Re: Old Movie - 'Night Passage' ...

Hi,

A good script is the key, not the actor. The movie Bye Bye Birdie as a stage play with Dick van Dyke was an excellent production. Dick van Dyke accepted the same part in the movie version - he complained about the movie being an Ann Margret vehicle.

Also note the first singing cowboy - John Wayne (IIRC - the first and only singing part he had). He played Singing Sandy. in the 1930's. Compare the bad Singing Sandy movie with any of his westerns in the 1950's - 1970's.

"Night Passage" is a grade B western compared to the relatively recent "Silverado" spectacular.

I like Night Passage but it is not my first choice for best. Oddly enough, the only way the studio could get Jimmy Stewart to take the part was to modify the script so that he could play his accordian a few times.

Doug vV



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/30/2014 02:42PM by dougvv.