Utah Westerners

July 2024 Meeting Announcement

June 18, 2024 at 1:24 pm SBerlin 1 comment

• Film Night
• TUESDAY, JULY 16, Fort Douglas Post Theater
• 6:00 p.m. mingling and dinner, 6:45 comments by Dr. James V. D’Arc, 7:00 film, 9:00 Q&A
• Reserve space with Craig Smith at email utwesterners@gmail.com or at 801-712-6183. Payment of $45 at the door by cash, check, or PayPal. No reservations after July 11.
• July 2024 Utah Westerners Newsletter available to view or download here.
• Film notes below

“Civilization Stalks Warlock,”
Says the Town’s Deputy

Westerner Dr. James V. D’Arc – Presenter

It’s time to hear again from our film virtuoso Jim D’Arc about a well critiqued 1959 movie, Warlock, that was shot in Moab. The film was directed by Edward Dmytryk (The Caine Mutiny). It stars Henry Fonda and Anthony Quinn, two notorious gunslingers who are hired as the town’s (Warlock’s) sheriff and deputy. The novel that inspired the film was written by Oakley Hall, a University of California-Irvine professor who later was said to be the dean of West Coast writers after Wallace Stegner’s death.

Dmytryk said “the depth of the novel furnished us with a number of opportunities to examine life in the West in a serious and ‘adult’ manner, while retaining the obligatory action and gunfighting of the standard Western.” It has to do with democracy, crime, and friendship between two men. Dmytryk was known for having gone to jail in 1947 when he refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee.

The show’s music was composed by Leigh Harline, who studied at the University of Utah and was tutored by Tabernacle Choir conductor J. Spencer Cornwall. At Disney, Harline composed “When You Wish upon a Star.” He composed most of the songs for Pinocchio and scored Snow White.

When you arrive at 6:00 and pay Craig Smith, you will be able to pick up a meal at the food truck. D’Arc’s updated When Hollywood Came to Utah, with five new chapters, will be available for sale.

D’Arc was a professor of Speech and Theatre Arts at BYU for 30 years, curator of the Motion Picture Archive at the Harold B. Lee Library for 41 years, and was involved with the BYU Motion Picture Studio. His book has 1,240 movies filmed in Utah and the location for each movie. He also created BYU’s Film Music Archive.

Program Notes From Jim D’Arc for Warlock

Not-to-be-missed expert narrative and screen snaps from our film maven to view or download here.

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