BS: western flicks

Subject: RE: BS: western flicks
From: GUEST,Paulie
Date: 18 Feb 02 - 03:25 PM

Check out THE BRAVADOS, starring Gregory Peck.

Subject: RE: BS: western flicks
From: DougR
Date: 18 Feb 02 - 08:32 PM

I think Peck's best two westerns, though, was "Big Country" and "The Gunfighter." I knew him professionally back in the early 70's and asked him why he made "McKenna's Gold," which in my opinion, is one of the worst ever made. He had no good answer.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: western flicks
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 18 Feb 02 - 09:09 PM

My favorite scene in The Big Country is the climactic fist-fight between Peck and his rival. The camera starts in tight on their struggle, grim faces, blood and dirt, then gradually pans out until their fight is revealed in its real significance against the surrounding endless plains and the mountains towering behind them...they are tiny figures whose winning or losing will have no impact on the vast landscape.

Duel in the Sun is my other favorite Peck western. The girl must choose between a safe respectable life with the bland Joseph Cotton, or fire and passion with the false-hearted Peck. Their ultimate confrontation is an ultimate symbol for the thin line that divides love from hatred.

Subject: RE: BS: western flicks
From: DougR
Date: 18 Feb 02 - 09:38 PM

I think my favorite scene in The Big Country is the Burl Ives' scene where he forces the duel between Greg Peck and his son. The scene where he bursts into the dinner party is good too. The arrogance of the ranchers, who simply could not accept the fact that Peck could find his way on the ranch with a compass, was a great theme, I thought.

I wasn't as enthused about Duel in the Sun, but I should watch it again, LEJ, if you are that impressed with it. I haven't seen it, probably, since it was released in the 50's?

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: western flicks
From: Art Thieme
Date: 18 Feb 02 - 09:51 PM

The film with Bruce Dern mentioned here was SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF---a hilarious Western that starred James Garner, B.Dern and Walter Brennan. Carol and I came out of a LONG trip in the Barrataria bayou outside of New Orleans. We were very sunburnt and overheated so when we ducked into the air-conditioned theater darkness where the film was running it was truly what we needed right then. I have never laughed so long and loud as I did at that superb film and those 3 guys.

Try it you'll like it.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: BS: western flicks
From: Clifton53
Date: 19 Feb 02 - 12:37 AM

Again, not a strict cowboy movie, but nobody's mentioned " Jerimiah Johnson ", with Robert Redford and Will Geer.

My favorite scene in that movie is when Geer and Redford have bedded down for the night, and a little while later, Redford's blanket catches on fire as he laid it down a wee bit close to the fire, and Geer, chuckling from beneath his blankets tells him, " hee hee, spotted it right off".

Subject: RE: BS: western flicks
From: Hrothgar
Date: 19 Feb 02 - 06:05 AM

And how many Oscars did "Cat Ballou" win not to get a mention?

Well, maybe only one, but wasn't it worth t?

Subject: RE: BS: western flicks
From: Kim C
Date: 19 Feb 02 - 09:48 AM

Clifton53, can you skin grizz?

Subject: RE: BS: western flicks
From: Clifton53
Date: 19 Feb 02 - 11:27 AM

Kim C., I doubt I could skin grizz, prolly run like a rabbit if I even smelled a bahr.

To quote Will Geer again, " You've done well to keep your hair Pilgrim, when so many's after it"

Clifton

Subject: RE: BS: western flicks
From: Art Thieme
Date: 19 Feb 02 - 11:32 AM

Check out the book "LIVER EATING JOHNSON" by Thorp(?) I think. That's the REAL story of Jeremiah Johnson.

Still a great movie -- that I did mention in an earlier post.

Art

Subject: RE: BS: western flicks
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 19 Feb 02 - 12:18 PM

The Naked Prey, a movie by and starring Cornel Wilde made in the early sixties, was based on the true story of a mountain man captured by Indians near Three Forks Montana. He was stripped naked and given a head start as he was pursued by warriors. He succeeded in escaping them and found refuge in what is now Yellowstone Park. I'm thinking the man's name was Colter, and that Yellowstone was originally called "Colter's Hell" by the mountain men. Is that right Art? In Wilde's film, the action takes place in Africa and Wilde is a big-game guide captured by an African Tribe. Good film.

Subject: RE: BS: western flicks
From: Clifton53
Date: 19 Feb 02 - 01:04 PM

Sorry Art, so many titles floating around, I missed it.

Subject: RE: BS: western flicks
From: Wesley S
Date: 19 Feb 02 - 01:14 PM

Another book about the real Jeremiah Johnson is "Crow Killer". Sorry I can't remeber the authors name but I know I have the book at home.

Subject: RE: BS: western flicks
From: GUEST,Kim C no cookie
Date: 19 Feb 02 - 01:15 PM

That would be John Colter, who had the honor of doing what the Indians used to call "running arrows." And in the TV sequel to Lonesome Dove, creatively titled Return to Lonesome Dove, Woodrow (this time played by Jon Voigt) has to run arrows, although if I recall right, he gets to keep his clothes.

Funny no one has mentioned Streets of Laredo or Dead Man's Walk, McMurtry's sequel and prequel to Lonesome Dove. I guess the rest of you disliked them as much as I did. Return to Lonesome Dove - which McMurtry didn't write, as far as I know - was a lot better, I thought.

And there's one more book in the Lonesome Dove series, which tells about Gus & Woodrow's days as Texas Rangers. It's called Comanche Moon, and I have yet to finish it.

McMurty should've quit while he was ahead. There's just no improving on a good story.

Since I'm now at home with a sore throat, I think I'll fire up the VCR. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: western flicks
From: Lanfranc
Date: 19 Feb 02 - 01:27 PM

Just about the first adult movie (as opposed to kids' movies) that I ever saw was "The Man from Laramie", starring James Stewart. I loved the 50s and 60s cowboy series like "Rawhide", "Wagon Train", "Cheyenne" and the inimitable "Cisco Kid".

Aw, Cisco - Aw Pancho! - still haunts me 40-odd years on!

Probably corrupted me for life!

Subject: RE: BS: western flicks
From: DougR
Date: 19 Feb 02 - 03:28 PM

Kim, I enjoyed reading "Streets of Laredo," but agree the movie is week. "Deadman's Walk," was a waste of time, I thought, both the book and the movie. I thought "Comanche Moon" was a pretty good read, but was a bit too long. I think it could have been said better in fewer pages. I wasn't impressed by "Return to" either.

Lanfranc: I was raised with "B" western movies and many of the early TV westerns were little more than "B" westerns. My favorite was Hopalong Cassidy, played by William Boyd.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: western flicks
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 Feb 02 - 05:43 PM

When I was a kid Elfego Baca was a big deal for a while there, but I never saw him on film...only in the comics. Anybody know anything more about this character?

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: western flicks
From: Midchuck
Date: 19 Feb 02 - 07:11 PM

I think Disney did a made-for-tv movie series on Elfego way the heck back...maybe in the late '50s, early '60s. I remember there was a heck of a shootout in the first one, where an enormous mob of law enforcement types had him trapped in a house alone and couldn't get him...

I remember the refrain of the theme music very clearly...

"And the legend was that,
Like El Gato, the cat,
Nine lives had Elfego, El Gato...

Peter.

Subject: RE: BS: western flicks
From: Art Thieme
Date: 19 Feb 02 - 09:13 PM

Wesley, You are correct. CROW KILLER ia the book I meant.

Art

Subject: RE: BS: western flicks
From: leprechaun
Date: 20 Feb 02 - 12:04 AM

My favorite exchange from Support Your Local Sheriff went something like:

If I pull this trigger it'll ruin my gun!

Well, it ain't gonna do my finger a whole lotta good!

Subject: RE: BS: western flicks
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 Feb 02 - 12:19 AM

You are right, Peter! I remember that song now...must've heard it somewhere at the time. It would have been in the mid-fifties, I think. I had the comic, since my family was highly unconventional in some respects...and we had no TV. Thus I very rarely saw TV as a kid, and not doing so made me a dangerous radical who read way too many books... :-) This led directly to folk music, socialism, Dylan/Baez/Buffy Sainte-Marie, and having very little in common with my peers in school...who were mostly good little upstate New York Republicans in search of a couch potatoe life in the suburban wasteland. They can have it.

I figure it was a mob of their spiritual ancestors who had Elfego holed up in that house... :-)

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: western flicks
From: GUEST,Mac
Date: 20 Feb 02 - 05:27 AM

Does 'Viva Zapatta' count as a western? Good old Marlon!