BREAKING MOVIE/TV NEWS

Saturday, May 21, 2016

"The Rifleman" Bad Guy Kills



Take a look @ footage from the classic 1950's CBS TV western series "The Rifleman", originally developed by Sam Peckinpah, gaining a new generation of fans for 6' 6" actor Chuck Connors as 'Lucas McCain' and Johnny Crawford as his son 'Mark', airing every Saturday morning on AMC. But one big question always remains: just how many bad guys did McCain kill in total throughout the series entire 5 year run ?


Peckinpah, developed, wrote and directed many of the best episodes from the first season, basing characters and situations on real-life scenarios from his childhood growing up on a ranch.


His insistence on violent realism and complex characterizations, as well as his refusal to sugarcoat the lessons he felt the Rifleman's son needed to learn about life, soon put him at odds with producers at Four Star and he left the show...


...to create another TV series "The Westerner", followed by directing the western features "Major Dundee" and "The Wild Bunch".


The trick feature of The Rifleman's 'rifle' was a screw pin attached to the large loop lever which was positioned so as to trip the trigger when the ring was slammed home, thus allowing Lucas to rapid-fire the rifle, similarly to a semi-automatic rifle.



McCain fires shots from this rifle during the opening credits, swings the rifle to cock it, then reaches for another round from his shirt pocket.



Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "The Rifleman"...