Wishing everyone Happy Holidays, however you celebrate them! Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Solstice, Happy New Year (Western and Chinese)–all and more as you wish and please. It’s a secular Christmas here: Santa Claus, reindeer and sleigh, Douglas fir tree (except this year due to the nation-wide shortage, we cut a Virginia pine locally instead), stockings hung by the chimney with care, homemade cookies, fire in the fireplace, books read to children (and to nearby listening adults), much gift giving, plus Basil Rathbone, Albert Finney, Michael Caine, George C. Scott, Mister Magoo (aka Jim Backus of Gilligan’s Island fame), Reginald Owen, and Seymour Hicks as Scrooge, plus occasional swords and sword adventure with musketeers and pirates (and dark rum left for Santa as he makes his rounds), along with the usual excellent food, drink, family, and good cheer.

That said, this is a blog and therefore a suitable place to give praise to the four swashbucklers in the image above, from the 1952 RKO film, At Sword’s Point, also released as The Sons of the Musketeers. The movie is not considered to be the best of its genre, yet is still better than most and worth watching just to see Maureen O’Hara wield a sword–and there’s more to see than just O’Hara’s swordplay and independence, although as noted she alone makes the film worthwhile.

So, from left to right…

Alan Hale Jr. as Porthos Jr.

Alan Hale Jr., a solid more-than-character actor appeared in many films but is by far best known for his role as Jonas Grumby aka “the Skipper” in Gilligan’s Island.

Publicity still of Alan Hale Jr. as Jonas Grumby aka “The Skipper” in Gilligan’s Island.

Hale Jr. also starred as Porthos Sr. in a 1970s version of The Man in the Iron Mask entitled The Fifth Musketeer, a film that rounded up a variety of aging actors who had starred in swashbuckling and adventure stage, film, or television, and tossed them in with luminaries such as Rex Harrison and Olivia de Havilland, with up and comers such as Beau Bridges and Ian McShane, and with the addition of Ursula Andress and Sylvia Kristel, the latter best-known for the erotic Emmanuelle films. But not even this sterling cast could hold the film together, even coming as it did on the heels of the recent Three Musketeers and Four Musketeers films.

Alan Hale Jr. (far right) as Porthos in The Fifth Musketeer (1979). From left: Lloyd Bridges (whom I once “saw” as an early toddler in a film theater in Key West while he was there filming Sea Hunt), Jose Ferrer, Beau Bridges (son of Lloyd), Cornel Wilde, and Alan Hale Jr. (Columbia Pictures lobby card, 1979.)

If Alan Hale Jr. looks familiar to fans of older films, he should, for as Porthos Jr. and Porthos Sr., Hale makes an homage to his father, Alan Hale Sr., who appeared in a fair number of swashbucklers, most famously The Sea Hawk, Robin Hood, and The Adventures of Don Juan, all starring his close friend Errol Flynn. In Robin Hood he reprised his role as Little John, having first played the character in the extravagant silent version by swashbuckling film star, producer, and director Douglas Fairbanks. He took up the role again in 1950 in Rogues of Sherwood Forest. Hale, born Rufus Edward MacKahan, co-starred in several other Flynn films as well: Dodge City, Virginia City, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, and several others for a total of thirteen films.

Alan Hale Sr. as Little John in The Adventures of Robin Hood (Warner Bros., 1938), starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, and Claude Raines.

Screen capture from the Gilligan’s Island Christmas episode (“Birds Gotta Fly, Fish Gotta Talk”), 1964. Alan Hale Jr. plays Santa, whom the castaways believe is the Skipper. But is Santa actually the Skipper?

Maureen O’Hara as Claire, Daughter of Athos

I’ll doubtless devote an entire post one day to Maureen O’Hara and her swordplay in swashbucklers. Alas, as often as she wielded a sword in a swashbuckler, she did not in another. In The Spanish Main and The Black Swan, the most successful of her swashbucklers, she had no sword-in-hand (although Binnie Barnes took up the blade admirably in the former). So, until I post a full article on O’Hara, here are a few images of the strong-willed, independent, red-headed, Dublin-born and raised actress (or actor, if you prefer):

Maureen O’Hara engaging multiple adversaries in At Sword’s Point.

Not dressed for swordplay. O’Hara in At Sword’s Point.

Fencing a Cardinal’s guard in At Sword’s Point, O’Hara still not dressed for swordplay.

As Spitfire in At Sword’s Point, co-starring Errol Flynn in his last swashbuckler. O’Hara carries the film and in the climax gets to engage in swordplay once more on film.

O’Hara engaging blades in Against All Flags.

Maureen O’Hara in one of her most famous roles, in the holiday classic Miracle on 34th Street. With her are Edmund Gwenn and a very young Natalie Wood.

Cornel Wilde as d’Artagnan Jr.

Born to Czech-Hungarian parents in Manhattan, Cornel Wilde often traveled with his father to Europe where he picked up several languages and, reportedly, skill at fencing. An avid and outstanding fencer, Wilde turned down membership on the US saber team for the 1936 Olympic Games in order to accept a theatrical position–a decision few fencers would ever consider making. It’s one thing to give up a potential or possible eventual position on an Olympic fencing team, quite another to give up an offered one. That said, the several actors I know with fencing experience might very choose an opportunity in the form of a middling role in film or theater over fencing in the Olympic Games, although I’m sure the decision wouldn’t be an easy one.

Wilde fencing-brawling in At Sword’s Point.

An accomplished actor, Wilde’s looks, swordplay, and athleticism led him to starring roles in numerous swashbucklers.

Wilde fencing Herbert Lom (of the Pink Panther films fame) in The Star of India.

Wilde furthered his fencing study in the US under famous Hungarian-born fencing master Joseph Vince who had a studio and fencing supplier company first in New York City, later in Beverly Hills. Wilde even illustrated Vince’s book on fencing.

Illustration by Cornel Wilde for Fencing by Joseph Vince.

When fencing jackets were indeed dashing. My first jacket, purchased in 1977.

If I have a favorite of Wilde’s films, it is almost certainly The Naked Prey. Relegated to cult film status by many today, it is best considered as an action art film, if such a category exist. In any case, it is a minor classic (Criterion has released it), notwithstanding mixed reviews. Wilde was fifty-two when he produced, directed, and starred in the film, a physically demanding starring role for anyone, not to mention that he was ill most of the time–demands that most men even half his age probably could not have handled.

Lobby card from The Naked Prey (1965).

Dan O’Herlihy as Aramis Jr.

An accomplished actor who should be better known today, O’Herlihy played a variety or roles during his long career, ranging from several swashbucklers to serious contemporary roles to character pieces such as “The Old Man” in the RoboCop films.

As Alan Breck [Stewart] in Kidnapped, also starring Roddy McDowell. (1948.)

O’Herlihy was nominated for an Oscar for his starring role in Robinson Crusoe, directed by famous-auteur-to-be Luis Buñuel.

Robinson Crusoe poster, 1954. The film was produced and made in Mexico for the English-speaking market. A Spanish language version was also produced.

Ever the distinguished-voiced actor’s friend: audio books.

Audio book on vinyl: Dan O’Herlihy reading A Christmas Carol. Four records at 16 RPM, I can’t even recall that speed on a turntable… (The Billboard, October 26, 1959.)

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Copyright Benerson Little 2017-2018. First posted December 20, 2017, last updated January 7, 2018.