Saturday, July 26, 2014

Sorry...

When that first big storm rolled through this morning, I was left feeling like my skull had been inflated to 90psi and bright white light was streaming out of all my cranial sutures. I gave Saturday up for a bad idea and lounged in bed all day because ow.

I had never seen an episode of Wagon Train before. Now I have.

Also, there was a movie called Arabesque which somehow managed to be awful in its contrived '60s psychedelia despite featuring Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren in the starring roles. Henry Mancini phoned the score in. I turned it off during the unsteadycam footage of a dude dressed like a sheik being chased through an English farm field by a combine. No, seriously.

Also, also, there was an episode of Gunsmoke featuring a midget were-elephant.
.

12 comments:

mustanger said...

I've seen a few episodes of Wagon Train. That show inspired a political protest in 1958... it became a yearly tradition, still going, known as the West North Carolina Wagon Train. There's a book about it- "Thirty Years Across The Far Blue Mountains."

I've seen a lot more Gunsmoke... used to watch it all the time when I was a kid... in syndication. The episode you mentioned is "Arizona Midnight". The guest star is Billy Curtis. He was in "Tiny Town" back in the '30's, also "High Plains Drifter" with Clint Eastwood. Mr. Curtis also played "the Hamburglar" for McDonalds... when he died, they retired the character.

This other movie you cited... no comment because I haven't seen it.

Old NFO said...

+1 on Mustanger, except I watched them the first time around. Sigh

Fiftycal said...

Sucks getting OLD doesn't it?

Windy Wilson said...

I saw Arabesque, they were trying for a spy film like the one with Paul Newman and Elke Sommer, The Prize, and the only thing I can remember about it is Gregory Peck hiding in the shower, with Sophia Loren taking a shower. The Paul Newman film was marginally better. I guess even the great Stanley Donen (Charade, Singing in the Rain, 7 Brides for 7 Brothers) can deliver a clunker now and then.

Windy Wilson said...

Oh, and TMK not having seen Wagon Train, did it resemble "Grand Hotel"? It was supposed to be Grand Hotel on wheels, and the original Star Trek was supposed to be a sort of Wagon Train in the stars.

Jerry The Geek said...

Was this one of the series starring Ward Bond?

Matt G said...

"I turned it off during the unsteadycam footage of a dude dressed like a sheik being chased through an English farm field by a combine. No, seriously."

Sounds like Gregory Peck trying to do Cary Grant.
By the way: North By Northwest? Overrated, in my opinion. There. I said it.

Robert Fowler said...

When I was in Texas one of the local stations had western Saturday. They had Wagon Train, Rawhide, Gunsmoke and a movie. A great way to spend a Saturday morning.

Harry Flashman said...

Wagon Train was a big deal when I was a kid. We watched "The Bugs Bunny Road Runner Hour", then my mom made hamburgers, (every Friday) then we watched Rawhide and Wagon Train. That would have been the very early sixties, I think.

Sorry you get migraines. My daughter does, and I know they are terrible.

fast richard said...

Yeah, Wagon train was a current series when we got a TV in about 1958. I think Ward Bond was the original Wagonmaster and was replaced by John McIntire.

ProudHillbilly said...

I dont think i've ever seen wagon train. But i did find high chapparel out on youtube...

mustanger said...

"When I was in Texas one of the local stations had western Saturday. They had Wagon Train, Rawhide, Gunsmoke and a movie. A great way to spend a Saturday morning."

9:23 AM, July 27, 2014

TBS in Atlanta did pretty much the same thing back in the early to mid '80's.

INSP recently was running westerns, including High Chaparral and The Virginian, on Saturdays. John McIntyre was one of the Shiloh owners after Lee J. Cobb left the show. My Daddy mentioned that John McIntyre had been the wagon master.

I did also watch High Chaparral and Big Valley as a kid. I remember enjoying those old westerns a lot better than a lot of the more current stuff.