LUKE SHORT (1908-1975) -- the Dean of Western Writers

He was born Frederick Dilley Glidden in Kewanee, Illinois.  He wrote more than fifty novels and twice as many short stories.  His books have sold thirty million copies – and are still selling almost forty years after his death.  We know him by his pen name, Luke Short.

In 1930, he graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Missouri and embarked on a career as a newspaper reporter – and then disembarked.  He couldn’t hold a job.  He was quoted as saying, “I’ve read or heard that all newspapermen are disappointed writers, but in me you behold a writer who is a disappointed newspaperman.  I’ve been fired from more newspapers than I like to remember, even if I could.”  He was only half-kidding; he worked for five different newspapers in 1930-31.

A string of non-newspaper jobs followed, including logger and fur trapper in Canada and archaeologist assistant in New Mexico.  In his spare time, he read Western fiction in the numerous pulp magazines of the day and concluded that he could write as well as what he was reading.

In 1935, he sold his first short story followed in the same year by his first novel, The Feud at Single Shot.  It was after the sale of the short story, published under the name F.D. Glidden, that a publisher suggested that he adopt a pen name, since his real name sounded phony.  His agent suggested Luke Short.  Apparently, though it is difficult to believe, neither he nor his agent was aware that this was the name of an Old West gambler-gunman befriended by Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday.

Short encouraged his wife to take up the pen and she began to write stories under the name Vic Elder, a name that had also been suggested by his agent.  He also talked his brother Jonathan into trying his hand at writing.  Jonathan adopted the pen name Peter Dawson and enjoyed a successful career as a Western novelist until it was cut short by his death in 1957 at age fifty-five.  Apparently, the brothers in their youth had been well taught by their mother, a high school English teacher.

In the later years of his career, Short attempted to step outside the Western genre, but his efforts were not well received by critics or the reading public.  However, once he hit on a successful formula he rarely experimented with his Western novels.  They may have been formulaic, but the best of them were well-crafted stories that resonated with the fans of the genre.  The readers seem to have been reassured by the fact that the plots were predictable and that there were no great surprises.  It seemed much like a visit with an old friend who had a few new stories to tell.

Short readily admitted that he was influenced by the work of Ernest Haycox.  That influence can be detected in the plotting of his stories and in the character development of the heroes, who tended to be strong men who were slow to talk but quick to act.  Both writers nearly always included two women in the plot, one good and one bad (or perhaps ‘less good’ or misguided) and the hero invariably made the wrong choice initially, but before the end of the story he was able to correct his error.

It is in the development of the female characters, however, that Short surpassed Haycox.  His women were strong, independent, and believable characters and that was not always the case with Haycox’s heroines, who tended to be more one-dimensional.

The ‘40’s were Short’s peak years as a writer.  Not only did his novels sell well, but many of them became the basis for films.  In 1947-54, ten of his novels were adapted for the screen.  The first was an underrated little classic, RAMROD (UA, 1947).  The next year four of his novels were filmed with somewhat mixed results.  However, two of them – CORONER CREEK (Columbia) and BLOOD ON THE MOON (RKO) -- were excellent.  In addition to his novels, his original story became the basis for THE HANGMAN (Paramount, 1959).

The 50’s and 60’s were disappointing years for Short.  He did not change, but apparently, the public did.  He continued to produce Western novels that utilized the formula that had been so successful for him in the ‘40’s, but did not sell nearly as well in the next two decades.  As mentioned earlier, he did try his hand outside the Western genre, but without much success.

Short moved from Santa Fe to Aspen, Colorado in 1947 and he died there in 1975.  For much of his career he was deservedly known as “the dean of living Western writers.”

LUKE SHORT AND HOLLYWOOD.

The following films were based on Luke Short novels -- and one original story:

 

  

RAMROD (UA, 1947)

Director: Andre deToth;  Producer: Harry Sherman;  Writers: screenplay by Jack Moffitt, C. Graham Baker and Cecile Kramer based on Luke Short novel of same name;  Cinematographer: Russell Harlan

Starring: Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake

The plots of many of Luke Short's best novels involve range land conflicts in cattle country.  Ramrod was one of his best and the film represents the best efforts of deToth, Sherman, and McCrea.  Lake is not known for Western roles, but she was surprisingly good in this one.

You can read my review of the film here.   And Colin has a review of it over at Riding the High Country.

   

ALBUQUERQUE (Paramount, 1948)

Director: Ray Enright;  Producers: William H. Pine and William C. Thomas; Writers: screenplay by Gene Lewis and Clarence Upson Young based on Luke Short novel, Dead Freight for Piute;  Cinematographer: Fred Jackman, Jr.

Starring: Randolph Scott and Barbara Britton

The team of Scott and Enright had done good work before this film and would do even better the following year.

"It might be remarked in passing that the picture is neither especially good nor bad, as Westerns go; that Randolph Scott ... seems well able to take care of himself in the clinches .... And, yes, there is some shooting and a runaway stage to liven up the proceedings.  But even that doesn't help much."  -- The New York Times

CORONER CREEK (Columbia, 1948)

Director: Ray Enright;  Producer: Harry Joe Brown;  Writers: screenplay by Kenneth Gamet based on Luke Short novel of same name; Cinematographer: Fred Jackman, Jr.

Starring: Randolph Scott, Marguerite Chapman, and Forest Tucker

Scott and Tucker engage in two brutal fights.  One is depicted in the upper right corner of the above poster.

"Solid little Western; Scott's fisticuffs with henchman Tucker are a highlight." -- Leonard Maltin

STATION WEST (RKO, 1948)

Director: Sidney Lanfield;  Producer: Robert Sparks;  Writers: screenplay by Frank Fenton and Winston Miller based on Luke Short novel of same name;  Cinematographer: Harry J. Wild

Starring: Dick Powell and Jane Greer

This was Powell's only true Western role.  Perhaps it is a case of lowered expectations, but he was far better and much more believable than anyone had any right to expect.

Colin at Riding the High Country has a review of this unique Western. 

  















BLOOD ON THE MOON (RKO, 1948)

Director: Robert Wise;  Producer: Theron Warth;  Writers: screenplay by Lillie Hayward; adaptation by Luke Short and Harold Shumate based on Luke Short novel, Gunman's Chance, later re-issued as Blood on the Moon; Cinematographer: Nicholas Musuraca

Starring: Robert Mitchum, Barbara Bel Geddes, and Robert Preston

"BLOOD ON THE MOON is a terse, tightly-drawn Western drama.  There's none of the formula approach to its story telling.  Picture captures the crisp style used by Luke Short in writing his Western novels." -- Variety 

You can read my review of the film here. 

AMBUSH (MGM, 1950)

Director: Sam Wood;  Producers: Armand Deutsch and Sam Wood; Writers: screenplay by Marguerite Roberts based on Luke Short novel of same name;  Cinematographer: Harold Lipstein

Starring: Robert Taylor, John Hodiak, and Arlene Dahl

The poorly cast film is notable only for being the last film for director Wood.

"...the action, though fast towards the finish, is decidedly meager in this film, and Mr. Taylor is a flattire as a hero [Ouch!]." -- Bosley Crowther in The New York Times

  

 
 

  













VENGEANCE VALLEY (MGM, 1951)

Director: Richard Thorpe;  Producer: Nicholas Nayfack;  Writers: screenplay by Irving Ravetch based on Luke Short novel of same name; Cinematographer: George J. Folsey

Starring: Burt Lancaster, Robert Walker, and Joanne Dru

"This wasn't the best of the Luke Short novels and it's not the best of the movies made from his books, but it's not bad, though it's more soap than horse opera." -- Brian Garfield in Western Movies: A Complete Guide

 










  



SILVER CITY (Paramount, 1951)

Director: Bryan Haskin;  Producer: Nat Holt;  Writers:  screenplay by Frank Gruber based on Luke Short novel, High Vermillion; Cinematographer: Ray Rennahan

Starring: Edmond O'Brien, Yvonne De Carlo, and Barry Fitzgerald

This is undoubtedly the weakest of all the films based on a Luke Short story.  It is poorly cast, weakly acted, ineptly directed, and Gruber's screenplay took all the flavor out of Short's novel.  I have tried -- really tried -- but I have never been able to sit all the way through it.  The only good thing that I can say about what I have seen is that Rennahan, as usual, did a superb job of photographing the film.

RIDE THE MAN DOWN (Republic, 1952)

Director: Joseph Kane;  Producer: Joseph Kane;  Writers: screenplay by Mary C. McCall, Jr. based on Luke Short novel of same name;  Cinematographer: Jack A. Marta

Starring: Rod Cameron, Brian Donlevy, and Ella Raines

"McCall's screenplay is a perfect distillation of the flavor and complication of the novel.  Kane's direction is swift and sure.  The music is unobtrusive but proper, and the photography is thoroughly craftsmanlike." -- Brian Garfield in Western Movies: A Complete Guide

 

Hell's Outpost (Republic, 1954)

Director: Joseph Kane;  Producer: Joseph Kane;  Writers: screenplay by Kenneth Gamet based on Luke Short novel, Silver Rock; Cinematographer: Jack A. Marta

Starring: Rod Cameron and Joan Leslie

This is a modern day mining story capably handled by all concerned.

The Hangman (Paramount, 1959)

Director: Michael Curtiz;  Producer: Frank Freeman, Jr.;  Writers: screenplay by Dudley Nichols based on story by Luke Short; Cinematograper: Loyal Griggs

Starring: Robert Taylor and Tina Louise

The film has a decent cast and Dudley Nichols was an accomplished screenwriter, but Michael Curtiz's direction of Western films always left much to be desired.  

    

 

TOP 21 FAVORITE WESTERNS -- RAMROD

# 15

RAMROD (Sherman/UA, 1947)

      

Sometimes the hand-coloring of movie posters got out of hand -- especially since this is a beautifully filmed black-and-white movie.


DIRECTOR:  Andre deToth; PRODUCER: Harry Sherman;  WRITERS: Jack Moffit, Graham Baker and Cecile Kramer from a novel by Luke Short; CINEMATOGRAPHER: Russell Harlan

CAST:  Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake, Don DeFore, Arleen Whelan, Preston Foster, Charlie Ruggles, Lloyd Bridges, Ian McDonald, Jeff Corey, Donald Crisp, Hal Taliaferro (Wally Wales); Ray Teal, Sarah Padden, Nestor Pavia, Wally Casell, Trevor Bardette

In one of his best performances, Joel McCrea is the Ramrod

"From now on, I'm going to make a life of my own.  And being a woman, I won't have to use guns." -- Connie Dickason 

Luke Short ((l908-1975) was one of our finest Western novelists, especially adept at plotting complex range war stories such as Ramrod, Blood on the Moon, Ride the Man Down, Coroner Creek, and Vengeance Valley.  All were filmed, and the first four are excellent, but RAMROD is the best of the lot.

In RAMROD a willful, ambitious woman (Lake) stirs up a range war by attempting to introduce sheep into cattle country and thereby coming into conflict with two land barons, her father (Ruggles) and her would-be suitor (Foster).  McCrea is her ramrod (foreman), a saddle-bum attempting to recover from alcoholism brought on by two heartbreaking tragedies in his personal life.

The plot summary makes it sound as though this is a fairly standard Western -- but it isn't.  It breaks new ground in a number of ways.  

To begin with, the driving force in the range feud and the story plot is a woman -- Connie Dickason (Lake).  Later that would not have been all that unusual, but it was so in 1947.

The photography has to be mentioned, also.  This is a moody, psychological film and it is fitting that Russell Harlan's shadowy and atmospheric photography enhances and supports the effect that director Andre deToth was attempting to create.  Short's story, deToth's direction, and Harlan's camera combine to make RAMROD one of the first noir Westerns, which also differentiates it from the standard Western movie fare of the day.

Another significant fact about RAMROD is that location shooting took place in beautiful and majestic Zion National Park in Utah.  

That was important in giving the film a look out of the ordinary because not that many movies have been made there and it lacks the familiarity of Monument Valley or Death Valley or the Dakota Badlands or Lone Pine and other commonly used locations.  

One would think that a lot of movies might be shot there since it possesses such impressive scenery.  The lack of movies being filmed there might have something to do with the fact that its narrow valleys are rather confining and do not lend themselves to the kinds of panoramic shots that we see in the movies filmed in the locations mentioned above.

However, IN OLD ARIZONA (Fox, 1929), the first outdoor "talkie," was not filmed in Arizona, but in Zion.  A couple of other notable Westerns had some scenes shot there as well -- BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (Fox, 1969) and JEREMIAH JOHNSON (WB, 1972).

Could you picture this actress in a Western?

Another unusual aspect of RAMROD is its offbeat casting.  

Who would have ever thought of casting Veronica Lake in a Western?  Well, apparently the director, Andre deToth, since he was married to the actress at the time.  And who would have guessed that she would be as good as she was in the role?  Maybe deToth?

And we get a different Charlie Ruggles, too.  His is a straight dramatic role with none of the endearing and befuddled humor that we had come to expect from him.

Don DeFore was nearly always cast as the star's likable wisecracking buddy who never gets the girl.  Here he plays a similar role, but with an important difference: it is a Western (his only one) and beneath that sunny wisecracking exterior beats the heart of a killer.  

Who would have thought he could have pulled that off -- especially when five years later he would become best-known as Ozzie's neighbor and wisecracking buddy, Thorny, on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet?  And then later, in 1961, he became George Baxter, the affable man of the house in support of Shirley Booth in yet another sitcom, Hazel.

Thorny and George Baxter were still in the future when RAMROD was filmed, so it would not have been as surprising to the audiences of that day as it would be later to see him in that role, but it must have been surprising even then just how good he was in an important role in a Western movie.  

Could you picture this actor as a gunslinger?

Of course there was nothing offbeat or surprising about casting Joel McCrea in the title role.

McCrea made his first film appearance in 1924 and was given his first lead role in THE SILVER HORDE (RKO, 1929), an outdoor adventure yarn set in Alaska.  

For the next fifteen years the versatile actor went on to star mostly in comedies and melodramas, but also an occasional Western.  But beginning with BUFFALO BILL (Fox, 1944), McCrea would star almost exclusively in Western films.

At the time of the filming of RAMROD, McCrea was in his early forties.

In a 1978 interview, McCrea was quoted as saying: "I liked doing comedies, but as I got older I was better suited to do Westerns. Because I think it becomes unattractive for an older fellow trying to look young, falling in love with attractive girls in those kinds of situations...Anyway, I always felt so much more comfortable in the Western. The minute I got a horse and a hat and a pair of boots on, I felt easier. I didn't feel like I was an actor anymore. I felt like I was the guy out there doing it."

After RAMROD McCrea starred in many entertaining Westerns, with at least three falling into the classic or near classic category:  FOUR FACES WEST  (Sherman/UA,1948); COLORADO TERRITORY (WB, 1949); and RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY (MGM, 1962).

In 1976, the seventy-year-old McCrea appeared in one final film, starring in yet another Western, MUSTANG COUNTRY (1976).  That would be it.  After an acting career that had lasted more than a half century, he retired.

Hal Taliaferro was an authentic westerner who was born in Wyoming and grew up on a Montana ranch.  Beginning in the silent era and continuing into the early sound-era, he starred in cheaply-made independently-produced B-Westerns under the name of Wally Wales.

B-Western cowboy Wally Wales (Hal Taliaferro)

After Taliaferro's B-Western starring days ended he became one of the busiest character actors in the business, appearing in hundreds of films, primarily B-Westerns and serials, mostly at Republic, nearly always as a villain.  And in his Western roles he always looked and sounded like what he was, a man of the West.

In the history of Western movies, Harry "Pop" Sherman was one of the more interesting producers.  Throughout most of his career he was able to independently produce films, that were then released and distributed by major studios.

He is best-known for creating the production company that in 1935 began filming the Hopalong Cassidy B-Western series, starring William Boyd.  

During those years, however, he produced a number of one-shot B-Western specials that were always well-made and entertaining.  

In the mid-'40's, he turned over production of the Hoppy series to William Boyd and ventured into A-Western territory when he produced BUFFALO BILL (1944) for Fox.  What followed was even better, two superior Westerns made by his production company: RAMROD (1947) and FOUR FACES WEST (1948).  Joel McCrea starred in all three.

Andre deToth began directing films in his native Hungary.  His first American film was released in 1943.  RAMROD was his first Western and it was also his first film to garner widespread notice.  

During the rest of his career he often returned to the genre, especially in six entertaining films starring Randolph Scott,  beginning with MAN IN THE SADDLE (Columbia, 1951).

******
REVIEWS

"McCrea gives a fine performance in the title role in this superior Western...but it is Lake...who most impresses....deToth's strong sense of evil informs the film from its bewildered beginning to the end, intensifying our sense of the characters not being in control of themselves." -- Phil Hardy in The Western

"[Producer] Sherman's standards were high, and at least two of his most ambitious films, RAMROD...and FOUR FACES WEST...both starring Joel McCrea, were unusually appealing, dramatically strong, intelligently written, and if not major artistic or box-office landmarks, then certainly among the most satisfying Westerns of the period." -- William K. Everson in A Pictorial History of the Western Film

"...tense, complex, fast and excellently plotted little classic....It's excellent -- and still highly entertaining; it's hardly dated at all....in some ways the most 'classic' of all ranchland Westerns; a splendid little Luke Short film, consistently rewarding." -- Brian Garfield in Western Film: A Complete Guide