
The Fighting Lawman (AA, 1953)
US Marshal Morris unmasks the bad guys Big, beefy and blond Wayne Morris started in the 1930s as a “sunny juvenile”, as the
The blog of a Western fan, for other Western fans
“Each man has a song and this is my song.” (Leonard Cohen)
US Marshal Morris unmasks the bad guys Big, beefy and blond Wayne Morris started in the 1930s as a “sunny juvenile”, as the
Amateur There’s a little sub-genre of Western that might be described as a family film. Not a family film in the usual sense
The Aussie Jesse James The Australian Western, or ‘Western’, has a long history, and we on this blog have already looked at Westerns
Point ‘em north Fox’s 1955 movie The Tall Men (click the link for our review) was a great letdown, especially for a fine
Allison has a showdown with Wyatt Earp Accounts of the life of the noted gunman Clay Allison (click the link for our article
Clay Allison on TV Republic’s first television production, Stories of the Century, which ran for two seasons, 1954/55, was a popular show and
Clay Allison shot to death, again The third feature Western (that I know of) to feature the disreputable Western character Clay Allison (click
Clay Allison’s the villain again We’ve been looking at the nefarious career of Clay Allison (click the link for our article on him)
Hoppy rides again Back in July 2021 I wrote an article on this blog about the somewhat less than salubrious denizen of the
Early conspiracy theory Old men who claimed to be notable figures of history, in spite of the fact that history records the earlier
Innocuous More of a family/adventure film really, this picture nevertheless taps into the mountain man sub-genre of Western, and a sprinkling of gunplay
The rather unmagnificent seven Journey to Shiloh was a theatrical release but by 1968 the Western film had become pretty debased, frankly, and
“I’ve made a living doing what I wanted to do” James Griffith was a prolific Western actor who, between 1949 and 1960, appeared
Great art it ain’t but… Westerns were fond of numerical firearm titles. Ballad for One Gun (1963), Two Guns and a Badge (1954),
Poor boy, you’re bound to die In 1958 the Kingston Trio’s Grammy-winning version of the song Tom Dooley reached No. 1 in the
Ted Post’s first theatrical Western Ted Post was a highly prolific director who worked from 1950 thru 2002, helming very many episodes of
Light-hearted musical comedy Diligently pursuing our current thread of Westerns that Noah Beery Jr appeared in (click the link for our appreciation of
A rattlin’ good oater We’re on a bit of a Noah Beery Jr jag at the mo and that gives us a good
Not great art but watchable Bad Lands was a remake as a Western of John Ford’s WWI drama The Lost Patrol of 1934
A lot of fun We were talking about Noah Beery Jr the other day (click the link for our look at his Western
Regular fella Noah Beery Jr was born into Western royalty, really. Both his father, Noah Beery Sr, and his uncle, Wallace Beery, were
Not John Ford’s finest hour After the commercial and critical failure of The Fugitive in 1947, John Ford, pictured left in 1948, decided
Classy version of a rather mawkish tale At the start of the year on this blog we looked at Peter B Kyne’s novella
Best of the badmen I wrote a post on the Western badman some time ago but it seems to have got lost when
Not as good as the original but not bad Although Jack Slade in 1953 was in many ways a ‘minor’ Western, a 90-minute
Western tough guy Neville Brand has pride of place in the center of the cover photo of the enjoyable book Television Western Players
Need an Indian maiden? You may remember in the 1960s (I do anyway) Milly Scott, the storekeeper who exercised her charms on Lucas
Victorio, Sitting Bull, Watanka, Crazy Horse? Need an Indian chief? Call Pate. Michael Pate was an Australian, born in a suburb of Sydney
I wrote this review when the movie came out in December 2021 but it was not in the index, as I recall because I
Universal oaters Movie moguls are also producers, and some were particularly hands-on, not just signing the checks and greenlighting pictures but being actively
Six-gun Willy William Wyler’s grandmother was the first cousin of Carl Laemmle, known as Uncle, the boss of Universal, and Willi’s grandfather had
They don’t come any bigger William Wyler started in Westerns, as Universal’s youngest director in the mid-1920s making 2-reel programmers. His first sound
Schmaltz A year or two back I was staying with some friends in Denmark. The conversation turned, as of course it will turn,
A tense and sophisticated masterpiece The big adult A-picture Western came back into style at the end of the 1930s, with the Walter
Follow the formula – to the letter The other day, when we were discussing the Westerns of producer/distributor Robert Lippert (click the link
Classy film version of a rather tawdry tale Last time on this blog we were discussing the famous Peter B Kyne Western story
Mawkish Peter B Kyne (1880 – 1957) was an American novelist who published between 1904 and 1940. Many of his works were adapted
Very charming By the early 1930s, the great Tom Mix was in his fifties, stocky and endearingly plug-ugly, and though he did several
Enjoyable I enjoy the writing of Johnny D Boggs. He’s especially good on comparing and contrasting fact with fiction in the West, a
Not Raoul’s or Kirk’s greatest Western but still worth a look In the 1940s Raoul Walsh moved from the big dashing oaters such
Cranky old-timer – even when young Many Western fans will think first of Walter Brennan in his parts as cantankerous old-timer sidekick of
A Joe Kane meller of the late 40s Brimstone was a late-40s Republic Western produced and directed by Joseph Kane, and as such
Good-looking Western which needed a slightly stronger cast Stage to Tucson, known in some markets as Lost Stage Valley, was a nice color
Pretty good This six-episode series is for the moment available on Amazon (though only in the US) and has just finished on BBC
A B-Western with some quality The Long Rope is really a B-Western: a one-hour black & white program-filler, cheaply made. But it has
“There’s still money to be made in the sticks.” (Robert Lippert) Titles with livelinks have been reviewed on this blog and you can
Lippert does a deal with Fox Movies whose titles have livelinks have been reviewed on this blog and you can click to read
Not bad Frontier Gun was another of those black & white (but widescreen) Westerns which Regal Films made for Fox. It’s OK.
A rather typical Regal B Escape from Red Rock was the tenth of the Westerns Robert L Lippert of Regal Films made for
Hawkeye rides, I mean walks, again Not all Western-fans like eighteenth-century tales of swords and single-shot muskets, or even think of them as
Not at all bad The Black Whip was one of those mid-1950s Westerns that Regal Pictures produced for 20th Century Fox, after a
Another Lippert B Deputy Marshal was another in the series of late-1940s/early 50s low-budget Lippert Westerns that we’ve been reviewing lately – the
The Daltons, I mean Dentons, ride again Three Desperate Men, on one level just another modest black & white B-Western produced by the
Roll ‘em Sholem Lee Tabor Sholem (1913 – 2000) was one of the characters of Hollywood. Born in Paris (but before we get
Already formulaic Gene Autry first appeared in a couple of Westerns at Mascot in 1934, Ken Maynard pictures. Mascot boss Nat Levine was
A ripping yarn In an introduction, Scott McCrea tells us that Tom Mix had many adventures, and “this might have been one of
Difficult to say which is worse, the writing or the acting Robert L Lippert had no interest in his father’s hardware store. He
Harry Joe The second in Jeff Arnold’s West’s smash-hit series (not really) on the producers of Western movies, after Harry Sherman (click the
Pop It’s good to start our series on the producers of Westerns (click here for our intro essay) with Pop Sherman because he
$ and ₵ On this blog over the years we’ve done overviews of the Westerns of a good many players, both leads and