Regular readers of this blog know by now that this feature provides a shameless reason for me to write about John Wayne, and – sure enough – the Duke was starring in Cahill, United States Marshall at the Palace Theatre.
Here's a lobby card for your perusal, Pilgrim.
Gravel-voiced Neville Brand plays an old Indian buddy of Cahill. That's him on the left in the photo below.
Quite a different role for the decorated World War II war hero than his usual slow-witted oaf (like his role on Laredo).
The Journal wasn't crazy about the movie either. Here's the review from the August 3, 1973 edition of the paper.
Although the Bradys didn't see Cahill, United States Marshall at the Palace, we did see it at Amherst Theatre (where else?). And amazingly, it was the last film of the Duke that I remember seeing first run in a movie theater. I missed The Train Robbers, both of his non-Westerns (McQ and Brannigan), as well as his last movies, Rooster Cogburn and The Shootist – all of which I saw on TV.
In fact, with the exception of The Sound of Music, which my family saw in Cleveland when it first came out in its 'road show' version, I don't think I've seen any of the other movies shown on the page. We had the Sound of Music record, which Mom played occasionally on the stereo that was in the living room (which we never used and generally stayed out of). That record was played so often that I can 'play' much of it in my head to this day.
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Of particular interest to me on the page, however, is the ad for the Lorain County Fair appearance of Danny Davis and the Nashville Brass. Since the Bradys loved the sound of trumpets and brass (we had all the Herb Albert albums), Mom and Dad took us to the fair to catch the show. I'll be doing several Lorain County Fair posts when it gets closer to Fair Week.
Click here to learn more about Danny Davis and his band.
I like The Duke too but after El Dorado from 1966 John just started looking old in his movies to me and I don't watch any of his stuff from then on.Plus the quality of film in that era looks rather shabby like it was filmed on video instead of film.
ReplyDeleteBut I do watch The Train Robbers from time to time when I need to get my Ann-Margret fix.She had to be one of the hottest cowgirls that ever lived.
I see that the "VD" films, an exploitation staple since the Thirties, were still running at the drive in.
ReplyDelete"Kroger Babb - Wikipedia" https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kroger_Babb
In two short years, a shark, a boat, and three exhausted men would change the film industry forever, and not necessarily for the better.
A little Potterville to spice up the Bedford Falls.
ReplyDeleteJohn Wayne...
ReplyDeleteI don't like much of his stuff past Rio Bravo. And I mostly like *that* movie because of Walter Brennan and Angie Dickinson. Ricky Nelson, not so much.
This scene never fails to crack me up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsnPpt4r7mk
Sound of Music...
I remember seeing that in the theater with Mum. While we were routinely ditched at the movie house for Saturday Disney black-and-white double-features, we didn't do movies all that much as adults. Can't stand going out to a movie anymore. I'm far too old and cranky to put up with all the stupid, loud people with phones!
If Lorain policeman Elliott Palmer would have been on the streets back then I don't know how he would have handled himself after that little collie actually bit Woody Mantha.Elliott probably would have thrown a hand grenade at the little dog and blew it to smithereens after all Elliott killed a friendly non threatening golden retriever for no reason at all.
ReplyDeleteHey Dan,I just picked up 8 John Wayne DVDs for $2.00.And these are official Warner Brothers releases,not some public domain cheap DVD crap.I know DVDs and blurays are not the in thing anymore as everybody wants to stream on their devices,but back in the day,who would have thought that a person would be able to actually own a movie that they saw in a theater some odd years later for practically free?
ReplyDeleteI agree, it's pretty incredible. I still buy DVDs too and it's nice to be able to pop in a favorite whenever I want. There are two DVDs with 4 films each that I picked up that are truly great: one has "Hondo," "Island in the Sky," "The High and the Mighty" and "McClintock" (which seems to be on TV every day since it lapsed into the public domain); the other has "El Dorado" (a favorite), "Sons of Katie Elder," "The Searchers" (my all-time favorite) and "The Shootist."
ReplyDelete