Twilight Hotel was the second single to be released off of QRIII, the fifth studio album from Quiet Riot. Unfortunately, neither the single nor the video was as popular as the other single released off of QRIII, The Wild and the Young.
Director Dominic Orlando also directed videos for Kansas, The Beach Boys, Celine Dion, Dolly Parton, The Fat Boys, and several other artist that you would not necessarily expect to see at a Quiet Riot concert.
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Another frontier town is in trouble.
Sherriff Jeff Conner (Jack Rockwell) is having trouble ridding his town of outlaws so his son, Larry, (Mickey Kuhn) writes a letter to his hero to ask for help. He addresses the letter to “Durango Kid, Texas.” That’s all it takes for Steve Randall (Charles Starrett) and his sidekick, Smiley Burnette, to show up in town.
Steve and Smiley apply to be deputies but Sheriff Conner explains that someone is circulating a petition to get him fired. Steve dresses up as the Durango Kid and pressures the citizens to give the Sheriff another chance. Realizing that the Durango Kid is making them look bad, the outlaws decide to dress up one of their own as Durango and make the Kid look bad. With the town turning on Durango, will Durango and Smiley be able to save Sheriff Conner from an assassination attempt?
This Durango Kid film is different from the rest of the series in that, for once, Steve is hired to be a deputy instead of a sheriff. This really is Sheriff Conner’s story, as he tries to win the respect of the town and keep its citizens safe, even while his own brother (Ed Cassidy) is working with the outlaws. There are all the usual horse chase and shootouts but this time, Durango and Smiley are mostly around to provide support to a man who is trying to do the right thing. B-western fans will enjoy it.
Smiley sings a few songs, as always. This time, musical accompaniment is provided by Merle Travis and his Bronco Busters.
Nuclear Assault is today best remembered for being the band that was formed by one of the founding members of Anthrax, bassist Dan Lilker. (Linker left Anthrax shortly before the release of the band’s first album.) Back in the day, though, Nuclear Assault was one of the top East Coast thrash metal bands.
Brainwashed was the first single to be released from their second album, Survive. The single was Nuclear Assault’s first big hit. Helping the song become popular was a music video that featured two of the top pastimes of the 80s, going to the mall and watch TV.
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Steve Harmon (Charles Starrett) rides again! This time, he’s investigating the murder of a Pony Express rider. The murderer is outlaw leader Claw Hawkins (Bud Geary), who is working with rancher Kirby Garvey (Steve Barclay) to cheat the local homesteaders out of their land.
When local newspaper editor Jake Parker (Emmett Lynn) is attacked for trying to expose Claw Hawkins, Steve puts on a mask and dark clothing and, as the Durango Kid, he moves Jake to the carpentry shop owned by Durango’s old friend, Smiley Burnette. While Jake continues to spread the word to the homesteaders, Durango works to prevent Claw and Kirby from taking all of the land for themselves.
This is a typical Durango Kid film. This is not the first time that I’ve seen the Durango Kid protect the rights of homesteaders and, as usual, the main villain is not the outlaw that everyone fears but the respectable citizen who is controlling him. Along with the usual gunfights and horse chases, Landrush has an exciting sequence where Durango and the homesteaders have to deal with a series of fires that have been set by Claw to keep the homesteaders from reaching their land. Charles Starrett is as authentic a cowboy as ever. Unfortunately, Bud Geary and Steve Barclay aren’t very interesting as the villains. People who have watched several Durango Kid films will regret that series regulars Frank Fenton and Jock Mahoney weren’t cast in the roles.
As usual, Smiley Burnette provides comedy relief and sings two songs. This time, he’s accompanied by Ozie Waters and His Colorado Rangers.
Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone was first released by a Motown group called The Undisputed Truth in 1972. The first version of the song peaked at number 63 of the pop charts and 23 on the R&B Charts. A subsequent cover by The Temptations was much more successful, peaking at number one in 1972. The song would go on to be interpreted by everyone from Michael Jackson to George Michael to Was (Not Was).
In this video, Slash and Demi Lovato become the latest artists to cover this classic song.
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For years, outlaws have controlled the frontier town of Dusty Gulch but now their power is threatened by the homesteaders who are moving into the area. Led by the crusading Rev. Tex Harding, the homesteaders are being progress and reform to the frontier.
Duke (Ethan Laidlaw) and his gang have launched a campaign of intimidation against the new arrivals. Luckily, the Durango Kid (Charles Starrett) rides into town to protect the homesteaders. Duke’s boss, businessman Blaze Howard (John Calvert), decides that the town needs a sheriff to go after the Kid. Blaze offers the job to newcomer Steve Ranson, not realizing that Steve is not only the Durango Kid but also the brother of the former sheriff, who was murdered by Blaze’s men.
Lawless Empire is one of the few Durango Kid films not to feature Smiley Burnette as Durango’s sidekick. Instead, Durango rides into town with Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys and, while Willis does perform a song or two, there’s still considerable less singing than in the films that featured Burnette. The role of comic relief is provided by Dub Taylor in the role of Cannonball. Cannonball gets a job sweeping up Blaze’s saloon and he feeds whatever information he learns back to Durango. When Blaze figures out what’s going on, he deliberately supplies Cannonball with bad information but it doesn’t make any difference. The Durango Kid is always one step ahead of the bad guys.
Lawless Empire is a little more serious than the other Durango Kid films. Steve is not only trying to clean up the town but he’s also seeking to avenge his brother so there’s not as much room for as much comedy as usual. Lawless Empire does have all of the usual gunfights and horse chases and the film gets off to an exciting start with Durango making his first appearance with his gun already drawn so that he can disarm Duke and his men. Even without Smiley around to help him out, Durango brings law to a lawless empire.
Steve Norris (Charles Starrett) has moved to a new frontier town and is making a good living as a cattle rancher. The sheriff (Ethan Laidlaw) takes a dislike to Steve and even accuses him of being a cattle rustler. Steve is so angered that he plays right into the hands of Decker (Hugh Prosser), a corrupt businessman who secretly puts blanks into Steve’s gun and then tricks Steve into thinking that he has shot and killed the sheriff.
Decker appoints Steve as the new sheriff but demands that Steve do exactly what Decker orders him to do. If Steve actually enforced the law, Decker will turn him in as the first sheriff’s murderer. Steve may not be able to do anything about Decker’s crimes but his alter ego, The Durango Kid, can! As always, working with Steve is his loyal sidekick, Smiley Burnette.
The stand-out set piece of this Durango Kid film is an exciting stagecoach chase, which features the Durango Kid (in the form of legendary stuntman Jock Mahoney) making some thrilling moves. The scene was so exciting and popular that it was used in a dozen other Durango Kid films. These movies were never shy about reusing good scenes, effective stunts, and plot twists. (It’s easy to lose track of how many times Steve has been appointed as sheriff of a town.) This was also neither the first nor the last time that Hugh Prosser and Robert Wilke would play bad guys in a Durango Kid movie. However, this is the only Durango Kid film to feature the Rodeo Rangers providing musical accompaniment to Smiley Burnette’s songs.
Six-Gun Law will be best appreciated by fans of the western genre. Charles Starrett is as tough and authentic a cowboy as always and the storyline has some nice twists and turns. For once, with Steve being blackmailed by Decker, it makes sense that Steve would put on his disguise and solve his problems as the Durango Kid.
This video was shot in Guadalajara and a dry lake in Sayula.
This video was directed by Mark Pellington, who was one of those directors who worked with everyone who was anyone. Pellington went on to direct films like Arlington Road and The Mothman Prophecies.
Today is Trent Reznor’s birthday. Getting older is never fun but Reznor has said that he is happier now than when he first started his career. Reznor has gone from being the poster child for excess and dark tendencies to being one of the film industry’s most acclaimed and in-demand composers.
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Steve Landry (Charles Starrett) rides into another town and is once again named the new sheriff. Luckily, Steve’s old friend Smiley Burnette is working as the town’s blacksmith. Steve makes Smiley his deputy and then sets about trying to break up a gang of cattle rustlers. When Steve learns that his jurisdiction does not extend beyond the city limits, he dons the disguise of his alter ego, The Durango Kid, to go after the outlaws.
Has Steve met his match in Belle (Phyllis Adair), the saloon owner who is the secret leader of the outlaws? She notices that The Durango Kid’s boot tracks are the same as Steve’s boot tracks. I’m surprised that no one has ever noticed that before. Steve went through a lot of trouble to disguise himself as Durango but he never bothered to change his boots.
This entry in the Durango Kid series features a lot of Smiley Burnette so your enjoyment on the film will depend on how much tolerance you have for Smiley’s songs and his style of humor. Each film featured Smiley being followed around by a different group of musicians. In this one, Smiley is accompanied by The Trailsman. When Smiley accidentally locks himself in a jail cell, the Trailsman stand on the other side of the bars and sing a song about how Smiley can’t get out of the cell. Smiley does eventually get out but, later on, he’s knocked out cold during an attempted jail break. Smiley’s not much of a help in this one.
This has all of the typical Durango Kid elements, including the stock footage of the stampeding cattle that appeared in nearly all of his films. There’s another saloon fight and a gunfight towards the end. Durango rides out of town alone, leaving Smiley behind, but we know they’ll soon be reunited in another adventure.
This video was filmed in Japan during the band’s 1994 tour.
Though the band has been through many personnel changes over the years, Savatage is still recording and touring and it is still led by Jon Oliva, who founded the band in 1978 with his brother Criss. The band was originally called Avatar until the brothers learned that there were already several other bands with that name. Criss was tragically killed in a 1993 car accident and Jon has kept the band going in his memory.
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Through the Shattered Lens 