Category: Western

Western Classic Movie

Western: After selling his cattle in town, ranch owner Morgan unexpectedly dies. His foreman Pike has to deliver the payroll to Sonora, despite the perilous journey during which he’s followed by many shady characters who want the money.

Rugged western with a comedy side order. Several groups of toughs go after an innocent man who is holding a large amount of cash. Of course each group is intent on out gunning, linking forces, or back stabbing the other guy for a shot at the bucks. This led to loads of spaghetti style gunplay and many bodies biting the dust. Had to wonder how many black half breeds there were in the old west who could do spinning heel kicks and a flying double front kick.

Cast and Crew

Director: Antonio Margheriti
Writers: Eric Bercovici
Stars: Jim Brown, Lee Van Cleef, Fred Williamson

Plot:

White Feather follows the story of the peace mission from the US cavalry to the Cheyenne Indians in Wyoming during the 1870s. The mission is threatened when a civilian surveyor befriends the chief’s son and falls for the chief’s daughter.

White Feather (1955) Review:

First American movie filmed in Mexico, because art director Jack Martin Smith liked the soundstages in the city and found the surrounding landscapes to be just what he was looking for. To “show the white feather” is considered, in many places, to show cowardice. In others is a sign of high respect and, in still others, it serves the same purpose as a white flag of truce.

White Feather is out of Panoramic Productions, it’s directed by Robert D. Webb and stars Robert Wagner, Debra Paget, John Lund, Eduard Franz & Jeffrey Hunter. One of the few 1950s Westerns to show sympathy towards the Indian plight, White Feather is a well intentioned and well executed movie. It suffers a little from familiarity with Broken Arrow (1950), where Delmer Daves had directed James Stewart and Debra Paget thru a similar script to the one that’s now in front of Wagner and Paget; and lets face it-Wagner is no Jimmy Stewart- and Robert Webb is no Delmer Daves-but there’s more than enough good here to lift it above many other liberal Westerns.

Plot:

Yuma (1971) deals with the new Marshall of Yuma who is forced to deal with the two brothers of a powerful cattleman, shooting one in self defense and jailing the other. There’s no bluster and loud show of force here; he just does his job, quietly and well. Yuma is an obvious series pilot TV movie that wasn’t picked up, most likely due to the fact that TV westerns were on the way down. A western typical of early seventies TV fodder. Clint Walker is great, and so is the rest of the cast, and the plot is very well done, as were several of the westerns made during that general time.

Yuma (1971) Review:

There are sub-plots which lend the central character depth and personality that some of the older westerns did not always achieve. And there’s enough shoot-em-up to keep it exciting, although Harmon displays a calm control of each situation that many of us would envy today. Very good all-around family entertainment.

Cast and Crew:

Directed by Ted Post
Starring Clint Walker, Barry Sullivan, Kathryn Hays

The Gunfighter (2014) – A lone gunslinger who walks into a saloon!

The Gunfighter (2014) – In the tradition of classic westerns, a narrator sets up the story of a lone gunslinger who walks into a saloon. However, the people in this saloon can hear the narrator and the narrator may just be a little bit bloodthirsty. There is really one joke to this short film and it becomes very clear early on what that joke is. Basically we have the narrator talking through everyone’s intentions as if he were writing them and providing the context and detail only an author would know. This means the intentions of those in the saloon start to come out.

There is really one joke to this short film and it becomes very clear early on what that joke is. Basically we have the narrator talking through everyone’s intentions as if he were writing them and providing the context and detail only an author would know. Fortunately the film is funny enough and creative enough with the idea that it makes it work for the whole time.

Eric Kissack is an editor and director, known for Role Models (2008), The Dictator (2012) and Brüno (2009).

Directed by Eric Kissack
Starring: Shawn Parsons, Scott Beehner, Timothy Brennen, Eileen O’Connell, Jordan Black and Nick Offerman

The Backwater Gospel (2011) – Small Town is doomed by the regular visits of the undertaker.

The Backwater Gospel (2011) – Backwater is doomed by the regular visits of the undertaker. The town priest and the faithful think that a merry non-religious tramp brings the death that follows living in an improvised shed in the middle of the town. It looks like when he sings the undertaker visits. But is he the one to blame for their misfortune?

The style of animation used here is very effective and has a gritty, rough quality. The animation is disturbing in its own way, creating a life-like mixture of zombie, wood and human that completely work for this film. The story sucks viewers in, and the set up is eerie. The undertaker, or death, visits a small town and sparks a mass panic that spirals into a dark commentary on religion and other ways that people attempt to explain or escape death. Bo Mathorne may not be a household name now, but if in his future efforts he can manage to display the creative prowess found in his debut animated short, The Backwater Gospel, it’ll be only a matter of time before he’s revered among the elite short film makers of our generation.

I enjoy the work of The Coen Brothers as well as Paul Thomas Anderson, especially There Will Be Blood. Sergio Leone’s classic westerns were an inspiration for the particular project and Danny Boyle’s films have some qualities about them I really like. Animation-wise there’s not a lot of feature length films I’m truly mad about, but short films like The Pearce Sisters by Luis Cook, Crater Face by Skyler Page and The Eagleman Stag by Mikey Please have made a big impact on me.

Directed by Bo Mathorne
Starring: Zebulon Whatley, Lucien Dodge, Phillip Sacramento, Robert Bennett