SENIOR SPUNK
Quite a few of the Gunsmoke radio actors could be just as easily
called Dragnet actors. But if being regularly employed by renowned
directors is a measure of the depth of one's talent and craft,
Jeanette Nolan's bona fides overrunneth the royal water trough.
Besides being part of Norman Macdonnell's remuda,
Nolan was chosen by radio king Orson Welles to be
his Lady Macbeth in the movies; and for his own teleplays,
Richard Boone--a tyrannical stickler to quality & excellence--
picked her as one of the ten actors he thought to be best in his universe.
Indeed, however unfair, whoever holds or wears the helm
determines how much light falls on a performance:
Georgia Ellis' riveting portrayal of a gangster's wife
in Jack Webb's giggle-inducing movie version of Dragnet (1954)
is forgotten by all but her radio devotees;
yet Nolan's riveting Bertha Duncan in Fritz Lang's The Big Heat (1953)
has been noted far and wide.
But none of this high-falutin' stuff matters to those of us who enjoy
Nolan's unforgettably unpretentious characters in Gunsmoke,
such as Mamie, Libby Segar, Mrs. Beedle, and the original Ma Smalley.
Nobody does senior spunk better than Jeanette Nolan.
Fighting for the water rights of poor farmers
is usually the task of the male cowboy hero,
but in the State Trooper episode 'Still Water Runs Red,'
it is a .44 pistol-packin' Jeanette who tries to free up
the water dammed up by a richer rancher.
Watch her get increasingly excited at the sight
of big macho man Rod Cameron beating up her two ranchhands.
June 29, 2007
In 'La Strega,' an episode of Boris Karloff's Thriller,
Jeanette Nolan plays a witch who torments her niece and a painter.
If you can endure Alejandro Rey's accent for an hour,
your prize is seeing more of Ursula Andress
in the same year she appeared in Dr. No.
Jeanette Nolan plays a witch who torments her niece and a painter.
If you can endure Alejandro Rey's accent for an hour,
your prize is seeing more of Ursula Andress
in the same year she appeared in Dr. No.
Copyright © 2007-2016 E. A. Villafranca, Jr.
All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved
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