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I can pretty much guarantee you'll like it cricket. Both are definitely going on my list, but I'm having a tough time deciding which I like more. Hannie Caulder is probably the better quality movie, but Bella Starr is more charming.
Westerns Movie Log Journal & Recommendations
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I'm going to watch about 5 more unless you come up with another gem.
Blood On The Moon 1948
Broken Lance 1954
Chisum (1970)
Cimarron (1960)
Decision at Sundown 1957
Destry Rides Again 1939
Fort Dobbs (1958)
He Rides Tall (1964)
Man In The Wilderness (1971)
Man without a Star 1955
Monte Walsh (1970)
Rancho Notorious 1952
Rawhide 1951
Run Of The Arrow (1957)
Sergeant Rutledge (1960
Silver Lode (1954)
Stars in My Crown (1950)
Terror in a Texas Town 1958
The Ballad Of Cable Hogue
The Big Country 1958
The Comanchers (1961)
The Marauders (1955)
The Outlaw (1943)
The Return of Frank James 1940
The Ride Back 1957
The Westerner (1940)
They Died with Their Boots On (1941)
Track Of The Cat 1954
Warpath (1951)
Westward The Women 1950
Will Penny (1968)
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Without double checking I've seen about 9 of them, and I know you've already seen The Big Country. I wasn't crazy about Monte Walsh but I watched it before I loved westerns. I'll be watching this thread per usual.
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River Lady (1948)
Only 77 minutes long and shot in Technicolor. I watched this because of the shorter run time and because it had Dan Duryea in it and the lovely Yvonne De Carlo. IMDB tags it as a western, but it's about logging in the Mississippi area circa 1850s. It's typical of matinee westerns of the 1940s: short runtime, splashing costumes, romantic-drama with some action. The best thing was the scenes of real loggers floating down river riding longs...Damn that looked dangerous. A nice little film, but nothing special.
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Will Penny (1967)
Will Penny is an introspective look at an lonely, ageing cowboy coming to grips with the fact that he's become too old to start a new life. Most of the film is satisfying in a quiet reflective way that builds on the solitude of a lone, cowboy lineman.
Charleston Heston excelled at acting in the end scene where he recounts how time has passed him by, stealing his chances at happiness and leaving him to live a solitary life. That scene alone is worth the time spent to watch the film.
Most of the film is solid...but then there's the prerequisite need to include action scenes to 'spice up the film'. Most slow made-reflective westerns do this. Here the action scenes come from a deranged family of 'rawhiders' (whatever that meant) who collectively have an IQ of 10 and come off more like cartoon characters...They decide to torment Will Penny and the woman & her son, in his cabin. The way Will Penny resolves the conflict is laughable and reminded me of something done in some old TV western show. But beside the poorly executed action scenes this is a pretty good movie.
Charleston Heston excelled at acting in the end scene where he recounts how time has passed him by, stealing his chances at happiness and leaving him to live a solitary life. That scene alone is worth the time spent to watch the film.
Most of the film is solid...but then there's the prerequisite need to include action scenes to 'spice up the film'. Most slow made-reflective westerns do this. Here the action scenes come from a deranged family of 'rawhiders' (whatever that meant) who collectively have an IQ of 10 and come off more like cartoon characters...They decide to torment Will Penny and the woman & her son, in his cabin. The way Will Penny resolves the conflict is laughable and reminded me of something done in some old TV western show. But beside the poorly executed action scenes this is a pretty good movie.
Last edited by Citizen Rules; 05-06-20 at 01:11 PM.
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Cimarron (Anthony Mann 1960)
Director Anthony Mann's last of the 11 westerns that he made. This one didn't feel like his other western though. It lacked the personal director's touch and the stunning outdoor scenery. It felt more like How The West Was Won, with it's epic tale of settling the west, while telling the story in different eras and utilizing a large cast of stars. I liked the first half which really moved along and kept me interested. The land rush scene was something else! The second half kind of dragged some but still had it's moments.
While I like Glenn Ford and really liked Maria Schell, both seemed woefully miscast in this epic tale of a strong willed woman who's abandoned by her wanderlust husband for years at a time, leaving her to build the small town newspaper. In the process she helps build the town from a small settlement to a thriving city.
Cimarron in it's structure reminded me of novelist Edna Ferber's other great novel turned to a movie: Giant.
While I like Glenn Ford and really liked Maria Schell, both seemed woefully miscast in this epic tale of a strong willed woman who's abandoned by her wanderlust husband for years at a time, leaving her to build the small town newspaper. In the process she helps build the town from a small settlement to a thriving city.
Cimarron in it's structure reminded me of novelist Edna Ferber's other great novel turned to a movie: Giant.
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Forty Guns (Samuel Fuller 1957)
After watching Barbara Stanwyck in The Furies and enjoying it, I got a hankering for more of her westerns. Forty Guns is either really great in a European style of film making, or it's got one of the strangest scripts to come to light.
Samuel Fuller was known for his in-your-face style of tabloid film making...and he made some damn fine movies too. But with Forty Guns, a film he not only produced and directed but also wrote, we get dialogue that seems overly polished, with clever proses, but somehow it never felt like it rang true to the ears. For most of the move I was somewhat baffled by what the characters motivations were, and just where we were at in the story line.
Either this is such an inventive film that it went over my unsophisticated head...or...the script needed a rewrite.
At any rate this looks great! It's filmed in wide screen Cinemascope and director Sam Fuller takes full advantage of that panoramic process. I loved the idea of a beautiful girl who's an ace gun smith and expert shot. I don't know why, but that was cool. Then there's the scene with a half dozen men in bathtubs, not my thing, but it was rather comical looking. This is probably a film somebody should watch and decide for themselves.
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Samuel Fuller was known for his in-your-face style of tabloid film making...and he made some damn fine movies too. But with Forty Guns, a film he not only produced and directed but also wrote, we get dialogue that seems overly polished, with clever proses, but somehow it never felt like it rang true to the ears. For most of the move I was somewhat baffled by what the characters motivations were, and just where we were at in the story line.
Either this is such an inventive film that it went over my unsophisticated head...or...the script needed a rewrite.
At any rate this looks great! It's filmed in wide screen Cinemascope and director Sam Fuller takes full advantage of that panoramic process. I loved the idea of a beautiful girl who's an ace gun smith and expert shot. I don't know why, but that was cool. Then there's the scene with a half dozen men in bathtubs, not my thing, but it was rather comical looking. This is probably a film somebody should watch and decide for themselves.
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I kept hoping that the gunsmith's daughter, the beautiful blonde to whom you referred, would develop a larger role. I'd watch an entire spin-off dedicated to her character. (As one character says, "I'd love to stick around and clean her rifle.") I loved the shot of her through the rifle barrel, along with all the other cool, stylish shots, like the image you used where Stanwyck's face is superimposed over the hired guns, and the clever editing of Sullivan's intimidating walk toward an unruly drunk shooting up the town. I loved the song about Stanwyck's character that is sung a few times throughout the film, somehow portraying a different mood and purpose each time despite the lyrics never changing. If I had a complaint, it'd be the film's brevity. I feel like there's so much more Fuller could've explored with these characters. (The bathtub thing you mentioned in your review seems to be a strange recurring theme with Fuller, as I've noticed that in his other films as well, like I Shot Jesse James.)
I'm really falling in love with Fuller as a director. War, noir, westerns, exploitation . . . regardless of the genre he's working in, he consistently twists conventions with his singular style. Each film of his that I've seen has his unique stamp all over it.
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I watched this a couple days ago and loved it, mostly because of that script you want to rewrite. I even turned on subtitles just so I wouldn't miss a single word of that delicious dialogue. I can't think of any other western so rife with sexual innuendo and double entendres. ("May I touch it?" asks Stanwyck, supposedly referring to Sullivan's gun. "Uh-uh," he declines. "Just curious," she says, coquettishly. "It might go off in your face," he warns.) It seemed like every line was a thinly veiled reference to the horizontal monkey dance. It's not just gunpowder one smells in this western town, but the musky smell of sex. Forty Phalluses would've been a more apt title.
That dialogue example is definitely my kind of my humor.
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Monte Walsh (1970)
Finally a western that has a real good chance of making my countdown ballot. In themes, this was much like Will Penny, but in execution it was heads above that film.
Monte Walsh is titled after the lead character, colorfully played by Lee Marvin. Monte is an aging cowhand stuck in the old west. Times are a-changin' with a business consortium buying up the independent ranches, leaving the cowhands out of work...The men who had worked these ranches are now out of step with the times. Some of the displaced ranch hands resort to nefarious means of survival...But crusty old Monte knows nothing but ranch work, so keeps plugging along the best he can.
The film starts off like a light comedy, then as the circumstances become more dire the film gets more serious. Monte Walsh does have some gun-fighting & some crazy horse riding action scenes, but mostly it has a lot of heart and good ole Lee Marvin.
Monte Walsh is titled after the lead character, colorfully played by Lee Marvin. Monte is an aging cowhand stuck in the old west. Times are a-changin' with a business consortium buying up the independent ranches, leaving the cowhands out of work...The men who had worked these ranches are now out of step with the times. Some of the displaced ranch hands resort to nefarious means of survival...But crusty old Monte knows nothing but ranch work, so keeps plugging along the best he can.
The film starts off like a light comedy, then as the circumstances become more dire the film gets more serious. Monte Walsh does have some gun-fighting & some crazy horse riding action scenes, but mostly it has a lot of heart and good ole Lee Marvin.
Last edited by Citizen Rules; 05-07-20 at 02:05 PM.
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Destry Rides Again (George Marshall 1939)
Solid comedy western with two of the greatest: Jimmy Stewart and Marlene Dietrich. Marlene is especially good in this one, she gets all the best lines. Stewart is the son of a famous gun shooting sheriff who is invited into the town of Bottleneck to clean up the local riff raff (Brian Donlvey). Only one problem, the younger Destry doesn't use a gun and seems like a push over. The cat fight between Una Merkle and Marlene Dietrich is well worth the watch...both did all of their own stunts and just improvised and boy do they really go at it!
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I don't recall being a big fan of Monte Walsh, but I did like Destry.
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Fort Dobbs (1958)
Much better than River of No Return...and very similar in themes, though there's no river. Western star Clint Walker's first feature length movie and he get's the lead. Think of him like Gary Cooper in that he doesn't say much but he doesn't really have to. He's 'Gar Davis' a man who's not afraid to use his guns. He's come into the western town of Largo to kill a man. Which he does. That then puts him on the run from a posse. That's when he learns the fearless Comanche Nation is on the uprise and smack dab in the middle of that uprising is the homestead of Celia Gray (Virgina Mayo). So like in River of No Return Gar, Celia & her young son must travel through Comanche terrority to make it to Fort Dobbs.
I found this exciting as it was tension and drama all the way. Virginia Mayo is good with a snarl and even her the actor her played her son was good. Too bad he wasn't cast in Shane! A young Brian Keith plays the bad guy and does it with zeal. I really enjoyed this one.
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I found this exciting as it was tension and drama all the way. Virginia Mayo is good with a snarl and even her the actor her played her son was good. Too bad he wasn't cast in Shane! A young Brian Keith plays the bad guy and does it with zeal. I really enjoyed this one.
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@Citizen Rules , if you have time check Cut-Throats Nine. You probably hate it, but I'd like to read your comments 
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@Citizen Rules , if you have time check Cut-Throats Nine. You probably hate it, but I'd like to read your comments
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@Citizen Rules , if you have time check Cut-Throats Nine. You probably hate it, but I'd like to read your comments
I've found that I don't really like Spaghetti Westerns they remind me too much of Tarantino.
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The Ballad of Cable Hogue (Sam Peckinpah, 1970)
This comedy-western kind of felt like a big budget American production of the old Benny Hill TV show. The jokes certainly reminded me of dirty ole' Benny getting an eye full I suppose after the sexual revolution of the 1960s that was the style of comedy. Not really my thing, though Stella Stevens was lovely to look at in her pink corset. But I really didn't like her in a blonde wig and it looked like she had lost a lot of weight as her face was much thinner than in earlier made movies I've seen her in.
Like the director's Pat Garret and Billy the Kid, this also seemed to be a patchwork of well shot scenes, that didn't really stitch into the finish work. The characters were all dressed up with no place to go, leaving the denizen's of the movie to feel artificial and uninteresting. The movie lacked cohesion and focus, the director was a notorious drunk so maybe that's why. I prefer Monte Walsh instead.
I suppose after the sexual revolution of the 1960s that was the style of comedy. Not really my thing, though Stella Stevens was lovely to look at in her pink corset. But I really didn't like her in a blonde wig and it looked like she had lost a lot of weight as her face was much thinner than in earlier made movies I've seen her in.Like the director's Pat Garret and Billy the Kid, this also seemed to be a patchwork of well shot scenes, that didn't really stitch into the finish work. The characters were all dressed up with no place to go, leaving the denizen's of the movie to feel artificial and uninteresting. The movie lacked cohesion and focus, the director was a notorious drunk so maybe that's why. I prefer Monte Walsh instead.
Last edited by Citizen Rules; 05-24-20 at 12:47 PM.
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I just finished The Long Riders (1980). I'd rate it . It'll still make my list, but fairly low.
Next I'm watching Jeremiah Johnson (1972).
And I've got two more lined up, Barbarosa (1982) and Bad Company (1972).
The rest of my list I don't know how many I'll have time for.
The Kentuckian (1955)
Ride Lonesome (1959)
The Shootist (1976)
The Ballad of Little Joe (1993)
Black Jack
No Name on the Bullet (1959)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Shane (1953)
The Wild Bunch (1969)
Death Rides a Horse
My Darling Clementine (1946)
The Magnificent Seven (1960)
3:10 to Yuma (1957)
Deadly Companions (1961)
Next I'm watching Jeremiah Johnson (1972).
And I've got two more lined up, Barbarosa (1982) and Bad Company (1972).
The rest of my list I don't know how many I'll have time for.
The Kentuckian (1955)
Ride Lonesome (1959)
The Shootist (1976)
The Ballad of Little Joe (1993)
Black Jack
No Name on the Bullet (1959)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Shane (1953)
The Wild Bunch (1969)
Death Rides a Horse
My Darling Clementine (1946)
The Magnificent Seven (1960)
3:10 to Yuma (1957)
Deadly Companions (1961)
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That's quite a watch list you have there, I've seen and liked some of those. I'll save that list and will watch them after the countdown...I love westerns so even once the countdown is done, I'll still be seeking out western movies I've not seen.
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The trailer for Bad Company gave me similar vibes to the moral grittiness of Dirty Little Billy, and Barbarosa gave me the kind of wild and crazy lawless West of The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean.
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