the hole in the wall gang and alias smith and jones

Here's some people that are well known from TV and the movies.  The Hole in the Wall gang, in a colourised photograph from Mads Madsen, originally taken in Fort Worth, Texas in 1900.
The outlaws are (from left to right) Harry Alonzo Longabaugh (The Sundance Kid),William Carver (News),  Ben Kilpatrick (The Tall Texan), Harvey Logan (Kid Curry) and Robert Leroy Parker (Butch Cassidy).
They look like men you would not want to get an argument with, but look nothing like how they where generally portrayed in popular movies and on TV, and, unlike what it says at the beginning of 'Alias Smith and Jones', Kid Curry was a hard hearted killer.

Here's Butch and Sundance from the movie (Robert Redford and Paul Newman)

Plus Ben Murphy playing Kid Curry, on the right (with Pete Duel) in Alias Smith and Jones (a TV classic).

Ben Murphy was cast because he resembled Paul Newman, and the studio was trying to cash in on the success of the 'Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid'  film.  I loved the show (and film), but sadly, Pete Duel suffered from depression and killed himself on New Years Eve 1971. The studio (ABC) were a bunch of unsentimental money grabbing bastards and made everyone continue or be sued, and filming re-commenced the same day of his death, with the man who originally did the voiceover, (Roger Davis) taking Pete Duel's role, but it was never as good.

They (the studio) must have got confused and thought it was still the days of The Wild West, and were just concerned about making money, with no thoughts of correct moral behaviour. 

The original Kid Curry would have been proud of them.

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the magnificent seven and some of it's foreign film posters

 

 

The Magnificent Seven is an overrated film as far as l am concerned, but seeing as it was just repeated on TV, l got suckered into watching it again.  Although l do like it generally, the main selling point is seeing such huge stars together in the same movie, even allowing for some overacting aplenty (Robert Vaughan and Horst Buchholz, l'm looking at you two).  There's also some cool and measured performances by Yul Bryyner, Steve McQueen and James Coburn, and Eli Wallach is always a splendidly swarthy and sweaty bad guy, but it's pretty slow paced in parts, and the ending seems to drag on, and then finish too suddenly.
The soundtrack is by Elmer Bernstein, which is one of the most stirring of all time, so a couple of hours can still fly by before you can manage to drag yourself up to put the kettle on (or maybe that's just my sloth like laziness).
I've only had the DVD of The Seven Samurai (the film it's based on) for about two or three years.  Maybe l should get around to watching that, as l have never seen it before, and it's meant to be much better.
So little time...

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django unchained (2013) - quentin tarantino

Myself and the FPO went to Teesside Park to see Django Unchained last month, as we wanted to view it on a large screen with surround sound, thinking that it would look and sound so much better than on an (albeit large) TV, and we could immerse ourselves in the story more.
We were glad we had made the effort, as it was just the type of movie we were hoping for from Quentin Tarantino, overblown, violent, and funny, but with a serious tale to tell relating to the slaves and their treatment.
Some critics have argued about the constant references to 'niggers', but if this film was to portray an in any way realistic view of the old wild west, with all the old prejudices intact and in your face, the language used had to reflect that era, otherwise it could come across as old westerns did, with plenty of shooting, fighting and killing, but with no blood or swear words (and rapid recovery from fights!).  There's a place for those type of films as well, and l am also a big fan of them, but it's sometimes a good thing to bear witness to a representation of how brutal and unflinching those times were.
The screenplay and casting was excellent and believable, with some standout performances from Samuel L Jackson and Leonardo DiCaprico, but for me, Christoph Waltz stole the movie.  Softly spoken, and full of mischief and unexpected surprises, he has rightly been awarded the plaudits for doing so.
With plenty of dialogue and shootings (from Tarantino!!?), and with a romantic quest thrown into the mix, it's a film l will be revisiting again in the years to come. The original 'Django' (Franco Nero) even makes an appearance  and was well spotted by the FPO.
The soundtrack album is also worth checking out, despite the fact it does not contain Richie Havens' version of 'High Flyin' Bird' (which is in the movie).  Sacrilege!



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the left handed gun foreign film posters

I think the Dracula type one just above is the strangest, especially as in the film, (as far as l remember) Paul Newman only has two bullets in his hand in the scene l think they are depicting.

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the left handed gun (1958) - arthur penn

Paul Newman plays a devilishly handsome role (as usual) as William Bonney (AKA William Henry McCartey, jr / Billy The Kid).  He gets caught up in the Lincoln County War, and is portrayed as misunderstood and good natured, until he seeks revenge for the unjust  killing of cattle owner John Tunstall (the Englishman), who had been kind to him.
This was written by Gore Vidal, and, much as l love Newman, he doesn't convince in the role, especially when he portrays becoming mixed up or troubled.  Apart from the scenes when he is dancing, the camera just feasts itself on his eyes, but the menace of a real life outlaw is missing.  His sidekicks were pretty poor as well, but there was a good performance by John Dehner (as Pat Garrett), Billy's friend and later killer.
Liberties were taken with the facts of Billy's life, escape and death, but that is generally expected in these kind of 'shoot it out's', although why they don't stick to the true stories when they have as much going for it as this has, l really don't know. Still, it's an old cowboy film, so it was alright by me, as expectations are low in advance.
Although the film is called 'The Left Handed Gun', he may not have been, as the only photograph of Billy was probably reversed (see below).
He sure didn't look like Paul Newman, that's for sure.

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cowboys and aliens (2011) - jon favreau

Cowboys? And Aliens?  In the same film, and with Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig?

Bring it on!  Much better than l expected (which wasn't a lot).  Based on the graphic novel.

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the hanging of tom ketchum and kid curry

Tom Ketchum, who was also known as 'Black Jack' Ketchum, was a member of the  'Hole in the Wall' gang and committed various robberies and crimes until he was apprehended and sentenced to be hanged.  So far, there's nothing unusual at all, as he is, after all, a wild west outlaw.  However (and this is where the tale gets juicy), when he was hanged on April 26th 1901 (at Clayton, New Mexico), the rope was too long, Ketchum had gained weight, and he fell (so it's said) about 9 feet, which resulted in him being decapitated.  That's not even the only gory bit (not by a long chalk), as it gets better (or worse).  Afterwards, his head was sewn back onto his body so that it could go on show before being interned in Clayton.  Now that, brothers and sisters, is what l call a hanging and aftermath.

As an aside, he also hung around a bit (see what l did there) with Kid Curry (Harvey Logan), although they apparently never got on.  Curry was later to become well known due to the TV series 'Alias Smith and Jones' (starring Pete Duel and Ben Murphy!), a favorite show of mine from when l was younger.  Kid Curry was portrayed in the show as likeable, but extremely fast on the draw.  I'm sure the real Kid Curry would have been a pretty nasty guy, and nothing at all like his TV portrayal.  The top picture is Ben Murphy as Kid Curry, whereas the bottom (scruffy and unattractive) one is the real deal.  I think l can spot a tiny bit of a difference between them.

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