LITTLE BIG SCREEN - "A MAN CALLED HORSE" (AND THE "TRUE" STORY)

Toobnote: Since the overall theme this year is "Toobworld Goes To The Movies", I decided to leave this previously scheduled blog post as is instead of moving it to next year.  The "Maverick" salute will continue on Monday......

The August showcase is a movie starring Richard Harris entitled "A Man Called Horse".

From Scott Lane at the IMDb:

"In 1825 an English aristocrat is captured by Indians. He lives with them and begins to understand/accept their lifestyles. Eventually he is accepted as part of the tribe and becomes their leader."

As was the case with "Casablanca" at the beginning of the year, here's how it plays out in Earth Prime-Time:

The movie does exist in the main Toobworld, but we had to go to Cologne, Germany, and the sitcom 'Lukas' for validation:

'Lukas'

"Hasch mich" 

Klaus-Dieter, better known as "Keile" mentioned the movie in this episode.

But the movie took liberties with the "historical event" which was seen in a 1957 episode of 'Wagon Train' by the same name.

First off, the story told by Horse took place in the three years before he met Major Adams, Flint McCullough, and Charlie Wooster.  This would make it the late 1860s, culminating with his arrival at the wagon train in the early 1870s.  This means Horse missed the Civil War by working as a clerk in the law offices of Lorimer & Forbes.  (Mr. Lorimer was the man he hoped would give consent to his marriage to Lorimer's daughter Lucinda.)

In Toobworld history, Horse was an American, found abandoned on the doorstep of a Boston orphanage when he was an infant.  In order to have an identity, he was given the name of the street on which the orphanage was located.

His name in those Boston years was never mentioned in the 'Wagon Train' episode, but in the movie Richard Harris played Lord John Morgan.  (Making him British was another liberty taken with the "facts".  But several American actors, many associated with Westerns, had turned down the role.  Once the English actor was offered the role, adjustments had to be made with the script.)

But perhaps the name itself wasn't altered.  Maybe he was "John Morgan" back in Boston.  If so, then the orphanage had to be located in the Boston suburb of Somers; that's where we'll find a Morgan Street in the Beantown area.

The Chief of the Crow who had captured him and who presented him as a gift to his mother was named Yellow Robe, but the movie changed it to Yellow Hand.  Yellow Hand's sister was Running Deer, but in Toobworld "reality" she was known as Bright Star.

The other major Native American character from Toobworld was the future mother-in-law of Horse, who "owned" him.  She was only known as "Old Mother" to the wagon train crew because Horse never offered up her name.  So I'm thinking the movie used her actual name based on research into the life story of Horse: Buffalo Cow Head.  

The fate of Horse in Toobworld is unknown.  By morning, once Old Mother had rested, Horse departed the wagon train with his mother-in-law to find a new life.

Old Mother was not long for the world, but Horse would have stayed with her until she died.  After that?  Maybe he made a second attempt to enter the "white man's world".  Perhaps he took on another name and started again in the wild, wild west.  (Although there doesn't seem to be any previously established TV Western characters from other shows who could have been Horse.  Either their back-stories and family relations would clash with those of Horse, or they're just too mean and ornery to have been the good-hearted "squaw-man".

 

SHOWS & MOVIES CITED:

• 'Wagon Train' - "A Man Called Horse"
• "A Man Called Horse"
• 'Lukas'