John Wayne is an actor I’m still mixed on. I’ll probably never have the deep, emotional connection to him that my dad and countless other fans have. But there’s something … Continue Reading Ethan Wayne Talks About His Dad in Celebration of HDNET Movies ‘Western Icons’
The 1950s is easily the decade where the Western thrived. Captured in expansive CinemaScope, the Wild West never looked wilder. But with so many cowpokes roaming the range it was … Continue Reading Johnny Guitar (1954)
The beginnings of the 1960s saw the sun set on the Western audiences were used to seeing. John Wayne going off to bring back Natalie Wood had only happened two years … Continue Reading Cowboy (1958)
An unwitting franchise of sorts, the Support Your Local… series acts as simultaneous send-up and loving tribute to the dying Western. Released just three months before Sam Peckinpah shot the … Continue Reading Support Your Local Sheriff (1969) / Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971)
The Western isn’t my go-to genre, but I have been surprised by a few in my film reviewing career as I was with Dodge City, recently released on Blu-ray through … Continue Reading Fridays With Errol Flynn: Dodge City (1939)
Our last Friday With Yvonne De Carlo sees her starring in her most passionate project yet, entitled…..Passion! As with Frontier Gal (1945), De Carlo’s films placed generic plots in convenient … Continue Reading Fridays With Yvonne De Carlo: Passion (1954)
Gazing at Frontier Gal’s opening credits might leave you thinking we’ve already reviewed this week’s film: a Charles Lamont-directed picture starring Yvonne De Carlo and Rod Cameron? Isn’t that Salome, Where … Continue Reading Fridays With Yvonne De Carlo: Frontier Gal (1945)
After the success of Baby Face, Barbara Stanwyck found herself increasingly dissatisfied with the films Warner Brothers cast her in. She broke out as a freelancer and did today’s film, … Continue Reading Annie Oakley (1935)
John Wayne’s mythos has transformed from just a man playing a part, into a representation of America and the American West itself. So it makes sense to end John Wayne … Continue Reading The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
I hesitated about putting True Grit on this list because my previous experience was with the 2010 Coen brothers remake which lifted at least 85% of this film, verbatim. True … Continue Reading True Grit (1969)
A movie like The Searchers has such a reputation and abundance of words written about it; I doubt I’ll bring anything new to the table, but watching this for the first time … Continue Reading The Searchers (1956)
John Wayne tackles the Bard in McLintock!, our second film in the last week of The July Five. Loosely based on Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, McLintock! is a broad, … Continue Reading McLintock! (1963)
One of several highlights for me at this year’s TCM Classic Film Festival was standing on the red carpet interviewing celebrities invited to the restoration of Oklahoma! Unfortunately, I wasn’t … Continue Reading Rodgers and Hammerstein Collection on Blu-ray: Oklahoma! (1955)
The definition of Depression Giggles is pretty fluid in my class because we’re touching on every genre which hit theaters during the 1930s. The Western was a B-movie experience during … Continue Reading Stagecoach (1939)
Another trio of reviews from The Henry Fonda Collection. In this segment we’ll look at a western, a quasi-noir with romantic overtones, and a crime procedural.
This review and the next will be late as I try to cram in three reviews (and the movies are getting longer). With that, this series has two fast-paced Westerns … Continue Reading The Henry Fonda Collection: Jesse James (1939), The Return of Frank James (1940) & My Darling Clementine (1946) – Father’s Day Gift Guide
