John Sturges’ first color western is a tightly organized and unpretentious winner about a stern Union prison warden and a Confederate prisoner teaming up to fight an Apache enemy … wait, that sounds familiar. William Holden and Eleanor Parker strike sparks out on the ruddy mesas, while Sturges has a field day with the amazing Death Valley scenery and a highly original action scene. ‘Realistic escapism?’ It’s like a formula for future action cinema. And the ads didn’t let us forget: it all looks sensational in glowing Ansco Color.
Escape from Fort Bravo
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1953 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 98 min. / Street Date May 18, 2021 / 21.99
Starring: William Holden, Eleanor Parker, John Forsyth, William Demarest, William Campbell, Polly Bergen, Richard Anderson, Carl Benton Reid, John Lupton, Howard McNear, Glenn Strange.
Cinematography: Robert Surtees
Film Editor: George Boemler
Original Music: Jeff Alexander
Written by Frank Fenton from the story Rope’s End...
Escape from Fort Bravo
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1953 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 98 min. / Street Date May 18, 2021 / 21.99
Starring: William Holden, Eleanor Parker, John Forsyth, William Demarest, William Campbell, Polly Bergen, Richard Anderson, Carl Benton Reid, John Lupton, Howard McNear, Glenn Strange.
Cinematography: Robert Surtees
Film Editor: George Boemler
Original Music: Jeff Alexander
Written by Frank Fenton from the story Rope’s End...
- 5/15/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
“One of these days I’m gonna’ take that little gray cap and knock it right off’n your head.”
William Holden in Escape From Fort Bravo (1953) will be available on Blu-ray May 8th From Warner Archive.
Any Johnny Reb who tries to escape the Union prison outpost of Fort Bravo faces the unforgiving Arizona Territory desert stretching before him…and the even more unforgiving pursuit of Bravo’s resolute Captain Roper. Yet there’s a common foe that may unite the Civil War rivals: the fierce Mescalero horsemen waging guerilla war against Blue and Gray alike. William Holden portrays tough-minded Roper in a Western acclaimed for its scenic vistas (shot in Death Valley) and for sequences that showed a major action filmmaker was on the rise. John Sturges directs, setting the taut, rugged tone for The Great Escape, The Magnificent Seven and more hits to come. 16X9 Widescreen
Special Feature: Theatrical Trailer.
William Holden in Escape From Fort Bravo (1953) will be available on Blu-ray May 8th From Warner Archive.
Any Johnny Reb who tries to escape the Union prison outpost of Fort Bravo faces the unforgiving Arizona Territory desert stretching before him…and the even more unforgiving pursuit of Bravo’s resolute Captain Roper. Yet there’s a common foe that may unite the Civil War rivals: the fierce Mescalero horsemen waging guerilla war against Blue and Gray alike. William Holden portrays tough-minded Roper in a Western acclaimed for its scenic vistas (shot in Death Valley) and for sequences that showed a major action filmmaker was on the rise. John Sturges directs, setting the taut, rugged tone for The Great Escape, The Magnificent Seven and more hits to come. 16X9 Widescreen
Special Feature: Theatrical Trailer.
- 4/28/2021
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Many of MGM’s productions were scraping bottom in 1958, yet the studio found one more acceptable western vehicle for their last big star still on contract. Only-slightly corrupt marshal Robert Taylor edges toward a showdown with the thoroughly corrupt Richard Widmark in an economy item given impressive locations and the sound direction of John Sturges.
The Law and Jake Wade
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1958 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 86 min. / Street Date September 12, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Robert Taylor, Richard Widmark, Patricia Owens, Robert Middleton, Henry Silva, DeForest Kelley, Henry Silva, Burt Douglas, Eddie Firestone.
Cinematography: Robert Surtees
Film Editor: Ferris Webster
Written by William Bowers from a novel by Marvin H. Albert
Produced by William B. Hawks
Directed by John Sturges
As the 1950s wore down, MGM was finding it more difficult to properly use its last remaining big-ticket stars on the steady payroll, Cyd Charisse and Robert Taylor. Cyd...
The Law and Jake Wade
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1958 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 86 min. / Street Date September 12, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Robert Taylor, Richard Widmark, Patricia Owens, Robert Middleton, Henry Silva, DeForest Kelley, Henry Silva, Burt Douglas, Eddie Firestone.
Cinematography: Robert Surtees
Film Editor: Ferris Webster
Written by William Bowers from a novel by Marvin H. Albert
Produced by William B. Hawks
Directed by John Sturges
As the 1950s wore down, MGM was finding it more difficult to properly use its last remaining big-ticket stars on the steady payroll, Cyd Charisse and Robert Taylor. Cyd...
- 9/2/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Polly Bergen dead at 84: ‘First woman president of the U.S.A.,’ former mistress of Tony Soprano’s father Emmy Award-winning actress Polly Bergen — whose roles ranged from the first U.S.A. woman president in Kisses for My President to the former mistress of both Tony Soprano’s father and John F. Kennedy in the television hit series The Sopranos — died from "natural causes" on September 20, 2014, at her home in Southbury, Connecticut. The 84-year-old Bergen, a heavy smoker for five decades, had been suffering from emphysema and other ailments since the 1990s. "Most people think I was born in a rich Long Island family," she told The Washington Post in 1988, but Polly Bergen was actually born Nellie Paulina Burgin on July 14, 1930, to an impoverished family in Knoxville, Tennessee. Her father was an illiterate construction worker while her mother got only as far as the third grade. The family...
- 9/20/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Versatile actor best known for her roles in The Sound of Music and Of Human Bondage
In the Hollywood of the 1940s and 50s, when typecasting was an essential constituent of stardom, Eleanor Parker, who has died aged 91, never gained the recognition she deserved, because she refused to be pigeonholed. "It means I've been successful in creating the characters that I've portrayed – that I'm not just a personality who is seen in a variety of roles." Dana Andrews, her co-star in Madison Avenue (1962), called her "the least heralded great actress".
The 1957 film Lizzie is almost a reflection of her career. Parker plays three separate and distinct characters harboured inside one woman – the shy, self-effacing Elizabeth; the wanton, raunchy Lizzie; and the "normal" Beth – and switches brilliantly from one to the other. Parker was always able to be convincing in these three sorts of characters. She was naive as the girl...
In the Hollywood of the 1940s and 50s, when typecasting was an essential constituent of stardom, Eleanor Parker, who has died aged 91, never gained the recognition she deserved, because she refused to be pigeonholed. "It means I've been successful in creating the characters that I've portrayed – that I'm not just a personality who is seen in a variety of roles." Dana Andrews, her co-star in Madison Avenue (1962), called her "the least heralded great actress".
The 1957 film Lizzie is almost a reflection of her career. Parker plays three separate and distinct characters harboured inside one woman – the shy, self-effacing Elizabeth; the wanton, raunchy Lizzie; and the "normal" Beth – and switches brilliantly from one to the other. Parker was always able to be convincing in these three sorts of characters. She was naive as the girl...
- 12/11/2013
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
Eleanor Parker, the 3-time Academy Award nominated actress who played the baroness in The Sound of Music, died on Monday. She was 91.
Eleanor Parker Dies
Parker’s death was announced by family friend Richard Gale, who said that the actress died from complications stemming from a bout of pneumonia. She passed away at a Palm Springs medical facility, surrounded by her children.
The 1950s were Parker’s heyday in Hollywood, in which she received Oscar nods for Caged (1950), Detective Story (1951) and Interrupted Melody (1955). During the decade, she also appeared in Escape from Fort Bravo, Valley of the Kings, The Man with the Golden Arm and A Hole in the Head.
To modern audiences, Parker is best known for playing The Baroness in The Sound of Music, who tries futilely to woo Christopher Plummer’s Captain Von Trapp – who ends up smitten with Julie Andrew’s Maria. Upon leaning of Parker’s death,...
Eleanor Parker Dies
Parker’s death was announced by family friend Richard Gale, who said that the actress died from complications stemming from a bout of pneumonia. She passed away at a Palm Springs medical facility, surrounded by her children.
The 1950s were Parker’s heyday in Hollywood, in which she received Oscar nods for Caged (1950), Detective Story (1951) and Interrupted Melody (1955). During the decade, she also appeared in Escape from Fort Bravo, Valley of the Kings, The Man with the Golden Arm and A Hole in the Head.
To modern audiences, Parker is best known for playing The Baroness in The Sound of Music, who tries futilely to woo Christopher Plummer’s Captain Von Trapp – who ends up smitten with Julie Andrew’s Maria. Upon leaning of Parker’s death,...
- 12/10/2013
- Uinterview
Jessica Herndon, AP Film Writer
Los Angeles (AP) - Eleanor Parker, who was nominated for Academy Awards three times for her portrayals of strong-willed women and played a scheming baroness in "The Sound of Music," has died at 91.
Family friend Richard Gale said Parker died Monday morning due to complications from pneumonia. "She passed away peacefully, surrounded by her children at a medical facility near her home in Palm Springs," Gale added.
Parker was nominated for Oscars in 1950, 1951 and 1955, but then saw her career begin to wane in the early 1960s. Her last memorable role came in 1965's "The Sound of Music," in which she played the scheming baroness who loses Christopher Plummer to Julie Andrews.
"Eleanor Parker was and is one of the most beautiful ladies I have ever known," said Plummer in a statement. "Both as a person and as a beauty. I hardly believe the sad news...
Los Angeles (AP) - Eleanor Parker, who was nominated for Academy Awards three times for her portrayals of strong-willed women and played a scheming baroness in "The Sound of Music," has died at 91.
Family friend Richard Gale said Parker died Monday morning due to complications from pneumonia. "She passed away peacefully, surrounded by her children at a medical facility near her home in Palm Springs," Gale added.
Parker was nominated for Oscars in 1950, 1951 and 1955, but then saw her career begin to wane in the early 1960s. Her last memorable role came in 1965's "The Sound of Music," in which she played the scheming baroness who loses Christopher Plummer to Julie Andrews.
"Eleanor Parker was and is one of the most beautiful ladies I have ever known," said Plummer in a statement. "Both as a person and as a beauty. I hardly believe the sad news...
- 12/9/2013
- by The Associated Press
- Moviefone
The “adult” Western – as it would come to be called – was a long time coming. A Hollywood staple since the days of The Great Train Robbery (1903), the Western offered spectacle and action set against the uniquely American milieu of the Old West – a historical period which, at the dawn of the motion picture industry, was still fresh in the nation’s memory. What the genre rarely offered was dramatic substance.
Early Westerns often adopted the same traditions of the popular Wild West literature and dime novels of the 19th and early 20th centuries producing, as a consequence, highly romantic, almost purely mythic portraits the Old West. Through the early decades of the motion picture industry, the genre went through several creative cycles, alternately tilting from fanciful to realistic and back again. By the early sound era, and despite such serious efforts as The Big Trail (1930) and The Virginian (1929), Hollywood Westerns were,...
Early Westerns often adopted the same traditions of the popular Wild West literature and dime novels of the 19th and early 20th centuries producing, as a consequence, highly romantic, almost purely mythic portraits the Old West. Through the early decades of the motion picture industry, the genre went through several creative cycles, alternately tilting from fanciful to realistic and back again. By the early sound era, and despite such serious efforts as The Big Trail (1930) and The Virginian (1929), Hollywood Westerns were,...
- 1/4/2013
- by Bill Mesce
- SoundOnSight
The Western was a movie staple for decades. It seemed the genre that would never die, feeding the fantasies of one generation after another of young boys who galloped around their backyards, playgrounds, and brick streets on broomsticks, banging away with their Mattel cap pistols. Something about a man on a horse set against the boundless wastes of Monument Valley, the crackle of saddle leather, two men facing off in a dusty street under the noon sun connected with the free spirit in every kid.
The American movie – a celluloid telling that was more than a skit – was born in a Western: Edwin S. Porter’s 11- minute The Great Train Robbery (1903). Thereafter, Westerns grew longer, they grew more complex. The West – hostile, endless, civilization barely maintaining a toehold against the elements, hostile natives, and robber barons – proved an infinitely plastic setting. In a place with no law, and where...
The American movie – a celluloid telling that was more than a skit – was born in a Western: Edwin S. Porter’s 11- minute The Great Train Robbery (1903). Thereafter, Westerns grew longer, they grew more complex. The West – hostile, endless, civilization barely maintaining a toehold against the elements, hostile natives, and robber barons – proved an infinitely plastic setting. In a place with no law, and where...
- 1/3/2013
- by Bill Mesce
- SoundOnSight
Matt Smith says that he felt like Clint Eastwood filming the upcoming 'Doctor Who' episode. The actor, who plays the Doctor, filmed this weekend's (15.09.12) episode, 'A Town Called Mercy', on the edge of Spain's Tabernas desert in Fort Bravo and enjoyed the change of scenery as it reminded him of the Wild West. He told the Radio Times: ''I love westerns and when you look at the history, this is where they were all made. ''I rode my horse up the main street in the town yesterday and felt like Clint Eastwood.'' The dust streets and wooden buildings have played host to...
- 9/15/2012
- Virgin Media - TV
Matt Smith says that he felt like Clint Eastwood filming the upcoming 'Doctor Who' episode. The actor, who plays the Doctor, filmed this weekend's (15.09.12) episode, 'A Town Called Mercy', on the edge of Spain's Tabernas desert in Fort Bravo and enjoyed the change of scenery as it reminded him of the Wild West. He told the Radio Times: ''I love westerns and when you look at the history, this is where they were all made. ''I rode my horse up the main street in the town yesterday and felt like Clint Eastwood.'' The dust streets and wooden buildings have played host to...
- 9/13/2012
- Virgin Media - TV
In October of 2010, Sound on Sight asked me to do my first commemorative piece on the passing of filmmaker Arthur Penn. I suspect I was asked because I was the only one writing for the site old enough to have seen Penn’s films in theaters. Whatever the reason, it was an unexpectedly rewarding if expectedly bittersweet experience which led to a series of equally rewarding but bittersweet experiences writing on the passing of other filmdom notables.
I say rewarding because it gave me a nostalgic-flavored chance to revisit certain work and the people behind it; a revisiting which often brought back the nearly-forgotten youthful excitement that went with an eye-opening, a discovery, the thrill of the new. Writing them has also been bittersweet because each of these pieces is a formal acknowledgment that something precious is gone. A talent may be perhaps preserved forever on celluloid, but the filmography...
I say rewarding because it gave me a nostalgic-flavored chance to revisit certain work and the people behind it; a revisiting which often brought back the nearly-forgotten youthful excitement that went with an eye-opening, a discovery, the thrill of the new. Writing them has also been bittersweet because each of these pieces is a formal acknowledgment that something precious is gone. A talent may be perhaps preserved forever on celluloid, but the filmography...
- 12/24/2011
- by Bill Mesce
- SoundOnSight
There was no a-ha! moment, no seeing of the light, no epiphany. I’d loved movies since I was a kid, had been a buff since my early teens, but there was no one, shining instance of enlightenment where my relationship with film graduated to something — … Well, the kind of thing my Sound on Sight colleagues have been talking about this month with their “gateway” films. Instead, it was a cumulative experience for me; my road to that point was a long, winding, gradual one. Here and there along that road something would lodge in the ol’ gray matter, tickle at some deep place, until enough of those somethings gathered up over the years finally coalesced into a critical mass.
But I can tell you where that first turn in that road was; that first stop where I picked up that first something. I was six years old, it was...
But I can tell you where that first turn in that road was; that first stop where I picked up that first something. I was six years old, it was...
- 11/18/2011
- by Bill Mesce
- SoundOnSight
By most accounts, Harry Cohn was a royal son of a bitch.
For the uninformed, Harry Cohn was co-founder of Columbia Pictures, and the autocratic ruler of the studio from its founding in 1919 until his death in 1958. He was vulgar, crass, tyrannical, a screaming, foul-mouthed verbal bully i.e. a royal son of a bitch.
He was also a cheap son of a bitch.
Originally considered a “Poverty Row” studio, Cohn’s Columbia – at least at first – refused to build a roster of salaried stars as the other studios did. Cohn didn’t want the overhead or the headaches he saw saddling other studio chiefs with their contract talent. Cheaper and easier was to pay those studios a flat fee for the one-time use of their marquee value stars to give Columbia’s B-budgeted flicks an A-list shine. Columbia was considered such a nickel-and-dime outfit at the time that other...
For the uninformed, Harry Cohn was co-founder of Columbia Pictures, and the autocratic ruler of the studio from its founding in 1919 until his death in 1958. He was vulgar, crass, tyrannical, a screaming, foul-mouthed verbal bully i.e. a royal son of a bitch.
He was also a cheap son of a bitch.
Originally considered a “Poverty Row” studio, Cohn’s Columbia – at least at first – refused to build a roster of salaried stars as the other studios did. Cohn didn’t want the overhead or the headaches he saw saddling other studio chiefs with their contract talent. Cheaper and easier was to pay those studios a flat fee for the one-time use of their marquee value stars to give Columbia’s B-budgeted flicks an A-list shine. Columbia was considered such a nickel-and-dime outfit at the time that other...
- 6/22/2011
- by Bill Mesce
- SoundOnSight
American actor known for his roles in horror films and Star Trek
The actor William Campbell, who has died aged 87, had a long and varied career in films and on television, finding recognition from his association with several low-budget horror pictures and with the TV sci-fi series Star Trek. However, although he had the hooded eyes and languid manner of Robert Mitchum and something of the laid-back anarchism of Jack Nicholson, entry into the major league of stardom eluded him.
Campbell was in the first series of Star Trek, in an episode entitled The Squire of Gothos (1967), in which he has a field day as General Trelane, a foppish, childish humanoid, swinging wildly from joviality to sulkiness to anger. In The Trouble With Tribbles (1967), in the second season, Campbell was equally impressive as Koloth, a bearded, bureaucratic Klingon, a character that he revived 27 years later, towards the end of his working life,...
The actor William Campbell, who has died aged 87, had a long and varied career in films and on television, finding recognition from his association with several low-budget horror pictures and with the TV sci-fi series Star Trek. However, although he had the hooded eyes and languid manner of Robert Mitchum and something of the laid-back anarchism of Jack Nicholson, entry into the major league of stardom eluded him.
Campbell was in the first series of Star Trek, in an episode entitled The Squire of Gothos (1967), in which he has a field day as General Trelane, a foppish, childish humanoid, swinging wildly from joviality to sulkiness to anger. In The Trouble With Tribbles (1967), in the second season, Campbell was equally impressive as Koloth, a bearded, bureaucratic Klingon, a character that he revived 27 years later, towards the end of his working life,...
- 6/20/2011
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
American TV actor famous for his role as Dynasty's Blake Carrington and being the voice of Charlie in Charlie's Angels
If the name of the American actor John Forsythe, who has died aged 92, is not immediately recognisable, then that of his character Blake Carrington – the tanned and handsome silver-haired billionaire oil magnate in the long-running television series Dynasty – certainly is. The show, known for its opulent atmosphere, lavish sets and costumes, and preoccupation with the problems of the wealthy, ran alongside Ronald Reagan's years as Us president, 1981-89. It made Forsythe internationally famous and rich. During the second year of the run, Forsythe remarked: "I can't afford to bulge. Being a 64-year-old sex symbol is a hell of a weight to carry."
With his earnest demeanour, Forsythe, as the patriarch plagued by a scheming ex-wife (Joan Collins), a bisexual son, and other tribulations ranging from murder and greed to lust and incest,...
If the name of the American actor John Forsythe, who has died aged 92, is not immediately recognisable, then that of his character Blake Carrington – the tanned and handsome silver-haired billionaire oil magnate in the long-running television series Dynasty – certainly is. The show, known for its opulent atmosphere, lavish sets and costumes, and preoccupation with the problems of the wealthy, ran alongside Ronald Reagan's years as Us president, 1981-89. It made Forsythe internationally famous and rich. During the second year of the run, Forsythe remarked: "I can't afford to bulge. Being a 64-year-old sex symbol is a hell of a weight to carry."
With his earnest demeanour, Forsythe, as the patriarch plagued by a scheming ex-wife (Joan Collins), a bisexual son, and other tribulations ranging from murder and greed to lust and incest,...
- 4/4/2010
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
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