We figured it was time to have a place to talk about Steve’s latest video subjects that do not have an UMR page.
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Ranking Movies Since 2011
We figured it was time to have a place to talk about Steve’s latest video subjects that do not have an UMR page.
HI STEVE: Thanks for the usual solid and this time refreshingly argumentative feedback – John would be proud of you!
In my perception the true westerns buff would see slapstick offerings in a western setting as being outside the spirit of the traditional western movie whose raison detre is to my mind broadly to provide entertaining but serious stories of the Old West and how it was settled.
Hope and Martin and Lewis for example cracking their standard gags and engaging in their normal comic routines does not for me at least make the film a western just because it is set Out West.
Similarly, I would like to think that a war movies buff would not regard a zany comedy set in wartime as a bona fide war movie: there is absolutely nothing funny about war within my own ideology. Indeed tellingly Sinatra took exception to Hope cracking a very sick 2nd-world-war joke at Frankie’s expense.
It is true that one does get satirical comedies about war issues, such as Chaplin’s The Great Dictator; The Marx Bros Duck Soup; and Dr Strangelove; but very few outlets designate THOSE as war movies often describing them as “black comedies” and anyway they are anti-war which is a different kettle of fish.
There is nothing satirical though about The Paleface/Son of Paleface/Alias Jesse James or Pardners: those movies give us just Leslie Townes, Dino and Jerry up to their usual antics but against a different background.
Did you know that Hope kept massive filing cabinets containing written records of all his joke down the years which he would fish-out, update and re-use as trends and circumstances changed?
For example he told jokes about Eisenhower when he was president of the US and when JFK took over Leslie reworked his Ike jokes so that they applied to Kennedy and his image. Clearly Les saw his humour as that of “a man for all seasons” – and all settings too when he made Paleface etc!
FORMER TOP GUN BUT NOW TOWN DRUNK DINO PAUL CROCETTI MARTINI: “Is this new kid as fast as I used to be, Chance?”
SHERIFF DUKE WAYNE:” I sure wouldn’t like to live on the difference, Borrachon!” [Rio Bravo 1959]
BEST STILLS IN STEVE’s 1959VIDEO [Rated 99% by Yours Truly]
1/2 for Gunmen from Laredo
2/Thunder in the Sun
3/Duke Junior in The Young Land
4/King of the Wild Stallions-actually made in 1958
5/The Jayhawkers
6/2 for The Hangman – wow!
7/2 for Wonderful Country – “A horse called Tears”.
8/2 for Alias Jesse James
9/2 for They Came to Manchester
10/2 for These 1000 Hills
11/Westbound
12/3 for The Work Horse Soldiers
13/ALL for Rio Bravo – wow!
14/Warlock-a neglected classic
15/No Name on the Bullet
16/2 for Ride Lonesome
17/2 for Last Train from Gun Hill- I never tire watching it as for me It’s better than its Paramount studios ‘companion-piece’ Gunfight at OK Corral
18/The Hanging Tree:
“Now there were men who craved my gold
And meant to take my gold from me——-
To really live you must almost die
And it happened just that way with me.
They took the gold and they set me free
And I walked away from the hanging tree
And my true love, she walked with me.”
SHERIFF BARTLETT [Played by Walter Sande] “Take the long view. Craig Belden owns this town and there is no way he is going to let you take his son back to face execution. Take the long view marshal. 50 years from now the flowers will grow as just pretty on my grave as they will on yours and nobody will know or care that I was a coward and you were a brave man. I always say take the long view.”
MARSHAL MATT MORGAN [Kirk Douglas] “When I take that train out Belden’s son is going to be with me. And if you try to get in my way Sheriff, I’ll shoot you. THAT’s the long view!” [Last Train from Gun Hill 1959
BEST POSTERS IN STEVE’1959 WESTERNS VIDEO [FL= foreign language version of poster]
1/Mustang
2/ALL for Ride Lonesome
3/Lone Texan
4/2 for Oregon Trail
5/Both for Thunder in the Sun -Hayward & Jeff were classmates at school
6/Curse of the Undead- for me not a western
7/2nd one for The Hangman
8/2 for Escort West-Mature’s stardom on the wane
9/Both for Good Day for Hanging
10/1st one for Wild & Innocent
11/Alias Jesse James – funny but no a western in my book
12/2FL ones for They Came to Manchester
13/1st one for These 1000 Hills
14/FL one for Westbound – glorious poster!
15/1st one for Day of the Outlaw
16/ALL for Warlock – really splendid set of posters!
17/2 for The Hanging Tree
18/2 FL ones for Rio Bravo
19/2FL ones for Last Train from Gun Hill
20/No Name on the Bullet – In No Name on the Bullet and Night Passage with Jimmy Stewart Audie unusually played the bad guy but won his best critical notices for that pair. Steve is correctin my view in saying No Name on the Bullet is Murphy’s best western
21/All for The Horse Soldiers. Not one of my personal favorites from either The Duke or Golden Holden; but at the time much was made of each of the two stars being paid $750,000 [about 7 million in today’s dollars] plus 20% of the film’s profits – ie combined they received a massive 40% of the movie’s profits an unheard of arrangement at the time.
ROUNDUP OF BOB’s FIFTIES FAVE WESTERNS CONTD.
8/The Dukes great classics such as Rio Grande, The Searchers and for me Rio Bravo especially. Also his She Wore a Yellow Ribbon which although a 1949 release in the US didn’t do the rounds over here until 1950. Unlike Steve we do our own thing in Belfast and are not influenced by the release date in a country of origin or by what some posh critic says about a film.
Who [apart from maybe a bunch of seriously-misled Virginians] loses any sleep over how many stars Joel Hirschhorn gave a movie? And who cares a rat’s a** about when Mancunians saw it?
“She wore! She Wore! She wore a yellow ribbon
And she wore it all the day!
She wore! She Wore! She wore a yellow ribbon
And she wore it for her lover in the US Cavalray
Cavalray! Cavalray!
She wore it for her lover in the US Cavalray.”
9/Charles William Stuart’s 6 almost unique westerns in the 1955-58 period which he made under his MGM and Columbia contracts especially 3.10 to Manchester.
10/Two of Rory’s B westerns: Dawn at Socorro and Red Sundown:
Caroline o Caroline!
Keep a-wearin your weddin gown
For Caroline my darling
I’ll be back by the red sundown.
It’s Roundup Time for me at the end of Steve’s 1950-59 westerns cycle . I have loved droves of the westerns he has covered but these are very highest among my own personal faves throughout 1950s in no particular order:
1/The 5 Jimmy Stewart/Anthony Mann classics from the 1950-1955 period.
2/Ladd’s Shane/Red Mountain/and as Jim Bowie in The Iron Mistress.
3/Chuck’s Arrowhead/Pony Express and Big Country with Dano.
4/Widmark’s Last Wagon/Backlash/Warlock.
5/Kirk’s Last train from Gun Hill and his 1955 Man without A Star:
“Who knows? Who knows where the right wind blows?
For the night is dark and the way is far
For a man without a star!”
6/Audie’s No Name on the Bullet, Duel at Silver Creek and Ride Clear of Manchester.
7/Hank Fonda and Ma Bates in The Tin Star
“THERE’s a guy there you will have to overcome before you’re safe as town Sheriff. Always watch the hands. If his hands go down towards his guns shoot him on sight. If they go up you’ve got yourself a prisoner.”
CONTINUED in 2 of 4.
Hi Bob, thanks for the review, generous rating (ooo), info, trivia, quotes and song lyrics, always appreciated. Glad you liked the posters, stills and lobby cards.
Happy you enjoyed this series of western videos, the video views have been unusually high, seems there are still plenty of western movie fans out there.
Alias Jesse James not a western? But.. but.. but.. it’s packed with cameos of cowboy actors in a western setting and guns and horses, Bob Hope wears a cowboy hat, what more do you want? 🙂
If I were to produce a “Top 10 Comedy Westerns” Video, you would suggest I rename it “Top 10 Comedies in a Western setting” because in your opinion none of them are real westerns? They’re just funny westerns aren’t they? My Name is Nobody not a western? [Steve huffs and puffs] 😉
Western Musicals aren’t that common and a few will be included, Paint Your Wagon for instance, if I get that far.
There were only 36 westerns on my master list for 1959, so I was scraping the bottom of the barrel to make it a top 30. At least the striking poster art made up for it.
One film scored 10 out of 10 from my sources and it has to be Rio Bravo, like 1958 there are no 9s and a few scored 8 out of 10.
My Video Top 6 –
Rio Bravo 8.75
Last Train From Gun Hill 7.5
Ride Lonesome 7.4
No Name on the Bullet 7.4
The Hanging Tree 7.3
Warlock 7.3
The UMR Critics Top 6 –
Rio Bravo 8.5
Ride Lonesome 7.8
The Horse Soldiers 7.6
No Name on the Bullet 7.4
Day of the Outlaw 7.4
Last Train From Gun Hill 7.1
Bob, I’m taking a youtube break next week but should be back with more videos the following week. Adios Amigos! [Rides off into the Manchester sunset]