Guns of Diablo | |
---|---|
Directed by | Boris Sagal and Boris Ingster [1] |
Written by | Berne Giler (screenplay) Robert Lewis Taylor (novel) |
Produced by | Boris Ingster |
Starring | Charles Bronson Susan Oliver Kurt Russell |
Cinematography | John M. Nickolaus Jr. |
Edited by | Harry Coswick |
Music by | Leigh Harline Walter Scharf Harry Sukman |
Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) |
Release date |
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Running time | 91 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Guns of Diablo is a Metrocolor 1965 Western film directed by Boris Sagal, produced by Boris Ingster, and starring Charles Bronson, Susan Oliver and Kurt Russell. It follows a wagon train master, who runs into difficulties when he meets his girlfriend Maria, now married to Rance Macklin, whose father owned a ranch that Murdock once worked on. [2]
This is an expanded version of the last episode of MGM-TV's brief series The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters ("The Day of the Reckoning"), originally telecast in black and white over ABC on March 15, 1964. Russ Conway refilmed Dan O'Herlihy's original scenes as Russell's father for this adaptation.
Teenage boy, Jamie (Kurt Russell), travels west on a wagon train with his father. When the convoy needs supplies, they stop near a small town where the experienced, armed wagon train master, Linc Murdock (Charles Bronson), runs into his ex-girlfriend Maria (Susan Oliver). Murdock finds out that she has married Rance Macklin (Jan Merlin), whose father owned a ranch that Murdock once worked on. The two men have a history, as Murdock was responsible for Macklin losing his right arm in a gun fight. Macklin's brothers hold Murdock prisoner in the town until Macklin can arrive. Macklin seeks revenge on his rival by arranging for a gun duel. After Murdock kills Macklin in a gunfight, during which his brothers are also killed, Murdock, Maria, the teen and his father end up going on with the wagon train to hunt for a gold mine.
Charles Bronson was an American actor. He was known for his roles in action films and his "granite features and brawny physique". Bronson was born into extreme poverty in Ehrenfeld, Pennsylvania, a coal mining town in the Allegheny Mountains. Bronson's father, a miner, died when Bronson was young. Bronson himself worked in the mines as well until joining the United States Army Air Forces in 1943 to fight in World War II. After his service, he joined a theatrical troupe and studied acting. During the 1950s, he played various supporting roles in motion pictures and television, including anthology drama TV series in which he would appear as the main character. Near the end of the decade, he had his first cinematic leading role in Machine-Gun Kelly (1958).
Kurt Vogel Russell is an American actor. At the age of 12, he began acting in the Western series The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (1963–1964). In the late 1960s, he signed a ten-year contract with The Walt Disney Company, where he starred as Dexter Riley in films such as The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969), Now You See Him, Now You Don't (1972), and The Strongest Man in the World (1975). For his portrayal of rock and roll superstar Elvis Presley in Elvis (1979), he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. According to Robert Osborne of Turner Classic Movies, Russell became the studio's top star of the 1970s.
Francis Benjamin Johnson Jr. was an American film and television actor, stuntman, and world-champion rodeo cowboy. Johnson brought authenticity to many roles in Westerns with his droll manner and expert horsemanship.
Laramie is an American Western television series that aired on NBC from 1959 to 1963. A Revue Studios production, the program originally starred John Smith as Slim Sherman, owner of the Sherman Ranch, along with his younger brother Andy, played by Robert L. Crawford Jr.; Robert Fuller as Jess Harper, an immature, hot-headed drifter who shows up at the Sherman Ranch in the premiere episode; and Hoagy Carmichael as Jonesy, who keeps the homestead/stage stop running while Slim and Jess usually alternate starring roles during the show. Actress Spring Byington was later added to the cast.
Henry George Carey Jr. was an American actor. He appeared in more than 90 films, including several John Ford Westerns, as well as numerous television series.
Noah Lindsey Beery was an American actor often specializing in warm, friendly character roles similar to many portrayed by his Oscar-winning uncle, Wallace Beery. Unlike his more famous uncle, however, Beery Jr. seldom broke away from playing supporting roles. Active as an actor in films or television for well over half a century, he was best known for playing James Garner's character's father, Joseph "Rocky" Rockford, in the NBC television series The Rockford Files (1974–1980). His father, Noah Nicholas Beery enjoyed a similarly lengthy film career as an extremely prominent supporting actor in major films, although the elder Beery was also frequently a leading man during the silent film era.
Susan Oliver was an American actress, television director, aviator, and author.
John Simpson Chisum was a wealthy cattle baron in the American West in the mid-to-late 19th century. He was born in Hardeman County, Tennessee, and moved with his family to the Republic of Texas in 1837, later finding work as a building contractor. He also served as county clerk in Lamar County. He was of Scottish, English, and Welsh descent.
Neil Oliver "Bing" Russell was an American actor and Class A minor-league baseball club owner. He was the father of Hollywood actor Kurt Russell and grandfather of ex–major league baseball player Matt Franco and actor Wyatt Russell.
The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel written by Robert Lewis Taylor, which was later made into a short-running television series on ABC from September 1963 through March 1964, featuring Kurt Russell as Jaimie, Dan O'Herlihy as his father, "Doc" Sardius McPheeters, and Michael Witney and Charles Bronson as the wagon masters, Buck Coulter and Linc Murdock, respectively.
The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters is an American Western television series based on Robert Lewis Taylor's 1958 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, and starring Kurt Russell, Dan O'Herlihy and Charles Bronson. The series aired on ABC for one season, 1963–64, and was produced by MGM Television.
Donna Anderson is an American character actress, active primarily in television during the 1960s and 1970s.
An Eye for an Eye is a 1966 American Pathécolor Western film directed by Michael D. Moore. The film was co-scripted by Bing Russell, father of actor Kurt Russell.
Jubal is a 1956 American Western film directed by Delmer Daves and starring Glenn Ford, Ernest Borgnine, Rod Steiger, Valerie French, and Felicia Farr. Shot in CinemaScope, it was one of the few adult Westerns in the 1950s and is described as Othello on the Range. The supporting cast features Noah Beery Jr., Charles Bronson and Jack Elam.
Law and Order is a 1953 American Western film directed by Nathan Juran and starring Ronald Reagan, Dorothy Malone and Preston Foster.
Sunset Carson Rides Again is a 1948 American Western film produced and directed by Oliver Drake and shot on his own ranch. Filmed in 1947 in Kodachrome on 16mm film, the film was the first of Drake's Yucca Pictures Corporation to star Sunset Carson. The film was released by Astor Pictures Corporation in 35mm Cinecolor. The film follows Bob Ward as he is rescued by a man named Sunset Carson, who Bob believes murdered his father.
Trail Guide is a 1952 American western film directed by Lesley Selander and starring Tim Holt, Richard Martin and Linda Douglas. Distributed by RKO Pictures, it lost $20,000.
Jena Engstrom is an American former television actress. She appeared in more than three dozen episodes of various television series between 1960 and 1964.
Ardel Wray was an American screenwriter and story editor, best known for her work on Val Lewton's classic horror films in the 1940s. Her screenplay credits from that era include I Walked with a Zombie, The Leopard Man and Isle of the Dead.
Boris Ingster was a Russian-American screenwriter, film and television director, and producer notable for his role in launching the film noir genre. In the 1930s he was a screenwriter on several films. He made his directorial debut in 1940 with the film noir movie Stranger on the Third Floor. In the 1950s and 1960s he shifted much of his attention to producing television series in genres ranging from drama to Westerns and spy thrillers.