Friday, August 27, 2021

Westerns of my life

 

Westerns of my life

 

https://tubitv.com/.../604654/the-american-west-of-john-ford

I don’t think there are too many fans of the old westerns left. For one thing, they are largely politically incorrect. However, they are part of my DNA and greatest actors among them were Roy Rogers, Buck Jones, Gary Cooper, Gary Cooper, Alan Ladd, Burt Lancaster, Henry Fonda, John Wayne and a million others. Perhaps the greatest director, certainly the Pappy of Westerns was the brilliant John Ford. If you can get a link to this channel, you can watch the old movies for free. Below is a pretty historic piece of TV.

 

Westerns. Arguably the greatest of the actors in Westerns must be John Wayne, his movie True Grit is considered the greatest. There are other names ... Sam Elliot him with the longest tache and drawl to boot, Kirk Douglas, Glen Ford ice cool, William Holden the educated man's westerner, Audie Murphy in another life he went To Hell and Back, Gregory Peck just one stare, one look, dead if they could kill, Robert Taylor, Robert Ryan ... more ridges on his face than there in some mountain ranges, Paul Newman super cool, Lee Marvin, Charlton Heston who let him out of Rome, Robert Duval brilliant not so long ago, Chuck Connors, Keenan Wyn, James Coburn always lovable, Tom Mix, Ward Bond, Brian Keith, Gene Autry kill everyone with the guitar, Sam Shepard still waters are deadly, Warren Oats and biggest man of them all in size at least Clint Walker with a twinkle in his eye.

 

Westerns: There were millions of bit players whose names have vanished but may survive in memorabilia held in the dark corners of the eternal basements. I am sure my friends will write and tell me other names and I look forward to that:

Remember big Robert Mitchum, Alan Ladd in Shane alongside the biggest baddie ever invented Jack Palance, Chill Wills the funny old man, Randolph Scott, Maureen O'Hara and Maureen O'Sullivan, Henry Silva another baddie, the delightful Richard Widmark who played the baddie with aplomb and the goodie with grace, Anthony Quinn, James Stewart (one of my all-time favs), Gabby Hayes (very funny man), Jeff Chandler unforgettable in the role of Cochise, Jeff Chandler who brought a special kind of charm to the Westerns, Will Gear, John Ireland, Charles Bronson the almost silent assassin or hero, Rod Cameron, Jan Sterling, Yul Brynner unforgettable in the original Magnificent Seven, Candice Bergen, Robert Preston, Tim Holt, the delightful Slim Pickens (you could almost smell that baccky he chewed), Walter Brennan with that unforgettable slow drawl that brought the meanest to tears, Joel McRea, Jody McRea, Sterling Hayden, Lee Van Cleef the baddest bad guy ever born with that cigar, Ernest Borgnine, Broderick Crawford, John Derek the handsome rooky, Cameron Mitchell always loved, Ronald Regan usually in the cavalry, Rhonda Fleming, Dale Roberts, Warren Oats, Hopalong Cassidy, and the son of spaghetti movies but king of the modern westers Clint Eastwood. Elvis Presley was in a couple, Kirk of the Enterprise started in the Westerns ... there were more millions who played the Indians, the Mexicans and other 'baddies' who in this day and age are the goodies.

 

 

 

3 comments:

  1. Amazing, it takes me back to my boyhood. great actors and great movies.

    ReplyDelete
  2. you would be surprised that this frequent anonymous commentor is not a Goan but a mombasa Arab who was close to Goans in those days but now back in Arabia.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I went to school with them GOANS in those days and beleive me they were very good hearted people. this is a comment from a non-Goan and it weights in Gold.

    ReplyDelete

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