Pa Bascom: What did they do, Coleman?
Breck Coleman, Wagon Train Scout: Killed my best friend. And I've been on their trail ever since.
Pa Bascom: That's a serious charge. If you're sure, we'll call a settler's meeting in the morning to try 'em.
Breck Coleman, Wagon Train Scout: You can call a settler's meeting to bury 'em!
Pa Bascom: What do you mean?
Breck Coleman, Wagon Train Scout: I kill my own rats.
(The Big Trail, 1930)
24 comments:
That's for you dolls. Don't say I don't dish it up for you babes.
Damn, that guy was good looking. Yet he made his fortune after he doughed-up a bit.
Clara Bow was so infatuated with him she made him go twice when she was doing the USC football team that afternoon.
That really pissed off Ward Bond.
Yeah, he really was, blake. I prefer the later looks, but it's cool to know he looked like this.
Holy crap! He was smokin' hot. I recently saw his son Patrick [who bears a striking resemblence] interviewed on O'Reilly.
You should rent the movie The Big Trail. It was the first really big Western talkie that set the stage for a lot of what whould follow. It is very stitled and you can see the creaky transition from silents to talkies.
Very interesting if you are into movie history like blake.
Those transitional films are great movie history, even if they're not very good films.
That's the point. You can see the western being developed right before your eyes with the wagon train, the gunfight, the cattle drive all mixed together in a primitive setting filmed on location.
Very silent movieish if that's a word.
I used to watch silent films in high school, usually Chaplin and Keaton and Nosferatu, and occasionally Un Chien Andalou (seriously warped film, that one).
They have a strange magic of their own, that I still find in viewing, though perhaps only like being a visitor to time past.
Many common film devices were born then; a fun thing to see.
"...it's cool to know he looked like this."
"Holy crap! He was smokin' hot."
I wish I had a nickel for every time a stranger has mistaken me for a young John Wayne. I'd bail out Detroit with the compounded interest.
Pogo, have you ever watched Harold Lloyd? Hilarious. If you liked those others, you'd like Lloyd. Some of Lloyd's comedy almost has a modern feel to me. We've been watching a lot of him lately.
@Pogo: I used rent super 8mm silent movies from the public libray when I was in high school: all the Chaney horror silents, Valentino, and news reels.
Freeman: you were great today.
Thanks, CL.
Trooper, did you read "Duke: The Life and Image of John Wayne" by Ronald Davis?
Harold Lloyd!
Lon Chaney!
Masters of their craft.
Geez, and here I thought I was the only one who would check those out from the library and thread the 8mm projector and see life arise from thin air. Hold these fragile ribbons up to the light and each tiny picture is an event. The machine click click clicks and the small images breathe; the 1910s and 1920s alive again. Some kid running in the background was my grandpa's age; how that old man could run, once.
I almost feel like I shouldn't be watching, like they're someone's old home movies.
Lloyd, like Keaton, did some stunts that would get people sued today.
I re-watched Rio Bravo the other night. It was really something how John Wayne was sort of big and luggish but moved very lithely at the same time.
My god, he was good-looking as a youth. Still a handsome older man, but jeez.
Lloyd, like Keaton, did some stunts that would get people sued today.
There are some great DVD compilations of Lloyd's work out there--with commentary.
My ten-year old son laughed hysterically at his gags-and it's not easy getting a kid interested in b/w silent movies these days.
"Still a handsome older man, but jeez."
Thank you for the compliment, knox -- worth every nickel.
The Big Trail is one of my favorite movies, but from an actual historical perspective. Filmed in 1929, it was only about 40 years after the last wagon trains; there were people alive during the filming and staging of that movie who had ridden a wagon train west as a child or young adult- that really gives the movie perspective for me.
I'm also glad to see I'm not the only silent film buff around. But tend to like the comedies, especially Buster Keaton. His silent work was so visual you didn't need dialouge. His stunt work was fantasic,
You have to check out some of DW Griffiths silent drama.
The Birth of a Nation is a seminal work but I really enjoy the Musketeers of Pig Alley which used actual NYC thugs and murders from the Monk Eastman gang as actors.
I just revisited the photo in the post. And I noticed his hands. They're huge! Oh, my...
Hey, Troop: While you're dishing it for the dolls, please don't neglect to remember my all-time favorite: Mr. Gable.
"And I noticed his hands[...] Oh, my..."
Really I ought to get TWO nickels for every time I hear that one. Two big hands -- two big nickels.
Thanks for noticing.
I'm large-handed myself.
Though more long-fingered.
It helps with some things and makes other things harder (like texting).
Off the top of my head I always liked Paul Newman and William Holden. Then of course, there were guys who weren't nec. handsome, but still had the goods, like Bogey or Spencer Tracey.
New favorites:
Daniel Craig
Robert Downey Jr.
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