Audie Murphy on Comeback Trail [archived newspaper article]

United Press International

June 18, 1969

HOLYWOOD – Nine months ago Audie Murphy was broke and in debt and told United Press International “I’m too tough for this damned town. It can’t break my heart.”

     America’s most decorated soldier of the Second World War – he was awarded even the Congressional Medal of Honor – is as tough as the hardpan earth of Farmersville, Tex., from which he sprang.

     Exploited by half the hack producers in Hollywood, Murphy’s heroics aren’t over yet.

     The soldier who killed or captured 240 Germans in combat has completed “A Time For Dying for Fipco Productions, a Washington D.C. outfit with faith in Murphy’s film know-how.

     It’s a big step on the financial road back for Murpy.

     “The movie is a western,” Audie said, “about a couple of young kids in the old west. It amounts to transferring the attitudes of today’s youngsters to another time and place.

     “I play a cameo as Jesse James. But the stars are a couple of newcomers, Anne Randall and Richard Lamp. Victor Jory is just great as Judge Roy Bean.”

     Murphy is already preparing his second production, A Horse for Mr. Barnum, to be filmed in Spain within the year.

     “I’ll play a larger role in this one,” he said.

     The rugged Texan lost $260,000 in an Algerian oil venture during the six-day Arab-Israeli war two years ago and is still recouping his losses.

     “My own financial picture is getting a lot brighter,” he said, his blue eyes cold with resentment. “The legal matters are settled and by the end of this year I should be even with everybody.

     Murphy isn’t a frivolous man. He doesn’t laugh easily. He is strong, self-confident and determined.

     “Once I’m squared away with the tax people and my debts I’ll be starting all over again. It’s not going to be easy, but I look forward to it.” He said.

     Murphy believes there’s room in the motion picture business for independent companies which producer entertainment rather social documentaries.

     “We’re looking at some other poperties,” he said “I’ll produce them and do some acting in hard-hitting secondary parts.

     “I don’t have the time to star in them. Ideally our company will producer two or three films a year using young people in lead roles with some good old pros to back them up.”

     One of those old pros is named Murphy, a man who is as determined to succeed in Hollywood as he did on those European battlefields.  

 

[submitted by Mike Hauss]