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The great Elmore Leonard wrote two kinds of scripts, great ones and, well, er, the great Elmore Leonard wrote one kind of script, not counting the two genres he wrote: Westerns and darkly funny crime dramas. Known more now for the latter, he was a modern master of the former, populating his hair…
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Guitar kicks in 40s into the Joe Kidd...
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Gary Cooper walking alone down a dusty Western street to confront a gang of killers is as iconic as Hollywood gets, making High Noon an archetype even more than a legend. That’s quite a weight. Fortunately the movie itself is engaging, suspenseful and tight. A mere 85 minutes, it runs in ne…
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High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My D...
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Marilyn Monroe didn’t want to appear in River of No Return, nor did Otto Preminger want to direct it, especially if Marilyn was to star. Studio contracts forced them into it and we’re all the better for it today. River of No Return is a fine mid-Fifties Western, with surprising Italian root…
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Marilyn sings: Let it wash over you.
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Star power in service to a (then) unconventional story makes for a very good movie. A grizzled John Wayne, shiny Glen Campbell and sharp Robert Duvall provide the star power, while a young girl hiring a de facto bounty hunter to track down her father’s killer provides the novel story. Rescree…
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Yowza, true Western entertainment
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“Shane, come back!” could have been a Simon & Garfunkel lyric. Instead, the troubadours chose Joe DiMaggio, another icon of mid-Century American manhood. Yet, Shane endures as a cultural touchstone. Thousands of baby boomers were christened with his clarion clear name…
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Jack Palance: a badass star is born
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Classic Westerns come no more accomplished than Winchester ’73. It ably weaves a tale around “The Gun that Won the West,” the Winchester 1873. This Precious changes hands almost as often as My Precious in Lord of the Rings, …
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Rock Hudson before Indians played Ind...
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John Wayne’s final movie serves as a benediction for gunfighters at the dawn of the 20th Century, and for Wayne’s career as a celluloid gunfighter. It does the latter better than the former, making it more of an obligation for fans of the Duke than for Western fans generally. The Shootist b…
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Lauren Bacall: strong & lovely
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John Wayne starring in an Old West fairytale based on a Louis L’Amour story endows Hondo with loads of old fashioned panache, yet saddles it with too many cliches for enduring greatness. That’s in 2D however. Having seen it years ago in 3D, I recall it as being better but still not great. It…
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The trailer hypes Hondo a bit too much.
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A big budget disaster when it came out at the end of the Sixties, Paint Your Wagon is a modestly entertaining extravaganza today. Faint praise? Indeed, for a musical comedy that is long on star power and short on memorable songs and effective humor. Oh yeah, it’s also long on time. I watc…
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Jean Seberg: lovely, not distinctive
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The myths about one of the Wild West’s most mythologized characters get burnished in this enjoyable biopic. Hollywoodized to the point of cliche, Wild Bill isn’t much for historical veracity. That leaves it free to make entertaining hay out of the many shootouts, lovers, standoffs, and saloon…
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Enjoyable if Hollywoodized into cliche
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