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 […]
The Sam Peckinpah Centenary 2 – Ride the High Country
“Salvation and Loneliness” Sam Peckinpah’s experience with The Deadly Companions had multiple impacts upon him and his subsequent directorial career. That irksome brother of Maureen O’Hara, Charles Fitzsimons, had refused to allow any changes to the script (not his finest decision in light of the released film and Sam’s later efforts). So Peckinpah resolved to never […]
The Sam Peckinpah Centenary 1 – The Deadly Companions
Troubled Genius February 21, 2025 marks one hundred years since director Sam Peckinpah was born. Peckinpah is a fascinating character: a filmmaker of overriding vision, a maverick who fought with producers and studios who attempted to subvert that vision, a tyrant and occasional bully on set, a substance abuser, a writer of brilliant dialogue, a […]
Return of the Search Box!
The Randolph Scott of webmasters, BetterCallChris, has sent that internet varmint packing *and* restored the site’s Search Box while doing so. Please recommence searching, e-pards. Thanks, Chris! An additional service announcement: when performing a search, the search engine returns its results in OLDEST to NEWEST order. When searching for a more common name or phrase, […]
Accessing Posts on Jeff Arnold’s West
Howdy, e-pards! Some of you may have noted (and a certain Jean-Marie certainly *did* note) that Jeff Arnold’s West was afflicted several hours ago by the Lee Van Cleef of internet errors : Fortunately, the site’s webmaster, BetterCallChris, galloped to the rescue… even though he is currently on holiday and without his full complement of […]
Kid Blue (Marvin Schwartz Productions / 20th Century Fox, 1973)
Hippie Western Kid Blue opens, pre-credits, in the middle of a train robbery. So far, so conventional but only for a few seconds. The robbers, we quickly realise, are incompetent, one falling off the train which speeds by, unscathed and unrobbed. Dennis Hopper, playing the Kid Blue of the title, announces to the gang over […]
The Three Outlaws (Associated Film Releasing Corporation, 1956)
They bore the mark of Satan, they bore the mark of Cain So says the title song of The Three Outlaws, a yarn about the exploits of real-life outlaws Butch Cassidy, Bill Carver (also known as Will Carver), and the Sundance Kid south of the U.S. border. In real-life and in the film, the outlaws […]
The Westerns of Robert Aldrich
The Erratic Mr. Aldrich When it came to his series of profiles of Western filmmakers Robert Aldrich wasn’t top of Jeff Arnold’s list. The output wasn’t huge – six features – and Jeff was not a fan. At all. While adoring one of his films, when it came to the other five, his reviews range […]
The Frisco Kid (Warner Brothers, 1979): Another View
Jousting with Jeff… The time has come, the walrus said… to publish our first post devoted to a dissent from one published by Jeff Arnold. Jeff was a superb historian and critic but all his fans have had various moments of occasional disagreement with him. Often these are the most interesting experiences to […]
The Arizonian (RKO, 1935)
“That’s what it takes to make peace in the west” The Arizonian was not a film known to this writer prior to recently spotting it lurking unloved in the darker, smaller hours of the TV schedule. Turns out it’s a bit of a find. The title feels like it might well be a blatant play […]