Jack Kelly on Screen: Any Objections?

Hey!

The distinguished-looking man above is, of course, Jack Kelly. He's not our friend Bart Maverick here, though. JK's playing a character miles away from the carefree gambler: overly ambitious District Attorney "Dan Callahan" in the 1961 feature film A Fever in the Blood. I've not seen this film yet (yo, Turner Classic Movies?). But, the info on the back of this still describes JK's role:

"Warner Brothers' A Fever in the Blood gives Jack Kelly a complete change of character. As Bart in the studio's Maverick TV series, he is an easy-going, non-chalant ladykiller--and always a gentleman. But in A Fever in the Blood he plays a hard-bitten, ambitious District Attorney who would willingly sacrifice friendship in exchange for a state governorship. Even his appearance has changed. There are lines on his face, drawn by discontent, and there is gray in his hair."

Actually, some of that discontent may have come from having gray in his hair. JK was only 34 at the time, so his hair was artifically grayed. In Filmfax magazine three decades later--in what sadly turned out to be his final interview--he discussed doing the 1965 film Love and Kisses, where he played singer Rick Nelson's father. He refused to put gray in his hair for the part: "I had done a picture at Warner Brothers called A Fever in the Blood with that phony gray in my hair, and I looked like an ass."

(Oh, I don't know about that, JK--you look pretty good in that pic to me! ;->)

Anyway, here's how Screen Stories magazine describes Fever: "A woman was murdered and the District Attorney meant to hang her husband, whether he was guilty or not. A conviction would lead the D.A. right to the Governorship!"

Screen Stories adds that JK was so eager to make a feature film after co-starring in Maverick since 1957 that he gave up a vacation to make Fever. While working on the film, he received the escrow papers for a new home in Westwood Village. He was so excited he exclaimed to a reporter, "My wife--May Wynn--and I had to talk our business manager into allowing us to spend $12,000 on alterations. So help me, that's more than we spent on our first little home!"

JK is joined in Fever by a virtual Maverick reunion: Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. (Dandy Jim Buckley) plays a judge; Robert Colbert (Cherokee Evans in "Hadley's Hunters" and later brother Brent) plays an important witness; and Ray Danton (who guested with JK in "State of Siege") plays the opposing District Attorney. And, it was produced and co-written by Maverick creator Roy Huggins.

Plus, Angie Dickinson (who would play opposite JK again in Young Billy Young) plays a senator's wife. Finally, Don Ameche plays the senator, and, of course, wee Jack Kelly had appeared in Ameche's film The Story of Alexander Graham Bell way back in 1939.

I'd love to see A Fever in the Blood, although, uh, I prefer seeing Jack Kelly as a good guy rather than a bad guy. It's not that he's bad as a bad guy--no, no, he's usually darn good. It's just that after enjoying him as the benevolent Bart Maverick, it's almost hard for me to watch him as someone like "John Behan" in Young Billy Young. Behan is like Bart's evil twin!

But, I guess that's the hallmark of a skilled actor: the ability to convincingly portray vastly different, even unsympathetic, characters. Jack Kelly didn't just play variations on Bart for the rest of his career. He had the courage to play villains as well as heroes.

And, by golly, I'll watch him as either one! :)

Jack Kelly on the Web - Appreciating "Maverick"

Hello!

I found this interesting appreciation of Maverick today--enjoy! :)

Alias Smith and Jones--and Maverick

Howdy!

I found another entertaining "fanfic" featuring Bart and Bret Maverick, this time involving them with Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry from Alias Smith and Jones. The author is obviously an ASJ fan, but she seems to understand and appreciate the Maverick boys pretty well, too. I'm just surprised Heyes and Curry didn't try to teach Bart how to play Montana Red Dog.
;->

The Magnificent Seven Meet Two Mavericks

Hi!

I was just out wandering the web this evening, and I came across an interesting bit of fan-fiction featuring Bart and Bret Maverick. It's a "crossover" story that involves Bart and Bret with characters from the old Magnificent Seven TV series. Now, to be quite honest, I don't remember much about that show. In fact, I kind of "boycotted" it because it was the replacement for one of my favorite shows, Buddy Faro, which CBS summarily dumped after airing only eight episodes. But, that's water under the bridge now, and I really enjoyed this story. Hope you will too! :)

Jack Kelly on Screen - The Unbelievable End One :)

Hi!

I was rooting through the Kellection today and came across an interesting item I bought this summer for $1.00 at an antiques mall. It's the Films Incorporated 1978 Entertainment Catalog. It's a relic from a time long before Netflix and DVDs, in the days when home VCRs were mostly still a novelty. This catalog offered 16mm films for rental, with one-day rates ranging from $40 for Tortilla Flat to $300 for Doctor Zhivago. (And, one had to ask the rate for Gone With the Wind, which means one probably couldn't afford to rent it.)

Outdated, yes, but this catalog is loaded with color and black-and-white film pix. One of those pix persuaded me to buy the catalog:

Yep, it's Jack Kelly and Anne Francis being served coffee by Robby the Robot in Forbidden Planet. This pic reminded me that I meant to discuss this film after watching it a couple of weeks ago on Turner Classic Movies.

I'd seen Forbidden Planet before, a long time ago, but I wanted to watch it again since JK was in it.

The still above comes from a scene in this clip:


I love it when "Alta" (Ms. Francis) describes the doctor (Warren Stevens) as "lovely". He's flanked by the Commander (Leslie Nielsen) and Lt. Farman (JK), and she adds, "But the two end ones are unbelievable!" Especially Lt. Farman, when he hilarously chats up the sheltered but shrewd Alta.

In the next clip, the obliging Lt. Farman tries to teach poor Alta how to kiss. This guy has a Ph.D in kissing, but, unfortunately, Alta flunks the course and decides to enroll with the Commander instead. Okay, I know--"rank has its privileges"--but, c'mon! She'd pick Leslie Nielsen over Jack Kelly?! No wonder they call this "science fiction". ;->



Incidentally, when JK tells AF at 4:27 that kissing is good for her, it's just a line. But, it turns out maybe he was right.

Sadly, Lt. Farman is later killed by the "Id" monster, which looks like a big red dog (but definitely not Clifford).

All kidding aside, though, I really enjoyed Forbidden Planet. It truly is one of the great sci-fi films of all time.

By the way, during that same summer trip to the antiques mall, I bought another Jack Kelly-related book for only $2.00. It's Whatever Became of...? All New Tenth Series by Richard Lamparski. Now, if I were a celebrity, I don't know if I'd want to be featured in a book that more or less implies one has become a "has-been". However, it's nice to know that someone at least cared enough to find out "whatever became of " notables such as JK and Clint "Cheyenne" Walker, although neither was completely out of the public eye at the time, 1986.

Lamparski noted about JK, "Jack erroneously believes he is remembered solely for the part of James Garner's younger brother on Maverick, the show that ran on ABC-TV during the late fifties and early sixties. The series was a huge success in North America and parts of Europe, but a few of his movies are also well-known.

"The Night Holds Terror (1955) is considered an exceptionally fine low-budget film. Forbidden Planet (1956) introduced 'Robby the Robot', a cinematic device that made subsequent screen appearances and developed a following of its own. Cult of the Cobra (1955) with Faith Domergue and She-Devil with Mari Blanchard are held in high esteem by fans of low camp."

Lamparski quoted JK about his acting career at the time: "Within my limitations I was fine, but at my age I just cannot be a journeyman actor. I did [some] Hardy Boys episodes, but I am not about to consider anything short of a running part. I simply cannot afford to."

But, JK was doing OK. He added, "Not only do my [real estate] tenants not go on hiatus, they never refer to my ratings or middle-age spread." ;->

Jack Kelly's write-up also includes a smiling, autographed headshot (which looks to be from his Sale of the Century days in the late 1960's - early 1970's) with a cryptic inscription: "Richard - thank you for the use of the typewriter."

The Maverick Report - "Alias Bart Maverick"

Howdy!

Look what I just found on YouTube:

The Kelly Pages: Comic Jack Kelly IV

Hello!

Here's a look at the final Maverick annual in my Kellection. It's probably the nicest one, too:

Bart is finally joined by brother Bret (James Garner) on the cover, along with cousin Beau (Roger Moore). He's still only partially shown, though.

As usual, the annual is filled with comic strips and stories. The first story in the book is titled:

This annual is probably the only place where cousins Bret, Bart and Beau appear together in the same story (James Garner left Maverick before Roger Moore came aboard as Beau, although Moore had appeared with Garner and Kelly as a different character in "The Rivals" episode). The story's author did get a trifle confused, though, because Bret, Bart and Beau are described as "the Maverick brothers".

There's also a "Maverick" game and factoids about riverboats, derringers and famous gamblers such as Wild Bill Hickok and Bat Masterson (I wonder how many parents knew their kids were reading this stuff?). ;->

How 'bout one more look at Bart: