A Movie Script for Rob Long
The other evening I pulled from my shelf a book entitled The Best of Robert Service, and I read to my children “The Shooting of Dan McGrew.” As I read the poem out loud and watched their rapt faces, I found himself wondering why no one had ever made a full-length movie based on the story told.
Consider how Service sets the scene:
A bunch of the boys were whooping it up in the Malamute saloon;
The kid that handles the music-box was hitting a rag-time tune;
Back of the bar, in a solo game, sat Dangerous Dan McGrew,
And watching his luck was his light-o'-love, the lady that’s known as Lou.
You could begin with a narrator running through the first set of stanzas as the kid plays the rag-time tune. You could then have the protagonist enter as the narrator continues:
When out of the night, which was fifty below, and into the din and glare,
There stumbled a miner fresh from the creeks, dog-dirty, and loaded for bear.
He looked like a man with a foot in the grave and scarcely the strength of a louse,
Yet he tilted a poke of dust on the bar, and he called for drinks for the house.
There was none could place the stranger’s face, though we searched ourselves for a clue;
But we drank his health, and the last to drink was Dangerous Dan McGrew.
Then, after a pause, the scene could shift from the saloon to Alaska’s Great Outdoors as the narrator continues:
There’s men that somehow just grip your eyes, and hold them hard like a spell;
And such was he, and he looked to me like a man who had lived in hell;
With a face most hair, and the dreary stare of a dog whose day is done,
As he watered the green stuff in his glass, and the drops fell one by one.
Then I got to figgering who he was, and wondering what he'd do,
And I turned my head — and there watching him was the lady that’s known as Lou.His eyes went rubbering round the room, and he seemed in a kind of daze,
Till at last that old piano fell in the way of his wandering gaze.
The rag-time kid was having a drink; there was no one else on the stool,
So the stranger stumbles across the room, and flops down there like a fool.
In a buckskin shirt that was glazed with dirt he sat, and I saw him sway,
Then he clutched the keys with his talon hands — my God! but that man could play.Were you ever out in the Great Alone, when the moon was awful clear,
And the icy mountains hemmed you in with a silence you most could hear;
With only the howl of a timber wolf, and you camped there in the cold,
A helf-dead thing in a stark, dead world, clean mad for the muck called gold;
While high overhead, green, yellow, and red, the North Lights swept in bars? —
Then you've a hunch what the music meant . . . hunger and might and the stars.And hunger not of the belly kind, that’s banished with bacon and beans,
But the gnawing hunger of lonely men for a home and all that it means;
For a fireside far from the cares that are, four walls and a roof above;
But oh! so cramful of cosy joy, and crowded with a woman’s love —
A woman dearer than all the world, and true as Heaven is true —
(God! how ghastly she looks through her rouge, — the lady that’s known as Lou.)
At this point, Rob Long could intervene and fill out the story by way of a flashback lasting, say, ninety minutes – which clearly must turn on the hopes of the miner and the infidelities of the lady that is known as Lou.
And when this part of the story has been told and the flashback is over, we could return to the saloon, and the narrator could resume as the denouement of the story unfolds before our eyes:
Then on a sudden the music changed, so soft that you scarce could hear;
But you felt that your life had been looted clean of all that it once held dear;
That someone had stolen the woman you loved; that her love was a devil’s lie;
That your guts were gone, and the best for you was to crawl away and die.
'Twas the crowning cry of a heart’s despair, and it thrilled you through and through —
"I guess I'll make it a spread misere," said Dangerous Dan McGrew.The music almost dies away . . . then it burst like a pent-up flood;
And it seemed to say, "Repay, repay," and my eyes were blind with blood.
The thought came back of an ancient wrong, and it stung like a frozen lash,
And the lust awoke to kill, to kill . . . then the music stopped with a crash,
And the stranger turned, and his eyes they burned in a most peculiar way;In a buckskin shirt that was glazed with dirt he sat, and I saw him sway;
Then his lips went in in a kind of grin, and he spoke, and his voice was calm,
And "Boys," says he, "you don't know me, and none of you care a damn;
But I want to state, and my words are straight, and I'll bet my poke they're true,
That one of you is a hound of hell . . . and that one is Dan McGrew."Then I ducked my head and the lights went out, and two guns blazed in the dark;
And a woman screamed, and the lights went up, and two men lay stiff and stark.
Pitched on his head, and pumped full of lead, was Dangerous Dan McGrew,
While the man from the creeks lay clutched to the breast of the lady that’s known as Lou.These are the simple facts of the case, and I guess I ought to know.
They say that the stranger was crazed with "hooch," and I'm not denying it’s so.
I'm not so wise as the lawyer guys, but strictly between us two —
The woman that kissed him — and pinched his poke — was the lady known as Lou.
There have been at least shorts done of this tale. Here is one:
And here is another:
Neither captures the force of the narrative. That would require a full-length feature. But, to the best of my knowledge, none has ever been done. So I am hoping that Rob picks up my suggestion and makes both of us rich.
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Oct '10
Re: A Movie Script for Rob Long
Looks like there have been two films made.....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shooting_of_Dan_McGrew_%281915_film%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shooting_of_Dan_McGrew_%281924_film%29
Re: A Movie Script for Rob Long
Mark Monaghan: Looks like there have been two films made.....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shooting_of_Dan_McGrew_%281915_film%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shooting_of_Dan_McGrew_%281924_film%29 · 4 minutes ago
This shows you how much I know about films. Both of these were silent films, however, and black-and-white films. Rob Long can do better.
Jun '11
Re: A Movie Script for Rob Long
Sorry Dr. Rahe but the right way to experience Robert Service is recited from memory by a man who really enjoys it. Preferably my father, who regaled his family with Dangerous Dan McGrew and
".....The northern lights have seen queer sights/ But the queerest they did ever see/Was the night on the marge of Lake Labarge/ I cremated Sam McGee..."
From which he often applied "A promise made is a debt unpaid" to real life.
Certainly "Dangerous Dan McGrew" would make a better movie than "The Cremation of Sam McGee", though. I'm with you there.
Apr '11
Re: A Movie Script for Rob Long
Not to dumb anything down Professor Rahe but I have a collection of Droopy Dog cartoon shorts that includes filmmaker Tex Avery's interpretation of that very same story. No offense to the original but it is a hoot!
Here is an excerpt courtesy of You Tube entitled The Shooting of Dan McGoo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrJ53n-M1V0&feature=player_detailpage
Jun '10
Re: A Movie Script for Rob Long
My grandparents had that (or a similar work) on their coffee table for decades. I have read that tale a number of times.
It is probably too much from a bygone age.
Re: A Movie Script for Rob Long
Jojo: Sorry Dr. Rahe but the right way to experience Robert Service is recited from memory by a man who really enjoys it. Preferably my father, who regaled his family with Dangerous Dan McGrew and
".....The northern lights have seen queer sights/ But the queerest they did ever see/Was the night on the marge of Lake Labarge/ I cremated Sam McGee..."
From which he often applied "A promise made is a debt unpaid" to real life.
Certainly "Dangerous Dan McGrew" would make a better movie than "The Cremation of Sam McGee", though. I'm with you there. · 1 hour ago
I read "The Cremation of Sam McGee" to my kids the other day as well.
Jan '11
Re: A Movie Script for Rob Long
You've stirred a very happy memory.
My father could play a few instruments, and he could carry a tune, but he had a unique ability to recite poetry. My parents would hold dinner parties, and the guests would always ask my dad to do a poem. His favorite was Casey at the Bat, and he'd recite it with all the drama and theatrics he could muster. He was actually very entertaining, and people loved it.
He knew quite a few poems and could perform them from memory, without a script. One of his standards was ... The Shooting of Dan McGrew.
So I thank you for provoking a nice memory!
Jan '11
Re: A Movie Script for Rob Long
Don't forget Abdul Abulbul Amir.
Jun '10
Re: A Movie Script for Rob Long
I discovered Robert Service many moons ago when I lived up in the Sierra and instantly became a huge fan. I always thought a live stage play with an actor reciting the verse while other actors behind him engaged in what was described and some clever stage craft to simulate the Yukon settings would be an engaging and entertaining way to bring Service's work alive. Even a more simple version with just one very skilled actor might do the trick much as Hal Holbrook was able to bring Twain alive...okay...toss in some occasional wind sounds and some snow flurries and I think you've really got something.
Oct '11
Re: A Movie Script for Rob Long
I was blessed with a neighbor who read poetry aloud to us, and Robert Service became a favorite of mine at a very early age. On an unbelievably hot day here in So Cal, when Hugh Hewitt was on weekends, he read The Cremation of Sam McGee aloud on the radio. I was pregnant with number three at the time, who was named after the neighbor as a result.
Jun '10
Re: A Movie Script for Rob Long
Twenty years ago or so I was able to go on a guided river trip on the Salmon River in central Idaho. Three days of excitement (some of the rapids are serious business) and spectacular beauty.
As we sat around our fire in the evenings, our two guides quoted Robert Service's long poems from memory. The time and place made them magical. No one would ever mistake his poetry as anything other than American.
I even bought a book of his poems thereafter, which I will now go try to find. (I have far too many books).
Edited on May 10, 2012 at 5:03pmRe: A Movie Script for Rob Long
KC Mulville
Don't forget Abdul Abulbul Amir. · 1 hour ago
Thank you. I want to do more of this sort of thing at home as time goes on.
Re: A Movie Script for Rob Long
Deal.
And the best thing is, we don't have to split it with Service. I think his stuff is now public domain.
The snag is, they don't make movies like that -- or like anything else, unless they're heavily-laden with effects -- anymore.
But it is true, isn't it, that there's something truly magnetic and compelling about poetry -- when it's about life and people and relatable things. Poetry, like a lot of art forms, lost a lot when it lost its audience.
Apr '11
Re: A Movie Script for Rob Long
Memorized poetry is great for reciting to the kids at bedtime. I don't have to search for the right book, and I don't have to struggle to make up an interesting story. It combines the best of story-telling and bedtime reading, and I think it fires their imagination--they don't have pictures to look at, so they see the story in their mind's eye.
I also simply enjoy committing poems to memory, just having the knowledge and skill at my command. (Especially since I can't sing or play an instrument.) My grandfather, whom I never knew, would recite the whole of the Raven to my dad. In turn, I remember my dad reading it to me in his study when I was little. To this day I picture Poe's chamber as my dad's study.
Shakespeare soliloquies also work well, and are always good to have in your mental file cabinet. We lost a whole lot when kids stopped having to memorize poetry in school. Not least because kids benefit from the knowledge that yes, you actually can read, learn, and remember something--anything!
Apr '11
Re: A Movie Script for Rob Long
Brian: I remember you've described that slice of heaven before, being holed up in the Sierra in the winter in a cabin with books and a beverage of choice...
Well, back to work, I guess.
Apr '12
Re: A Movie Script for Rob Long
Service was a Scot living in Canada when he was writing. Certainly his poems were American in the broadest sense, but his associations with the United States was minimal at the time that he became famous as a writer. He had lived in California in his youthful travels.
Jun '10
Re: A Movie Script for Rob Long
Rob Long: Deal.
And the best thing is, we don't have to split it with Service. I think his stuff is now public domain.
The snag is, they don't make movies like that -- or like anything else, unless they're heavily-laden with effects -- anymore.
But it is true, isn't it, that there's something truly magnetic and compelling about poetry -- when it's about life and people and relatable things. Poetry, like a lot of art forms, lost a lot when it lost its audience. · 2 hours ago
Given some of the astonishing visuals that Service's verse conjures up, I think a movie would require some CGI effects. Even without CGI, a lot spectacular images can be achieved just by shooting on location - think of Carroll Ballard's work in Never Cry Wolf.
Matt Blankenship
Brian: I remember you've described that slice of heaven before, being holed up in the Sierra in the winter in a cabin with books and a beverage of choice...
Well, back to work, I guess.
I return there often...in my mind.
Re: A Movie Script for Rob Long
Rob Long: Deal.
And the best thing is, we don't have to split it with Service. I think his stuff is now public domain.
The snag is, they don't make movies like that -- or like anything else, unless they're heavily-laden with effects -- anymore.
But it is true, isn't it, that there's something truly magnetic and compelling about poetry -- when it's about life and people and relatable things. Poetry, like a lot of art forms, lost a lot when it lost its audience. · 2 hours ago
It is, indeed, in the public domain. You are right about poetry. This piece is mesmerizing. It is disheartening to think that you may be right about Hollywood as well. This story needs no special effects. Alaska provides them in winter without cost.
You should pitch this to a studio, nonetheless.
Jul '11
Re: A Movie Script for Rob Long
My father used to recite this to me, when I was a little kid. He had been a telegrapher on the Army Postal Telegraph Service at Fort Yukon, Alaska, 1919-1922, when instant food was frozen caribou hanging outside, the lottery was betting on the Yukon River ice breakup, and transportation was still by dog and sled.
I have the collected works of Robert Service on the shelf, and dig it out from time to time.
I am surprised there isn't a movie. I thought it had been included in the Disney Melody Time films back in '48 or so.
Aug '10
Re: A Movie Script for Rob Long
Paul A. Rahe
This shows you how much I know about films. Both of these were silent films, however, and black-and-white films. Rob Long can do better.
Sound and colour do not guarantee a superior film. ;-)
Edited on May 10, 2012 at 8:32pm