Have Gun — Will Travel is an American Western television series that aired on CBS from 1957 through 1963. It was rated either number three or number four in the Nielsen ratings during each year of its first four seasons.
The show followed the adventures of Paladin, a gentleman gunfighter (played by Richard Boone on television), who preferred to settle problems without violence, yet, when forced to fight, excelled. The knight symbol is in reference to his name — possibly a nickname or working name — and his occupation as a champion-for-hire. The theme song of the series refers to him as "a knight without armor." [wikipedia]
The Magnificent Seven is a 1960 American western film directed by John Sturges about a group of hired gunmen protecting a Mexican village from bandits. Wowie!... one of the greatest (if not THE greatest) Westerns of all time... Can't get any better with a cast like McQueen, Brynner, Coburn, Vaughn, Bronson... all my fave super stars. Eli Wallach often the bad guy in most Westerns played chief of bandits. Music composed by Elmer Bernstein (April 4, 1922 - August 18, 2004). He is the recipient of Western Heritage Awards for The Magnificent Seven (1960) and The Hallelujah Trail (1965).
Cempaka Orchestra performing Magnificent Seven for Cempaka Damansara Commencements 2007, Cempaka Schools. Conductor: Mr Isaac Chia
The Virginian is a western-themed television series which aired on NBC from 1962 to 1971 for a total of 249 episodes based on the Owen Wister novel. Played by James Drury as The Virginian whose real name was never revealed in the nine seasons of the series. Other key characters included Trampas (played by Doug McClure who was the most popular)[oh my fave] and Steve Hill (played by Gary Clarke). The theme song was titled "Lonesome Tree" and was written by Percy Faith and conducted by Revue musical director, Stanley Wilson. It is a kinda sad we do not have that much opportunity now to watch Westerns like we used to. Where are all the script writers and directors? Or maybe where are the audiences who would rather prefer hi-tech & graphics more than cowboys and Indians?
Hang 'Em High is a 1968 Western film directed by Ted Post starring Clint Eastwood. It is the story of an innocent man, Jed Cooper (Eastwood), who survives a lynching by nine men, and becomes a US Marshal to see that justice is done. Music by Dominic Frontiere.[wikipedia]
A Fistful of Dollars (Italian: Per un pugno di dollari) is a 1964 western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood alongside Gian Maria Volontè, Marianne Koch, Wolfgang Lukschy, José Calvo and Joseph Egger. Released in Italy in 1964 then in the United States in 1967, it initiated the popularity of the Spaghetti Western film genre. A Fistful of Dollars was shot in Spain, mostly near Hoyo de Manzanares close to Madrid, but also (like its two sequels) in the Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park in Almería province.
The film's music was written by Ennio Morricone, credited as Dan Savio. Morricone recalled Leone requesting him to write "Dimitri Tiomkin music" for the film. The trumpet theme is similar to Tiomkin's El Degüello theme from Rio Bravo (1959) (that was called Un dollaro d'onore in Italy) while the opening title whistling music recalls Tiomkin's use of whistling in his Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957). "Some of the music was written before the film, which is unusual. Leone's films were made like that because he wanted the music to be an important part of it, and he often kept the scenes longer simply because he didn't want the music to end. That's why the films are so slow - because of the music." [wikipedia]
The High Chaparral is a Western-themed television series which aired on NBC from 1967 to 1971. The show was created by David Dortort, who had previously created the hit Bonanza for the network. The theme song was also written and conducted by Bonanza scorer David Rose.
The show starred Leif Erickson as "Big" John Cannon, a rancher who lived in the Arizona Territory in the 1870s. He ran the ranch with his brother Buck (Cameron Mitchell) and son Billy Blue (Mark Slade). Billy Blue's mother Annalee (Joan Caulfield) was killed in the first episode by an Indian arrow through the window, and to ensure his future, John Cannon courted and later married Victoria (Linda Cristal), the daughter of the powerful Don Sebastián Montoya. His marriage to Victoria Montoya brought her brother Manolito (Henry Darrow) into the picture, and he also came to live with the family. Cameron Mitchell was offered the part of Buck following an airline flight to Tucson where he had sat next to the series originator and his wife. [wikipedia]
For a Few Dollars More (Italian: Per qualche dollaro in più) is a 1965 spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Gian Maria Volontè. German actor Klaus Kinski also plays a supporting role as a secondary villain. The film was released in the United States in 1967 and is the second part of what is commonly known as the "Man with No Name" trilogy.
Ennio Morricone composed the film's soundtrack as he did for A Fistful of Dollars. In the United States, Hugo Montenegro released a cover version as did Leroy Holmes who released a cover version of the soundtrack album with the original American poster art. [wikipedia]
The Lone Ranger is an American radio and television show created by George W. Trendle and developed by writer Fran Striker. The eponymous character is a masked Texas Ranger in the American Old West, originally played by Paul Halliwell, who gallops about righting injustices with the aid of his clever, laconic Indian sidekick, Tonto. Departing on his white horse Silver, the Ranger would famously say "Hi-yo, Silver, away!" as the horse galloped toward the setting sun.
The theme music was the "cavalry charge" finale of Gioachino Rossini's William Tell Overture, now inseparably associated with the series. [wikipedia]
Well well well another version of Lone Ranger which I have posted in my other blog too, most probably the Lone Mommy would like to sing a piece of her mind here..She'd done it superbly. Awesome!
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly(Italian: il Buono, il Brutto, il Cattivo) is a 1966 Italian epic spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Leone, starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach in the title roles. The screenplay was written by Age & Scarpelli, Luciano Vincenzoni and Leone, based on a story by Vincenzoni and Leone. Director of photography Tonino Delli Colli was responsible for the film's sweeping widescreen cinematography and Ennio Morricone composed the famous film score, including its main theme. It is the third and final film in the Dollars trilogy following A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and For a Few Dollars More (1965). The plot centers around three gunslingers competing to find a fortune in buried Confederate gold amid the violent chaos of gunfights, hangings, and Civil War battles and prison camps.
Opening on December 15, 1966 in Italy and in the U.S. on December 23, 1967, the film grossed $6.1 million, but was criticized for its depiction of violence. Leone explains that "the killings in my films are exaggerated because I wanted to make a tongue-in-cheek satire on run-of-the-mill westerns... The west was made by violent, uncomplicated men, and it is this strength and simplicity that I try to recapture in my pictures." To this day, Leone's effort to reinvigorate the timeworn Western is widely acknowledged: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly has been described as European cinema's best representative of the Western genre film, and Quentin Tarantino has called it "the best-directed film of all time." [wikipedia]
Ennio Morricone, OMRI (born November 10, 1928) is an Italian Academy Award-winning composer. He has composed and arranged scores for more than 500 film and television productions. Morricone wrote the characteristic soundtracks of Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) as well as The Great Silence (1968), and My Name Is Nobody (1973). His more recent compositions include the scores for The Thing (1982), Once Upon A Time In America (1984), The Mission (1986), The Untouchables (1987), Cinema Paradiso (1988), Lolita (1997),The Legend of 1900 (1998), Malèna (2000), Mission to Mars (2000) and Fateless (2005). Ennio Morricone has won five Anthony Asquith Awards for Film Music by BAFTA in 1979–1992. He has been nominated for five Academy Awards for Best Music, Original Score in 1979–2001, winning none of them. Morricone received the Honorary Academy Award in 2007 "for his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music". He was the second composer to receive this award after its introduction.
Morricone was born in Rome, the son of Libera and Mario Morricone, a jazz trumpeter. He was educated at the National Academy of Santa Cecilia in the trumpet, composition, choral music and choral direction under Goffredo Petrassi, who deeply influenced him and to whom Morricone has dedicated concert pieces. Impelled by his father to take up the trumpet, he had first gone to Santa Cecilia to take lessons on the instrument at the age of 9. Ennio formally entered the conservatory in 1940 at the age of 12, enrolling in a four-year harmony program. According to various reports, he completed it in two years or six months (date approximate). These were the difficult years of World War II in the heavily bombed "Open City": the composer remarked that what he mostly remembered of those years was the hunger. Many years were spent in study, giving him the extraordinary level of technical ability that his music exhibits. His wartime experiences influenced many of his scores for films set in that period. [wikipedia]
A commitment to excellence.. truthfully inspired by Zig Ziglar ~ "You can get anything you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want". A franchisee of Rockwills Corp since 1998.
Reminiscing the sweet and sour memories of an adolescent 1946-Baby Boomer-1964 way back into the black and white TV and silver screen days. Hope to create another great compilation of movie themes just for old times sake..
