Western

Folks in Walsburg may want to pay heed to the brace of pistols holstered onto Josiah Gray’s hips. In time, they may want to pay even more heed to the Bible in his hand. Gray (Joel McCrea) is the newly arrived parson in the woodsy post-Civil War Tennessee town. And the true test of his strength will come when, during his greatest and most dangerous challenge, he sets aside his six-shooters and relies on his faith. McCrea brings a quiet resolve to this touching tale burnished through the recall of the pastor’s impressionable nephew (Dean Stockwell). Based on the novel by Joe David Brown (who would later provide the source novel for Paper Moon), Stars in My Crown shines with a powerful, simple dignity.Read More »

Respected Black cavalry Sergeant Brax Rutledge stands court-martial for raping and killing a white woman and murdering her father, his superior officer.Read More »

In Kansas during the Civil War, opposing pro-Union and pro-Confederate camps clash and visiting Texan Bob Seton runs afoul of William Cantrell’s Raiders.Read More »

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An under-valued classic
Fritz Lang’s superlative western teeters dangerously on the edge of campness, (it’s that infernal ‘Legend of Chuck-a-Luck’ ballad pounding away on the soundtrack, continually reminding us that this is a tale of ‘hate … murder and revenge’). Then, of course, there is that great gay icon Marlene Dietrich, looking extraordinary at fifty one as Altar Keane, boss of the outlaw hideout Chuck-a-Luck where Arthur Kennedy comes seeking the man who killed his girl in a robbery. In many respects the film is a perfect companion to Nicholas Ray’s not dissimilar “Johnny Guitar”, made around the same time and both featuring dominant women and weaker men and both dealing explicitly with ‘hate, murder and revenge’.Read More »

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In this fictionalized biography, young Pancho Villa takes to the hills after killing an overseer in revenge for his father’s death. In 1910, he befriends American reporter Johnny Sykes. Then a meeting with visionary Francisco Madero transforms Villa from an avenging bandit to a revolutionary general. To the tune of ‘La Cucaracha,’ his armies sweep Mexico. After victory, Villa’s bandit-like disregard for human life forces Madero to exile him. But Madero’s fall brings Villa back to raise the people against a new tyrant…Read More »

PLOT: Former buffalo hunter and entrepreneur Wyatt Earp arrives in the lawless cattle town of Wichita Kansas. His skill as a gun-fighter make him a perfect candidate for Marshal but he refuses the job until he feels morally obligated to bring law and order to this wild town.Read More »

The gunfighter El Topo (“The Mole”) and his young son ride through a desert to a village, whose inhabitants have been massacred. Bandits are nearby, torturing and killing the survivors. El Topo rescues a woman (Mara), who leads him on a mission to find and defeat the four master gunmen of the desert. Leaving his son with a group of monks, El Topo and Mara complete the mission, accompanied by a mysterious woman in black. The women leave El Topo wounded in the desert, where he is found by a clan of deformed people who take him to the remote cavern where they live. Awakening years later, he goes with a dwarf woman to a nearby town, promising to dig a tunnel through which the cave-dwellers can escape. They find the town run by a vicious sheriff and home to a bizarre religious cult. El Topo’s son, now a man, is a monk in the town. The completion of the tunnel leads El Topo, the townspeople, and the cave-dwellers to a bloody and tragic end.Read More »

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KIRK DOUGLAS was worried. It was 1961, and this actor-producer had recently gambled on a big history picture, “Spartacus.” He had fired the director — Anthony Mann — after a week of shooting, replacing him with Stanley Kubrick. Mr. Douglas thought the picture had turned out well, but it still hadn’t been released. Meanwhile he had encountered a paperback novel — “The Brave Cowboy,” by Edward Abbey — and optioned it through his production company, Byrna. And Byrna, which had a production deal with Universal, commissioned a screenplay, by Dalton Trumbo.Read More »

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Google Translate:
Lao Tang Tou was born in Heilongjiang Province in 1930. His father, Tang Shirong, had saved the life of Zhao Shangzhi of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Allied Forces during the period of the Puppet Manchukuo, so he was very prestigious in the village. There are five brothers in the old Tang family, according to the family tree of “benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom, faith” in the order of elders and children, he walks five, his real name is Tang Xixin.Read More »