Sunday, October 2, 2011

Monday movie

Quite possibly the best saloon fight scene ever, from Dodge City (1939).

22 comments:

Yojimbo said...

One of the better westersn of all time with a great cast featuring Alan Hale in one of his last great performances. That sunflower from the Ladies League is just priceless.

It also features Flynn wearing one of the more outlandish "B Movie" cowboy hats you will ever see.

Your videos make me want to get off of dialup so I can view them.

Paco said...

Alan Hale and Guinn "Big Boy" Williams teamed up as dual sidekicks for Errol Flynn in several flicks, and were great together.

Paco said...

Williams to Hale (can't remember which movie): I'd brain you if it weren't physically impossible.

Yojimbo said...

And Olivia de Havelina:) I think they appeared in something like 8 or 9 movies together. Always liked Williams, along with Hale. Like Sr much better than Jr.

John Wayne had a number of "fixed cast" members as well.

richard mcenroe said...

Those of you of a slightly less antique status might recognize the bar fight from the opening of "F Troop"...

Paco said...

Well, that would figure. Both Dodge City and F-Troop were Warner Bros. productions.

Yojimbo said...

Slightly less antique status. Ha!

Ya calling me a geezer or something. The bad news is I know where you live. The good news is I forgot where I put the address book!

Steve at the Pub said...

Oh My God!!

My favourite movie scene of all time!

I bought the DVD of Dodge City years ago, purely for this scene!

Steve at the Pub said...

On top of that, as a legacy of watching this scene, I learned to play "Marching Through Georgia" on Three different instruments.

Paco said...

Steve: A word of advice. Don't ever play "Marching Through Georgia" if you ever actually happen to be in Georgia.

Paco said...

BTW, your place doesn't get that bad on Saturday nights, does it?

Steve at the Pub said...

Paco, I'm away from home right now, but as soon as I get back I'll post a story about wearing my unit crest in South Carolina.

That barroom brawl is tame girly stuff compared to many I've had.

I've had the street barricaded & cars burnt, I've had staff have their skull hammered one vertebrae down their spinal column, & worse.

I've got great CCTV footage of lots of it. Doesn't help one bit with a prosecution, for which there is SFA chance of a conviction, even if the cops can be bothered to prosecute.

We are an unloved industry. If this stuff happened to, say, Kentucky Fried Chicken, the cops'd turn up in seconds, with smoking tyres & drawn guns.

For my place, they offer to arrest me for "allowing" the public to do it.

Paco said...

Steve: If there's one thing I really hope to do before I die, it's visit your pub.

Steve at the Pub said...

ummm, Paco, read some of my backstories, from archives.

Stuff where people are having their teeth shattered with a wheel brace, or their eyes poked out & dangling on their cheek like a yo-yo on a string, stuff like that.

My favourite story is the one where I dial the emergency number, & within 3 minutes have 60 armed police on my doorstep (not a bad effort for a 30-man station)

http://the-public-house.blogspot.com/2005/03/dial-000.html

Steve at the Pub said...

The previous notwithstanding, that scene is one of my all time favourites. I also love the scene (or is it a couple of scenes) prior, when they perform/sing "Little Brown Jug".

But I didn't need that to be inspired to learn the tune, as we all already know & love "Little Brown Jug"

Also keep in mind, Henry Clay Work, who wrote Marching Through Georgia, also wrote several well known tunes, including one of our (adopted) Australian Classics, the American song: "Ring The Bell", known in Australia as "Click go the Shears"

That man wrote some fantastic stuff. I've learned several of his tunes.

Paco said...

Hell, I ain't afraid of random violence. Why, where I come from, we kill our own from time to time just to keep in practice (I can bring a shotgun, right?)

"Marching Through Georgia" is a catchy tune, but one that is associated with Sherman's scorched-earth policy during the Civil War. Things have, in fact, changed quite a bit in the south since I was a child, but I remember, when I was a little shaver growing up in North Carolina, that Sherman was still a much-hated figure.

Steve at the Pub said...

Umm, Paco, ermmm... there is one helluva demographic (verging on a majority of the population in places) in Georgia (& other southern states) who don't seem to have all that much of of a problem with concepts such as Sherman Marching to the Sea.

That same demographic seems to have one helluva problem with the rebel flag, even though they've been born & bred in the south for 10 generations or thereabouts.

Perhaps y'all's social circles in the south ain't altogether... er... complete.

Just sayin'

Paco said...

You're quite right, old fellow. Times have indeed changed.

bruce said...

What? 'Click go the Shears boys click click click' - didn't kill themselves on the lyric either - is an American tune?

Where's Dick Smith? (Aussie millionaire anti-American bigot - my American mate says his face turns sour as soon as he hears the accent if you meet him).

richard mcenroe said...

Steve, don't let Paco fool you. "Marching through Georgia" makes a GREAT car horn in Atlanta. Just don't stop.

Ev. Er.

Steve at the Pub said...

So those crowds of local people who started following me every time I tooted the horn in Georgia, they may not have been keen to show me some southern hospitality?

(They said they really wanted to throw me a necktie party, so off I drove looking for a menswear shop, as all I had with me were casual tourist clothes)

The more I tooted that nice musical horn I got sold real cheap by Prestige Auto Carriage Outfitters, the more friendly locals joined the crowd, shame I couldn't find a menswear shop, as it looked like being quite a gathering.

They had a tree ready in my honour & everything. Southerners really know how to put on a welcome.

Steve at the Pub said...

Ahhh, that would be the same Dick Smith who funded (Aussie taliban) David Hick's legal defence.