Howdy!
I love Westerns.
... and the intent of MyFavoriteWesterns.com is to celebrate Western Movies/Film - old and new.
This site will eventually show my top 30 favorite Westerns - or more. I will have original graphic work with regular updates.
All this - and more ...
Yee Haw ... !!
- jcablerta / Moderator / Administrator
“Inside of all the makeup and the character and makeup, it’s you, and I think that’s what the audience is really interested in… you, how you’re going to cope with the situation, the obstacles, the troubles that the writer put in front of you.” – Gregory Peck __________________________________________________________
Duel in the Sun … 1946Yellow Sky (1949) – Peck with Anne BaxterThe Gunfighter … 1950Only The Valiant (Fort Invincible) … 1951The Bravados … 1958The Big Country … 1958How the West Was Won (1962) – Peck with Debbie ReynoldsThe Stalking Moon … 1968MacKenna’s Gold (1969)Shoot Out … 1971Billy Two Hats … 1974The Blue and the Grey (1982) – Peck as LincolnOld Gringo (1989)Frederic Remington: The Truth of Other Days (1991)
Directed by King Vidor, produced and written by David O. Selznick
Peck’s first Western and one of Peck’s first movies – and a controversial one. It received the nickname “Lust in the Dust” and even by today’s standards we see how this steamy Western must have challenged the morals of the day (1946). Several scenes had to be cut as they could not pass the censorship boards. (One wonders what the uncut version would have been like … whew !!) Yet, still Nominated Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Jennifer Jones) and Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Lillian Gish).
Wikipedia: “Selznick had high hopes that Duel in the Sun would surpass his success with Gone with the Wind. The film received poor reviews, however, and was highly controversial due to its sexual content and to Selznick’s real-life relationship with Jones, which broke up both of their marriages. Despite the bad press, it was a box-office success for Selznick, although not a second Gone with the Wind. It earned $11,300,000 in rentals in North America during its initial release and much more overseas and in the 1954 re-release.”
Because of the film’s huge production costs (rumored to be over $6,000,000), its $2,000,000 advertising campaign (unheard of at the time) and Selznick’s costly distribution tactics, the film apparently only broke even.
Duel in the Sun posterUpstaged by a hoss …… but not fer long
Peck pic pilfered frum Dr. Macro’s High Quality Movie Scans: http://www.doctormacro.com/Movie%20Summaries/D/Duel%20in%20the%20Sun.htm
Peck’s tussle with “Old Thunder” in The Big Country wasn’t his first altercation with an ornery steed. Observe the clip below from Duel in the Sun.
Call me wrong, but it appears Peck is doing his own stunt-work?
I love the way Peck swings into the corral – Lancaster style.
The cast of Duel in the Sunis mindboggling: Gregory Peck, Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten,Lionel Barrymore, Herbert Marshall,Lillian Gish,Walter Huston, Charles Bickford,Harry Carey,Butterfly McQueen, Otto Kruger,Sidney Blackmer ... My God!
duel in the sol poster
Clip Below: Peck tames ‘Old Thunder’ in The Big Country: Movie Clips.com:
For most of his career, Robertson played in western films and television shows — well over sixty titles in all. His best-remembered series, Tales of Wells Fargo, aired on NBC from 1957 to 1961, when it moved to ABC and expanded to an hour-long program for its final season in 1961-1962. Robertson also did the narration for Tales of Wells Fargo through which he often presented his own commentary on matters of law, morality, and common sense.
Heston doesn’t smile much in The Big Country. He’s the Major’s (Charles Bickford) hard-bitten boy – the son he never had – and his foreman. He’s cowboy tuff and cowboy gruff. He’s also plain unhappy that the girl he’s loved so long has saddled up with an Eastern greenhorn, Gregory Peck. It ‘sticks in his craw’ – Big time – and he’s not going to leave quietly …
Charlton Heston – The BIg Country
As the film ends, Big transitions are in the offing. The battling patriarchs – Burl Ives and Charles Bickford – are dead – along with Ives’ troublesome son Buck (Chuck Connors). It’s seems a ‘given’ that Heston will become the new boss of the Major’s empire – alongside his proper partner Carroll Baker; while the Hannassey’s (Ives’ bunch) homestead is in disarray with no one at its helm; meanwhile the “Big Muddy” now rises under Gregory Peck and Jean Simmons.
As Peck and Simmons ride off into the sunset – we are sure that Heston and Carroll Baker will complete their own circle (though we don’t get to see it).
One wonders though, if there still isn’t an untold story on the horizon …
The only problem is: where do you find the players? – another cast like this?
The answer is …
You can’t.
Heston NRA
In this 2002 file photo, Charlton Heston acknowledges applause at a benefit honoring him at the
National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum.
(Photo by Steve Sisney/The OklahomanArchives)
Heston … Part 2 … Western FilmographyThe Savage -1952Susan Morrow / HestonArrowhead – 1953The Pony Express – 1953Far Horizons – 1955Donna Reed / HestonThree Violent People – 1956The BIg Country – 1958Major Dundee 1965Will Penny – 1968The Last Hard Men – 1976The Mountain Men – 1980Tombstone – 1993
The Savage -1952 Susan Morrow / HestonArrowhead – 1953The Pony Express – 1953Far Horizons – 1955 Donna Reed / HestonThree Violent People – 1956The BIg Country – 1958Major Dundee 1965Will Penny – 1968The Last Hard Men – 1976The Mountain Men – 1980Tombstone – 1993
Most of us folks leave no mark to show our passage. Others stomp all over the damn thing.
I’ve been trying to do a bio on Charlton Heston for The Big Country. But he’s too big.
He keeps falling off the page … and filling up the room. So much so that I figure I better stick distinctly to his Westerns – or I’ll end up with a book.
A Man for All Seasons? The Greatest Show on Earth … ??
Maybe not … but damn sure worth a look.
I don’t say I find favor with all he said and did, but you can’t help but end up admiring what we know of his extensive journey.
So I’ll battle onward …
But there’s no way we can sum up some of these folks …
Screenshot of Charlton Heston from the trailer for the film The Greatest Show on Earth. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)English: Taken during the production of Julius Caesar, 1950. The location is Chicago’s Museum of Science & Industry. Other images by this contributor – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Sba2 Use this image as needed, but for uses other than personal, please credit as “Photo by Chalmers Butterfield”. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)President Ronald Reagan with Charlton Heston at a meeting with the Presidential Task Force on the Arts and Humanities in the White House Cabinet Room. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Charlton Heston photographed for Vanity Fair magazine by Jerry Avenaim (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Cropped screenshot of Charlton Heston from the trailer for the film Ben Hur (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. Heston, Marlon Brando .. Harry Belefonte and Sydney Portier in background.will penny
Open Range / CostnerOpen Range / DuvallOpen Range / Michael GambonOpen Range Firearms
Winchester’s 1873 rifle was the “Rifle that Won the West.” It was chambered in a new, more powerful cartridge, the .44-40—a .44 caliber bullet, propelled by 40 grains of black powder. However, a factor that really insured the success of the 1873 Winchester rifles was that Colt quickly offered its Peacemaker chambered in .44-40, as well. A cowboy could have both a lever-action rifle and his six shooter, and needed only one cartridge belt for both. Most Texas Rangers and every old West cowboy worth his salt carried 1873 rifles. Chappo, the son of Apache war chief Geronimo, packed an 1873. And Buffalo Bill carried an 1873 lever-action rifle along with a pair of .44-40 Colts in 1876 when he worked as an Army scout … Cimmarron Firearms Company http://www.cimarron-firearms.com/repeating-rifles-1/model-1873/special-sporting-1/1873-sporting-rifle-44-wcf-24-in-ca242.html
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