Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier

Fess Parker played Davy Crockett in the 1955 film, “Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier,” which combined three episodes of the TV series that aired on ABC.

First, Davy and his partner George Russel (Buddy Ebsen) scout for General Andrew Jackson (Basil Ruysdael), who’s trying to suppress a revolution by the Creek Indians and Chief Red Stick (Pat Hogan).

As predicted, Davy proves much more skilled at fighting Native Americans than the regulars under Jackson’s command, including Major Tobias Norton, played by William Bakewell.

Once peace is restored, Davy and George travel to Tennessee. When they arrive, Davy meets the local bully, becomes judge, than a state representative.

In the end, Jackson, now president, recruits him to run for Congress. Mark Franklin said in his blog, “Davy finds his backwoods politics plays well, even in Eastern cities. He also discovers that more seasoned politicians are eager to take advantage of his naiveté.”

Done with politics, Davy and George travel to Texas. Why? Franklin answered, “Because American homesteaders who have settled there are fighting for their liberty.”

They end up at the Alamo, where Colonel Jim Bowie, played by Kenneth Tobey, immediately tells the truth with Crockett, but not the rest of the men. Their situation is desperate. And the likelihood of reinforcements distant.

Franklin noted, “The film became a smash hit for Disney, the Davy Crockett role made a star of Fess Parker and coonskin caps became a craze, all the result of a TV show designed to promote the Frontierland portion of Walt Disney’s Florida theme park.”

Given Parker’s easy-going likability in the lead role – at one point, he tries to smile down a bear – it’s easy to see why this would be popular with kids and as family friendly viewing.

Franklin criticized, “But it’s too cliché-ridden to be taken very seriously as adult entertainment.” In one scene in part one, Davy challenges the Native American chief to a hand-to-hand fight. This comes after Davy and George have taken turns saving one another.

The theme song became famous. Franklin noted, “In fact, at one point, three different versions of “The Ballad of Davy Crockett” were in the Billboard Top 10, one by Tennessee Ernie Ford, one by Fess Parker and one by Bill Hayes. The Hayes version made it to number one.”

Yes, Davy dies at the Alamo, but Disney came back with a prequel the following year, which we will look at tomorrow.

This is a good movie. I saw this on Disney+ and I enjoyed it a lot. I didn’t know this was a TV show, but that is because it was way before my time. I might watch the show, but I don’t know. In fact, this should be seen by everyone to know what a classic this is.

Look out tomorrow when I review the prequel in “Disney Month 2024.”

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

Our next review is going to be “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.” Entertaining 1954 fantasy adventure version of the classic Jules Verne novel, directed with the skill of a craftsman by Richard Fleischer and finely written by Earl Feltor to be lively, hilarious, and messing around with a political agenda that can’t be said out loud it’s against colonialism by the major authority but gives the eccentric scientist a motivation for why he’s livid at the world – something not said in the novel. Dennis Schwartz said in his review, “Great art designs, colorful underwater shots and amazing technical skill fashioning the ultra-modern submarine, plus robust battle scenes, a superbly dark performance by James Mason and imaginative story-telling, make this sci-fi sea yarn a good one that could have been better with a little less Kirk Douglas and more scientific things to gawk at in wonder.”

In 1868 San Francisco, there’s fears of a sea monster shattering vessels in the South Seas which has sailors afraid of enlisting on ships going in that direction. When a US Naval warship under the arrogant Captain Farragut (Ted de Corsia) sails to the South Seas to either conquer the beast or prove there’s no such thing, nice humanitarian visiting the best French marine scientist from the National Museum of Paris, Professor Pierre Arronax (Paul Lukas), his alcoholic apprentice Conseil (Peter Lorre) and the harsh passionate American adventurer harpoonist Ned Lands (Kirk Douglas) are invited to go on the journey. In the water Saigon, Farragut’s vessel is destroyed by the beast, which turns out to be a futuristic submarine named the Nautilus, that’s been built and is commanded by the power-hungry committed lunatic genius Captain Nemo, played by James Mason, and the crew includes a dedicated group of robotic sailors. The three survivors – Ned, the Professor, and Conseil – are taken on board as prisoners, and are amazed by every advanced technology but intimidated at how evil Nemo is in killing innocent sailors because he believes the world powers transporting war goods on the sea.

When the evil Nemo, strangely enough fighting against the villains, is finally surrounded by a group of warships, he and his crew sacrifice themselves and to ignite an A-bomb like explosion his home island of Vulcania – where he build the Nautilus and invented all of its futuristic equipment – saying the world is not ready for his secrets.

I never read the novel, but I think this movie is very enjoyable to watch. Check it out on Disney+ to see a very well shot film for its time. Also, Kirk Douglas sings in this, so it will be a nice way to honor his memory, especially his scenes with Peter Lorre.

Look out tomorrow when I look at a TV show adaptation in “Disney Month 2024.”

Song of the South

Welcome back everyone to “Disney Month.” As always, I will be reviewing various Disney films that I have not seen and including MCU and Star Wars shows in here. Let’s get starting with the 1946 controversial film, “Song of the South.”

Famously labeled as too racist to ever release for modern audiences, “Song of the South” is easily the lest seen, most obscure film ever made by Disney. It’s a combination of live action actors and cartoon scenes, added by occasional songs. Mike Massie said in his review, “Considered a musical, the several numbers sung by crowds of sharecroppers are smoothly integrated, while the remaining tunes are crooned by curious animated critters communicating with Remus via melodic conversations.” Set in the Reconstruction era of the deep South and based on Joel Chandler Harris’ stories, all taking place after the Civil War (despite none of this is apparent enough), the controversy around the showing the black characters has prevented generations of audiences from seeing the movie or realizing that the now removed “Splash Mountain” theme park ride at Disneyland came from this film.

Miss Sally (Ruth Warrick) and newspaper man Mr. John (Erik Rolf) travel to a Southern plantation to visit their son Johnny’s (Bobby Driscoll) grandmother (Lucile Watson). The building is a huge white mansion filled with black workers, including “Aunt” Tempy (Hattie McDaniel) and young Toby (Glenn Leedy), who is told to look after the adventurous Johnny. Immediately after arriving, Mr. John leaves, loyally off to attend a newspaper crisis, separating for the first time from his wife and son.

Johnny is upset and sneaks away in the middle of the night (in his little orange suit), wanting to go to Atlanta where his father is going, but quickly becomes distracted by a small campfire gathering where Uncle Remus, played by James Baskett, is telling the story of Br’er Rabbit and how he lost his tail. After inviting Johnny, the two stop at Remus’ cabin for some cornbread, continuing with the stories of the friendly animals that speak with Remus. Eventually returned to the house, Johnny is prepared the next morning to see his grandmother, dressed up in nice clothing and a lace collar, only to be made fun of by the neighborhood, poorer Faver family boys. His little depression is fixed by the generous Ginny, played by Luana Patten, who gives him a puppy – except that Sally tells Johnny he’s not allowed to keep it. Later, the stories of the Br’er animals continue, with Br’er Bear and Br’er Fox, also voiced by Baskett, making a tar baby decoy (literally a decoy made of tar, turpentine, and sticks) to catch Br’er Rabbit for a nice stew – unpredictably successful when Br’er Rabbit is mad by the tar baby’s refusal to respond to a greeting, and punches the prop until he’s completely stuck with the tar.

Nothing about the film is in any way famous (except for the often-debated subject matter), however the unforgettable song Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah has surprisingly been around all the years. Massie noted, “The dialogue is slightly confusing to follow, heavily inundated with slang, accents, dialect, and culturally familiar grammatical errors, but most strikingly peculiar because of the intentionally stereotypical voicework by Nicodemus Stewart as Br’er Bear and Johnny Lee as Br’er Rabbit – both African-American comedians from vaudeville, radio, and television. Likely the primary reason Disney continues to so strongly object to the showing of this film, the cartoons speak with exaggerations, like the crows in “Dumbo,” over the course of the entire feature, leaving little room for casual historical inclusion as a politically correct explanation.” Even though the African-American roles are not mistreated, they appear as equals, and are the main characters (Remus is actually a hero), the voices alone are understandably unpleasant.

The main reason of the film is to demonstrate the usefulness of Remus’ stories as learning tools for Johnny to use in his real-life scenarios. Massie mentioned, “The boy is described as desolate without whimsical allegories to latch on to (apparently unable to befriend the locals). Fighting, bullying, threats of hanging and skinning Br’er Rabbit as preparation for feasting on him (along with reverse psychology for the cottontail to be thrown into a thorny brier patch instead, which he uses to escape), and even the declaration of drowning the puppy work their way into the script – making “Song of the South” oddly unfriendly to younger audiences, regardless of the animated pieces. Suppressed for controversial depictions of a factual time period, the movie will certainly remain more notable for that single aspect – leaving the mediocrity of the film and its moderate entertainment value largely undiscussed.”

I had heard of this film a long time ago and of the fact that this was never shown again after its release. I think this was debated as the first live-action Disney movie, so I decided to check this one out and see what was so controversial about it. I believe this film should be seen by everyone at least once just so they know and get an understanding of it. Especially with the famous song. It’s not on Disney+, but if you can find it somewhere, see it.

Sorry for the late posting. I was called down to see a movie and I fell asleep because I was just so tired from work. Stay tuned tomorrow to see a review on an adaptation of a book in “Disney Month 2024.”