Western fans will be saddened to hear of the death of Brian Garfield, who passed away December 29 at his home in Pasadena.  

  What a great title   Our first Western of 2019 has almost the perfect title: The Toughest Gun in Tombstone. A late-50s black &

  What did we read?     At this time I usually look back over the past year to see which subjects interested readers –

  George bosses a cattle drive   A mid-50s George Montgomery Western written by Daniel B Ullman and with Peter Graves, Robert J Wilke, Jack

  Dross . . I was beguiled by the box and poster into thinking this was a Western. The movie is called Outlaws in its

  The Coen Brothers ride again . . I’m not sure if The Ballad of Buster Scruggs was originally planned as a Netflix series but

  Rollin’ along   Recently, Talking Pictures TV, a British channel that I get by satellite here in France, has shown the series Stagecoach West,

  George is Hawkeye   I’m not a great fan of eighteenth-century sword-and-tricorn-hat movies myself. They are set too early and they are too Eastern

  A classy little black & white Western . . Black Patch is a late-ish George Montgomery Western, 82 minutes of low-budget black & white,

  Good stuff . . In that great Western year of 1953, when audiences were marveling to splendid examples of the genre such as Hondo,

  Luke Short rides again   Ride the Man Down is a classic early-50s oater from Republic which I like for a number of reasons.

  Lust in the Dust   I watched Duel in the Sun again the other night. I had forgotten how bad it was. OK, yes,

  Wyatt cleans up the town – but not Tombstone     In the mid-1950s the Wyatt Earp of legend was far more dominant than

  He entered his house justified     Having now reviewed on this blog all of Joel McCrea’s Westerns individually, it is time for an

  Stanwyck and McCrea in harness again . . The pairing of Barbara Stanwyck and Joel McCrea, with Brian Donlevy in support, was a success

  It has its points   The Halliday Brand, director Joseph H Lewis’s penultimate feature film (it came between 7th Cavalry and Terror in a Texas Town),

  A fine Western novel   I have just read Warlock, the 1958 Pulitzer-shortlisted source novel for Fox’s 1959 movie Warlock, as recommended by readers

  Bob is Billy for the last time   Billy the Kid in Santa Fe, released in July 1941, was the last of the six

  Modest but enjoyable . . Producer Walter Mirisch (left) had already done two Westerns with Joel McCrea, Wichita, for Warners in 1955, a classy Jacques

  Joel’s last ride   Mustang Country was Joel McCrea’s last Western. In fact it was his last film. He had been a towering presence

  Dreary . . Pernell Roberts (left) had a promising Western career and one thinks principally of his excellent performance as semi-sympathetic bad guy Sam

  Terror in an Arkansas Town . In hopeless pursuit of the impossible dream of seeing every B-Western ever made, no matter how obscure, your

  Seriously bad   Poor John Agar. Most actors start with bit parts and walk-ons, gradually working up to starring roles. Agar did the reverse.

  Joel frees Texas   Joel McCrea was a major figure in the Western movie. He had the honor of playing some of the greatest

. Very early Clint . . The movie reviewed in our last blogpost, Massacre Canyon, a Columbia picture of 1954, had the keeping-guns-out-of-the-hands-of-the-Indians plot. Lt

  Carey in uniform again . . Massacre Canyon was another Wallace MacDonald-produced Western starring Philip Carey. MacDonald had used Carey the year before in The

  Not a stellar cast   We were talking the other day about Wallace MacDonald, producer of Westerns. Some of them were not bad –

  Phil good as bad guy with saving graces   I’ve grown to appreciate Philip Carey in Westerns. Tall and rugged, he suited the genre,

  Joel is a Wells, Fargo man (again)   Gunsight Ridge is a minor Western noir. I don’t know if it was shown as a

  Not Audie’s best but enjoyable   Audie Murphy made three Westerns in 1960, two mid-budget pictures for Universal, Hell Bent for Leather and Seven Ways

  Duke in a top hat   Westerns went for the In Old… title. Back in 1929 Warner Baxter had won an Oscar for his

. . Bat cleans up Dodge – and gets into a love triangle . . Not long ago I reviewed the 2012 movie Wyatt Earp’s Revenge,

  Thrilling Western tales for boys (not girls)     Your own Jeff has recently acquired, thanks to the generosity of a kind nephew, a

  Cecil B DeMille’s last Western. Thank goodness.   I have resisted heretofore (posh word, heretofore) reviewing Unconquered because (a) it’s not a Western, being

  The sidekick leads   The Ballad of Lefty Brown was released at the South by Southwest Film Festival in March last year. It had

  Bat cleans up Dodge   Joel McCrea (left) was a superb Western actor, excelling at the quietly-tough-but-decent part. This picture came after the high-water

  Vengeance is mine, saith the hero   The revenge drama is a staple of the Western movie. You show a really bad bad-guy in

  The Indian chief is the good guy   Hinmatóowyalahtq̓it, better known as Chief Joseph (1840 – 1904), leader of the Wal-lam-wat-kain (Wallowa) band of

  The Bounty Huntress   “Each generation remakes the Western in its own image.” (J Arnold – I just made it up). Lucky that they

    Writers of the Purple Prose . . In this blog we have looked at the lives and careers of famous Westerners, be they

  Quality pulp   Back in March last year I reviewed a novella by Max Brand, Twelve Peers, which became the basis for various screen versions

  Jocko’s back on TV   In three years of the mid-1950s at Universal, Jock Mahoney, known in Hollywood as Jocko, proved to be, as

  Buck Jones saves the day and gets the girl – again   Back to Buck. Black Aces was one of the later oaters he

  Buck rides for Universal   From time to time on this blog we have mentioned the great Buck Jones (left). I am especially fond

  Ken in his heyday   We were talking the other day about Ken Maynard (pictured left), how he separated (with mutual relief) from Universal

  Ken hands over to Gene   We were talking about Gene Autry the other day, reviewing his 1949 picture Riders of the Whistling Pines. Let’s

  Gene saves the day (again)   Though I was and probably still am a juvenile Western fan, I was never really a juvenile-Western fan.

  Capt. Audie saves the day   By the mid-1960s the big studios were still turning out what you might call 1950s Westerns, just with

  “Geronimo!”     “Legend or reality, Geronimo remains the dominant Indian name in the American memory.” Robert M Utley     On this blog

  Sam Elliott’s first Western lead   Vera Miles (left) topped the billing in Molly and Lawless John in 1972. Fair enough, she was the

  Stephen McNally’s last western as lead   Hell’s Crossroads was a forgettable black & white Republic low-budget Western released on a double bill with

. . Since writing my seminal essay on the derringer, now become a standard work on the subject (hem hem), back in December 2012, I

. An 1860s gangster/heist yarn . Universal player Stephen McNally (left) was probably better as a heavy, and his most famous role in our noble

    Jocko at the top of his game   George Sherman (1908 – 1991), left with Gilbert Roland, 5′ 0” in his socks, began

. A lesser Western from the great year of ’53 . . The Redhead from Wyoming was director Lee Sholem’s second Western, coming straight after The

  No great Western, perhaps, but with some merit   The Stand at Apache River was the first Western of director Lee Sholem (1913 –

  Sitting Bull’s companion . . Back in April 2014 I posted an article on Sitting Bull. It was largely based on the fine biography

. Jocko’s finest hour . By 1957 Jock Mahoney (left) was a mighty experienced Western hand. He’d started as a stuntman, from 1946, doubling for

  That rifle changes hands (again)   I have nothing against remakes as such. After all, it’s the third The Maltese Falcon we all know

    Very early Clint, very late RKO . . 1950s comedy Westerns could be quite fun. A Ticket to Tomahawk, Alias Jesse James or The Sheepman, for