The Rounders | |
---|---|
Directed by | Burt Kennedy |
Screenplay by | Burt Kennedy |
Based on | The Rounders (novel) by Max Evans |
Produced by | Richard E. Lyons |
Starring | Glenn Ford Henry Fonda Sue Ane Langdon Chill Wills Edgar Buchanan Hope Holiday |
Cinematography | Paul C. Vogel |
Edited by | John McSweeney Jr. |
Music by | Jeff Alexander |
Distributed by | Metro Goldwyn Mayer |
Release date |
|
Running time | 85 min. |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $1,500,000 [1] |
The Rounders is a 1965 American Western comedy film directed by Burt Kennedy and starring Glenn Ford and Henry Fonda. It is based on the 1960 novel of the same name by Max Evans.
Ben Jones and Marion "Howdy" Lewis are two easygoing, modern-day cowboys who make a meager living breaking wild horses. Their frequent employer is Jim Ed Love, a shrewd businessman who always gets the better of them. After they bring him a string of tamed horses and spend the winter rounding up stray cows, he talks them into taking a nondescript roan horse in lieu of some of their wages.
To his great and frequent discomfort, Ben finds that the horse is unrideable. Rather than turning the horse into soap or dog food, he decides to take it to a rodeo and bet other cowhands that they cannot ride it, thereby doubling his and Howdy's earnings. Along the way, the duo stop to help two dimwitted strippers, Mary and Sister, with their car, which has broken down. Not knowing much about cars, they give them a ride to the nearest garage, but end up getting to know them better (going skinny dipping with them) and taking them along to the rodeo. Unfortunately the girls lose their clothes and have to dress in waitress aprons, leaving them exposed in the rear. The guys use their hats to cover them up.
Everything goes as planned; nobody is able to stay on the horse. However, the horse suddenly collapses and although Ben and Howdy are willing to spend all the money that they have won on veterinary help, the vet tells them it is hopeless: the horse should be destroyed. Ben walks into the stable, cocks the pistol and closes his eyes. A shot is heard. Ben comes flying out, and the roan kicks the stable to pieces, They give Tanner $475, all they have (the vet charged them more than $100). Tanner demands $200 more. Love steps in with the rest of the money, tells the boys they can work it out at his ranch and drives. They consider the benefits of life on Love's ranch. Ben muses that the definition of a bronc rider is “a cowboy with his brains kicked out.” They drive away, and a police car makes a U-turn to follow them.
The highly scenic filming locations were in and around Sedona, Arizona, including the Village of Oak Creek.
The film was a sleeper hit. [2]
In a contemporary review, The New York Times found the film to be a "...good, small Western—far from perfect but beautifully personified by two wise, winning veterans". [3] Reviewing The Rounders for the Los Angeles Times, Margaret Harford wrote: "The plot is thin, the comedy rather forced and the casting is unbelievable but at least it's a pleasant change from all those psychological westerns and attempted satires on same." [4]
Rodeo is a competitive equestrian sport that arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain and Mexico, expanding throughout the Americas and to other nations. It was originally based on the skills required of the working vaqueros and later, cowboys, in what today is the western United States, western Canada, and northern Mexico. Today, it is a sporting event that involves horses and other livestock, designed to test the skill and speed of the cowboys and cowgirls. American-style professional rodeos generally comprise the following events: tie-down roping, team roping, steer wrestling, saddle bronc riding, bareback bronc riding, bull riding, breakaway roping, and barrel racing. The events are divided into two basic categories: the timed events and rough stock events. Depending on sanctioning organization and region, other events such as goat tying and pole bending may also be a part of some rodeos. The "world's first public cowboy contest" was held on July 4, 1883, in Pecos, Texas, between cattle driver Trav Windham and roper Morg Livingston.
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.
Enos Edward "Yakima" Canutt was an American champion rodeo rider, actor, stuntman, and action director. He developed many stunts for films and the techniques and technology to protect stuntmen in performing them.
Theodore Childress "Chill" Wills was an American actor and a singer in the Avalon Boys quartet.
The Hall of Great Western Performers is a hall of fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It is a 4,000-square-foot (370 m2) presentation that explores how the American West has been interpreted in literature and film. Each year, the museum inducts performers to the hall in conjunction with the awarding of the Western Heritage Awards.
The ProRodeo Hall of Fame and Museum of the American Cowboy was opened in August 1979 as a museum designed to "preserve the legacy of the cowboy contests, the heritage and culture of those original competitions, and the champions of the past, present and future." It is located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and only inducts Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and Women's Professional Rodeo Association members. It is the "only museum in the world devoted exclusively to the sport of professional rodeo."
Cowboy culture is the set of behaviors, preferences, and appearances associated with the attitudes, ethics, and history of the American cowboy. The term can describe the content or stylistic appearance of an artistic representation, often built on romanticized impressions of the wild west, or certain aspects of people's lifestyle, such as their choices in recreation, apparel, and western or southwestern cuisine.
Ty Monroe Murray, is an American former professional rodeo cowboy. He competed in the three "roughstock" events; bareback bronc riding, saddle bronc riding, and bull riding. He won nine world championships in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA); seven in all-around and two in bull riding. He was also one of the co-founders and a board adviser of the Professional Bull Riders (PBR). From 2005 to 2020, he was also a regular color commentator for several televised PBR events.
Larry Mahan was an American professional rodeo cowboy. He won six all-around world championships and two bull riding world championships in the Rodeo Cowboys Association circuit at the National Finals Rodeo.
The Lusty Men is a 1952 Contemporary Western film released by Wald-Krasna Productions and RKO Radio Pictures starring Susan Hayward, Robert Mitchum, Arthur Kennedy and Arthur Hunnicutt. The picture was directed by Nicholas Ray and produced by Jerry Wald and Norman Krasna from a screenplay by David Dortort and Horace McCoy, with uncredited contributions by Alfred Hayes, Andrew Solt, and Wald, that was based on the novel by Claude Stanush. The music score was by Roy Webb and the cinematography by Lee Garmes.
Casey Duane Tibbs was an American professional rodeo cowboy, and actor.
History of rodeo tracks the lineage of modern Western rodeo.
Charles Hugh Roberson was an American actor and stuntman.
John Van "Tex" Austin was an American rodeo promoter, known as the "King of the Rodeo" or "Daddy of the Rodeo" because of his efforts to popularize the rodeo outside of its core American West demographic.
Cowboy from Brooklyn is a 1938 American Western musical romantic comedy film directed by Lloyd Bacon and written by Earl Baldwin. It stars Dick Powell, Pat O'Brien and Priscilla Lane. The film was based on the 1937 Broadway play Howdy Stranger by Robert Sloane and Louis Pelletier.
The Rounders was an American Western-style sitcom about two cowboys on the fictitious J.L. Ranch in Texas.
Warren Granger "Freckles" Brown was a hall of fame American rodeo cowboy from Wheatland, Wyoming. His career spanned from 1937 to 1974, competing in bull riding, saddle bronc riding, bareback bronc riding, team roping, and steer wrestling. He was the World Bull Riding Champion in 1962. Brown was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs, Colorado, for bull riding in 1979. He was also inducted into the inaugural class of the Bull Riding Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas, in 2015. Brown was most famous for riding Tornado, who had an undefeated record of 220 riders. Brown was also a close friend and mentor of Lane Frost.
All Around Frying Pan is a 1925 American silent Western film directed by David Kirkland and starring Fred Thomson, James A. Marcus, and Clara Horton.
Margie Greenough Henson was a 1978 National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame inductee.
Descent was a bucking horse who was specialized in saddle bronc riding and competed in the Rodeo Cowboys Association. He is a six-time Bucking Horse of the Year awardee. He won the award in 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1971, and 1972. He is also a 1979 ProRodeo Hall of Fame inaugural inductee.