Monday, February 21, 2011

The best (or not) westerns


I don't know if the movie I'm watching, Lone Wolf McQuade, qualifies as a western, but it is set in the west and Chuck Norris is playing a Texas Ranger. It's just set in the 1980s, not the 1880s.

 The best thing I can say about it so far is the cast, including David Carradine, Barbara Carrara, R.G. Armstrong, L.Q. Jones and a young Robert Beltran (Chakotay on Star Trek Voyager).

 The movie is kinda like Rambo or Dirty Harry with cowboy boots. And, of course, it reminds one of Walker, Texas Ranger.
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I just found a 1935 western called Big Boy Rides Again. It features Guinn "Big Boy" Williams and a cast of no one I'd ever heard of. Even in the 1930s, it was using old tricks, like a masked villain sneaking around and killing people, plus a hidden treasure.

 The smartest actor in the movie appears to be Big Boy's paint horse, which followed him to the bad guys' lair and got him loose.

 It's not a great movie, but I enjoy the old B movies. Here's a link on YouTube.
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I just came across a 1949 serial called the Ghost of Zorro. Clayton Moore (The Lone Ranger) plays Ken Mason, who is trying to get a telegraph line west. He also puts on the Zorro suit.

 Ironically, his buddy in the serial, George J. Lewis, is the same man who played Don Diego's daddy, Don Alejandro, in the Disney version of Zorro, starring Guy Williams.

 I haven't seen enough yet to say if it's any good, but I'll let you know. The story is not unusual, but it was probably a little fresher in 1949, 70 years ago.

 (Here's the link to the first chapter.)
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I just watched a movie called Yuma for the first time. I'd heard of it, of course, but, for some reason, I never got around to watching it.

 I always liked Clint Walker, Kathryn Hays and Edgar Buchanan, and I have to admit that I picked the wrong bad guy.

 It was WAY better than I expected.
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I'm watching a movie called Hell Town, featuring John Wayne and Johnny Mack Brown. It's not the best western ever done by either actor (it's too early in Wayne's career), but it has possibilities.

 More after I finish it.
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Last night, I watched one of the best westerns of all time, Stagecoach. Claire Trevor was listed first in the credits, but this was the movie that made John Wayne a star.

 Thomas Mitchell, who played the drunken doctor, made the movie, though.

 You can watch it on YouTube.
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I just watched a Randolph Scott/Budd Boetticher movie called Decision at Sundown. Scott plays a bitter man who has come to avenge his wife, who killed herself.

 Eventually, he brings down the man who is running the town, the same man who was fooling with his wife. It's a good movie that also features Karen Steele and Noah Beery Jr., among others.
It's one of Scott's best movies, easy.
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Today, I was watching two minor westerns on YouTube. One was a Shotgun Slade TV episode, and I immediately recognized the town marshal as the famed Tex Ritter.

 I went to IMDB and found the episode, and it WAS Ritter. That would be the equivalent of finding Roy Rogers or Gene Autry on an episode. Ritter, who sang the theme song for High Noon, was a big deal back in the day. He was getting a little long in the tooth at this point, though; I guess he needed the work.
Then I was watching a Three Mesquiteers movie, and this cowboy was riding toward town at breakneck speed. I thought that the rider must be super stunt rider Yakima Canutt, and, not surprisingly, it was.

I'd seen both shows before, and I especially remembered the Shotgun Slade episode. Still, it was good to find them again.

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While searching YouTube, I found a western called The Tall Stranger (1957). It has a great cast, including Joel McCrea, Michael Ansara, Michael Pate, Leo Gordon, Whit Bissell and others. McCrea's character tries to save the people in a wagon train from McCrea's half-brother, who owns a valley and aims to protect it.

 Ansara is one of the chief bad guys.

 It's not one of the best westerns I've seen, but it was a good one. And it was one of the few times I've seen Leo Gordon play a responsible character.
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I just watched a western called Buchanan Rides Alone, featuring Randolph Scott. I know I've seen the movie before, but I couldn't have told you anything about it. Scott's character rides into one of the most aggravating (and deadly) towns in the old west, and he barely makes it out alive.

I enjoyed it, partly because I like one of the minor characters, L.Q. Jones. I doubt I'll watch it again, but you never know.

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I just re-watched a movie called The Undefeated. I didn't particularly like it when I saw it years ago, but I saw it through new eyes today.

The Civil War's over, but John Wayne's former Union band and Rock Hudson's former Rebel band are friendly but still warring in their own way. I won't give away the ending, but I loved it. Frankly, I understood it better than I did 30 or 40 years ago.

It isn't one of Wayne's better westerns (The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Stagecoach, Red River), but, this time, I liked it.

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I'm re-watching one of my favorite westerns, Angel and the Badman. It's funny, but I'm noticing things I saw later in other westerns. Laredo Stevens climbs a tree to avoid a stampede, which I later saw again in City Slickers.

It was one of John Wayne's best early movies.

I loved the name of Harry Carry's character in the movie: Marshal Wistful McClintock. I wonder if people nicknamed him Wist or Ful.

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It's not really a western, since Legend of the Lost is set in the Sahara Desert. Still, it has John Wayne, Sophia Loren, Rossano Brazzi and mules, and it feels like a western.
They go into the Sahara to find Brazzi's dad's treasure. They only find trouble. Brazzi's character turns on them, and Loren's character has to kill him.
It's a sad movie in many (most) ways, but it has a hopeful ending. And I like it.

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My wife and I were just watching The Sons of Katie Elder, and I just recently watched City Slickers. At the time, I thought City Slickers had a great soundtrack. Then I realized tonight that the two movies have almost the same soundtrack at one point.
Actually, I realized later tonight that they'd used a variation of the Katie Elder soundtrack in a portion of City Slickers. There are probably lots of themes used in there, since the three amigos do Rawhide and Bonanza music at different points.

I'm curious how many themes they used. Did they sneak Shane and High Noon music in there, too? How about the Magnificent Seven?

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I've been watching the western Nevada Smith lately. Actually, I've been struggling to watch it.

Three different times in the last few days I've called it up on Netflix and watched awhile. I'm probably two-thirds the way through it. Maybe it's not a great western, even with a cast like Steve McQueen, Brian Keith, Arthur Kennedy, Suzanne Pleshette, Pat Hingle, Howard Da Silva, Karl Malden, Martin Landau, Gene Evans and others.

The funny thing is that I still want to find out how it ends.

ADDED: It's funny what I wrote about the ending. I just watched it, and it was magnificent. It was worth all the trouble I had getting through the first two hours.

Nevada Smith was at its best when Karl Malden was onscreen. Originally, I gave it three stars (out of five). I increased it to four stars after watching the ending.

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We watched the John Ford western 3 Godfathers again tonight. It's sad in a way, but it's also uplifting. Three bandits battle mightily to protect a baby, Robert William Pedro Hightower.

It's an update of the story of Jesus and the Three Wise Men. Two of them die, but John Wayne's character survives, and the movie has a wonderful ending.

Is it as good as The Searchers or Stagecoach? I don't know. Probably not. But I like it.

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My wife Holly and I just finished watching Conagher again. It's the teleplay of a western book written by Louie L'Amour, and it's one of my favorite westerns.

 I believe it was a TV movie, with Sam Elliott (Mission: Impossible), (his real-life wife) Katherine Ross (The Graduate) and Barry Corbin (Maurice on Northern Exposure) as the stars.

 What do I like about it? There's drama, but there's really only one evil man in the movie (Kiowa Staples), and that's realistic. There's also romance and humor.

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We were watching over-the-air television tonight and found Rio Grande on Grit TV, and she's still watching it. Me? I have to go to bed. It's a great movie, though. I've often heard that John Ford had to make Rio Grande before they'd let him make his pet project, The Quiet Man, also starring John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara and Victor McLaglen.

They were all wonderful (as were Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr., Chill Wills and others), and J. Carrol Naish made a terrific Philip Sheridan.

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My wife Holly and I had a double feature the other night. We watched Angel and the Badman, followed by Stagecoach. That's a pair of great John Wayne movies, two of his best.

I wanted to watch McLintock as well, but I couldn't keep my eyes open.

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I love westerns, as you may have noticed, and I just found a top-notch western. Riding Shotgun (1954) is a Randolph Scott movie that has more drama than even some great westerns. Scott is mistakenly on the wrong side of the law until the last two or three minutes of the movie, and it appears the townspeople will misjudge him until the end.

Joan Weldon is the female lead. There's also a pre-stardom Charles Bronson, as Charles Buchinsky, maybe the most recognizable face in the crowd, although he doesn't top the credits.

It was much more than I could have hoped for.

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I've often said that The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance might be the best western ever. It's certainly one of them.

I just watched it again today (Nov. 1, 2012) and enjoyed it as much as ever. John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart were wonderful together, but Edmond O'Brien made the movie. He was one of the best character actors, ever.

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I just watched High Noon again (Oct. 30, 2012), and I have to admit that it was better than I remembered. Would I compare it to The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and Shane? Maybe. I don't know.

I can't imagine, though, that a Quaker in the 1800s would look anything like Grace Kelly.

I was glad, though, when Grace gunned that guy down.

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I've seen dozens of mistakes in John Wayne movies, and I can overlook most of them. Just now, we were watching The Sons of Katie Elder, and Wayne was battling James Gregory in the exciting concluding shootout. Without reloading, Wayne fired 11 shots from a six-shooter.

That's a talented man. And a mistake by whoever was taking care of continuity.
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I came across another western today on Netflix: Montana. I believe this was the only time Errol Flynn, an Australian, actually played an Australian. They carry the drama to the last second.

Does it match up to Stagecoach, The Searchers, Shane and The Magnificent Seven? No. But it's entertaining, and Flynn is amazingly believable as a sheepherder invading cattle territory.

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If you're a fan of westerns, check out the movie Seven Men From Now, starring Randolph Scott, Gail Russell and Lee Marvin.

Marvin steals the show as a bad guy who isn't all bad (unlike his bad guy in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance). This character is polite, and he even saves Scott's character, Ben Stride.

In the special features, they talked about "legendary" director Budd Boetticher. I don't think I'd heard of him before. He sounds interesting, but I knew a lot more about Alfred Hitchcock, Frank Capra, Billy Wilder and Steven Spielberg than I did about Boetticher. But I was glad to finally "meet" the legend.

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I've turned into a fan of Joel McCrea, and I just found another McCrea movie on Netflix. It's called Saddle Tramp, the story of a man who was happy with his carefree life. Then he visits a buddy, a widower who has four sons. The widower dies, and Chuck Conner (McCrea) is stuck with the boys and a young woman who has run away from home.

You have to sympathize with Conner and hope his situation works out. It's a good cast, with John McIntire, Jeannette Nolan and John Russell (you'd recognize the face; he was the bad guy in El Dorado and Pale Rider) in it.

SPOILER ALERT: Conner/McCrea never makes it to California.

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Pale Rider: I was just watching the end of the Clint Eastwood movie Pale Rider, and the end reminds me of Alan Ladd and Shane. The girl hollers as Eastwood rides into the mountains, echoing the end of Shane. She just doesn't get tiresome about it, as Brandon De Wilde did. Shane, come back. Shane.

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I recently rewatched a movie called "Duel in the Sun," featuring James Garner and Sidney Poitier. It's not a great movie, but there's drama, some romance and a little humor, and it's a good one. Garner and Poitier are not like I've seen them before, which is good.

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I just found a "Forsaken Western" on YouTube called Mountain Man. It was a failed TV pilot starring Peter Palmer, the guy who played L'il Abner in the movies. It was well done, and I would watch more of them (if they'd made more).

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I've been watching "Westerns on the Web" on YouTube, and I just found a short Gabby Hayes yarn from his show. Enjoy.

 YOUTUBE VIDEOS

 • Have Gun - Will Travel - Season 2 - Episode 1

 • THE MARAUDERS // William Boyd, Andy Clyde, Rand Brooks // Full western movie // English // HD (Hopalong Cassidy movie)

 • 1941 Outlaws Of The Desert : Western Hopalong Cassidy William Boyd Andy Clyde Brad King (Hopalong Cassidy movie)

 • LOST CANYON - William Boyd, Andy Clyde, Jay Kirby - Full western • movie [English] - 1942 (Hopalong Cassidy movie)

• McLintock [1963] John Wayne - Full movie English version

• Interview with Clint Walker... The Legacy of Cheyenne

 • ROBERT MITCHUM My father, his pony & me! with Chris Mitchum A WORD ON WESTERNS

 • Genesis The Origin of Paladin

 • A Jail Without Bars (film clip - James Garner)

• Tom Selleck induction (into the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum)

EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com  TWITTER: EDITORatWORK

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