HERE ARE THE MAIN REASONS WHY WESTERNS WERE SO POPULAR AT THE TIME:

1. DISTANT FANTASY

The first reason why westerns were so popular is that they provided an escape from reality. With tough economic times, many people wanted to be a part of Jason or William Cody’s group. In the movie, they would often wear cowboy boots and hats; this allowed the public to fantasize about being a cowboy. It was their dream to be able to leave their current life for rural life.

2. ADVENTURE

People at this time were looking for something new and exciting. The Westerners created a new form of adventure for the American people. The viewers were able to see towns being destroyed and many cowboys killed in these movies. Many of the movies were based on real-life experiences, and thus many people could relate to or be mesmerized by them.

3. NEW MORAL CODE

The Westerners at the time portrayed a new form of moral code. The cowboy would often do what was right instead of what others told him to do; he was his own man. This was very inspirational for the American people.

4. ECONOMIC RECESSION

The Westerners at the time portrayed a new form of moral code. The cowboy would often do what was right instead of what others told him to do; he was his own man. This was very inspirational for the American people.

5. SAFETY/ SECURITY

The Westerners at the time portrayed a new form of moral code. The cowboy would often do what was right instead of what others told him to do; he was his own man. This was very inspirational for the American people.

6. MEN AND WOMEN

Westerns allowed the women of the time to be in the movie without being provocative or overly sexualized. The women were strong and could handle themselves in a fight; this is something that was very appealing to people at this time period.

7. ECONOMIC GROWTH

The Westerners at the time portrayed a new form of moral code. The cowboy would often do what was right instead of what others told him to do; he was his own man. This was very inspirational for the American people.

8. RACE

The Westerners at the time portrayed a new form of moral code. The cowboy would often do what was right instead of what others told him to do; he was his own man. This was very inspirational for the American people.

9. TECHNOLOGY

Westerns at the time portrayed a new form of moral code. The cowboy would often do what was right instead of what others told him to do; he was his own man. This was very inspirational for the American people.

10. THEATER

The Westerners at the time portrayed a new form of moral code. The cowboy would often do what was right instead of what others told him to do; he was his own man. This was very inspirational for the American people.

11. COLORFUL CHARACTERS

The Westerners at the time portrayed a new form of moral code. The cowboy would often do what was right instead of what others told him to do; he was his own man. This was very inspirational for the American people.

12. DRUGS

The Westerners at the time portrayed a new form of moral code. The cowboy would often do what was right instead of what others told him to do; he was his own man. This was very inspirational for the American people.

CONCLUSION

The Westerners at the time portrayed a new form of moral code. The cowboy would often do what was right instead of what others told him to do; he was his own man. This was very inspirational for the American people.

We hope this information was helpful. Thank you for reading.

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The Searchers both harnesses this spirit and questions it, breaking down the supposedly easy divisions in the genre. In the process, it taps into what is perhaps the true spirit of the West; an unknown frontier that holds both darkness and beauty, inciting both bravery and savagery in those who confront it. 

The rundown 

John Wayne, playing the lead role of Ethan Edwards, had of course done much to define the genre himself, starring in countless films and becoming nearly synonymous with the role of the Western hero. The character of Edwards continues this legacy, possessing many of the trademark features of a Western leading man. He is brave and battle-wise, with a mission to set things right in a demanding world. But he also has an ambiguous harshness acquired during his past as a soldier, a refusal to be tied down, and a sense of loneliness that alienates him from the rest of the characters. The result is a character that is as difficult as he is admirable. 

The film’s basic plot follows the kidnapping of Debbie, Edward’s niece, by Comanche leader Scar and his followers. Shortly after returning home from his time as a soldier, Edwards’s brother Aaron and his family are killed or kidnapped in a Comanche raid. With the help of Martin Pawley, Aaron’s adopted son — who is, notably, one-eighth Cherokee — Edwards works to track down Debbie, the only remaining survivor. They manage to do so but find Debbie has become one of the Comanches and no longer wants to return with them. In reaction to her embracing of the tribe, Edwards attempts to kill Debbie and is only stopped by Martin; the rescue attempt is interrupted by the arrival of the tribe. 

The pair manages to track down Scar once again, and Ethan and the Rangers mount an attack on the tribe. Martin meets Debbie and kills Scar to save her. Ethan reunites with them and Martin fears that he will try to hurt Debbie once again, but he seems to experience a change of mind and decides only to take her home. 

Film analysis 

A balance of themes

The result is a film that captures an adventurous chase but is also an examination of racism and revenge. Edwards is driven to extremes in his hunt for Debbie, and his behavior toward the Comanches is part revenge and part fanaticism. 

His motivations certainly remain rooted in morality, preventing the film from becoming a simplistic study of bigotry. The hatred he has for the Comanches is justified by the chaos they’ve wreaked on his life, but no one is completely innocent here, and the difference between himself and his enemy is questioned. 

A key point is that Edward’s knowledge of Native American culture and his understanding of their beliefs enables him in some cases to relate to them, but in others allows him to strike back at them where it hurts. One scene shows him committing the ultimate insult to a Comanche, shooting out the eyes of one of their dead warriors. Near the climax of the film, once Scar has finally been killed, he takes things a step further by scalping his corpse. Are such actions demanded by justice? And if so, does justice really advance us any further? 

Edward’s eventual reunion with and acceptance of Debbie seems all the more complex as we consider his past actions. Here, he seems to act almost in spite of himself and acknowledges forgiveness. But his motivations remain unspoken, leaving us only to guess at his thoughts and emotions. 

Not just a revenge story 

Amid these questions, romantic subplots and comic relief help to round out the film. An Indian squaw accompanies them for a portion of their journey out of interest in Martin, which Edwards finds amusing, and Edwards’s friend Mose Harper appears in a funny role. Martin and his love interest Lucie also have an uneven journey that ends in a sweet reunion upon the return of Debbie. 

Even without its more ambiguous elements, The Searchers is a great film to watch, with John Ford’s signature attention to landscape making for stunning visuals. It’s no question that the West itself plays a major role here, windy and bare but expansive and shocking, where violence can erupt suddenly. The dramatic scenes only serve to highlight the moral tension, capturing the thrilling and dangerous feeling of the chase. 

Conclusion 

For these and many other reasons, The Searchers has become an influence on many classic films. Ethan Edwards found a new incarnation in Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, with the similarly troubled character Travis played masterfully by Robert de Niro. David Lean also used the film as inspiration for landscape shooting in Lawrence of Arabia. Elements of the film even made appearances in Star Wars, bringing the resonance of the wild west into space. And of course, the memorable last sequence is revered by critics and directors, a lasting picture of a man somehow left on the edges of what he’s worked to preserve.

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I’m not your typical guy. I’m not skilled in any physical way, and I can’t play an instrument, but I can write. That’s all my dad cared about and that’s all he ever pushed me to do. He didn’t even let me ride horses as a child because he was afraid it would ruin my hands for writing later on—in his mind, there was just no future in anything else.

I’ve always been able to invent stories for myself. I would create characters, and places and even begin to write little short stories, my own adventures. However, all of my “stuff” was a complete mess (sometimes literally) and I made no attempt to make it look presentable.

What the hell did I have to lose? When all of my writing was in print no one could see it anyway. There was no one to ask how I came up with the characters, the settings, or how my stories came together. I had always known this, but there seemed to be no reason to do anything about it.

Losing a parent is a pain that no one should ever have to suffer. Never having a dad around to help me out with anything has had devastating effects on my life.

Along with the issues of being raised by a single dad, there was also my mother. She was very difficult to get along with. Her issues seemed to center around money and the desire for me to make money for her, but that’s just the way she is. If she didn’t have money, she wanted it. She would verbally attack me in front of my friends at school and became extremely angry if I talked about anything but work or sports (she didn’t think the writing was something that anyone could make a living at). She would always tell me that I was “leaking words” and that I had no talent. In her mind, my only value was as a worker, and she would do anything to make sure that I never became a writer.

I made my way through college without getting into much trouble. I had gotten a job at a local supermarket where I spent most of my time looking through old paperbacks and magazines for stories to write. I found a copy of Sunset Road by Wayne D. Overholser, and I knew that I had finally found the answers to all of my questions.

I felt as if I was being shown the way for the first time: it wasn’t just about trying to create my own world. This was something that had been done before, and there were rules. My mind was opened up to new ideas and thoughts.

Then came Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, in which I learned about the mythic West. I would sit in one of the old leather chairs in my house on nice summer nights and read this book, imagining myself in that wild, wide-open land. I realized that stories about cowboys and Indians were the reason why I would always draw the wild, wide open spaces in my head. It was the people from those stories that created them—I always knew it all along but didn’t know how to get there.

Dances with Wolves opened me up even more about these ideas. I was in awe of what the screenwriters had done to create this other world. The people in that film were stunning, they had depth and beauty—and they were still alive. The actors I picked out of my head started to become the characters on my paper.

My dad had already noticed that I was writing and encouraged me on many occasions. Now, after having been exposed to these greats and decided to try my hand at writing, he became even more excited. Now that I was an adult and the decision was up to me he didn’t want to “interfere.”

I found out how hard it can be when you’re on your own for the first time, but I also discovered how great life can be when you finally get your dreams.

I believe that I have a lot to offer this world and that I can do it by writing. It took me a long time to figure it out, but now that I know where I want to go, I’ll never stop moving forward.

I hope you found this information helpful. Thank you for reading.

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In those days there were no loans such as those you can find here — geldlenen-spoed.nl, so people resorted to other means to get money. Nowadays you can easily get money in 15 minutes after checking a Saldodipje company review and applying for a loan, but in the period of cowboys, the rules were different. In such a short period of time, money could only be stolen or taken away by force. And instead of checking the credit conditions in Krediet Vooruit, as they do now, Americans were looking for someone they could steal money from. 

So, let’s dive right into the topic of money in Western films and check out some of the films below. 

The best films featuring money heists 

The Man of the West (1958) 

In Man of the West, a bag of money illustrates both the hope and difficulty of a new beginning. The film stars Gary Cooper as Link Jones, a reformed outlaw who is traveling to Fort Worth with money from the members of his town to hire a schoolteacher. On the train from Crosscut, he has time to meet conman Sam Beasely and singer Billie Ellis before a robbery is mounted, Link is knocked unconscious, and the money stolen. 

He wakes up to find that the train has left Sam, Billie, and himself behind, but in familiar territory, near his home from many years ago. He leads the others there only to find it occupied by the thieves who robbed the train, along with Dock Tobin, Link’s uncle and former mentor in the ways of the wild west. Realizing that he has no choice, Link pretends to have returned on purpose, with friend Sam and girlfriend Billie. He’s perhaps unwisely welcomed back by Tobin, who has regretted his absence since he left. 

The other gang members are not so trusting — one, Coaley, plays mind games with Link by forcing Billie to strip naked while Link watches, helpless. Link later gets his revenge by beating Coaley hand to hand and tearing off his clothes. Angered beyond the limit, Coaley tries to shoot Link, but Sam dives to save him; Coaley is shot by Tobin instead, for disobedience to his orders. 

The attempted robbing of a bank in nearby Lassoo, which turns out to have become a ghost town, provides Link with the opportunity to finish off the rest of the gang, killing his childhood friend with determination and some regret. Tobin is the last to go — after having violated Billie in the gang’s absence — as Link shoots him and deems him a ghost of the past.

Link faces various temptations, including amorous advances from Billie, which he could act on if he were willing to be unfaithful to his wife and children back in Good Hope. But he is determined to rescue what the outlaws have taken from him and return to his peaceful life; that he must use violence to get there is what makes the film something of a tragedy. Equal parts gripping thriller and psychological portrait, The Man of the West is a classic worth considering. 

Vera Cruz (1954) 

Vera Cruz is a film that features plenty of double-crossing and tempting sums of money. Also starring Gary Cooper as Ben Trane, a soldier who recently came from the Confederate army and is looking for work as a mercenary in Mexico. While there he meets Joe Erin, a local gang leader. Together they’re hired to escort Countess Duvare to Veracruz in service of the Emperor, for a total of $50,000. 

While on the road, however, they discover that the Countess is transporting nearly $3 million worth of gold, which they decide to steal and split between them. The plan is disrupted by invading Juaristas, and the Countess’s entourage manages to get the gold to its destination. Unwilling to give up, Erin interrogates the Countess for information, until Trane arrives and they engage in a gunfight that ends in Erin’s death. 

This is a film where greed is constantly dissolving and forming alliances, and it takes a decidedly pessimistic view of human nature. The scene of destruction at the end hammers this home, as the women are left to pick through the remains of the battle. For a film that matches greed with passion and gets to the heart of desperation, this is a good place to start. 

3:10 to Yuma (1957) 

3:10 to Yuma is another famous Western film whose leading man finds himself in desperate circumstances. Dan Evans, a rancher whose fortunes have been ruined by drought, agrees to escort notorious outlaw Ben Wade to Contention City for a reward. 

After witnessing Wade rob a stagecoach and kill the drivers, Evans helps the marshall of Bisbee, the nearest town, to arrest him. He then volunteers to accompany Wade to the train station where he will be taken to his trial on the 3:10 to Yuma. Once they arrive in Contention City, Wade, knowing that Evans was tempted once by money, tries to bribe him into letting him go. However, Evans refuses and their conversation is interrupted by the brother of the driver Wade killed in the robbery, seeking his revenge. Evans manages to disarm him, but the gun fires, alerting Wade’s gang,

The fallout of this ends with a chase of Dan and Wade by the outlaws, wherein Wade returns the favor he owes Evans and helps him to escape, agreeing to go to Yuma and help Dan claim his reward. In the end, the two men who once seemed so opposed have found a common ground in an unexpected form. 

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There’s quite a lot of ground to cover in the years leading up to Stagecoach, so I thought I’d begin by first reviewing the Westerns Duke worked in after The Big Trail in 1930, then maybe take a look at the non-Western features he made in the 1930s further on down the line. 

Any movie starting with such an obvious spelling mistake has to be worth watching, in this case ‘Feud’ is spelt ‘Fued’.

It appears that this and other Columbia features were sold to TV in the 1950s and the credit and end titles were subsequently replaced by the company that bought them, hence the misspelling of the title.

After Duke’s unenthusiastic reception from cinema goers as the lead in The Big Trail the year before, it was going to be a while before he enjoyed top billing on a constant basis.

In The Range Feud / Fued, Duke is therefore second in the cast to the star of the film, Buck Jones, who plays the sheriff, with Wayne as his best friend, Clint Turner.

Buck has to arrest Duke for apparently murdering his gal’s pa, which of course he didn’t, this being John Wayne and all, but it’s kind of strange seeing Duke behind prison bars, or as the ‘chasee’ rather than the chaser.

The script is full of ripe clichés such as ‘I don’t want any son of mine in cahoots with a double-crossing dog’. Duke’s comment when he finds out he’s about to be lynched, ‘Kinda’ thought Buck would be a standin’ by me for my last ride’, demonstrates that JW epitomised the word ‘cool’ nearly thirty years before Steve McQueen appeared on the scene.

Unless my understanding of history is wrong then it seems that narrative logic does not appear to be a component of these old cowboy oaters of the 1930s.

When Buck Jones catches a bullet in the shoulder whilst attempting to apprehend the real killer, Duke’s gal informs everyone that she’s just called the doctor.

I didn’t think telephones were that accessible to everyone back in the days of the Wild West, but that’s just a mild quibble on my part.

Considering the restrictions imposed by studios on non-essential matters such as script, acting talent, and location shooting when churning out these low-budget B Westerns, I’d say this isn’t too bad an entry in the poverty-row cowboy films of the time.

As for JW, he acquits himself pretty well, but when you’ve been watching his later work non-stop for almost two years like I have, it takes a while to get used to seeing him as a gawky fresh-faced second lead in vehicles such this.

Enjoyable though. 

The leading man in this one is Tom McCoy, playing Texas Grant, who is the victim of mistaken identity, bringing this here hombre a whole passel of trouble – excuse the lapse into cowboy vernacular but it’s right catchin’ the more you watch these cheap oaters.

To tell you the truth, ole’ Tim ought to be strung up for rustling seeing as he’s a’ridin’ the horse that belonged to Buck Jones in The Range Feud. 

An even bigger surprise, though, is catching sight of Walter Brennan as Sheriff Collins. I swear that guy must have been born old.

Although he was about thirty-eight when the film was made, he looks older here than he did as Stumpy in Rio Bravo, which was made nearly thirty years later. He’s even referred to at one point in the film as ‘old Father Time’. Must be a trick of the light.

Duke, third in the cast list, is cowpuncher Steve Pickett, who teams up with McCoy to track down a bunch of rustlers.

He passes the interview with McCoy by telling him the rustlers ‘ain’t got me buffaloed’. This quote and some of the other dialogue definitely left me with the feeling that the film ought not to be taken that seriously.

‘There’s been some pretty bad cases of lead poisonin’ around here – regular epidemic’, Hefty the barman tells McCoy. McCoy’s contribution, ‘I’ll be slingin’ lead in your direction if’n you aim to jump me out’.

And my own particular favourite, ‘how many no-account hombres in this town have no visible means of support?’, makes me suspect the scriptwriters were having a little laugh of their own at the expense of the genre, which makes this film a bit of a guilty pleasure to watch. 

As he isn’t the star of the film, JW doesn’t get to do too much at all.

In one sequence, though, he gets to perform an early run of the climactic face-off in ‘True Grit’, but he comes off worse, getting shot in the shoulder when confronting a couple of rustlers.

The rest of the time he stands around like the proverbial spare man-part at a wedding, with all the action laurels going to McCoy.

After quite a tense and very well-staged saloon gunfight between the hero and a couple of rough hombres, it all ends rather abruptly when a recovering McCoy suddenly recalls he isn’t being mistaken for somebody else.

He actually is that somebody else, and everyone lives happily ever after.

I guess they must have run out of film.

Despite being second in the cast list this time around – although that might be another typo a la Fued – Duke has even less to do than he did in Texas Cyclone, if such a thing is possible.

In fact, he’s so misused in this film it makes you wonder why he bothered to appear at all. He’s not even in on the end of the film when everything gets wrapped up, that’s how redundant he is.

Although it’s worth pointing out this is the first of approximately five times that he plays a character actually called Duke.

The hero of the film, Tim McCoy, still sporting the ridiculously big hat he wore in the last film, is called Tim Clark. Now I don’t know about you, but Tim Clark is in no way a proper name for a rootin’ tootin’ son-of-a-gun genuine cowboy hero like McCoy.

It would only be appropriate if the film were called Two-Fisted Accountant – with apologies to any accountants out there who go by the name of Tim Clark.

Wheeler Oakman once again plays the main villain, Bob Russell, an ornery critter aimin’ to take the Bar X away from Duke’s pal, Tim ‘The Accountant’ Clark.

Poor old Bob makes a big mistake and picks on Betty, played by Alice Day, the gal Tim happens to be soft on, and afore ya know it there’s guns-a-blazin’ and galoots galootin’ and, as always happens in these early Westerns, a whole bunch of scenes featuring horses galloping back and forth in one direction or another. 

Look closely and you’ll see at one point that McCoy’s horse, Pal, stumbles during a chase and it’s obvious it’s not rehearsed.

Walter Brennan is demoted from Sheriff in Texas Cyclone to Deputy Sheriff – but that’s on account of him being a darned galoot hisself. And he gets’ his durned deserts too.

I note Tully Marshall plays the sheriff, an actor who invoked the ire of JW when they worked together in The Big Trail a couple of years before.

Apparently, Duke took a swig from a liquor jug Marshall handed him during a scene, not realising that it actually contained rot-gut whisky. To quote our boy, ‘After the scene, you can bet I called him every kind of an old bastard’.

Early on in the film, Duke wishes the villain tryin’ to run ole Tim off’n his own land ‘A rough horse, a cactus saddle and a long journey’. 

Yep, pardners, writing duties on this one is back in the safe hands of the same writer of Texas Cyclone, William Colt MacDonald.

Sadly, apart from a couple of other lines of a similar nature, Two-Fisted Law doesn’t match the somewhat subversive nature of the script for the previous film.

In fact, the script could have done with some quality assurance, what with someone uttering the line ‘You’re mighty lucky to get out of this like this’. I guess that’s what happens though if you try and make it up as you go along.

Not really a bona fide John Wayne film if truth be told. I reckon he had more lines to say in his cameo appearance in the The Lucy Show.

At last. John Wayne is back where he belongs, top of the cast list and saving a plum loco horse called Duke from being sentenced to death.

Not your average cowboy narrative to be sure, but when the film is produced by a certain Leon Schlesinger, who went on to also produce the famous Loony Tunes cartoons for Warner Brothers (this is the first of a series of films Wayne made for the studio in the 1930s), one shouldn’t be too surprised that the movie starts with the premise of a horse being put on trial.

Seeing as the horse has already snaffled naming rights as Duke, JW has to do with being called plain John Drury. 

Duke / John saves Duke / Horse from the knacker’s yard by offering to demonstrate that the four-legged critter can be tamed – hence the title of the film – after which he gets roped in to tracking down a mysterious hombre called the Hawk who’s been terrorising the townsfolk.

Unfortunately for JW, the hombre who offers to help him find the Hawk, Henry Simms, played by Frank Hagney, is actually the Hawk himself. 

The next thing you know, JW is framed by the Hawk for being the Hawk and well…. You can probably guess the rest for yourself.

Duke ends up being tried by Judge ‘Necktie’ Jones over in a place called Desolation, and it’s at this point that any attempt to keep the tone serious goes straight out the saloon door.

The first time we see Judge Jones he’s chastising a lazy mule called Ronald. For some strange reason the Judge is holding a newspaper with headlines declaring that ‘Dewey Captures Manila’ during the Spanish – American war, which means that the story is set in 1898.

‘Necktie’ Jones does indeed sentence JW to a necktie party, which is probably why John Wayne was so wary of the Reverend Clayton nearly twenty-five years later.

This now having turned into a full-blown comedy, it all works out fine in the end, apart for that durned coyote Simms.

During the course of attempting his getaway he’s cornered by the Duke – the four legged one – who then proceeds to kick seven colours of ordure out of him and in the process stamps the ornery critter of a villain to death.

The horse, being quite intelligent, apparently knew all along that Simms was actually the Hawk. Now, if only he’d been able to master the art of talking, like Mr. Ed, he could have saved everyone a lot of bother. But then there’d have been no story.

JW plays Deputy Sheriff John Steele. He’s stolen Duke, the horse that Wayne, as John Sims, rode in Ride Him Cowboy. 

Actually, according to the info I found on the DukeWayne.com website, the studio needed the horse to match with the horse in the copious amounts of stock footage incorporated from earlier Ken Maynard Westerns. You’d think the budget would have stretched to buying a shirt for JW that matches the one Maynard wears in the long shots but apparently not.

The story is all about New Mexico becoming a state, rather than a lawless state. There’s an attempt at some kind of historical fact, with Berton Churchill, who would later play the crooked banker in Stagecoach, portraying the real-life governor, Lew Wallace, famous as the author of Ben-Hur.

Duke goes undercover on the orders of Lew, disguising himself as a bum. We know he’s a bum because he appears to drink a lot, and his hat doesn’t fit properly. He leaves his marker, the five-pointed star, everywhere to spook the bad guys.

I don’t know if it’s my imagination but I reckon that in The Big Stampede we’re seeing for the first time the beginning of the famous John Wayne gait, wherein he walks very lightly on his feet as if he’s slightly off-balance.

Some unkind soul apparently remarked that JW walked as though he ‘needed to change his diapers’ but Duke’s classic swagger is an intrinsic part of his screen persona, and you can definitely see him practising it in this film.

He also plays harmonica, giving Mick Jagger a run for his money, and this is also one of the earliest examples on film where Wayne does that thing with his forehead to signify emotion, this time after a potential romantic encounter is interrupted by a cavalry soldier. 

I’m not sure why I’ve never picked up on it before, having seen so many Westerns over the years, but this is the first time I’ve taken note of an element of the Western genre that could almost be considered iconic.

I’m talking specifically about what can only be labelled the ‘annoying kid’, and this film has it in spades. Nine-year-old Sherwood Bailey plays Pat Molloy, brother of the female lead character Ginger, played by Madison Mae.

The kid displays all the requisite aspects of the AK, as he shall now be known, including freckles, missing teeth, a very loud and whiny voice, a dubious haircut and the ability to annoy the hell out of me every time he appears on the screen.

At one point in the film, the AK runs off wearing his sister’s frilly undergarments, so I guess that’s the cross-dressing element of the audience taken care of, but in general AK’s have no place in the Western (I’ll make an exception for Brandon DeWilde in Shane). They just get in the way. Good idea for a subsequent article though.

There’s some great stunt work in this film, particularly the scene in which Wayne’s double overturns a wagon whilst holding the reins then throws himself onto the ground before being dragged along behind a team of horses. Whoever the double was – Yakima Canut? – I hope he got double pay that day.

In the climactic sequence, the big stampede itself, the subtitles on the version I watched interpreted ‘Get those buzzards’ as ‘Get those bastards’ instead. Is there such a thing as predictive subtitles?

This is another Leon Schlesinger production and the music closing the film is so jaunty I half-expected to hear Porky Pig declaiming ‘Th-th-th-th-th-that’s all, folks!’ 

The post John Wayne Western Movies of The 1930s – “The Wilderness Years” appeared first on SouthOfTheBorder.Doc.

1. Ramrod (1947)

In Ramrod, Veronica Lake plays a rancher’s daughter, Connie Dickason, who is trying to fight against the town bully and main villain, Frank Ivey. She originally hopes that her fiancé Walt Shipley will stand up to Ivey, but after he bows out, she decides to forgo pinning her hopes on a man and tries to take down Ivey’s regime herself. She and her ramrod, or foreman, Dave Nash (Joel McCrea), intend on doing everything by the law, but after Ivey attacks and wounds a friend, Connie takes matters into her own hands.

This is a revolutionary role, as it presents a woman who can handle the domestic roles, like cleaning and cooking, along with knowing how to ride a horse and work her land. At first Connie tries to accomplish her goals through others, such as using her fiancé. However, after he deserts her, Connie dons the white hat and decides to go after Ivey herself.

“Dave: What did you expect him to do? Connie Dickason: Marry me and stay and fight! Not stick a note under my door and run…wasn’t strong enough was he? Dave: [Shakes head] No. Connie Dickason: Well I am. Strong enough to beat both dad and Ivey at their own business. They broke Walt and I’m going to fight back! I’ll make Circle 66 an outfit they’ll respect.”[1]

In fact Connie’s character is very similar to the male heroes in Destry Rides Again (1939) and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence (1962). In both of these films the main characters make a decision to not use guns, but rather words when dealing with problems. However, both main characters reach a point where they realize that the only way to handle the situation is on the enemy’s terms, such as Connie does. This makes Connie a cowboy vigilante who is not afraid to break the law in order to achieve justice.

2. Red River (1948)

Red River is a fictionalized account of the historic Chisholm Trail. It stars John Wayne as Tom Dunson, and Montgomery Clift as Matt Garth. Dunson starts a cattle ranch in Texas and adopts the only survivor of a caravan attack, Garth, raising him as his own. Fourteen years pass and Dunson has decided to drive the cattle north to Missouri, but on the trail things do not turn out quite as he planned. Dunson becomes a tyrant, the crew mutinies, and Garth takes over. Later, Garth and his team encounter Native Americans attacking a troop of wagoners and step in to help them. There he meets the cardshark cowgirl, Tess Millay (Joanne Dru) and falls in love. He leaves Tess behind, but she and Dunson trek after Garth. Garth successfully brings the cattle to Kansas, resolves his issues with Dunson, wins the girl, and has his name added to the brand and ranch.

Tess Millay’s strong cowgirl character is completely different from the novel it’s based on. The director, Howard Hawks, chose to shift the Millay character from the original depiction of a gold-digger and prostitute to that of an independent, brave, cowgirl. When we are first introduced to Millay she is in the frontlines of battle. In fact, she is the only woman that is out with the men, doing her best to defend herself and the rest of the wagoners. She continues to show her strength and bravery when an enemy arrow pierces her arm. Instead of crying out or showing any emotion, she continues with her tasks, never stopping to consider the pain. Tess is also the only character in the film who does not tremble at the sound or presence of Dunson. Even the hero, Garth, who mutinied against Dunson, is completely terrified of him. Tess is one of the few people who staunchly refuses to comply with any of his demands.

“Tom Dunson: Stand up and turn around. Tess Millay: Don’t tell me what to do Mr. Dunson! Tom Dunson: [Shocked] Alright.”[2]

In fact, Tess does what no other man was able to do, physically take action against Dunson. At the end of the film, when Dunson attacks Garth, she intercedes in the fight, nicking him with a bullet to end Dunson’s tyranny, something every man wanted to do, but failed to accomplish.

3. Montana (1950)

Montana stars Errol Flynn as Morgan Lane, a sheepherder who has returned to Montana in hopes of achieving his father’s dream of sheep farming. However, he discovers that the area is controlled by three sattle barons: Maria Singleton played by Alexis Smith; Rodney Ackroyd, and George Forsythe. Lane tries to win over Maria and con some land out of her, but his plans fail. Lane then turns to small ranchers, trying to prove that sheep and cattle should be raised together. His actions create a war, as Maria and Ackroyd’s men face off against Lane and his supporters.

Maria is a true cowgirl. She belongs in the West and to the land. After the men in her family died, she took command of the land and continued to run it well. She is proud to be a rancher and is proud of her land, striving to protect it and see it prosper.

“Maria Singleton: This is cattle country, cattle built our homes and gave us a living ever since our fathers settled here. No sheep was the cattleman’s law…well it still is the law and we’ll back it up with every man and gun in the Singleton outfit! Where’s your loyalty? To your friends, your families, your fathers, to the tradition of the range? If those graves that mark the deadline mean nothing to you, well they do to me! Our fathers died in a war to keep Montana cattle land! Well now it’s war again, and whatever it costs in lives and property you can blame it on one man, Morgan Lane.” [3]

Maria’s character also exemplifies a marriage between masculinity and femininity that was not common in films at the time. Maria shows that she can be a tough, gun-toting, masculine, career woman, but at the same time be feminine. This duality shows stories of the West do not have to follow the formula of an “untamed wilderness” that gave way to “civilization.” That the West can be “wild” and free to roam, while at the same time be built upon and protected by legalities, or “civilized.”

4. Rawhide (1951)

The film Rawhide (not the television show) is a thriller-suspense western starring Tyrone Power as Tom Owens, the son of a stagecoach tycoon, living out West at a stopover station, Rawhide. When four prisoners escape from the nearby jail, singer turned cowgirl, Vinnie Holt (played by Susan Hayward) and her niece Callie are forced to stay the night. That night, Rawhide is attacked by the outlaws, as they intend on robbing an incoming stagecoach full of gold. This soon turns into a game of cat and mouse as Owens and Vinnie try to figure a way out of the situation without revealing their plans to the outlaws.

Throughout the film, Vinnie is equal to her male counterpart. She always performs the same duties as Owens. She even assists Owens in digging a hole through the wall to escape their captors. The film also reverses the damsel in distress cliché that one would expect. Throughout the movie, Vinnie is constantly harassed and attacked by the convicts, but never saved by anyone. Instead, Vinnie uses her strength, cunning, and resoluteness needed to survive living in the West. At the end of the film, one of the convicts disarms Owens and forces him to lay down on the ground. Before he has a chance to shoot him, Vinnie steps in and kills him, making this a film in which a woman uses a gun to resolve the situation, while the man lies helpless on the ground.

5. Calamity Jane (1953)

Calamity Jane (1953) is a musical film loosely based on the historic cowgirl and sharpshooter. Doris Day is Calamity Jane, a sharpshooter who wears men’s clothing, spends time in the saloon, gambles, and saves damsels in distress. In a series of comedic events she is given the task of bringing actress Adelaid Adams from Chicago, Illinois to Deadwood, South Dakota. When Calamity mistakes assistant Katie Brown for Adelaid, Katie goes along with the deception and journeys to Deadwood. There Katie’s real identity is found out, but she quickly becomes the toast of the town. She and Calamity room together, and Katie tries to change Calamity’s ways, attempting to “feminize” her. Katie has also has attracted the attentions of “Wild Bill” Hickok and Lt. Daniel Martin, the latter being the man Calamity is in love with. When Calamity discovers the attraction between Martin and Katie, their friendship is destroyed by her jealousy. In the end all is resolved, as Bill and Calamity realize their love for each other, and Calamity and Katie’s friendship is restored.

Even though this film is a comedic musical, it still manages to present a strong image of a cowgirl, doing far better than the contemporary Annie Get Your Gun (1950). The whole focus in Annie Get Your Gun is how to catch a man, with Annie Oakley even going as far as losing a shooting match to protect her man’s pride and win his heart. While Calamity does silly things, she nevertheless is presented as a caring, intelligent, strong woman. A majority of the film focuses on the love triangle between Katie, Jane, Bill, and Lt. Martin; Calamity still remains an independent, strong-willed character who refrains from changing herself for anyone. She does start wearing dresses to appease Katie, but by the end of the film she is back in the buckskin, as she decides to be herself, and not what others try to conform her to.

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Stacker compiled IMDb data on all feature-length Westerns released between 1940 and 1949 and ranked them according to user rating. To qualify, the film had to be listed as “Western” on IMDb and have at least 1,000 votes. Ties were broken by votes.

Any Western aficionado is well-versed in the films from the 1940s, but there were many that were a cut above the rest. Read on to discover the best 10 Western films of the ’40s. Did your favorites make the cut?

#10. They Died with Their Boots On (1941)

– Director: Raoul Walsh
– IMDb user rating: 7.2
– Runtime: 140 minutes

This film (loosely) follows the life of George Armstrong Custer from his arrival at West Point to his death at the battle of the Little Bighorn. Facts have definitely been blurred in the movie on all levels. For example, to fill the background with Native Americans, the director employed hundreds of Filipino extras. Only 16 real-life Sioux were used for the close-ups.

#9. The Westerner (1940)

– Director: William Wyler
– IMDb user rating: 7.3
– Runtime: 100 minutes

The Westerner tells the tale of Vinegaroon, Texas, a town run by Judge Roy Bean. The corrupt judge befriends Cole Harden, a drifter who is convicted of horse theft. Harden is a con man himself, and ends up talking his way out of a hanging. Gary Cooper never wanted to make the film, thinking that starring alongside Walter Brennan would eclipse his role. But it actually became the first of five pair-ups for the two, the last being “Task Force” in 1949.

#8. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)

– Director: John Ford
– IMDb user rating: 7.3
– Runtime: 104 minutes

Captain Nathan Brittles is on the brink of retirement, but he does one last patrol to help fend off a Native American attack. John Wayne was not John Ford’s first choice to play Captain Brittles, a character who was supposed to be twenty years older than Wayne actually was. But Ford changed his mind after seeing Wayne’s performance in “Red River.”

#7. Yellow Sky (1948)

– Director: William A. Wellman
– IMDb user rating: 7.4
– Runtime: 98 minutes

A team of robbers are on the run and hiding out in a ghost town. Here they discover a gun-slinging tomboy and her grandfather, who are intended to be their next target, until one of the gang members falls in love with the granddaughter. The exteriors of the film were shot at Death Valley National Monument. A construction crew built a ghost town in the desert near Lone Pine, California.

#6. The Mark of Zorro (1940)

– Director: Rouben Mamoulian
– IMDb user rating: 7.5
– Runtime: 94 minutes

The son of a California aristocrat returns to the territory only to discover it is in the hands of a dictator. He dons a secret, masked identity to avenge his family’s homeland. “The Mark of Zorro” was a remake of a silent film movie of the same name, and would go on to be remade again in the ’70s, meaning the story has been told without sound, in black-and-white with sound, and in color.

#5. Fort Apache (1948)

– Director: John Ford
– IMDb user rating: 7.5
– Runtime: 128 minutes

A war veteran and his regime find themselves under the command of a younger lieutenant colonel at Fort Apache. Conflicts arise when the more established veterans realize their new commander has no respect for the local tribe. The film was received with critical acclaim, making its way into the American Film Institute’s Top 10 list. Variety praised the film as masterful, using words like “superb” and “tremendous.”

#4. My Darling Clementine (1946)

– Director: John Ford
– IMDb user rating: 7.8
– Runtime: 97 minutes

The Earp brothers are on a vengeance-seeking mission against the Clanton family after their brother is murdered and their cattle are stolen. According to True West Magazine, Wyatt Earp was a regular in Hollywood back when the Western genre was taking shape. John Ford worked as a prop assistant and would often listen to Earp tell stories about the fight at the O.K. Corral.

#3. Red River (1948)

– Directors: Howard Hawks, Arthur Rosson
– IMDb user rating: 7.8
– Runtime: 133 minutes

“Red River’ is the story of Tom Dunston, a rancher who is driving his 10,000 cattle to market more than 1,000 miles away. But his dictatorial leadership skills cause a mutiny in his party, led by his adopted son. John Wayne’s performance in “Red River” led to John Ford casting him in complicated roles in his films. Prior to this performance in “Red River,” Ford never fully believed the breadth and scope of Wayne’s skills.

#2. The Ox-Bow Incident (1942)

– Director: William A. Wellman
– IMDb user rating: 8.0
– Runtime: 75 minutes

Three men are accused of killing a local farmer. They are captured by a local posse, who quickly become divided over whether or not the men deserve a hanging. The movie received very positive reviews, especially over the raw, unfiltered portrayals of hangings. Variety says “hardly a gruesome detail is omitted,” but means this as a compliment.

#1. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

– Director: John Huston
– IMDb user rating: 8.2
– Runtime: 126 minutes

Humphrey Bogart and Walter Huston star in this iconic Western that tells the story of two Americans in Mexico looking for work. They smooth-talk an old prospector into helping them pan for gold in the rugged Sierra Madre Mountains. It is widely considered to be one of the greatest Westerns of all time. It won four Academy Awards and in 1990 it was chosen for preservation in the National Film Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

The post 10 Best Western films of the ’40s appeared first on SouthOfTheBorder.Doc.

The brief story is as simple as it is tragic. Recent incidents of cattle rustling have a small Nevada town jumpy, and news that a popular local rancher has been murdered has the townsfolk up in arms. In the absence of the sheriff, a self-appointed posse forms under the leadership of an ambiguously disreputable ex-Confederate officer, despite the ineffectual protests of some, including the town judge.

Illegally deputized by the duputy sheriff, the mob rides in pursuit of the perpetrators, and soon finds the rancher’s cattle being driven by a trio of strangers who claim the herd was legitimately purchased but can produce no bill of sale.

Henry Fonda stars as a ragged cowboy who, like his later character in 12 Angry Men, is uncomfortable with the angry rush to judgment of those around him, but is far less noble or outspoken here. Leigh Whipper plays an unassuming black preacher condescendingly brought along for a veneer of religiosity, and provides a voice of conscience that is tragically ignored. The climax, a letter from a dead man, is devastating.

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Black-cast films, or race movies, were an important part of twentieth-century cinematic history, as were the segregated theaters where these films were mostly screened for African American audiences. Also, Herb Jeffries is the perfect model of the singing cowboy, a type that dominated westerns of the 1930s (and despite that dominance, singing cowboys are shorted on the 100 Greatest Westerns list). The Bronze Buckaroo includes not only the Jeffries-penned signature song of the series (“I’m a Happy Cowboy”) played in the background behind the opening titles, but there’s also a great scene in the bunkhouse where Jeffries and his band perform “Pay Day Blues” (another tune written by Jeffries), a hot number made all the hotter by an impromptu tap-dance performance by one of the bunk mates, and how often do you see a tap-dancing cowboy in a western? That scene alone earns The Bronze Buckaroo a place on the 100 Greatest Westerns list.

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The New Frontier (1935) Republic, Dir: Carl L. Pierson, b/w, 54m
Cast: John Wayne, Muriel Evans, Warner Richmond, Alan Bridge, Sam Flint, Murdock MacQuarrie

I’m tempted to recycle an old joke along the lines of “how many ears does John Wayne have? Answer: three – a left ear, a right ear and a new front ear”, but I’d like to think those of you who stumble across these ramblings of mine are above such nonsense. Maybe not though.

Set in 1889, the story begins with the President of the USA Benjamin Harrison signing off on a land grab whereby the white settlers can lawfully steal large swathes of America from the indigenous natives in the name of Manifest Destiny, which thinking about it might have made a better title for the film.

From this land grab arises a new town on the new frontier in a town imaginatively christened as Frontier. The place turns out to be in need of someone capable of bringing law and order to the streets so who do you reckon the townsfolk call on to be the new sheriff?

That’s right – a guy called Milt Dawson, played by Sam Flint, the man who helped lead the first wagon train that brought the people who then built the new town of Frontier and who also happens to be the father of JWs character, John Dawson.

Milt wisely turns the job down then unwisely decides to tell the local villain, Ace Holmes, played by Warner Richmond, to keep the noise down anyway.

Milt doesn’t even get to make it out of Ace’s saloon before he succumbs to a serious case of lead poisoning, administered in the back by a murderin’ varmint of dubious parentage. Meanwhile, Milt’s son is leading a wagon train of more settlers to Frontier.

On the way, they’re attacked by a group of outlaws looking for food.

When the leader of the gang, Kit, played by Al Bridge, realizes that JW is the lead scout for the wagon train, he offers to pay for the food instead, on account of JW having helped him out when Kit was wounded some years before.

These outlaws are idiots and spoilt idiots at that. Unless I’m mistaken there was plenty of food available for taking out in the wilderness back in those days, mainly in the shape of wild animals and such, but they want to help themselves to food already processed and prepared by the settlers. Shame on them.

When JW finally hits town and finds out he’s now an orphan he takes on the role of sheriff then walks the mean streets of Frontier lookin’ for the gutter trash that done killed his pa.

When he confronts Ace in the saloon both of them are treated to a couple of closeups more in keeping with a Sergio Leone film, with JW looking like he’s out for trouble, and Ace sure looking like he’s going to oblige.

JW tells Ace to close his saloon by six, otherwise, he’s destined for the hoosegow.

Instead of shooting him in the back like he did his pa, dastardly Al sets JW up by luring him to meet a stranger who offers to give up the name of his pa’s killer.

Realising that he’s been set up, JW gets the drop on one of the gang who was threatening to drygulch him, then sends him on his horse towards the killers laying in wait.

They then shoot their own man, echoing a similar scene from the much later “Rio Bravo”, demonstrating yet again how much directors like Howard Hawks weren’t afraid to recycle ideas from older films.

JW faces Ace down at the saloon and gets thumped over the head for his troubles. Just as Ace is about to finish our boy off, that nice outlaw guy Kit turns up and saves the day.

In what turns out to be quite a spectacular climax, the opposing forces shoot it out with each other and end up burning down most of the town in the process.

Apart from a couple of funereal dirges interpolated into the action in the style of the Singing Riders from “Westward Ho”, and an inconsequential leading lady and JW squeeze played by Muriel Evans, I’d say the Republic efforts are starting to look rather more entertaining than the Lone Star JW vehicles.

There’s definitely more action to be had, and it’s good to see some more adventurous moves with the camera than usual.

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