Gunslinger is probably the first feminist western. It features a female lead that is just as tough and quick on the draw as just about anyone in westerns at the time. Beverly Garland gives one of her best performances as the wife of a small town marshal (William Schallert). He gets shot in the back in the opening scene and instead of grieving; ( Read more... )

John Sturges, the man who gave us such classics as The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape gives us his take on the legend of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. This was actually his second movie on the subject, having directed Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral ten years earlier. After seeing this, I might have to check ( Read more... )

Sometimes you just have to hear a couple of key phrases that make you want to see a movie. With Blindman, all I saw were the words “Spaghetti Western” and “Ringo Starr” and I immediately knew I wanted to watch it. Fortunately for me, it’s actually pretty good. It’s a terrific vehicle for Tony Anthony, who would go on to reunite with director ( Read more... )

Most of the cast of Support Your Local Sheriff! returned two years for this spotty reunion. It’s not a sequel as everyone is playing different characters. It’s not a remake, but it does have some plot similarities to the first flick. It’s also not nearly as much fun as Sheriff!, but you can’t really fault the cast for wanting to pal around once ( Read more... )

With a different lead, Support Your Local Sheriff! could’ve been a breezy and harmless little western comedy. James Garner’s amiable unflappable charm makes all the difference. His undeniable charisma and easygoing appeal turns what could’ve been a light and forgettable comedy into a minor classic of the genre ( Read more... )

Greaser’s Palace starts off like your typical western with a maniacal villain keeping a town full of settlers in constant fear. Then a guy who dresses like a ‘70s pimp parachutes into the situation claiming to be an actor on his way to Jerusalem. When the townsfolk see he has the power to bring people back from the dead, cure the sick, and walk ( Read more... )

The Equalizer’s Antoine Fuqua, Denzel Washington, and screenwriter Richard Wenk reteamed for another remake. The Magnificent Seven is of course, a remake of the 1960 classic directed by John Sturges, which was itself a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai. While Sturges’ film nice complimented Kurosawa’s by transplanting the situation from ( Read more... )

Hollywood has long held a fascination with Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. Scores of movies have been made of their exploits. If you can’t already tell by the title, this one focuses more on Doc than Wyatt. It’s an interesting approach, but it ultimately doesn’t quite work ( Read more... )

A train pulls into the station with its shipment of gold stolen and all the passengers dead. Gunfighter Cat Stevens (Terence Hill) and his buddy Hutch (Bud Spencer) know that only one man could’ve pulled off such a caper, the dastardly Bill San Antonio (Frank Wolff). Problem is Stevens already killed him. They eventually learn that Bill has ( Read more... )

Although he is primarily known for producing Looney Tunes cartoons, Leon Schlesinger also produced a handful of John Wayne westerns for Warner Brothers in the early ‘30s. Overall, I prefer the westerns Wayne did with Lone Star better than the films he did for Schlesinger. While the Lone Star pictures had lower budgets, they had a scrappy charm ( Read more... )