Audie L. Murphy Memorial Website Message Boards

Just wanted to comment on David's movie for Audie. I think he would have been good as the young cowboy that was played by Horst Bucholz (I know I spelled that wrong). I just recently watched MAGNIFICENT SEVEN and enjoyed seeing it again. I LOVE that movie. There are a few that I can watch over and over and over and NEVER get tired. A couple of Audie's are TUMBLEWEED and NO NAME ON THE BULLET. Other GENERIC ones are GLADIATOR, THE PATRIOT, LA CONFIDENTIAL, BAND OF BROTHERS (I almost know this one word for word)ha!

***Teri

Teri,
I agree, Audie's performance in Tumbleweeds is watchable over and over again, never getting
tired of it.. I also agree on LA Confidential. Great Movie. When I watch Band of Brothers, I start
crying to much. That movie is just to hard for me to watch. I honestly do not know what makes
a person a great actor, but I do know this, When several different people can watch the same
movie, the same actor, and walk away with different opinions of why that person did a great job
in performing that character, to me that is the sign of a great actor. Judging from the comments
on this web site, it is clear Audie had that talent in spades.. Just my thoughts... Shirley Jean.

Great comment.

Ann

_________________
"He endured the shame of being sent home a living trophy to the blood and death of too many friends"
A Myth in Action: The Heroic Life of Audie Murphy
http://www.annjoiner.com

Rewatching Six Black Horses just now, I kind of wished he'd gotten Burt Kennedy scripts more often. The dialogue in that one really seemed to play to Murphy's strengths-terse, polite, practical. But, eh, in general looking too hard at his career choices will break your heart as fast as looking into his eyes will, just not for the same reasons.

THIS WAS NOT ONE OF MY FAVORITES, AS HE KILLED HIS FRIEND OVER THAT BLONDE WHO WASN'T WORTH IT. NOT VERY BELIEVABLE. I WOULD HAVE SIDED WITH DAN DURYEA IN THIS ONE.

The ending is kind of weak, I agree. I understand the logic behind it: Frank (Duryea's character) is trying to drag Kelly (Joan O'Brien) to Del Cobre, where he'll get her money and then probably kill her, assuming they aren't both killed by the Apaches first. Ben (Murphy's character) has the option of either leaving them to their fate or trying to talk Frank down off the ledge, but if it comes down to choosing between Frank and Kelly, the whole "cowboy code" thing requires him to back the woman. And the film's already established that Ben has what you might call an impractical sense of honor, so from that point of view it's not surprising that he does what he does.

The main problem is that Dan Duryea plays the character as kind of a jolly, unmenacing buffoon, so that his death leaves a bad taste in your mouth. If the character came off as more of a twisted, somewhat crazy guy with a few redeeming traits, who REALLY jumps off the deep end once he realizes that the woman is gunning for him, the ending would probably work better. Well, ok, you'd still be left with the question of how a mere cowhand like Ben can outgun a professional like Frank, and you'd still be pondering the fact that the closing line "He got six black horses. And he slammed the door behind him," sounds like a lot more like Murphy's death IRL than Duryea's.

Very true, Ann. The sad thing is that he understood perfectly well (maybe from his dealings with the Cagneys?) that producing your own movies was where the real fun and prestige was at, and he started trying his hand at it pretty much as soon as he had anywhere near enough money and influence for it. It just never worked out for him-a combination I think of his pet projects not being very commercial, and his pet scriptwriters being middling-competent at best. I think he understood also that people go to the movies for escapism, and was willing enough to pick up a paycheck in exchange for contributing to that escapism, but I don't think he could get his head around the middlebrow, middle-class mindset well enough to be the creative force behind your standard feel-good Hollywood film. He'd seen too much.

and there is also the matter of timing. Who knows what he might have accomplished had be lived a full lifetime.

Ann

_________________
"He endured the shame of being sent home a living trophy to the blood and death of too many friends"
A Myth in Action: The Heroic Life of Audie Murphy
http://www.annjoiner.com

In the fantasy casting department, he would have been interesting as the Confederate guerrilla raider John Singleton Mosby, noted for his short stature, feisty attitude, and daring tactics. But it's interesting that Murph didn't seem to have had much interest in Civil War projects as such, let alone Confederate-centric ones.

Audie could have played Dusty Fog, the leader of The Floating Outfit in the 100+ J.T. Edson western books that the author says he patterned after Audie Murphy. A great series of books. They actually made a couple of movies from the books and had Christopher Adkins playing the roll, but the character in the books was described EXACTLY LIKE AUDIE and no offense to Chris Adkins, but he didn''t fit the mold.

If he was going to get anywhere as a producer, he definitely would have needed a better casting director. Those two young idiots headlining A Time For Dying were awful.

Hi Christie, In regards to your comment concerning the two lead actors in "A time for Dying", that
Audie needed to find a better casting director because those two young actors were awful. It seems
to me that this was filmed and wrapped up in 1969. Maybe Audie was remembering his own first
leading role in "Bad Boy", which would have not been possible had James Cherry the CEO of
Interstate Theaters from Texas demanded of the big studio cast Audie as the lead in that movie.
At the time, Audie's own experience had been a walk on in Texas, Brooklyn, and Heaven. A short
21 years before. Look at what Audie had accomplished in those 21 years because someone decided
to give him a chance. Those two actors must have had to go through some kind of try out. Maybe
Audie saw something in them that reminded him of himself. The other point I would like to make,
The overall theme of "A time for Dying" is to not live by the gun. If you do, you will surely die by the
gun, and there is always someone to come along who is better, and faster than you are. You would
have to be an idiot to conduct your life around those principals. Well those two young lead actors
came across as exactly that, Idiots !!!, Christie, my mom used to tell me, When you cast your net
out into the world, you may not always get what you want, but the good lord will always send you
what you need. And Audie got exactly what he was looking for. Maybe that is the point he wanted
to convey... And in conclusion, we all know what a crap shoot producing a MOVIE on a shoestring
budget can be. It is a roll of the dice at best. I think Audie got the worst of others, but always
tried to give the best of himself. And this movie surely projects that. From what Bud Boetticher
said in a taped interview years later, it is amazing the movie got done and produced period. And
it was only because of Audie's efforts and the financial help of his friends that the movie was
completed. Just my thoughts... Shirley Jean.

Those are good points, Shirleyjean. I guess my problem is that I don't find the kind of thing Time for Dying's trying to do particularly interesting to watch, although I respect the intentions behind it.

In terms of how the leads were cast, the Boetticher quotes in NNOTB imply that Richard Lapp got the job by playing on Murphy's sympathies, and then turned into a total diva who drove Boetticher and the crew nuts. In terms of Lapp reminding Murphy of himself, it wouldn't surprise me. In the opening scenes especially, he comes off as sort of a weak imitation of Murphy circa Tumbleweed...without the professionalism or the charisma.

Christie,
i agree with your observations regarding the opening sequences of "A Time for Dying". Excellent
Call. Very like Tumbleweeds.. I also read NNoTB's comments regarding the filming of ATFD and
could very much see in my mind's eye the young actor pulling those stunts. So Sad. Too bad
Audie had to expire so soon. I was very interested in the two other movie idea's he and Bud
Boetticher had. One being about a wild stallion and the other about a kid who happens across
this dog, (German Shepard, Rin Tin Tin type) fleeing the border of Mexico. Both sound like great
movie pretense for young kids. Who knows, either could have become great classics. Just my
thoughts... Shirley Jean.

I'm kind of wishing Hitchcock had tapped him for the Jimmie Stewart role in Rear Window. Stewart is very enjoyable in it but a). he's a bit old for Grace Kelly, b). he doesn't come off as tough enough* for the character's backstory as a photographer who loves adventure even more than he loves Grace Kelly and c). what he usually gets praised for is being folksy and charming enough to where we don't mind that he's basically snooping on the neighbors. Murphy would have been a). younger, b). more convincing as the adventurer type c). pretty good at being folksy and charming and nonthreatening inspite of that. He'd be a bit jarring next to Kelly, but the two charactors are supposed to be kind of a mismatched couple in terms of temperament and background anyway.

*even though he undoubtedly was in real life.