Whiplash

[Marky B]

Does anyone remember this Australian western of the sixties,starring Peter Graves?
Ta Ta
Marky B

[Moor Larkin]

I have always remembered the song. Only just realised as an adult that it was Frank Ifield though,

[cassidy]

He was looking after Aussie while his brother cleaned up Dodge City.

[Arfur Teacake]

Long before it became the anthem of insurance offices everywhere, Lew Grade thought it might be a good idea to nip over to Australia and make a 'western'.

[Moor Larkin]

Long before it became the anthem of insurance offices everywhere, Lew Grade thought it might be a good idea to nip over to Australia and make a 'western'.

Ralph Smart made a sort of "Western" with "Bitter Springs" in 1950. He was also involved in "Whiplash" but resigned when initial production ground to a confused halt.

Just as well, or he may never have got round to that Danger Man show back in Blighty.......

http://aso.gov.au/titles/features/bi...s/clip3/?nojs=

[Arfur Teacake]

Ralph Smart made a sort of "Western" with "Bitter Springs" in 1950. He was also involved in "Whiplash" but resigned when initial production ground to a confused halt.

Just as well, or he may never have got round to that Danger Man show back in Blighty.......

http://aso.gov.au/titles/features/bi...s/clip3/?nojs=

slightly O/t
Ah hah- I going to ask you about Danger Man. According to Kino Weekly.
Danger Man production was still happening at Shepperton as late as July 66. Surely this clashes the notion that Danger Man production was shut down in the winter of 65
because NBC didn't want anymore?
(ABC only took 13 Baron episodes) and is more akin with the notion that Pat walked into Lew's office and said "I'm fed up with doing this,can I do something different" ?

[Arthur Linden-Jones]

Remembered fondly as a growing lad. Watched regularly.

I can remember the anti-American furore at "why the he11 did they have to import an American actor for an Australian production????" .... until someone pointed out that Christopher Cobb was in fact an American. That seemed to placate the masses.

[Moor Larkin]

slightly O/t
Ah hah- I going to ask you about Danger Man. According to Kino Weekly.
Danger Man production was still happening at Shepperton as late as July 66. Surely this clashes the notion that Danger Man production was shut down in the winter of 65
because NBC didn't want anymore?
(ABC only took 13 Baron episodes) and is more akin with the notion that Pat walked into Lew's office and said "I'm fed up with doing this,can I do something different" ?

I've spotted that too. It's plainly wrong isn't it. Danger Man production did still continue until April. McGoohan's meeting with Grade seems to have occurred on April 16th, which was the week before production was *wrapped* on the 21st, so things were certainly moving fast in practice. But it was being reported on the front page of the Daily Express that Danger Man was finished, so quite why the Kino boys were still reporting Danger Man as being *in production* seems just a lazy error on their part, or it could just be that the Studio was lazy about reporting to them what was going on, or maybe ITC had a contract on the studio until July that they couldn't get out of and if they were still paying a fee, then that was good enough for the studio to merit the tag, *In production*. I don't know enough about how that sort of thing would/might work.

There seems no doubt that McGoohan had to to be the one to say "no more" because as he remarked once, "Lew would have liked him to carry on being Drake forever". It has crossed my mind that if somebody had come up with the bright idea that Drake should be framed as a traitor and forced to resign from M9 and become a principled private eye, then McGoohan might have thought that was a neat idea and carried on with a new direction, but as can be seen in Koroshi they were just pushing him increasingly into a cheapo TV Bond mould. There is no doubt however that the CBS sales for Danger man were not being renewed for 1966. McGoohan might have been dancing on a wire himself because he did remark in one interview that CBS had until March 11 1966 (he was that specific) to make its mind up. In that sense he could only take action himself, once that dealine had run out. McGoohan's ITC contract was based on a proportion of overseas sales, which is why he became so inadvertently, but famously, highly-paid, and without that CBS cash for a 1966 season, he would have faced a significant income drop I think.

One of the things that has occurred to me in this connection was the speed with which 'Man in a Suitcase' was put together. That show effectively replaced Danger Man and Sidney Cole seemed to seamlessly segue from the one show into the next. This has made me wonder if Grade/Cole already had a Plan B in place, with a view to the end of Danger Man if McGoohan jumped ship, which he did say he would, back in Decmeber 1965. Generating scripts and an American leading man seemed to happen very quickly because they started filming in August, a full month before McGoohan got his prisoner show on the road. It would be interesting to know moor about who was paying what to who during the time between May and July 1966. I'm not sure if anyone has pinned down exactly when Bradford was first approached.



PS... By chance Cap'n Pickard has just uploaded a Kine Weekly for August 4 1966, and Danger Man is still listed at Shepperton under the care of Sidney Cole, so I'm wondering if Cole just never cracked on that he was now making "McGill"...... ?? because according to Pixleys Network Man in a Suitcase production notes, shooting on McGill started on August 15.

PPS.
This is my Blog where McGoohan is quoted in January 1966, saying that CBS have until March 11 to decide.
http://numbersixwasinnocent.blogspot...work-must.html
"The network must let us know by March 11 if it wants additional episodes. If so, we will continue to film, but in color. But, if not, we won't do another season in England."

[Arfur Teacake]

I've spotted that too. It's plainly wrong isn't it. Danger Man production did still continue until April. McGoohan's meeting with Grade seems to have occurred on April 16th, which was the week before production was *wrapped* on the 21st, so things were certainly moving fast in practice. But it was being reported on the front page of the Daily Express that Danger Man was finished, so quite why the Kino boys were still reporting Danger Man as being *in production* seems just a lazy error on their part, or it could just be that the Studio was lazy about reporting to them what was going on, or maybe ITC had a contract on the studio until July that they couldn't get out of and if they were still paying a fee, then that was good enough for the studio to merit the tag, *In production*. I don't know enough about how that sort of thing would/might work.


One of the things that has occurred to me in this connection was the speed with which 'Man in a Suitcase' was put together. That show effectively replaced Danger Man and Sidney Cole seemed to seamlessly segue from the one show into the next. This has made me wonder if Grade/Cole already had a Plan B in place, with a view to the end of Danger Man if McGoohan jumped ship, which he did say he would, back in Decmeber 1965. Generating scripts and an American leading man seemed to happen very quickly because they started filming in August, a full month before McGoohan got his prisoner show on the road. It would be interesting to know moor about who was paying what to who during the time between May and July 1966. I'm not sure if anyone has pinned down exactly when Bradford was first approached.



PS... By chance Cap'n Pickard has just uploaded a Kine Weekly for August 4 1966, and Danger Man is still listed at Shepperton under the care of Sidney Cole, so I'm wondering if Cole just never cracked on that he was now making "McGill"...... ?? because according to Pixleys Network Man in a Suitcase production notes, shooting on McGill started on August 15.

PPS.
This is my Blog where McGoohan is quoted in January 1966, saying that CBS have until March 11 to decide.
http://numbersixwasinnocent.blogspot...work-must.html
"The network must let us know by March 11 if it wants additional episodes. If so, we will continue to film, but in color. But, if not, we won't do another season in England."

Yes interesting theories, and the speed at which those shows in those days were put together has always astonished me too. When you consider it usually takes a couple of years to put together 12 or 13 Doctor Who episodes these days. Meanwhile after Man in a Suitcase most of them seemed to trundle over to Australia
to make Man in a Suitcase On Sea LOL..they even took the mini mokes.

[Moor Larkin]

Ralph was involved with that Rip Tide show too, along with Robert Banks-Stewart...

I was reading up on some news clippings I half-recalled I had about Whiplash last night, and Ralph was reported in May 1959 as planning to film a new show called "Cobb & Co". The Flying Doctor series was also current then and Hannah Fisher was looking to make a show called "Stingaree" starring either Peter Finch or Keith Michell. These projects were all billed as part of a "Put Australia on the map" Movement.

Interestingly, Ralph is referred to as having parted with Hannah's company, Sapphire, the year before, and the sentence refers to his becoming a "lone wolf" - a phrase that was once mooted as the title for Danger Man, according to the Network notes about the original Danger man series. It was a title that stayed with Ralph personally in another feauture I have about him, back then.


Lone Wolf by Oliver Quayle, on Flickr

[Arfur Teacake]

Yes I heard that too that ATV were going to set up a production base in Australia but found the conditions too hostile, Whiplash had become a money black hole after taking too long to make.
If you look at Australian sites they tend to look back on Riptide with disdain, which having seen it on YT after many years I think it still holds up well today and an enjoyable hour of hokum. presumably the yank and pom
involvement didn't win it many fans in Oz?

[Moor Larkin]

presumably the yank and pom involvement didn't win it many fans in Oz?

I was reading some comments about Whiplash where some insular Aussie was bemoaning the fact they had cast a Yank in the title role.......

But then another contributor pointed out that Cobb WAS an American.......

Still running apparently........ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dy...7_AO_(354).jpg

[Gerald Lovell]

ITC had tried another overseas production a few years earlier: (HAWKEYE AND) THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS, with John Hart and Lon Chaney, Jr. and mainly filmed in Canada. It was shown from 1957 onwards and I'm currently watching it courtesy of the restored Network boxset. Despite its title sequence using stock footage from earlier films, it's quite a cheap production with recurring actors, including James (Scotty) Doohan playing an indian in one episode and several British crewmembers were involved, including David Tomblin, Frank Watts and Derek Hyde Chambers. I really have no memory of this series at all, but my older brother aged 61 does recall it and I believe it was pretty popular at the time.

[wadsy]

ITC had tried another overseas production a few years earlier: (HAWKEYE AND) THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS, with John Hart and Lon Chaney, Jr. and mainly filmed in Canada. It was shown from 1957 onwards and I'm currently watching it courtesy of the restored Network boxset. Despite its title sequence using stock footage from earlier films, it's quite a cheap production with recurring actors, including James (Scotty) Doohan playing an indian in one episode and several British crewmembers were involved, including David Tomblin, Frank Watts and Derek Hyde Chambers. I really have no memory of this series at all, but my older brother aged 61 does recall it and I believe it was pretty popular at the time.

I remember this series, it was one of my favourite shows when I was a lad!

[Moor Larkin]

ITC had tried another overseas production a few years earlier: (HAWKEYE AND) THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS, with John Hart and Lon Chaney, Jr. .... I really have no memory of this series at all, but my older brother aged 61 does recall it and I believe it was pretty popular at the time.

I can remember it, but must have been watching repeats...

The version that made a stronger impression on me was the one with Philip Madoc as the terrifying nemesis of the Mohican race, Magua!
But that was in colour, so is far too O/T for this thread.....