Zephyr

[greennui]

We don't have a western thread, let's have one.

Is there a month that would suit western watching like november does noir?

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

There's Wild West Summer over at Letterboxd. Some summer month would be ideal, I think.

[greennui]

https://twitter.com/Criterion/status/16 ... 8475929601

[rischka]

oh great they just have to ruin everything cool

don't mind me i'm still mad about kiss me deadly

happy for randolph scott to gain a new generation of fans. i guess

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

They weren't B westerns, they were As. Also, why are B-movie origins something you need to transcend?

[nrh]

tom gunning is great but i am kind of surprised at how paltry the extras are, especially how crucial they are to decades of (international) cinephilia. i know some people like nehme but taylor hackford?

[rischka]

LAW & ORDER (d. edward l cahn 1932)







with walter huston as a 'wyatt earp' type cleaning up tombstone. this is pretty good! the clantons are called the 'northrup' brothers but they kept the name of the town. not fooling anybody. andy devine has a small but memorable role

[Lencho of the Apes]

Ed Cahn in 1932? That's intriguing -- he did a halfway distinctive string of crime dramas in the late 50s.

[rischka]

i'll place it in the place imdb says this is the first shootout at the ok corral movie. i expect the earp family was litigious

[Silga]

It's a Western Challenge on ICM, so I plan to watch some westerns this month.

Already started with Thornton's All the Pretty Horses and two by André De Toth (both starring Randolph Scott).

All the Pretty Horses (Billy Bob Thornton, 2000) 5/10

All I got to say is that it feels incomplete. Would love to see Thornton's director's cut.

Riding Shotgun (André De Toth, 1954) 6/10

It's a lesser of the two, but still an engaging story where Scott's character Larry Delong comes to town to warn about the impending attack from Dan Marady's gang, but he gets wrongfully accused and finds himself trapped in a saloon by angry and suspicious townspeople. Villains aren't colorful enough to draw any attention so it all comes down to folks arguing about storming the place and getting Larry Delong out - dead or alive. A film also features Charles Bronson in a early role of a villain henchman. I particularly enjoyed the performance by Wayne Morris who plays a laid-back deputy sheriff.



The Bounty Hunter (André De Toth, 1954) 7/10

Here Randolph Scott plays a titular bounty hunter Jim Kipp who is known and feared wherever he goes. Pinkerton agency hires him to go after train robbers who stole $100k from a stagecoach a year ago. None of the identities are known so it becomes more of a detective story rather than an all out manhunt. That detective angle and interaction with the people of a town where Kipp suspects criminals to be hiding is what makes this a thoroughly enjoyable western. Winston Miller's screenplay features a lot of brilliantly written dialogues and one-liners. Great supporting roles by Marie Windsor and Ernest Borgnine. I was also surprised to learn that a newcomer Dolores Dorn is half-Lithuanian from a maternal side of her family.

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

It occurred to me that a good western theme month would be 'May West'.

[rischka]

i might be dying from this british western with cat loving bad man dirk bogarde. even worse it's set in mexico. there's a blonde with a french accent i don't know what is happening



the name of the film is 'the singer not the song' (1961) which i thought was a song by the rolling stones but that was 1965... so confused

From the The Rolling Stones – All the Songs book:
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards borrowed the title for the B-side of the
British single “Get Off of My Cloud” from a 1961 feature film directed by
Roy Ward Baker. This film created something of a stir upon its release
because it deals with the love of a seductive young woman for a Catholic
priest, and the ambiguous relationship between the priest and a criminal.

ok so there's supposed to be a love triangle between dirk and the young girl and the priest - dirk hates the church but loves the man the problem being



the priest is played by john mills dirk was reportedly so angry about this he decided to camp it up and ruin the film. the story is actually kind of interesting and supposedly montgomery clift and marlon brando were considered. baker suggested luis bunuel to direct. i mean that coulda worked ? and nobody would've called anybody 'domingweez'


who ofc comes off like a child molestor. which is ironic since the film is literally church propaganda. it's a complete disaster and also pretty entertaining. there should be a 'weird western' genre list somewhere

[rischka]

so the singer not the song inspired my weird westerns list and i've been doing some research...



i watched the white buffalo (thompson 1977) and after some painful dialogue about the red men it almost redeems itself



charles bronson is almost good here as an aging bill hickock who makes peace with at least one indian in their joint search for the mythical beast. if you want to see his fun fur magnificence you'll have to watch it for yourself


how did i ruin this thread by posting a bunch of screens in the wrong aspect ratio! surely i know better after all these years! sry greennui

[Silga]

i watched the white buffalo (thompson 1977)

That's the one I've been meaning to see for a long time now. Better get to it during this summer. Always enjoy a good Bronson adventure.

By the way, Rischka, have you seen another snowy western from Bronson + Lee Marvin - Death Hunt (1981) ? Story-wise it's average, but got some great looking scenery.

[rischka]

how have i never seen hellfire. ♥♥♥ marie windsor is fantastic



as is trucolor. and the deadpan delivery of bill elliott. lots of fun. THX RASMUS

[rischka]

time for another weird western it's 105 here today

[rischka]

it's the ballad of cable hogue. i love jason robards but i'm not a fan of the benny hill comedy at all. and the music is kind of irritating but i get it's 1970.

perhaps i have no sense of humor or maybe i'm too close to the desert not to take it seriously. anyway it's distracting

i'm also gonna watch the missouri breaks and maybe paint your wagon? does that count as a western what about cat ballou? (i think i've seen part of it)

[rischka]

patriotic moment as slim pickens presents cable with his very own US flag



if that don't beat all, says cable



happy bday USA you wacky country

[rischka]

brando, nicholson, harry dean stanton and randy fuckin quaid. should be a weird western for the ages

(i'm guessing they all took mescaline)



brando is at his most unhinged, like a crazed samurai with an intermittent irish accent



it's certainly an interesting choice

[rischka]

i have some more westerns lined up! i will keep this thread alive for a bit. next up: curse of the undead!! TY ZYNAB for this suggestion



someone please tell me this isn't universal's sole horror/western







i love this movie and its weird theology angle

[rischka]

now this is a real fourth of july film: wellman's buffalo bill (1944)








we've always been a dumb country. this is colorful and entertaining if you don't think too much about the buffalo which make me very sad

i looked up cody to see what was true here: apparently he was known as a 'conservationist' for wondering if maybe they shouldn't kill ALL the buffalo. and said more than once that at least some indians are actual humans. of course he was famous for killing many of each but later gave sitting bull and others a job in his circus.

not sure this is weird enough for my list, just classic american cognitive dissonance ...didn't altman make a film with paul newman as bill? do i want to watch it

https://youtu.be/qWMIeowdf3Y

no business like show business!

[greennui]

I've tried and failed a few times lately to get into a Western groove, James Cagney in a western just feels wrong (Run for Cover) and Don Ameche as an Indian even more wrong (Ramona).

[wba]

I watched WELLS FARGO (1937, Frank Lloyd, USA) a few days ago and it was pretty good. Kind of a "missing link" between THE BIRTH OF A NATION and GONE WITH THE WIND - but I guess they made many of those between 1915 and 1939...
Frances Dee and her husband were exceptionally good. Need to see more with Dee now.
What I liked most were some HEAVEN'S GATE vibes in this hyper capitalist, racist, etc. story.

[rischka]

is it a western or is it a rewatch...it's both!... it's the man from laramie!!



i'd forgotten it's new mexico







beautiful country. kinda wanna watch the rest of these again now

[nrh]

don't usually go for big expensive blu ray sets, but it's the 50% off sale right now and i just got a new tv, so went for the criterion ranown 4k set, and rewatched the tall t last night.

boetticher directs with the kind of spacial precision that means his movies always look great, even on not so great sources, but the new restoration looks absolutely spectacular.

the movie is great, of course, and even stronger than i'd remembered, both a marvel of narrative/spacial economy and a very strange, slightly mysterious character piece once you get to that central trio of randolph scott, maureen o'sullivan and richard boone (whose frank usher is one of the all time great western villains).

haven't really had time to look at the extras yet, but the tom gunning essay in the booklet seems very substantial.

[rischka]

might have a winner for weirdest western...



i knew fassbinder wouldn't miss a chance to dress as a cowboy

[rischka]

i haven't watched this in so long what a great film. altho rock hudson is still distracting me, it's v hard not to root for the natives



even if i love jimmy ♥



pimply face tony curtis. i'm watching the naked spur tmrw - i remember very little aside from janet leigh. why no criterion boxset ?

[rischka]

another selection for my weird westerns list!! it's fulci's i quattro dell'apocalisse/four of the apocalypse so cw: rape, torture, cannibalism. otherwise it's one of the corniest westerns i've ever seen and one of the worst italian movie soundtracks!! plenty of weirdness tho



i did it for you fabio testi!! ♥

[wba]

rape, torture, cannibalism.

Sounds like the "Wild West" to me.

[rischka]

smh this is kinda good but...



burt seems sincere in his respect for the apache but...



he almost has the bone structure but... no it's too distracting i'm so torn

Massai was born to Little Sun and White Shadow at Mescal Mountain, Arizona, near Globe. He later met Geronimo, who was recruiting Apaches to fight American soldiers. He also knew the Apache Kid. The policy in Arizona at the time was to exterminate hostile Apaches. Many Apache warriors fought for their people and traditions, fleeing and waging effective guerrilla warfare against their enemies.

Massai escaped over the border to Mexico, eventually settling in the Sierra Madre mountains in Sonora Mexico with a camp of rebellious Chiricahuas who had refused to surrender with Geronimo. Nothing is known of his final days.

- imdb trivia