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Chicago Tribune article from November 1963

posted 7 years ago by PlatinumScreen (221)
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I just found several great articles on the Chicago Tribune archives about Richard Boone. Here is one that was written just after he wrapped up HGWT and was working on The Richard Boone Show. One can feel his gratitude for Paladin and HGWT and his zeal for TRBS which is heart-breaking because we know now what happened with that show that he didn't know then.

I thought the tidbit about how quickly his wardrobe as Paladin wore out, especially the holster, was interesting.

Also, ecarle, at the end he mentions a western coming up. That has to be Rio Conchos!

Here's the article -- http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1963/11/02/page/81/article/richard-boone-has-guns-is-thankful

[–] PlatinumScreen (221) 7 years ago

Let me add a reply to my own post. I've read many sources in which one can infer that Richard Boone got tired of playing Paladin (and who can blame him as it had to have been grueling with a physically demanding 39 episode season), but graciously extended the show one year beyond his own original wishes.

But, it appears he didn't speak about this Paladin fatigue in public. He had sense to know this show set him and his family up financially for life, and he showed class and gratitude for it. The same can't be said about all actors (ah-hem, Daniel Craig saying he'd rather slash his wrists than play James Bond again and reports are now saying he'll play Bond again).

I'm not saying actors can't feel this way, but they should keep these feelings for themselves and close family and friends and not bite the hands that feed them.

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

I thought the tidbit about how quickly his wardrobe as Paladin wore out, especially the holster, was interesting.

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What a great "You Are There" article to summon up how Boone was doing just as his hit, classic TV series had ended and he was exploring new avenues of work. Thank you for finding this!

It occurs to me that Paladin's "uniform" in most episodes -- once he left the Hotel Carlyle in San Francisco for his "on the trail missions" -- was a entirely black outfit and hat. Thus negating the "black hat" as the hat of the villain and establishing Paladin as one cool customer. "A knight without armor in a savage land." Still, it sounds like he wore out a lot of black outfits, and hats, and holsters.

His reperatory theater was a great idea -- "the star one week could be a bit player the next week, including Boone himself" -- but went down the tubes for nefarious network reasons. Oh well -- Boone had gotten quite rich from network greed, I suppose you live by the sword, die by the sword.

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Also, ecarle, at the end he mentions a western coming up. That has to be Rio Conchos!

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I think so. He seems to have accepted Rio Conchos around the time that his reperatory show was on the air. "Little did he know" the big change in persona that Rio Conchos would confer on Boone. Perhaps in crafting the Rio Conchos character, Boone stumbled up on a new way to present himself in general thereafter -- bigger in gesture, more flamboyant than Paladin, funnier -- and in certain ways, less moral and more mean. (Even as, in Rio Conchos, Boone is more hero than villain.)

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[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

Recall that, for me, it was different in discovering Richard Boone. I discovered him through his movies first, after HGWT was off the air. Rio Conchos on the CBS Friday Night Movie in the last sixties (CBS ran it against The Name of the Game, starring Tony Franciosa...because Franciosa was in "Name of the Game" as the rotating lead that night.) Hombre and Big Jake and The Shootist at the movie theaters. I think I caught up with his more nasty and sadistic work in The Kremlin Letter and Brando's The Night of the Following day via VHS, once my "Boone habit" kicked in. His miniscule cameo in The Big Sleep remake of '78, I saw especially at the theaters TO see that cameo. And I rented Winter Kills.

THEN, years after that, I caught up with HGWT and found it... a bit lacking. The episodes had that fifties TV "chintz" to them, and were often too short in the story end; Boone was commanding but not the really humorous and crafty guy he would become in movies, whether playing bad(more often) or good.

(This was rather similar to my catching up with Alfred Hitchcock as a TV host in his TV series repeats, long after I'd become enthralled by his movies. America knew Hitchcock and Boone as "TV giants" -- but they were entirely different "at the movies.")

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

A few posts on "Rio Conchos," if I might.

I first saw Rio Conchos on the CBS Friday Night Movie -- in the same 1968-1969 season that "North by Northwest" got a SECOND showing on the same program, about a month apart. (NBNW had premiered on CBS one season before in 1967-68. but had done so well in the ratings with it, they held the repeat for an entire year, during sweeps month.)

I felt then -- a lot -- and still do today -- somewhat that: Rio Conchos is the North by Northwest of Westerns.

Both of them go all out(for their time) in big action and a sort of "fantastical giganticism." Both climax with big action against a slate blue night sky. Both of them are "journey films." And when each of them is over, you feel that you've really BEEN somewhere, that this particular adventure was profound and affecting.

Now I say that even knowing that Rio Conchos hasn't nearly the following of NXNW(nor a really great script like NXNW), and that I'm really stretching it a bit.

But that's how I felt.

In the final two minutes of so of "Rio Conchos," Western score specialist Jerry Goldsmith takes his usual flavorful and rich Western scoring up to a level both Bernard Herrmann thunderous AND movingly tragic. The camera rises up to show a night terrain with explosions going off everywhere, and people running in all directions, under the bizarre backdrop of a Southern Louisiana Mansion built in the middle of the Texas desert, high on a hill (not unlike that upon which the Psycho house was built.) Key characters have died in sacrifice(rather a foreshadowing of The Wild Bunch) and we feel like this "typical Fox action Western" has been far bigger than we assumed it would be. The visuals are epic, the music moving as hell.

But that's just the END. Before that point, we meet the "four men on a mission" who will give Rio Conchos its backbone.

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

Rio Conchos is a "four men on a mission" movie that sounds in The Magnificent Seven and The Guns of Navarone ahead of it -- and very much in The Professionals two years after it.

The Professionals was more, well, PROFESSIONAL. Bigger budget, bigger stars(Burt Lancaster and Lee Marvin leading the team), more rich and realistic cinematography. (Rio Conchos sometimes smacks of jerrybuilt Fox soundstage interiors.) And both Rio Conchos and The Professionals has an early scene where our four adventurers encounter "deadly Mexican banditos" and best them in a violent route. The head bandito in "Rio Conchos" is played by Vito Scotti, a fine actor one saw too much on TV to quite believe him here.

And about that bandito thing. "Rio Conchos" sports not only the menacing banditos on the trail, but suave Tony Franciosa as a charming but entirely untrustworthy Mexican character who can only be described as "wily." And the Apaches are big villains in his one, savages. In this case, however -- savages who have formed a pact with fallen Confederate General Edmond O'Brien to join unrepentant Confederate troops in bringing the Union to its knees. "We were insufficiently ruthless," O'Brien says to Boone near the end of the film. Now, the Rebels won't be....

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

But on the other hand, and in exact counterpoint to the politically incorrect Mexicans and Native Americans in Rio Conchos, we get...

NFL star Jim Brown debuting as a cavalry officer who is treated with respect by his fellow mission members, and defended by Boone when Boone gives a brutal beatdown to the bartender who won't serve blacks. We also get Boone as a character not dissimilar to John Wayne's in The Searchers: unrepentantly out to massacre every Apache he can find for the savage killing of his wife and child(a character is cut off before describing what must have involved rape and mutiliation.)

In short, "Rio Conchos" is a "fun" movie, with a lot on its mind about where whites, blacks, Native Americans, and the combatants of the Civil War stood in the late 19th Century. Its an action picture with a brutal context.

And its got Richard Boone. Top billed, commanding in voice and physical manner, ranging from very funny to very heroic to downright demonic in his hatred for the red men who killed his family. I expect a lot of bigger names turned down this role -- Boone's Lassiter is a "good bad man" or a "bad good man."

But he's Boone and he's great, leading his sing-song delivery to such lines as:

"He wuz playin' Three Card Monte on a COLD deck."

"He's DEAD? Why , I didn't even know he wuz feelin' POORLY!"

(To Mexican bandito): "Five men...FIVE MEN! Just come out of nowhere. Imagine THAT!"

"Lieutenant...the reasons for stayin' on this detail are gettin' less and LESS."

Those aren't great lines. But when BOONE says them -- usually pointing his fingers and moving his hands in graceful counterpoint -- they are very fun.

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

A little bit more on Rio Conchos:

The "four men on a mission" are split nicely into pairs:

Richard Boone and Tony Franciosa are the "cool rogues" -- charismatic and smooth, but both with dangerous, murderous sides that can come out on a moment's notice.

Stuart Whitman and Jim Brown are the "square straights" -- ready to kill their more criminal cohorts(forced on them by cavalry leadership) and asserting THEIR rights as a matter of military senority and toughness.

The tension between the "two cool rogues" and the "two straight squares" holds through the movie until Boone's rogue surprisingly learns he's a better man than even he thought -- which puts him on Whitman's side and pits him against the wily and crooked Franciosa(who just can't BELIEVE that his fellow crook would join the squares.) There's meat on the bones of this story.

Before they must square off against each other, Boone and Franciosa have a delightful early scene -- of no consequence to the plot -- in which ladies man Franciosa tries to get Boone to admit that Franciosa looks much younger than his age, and Boone silently shakes his head...and raises his hand in the air higher and higher, to suggest that Franciosa looks older than 25. Or 35...its a master class in cool from two cool actors who never quite hit full stardom, but who DID have star quality.

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[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

Its the "overall package" I love about Rio Conchos. The Western action gives way to a man on a mission movie and finishes almost like a movie version(a GOOD one) of The Wild Wild West -- what with Rebel General Edmond OBrien's false-front Louisana mansion out in the middle of nowhere as he trains a joint Rebel-Apache army to kill the Union.

Jerry Goldsmith's score is dependably rich in Western grandeur until it surprises with that moving, powerful music at the end.

But above all, Rio Conchos has..Richard Boone. In the lead role. Not just the bad guy sharing scenes with Paul Newman or John Wayne or Marlon Brando.

Rio Conchos is BOONE's star vehicle..one of his few, and probably the one with the biggest budget and major studio backing.

PS. A lot of people think that NFL star Jim Brown debuted in The Dirty Dozen (1967.) Nope. Rio Conchos (1964.) I expect DD is just so much more famous(as is Brown's run with the hand grenades in that picture) that nobody knew the truth. Til now.

[–] PlatinumScreen (221) 7 years ago

But above all, Rio Conchos has..Richard Boone. In the lead role. Not just the bad guy sharing scenes with Paul Newman or John Wayne or Marlon Brando.

Rio Conchos is BOONE's star vehicle..one of his few, and probably the one with the biggest budget and major studio backing.

I'm looking forward to seeing this one. I wish there had been more lead roles for him. He deserved them.

Maybe he wasn't cast in the lead more because he didn't have the conventional leading man looks. However, he had something that few male actors have that goes beyond looks. He had that cool cat charisma that is palpable through a screen. Steve McQueen had that too although I've always felt McQueen was a bit overrated in the acting department, and especially when compared to Boone.

Also the term leading man is associated with romantic lead, and again, we are back to his unconventional look. He could've been a romantic lead easily. Proof of this is found in numerous episodes of HGWT -- the last few minutes of No Visitors, the whole episode of The Return of Dr. Thackeray, The Princess and the Gunfighter, Maggie O'Bannion, and in small snippets in dozens of other episodes.

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

But above all, Rio Conchos has..Richard Boone. In the lead role. Not just the bad guy sharing scenes with Paul Newman or John Wayne or Marlon Brando.

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I'm looking forward to seeing this one.

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I really like it. Its rather an action-adventure with at once a "fantastic" element(the Southern Mansion in the desert) and a very realistic sense of the consequences of racial tension. But it is a lot of fun. With a profound-ish ending. And Boone is well matched by Tony Franicosa in the cool cat department.

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I wish there had been more lead roles for him. He deserved them.

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Maybe he wasn't cast in the lead more because he didn't have the conventional leading man looks. However, he had something that few male actors have that goes beyond looks. He had that cool cat charisma that is palpable through a screen. Steve McQueen had that too although I've always felt McQueen was a bit overrated in the acting department, and especially when compared to Boone.

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Its interesting that McQueen had HIS TV Western(a less popular one than HGWT) around the same time -- Wanted: Dead or Alive. But McQueen was younger and, in the beginning, cuter than Boone and got "youth" vehicles like The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, and The Cincinatti Kid to launch him. Boone could not play McQueen's younger roles.

Eventually, however, McQueen BECAME as rugged (and almost as craggy) as Boone in the films from Nevada Smith through The Towering Inferno.

I expect that McQueen himself knew he lacked the chops to do what Boone was doing playing different roles every week on his reperatory TV show. McQueen polished his skill set, worked on a leading man career...and got it. But honestly, I get about equal enjoyment watching McQueen OR Boone.

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

Also the term leading man is associated with romantic lead, and again, we are back to his unconventional look. He could've been a romantic lead easily. Proof of this is found in numerous episodes of HGWT -- the last few minutes of No Visitors, the whole episode of The Return of Dr. Thackeray, The Princess and the Gunfighter, Maggie O'Bannion, and in small snippets in dozens of other episodes.

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I haven't seen enough HGWTs to talk too knowledgeably, but the ones I did see had Boone as quite the ladies man...kissing them, romancing them, wining and dining them.

I've READ about HGWT episodes, and I hear that Dr. Thackeray was sweet June Lockhart, conceived as a bright counterpoint to the rugged Paladin, yes?

Still, on the big movie screen in Technicolor and Panavision, Boone's cragginess started to get a bit rough looking. Think about that scene where he "fakely" attacks the young girl who comes on to his sex appeal in Hombre. A big close-up of his big head coming down at her pretty face for a slobbery kiss. I'll grant you he's playing a badman here..but it shows how Boone's ladies man days were rather numbered on the big screen.

[–] PlatinumScreen (221) 7 years ago

've READ about HGWT episodes, and I hear that Dr. Thackeray was sweet June Lockhart, conceived as a bright counterpoint to the rugged Paladin, yes?

Still, on the big movie screen in Technicolor and Panavision, Boone's cragginess started to get a bit rough looking. Think about that scene where he "fakely" attacks the young girl who comes on to his sex appeal in Hombre. A big close-up of his big head coming down at her pretty face for a slobbery kiss. I'll grant you he's playing a badman here..but it shows how Boone's ladies man days were rather numbered on the big screen.

Yes, June Lockhart played Dr. Thackeray. The very end of her first episode on the series, No Visitors, is one of my absolute favorite Boone scenes ever. He has this boyish, smitten quality one rarely gets to see in a Boone performance. I love it.

Yes, you are right about his cragginess in Hombre getting a little long in the tooth. It is so interesting to me though that the choice was made for that scene in the first place. For that pretty little girl to throw herself at that middle-aged man who looks as rough as a dried out corn cob either shows that Grimes has an obvious sexual magnetism or the girl is tired of being married to a man-child and is stereotypically attracted to bad boys. I think more the latter.

When I spoke of Boone having the chops to be a romantic lead, I meant in the 1950's to mid-1960's years. I'm really surprised somebody didn't snatch him up in his Paladin years to do a romantic film, but who would have the energy after doing 39 episodes of HGWT. I also don't believe he would've been interested. He was far more interested in playing Lincoln in the somewhat ad-libbed stage play about the Lincoln/Douglas debate called The Rivalry.

[–] PlatinumScreen (221) 7 years ago

THEN, years after that, I caught up with HGWT and found it... a bit lacking. The episodes had that fifties TV "chintz" to them, and were often too short in the story end; Boone was commanding but not the really humorous and crafty guy he would become in movies, whether playing bad(more often) or good.

I became aware of Boone because of HGWT and was mesmerized by his rugged intensity as I've read women were when the show first aired, hence the thousands of female fan letters he received each week. So, I liked him just fine as Paladin, but then I started branching out to his movies. I've not seen all yet, but Goodnight, My Love and The Kremlin Letter are by far his best to me. Even his famous performance in Hombre and the much-lauded In Broad Daylight pale in comparison to those two in my eyes. Those two movies showcase him in completely different roles from Paladin which is interesting to me as I was first drawn to him as Paladin.

Back to HGWT--I would recommend two episodes to you that I think you would enjoy. It shows Boone's lighter, more comedic side. The first is one I mentioned to you recently, The Day of the Badman, in which he brings out that whipped cream voice we've talked about. The other is Maggie O'Bannion. That one has a love story, but it brings out Paladin's lighter, funnier side in the process.

One more thing about HGWT. In my watching this summer, I'm noticing things that show up in his later movies. For instance, in an episode I watched recently but can't remember which one, Paladin refers to someone who isn't his friend as "friend." Fast forward to Cicero Grimes entering the coach station wanting a ticket in Hombre a few years down the road.

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

I became aware of Boone because of HGWT

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Like millions. Me, I "swim against the tide" in seeing the movies first.

That said, I recall TV commercials, newspaper articles, and TV Guide articles promoting the show when I was a kid. I was AWARE of Boone, liked his black outfit and moustache for some reason.

I recall a commercial they used to show of an episode where Paladin is on his back on the ground with a "knight in shining armor" pinning him down with a lance at his chest. This boy was intrigued: what's a knight in shining armour doing with a COWBOY?

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and was mesmerized by his rugged intensity

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You and 50 million other women, as Lou Costello said of the Wolf Man. Ha.

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as I've read women were when the show first aired, hence the thousands of female fan letters he received each week.

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Seems to have been quite the female idol. Boone was a more mature presence than Elvis or his TV knockoffs like Ricky Nelson or Fabian. He was a man for the mature woman. Their husbands must have been bugged.

[–] PlatinumScreen (221) 7 years ago

I recall a commercial they used to show of an episode where Paladin is on his back on the ground with a "knight in shining armor" pinning him down with a lance at his chest. This boy was intrigued: what's a knight in shining armour doing with a COWBOY?

I love this little memory of yours. That is from the episode "A Knight to Remember" which is about a senile man who believes he is Don Quixote.

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

So, I liked him just fine as Paladin, but then I started branching out to his movies. I've not seen all yet, but Goodnight, My Love and The Kremlin Letter are by far his best to me.

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Wow. So you've now seen those two? They are near/at the top of my list. Boone gets more screen time in them than in Hombre or Big Jake (if not in Rio Conchos.)

I like the ever-changing nature of his character in The Kremlin Letter. His final speech to Max Von Sydow is a fine mix of villainy AND heroism, of a sort.

As for the TV movie Goodnight My Love, Boone seems to have taken the modest production as a license to have a little fun. Notice how monotone his voice is in his first talk with Barbara Bain, the femme fatale. Barely emphasizes any word. But just ENOUGH emphasis to show "actorly control." As the film goes on, Boone strikes a great tone of exasperation with Bain, with villain Victor Buono..with EVERYBODY. And he does that great scene where he LAUGHS continually with a laughing cop .in order to get information.
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Even his famous performance in Hombre and the much-lauded In Broad Daylight pale in comparison to those two in my eyes.

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Interesting. I haven't seen In Broad Daylight(his first TV movie) in years, but I don't recall it impressing me as much as the other films and TV work.

As for Hombre, well...Boone has to SHARE that movie.

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Those two movies showcase him in completely different roles from Paladin which is interesting to me as I was first drawn to him as Paladin

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Agreed. Mr. Boone found all sorts of colors to play after making his "go to hell money"(as he called it) playing Paladin.

[–] PlatinumScreen (221) 7 years ago

Wow. So you've now seen those two? They are near/at the top of my list. Boone gets more screen time in them than in Hombre or Big Jake (if not in Rio Conchos.)

I have seen and love them. I've posted a few times on The Kremlin Letter board, one being that Boone should've received the Oscar for best supporting actor. I felt he was THAT good.

As far as Goodnight, My Love is concerned, that is a hidden gem for the ages. It has a comedic ease about it that is refreshing. The dialogue is so funny without feeling forced. I think this goes back to what you are always saying about the way Boone can deliver a line better than just about anyone, but his sidekick in the movie has that same gift in my opinion. I think this movie could've easily been catapulted into a series with infinite numbers of possible story lines.

Isn't it interesting that the work that Boone really cherished and wanted to succeed didn't? The Richard Boone Show is one, and he wanted to turn Kona Coast into a regular series filmed in Hawaii. It seems the things he didn't have a passion about brought him gold (or could have in Hawaii Five-O's case being offered the lead before Jack Lord), but the things that got his attention and zeal didn't.

[–] PlatinumScreen (221) 7 years ago

nteresting. I haven't seen In Broad Daylight(his first TV movie) in years, but I don't recall it impressing me as much as the other films and TV work.

Same here. It just wasn't as good. I've read several places that people think that was his best work. If I remember correctly, I believe his wife is quoted in the Rothel book as saying that's her favorite.

[–] PlatinumScreen (221) 7 years ago

And he does that great scene where he LAUGHS continually with a laughing cop .in order to get information.

I love so many scenes from Goodnight, My Love, but this one is my favorite. I also love the scene at the racetrack where the gamblers are betting on every single thing that could possibly have a bet placed on it.

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

Let me add a reply to my own post. I've read many sources in which one can infer that Richard Boone got tired of playing Paladin (and who can blame him as it had to have been grueling with a physically demanding 39 episode season),

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Indeed -- 39 episode seasons! And on HGWT, Boone was pretty much in every scene.

Robert Vaughn noted this about his co-star David McCallum on The Man From UNCLE:

"People said I got jealous when he became popular on the show. Not so. He actually helped me, I didn't have to be in every scene. I got paid the same for less work."

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but graciously extended the show one year beyond his own original wishes.

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Graciously...AND.. the network offered him a fortune. An actor in a hit show has incredible power.

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But, it appears he didn't speak about this Paladin fatigue in public. He had sense to know this show set him and his family up financially for life, and he showed class and gratitude for it.

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That's good. There are some stories out there about actors who started dissing theri own shows. When those shows went off the air...the actors stopped getting hired.

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The same can't be said about all actors (ah-hem, Daniel Craig saying he'd rather slash his wrists than play James Bond again and reports are now saying he'll play Bond again).

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I guess money talked with Mr. Craig, too. Funny thing: that guy can't buy a hit playing any other role in any other movie.

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I'm not saying actors can't feel this way, but they should keep these feelings for themselves and close family and friends and not bite the hands that feed them.

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Agreed. The truth of the matter is that people really come to love, depend upon and identify with their TV heroes. Boone's Paladin was a hero people believed in. He helped them by showing gratitude.

There are photos of Boone in full black Paladin regalia riding a horse in an early 60's Rose Parade..he was the Grand Marshal that year.

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

Earlier, I (ecarle), wrote this:

THEN, years after that, I caught up with HGWT and found it... a bit lacking. The episodes had that fifties TV "chintz" to them, and were often too short in the story end; Boone was commanding but not the really humorous and crafty guy he would become in movies, whether playing bad(more often) or good.

(This was rather similar to my catching up with Alfred Hitchcock as a TV host in his TV series repeats, long after I'd become enthralled by his movies. America knew Hitchcock and Boone as "TV giants" -- but they were entirely different "at the movies.")

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I return to "back pedal" a considerable distance and clarify a couple of things:

In the history of television series, both Have Gun Will Travel, and Alfred Hitchcock's TV Series(in both its half hour Alfred Hitchcock Presents from and the Alfred Hitchcock Hour), were easiliy among the best in quality, proven to be among the best as ratings successes at or near the top of the charts and...anchored by two extremely charismatic and entertaining men.

As Paladin, Richard Boone was not(or rarely was) the fake-folksy, flamboyant guy he became in his later motion picture career, but he WAS Richard Boone, with elements of presence, force and charisma that made Paladin ONE of the versions of Richard Boone at his best. People responded.

I read a quote from the late actor George Kennedy about Otto Preminger the other day. Said Kennedy: "There is a lot of acting in Hollywood, and not all of it is by actors. Movie directors often act to create their public personas." Kennedy suggested that this ran the gamut from "name" directors like Hitchcock and Preminger, but on down to the more journeyman directors who had to lead casts and crews with command.

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

Alfred Hitchcock on his TV series created a CHARACTER of himself, aided by his top writer , James Allardice. I think a fair amount of the "fake" Hitchcock(his TV persona) was based on the "real" Hitchcock, but not all of it. Allardice wrote Hitchcock as a wittier and more intelligent man than he could be in real life(by intelligent, I mean in terms of expressing himself in words.)

When I came upon both HGWT and Alfred Hitchcock Presents AFTER I became familiar with the films of Boone and Hitchcock, I was likely more "intrigued" than "taken aback" at the TV shows. The TV shows were NOT "bad." They simply didn't really match up with what Hitch or Boone did elsewhere.

But I've always liked any HGWT episode I've watched. And some of the best stories ever told on TV were told on the Hitchcock series.

[–] PlatinumScreen (221) 7 years ago

I guess money talked with Mr. Craig, too. Funny thing: that guy can't buy a hit playing any other role in any other movie.

I've been a fan of Daniel Craig for years and feel he's got that some machismo charm Boone had, but this is so true! He can't buy a hit beyond Bond!

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

I've been a fan of Daniel Craig for years and feel he's got that some machismo charm Boone had, but this is so true! He can't buy a hit beyond Bond!

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So does the record show...and I've certainly started liking his rugged/ugly Bond. I got used to this version of Bond. But Craig can't break through elsewhere.

Maybe Craig's luck is about to change: Wearing a crazy "Richard Boone Kremlin Letter" blond/white haircut, Daniel Craig is in the new Steven Soderbergh caper movie with Channing Tatum. I've seen some trailers -- Craig is billed as "And Introducing Daniel Craig." Some kind of a joke, but Craig is playing a crazy southern convict. We'll see.

[–] PlatinumScreen (221) 7 years ago

Maybe Craig's luck is about to change: Wearing a crazy "Richard Boone Kremlin Letter" blond/white haircut, Daniel Craig is in the new Steven Soderbergh caper movie with Channing Tatum. I've seen some trailers -- Craig is billed as "And Introducing Daniel Craig." Some kind of a joke, but Craig is playing a crazy southern convict. We'll see.

I chuckled when I read the part about Craig wearing a crazy Richard Boone Kremlin Letter blonde/white haircut. Great connection you make here. Craig is blonde, but this Logan Lucky hair was a shock to my retinas. It's too much. I'm also surprised Craig is doing this comedic role because he's always seemed to gravitate to serious drama outside Bond.

Back to the hair. Craig's white hair was more shocking to me than seeing Boone's white hair in The Kremlin Letter which is ironic since Boone went from darker hair to the blonde. In fact, I began to think the blonde suited him pretty well! I mentioned on The Kremlin Letter board that Boone in that movie made me forget he was Richard Boone, and the hair was part of that. He was completely Ward. Such a fabulous performance.

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

I chuckled when I read the part about Craig wearing a crazy Richard Boone Kremlin Letter blonde/white haircut. Great connection you make here. Craig is blonde, but this Logan Lucky hair was a shock to my retinas.

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Yes, its heading way away from the blond look of Craig(is he not the first Blond Bond?) and into snow-land.

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It's too much. I'm also surprised Craig is doing this comedic role because he's always seemed to gravitate to serious drama outside Bond.

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Well, his agent probably advised him to go for the laughs. And Soderbergh has quite the positive reputation.

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Back to the hair. Craig's white hair was more shocking to me than seeing Boone's white hair in The Kremlin Letter which is ironic since Boone went from darker hair to the blonde. In fact, I began to think the blonde suited him pretty well! I mentioned on The Kremlin Letter board that Boone in that movie made me forget he was Richard Boone, and the hair was part of that. He was completely Ward. Such a fabulous performance.

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I don't recall Richard Boone ever choosing his "Kremlin Letter" look for any other film or TV appearance. He did sometimes shave the moustache(for Goodnight My Love, among other films) but to do that AND go for the blond look? I recall, as a youngster in 1970, being surprised by Boone's look in promotional photos from The Kremlin Letter (I was already a fan.)

I expect that director John Huston and Boone discussed "Ward's look" and came up with this. Its distinctive, and in certain scenes, Boone looks "softer"(smiling) and more handsome done up this way.

The David Rothel book has a photo of Boone arriving in Rome via jet to start work on The Kremlin Letter...with his young boy son in tow. Boone has the blond hair and shaved stache. Father and son are both smiling..its disconcerting to see Ward as such a happy guy...

[–] PlatinumScreen (221) 7 years ago

in certain scenes, Boone looks "softer"(smiling) and more handsome done up this way.

The David Rothel book has a photo of Boone arriving in Rome via jet to start work on The Kremlin Letter...with his young boy son in tow. Boone has the blond hair and shaved stache. Father and son are both smiling..its disconcerting to see Ward as such a happy guy...

I agree that the blonde worked for him to the point if I'd not known he had darker hair, I would've sworn he was naturally blonde.

I remember that picture in the book, and your line about it being disconcerting to see Ward such a happy guy gave me a chuckle. :)

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

I agree that the blonde worked for him to the point if I'd not known he had darker hair, I would've sworn he was naturally blonde.

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Its a good dye job, and it rather "softens" Boone's features. When he smiles a few times, he almost looks SWEET. All the better for hiding his villainy.

I wonder if the character in the book was blond....