GONE FISHIN'

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GONE FISHIN', FOLKS!

I'm Out O'State until Sunday, September 5th.
But please continue to submit your comments, and upon my return, I will read and delete them.

Uhm... 'scuse me, I meant to say, "I will post and respond to them."

Sorry. (Sometimes I listen to the wrong voice inside my headbone.)

~ D-FensDogg
'Loyal American Underground'

YE OLDE COMMENT POLICY: All comments, pro and con, are welcome. However, ad hominem attacks and disrespectful epithets will not be tolerated (read: "posted"). After all, this isn’t Amazon.com, so I don’t have to put up with that kind of bovine excrement.
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THE GREATEST WESTERN MOVIE OF THEM ALL!

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[Cinematic Symbolism.]
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THERE IS NO GREATER LOVE THAN THIS,

THAT A MAN LAY DOWN HIS LIFE

FOR THE SAKE OF HIS FRIENDS.

~ Jesus Christ
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As promised, here is a look at what I consider to be – without question – the greatest Western film ever produced.
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As I said previously, my favorite Western movie is ‘Monte Walsh’ from 1970, starring Lee Marvin, Jack Palance, and Jeanne Moreau. This is my favorite because I can personally relate so well to the principal character and his circumstances.
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But the greatest Western film (snapping right at Monte Walsh’s heels), and coming in second in my own personal ranking, is this:

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The Wild Bunch – 1969
Starring William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, and Robert Ryan
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Directed by SAM PECKINPAH in 1969, the story takes place primarily in Mexico during the revolution of 1913. It concerns the aging Pike Bishop and the last five surviving members of his outlaw gang who become mercenaries for a Mexican general at war against Pancho Villa’s forces. This wild bunch agrees to try stealing a shipment of rifles from the U.S. Army for General Mapache, all the while that Bishop’s ex-partner-in-crime, Deke Thornton, is leading a posse that is dogging the wild bunch and attempting to kill them on behalf of a railroad executive.

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Evaluating ‘THE WILD BUNCH’ objectively in terms of narrative force, characterization, direction, scope, suspense, and pure excitement, it is unsurpassed in the pantheon of Western films – the “Citizen Kane” of Westerns.

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‘The Wild Bunch’ is a moral tale and an audacious story in a lot of ways, because you’re taking killers, who we see in the opening five minutes of the movie are savage, terrible killers, yet it enables you to discover their humanity; takes you on a journey where they – for the first time in their lives – do something for somebody else.
~ David Weddle
author of ‘IF THEY MOVE…KILL ‘EM!’: The Life And Times Of Sam Peckinpah’ (1994)

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["If they move... kill 'em!".]

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Below are some excerpts related to Peckinpah’s ‘The Wild Bunch’ from the David Weddle book “If They Move…Kill ‘Em”.

Page 362:
But there were valid concerns behind Sam’s obsessiveness. The first time around, the Warners sound department laid in the same gunshot effects they’d been using since Errol Flynn made ‘Dodge City’ in 1939. Every six-gun and rifle sounded the same. Sam threw a fit, insisting that new gunshots be recorded so that each gun in the picture had its own individual sound. By the time they were finished more than a hundred different gunshots were used on the effects track. “To mesh all of those onto one track and still bring out those individual sounds was a son of a bitch, but it happened, you’ll hear it,” says Lou Lombardo. “You know when Holden fires, ‘cause that forty-five barks, and you know when Strother fires that thirty-ought-six. Sam raised hell over that effects track, but he got them to bring it up to a level of quality that won them the S.M.P.T.E. sound-effects award.”

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The first fine cut of ‘The Wild Bunch’ ran two hours, thirty-one minutes and had a total of 3,642 cuts in it, more than any other film processed by Technicolor up until that time. (American movies in the late sixties had an average of 600 cuts.)

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[Stealing American weapons for a Mexican general.]

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Martin Scorsese:
“I think everyone remembers where they were when they first saw The Wild Bunch,” says Ann Godoff, a film student at NYU at the time, and now an executive editor at Random House.

One of Godoff’s instructors, Martin Scorsese, remembers where he was. He tagged along with Jay Cocks, then a movie critic for Time, to a special screening of the film at Warner Bros. “It was just the two of us witnessing this incredible work of art. We were stunned, totally stunned, overwhelmed. ‘Ride The High Country’ was a good indication of a new approach to the Western. It was like the beginning of the end, and ‘The Wild Bunch’ was the end. But it was an incredible blaze of glory. … The exhilaration had to do with the way he used film and the way he used the images with a number of different cameras going at different speeds. You really get a wonderful choreographed effect, it’s like dance or like poetry. Jay and I had been expecting something really incredible, but we were still taken aback by it, because it was much more than we expected.”

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[Running to the general; running from the posse.]

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John Milius:
“I saw ‘The Wild Bunch’ about the second or third day after it opened on Hollywood Boulevard,” says John Milius, screenwriter of ‘Jeremiah Johnson’ and ‘Apocalypse Now’ [and ‘The Life And Times Of Judge Roy Bean’] and director of such films as ‘Big Wednesday’ and ‘Conan The Barbarian’. “That was because George Lucas saw it and said, ‘This is the best movie ever made! It’s better than ‘The Searchers’, it’s better than anything! You all have to go see it!’

“So we went and saw it. I really liked the movie. There was a side of Peckinpah that was out of control; I liked that. And then you have that wonderful scene where they’re sitting there drinking and the old man says, ‘We all dream of being a child again, even the worst of us, perhaps the worst most of all.’ You will remember that line all of your life, ALL OF YOUR LIFE! It’s something you take away from that movie and you’ll NEVER forget. How many movies ever give you that? There are many moments in ‘Wild Bunch’ that are like that.”

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[Here comes the posse.]

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Alex Cox:
In England, where the film won almost unanimous raves from the critics, Alex Cox, director of ‘Sid And Nancy’ and ‘Walker’, was among the first to see it. “I’d never laid eyes on a western like that. It seemed to me to be so much a film about the Vietnam War, a film about guys in military uniforms taking hostages and committing atrocities, going to foreign countries and murdering people, and really not giving a damn for anything except their own little community. They had this tremendous sense of their own heroism and their own importance and their own sense of honor.

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I thought it was a fantastic film. It was an extraordinary action movie, a great action movie, but it had such a sense of cynicism and brutality as well. It’s amazing that he got it made. The cast was so perfectly chosen, Holden, Borgnine, Ryan, all of the performances were so full of passion and sadness. That was the great thing about all of Peckinpah’s films, the SADNESS that the characters have inside them.”

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["Let's go."]

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Ron Shelton:
Ron Shelton, director of ‘Bull Durham’ and ‘White Men Can’t Jump’, was a minor-league ball player scratching out a living on dusty baseball diamonds in the Southwest. “I went to movies every day, basically to kill the afternoon ‘cause you didn’t have to be to the ball park until four-thirty and the theaters were air-conditioned. Well, in the summer of sixty-nine I went to a movie called ‘The Wild Bunch’ in Little Rock… It was just a western, but I liked westerns. After it was over I was exhilarated and I didn’t know why. I was exhilarated, and I’d just seen a bunch of killers kill a bunch of other killers. I wanted to know why I was exhilarated. …

I think I was exhilarated because of the sense of shifting loyalties and the compiling of irony upon irony without the movie getting bogged in the cerebral. It functioned at an emotional level that narrative art needs to, and compounded and confounded the mythologies and the ironies in a way that never felt self-conscious. The sad thing today is that action movies have degenerated into cartoons. We forget that at their best, action movies can be as complex and intelligent as anything in Shakespeare.”

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[Pike rides off alone.]

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Ethan Mordden:
Ethan Mordden writes in his recent book, ‘Medium Cool – The Movies Of The 1960s’, “The Wild Bunch is an astonishingly unique film virtually frame by frame, Peckinpah’s masterpiece and, as aficionados are gradually learning, one of the masterpieces of American cinema.”

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[When people and dynamite meet.]

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Page 375:
‘The Wild Bunch’ won only two Academy nominations, one for Jerry Fielding’s score and another for the screenplay by Sickner, Green and Peckinpah: no nomination for editing… for directing… nor for best picture. The omissions were ludicrous at face value, but given the clubby beauty-contest criteria if not outright bribery on which the awards are based, it was a minor miracle that the enfant terrible got any nominations at all.
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Time, the great equalizer, would correct this injustice, though Sam Peckinpah never lived to see it. ‘The Wild Bunch’ exploded on American movie screens in 1969 like a shrapnel bomb, easily the most controversial picture that season. But it has since risen to the status of a respectable classic. Its violence, though still intensely disturbing, has lost its sensationalism in the wake of the hundreds of high-tech (and truly nihilistic) bloodbaths that have followed it. The depletion of its shock value has cleared the way for a deeper appreciation of its thematic complexity, rich characterizations, textured detail, and its epic and profoundly romantic vision. It now regularly appears on critics’ lists of the the best movies of all time.

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[Pike gives 'em hell.]

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Page 376:
When home video opened a whole new market up in the early 1980s, ‘The Wild Bunch’ was one of the first twenty films that Warners released. The uncut version was eventually released on videotape as well, though the wide-screen images were cropped for TV, obliterating Peckinpah’s original compostions, and the soundtrack was in muddy mono – all those hundreds of hours Sam spent on the dubbing stage were lost.

Will Americans ever get a chance to see one of the greatest films ever produced in their country in the form that its creator intended? In the early 1990s, Martin Scorsese, Robert Harris, Garner Simmons, and Paul Seydor began lobbying various Warner Bros. executives for a theatrical release of Peckinpah’s version of the film. In February 1993 their efforts appeared to have paid off. Warners announced plans to release a 70mm, fully restored print of the film, complete with its original six-track stereo soundtrack. After premiering at the Cinerama Dome in Los Angeles, the picture would go on to play in fifteen other American cities, including New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Boston.

Then, like a scene in some black comic nightmare, disaster struck again. Not realizing that Peckinpah’s version had already been given an R-rating by the MPAA in 1969, the new generation of Warners executives submitted it to the Association for a rating. To the studio’s dismay, the MPAA rerated the film NC-17 (the equivalent of the old X-rating), which rendered the plan to release it commercially unfeasible.

Taken at face value, the MPAA’s action was absurd. Dozens of other recent “action” movies starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Steven Seagal, Sylvester Stallone, and others have been packed with graphic violence that goes far beyond anything in ‘The Wild Bunch’. Why the double standard? ...

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Warners promptly canceled its plans to release the restored film “until further notice”, and The Los Angeles Times Sunday “Calendar” section was filled with letters from outraged fans for two successive weeks afterward.

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[Here comes trouble!]

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I’m happy to report that in 1995, Warner Brothers eventually worked through all the red tape and nonsense and did follow through on their plans to release ‘The Wild Bunch’ in a fully restored 70mm print of the "director’s cut". As originally planned, it was first shown at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood, U.S.A. The Countess and I went to see it, not once but twice, six days apart. And here are my saved ticket receipts to prove it:

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If you’ve never seen the full director’s cut of ‘The Wild Bunch’ and yet you consider yourself a fan of the Western movie genre, think again, slowpoke cowpoke! It is now available on DVD, and I watch my copy at least once a year.

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My own full-length review of ‘The Wild Bunch’ can be read HERE.
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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
(aka The Black Cole Kid)
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YE OLDE COMMENT POLICY: All comments, pro and con, are welcome. However, ad hominem attacks and disrespectful epithets will not be tolerated (read: "posted"). After all, this isn’t Amazon.com, so I don’t have to put up with that kind of bovine excrement.

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BEST OF THE WEST: My Fifteen Favorite Western Films

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After having viewed literally hundreds of Western movies, I've decided that the 15 listed below are those that I most enjoyed. I own 10 of them on DVD and 1 on VHS (as it hasn't yet been released in the DVD format; but I will buy two copies of it the day it appears on the market). These movies have been arranged in alphabetical order. Alright, get along little dogies . . .
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Blazing Saddles - 1974
Starring Clevon Little and Gene Wilder
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A Western town is appointed a new sheriff who turns out to be Black and this upsets the local sensibilities, etc., etc., etc.
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Everyone's seen it and everyone's laughed.
Look, ordinarily there's nothing the least bit funny about flatulence. "FLATULENCE AIN'T FUNNY!" ...except in that one scene with the cowboys around the campfire. Oh, my gosh!
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'Blazing Saddles' is an undeniable classic and anyone who says it ain't is Full O'Sh!t. (That's Irish profanity.)
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Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid - 1969
Starring Paul Newman and Robert "Red" Redford
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Exploits of the famous outlaw duo in their later years.
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Simply put, this is Hollywood entertainment at its very best.
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"I LIKE THE MOVIE", Richard Bach said to Don Shimoda in the book 'ILLUSIONS: The Adventures Of A Reluctant Messiah'. And if it's good enough for Bach, it's good enough for you.
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High Plains Drifter - 1973
Starring Clint Eastwood
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A mysterious man arrives in town and offers to help the townfolk defend themselves against the baddies... but there is a catch. A Western movie with a supernatural dimension added.
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Violent, suspenseful, intriguing, and full of blood, sweat, and whiskey - everything a great Western requires!
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Calamity Cat said: "Good one-liners. Kind of steamy."
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The Life And Times Of Judge Roy Bean - 1972
Starring Paul Newman, Anthony Perkins, and Victoria Principal
[DVD: I has it.]
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A bizarre tale based partially on the life of the infamous Judge Roy Bean, the self-described "Law West Of The Pecos".
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An unacknowledged classic; almost abstract, turn-of-the-century Texas on peyote. Newman was excellent as the charmingly warped purveyor of frontier justice. This movie is so askew, but it don't mean a thing 'cause it does have that swing! In its own way, it is as off-the-wall as 'Blazing Saddles', and it requires that you BYOL (Bring Your Own Lunacy). You'll need to bring an insane appreciation for black comedy with you.
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Watch for Stacy Keach's scene as Bad Bob - the original Bad Bob - that nasty, albino gunslinger. (He likes his horse flesh smothered in onions.)
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Ask anyone what Paul Newman's best Western was and anyone will tell you, "Butch Cassidy..." But ask me, Black Cole Kid, and I'll tell ya, "Beano!"
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"For Texas and Miss Lilly!"
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Monte Walsh - 1970
Starring Lee Marvin, Jack Palance, and Jeanne Moreau
[VHS: I has it.]
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The story of two older cowboys coming face to face with the reality that "the days of the cowboy" are numbered.
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No, I won't say this is the best Western ever made, because it's not. (Although it's damn close!) But it IS my all-time favorite. Why? Because when I watch this film, I feel as if I'm watching the story of my life in cowboy garb and projected onto the screen.
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One of the most melancholy movies ever, and one of the silver screen's greatest romances - Monte and his "Countess". I saw it for the first time (or so I once believed) one night in 1989 with Calamity Cat. I was so moved by this movie, that first thing the next morning, I watched the entire film for a second time before returning it to the rental shop. That was two viewings in about 12 hours.
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It wasn't until years later that I came across an old journal I had kept of a trip we took to Las Vegas in July of 1974, when I was 14 years old, and discovered to my surprise that not only had I seen 'Monte Walsh' before 1989, but I'd even seen it on the silver screen. In 1974 I wrote:
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"We checked out at 11:15 and then ate breakfast. We shopped and then us kids saw a movie, 'Monte Walsh' (a Western) and 'Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid' (a Western). While we saw the movie, Mom & Dad gambled and Dad won 86 dollars." [Remember the days of the "double-bill" movie theaters?]
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Don't be fooled by cheap imitations (i.e., the inferior Tom Selleck remake of 2003); see the first 'Monte Walsh' or don't see it at all!
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Once Upon A Time In The West - 1969
Starring Charles Bronson, Jason Robards, Henry Fonda and Claudia Cardinale
[DVD: I has it.]
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A railroad man attempting to complete his line to the Pacific Ocean hires a sadistic killer to remove all "obstacles". And just who is that man with the harmonica?
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Unquestionably one of the very greatest Western movies ever made. It's complex, stylish, beautiful, and intense. Sergio Leone's "Spaghetti Western" made with a big budget and partially filmed in the United States. Yeah, 'The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly' was mostly good, but THIS is GREAT!
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You can count on both hands how many sentences are spoken in the first 14 minutes of the film, and yet in just those first nearly wordless 14 minutes, you will immediately recognize that you are about to see a genuine movie masterpiece! The sound is fabulous! The Ennio Morricone music soundtrack is the best in the history of Western film, and the cinematography... well, watch for the famous crane shot when Jill enters the train depot and we view her through the window until she exits the back door and then we are carried up and over the roof until we see the whole town laid out before us. It's one of the most famous shots in moviedom.
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'Once Upon A Time In The West' is a real, honest-to-goodness "must-see!"
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Rustler's Rhapsody - 1985
Starring Tom Berenger
[DVD: I has it.]
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A spoof that pokes fun at and rips off just about everything you can possibly think of from the Western genre: old moldy "B" oaters, Sam Peckinpah's bloodbaths, "Spaghetti Westerns", you name it!
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The critics panned it, the public scorned it, but I thought it was uproarious! It's every Western movie rolled into one. Without a thorough knowledge of the Western genre, many of the jokes will go undetected (like the slow-motion shot a la Peckinpah), but to the ACMV ("Advanced Cowboy Movie Viewer") it's a "gotta-see!"
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Calamity Cat said: "I can see where the casual viewer might not find this amusing, but if you know anything about Westerns, you'll find it hilarious."
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Red River - 1948
Starring John Wayne and Montgomery Clift
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A man's character and personality gets twisted when he attempts to complete a grueling and ambitious cattle drive.
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Vintage Wayne in a truly "classic" Western. They don't come much better than this. Stylish costuming, good black & white photography and score. The ending is something of a cop-out, but that's it's only flaw. If you don't like 'Red River', you just don't like Westerns.
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Calamity Cat said: "It was interesting to see Wayne as an anti-hero".
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Shane - 1953
Starring Alan Ladd and Jack Palance
[DVD: I has it.]
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A drifting, loner, retired gunslinger comes to the aid of settlers in their battle against a ruthless cattle baron.
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This movie contains many of the traditional elements of the great Westerns and it should be seen by all fans of this genre. Jack Palance as the hired killer, "Wilson", is a villain for the ages! A classic in every way.
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The Shootist - 1976
Starring John Wayne, Lauren Bacall, and Jimmy Stewart
[DVD: I has it.]
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An infamous elder gunman, dying of cancer, tries to live out his last days in peace, but various characters attempting to capitalize on his notoriety, make it impossible.
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John Wayne's last movie and his finest performance. Anyone who says The Duke couldn't act must find a way to deal with 'The Shootist'. It's a rich but subtle portrayal and just a fine Western in every respect. (Even as an old woman, Lauren Bacall was still hot!)
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Support Your Local Sheriff - 1969
Starring James Garner and Walter Brennan
[DVD: I has it.]
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A gunslinging stranger, on his way to Australia, is finally convinced - for a short while - to take the job of sheriff in a lawless town.
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Ridiculous nonsense. A movie full of stupid characters with low or nonexistent morals. Isn't it great?!
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This is one funny movie, pardner. I don't know anyone who doesn't like it.
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Tombstone - 1993
Starring Val Kilmer and Kurt Russell
[DVD: I has it.]
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The silver screen's best version of the famous "Shootout At The OK Corral".
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Who hasn't already seen this one?
You there, in the vest, is it?
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If for no other reason, you must see 'Tombstone' for Val Kilmer's brilliant portrayal of the consumptive John "Doc" Holliday. Rarely has an actor lit up the screen like this and absolutely COMMANDED the viewer's attention. I can think of only a few other instances, such as James Dean in 'East Of Eden' and 'Giant', Treat Williams in 'Hair', and Robert DeNiro in 'The Deer Hunter'. Kilmer undebatably delivers one of Hollywood's all-time great performances!
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True Grit - 1969
Starring John Wayne, Glenn Campbell, and Kim Darby
[DVD: I has it.]
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A young girl hires an old, drunken, cantankerous marshal to help her track down her father's killer.
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John Wayne won a "Best Actor" Oscar for his portrayal of the stubborn, curmudgeonly, and one-eyed but determined Marshal Rooster Cogburn. Excellent story, characters, and dialogue; completely first-rate with plenty of humor and action, and lots of gorgeous scenery. Like the tail fins on a 1959 Cadillac, it's a genuine American classic!
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The Westerner - 1940
Starring Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan
[DVD: I has it.]
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An innocent cowboy is accused of horse stealing and eventually winds up involved in a feud between Judge Roy Bean and the local homesteaders.
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Walter Brennan pretty much steals the show from Gary Cooper, but both are fabulous as they play off each other in a subtle psychological war: Cooper's laconic cowboy Vs. Brennan's semi-deranged judge. The scene in which Cooper waits for the jury's verdict is a masterpiece of subtlety and humor. 'The Westerner' is at times extremely funny and then deadly serious - a combination that rarely works in movies but succeeds brilliantly here. Some really nice black & white photography is the icing on this delicious Western cake. Great stuffs!
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OK (Corral), those are my fifteen favorite Western films.
What's that you say? That was only fourteen?
Ahh, glad to know y'all are payin' such close attention!
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Right you are - that was only fourteen. That's because I am saving what I consider to be the greatest Western movie ever made for another blog bit. It deserves its own web page, and besides that, this blog bit is plenty long already, and I'm tired of all the bitchin' 'bout how long my blog installments are.
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Later today or tomorrow, I will return with, not my favorite Western (that's the original 'Monte Walsh', remember?) but, "the greatest Western ever made", which is my second favorite by only a horse's... uhm... eyelash. So, don't forget to... "Come back! Reader. Reader. Come back!"
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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
[or, "The Black Cole Kid"]
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Link:
See my full-length review of 'Monte Walsh': "Dead Men Riding"
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YE OLDE COMMENT POLICY: All comments, pro and con, are welcome. However, ad hominem attacks and disrespectful epithets will not be tolerated (read: "posted"). After all, this isn’t Amazon.com, so I don’t have to put up with that kind of bovine excrement.
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LOST DUTCHMAN'S MINE: 20 Little Western Movie Gems Unjustly Forgotten

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Alright, as promised, here is a list of 20 overlooked Western movies that I believe you would find worth watching. I ain't sayin' that these are the ONLY lost little gems worth your time - there are plenty more Westerns that have been largely forgotten by modern audiences but which deserve our attention. However, this is just a sample (in no particular order) of minor winners that come quickly to my mind and which I can confidently recommend to anyone who enjoys the Western genre in general.
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The Ballad Of Gregorio Cortez - 1982

Starring Edward James Olmos

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A Mexican accused of murdering a sheriff leads a posse on a massive chase to the border.

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A documentary-like look at a true story, showing both sides of the dispute. A bit slow for the "Airheadzonans", but masterful storytelling. Skip it if you need lots of shooting and death. The soundtrack of synthesizer music and old Mexican folk music makes for an effective contrast. The acting is fabulous and the story proves the old adage about there being two sides to every coin.

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Unfortunately, you may find this one difficult to locate. It was originally shown on PBS and it may never have been released on DVD (I'm not sure, but I would buy it if I saw it in that format). If you thought 'Summer Lovers' and 'Rocky 3' were good movies then, babe, you ain't got the intellect for this one.

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Hombre - 1967

Starring Paul Newman and Richard Boone

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A half-breed is convinced, despite "reservations" [sorry], to help stagecoach passengers in their confrontation with nasty outlaws.

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A very good movie: sharp dialogue, well-defined characters and a valuable statement on humanity, loyalty, prejudice, and sacrifice. Richard Boone plays the villain, and although he chews up the scenery a bit, he was "a really good bad guy"!

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Ruggles Of Red Gap - 1935

Starring Charles Laughton

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An uppercrust English butler is won by an uncouth American cowboy in a poker game and is forced to "go West."

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Patriotic and exquisite in its silliness, but it won't appeal to everybody's tastes. I loved it. I've seen it two or three times and I would purchase a copy.

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Shenandoah - 1965

Starring Uncle Jimmy Stewart

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A story about how the Civil War takes its toll on a close-knit family.

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Yes, there are some flaws and implausible moments, but Jimmy Stewart was so great in this role that they are easily overlooked. Ol' Uncle Jimmy's best Western by a long shot!

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Barbarosa - 1981

Starring Willie Nelson and Gary Busey

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"Barbaaarooooowsa!"

A young man teams up with a fabled outlaw to learn the ropes.

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A bigger than life Western with Willie Nelson being surprisingly good in his role. A lot of fun.

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Way Out West - 1937

Starring Laurel & Hardy

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I love Laurel and Hardy under any circumstances, but 'WAY OUT WEST' is particularly classic. Two oafs must travel West to deliver a notice of inheritance and they tend to hurt themselves. Funny stuffs and quite possibly the best of L & H.

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The Grey Fox - 1982

Starring Richard Farnsworth

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An old outlaw struggles to refrain from taking up his old profession after release from prison.

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A solid story: dark, lusty cinematography; beautiful scenery; and an effective score. Not a lot of action, but the cast is excellent and the movie conveys a sense of authenticity.

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Man With The Gun - 1955

Starring Robert Mitchum

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A town-tamer is hired to clean up the outlaw problem despite opposition from some of the respectable townfolk.

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A simplistic but atmospheric old black & white. It doesn't have a foot in reality, but it's a great example of Hollywood myth-making. The movie is suspenseful and enjoyable.

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The 7 Faces Of Dr. Lao - 1964

Starring Tony Randall and Barbara Eden

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A mysterious circus comes to town, led by the strange Dr. Lao, and the townfolk are in for a better look at themselves.

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Before there was the TV show 'Kung Fu', there was Dr. Lao - a Far Easterner in the Wild West. Tony Randall gives a tour-de-force performance in this charming little morality play fantasy. Scratch just below the surface humor and you find a simple yet valuable philosophy lesson on the spirit of humanity.

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Skin Game - 1971

Starring James Garner and Lou Gossett

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A White man and his Black friend scheme to make money in the days of slavery. Garner and Gossett make a very charismatic duo in this nifty little "message" movie. Thoroughly enjoyable.

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Calamity Cat said: "James Garner was good as usual, and Lou Gossett was surprisingly funny."

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Westworld - 1973

Starring James Brolin and Yul Brynner

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An amusement park with animatrons goes awry, leading to a suspenseful chase. Yul Brynner (as the robot gunslinger) was one bad mutha! One of my favorite movie villains ever... along with Jack Palance in 'Shane' and Hank Salas in 'My Bodyguard'.

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They Came To Cordura - 1959

Starring Gary Cooper and Rita Hayworth

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A soldier once accused of cowardice attempts to find the true meaning of courage.

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Intriguing script, complex characterizations and good acting. More cerebral than action-packed, but underappreciated. Recommended to all but "Airheadzonans".

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The Stalking Moon - 1968

Starring Gregory Peck and Eva Marie Saint

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A one on one battle between a White tracker and an Indian warrior - winner takes the girl. Good use of the landscape to create a highly suspenseful atmosphere, but this one may be too slow for the "Airheadzonans."

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Calamity Cat's review: "Is he gonna find the salad bar?"

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[Aww, cut her a little slack. The Countess was very tired that night and I think she did a little napping and dreaming while this movie played.]

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Lonely Are The Brave - 1962

Starring Kirk Douglas and Walter Matthau

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A modern Western about a cowboy loner on the lam. Excellent black & white photograpy. Lean, exciting script and a horse with real personality. Kirk Douglas at his best in "the death of the "West." [Watch for a surprise cameo by "Archie Bunker".]

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Calamity Cat said: "Good acting by both Douglas and his horse."

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Bad Day At Black Rock - 1954

Starring Spencer Tracy and Lee Marvin

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A mysterious man arrives in town and stirs up skeletons in the closet.

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Another modern "Western" (of sorts). A taut, psychological drama, well-acted and photographed. Highly recommended.

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A Gunfight - 1971

Starring Kirk Douglas and Johnny Cash

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Two old, washed up gunfighters agree to face each other in an arena packed with paying witnesses - winner takes the profit from ticket sales.

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A unique concept and the anticipation builds nicely to the big showdown. What's especially cool about this story is that you have two big-name performers facing each other and neither one is really a hero nor a villain, so this is one movie where the viewer TRULY DOESN'T KNOW which gunfighter is going to die with his boots on. And I ain't about to tell ya. Wanna know? Watch it!

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Trinity Is Still My Name - 1971

Starring Terence Hill and Bud Spencer

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The further adventures of Bambino and his younger brother, Trinity.

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A little known installment in a crazy "Spaghetti Western" comedy trilogy. This one was the funniest of the three.

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Calamity Cat said: "Little Windy stole the show".

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Ride The High Country - 1962

Starring Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott

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Two has-been lawmen hire on as security guards to escort a gold shipment from a mine. The conflict lies in their different motivations.

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This was one of two Westerns that I underrated slightly when Calamity Cat and I were watching so many cowboy movies in 1989 and '90. Seeing it, and 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance', for a second time years later, I realized that both were a little better than I had first believed. Truly a minor gem that Black Cole Kid (alias: Me) didn't fully appreciate the first time 'round. ("Well, it musta been the whiskey".)

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Tall In The Saddle - 1944

Starring John Wayne and "Gabby" Hayes

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It's the age-old story about the young cowboy wrongly accused of murder and who is out to clear his name.

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The archetype, black & white, Saturday-mornin' "B" Western, with bushwhackers, double-crosses and the ubiquitous old coot. If ya watch it first thing in the morning with a cuppa joe and while yer still in bed in yer jammies, yer gonna LOVE IT!

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Under California Stars - 1948

Starring Roy Rogers and Kingman, Arizona's own Andy Devine

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A modern Western in which Trigger ("The Smartest Horse In The Movies") is stolen from Roy Rogers' ranch and held for ransom.

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Well, it's a pretty weak "B" movie, but I like it. No, really I do! (And I simply had to include a Roy Rogers movie!) It's about a lame little boy, his scruffy little dog, and a plot to kidnap Trigger. Another Saturday-mornin' jamas-'n'-coffee movie.

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In our book, 'Calamity Cat And Black Cole Kid's Uncomplicated GUIDE TO WESTERN MOVIES For The Simple-Minded Cowperson', I included a dedication page, and that's where I wrote:

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"Special Thanks To... The Quasar Co. for incorporating a slow-motion capability into their VCR unit which enabled me to get a better look at Trigger when he stomped on and deflated that villain's face."

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'Under California Stars' was the very Roy Rogers movie I was referring to. Ya gotta love those "inflatable villains".

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Up next will be my list of "Fifteen Favorite Western Films".

Be here or be... somewhere else. (But wherever you be, "B" Western!)

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~ Stephen T. McCarthy

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YE OLDE COMMENT POLICY: All comments, pro and con, are welcome. However, ad hominem attacks and disrespectful epithets will not be tolerated (read: "posted"). After all, this isn’t Amazon.com, so I don’t have to put up with that kind of bovine excrement.

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CAT'S 'N' COLE'S COWBOY STUFFS

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In 1990, my then-girlfriend, the "Countess", and I, self-produced this sort of . . . book thing. We used pseudonyms we'd invented - Cat and Cole (guess who wuz who) - and titled our little book thing "Calamity Cat And Black Cole Kid's Uncomplicated GUIDE TO WESTERN MOVIES For The Simple-Minded Cowperson".
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Basically it was just a list of Western movies we had watched together, along with our personal grade for each movie and (usually) just a sentence or two of our impressions about the movie in question. It was very simple, in keeping with our targeted audience. However, the guide was preceded by a 14-page essay that I had written for the book. It was called "Cowboy Movies And The State Of The Union (Opinionated words about Julie Newmar, Tow Truck Drivers, Policemen, And Even Cowboy Movies)".

Here is a brief excerpt from the essay, which I am posting in partial response to my friend The Great L.C. and his comment on my previous blog bit in which he writes:
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"What I meant on "Return Of Josey Wales" is that I am surprised you watched the sequel since you did not seem to like the original."

From page 7 of "Cowboy Movies And The State Of The Union":
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But what about this business of cowboy movies? How did this movie thing get out of hand? It all started one night in a Wherehouse Record And Video store, where Calamity and I were selecting movies to rent. She pleaded with me to get Silverado, a Western starring one of her favorite actors, Kevin Kline.

After we found the tape, I explained to her that although I enjoyed Westerns, I could think of only two that were truly great: Shane and The Outlaw Josey Wales.

At that time, I was not aware of my naivete. You see, I was raised on television's "B" Westerns. ...My heroes were Roy Rogers, The Lone Ranger, and... Sheriff John.

Shortly after seeing Silverado, we rented Josey Wales and Shane, and for inexplicable reasons, I began to review these movies on paper and affix grades to them and pestered Calamity to supply me with her impressions. We began to watch many of the more commercially successful pictures like The Magnificent Seven and Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, ...and eventually graduated to the obscure and unfamiliar.

After the first thirteen consecutive Westerns, I recall thinking that we were getting excessive. Little did I realize that, in the next nine months, we would see over two hundred with only four or five non-Westerns in between.
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The other day, I posted a list of Western movies that I called "The Dreck Of The West". Some of the commentary for those movies I took from the old copy of my Western Movie Guide. In glancing through it further, I realized that I had not included any of Calamity Cat's comments, which I certainly should have because she could be pretty darn humorous when she wanted to be.

So, in correcting my inexcusable oversight, I am posting below Calamity's comments for three of the movies that appeared on yonder distant list (i.e., the blog bit below this one).
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For Sagebrush Trail (1933) with John Wayne, Calamity said:
"Worst fighting ever, other than that it was pretty bad".
Ha! You a funny one, Countess!
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For Ghost Town (1988) Calamity sez:
"Standard 1980s horror flick. Pretty scary . . .
scary acting, scary writing, scary directing".
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In our Western Movie Guide, under Ride The Man Down (1952), Calamity simply wrote, "Simply awful". But my review consisted of actually letting the reader in on a short dialogue that really did take place between the Countess and myself while the movie was playing on our television screen. And here's how it reads . . .
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The following conversation took place 15 minutes into the movie:
Cole: "This is an old movie, huh?"
Cat: "Uh-huh. It's an old B movie, isn't it?"
Cole: "Pretty damn much. . . . .Who is that guy there, who's doing the acting . . . or whatever?"
Cat: "Ha!-Ha!-Ha!-Ha!-Ha!"
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Alright dudes and dudettes, that's it for today. But hopefully tomorrow I will find the time to post the next list which I intend to call "LOST DUTCHMAN'S MINE: 20 Little Western Movie Gems Unjustly Forgotten". See ya then. (Bring yer flashlight!)
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~ "Lonesome Dogg" McStetson (aka Black Cole Kid)
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YE OLDE COMMENT POLICY: All comments, pro and con, are welcome. However, ad hominem attacks and disrespectful epithets will not be tolerated (read: "posted"). After all, this isn’t Amazon.com, so I don’t have to put up with that kind of bovine excrement.
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