{"id":20961,"date":"2012-03-28T06:00:51","date_gmt":"2012-03-28T10:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=20961"},"modified":"2012-09-14T11:14:51","modified_gmt":"2012-09-14T15:14:51","slug":"edmond-obrien-westerns-and-more-on-the-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=20961","title":{"rendered":"Edmond O’Brien Westerns And More On The Way"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>There are character actors and there are CHARACTER ACTORS. Edmond O\u2019Brien<\/a> was definitely in the latter group.<\/p>\n

Even when he had small roles in films, the Bronx native made a big impact, adding another standout performance to his mantle and your memory.<\/p>\n

Coming to DVD for the first time, courtesy of Olive Films, is Denver & Rio Grande<\/a>, one of three collaborations O\u2019Brien made with director Byron Haskin, best-known as the helmer of the 1953 George Pal production of H.G. Wells\u2019 The War of the Worlds and the cult favorite Robinson Crusoe on Mars.<\/p>\n

The film offers O\u2019Brien a rare opportunity to share a leading role in a movie, this time with Sterling Hayden. \u00a0The colorful and exciting sagebrusher stars O\u2019Brien as a former Calvary officer in charge of guiding the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad across the Rockies. Facing off against him is Hayden, the unscrupulous supervisor of the Canyon and San Juan line who will pull just about every lowdown trick so his railroad will trump the D&RG.\u00a0 By the way, the film has been much-desired by train fans because of its action-oriented sequences spotlighting the competitive rail lines.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The film showcases O\u2019Brien\u2019s versatility and his expertise at playing both larger-than-life and intimate at the same time. \u00a0It was a trait that not only was evident here, but in the other two movies he made for Haskin as well. In Silver City <\/a>(1951), also coming to DVD via Olive, O\u2019Brien essays the part of as a mining expert romantically involved with Yvonne De Carlo while going up against treacherous silver lode honcho Barry Fitzgerald. \u00a0Warpath (1951) (which Olive had scheduled to be released, but has been delayed for technical reasons) finds O\u2019Brien as a former soldier on a hunt to find the two men who killed his fianc\u00e9e.\u00a0 This pursuit for revenge eventually motivates him to join the Cavalry to find the culprits, and his path leads him straight to General Custer\u2019s battle with Native-American tribes led by Sitting Bull at Little Bighorn.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien had lead roles in all three of these pictures\u2014all of which, incidentally, were penned by pulp fiction ace Frank Gruber\u2014but major screen time for the actor was rare. Of course, his turn in 1950\u2019s noir classic D.O.A. is probably his best known lead role.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>O\u2019Brien also dabbled in directing, going behind the camera in 1954 for the \u201cdirty cop\u201d noir Shield for Murder with John Agar, Marla English, Claude Akins and Carolyn Jones and 1961\u2019s Man-Trap, in which Jeffrey Hunter and David Janssen are Korean War vets who team to pull off a heist of a South American dictator. Co-starring Stella Stevens as Hunter\u2019s heavy drinking shrew-of-a-wife, this tough and unusual crime drama, from a story by John D. MacDonald (Cape Fear). will be issued by Olive some time later this year.<\/p>\n

For more on the great O\u2019Brien, read our tribute to him here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Also on the way from the ever-ambitious folks at Olive is Nicholas Ray\u2019s complex western saga Run for Cover <\/a>(1955), with James Cagney as a drifter and John Derek as his younger associate. After being mistaken for outlaws, Cagney and Derek are shot, and Derek becomes handicapped. Soon, Cagney is named sheriff of a town and Derek his deputy, but Derek\u2019s resentment runs deep, and the townsfolk and bad guys, including Ernest Borgnine, add to Jimmy\u2019s problems. Viveca Lindfors and Jean Hersholt also star in this film filled with common Ray themes of youthful rebellion and (surrogate) father-son relationships. Ray helmed this effort between the more well-known Johnny Guitar and Rebel Without a Cause, but it\u2019s no less fascinating than his other work.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are character actors and there are CHARACTER ACTORS. Edmond O\u2019Brien was definitely in the latter group. Even when he had small roles in films, the Bronx native made a big impact, adding another standout performance to his mantle and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":20962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1664],"coauthors":[1707],"class_list":["post-20961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-staff-notes","tag-edmond-o-brien"],"yoast_head":"\nEdmond O'Brien Westerns And More On The Way - MovieFanFare<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=20961\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Edmond O'Brien Westerns And More On The Way - MovieFanFare\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There are character actors and there are CHARACTER ACTORS. 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