Rory Calhoun starred as gunfighter Bill Longley, a Texas native whose reputation for being a fast gun found him both trouble and adventure during his travels.

"The Texan" aired for two years on the CBS television network from 1958 until 1960.

From TV and Movie Western magazine, Monarch publishing, June 1959

For those of us who grew up with holly, jolly Burl Ives warbling about silver and gold and Rudolph the Red-Nosed reindeer, it's kind of hard to wrap our heads around the idea of him as a hardcore Old West roughhouser, but he did indeed have a noteworthy career as a Western character actor. He didn't make a huge number of Westerns, but some of the ones he did make were pure-dee choice.

Ives' first Western was Smoky (1946) and his last was Uphill All the Way (1986). He won Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of ruthless Rufus Hannassey in The Big Country (1958), and also appeared in Day of the Outlaw (1959).

Physically, Ives looked rather like Chubby Johnson, but with much better teeth. However, whereas Chubby was almost always a friendly and obliging fellow, Ives was often a bitter and dangerous bear of a man, and not one to be trifled with. Little kids from the 60s and 70s might have been shocked to realize the avuncular crooner could appear in such a different light.

Hail! Hail! All hail Burl Ives!

Source https://bsky.app/profile/jauntworksstudio.bsky.social/post/3mxrbahtvr226

Can anyone critique the prologue of my short story I am writing

Hello, I have just written this short prologue and have intentions of continuing into a short story, this is my first piece of writing and would appreciate any help.

Thanks

Prologue

Sand. Sand was all he thought about. Sand replaced the hair on his face and dark leather of his coat; sand filled his black engineer boots, grating against his pale flesh. The man, a sole speck on a vast rolling plain, nothing but a lone star a dark night's sky.

The man had once had a name, but the memory was almost lost to him as if it were a life 1000 years before. As he walked on through the seemingly endless wasteland, he considered the distance he had travelled. He supposed he had walked about 150 miles over the 3 days since he had departed. Looking back, he watched as the gentle wind covered his tracks. the sand, an ever-flowing golden river, always shifting and never content.

He could no longer see the home he had left or hear the familiar sounds of the cattle which his family had relied upon. He had left the house, and the cattle, just as he had left the shallow grave of his wife and unborn child. His wife had been 27, only 5 years younger than himself, and she had Soley occupied his thoughts for the first 2 days and nights of his journey. The man was heavy with grief and carried the blame for her death like an iron chain around his ankle.

\\\\\*

6 men, drifters all, had come to his farm drunk and demanding that he saddle them with good mounts in exchange for a price below what he himself had paid for the 4 Mares they had selected, when he refused, the youngest of the group, no more than 19 years, drew his pistol and fired, scarcely missing the man and startling the mount he was sitting on causing her to rear on her hind legs throwing him off. Rising quickly, he drew and fired twice. Catching one man square in the forehead and another high in the chest. Before he could turn to face the other men, he felt the hard impact of the stock of a rifle to his temple.

When he awoke, the 4 mares were gone, and his cattle had been driven off into the plains. His barn and farmhouse had both been set alight, blazing like an unnatural sunrise in the dark of night.

The man stood above the charred carcass of what was once his wife and wept for he knew he was to blame, he knelt and cried until the rising sun grew too hot on his back he could kneel no longer.

He set off in the direction of the 4 remaining drifters after burying his wife and covering the grave in a cairn of large stones to prevent scavengers from digging it up. As he walked by the two dead men, he watched a large buzzard tear into the flesh of the young outlaw, and he felt no pity, only regret.

Sing along with Johnny to "The Battle Of New Orleans" from "Dick Clark's Saturday Night Beechnut Show" in 1959.

In 1814 we took a little trip
Along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip
We took a little bacon and we took a little beans
And we caught the bloody British in the town of New Orleans

We fired our guns and the British kept a-comin'
There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico

We looked down the river and we seen the British come
And there must have been a hunnerd of 'em beatin on the drum
They stepped so high and they made their bugles ring
We stood beside our cotton bales 'n' didn't say a thing

We fired our guns and the British kept a-comin'
There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico

Old Hickory said we could take 'em by surprise
If we didn't fire our muskets till we looked 'em in the eye
We held our fire 'till we seed their faces well
Then we opened up the squirrel guns and really gave em
Well we

Fired our guns and the British kept a-comin'
There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico

Yeah they ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles
And they ran through the bushes where a rabbit couldn't go
They ran so fast that the hounds couldn't catch 'em
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico

We fired our cannon till the barrel melted down
So we grabbed an alligator and we fought another round
We filled his head with cannonballs and powered his behind
And when we touched the powder off the gator lost his mind

We fired our guns and the British kept a-comin'
There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago
We fired once more and they began to runnin' On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico

Yeah they ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles
And they ran through the bushes where a rabbit couldn't go
They ran so fast that the hounds couldn't catch 'em
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico

Hup, 2, 3, 4
Sound off, 3, 4
Hup, 2, 3, 4
Sound off, 3, 4

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Most people probably know Brian Keith as the paterfamilias in the 1960s TV sitcom, Family Affair, but he also had a very extensive career as a Western character actor. His Western debut came in Arrowhead (1953) and his finale was in Young Guns (1988). Between those two, Keith appeared in no fewer than 16 Western features including Run of the Arrow (1957), Ten Who Dared (1960), the Sam Peckinpah Western, The Deadly Companions (1961), and Nevada Smith (1966). He was also a regular in television Westerns.

Physically, Keith was cast from a similar mold as guys like Bo Hopkins and Jerry Reed. They all had the same curly, blonde hair and coarse features that verily screamed "rowdy." However, Keith's acting was very different. His demeanor was quiet, dignified, and even sometimes a bit melancholy.

Much like Albert Salmi, Keith's end-of-life wasn't happy. At the age of 75, afflicted by the recent suicide of his daughter, and plagued by emphysema and lung cancer, Keith died of a gunshot. The pathologist ruled suicide, but his good friend Maureen O'Hara claimed that suicide was highly unlikely.

Hail! Hail! All hail Brian Keith.

if anyone is looking for a good western show the Roy Rogers show is really good!

I'm a huge fan of the original Gunsmoke TV series. Own all 635 episodes on DVD and have watched them all at least once. However, I have not seen any of the five made-for-TV Gunsmoke films that aired between 1987 and 1994. Are they worth watching? Is James Arness still convincing even though he's rather long in the tooth?

Just watching Rio Bravo for the second time in a while.

And in the first half-hour, I'm noticing how the Duke carries that nice lever action carbine all the time. I noticed that last time. But this time I also noticed, his finger is inside the trigger guard a lot, often even on the trigger! Anyone who knows about shooting knows, the trigger guard is where you rest your finger when you're not ready to shoot. You never walk around with your finger on the trigger unless maybe if you're on patrol in the bush and expecting "rain." Not to mention, anyone who has handled lever actions like the Model 92 or 94 knows, the best place to carry the weapon is the receiver, which is thin and located right where the rifle balances in the hand.

I'm surprised the Duke himself did that and surprised none of the advisors or whatever didn't see it and suggest he stop doing that.

Any thoughts?

Debatable for sure. Do you agree or not?

This review will consist of three parts: 1. A discussion of Westerns' future at the movie theater in general, 2. A comparison of this version with the 1947 John Wayne original, 3. A brief consideration as a stand-alone modern Western made by Angel Studios. Don't worry it'll all be short.

1. Westerns have no future at the box office.... zero, zip, zilch. This genre will not put butts in seats, at least not butts under 50 years old. There were eight people in my empty theater for a matinee Sunday show. This is a streaming-only genre now, the ONLY films that will sell tickets are tentpoles, animation and horror. Everything else can go kick rocks.
2. This is a pretty good, and very faithful remake of the original. They changed only a few things in an effort to goose up the action and their dedication to understanding and conveying the spirit of the original was palpable.
   

Starting with the casting. There are three key roles to fill from original, the Duke as Quirt (who's always just the Duke), Gail Russell's slight, sweet Penny, and Harry Carey's unmatched gravitas as Marshal McClintock. They did well with all three here. Tommy Lee Jones is perfect of course, Meg Fraser is surprisingly good as Penny. She has a pretty face in a too-skinny, wide eyed innocent way, but she's no voluptuous beauty. She grows on you and she makes her attraction to Quirt work. Then Zachary Levi... I was convinced going in that this was a fail. It wasn't. Zachary Levi is a great big buff dude, he's the biggest thing in every frame he's in, which is what the Duke was, of course. He can act with emotional range and he handled the accent flawlessly. At times it appeared that he was miming TLJ, but if you're gonna choose a western voice to mimic, that's a good one. He could do more Westerns and I'd watch 'em.

They changed the plot in three small ways. They sexed up the action/drama by making the outlaws a little more psychopathic and giving Laredo syphilis. (Thumbs Up!) They added a side-story of Penny trying to tame a wild bronco, mirroring her attempts to saddle Quirt. (Thumbs up!) And they stripped out the Quaker/pacifist element of the story and made Penny's family merely generic "Christians".

This was a sad choice, IMO, neutering some of the drama, but I can see why the Mormon Angel Studios wimped out and chose to do it. First because they want to play to a wider Christian audience, they're all about integration with other Protestants these days. Mormons have never been close to Quakers and don't share many of their beliefs especially with regards to equality of the sexes. Second, Angel probably didn't dare make it Quaker for fear it would be perceived as an anti-gun, anti-Second Amendment statement and Mormons are very much right wing, MAGA, gun lovers. So even though this was originally John Wayne's mild "I don't want a shoot-em-up" film, in which he shoots NO ONE the whole movie, Angel tamed the anti-gun rhetoric and has Quirt shoot people at the beginning.

1. As a stand-alone Western film for a modern audience, it will be seen as well done, but slow and rather dull. The moral message is muted and there's not a helluva lot of action. I took two old ladies who hadn't seen the original with me to see it. The 87 year old loved it. The 77 year old thought it was kinda slow and sappy. Younger audiences will be bored out of their skulls, I think.

I enjoyed it. Well acted, well made, the New Mexico sets were pretty, and it honored the original. I just recognize that I'm not the public at large, so I fear it will tank and the box office before it limps into streaming.

First time posting. Hope someone here can help identify a tv movie I saw in the 80's and it's stuck with me all these years.

Made-for-TV movie western, '60's -'70s maybe early 80s, American Western (Rockies/Sierras/foothills).

Solitary mountain man type character who regularly bathes in icy streams — we see it at the beginning with a friend (possibly on a horse) onlooking nearby, commenting on the cold and cringing. I think the friend might be there to recruit him to join some quest which pulls him into the adventure of the movie.

Near the end there's a hand-to-hand fight between him and another man that ends up in an icy river, and his cold water habit saves him while the other guy is shocked by the cold water.

My memory keeps telling me that the actor might be Harrison Ford (but probably not — checking his filmography didn't turn up a match, and he had switched to cinema after star wars). Maybe he's just built like Harrison...?

It's a pretty specific cold habit bathing setup for the fight scene near the end.

Since I'm thinking of Harrison, maybe that's because it's a similar name, like maybe Richard Harris...? But I'm pretty sure the man is bigger/thicker than skinny Harris though.

I know it's an old one to pinpoint. Maybe ask your dads? lol TIA 🙏

From Mad #9, E.C. publications, March 1954

Ben Cooper, a native of Hartford, Connecticut, was basically a more straight-shooting, less weasely variant of James Best. Both were dark-haired, baby-faced and outwardly genial actors, and they made their marks most indelibly in the Western genre.

Cooper split his time more or less equally between the silver and little screens. He was in several episodes of Gunsmoke--among other TV series--and from 1953 thru 1994 appeared in 18 Westerns, the last four being comedies.

Johnny Guitar (1954) and Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971) were probably Cooper's most noteworthy Western films, although he also starred alongside Audie Murphy in Gunfight at Comanche Creek (1963) and Arizona Raiders (1965). Additionally, he appeared in The Fastest Guitar Alive (1967), which starred, of all people, Roy Orbison.

Hail! Hail! All hail Ben Cooper!

It's a bit rough but it's the first time I tried 2D animation.

Watched this recently, my first Western serial.

Buck Jones is hired by a rancher to bring in rustlers, who make their hideout in a ghost town. Jones then gets mixed up with a woman and her father who have a secret gold mine in the same town.

Super cheesy with twelve 20-minute chapters. I can see how this would be entertaining waiting on a weekly basis to see how each cliffhanger resolves. However, watching it (almost) straight through over two days became tedious after a bit... Especially because many of the resolutions to those cliffhangers were simply "oh they survived."

Still worth a watch, especially if you're like me and love the historical contexts to westerns.

I'd be shocked if that many people here have seen this, but if you have, what're your thoughts? Any other serials that are worth a watch?

Hope this isn’t off topic, but any input on Dark Winds series

Anthony Caruso took his own Texas time actually getting into the Western genre. His film acting career began in 1940, but he didn't make his Western debut until 1951 with Pals of the Golden West starring Roy Rogers and dale Evans. From that moment, Caruso did a pretty good job making up for lost time. He was particularly active in the 50s making no fewer than 17 Westerns in that most glorious decade of the genre. He continued appearing in Westerns to 1970 with Flap starring Anthony Quinn, Claude Akins and Shelley Winters.

Arguably he never acted in any true classic Western although drum Beat (1954) was pretty dang good. In that one Caruso played peace-seeking Modok chief Manok alongside an Indian fighter turned diplomat played by Alan Ladd, a great friend of Caruso's. Caruso very frequently played Indian and Mexican characters, and tended to pull off that thespian fete effectively.

Caruso was a regular guest star on Gunsmoke and contributed to many of its best episodes. Perhaps his most memorable role came in "Ash" where he played Ash Farior, a ruffian who gets into a brawl in the Long Branch with fellow hardcase John dehner. After waling the tar out of one another they become fast friends and open a highly sucessessful freight business. All goes swimmingly until dehner suffers a brain injury which badly alters his personality for the worse. The conclusion is tragic and touching, and "Ash" is among the very best TV Western episodes ever filmed. Caruso and dehner were great together.

Caruso remained married to the same woman for 63 of his 86 years, which surely ranks among the lengthiest Hollywood marriages of all time. And, in my opinion, it speaks well for Caruso as a man.

Hail! Hail! All hail Anthony Caruso!

PS--Apologies for the typo in the heading. Apparently, I can't edit it.

You know, if every Western movie and TV show were to disappear from the universe, you could probably do a pretty good job of reconstructing them from Far Side cartoons. Here is one of my favorites, Gary Larson's take on why those iconic showdowns, besides being historically inaccurate and logistically improbable, are hard to stage with any credibility. I mean, when do you draw?

Who is the least convincing bad guy you've ever encountered in a Western?

You've seen that thread "Movie recommendations where the bad guy actually is a threat and has a shot of winning?" That struck me as true for almost all Westerns. Part of the appeal of the genre to me is that the bad guys are generally just about as strong, if not stronger, than the good guy(s), and can battle the good guy(s) on roughly equal terms only to be defeated at the last minute by the good guy's superior virtue. Otherwise, you have the good guy squashing a bunch of bad guys like so many houseflies--"Giant the Jack Killer", to quote C.S. Lewis on Christopher Marlowe. So are there Westerns that really are like that, in which the bad guys pose no serious threat to the hero because they're weak or ineffectual or wimpy or whatever, but get gunned down anyway? (Only serious Westerns count. So don't mention The Villian/Cactus Jack.)

Had new stories not from a TV episode