Tonight I watched the tenth and final movie in my Durango Kid collection : "The Kid From Broken Gun" (1952). "The Kid" in the title did not refer to Durango this time, but instead to Jack Mahoney, who was playing a former prizefighter named "Jack Mahoney". Mahoney was a famous Hollywood stuntman who also did some acting, and in fact he was one of the later Tarzans in the mid-50s, under the name "Jock Mahoney". Somebody, either Mahoney himself or the screenwriters of his films, was pretty inventive in the Name Department. ;)
In "The Kid From Broken Gun", he is on trial for a murder he swears he didn't commit. The story is set in a Western courtroom. I think it would be awesome to have a Time Machine and go back to the Old West to see if it really looked like that. Because the Western Courtroom looks exactly as you'd expect it to look. We don't have a wide range of photos from old Western times, because photography only "got going", as it were, in the mid-1800s. What I find fascinating is that 1873 seems like ancient times to me, possibly because of the "dusty" imagery of the Old West, and the lack of technology (which developed so very rapidly).......but then, when I look back in my own life, the Moon landing was fifty years ago, Man's most advanced achievement, and it seems like yesterday that it happened.
So, fifty years ago for a rocket to the Moon, and only twice that much time, going backward from 1969, to take us back to the dusty Old West. The concept of time always blows my mind, as you know. It probably blows Jack Mahoney's mind as well, wherever he is.
This final "Kid" movie cheated a little in the story department, because the courtroom trial of Mahoney also had to do with the the theft of General Santa Anna's hidden gold stash that we dealt with in the very first Durango Kid movie we watched two weeks ago, "The Fighting Frontiersman". The plot in that film was all about the gold theft, and here in tonight's story the producers used a lot of footage from "Frontiersman" for flashback sequences, shown over the testimony of court witnesses.
So Columbia saved a few bucks by the screenwriter not having to think up a character name for Jack Mahoney, and then they saved a few more by inserting about 12 minutes worth of footage (in a 56 minute movie) from an earlier picture.
Smiley Burnett had some good gags in the courtroom, but there were no extra cowboy musicians this time, and as we have been accustomed to seeing them in the Durango movies, it was disappointing to miss these talented musicians this time around.
Still, get your thumbs up. Both of them, because it goes without saying as you know.
We have loved these Durango Kid movies, and they kind of grew on us over the last two weeks as we kept watching. I would say Charles Starrett is the main reason (as explained in other recent blogs); he is The Man as far as I am concerned, for this type of serial Western. I mean, it's like he's the Real Deal and not even acting. I am gonna have to make a trip up to Garden Of The Gods real soon, which is the small park off of the Santa Susana Pass. It's what's left of the old Iverson Movie Ranch, which must have been a real phenomenon in the early days of the movie business. So many Westerns were shot there, and from the get go I could see that it was the location of every "Kid" movie. There is a brass plaque secured to a Giant Boulder at the front of the park, which lists the names of many (if not all) of the stars whose films were shot there. When I go, I will be checking for Charles Starrett. ////
Continuing our discussion of favorite classical composers, tonight I will mention Franz Schubert and a couple of his works that stand out for me. Schubert was so prolific, and wrote so much beautiful piano music that he may have been the greatest of the Romantic composers for the piano. He died at only 31, and yet he wrote so many great and soul stirring pieces. The lives of great artists are something to consider; why they wrote what they did, how they were able to get it out from inside of themselves, and why some of them - like Schubert, or Mendelssohn or Mozart - all died before they turned 40 years old.
The music that was inside of these artists is something to consider, as is the brevity of their lives.
For Schubert, I am going to list two favorite pieces, both from his compositions for piano. The first is his Impromptu Op. 142, #2 "Alegretto". This piece has got to be heard as played by Vladimir Sofronitsky. He, Dinu Lipatti and Wilhelm Kempff were the Holy Trinity of piano, as I have mentioned in the past. The middle section of the Allegretto, with it's flowing lines- beginning at about 3:40 in the Youtube clip - is as tonally beautiful as any music you will ever hear. It has that "river of notes" silvery bell tones of the greatest piano music and is mesmeric to the listener.
The other Schubert piece I will mention is the Impromptu Op. 90, D899, #3. Youtube it in that order, and ask for the version by either Lipatti or Kempff. If it doesn't put a lump in your throat I'll give you your money back. For me, the Lipatti version is just about the last word in pianism. But listen to the Kempff, too. These guys were connected to God when they played.....and to Schubert. ////
That's all for tonight. See you in the morning. Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
No comments:
Post a Comment