Casa\u00a0Ma\u00f1ana, Fort Worth\u2019s landmark musical-drama playhouse, served a low-key backup function during the 1960s \u2014 as\u00a0virtually a\u00a0central casting-type agency for a low-rent movie producer who sought to make North Texas competitive with the corporate film industry in Los Angeles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Larry Buchanan (1923-2004) succeeded chiefly at making homegrown motion pictures so odd as to defy belief \u2014 so politically neurotic as to make Oliver Stone\u2019s conspiracy-riddled \u201cJFK\u201d (1990) look like documentary realism \u2014 and so frankly blunt as to obscure deficiencies in budgeting and logic. Buchanan had no tax-break incentives or major-studio underwriting, but he\u00a0possessed\u00a0gumption.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The fuller story on Buchanan, often treated with derision, has only gradually\u00a0come to light. During the waning 1990s, the artist launched a second career as a film-festival personality, a genially defiant moving target.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Buchanan\u2019s films belong more to the dream-state.\u00a0A stilted\u00a0intensity prevails. But Buchanan\u2019s zest for life recalled the days when he had rehearsed for prominence by delivering fund-raising speeches for the orphans\u2019\u00a0shelter\u00a0he once called home.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Buchanan films remain memorable in the manner of an illogically vivid dream.\u00a0Some, like \u201cHigh Yellow\u201d (1965), are technically the equal of such acknowledged low-budget gems as Edgar G. Ulmer\u2019s \u201cDetour\u201d (1945) and Herk Harvey\u2019s \u201cCarnival of Souls\u201d (1962). Buchanan would topline his ensemble\u00a0casts\u00a0with capable, once-famous talent. His na\u00efve political candor is sufficient to make Oliver Stone (whose films \u201cThe Doors\u201d and \u201cJFK\u201d Buchanan had\u00a0anticipated) seem middle of the road. And if Buchanan\u2019s erratic pacing and home-movie scenic compositions play with less than propulsive force, he rallies with confidence.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His pictures have proved influential on directors of larger acclaim. It was in Buchanan\u2019s \u201cHigh Yellow\u201d that a local actor, Bill Thurman, delivered the portrayal that helped to land him a key role in Peter Bogdanovich\u2019s breakthrough film of 1971, \u201cThe Last Picture Show.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know\u00a0that\u00a0I bring any great command,\u201d Buchanan told me in 1997, \u201cbut I love what\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0doing, and I believe that shows. We meant to defy formulas. We let our imaginations run as free as our budgets would allow.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Buchanan has been hailed as an example of the \u201cso-bad-it\u2019s-good\u201d class of motion pictures. In another sense, Buchanan enabled honest work for the once-prominent likes of John Agar and Disney\u00a0alumnus\u00a0Tommy Kirk, after Hollywood had given such talents the boot.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, an assignment is an assignment when you\u2019re raising a family,\u201d he said. \u201cBut from time to time, I\u2019d get free to do my more serious pictures.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Origins of a Filmmaking Species<\/p>\n
Recalled Buchanan: \u201cMy mother died when I was little. My father, a constable, arranged for his kids to be taken in by the Buckner Orphans\u2019 Home in Dallas. With the theater at the orphanage, I was able to learn showmanship \u2014 my first relationship with the movie industry.\u201d Dallas-based Interstate Circuit Theatres supplied Buckner with popular films.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAround age 14,\u00a0I\u2019d\u00a0go on the road,\u00a0soliciting\u00a0funds for Buckner. I was offered this scholarship to Baylor if\u00a0I\u2019d\u00a0study for the ministry. But I said, \u2018No, I\u2019m heading west.\u2019 The Interstate people gave me my intro to 20th Century-Fox.\u201d Buchanan landed a small appearance in a war melodrama, \u201cWing and a Prayer\u201d (1944). He became a regular at Fox: \u201cOne of the guys standing 70 feet away from Betty Grable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He recalled, \u201cThen Fox tested me for the key role in \u201cThe Razor\u2019s Edge\u201d (1946). Tyrone Power was about to go overseas with the service. But then Power returned. The frustration made me quit Hollywood.\u201d Buchanan retrenched in New York, where he developed a short instructional film, \u201cThe Cowboy.\u201d He\u00a0assisted\u00a0Hollywood director George Cukor on \u201cThe Marrying Kind\u201d (1952),\u00a0onGreenwich Village locations. Jamieson Film Laboratory in Dallas offered Buchanan a\u00a0directing\u00a0hitch on TV commercials for such brands as Dr Pepper and Mrs. Baird\u2019s Bread. The assignments fueled his feature-film ambitions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe stage scene \u2014 Casa\u00a0Ma\u00f1ana\u00a0in Fort Worth, especially \u2014 became my central casting surrogate,\u201d said Buchanan, \u201ca stock company of local talent. A slow breakthrough, sort of, was \u2018The Naked Witch\u2019 \u2014 filmed during 1957, down around the Hill Country, based on the old \u2018Luckenbach Witch\u2019 legend.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Buchanan\u2019s players from local stages and TV included Annabelle\u00a0Weenick\u00a0MacAdams, Libby Booth Hall, Bill Thurman, Patrick Cranshaw, Annalena Lund, George Edgley, and George Russell.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Buchanan said: \u201cOne picture of mine, \u201cFree, White and 21,\u201d\u00a0anticipated\u00a0the so-called \u2018Blaxploitation\u2019 [or Black exploitation] movie craze of the 1970s. Made back its $30,000 cost, and then some, in its first week.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A prominent face in \u201cFree White and 21,\u201d Bill Thurman graduated\u00a0to\u00a0Peter Bogdanovich\u2019s \u201cThe Last Picture Show\u201d (1971) and William Wiard\u2019s \u201cTom Horn\u201d (1980). Another stock player, Patrick Cranshaw of Buchanan\u2019s \u201cMars Needs Women\u201d (1966), wrapped up\u00a0a long career\u00a0at age 86 with roles in a new century\u2019s \u201cAir Bud\u201d series and network television\u2019s \u201cMonk.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Two Buchanan movies dealt with the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Buchanan\u00a0had launched\u00a0\u201cNaughty Dallas\u201d as a 1950s project, finally completed for release in 1964. His dealings there with racketeer Jack Ruby\u2019s Carousel Club\u00a0established\u00a0\u201cNaughty Dallas\u201d as a ragged precursor of John Mackenzie\u2019s ambitious historical drama \u201cRuby\u201d (1992). Buchanan also tackled a fictional speculation: \u201cThe Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald\u201d (1964).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Breakthroughs, after a Fashion\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then American International Pictures commissioned a series of TV-syndication scare-shows, based upon recycled scripts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAmerican International wanted a hired gun \u2014 around $32,000 a picture.\u201d Those include \u201cThe Eye Creatures,\u201d a remake of Edward L. Cahn\u2019s \u201cInvasion of the Saucer-Men\u201d (1957); \u201cZontar, the Thing from Venus,\u201d starring big-studio has-been John Agar, a retread of Roger Corman\u2019s \u201cIt Conquered the World\u201d (1956); and \u201cCurse of the Swamp Creature\u201d (1966), resembling Cahn\u2019s \u201cVoodoo Woman\u201d (1956). In \u201cMars Needs Women,\u201d Disney cast-off Tommy Kirk plays\u00a0a spaceman; the plot resembles an AIP musical, \u201cPajama Party\u201d \u2014 also starring Kirk as a spaceman. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s Alive\u201d (1968),\u00a0last\u00a0of the AIP\u2013TV movies, is a tour de force for supporting players Bill Thurman and Anne\u00a0MacAdams, alias Annabelle\u00a0Weenick. Thurman plays the deranged keeper of a prehistoric monster.\u00a0MacAdams\u00a0plays a woman enslaved by Thurman. Thurman also plays the rubber-suit monster.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnyhow, the AIP connection gave me the momentum to move back to Hollywood, in 1968\u20131969. Of course, I arranged to shoot around Texas whenever I could.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cGoodnight, Sweet Marilyn\u201d (1988) became Buchanan\u2019s last completed release. Buchanan announced that year a plan to return to Texas for a sequel to \u201cMars Needs Women.\u201d Nothing materialized.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Frustrations and struggles aside, Buchanan declared his career a success.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWorking the way I have,\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0had fewer troubles \u2014 other than securing money.\u00a0Y\u2019see, once you walk through the big-studio gates, you become a corporate property, subject to what seems commercially\u00a0viable.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd once\u00a0I\u2019d\u00a0learned that fact, I decided\u00a0I\u2019d\u00a0make my pictures without ever traveling that route. And no,\u00a0I\u2019d\u00a0not change a thing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Casa\u00a0Ma\u00f1ana, Fort Worth\u2019s landmark musical-drama playhouse, served a low-key backup function during the 1960s \u2014 as\u00a0virtually a\u00a0central casting-type…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":438366,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,8067,12043,39054,7371,42198,7372,202628,38775,53,5921,358,7453,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-438365","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-artist","10":"tag-arts-and-culture","11":"tag-filmmaking","12":"tag-fort-worth","13":"tag-fort-worth-history","14":"tag-fortworth","15":"tag-local-films","16":"tag-michael-h-price","17":"tag-movies","18":"tag-style","19":"tag-texas","20":"tag-top-story","21":"tag-tx","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-united-states-of-america","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115696624317583500","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}