The end of the buffalo   Brit Stewart Granger (born in posh Kensington, London in 1913; died in rich Santa Monica in 1993) had

. . Shepherd’s pie . . In the tradition of the ‘shepherd’s pie’ western (what I call British oaters; European westerns have to be named

I’ve just been in the Netherlands for a few days and what did I come across in the small town of Delft, famous for Vermeer

. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons… .  . Anything for Billy (Simon & Schuster, 1988) is in many ways the exact

. Splendid . . It was a magnificent achievement in 1969 to make such a fine film, the John Wayne True Grit, from such a great

  A confused adolescent   Another Billy book. So many have been written, I know, but this one can be kept in the top drawer.

. Grim, dark, stark, this film still has the power to shock . . Westerns that have little action, a lot of talking and are

. . What a spaghetti western ought to have been . . Sixties and seventies Eurowesterns have their fans (I am not one) and the

. . A box-office break-even only, it has quality . . . This film is directed by Robert Altman and it shows. It has the

. Not my cup of tea – and not a Western (the two things are related) . . By some accounts this movie is a

. I call that bold talk for a one-eyed fat man! . . The novel True Grit (Simon & Schuster, 1968) by Charles McColl Portis

. The Lincoln County War and Billy the Kid: the truth behind the fiction . .   . The book   Robert M. Utley’s book

. . Well-constructed, professional and also fun . . . The Big Trail was not the springboard to megastardom that Wayne must have hoped. All

. . It’s all rather turgid, really . . One-Eyed Jacks is a rather second-rate Western which is supposed (but often you wouldn’t know it)

. It’s real . . For those interested in the history as well as the myth of the West, few places repay visiting more than

. . This Western ticks a lot of the boxes . . Smaller Billy the Kid movies from minor studios don’t have to be junk.

. Mud, murder and mayhem . . The famed HBO series created by David Milch which ran from 2004 to 2006 and too suddenly stopped

HAPPY NEW YEAR, blog-pards. . And I hope 2011 will be wild and woolly for you. Billy the Kid will not receive a posthumous pardon

. Worth seeing, for the curiosity value . . It is extraordinary, really, how far movies came in only a decade. In 1939 John Ford

. . It’s a nice little film . . John Wayne’s first film as a producer was Angel and the Badman, a love story really,

. A hard-bitten marshal of the Rooster Cogburn kind . . John Wayne’s antepenultimate Western, Cahill is a conventional AV McLaglen flick enlivened by some

. . “An even bigger piece of crap than El Dorado.” (Robert Mitchum) . . Oh dear. This was the last of the Howard Hawks/John

. I never will play the wild rover no more . . I try not to talk about, for example, “Henry Hathaway’s True Grit” or

. The (not so) Great Train Robbery . . The series of big commercial Westerns John Wayne made in the 70s were  successful at the

. From Hell to New Mexico . . Henry Hathaway made only one really great Western. It was, of course, True Grit (Paramount, 1969). But

Down that Oregon Trail . . . An open range ahead A blanket for a bed A friendly fire while lonely coyotes wail That’s life

. Mikhail Bakunin would have enjoyed it . . . Clint Eastwood himself regards The Outlaw Josey Wales with particular affection and seems to suggest

. A love quadrilateral – or even pentagon . . Teen idol Edd Byrnes, Kookie the parking lot attendant from 77 Sunset Strip, never really

. . Straight down the (telegraph) line . . My late pa would have loved The Telegraph Trail. It’s fifty-four black & white minutes of straight-down-the-(telegraph)

. Very funny . . I have said that True Grit‘s French title of 100 Dollars pour le Shérif is the worst ever translation of a

. . The Titanic sinks again . . .I’m coming dangerously close, on this Western blog, to reviewing non-Westerns. It is true that I do

. A Movie with Zip . . .Isn’t it sad, and telling, that a film set in Montana has now to be shot in Mexico

. A highly entertaining picture . . .. Not so much a Western as a poker movie set in the nineteenth century, A Big Hand

. Directed by Walsh, starring Coop, written by Busch: it should have been good . . In my rambling writings I have made no secret

Pragmatists?   . Mind, this ‘philosophy of the Western’ thing can be taken too far. B Steve Caski, in another essay in the book The

. They go their own way . . Lone Western heroes are self-reliant critters. They go their own way and depend on no person. They

. . Explosive fun . . Two 60s Westerns which have quite a bit in common are Rio Conchos and 100 Rifles. . Rio Conchos

. . Injecting new blood? . . .The reverse-engineering that took place in the ‘spaghetti comes to Hollywood’ period of the late 60s and early

. . “Cheap and very bad” (Brian Garfield) . . Well, pardners, another clunker to report on. You see, a very good friend of mine,

. Better than a dead fish . . Reviewing yesterday Law of the 45s, a clunky but fun old 30s second feature with Guinn ‘Big Boy’

. . The Two Mesquiteers  . . The Law of 45s, also known as Law of the Forty-Fives and Sunrise Guns, is a straightforward Saturday-morning talkie

  Tough lawman Clint   . Yuma is a pretty standard early 70s made-for-TV Western, wholesome family viewing. But it’s not at all bad. Clint

. . The Mountie doesn’t always get his man . . Dan Candy’s Law, also known as Alien Thunder, is not really a Western at

. See it if you absolutely must . . You can tell it’s a spaghetti within the first 15 seconds. It starts with a shot

. If you want a Judge Roy Bean film you’d be better off with The Westerner . . “Maybe this wasn’t the way it was…it’s

. . Watch it at your own risk . . I have reviewed well over 1000 Westerns in this blog, the good, the bad and

. . Day of the Weak Film . . This picture got an MGM theatrical release but has all the air of a TV movie,

. . Euro-bad . .  Following on from United Artists’ Viva Maria! of 1965, forty years on we get Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek as the

. Your gray eyes shift warily . . I feel we need an earnest discussion of the merits of NBC’s late 50s/early 60s TV series,

. No Hollywood fort. . Fort Laramie isn’t at Laramie. In fact the Fort is about 100 miles NE of the town. Probably, the Man from

  The man from Laramie He was a man with a peaceful turn of mind He was kind of sociable and friendly Friendly as any

. A very classy Western . . Set early, in 1850s Oregon, starting with pouring rain and a ship in the background, Canyon Passage is

. The Smithsonian of the West . Almost exactly a year ago, I was touring the magnificent states of Wyoming and Montana. My pard-ess and

. . Raoul Walsh’s final trumpet . .    Raoul Walsh was 77 when he directed his last movie, A Distant Trumpet. It was fitting

. . Bruce Surtees, Elmore Leonard, John Sturges – it’s a great combination . . All links are internal and will take you to other