White Hunter, Black Heart arrives on Spanish Blu-ray

White Hunter, Black Heart arrives on Spanish Blu-ray

Well, it’s been a long wait, I believe the official date for this release was November 5th , it’s a crying shame that the United States and the United Kingdom have both chosen to ignore this film, but I’ve given up trying to figure out the studios and their mentality – but hey, it just dropped through my door on Christmas Eve – so I’ll be projecting this tonight. To support this release, I thought I’d post this piece by Brogan Morris which appeared on the BFI website on Aug 30th 2020.

Clint’s best shot: White Hunter Black Heart and Eastwood’s biggest performance. 

20 (35) years after White Hunter Black Heart’s failure at the box office, Clint Eastwood’s larger-than-life performance as a megalomaniac John Huston-like film director looks like his boldest turn, says Brogan Morris.

Clint Eastwood was in a transitional phase when he made White Hunter Black Heart. In the year prior to shooting the film, his 14th as director, he completed his stint as mayor of California’s Carmel-by-the-Sea, starred in his last Dirty Harry picture The Dead Pool (1988) and ended a 14-year relationship with partner and regular collaborator Sondra Locke, having recently secretly fathered two children through an affair. 

In the summer of 1989, when cameras rolled, Clint was locked in an ugly palimony battle and approaching 60. The film would unsurprisingly find him in a reflective mood. 

Based on author and Hollywood screenwriter Peter Viertel’s lightly fictionalised account of the unruly making of The African Queen, director John Huston’s 1951 romantic Technicolor odyssey, White Hunter Black Heart follows Viertel’s pseudonymous script doctor Pete Verrill (Jeff Fahey) to Central Africa, where an ageing filmmaker means to shoot his latest picture but instead becomes obsessed with shooting an elephant. 

Rechristened John Wilson, Huston is here portrayed in all his urbane, boorish, self-loathing, egomaniacal glory; and though the film is directed with Eastwood’s preferred unshowy formalism, his performance at the centre as Wilson is a uniquely bold one for the actor.

While as a filmmaker Eastwood has proven adventurous, trying his hand at everything from romance to fantasy to musicals (and with a Japanese-language war epic thrown in for good measure), Eastwood the performer has been considerably less so. Across a 65-year acting career, Clint has tended to play variations on the same super-capable, taciturn antihero, with the signature squinted glare, clenched jaw and whispery line delivery familiar to almost every one of his characters. 

Such immutability once prompted critic Pauline Kael to write: “He isn’t an actor, so one could hardly call him a bad actor. He’d have to do something before we could consider him bad at it.”

Considering what he told the LA Times in 1990 regarding his obviously studied performance in White Hunter – “I may have gone way over the wall, I may have gone too far. But I didn’t want to be too careful and wind up not doing anything” – John Wilson could be considered Eastwood’s response to such criticisms.

Approximating the debonair Huston’s theatrical mannerisms and musically affected drawl, here Eastwood – normally so still and tight-lipped – is animated and verbose. Wilson pontificates; he offers unsolicited wisdom (“To write a movie you must forget that anyone’s ever going to see it”) and seeks to antagonise anyone around him considered to be weak in character.

Apparently relishing embodying someone so unlike himself – and, perhaps, enjoying the chance to subvert the classic Eastwood ‘type’ – in this film Clint doesn’t play scenes so much as blow his way through them cigarillo-first.

In what could be read as a critique of behaviour that came so naturally to the virile gunslingers he was known for playing in the first half of his career, Eastwood allows himself to appear unheroic, even ridiculous as John Wilson. Wilson can’t shoot worth a damn, despite his passion for hunting big game; can seemingly only get women into bed by luring them there with dreams of Hollywood; and gets beaten in fights. In one scene, he unwisely challenges a white African bar manager to fisticuffs ostensibly to defend the honour of a humiliated black waiter. However, like his desire to drink and smoke the most and kill the biggest animal, the challenge is really just part of the director’s ongoing effort to cultivate a macho reputation. 

With a lifetime of devil-may-care living showing in Wilson’s failing health (in real-life, Huston was in the early stages of emphysema while filming The African Queen), in this film the Eastwood character’s masculinity is shown to be only destructive, and increasingly so as he creeps closer to old age.

This apparent rejection by Eastwood of his own iconic persona wasn’t a popular move back in 1990. Whereas Eastwood’s best-loved roles create myths, White Hunter Black Heart set about deconstructing them – Wilson/Huston’s, as well as Eastwood’s own – while a character study of a complicated cinephiles’ favourite understandably held limited appeal for standard Eastwood fans.

It became one of Clint’s biggest flops, the $24m film grossing just $2m on release. Meanwhile, contemporary critics generally considered the leading man’s performance to be a failure. In an otherwise positive review for Sight & Sound, Richard Combs wrote that Eastwood was “uncomfortable playing this kind of imposter”.

30 years on, Eastwood’s biggest swing as an actor is fascinating. Two years after White Hunter got its muted reception, the similarly introspective Unforgiven would see Eastwood reassume his crowd-pleasing gunslinger persona (albeit with a wearier edge than Dirty Harry or the Man with No Name ever knew) to great fanfare. There would be no further displays of full-throated character acting from Clint, meaning only in White Hunter Black Heart has he ever truly risked departure from the ‘Eastwood type’. 

But though critics at the time thought Eastwood out of his depth playing a John Huston proxy, today John Wilson looks like one of his more intelligent portrayals.

The Wilson character may be oversized (though so was Huston), but he’s played by Eastwood as a man giving a performance, the forceful charisma masking whatever uncertainty lies beneath. At a turbulent time in his life, and while making the transition from middle- to old-age, and from action star to a director of quiet, sombre art, Eastwood played a character reckoning with himself. 

“Do you understand me?”, Wilson asks Verrill in one scene. “Of course you don’t – how could you? I don’t understand myself.” Not before or since would audiences see this monolith of big screen masculinity so exposed.  - Brogan Morris (2020)

In conclusion:

So is White Hunter, Black Heart a misunderstood movie? Would today’s audience find it more accepting? I’d like to think so, White Hunter, Black Heart is often considered a much-underrated film, praised retrospectively for its complex critique of American arrogance, imperialism, and flawed masculinity, rather than just a simple adventure or a portrait of a macho director, with critics highlighting its subtle ambiguity and Eastwood's layered performance as an unheroic figure. It delves into the psyche of artist-explorers like John Huston (the real-life inspiration), challenging typical Eastwood heroism by showing his character's self-destructive obsession and moral failings.

I’ve included an Interview below with the late Barry Norman from his long running BBC Film series - my thanks to the original uploader.

              

Dirty Harry / Magnum Force 1975 Double-Bill release – Celebrating 50 Years!

Dirty Harry / Magnum Force 1975 Double-Bill release – Celebrating 50 Years! 

It was only when I was restoring an old Warner Bros ad this morning when I realised that this great pairing from 1975 was in fact 50 years ago! It’s incredible how the time flies. So considering how we are just a week or so away from Christmas I thought I’d gather some of the double Bill stuff together and post it here while there was still a little of 2025 left. 

Warner Brothers actually made rather a big deal out of these 2 movies, and gave the Double Bill quite an extensive promotional campaign. The programme was actually launched on both sides of the Atlantic running in both the U.S. and the U.K. In America it was tagged as ‘Double Trouble’ and did incredibly well at the Box Office. It was a summer release, and it appeared that the public couldn’t get enough of their favourite cop. 

Eastwood was right in the middle of making his permanent move from Universal to Warner Brothers, so giving these 2 big hitters another run probably proved a lucrative move for Warner Bros, plus of course the perfect piece of advance publicity for the up-and-coming production and third Dirty Harry outing, The Enforcer (1976). The Enforcer would be ready for general release in the December of 1976 both in the U.S. and U.K. 

It's a pity no-one came up with double bill set of Lobby cards to support this release – especially as there was a nice poster campaign. I can’t help thinking that was a bit of a lost opportunity. 

Below: The U.S. Pressbook

Below: Word first came about when this funky double page ad appeared in the Variety Trade paper. The double-Bill appeared alongside Gene Hackman’s latest; Night Moves and the George Pal adventure movie, Doc Savage. Paul Newman’s latest The Drowning Pool, a sequel to Harper (UK The Moving Target) was also featured in the spread. 

In America a full One Sheet poster and Half Sheet poster were produced providing us with a mirror image of Harry Callahan and two protruding 44 Magnum barrels – an imposing image that couldn’t fail to draw attention. The was also a U.S. pressbook which helped (if it were ever needed) to push the action to the cinema chains and press.  

Below: The U.S. One Sheet 

Below: The U.S. Half Sheet

In the UK we were treated to a nice full Quad poster and an attractive Double Crown. What’s interesting in all these posters is the lack of any coloured imagery. All of the formats used stark, previously used artwork all of which was in b/w. Whilst the U.S. campaign used a photo image (from Magnum Force) – the U.K. marketing used bold artwork which was a simple reworking of the individual quad designs – all with a strong red border which looked effective and memorable. 

There are still plenty of examples of these posters on the markets all of which still fetch quite a price. That said, don’t expect to see too many of the rare U.K. Double Crown – they are very scarce indeed and you can expect to pay a hefty premium price if and when one should surface. 

Below: The UK Quad Posters including the Rare text only version

Below: A very rare example of the UK Double Crown poster

Below: Some incredibly Rare Original Newspaper ads for the Double-Bill and look to be from Australia

Flashback: Clint and Sondra - The 6th Deauville American Film Festival 5th to 11th September 1980

Flashback: Clint and Sondra - The 6th Deauville American Film Festival 5th to 11th September 1980

The actor Danny Kaye opened the festival officially, arriving on the Casino cinema’s stage on all fours, without a word said but with a loud blast on a whistle! Elia Kazan, to whom the festival was paying tribute, cancelled his attendance following the death of his wife, the director Barbara Loden, whose film Wanda was screened at the festival on the very day she died. The others receiving tributes that year were Danny Kaye, Glenn Ford, Yul Brynner and, for his first tribute, Clint Eastwood. The heads of 35 major Hollywood studios held their governing board meetings in Deauville, during the festival.

Both Clint and Sondra presented their latest film Bronco Billy, marking a significant moment in their professional collaboration and personal relationship, which was highlighted by their presence at this major European film event. 

In some ways, it was this event that signified that Clint and Sondra were an official couple, even though it was already a year or two down the line. It was that famous beach walk they took which found itself presented all over the press. There was just an overall feeling that for the first time everything was out in the open – perhaps it was a conscious effort, to perhaps put an end to the countless rumours and speculation– that’s certainly how it felt anyway.  

I thought I’d pull out a few photos I have on file, and one which captured Clint stopping off at London’s Heathrow Airport on his return to Los Angeles on September 16th 1980. The photo also captures film producer Fritz Manes (1932-2011) following close behind. 

Below: Clint on his return at Heathrow Airport, London, September 16th 1980

Forrest Carter: The controversial figure behind the novel

Forrest Carter: The controversial figure behind the novel

There’s little doubt about it; the author Forrest Carter was a controversial figure. I can’t produce anything new here, but thought I’d bring the rather interesting article from Wiki here – as it could easily be overlooked or missed. It’s a fascinating read, and of course Carter’s story remains a classic tale, but the author certainly carried a great deal of baggage. 

The Rebel Outlaw: Josey Wales is a 1973 American Western novel (also titled Gone to Texas in later editions) and was written by Asa Earl Carter (under the pen name Forrest Carter). It was adapted into the film The Outlaw Josey Wales directed by and starring Clint Eastwood. The novel was republished in 1975 under the title Gone to Texas.

Asa Earl Carter (September 4, 1925 – June 7, 1979) was an American segregationist and Ku Klux Klan organizer who was prominent in the 1950s for his activism and later as a Western fiction novelist, known as a co-writer of George Wallace's well-known pro-segregation line of 1963, "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever." He ran in the Democratic primary for governor of Alabama as a white supremacist. Later, under the pseudonym of supposedly Cherokee writer Forrest Carter, he wrote The Rebel Outlaw: Josey Wales (1972), a Western novel that was adapted into a 1976 film featuring Clint Eastwood that was added to the National Film Registry, and The Education of Little Tree (1976), a best-selling, award-winning book which was marketed as a memoir but which turned out to be fiction.

In 1976, following the success of The Rebel Outlaw and its film adaptation, The New York Times revealed Forrest Carter was actually Asa Carter. His background became national news again in 1991 after his purported memoir, The Education of Little Tree (1976), was re-issued in paperback, topping the Times paperback best-seller lists (both non-fiction and fiction) and winning the American Booksellers Book of the Year (ABBY) award.

Prior to his literary career as "Forrest", Carter was politically active for years in Alabama as an opponent of the civil rights movement. In the mid-1950s, he had a syndicated segregationist radio show, and worked as a speech writer for segregationist Governor George Wallace of Alabama. He also founded the North Alabama Citizens Council (NACC), an independent offshoot of the White Citizens' Council movement formed by Carter when the White Citizens' Council tried to moderate Carter's antisemitism. He also formed the militant and violent Ku Klux Klan group known as the Original Ku Klux Klan of the Confederacy, and started a monthly publication titled The Southerner which spread white supremacist and anti-communist rhetoric.

Carter began work on his first novel, spending days researching in a public library in Sweetwater, Texas. He distanced himself from his past, began to call his sons "nephews" and renamed himself Forrest Carter, after Nathan Bedford Forrest, a general of the Confederate army who fought in the Civil War, and the first leader of the Ku Klux Klan.

Carter's best-known fictional works are The Rebel Outlaw: Josey Wales (1972, republished in 1975 as Gone to Texas) and The Education of Little Tree (1976), the latter book originally published as a memoir. Although Little Tree sold modestly during Carter's life, it became a sleeper hit after his death.

Clint Eastwood directed and starred in a film adaptation of Josey Wales, retitled The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) after Carter sent the book to his offices as an unsolicited submission, and Eastwood's partner read and put his support behind it. At this time, neither man knew of Carter's past as a Klansman and rabid segregationist. In 1997, after the success of the paperback edition of The Education of Little Tree, a film adaptation was produced. Originally intended as a TV movie, it was given a theatrical release.

Carter's sequel to The Rebel Outlaw: Josey Wales, titled The Vengeance Trail of Josey Wales (1976), was planned by Clint Eastwood as a possible film project, but the project was cancelled. The author's Watch for Me on the Mountain (1978) is a fictionalized biography of Geronimo. It was reprinted in 1980 in an edition titled Cry Geronimo!

Carter was working on The Wanderings of Little Tree, a sequel to The Education of Little Tree, as well as a screenplay version of the book, when he died in Abilene on June 7, 1979. The cause of death was reported to have been heart failure. However, the ambulance driver told one of Carter’s friends that he had a drunken fight with his son, fell, and choked on his own vomit. Carter's body was returned to Alabama for burial near Anniston, Alabama.

Below: Clint's early intensions from 1973, inside the book’s flysheet

What fascinates me about the first edition from 1973, is that inside the book’s flysheet Clint’s endorsement of the novel also states that he has marked the project for his next starring role. Remembering of course that this is 1973, some years before the movie went into production. Clint was still signed to Universal at this time – so I wonder if it was pitched and Universal had cold feet about the project? Interestingly enough Clint made his permanent move to Warner Brothers in 1975 when he signed a long-term contract with the studio. His production company, Malpaso Productions, also moved its base of operations to the Warner Bros. lot. Principal photography for The Outlaw Josey Wales began on October 6th, 1975, with filming taking place in various locations across the American West, including Utah, Wyoming, Arizona, and California. 

This whole post came about after I recently found an original 1976 edition of Gone to Texas in paperback form. I’ve had the tie-in novel for many years which contains the poster artwork for its cover, but it had been a good few years since I had seen this book. It was in beautiful condition for its age, and at £4.00 seemed a bit of a bargain and of course it contained Clint’s endorsement on the reverse which still makes it rather special. 

So, Forrest Carter was actually a notorious white supremacist, Ku Klux Klan leader, and segregationist political figure from Alabama. In fact, he lived a double life, reinventing himself as a "Cherokee" author in Texas later in life – all of which is truly sad. Regardless of that fact, it is something I can never let stand in the way of my total enjoyment of a remarkable movie.  

Eastwood Meets Bond: From Russia with Love / Hang Em High (1970/71)

Eastwood Meets Bond: From Russia with Love / Hang Em High (1970/71)

Continuing with our Bond meets Eastwood ads, our short run of advertising reaches 1970/71 and a pairing of From Russia with Love and Hang ‘em high. Again, the pairing of the two genres (a Western and a Spy thriller) may at first seem a little out of place. Nevertheless, no one could argue if you were simply a fan of ‘action’ cinema! While Clint was still emerging as a star, especially after the success of A Fistful of Dollars in 1967 and its sequels in 1968 – Hang ‘em High marked Clint’s first American feature. Strangely enough, by 1970 Connery had already finished his first run as Bond, George Lazenby had given the world his single outing as Bond, just before Connery was bought back for Diamonds are Forever. 

Below: The stunning Quad poster for the Double-Bill release

One thing was certain, United Artists were having a great time and certainly filling their boots at the box office. The general release date of the double-bill is often accepted as November 1971 (according to our friend Graham Rye of 007 Magazine) (and whom I have complete faith). Generally, the beautiful Quad poster is more often dated as 1970 whenever it appears for sale. The poster art was by Renato Fratini and Arnaldo Putzu. 

Below: A selection of Rare Ads for the Double-Bill release 

Photo Opportunity #68 Clint at Sun Valley Idaho Western Film Conference June 1976

Photo Opportunity #68 Clint at Sun Valley Idaho Western Film Conference June 1976

I don’t think there was much choice for this month’s Photo Opportunity – it was indeed the subject of much debate and head scratching (and headaches!). Firstly, thanks to Davy Triumph for coming up with this rare gem, and secondly to Kevin Wilkinson for eventually digging up the story behind the picture – Proof if proof were ever needed that we still have the best people and the collective brain power which continues to make this the ultimate Eastwood site. 

So, here’s a wonderful photo of Clint in-between Peter Fonda (1940 – 2019) and the legendary Buster Crabbe (1909 – 1983). The time was June 1976 when Clint attended the Sun Valley, Idaho Western Film Conference – no doubt to help promote his latest, The Outlaw Josey Wales (which opened nationwide during the same month). Josey Wales also received a pre-screening during the six-day Idaho conference. Also in attendance were Chief Dan George, Tim McCoy directors King Vidor, Delmer Daves and Henry King and actor Warren Oates. 

Below: from the same event, Clint with Josey Wales co-star Chief Dan George and veteran actor Tim McCoy

The Elusive Where Eagles Dare MGM 7” Single

The Elusive Where Eagles Dare MGM 7” Single 

I suppose there are certain things (as a collector) that you almost surrender or yield any hope of actually finding a certain piece to fill that longstanding gap in the collection. When it comes to Eastwood related vinyl singles – there’s always been a few, one immediately thinks of the Japanese Coogan’s Bluff single release of Pigeon-Toed Orange Peel by The Lead is one such peace of vinyl that springs to mind or perhaps the Japanese single release of the Paul Williams song Where do we go from here from the film Thunderbolt and Lightfoot is another such rarity. In addition to this list, I would also add the 7” French release of the Where Eagles Dare theme – a damn near impossible piece of vinyl to find – or so it seemed. 

It was a couple of weeks ago when I was checking out a dealer based in France, he certainly had a good collection of film related 7” singles and as a result I spent the good part of a whole evening checking out is inventory. It was a couple of hours later that I suddenly saw this beauty raise its head Yes, the elusive MGM 61 625 – Ron Godwin’s Theme to Quand Les Aigles Attaquent aka Where Eagles Dare. Both sleeve and vinyl were rated as excellent – and luckily at £16 it wasn’t too much of a ball breaker – considering this was the first time I had actually ever seen one for sale, I wasted very little time in adding it to my basket, making contact with the excellent seller and with a few other choice selections, put an order together straight away. 

Well, this seldomly single arrived today, perfect packaged and projected and in really lovely condition. I still have no idea why, but this French release seems to be the only ever 7” release for the theme – not even the superb Japanese market entertained a single – I’ve spent years researching this pressing and never seen any other 7” single release. I actually surprised that England didn’t release a single or even an EP as a Ron Goodwin EP wasn’t an unusual thing in the 60’s in the UK. 

The lovely (paper stock) picture sleeve on this single is the same as the French soundtrack LP release and features the film’s French poster art. 

It’s certainly nice to finally draw a line under this one, it’s taken a while, but proof if it was ever needed that everything eventually comes to those who wait.