Lee makes it to the Top of the Mountain – A Western with John Wayne
The Comancheros bannerThe Comancheros – posters
… But he’s still 5th on the Bill
The Comancheros Trailer
A Western actor’s dream – a scene – and a drink with the Duke.Revisionist Postering … Lee moves to the front.The Comancheros – The DukeMarvin and WayneThe Comancheros – The End
The Stranger Wore a Gun (1953) BannerThe Stranger Wore a Gun (1953) postersThe Stranger Wore a Gun (1953) Marvin and BorgnineMarvin … Billed behind Borgnine
DVD Talk – Partial Review / Review by Stuart Galbraith IV | posted August 24, 2005
The Stranger Wore a Gun is a muddled mess made palatable by Scott’s likeable hero, a strong supporting cast, and the novelty of 3-D at its most nakedly exploitive.
The Raid (1954)
Recommended
USA Feature Film
Director: Hugo Fregonese
Writers: Sydney Boehm, Francis Cockrell, Herbert Ravenal Sass
Cinematographer: Lucien Ballard
Composer: Roy Webb
Cast: Van Heflin, Anne Bancroft, Richard Boone, Lee Marvin,
Tommy Rettig, Peter Graves
Fregonese’s fact based US Civil War film, chronicling a confederate soldier’s infiltration of a small town in Vermont as he prepares to sack it, complicated by his meeting of an attractive young widow, is, with its excellent performances and uncompromising scripting, a thrilling yet intelligent examination of the ambiguities of war and human relationships.
“Nobody gets to be a cowboy forever.”
– Jack Palance
Monte Walsh
Monte Walsh … a real maverick
MFW: Monte Walsh seemed to get decent promotion – lots of excellent posters – and boasts a stellar cast … yet somehow seemed to slip under the fence.
But I believe this is one Western that will age well and eventually earn it’s rightful place at the bar.
Monte Walsh / Rotten Tomatoes
MFW: “100%” from critcs and “57%” from viewers ??
That’s a pretty large canyon.
But I liked it.
Gun Fury(1953) / The Raid (1954) / The Comancheros (1961) / The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) / Cat Ballou (1965) / The Professionals(1966) / Paint Your Wagon (1969) /Monte Walsh (1970) / The Spikes Gang (1974) …
TV Westerns: Wagon Train, Bonanza, and The Virginian …
Lee with Oscar for Cat Ballou
Military career
Allegiance – United States Service/branch United States Marine Corps Years of service 1942–1945 Rank Private First Class Unit 24th Marine Regiment Battles/wars World War II Battle of Saipan Awards Purple Heart
Gun Fury(1953) / The Raid (1954) / The Comancheros (1961) / The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) / Cat Ballou (1965) / The Professionals(1966) / Paint Your Wagon (1969) /Monte Walsh (1970) / The Spikes Gang (1974) …
TV Westerns: Wagon Train, Bonanza, and The Virginian …
Lee with Oscar for Cat Ballou
Military career
Allegiance – United States
Service/branch United States Marine Corps
Years of service 1942–1945
Rank Private First Class
Unit 24th Marine Regiment
Battles/wars
World War II
Battle of Saipan
Awards Purple Heart
But as I said, with exceptional subject matter like The Lone Ranger and Tonto, how could I fail?
In truth, this is about the 5th Award that kind Bloggers have sent my way, but I’ve been callously negligent in posting and responding to these expressions of valued appreciation. I hope to rectify this in the near future and post all these kind awards I’ve received.
In compliance with one condition of the Epically Awesome Award of Epic Awesomeness I am to post 10 epic and/or awesome facts about myself.
“10 epic and/or awesome facts about myself ???
Ah shucks … I can only think of none. I’ll have a couple of jiggers and make some stuff up.
1. i didn’t graduate from high school. True.
i don’t figure I wuz stoopid. just disinterested.
2. My Dad, myself and my 3 older brothers were all in the Calgary Highlanders.
My Dad fought in the war. The rest of us just fought each other.
3. I have been ‘out of the body’ on several occasions.
Mostly on purpose.
4. I held a broad jump record that lasted 14 years.
5. As a 15-year-old grocery clerk I once gave a customer (who said he was looking for “butterfly nuts”), a box of mothballs. (Hes’ still laughing)
6. I don’t own any guns.
Or a horse.
7. I was once saved from getting hit by a car by an invisible hand that pushed me back onto the curb. I believe in spiritual guardians.
8. i was never sure I was on the right planet. Is this Naboo?
9. I quit drinking, smoking, and drugs.
God I’m bored. (Just kidding … about being bored)
10. I’ve had seven partners.
This last one – Rose – is a keeper.
OK .. Part One of my Duties of Compliance have been completed.
Part Two is Give it to 10 bloggers you think are awesome and/or epic – or both.
Well … being a reclusive Cowboy, I can’t rightly think of 10 offhand, but I’ll just start sending them out till the dust settles.
Sam Shepard replaces Chris Cooper in Alberta-shot miniseries Klondike
One week after Oscar-winning actor Chris Cooper departed the Alberta-shot miniseries Klondike, actor Sam Shepard has stepped in to fill his boots.
Deadline Hollywood reported today that the Oscar-nominated Shepard, who is also a renowned playwright, will take over the role of Father Judge for the series, which is the Discovery Channel’s first scripted project. Production started last week in various locations west of Calgary, including an area near Spray Lakes.
Cooper announced last week that he could not play the role due to a personal matter. Klondike is based on Charlotte Gray’s novel Gold Diggers: Striking it Rich in the Klondike and tells the tale of six strangers in a small frontier town of Klondike in the 1890s. The cast also includes Abbie Cornish, Tim Roth and Game of Thrones Richard Madden.
Shepard earned an Oscar nomination for playing pilot Chuck Yeager in the 1983 film The Right Stuff. He is perhaps best known as a playwright, having penned classics such as True West, Fool for Love, Curse of the Starving Class and Buried Child. This is not the first time he has filmed in Alberta. He starred in Terrence Malick’s 1978 film Days of Heaven and 2007′s The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
Periodically we hear the phrase ‘The Western is dead”.
Not so.
How could it be with all us Western fans out here?
Fact is, there are Westerns being made all the time. But most of them are minor in nature – not boasting major Stars – and often go directly to video. Many are still worthy of a look and some are actually very good. They just don’t get mainstream exposure and distribution. Yet every year there are several we can look out for.
