Audie Murphy’s last seven films for Universal International, all produced by Gordon Kay, don’t get a lot of love. Not sure why. At their best, they’re tight little Westerns in the Ranown mold. At their worst, they’ve got Audie Murphy in them, which is good enough for me!
George Sherman’s Hell Bent For Leather (1960), the first of the seven, is excellent — and may be my favorite Murphy movie. It’s certainly worth another look if you haven’t seen it in a while.
Janet (Felicia Farr): I used to love this country. Now it seems so ugly.
Clay Santell (Audie Murphy): It’s not the country. It’s some of the people who live in it.
Hard it believe that was written 60-something years ago. Sounds like today to me.
50 Westerns From The 50s. 
The best writing always expresses truth, and truth is timeless.
And there’s some truth right there! Well said, Colin.
Excellent observations. I like Audie and just love Felicia.
On Thu, Apr 20, 2023 at 10:54â¯AM 50 Westerns From The 50s.
Felicia Farr is one of the best actresses in 50s Westerns. And she’s in Charley Varrick, too!
And none of us are forgetting her in 3:10 to Yuma!
Toby and Colin, Christopher Knopf is a good writer and HELL BENT FOR LEATHER(filmed 1959, released 1960) is a really good Western, as all of the Gordon Kay produced Audie Murphy Westerns are. They receive plenty of love here at 50 WESTERNS FROM THE 50’S.
Christopher Knopf created, developed, wrote, and was supervising producer of one of my favorite Western tv series, CIMARRON STRIP(1967-68) starring Stuart Whitman, Percy Herbert, Randy Boone, and Jill Townsend.
Cimarron Strip is a great show.
I agree, it certainly is a great show; one of the very best. Remember 1967: pretty well every night a western. Gunsmoke, Bonanza, The Virginian, The Big Valley, The High Chaparral, Cimarron Strip and others. Too bad it’s been pretty well down hill ever since.
Verel, the 1967-68 tv season was a good one. BONANZA, THE HIGH CHAPARRAL, GUNSMOKE, THE BIG VALLEY, COWBOY IN AFRICA, THE VIRGINIAN, DUNDEE AND THE CULHANE, CUSTER, DANIEL BOONE, CIMARRON STRIP, HONDO, THE GUNS OF WILL SONNETT, IRON HORSE, THE WILD WILD WEST, and DEATH VALLEY DAYS(syndicated series, aired on Sundays in my neck of the woods).
Also, there were the afternoon and weekend syndicated reruns televised on local tv stations. In my neck of the woods were some good ones. RAWHIDE, LARAMIE, THE RIFLEMAN, and MARSHAL DILLON(reruns of the first six seasons of GUNSMOKE, which were thirty minutes in length).
The drop off in Western tv series during prime time began during the 1969-70 season, but thank goodness the local tv stations keep on airing syndicated reruns every afternoon and weekends.
Wonderful that we’re now able to enjoy them on DVD; some hold up very well & some don’t. I’ve got the Dell comics for most of them; photo covers & pretty good stories, some taken from the shows. It was great to be young in the 60s.
My Audie’s Top Ten :
– no name on the bullet
– 7 ways from sundown
-hell bent for leather
– Tumbleweed
– posse from hell
– 6 black horses
– Showdown
-bullet for a badman
– the Cimarron kid
– gunsmoke
Chip, that is a top-notch list of Audie Murphy movies. Have you ever viewed Audie’s Western tv series WHISPERING SMITH(1961)?
Side note: Kino Lorber is releasing WILL PENNY on Blu-Ray June 27.
Side note: Kino Lorber is releasing WILL PENNY on Blu-Ray June 27.
Walter S. :
No. I never view ” Whispering Smith ” on TV. Inédit en France.
Walter S. :
No.
Chip, thank you for your reply. I’ve wondered what American Western tv series were shown in France in the past and if any were being shown today?
Verel, I think we’re living in a “Golden Age” of Western Movie and Western tv viewing because of today’s technology. I would have never dreamed of it back in 1970.
TV series were shown in FRANCE in the past :
-the adventures of Rin tin tin(les aventures de Rin tin tin )
– rawhide (rawhide )
– bonanza (bonanza )
– Lancer ( le ranch L )
– wanted dead or alive (au nom de la loi)
– two faces west (l’ouest aux deux visages)
– the big valley (la grande valley)
– wagon train (la grande caravane)
– brave eagle ( aigle noir)
– the outcats (les bannis)
– iron horse (le cheval de fer)
– the high chaparral (chaparral)
– broken arrow (la flèche brisée)
– frontier (frontière)
– the rifleman (l’homme à la carabine )
– Hondo (Hondo)
– stories of the century (histoire du siècle)
– kung fu (kung fu)
– the Roy Rogers show (les aventures de Roy Rogers)
-the adventures of Kit Carson (les aventures de Kit Carson)
– the Cisco kid ( Cisco kid)
– the barbary coast (la côte sauvage)
– whiplash (le courrier du désert)
– Zorro ( Zorro)starring Guy Williams
– Zorro (Zorro) starring Duncan Regehr
– the young riders (l’équipe du poney express)
-the wild wild west (les mystères de l’ouest)
– the Monroes (les Monroes)
– my friend Flicka (mon amie Flicka)
-the travels of Jaimie Mac Pheeters(les voyages de J.Mac P.)
– the quest (sur la piste des comanches)
– circus boy (circus boy)
-the new adventures of Davy Crockett( Davy Crockett)
-Hawkeye (la légende de Hawkeye)
-the virginian (le virginien)
-the little house on thr prairie (la petite maison dans la prairie)
-alias Smith and Jones (opération danger)
-the legend of Jesse James (Jesse James)
– Laredo ( Laredo)
– Laramie (Laramie)
-the life and times of grizzly Adams (la légende de James Adams et de l’ours Benjamin)
– how the west was won (la conquête de l’ouest)
-Hawk eye and the last of the mohicans(le derniers des mohicans)
-gunsmoke (police des plaines)
– Dr Quinn, medecine woman(docteur Quinn, femme médecin)
– Texas John Slaughter ( Texas John Slaughter)
-Daniel Boone (Daniel Boone)
-death valley days (les aventuriers du far-west)
-centennial (Colorado)
-Cimarron strip (Cimarron)
-Cade’s county (Sam Cade)
-bordertown (les deux font la loi)
-branded (le proscrit)
-the great adventure (la grande aventure)
TO DAY:
-lonesome dove
-the english (starring Emily Blunt)
-1883, a yellowstone origin story
-Yellowstone 1923
– Walker, Texas ranger
– Longmire
Chip, thank you so very much. I appreciate the time and trouble that you went to in making this most impressive list. I will keep this list.
I would really like to view THE ENGLISH(filmed 2021, released on BBC TWO and AMAZON PRIME VIDEO 2022). I see that it’s a Western tv miniseries written and directed by Hugo Blick. I first read about it last November. I have 1883(2021-22) on DVD, but I haven’t got around to viewing it yet.
Walter, I have the Timeless media DVD set of “WHISPERING SMITH” which includes all the episodes that were ‘pulled’ back in the day. That was a troubled series for sure. Pity really as Audie acquitted himself well in it. I don’t think Guy Mitchell added too much to it.
I assume you HAVE seen it yourself?
Jerry, I liked Audie’s WHISPERING SMITH(1961). It was a Western detective show set in Denver, Colorado during the 1870’s. I liked and enjoyed the show. Do you have the SPECIAL EDITION WHISPERING SMITH with all 26 episodes including the long-lost episode “The Interpreter”?
WHISPERING SMITH, which Audie called it, “a kind of DRAGNET on horseback,” seemed to be jinxed almost from the beginning, when it was announced in the spring of 1959 that Audie Murphy had been signed to star in the new NBC-TV series, which was to first air during the 1959-60 tv season. It took two years to get the series to television and it was controversial from the start because it was supposedly violent and helped lead to juvenile delinquency. Hard to believe, isn’t it?
Hell Bent For Leather was shot during one of the breaks in production of the Whispering Smith series.
Toby, yes, HELL BENT FOR LEATHER was filmed in August-September 1959. Filming of the series was also delayed because co-star Guy Mitchell had broken his left shoulder during a horse riding accident. The accident didn’t happen on the set during filming. Mitchell was out riding, and a hunting dog made a sudden leap at his horse. Mitchell stayed on the horse while it reared and came down hard on him. The horse was a gift from Audie.
They finished filming the tv series before Audie had to start filming SEVEN WAYS FROM SUNDOWN(1960) in May. Next the suits at NBC-TV had problems with series and it didn’t make the September line-up for the new fall shows. Finally WHISPERING SMITH began airing on Monday night at 7:00 Central Time on May 8, 1961.
Walter, the public has always been overly sensitized by the weak elite on the left. As they clearly are currently, only more so.
Walter, yes I have that set of all 26 episodes.
Seems crazy that it was deemed too violent, even for then.
Jerry, I don’t think it was any more violent than some of the other tv shows, but a Senate subcommittee on juvenile delinquency was holding hearings and there had been complaints about WHISPERING SMITH. The episode “The Grudge” was viewed in the subcommittee hearing room and it showed a woman(June Walker) horsewhipping her son(Robert Redford) and the use of her daughter (Gloria Talbot) to lure Tom “Whispering” Smith(Audie Murphy) into a trap in a wild west version of the old badger game. Senator Thomas J, Dodd of Connecticut described the episode as “brutal” and “harsh.” Senator John A. Carroll of Colorado called the show a “smasheroo,” but he didn’t think it was fit for adults, much less children and he thought it wasn’t showing Denver, Colorado in a good light.
I wonder what those senators would think of today’s television shows. At least the Western tv shows back in the day were morality plays where the good men and women came out on top.
Amen to that, Walter!