Hi-Yo Silver -- Away!: The Western Film

Aah. That was the Westerner. Brennan got an Oscar for that one.

Then there were the twisted psycho westerns, as I think of them. The Outlaw, for instance. Thomas Mitchell as Pat Garret and I forgot who as Billy the Kid and Doc Holiday. Pat is all ate up with jealousy because Billy has become overly partial to Doc. Not to mention the perversion of history.

One Western I've come back to again and again and partly because it has a score by Bernard Hermann (the only Western he every composed music for) and that's "Garden of Evil." The wide screen shots (one of the first or maybe the first CinemaScope Western) of the mountain pass are spectacular with some excellent matte painting. It's an interesting enough story about lost gold but Henry Hathaway give all of the characters an edge -- I especially liked Richard Widmark's performance of the iconoclastic wayfarer because it was pitted against the equally iconoclastic Gary Cooper.

EB's mention of The Outlaw, with Jane Russell and her specially designed bra by Howard Hughes, brought to mind the woman's role in the Western which of course led to Johnny Guitar.Who can forget Johnny Guitar?

"Johnny Guitar" is indeed unforgettable. The image of Joan Crawford both in the ominous black cowboy outfit and the flouncy white dress is difficult to get out of one's mind. Not to mention Mercedes McCambridge putting out all of those kinky sexual inferences. That lead up to her performance in "Touch of Evil."

When my mother came from seeing River of No Return (Robt Mitchum/Marilyn Monroe) she told me it was the first cinemescope western.

It was -- I looked it up and who can forget Monroe's version of the title song. I had it on a 45rpm until I wore it out.

William Holden and Glenn Ford were in TEXAS. That one had a scene in which Edgar Buchanan sang - sort of. He did a rendition of Buffalo Gals. He played the town dentist, who really gave Wm. Holden's bicuspid a going over - had me cringing a bit.

Hombre - Paul Newman and Richard Boone

Does anybody know the name of Randolph Scott's horse? It is also the name of one of his movies.

EB: Randolph Scott's horse was "Stardust" . When we were kids, we'd make up names for horses. The girls always had romantic names like Stardust, White Lightning, Silver Cloud, etc. The guys liked Bullet, Scout, Tony, etc.

Tombstone
Maverick (with Mel Gibson)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
The Unforgiven
High Noon
North to Alaska (not exactly a Western but...)

Raggedy -
I could be mistaken, but, I have always believed Randolph Scott's horse was named "Sugarfoot."

Uh Oh, EB. Let me do some research. My memory tain't what it used to be. (lol)

EB: Scroll down to trivia in this link:

http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0000068/bio

I'll see if I can find anything on Sugarfoot.

Ah Edgar. I was about to mention Lonely are the Brave. Dys introduced me to it and it will remain one of my favorites. Even though it takes place in modern times, to me it is as western as any of the others, as it portrays the loss of freedom and individuality caused by highways, rules and the homogenization of society.

Yep. Lonely Are the Brave is also the first film I recall seeing Carrol O'Connor in.

I thought Silverado was a fun Western.

Edgarblythe: Don't forget to check out the link I posted about Randy a few posts above. :wink:

I love them all because I'm just a western kinda gal ;-)

Raggedy:
I see that the horse was indeed named Stardust. I tracked down the Sugarfoot reference, and it turns out Scott's character in "Sugarfoot" is nicknamed Sugarfoot. Where I got the notion in the first place is, my mother saw the movie and somehow got it confused. I have remembered her statement that the horse was so named ever since the 50s or whenever it was a new film.

But didn't someone have a horse named Sugarfoot?