Lust for Gold

What is a Western? Is it determined by geography? If so, where are the boundaries—west of the Mississippi to the Pacific Coast of the United States? Then why is The Man from Snowy River, which is located in Australia, considered a Western? Maybe it’s a movie that takes place in the latter half of the nineteenth century? But if so, what about Brokeback Mountain, which is set in the mid-twentieth century?

These questions were going through my mind as I watched Lust for Gold, a 1949 black and white movie starring Ida Lupino (Mia in What’s In It for Mia?) and Glenn Ford and co-starring Will Geer (Seth in Smiler With a Gun). The film starts off in the 1940s but then flashes back to a scene in the mid-1800s involving Mexicans and Apaches before reverting to the present. Soon, though, Lust for Gold flashes back to the late 1800s and most of the movie takes place during this time period, with the final part of the movie occurring in the present time again.

Set in the area around Phoenix, Arizona, and the Superstition Mountains nearby, the parts of the move that take place in the twentieth century are narrated, in a somewhat overwrought style, by the grandson of Jacob Walz, a Dutchman who supposedly found a gold mine worth twenty million dollars. The grandson is searching for the lost mine and becomes caught up in a murder, which a sheriff and his deputy, the character played by Will Geer, try to solve.

The section of Lust for Gold that is set in the late 1800s is much more compelling than the other parts of the movie. Jacob Walz is played by Glenn Ford in a decidedly non-heroic role, and Ida Lupino plays his love interest, Julia Thomas, although she is already married; in reality she is after his gold. It’s very enjoyable to see a much younger Lupino in this movie, which is based on the book Thunder Gods Gold, by Barry Storm.

Lust for Gold reminded me of What’s In It for Mia? in an odd sort of way: Lupino’s character finds a drunken man in front of her shop and brings him inside, who wakes up disoriented in her bed; this is just what Charlotte did in the ASJ episode, when she found Kid and Heyes unconscious by the side of the road (as a result of Mia's machinations). However, the same disdain Mia had when she wasn’t happy with people's behavior is evident in Lupino’s face in Lust for Gold, and she is condescending towards others and also not above resorting to blackmail to get what she wants. Julia Thomas is a nasty person and when, in one of the climaxes, she finds herself between a rock and a hard place, literally, it is a testament to Lupino’s acting ability that one can actually feel slightly sorry for her.

Walz in some ways resembles Danny Bilson and in fact, other aspects of Lust for Gold remind me of Smiler With a Gun and not just because Will Geer is in this movie. It is not revealing too much to say that Walz kills for the gold, just like Danny. There’s also a scene involving Julia and her husband caught in the hot sun without water, while Walz watches them suffer. Walz buys up much of the town where Julia lives and someone makes a comment about “getting as excited as a poker player filling an inside straight flush,” which also reminded me of Danny’s poker skills and ownership of a gambling establishment.

Will Geer, who is so much younger in this film that he is unrecognizable except for his voice, also plays against type in Lust for Gold; in a way, his character is the opposite of Seth because he is definitely not a kindly man. There is not one but two scenes with rattlesnakes, but the outcomes are quite different from what happens in Smiler.

I suppose, since about two-thirds of the 90-minute Lust for Gold occurs in the nineteenth century and all of it takes place in the southwestern part of the U.S., it can be classified as a Western, but it takes almost half an hour before the characters Jacob Walz and Julia Thomas make their appearances. It is only then that the pace of the film quickens and the action, betrayals, and cliffhangers make Lust for Gold a fun movie to watch.

Website for Lost Dutchman State Park (watch the Introductory Park Video to see what the Superstition Mountains look like now and to hear about the search for the mine):
http://azstateparks.com/Parks/LODU/index.html

Cheyenne Autumn

Although I had read about the Cherokee Trail of Tears in secondary school and Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce's attempted journey to Canada in college, I had never heard about the Navajo Long Walk until I visited the Navajo Reservation in 2004, nor had I ever heard about the Cheyenne Autumn Trail until I watched Cheyenne Autumn, a movie from 1964. Even though I am a history buff, it is only thanks to ASJ that I am learning about many events of the 19th century American West.

Cheyenne Autumn is the fictionalized account of the 1,500 mile trek undertaken by a small band of Cheyenne Indians, now known as the Northern Cheyenne, in 1878 from Oklahoma, where they'd been forced onto a reservation, back to the Yellowstone area of Wyoming and Montana, their traditional homeland. None of the actors in this film ever appeared in ASJ; however, there are echoes in the series of some of the characters, scenes and lines in this movie.

Richard Widmark stars as an Army captain named Archer. Unlike Mr. Archer in High Lonesome Country, though, this character never betrays anyone. Carroll Baker plays Deborah Wright, a Quaker who seems to be a missionary, as she is trying to educate the Cheyenne schoolchildren who live on the reservation. Unlike Sister Grace in Six Strangers at Apache Springs, this young religious woman who dedicates her life to helping those less fortunate than herself is much more assertive and worldly, and like Mr. Fielding in the same episode, she rides fearlessly into the Indian encampment and decides to stay with them, a decision that will have serious consequences.

James Stewart plays Wyatt Earp, and Arthur Kennedy plays Doc Holliday, in a section of the movie that seems transposed from an altogether different film; it appears about halfway through the running time and is a jarring comedic interlude into what is an otherwise serious and tragic story. These characterizations are nothing like those in Which Way to the O.K. Corral? and instead, are apparently played for laughs as both Earp and Holliday are portrayed as bumbling buffoons. In one scene, though, Earp is playing poker and declares that a deck of cards he is holding in his hand is light, just like in The Fifth Victim.

About 41 minutes into Cheyenne Autumn, Captain Archer calls for a soldier named Jones; at first the man doesn't respond and when he finally does, he says, "Name's Smith, sir." Just like Heyes tells Molly in The Reformation of Harry Briscoe!

Cheyenne Autumn is long; it runs 154 minutes and watching it seems to take almost as long as the actual trek itself. Much of the film consists of long, slow shots of either the Indians or the Army walking or riding horses. Nowadays, movies wouldn't spend nearly as much time on these establishing scenes but here they give John Ford, in the last movie he directed, the opportunity to show off the spectacular scenery of Monument Valley and the area surrounding Moab -- where many scenes in third season ASJ episodes were filmed -- including Castle Valley, which can be glimpsed at about the 72nd minute.

Overall, though, Cheyenne Autumn left me feeling flat. Perhaps it was because most of the dialog spoken by the Indians was not in English, nor was it subtitled or otherwise made clear what the characters were saying. In a movie told sympathetically from the Indians' point of view, this omission often made it difficult to know what exactly was going on. However, on the audio commentary for this movie as well as in other media, it is noted that the dialog spoken by the Indians was not necessarily that which was written in the script.

There are two bonus features on the DVD. One is a hokey but nonetheless interesting documentary, lasting around 20 minutes, where three members of the Cheyenne tribe retrace the journey their ancestors took; it is narrated by Jimmy Stewart. The other bonus feature is an excellent audio commentary by Joseph McBride, a film historian and John Ford biographer. McBride offers not only a different perspective of the movie but also a great deal of information about John Ford's personal views of Cheyenne Autumn and after listening to it, I have a much better appreciation and understanding of this film.

Official website of the Northern Cheyenne Nation:
http://www.cheyennenation.com/

Meta site with numerous links to websites dealing with many aspects of Cheyenne history and culture:
http://www.native-languages.org/cheyenne_culture.htm

Website that is an overview of traditional and contemporary Cheyenne culture:
http://www.bigorrin.org/cheyenne_kids.htm

Tombstone (the 1993 movie)

Watching Tombstone after visiting the town was a completely different experience from seeing it before going there. When I first watched the movie, I just viewed it for its entertainment value. The second time around, I watched for places I had visited and for historical veracity.

This 1993 film, starring Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp, Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday, Sam Elliott as Virgil Earp, and several other well-known actors, is thoroughly enjoyable. Slightly over two hours long, at 122 minutes, Tombstone never drags.

The audio commentary, by director George Cosmatos is excellent; he explains how the movie is historically accurate and how many of the scenes were filmed. For example, the newsreel-like footage before the title appears contains both real footage of the time period and scenes from this movie edited to resemble early 20th century film stock.

Tombstone was filmed at Old Tucson Studios in Arizona. The mission set was instantly recognizable in the wedding scene at the beginning of the movie, even thought it was rebuilt after a 1995 fire and now looks slightly different. And the signature three mountain peaks could also be seen periodically in the background throughout the movie.

The production team did a great job of recreating the real Tombstone that is located just an hour away. It was very interesting to see the Bird Cage Theatre, Fly's Photography studio, the Oriental Saloon, the Crystal Palace, the Grand Hotel, and Boot Hill depicted in Tombstone. When I visited the real Bird Cage Theatre, the employees there told me that the movie producers had wanted to film inside the actual Tombstone building but that didn't work out because they would have had to redo the interior to make it viable for filming.

Two things in Tombstone differed from the historical record (as far as I know it). First, in the movie, the gunfight at the O.K. Corral was far longer than the thirty seconds it was reported to have been. But since this was one of the climaxes of the film, for artistic purposes it made sense. Secondly, in the movie Boot Hill is shown as being part of the town of Tombstone, where in actual fact it is located some distance away on a hill overlooking the town.

Besides taking place in a town that Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry visited, another connection to ASJ is a comment made by Wyatt Earp about halfway through Tombstone. He says, to his brothers Morgan and Virgil, "For the first time in our lives we got a chance to stop wandering and be a family." This reminded me of the scene in the Pilot where Heyes was trying to persuade Kid not to draw on the bully in the saloon in Porterville because, as Heyes pleaded, "I'm asking for something, too; something we ain't never had a chance at before."

Heyes successfully convinced Kid to stand down. To find out if Wyatt Earp also was successful, you'll have to watch the movie!

Warlock

No, this is not a Harry Potter prequel! But Warlock did give me a definite sense of deja-vu. This 1959 movie, which is in color and is 122 minutes long, stars Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, and Anthony Quinn, with DeForest Kelley in a supporting role. L.Q. Jones (Clint Weaver in Stagecoach Seven and Peterson in McGuffin) and Ann Doran (Mrs. Simpson in Witness to a Lynching) make cameo appearances; Jones appeared about thirty-five minutes into the movie and although bearded, I immediately recognized him by his voice. I could not, however, tell who Doran was until I looked at the cast list.

Warlock, which is the name of the town where all the action occurs in this film, reminded me somewhat of The McCreedy Bust: Going, Going, Gone. When the movie begins, a group of riders storms into town, shooting off their guns, while the townsfolk scurry out of the way. But instead of humiliating someone by forcing him to dance a jig, the gang shames the sheriff in another way and runs him out of town. Then the gang proceeds to hurrah the town and intimidate all the law-abiding people who live there.

In an attempt to restore law and order, a town committee hires a "marshal," Fonda's character, who along with his sidekick, played by Quinn, rides into town and cleans it up. Their relationship reminded me of the two characters in the recent movie, Appaloosa. There are several subplots involving love interests, a gang member who deserts the gang (Widmark's character), and how the two main characters relate to each other. One of the love interests, played by Dolores Michaels, doesn't believe in killing; of course that reminded me of Louise in Everything Else You Can Steal.

Themes of change and redemption are important aspects of this movie. There is lots of shooting but for some reason, Warlock did not have the feel of a movie that was filled with action, perhaps because there were long periods where the people were engaged in just talking to each other.

What made Warlock look familiar was the fact that it was partially filmed in the Moab area! I immediately recognized Dead Horse Point in one scene and other places I recently visited in other scenes. In fact, Warlock also filmed at the place where I stayed, which at the time was called White's Ranch. I enjoyed the movie because of that but I wouldn't rank it among my top favorite Westerns.

The Jack Bull

This two-hour 1999 HBO movie, starring L.Q. Jones (Clint Weaver in Stagecoach Seven and Peterson in McGuffin) as a nasty and selfish rancher named Ballard, is set in Wyoming when the territory is on the verge of becoming a state. John Cusack stars as Myrl Redding, the horse trader who seeks justice and wreaks vengeance on Ballard. John Goodman plays Joe Tolliver, a judge, who appears more than halfway through The Jack Bull.

His bailiff is a woman--considering that Wyoming was the first state to give women in the US the vote, this is a nice touch in the movie. I immediately thought of Judge Handley when this character made his appearance. Amnesty from the governor of Wyoming Territory plays an important role in the film and the climax of The Jack Bull surprised me.

Notable for its beautiful cinematography--except that it was filmed in Alberta, Canada, not Wyoming--The Jack Bull is also interesting for its set design. The ranches and towns, saloons and offices, all look very different from the way they were depicted on ASJ. The buildings are much smaller and darker, the streets are a lot muddier, the interiors of buildings and the furniture in them are a lot simpler in construction and appearance, and the people look a lot dirtier as well. Probably this is a much more realistic portrayal of life at this time than how ASJ showed it.

The Jack Bull is based on an 18th century book by Heinrich von Kleist entitled Michael Kohlhaas about a horse trader of the same name in what is now Germany two hundred years earlier. It is a true story, and to see it transposed to the Old West of America makes the movie all the more remarkable. The moral issues that are explored in the film still resonate today. Available on DVD, the movie is definitely worth watching.

But by the end of The Jack Bull, I still didn't understand what the title means.