Westerns & the Old West

Happy Birthday to Hoot Gibson, born Edmund Richard Gibson 133 years ago today

Happy Birthday to the great Robert Mitchum, born 108 years ago today

In honor of John Huston's birthday, you should pick up the Kino Lorber Blu-ray of the recently restored Law and Order (1932), one of the 1st films John Huston wrote & the 1st "Wyatt Earp" film. It's one of the best Westerns of all time & this is the best it's looked in forever...

More movies should introduce their casts like Raoul Walsh's Wild Girl (1932)

Also, a slight correction on that episode of The Pink Smoke. I make it sound like Dudley Nichols was the sole writer on the 1934 Frontier Marshal before writing The Arizonian (1935) -his really good Frontier Marshal knockoff- but he was 1 of 5 writers on Frontier Marshal.

Listen to me talk about Law and Order, Saint Johnson & just about every movie about Wyatt Earp that doesn't use the name Wyatt Earp on The Pink Smoke podcast with @thelastmachine.bsky.social & Christopher Funderburg. That means 40 Guns, Warlock, Dodge City & more...

open.spotify.com/episode/4e9c...

Also, someone needs to republish Saint Johnson, the book Law & Order is based on. It's by the great W.R. Burnett (Little Caesar, Asphalt Jungle, The Great Escape) & it's the 1st Wyatt Earp novel & like Law & Order, the best. Even better than Warlock. It's in the public domain!

Law and Order | Kino Lorber - Experience Cinema Frame Johnson takes the marshal job in Tombstone, Arizona and soon comes into conflict with the corrupt Northrup gang, leading to one of the earliest and most thrilling depictions of the Gunfight at t...

Buy yourself a copy here kinolorber.com/product/law-... or if you're a cheap bastard you can get it for a few bucks cheaper at Walmart, but I'm not linking to them. If you buy Law and Order & don't like it, let me know. I won't refund you or anything, but I might block you...

It's the best "Wyatt Earp" film of all time, only equaled by My Darling Clementine, though the 2 films couldn't be more different in their handling of the Earp mythos. My Darling Clementine is hopeful. Law & Order is bitter & cynical. It satirizes the Earp myth while creating it...

In honor of John Huston's birthday, you should pick up the Kino Lorber Blu-ray of the recently restored Law and Order (1932), one of the 1st films John Huston wrote & the 1st "Wyatt Earp" film. It's one of the best Westerns of all time & this is the best it's looked in forever...

Happy Birthday to David Brian, born Brian James Davis 111 years ago today

Happy Birthday to Robert Taylor, born Spangler Arlington Brugh 114 years ago today

Happy Birthday to the late John Saxon, born Carmine Orrico 89 years ago today

Happy Birthday to the great John Huston, born 119 years ago today

My Darling Clementine (1946), directed by John Ford

The Wild Bunch (1969), directed by Sam Peckinpah

The guy on the left is supposed to Robert Ford, the guy on the right is supposed to be Jesse James

This tintype has been widely reported as an authenticated photo of Jesse James sitting with his eventual assassin, Robert Ford.

It's not.

Here's a thread on the moronic way that it was "authenticated":

Henry Fonda as Wyatt Earp

Wyatt Earp as himself

My Darling Clementine is the best Wyatt Earp film & among the least accurate, despite John Ford knowing Wyatt Earp personally. Contrary to Ford's claims, his film wasn't based on Earp's own account of his time in Tombstone, but rather an earlier film whose director also knew the lawman. A 🧵

The two times John Ford used this shot on John Wayne were for very different ends. One establishes Wayne's heroic persona, the other shows the darkness just below the surface of that persona:

Bob Dylan on John Ford (from a 2009 Rolling Stone interview):

Fistful of Dollars network TV prologue part 2:

When A Fistful of Dollars aired on ABC in the 70s, the network added a 4 minute prologue in an attempt to justify the film's cynical tone & amoral violence. The prologue was directed by Monte Hellman & stars Harry Dean Stanton.

Part 1:

In the extended cut of Tombstone (1993), Doc Holliday sarcastically quotes lyrics from the title song* to Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)

*sung by Frankie Laine, music by Dimitri Tiomkin, lyrics by Ned Washington

Happy 62nd Birthday to John Carroll Lynch

Happy 94th Birthday to Ramblin' Jack Elliott, born Elliott Charles Adnopoz