Hi, ho Silver! The Long Ranger

[kokopelli]

This post was triggered (pun on Roy Roger's horse) by Founthainhall's post on Some Model Photos which questioned the movie, The Lone Ranger.

 

Actually the Lone Ranger was very funny and filled with action. And yes, the William Tell Overture was played and an excellent rendition with great action scenes. But, if not a Lone Ranger fan, from those thrilling days of yesteryear, when from out of the past come the thundering hoofbeats of the great horse Silver , you might be lost by the story and the music.

 

A really neat opening and closing scene.

 

Best to view this movie with the right attitude and be prepared for some fun. In a way, like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, enjoy it for what it is.  And the scenery of the American Southwest is truly spectacular.

 

Far from a dud and  really worth seeing. Two friends, a Kiwi and an Ozzie , both encouraged me to see it and no regrets at all.

 

Looking forward to others' opinions.

 

Hi ho Silver! (don't ever say that again Kemosabe).

[Rogie]

I haven't seen the film and until I read this didn't know anything about it. I suppose I was a fan of the TV series (at the time, not sure I would describe myself thus nowadays). It's often fun to watch re-runs of those old westerns and try to spot actors who made it big later on. I spotted a much younger Lee Van Cleef in an episode once. Wasn't it the Lone Ranger who used silver bullets? I do hope he was given a supply in this new film. Do we get to see him un-masked? I hope not, the mask was a master stroke to encourage a generation of boys to believe in something magical (I've definitely got my rose-tinted spectacles on as I write this!).

[Guest fountainhall]

To clarify my comment about the "Lone Ranger" movie being "a dud", it was a reference to the big financial losses the movie is predicted to result in for Disney, not the quality or lack thereof of the movie as an audience experience.
 
From the Hollywood Reporter 10 July
 

“Amid continuing reverberations from the mega-failure of The Lone Ranger . . .”

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jerry-bruckheimers-disney-future-question-582560

From USA Today 14 July

 

Ranger, with a $225 million price tag and Depp's name attached, was expected to be a summer blockbuster yet pulled in a paltry $49 million over the July Fourth holiday weekend, making it one of the biggest flops of the year so far.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2013/07/14/lone-ranger-johnny-depp-woes/2508581/

From the LA Times 9 July
 

"They will think not twice, but maybe five times, before they do another $225-million picture," said longtime entertainment industry analyst Harold Vogel of Vogel Capital Management. "This is going to make it a lot tougher for any other budding auteur to come in and say, 'I want to do this $225-million extravaganza.' It's not going to happen any time soon at Disney."

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-lone-ranger-20130709,0,615122.story?page=1

[kokopelli]

Rogie; you watched the Lone Ranger on TV? Us real fans sat in front of the big floor model radio and listened to each episode plus reading the comic books.

Yes, the mask and the silver bullets are all included and explained in this latest film.

[Rogie]

Nostalgia is terrible thing. It can make us weep with joy or grind our teeth in frustration. Woody Allen's Radio Days was a great hark back to those times. 

 

I think I must've been a bit retarded, I don't recall listening to anything on the radio other than pop music. The good ol' b & w TV ruled the roost at chez Rogie. 

 

Regarding whether the film is a dud or not in terms of audience numbers, it is a long time ago since the Lone Ranger's heyday and kids nowadays are a lot more difficult to impress I would imagine. Plus there've been a whole load of other screen characters in masks so the mask itself is nothing special as a gimmick any longer.

 

I never had any Lone Ranger comics in my collection so that's definitely a tragic omission, although I can't recall ever having seen any. Next thing Koko will be telling us he has the full set of bubblegum cards!

[TMax]

I quite liked the movie, I didn't go expecting Depp to play a character like Captain Jack Sparrow so that may be one of the reasons I liked it.

[firecat69]

I hated the movie.  There was hardly a scene in the movie that was not computer generated.  Scenery was not good, it was fake and horrendous.'

 

Anybody could have played Tonto with that make up. They paid Depp a lot of money for his name but a pirate movie this was not.

 

Disney will take a real bath on this one.  Awful in the USA and the rest of the world never heard of the Lone Ranger so will not be saving Disney.

[kokopelli]

Likely the Thais are not familiar with the Lone Ranger but Brits, Kiwis, Ozzies, Mexicans, South Americans, Canadians  have  fond memories from their youths.

[Guest fountainhall]

Memories, yes. Fond memories - not really! What I do remember most, apart from the "William Tell" overture, are the dreadful studio sets. Apart from very few outdoor action scenes, almost all of the series was shot indoors with pretty poor lighting. That's fine if the actors are supposed to be inside a ranch, but looked lousy when supposed to be the rocky outdoors!

[Bob]

Memories, yes. Fond memories - not really! What I do remember most, apart from the "William Tell" overture, are the dreadful studio sets. Apart from very few outdoor action scenes, almost all of the series was shot indoors with pretty poor lighting. That's fine if the actors are supposed to be inside a ranch, but looked lousy when supposed to be the rocky outdoors!

 

Ah, come on.  I watched the series when it was on tv (1953 to 1957, I think) and, given I was only 9 when it went off the air, I didn't really think about studio sets, lighting, or whatever.  I thought the Lone Ranger himself was a bit strange but I was a big fan of Tonto.

 

Haven't seen the movie yet (will buy that when I get back to CM).  But I'll watch it a bit biased as I am a huge fan of Depp.

[Guest fountainhall]

It was transmitted a few years later in the UK. I can assure you I was well aware of the plastic/wooden 'exterior' sets. Other series being shown around that time were much more realistic.

[kokopelli]

For me, I watched it on the radio and my imagination filled in all the blanks although. Also watched/listened to Roy Rogers and Gene Autry and a host of other cowboy movies/shows. I suppose by today's standards the sets were mediocre at best but what does a kid know? Well, the Shadow knows!

[Guest casteran]

Speaking of Kemosabe, this is name of a great TexMex Fusion restaurant in San Diego, Hillcrest area

[Rogie]

Memories are precious things, sometimes vivid, more often half-remembered, or occasionally brought back to life by a chance encounter, perhaps hearing an old song on the radio.  

 

Mick Brown, the veteran music journalist writes in the Telegraph bemoaning the axing of Russell Davies's BBC radio show.

 

 

''Strange,” as Noël Coward once mused, “how potent cheap music is.” Coward, of course, did not come cheap. He retired to Jamaica a millionaire on the strength of his plays and music. But 40 years after his death, his songs still have a rare capacity to move and amuse.

 

Coward was among the customary assortment of big band singers, square-jawed crooners and Marcel-waved song thrushes that the broadcaster Russell Davies featured in his Radio 2 programme on Sunday evening. The song he played was Coward's version of Cole Porter's You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To.

 

But not, it seems, for much longer in Davies’s case: after a run of six years, the show is to be dropped. Davies, a man whose opinions are usually confined to gently chastising Julie London for not quite pulling off that tricky ''person/worse than’’ rhyme, has lamented the decision as an example of BBC ageism, saying that the Corporation is getting rid of broadcasters “who know anything before the Beatles”.

 

 

Brown goes on to say why he thinks the BBC are wrong to drop the show:

 

Last Sunday, he gave us music by Fats Waller, Julie London, Domenico Modugno and Doris Day. I am somehow happier for knowing that the real name of the singer and actress Linda Lawson was Linda Spaziani, and that Toots Mondello was “the growling sax man” on Doris Day’s 1947 recording of No Moon at All. Davies is surely the only man on radio who knows and cares enough to share that.

 

The music he specialises in is drawn largely from what is known as the Great American Songbook – that body of work mostly written between the Thirties and Fifties by such composers as Cole Porter, George and Ira Gershwin and Hoagy Carmichael. It is called “great” for a reason. This was the period when the craft of popular songwriting, in its combination of melody, wit and universal sentiment, was at its height. These songs are genuinely timeless, as artists in need of a fillip for their career frequently discover. Rod Stewart’s was heading down an artistic cul-de-sac until he recorded an album of standards such as The Very Thought of You and They Can’t Take That Away From Me. His series of “Great American Songbook” recordings has gone on to sell more than 20 million copies.

 

Music – particularly popular music – is the repository of memory. It is a part of the cultural language through which we come to discover, recognise and articulate our feelings. It is also a part of the way we uncover the past. It is undoubtedly true that there is a greater variety of music from across the years instantly available now than at any time in history. Thirties dance band music, prison work songs, Jewish klezmer, Portugese fado, vintage rockabilly and Delta blues – it’s all there with a click of the mouse. The catch is, you have to know what you’re looking for.

 

 

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandpopmusic/10223409/Russell-Davies-on-Radio-2-Who-will-remember-Toots-Mondello-now.html

[Guest Promsak]

This will only mean something to VERY old Brits. like me.

There was a radio series in the '60s called Round the Horne. A comedy series featuring sketches.

One regular segment was a very camp pair called Julian and Sandy.

In one episode they did their send up of The Lone Ranger except they called it The Palone Ranger. He used to say "hi ho Sylvia".

 

Jules and Sand became cult figures in the '60s with straight people using the gay language 'polary' (sp?) and not having the faintest idea what they were saying.

 

Clips can be found on You Tube by searching for Round The Horne or Julian and Sandy.

 

Apologies to non or young Brits for whom the aforementioned must mean absolutely nothing.

[Rogie]

Thank you Promsak, it's often rewarding to think back to earlier times, maybe times when life was harder, for whatever reason, than it is today. Some fascinating glimpses can be had.

 

I've heard of Polari, but never heard it spoken. I know of the Round the Horne radio show but unlike you can't recollect any episodes. 

 

Here's some interesting background on Polari:

 

Polari (also seen as 'Palare') is a gay slang language, which has now almost died out. It was more common in the 1960's when gays had more need of a private slang. When I started to research Polari, it was difficult to find any written material about Polari as what little used to exist was out of print. However, in the last few years, more and more people have been finding out about it, and several web sites and magazine articles have been written.

 

Polari featured heavily in the "Julian and Sandy" sketches on the BBC radio program "Round the Horne" in the late 60s, and this is how a lot of people first heard of Polari. A few words like 'bona' can still be seen in gay publications, used for camp effect. There are even hairdressers in London and Brighton called "Bona Riah".

 

Polari itself was never clearly defined: an ever-changing collection of slang from various sources including Italian, English (backwards slang, rhyming slang), circus slang, canal-speak, Yiddish and Gypsy languages. It is impossible to tell which slang words are real Polari.

 

In London, there was a West End dialect, based on theatre-speak, which was posher than the East End dialect, based on canal/boat-speak.

 

 

 

If you are interested the website linked below gives a list of Polari expressions. See how many you can recognise.

 

Two that caught my eye were:

 

Naff:  meaning = bad, drab (from Not Available For Fucking)

 

Camp: meaning = effeminate (origin: KAMP .... Known As Male Prostitute)

 

http://chris-d.net/polari