BY JOHN
M. WHALEN
We all know Roy Rogers, King of the Cowboys, as famous
for his colorful fringed shirts and hand-tooled boots as he was for his ability
with his fists, guitar and shooting iron. He was the epitome of Hollywood’s
concept of a fantasy hero in a west that never was, as far from reality as
director William Witney and writers like Sloan Nibley and Gerald Geraghty could
make him. He made over 80 feature films basically playing himself, and became
an icon that will live on beyond the memory of any of us. He stopped making
feature films in 1952, but spent five more years turning out over 100 episodes
of the Roy Rogers TV Show. He sort of retired after that, making occasional
appearances on TV and at rodeo shows, but in 1975, at age 64, in what may have
been an attempt at a comeback, he returned to movie making and turned out a
film far removed from any of those he’d done before.
He said he wanted to make a movie in a modern setting
with a more realistic character but one who lived by the same values he’d
always upheld. The movie was called “Mackintosh and T.J,†and was a bold
departure for Roy. No fancy shirts, no Trigger, the smartest horse in the movies,
no more songs around the campfire with the Sons of the Pioneers. The title
character, Mackintosh, is a 64-year-old former rodeo cowboy, a drifter,
traveling the country in a broken down pickup truck, a loner looking for work
of any kind wherever he can find it. He’s like Sam Peckinpah’s Junior Bonner
(Steve McQueen), only older and with fewer options. He’s no longer able to work
the rodeo circuit, but he’s not angry about it and doesn’t feel sorry for
himself. He takes life as it comes and deals with it best he can, without
bitterness or regret.
The action of the story begins when Mackintosh stops in
the town of Dickens, Texas, pop. 300, to put water in his truck’s leaky
radiator. He spots a 14-year-old boy being run out of town by a local cop. He
later runs into him down the road in a market where a grocer is about to catch
him trying to steal some apples. On an impulse he steps in, telling the grocer
they’re together and pays for his groceries as well as the apples. Screenwriter
Paul Savage doesn’t provide much background information at this point about
Mackintosh to explain why he decides to protect the boy, but it’s apparent he
sees something of himself in the lad. T.J. (Clay Obrien) tells him that he is
on his own on his way to “see the Pacific Ocean.†Mackintosh offers to take him
at least part of the way, if he wants a ride.
As they travel, we learn that T.J. has been pretty much
on his own for most of his young life. He’s got a cocky attitude, and tells
Macintosh he always pays his own way. He seems to have a pretty cynical view of
life for a kid. Mackintosh tells him, “What you see depends on how you look at
it.†When a truck honks at them while passing, T.J. tells Mackintosh he doesn’t
like being passed by anybody. He wants to be number one. But Mackintosh tells
him those who get there first usually spend a lot of time just waiting for the
rest of us to catch up. “That’s what time does to you. Waters down the vinegar
in your bite.â€
They split up temporarily when Mackintosh’s truck has a
breakdown in the middle of nowhere and T. J. accepts a ride from a passing
stranger. They meet up a few days later in a bar, where Mackintosh stops for a
steak, and is surprised to see T. J. working as a bus boy. “Making fifteen
dollars washing a stack of dishes higher than your hat,†the boy tells him.
There’s trouble when a tough, drunken cowboy named Cal (Luke Askew) accuses
T.J. of stealing money he’d left on his table. When Cal tries to rough him up,
and make him pull out his pockets to prove he didn’t take the money, Mackintosh
steps in between them. He tells Cal to back off and asks T.J. if he didn’t take
the money why doesn’t he prove it by doing what he asks.
“I don’t have to,†the boy says. “I told him I didn’t and
that ought to be enough.†Cal grabs the boy but Mackintosh knocks him to the
floor. The drunk pulls a switchblade, and the next thing you know Mack has a
ketchup bottle in his hand and smashes it against the cowboy’s head!
Hold on a minute! Roy Rogers just got into a bar fight
and smashed a drunk in the head with a ketchup bottle!!? What?? I told you this
wasn’t your usual Roy Rogers movie. There are several other themes that are
dealt with in “Mackintosh and T. J.†that must have raised the eyebrows of more
than a few Roy Rogers fans back in 1975. The story also deals with Maggie (Joan
Hackett) a battered wife. Mack’s concern for her turns her husband Luke (Billy
Green Bush) into a jealous maniac, which becomes a plot element further on. Also
in the mix is Coley (Andrew Robinson) one of the ranch hands where Mack and TJ
find jobs. He’s a pervert, a Peeping Tom who gets his kicks climbing up the side
of Maggie’s house at night and watching her undress. Robinson has played his
share of weirdos in his career and is best known as the killer Scorpio in “Dirty
Harryâ€. You take a jealous husband and a peeping Tom and throw Roy Rogers into
the middle of it and you’ve got a set up for some real trouble.
Perhaps it’s the mix of these unusual story elements and
casting choices that resulted in “Mackintosh and T.J.†never really being given
decent distribution. It only played in a few theaters south of the Mason-Dixon
Line. I doubt if many people reading this review have ever heard of this movie
much less seen it. And actually it’s too bad. Because it’s a very good movie—one
that should have been given a chance to find an audience. Rogers’ performance
as Mackintosh is low key and solid, and you never doubt for a minute that he’s
real. Clay O’Brien, who was only 14, grew up to be a ProRodeo Hall of Famer and
had already starred in two John Wayne westerns, “The Cowboys,†(1972), and “Cahill: U.S. Marshall,†(1973). Askew and
Green are the quintessential “gold ol’ boys†you’d find in any good western,
and James Hampton (The Longest Yard) as Cotton is decidedly nasty as a ranch
hand with a gossip’s tongue who spins the various plots elements together into
a vicious web with Mackintosh caught in the middle. Perhaps the biggest
surprise in the film is the appearance of Joan Hackett in the cast. Her part is
not quite developed enough for her to do much with, but she adds a quiet
dignity to the film.
Director Marvin Chomsky, best known for his work in
television, particularly “Brotherhood of the Rose,†(1989) and “Holocaust,â€
(1978), made some excellent choices in the way he and director of photography
Terry K. Meade shot “Mackintosh and T.J.†Filmed entirely on location around
Guthrie, Texas and on the famous 6666 ranch, the camera really captured the
wide expanse of the ranch and the surrounding country, while at the same time
focusing in close on the characters and the drama that unfolds. Another plus is
the soundtrack, written and played by Waylon Jennings with an assist on one
tune by Willie Nelson.
MVD Entertainment Producer Steve Latshaw deserves credit
for rescuing “Mackintosh and T.J.†from obscurity. The film is presented in a
beautiful 4K restoration that does justice to the images as they were captured
on film. The color is rich and textured. It’s a pleasure to watch.
“Mackintosh and T.J.†is a film worth seeing, and the
Blu-ray disc, which is loaded with extras, including interviews with some of
the cast members by C. Courtney Joiner, is a keeper. Too bad Roy never got to
do another “realistic†western after this one. But at least it’s good that this
one time we get to see the King of the Cowboys as he was in his later years.
The same as he ever was. Highly
recommended.
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