Walter Doniger | Rankings

Cheyenne: The Bounty Killers | The Trap | Land Beyond the Law

Bat Masterson: Double Showdown | Cheyenne Club | River Boat | Promised Land | The Inner Circle

Maverick: The Jail at Junction Flats

The Virginian: The Sins of the Fathers

Feature films: Safe at Home!

Classic Film and Television Home Page

Walter Doniger

Walter Doniger is an American film and mainly, television director.

Some common features of Walter Doniger's work:

Story Structure: Social Commentary: Locales and Events: Visual Style: Geography: Appearance and Character:

Rankings

Here are ratings for various films directed by Walter Doniger. Everything at least **1/2 is recommended.

Feature films:

Cheyenne: Bat Masterson: Maverick: The Virginian:

Cheyenne: The Bounty Killers

Protests and Non-Violence

The most unusual features of The Bounty Killers (1956) are the scenes of street protest. These are against a lawman who is considered abusive in doing his job. Such street protests run through Doniger's work. They mark a notable instance of left-wing public revolt.

Working Class

The accused man is a carpenter. He is not dressed as a cowboy, or in clothes that seem at all "Western". Instead, he is dressed in plain working class clothes that could be worn in any era. He looks strongly working class.

Links to Silver Lode

The Bounty Killers resembles Silver Lode (1954), directed by Allan Dwan. In both films: There are differences between the two films, in the back-story of the prisoner; and in later developments of the plot.

Camera Movement

There is a fairly elaborate camera movement, in the shot that ends with the hero and the bounty hunter first entering the Sheriff's office. It moves with the men down the street, to the Sheriff's door. Then, after a pause, it unexpectedly turns, and gives us a long view of the street. It shows the townspeople beginning to congregate at the end of the street. It then turns back, showing us the Sheriff's door again. The revelation of the townspeople gathering seems ominous. It is emphasized by the way the camera movement reveals this information.

Soon a camera movement will follow the Sheriff slowly across the street to the carpenter's shop.

Short Story to Film

The Bounty Killers (1956) is based on a short story by the well-known Western writer Steve Frazee. Frazee's tale "The Bounty Killers" (1955) is reprinted in The Best Western Stories of Steve Frazee (1989).

In many ways, The Bounty Killers is a faithful version of the short story. It has two principal differences, both relating to politics:

The protagonist in the short story becomes series hero Cheyenne in the film. Cheyenne already has a noble code of life in the TV series. He doesn't undergo the moral development of the short story's hero, moving from a rigid fascistic viewpoint to humane, less macho values.

The hero of the short story is working for the bounty hunter, because he initially admires the hunter's "strength". By contrast, in the film Cheyenne goes to work for the hunter, when the hunter saves his life from outlaws. Cheyenne feels gratitude to the hunter. But he doesn't really have an admiration for the hunter's values, or for a concept like "strength" which the hunter might represent.

An odd difference between story and film: the accused man in the story is a cobbler, specializing in the making of Western boots. His profession has been changed to carpenter in the film. Perhaps this was to make his job more timeless and less "Western" in association.

Cheyenne: The Trap

The Trap (1956) is another story, in which ordinary people have to defy corrupt law. Instead of a single bad lawman, as in The Bounty Killers, The Trap has a whole town and prison full of corrupt officials. Does this make it better? I'm not so sure.

In many ways, The Trap is just another lurid prison melodrama. Doniger started his career, with a series of prison films for theaters. Still, if one is going to make a prison melodrama, the filmmakers should have the skill to make it lurid and dramatic - and Doniger certainly know how.

The title illustration, showing leg irons over a prisoner's cowboy boots, is striking.

Society

The opening shows Cheyenne looking at signs of town businesses. They are all owned by the same family. There is a critique here of monopoly capitalism. Americans used to be deeply concerned by concentrations of wealth. Unfortunately, today's rotten Libertarianism has encouraged wealth to flow into the hands of a few powerful, and usually anti-social billionaires.

Soon we will see massively corrupt government in this town.

All the crooked government officials are played by conspicuously older, middle-aged men.

Bob Hover

Bob Hover, one of the actors, is better known as a bodybuilder and model for physical culture magazines of the era. Hover does fine in his small role here. But he had a bigger and better role in another Cheyenne episode, Big Ghost Basin (1957). This was directed not by Doniger, but by Joseph Kane.

Cheyenne: Land Beyond the Law

Land Beyond the Law (1957) is about one of those hidden valleys run as havens for crooks. This is a common Western subject. As in The Trap, the film concentrates on the empire's ruling elite, their nasty power struggles, and their bizarre romantic entanglements with each other.

Like many such hidden valleys of crime, this one has a secret entrance. In keeping with Doniger traditions, this one is an underground mine tunnel.

Militarism

The crime empire is lead by a quasi-soldier, the Major. The Major is obsessed with militarism.

The Major's phony military pretensions echo and contrast with a real Cavalry officer we have just seen in conference with Cheyenne. The Cavalry officer is briskly confident, and seems utterly "for real". His business-like normal approach contrast with the Major's airs. The Cavalry officer has a straightforward map of the hidden valley; the Major has a terrain contour map on a table, with toy soldier figurines representing troops. It is much more elaborate that the real Cavalry officer's map - and much more boyish with the toy soldiers, and less serious looking.

Links to Dark Command

Perhaps the filmmakers have been watching Dark Command (1939), directed by Raoul Walsh. Both films deal with sinister militias; in both the leader started out life as a schoolteacher; in both the leader has a lavish house, in which he puts his stolen booty on display in a pointed parody of bourgeois conspicuous consumption.

The villain in Dark Command is a Southerner, modeled on the vicious William Quantrill. The villain in Land Beyond the Law is a northerner, proud of being part of Sherman's March to the Sea.

Joe Epic

Villain Joe Epic (played by James Griffith) is an unusual character. The film makes him as openly gay as the censor and mores would allow in 1957. Epic is in love with chief villain the Major, and has a jealous hatred of the Major's wife.

Epic is duded up in one of the most bizarre costumes in Western films. Western bad guys frequently wore black, so Joe Epic's all-black costume is within that tradition. But it is also full of kinky features, including a front leather panel.

The Opening

Cheyenne is ridden into town at the film's start, under arrest by a Sheriff's posse. Cheyenne's hands are tied: one of many Doniger heroes who gets tied up. Soon, we are at that favorite, and related, Doniger locale, a jail.

Like other Doniger heroes, Cheyenne turns the table on the jailer, locking him and his men into his own cell.

Staging

The photographer is in an unusually staged sequence. We see a long take focussing exclusively on him. Cheyenne is not shown: he is purely an off-screen voice. The photographer comically tries to coax the hero the hero to smile; the the hero keeps sternly refusing.

When Cheyenne enters the Major's house, a long take camera movement shot ensues. This is sometimes combined with depth staging, with characters in the background of the screen.

Bat Masterson: Double Showdown

Double Showdown (1958) is the pilot episode of the Bat Masterson television series.

Duded-Up Gunfighter

Much is made of Bat Masterson's elaborate costume, including a scene of his boots being shined and a discussion of the origin of his cane. This relates to the fancy and often strange costumes for gunfighters that run through Doniger.

Multi-Path Story

Double Showdown is most notable for its highly unusual finale. (SPOILERS) It violates story telling norms in two ways: I have no idea who came up with this finale. It could be the work of series regulars Frank Pittman & Andy White, who created the story for the episode. But one also notes that at roughly the same time, Doniger is doing unusual things with the narrative structure of his Maverick episode The Jail at Junction Flats. It is likely that a pilot like Double Showdown was filmed earlier than a regular series episode like The Jail at Junction Flats, however.

Although the first finale is a card game, it takes place in an outdoor street. This is a Doniger approach: staging events in large outdoor areas.

Bat Masterson: Cheyenne Club

Cheyenne Club (1958) is an amusing story about problems at an elite Western club. It has a nice mystery subplot, about card cheating at the club.

(SPOILERS) It is most noteworthy for its finale, which can be read as a political commentary, in favor of non-violent social protest. This scene is unexpectedly moving.

The finale underscores that both women and working class men are taking part in the protest. It is against a dictatorial rich man.

Bat Masterson: River Boat

River Boat (1959) deals with a gang that hijacks and loots a river steam ship. The gang is organized as one of Doniger's criminal empires. And after they take over the boat, it becomes one of Doniger's isolated criminal-run worlds.

Once again, there is a colorful but sinister lead crook, here known as The King.

One of the crooks is uniformed as a ship's officer. This is an example of the highly dressed-up gunslingers that run through Doniger's work.

The opening sequences at quite interesting, showing the gang's activities on ship. But River Boat becomes less absorbing after this.

Bat Masterson: Promised Land

Promised Land (1959) deals with another one of Doniger's criminal empires, once again in an isolated location. But here there is a benevolent, comic twist: these are all reformed criminals, trying to go straight. They want to run their town on honest lines. As in Land Beyond the Law, there are elements of parody of bourgeois life.

It is fun to think about what such a town might be like.

Bat Masterson: The Inner Circle

Women Trying to Get the Vote: Positive Social Movements

The Inner Circle (1959) is still unusual, both for its feminist and social class themes. This is a fascinating look at the Woman's Suffrage movement (women trying to get the right to vote). It is told in a sly, comic style, like other of Doniger's works of the era: he amuses, rather than preaches, as he tells politically pointed stories.

The suffragists have a stand, where they collect signatures in the street. This seems related to the street protests in other Doniger films.

Villain: John Scott Powers

The suave, comic, but deadly English villain John Scott Powers (played by Philip Baird), recalls Dandy Jim Buckley in The Jail at Junction Flats. Both are sophisticated, tricky Englishmen.

Powers is dressed to the nines. Like some of Doniger's gunfighters, his clothes are both very fancy and distinctly odd. While a rich man, and not a gunfighter, his frequent use of a gun links him to Doniger's gunfighters. Iconographically, he can seem like one of Doniger's "gunfighters dressed up in fancy, bizarre and perverse clothes".

Villains: A Critique of the Rich

The villain is a member of a whole elite criminal conspiracy. This recalls a bit the criminal empires in The Trap and Land Beyond the Law. However, these people do not run a separate small empire somewhere. They instead are the elite capitalists of Wyoming. All of these groups have prominent, and corrupt, female members.

The Killer: Doniger Subjects

The subplot about the low-life killer hired to assassinate Bat Masterson, is packed with Doniger subjects:

Visual Style

Much of the action takes place in the streets. These scenes show Doniger's skill with staging events in streets, often featuring large numbers of people.

Some of the shots show depth staging, with actions seen in the far background of deep focus shots. Both the Inner Circle members with their rival stand, and the crowd of drunken low-lifes, are both often seen in the background of shots.

Doniger shoots through the booth, with action in the background seen through pillars of the booth. Shooting through pillars of architecture is a Doniger technique.

Maverick: The Jail at Junction Flats

The Jail at Junction Flats (1958) is the sole episode of the Maverick television series directed by Walter Doniger.

Narrative Structure: The Opening Spoof

The Jail at Junction Flats does inventive things with narrative structure. The robbery near the start is narrated as a rollicking adventure, out of an old Western dime novel. It shows comic - and non-naturalistic - events. It is framed by pictures from a (fictitious) dime novel.

It has old fashioned piano music as an accompaniment, suggesting that the audience take the events as some sort of non-realistic Old West Show. The music is a burlesque of the typical piano accompaniment of silent film melodramas.

The giant actor Dan Blocker, soon to gain fame as Hoss on Bonanza, has an old-fashioned mustache, and behaves in strikingly non-realistic ways. His jerky arm movements recall speeded-up silent films. Blocker had previously appeared in Doniger's Land Beyond the Law.

Locking Up

The title jail is formidably guarded. It recalls in a comic way the prison empire in The Trap.

The Jail at Junction Flats caused controversy in its time, with its finale. There are sly hints that perhaps Maverick is enjoying himself. SPOILER. The Jail at Junction Flats opens with a sheriff elaborately hog-tied with ropes; it ends with Maverick similarly hog-tied.

This was the last full-scale appearance for the continuing character Dandy Jim Buckley, although he has a small-but-good later role in Shady Deal at Sunny Acres (Leslie H. Martinson, 1958). Perhaps the controversy the show caused with viewers scared the producers from continuing the character.

The Virginian: The Sins of the Fathers

The Sins of the Fathers (1970) is the sole episode of The Virginian television series directed by Walter Doniger.

The Opening

It starts out entertainingly, with the Virginian getting tied up, a Doniger tradition. But soon it veers off into eerie menace. The rest of the show is not good - but it does have weird moments.

The opening resembles The Bounty Killers, with a stranger saving the series hero's life. Although this stranger initially looks like a Good Guy, the series hero(es) soon begins to wonder if he really might be a Bad Guy. Despite these misgivings, the heroes feel obligated to support the stranger.

Robert Lipton - and the Counter Culture

Guest star Robert Lipton plays the mysterious-hero-or-villain. SPOILER. The show ends with a bizarre gunfight between the 26-year old Lipton and the 62-year old series star John McIntire. To make matters more extreme, John McIntire is in traditional cowboy garb, looking like every film and TV cowboy of the previous twenty years, while Lipton's cowboy clothes are all Mod. So is his long hair style. It looks like a duel between generations, or Old School and Counter Culture America. Admittedly, The Virginian included other Youth Culture characters: good guy regular Tim Matheson played in a flowered cowboy shirt that looks straight out of the Summer of Love. Still, the contrast between pretty boy Lipton and aging icon McIntire seems full of allegorical undercurrents. It also looks like an Old Hollywood versus New Hollywood duel.

Gunfighters like Lipton's character, who are spectacularly-but-strangely-dressed, are a Doniger tradition.

Robert Lipton had a better, and more normal, role in the TV version of Clifford Odets' Awake and Sing (1973).

Finale

The bucket of water near the end reminded me oddly of the water barrel at the end of L'Eclisse (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962). Who knows if I'm just imagining things. But the finale of The Sins of the Fathers does have a vaguely avant-garde feel.

The final gunfight takes place in front of Shiloh ranch. Doniger likes such "large, complex outdoor areas, full of buildings and landscape features". Doniger's staging utilizes the long, steep slope descending from the ranch house. The area recalls the prison yard in front of the ranch house in The Trap.

Safe at Home!

Safe at Home! (1962) is a children's movie about baseball, and one of the few feature films Doniger directed for theaters.

Safe at Home! has a delightful trailer, showing actor William Frawley chewing out New York Yankee baseball stars Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle, who play themselves in the movie. Frawley is showing these two baseball immortals how to hit a ball! It is quite funny.

Links to Little Fugitive

Safe at Home! recalls an independent film made for children, Little Fugitive (Morris Engel, Ruth Orkin, Ray Ashley, 1953):

The Baseball Camp

The baseball stadium and camp is a large scale, self-enclosed world. In this it resembles some of the isolated criminal empires that run through Doniger's Westerns. It is also full of men, most of them in uniform, who are more macho and tough than most people outside. However, the baseball training camp is full of honest people, unlike the criminal empires. The baseball camp is an entirely male place, unlike the criminal empires, which tend to have a woman involved.

The kid hero has to try to sneak into both the heavily guarded stadium and hotel. This recalls the well-guarded jail of The Jail at Junction Flats.

Fantasy

Safe at Home! lacks any truly experimental story telling procedures. But it does have two brief fantasy sequences, showing the kid's imaginings on screen.