Warner Archive has announced another wagonload of Westerns, and there are a few good 50s ones in there.
Cole Younger, Gunfighter (1958) is an Allied Artists CinemaScope concoction with Frank Lovejoy as the famous outlaw. The always capable R.G. Springsteen directed.
Fort Vengeance (1953) is a Cinecolor Canadian Mountie picture from Lesley Selander, starring James Craig and Rita Moreno.
Hiawatha (1953) is an adaptation of the Longfellow poem from Kurt Neumann. John Knight pointed out that this was the last film to bear the Monogram logo.
The Boy From Oklahoma (1954) stars Will Rogers, Jr., Lon Chaney, Wallace Ford and Merv Griffin. Michael Curtiz directed. It was the basis of the Sugarfoot TV series.
The Gun Hawk (1963) isn’t a 50s Western but with Rory Calhoun and Rod Cameron in it, it might as well be. A quick glance at the still below will tell you where some of it was filmed.
Thanks for the news. I’m a big fan of Frank Lovejoy and didn’t know he had made a western. Hope I get to see COLE YOUNGER GUNFIGHTER.
He’s also in Charge At Feather River (1953) and The Americano (1955), both Westerns.
The Lovejoy film I’m wanting is Shack Out On 101 (1955) which Olive Films has the rights to. A Blu-ray of that crazy thing is a real dream come true.
Lovejoy wasn’t very convincing in westerns. Not from the ’50s, but I think the winners in this bunch are CHEYENNE (1947) and HEAVEN WITH A GUN (1969).
Really looking forward to Heaven With a Gun. I was a little disappointed that Wild Stallion wasn’t one of the Monogram titles announced, so I posted a question about it at the WAC Facebook page, and WAC replied “Fear not… it’s on the way.” Something to look forward to. P.S. Another one of the just-announced WAC pre-orders is a John Ford rarity, The Rising of the Moon, a trilogy of shorts filmed in Ireland and hosted by Tyrone Power.
I saw Cole Younger, Gunfighter recently (shown on TCM properly letterboxed) and liked it very much. I respectfully disagree with Mike–though I don’t remember Frank Lovejoy in too many Westerns, he plays the lead in this with a lot of authority. He is an actor I’ve always liked. This was his last feature film. Other Lovejoy fans should make a point to see it.
If it seems familiar when you do, you may have seen The Desperado (1954) from only four years earlier, directed by Thomas Carr with Wayne Morris starring in the Lovejoy role (though not named Cole Younger and although it’s the same story, all the character names are different). That’s one I saw when I was a kid and then saw again in recent years–in black and white and it’s about equally good and maybe even a little better though it would be pretty close. Both movies have villainous twins–in The Desperado, Lee Van Cleef plays these two brothers, and CYG it’s Myron Healey, great casting both times.
The pick of the above list is surely The Gun Hawk–that’s one I will buy, and my own memory of it from 1963 is quite vivid because I walked in not knowing a thing about it and it really surprised me. This was the last movie of director Edward Ludwig who had his ups and downs but made the inspired piece of Republic poetry Wake of the Red Witch with John Wayne and Gail Russell (1948)–I’m betting some people here have seen that and agree with me.
Although it is a kind of upscale B Western, The Gun Hawk famously made a year end ten best list (1965 in France) of Jean-Luc Godard. I’m quite certain that I understand what so impressed Godard but out of respect for those who haven’t seen it yet wouldn’t want to discuss this here because it gives away too much about it.
The film came out in a year when the genre was entering a period of transition and more classical films like this started coming out at the same time as more modernist Westerns that were starting to push Westerns into another direction
–Italian Westerns, Monte Hellman’s two superior low-budget films, Peckinpah’s Major Dundee (which still has classical style but the ideas are at one with his next more radical Western in 1969). It’s an interesting period, especially if one can watch it with some dispassion (Colin discusses this with Hombre at his site right now)–by the end of the decade it was over and the Western had decisively changed and a more classical Western, like True Grit, which I frankly adore, might seem rather wonderfully and beautifully antique.
Where is Sugarfoot AKA Swirl of Glory? C’mon WB! It’s a Randolph Scott film I’m dying to see,
Both “Cole Younger-Gunfighter” and ” The Desperado” were based on the same novel by Clifton Adams
I saw the following post at the Classic Horror Film Board. If true, this is great news:
“Shout! Factory has announced a 4-film DVD set of UA westerns licensed from MGM: GUN BELT, GUNSIGHT RIDGE, THE LONE GUN and RIDE OUT FOR REVENGE.”
I guess it must be true. Amazon has it up for pre-order (MOVIES 4 YOU: WESTERN CLASSICS) with a picture of the DVD package and a release date of May 14.
I’m working up a post on it. Good stuff!