Took me longer than an ‘Hour‘ though …
Category: Hour of the Gun
James Garner Western Filmography …
I thought it would be rather easy to throw something together for James Garner. Not so !! Just the Maverick stuff itself seemed like a small industry – with TV Series, spin-offs, Movies, Mini Series … etc.
Let’s get started:
Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend with Randolph Scott / 1957
Garner’s first Western. Pretty well any Western with Randolph Scott is either very watchable or Classic.
Scott and Garner
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Maverick / TV Show
“Who is the tall dark stranger there … ??”
Why it’s Maverick of course ! Most likely Bret Maverick (James Garner)
After Garner left the show during the 3rd Season …
It just wasn’t the same.
Maverick – in Film and TV – went through a few permutations and convolutions over the years and will need to be covered in more depth later.
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Garner made a cameo appearance in the Bob Hope Western Comedy
Alias Jesse James.
Couldn’t find any pics of James so I’m inserting Gloria Talbott instead. Yeah.
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Duel at Diablo: Garner with Sydney Poitier / 1966
I don’t know much about this movie .. will have to catch up.
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One of My Favorites: Hour of the Gun / 1967
Garner is scary stern as Wyatt Earp
and Robards is brilliant as Doc Holliday.
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Support Your Local Sheriff / 1966
Garner’s comic talents were exploited often:
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Sledge / 1970
What happens when you mix spaghetti with beef?
You get Sledge.
Some decent people in here.
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More comedy …
Support Your Local Gunfighter / 1971
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Disney calls:
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Not everything worked:
Young Maverick – TV Show / 1979
Starred Charles Frank as Ben Maverick. Really.
Lasted 8 episodes.
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Then … suddenly:
Murphy’s Romance / 1985
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Was this a Western ? I believe I spot a car in there.
Garner as legendary lawman Wyatt Earp (again) and Bruce Willis as legendary Western actor Tom Mix,
but I’m not sure.
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Maverick – the movie / 1994
Garner, Gibson and Jodie Foster and James Coburn and Graham Greene
and others …
Garner appears as the much rumoured “Pappy” …
Gibson reprises Bret.
A fun movie – good cast
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Then …
Streets of Laredo – 3 part mini-series … also a Great Cast:
Garner, Sissy Spacek, Sam Shepard, Ned Beatty, Randy Quaid,
Wes Studi, Charles Martin Smith …
and Alexis Cruz does a good job as the villain.
______________________Shepard, Garner, Spacek_____________________
will cover this better – later.
Whew !!!
Upcoming:
Maverick: The TV Show
Hour of the Gun
Streets of Laredo
Related articles
- Murphy’s Romance (1985) … (myfavoritewesterns.com)
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Gunfight at the OK Corral … Earps doing ‘the walk’ revisited
Earps doing the walk …
Updated graphics
Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, John Hudson, DeForest Kelley
Gunfight at the OK Corral (1957)
Directed by John Sturges
Frank Converse, Sam Melville, Jason Robards, James Garner
Hour of the Gun (1967)
Directed by John Sturges
Val Kilmer, Sam Elliott, Kirk Russel, Bill Paxton
Tombstone (1993)
Directed by George P. Cosmatos
Dennis Quaid, Michael Madsen, Kevin Costner, Linden Ashby
Wyatt Earp (1994)
Directed by Lawrence Kasdan
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Robert Ryan … Cowboy Noir
Robert Ryan
Robert Ryan was already a grizzled veteran of the screen when I was a kid – and I missed most of his earlier work of the 40’s and 50’s. And to me he always seemed to be one of those actors that somehow were never young – even in his early movies – with a presence, stature and persona that moved past his years and youth.
Rugged and somewhat gruff in his portrayals – even his smile was often more like a sardonic smirk – he often played the heavy – a villain. Yet he surely played strong and well along side the likes of:
Gary Cooper (North West Mounted Police / 1940
Rock Hudson (Horizons West / 1952
James Stewart and Janet Leigh (The Naked Spur / 1953
Clark Gable and Jane Russell (The Tall Men / 1955
Burl Ives and Tina Louise (Day of the Outlaw /1959
John Dehner and Torin Thatcher (The Canadians / 1961,
Lancaster, Marvin, Palance, Strode, Bellamy and Cardinale (The Professionals / 1966
James Garner and Jason Robards (Hour of the Gun / 1967
Robert Shaw (Custer of the West /1968
Arthur Kennedy (A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die / 1968
William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Warren Oates, Ben Johnson … (The Wild Bunch / 1969
Burt Lancaster, Lee J. Cobb (Lawman / 1971 …
and more …
A heck of an actor. And these are just his Westerns !
But what Westerns they were ! At least 3 easily rising into the heights of Western Classics: The Wild Bunch, The Professionals, Naked Spur, Hour of the Gun … plus others of worthy note.
A true Western Star.
– except Strother Martin (Back left)
Ride on Robert …
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Earp’s … doing ‘The Walk’
Epic! The famous ‘Walk’ to the climactic gunfight at OK Corral
‘The Wild Bunch’ … doing ‘the Walk’? You betcha!
Intentional – or not (and I surely believe it was)
Pekinpah’s Wild Bunch do ‘The Walk’
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Guns and Killing … continued
By Frank Prassel, University of Oklahoma Press 1972
Check Your Gun Mister
Are We Safer than the Citizens of Dodge City? By Jim Higginbotham
http://www.sightm1911.com/lib/rkba/check_gun.htm
Sometimes the answers to seemingly complex social problems are hidden in plain sight. Social engineers, lawmakers and “experts” from all around spout off an endless stream of statistics to support or rationalize their position one side or the other of the “gun control” issue. Now I don’t like the term “gun control” for it is ambiguous and usually used to mask the real intent of those advocating it so for the purpose of this discussion let us just say “more restrictive guns laws”. One might think that this is a relatively new idea, it is not! You can go back to the Roman Empire and find the existence of cross bow control, you can look to England and find attempts to disarm the various colonists under their imperial thumb – the American colonists come to mind as an unsuccessful attempt to debar the use of arms to an indigent population. There are many examples of the failure of laws which attempt to disarm the violent in our society but none are more graphic as examples or easier to measure in effect than those in the “wild west” of America circa 1870-1900.
read more … http://www.sightm1911.com/lib/rkba/check_gun.htm
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Guns and Killing …
Gun laws were tougher in old Tombstone
No need to check your firearm today in the Arizona town famed for the gunfight at the OK Corral.
ORIGINALLY PRINTED JANUARY 23, 2011:
By Bob Drogin, Los Angeles Times
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/23/nation/la-na-tombstone-20110123
Reporting from Tombstone, Ariz. — A billboard just outside this Old West town promises “Gunfights Daily!” and tourists line up each afternoon to watch costumed cowboys and lawmen reenact the bloody gunfight at the OK Corral with blazing six-shooters.
But as with much of the Wild West, myth has replaced history. The 1881 shootout took place in a narrow alley, not at the corral. Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday weren’t seen as heroic until later; they were initially charged with murder.
And one fact is usually ignored: Back then, Tombstone had far stricter gun control than it does today. In fact, the American West’s most infamous gun battle erupted when the marshal tried to enforce a local ordinance that barred carrying firearms in public. A judge had fined one of the victims $25 earlier that day for packing a pistol.
read more … http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/23/nation/la-na-tombstone-20110123
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Lancaster as Earp – the ‘Grin’ and the Grim
In rebuilding my ‘Gunfight at the OK Corral‘ page I got to thinking about Lancaster’s portrayal of Wyatt Earp. In earlier films Lancaster had become famous for his trademark smile – which he is said to have referred to as “the grin” – most obvious in ‘Vera Cruz’ (one of My Favorite Westerns). Therefore his stoic and stern portrayal of Wyatt Earp in ‘Gunfight at the OK Corral’ is a stark and deliberate contrast. Was Earp really like this? Because this same humorless image of Earp is carried on through most of the other popular Earp Films: ‘Hour of the Gun‘; ‘Tomestone’ and ‘Wyatt Earp’. Only Henry Fonda‘s portrait of Earp in ‘My Darling Clementine‘ (1946) seems to put a more human face on Earp. Director John Sturges (‘Gunfight at the OK Corral’) continued with this strict image of Earp in ‘Hour of the Gun’ (1968) which starred James Garner as Earp. Garner’s ruthless portrayal of Earp is even more striking because of Garner’s usual soft and often comedic persona from the ‘Maverick’ TV series. It is safe to say however, that Sturges wasn’t very concerned with a historical portrayal of Earp (Lancaster doesn’t even sport a mustache) or the gunfight at the OK Corral. But it seems ironic that the film that makes the greatest effort to paint a historical document of Earp (Lawrence Kasdan‘s ‘Wyatt Earp’ starring Kevin Costner as Earp) is probably the least popular of five films.
