Posted in John Ford on March 26, 2026| 4 Comments »
I’m so glad to have baseball back.
As is customary* around here, here’s John Ford sporting his Dodgers cap to mark the first game of the season at Dodgers Stadium.
After last year’s incredible World Series, I’m expecting big things from my favorite team this year.
Go Dodgers!
*50 Westerns Of The 50s Big Word Of The Day
Posted in 1952, Anthony Mann, Arthur Kennedy, Chubby Johnson, DVD/Blu-Ray News, Harry Morgan, Jay C. Flippen, Jimmy Stewart, Julie Adams, Kino Lorber, Rock Hudson, Royal Dano, Universal (International) on March 24, 2026| 7 Comments »
Directed by Anthony Mann
Starring James Stewart, Arthur Kennedy, Julie Adams, Rock Hudson, Lori Nelson, Jay C. Flippen, Harry Morgan, Royal Dano, Stepin Fetchit, Chubby Johnson
Kino Lorber is bringing an updated Bend Of The River (1952) to Blu-Ray in May.
This is the second of the Anthony Mann/Jimmy Stewart Westerns, and one of the finest Westerns ever made.
KL’s old Blu-Ray of Bend Of The River is wonderful, but there was some registration trouble with the Technicolor in a few scenes. That’s now been corrected, and if you ask me, a new disc is certainly warranted. (I’m so glad that my commentary from the old disc is making its way to this one.) Absolutely essential.
Posted in Ben Johnson, Books, Warren Oates on March 14, 2026| 4 Comments »
My To-Do list is really long and tangled up these days (somebody wanna mow our yard?), but I wanted to share a couple things real quick.
Found a book the other day that I didn’t know anything about — The Movie Railroads by Larry Jensen, published back in 1981. The idea that the studios used to actually own real trains and had to maintain them and move them around is fascinating. And it’s fun to see how many stars climbed around on the same locomotives from picture to picture. This is a piece of the whole 50s Westerns thing that I hadn’t given a lot of thought. How lame on my part.
Currently on the nightstand at 50s Westerns HQ is Kathryn Jones’ Tall In The Saddle, a brand new and simply incredible biography of Ben Johnson. I’ve read a number of sections of it (of course, I went to One-Eyed Jacks immediately), and can’t wait to dig into the whole thing. Remember Susan Compo’s great book on Warren Oates (Warren Oates: A Wild Life) or Dwayne Epstein’s Lee Marvin: Point Blank? It’s that good. Highly, highly recommended. (Will get around to a real review of this ASAP.)
Posted in DVD/Blu-Ray News, Jimmy Wakely, Monogram/Allied Artists, Phil Karlson, Wallace Fox, Warner Archive on March 13, 2026| 10 Comments »
Just what we’ve been waiting for — another Monogram Matinee! This time we get a bigger-than-usual Monogram picture, along with one of the Westerns they excelled at.
Louisiana (1947)
Directed by Phil Karlson
Starring Governor Jimmie Davis, Margaret Lindsay, John Gallaudet
Jimmie Davis was the governor of Louisiana. He was also a pretty fair songwriter and country singer — he wrote “You Are My Sunshine.” Monogram made a movie about, with Davis playing himself, covering his rise from redneck to sheriff to mayor to governor, with country singer spread over the top of it all. The great Phil Karlson directed, and he swore his picture helped Davis get re-elected. We’re all familiar with the celebrity-turned-politician thing, but starring in a movie while still in office?
Song Of The Range (1944)
Directed by Wallace Fox
Starring Jimmy Wakely, Dennis Moore, Lee ‘Lasses’ White
Song Of The Range is the first of Monogram’s Jimmy Wakely pictures. Wakely had appeared in a number of B Westerns before getting a series of his own. He made 28 pictures for Monogram. Here, director Wallace Fox stirs up guitars and gunplay for a brisk, tuneful 55 minutes. Fox worked a lot with Sam Katzman at Monogram, then directed some serials for him when Katzman split for Columbia.
With these features coming from 4k scans of the best surviving nitrate materials, I cannot wait to get my hands on this thing. Highly recommended.
Posted in Arthur Hunnicutt, Howard Hawks, John Wayne, Robert Mitchum on March 10, 2026| 12 Comments »
“Eldorado”
by Edgar Allan Poe
Gaily bedight,
A gallant knight,
In sunshine and in shadow,
Had journeyed long,
Singing a song,
In search of Eldorado.
But he grew old—
This knight so bold—
And o’er his heart a shadow—
Fell as he found
No spot of ground
That looked like Eldorado.
And, as his strength
Failed him at length,
He met a pilgrim shadow—
‘Shadow,’ said he,
‘Where can it be—
This land of Eldorado?’
‘Over the Mountains
Of the Moon,
Down the Valley of the Shadow,
Ride, boldly ride,’
The shade replied,—
‘If you seek for Eldorado!’
Posted in Don Siegel, Dub Taylor, DVD/Blu-Ray News, Harry Carey Jr., Kino Lorber, Richard Widmark, Royal Dano, Universal (International) on March 2, 2026| 4 Comments »
Directed by Allan Smithee (Don Siegel & Robert Totten)
Starring Richard Widmark, Lena Horne, Carroll O’Connor, David Opatoshu, Kent Smith, Dub Taylor, John Saxon, Royal Dano, Harry Carey, Jr., John Sande, Victor French
So what the hell happened with Death Of A Gunfighter (1969)? Luckily, whatever it was, it still ended up a pretty good movie — and it’s coming to Blu-Ray from Kino Lorber.
Some say Don Siegel turned it down and it went to TV director Robert Totten, who did most of the picture. Widmark wasn’t happy and used his pull with Universal to have Totten replaced — by Don Siegel, who’d recently directed Widmark in Universal’s terrific Madigan (1968). When it was finished, Widmark didn’t want Totten to get credit, even though he did most of it, and Siegel didn’t want his name on it since it wasn’t his movie.
As a compromise, the guild OK’d a pseudonym, Allen Smithee. The name’s still used for troubled pictures, and Smithee has build a rather varied filmography.
This is one of those “the Old West is over” pictures that were prominent in the late 60s. Widmark plays Frank Patch, a marshal known for his skill with this gun. His working methods don’t go over well with the town council of Cottonwood Springs, a bunch of crooked cowards who want Patch gone.
Death Of A Gunfighter weaves in everything from interracial marriage and bigotry to venereal disease and crooked politicians, with a healthy dose of gossip and slander. There’s a car putting around to make sure we know this is the end of the West.
For a film known for its production difficulties, Death Of A Gunfighter plays fairly seamlessly. It certainly has that Universal backlot look — but more like a TV show than the studio’s theatrical Westerns of the 50s. Robert Totten had directed lots of TV like Bonanza, The Virginian and Gunsmoke — and much of the picture’s shot with TV’s preference for closeups. And since Siegel didn’t direct a huge amount of it, we don’t really notice a shift in style.
Universal’s transfers of their films almost always look perfect, and I’m sure this one will be stunning. Recommended.
50 Westerns From The 50s.