I’ve discovered The Big Valley reruns on Saturday night. Never watched the series the first time around (I was in high school).
Tonight’s episode credits went past and I saw the director listed as “Paul Henreid.”
Looked it up on imdb, and sure enough it’s THAT Paul Henreid. I find that kind of amazing. I guess because I’m immersed in a design project at the moment that has to do with Casablanca, and I’m surprised to see Victor Lazlo directing a campy TV show.
Paul Henreid directed a lot of tv. Maverick, Bonanza, Big Valley, and The Virginian. He seemed very comfortable with Westerns.
Interesting. I had no idea. Thanks!
Victor Lazlo? To me he’ll always be that *dreamy *Gerry Durrance whom Charlotte Vale met on the cruise ship. “Oh, Gerry–why ask for the moon? We have the stars.”
Tsk! It’s “Oh, Jerry, don’t let’s ask for the moon. We have the stars!” 
I do love Paul Henreid in Now, Voyager. But I prefer him in Casablanca; even though so many people think Victor Lazlo is a drip, I adore him. (But then I always tend to root for the runner-up/second banana guys, which is why I like Ralph Bellamy and Joseph Cotton so much.) Henreid kills in my favorite scene from any movie ever – that inspiring moment when he sings La Marseillaise with a steely glint in his eyes. Anyone who doesn’t get goosebumps from that is comatose or dead inside. Dead, I tells ya.
I love that he directed The Big Valley. How very cool. That’s actually a pretty fun series, not bad for a western. I don’t really associated as much with the other western TV shows, maybe because there’s more of a family soap opera vibe to it. It feels more akin to Falcon Crest or Dallas than The Virginian. Or maybe it’s just my bad memory talking, as it has been at least a decade since I last watched it.
Crap, missed the editing window. But I wanted to add Wendell Corey to my list of much-loved “also-rans” who often seem to end up without the girl.
(I guess Joseph Cotten doesn’t really fit that list, since he did graduate from Orson Welles’ second-banana to leading man. But I tend to think of him as Holly in The Third Man, Jed in Citizen Kane, and Tony in Since You Went Away.)
Wendell Corey beat out Burt Lancaster for the girl (Katherine Hepburn) in The Rainmaker.