JUBAL (1956) is one of my favorite westerns. It’s set in the Grand Tetons and it stars some of my all time favorite actors, namely Bronson, Ford and Steiger. On what would have been his 109th birthday, I just wanted to take a moment to appreciate Glenn Ford. I visited the Tetons a couple of summers ago and I thought of these great actors often! Enjoy this scene from these icons of cinema!
In 2023, our family (parents, siblings, kids, nieces & nephews, everybody) took a vacation to the Grand Teton National Park. It was one of the most enjoyable vacations I’ve ever been on. Of course, this dad got on his family’s nerves by continuously referencing the film JUBAL since it was filmed with the Grand Tetons in the background. I just kept thinking about the fact that we were hanging out near a place where Glenn Ford, Ernest Borgnine, Rod Steiger, and Charles Bronson worked on one of my favorite westerns. For good measure I mentioned SHANE a few times as well since it was also filmed there.
Nice guy rancher Shep Horgan (Ernest Borgnine) finds Jubal Troop (Glenn Ford) injured and at the point of death. He takes Jubal back to his ranch and they nurse him back to health. The two men hit it off and soon Shep asks Jubal to be his foreman. This doesn’t set well at all with the duplicitous Pinky (Rod Steiger) who’s used to being in charge. It sets too well with Shep’s beautiful wife Mae (Valerie French) who takes the wrong kind of liking to Jubal, a habit that seems to keep rearing its head with the lonely lady. This eventually turns into a powder keg of betrayal, lies & misunderstandings. Charles Bronson has a small, but pivotal role as cowhand who’s there for Jubal when things get really rough.
I bought JUBAL on VHS early in my movie collecting days in the 80’s. Of course, they put Bronson’s face on the front of the box with the other stars, even though it was over-inflating the size of his role in the movie. But that’s okay because it was probably the first time a teenage Bradley ever watched a movie with old Hollywood stars like Ford, Borgnine & Steiger. I loved the movie, and I’ve since searched out each actor’s filmography to watch their best films. Steiger especially stands out as the evil Pinky. I’ve been a huge fan of his ever since.
JUBAL also turned me on to the director Delmer Daves. Daves is one of the great directors of that time period. It’s been nice seeing some of his work being released as part of the Criterion Collection. His other films include DARK PASSAGE with Humphrey Bogart, BROKEN ARROW with Jimmy Stewart, DRUM BEAT with Alan Ladd & Charles Bronson, THE LAST WAGON with Richard Widmark, and 3:10 TO YUMA again with Glenn Ford. Heck, the guy wrote the classic tearjerker AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER. The guy was awesome!
Just to finish off a little personal history related to our family’s trip to the Grand Tetons in 2023…. I recently took my blu-ray of JUBAL to my parents’ cabin and watched it with my Dad and Mom. Me and Dad looked at each other and smiled every time a beautiful shot of the Tetons was in the background, and those majestic mountains are featured in almost every shot. It was marvelous.
Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Tuesdays, I will be reviewing the original Fantasy Island, which ran on ABC from 1977 to 1986. Almost the entire show is currently streaming is on Youtube, Daily Motion, and a few other sites.
The plane has arrived!
Episode 4.10 “High Off The Hog/Reprisal”
(Dir by Michael Vejar, originally aired on January 10th 1981)
This week’s episode of Fantasy Island is all about being someone that you’re not.
For instance, Hadley Boggs (Stephen Shortridge) wants to thank his family for taking out a mortgage on the family farm, just so he could go to MIT. Hadley has a great future ahead of him but he just wants his dad (Noah Beery, Jr.), mother (Dody Goodman), and sister (Misty Rowe) to have a chance to be live like rich people for the weekend.
Fantasy Island to the rescue!
When the Boggs family arrives, they are shocked to discover that they are going to be living in a mansion. Mr. Roarke has arranged for them to host a cocktail party with ten of the richest men on the island. Unfortunately, he makes the mistake of telling Tattoo to place an invite for the party in the Fantasy Island Chronicle. (Yes, Fantasy Island has a newspaper and, in this episode, it appears to be printed in red ink.) Tattoo decides to spice things up by claiming that the Boggs family owns a uranium mine. Mr. Roarke is not happy.
“But, boss,” Tattoo says, “I am your best assistant!”
“That does not matter,” Roarke snaps before explaining that the Boggs family could be in a lot of trouble if they start buying things with money they don’t have or selling property they don’t own.
And, of course, that’s just what happens. Roger Fox (Shecky Greene) offers the father of the family a few million dollars for the mine. Thinking that it’s all part of the fantasy, Dad agrees. Roger then sells the non-existent mine to someone else because it turns out that Roger is a con artist at heart. Fortunately, with Roarke’s help, the family is able to con Roger into giving them back the non-existent mine and Hadley even falls in love with Roger’s daughter, Kathi (Kathrine Baumann). To be honest, I had a hard time following exactly how Mr. Roarke conned Roger into giving up his fake mine but I’m glad things worked out.
This fantasy was …. eh. The problem is that Hadley’s family was presented as being borderline idiots, what with their amazed reaction to existence of cars, airplanes, servants, and checking accounts. It’s one thing to make them a poor farm family. It’s another to treat them as if they’re the members of a cargo cult that has never had contact with modern human beings before. West Virginia is not the Amazon Rain Forest.
The other fantasy featured Maureen McCormick in one of her six trips to the Island. This time, she plays Trudy Brown (Maureen McCormick), an orphaned gymnast who is treated terribly by her aunt (Janis Paige) and her cousin (Holly Gagnier). Trudy wants to win the Fantasy Island Gymnastics Competition and, in the process, she wants to defeat her cousin. Mr. Roarke gives her the power of telekinesis, which Trudy promptly used to make her cousin fall off the high beam. Roarke gives Trudy a stern talking to.
It’s a struggle but eventually, Trudy realizes that she doesn’t want to win through magic powers. Nor does she want to hurt her cousin or anyone else competing. Roarke takes away her powers and Trudy, having learned a valuable lesson, wins the competition on her own.
This fantasy was actually a lot of fun, just because it gave the viewer a chance to see what Carrie would have been like if Maureen McCormick had played the title role instead of Sissy Spacek. McCormick seems to be having lot of fun loosening screws with her mind. Toss in some gymnastics with the telekinesis and you have classic Island fantasy!
This episode had one boring fantasy and one good fantasy. Luckily, the good overshadowed the boring.
Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Wednesdays, I will be reviewing the original Love Boat, which aired on ABC from 1977 to 1986! The series can be streamed on Paramount Plus!
This week, an important question is finally answered!
Episode 3.25 “Celebration/Captain Papa/Honeymoon Pressure”
(Dir by Richard Kinon, originally aired on March 29th, 1980)
Ever since Vicki first came aboard the ship, I have been wondering how exactly a 12 year-old can live (and apparently work) on an ocean liner. One of my main questions has concerned how she is getting an education while sailing back and forth to Mexico.
With this episode, I finally got my answer. When social worker Susan Stoddard (Lois Nettleton) boards the ship to decide whether or not to recommend that the Captain be given custody of Vicki, one of the first question that she asks is about school.
“Chief Petty Officer Dooley has a master’s in education,” Stubing replies, before saying that this never-before-mentioned character served as Vicki’s tutor.
Well, I’m glad that’s been cleared up. Still, it is interesting that we’ve never before seen or even heard of this Dooley character. We don’t even see Dooley in this episode. You would think the social worker would want to talk to the person who is in charge of Vicki’s education. Instead, Susan sees the rest of the crew, all of whom try to be on their best behavior in order to convince her that the Love Boat is not the floating HR nightmare that we all know it is.
(Still, at least the crew tried. I’m surprised Doctor Bricker didn’t just try to sleep with her or something….)
This would be a really depressing episode of the Captain wasn’t awarded custody. Luckily, Susan is so impressed by the crew that she says she will definitely file a positive report. As she put it, Vicki not only has one wonderful parent. She has “Five wonderful parents!” Let’s see — Stubing, Julie, Gopher, Isaac, Doc …. yep, that’s five. I’m sure Chief Petty Officer Dooley appreciates being left out of the group.
Isaac has more to worry about than just Captain Stubing’s situation. Isaac is convinced that an old man named Gordon (Noah Beery, Jr.) is bank robber! Gordon, who works as a bank guard at the port, is sailing on the Love Boat with his wife of 30 years, Betty (Alice Faye). Gordon is spending a lot of money. Isaac worries that Gordon stole the money but actually, it turns out that Gordon is just spending his life savings because his wife is in poor health and he wants to make sure that she has a wonderful vacation. Unfortunately, Gordon spends too much on a diamond ring. His wife, realizing what Gordon has done, secretly exchanges the ring for a cheaper one and tells her husband that she doesn’t need a life of luxury. She just needs him. Awwwwwww! What a sweet old couple.
Finally, there are two real criminals on the boat. Ralph (Norman Alden) and Ben (Richard Bakalyan) are two mob enforces who have been sent to accompany the boss’s daughter (Eve Plumb) on her honeymoon with her un-connected husband, Mark (Sal Viscuso). Ralph and Ben’s presence makes Mark so uncomfortable that he can’t even consummate his marriage. Ralph and Ben try to make things romantic for the couple. Eventually, Doc Bricker tells the gangsters that Mark has a fictional disease, which causes Ralph and Ben to back off. The married couple finally gets to celebrate their honeymoon. But Mark still married into a mafia family so he’ll probably be machine-gunned as soon as he steps off the boat.
With the exception of the stupid Mafia story, this was a sweet episode. I’m glad things worked out for the old couple and for Vicki and the Captain. The Love Boat is not really a show that you watch for the acting but Gavin MacLeod’s natural sincerity always served him well whenever the show focused on his role as Vicki’s father. Plus, I no longer have to worry about whether or not Vicki is going to have more than a sixth grade education. So that’s a good thing.
Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Sundays, I will be reviewing the made-for-television movies that used to be a primetime mainstay. Today’s film is 1973’s The Alpha Caper! It can be viewed on YouTube!
After years of faithful service and hard work, parole officer Mark Forbes (Henry Fonda) is on the verge of mandatory retirement. He’s spent his entire career playing by the rules and taking orders and helping recently released criminals go straight. For all of his service, all he’s gets is a small party and a cheap retirement gift.
Still, Mark is on the job when he gets a call that one of his parolees, Harry (Noah Beery, Jr.), is currently in the middle of a stand-off with the cops. Mark goes to the crime scene, where he discovers that Harry was trying to rob a warehouse full of weapons. He also discovers that Harry is dying, as the result of being shot by the police. Before Harry passes, he tells Mark that he and three other ex-cons were plotting to steal a shipment of gold bars.
Mark decides to carry out Harry’s plan. Working with Mitch (Leonard Nimoy), Tudor (Larry Hagman), and Scat (James McEachin), Mark comes up with a plan to rob the armored cars that are going to be transporting the gold. While Tudor and Scat are quick to join up with Mark, Mitch is a bit more hesitant. In the end, though, they all decide to work together. The plan they come up with is a clever one but its main strength is that it’s being spearheaded by Mark, a man who no one would ever expect to commit a crime. No one but his colleague and friend, Lee (John Marley), that is.
I watched The Alpha Caper last night, with my friend Phil, Janeen, and Spiro. To be honest, I selected the film because the title led me to suspect that it would be a science fiction film of some sort. I was a little surprised when it turned out to be a crime thriller but I was even more surprised by just how good the film itself turned out to be. Cleverly plotted and well-acted by the entire cast (and featuring a scruffy Leonard Nimoy playing a role that’s about as far from the coldly logical Mr. Spock as one can get), The Alpha Caper is an entertaining crime film but it’s also surprisingly poignant. Mark is someone who feels that he’s lived his entire life without taking a single risk and, as a result, he has nothing to show for it. He compares his situation to the mythical Kilroy of “Kilroy was Here” graffiti fame. Kilroy will always be remembered, even though no one is really sure who he was. Mark fears that he’s destined to be forgotten. The robbery is Mark’s way of announcing that “Mark Forbes was here.” The film ends on a surprisingly touching, if rather bittersweet, note.
The Alpha Caper originally aired on ABC on October 6th, 1973. It was apparently meant to be a pilot for an anthology show that would be called Crime. The series wasn’t picked up but, two years later, The Alpha Caper was theatrically released in Italy. Today, it can be seen on YouTube. Like Mark Forbes and Kilroy, the film has not been forgotten.
Randolph Scott stars in The Doolins of Oklahoma, a fictionalized account of the career of the real-life western outlaw, Bill Doolin.
Doolin (played, naturally, by Randolph Scott) may have once rode with the fearsome Dalton Brothers but, according to this film, he was actually just an ordinary, salt of the Earth type who wanted to settle down with the right woman and lead a normal life. It looks like he might get that opportunity after the Daltons are killed and Doolin tires of leading his own gang of outlaws. Doolin settles in a Oklahoma town, takes a new name, and falls in love with Elaine (Virginia Hutton). But when both the members of his old gang and a veteran lawman (George Macready) show up in town, Doolin learns that the past cannot be escaped.
The plot of The Doolins of Oklahoma is nothing special, though it’s portrayal of the outlaws being more honorable than law enforcement may have been surprising in 1949. The main thing that distinguishes The Doolins of Oklahoma is the cast, which is full of western veterans like John Ireland, Noah Beery Jr., Charles Kemper, Frank Fenton, and Jock Mahoney. Not surprisingly Randolph Scott is ideally cast as a weary cowboy who just wants to settle down and live the rest of his life in peace. Scott is well-matched by MacReady, as the marshal who will not let anything stand in the way doing his duty as a member of law enforcement. Gordon Douglas directs crisply and energetically and every member of the main cast gets at least one big moment in which to distinguish themselves. The Doolins of Oklahoma may not be a groundbreaking film but it will be enjoyed by fans of the western genre.
In the dead of night, a train stops in an isolated western town. Only one passenger disembarks. Majesty Hammond (Jo Ann Sayers) is a wealthy Bostonian, who has traveled all the way to the town to try to prevent her bother from marrying a local woman. Majesty takes a seat in the station and waits for someone to come get her.
After a few minutes, a drunken ranch foreman named Gene Stewart (Victor Jory) enters the station. He has made a bet with the local sheriff (Tom Tyler) that he can convince the first new woman to arrive in town to marry him. Stewart’s friends find a priest but before Gene can force the priest to marry them, a local girl named Bonita (Esther Estrella) rides up and tells Gene that one of the ranch hands, Danny (Alan Ladd, the future Shane in one of his earliest roles), has been forced to flee town after getting into a fight with the sheriff.
As if that’s not bad enough, Gene then discovers that Majesty’s brother is going to marry Flo Kingsley (Ruth Rogers), who happens to be Gene’s employer! Ashamed of his behavior, Gene leads Majesty to Flo’s ranch.
After some initial weariness, Majesty is convinced that Flo and her brother really are in love. Flo explains to Majesty how life works out in the frontier and Majesty is even able to forgive Gene for his drunken antics. Majesty decides to buy a ranch in town but what she doesn’t know is that corrupt businessman Hayworth (Morris Ankrum) is using the ranch to smuggle weapons to the Mexican army and that he’s working with the sheriff! Majesty is going to need Gene’s help to run the ranch but, after getting into another fighting with the sheriff, Gene goes into hiding. Can Majesty find Gene and convince him to return to town?
Based on a novel by Western specialist Zane Grey, The Light of Western Stars is only 65 minutes long but it packs a lot of plot and a lot of action into those sixty minutes. Of course, the plot is pretty standard stuff but, for B-movie fans, it’s a chance to see Victor Jory in a rare leading role and also a chance to see what Alan Ladd was doing before he became a noir mainstay. Hard-drinking and occasionally irresponsible, Gene is an interesting hero and Jory does a good job playing him. Alan Ladd doesn’t make a huge impression as Danny but he looks convincing fleeing town on horseback and that’s all the role really requires.
For many viewers, though, the main appeal of Light of Western Stars will be the beautiful Jo Ann Sayers as Majesty. Primarily a stage actress, Sayers only appeared in 16 films before she got married and semi-retired but she made an impression in every one of them. That’s certainly the case here, where her beauty makes it very plausible that even a wanted man would return to town just to be with her.
During the final weeks of the Civil War, a group of Confederates, led by Joe Barlow (Dan Duryea,) hijacked a shipment of Union gold and buried it near Phantom Hill, Texas. Now that the war is over and Barlow is in custody, he makes an offer. He’ll lead the government to the gold in return for a pardon. Needing the money, the government agrees to Barlow’s conditions. A group of Cavalrymen, led by Matt Martin (Robert Fuller), are ordered to accompany Barlow to Phantom Hill and retrieve the gold. Because the gold itself is buried near Comanche territory, the men will be traveling undercover. If Martin and his men are captured or killed, the U.S. government will disavow any knowledge of the them. Cue the Mission Impossible theme.
It’s an eventful journey to Phantom Hill. When a local sheriff recognizes Barlow as a wanted criminal, Martin has to convince him not to kill Barlow. The sheriff agrees, on the condition that Martin and his men escort a prostitute named Memphis (Jocelyn Lane) out of town. When a group of outlaws discover that Martin and Barlow are heading for the gold, they take off after them. Meanwhile, Barlow has a few plans of his own.
Incident at Phantom Hill is a fast-moving B-western, the type that will be appreciated by fans of the genre. There are a few good shootouts. Jocelyn Lane is beautiful as Memphis, Robert Fuller is firm at Matt Martin, and Dan Duryea is dangerous as Joe Barlow. The outlaws are unusually cruel and the scene where the kill a comic relief character was probably shocking for 1966. The most interesting thing about the movie is its portrayal of Union officers working with former Confederates and the struggle to determine where everyone fits in now that the Civil War is over. Barlow is not to be trusted by the relationship between Memphis and Matt suggests that the country can come back together as long as everyone has a common enemy that needs to be defeated.
Duke Wayne wasn’t the only movie cowboy who fought WWII in Hollywood. Randolph Scott battled fascism in quite a few war dramas, and one of his best is 1943’s GUNG HO! (currently streaming on The Film Detective ). The rock-solid Mr. Scott plays tough-as-nails Col. Thorwald, an expert in guerilla warfare thanks to his experience with the Chinese army, who whips a diverse crew of Marines into fighting shape to launch the first American ground offensive against the Japanese on Makin Island.
Scott and his second-in-command, the versatile character actor J. Carrol Naish (playing a Marine of Greek descent this time around), gather up a motley crew of misfits and reprobates ala THE DIRTY DOZEN: there’s battling stepbrothers Noah Beery Jr. and David Bruce (who’re also rivals for the affections of pretty Grace McDonald in a subplot), hillbilly farmboy Rod Cameron, murderous minister Alan Curtis , “no good kid” Harold…
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I seem to have gained some new channels along with my new DirecTV receiver. I’m not sure why, but I won’t argue… at least until I see the bill! One of them is Sony Movie Channel, featuring the Columbia Pictures catalog, and I recently viewed DECISION AT SUNDOWN, the third of seven Western collaborations between star Randolph Scott and director Budd Boetticher. The plot and setting are simple, yet within that framework we get a tense psychological drama about a man consumed by vengeance and hatred.
Scott, still cutting a dashing figure at age 59, plays Bart Allison, who along with his pal Sam, ride into the town of Sundown on the day of Tate Kimbrough’s wedding to Lucy Summerton. Bart’s not there to offer his congratulations though; he announces his intention to kill town boss Tate. The reason: Bart holds Tate responsible for his wife’s suicide three years ago. Bart and Sam then hole up…
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Through the Shattered Lens 