R.I.P. David Carradine
David--especially as Coleman Younger--will always hold a place in my heart
shareThis was Carradine's movie; he grinned a lot and looked like he was enjoying himself during this, unlike most of his others where he seems nervous and ill at ease.
shareYes indeed.
I especially love the sequence during the Northfield raid, when the Swede comes up to him and is trying to buy his horse. Notice how Carradine grins so amiably through the whole weird bilingual exchange.
Perhaps David was especially mellowed by the large quantities of Georgia moonshine he was sipping through the location shoot. He carried around an immense pickle-barrel sized jar of it most of the time, with lemons and limes bobbing in it.
Yet despite his offscreen excesses, whenever the camera rolled, David was the most "together" actor of the entire LONG RIDERS ensemble. He always knew his lines, delivered them flawlessly on the first take, and delivered the same consistent reading no matter how many times it was necessary to repeat the scene (which was often necessary due to elements such as uncooperative horses or other, less-prepared actors).
He will be sorely missed.
sharegregorynicoll, how do you know that David "always knew his lines, delivered them flawlessly on the first take, and delivered the same consistent reading no matter how many times it was necessary to repeat the scene?"
"Two more swords and I'll be Queen of the Monkey People." Roseanne
i'm curious too as to how you know that. were you there for the production? got any other good stories to tell? with so many quality actors on set i'm sure there were some squables you could shed some light on.
shareI noticed that gregorynicoll mentioned on another thread that he was a hired gopher for this movie. So there you have it.
And I agree, Carradine was terrific as Cole Younger and was great in every scene he was in. I especially like it when he says to the stagecoach driver "I would toss that shotgun away!"