Wild West Land Blog

I was looking for information on that most famous of redneck TV vehicles, the General Lee from 80s favourite The Dukes of Hazard, when I stumbled across the Veluzat brothers.

Apparently the family was involved for a few years in the wholesale destruction, sorry, I mean creation, of a couple of hundred bright orange 1969 Dodge Chargers, hand built for the stunt men to jump off ever increasingly large ramps.

Thrown into the description of their motion picture and TV handiwork was mention of the brothers buying up Gene Autry’s old Melody Ranch Studios out in Saugus, California some 30 miles north of Hollywood.

Autry had owned the ranch from 1952 up until 1990 when his horse Champion passed away. Appropriately enough, the ranch had been the location for countless classic western movies from the earliest days of the studios and boasted an impressive western street featuring hotels, a church, bank and jailhouse.

If you visit the website for the Veluzat Motion Picture Ranch today the history just jumps out at you:

experience a page torn from history on the street where famous westerns were made such as The Lone Ranger, Wyatt Earp, Gunsmoke, Hopalong Cassidy, Annie Oakley, Rin Tin Tin, The Cisco Kid and Deadwood

If you like exploring film locations like the folk at movie-locations.com then the two Veluzat websites are well worth a visit, featuring pictures and virtual tours of some classic western wooden building architecture.

Sure the original western street was destroyed back in 1962, but let’s thanks the owners for investing in a new town that can boast over 65 different storefronts to help future western moviemakers bring new life to the genre.

A story by Bruce Dancis in the Houston Chronicle has just caught my eye, what with the DVD buying Christmas season approaching!

John Wayne would have hated Deadwood.

Since Wayne referred to the 1952 Western High Noon as “the most un-American thing I’ve ever seen in my whole life” because of its depiction of frontier townspeople as cowardly, it’s reasonable to assume that the conservative cowboy actor would have despised David Milch’s HBO series.

With just days to go (for presents arriving by post anyway) HBO have just released a new box set of the three seasons of their infamous western TV show set on the 1870s frontier.

I usually like a good HBO series, Six Feet Under being a great example of the risk-taking channel. The freedom to swear so frequently in a TV show always seemed to me to add realism to a medium where ‘damn’ is usually the nastiest insult on prime time British TV.

I never did catch many episodes of this show though perhaps because I could never get my head round Lovejoy being evil!

Ian McShane is a fine actor but having grown up with the genteel ramblings of an East Anglian antiques expert I never could see past that loveable rogue exterior. Now I know why David Tennant fears Dr Who typecasting…

Anyway, our American cousins can now take advantage of the new box set with extra features on the town and ideas for future movies. In the UK you’ll have to make do with the heavily discounted old edition on Amazon.

Before you rush off though be sure to vote on my Deadwood poll:

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Buy Deadwood: Complete HBO Seasons 1-3 (12 Disc Box Set) at Amazon.co.uk:

He acts, produces and directs.

He won 7 Oscars, including Best Director, for the modern western drama Dances with Wolves (somewhat of an apology for all those John Ford westerns that went before).

And now it turns out Kevin Costner likes to play country music AND has had a hit record in Japan!

With band Modern West Costner performed recently on the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville and has managed to get three songs from the album Untold Truths into the soundtrack for his latest film, Swing Vote.

Not bad going for the man who also brought us Waterworld and The Postman. And it seems there may now even be a sequel to 1991’s “well-crafted PC touchy-feely hippie crap“.

The post on the Libertas film blog is over a year old so ‘The Holy Road’ may not be coming soon but some of the comments are well worth reading.

It seems Mel Brooks got it right all those years ago in that classic comedy campfire scene from the 1974 hit Blazing Saddles - farting is funny and may also be good for you!

At least that’s what I take from this science story on the BBC website: ‘Fart gas’ link to blood pressure. According to scientists at Johns Hopkins University, smelly hydrogen sulphide is “produced by an enzyme in blood vessels where it relaxes them and lowers blood pressure.”

Researcher Dr Solomon Snyder said: “Now we know hydrogen sulphide’s role in regulating blood pressure, it may be possible to design drug therapies that enhance its formation as an alternative to the current methods of treatment for hypertension.”

The image that comes to my mind is the Vicks ’stick’ nasal inhaler:

If in future you find yourself in a high stress situation and feel your chest tightening simply reach for your handy ‘fart pen’, take a quick whiff and feel the tension within melt away. I can see the marketing ad on TV now!

A cheaper alternative would be to watch again one of the greatest American comedies of all time - coming in at number six in the AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Laughs list. And so, without any apologies, I offer you the YouTube video Blazing Saddles - Farting Cowboys. It’s less than a minute long and just think of the health benefits!

Taking the fart gag too far? “How ’bout some more beans Mr Taggart?”

Just had an email through from Amazon suggesting prices are now slashed on all western DVDs, including the half price 15 disc boxset of John Wayne: The Early Years. Buy ‘em while you can…

It’s more of a 60’s romp than traditional western but nevertheless is a superb movie. And so we bid a fond farewell to Paul Newman who played Butch Cassidy alongside partner in crime Robert ‘Sundance’ Redford.

The Oscar-winner passed away on 26 September 26 2008, aged 83.

Paul Newman: Oscar-winning actor, producer and director