Wild, Wild Westerns

Written by Stephen Schochet


Inrepparttar early days of Hollywood, for studios like Universal Westerns wererepparttar 118243 easiest films to make. They required very few props and made use ofrepparttar 118244 wide-open spaces available inrepparttar 118245 area. Evenrepparttar 118246 smallest studio, sometimes an empty space between two buildings known as a lot, could easily film outside. It was a cheap and effective way to involve audiences in wild chase scenes involving pure heroes likerepparttar 118247 white clad Tom Mix going after dastardly villains. One time a theater was showing a Western, whenrepparttar 118248 film suddenly broke right atrepparttar 118249 climatic scene. An emotional audience member yelled out," Hurry up and fix it before they get away!"

The master ofrepparttar 118250 Western was John Ford, who felt thatrepparttar 118251 genre wasrepparttar 118252 purest form of movie making. In 1956, he and John Wayne went to their regular spotrepparttar 118253 Monument Valley in Utah to makerepparttar 118254 powerful chase movie The Searchers. Location shooting allowedrepparttar 118255 two old friends to relax by camping out, playing cards and avoiding contact withrepparttar 118256 studio executives that Ford despised. The only problem was unpredictable Utah climate

Hollywood Horse Stories

Written by Stephen Schochet


A recent Hollywood rumor was that Tobey Maguire injured his back duringrepparttar making of Sea Biscuit doing horseback riding scenes, making him unable to star inrepparttar 118242 sequel to Spider-Man. Although it turned out to be false, he rode a mechanical horse inrepparttar 118243 film, many actors have had close calls working with horses.

One example was Michael Caine, whose first movie Zulu (1964) required him to ride a horse after a hunting expedition, which after several embarrassing takes almost bought his career to a premature end. "I thought you said you had riding lessons!" saidrepparttar 118244 angry director. "I did!" saidrepparttar 118245 beleaguered star. "Andrepparttar 118246 first thing I learned was I never wanted to ride one of these bloody things again!"

He wasn'trepparttar 118247 only one. Jack Nicholson took a hard fall in The Missouri Breaks (1976) which he shrugged off saying,"It would have hurt if I was a real person instead of a movie star."

Some performers get along famously with their horses,repparttar 118248 relationship can go on for years. Gene Autry had Champion trained to jump through a ring of fire at rodeos,repparttar 118249 stunt always worked perfectly until Champion aged and Gene had to replace him. Gene exhibited no concern when he was advised by trainers thatrepparttar 118250 new Champion was not ready for prime time his first night onrepparttar 118251 job. "It'll be all right boys!" reassuredrepparttar 118252 cowboy through swigs of tequila. The big moment came,repparttar 118253 new horse rode out with Gene towardrepparttar 118254 burning ring and came to a dead stop, sendingrepparttar 118255 famous cowboy star flying to completerepparttar 118256 stunt on his own. The crowd gasped but luckily Gene was more drunk than hurt, he simply got up and took a bow like it was all planned.

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