Category: Western Movies

Vera Cruz … Burt pitches … Coop catches

The Power of Projection

‘Projection’ they call it. Some actors have it. Most never will. It’s the ability to take a simple line of dialogue and make it sing; have impact; the knack of making a whisper into a shout. All the great Shakespearean actors have it: Olivier, Burton, Dench, Jacobi, O’Toole …

YET … out of the unwashed West emerged several notable thespians who entered the stage via a different door: Hollywood.

Among them was Burt Lancaster …

Watch Burt in this famous clip from The Unforgiven: (1961)
http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/317447/Unforgiven-The-Movie-Clip-How-Much-Woman-Worth-.html 4:59

Sign language scene – The Unforgiven

How many actors could pull that off?

Vera Cruz: Burt Pitches – Coop Catches

Vera Cruz also has some inspired dialogue: ‘one-liners’, verbal sparring, quotes – delivered by two masters: Cooper and Lancaster.

Coop meets Burt:

Coop meets Burt

Clip: http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/274874/Vera-Cruz-Movie-Clip-You-An-American-.html

Coop meets Burt’s Gang: “Follow him boys. We was leaving anyways”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQ-dIC-0lC8

Burt straightens things out: “Anybody else string with Charlie?”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gemd2Q7Zp9w

Tell me I’m wrong, but damned if that doesn’t look like a very young George Kennedy (uncredited) standing just to Charlie’s right.

Burt sums things up: “Looks like we tied up with the wrong outfit.”

Sedona Diary / Day 3 ……… John Wayne Tree

John Wayne Tree …

Rose and I (and four other folks) took a very bumpy Jeep ride
(hang on to your saddlehorn folks) up Schnebly Hill Road.
(Theodore Carleton (T C) Schnebly and his wife SEDONA Arabella Miller Schnebly
moved to the area in 1901.
Guess how Sedona got it’s name?

Sedona Jeep tour

Eventually we jostled and jerked our way up to a viewpoint near Schnebly Hill Vista …
then jumped out for a jaunt. Climbing a short, but steep,
little path we arrived at a location overlooking the whole valley.
Beautiful! There are lots of vista shots around Sedona.

Sedona – the view from Schnebly Hill

Here’s where Nick – our Jeep driver – points to a certain tree and tells us “This is John Wayne Tree”. Really!! (He had no knowledge that I had a blog called My Favorite Westerns). There’s a photo (somewhere) of John Wayne posing by this tree when he was filming Angel and the Badman in 1947.
I believe I saw that photo once, but after hours of searching the net was unable to locate it.

John Wayne Tree

Nick claims that Wayne posed somewhat like this (above) in the famous photo.
You know … I could almost hear Duke whispering in my ear:
“Get yer hand off my tree pilgrim.”

Rose doing a “Maureen O’Hara” at John Wayne Tree
Sedona – Cathedral Rock

Sedona … see you again in a few months.

(All photos taken by my lady, Rose)

Sedona Diary / Day 1 … The Good, the Bad, and the Agony …

Sedona Diary: The Good, the Bad, and the Agony

The Good: a 3 day spiritual seminar in Minneapolis.

The Bad: 11 hours in a dentist’s chair in Algodones, Mexico.

The Agony: 3 days in beautiful Sedona, Arizona … but I can’t eat anything.

At Red Rock Crossing – Cathedral Rock

(Pictured: Fat old Western fan: This is my Charlton Heston stance … notice how I don’t really look much like Charlton Heston … or even Tom Mix.)

Sedona Diary: You can’t go home again …

It’s true … you “can’t go home again”.

Much has changed since I last visited Sedona back in the 70’s and early 80’s.
Sedona has changed … a lot …  but so have I. I’m no longer the youthful hippie who scrambled elegantly over the Red Rock and swam in Oak Creek as the sublime Arizona sun set.
Yet I knew this would be so: This is a different moment. But it’s just as good as any previous moment … and only a fool misses the value of the day by dwelling on the past. It is what it is … and I count my blessings.
So despite my dental denials I squeezed as much love and joy out of my precious time here as I could.

Onward …