Working with Sir John Mills on an American Western TV Series

Dundee & the Culhane

The first TV Show I did as a costumer was "The Fugitive," starring David Janssen -- a very popular show in its day. Sorry to say, "The Fugitive" wasn’t a Western, though the show itself – and most of the story lines – ran along a definite Western theme.
The second TV Show I did as a costumer was a short-lived series called, "Dundee & the Culhane." A cute little cowboy show for CBS, about a lawyer and his sidekick traveling through the old West, helping others.
This show took me to my first distant location -- Arizona. We shot in Flagstaff, Apache Junction, and Old Tucson. I was a very lucky guy. The star of "Dundee & the Culhane" was the renowned British actor, (Sir) John Mills. His sidekick, a relative unknown, Sean Garrison. Both of them, great to work with.
As wardrobe set man, that’s the number two person in the costume team -- the Key Costumer being the one who decides on the clothes to be worn and actually fits the actors -- I was hired about the time everything had to be loaded up for shipping.
After waiting until the last minute to pack all the stuff I’d be wearing for the next month or so, I joined the cast and crew at the Burbank Airport, boarded a charter, and took off for Arizona.
Our first location was quite a few miles from Flagstaff, where we were staying -- east, near the Painted Desert. It was an old adobe fort, a set built for the 1964 Raoul Walsh Warner Bros. epic, "A Distant Trumpet."
The guest stars for this first episode were, John McIntire (Wagon Train), David Canary (Bonanza), and Sally Kellerman (MASH).
The story was about a treasure buried on the grounds of the fort. Every one wanted the gold.
I was very impressed by stuntman Jack Williams who took a two-story fall from a building at the same time it was blown out from under him.
I had seen stunts performed before, but never one of that measure.
The show carried another stuntman on full salary –- Fred Stromsoe. His main job was to double Sean Garrison, but he was always being put to use playing other parts or doubling a guest star or two.
Working on "The Fugitive" TV Series for two seasons before I landed "Dundee and the Culhane" had prepared me for a distant location, inasmuch as a location is a location. One or the other, you’re away from your home base (studio) and must fend for yourself. That’s why every studio department takes with them anything and everything they may want or need that has any relation to their job.
My boss on "Dundee and the Culhane," Chuck Arico, and I had a small trailer for the wardrobe. When I say small, I am comparing it to other trailers and trucks I would use in my future years as a costumer. In other words, we were very cramped. The trailer was so small that when packed with all the clothes we took for the actors we would be fitting for the next month, a person couldn’t move around inside.
In addition to learning new things on the shooting location, there was other stuff I picked up about what location crews did in their off time. On location, there was definitely more drinking, more carousing, more messing around with the opposite sex, more dinners out and, of course, less sleep.
One night I got together with the male nurse -- he on the drums and me on guitar -- and we out-did, or maybe I should say, out-blasted, the local hotel band. Needless to say, we all had a lot of fun.
I was able to put my stunting experience to good use in Flagstaff. The production manager asked me to double John Mills on one occasion -- opening the wooden gates for a stagecoach barreling into the fort. The coach and six horses coming so close to Mills (me) that the rush of air knocked his (my) hat off.
Our second location, Apache Junction, provided the settings for two episodes. The first was a segment guest starring Warren Oates and John Barrymore, Jr. (Drew's father). The second, an Indian story shot on the Green River. In the Barrymore episode, I was called upon to use my limited expertise in horsemanship. I doubled Barrymore as he led his band of outlaws through a barn at full gallop. We did it in the first take. While I was basking in my momentary glory, the company picked up and moved to the next set, leaving me all alone with my horse. Oh, well.
The third location was Old Tucson, an excellent adobe and wood Western town set built in 1940 for the Jean Arthur, William Holden, Columbia adventure, "Arizona." We were there to do three episodes.
One of those shows guest starred a man who was to become my writing partner on, "The Honkers," several years later -– Steve Ihnat. I had met Steve on "The Fugitive," and would work with him again a few times before he would realize I wanted more out of show business than just supplying actors with their rags.
Every afternoon at precisely four o’clock, John Mills and his wife, Mary Bell, would take tea in their canvas chairs, wherever we might be shooting. For the British, teatime always comes first. It was very amusing, for me and the rest of the crew, to watch the two of them sitting so regally, sipping tea from real china, while the rest of us waited on some rocky hillside until they were through.
The rest of the 13 episodes were finished up locally, Corriganville, Thousand Oaks, and several of the other Western movie ranches in the Los Angeles area. We also spent a great deal of the time on the CBS Studio Center Western Street and back lot, as well as many hours on a sound stage.
"Dundee and the Culhane," the story of a lawyer who travels through the old west, always dealt with a trial of some kind – usually murder. We made courtrooms out of saloons, old mine shafts, train cars, cabins and even on the trail. Just about everywhere.
Then we were cancelled. Oh well.