My Favorite Westerns

Tag: When the Daltons Rode

  • When the Daltons Rode / 1940 Part 2 / Kay Francis


    as time goes by / peggy lee
    written by herman hupfeld / 1931

    I thought I’d do a bit on Kay Francis – co-Star of When the Daltons Rode.
    As usual, this project turned out to be MUCH larger than I figured.
    But it was a rather amazing project.

    Randolph Scott / Key Francis

    Kay Francis – A short Bio

         Kay Francis is possibly the biggest of the ‘forgotten stars‘ from Hollywood’s Golden Era. Yet, for a while in the 1930s, she ranked as one of the most popular actresses of the day. By 1935 she was earning a yearly salary of $115,000 (compared to Bette Davis with $18,000). And by the mid-thirties, she was one of the highest-paid people in the United States – playing sophisticated seductresses opposite stars like William Powell and Ronald Colman.

          From 1932 through 1936, Francis was the queen of the Warner Brothers Studios lot and increasingly her films were developed as star vehicles.  From the years 1930 to 1937, Kay appeared on the covers of 38 film magazines, the most for any adult performer and second only to Shirley Temple.

           With the start of World War II, Francis did volunteer work, including extensive war-zone touring, which was first chronicled in a book attributed to fellow volunteer Carole Landis, Four Jills in a Jeep, which became a popular 1944 film of the same name.

          Kay Francis filmography is 64 movies.

    Kay’s Pics

    I didn’t intend to post this many of Kay’s images. But I could easily have posted dozens more – they are so amazing. Judge for yourself.

    The thing about these images is their incredible quality. This is Art. A lost Art. Publicity photos??! Many of these pics qualify as Masterpieces of Portrait Photography. Simple as that.

    What can I say? Stunning.

    Kay had more than a couple of ounces of Charisma though.

    The many moods … 

    … of Kay Francis.

    It’s hard to believe … 

    …. these are all Kay Francis ….

    … but they are. 

     

    Got carried away.
    No apology.

    The fundamentals still apply …
    as time goes by.

  • When the Daltons Rode / 1940 Part 1

    Doolin Dalton – Desperado / Eagles

    Into the Sunset …

    I was just a kid – or not even born – when many of the Greatest Westerns Stars who ever lived had already rode off into the sunset – or died. So I missed a hell of lot of good Westerns from the 30’s, 40’s and even the 50’s. Still haven’t seen most of them. This blog is pretty well a research project for me on a lot of them – trying to discover Western Movie history – and their Stars.

    So … I found this pic from When the Daltons Rode (1940) on the net the other day. I looked at the riders … but didn’t recognize any of them?

    Can you?

    I’ll give you ten plugged nickels and my spurs if you get 2 right.
    And they were all well known Actors of their day and beyond.

    ????

    OK … from Left to Right …
    Stuart Erwin, Andy Devine, Broderick Crawford, and Brian Donlevy.

    Stuart Erwin / (1903–1967)
    as Ben Dalton

    Andy Devine / (1905–1977)
    as Ozark Jones

    Andy as Jingles from Wild BIll Hickok TV Series (1951 – 1958)

    “If there’s anything I don’t like, it’s driving a stagecoach through Apache country.”
    Stagecoach / 1936 

    Broderick Crawford / (1911–1986)
    as Bob Dalton

    Crawford from Johnny Concho

    “I’ve made upwards of a million bucks in the ‘cops and robbers’ business.”

    Brian Donlevy / (1901-1972)
    as Grat Dalton

    Donlevy was the Lead and a big Star in those days.
    He had the chops.

    Oh Yeah … Randolph Scott was the Star of the movie.
    as Tod Jackson

    No Trailer available – but some clips exist on YouTube.

    On this poster though, Crawford’s image is bigger?

    Yet on the screen we see Randolph at the top …

    and Broderick 5th on the Bill ???
    *shrug*

    Director George Marshall (1891 –1975)

    A rather odd movie: (Spoiler Alert) LoL –
    we all know the Daltons don’t ride off into the sunset, but much of the movie is played out as a comedy? – interspersed with other nonsense –
    such as romance. (LoL)
    Even Yakima Canutt reprises his famous Stagecoach stunt.
    But in the end a fun yarn to watch …
    and historically accurate (as we know it) in it’s wrap up.

    Andy … just dandy!

    Hardly anybody can look as mean as Crawford!
    Except maybe Joan.

    Crawford with Kay Francis

    Next:
    When the Daltons Rode / 1940 Part 2

2 responses to “When the Daltons Rode / 1940 Part 2 / Kay Francis”

  1. maui1 Avatar
    maui1

    What a great post on The Dalton Rode. I really like the amazing black and white portraits. I also really like how they used a little bit of colour in the black and white pictures. I will be working on my next post.

    1. jcalberta Avatar
      jcalberta

      Thanks. As I said, Portrait Photography seems to be a lost art these days – compared to that era. And the variety of moods and techniques is amazing.

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