In The Narrow Trail, Hart rides Fritz across a
fallen tree spanning 100 feet of a canyon. Fritz walked down the length
of the tree with no problem the first time. However, a second take was
required to get a close up. When asked to stand still on the round surface,
Fritz lost his balance and fell several feet pinning Hart beneath him on
the canyon floor. Fritz's hooves were only inches from Hart's head but
the horse remained motionless until help came to reposition his legs so
he could stand up. Hart always claimed Fritz knew the danger Hart was in
and stayed still so as not to hurt Hart.
Hart must have been fearless. For the movie Sand,
Hart rode Fritz into a dark, water filled cave just to film them swimming
out. Deep inside the cave, near the edge of the water, (which Hart judged
to be about 60 feet deep at the deepest point) Fritz hit an unknown, underwater
ledge which he tried to swim over. Instead, he went over backwards, unseating
Hart in the cold, dark water. Fritz then panicked and tried to run up the
sides of the dome shaped cave falling backward into the water over and
over again. Hart located Fritz from the sound of his trashing, remounted,
and was able to guide Fritz safely out of the cave. After several such
experiences, Hart decided he could no longer use Fritz in his movies. He
cared about the horse too much and could not risk his safety in such dangerous
stunts. Besides, Hart didn't feel he could do his best for his fans if
he was always worrying about Fritz.
Fritz's swan song, his final stunt before retirement,
was in Singer Jim McKee. The horse jumps over a cliff, falling and rolling
into the gorge below. Surveying the area, Hart located a prepuce about
12 feel below the cliff, from there to the bottom of the gorge was about
one hundred and fifty feet. Fritz had never been doubled in any of his
movies - his brown and white coat pattern was too distinctive for substitution.
Hart had tried to have dummies of Fritz made before to be used as a staked
down wild horse or as a dead horse but they never turned out well enough.
This time, Hart called in the experts to build
a hand painted model of Fritz complete with joint springs and a real mane
and tail. It weighed about 1000 pounds and was made to Fritz's exact measurements.
The stunt was done by having Fritz jump down to the prepuce and fall. Then
Hart mounted the dummy which was suspended by piano wire. When the film
started to roll, the wires were cut sending Hart and the dummy tumbling
to the bottom of the gorge. Hart had to go before the New York Board of
Censors over the scene - they were sure a live horse had been used and
killed in filming this realistic scene.
Fritz is buried under the hill at La Loma, a huge stone
monument marks his grave.
Hart was filmed speaking only once and that was for the
reissue (with sound track) of his last movie Tumbleweeds in 1939. Fritz
had died the year before at 37. Hart talked about his love of movie making
and recited a poem he had written.
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It reads, in part:
"You do give old Fritz a pat on the nose
and when your arm encircles his neck
the cloud of dust
is no longer a cloud of dust
but a beautiful golden haze,
through which appears a long phantom herd of trailing cattle -
at their head, a pinto pony a pinto pony
with an empty saddle
and then a low, loved whinny the whinny
of a horse so fine -
that nothing seems to live between it and silence."
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Whoever else William S. Hart was, he was certainly
a man who loved his horse and making western movies.
Story provided by Sharon
Akers (Gibson)
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