Wed 2 Mar 2016
A Western Movie Review: CALIFORNIA (1963).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western movies[13] Comments
CALIFORNIA. American International Pictures, 1963. Jock Mahoney (Don Michael O’Casey), Faith Domergue (Carlotta Torres), Michael Pate (Don Francisco Hernandez), Susan Seaforth (Marianna De La Rosa, Rodolfo Hoyos, Nestor Paiva. Story & Screenplay: James West. Producer-Director: Hamil Petroff.
I didn’t realize they were still making low budget black-and-white westerns like this as later as 1963, which is when I first started grad school. The stated ambition of the film, according to a short prologue, is to tell the story of California’s fight for independence.
All the fighting, though, except for a well-choreographed sword fight between leading man Jock Mahoney very near the end of the proceedings, is the stock footage of Mexican soldiers marching their way up the coast to wreck havoc on all the disloyal landowners who stand in their way.
Once the movie itself begins, it settles down instead to your basic four-sided romantic triangle. Half-Irish half-Spanish Don Michael O’Casey is in love with heiress and black-eyed beauty Carlotta Torres, who is engaged to be married to sinister Don Francisco Hernandez (who not so incidentally was responsible for the death of O’Casey’s father), who spends his time and kisses with cantina owner Marianna De La Rosa.
The story is mediocre at best — I kept wishing that Zorro would show up — not that Jock Mahoney (looking very much like Yancy Derringer, for some reason) is not very nearly the next best thing, or he would have been, had the story taken a turn for the better that way.
March 3rd, 2016 at 5:44 am
Hamil Petroff is one of the most obscure figures ever in film history.
He was a dancer, choreographer, and then director of two unknown movies.
Steve: “well-choreographed sword fight”.
Choreography seems to have been Petroff’s main professional skill.
March 3rd, 2016 at 7:53 am
Garfield in WESTERN FILMS calls it a shabby B movie and a cheap jack remake. I haven’t seen it yet but I like Jock Mahoney as a western star.
Sometimes I wonder about Brian Garfield. I like his book on the western A movies alot and he must have loved the genre to do such a time consuming film encyclopedia but often I get the impression that he did not like westerns!
March 3rd, 2016 at 11:39 am
Check out Garfield on Last of the Mohicans. He reviews the color process, of which there was none. Obviously he screened a colorized product. He lost me right there, and plenty more essential errors at the same level, although I thought his essays making up a kind of preface were outstanding.
March 3rd, 2016 at 2:29 pm
Semi-off-topic:
The mention of this movie’s leading lady, Faith Domergue.
The hardline movie buffs will know the name:
one-time Howard Hughes “protégé”, femme fatale leading lady of the ’50s, moved to creature features in the ’60s and ’70s …
oversimplified, but as I said, we know the name.
And we know how to pronounce it – in the French style, doe-merg.
That brings me to Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful 8, and to Jennifer Jason Leigh’s Oscar-nominated turn therein, as a Western bad gal named Daisy Domergue.
Pronounced dommer-goo.
Did any of you have the same fingernails-on-the-blackboard reaction to that that I did?
I mean, I went in as we all did, well aware of Tarantino’s semi-literacy (I’ll always believe that he thinks Inglourious Basterds is spelled correctly).
I admit that this is the nit-picker in me taking charge.
How bad it is – well, I remember the first Martin Scorcese was interviewed on TV, and David Hartman asked how he pronounced his name, and Scorsese answered “Scor-sess-ee“.
And afterward, when the whole world said “Scor-say-zee“, it made me nuts. Shouldn’t have, but did.
As when a book on tape about baseball called Bill Veeck “veek“.
Or when Roger Ebert thought that Donald Pleasence was French (“pluh-zonce“).
Or any number of other examples that others of you can come up with.
Silly, I know.
But it does irritate me when it happens, so there too.
I owe so much to Quinn Martin and his announcers, who taught all of us to pronounce actor’s names correctly.
Too bad that he retired before the advent of Zeljko Ivanek.
That’s “zhel-ko ee-vah-neck“.
You’re welcome.
March 3rd, 2016 at 3:25 pm
Not so far off topic after all. One of the reasons I watched this movie is that Faith Domergue was in it. And while, yes, I knew how to pronounce her name, Zeljko Ivanek I wasn’t so sure about. Thank you!
March 3rd, 2016 at 3:33 pm
The pronunciation gets to me too Mike. Especially the people who pronounce Vineyard as vine-yard as if it wasn’t a common word.
Re Garfield, he had his opinions and was not afraid to express them, and keep in mind one of them was they should have stopped making Westerns when Gary Cooper died. He writes well, and when I disagree with him I move on.
I always liked Jock Mahoney, and will seek out any film that shows him with a sword since he did the stunts for Errol Flynn’s THE ADVENTURES OF DON JUAN (he did not choreograph the sword fights, but he was Flynn’s double for the more athletic bits like the famous staircase leap).
Likely he just played this character as Yancy Derringer to some extent.
I suspect the footage of the Mexican army was stock footage either from THE ALAMO or THE LAST COMMAND.
Did Garfield say what this was supposed to be a remake of? There are a couple of films that fit the bill one way or another, like CALIFORNIA CONQUEST with Cornel Wilde.
This kind of low budget Western hung on for most of the rest of the sixties, usually in color, but generally with casts of older stars like Buster Crabbe, Vaughn Monroe, or Rod Cameron. The last one may even be in the early seventies.
March 3rd, 2016 at 4:06 pm
In re Brian Garfield:
Many years ago, Mr.Garfield wrote a column for Mystery Scene, back in its newsprint days.
I don’t know if he (or someone) ever collected these columns into book form, but one of them deserves massive reprinting.
In it Garfield tells two related stories:
– One about his reference book about Western films, and some misadventures with the publishers (plural – that’s part of the story);
– The other, about how a Western novel of Garfield’s was filmed as The Last Hard Men, starring Charlton Heston and James Coburn, and its own misadventures with a Major Film Studio, regarding its release and distribution.
Brian Garfield tells both stories far better than I could hope to, which is why I hope someone reading this (perhaps even Mr. Garfield himself?) might provide a link – or even post the column here, if possible.
We could all benefit from this story, of undoubted moral uplift and redeeming social value (plus, it’s funny as all get-out).
March 3rd, 2016 at 9:10 pm
I remember watching Yancey Derringer in syndicated reruns weekday afternoons when I was in graduate school. I haven’t seen an episode since.
March 4th, 2016 at 5:58 pm
Randy,
Most if not all the Yancy Derringer episodes are available on YouTube.
Mike,
I recall that Garfield column, it was indeed funny.
March 5th, 2016 at 11:14 am
I watched a couple of the Yancey Derringer episodes and remembered the basic premise of the series, but not the details of any of the episodes. At one episode every weekday I think I saw the entire series in syndication more than once.
David, Do you know why the opening and closing credits are missing from the episodes on YouTube?
March 6th, 2016 at 11:27 am
We ought to close by mentioning Jock Mahoney’s moment of cinema glory, as chronicled on this very site several years ago.
I refer, of course, to Punchy Cowpunchers, starring the Three Stooges, which received a posting of its very own back in 2012 (I think – have to check the exact date in your archive).
Only two reels long, and funnier than many modern “comedies”.
Jacques O’Mahoney could have taken many paths in his career; his decision not to embrace comedy was his own, but he could have given it a few more tries.
Couldn’t hurt …
March 6th, 2016 at 11:32 am
Thanks for the reminder, Mike. Here’s the link to the review. It appeared on this blog over four years ago.
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=14239
March 6th, 2016 at 4:27 pm
No one seems to have noticed that many of the YouTube TV episodes are missing opening credits. Yancey Derringer is one.