"Camille on Horseback" and Inger in Reno

Inger Stevens arrived at Reno Municipal Airport via United Airlines on August 22, 1959. She wasn't alone that Saturday morning. The plane carried a passenger list that included Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, Yvonne DeCarlo, and Vaughn Moore. The group exited the plane to cheers from a crowd of local officials, press, Native Americans from the Nixon, NV reservation plus the Twirleens and Reno Rodeo Queen. After receiving gifts (cowboy hats, of course) and posing for publicity, Inger and the others were rushed to downtown Reno for the Bonanza parade. It would be a full two days of publicity and celebration in honor of a new all-color western drama set to air on NBC the following month. Inger and Yvonne DeCarlo's episodes ("The Newcomers" and "A Rose for Lotta", respectively) were selected for a special premiere at Granada Theater that evening.

Inger (center) arrives in Reno.

Inger examines the cowboy hats with Dan Blocker and Lorne Greene.

There was much for the stars to do between the noon parade (in which Miss Nevada was none other than a 21-year-old Dawn Wells) and the eight o'clock premiere. After traveling in stagecoach from the State House, Inger headed north on Virginia Street to follow a route to Fifth then Sierra before the parade ended in front of the Riverside Hotel on the Truckee River. 

Former actor-turned-politician, Rex Bell led the parade.
Bell was married to actress Clara Bow.

Although she is not visible in this poor quality photo, Inger is in this
 stagecoach shared with Yvonne DeCarlo.

The celebrities were then whisked away for lunch in the Shore Room of the Holiday Hotel before touring the downtown stores—merchants had dressed their windows in western wear and theme for a Bonanza contest. By 5:00 p.m., Inger was meeting citizens and signing autographs at Powning Park. Dinner was at the Nugget in Sparks before entertaining the crowd again at the Granada Theater, where "The Newcomers" and "A Rose for Lotta" were screened for the public (adults only) free of charge.

RCA sponsored the premiere and RCA recording artist Vaughn Moore served as the emcee. Moore received a key to the city for his efforts.

Inger at dinner with the cast in Reno.

Invisible except for the top of her blonde hair and lovely hands,
Inger signs autographs beside Lorne Greene.

After a day full of action, the cast and crew retired to their rooms at the Riverside, Mapes, and Golden hotels. On Sunday, they viewed the gun collection at Harold's Club before traveling back to Los Angeles on Sunday evening.

On Tuesday, August 25, the Today television show devoted a segment to the premiere footage. The massive publicity campaign, color episodes, engaging actors, and highly popular western genre would make Bonanza a hit for 14 seasons. Many don't realize that Inger Stevens was a major player in its initial publicity campaign and contributor to the show's success.

"The Newcomers"

Columnist Dwight Newton summarized the "The Newcomers" as “Inger Stevens…Camille on horseback.” And he's not wrong. Inger played many fragile, sickly or trauma-stricken characters between 1959 and 1962. However, Inger enjoyed freelancing on television and made light of the tragic string when she stated:

Come to think of it, my TV career is beginning to look as if it were sponsored by Blue Cross. I was a nurse in the last Playhouse 90 I did. I play a tubercular in Bonanza. And in Twilight Zone I haven’t long to live.

This interview and the Bonanza premiere came just eight months after Inger's suicide attempt. It cannot be emphasized enough how diligently Inger worked after recovering from the attempt. She participated in two routines on the April 6, 1959 broadcast of the 31st Academy Awards and received an "unusually warm reception...like an outstretched hand of sympathy for a girl who has undergone emotional stress." After that welcome, Inger went back to work on "Diary of a Nurse" for Playhouse 90, "The Indestructible Mr. Gore" for Sunday Showcase, and this Bonanza episode. 

Her suicide attempt, outspokenness about the loneliness and superficiality associated with Hollywood success, and refusal to appear in subpar movies would find Inger working solely in television—after The World, The Flesh, and The Devil premiered in 1959, audiences wouldn't see Inger on their theater screens until 1964 when she appeared in a small, but striking role in the unfortunately subpar movie The New Interns. The amount and quality of the work Inger did on television in those five years between movies is quite astounding—two Twilight Zones, an Emmy-nominated part in Dick Powell Theater, two Route 66 episodes, a powerful Sam Benedict plot and suspenseful Alfred Hitchcock Hour. That list is merely a third of the shows in which Inger appeared at that time and does not even include her starring role in her own show The Farmer's Daughter!

Inger as Emily Pennington

Inger studies "The Newcomers" script.

Inger liked the role of Emily Pennington in "The Newcomers". She said:

They kind of apologized when they asked me to play it, because it’s a western. But I liked the script and it turned out so well that it will be released in Europe as a motion picture–if Paramount approves.

The episode can be viewed in full on Youtube (click here.) In it, Inger's Emily Pennington is the fiancé of prospector Blake McCall (John Larch), a man Emily's brother John (Robert Knapp) says "will do anything for gold." McCall believes there's gold hidden on the Cartwright company but is warned that mining for it will destroy the land. A man who was born without wealth, McCall believes he must make his fortune in order to keep up with the more prosperous Penningtons. Emily assures her fiancé that money means nothing to her and says:

Just give me a chance to get well and just give me a chance to be everything you want me to be.

Battling tuberculosis, Emily Pennington coughs frequently ("Can't you control that miserable coughing?" Blake barks at her. ) but doesn't reveal the gravity of her situation to Hoss (Dan Blocker). Hoss accompanies the Penningtons for protection and is hurt when she backs away from him in fear. Emily softens when she watches the gentle way Hoss brushes and speaks to his horse. 

Emily: You really love horses, don't you?

Hoss: Oh, yes ma'am. I love all animals. You can trust 'em.

Emily: But you can't trust people?

Hoss: Well, I wouldn't say that. It's just that some folks have got a natural mean streak in them that animals just don't know nothin' about, I guess.

As her fiance's mean streak becomes more obvious, Emily develops feelings for gentle giant Hoss.

Inger with Dan Blocker behind the scenes.

Sources: 

“Bonanza Day Premier—” Reno Evening Gazette. August 20, 1959. 

“Bonanza Premir is Staged Here.” Reno Evening Gazette. August 24, 1959. 

“Delegation Arrives for Bonanza Premier.” Reno Evening Gazette. August 22, 1959. 

“Reno Merchants.” Reno Evening Gazette. August 21, 1959. 

“Inger Stevens Gets No Money for TV Stints. Philadelphia Enquirer. September 24, 1959. 

“Movie Stars Arrive for Bonanza Premier Saturday.” Reno Evening Gazette. August 21, 1959. 

“Reno’s Bonanza Permiere in Pictures.” Reno Evening Gazette. August 24, 1959. 

TV-Radio Highlights. San Francisco Examiner. September 26, 1959.

A Time for Killing (1967)

Director Phil Karlson with Inger and Glenn.

Inger stars as Emily Biddle in the 1967 western A Time for Killing, one of four westerns she would make within two years. Inger's status as the Western dream gal of 1967-1968 prompted Roger Ebert, in his review of Hang 'Em High, to write, "You can tell it's a Hollywood Western because Inger Stevens lives in the boarding house..."

In his book on western filmmakers, Henryk Hoffman praised Inger:

Despite the unimpressive quality of her westerns, Inger Stevens delivered four interesting performances and earned the distinction of one of the most original western leading ladies of the period. 

Inger as Emily Biddle in A Time for Killing, 1967.

Originally titled The Long Ride Home and directed by Roger Corman (who "couldn't get out of his old ways. He was pushing the actors, they were upset, the crew was upset") but quickly taken over by director Phil Karlson, A Time for Killing was based on the 1961 novel A Southern Blade by Nelson and Shirley Wolford. The male leads are Glenn Ford and George Hamilton. Max Baer, Jr. and Paul Petersen also appear and a young Harrison Ford is seen briefly. Paul Petersen would later say that the dismissal of Roger Corman as director was unfair and that the film would've been "ultimately better served" if Corman had continued, because Corman "tried to compensate for the lack of character development in the story by incorporating the Utah landscape."

Filming took place in Utah and Arizona. Realty specialist Darwin Nelson wrote:

Last summer several scenes for The Long Ride Home were made on public domain near the Paria River, and for several weeks Kanab was 'home' for such stars as Glenn Ford, George Hamilton, Max Baer, Jr., Inger Stevens and Paul Petersen. It wasn't the first time Glenn Ford had been on location in Kenab; 25 years ago he spent some time off the set participating in a local rodeo. 

Due to a drought that dried out a riverbed essential to filming, thousands of gallons of water had to be imported from Tucson.  

Inger with actor Todd Armstrong

Glenn Ford was newly married and his wife Kathryn Hayes (known for her decades-long work on As The World Turns plus many guest appearances on 1960's television) visited the set. Glenn's son Peter was happy to be cast in a small role opposite "beautiful Inger Stevens" and made friends with cast members Harrison Ford, Harry Dean Stanton, Timothy Carey, and Paul Petersen. George Hamilton's girlfriend Lynda, daughter of President Lyndon Johnson, also visited the set—with Secret Service agents. 

According to author Patterson, Inger made a rare move and arrived on set with her husband Ike Jones on the first morning of filming. Patterson doesn't reveal the source of this story, but he writes that Inger, with Ike by her side, was confident as she greeted a cast and crew that reacted with "dead silence" and viewed it as an "awkward situation." Inger was seen crying later in the morning and Ike had left by the afternoon. 

Inger waits for dress repairs.

Inger observes a scene.

The film begins with missionary nurse Emily Biddle (Inger) watching her fiance Major Wolcott (Glenn) enforce a death sentence on a Confederate soldier. Major Wolcott must follow the orders of a cruel Colonel, which mercilessly prolong the death of a soldier until Wolcott puts the man out of his misery with a single shot. The treatment of the man's sentence causes a fury among the imprisoned Confederate soldiers, led by Captain Dorrit Bentley (George Hamilton). When he returns to his cabin, Major Wolcott realizes his fiancé witnessed the killing.

Emily: I was watching.

Wolcott calls for a missionary wagon to take Emily to a safe place.

Emily: You're not sending me away?...Why? I've come most of the way across this country to see you.

Wolcott: You couldn't have picked a worse time or place.

Emily: I didn't pick it. The war did. Is it too much to want to share a few days with you?

Wolcott: There are a lot of things I wanted to share with you, Emily, but this was not one of them.

Emily: Couldn't you have done something to stop it? He was a child.

Wolcott: Child or man, he was a soldier and this is a war. And I don't like you seeing it.

Emily:...I've seen the war, Tom, and I hate what I've seen.

Wolcott: I know. I like to see things grow. I don't like to see things die.

The enraged soldiers watch a touching scene as Major Wolcott bids a loving goodbye to Emily and Captain Bentley visibly seethes at the sight of their embrace. After Emily departs, Captain Bentley confronts Wolcott about his sensitivity toward the soldiers.

Bentley: I can see you're frettin' all over their feelings, all leaky-eyed, lovin' them like a brother. Major, they don't have one damn bit of love for you. Whether you own up or not, you hate them.

Wolcott: I hate no man.

Bentley: Well, there's a little time yet.

Wolcott: Captain, what do you want?

Bentley: Well, for you to feel the way I do, that's all.

Wolcott: The war's nearly over.

Bentley: Major, this war will never be over.

The Confederate soldiers make a violent escape from the Union camp overnight. At daybreak, they meet the missionary wagon carrying Emily to safety and overtake it. They kill the Union soldiers protecting Emily and then Captain Bentley abducts her.

Warning: There are major plot spoilers in this paragraph. Please pick up reading after the two shots of Inger and Glenn below if you want to skip them. What follows is a long chase between Major Wolcott and his Union troops and Captain Bentley and his band of Confederate soldiers. Emily Biddle's safety is threatened throughout the film as Captain Bentley lewdly smiles at her. Emily watches as the men imprisoning her become more uncouth and violent toward one another. Emily never backs down. She threatens to kill Bentley several times and insults him many more. Eventually, after many spoken and unspoken suggestions that he will, Captain Bentley viciously rapes Emily—to cause her pain, to cause Major Wolcott pain, and because the ruthless, terrorizing man says "somehow, someplace we got to win before we lose." The build-up to the assault and the assault scene itself are extraordinarily difficult for me to watch. 

Although Inger is exceptional in the scenes she's been given—adding poignancy to her limited lines and a strength of character to Emily—and her striking beauty absolutely glows in Panavision and Pathecolor, I've only been able to watch this movie two times. It's a major trial to sit through, and I'm not alone in this assessment.

Inger and Glenn on set

Inger and Glenn on set

Composer Van Alexander, in his autobiography, remembered that the the movie was "in deep trouble. Directors had been changed in the middle of filming, there were many rewrites on the script and the picture was still lousy...Jonie Taps called me in to save the picture with a good musical score." Alexander scored the film and wrote a main theme for Eddy Arnold to sing.

Alexander wrote that at the film's preview, "the audience laughed in all the wrong places. They laughed during the dramatic sequences. They hissed at the hero and applauded the villain. God, it was awful! Talk about embarrassing! I wanted to crawl under the table."

Later the film would be rescored by guitarist Mundell Lowe to the frustration of Alexander.

Inger and Glenn prepare for the wagon departure scene

Promotion of the film was weak. The promotional materials suggested that exhibitors bring audiences in by focusing on the movie being Glenn Ford's 100th release. The also urged that Inger's character being a nurse from Massachusetts should attract New England women; if you've seen the film you know how ludicrous that tactic would prove. The movie is quite brutal and certainly not what would be termed a "women's picture" in the 1960's.

Peter Ford was right in his summary that the movie had "some strong scenes, but there was a choppy, unfinished feeling to it, perhaps a result of the directorial transference. A Time for Killing went virtually unnoticed on release."

Author Lee Pfeiffer wrote:

If Sigmund Freud had written a Western, the result would be something like A Time for Killing. Admittedly a B Western, the film has the distinction of at least attempting to be something more. However, the script suffers from making the only interesting characters the least important...the film is unremittingly grim and made even grimmer by the efficient but downbeat performances of the cast. 

Halliwell's Film Guide called it a "savage" western about the "corruption of war" while Leonard Maltin kept his response brief by noting, "Director Karlson has made some good minor films in the past; this isn't one of them."

All photos in this post are scans of color transparencies in my collection. You can view more on set photos that are unfortunately not in my collection (including my favorite on set Inger shot—this one! and my second favorite shot—Inger singing) at this site here.

In 2021, A Time for Killing was released on Region 1 DVD as part of a Glenn Ford triple feature. The DVD can be found here. The western had long been available on other region DVDs.

You can read about Inger's other westerns on the blog: Firecreek, 5 Card Stud, and Hang 'Em High.

Inger and Glenn

Sources:

Alexander, Van. From Harlem to Hollywood. Bear Manor Media. 2009.

Ebert, Roger. "Hang 'Em High." https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/hang-em-high-1968

Ford, Peter. Glenn Ford: A Life. University of Wisconsin. 2011.

Hoffman, Henryk. 'A' Western Filmmakers. McFarland. 2008.

Joyner, C. Courtney. The Westerners. McFarland. 2009.

Maltin, Leonard. Leonard Maltin's 2015 Movie Guide. Penguin. 2004.

Nelson, Darwin. "Little Hollywood." Our Public Lands. 1967.

Pfieffer, Lee. The Films of Harrison Ford. Kensington Publishing. 2002.

Weaver, Tom. Science Fiction Stars and Horror Heroes. McFarland. 2006.