Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Plimpton: Shootout at Rio Lobo

I've been doing very little of these "A-V Department" posts, because one of the things I wanted to do with this particular movie blog is to keep it "pure," just writing—and not filling it with, well, "filler," because I needed to put a post up and a YouTube video is handy.

But, this television special I remember from my youth, featuring Walter Mitty-ish writer George Plimpton doing hour long specials about his "tough jobs" kind of journalism which were the staple of his writings.

In this one, he does some acting—he actually would do more later in his career, usually playing foppish intellectual caricatures—in a bit part in a John Wayne western. 

Well, not just any "John Wayne western"—this one is being directed by Howard Hawks, the last movie he would make, in fact, Rio Lobo, which is sort of the third of his "variations of a theme on Rio Bravo." In fact, the story goes that when Hawks approached Wayne about it, Wayne asked "Do I get to play the drunk this time?"

I've got a couple posts about Hawks coming up, and I thought it might be nice for you to see the man in action.

The video may start out annoyingly for some as it still has the color bars and 1 k tone at the beginning of the video. The show actually starts about 26 seconds in.

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