No, this isn’t a photo of Cochise.  It’s Jeff Chandler, the Brooklyn-born actor who played the great Apache chief in three different movies, winning an Oscar nomination for his portrayal in the 1950 film, BROKEN ARROW.  No photograph of the real Cochise exists.  But accounts of the time describe him as tall and handsome with a fiercely majestic presence.  At a time when Native Americans were commonly played by white actors, Chandler (who was 6’ 5” and Jewish) did a first class job.  The scene where James Stewart walks into the Apache camp and Cochise, played by Chandler, first steps into sight, is pure goose bump material.   

The real Cochise was born some time between 1812 and 1815, most likely in the Chiricahua Mountains of what is now southern Arizona.  By 1835 he was leading raids against the Apaches’ traditional enemies, the Mexicans.  His ferocity in battle and his chiefly bearing soon made him a leader among his people.

Cochise tolerated the growing presence of Americans in his territory until an incident in 1861.  A rancher had lost some cattle and his half-Mexican son.  The local army commander summoned Cochise to his tent.  Cochise came with his wife and son, his brother and several nephews.  Cochise, who was innocent, was accused of the crime.  When the soldiers tried to arrest him, he drew a knife, slashed the tent and escaped.The soldiers held Cochise’s family hostage.  To ransom them, Cochise kidnapped four men from a stagecoach station.  Believing that his family had been killed, Cochise tortured and killed his captives.  In retaliation, the soldiers killed his brother and nephews, who were still prisoners.  Cochise’s wife and son were released, but the damage was done.  Throughout the 1860’s Cochise made war on the Americans, raiding, killing, striking terror into the hearts of settlers and outwitting the army at every turn.  When his father-in-law, the great Mangas Coloradas, was murdered by whites, who removed his head and sent it back East, Cochise’s rage reached new heights.  By the end of the decade Cochise was the most feared Indian in America.

Enter a new player in this drama.  Mail supervisor Thomas Jeffords was the one white man Cochise respected and trusted.  Their friendship is one of the greatest legends of the West. Through a series of events, Jeffords managed to arrange a meeting between Cochise and General Howard, known for his fairness toward the Indians.  A treaty was arranged, which gave the Apaches a reservation in their beloved mountains and named Cochise’s friend Jeffords as the reservation agent. 

Jeffords, shown here, was played in the film BROKEN ARROW by James Stewart.  The romance between Jeffords and the Apache girl, played by Debra Paget, was entirely fictional.  But the rest of the story is mostly true.

Cochise honored the treaty to the end of his days and died in his sixties of natural causes.  His grave has never been found.  His eldest son Taza, who followed him as tribal leader, also walked the path of peace.  He died of pneumonia on a visit to Washington DC in 1876.  Cochise’s younger son Naiche and his warrior daughter Lozen continued the fight for freedom alongside another Apache leader who, in my estimation, was even more fascinating than Cochise.  But that’s a story for next time.

Who is your favorite Native American character, in film, fiction or history?  What do you think of the way Native Americans are portrayed in movies?  I’m very interested in your opinions.

 Blame it on my cousin Millie.  She was a year older than I was, and when we played together as kids, she was the boss.   One of our favorite things was to play was make-believe boyfriends.  She got Batman, I got Robin.  She got Superman, I got Superboy.  She got the Lone Ranger, I got Tonto.   Do you get the picture?           

Maybe that’s why I’ve always had a thing for sidekicks.           

Hey, I know we all love alpha men.  But who would you rather take home for keeps?  The dashing, domineering hunk who grabs the spotlight every time?  Or the steady guy who’s always there watching his back, bailing him out of danger, holding his horse, tending his wounds, listening to his woman troubles and always being a true friend?   I’ll take a good sidekick any day.           

Sidekicks in the movies come in all shapes, sizes and ages.  There’s the codger sidekick—Gabby Hayes and the great Walter Brennan are examples.  There’s the goofy sidekick—Don Knotts, Andy Devine and Festus Hagan from Gunsmoke come to mind.  The ethnic sidekick—Tonto, of course, and a score of others.  Then there’s the junior sidekick—Robin and Jimmy Olsen fit here.  If you’re old enough to remember Red Ryder, his sidekick was Little Beaver, an Indian boy.             

A good sidekick is a true gem.  He’s usually patient and considerate, often humorous, likeable, decent, brave and resourceful, especially when it comes to getting the hero out of a jam.  There is just one rule he never breaks—he never, ever overshadows the hero.  Oh—and he never gets THE girl.  Not unless there’s a second girl or a second book.  Sidekicks in romance novels often do double duty.  If you make your sidekick handsome and appealing—say, the best friend, the younger brother, the cute young deputy—you can recycle him as the hero in a sequel.  Lots of authors have done that.  I’ve done it myself.  Give your hero a good sidekick, and readers will be clamoring for his story.           

Who’s your favorite sidekick, romantic or otherwise?   What other famous sidekicks can you think of?  Were any of them women?  Who would you pick as your own sidekick?  Let’s have some fun with this. 

Howdy all!  It’s great to be back in Wildflower Junction.  I’ve missed my P&P Fridays!   

I really enjoyed Cheryl’s post yesterday and it got me to reevaluating my topic for today.  One of the main reasons I love Romance is that guarantee that no matter the struggles our hero and heroine’s go through, good will always prevail over evil…and the cowboy will always get his gal–once she’s put him through his proper paces, of course.  But what about our villains?  Can they also find hope and redemption through the course of our hero and heroine’s journey?  Do we want them to find new peace and understanding so that they can have a happy ending as well…or are they so bad they simply…have got to go?  A year or so ago I began writing and exploring a new kind of villain…bad guys who earn their villain moniker, but have chinks on their hardened exterior, revealing a somewhat chivalrous intention behind their dastardly deeds, and a vulnerability in their character which gives them an eery appeal, and room to grow. 

A few nights ago I rewatched one of my favorite movies, 3:10 to Yuma.  While this film lacks a central romance, it has villain characterization in spades! Aside from absolutely stunning dialogue (not a single word wasted), I’m enthralled by the villains of this movie—and there is a whole cast of them!  A bounty hunter, the deputy henchman of the railroad, and a band of murdering thieves (among others).  These villains have varying degrees of villainy, and at the center of them all is the bible-quoting bad-guy ringleader, Wade—a fast gun with a quick mind and a cold heart. And yet, from the beginning we’re given glimpses of decency in this villain, his tendency to protect the innocent.  He seems to admire those who try to live an honest life. Even though at times his claims otherwise, he defends the true good guys at the risk of his own life. 

Is Wade bad? Oh yeah! He’s a hardened killer, and professes to be rotten as hell. And yet, he also reveals a method to his badness. While the bounty hunter and the railroad henchman wear the facade of good guys, it’s the villain Wade who sees them from what they are—the kind of men who don’t mind harming the innocent for personal gain. For the truly bad, this villain has no mercy. The second in command of Wade’s band of thieves is the brand of villain I started out with in my first few westerns. Charlie enjoys the power of evoking fear and doesn’t show any discretion between shooting an opponent or an innocent.  His loyalties don’t go beyond idolizing his leader and seeking his own enjoyment—which turn out to be his downfall.  In the end, it’s the main villain who chooses good over evil, and yet…he’s still bad.

One of my favorite Wade quotes, just before he tosses a man off a cliff who’d insulted his mother, is, “Even bad men love their mamas.”  As this movie progresses, you begin to see just how large a role his mama played in developing this villain’s character.  At eight years old, he was a good boy who did as his mother told him. He sat at a train station and read the bible from cover to cover, just as his mother instructed, finishing it in three days.  Even at eight, he was a wiz, and the bible quotes suddenly become very poignant…and sad.  Every time this movie ends I’m left wondering if his mama had green eyes. Anyone else have that thought after watching this movie?  If you haven’t seen it yet—it’s a MUST for any western fan!

I’ve developed a real appreciation for villains who can tug at my heartstrings.  In my latest western MAVERICK WILD (Out this month!), I had a lot of fun with a cast of villains. While some simply have their day of reckoning, there are others who emerge with a new outlook on life and the distruction they cause for Chance and Cora Mae–though one or two may be forced into finding true remorse for their actions of ill intent 

How about you…do you love those villains you don’t know wether to curse or root for? 

The Outsider

December 31

10:30 AM ET

10:00 PM ET

HALLMARK CHANNEL

She’s an unyielding woman born to the righteous laws of God and tradition. He’s an uncompromising gunfighter born to raise hell. In the ever-shifting panorama of the Wild West, human emotions can shift as well, but seldom without a price.

AVENGING ANGEL

DECEMBER 29

9PM ET

HALLMARK CHANNEL

When a preacher (Kevin Sorbo) defends a local town from greedy land-barons, his church is destroyed and his family is killed.  Now known simply as “The Preacher,” he picks up his long-forgotten gun, leaves town, and heads out into the desert to begin a new life as a bounty hunter.  Returning years later, he discovers his town has been overrun by the same scoundrels who destroyed his quiet existence.  The Preacher can no longer stand by and watch as innocent people suffer the same fate as he.  Justice must be served.

I did my best for you.  Finding pics and info about this flick is nigh on impossible!

Adam Ruebin Beach is a Canadian actor of Saulteaux descent. He grew up with his two brothers on the Dog Creek Indian Reserve until the age of 8. He is best known for his role in the movie Smoke Signals, directed by Chris Eyre, which won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival. Following the death of both his mother and father within a short period of time, Adam moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba, where he became involved in theatre and in the Black Sabbath cover band Lethic. After landing a part in the film Lost in the Barrens with Graham Greene, he decided to pursue acting as a career.  You remember him from HBO’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.

Enjoy!

You already know Lonesome Dove is one of my all-time favorite movies.  Even though Dead Man’s Walk didn’t awe me in the same way, I haven’t been as excited about a mini-series or a movie release in a long time as I am about the upcoming Comanche Moon.  Val Kilmer, Steve Zahn, Rachel Griffiths, Karl Urban, Linda Cardellini, and Wes Studi star in this new six-hour mini-series based on the book by Larry McMurtry.  It’s the final chapter in the “Lonesome Dove” saga to be made into a movie, and will be broadcast Sunday, Jan. 13, Tuesday, Jan. 15 and Wednesday, Jan. 16 (9:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT, each night) on the CBS Television Network.  To help you get the time line straight in your head: Chronologically, this story takes place after Dead Man’s Walk, and before Lonesome Dove, and is of course taken from the book by Larry McMurtry.

Steve Zahn realized he had some big shoes to fill when he was cast as Gus McCrae, who was previously played by Robert Duvall. “Duvall played this incredible character; it was almost as if you were playing Teddy Roosevelt,” Zahn says.

ER fans will recognize Clara, as Linda Cardellini, better known to us as “Sam” on the hospital set.  Talk about some big shoes to fill! Angelica Houston played Gus’s love in Lonesome Dove and a very young Jennifer Garner was cast in Dead Man’s Walk.

Comanche Moon follows Texas Rangers Augustus “Gus” McCrae (Zahn) and Woodrow F. Call (Urban), now in their middle years, as they continue to deal with the ever-increasing tensions of adult life: Gus with his great love, Clara Forsythe (Cardellini), and Call with Maggie Tilton (Banks), the young prostitute who loves him and bears him his son, Newt (Joseph Castanon). Val Kilmer plays Captain Inish Scull, a Yankee aristocrat and hero of the recently concluded Mexican War. Rachel Griffiths plays Inez Scull, the Captain’s sexy wife who doesn’t hesitate to fill her time with other men when he’s away from home. Wes Studi plays Comanche Chief Buffalo Hump.

Two proud but very different men, McCrae and Call enlist with a Ranger troop in pursuit of three outlaws: Buffalo Hump, the great Comanche war chief; Kicking Wolf (Jonathon Joss), the celebrated Comanche horse thief; and Ahumado (Sal Lopez), a deadly Mexican bandit king with a penchant for torture. Assisting the Rangers in their wild chase is the renowned Kickapoo tracker Famous Shoes (David Midthunder). They are joined by their comrades-in-arms, Deets (Keith Robinson), Jake Spoon (Ryan Merriman) and Pea Eye Parker (Troy Baker), in the bitter struggle to protect an advancing western frontier against the defiant Comanches who are determined to defend their territory and their way of life. The Rangers also encounter Buffalo Hump’s violent outcast son, Blue Duck (Adam Beach).  

I read the blog of a hairstylist who worked on the set in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The conditions were tough, with wind storms every afternoon and altitude issues. The team had to turn young rodeo riders with crew cuts into 1880s Native Americans.  They did so with wigs, glue, tape and pins.  Black hairspray was needed to cover the highlights of the women. The stylists learned to make scalp locks – braids that hang from the crown of a man’s head. Ten hair stylists and ten to fifteen make up artists worked on hundreds of cast extras in a tent on the side of a mountain. Make up and hairspray billowed out the sides of the tent.  Wish I could see something like that one of these days.  Behind the scenes are my favorite parts of DVDs. 

An article by Wolf Schneider in Cowboys and Indians Magazine says: “By all accounts, the most dramatic sequence in the six-hour miniseries Comanche Moon is going to occur at the end of Night One as more than a hundred Comanche Indians thunder down the plains toward Austin on horseback, hell-bent on revenge. The scene will continue on Night Two with the warriors raiding the Texas town. In real life, many of the Indian riders took buses down from Montana to New Mexico to gallop into the battle bareback with mere rope bridles.”

“It was beautiful and terrifying,” says executive producer and co-screenwriter Diana Ossana. “It’s going to be very powerful—coming over the ridge and into town. And then there’s this great sequence where they’re riding out of town after they’ve captured all the horses. It’s really like nothing you’ve ever seen. The men painted themselves and their horses, and it was part of their getting into the moment and feeling their power.”

With scenes like that, Val Kilmer couldn’t resist signing on. He hadn’t done network television before, although he has appeared on HBO’s Entourage and a Gore Vidal-scripted Western for Turner.  One draw of this particular prequel may have been the fact that it was filmed so close to Kilmer’s property in Pecos, New Mexico, that he could arrange for some of the scenes to be shot on his ranch.

Director Simon Wincer and producer Dyson Lovell, who directed and produced Lonesome Dove respectively, served in those roles on Comanche Moon.

CLICK ON THUMBNAIL PHOTOS TO SEE FULL SIZE 

SET YOUR TiVo!  CBS January 13 – 15 – 16

Remember Gunsmoke?  The intro music with Matt Dillon on his galloping horse?  Miss Kitty and Doc and Chester and Festus and all the fine folks in Dodge?

Unless you’re a lot younger than I am, chances are this show was part of your life.  Not only was Gunsmoke (1955-1975) TV’s longest running Western, it was also television’s longest running prime-time series with continuing characters. In total, 233 half-hour episodes and 400 hour episodes were filmed.

Gunsmoke was set in Dodge City, Kansas, between 1872, when the Santa Fe Railroad reached town, and 1885, when local farmers forced the end of the Texas cattle drives along the Western Trail. Dodge City, known as the “Queen of the Cow Towns,” the “Wicked Little City,” the “Gomorrah of the Plains,” had a reputation as a hostile, lawless town where the “fastest gun” ruled. As the opening of the show proclaimed: “Around Dodge City and in the territory on west, there’s just one way to handle the killers and the spoilers and that’s with a U.S. Marshal and the smell of gunsmoke.”

The fictional marshall, Matt Dillon, was modeled after the real lawmen who “tamed” (or at least kept a lid on) Dodge City: US Deputy Marshall Wyatt Earp (1848-1929), Sheriff Bat Masterson (1856-1921), Sheriff Bill Tilghman (1854-1924), and Sheriff Charlie Bassett.Gunsmoke began on radio in 1952 with William Conrad reading the part of Matt Dillon (I actually remember this great radio version).  The series was so successful that it was adapted for TV in 1955.  Conrad, who had a fine radio voice, was a portly man who didn’t fit the visual image of Matt Dillon, so another actor had to be found.  There is some dispute as to whether John Wayne was offered the role of Marshal Dillon, but he is certainly the one who recommended the quiet, six-foot-seven James Arness, brother of Peter Graves.  Arness proved to be the perfect choice.  Wow, what a man!

Other actors rounded out the cast.  Remember them? 
Miss Kitty (Amanda Blake) ran the Longbranch Saloon where Sam (Glenn Strange) was the bartender; Chester Goode (Dennis Weaver) and Festus Hagen (Ken Curtis) were the deputies. Does anybody remember who played Doc?

The romance between Matt and Miss Kitty was clearly evident, but they didn’t so much as hold hands (hey, this was the Fifties).  And the likely goings on upstairs in the Longbranch weren’t even mentioned.   All in all, Gunsmoke was a sanitized version of what the real West must have been like.  But who’s complaining?  It was so much fun.  And so romantic.

Do you have a favorite Gunsmoke episode?  What was your favorite TV Western series?  I’d love to hear.

Thanks to all who came by today and blogged about ideas and brownies.  Here’s a gift for you: His HOTness Tim Daly in The Outsider.

Smooches!

That’s good news for all of us who love westerns.  I’ve seen 3:10 to Yuma and loved it, despite it’s rather cringe-in-your-seat violence.  I will admit to never having seen the original in its entirety, but I really thought the acting in this remake was superb. Then again, maybe it was my hunger for a good western on the big screen that swayed my judgement a little.  Who could argue with the acting talents of Russell Crowe and Christian Bale?  

The newest movie to hit the big screen this week is The Assassination of Jesse James by the  Coward Robert Ford.  Jesse James by far, led a very tumultuous, intriguing life.  He lived from 1847 until 1882 and was the most famous member of James-Younger gang.  The desperado was most famous for his train robberies and 15 murders.

Some Jesse James facts: 

His father, Robert James was a Baptist minister and a farmer from Kentucky. He helped found the William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri. He died in California prospecting for gold when Jesse was three years old.

Jesse James was shot by Union militia when he attempted an attack on them one month after the war’s end. Badly injured, Jesse was nursed back to health by his first cousin, Zerelda, “Zee” Mimms and they began a long courtship that ultimately led to marriage. 

Jesse didn’t become famous until he shot a cashier in 1869, when he and his brother Frank, robbed a bank in Gallatin, Missouri.  The murder was an act of revenge, mistakenly believing the cashier was Samuel Cox, a militia man who’d killed  “Bloody Bill Anderson” during the civil war.  The James’ brothers escape from that robbery and murder marked them as notorious outlaws. 

The James brothers, along with Cole Younger and his brothers, Bob and Jim, Clell Miller and others in the gang, continued a string of robberies from Iowa to Texas and from Kansas to West Virginia. They hammed it up in front of large crowds as they robbed banks and stagecoaches but they rarely robbed the bystanders. The gang turned to robbing trains in 1873 and only twice did Jesse rob passengers. His antics heralded Jesse James as a Robin Hood bandit.

With his gang depleted by arrests and deaths Jesse thought he had only two men left whom he could trust: brothers Bob and Charley Ford, but he didn’t know that Bob Ford had been conducting secret negotiations with the Missouri governor to bring him in.  By now, the railroads and express corporations offered a $10,000 reward for Jesse James.  In April 1882, as James prepared for another robbery, he climbed a chair to dust a picture and was shot in the back of the head by Bob Ford. 

It Is Rumored:

That Ford didn’t really kill Jesse James. It was someone else in that house living with his wife, in an elaborate plot to allow him to escape from justice.

That a man named J. Frank Dalton claimed to be the real Jesse James. He died in Granbury, Texas at the age of 103 in 1951.

The body of Jesse James was exhumed in 1995 and tests done had proven that they’d gotten the right man.

Brad Pitt as Jesse?

Brad fits the profile of a good-looking blonde Jesse around the same age.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ve been a fan of Brad’s ever since Legends of the Fall, but I worry that the movie might make Jesse out to be a hero, instead of the heartless killer that he was.  Even back then, the dime novels and news accountings for the South, immortalized him in a positive light. When doing research about the movie I learned that originally it was to be a character study of Jesse James, but then the directors decided to make it more an action picture. They claim it’s dark and I hope that’s the case.  Jesse James was not just a bandit, but a heartless killer and hardly the “Robin Hood” they depicted him to be – he never gave back to the poor. I know I’ll be in line to see the movie coming out this week with hopes that they portray him accurately.

TOP 20 ALL TIME WESTERN MOVIES: 

1. High Noon – (1952) (Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Lloyd Bridges)
  2.The Treasure of the Sierra Madre – (1948) (Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston)
  3. Shane- (1953) (Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, Van Heflin)
  4. The Magnificent Seven – (1960) (Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson)
  5. Virginia City – (1940) (Errol Flynn, Randolph Scott, Miriam Hopkins)
  6.Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid – (1969) (Paul Newman, Robert Redford)
  7. The Wild Bunch- (1969) (William Holden, Ernest Borgnine)
  8. Stagecoach- (1939) (John Wayne, Claire Trevor, John Carradine)
  9.The Shootist – (1976) (John Wayne, Lauren Bacall, James Stewart)
10. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly- (1966) (Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Eli Wallach)
11. The Searchers – (1956) (John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter)
12.Rio Grande- (1950) (John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara)
13. A Man Called Horse – (1970 (Richard Harris, Judith Anderson)
14. The Outlaw Josey Wales – (1976) (Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke)
15. Little Big Man- (1970) (Dustin Hoffman, Faye Dunaway, Chief Dan George)
16. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance – (1962) (John Wayne, James Stewart, Vera Miles)
17. Unforgiven- (1992) (Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman)
18. Once Upon a Time in the West – (1969 (Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson)
19. Dances with Wolves – (1990) (Kevin Costner, Mary McDonnell, Graham Greene)
20. High Plains Drifter – (1973) (Clint Eastwood, Verna Bloom)

How many of these are on your all time favorite list?  Does the star make the western or does the western make the star?  And do you think these two new movies will compare to the classics?