Hollywood Studio Magazine (1977)

was a friendly hero with a FRIENDLY HERO — Ken Maynard ee men yore warm inviting smile and alah when things were not going his way, there — and you knew inst star. act and contracts, payments, distributions and so forth delayed release of the picture until the whole idea was simply scraped. For the next 35 years, the movie gathers dust in a film vault until discovered and brought to the screen only recently ...” Well, for the record, no such film was ever made. But Patrick Curtis, a devoted western film buff and historian decided that perhaps the impossible could be done after all. Working with M.P. “Packy” Smith, a film historian, Richard Patterson, Curtis developed a movie that has all the earmarks of having been made 35 years ago, but with some of the most clever use of old film footage ever attempted. Using a script, the 25 heroes ride into Peaceful Valley and in a concerted effort stamp out villians, crooked bankers and others of their ilk, and bring peace to the Western Frontier. The movie is a celebration fo all that was good in the old grade “B” westerns that were the weekly fare of millions of kids from the 1930’s to 1950’s, and will introduce these same men of sterling character and has fast guns to a new generation of kids who have never had the chance to see them previously. The cast includes men like Buster Crabbe, Gabby Hayes, Tex Ritter, Buck Jones, William Boyd, Tim McCoy and John Wayne among he old, bright smile was still antly you were still in the presence ofa others, and according to Curtis, “Everything possible in a western has been included in this one film. It has every cliche, things like a saloon brawl, but with 15 stars all in the same fight! For our shootout Don Barry and Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd) both tackle the arch villian, the Rattler in the same scene. ‘When they moved the action to rocks, we were able to include a lot more famous faces — fighting the common enemy. The villians sidekick, Charles King appeared in scores of Westerns as a bad-guy and we made use of this fact so that he continues to appear over and Over again in the film, as a counterpart to the heroes we have included. “Gabby Hayes, Pat Buttram and others add comic relief to the episodes as they unravel, and anyone familiar with the classic “B” western will find this film true-to-life. At least the kind of life Hollywood thought cowboy heroes should live.” Putting all this footage on the screen as a complete package was a major task and one that took the producer and his friends more than two years to complete. Because the three men have a great affection for the old west as it was depicted in the western genre, they decided it would be possible for them to pull this project off successfully — and they were right! Previously mentioned ‘“Packy” 3 Smith had the films, (except Gene Autry’s) and Richard Patterson whose feature documentary movie, “The Gentleman Tramp” about Charlie Chaplin andPeter Bogdonovich’s film, “Directed By John Ford,” gave him invaluable screen assembling experience. Curtis was previously well-known for producing such films as “One Million B.C.” with his former wife, Raquel Welch, and “Hannie Caulder” gave him the business edge needed to put the project over financially. But even all this assembled talent would have been for naught, had the trio decided to do a series of film clips sliced together. Realizing more was needed, they set about providing a real artistic creation which will become one of the timeless classic movies of the west most historians now feel. After looking at thousands upon thousands of feet of movies, Curtis, Patterson and Smith started to build a painstakingly careful cross-index of scenes, lines and characters that could be later assembled into a coherent movie with a story line. After a three-hour version had been completed, the long task of showing it to the firms who had invested in the project, and people such as Gene Autry whose approval had to be gained before it could be released to the public, was launched. The deals to use film footage took a 21