Dear Cinema Retro,
Your web site passes the time wonderfully until your next issue comes in. A comment. Could you have more interviews with actual stars, directors, producers, cinematographers, composers etc rather than people whining about films they don't like without being constructive?
Your review of 'Kona Coast' comes at a time when I've just picked up 'Knight without Armor' a smashing biography done of Richard Boone. The author writes it like the format of 'Citizen Kane', the facts, then interviews with various people who knew and worked with Mr Boone. Much better than something like Nick Tosche's bio of Dean Martin where I think that Mr Martin's only comment to him was 'get off my lawn, punk' and there are no quotes from Mr Martin in the book, just what Nick wants to write.
Anyway, 'Kona Coast' was meant to be a pilot for a series for CBS. CBS offered Boone the lead in 'Hawaii Five 0' which he turned down in favour of his KC series but CBS went for Jack Lord and 'H50'.
Interesting factoid in there in an interview with Andrew McLaglen who said John Wayne called him to arrange a meeting with Jim Arness to discuss playing the Sam Houston role in his 'The Alamo' film. Mr Arness agreed for a certain time, then without any word left Mr Wayne waiting. As AML was also directing 'Gunsmoke' as well as 'Have Gun Will Travel' Mr Wayne asked him 'who's that other guy you work with' and that's how Mr Boone played Houston.
Enjoyed the 'Magnificent 7' trailer but I prefer the original. Not even FSM knows who composted the song that appeared in this trailer and I recall being used on radio spots. As the film supposedly was released in Europe after a limited release in the US and one of the gun shots sound effects on the trailer sounds like the Spanish ones, maybe some Italian wrote it like the 'Mighty Sons of Hercules' themes. Any comments?
(Click below to view original trailer for The Magnificent Seven featuring theme song not heard in the film)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnfvPbvWOYA&feature=related
Thanks for a great magazine
James Peter Young
Retro Responds: James, thanks for the very informative letter. Regarding interviews, we feature as many as we can given limits on our time and resources. Not only does every issue of the magazine generally feature at least one major interview, but some of our columnists have provided still others specifically for the web site. Thanks for the insights into Kona Coast - they certainly explain why the movie has the look and feel of a TV show. I share your enthusiasm for Richard Boone and can highly recommend David Rothel's outstanding 2001 book A Knight Without Armor. This is the only biography of Boone I am aware of and it's a superb achievement, featuring episode guides to his shows and insights from his son. In fact, the book includes a really cool bonus CD - Johnny Western's original title theme for Have Gun Will Travel. (Click here to order book from Amazon) As for The Magnificent Seven, I can only assume that the song included in the trailer was not in the final film because it must have been pretty corny even in 1960 and certainly didn't fit the mood of the film and Elmer Bernstein's wonderful score. The same was true with theme songs recorded for The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Sink the Bismarck and others. Thanks for supporting both the web site and the magazine.