 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
As a director he worked with composers Lalo Schifrin (THE DEAD POOL) and Steve Dorff (PINK CADILLAC).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Posted: |
Jan 13, 2022 - 10:57 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
DESTRY was a remake of an earlier film, 1939's DESTRY RIDES AGAIN, starring James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich and directed by George Marshall. The plots are the same. A dishonest mayor (Edgar Buchanan) and the powerful criminal “Decker” (Lyle Bettger) dominate a small western town. But when the town's sheriff (Trevor Bardette) dies under mysterious circumstances, and the town drunkard “Rags” (Thomas Mitchell) is put in his place, Rags calls in “Tom Destry” (Audie Murphy), son of a famed gunman, to put an end to the corruption. Upon Tom’s arrival, however, Rags is dismayed to note that Tom is small and refined, and further horrified when Decker forces Tom to admit that he carries no gun.
In addition to doing stunts for the film, Buddy Van Horn had his first straight (non-stunt) screen appearance in DESTRY, playing one of the townspeople. An August 1953 Hollywood Reporter news items had included Van Horn in the regular cast of the earlier RIDE CLEAR OF DIABLO, but his appearance in the final film has not been determined.
George Marshal, who had directed the 1939 version of the film, directed this remake as well. The film was team-scored by Henry Mancini, Frank Skinner, and Herman Stein. The picture had decent grosses of $4.3 million.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Jan 16, 2022 - 12:47 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
“Zorro” was an action-adventure western series produced by Walt Disney Productions and starring Guy Williams. Based on the Zorro character created by Johnston McCulley, the series premiered on Thursday, 10 October 1957 at 8 PM on ABC. The show competed against “Harbormaster” on CBS and the quiz show “You Bet Your Life” on NBC. The latter, starring Groucho Marx, was the #10 series on television that season. Nevertheless, “Zorro” still managed to garner a sufficient audience to rank as the #30 program for the season. Buddy Van Horn was the stunt double for Guy Williams during the first season of the show.
In its second season (1958-59), Van Horn left the show. “Zorro” stayed in the same weekly time slot, but had new competition in “December Bride” on CBS and “The Ed Wynn Show” on NBC. None of the shows ranked in the top 30, and “Zorro” was going to be renewed. But Disney and ABC got into a legal battle over ownership of “Zorro,” the “Mickey Mouse Club,” and the Disney anthology television series (at the time titled “Disneyland”). During the multi-year legal battle, however, Disney kept the Zorro franchise going in the form of four new hour-long Zorro adventures aired on the anthology series—two in 1960 and two in 1961.
Eight episodes from the first year of the series were edited into a 91-minute feature called THE SIGN OF ZORRO. The feature played in foreign markets in 1958 and 1959, and in 1960, with the series off of television for the most part, it was released in the U.S.
Guy Williams was kept on full salary during this hiatus, but by the time Disney and ABC resolved their differences, Walt Disney decided that public interest in the Zorro character had flagged, and the show never returned.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Jan 16, 2022 - 11:12 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
Kirk Douglas had the title role in the 1960 epic of ancient Rome, SPARTACUS. In March 1958, Douglas' Bryna Productions announced a deal with Universal that would begin with the studio providing co-financing and distribution services for a film to be based on the 1951 Howard Fast novel “Spartacus.” The film’s proposed budget at that time was $4,000,000.
For his cast, Douglas rounded up Laurence Olivier (Marcus Licinius Crassus), Jean Simmons (Varinia), Charles Laughton (Gracchus), Peter Ustinov (Batiatus), John Gavin (Julius Caesar), Nina Foch (Helena), Woody Strode (Draba), and Tony Curtis as Antoninus. In order to get so many big stars to play supporting roles, Douglas showed each a different script in which their character was emphasized. Buddy Van Horn was one of the many stunt people on the film and also played one of the soldiers on screen.
Anthony Mann began as director, but was fired by Kirk Douglas after two weeks of shooting. Douglas stated that he considered Mann “too docile,” especially for the powerful actors dominating the cast. Douglas then hired Stanley Kubrick, who began shooting on 16 February 1959.
The ultimate budget for SPARTACUS has been estimated at $12 million. But over the years, it has grossed about $60 million. Alex North’s score was most recently released by Varese Sarabande in a deluxe version in 2010 and a standard version in 2016.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Jan 17, 2022 - 4:03 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
More than 80 stunt people were required to produce the 1963 epic comedy IT’S A MAD, MAD, MAD MAD WORLD. This was at a time, when there were probably only about 100 stunt persons residing in the U.S. Buddy Van Horn was one of them. A reported $250,000 of the $9.4 million budget was spent on payments to the stunt people alone.
When the cast first assembled for a meeting with director Stanley Kramer, they were shown the stunts and second unit footage that had already been shot. Co-star Buddy Hackett was so impressed that he went to Kramer and asked, "What do you need us for?" Owing to the difficulty of hiding stunt doubles’ faces in the huge Cinerama format, make-up artist Dick Smith made face masks of the actors for the stunt doubles.
Ernest Gold’s score was re-recorded for a United Artists LP, which Rykodisc re-issued on CD (along with some dialogue excerpts) in 1997. In 2010, Kritzerland eliminated the dialogue and expanded the LP recording with the original film versions of the overture, intermission, entr’acte, and exit music. In 2011, La-La Land was able to use the surround channels of the film to extract a mono version of the original music score. The film was the second most popular film of the year at the U.S. box office, grossing nearly $46 million.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Jan 18, 2022 - 11:24 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
In 1864, due to frequent Apache raids from Mexico into the U.S., Union officer MAJOR DUNDEE (Charlton Heston) decides to illegally cross the border and destroy the Apache, using a mixed army of Union troops, Confederate POWs, civilian mercenaries, and scouts. Buddy Van Horn was a stunt person on the film.
Sam Peckinpah directed this 1965 film, which was originally budgeted at $4.5 million, and scheduled for 75 days of principal photography, which was appropriate for a road-show release. However, only two days before Peckinpah, his cast and crew were to start filming in Mexico, a change in the top brass at Columbia Pictures occurred, and the new regime cut the budget by $1.5 million and the schedule by fifteen days, making it a standard western release. Because of production problems, the final cost approximated the initial $4.5 million budget.
Columbia promised to edit the film to reflect Peckinpah and Heston’s wishes, but Peckinpah was fired for objecting to producer Jerry Bresler’s cuts during post-production. Peckinpah demanded his name be removed from the credits, stating, “It isn’t the picture I made.” The director revealed additional problems caused by the studio during production, such as the order to reshoot all second unit footage, being forced to travel between locations without built-in travel time, and the deferment of seventy percent of Peckinpah’s salary to keep costs down. While Peckinpah’s name appeared in the final credits, he remained uninvolved with any further decisions regarding editing and scoring. Daniele Amfitheatrof scored the film, with a theme sung by Mitch Miller's Sing Along Gang. Columbia Records released the soundtrack LP, which first appeared on CD from the gray market Tsunami label in 1994. An authorized release came from DRG in 2003.
Contemporary reviews listed running times of both 134 and 124 minutes, with modern sources suggesting that additional cuts were made after the initial opening. Most engagements were of the 124-minute cut. The picture was an average performer at the box office, grossing $5.5 million in the U.S.
Forty years after MAJOR DUNDEE’s release, Sony Pictures issued an extended version featuring twelve minutes of restored footage. Although not a “director’s cut,” the 136-minute release was considered “closer to Peckinpah’s original vision,” and contained an entirely new, score by Christopher Caliendo. The revised film opened on 8 April 2005 in New York City. In 2006, Intrada released Caliendo’s score. Some later video versions of the film have re-tracked Amfitheatrof’s original score onto the extended version of the film.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Jan 19, 2022 - 11:27 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
In the 1965 thriller MIRAGE, accountant “David Stillwell” (Gregory Peck) suddenly suffers from amnesia. This appears related to the suicide of his boss. Now some violent thugs are out to get him. They work for a shadowy figure known simply as “The Major.” Buddy Van Horn was the stunt double for Gregory Peck on the film, the first of five films in which Van Horn would fulfill that role.
Edward Dmytryk directed the film. During pre-production, one of the producers was set to meet with Quincy Jones, but he didn't know Jones was black. The producer saw Jones for the first time and told him, "I'll be right back", and the producer left with the intention of bringing in a non-black composer for the film. Shortly afterwards, Henry Mancini, a longtime personal friend of Jones, recommended him to the producer, thereby ensuring that Jones was hired to score the film. Jones’ score was released on a Mercury Records LP. It was finally re-issued on CD in 2016 as part of the Decca France box set “The Cinema of Quincy Jones.” The film grossed $4.1 million in the U.S.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
