Mon 12 Jan 2009
Ed Hulse on CHARLES STARRETT.
Posted by Steve under Movie stars & directors , Pulp Fiction[8] Comments
Re: Charles Starrett. He holds the record for most starring Westerns made by one star at the same studio: 131, for Columbia Pictures, produced and released over a 17-year period. He played the Durango Kid in half of them, all but the first released between 1945 and 1952.
Although the Durangos are very fondly remembered by aging Western fans who saw them in Saturday-matinee engagements, they’re generally cheap, shoddy productions with cookie-cutter plots and puerile comic relief.
Starrett’s earlier Westerns — especially the 1937-40 pictures in which his regular leading lady was Iris Meredith (the subject of a recent M*F thread) and his sidekicks the Sons of the Pioneers — were his best.
I met Starrett twice and spoke to him at length about his career. His favorite among those early Westerns was also mine: Outlaws of the Prairie (1938, based on a Harry F. Olmsted story originally published in Dime Western), which cast him as a deadly “fanner” who has spent his entire adult life looking for the renegade who killed his father and cut off his trigger fingers.
Starrett was also very fond of a short-lived series — also based on pulp stories — casting him as Dr. Steven Monroe, aka The Medico, a frontier doctor who occasionally used his guns in defense of the law.
January 12th, 2009 at 10:59 pm
I’ve reviewed two or three Durango Kid movies on my blog. The singing is by various groups and guys. Smiley didn’t come along until late in the series, and he wasn’t much help. Eldon Britt sang in one of the movies. Britt was a great yodeler, and did “Chime Bells,” a big hit for him. I discussed a number of singers in my reviews, I think. One of the movies even used a bit of footage from STAGECOACH.
January 13th, 2009 at 6:30 am
Nothing beats nostalgia and as Steve says the whole idea of The Durango Kid appealed to kids: the name had a great ring to it, the black costume and mask, and Starrett really looked the part of a cowboy hero.
For me my favorite B Western heroes were Lash La Rue and Whip Wilson, both of whom liked to beat the villains with a bullwhip. As a kid this really impressed me as something different from just shooting the bad guys. I now realize another possible reason: Whip Wilson looked something like Buck Jones who I admired, and Lash La Rue looked something like Humphrey Bogart, another big favorite of mine.
Both of these heroes came in just as the B Western was starting to die off but I still got my daily fix from a TV show that aired in the Philadelphia area around 1950 or 1951: FRONTIER PLAYHOUSE. Every day at 4:00 or 5:00 pm I had to be in front of the TV to watch B Westerns, usually with my cowboy hat and gun. In the early days of TV the sets were so expensive that alot of families rented the set and paid 25 cents for each hour of tv. I would insert a quarter into the timer on top of the tv and get an hour of programming.
Now I have hundreds of B Westerns on tape and dvd but it just doesn’t seem the same. I guess you have be a kid to really appreciate these movies. Or like me, Steve, and Ed, a kid at heart.
January 13th, 2009 at 9:49 am
We didn’t get TV in my home town of Cadillac, 100 miles north of Grand Rapids, Michigan, until 1953 or 1954, and if the one channel we were able to get ran B-western movies, I think I’d outgrown them. I don’t remember seeing any of them on TV, but I do recall watching Charlie Chan movies with my younger brother, trying desperately not to laugh at whatever dumb things the great detective’s sons or sidekicks were doing, for fear of waking our parents up.
No, I watched the Durango movies in one of the two movie theaters in town, six or seven times a year. For 12 cents on a Saturday afternoon, you could see two B-movies, news, previews, and the next installment of whatever serial was playing then.
When the price unexpectedly went up to 14 cents, it was traumatic. Luckily my aunt had also given me a nickel to buy a candy bar, or I’ve have had to gone home, unable to get in.
Here’s a list of the Durango Kid movies that Bill Crider’s reviewed on his blog:
The Durango Kid: http://billcrider.blogspot.com/2007/12/durango-kid.html
The Return of the Durango Kid:
http://billcrider.blogspot.com/2007/12/return-of-durango-kid.html
Both Barrels Blazing:
http://billcrider.blogspot.com/2007/12/both-barrels-blazing.html
Laramie:
http://billcrider.blogspot.com/2008/01/laramie.html
The Kid from Broken Gun:
http://billcrider.blogspot.com/2008/12/kid-from-broken-gun.html
I’ve watched and written reviews some of the Durango movies myself. They’re in one or two back issues of my printzine, Durn Tootin’, which I do for the Owlhoots apa.
I’ll dig them out and post them here online sometime.
— Steve
February 3rd, 2009 at 3:55 am
My first exposure to Charles Starret wasn’t in a western at all. He is the young leading man in the excellent Mask of Fu Manchu with Boris Karloff and Myrna Loy as the evil doctor and his daughter, Lewis Stone as Nayland Smith, Karen Morely as the romantic interest, and Jean Hersholt. It was only later that I saw the Durango Kid films. They still show up once in a while on the Encore Western channel, and the comic book based on them had a long run (though they can be pricey since Frank Frazetta’s White Indian was the backup feature).
April 19th, 2010 at 11:14 pm
Hi Guys,
My name is Bruce Hickey,from Auckland,New Zealand.I knew Charles in the last 15 years of his life,corresponded with him from 1969,met him at the 1980 Memphis Film Festival & visited with him at his home at Laguna Beach in 1984 with two fellow fans (Colin Momber,editor of the 40 year B western publication Wranglers Roost & Ab Breeden b western authority from LA).If you logon to the website for Bob Nolan (bobnolan-sop.net)& go to Reflections I have a very large blog there devoted to Charles & Roy Rogers.There you will find a treasure trove of items signed to me from Charles,stills,lobbies,one sheets,articles I have written for Wranglers Roost (including the day spent with Charles).It is very large with hundreds of items & does take time to get through but i can assure you it is worth the tour through it.
Regards
Bruce
April 20th, 2010 at 12:50 pm
A direct link to Bruce’s website is
http://www.bobnolan-sop.net/Filmography/Collections/Bruce%20Hickey%20Collection/Hickey,%20Bruce.htm
which I hope will work, even if it’s long. (If not do a copy and paste into your browser.)
It’s well worth the trip, and thank you Bruce, for stopping by to let us know about it. You’ve got a lot of good memories packed away in those articles and photos!
— Steve
April 20th, 2010 at 10:49 pm
HI STEVE,
GLAD YOU ENJOYED THE VISIT TO THE NOLAN SITE,I HAVENT ADDED ANYTHING TO IT THE PAST YEAR AS HIS GRANDSON WHO RUNS THE SITE DECIDED I HAD TOO MUCH POSTED THERE.IN THE PAST YEAR I HAVE ADDED HEAPS FROM CYBERSPACE TO MY COLLECTION,RIGHT ACROSS THE B WESTERN GENRE.SO I JUST SHARE MY FINDS WITH OTHER FANS I KNOW.I ONLY GO FOR TOP SHELF ITEMS OF STILLS,LOBBIES & POSTERS. HAVE AROUND SIX THOUSAND ON DISKS.I STILL WRITE FOR THE QUARTERLY “WRANGLERS ROOST”.TWO RECENT ONES WERE…
ONE ON THE FACT THAT SO MANY OF THE B WESTERN TOP GUYS FOR VARIOUS REASONS NEVER ATTENDED A B WESTERN FESTIVAL.ANOTHER ONE “THE SARTORIAL B WESTERN LEADS” (STARRETT,BROWN,LIVINGSTON,CRABBE)& THE ROLES THEY PLAYED DRESSED TO THE NINES LONG BEFORE THEY HIT THOSE DUSTY B WESTERN TRAILS.
TO HAVE KNOWN CHARLES & TO HAVE MET ROY & GEORGE O’BRIEN & TO SITDOWN WITH THEM WAS SOMETHING I COULD NEVER IMAGINE HAPPENING AS A KID GOING TO SATURDAY MATINEES.
WHAT I HAVE ON THE NOLAN SITE IS RELEVANT TO THE NOLAN CONNECTION ONLY,SO THAT IS ONLY A SMALL PART OF MY COLLECTION.GEORGE IS THERE BECAUSE BOB MODELED HIS OUTFITS ON HIM.
ANYONE WHO WANTS AN ITEM FROM A PARTICULAR B WESTERN PLEASE DROP ME A LINE.IF I HAVE IT I WILL BE HAPPY TO EMAIL IT TO YOU.
bruce.hickey@xtra.co.nz
REGARDS
BRUCE
February 19th, 2011 at 1:36 pm
When I was a boy Charles Starrett was my favorite actor. I loved to see him and the Sons of the Pioneers. I did not like it when he became the Durango Kid. I much preferred the early movies he made. I have a large collection of Starrett’s westerns. I have been trying to find the movie “Riding West” where Earnest Tubb was with Starrett. Have not been able to find it. Is it available?