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Re: Westerns

Posted: November 3rd, 2012, 9:36 am
by JackFavell
Yes, I was thinking that too. :D

So as much as I hate to admit it, Robert Wise was a really great director. Tribute to a Bad Man, because it takes place in memory, has a really green, innocent, and elegiac feel to it, unusual for westerns. I like the path it takes, the path of growing up, of learning about love and betrayal of a friend.

Re: Westerns

Posted: January 15th, 2013, 10:05 pm
by movieman1957
Wagon Trail is a rather ineptly named weak western starring Harry Carey. This 1935 western looks like it was an early talky from the pacing and the wooden acting. But I guess that makes it a typical B picture.

The story involves town sheriff (Carey) whose son has run around with the town bad guy's gang. The son just happens to be in love with Mr. Evil's daughter. (There could have had more made of it but they didn't.) Son is convicted of murder and Harry has little time to find the real killer.

Odd things about were except for the opening credits there was no music. The title must have been from a grab bag of titles as it bears little relation to the film. Carey may be a good rider but he works at it. It looks like he is pumping a railroad hand cart when he rides. Cowboys in 1935 westerns wear really big hats.

You can pass on this one.

Re: Westerns

Posted: January 18th, 2013, 9:13 am
by movieman1957
After Miss G started a Randolph Scott movie on Youtube I decided to look at some other films there. I came across "To The Last Man." It is a film based on a Zane Grey novel and is directed by Henry Hathaway.

This 1933 film deals with a feud between two families in KY. It winds up later catching up with the principals now living in NV. Scott is the son of one family who naturally falls in love with the daughter (Esther Ralston) of the other. The first half of the film is a bit slow. We meet the families (done with in scene intros of their names and characters.) There is practically no background on why they are feuding. Almost immediately they all turn up in NV many years later.

Scott and Ralston have no idea who the other is at first and when they do find out Ralston is more about backing the family but deep down she is quite upset about breaking with Scott.When Ralston's family has finally rustled one too many steers Scott's family decides to take some action. This is where the film really picks up. A pretty exciting shootout and chase followed by a fight that is mostly Ralston against one of her father's men. (The only gripe about Ralston is her hair is not what we have come to expect from 1880's women no matter how rural they are.)

Scott already looks like the cowboy he'll become later and Ralston is very energetic in her role. A fine cast also includes Noah Berry, Buster Crabbe, Barton MacLane and a small role by Gail Patrick and the biggest surprise of all - a very small role by a toddler named Shirley Temple. (It comes across better than what "Ten Wanted Men" must have been.)

Re: Westerns

Posted: January 18th, 2013, 9:49 am
by JackFavell
I really like The Last Man. Esther Ralston is just great, a real find. She was destined to quit acting I believe, because she wasn't ready to debase herself with studio execs to get roles. That is a shame, since she's a marvelous actress. Scott is almost impossibly handsome, before his face had that etched in rock quality. The supporting cast is just fantastic, even Jack LaRue is appropriately slimey as a bad guy with a crush on Ralston. This is one of the best backwoods feud movies I've seen.

Re: Westerns

Posted: January 18th, 2013, 10:36 am
by feaito
Esther Ralston had the looks and talent to became bigger in talkies. Lost opportunities. I also enjoyed very much "To the Last Man" (1933) when I saw it on YTB last year.

Re: Westerns

Posted: January 18th, 2013, 10:38 am
by JackFavell
It's such a shame because she had a good voice, and a lot of presence, also didn't hurt that she was one of the most beautiful actresses of that time.

Re: Westerns

Posted: January 18th, 2013, 10:55 am
by movieman1957
She's feisty too. I don't recall seeing her in anything else.

SPOILER

That fight she had at the end with LaRue was pretty wild. She got thrown around a bit.

Re: Westerns

Posted: January 18th, 2013, 12:07 pm
by RedRiver
You don't actually need two families to have a feud in Kentucky. I have plenty of trouble with my own!

Re: Westerns

Posted: January 18th, 2013, 12:35 pm
by MissGoddess
You don't actually need two families to have a feud in Kentucky. I have plenty of trouble with my own!
Hahahaaaaaa!!!

Re: Westerns

Posted: January 18th, 2013, 1:03 pm
by RedRiver
There's a book, fiction, about a Kentucky man who kills a redneck. The guy was scum. The sheriff tells the main character, "I don't care that you killed this idiot. Somebody had to. But his brothers are as bad as he was. You should probably get out of town."

Re: Westerns

Posted: January 18th, 2013, 2:23 pm
by MissGoddess
let me guess, the guy who killed him was one of his brothers? :D

Re: Westerns

Posted: January 18th, 2013, 4:29 pm
by JackFavell
Hahahahaha!

Re: Westerns

Posted: January 18th, 2013, 5:27 pm
by mrsl
.
Redriver:

Those lines and that ploy were in an episode of one of the half hour westerns on Western Channel last week. I can't remember if it was Lawman, Marshall Dillon, or Wyatt Earp, although with his steel backbone, and iron sense of right and wrong, Dillon would have brought the man up on charges no matter how he felt.
.

Re: Westerns

Posted: January 18th, 2013, 10:29 pm
by feaito
JackFavell wrote:It's such a shame because she had a good voice, and a lot of presence, also didn't hurt that she was one of the most beautiful actresses of that time.
movieman1957 wrote:She's feisty too. I don't recall seeing her in anything else.

SPOILER

That fight she had at the end with LaRue was pretty wild. She got thrown around a bit.
Very beautiful indeed WEN!

Chris, I remember seeing her also in Joan Crawford's vehicle "Sadie McKee" (1934) were she plays her antagonist -she tries to steal Gene Raymond from her and in the 1931 Pre-Code "Lonely Wives" with E.E. Horton, Maude Eburne, Patsy Ruth Miller and Laura La Plante, a fine little film.

Re: Westerns

Posted: January 19th, 2013, 4:52 pm
by JackFavell
In silents she was in The Marriage Circle, as the unwittingly desirable Miss Hoffer, and in Peter Pan as Mrs. Darling, and was also in A Kiss for Cinderella as the fairy godmother. She was also in the famous but rare Children of Divorce with Gary Cooper and Clara Bow, and was dubbed An American Venus by Florenz Ziegfeld, for whom she worked early in her career.