The Jayhawkers!: Difference between revisions
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Bleeker's wife's grave is outside the house, along with the grave of Dubois' late husband. Mrs. Bleeker died under mysterious circumstances. Dubois' husband was shot dead by Missouri Redlegs raiders right after the family moved there six months ago. |
Bleeker's wife's grave is outside the house, along with the grave of Dubois' late husband. Mrs. Bleeker died under mysterious circumstances. Dubois' husband was shot dead by Missouri Redlegs raiders right after the family moved there six months ago. |
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Dubois, |
Dubois, telling Bleeker there's a reward out for him and she could turn him in, convinces him to stay at the farm because she can't run it by herself. But the sheriff finds out Bleeker is there, and government soldiers come and take Bleeker away. |
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He is brought to Gov. William Clayton, who makes a deal with Bleeker: Bleeker won't hang if he can go and capture Luke Darcy and bring him to justice, any way he can. Darcy is a dangerous, frontier dictator whose raiders threaten to take over the whole territory. Clayton convinces Bleeker to go after Darcy by telling him that it was Darcy – a serial seducer of women – who destroyed Bleeker's wife. But he warns Bleeker not to cross him -- he wants Darcy taken alive. |
He is brought to Gov. William Clayton, who makes a deal with Bleeker: Bleeker won't hang if he can go and capture Luke Darcy and bring him to justice, any way he can. Darcy is a dangerous, frontier dictator whose raiders threaten to take over the whole territory. Clayton convinces Bleeker to go after Darcy by telling him that it was Darcy – a serial seducer of women – who destroyed Bleeker's wife. But he warns Bleeker not to cross him -- he wants Darcy taken alive. |
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Revision as of 12:11, 13 May 2020
| The Jayhawkers! | |
|---|---|
 Original theatrical poster | |
| Directed by | Melvin Frank |
| Written by | A. I. Bezzerides Frank Fenton Melvin Frank |
| Produced by | Melvin Frank Norman Panama |
| Starring | Jeff Chandler Fess Parker |
| Cinematography | Loyal Griggs |
| Edited by | Everett Douglas |
| Music by | Jerome Moross |
Production company | Parwood Productions[1] |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date | 15 October 1959 |
Running time | 100 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $1 million (est. US/ Canada rentals)[2] |
The Jayhawkers! is a 1959 American Technicolor VistaVision film directed by Melvin Frank, starring Jeff Chandler as Luke Darcy and Fess Parker as Cam Bleeker. The film is set in pre-Civil War Kansas. Darcy leads a gang which seeks to take advantage of Bleeding Kansas (loosely based on abolitionist John Brown; Bleeker joins the gang. The supporting cast features Henry Silva and Leo Gordon.
Plot summary
In the days before the Civil War, the Kansas Territory is torn by fighting over whether Kansas should enter the Union as a free state or a slave state. Cam Bleeker, a farmer who went to prison for leading a gang of raiders himself, breaks out of prison and rides to his home. A stranger, Jeanne Dubois, is living there with her two children. She now owns the place.
Bleeker's wife's grave is outside the house, along with the grave of Dubois' late husband. Mrs. Bleeker died under mysterious circumstances. Dubois' husband was shot dead by Missouri Redlegs raiders right after the family moved there six months ago.
Dubois, telling Bleeker there's a reward out for him and she could turn him in, convinces him to stay at the farm because she can't run it by herself. But the sheriff finds out Bleeker is there, and government soldiers come and take Bleeker away.
He is brought to Gov. William Clayton, who makes a deal with Bleeker: Bleeker won't hang if he can go and capture Luke Darcy and bring him to justice, any way he can. Darcy is a dangerous, frontier dictator whose raiders threaten to take over the whole territory. Clayton convinces Bleeker to go after Darcy by telling him that it was Darcy – a serial seducer of women – who destroyed Bleeker's wife. But he warns Bleeker not to cross him -- he wants Darcy taken alive.
Bleeker comes upon a hanging party in progress, involving Darcy gang members, and manages to snatch one of the condemned away and forces him to take him to Darcy, who has just taken over a town. Inside the saloon headquarters, Bleeker introduces himself to Darcy, and demonstrates his talents as a fighter, convincingly enough to be allowed to join Darcy's gang. Darcy warily accepts him, and as they become acquainted, reveals to Bleeker how he goes about his “war” to take over Kansas. He also brazenly reveals what happened to Darcy's wife. “To me a woman is like a wine,” he says, “something to be enjoyed. When it's over and there's nothing left in the bottle, you must throw it away and find another.” Darcy's wife was such a victim of his, but Darcy uses psychology and a claim that it was consensual to blunt Bleeker's thoughts of revenge, and he stays with the gang.
During a raid at Knight's Crossing, a town near the Dubois farm, horsemen unintentionally run down and injure Dubois' daughter. Bleeker, still wearing his gang garb, takes her home. Dubois sees that her daughter is still alive, but is enraged about Bleeker's obvious complicity in Darcy's methods, which put the lives of innocents at risk. Bleeker promises it won't happen again.
He goes back to the governor, with a plan in mind to set a trap to catch Darcy in Abilene, baited with a train supposedly full of gold, but actually full of federal troops instead. Clayton agrees to the deal, but reminds Bleeker not to cross him.
Bleeker sells Darcy on going after the gold. Under the scheme, the gang infiltrates Abilene and takes over the town. When it appears that the takeover has succeeded, Darcy tells Bleeker and Dubois to leave and start their lives together. He says in parting, “Don't worry about me. I got what I want. I got Kansas.”
But Bleeker still has to finish his job for the governor. He knows Darcy has a dread of hanging, though, so he decides to confront Darcy and settle things between themselves, no matter what the governor told him about taking him alive. Just before he meets Darcy at his saloon headquarters, however, Lordan, a gang member who has found out about the trap, reaches Darcy to warn him about it.
As the troop train arrives in Abilene, Bleeker enters the saloon, now full of gang members, including Darcy, who, informed about the troops, tells his men to get out of town. Then he faces Bleeker alone.
The two of them get into a fistfight, which Bleeker wins. But as he begins to take Darcy at gunpoint outside to face the gallows, Darcy talks bitterly about the imminent “carnival” of a hanging, and Bleeker -- “Darcy, you talk too much,” he says -- decides on a gun duel. Bleeker kills Darcy in the duel, though it appears that Darcy might have mis-aimed his shot intentionally.
Bleeker, having broken his agreement by shooting Darcy, goes outside to surrender. But the governor, hearing Bleeker's reason, tells him, “Bleeker, you don't know why you couldn't let him hang, and I don't know why I'm letting you go free. But I've got a feeling we're both right.”
Cast
- Jeff Chandler as Luke Darcy
- Fess Parker as Cam Bleeker
- Nicole Maurey as Jeanne Dubois
- Henry Silva as Lordan
- Herbert Rudley as Gov. William Clayton
- Jimmy Carter as Paul
- Shari Lee Bernath as Martha
- Leo Gordon as Jake Barton
- Barbara Knudson as Mrs. Maxton
Production
The film was made by the team of Norman Panama and Melvin Frank who had a deal with Paramount.[3] They bought the story in January 1957.[4] Panama and Frank were best known for their comedies and had made a comic Western, Callaway Went Thataway but The Jayhawkers was serious. Frank said at the time:
The world has changed in eight years. This is no time to satirize western myth; people won't stand for the making fun of something sacred. Actually, why The Jayhawkers is in the outdoor category and has outlaws and guns and horses, it's a western only in that it takes place on the then-frontier of 1859. Something frightening happened in Kansas on the eve of the Civil War... A man on horseback tried to become A Man on Horseback. He took over only a few towns- but what would've happened if he'd seized Kansas for his empire and the Civil War had allowed him to set up a kingdom in the West? The power mad character has always threatened freedom. We had long wanted to use this theme in a story about the American past and when we found this story... it clicked.[5]
Panama and Frank subjected the script to analysis by a psychological consulting firm.[6]
Melvin Frank tried to interest Vivien Leigh in the female lead.[7] Chandler made the film on loan out from Universal International. Filming started 1 December 1958.[8]
References
- ^ MOVIELAND EVENTS: 'Jayhawkers' Quest Ranges East, West Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 29 June 1957: B3.
- ^ "1959: Probable Domestic Take", Variety, 6 January 1960 p 34
- ^ PANAMA, FRANK HAVE BUSY SLATE: Team Plans 6 Productions for Paramount -- Army Aiding Peck on Film By THOMAS M. PRYOR Special to The New York Times.. New York Times (1923-Current file) [New York, N.Y] 10 Apr 1958: 32.
- ^ QUINN TO DIRECT A MOVIE MUSICAL: He Will Work on 'Buccaneer,' De Mille Film in Which He Acted in 1938 Version Fox Seeks 'Rock Hunter' Star By THOMAS M. PRYOR Special to The New York Times.. New York Times (1923-Current file) [New York, N.Y] 31 Jan 1957: 21.
- ^ Pair State Nobody Will Go Thataway: Panama, Frank Serious About West They Kidded in 'Callaway' Scheuer, Philip K. Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 06 Jan 1959: D11.
- ^ FILM TEAM SEEKS AID OF PSYCHOLOGY: Panama and Frank to Study Reactions to 2 Scripts-- 'Big Fisherman' Bought By THOMAS M. PRYOR Special to The New York Times.. New York Times (1923-Current file) [New York, N.Y] 24 Oct 1957: 37.
- ^ MOVIELAND EVENTS: Kansas Schoolma'am Broached for Leigh Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 31 July 1957: 23.
- ^ Thomas Pryor, 'GOLDWYN NAMED FOR MOVIE HONOR: PRODUCERS GUILD TO GIVE HIM MILESTONE AWARD -JEFF CHANDLER GETS ROLE', ''New York Times (1923-Current file) [New York, N.Y] 21 Oct 1958: 38.