kennedy. The remaining crew and player roles are realistic (especially the real stuntmen playing stuntmen).

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Hollywood Cowboy

(1937)

AKA: Wings Over Wyoming

Just after Kramer goes to Wyoming to start his protection racket, cowboy actor Jeff Carson finishes a picture and goes camping. Attracted to Joyce Butler, he gets hired on at her ranch and quickly finds himself caught up in Butler's conflict with Kramer. When the Butlers refuse to buy his service, he has their cattle stampeded.

Released on May 28, 1937, by RKO Pictures, this adventure Western was directed by Ewing Scott and stars George O'Brien, Cecilia Parker, Maude Eburne, Joe Caits and Frank Milan. It was later rereleased in 1947 by Motion Picture Ventures as Wings Over Wyoming.

The same year she made this, Cecilia Parker first played the character movie-goers would best remember her for - Marion Hardy in You're Only Young Once (1937). That film would eventually become the basis for MGM's most popular franchise of the 1940s, the Hardy Family movies, most of which started Mickey Rooney as Andy Hardy, Parker as sister Marion, and Lewis Stone as the family's stone-faced patriarch, Judge Hardy.

Charles Middleton, whose character comes up with the scheme to create a cattle protection racket, is today best remembered for playing Ming the Merciless, cold-hearted nemesis of the hero in three Universal serials featuring Buster Crabbe as Flash Gordon.

From the same producer and his production company (George A. Hirliman) which made the classic anti-marijuana film Reefer Madness (1936).

While on location in Lone Pine, California, director Ewing Scott was injured in a car accident and assistant director George Sherman took over. A Republic crew shooting in the area saw Sherman at work, was impressed with his craftsmanship, and offered him a job directing the Three Mesquiteers series.

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The Electric Horseman

(1979)

Sonny Steele used to be a rodeo star. His latest appearance will be on a Las Vegas stage, wearing a suit covered in lights, advertising a breakfast cereal. When he finds out that they are planning to drug the horse in case it gets too frisky, he rides off into the desert in an effort to safeguard the horse.

This western comedy-drama was directed by Sydney Pollack and stars Robert Redford and Jane Fonda.

Robert Redford did all of his own riding stunts in the film.

The name of Sonny Steele's horse in the film is Rising Star. After a 6-month equine talent search, the steed was played by a 5-year-old bay thoroughbred called Let's Merge . Robert Redford bought the horse after production was completed and owned him for 18 years before the horse passed away.

The same horse was used later by director Sydney Pollack when helping to create the 1984 TriStar Pictures logo.

Debut as an actor in a film for Willie Nelson. Nelson also sang five songs for the film's soundtrack. Wendall's line "I'm gonna get me a bottle of tequila and find me one of them Keno girls that can suck the chrome off a trailer hitch and just kinda kick back," was an ad lib by Willie Nelson that Sydney Pollock liked so much that he kept in the final cut.

Jane Fonda cites this film as the origin of her highly-successful Workout (1982). She began teaching her workout to cast and crew members during location shooting in Utah; the class quickly grew to include members of the local community. By the end of the shoot, attendees were telling her what a positive impact it was having on their health and their lives.

Most of the location shooting was done in Utah, USA near actor Robert Redford's home. This provided a tax break for him and also made things convenient for him as he had been living in seclusion in Utah for a few years. This movie marked the first lead role in a movie after a 3-year hiatus for star Robert Redford who had put himself into semi-retirement and reclusive retreat at his mountaintop Utah ranch; his return to the big screen in this film was much-publicized.

Reportedly, a 20-second kissing scene took 48 takes to film and cost US $280,000 to shoot because of interruptions caused by traveling thunderstorms.

Robert Redford

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And that's all for now.

Tune in next time...

Same place, same channel.

If I Was A Cowboy - Miranda Lambert