THREE MORE IF YOU'RE INTERESTED
Posted: February 3rd, 2009, 6:10 pm
Dakota: (1945)
During the night and early this morning, I started out with either Gene Autry or Roy Rogers and I should have stayed with them but I went on to Dakota with John Wayne and Vera Ralston. I've seen this one before but thought it would put me back to sleep - Wrong. The Duke always holds my interest. Actually with Ward Bond as the bad guy (which I hate), and Walter Brennan as the irascible riverboat captain, this is not such a bad movie. John is still learning how to be a star and loosen up, and Vera though now the type I really like, is o.k. in this one about land wars and husbands wrapped around the little woman's finger. In between the shooting, is opportunity for laughs, the experienced cast backs the Duke up well, and it's not that hard to watch.
Dallas: (1950)
Another good cast with Coop, Ruth Roman, Leif Erickson and Raymond Massey, but the best I can say for this one is Coop rode Randy Scott's horse through a lot of the film and that horse is always a pleasure to see. (Sorry Coop's girl, I just don't 'get' Coop as a cowboy.) I much prefer Coop in modern day stuff. In this he's taken over foppish Federal Marshall Leif Erickson's identity to basically get revenge over Massey and his brothers for a fire they started during the war, even though he (Coop) is a wanted criminal himself. Make sense? In the meantime Coop steals Leif's fiance' (Ruth Roman), and of course everything ends happily. What turned me off was the stupidity the director held his audience at. The trick shots in a couple of instances were highly unlikely, and at one point, Coop rides (at night) from town to Ruth's hacienda, and back to town again all at night and still early enough that women are still out on the streets of the town.
Last but not least:
War Drums: (1957)
Lex Barker as an Indian, Joan Taylor as a mexican seniorita, and Ben Johnson, playing Ben Johnson. Joan Taylor was in probably every TV cowboy show ever made, usually as the love interest to Wyatt Earp, Lucas, Bronco, Will, etc., etc., etc. Lex captures Joan, and after Ben offers to buy her (to save her from being treated as a slave), Lex decides to take her for his mate. She goes along as meek as a lamb until she's told what expected of her and she fights with his sister, that's when she tells him she won't be his normal mate, she want to be a warrior, so he teaches her how to be. Then they go on raids and fight mexicans and Americans both, until Ben catches up with them and warns them the troops are coming. So again, everything ends happily as they go off into the sunset. I can see what Lana Turner saw in Lex, he's good to look at, but he couldn't act his way out of the same paper bag that Eddie Fisher worked with, and Lex had to be as embarrassing to Lana as Eddie was to Debbie.
Call me an idiot, but I do love these silly westerns. Their saving grace is that they were and still are purely fictional. Today's westerns are more realistic in clothing, indoor scenery and decor' (ha-ha), and even in story telling, but the old ones are strictly for entertainment. You can laugh at them knowing nobody took them seriously - I'm talking about these hundreds of B and C westerns - Not the A - Westerns like Ford made or any of the other great Western directors. Just these little 90 minute things where actors were learning their craft.
Anne
During the night and early this morning, I started out with either Gene Autry or Roy Rogers and I should have stayed with them but I went on to Dakota with John Wayne and Vera Ralston. I've seen this one before but thought it would put me back to sleep - Wrong. The Duke always holds my interest. Actually with Ward Bond as the bad guy (which I hate), and Walter Brennan as the irascible riverboat captain, this is not such a bad movie. John is still learning how to be a star and loosen up, and Vera though now the type I really like, is o.k. in this one about land wars and husbands wrapped around the little woman's finger. In between the shooting, is opportunity for laughs, the experienced cast backs the Duke up well, and it's not that hard to watch.
Dallas: (1950)
Another good cast with Coop, Ruth Roman, Leif Erickson and Raymond Massey, but the best I can say for this one is Coop rode Randy Scott's horse through a lot of the film and that horse is always a pleasure to see. (Sorry Coop's girl, I just don't 'get' Coop as a cowboy.) I much prefer Coop in modern day stuff. In this he's taken over foppish Federal Marshall Leif Erickson's identity to basically get revenge over Massey and his brothers for a fire they started during the war, even though he (Coop) is a wanted criminal himself. Make sense? In the meantime Coop steals Leif's fiance' (Ruth Roman), and of course everything ends happily. What turned me off was the stupidity the director held his audience at. The trick shots in a couple of instances were highly unlikely, and at one point, Coop rides (at night) from town to Ruth's hacienda, and back to town again all at night and still early enough that women are still out on the streets of the town.
Last but not least:
War Drums: (1957)
Lex Barker as an Indian, Joan Taylor as a mexican seniorita, and Ben Johnson, playing Ben Johnson. Joan Taylor was in probably every TV cowboy show ever made, usually as the love interest to Wyatt Earp, Lucas, Bronco, Will, etc., etc., etc. Lex captures Joan, and after Ben offers to buy her (to save her from being treated as a slave), Lex decides to take her for his mate. She goes along as meek as a lamb until she's told what expected of her and she fights with his sister, that's when she tells him she won't be his normal mate, she want to be a warrior, so he teaches her how to be. Then they go on raids and fight mexicans and Americans both, until Ben catches up with them and warns them the troops are coming. So again, everything ends happily as they go off into the sunset. I can see what Lana Turner saw in Lex, he's good to look at, but he couldn't act his way out of the same paper bag that Eddie Fisher worked with, and Lex had to be as embarrassing to Lana as Eddie was to Debbie.
Call me an idiot, but I do love these silly westerns. Their saving grace is that they were and still are purely fictional. Today's westerns are more realistic in clothing, indoor scenery and decor' (ha-ha), and even in story telling, but the old ones are strictly for entertainment. You can laugh at them knowing nobody took them seriously - I'm talking about these hundreds of B and C westerns - Not the A - Westerns like Ford made or any of the other great Western directors. Just these little 90 minute things where actors were learning their craft.
Anne