Another Look: CHUKA (1967 Western, starring Rod Taylor)

I first saw this movie at a drive-in theater (where I tended to see most movies back in those days) in the late sixties, shortly after its release. I didn't remember a whole lot about it, other than recalling it to be somewhat boring and generally unimpressive. My disappointment, I suspected afterward, might have been partly due to the fact that one of the female co-stars was a particularly curvaceous Playboy Playmate named Angela Dorian (later to be known as Victoria Vetri) who, despite having a fairly prominent role, kept those curves very modestly covered all through the picture.

Now, having recently watched the film again after 40-odd years, I still found it disappointing but for reasons notably apart from Ms. Dorian's unfortunate wardrobe choices.

In point of fact, CHUKA is an ambitious Western that hits much of what it aims for yet nevertheless misses some key marks.

Rod Taylor (who produced and co-wrote, in addition to starring) is quite effective in the title role. The name Chuka comes from a time when, as a youngster living on a ranch, he was found always hanging around the chuckwagon. He is described as "a quiet, lonely man" who has grown to become a renowned gunslinger. Taylor plays the part with a lot of intensity and comes across very convincingly as a tough hombre. He also handles the action scenes well. There is one sequence where an arrow streaks in through a window of the cavalry commander's quarters and hits one of the officers present --- Taylor (as Chuka) immediately plunges headlong out through the same window and goes into a rolling dive that ends up with him on one knee in the dirt, gun drawn, and blasting at the fleeing brave who fired the arrow. One may question the wisdom of plunging so recklessly toward where an arrow just came from, but the swiftness of the reaction --- while everyone else is momentarily stunned into frozen inactivity --- distinctly marks Chuka as a man of action and unquestionable bravery. There are other scenes of Chuka's remarkable speed with a gun and his endurance to survive a brutal fistfight that serve to reinforce this image.

The central plot of the film involves the plight of a remote army fort surrounded by starving, desperate Arapahoes preparing to mount an attack for the sake of gaining the food and supplies they are so badly in need of. The fort personnel is made up mostly of rejects and exiles from elsewhere, led by a former British commander who is dealing with personal demons of impotence and perceived past cowardice.

The commander is played by veteran John Mills, who does a nice job of playing a tormented man. Also on hand are other veteran character actors, James Whitmore as a salty, hard-drinking scout; and Ernest Borgnine as what at first appears to be just another heavy of the type he could play in his sleep, this time a bullying sergeant. The storyline and Ernie's acting chops, however, combine to give the sergeant some unexpected and even sympathetic depth. Also present, in addition to the aforementioned Ms. Dorian, is Italian actress Luciana Paluzzi playing a Spanish noblewoman who is escorting her niece (Dorian) to California for an arranged marriage. Arriving at the fort via stagecoach, the two women are stranded there until the Indian threat is quelled.

I don't want to give away too much about the ending, but the Indian threat is not quelled and the climax is a full-out attack on the fort with very grim consequences.

Another film veteran, Gordon Douglas, handles directing duties with a sure hand. The script is co-written (along with Taylor) by author Richard Jessup, based on his novel of the same name.

Ultimately, for me, the film's shortcoming comes from too much melodrama and angst covered by the back stories of the various characters. Layered a bit too heavily over the grit and action, the end result is … well, more depressing than exciting. Still, as I said at the outset, the film's goal is ambitious and it does have several good sequences. I'm glad I watched it again, I came away with a different and better impression. For the Western movie completist, I'd recommend it as worth checking out if you catch it on cable some time, or maybe as a bargain bin DVD. Your take might be more positive than mine.

Smooth Reading from Rough Edges Press

Here are two recent titles from James and Livia Reasoner's Rough Edges Press.
If you want to know why Western fiction is still very much alive and thriving, these are two good examples.

A savage ambush...twenty men slaughtered in a brutal massacre...a fortune in gold stolen! This was a crime big enough and bold enough to bring the Outlaw Ranger to the wide-open settlement of Cemetery Butte, where a powerful mining tycoon rode roughshod over any who dared to oppose him. But even that atrocity doesn't prepare G.W. Braddock for the evil that awaits him, stretching bloody hands out of the past.

Gritty, compelling, and packed with action, the saga of the Outlaw Ranger continues in BLOOD AND GOLD, the third exciting installment in this series from bestselling author James Reasoner.

The only thing J.D. and Kate Blaze planned to do in the settlement of Wilderness, Wyoming, was attend the wedding of one of Kate's friends. Instead outlaws launch a bloody raid on the church in the middle of the ceremony and kidnap the groom. It's up to J.D. and Kate, the wild West's only husband-and-wife gunfighters, to track down the gang, rescue the groom, and find out the reason behind the shocking violence.

Acclaimed Western author Jackson Lowry (THE SONORA NOOSE and WEST OF THE BIG RIVER: THE ARTIST) spins a colorful, action-packed yarn in SIX-GUN WEDDING, the fourth book in the bestselling Adult Western series BLAZE!

Noteworthy Reads: JOHN WAYNE: THE LIFE AND LEGEND by Scott Eyman

For almost as long as I can remember, I've been a huge John Wayne fan. I inherited it, you might say, from my parents (my mother, in particular).

In my pre-teen years, while my school chums and cousins all wanted to be Roy Rogers or Gene Autry or one of the kid-oriented TV cowboys, my idol was the Duke. His turn as Stony Brook in the "Three Mesquiteers" series of low budget Gower Gulch Westerns was especially appealing to me at that early age … and that appeal – for his movies and for the man himself – has never lagged.

For this reason, I have over the years read several biographies of Wayne and/or those (such as John Ford and Howard Hawks) who had a strong impact on his life. One of the best of these, A COMPANY OF HEROES by Harry Carey Jr., I reviewed here a few months back.

But Scott Eyman's JOHN WAYNE: THE LIFE AND LEGEND delves into the subject more thoroughly, by far, than anything I have previously read.

It is clear that Eyman is also a Wayne fan. (Though he comes across as even more a fan of Wayne's mentor John Ford --- yet another example of adoration for this irascible old bully and his cinematic "masterpieces" that, the older I get, I find harder and harder to appreciate – but that's a matter to explore more deeply some other time.)

Regardless of Eyman's personal feelings, however, he does a very good job of presenting a "warts and all" portrait of John Wayne, the life he led (enduring the lifelong disfavor of his mother, for starters), and his body of motion picture work. Wayne's less attractive sides --- his conflicting, half-hearted efforts to alternately attempt joining/then avoiding military service during WWII; his role in the anti-Commie/"blacklisting" years; his poor business decisions; his heavy drinking; his domination of young directors in his later years, etc --- are all covered in considerable detail. But so is his love of family, his generosity, his loyalty, his professionalism and dedication to his craft – most notably "building" the John Wayne personna, his deep awareness of his common Everyman roots and appreciation of same in the movie-going public who flocked to his films decade after decade and made him one of – if not the – biggest movie stars in the world.

If you are a Wayne fan like me, you will find this book endlessly fascinating. If you are a Wayne basher, you will find plenty here to use as additional "see, I told you so" fodder. And if you are ambivalent about the man himself but have an interest in behind-the-scene-deals and movie-making history --- especially the sausage-making Gower Gulch years --- there is some great coverage here.

Highly recommended.

THE GUNSMITH Endures - Guest Post by Bob Randisi

 

OUR MAN CLINT

The Gunsmith Continues

By Robert J. Randisi, aka J.R. Roberts

It was a bloodbath, probably fitting, given how long adult westerns and mens adventure paperbacks have been spilling blood within their pages.  But in one fell swoop publishers, with seeming disregard for the readers—or the readers that were left, anyway—cancelled all the Adult Western series—notably the long running Longarm and Gunsmith series—and mens adventure series—most notably, the Mack Bolan series.  This move, as of April of 2015, will not only rob loyal readers of the adventures of Custis Longarm and Mack Bolan, but will also put entire stables of writers out of work. Both series, along with many others, were written by multiple writers, having supplied work for many working writers for a good 40 years.  In fact, the Adult Western genre not only invigorated the western genre and kept it alive, but provided income for dozens of writers over the years. And now it’s the end of an era for all of them . . .

. . . except The Gunsmith.

Why?

Very simple answer. For the most part, the Gunsmith was created and written by one man. When Charter Books contacted me in 1981 and asked me if I could create an Adult Western series for them, I jumped at the chance.  I created a bible and, when it was approved, signed a two book contract.  Then a contract for a third.  And then they called me and said they wanted to go into the genre whole-heartedly, and could I write a book a month.  I was 30 years old, had no idea if I could write a book a month, but I said “Yes!”

I started writing under the pseudonym J.R. Roberts.  When I attended my first Western convention I discovered what anomaly the Gunsmith and I were. There were several other monthly adult westerns running at the time, and they were being written by three or four writers under a single house name. A “house name” is a name used by many authors on one series.  My “J.R. Roberts” nom de-plume was a pseudonym used by one person, not a house name. (It was only after Berkley Books purchased Charter Books and wanted to keep the Gunsmith going that they asked if they could hire two more writers, just to build up an inventory. The writers were to be approved by me, and I was to own even those books which I did not write, and receive a royalty. It made me even more of an anomaly in the genre. Once we had built up a one year inventory, I went back to writing all the books.).

           

 And I have done so since then, for over 32 years.  Gunsmith #1: Macklin’s Women came out in January of 1982, and there has been a Gunsmith every month since then.  Berkley Books decided to end of the run in April of 2015 with #399, and I was given enough warning so that I was able to place the series elsewhere and assure that Gunsmith #400 would appear in May of 2015, with no break in the action.  They will appear with a new cover design in ebook for from Piccadilly Publishing, and in paperback from Western Trailblazers.   And Our Man Clint will go on appearing in a book a month for as long as my flying fingers can flex.

So to those loyal Gunsmith readers who pick up up each and every month, you may continue to do so, with heartfelt thanks from me, and from Our Man Clint Adams.

I should also thank Charter Books, where it all started, and then Berkley Books, which has kept the series going all these years, as we all move on to the next bend in the road.

Noteworthy Reads: BEATING THE BUSHES by Christine Matthews

Two fathers. One missing boy. A friendship that binds the two men, even beyond death.

When fifteen year old Stevie Kracher goes missing, volunteers descend on a small Missouri town to join the search. One of those volunteers is Vincent Lloyd, whose six-year-old little girl had disappeared three years earlier. When her body was finally found, Vince became the prime suspect. Now he sees this new abduction as a chance to redeem himself, and to help save a child.

Baylor Kracher is frantic to find his son. Nothing this devastating has ever happened to him; when he meets Vince he's found the only person he believes might understands his terror. Working with an Internet search group, fighting an aggressive reporter who's convinced that Vince killed his daughter, neither man will give an inch. But are they too late? And if they succeed, are they prepared for what they might find?

(WD here: I read this very powerful suspense thriller in virtually two sittings and was captivated every step of the way. The multiple-POV writing style is done about as effectively as I've seen. You can read my 5-star review on Amazon. I give this a big recommendation.)

Dundee Interview Available Now at Robb Website/Blog

Today, on Julia Robb's website/blog, she is featuring an interview with yours truly. You may find it of interest.

Julia is a fine writer and Western historian whose work is well worth checking out as well, as are the many other interesting features on her site. Even if you think you've heard all the bloviating you can stand from me, do yourself a favor and have a look at the rest of the site and be sure to follow the links to Julia's own books.

Speaking of links, you can access the site here:  

http://juliarobb.com/category/blog/

Another Look: FLAMING STAR (1960 film starring Elvis Presley; directed by Don Siegel)

For Elvis fans and Western movie enthusiasts alike, this is actually a fairly significant film. It was Presley's sixth starring role and the second one (following G.I. BLUES) after he'd completed his much-ballyhooed hitch in the army.

While BLUES was a huge box office hit, FLAMING STAR did okay but not nearly as well. His next film, WILD IN THE COUNTRY, also was something of a box office disappointment. With the exception of G.I. BLUES, all of Presley's films up through WILD contained some serious elements and showed promise for his potential to be quite a good actor. Nevertheless, his mentor and manager Col. Tom Parker saw the lesser box office clout of WILD and FLAMING STAR (which featured only two song performances with one of them only done over the opening credits) as signs that what Elvis's audiences really wanted was to see him sing and dance and flirt with pretty girls and to hell with anything too somber or requiring the development of his acting chops. Hence, the following string of lightweight musical fluff (with a couple arguable exceptions) that most folks today tend to identify Elvis with today, as far as his film work.

And that's a damn shame.

There's no better example than his work in FLAMING STAR to show what a strong presence he was on the screen --- and how much stronger he could have gotten, if given the chance.

As half-breed Pacer Burton, Presley is dark and lithe and increasingly dangerous as the events of racial intolerance between Whites and Indians unfold and escalate in this action/drams Western. Elvis is supported on all fronts by veterans --- from director Don Siegel (this was prior to the renown he would gain in later years after teaming with Clint Eastwood in the Dirty Harry films and others, but he was a well-established craftsman at this point all the same); to writers Nunally Johnson and Clair Huffaker (on whose novel the screenplay was based); to co-stars such as Steve Forest and Barbara Eden --- and he holds his own and then some. Silent film goddess Dolores del Rio plays Pacer's Kiowa mother, veteran character actor John McIntire his father. They turn in the film's two finest performances --- del Rio in a noble, understated way; McIntire in a wide-ranging arc from tough gruffness to grim, deep sorrow. But next in line, acting-wise, and not by very much, is Elvis himself … considerably ahead of rather wooden turns by Forrest and Eden.

My biggest quibble is with the whole "flaming star of death" thing that serves as the title tie-in and allegedly is some sort of premonition that Indians sometimes envision when the time of their death is near. It seemed a little too hokey and out of sync with the straightforward grittiness that the rest of the film seemed to be striving for.

Otherwise, FLAMING STAR is tight, tough, and quite satisfying. It may not be THE SEARCHERS … but it's a hell of a lot closer to that, I assure you, than it is to TICKLE ME or any of those other musical throwaways Elvis got stuck doing later on.