Stranger at My Door (Republic, 1956)
Western parable A curious picture in some ways, Stranger at My Door is, I suppose, a Western. It starts with a James gang-style
The blog of a Western fan, for other Western fans
“Each man has a song and this is my song.” (Leonard Cohen)
Western parable A curious picture in some ways, Stranger at My Door is, I suppose, a Western. It starts with a James gang-style
Weighty tomes As part of my summer reading I have been re-perusing some hefty guides to the Western, in particular three, Brian Garfield’s
Durango rides (yet) again A Durango Kid Western every now and then doesn’t hurt. The Rough, Tough West is part of
Another Geezer Western Red Tomahawk was one of three Westerns that AC Lyles produced which were released in 1967 (the others were Fort
A Western? Nah. Tulsa is often called a Western, in TV listings, guides and so on, and indeed, the first reel is Western
The Preston Westerns Robert Preston Meservey (1918 – 1987), actor and musician, is probably best remembered today for his role as The Music
Film noir on the page Reel West is a series of (admirably short) books about Western films from the University of New Mexico
Tough guy supreme Part of my holiday reading was Lee Marvin: Point Blank by Dwayne Epstein (Schaffner Press, 2013) and in light of
On vacation now, dear e-readers, so I won’t be posting for a bit but I hope you’ll tune back in towards the end of
A wonderfully good Western We have of course reviewed the 1959 Budd Boetticher/Randolph Scott Western Ride Lonesome on this blog, along with the
Bang, bang (silently) I’ve always liked Lloyd Bridges in Westerns. He was a talented actor, I think. Just look at the way he
OK if you like that kind of thing Alone Yet Not Alone: Their Faith Became Their Freedom, retitled for some television showings more
Hard case Clint The Western has long pursued a love affair with the character of the bounty hunter. One might have thought that
“Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before.” Film titles with livelinks have been reviewed already on this blog
Mediocre-to-fair Big Kill is a Western written and directed by and also co-starring Scott Martin. It’s a good-looking picture, shot in handsome New
Frenemies During Jeff Arnold’s West’s appropriately short season of Western short films, we have looked at a couple of shorts made by Michael
That’s a lot of gunfight in 8 minutes Jeff Arnold’s West is currently having a mini-season reviewing Western short films, and we looked
Short and not too sweet The Dentist is another Western short film (I’m rather into shorts at the mo), a nice little picture
Nine minutes well spent The ‘short’, so long a staple of the Western genre (very many of the early silent oaters were one-
The ending was a bit different anyway Last time on this blog we reviewed a 1954 Lippert Western starring Dane Clark, Thunder Pass.
A modest oater Back in December 2022 on this blog we looked at the career of B-movie mogul Robert L Lippert (click the
Moderately wild times Last time we reviewed the entertaining Western novel Wild Times by Brian Garfield (click the link for that). Well, soon
Dickens on the prairie Regular readers of this blog will know how highly I rate the late Brian Garfield as a Western writer,
A Dern nasty chief villain A made-for-TV Western of the early 1990s directed by Alan J Levi (probably best known for helming Battlestar
Then said Gregorio Cortez With his pistol in his hand, “Ah, so many mounted Rangers Just to take one Mexican!” (Part of the
Burnin’ daylight A very early post on this blog, back in 2010, was a review of a John Wayne Western of the 1970s
A big-budget romance Like 1883, the Western series we reviewed recently (click the link for that), 1923 is another spin-off of the popular
A bit creaky Harold Ueberroth was a photographic model in Chicago whose good looks got him work in Hollywood in the late 1930s,
An OK Columbia B-Western I don’t know whose bright idea it was to take Robert Louis Stevenson’s memoir or travelogue The Silverado Squatters
A writer in the Old West When the present writer [viz Jeff] was what Robert Louis Stevenson would Scottishly have called a halfling,
Nazi-hunting in the Old West The concept of the war crime seems to us quite recent, I suppose, and before the Nuremberg trials
A fun 50s B-Western The Phantom Stagecoach was another of those Wallace MacDonald-produced second feature oaters made for Columbia in the late 1950s,
I was saddened to hear of the death of Cormac McCarthy, in my view one of America’s greatest ever writers. According to his publishers,
Sam Elliott’s favorite role I think you have to give credit to Turner for some of the made-for-television pictures produced in the 1990s.
The book of the film 1990s editions of Louis L’Amour’s 1969 novel Conagher naturally featured Sam Elliott on the cover but in fact
Slightly Boetticheresque You can always rely on Walter Hill. He once said that all the films he made were Westerns, really. When you
Pretty well done As Jeff Shaara, author of the enjoyable The Old Lion: A Novel of Theodore Roosevelt, says in a conversation with
A tidy little oater with a slightly unusual plot Like our last review, Montana Territory, this picture was a mid-budget 1950s Columbia second
Plummer and the vigilantes Montana Territory was a one-hour Columbia Western shot up at the Iverson Ranch with a modest budget but was
More spaghetti? Not for me, thanks. I’ve had enough. There’s a generation of people who were teenagers or young adults in the
We’ll review it anyway Jeff Arnold’s West is not really the place to review The Red Pony at all because a Western it
Sam is Bill Continuing our Sam Elliott thread for a moment, after our post on 1883, in 1999 TNT screened a picture Elliott
Westward the women Continuing our current thread of wagon-train Westerns, today we’ll look at a recent contribution to the sub-genre, the 2010 feature
A decent enough wagon-train Western Last time, reviewing 1883, I said that wagon-train Westerns were among the most common type, and all through
We’ve kinda seen it all before Americans do so love the ‘family saga’. Long tales of the adventures of different generations of a
Doggone it We shall now pause (or dare I say paws) in our study of the Westerns of our favorite actors (see under
Often laughably bad On the ‘bonus’ part of the Sidonis Calysta DVD of When the Redskins Rode, Patrick Brion, waffling even more than
Billy rides again Last year Epix, the premium cable and satellite television network owned by MGM+, joined the throng of those who since
A Dern good movie Harry Tracy is said by some (though without evidence) to have been the last member of the Wild Bunch.
Quentin on the Western Quentin Tarantino is a movie-buff’s movie buff, in fact the buffest buff I know of. His passion for film
Willie’s first Western The first lustrum of the 1980s was a wasteland for the Western movie, Cimino’s monumental flop Heaven’s Gate having almost
The Gambler gets ruthless There is a whole sub-genre of country-singer Westerns, featuring among others Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Kenny Rogers, Travis Tritt
The original Hopalong Cassidy Clarence Mulford (1883 – 1956) is best remembered for his Hopalong Cassidy character, which he created in 1904 with
Give Jim Warren a try As we were saying when talking recently about the Westerns made by RKO (click the link for those
Not to be dismissed Livelinks will take you to our articles on those people or movies. Only three months after the release
Interesting chap Writer and producer Robert Buckner was born in Virginia and would die in Mexico but in between he wandered far and
Pretty trashy When we were looking the other day at the 1950s Westerns that Paramount put out (click the link for that) I
He made some pretty good oaters Film titles with live links will take you to our reviews of those pictures. Nat Holt
Ho-hum A Bullet is Waiting is a movie that hovers on the edges of the Western genre. It stars Stephen McNally as a
He made a Small fortune Edward Small had a long history in the movie business, ‘presenting’ his first film, a First National silent,