The Good, The Bad, and The Official Western Thread

[Hunter Rider]

New recommendation, I watched this last night and it was excellent, sits comfortably alongside the best in the genre IMO.

 

[Thundarr]

Some of the more recent westerns that I have enjoyed:

Django Unchained

The Magnificent 7

The Quick & The Dead

Quigley Down Under

Shanghai Noon

Those are all I can think of right now. Westerns aren’t all that popular these days.

 

[Mysteryman]

Silverado is a personal favorite of mine.

 

[gwynplaine]

I like that Rio Bravo was such a good story that Howard Hawks kinda remade it twice.

 

[gwynplaine]

 

[C. Lee]

Some of the westerns I've watched the last couple of months....

Billy the Kid Trapped (1942) starring Buster Crabbe. Crabbe made a bunch of these "Billy the Kid" movies. They were low budget quickly made, usually no longer than an hour, and had absolutely nothing to do with the real historical figure. I really can't recommend any of them for watching.

Desperado: Badlands Justice (1989) and Desperado: The Outlaw Wars (1989) both starring Alex McArthur. McArthur made 5 of these TV movies. They were based on a book by Elmore Leonard. Basic story is....McArthur falsely accused of murdering a sheriff.....is on the hunt for real killer to clear his name....in each movie he comes across someone in trouble that needs his help....shootouts ensue. Guest stars included John Rhys-Davies, David Warner, James Remar, and Richard Farnsworth. Most of them had old recognizable western actors scattered throughout. They aren't spectacular, but worth seeing. Some good shootouts, great scenery and it's always nice seeing some of the old guys getting screen time.

In Old California (1942) starring John Wayne. Wayne is a Boston pharmacist (yes....I said pharmacist) who goes west to California to open his own pharmacy. He butts heads with the guy who wants to own the whole town. Fights and shootouts ensue. I'm a completest...so I want to own and watch everything Wayne did. This is on the completest only list.

Escape from Fort Bravo (1953) starring William Holden, Eleonor Parker, John Forsythe, William Campbell, and Richard Anderson. During the Civil War, Fort Bravo in Arizona is fighting the Apache and being a prison camp for Confederate prisoners. Holden is the Union Captain in charge of the fort, Forsythe is the leader of the rebel prisoners. Forsythe and a group of his men manage to escape with the help of Forsythe's fiancée (Parker)....Holden doesn't know that she is his fiancée and thinks she has been captured by them. He and a group of soldiers go after them. They wind up having to band together to fight off the Apaches. This is pretty good, I recommend it.

Tom Horn (1980) starring Steve McQueen, Linda Evans, and Richard Farnsworth. This is based on the last year or so of real life western legend Tom Horn. Horn was a wandering cowboy that had at one time or another done everything you could do in the west...he was even instrumental in the capture of Geronimo. In 1901, Wyoming cattle farmers were having trouble with rustlers. They hired Horn to stop it. It's low key....not much action...but a good character study and drama. It was McQueen's next to last movie. It shows him as an underrated actor instead of action star. Good movie, I recommend it.

 

[Black Narcissus]

New recommendation, I watched this last night and it was excellent, sits comfortably alongside the best in the genre IMO.

Very good flick, shame it caught some heat over the native american characterization, but everyone wants to find something to be offended about now.

 

[signalman]

Some of the westerns I've watched the last couple of months....



In Old California (1942) starring John Wayne. Wayne is a Boston pharmacist (yes....I said pharmacist) who goes west to California to open his own pharmacy. He butts heads with the guy who wants to own the whole town. Fights and shootouts ensue. I'm a completest...so I want to own and watch everything Wayne did. This is on the completest only list.

No so unbelievable to see John Wayne playing a Pharmacist.
His dad(Clyde Morrison) was a pharmacist in Palmdale and Glendale, CA.

Saw "TRIGGER, Jr." with Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.
Roy is a western circus owner who helps local ranchers battle bad men and an evil white stallion that terrorizes their horses.
Trigger is blinded in a fight with Whitey. Also Trigger, Jr. is knocked around by the White horse.
Solid 'B' for me.

 

[C. Lee]

It's been several months since I posted in here....so here's a bunch of the westerns I have seen recently.

SHANGHAI JOE (AKA: THE FIGHTING FIST OF SHANGHAI JOE) (1973) starring Chen Lee, Klaus Kinski, and Gordon Mitchell.

A Kung Fu spaghetti Western (it came out one year after the David Carradine TV series, and has several similarities to the series). A Kung Fu master from China comes to America in the late 1800's to be a cowboy. He encounters the most racist dirty rotten scoundrels imaginable. It's hard for the movie to go over 3 minutes before expressing another racist insult or action towards him or Mexicans, Indians, or black men that wander by. There are some decent fights (and some terrible ones) with hands chopped off, eyes gouged out and hearts skewered by hands like swords. Kinski gets second billing for around 5 minutes as does spaghetti western stalwart Gordon Mitchell. It ends with a battle between the Kung Fu master and a Samurai hired to kill him.


DRAW! (1984) starring Kirk Douglas, James Coburn, and Alexandra Bastedo.

A dramedy western made for HBO decades ago. The version I saw here was a PG edited version of the original R rated one (cursing and sexual situations removed). Old outlaw Handsome Harry Holland (Douglas) gets wounded in the leg during a robbery. He takes traveling actress Bess (Bastedo) captive in her hotel room. Town sheriff doesn't want to go up against the famous outlaw....so the town hires ex Marshal Sam Starret (Coburn) to come and take care of him. Only problem is, ex Marshal is now a drunk who spends most of his days passed out. When they finally get him sobered up enough to talk with Harry...it turns out they are old friends and neither wants to shoot it out with the other. They work on a way to get out of the situation with both of them alive. The ending spoilers -

Spoiler

using a blood patch from the actress, they fake a shootout in the street, Starret appears to kill Holland, Holland puts his body on the actor's wagon and drives out of town to bury him. Holland is now considered dead and can ride off with the actress without constantly looking over his shoulder, Starret has the ample reward money for killing Holland.

PIONEER WOMAN (1973) starring Joanna Pettet, David Janssen, William Shatner, and Helen Hunt.

A made for TV movie of the week that was a pilot of a series that didn't make it. Headstrong and impetuous Illinois shopkeeper (Shatner) buys prairie land and moves his family out west. His wife (Pettet) does the hard work of taking care of the family while he spends his time dreaming of what he will do as a landowner. Less that halfway through the movie Shatner is killed in an accident and Pettet is left to take care of her kids on her own out in the prairie. Luckily there is a decent cattle rancher nearby (Janssen) who helps her out. No gunfights, no Indians....she has to endure a giant prairie fire, hard winter, being low on food for drama. This was shown on the ENCORE Western channel in letterbox which enhanced the beautiful scenery shot in Canada. This was Helen Hunt's acting debut...she plays the oldest daughter.


THE UNFORGIVEN (1960) starring Burt Lancaster, Audrey Hepburn, Audie Murphy, John Saxon, Lillian Gish, Doug McClure, and Joseph Wiseman. Directed by John Huston

Everyone in a frontier area were getting along fine until an embittered old man shows up spreading the story that the Zachary's daughter Rachel (Hepburn) is actually a stolen member of the Kiowa tribe. Older brother Ben (Lancaster) doesn't believe it at first, but when he accepts it he still loves her as his sister of 18 years. Younger brother Cash (Murphy) who has shown his hatred for Indians all along, disowns her and leaves home. A bunch of neighbors demand they run her off....and then a bunch of Kiowa warriors come to the ranch demanding they return her to the tribe. When the family and the Kiowas get into s shooting match over her....Cash comes riding back to help.

Very good film Lots of drama, shootouts, fist fights, and Indian attacks. Hepburn looks great, Lancaster is heroic as ever, and it was good seeing Murphy taking a stretch as a not so likable character.


BRIMSTONE (2016) starring Dakota Fanning, Guy Pearce, Carice van Houten, and Kit Harington.

I recommend this as an example of great acting and not predictable storyline.....but can't really recommend if you are mainly looking for a western. It is the story of a psychopathic religious nut stalking and killing off everyone a woman knows. It's very mysoginistic and cruel towards the women characters. I found parts very hard to watch. For me....it was worth seeing for the acting...once. Don't know if I will ever go out of my way to see it again.


YOUNG BILLY YOUNG (1969) starring Robert Mitchum, Angie Dickinson, Robert Walker Jr., David Carradine, Jack Kelly, and John Anderson. Directed by Burt Kennedy

Former Marshal Ben Kane (Mitchum) takes a job as a deputy in a small New Mexico town because he is searching for the killer of his son. He meets young bumbling wanta be outlaw Billy Young (Walker) and starts teaching him how a good man should act. Along the way he meets a gorgeous dance hall girl (Dickenson) and the bad guy who killed his son (Kelly). Decent little movie but it can't decide if it wants to be a comedy or drama. Good time killer but not much more.

 

[C. Lee]

I've also been catching up on a bunch of spaghetti westerns -

LONG DAYS OF HATE (1968) (AKA: THIS MAN CAN'T DIE) starring Guy Madison, Lucienne Bridou, Steve Merrick, and Rosalba Neri.

Martin Benson (Madison) has been working undercover with the government to destroy a band of gun smugglers. They find out about him, and with him not on hand, they attack his family farm, kill his parents, and rape his sister. When younger brother Daniel (Merrick) comes home, he finds one of the outlaws alive but wounded still there. He decides to not turn him over to the law but to torture him for info instead. Martin returns....and he and his brother team up to kill everyone involved.

A decent little revenge flick.



BEYOND THE LAW (1968) starring Lee Van Cleef, Antonio Sabato, Gordon Mitchell, Lionel Stander, Bud Spencer, Al Hoosmann, and Graziella Granata.

This is something you don't expect from a Lee Van Cleef movie...it's a comedy drama. Three bad guys (Cleef, Stander, Hoosmann) plan on stealing money and then the silver from a mining operation. Things go so wrong for them....as they become town heroes, made the sheriff and his deputies, and entrusted to save everyone from a gang of evil bandits. The drama part comes in at the end during a giant shootout that kills many many people.

FYI....Antonio Sabato is the Italian movie star and not his better known to Americans son Antonio Sabato Jr.



DEATH RIDES A HORSE (1967) starring Lee Van Cleef, John Phillip Law, and Luigi Pistilli.

As a child Bill Mecieta (Law) sees his family raped and murdered in front of him. He spends the next 15 years becoming the best gunfighter he can to exact revenge on them. Along the way he meets Ryan (Lee) who also wants revenge upon the gang. Together they kill them all until a terrible revelation comes to Bill. [BLACKOUT]He remembers that Ryan had been there too....but before he can kill him, Ryan explains that he showed up after they had killed his family and that he had been the one to save his life as a child there, and that was why the gang had framed him for a crime and he had wanted revenge upon them.[/BLACKOUT]

A decent little shoot em up....finding a clean good copy may be a challenge.



THE GRAND DUEL (1972) starring Lee Van Cleef, Jess Hahn, Horst Frank, and Alberto Dentice,

Lee dresses like Colonel Mortimer....hundreds of shootouts. If the music sounds familiar it's because Tarantino used it in KILL BILL.



GOD'S GUN (1976) starring Lee Van Cleef, Jack Palance, Richard Boone, Sybil Danning, and Leif Garrett.

Band of outlaws led by Sam Clayton (Palance) ride into town and cause havoc. Father John (Cleef) tries to ask them to leave....and is promptly shot a dozen times and killed. The kid Johnny (Garrett) rides off to the next town for help....where Father John's twin brother Lewis (Cleef again) lives. Lewis comes back, dresses as Father John, and scares the crap out of members of the gang before killing them. Along the way we find out that the kid Johnny is the son of Palance's character from when he raped Danning's character years ago.



ALIVE OR PREFERABLY DEAD (1969) starring Giuliano Gemma, Nino Benvenuti, and Sydne Rome.

The brothers Mulligan (who haven't seen each other in years) will inherit $300,000 if they can live together for six months without killing each other. They decide to do this but also decide to fill the time by trying to rob everything possible. Comedic fights, shootouts, and situations ensue.



TWICE A JUDAS (1968) starring Antonio Sabato, Klaus Kinski.

Luke Barrett (Sabato) has amnesia after being grazed in the head from a gunshot. While trying to find out who he is and who shot him, he discovers he is an assassin, and he finds his home and brother (Kinski). He also finds out [BLACKOUT]that his brother was the one trying to kill him.[/BLACKOUT]



MAN FROM NOWHERE (1968) (AKA: ARIZONA COLT) starring Giuliano Gemma, Fernando Sancho, and Corinne Marchand.

The bandit Gordo attacks a prison, kills all the guards, and releases the prisoners....then gives the prisoners an ultimatum...join me or die. Colt (Gemma) says no and shoots his way out of the situation. When Gordo's gang attacks a town Colt is at, one of the members kills one of the daughters of the bartender....and Colt offers to find him and kill him....for $500 and the bartenders other daughter. There are a lot of wild and crazy shootouts.



MINNESOTA CLAY (1964) starring Cameron Mitchell, Georges Rivière, Ethel Rojo, and Fernando Sancho.

Clay (Mitchell) was framed for a murder....so he escapes from jail to get revenge upon the man who did it. The only problem is, he is going blind. Lots of fights and shootouts.



WHITE COMANCHE (1968) starring William Shatner, Joseph Cotton, and Rosanna Yanni,

A hilariously bad movie. Shatner plays half breed twins. One lives as a white man.....the other is....THE WHITE COMANCHE!!!!!!! The white one is upset that everyone keeps confusing him with his brother....because it is so damn easy to confuse a guy wearing a shirt and a cowboy hat and no paint on his face with a shirtless man wearing a headband and war paint on his face. The Shat did not know he would soon be extremely famous for being Captain Kirk when he agreed to do this movie.



IT CAN BE DONE AMIGO (1972) starring Bud Spencer, Jack Palance, and Dany Saval.

A drifter (Spencer) and a gunfighter (Palance) help a kid get his inheritance. Spencer beats a bunch of people up....Palance shoots a bunch more. The main ranch in this movie is the McBain ranch from Leone's ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST.

 

[Black Narcissus]

POSSE (1975) Directed by Kirk Douglas

This was just a fun western.

Howard Nightingale (Kirk Douglas) is a tough US Marshal with political ambitions. He leads a posse of lawmen to track down notorious outlaw Jack (Bruce Dern), who wriggles through his grasp. This is also a lot funnier than I had expected. Bruce Dern is just perfect here. Douglas proves a fine director, with an impressive opening half-hour, two great shootouts and some nice location shooting. The score is just bad imo. It felt out of place, but even if the ending is a bit uneven, I had a smile on me for most of it. A must watch for the western genre fan.

 

[C. Lee]

A bit of trivia for POSSE -

Actor James Stacy (the one arm and one legged newspaperman) was a TV actor that regularily appeared on lots of shows. In 1973 he and his girlfriend were involved in a motorcycle wreck that killed her and resulted in him losing his left arm and leg. The medical bills bankrupted him....and when Douglas heard of this he created this role for him to help him out.

 

[Black Narcissus]

Anybody know what happened to that book that was supposed to be turned into a film called "Black Hats" that Harrison Ford signed up with? He was supposed to play an older Wyatt Earp. Last news I heard was 7 years ago.

Funny enough, I just got this book a few days ago. The premise sounds bloody great.

It’s the 1920s, the glittering jazz age, and the beginning of the blood-soaked prohibition-era. The wild west and the gunfight at the OK Corral are fading memories, even for aging lawman Wyatt Earp, who is toiling in Los Angeles as a private eye and a technical consultant on cowboy movies. When Doc Holliday’s son, who is running a glitzy nightclub in Manhattan, is targeted by the mob, Wyatt gladly leaves the tamed west for the wild east to defend him, pitting himself against a brutal, young gangster named Al Capone

 

[Doctor Jones]

Is that historically accurate? Whether it is or not, holy hell I want that movie.

 

[Black Narcissus]

Is that historically accurate? Whether it is or not, holy hell I want that movie.

Nah, but it is from the same guy who wrote Road to Perdition. I got the book for less than $5 from amazon.

 

[C. Lee]

GONE WITH THE WEST (AKA: LITTLE MOON & JUD McGRAW) (1974) starring James Caan, Stephanie Powers, Sammy Davis Jr., and Aldo Ray.

One of the stupidest, weirdest, downright inept movies made. It can't make up it's mind whether it's a comedy or drama (and not good at doing either). Caan is let out of prison wearing just a shirt, pants, and boots. He walks off into the desert and comes out of it wearing the shirt, pants, and boots....along with a hat and coat....that disappear moments later. He comes to a town that everyone seems to only drink, fight, and play pool. Powers plays an Indian girl who spends the movie doing scenes like a Three Stooges comedy (except for her first one where she is gang raped in the middle of the street) while Caan's character slowly kills off the town people. Sammy Davis Jr. is the best dressed man in town, a gunslinger who occasionally stops playing pool to shoot someone and do gun tricks (Trivia: Davis was an expert at spinning and tossing guns around while being one of the fastest draws in Hollywood). Throughout the whole movie, Powers speaks a gibberish form of some Indian language that no one understands until the end of the movie when she and Caan are walking away from the destroyed town and she says in perfect English "You've killed everyone except the cameraman."....at that, Caan turns and shoots at the camera....which falls to the ground sideways.

From what I understand....there are two versions of the movie.....the one I saw, and a version with opening and closing scenes featuring veteran 30's and 40's actress Heather Angel as the old Powers character telling the story of the movie. The only reason to see or have this movie is if you are trying to collect all westerns that Sammy Davis Jr appears in (that's my excuse).



BORDER RIVER (1954) starring Joel Mcrea, Yvonne De Carlo, and Pedro Armendariz.

Surprisingly hohum western. Confederate McCrea and a couple of his men travel to Mexico to buy a bunch of cheap guns while Union soldiers try to stop them. Not much happens and the idea today of the Confederates being the good guys doesn't sit well.



WAR ARROW (1953) starring Jeff Chandler, Maureen O'Hara, John McIntire, Noah Beery Jr., and Henry Brandon.

Interesting idea for a western. Cavalry fort having trouble managing the local Native American Kiowa tribe (turns out it is being led by a confederate soldier who hates the Union) so the government sends Major Brady (Chndler) to get the Seminoles, who have been relocated from Florida to Oklahoma, to team up with the soldiers from the fort to fight them. The fort is commanded by Col. Meade (McIntire) who hates all Indians and screws with everything Major Brady tries to do with them. Meanwhile Brady falls for Mrs Corwin (O'Hara) who won't commit to him until she has positive proof her missing husband is really dead.....could he be the confederate soldier helping the Kiowas? It all culminates in a big fight where the good guys win.

Look for Dennis Weaver (becoming famous two years later as Chester on the TV series GUNSMOKE) as a good Seminole and Jay Silverheels (already famous as the good Indian Tonto on the LONE RANGER TV series) as a bad Kiowa in small parts.


GUNSMOKE: RETURN TO DODGE (1987) starring James Arness, Amanda Blake, Buck Taylor, Earl Holliman, and Steve Forest.

Twelve years after the long running TV series GUNSMOKE went off the air, they made this reunion/sequel TV movie. Continuing a storyline from the series.....outlaw Will Mannon (Forest) who was captured by Matt and imprisoned in the original series, is released from jail with revenge on his mind. Matt Dillon (Arness) has quit being a marshal and is now roaming the west like a mountainman. Newly (Taylor) who was Dillon's deputy in the series is now the Marshal of Dodge. Mannon comes to Dodge, takes Kitty (Blake) hostage and demands that Dillon come fight him. The movie does a good job of using flashback scenes from the series years before to show how everyone is interconnected. There are shootouts and fistfights throughout. The GUNSMOKE TV series was the best adult western series up until that time and the movie makes a fine companion piece.

 

[C. Lee]

GUNSMOKE: THE LAST APACHE (1990) starring James Arness, Richard Kiley, Miss Michael Learned, Amy Stotch, Joe Lara, Hugh O'Brian, Geoffrey Lewis, and Joaquin Martinez.

The second sequel TV movie to the TV series GUNSMOKE. Matt (Arness) gets a letter from old female friend Mike Yardner (Learned) asking for help. He arrives at her ranch in Arizona just in time to help ward off an Indian attack. Unfortunately the Apache Wolf (Lara) has captured Ms. Lardner's daughter Beth (Stotch)....and Matt is told that Beth is his daughter. In the 1973 episode of the series (season 19, episode 3, MATT"S LOVE STORY) a wounded Matt is found by Yardner and nursed back to health (scenes from the show are shown in flashbacks) and they have a short love affair before he decides to return to Dodge. TRIVIA: according to IMDB, that episode is the only one in it's 20 year history where Matt is shown getting kissed.

Matt heads off tracking Beth, has an encounter with Indian hating General Miles (O'Brian) that gets him put into the brig from which Ms Yardner helps him escape. He then joins up with the cavalry scout Chalk Brighton (Kiley) and they have to fight off renegade Apaches and a group of evil scalp hunters led by Bodine (Lewis) to find her. Along the way he encounters Geronimo (Martinez) and his band of fighters.

It's a good western. Several gunfights and fist fights scattered throughout. It's good to see Arness back in the saddle along with several other old western stars. The storyline is very sympathetic to the bad treatment of Native Americans at the time.

 

[C. Lee]

GUNSMOKE: TO THE LAST MAN (1992) starring James Arness, Pat Hingle, Morgan Woodward, Amy Stoch, Amanda Wyss, Matt Mulhern, and Timothy Bottoms.

This take place 2 years after the last movie. In that time, Matt (Arness) had been living with Mrs Yardner and his daughter Beth helping at the ranch. The movie begins with Mrs. Yardner's death, and days later a group of rustlers steal a hundred head of Matt's cattle. He tracks them to Pleasant Valley Arizona and right into the middle of a feud and a group of vigilantes lynching people they consider outlaws. There has also been a feud between two families for years, with one side taking it to cold blooded murder. It turns out the leader (Timothy Bottoms) of the band that rustled Matt's cows is also a killer. There are a lot of shootouts with the culmination at the ranch of the leader of the vigilantes (Hingle) where Matt and sheriff Abel Rose (Woodward) take on the whole ranch full of killers.

An interesting note....the DVD labels this as rated R....even though it was made for TV back in the 90's. I have to assume it's because there are multiple scenes of blood squibs going off when people are shot. The other movies would show people reacting to getting shot but very little to no blood.

 

[signalman]

I just order those three GUNSMOKE movies off EBAY.

I already had last two movies, The Long Ride and One Man's Justice.

 

[C. Lee]

I've been checking stores for those last two....will probably wind up having to order them. The three I watched and reviewed here I found as a three pack at WalMart.

 

[signalman]

Watched "For a Few Dollars More" with Eastwood and Van Cleef. 'B-'
The 2nd of the "Man with no Name" trilogy.
My ratings.
1) The Good, The Bad, The Ugly.
2) Fistful of Dollars.
3) For a Few Dollars More.

 

[Hunter Rider]

Breakheart Pass (1975)

Alistair MacLean was a great thriller writer, his novel 'Where Eagles Dare' was turned into one of my favourite movies of all time. I didn't know he'd dabbled in the western genre until I saw this. Like with his other work he doesn't go the traditional route with the western, instead this is a mystery thriller set on a train transporting a military garrison to Fort Humbold travelling through a mountain trail.

It's not action packed but there is a scene on top of the train which is really good and the film is intriguing throughout and well paced as the twists start to unravel. There's a little Rambo connection in there as well with a young(ish) Richard Crenna as the Governor travelling on the train and the fantastic score by Jerry Goldsmith. I'd definitely recommend it.

 

[C. Lee]

It's been a long time since I posted a review in here....so here's a few of them.

Today I watched THE HUNTING PARTY (1971) starring Oliver Red, Gene Hackman, Candice Bergman, Simon Oakland, Mitchell Ryan, and L.Q.Jones.

This is a pretty good example of the type of gritty, dirty, downbeat films of the early 70's. It starts off with rich sadistic bastard (Hackman) physically abusing his wife (Bergman). He then leaves on a "hunting trip" with a bunch of other rich friends, and several prostitutes. He hands out new long range rifles with telescopic sites to his pals to use on the hunt. When Bergman is at the local school helping the teacher for the day, outlaw (Reed) and his gang of around 20 men ride in and kidnap her by mistake thinking she is the teacher. It seems he wants her to teach him to read. When Hackman is informed of her kidnapping, he sets out with his party to hunt them down and kill them. Bergman spends a lot of time fighting off rape attempts by Reed's men and making several escape tries. She starts warming to Reed because he treats her nice. Hackman and his group catch up to them and decide to pick them off from long range toying with them. The movie is a long chase with many people getting shot in slow motion with lots of blood squibs going off. Eventually Hackman's men get tired of the carnage and leave him to go on his own. Horseless and with very little water they start crossing a desert.

Spoiler

It ends.....with Bergman begging Reed to run off with her to California....and then Hackman shows up, shoots them both dead and then drops dead from exhaustion.

 

[C. Lee]

Another one I watched this morning....ACE HIGH (1968) starring Eli Wallach, Terence Hill, Bud Spencer, Brock Peters, and Kevin McCarthy. This is a comedy spaghetti western. Wallach is Cacopolus (yes, he is a Greek) a criminal out for revenge. Along the way he runs into wandering pals (Hill and Spencer) and gets them involved in his various shenanigans after he steals their money and then joins with them in trying to replace it. This involves things like putting Spencer into a prizefight or trying to cheat a crooked roulette wheel in a saloon. This was the second pairing of Hill and Spencer in a movie. Wallach plays a comedic version of Tuco from TGTBATU.

 

[C. Lee]

Last week I watched THE SPIKES GANG (1974) starring Lee Marvin, Gary Grimes, Ron Howard, Charles Martin Smith, Arthur Hunnicutt, and Noah Beery Jr. It's a western about three teenage farm boys who run off to do anything but farming (a good deal of the film is them doing anything and everything but farming) until they run into outlaw Harry Spikes (Marvin) who takes them under his wing. They bungle a bank job, run from a posse and have deal with Spikes betraying them. There are just a couple of action scenes (the poster is the most exciting thing about it)....a boring film.