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WESTERN BOOKS
Reading the West On Jeff Arnold’s West we have reviewed or discussed various Western books – mostly biographies, novels, history and film studies. I thought it might be helpful for readers to...
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Surrounded (MGM, 2023)
New Western Surrounded is a beautiful-looking film, shot in New Mexico (that wonderful pink light) by Max Goldman, better known for rock videos but doing a marvelous job here. However, as Peyton...
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Thomas H Ince, movie pioneer
Father of the Western Film titles with livelinks can be clicked for our reviews of the pictures. Tragically in a way, the life of Thomas Ince has been overshadowed by his death. There has...
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Wolf Lowry (Triangle Kay Bee, 1917)
Tough cattleman finds love We’ve been looking at the Westerns Thomas H Ince made, especially those with William S Hart, and one that has survived (for sadly many have been lost) is a 1917 feature,...
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The Light in the Forest (Buena Vista, 1958)
Disney, but still just about watchable Of course it depends on your definition of a Western but Disney’s 1958 film version of Conrad Richter’s 1953 novel The Light in the Forest was certainly a...
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Stay and Die review…
Forgive me for blowing my own (rather beat-up) trumpet again, but I hope you might want to scan this review of my new novel: Stay And Die By Jeff Arnold
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North of 36 (Paramount, 1924) – Part 2
Drive ‘em north Well, I have some very good news for Western lovers. Readers of this blog may remember an article I posted in late September on the silent movie North of 36 (click the link for...
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Commie Cowboys by Ryan W McMaken
Are cowboys right-wing or left? After recent discussion on this blog by readers about a book, Commie Cowboys: The Bourgeoisie and the Nation-State in the Western Genre, by Ryan A McMaken (an...
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Bad Buck of Santa Ynez & The Ruse (Mutual Film, 1915)
Two Ince/Hart shorts Although William S Hart was anxious to do ‘serious’ multi-reel feature Westerns when he started making films with Thomas H Ince (click the links for our essays on Hart and...
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Even farther West
Then what? Today’s little essay concerns an aspect of the Western which I have noticed and maybe you have too. It kind of leads on from what I was saying about the Western in my recent review of...
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The Wagon-Train Western
Wagons roll! I have been prompted by reading Kim Newman’s book Wild West Movies (review of that when I have finished it) to write a sort of overview of the wagon- train Western. As you may know,...
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The Terror of Tiny Town (Columbia, 1938)
Faintly distasteful Jed Buell was a publicist for Mack Sennett and Keystone who founded his own company, Spectrum Pictures, to make ultra-low-budget exploitation flicks, and in 1937 he produced an...
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The Gunfighter (Kay-Bee/Triangle, 1917)
A Hart feature become a short A late feature (it was a 50-minute 5-reeler) that William S Hart made for Thomas H Ince in 1917, The Gunfighter, also known as The Gun Fighter, is now available to...
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Glory (Columbia, 1989)
Interesting story though not a very good film Although it is not a Western, I watched Glory on Netflix the other day. It’s a Civil War drama, as you probably know, and its subject matter is...
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The Longest Drive (NBC, 1976)
Git ’em up! Head ’em out! The Quest, you may remember, was a Columbia Television Western series created by Tracy Keenan Wynn (Keenan Wynn’s son) that ran on NBC in the fall of 1976. It had a...
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Marston three-barrel
Pretty nifty I followed up Jean-Marie’s comment on Helena’s three-barrel pistol in the 2013 The Lone Ranger. You know me and derringers. It’s a Marston three-barrel. I found one that went...
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Man in the Shadow (Universal, 1957)
Jeff Chandler does his Gary Cooper act Some of the Hollywood greats steered clear of the Western, the poor deluded fools. Perhaps they thought that this most American of genres was beneath them....
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On the Night Stage (Mutual Film, 1915)
An early Bill Hart oater On the Night Stage was an early Western that William S Hart made with producer Thomas H Ince, about whom we were talking the other day (click the links for our essays on...
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The Westerns of William A Wellman
My principal sources for this article were the 2015 biography Wild Bill Wellman, Hollywood Rebel by Wellman’s son, William Wellman Jr, and the 1995 Turner documentary Wild Bill, Hollywood Maverick,...
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Review of Stay and Die
Blowing my own trumpet again I crave your indulgence dear e-reader, for another mention of my recent novel Stay and Die. But I can’t resist. You probably know of Richard W Etulain, formerly of...
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