The Sam Peckinpah Centenary 6 – Junior Bonner
“Somebody’s got to hold the horses”
Law and Order (Universal and The Film Foundation, 1932 / 2025): Another View
Jeff Arnold has already written about Law and Order, a 1932 picture presenting a fictionalized take on the famous conflict between Wyatt Earp, Ike Clanton, and the two men’s siblings and friends. His post is in fact very positive; it is accessible using the following link: Law and Order, 1932 . Having just screened […]
Classic Movie Blog Association Profile
Dick Cavett and the Duke In our recent Ballad of Cable Hogue post, we mentioned that Jeff Arnold’s West was accepted as a member of the Classic Movie Blog Association (CMBA). Much to our surprise, the Association quickly moved to profile the site as one of its new members. The profile took the form of […]
Taming of the West (Astor/Columbia, 1939)
“Don’t make a move or you’re a gone goose.” Of all the B-movie cowboys, Wild Bill Elliott is this writer’s personal favorite and honestly, a source of mild confusion. A favorite because Elliott seems like a quintessential Western lead, fitting Jeff Arnold’s preferred cinematic Westerner – tall, lanky, a good rider; a source of confusion […]
The Sam Peckinpah Centenary 5 – The Ballad of Cable Hogue
Back to the Desert After his last day of filming The Wild Bunch, Sam Peckinpah’s life was very different than it was after his last meeting for The Cincinnati Kid. His offices at Warners-Seven Arts was abuzz with activity as he began work on his fifth film, The Ballad of Cable Hogue. Notices for Bunch […]
Sylvia Durando
Jeff Arnold’s West was recently graced with comments by a person who performed in a movie beloved by readers (and others). The person is Sylvia Durando. Miss Durando worked off-and-on in film over a 30-year period as an extra, riding double, and stuntwoman. The movie is Comanche Station, the last of the pictures collectively known […]
The Sam Peckinpah Centenary 4 – The Wild Bunch
“Let’s Go.” From Mexico to Malibu Major Dundee was not a box office success, failing to recover even half of its considerable expense. The reviews certainly did not help. In 1962, Newsweek named Ride the High Country as its best picture of the year. For Peckinpah’s next film, the magazine wrote “Think of…streaking meteorites downward […]
Oklahoma Blues (Monogram, 1948)
Sam Peckinpah is well known for his ‘stock company’, a coterie of characters actors who repeatedly appeared in his films. Warren Oates, L. Q. Jones, R. G. Armstrong, Strother Martin… these actors and others appeared in multiple Peckinpah movies. The director’s centenary celebration here at JAW is broad enough to include posts about non-Peckinpah movies […]
The Sam Peckinpah Centenary 3 – Major Dundee
“We left a lot at the bottom of the river” Although the logistics of its US release were a mess, Ride the High Country was such a good movie that Sam Peckinpah’s name attracted a bit of buzz in the Hollywood community, leading to him being offered his first big budget picture. That’s the good […]
Charro! (National General Pictures, 1969)
And now, a brief pause in celebrating the Peckinpah centenary: as previously teased, please enjoy this guest post from overdrive1975, an energetic film enthusiast who frequently comments on JAW content. Caught in a Trap: Can He Walk Out? “It isn’t enough to tell us what a man did. You’ve got to tell us who he […]