NOIRvember! Alan Ladd stars in BOX 13 the Full Pilot based on Ladd's radio series. Plus we are following the episode with our award winning 30-minute documentary THE SAD LIFE AND TRAGIC END OF SUPERSTAR ALAN LADD.
BOX 13 is a TV pilot of action and mystery with movie legend Alan Ladd. One year after creating his iconic lone gunfighter in SHANE, Alan Ladd’s company, Jaguar Productions, made a half hour TV pilot based on his radio series, BOX 13. Ladd was Dan Holiday, a successfully retired best-selling author of mystery novels who craved adventure. Frank Tuttle, Ladd’s partner, who had been the writer of BOX 13 on radio, wrote and directed the pilot. Like most film noir plots, Ladd’s hero is drugged, beat up and wrongly accused of murder. It’s terrific and so is Alan Ladd as Dan Holiday. Also in the cast is Whit Bissell, Frank Ferguson, John Howard, Tina Carver and future Emmy winning director and former child actor, Gene Reynolds.
After the film, actor Don Murray joins Rob Word to share a story of working together with Alan Ladd in the western feature, ONE FOOT IN HELL.
Following Don’s conversation, we are presenting our award winning 30-minute documentary THE SAD LIFE AND TRAGIC END OF SUPERSTAR ALAN LADD. Ridiculed for his diminutive size while still in elementary school, Alan Ladd’s struggle to attain movie stardom is typical. A combination of skill, determination, and good fortune in his finding a believer in former actress Sue Carol, who became his agent and wife, placed him at the top of post war popularity. His 5’6” height was hidden on the big screen. As a cold blooded hitman in 1942’s THIS GUN FOR HIRE, Ladd’s handsome, yet boyish face, created a sensation in Paramount’s film noir classic in which he was 4th billed and “introduced.” Signed by the studio, he became one of the most popular stars of the 1940s.
Always shy and insecure, Ladd was never a favorite with critics and was derided for his limited acting skills. As his popularity peaked in the late 40s, Ladd’s alcoholism increased. By the early 1950’s the studio felt that his days as a top box office star were ending and didn’t want him to star in the big budget western, SHANE. Fortunately, producer/director George Stevens was adamant that Ladd star as the mysterious gunfighter. Ladd was perfect for the part.
What happened to cause Ladd’s early demise at the age of 50? Were there two suicide attempts or were they accidents as the press was told? This special biography edition of A WORD ON WESTERNS delves into the early life, struggles, success, and downfall of superstar Alan Ladd. Born September 3, 1913, in Hot Springs, Arkansas, Ladd died January 29, 1964, at the age of 50, yet another popular star who died too young.
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