Awhile back I exposed the incompetent boobs of the Ford Motor Company and in that piece I quote Charles Bronson as Mr. Majestyk in the movie, as he drove a Ford pickup which literally saved that company.
I always remembered a very pretty Spanish gal in that movie, along with my beloved Lee Purcell, and not paying attention to Linda Cristal, I never equated this babe from Argentina was my Victoria from The High Chaparral.
I believe this television western was on CBS and I was really upset when it was cancelled after a few years, as to my little writer and director mind it was fabulous.
Leif Erickson played a crotchety old rancher named Buck Cannon and was married to the beautiful Linda Cristal who is really, Marta Victoria Moya Burges, of South America.
She was first discovered by John Wayne for the Alamo, and went on to star in 100 motion pictures.
She will always though be Victoria Cannon to me, and that wondeful cast which was fabulous.
The opening sequence they always played was how the show's pilot ran, in John had one son, by the name of Blue. The Mexicans had him, and were about to kill him in their form of frontier justice, when who should ride in by the ranch hands led by Mano.
Mano just made you love Mexicans, because Mexicans were cool as Henry Darrow how he played this hombre.
Backing it all up was the fantastic Cameron Mitchell, a William Shatner of Westerns.
This was television in how it was in rare form and beauty, which just does not exist in cinematography today. I used to just be in awe playing these old shows over and over in my mind, as there was such talent and directing taking place, even on the second units.
There was high drama when Blue was rescued and it carried the show. It was like the Vejars in Simon and Simon in their directing in the 1980's as much as Magnum PI.......and the wonderful work of the directors on the original Hawaii Five O.
Audiences had casts which could mesmerize and there was directing which surpised you with shots, along with dialogue.
I honestly have seen only one new program, and it was from Mystery in PBS in some private detective from England, which seemed more a cross of American, Anglo and Australian television at it's best.
There was one scene where the PI is asking a Russian BDSM girl where she got a flashdrive and she says in contempt, "Stupid where do you think I got it? I stole it when he had a heart attack!"
Some day I will probably give up television and invest several thousand dollars in Gilligan's Island to High Chaparral cinema and leave this modern garbage behind...............if only I had the time to make the movies I always scripted and were in my dreams.
I could have had a pleasant life and made billions of people feel better about themselves, because it has been year since I have seen the old films of television, and yet I sit here smiling at all the goodness they gave me.
Linda Cristal, and your wonderful work, I thank you for portraying what the writers and directors were striving for in a strong American woman.
agtG
