{"id":3892,"date":"2020-02-04T13:18:59","date_gmt":"2020-02-04T20:18:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theblackstallion.com\/web\/?p=3892"},"modified":"2020-02-04T13:18:59","modified_gmt":"2020-02-04T20:18:59","slug":"40th-film-anniversary-behind-the-scenes-part-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theblackstallion.com\/web\/40th-film-anniversary-behind-the-scenes-part-4\/","title":{"rendered":"40th film anniversary. Behind the scenes part 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cowboys & Indians magazine<\/a> articles on “The Black Stallion” (1979)<\/p>\n

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SHOP TILL YOU DROP!!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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The Black Stallion at 40: Stunt Man on a Mission<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n
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BY Elizabeth Kaye McCall <\/span><\/p>\n

November 25, 2019<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Stunt coordinator Glenn Randall Jr. wore many hats during the making of the movie classic.<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Shortly after Glenn Randall Jr. came onboard as stunt coordinator on The Black Stallion<\/em> he was headed to a horse show in Texas. \u201cThey told me they\u2019d committed to this black Arab. They wanted me to go see him. I said, \u2018fine,\u2019\u201d recalls Randall, whose father, Glenn Randall Sr., trained Roy Rogers\u2019 Trigger. \u201cMyself, the producer, and I think the assistant director flew to Texas to see this horse.\u201d A black Arabian stallion named Cass-Ol\u00e9 was being shown by Francesca Cuello when Randall met the girl\u2019s father, Dr. Leo Cuello, at the competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were sitting in the upper bleachers in the arena. They had a little restaurant up there. It was a magnificent horse,\u201d says Randall. \u201cWe had a talk and during the conversation he [Cuello] said the deal he\u2019d made is we\u2019d have to take their trainer to get possession of the horse. I said, \u2018Really. <\/em>I\u2019d like to talk to the trainer.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

When he did, Randall says, \u201cI realized he was a show-ring trainer and had no knowledge, at all, of the type of training we were going to have to put on this horse. So I went back and said, \u2018Gentlemen, we\u2019ve got problems. If you want us to take your trainer along and let me hire another <\/em>trainer and pay yours to watch while we train him, that\u2019s fine with me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Costs nixed that option.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018Well, then I can\u2019t do the movie,\u201d Randall continues. \u201cThe doctor spoke up and said, \u2018I understand what you\u2019re saying, Glenn, but the problem is the horse belongs to my daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Cuello\u2019s daughter, then a teen, would only be assured that the horse would be safe if her trainer went along. But, Cuello allowed, \u201cIf she will let the horse go without the trainer, that\u2019s fine with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

After winning her class, Francesca joined the group with her father and met Randall. \u201cThey introduced her and told her who I was. I said, \u2018Would you walk with me for a little while? I want to go get a Coke.\u2019 We went to another table away from her dad and the producers and all the other crew and I sat down and started talking to her.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cI said, \u2018I love your horse. He would be a wonderful black stallion you could be proud of. The problem is, we\u2019re going to have to train your horse to do things he doesn\u2019t know how to do. He\u2019s going to have to work at liberty and learn a lot of different things. Your trainer is not qualified to do that type of training.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI explained to her who I was and what my background was. I said, \u2018If you want the horse to go, you\u2019re going to have to put your trust in me. I promise you that I\u2019ll protect him with my life.\u2019 We went back to the table and her dad said, \u2018What do you think?\u2019 She said, \u2018I\u2019m going to let the horse go because I trust Glenn.\u2019 So, that\u2019s how we got the horse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Randall proceeded to pave the path ahead. \u201cI told the producers I\u2019ve got to get a trainer and we\u2019ll have to ship the horse to California and put him in training four to five months. Then I talked [brother] Corky into doing it,\u201d says Randall.<\/p>\n

Already established in Hollywood, his older brother wasn\u2019t keen on the proposition. \u201cCorky didn\u2019t want to do the movie. I talked him into training the horse and it wasn\u2019t easy. He wasn\u2019t known as a horse trainer, as such. He\u2019d been around my dad all of his life and we trained horses and what have you, but he was more of a \u2018boss wrangler.\u2019 He was probably one of Hollywood\u2019s top ramrods, or boss wranglers. The Black Stallion <\/em>launched his career as a horse trainer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having gotten the horse and Corky on board, Randall was sent to the boy who would become the lead with the Black Stallion, Kelly Reno.<\/p>\n

\u201cKelly came to California \u2026 got them a motel in Newhall with a swimming pool [near the Randall Ranch]. I spent half my time teaching him how to swim and we\u2019d take him to the barn and let him work with Cass-Ol\u00e9. His mother was not real sure about us. I promised his mother, \u2018On my life, nothing is going to happen to him.\u2019 So, now I\u2019ve given my word on the horse and the little boy!\u201d<\/p>\n

He also brought two of his veteran trick horses to double Cass-Ol\u00e9 for difficult scenes. \u201cThey were sorrels, but we dyed them black. I had a lot of training on them. The horse that was tied up, wrapped up in ropes [after escaping the shipwreck and reaching the island], that was my horse dyed black.\u201d<\/p>\n

Randall\u2019s horse also doubled where The Black gets loose and runs down a street back in America. \u201cWe shot that in Toronto \u2014 jumped over a car and that kind of stuff,\u201d Randall recalls. \u201cThat\u2019s<\/em> what they hired me for. Doing all the stunt work and setting those things up. I would help them find locations, hire the people that would get the job done, and supervise the whole damn thing. I\u2019m more structured in my work. I have to plan everything and look at every avenue of danger and provide for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the production got to Sardinia, Randall remembers that director Carroll [Ballard] and the director of photography, Caleb Deschanel, were adamant about having the horse swim 150 to 200 yards offshore.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe swam our horses a little bit, but I said, \u201cThese horses aren\u2019t amphibians. They can only swim a short distance.\u2019 The producer said, \u2018We\u2019ve got <\/em>to have them. What are we going to do?\u2019 I said they\u2019ve got some Camargue horses in France that were raised in the swamp and all they do is swim.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

(Camargue horses are indigenous to the marshy Camargue wetlands of the Rhone delta in the south of France.)<\/p>\n

Heeding Randall\u2019s advice, they bought a white Camargue horse, significantly smaller than Cass-Ol\u00e9, but it worked. \u201cWe dyed him black and used that little horse to do faraway swimming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only horses had water challenges. By this time, Kelly could swim, \u201cBut he wasn\u2019t real brave about it,\u201d Randall says. \u201cOne time they wanted to see Kelly far out, about 100 yards off the beach in Sardinia. Carroll just wanted him sitting on this rock outcropping. I gave Kelly a mask and said, \u2018We\u2019re going to have to swim out there. I\u2019ll be on the back side of the rock, so they can\u2019t see me but I\u2019ll be right there with you.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018OK,\u2019 so we swam out to it. I said, \u2018Let\u2019s swim around the rock a little bit and get comfortable.\u2019 We started swimming around and I looked down and it took my breath away. The water was so clear you could see 150 or 200 feet down. It was like jumping out of an airplane. It was a shock. When Kelly looked, he almost walked on water back to the rock! But, he did real good for a little kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/em>I knew it was a good movie after I saw it,\u201d he reflects on The Black <\/em>Stallion. \u201cI was kind of surprised, but the book had staying power. I did Raiders <\/em>and ET<\/em> and a lot of other movies that had legs too and are still being shown today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Randall\u2019s credits \u2014 working as second unit director to stunt coordinator to stunts \u2014 saw him part of a long list of blockbusters, from Indiana Jones<\/em> and Star Wars<\/em> to The Mask of Zorro<\/em>, and more.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re also looking at a generation of films that will never be done again in the fashion that we did them. Back in the day, when my father did Ben Hur, <\/em>they spent nine months just training the horses for it. In the stunt world, I had to do all my stunts for real. Now they\u2019ve got cables, CGI, blue screen. It\u2019s just a different way of making movies.\u201d<\/p>\n

These days, he\u2019s retired and far from Hollywood. On the opposite coast from L.A.\u2019s San Fernando Valley where he grew up, Randall lives on the 30-acre horse farm he built in Aiken, South Carolina, after leaving the movie business behind. \u201cA little piece of heaven,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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More about The Black Stallion<\/h3>\n

The Black Stallion: A Heartwarming Epic For The Ages<\/a><\/p>\n

The Black Stallion\u2019s Accidental Screenwriter<\/a><\/p>\n

The Black Stallion\u2019s Secret Weapon<\/a><\/p>\n

The Black Stallion at 40 With\u00a0Production Assistant Tim Farley<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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