The Celluloid Alamo: 5
Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier (Buena Vista, 1955) An earlier Alamo film, in 1926, which we looked at in The Celluloid
The blog of a Western fan, for other Western fans
“Each man has a song and this is my song.” (Leonard Cohen)
Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier (Buena Vista, 1955) An earlier Alamo film, in 1926, which we looked at in The Celluloid
Bob Lippert has a stab at directing Back in 2022 we looked at the career of Robert L Lippert (click the link for
Pretty bad Land Raiders was a late-60s Western that has all the look of a spaghetti. It was shot in Spain (with a
The Man from the Alamo (Universal, 1953) Last time, in our Celluloid Alamo 3, we looked at the first talkie featuring the defense
Revd. Bill Hart The other 1915 William S Hart Western that we have (see out earlier post on The Darkening Trail) was again
Melodrama in the Yukon We were lamenting the other day, in our article on Lost Westerns, how many silent movies have decomposed, been
Heroes of the Alamo (Sunset Productions, 1937 and Columbia, 1938) In the last episode of The Celluloid Alamo (click the link for that)
Routine costume drama There have been many Westerns, or pre-Westerns perhaps we should call them, frontier stories anyway, set in eighteenth-century colonial and
Another Jim Davis B-Western In the late 1950s, Jim Davis, who had been pretty popular on the small screen as railroad detective Matt
Lost souls Many people would regard John Ford as the greatest director of Westerns of them all. They could be right. He was
A lot of fun In 1951, Joy Newton Houck Sr, the owner of 29 ‘Joy Theatres’ in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi, teamed up
(With) Davy Crockett at the Fall of the Alamo (Sunset Productions/Aywon Film, 1926) Today, I offer you the second in our series on
Blow the wind northerly Following on with our current theme of the hardships of the life of women on the frontier – see,
Ho-hum When I was reviewing the rather good 1979 picture Heartland recently (click the link for that) I said that it was in
Martyrs The story of the defense and fall of the Alamo in 1836 is a key one in the American psyche and of
Modest Desperate Trails is one of those straight-to-video Westerns which is modest in scope and equally so in achievement, but has a couple
A highly entertaining guide Kim Newman may be better known to film buffs as a horror expert. Author of fiction like The Vampire
Yawn Debbie Reynolds, who had made a hit in MGM’s Singin’ in the Rain in 1952, had never done a Western, and indeed
A refutation Refutation: denial of the truth or accuracy of In 1957 the science-fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon coined what he called Sturgeon’s
An OK TV movie First screened as A Gunfighter’s Pledge by the Hallmark TV channel, then released on DVD under its working title
Horseless Movie titles with livelinks will take you to our reviews of those pictures. The Western movie is usually set in a
Six-guns v. ray-guns I felt it incumbent on me (rather a good word, incumbent) as a Western blogger to watch and review for
Go West, young mouse A sometimes overlooked part of the comedy Western oeuvre (posh word, oeuvre) is the animated cartoon. But it was
Jocko down under The Kangaroo Kid is an example of the films I was waffling on about the other day, a non-American Western
Made for a Fistful of Yen (or pounds, or lire or whatever) Film titles with livelinks can be clicked on for our reviews
Dorothy I always thought that Dorothy Malone was what my aged pop would have called a corker (he was fond of old-time slang
Second-feature cattle baron King of the Pecos dates from the period when John Wayne, who had flirted with stardom in Fox’s wagon-train epic
Git ‘em up! Move ‘em out! Movie titles with livelinks can be clicked on to go to our reviews of those pictures.
The B-Western at its best The longhorn is a descendant of the cattle brought to the Americas by Spanish conquistadores in the days
A good yarn I knew Texan author Joe R Lansdale from his enjoyable Hap and Leonard stories but was reminded by reading Kim
Wanted: Dead or Alive The whole notion of allowing or even encouraging people who are not sworn officers of the law to apprehend
Billy lives to fight another day One of the (very) many movies about the (entirely mythical) Billy the Kid was a B-Western of
Taken by Indians The so-called captivity narrative, a story about a person of one tribe or race or religion taken and held by
Best as charming rogue Comments by readers Jean-Marie and RR have made me rethink and reassess the Western career of Arthur Kennedy. So
Blowing my own trumpet again I crave your indulgence dear e-reader, for another mention of my recent novel Stay and Die. But I
My principal sources for this article were the 2015 biography Wild Bill Wellman, Hollywood Rebel by Wellman’s son, William Wellman Jr, and the 1995
An early Bill Hart oater On the Night Stage was an early Western that William S Hart made with producer Thomas H Ince,
Jeff Chandler does his Gary Cooper act Some of the Hollywood greats steered clear of the Western, the poor deluded fools. Perhaps they
Pretty nifty I followed up Jean-Marie’s comment on Helena’s three-barrel pistol in the 2013 The Lone Ranger. You know me and derringers.
Git ’em up! Head ’em out! The Quest, you may remember, was a Columbia Television Western series created by Tracy Keenan Wynn (Keenan
Interesting story though not a very good film Although it is not a Western, I watched Glory on Netflix the other day. It’s
A Hart feature become a short A late feature (it was a 50-minute 5-reeler) that William S Hart made for Thomas H Ince
Faintly distasteful Jed Buell was a publicist for Mack Sennett and Keystone who founded his own company, Spectrum Pictures, to make ultra-low-budget exploitation
Wagons roll! I have been prompted by reading Kim Newman’s book Wild West Movies (review of that when I have finished it) to
Then what? Today’s little essay concerns an aspect of the Western which I have noticed and maybe you have too. It kind of
Two Ince/Hart shorts Although William S Hart was anxious to do ‘serious’ multi-reel feature Westerns when he started making films with Thomas H
Are cowboys right-wing or left? After recent discussion on this blog by readers about a book, Commie Cowboys: The Bourgeoisie and the Nation-State
Drive ‘em north Well, I have some very good news for Western lovers. Readers of this blog may remember an article I posted
Forgive me for blowing my own (rather beat-up) trumpet again, but I hope you might want to scan this review of my new
Disney, but still just about watchable Of course it depends on your definition of a Western but Disney’s 1958 film version of Conrad
Tough cattleman finds love We’ve been looking at the Westerns Thomas H Ince made, especially those with William S Hart, and one that
Father of the Western Film titles with livelinks can be clicked for our reviews of the pictures. Tragically in a way, the
New Western Surrounded is a beautiful-looking film, shot in New Mexico (that wonderful pink light) by Max Goldman, better known for rock videos
Reading the West On Jeff Arnold’s West we have reviewed or discussed various Western books – mostly biographies, novels, history and film
Pretty darn good By 1960, the B-Western, in the sense of a one-hour second feature, was all but dead, but producer/director Maury Dexter,
Hoss off the Ponderosa In the fall of 1968, NBC’s TV show Bonanza was already beginning its tenth season, and although Adam Cartwright
Winter Wyoming We’ve reviewed some of Taylor Sheridan’s Western or semi-Western films on this blog, the likes of 1883 and 1923. Wind River
A brief guide Howard Hughes’s book on Western movies Stagecoach to Tombstone: The Filmgoers Guide to the Great Westerns (IB Tauris) came out
American Indians in early Westerns Today, something a bit different: two Westerns for the price of one. The two greatest pioneer artists
New Western novel This is a red-letter day for your Jeff, because today Stay and Die is published, his new Western novel, and