Hawks's Western masterwork Red River was the only Western in which Howard Hawks matched the artistry of John Ford. It is a mighty film....

Wyatt's Colt We were talking the other day about the ubiquity of the Colt .45 in Westerns (click the link for that). Well, one of the...

"All in all, it's been exciting, a very interesting trip. Has it not?" Since we are on the subject of famous Westerns that many people...

'The' Western Many regard Shane as a monumental film and talk of it in the same breath as High Noon or The Searchers, for example, as one...

Ride ‘im, cowboy! A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty "Hi-yo Silver" - the Lone Ranger! Yup, horses were...

Jesse James on the screen 7: Samuel Fuller We’ve been looking recently at portrayals on the screen of Jesse James in the 1940s. The...

Jesse and Frank ride again It is perhaps difficult for us at this remove to appreciate just how popular movie serials were in the 1940s....

Jesse gets ride-on parts In addition to Frank and Jesse James leading in Westerns, such as we have been seeing recently on this blog,...

Jesse James on the screen 4: the 1940s B-movies – Roy Rogers We’ve been looking at portrayals of Jesse and Frank James on the silver...

Jesse James on the screen 3: Frank's back Fox’s first ‘adult’ Western for years, Jesse James in 1939 (which we reviewed the other day –...

Jesse James on the screen 2: The talkies I find it quite curious that after the (now lost) silent Paramount Jesse James of 1927, with...

The American Robin Hood He stole from the rich and he gave to the poor, He'd a hand and a heart and a brain. The Ballad of Jesse James...

Randy rides alone A Man Alone, Lone Rider, Lonely Are the Brave, Lonesome Dove, Randy Rides Alone, The Lone Gun, The Lonely Man, The...

Or do they? Every Western-lover knows that besieged whites are not in danger once darkness falls, for Indians do not attack at night. But...

The Rio Grande as 38th Parallel The success of John Ford’s two cavalry Westerns at RKO, Fort Apache (1948) and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon...

Ford at his majestic best. John Ford and his partner Meriam Cooper wanted to recoup the fortunes of their company Argosy Productions...

A key work of mythography Today I thought we might pass, as you could say, from the ridiculous to the sublime. We have been looking on...

Art drecko After A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More (click the links for our reviews of those), the last of the Dollars...

The best of the three Spaghetti buffs reckon this second part of the Dollars threesome to be the best of Leone’s work. Even as a non-fan...

Many of them were only made for a fistful of dollars. But Leone loved the Western. As we were talking recently about the Western career...