The blog of a Western fan, for other Western fans

“Each man has a song and this is my song.” (Leonard Cohen)

Western guides

  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

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Tulsa (RKO, 1949)

  A Western? Nah.   Tulsa is often called a Western, in TV listings, guides and so on, and indeed, the first reel is Western

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A brief pause

  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

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Ride Lonesome by Kirk Ellis

  A wonderfully good Western   We have of course reviewed the 1959 Budd Boetticher/Randolph Scott Western Ride Lonesome on this blog, along with the

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Big Kill (Archstone, 2019)

  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

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Massacre (Fox, 1956)

  The ending was a bit different anyway   Last time on this blog we reviewed a 1954 Lippert Western starring Dane Clark, Thunder Pass.

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1923 (Paramount +, 2022)

  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

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Cormac McCarthy

  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,

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Conagher (TNT, 1991)

  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.

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Rough Riders (TNT, 1997)

  Pretty well done   As Jeff Shaara, author of the enjoyable The Old Lion: A Novel of Theodore Roosevelt, says in a conversation with

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1883 (Paramount+, 2021)

  We’ve kinda seen it all before   Americans do so love the ‘family saga’. Long tales of the adventures of different generations of a

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Dogs in Westerns

  Doggone it   We shall now pause (or dare I say paws) in our study of the Westerns of our favorite actors (see under

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Barbarosa (Universal, 1982)

  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

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Rio Diablo (CBS TV, 1993)

  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

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Bar-20 by Clarence E Mulford

  The original Hopalong Cassidy   Clarence Mulford (1883 – 1956) is best remembered for his Hopalong Cassidy character, which he created in 1904 with

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