American Cinematographer - February 1988 - 51

train there with about 15 miles of
track
the Nevada Northern Rail¬
-

It was built in the late 1800s but
running condition. It's
operated and kept up by the White
way.

it's still in

Pine Historical Railroad Founda¬
tion. The territory was just
great for
it because it looked

a

lot like West

Texas."
There

was

one

with

difficulty

Ely: the town is so small that it
was
impossible to recruit enough
extras from the local population to
stage the train robbery. This was a
day of second unit work, with none
of the regular cast available. Ken¬
nedy solved the problem by hiring
off-duty personnel from the county
sheriff's department.
"They were great," ac¬
cording to Lamkin. "They all knew
how to ride and how to handle
guns and they knew not to
them at anybody. Ordinarily a

has to load all the guns, but in
he'd just hand them a box

man

this

aim
prop

case

of shells and

they'd load their own.
Incidentally, our prop man got into
the act and played the conductor in
the robbery sequence.
"We did the ghost town
and saloon gunfight - in which
nobody gets killed! - at a little
town

about 50 miles south of Tuc¬

son,

called Mescal.

about 70 per cent

Altogether,
of the picture was

exterior, which I liked. We tried to

get as much vista in it
There

were

as

possible."

few retakes

and very little wasted film. Lamkin
feels that the film editor, Warner

Leighton, did a remarkable job of
preserving a tight, fast moving con¬
tinuity. "I worked with Art Tostado
at

Consolidated Film Industries

the final

on

timing and they did excel¬

lent work," Lamkin said.
He was less enthusiastic

about the film to
ever,

tape transfer, how¬
particularly regarding the loss

of blacks in interior
know what
in

scenes.

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many

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ADVANCING ART THROUGH ADVANCING SCIENCE

like to

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lamented.
Ken Lamkin is

one

Western movies make

comeback. "I

was

a

brought

East Coast Distributor: Belden Communications
534 West 25th Street, New York, NY10001

Incorporated

up on
Westerns and I think it is ridiculous

Tel:

to

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It

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A

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49
American Cinematographer - February 1988

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