Henry Hathaway Directed about 27 Westerns. Four during the 50’s.
In 1951, Hathaway entered the Golden Age of Westerns riding high,
Directing top projects Starring the top players of the day.
Such was Rawhide, Starring Susan Hayward and Tyrone Power.
Rawhide / 1951
A story told with a blazing .44 !
Power and Hayward, share Top Bill.
Famous Lone Pine (location) never looked so good.
Whew !… it’s steamy out here in the desert.
These steamy posters (and some Preview Trailers) were typical of a lot of Movie advertising in the 40’s and 50’s which often advertised Movies in completely misleading, sensationalized, exaggerated – or even non-existent – ways. It seemed that the Marketing people had free reign to sell the product any way they wanted or could. Inferred sexual shenanigans was a popular ploy. In other words, your likelihood of actually seeing Tyrone Power groping Susan Hayward was highly unlikely (if that’s what you were going to the movie for?) And didn’t happen.
The only real groper in the Movie is the backshooting, kid shooting, lecherous, leering JACK ELAM! (Did I mention that he plays a badguy?)
Although Jack had appeared in 13 previous movies, he says Rawhidewas his breakthrough role – and he has a sizable part with plenty of dialogue.He had made his mark and in Rawhide, he really chews the scenery and steals almost every scene he’s in.
It’s interesting that some Support/Character Actors appeared
in more Classic Movies that Top Billed Stars.
Brother Bruce sent me a pic of a scene (and the accompanying dialogue) from one of his favorite Westerns, Sergio Leone’sOnce Upon a Time in the West – a favorite of many Western fans.
Here it is – the classic opening scene of the shootout at the railway station:
Bronson: “Did you bring a horse for me?”
Jack Elam: “Looks like we’re shy one horse.”
Bronson (shaking his head): “You brought two too many.”
I figured I might as well show the whole scene.
– accompanied by a very interesting Once Upon a Time in the West Trivia Question:
Who was the third badguy?
Most any Western movie fan will know the 3 other actors in the scene:
Charles Bronson (Harmonica)Jack Elam (Snaky)Woody Strode (Stony)
But who was that third badguy?
?
Would anybody go through the trouble of casting 2 very famous Western Movie actors (Elam and Strode) as two of the badguys
and then just stick a nobody in the third role?
???
Not likely.
I’ll give you the answer right now though now because it’s a tough question
and only a very few Leone and Once Upon a Time in the West
fans would know the answer.
Al Mulock
Never heard of him right?
Well after I tell you ‘The Rest of the Story’ you may never forget him.
Wikipedia says:
Alfred Mulock Rogers
(30 June 1926 – May 1968)
– better known as Al Mulock or Al Mulloch, was a Canadian character actor.
Mulock was the great-grandson of Sir William Mulock (1843 – 1944), the former Canadian Postmaster-General.
He attended the Lee Strasberg’s Actors Studio in New York City, United States. Then, with David de Keyser, he started The London Studio which taught method acting to British actors. Mulock became active in the British film industry in the 1950s and early 60s making numerous appearances in various British television series and films.
He is best known for his roles in Spaghetti Western films, most notably in his two collaborations with Sergio Leone, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and Once Upon a Time in the West.
Mysterious Death:
Mulock committed suicide by jumping from his hotel room in Guadix, Granada, Spain in May 1968, during the filming for Once Upon a Time in the West. He was wearing his cowboy-style costume at the time of his fall. Mickey Knox, screenwriter for the film, and production manager Claudio Mancini witnessed Mulock’s suicide as his body passed their hotel window near the end of the shoot. Mulock survived the fall but suffered a pierced lung from a broken rib during the bumpy ride to the hospital. Before being taken away in the ambulance, director Sergio Leone shouted “get the costume, we need the costume”.
The reasons for his suicide, as well as for his choice of killing himself while wearing his costume, are unknown. Though they had been separated for some time before her death, his wife had died the year before of cervical cancer. Mickey Knox also claimed in his book “The Good, the Bad and the Dolce Vita” that Mulock was a drug addict, and committed suicide out of desperation as he was unable to acquire drugs in Guadix.
But nobody really knows??
Al Mulock Partial Filmography (Westerns)
The Hellions(1961)
– a little known (and hard to get) British Western style film starring Richard Todd, Anne Aubrey, Lionel Jeffries, Ronald Fraser and Colin Blakely that was set and filmed in South Africa.
The Hellbenders / 1966 (with Joseph Cotten) Day of Anger / 1967 (with Lee Van Cleef) Shoot Twice / 1969 (with Klaus Kinski)
others …
All rather incredible.
It’s doubtful that Al Mulock‘strivia question will ever be as big as the famous Magnificent Seven trivia question: Who was the Seventh member? (of The Magnificent Seven) …
But it’s almost twice as interesting – and a lot more tragic.
The made-for-television western The Sacketts combines the plotlines from two seperate Louis L’Amour novels, The Daybreakers and The Sacketts. In this film, the three Tennessee-raised Sackett brothers migrate to the West following the conclusion of the Civil War. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide.
Made ten years before Lonesome Dove, The Sacketts (1979) may well have been the first great Western Mini Series – and in looking at the cast, it’s easy to understand why some Western fans may hold it with similar esteem,with Western Greats like Glenn Ford, Sam Elliott, Tom Selleck, Slim Pickens, Jack Elam, Ben Johnson, L.Q. Jones, and some notable support players including John Vernon, Gilbert Roland, Buck Taylor… and on. Pretty impressive. So although The Sacketts does show itself to be a little shy in production values compared to modern fair, it still shines with notable Star Power.
