Western films have been a staple of American cinema for practically as long as movies have been made.
Movies in the Western genre are set in the American West, typically between the 1850s to the end of the 19th century. While it has been a stable genre — no pun intended! — it has also been the starting ground for several hybrid genres like Western comedies, Western musicals and horror Westerns.
No other genre’s history goes back quite as far as that of Westerns. According to documentarian David Gregory, “It has been estimated that up to 40 percent of all films made before 1960 were Westerns.”
Although the category reached its greatest popularity in the early and middle decades of the 20th century, with several becoming cult classics, films continued to be made even through droughts for Westerns in the late ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s. Actors have also made their name starring in Western films,...
Movies in the Western genre are set in the American West, typically between the 1850s to the end of the 19th century. While it has been a stable genre — no pun intended! — it has also been the starting ground for several hybrid genres like Western comedies, Western musicals and horror Westerns.
No other genre’s history goes back quite as far as that of Westerns. According to documentarian David Gregory, “It has been estimated that up to 40 percent of all films made before 1960 were Westerns.”
Although the category reached its greatest popularity in the early and middle decades of the 20th century, with several becoming cult classics, films continued to be made even through droughts for Westerns in the late ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s. Actors have also made their name starring in Western films,...
- 1/1/2023
- by Carly Thomas
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
MGM sends James Stewart and Anthony Mann to Colorado high country locations for their third big-ticket western, a tight & tense psychological drama with a select cast: Janet Leigh, Robert Ryan, Ralph Meeker and Millard Mitchell. Stewart’s anguished bounty hunter is a sick man on a mission he knows is self-destructive and just plain wrong; it’s the actor’s most fraught western performance. The landscape itself is psychological, with treacherous rocky outcroppings and a dangerous river. Even more impressive is the new restoration from Technicolor elements: this is one of the most beautiful westerns yet out on disc.
The Naked Spur
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1953 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 91 min. / Available at Amazon.com / Street Date September 21, 2021 / 21.99
Starring: James Stewart, Janet Leigh, Robert Ryan, Ralph Meeker, Millard Mitchell.
Cinematography: William C. Mellor
Art Directors: Cedric Gibbons, Malcolm Brown
Film Editor: George White
Production Illustrator: Mentor Heubner
Stunt Performers: Virginia Bougas, Ted Mapes,...
The Naked Spur
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1953 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 91 min. / Available at Amazon.com / Street Date September 21, 2021 / 21.99
Starring: James Stewart, Janet Leigh, Robert Ryan, Ralph Meeker, Millard Mitchell.
Cinematography: William C. Mellor
Art Directors: Cedric Gibbons, Malcolm Brown
Film Editor: George White
Production Illustrator: Mentor Heubner
Stunt Performers: Virginia Bougas, Ted Mapes,...
- 11/6/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
When Hollywood from time to time reinvented the western the results were sometimes sensationally good, as attested to by this superior neglected classic. We’d call it the first psychological western if the term weren’t so limiting. Gregory Peck once again proves how good he can be when well cast and he’s surrounded by fine characterizations, not typical oater walk-ons. The screenplay and direction are so pleasing that the downbeat finale isn’t a drawback — it doesn’t strain to enforce an irony, or to sell a deep-dish ‘author’s message.’ This one’s just a winner in all categories.
The Gunfighter
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1053
1950 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 84 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date , 2020 / 39.95
Starring: Gregory Peck, Helen Westcott, Millard Mitchell, Jean Parker, Karl Malden, Skip Homeier, Anthony Ross, Verna Felton, Ellen Corby, Richard Jaeckel, Alan Hale Jr., Mae Marsh, James Millican, Kim Spalding.
The Gunfighter
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1053
1950 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 84 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date , 2020 / 39.95
Starring: Gregory Peck, Helen Westcott, Millard Mitchell, Jean Parker, Karl Malden, Skip Homeier, Anthony Ross, Verna Felton, Ellen Corby, Richard Jaeckel, Alan Hale Jr., Mae Marsh, James Millican, Kim Spalding.
- 11/21/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
If you like Billy Wilder but haven’t seen everything he’s done, this is the film for you, a sparkling but typically sharp-tongued comedy-drama set in the last place expected in 1948 — bombed-out Berlin, rumored to be awash in corruption. Jean Arthur is the Iowa congresswoman out to clean up the town, and Marlene Dietrich a war survivor with a highly suspect past. Underrated John Lund is the Romeo with Captain’s stripes, brushing up on his (click) umlaut. And Millard Mitchell, of all people, steals the movie. Great cabaret songs by Friedrich Hollander, and an A-class commentary by Joseph McBride.
A Foreign Affair
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1948 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 116 min. / Street Date August 6, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Jean Arthur, Marlene Dietrich, John Lund, Millard Mitchell, Peter von Zerneck, Stanley Prager.
Cinematography: Charles Lang
Original Music: Friedrich Hollander
Written by Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, Richard L. Breen; adaptation Robert Harari,...
A Foreign Affair
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1948 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 116 min. / Street Date August 6, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Jean Arthur, Marlene Dietrich, John Lund, Millard Mitchell, Peter von Zerneck, Stanley Prager.
Cinematography: Charles Lang
Original Music: Friedrich Hollander
Written by Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, Richard L. Breen; adaptation Robert Harari,...
- 8/10/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
This is the ultimate in screen sadism circa 1947, and it’s all in the debut film performance of Richard Widmark as a too-nasty-for-words hood who likes to shoot people in the stomach. Actually, Victor Mature is not bad in a grim story of a stool pigeon that tries to square himself with the law, and finds himself a target for mob murder.
Kiss of Death
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1947 / B&W / 1:37 flat full frame / 98 min. / Street Date February 7, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95
Starring: Victor Mature, Brian Donlevy, Coleen Gray, Richard Widmark, Taylor Holmes, Karl Malden, Mildred Dunnock
Cinematography: Norbert Brodine
Art Direction: Leland Fuller, Lyle Wheeler
Film Editor: J. Watson Webb Jr.
Original Music: David Buttolph
Written by Ben Hecht, Charles Lederer, Eleazar Lipsky
Produced by Fred Kohlmar
Directed by Henry Hathaway
The older they get, the better they look. Henry Hathaway’s Kiss of Death is...
Kiss of Death
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1947 / B&W / 1:37 flat full frame / 98 min. / Street Date February 7, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95
Starring: Victor Mature, Brian Donlevy, Coleen Gray, Richard Widmark, Taylor Holmes, Karl Malden, Mildred Dunnock
Cinematography: Norbert Brodine
Art Direction: Leland Fuller, Lyle Wheeler
Film Editor: J. Watson Webb Jr.
Original Music: David Buttolph
Written by Ben Hecht, Charles Lederer, Eleazar Lipsky
Produced by Fred Kohlmar
Directed by Henry Hathaway
The older they get, the better they look. Henry Hathaway’s Kiss of Death is...
- 2/28/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
(Region B) It's just like the film industry, I tell ya! Director Jules Dassin teams with writer A.I. Bezzerides for one of filmdom's strongest slams at the free market system. Trucker Richard Conte fights back when cheated and robbed by Lee J. Cobb's racketeering produce czar. Thieves' Highway Region B Blu-ray + Pal DVD Arrow Video (UK) 1949 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 94 min. / Street Date October 20, 2015 / Available at Amazon UK / £14.99 Starring Richard Conte, Valentina Cortese, Lee J. Cobb, Barbara Lawrence, Jack Oakie, Millard Mitchell, Joseph Pevney, Morris Carnovsky Cinematography Norbert Brodine Art Direction Chester Gore, Lyle Wheeler Film Editor Nick DeMaggio Original Music Alfred Newman Written by A.I. Bezzerides from his novel Thieves' Market Produced by Robert Bassler Directed by Jules Dassin
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Did Jules Dassin initiate his string of studio produced films noirs, each of which has a strong element of social criticism, if not outright condemnation of 'the system?...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Did Jules Dassin initiate his string of studio produced films noirs, each of which has a strong element of social criticism, if not outright condemnation of 'the system?...
- 11/3/2015
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Stars: Richard Conte, Valentina Cortese, Lee J. Cobb, Barbara Lawrence, Jack Oakie, Millard Mitchell, Joseph Pevney, Morris Carnovsky, Tamara Shayne | Written by A.I. Bezzerides | Directed by Jules Dassin
Jules Dassin’s Thieves’ Highway was released at a time when Noir was going strong, and fits the mould of what is expected of the genre. In truth though, it is something much different and much more human, providing the audience with an insight into the dirty tricks of market life controlled by mobsters.
In this Arrow Academy release we are introduced to A.I. Bezzerides world of crooks and fall guys where the nice guy is normally the fall guy. In this case Richard Conte plays Nick Garcos a soldier returning from the war to find his father crippled by mobster Mike Figlia (Lee J. Cobb) in a deal gone wrong. Looking for revenge Garcos sources some apples, taking them to the...
Jules Dassin’s Thieves’ Highway was released at a time when Noir was going strong, and fits the mould of what is expected of the genre. In truth though, it is something much different and much more human, providing the audience with an insight into the dirty tricks of market life controlled by mobsters.
In this Arrow Academy release we are introduced to A.I. Bezzerides world of crooks and fall guys where the nice guy is normally the fall guy. In this case Richard Conte plays Nick Garcos a soldier returning from the war to find his father crippled by mobster Mike Figlia (Lee J. Cobb) in a deal gone wrong. Looking for revenge Garcos sources some apples, taking them to the...
- 10/26/2015
- by Paul Metcalf
- Nerdly
Billy Wilder directed Sunset Blvd. with Gloria Swanson and William Holden. Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett movies Below is a list of movies on which Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder worked together as screenwriters, including efforts for which they did not receive screen credit. The Wilder-Brackett screenwriting partnership lasted from 1938 to 1949. During that time, they shared two Academy Awards for their work on The Lost Weekend (1945) and, with D.M. Marshman Jr., Sunset Blvd. (1950). More detailed information further below. Post-split years Billy Wilder would later join forces with screenwriter I.A.L. Diamond in movies such as the classic comedy Some Like It Hot (1959), the Best Picture Oscar winner The Apartment (1960), and One Two Three (1961), notable as James Cagney's last film (until a brief comeback in Milos Forman's Ragtime two decades later). Although some of these movies were quite well received, Wilder's later efforts – which also included The Seven Year Itch...
- 9/16/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Debbie Reynolds ca. early 1950s. Debbie Reynolds movies: Oscar nominee for 'The Unsinkable Molly Brown,' sweetness and light in phony 'The Singing Nun' Debbie Reynolds is Turner Classic Movies' “Summer Under the Stars” star today, Aug. 23, '15. An MGM contract player from 1950 to 1959, Reynolds' movies can be seen just about every week on TCM. The only premiere on Debbie Reynolds Day is Jerry Paris' lively marital comedy How Sweet It Is (1968), costarring James Garner. This evening, TCM is showing Divorce American Style, The Catered Affair, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, and The Singing Nun. 'Divorce American Style,' 'The Catered Affair' Directed by the recently deceased Bud Yorkin, Divorce American Style (1967) is notable for its cast – Reynolds, Dick Van Dyke, Jean Simmons, Jason Robards, Van Johnson, Lee Grant – and for the fact that it earned Norman Lear (screenplay) and Robert Kaufman (story) a Best Original Screenplay Academy Award nomination.
- 8/24/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
'Father of the Bride': Steve Martin and Kimberly Williams. Top Five Father's Day Movies? From giant Gregory Peck to tyrant John Gielgud What would be the Top Five Father's Day movies ever made? Well, there have been countless films about fathers and/or featuring fathers of various sizes, shapes, and inclinations. In terms of quality, these range from the amusing – e.g., the 1950 version of Cheaper by the Dozen; the Oscar-nominated The Grandfather – to the nauseating – e.g., the 1950 version of Father of the Bride; its atrocious sequel, Father's Little Dividend. Although I'm unable to come up with the absolute Top Five Father's Day Movies – or rather, just plain Father Movies – ever made, below are the first five (actually six, including a remake) "quality" patriarch-centered films that come to mind. Now, the fathers portrayed in these films aren't all heroic, loving, and/or saintly paternal figures. Several are...
- 6/22/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
We all have stories of movies being ruined by people talking through them in the theater. Today, let’s celebrate that time a movie experience actually restored our faith in humanity.
Last night, I went to see Singin’ in the Rain on the big screen, in honor of the film’s 60th anniversary and the fact that today would have been Gene Kelly’s 100th birthday. I was with a friend who’s also a huge Gene Kelly fan, and I told her we should elbow each other each time one of us begins to tear up from pure happiness.
Last night, I went to see Singin’ in the Rain on the big screen, in honor of the film’s 60th anniversary and the fact that today would have been Gene Kelly’s 100th birthday. I was with a friend who’s also a huge Gene Kelly fan, and I told her we should elbow each other each time one of us begins to tear up from pure happiness.
- 8/23/2012
- by Mandi Bierly
- EW.com - PopWatch
Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Warner Home Video:
Centennial, Colo. – June 11, 2012 – Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Connor sing and dance their way back onto the big screen in the “Turner Classic Movies(TCM) Presents ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ 60th Anniversary Event” on Thursday, July 12 at 7:00 p.m. local time, with special matinees in select theaters at 2:00 p.m. Presented by Ncm® Fathom Events, Turner Classic Movies and Warner Bros., the event features a pre-recorded TCM original production with an introduction by TCM host Robert Osborne, who will take audiences behind the scenes, including a special interview with “Singin’ in the Rain” star Debbie Reynolds. Reynolds will share her thoughts on what it was like working with her co-stars on the set of this classic musical.
Tickets for TCM Presents Singin’ in the Rain 60th Anniversary Event are available at participating theater box offices and online at www.
Centennial, Colo. – June 11, 2012 – Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Connor sing and dance their way back onto the big screen in the “Turner Classic Movies(TCM) Presents ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ 60th Anniversary Event” on Thursday, July 12 at 7:00 p.m. local time, with special matinees in select theaters at 2:00 p.m. Presented by Ncm® Fathom Events, Turner Classic Movies and Warner Bros., the event features a pre-recorded TCM original production with an introduction by TCM host Robert Osborne, who will take audiences behind the scenes, including a special interview with “Singin’ in the Rain” star Debbie Reynolds. Reynolds will share her thoughts on what it was like working with her co-stars on the set of this classic musical.
Tickets for TCM Presents Singin’ in the Rain 60th Anniversary Event are available at participating theater box offices and online at www.
- 6/15/2012
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
'Singin' in the Rain' 60th Anniversary: 25 Things You Didn't Know About Hollywood's Greatest Musical
In a year when the Best Picture Oscar went to a comedy about Hollywood's turbulent transition from silence to sound, "Singin' in the Rain" suddenly seems timely again. The beloved musical, which marks the 60th anniversary of its release in U.S. theaters in April, is not only fondly remembered for its exuberantly athletic song-and-dance numbers, but also for its witty dramatization of the birth of Hollywood's sound era. If you haven't seen it, imagine 2011's "The Artist" with spoken dialogue and without the heroic dog. But of course, you have seen it, even if you don't realize it. The title number, featuring a soaked but joyful Gene Kelly, is one of the most iconic (and most frequently parodied) sequences in film history. The film's impact on popular culture is enormous, from making stars out of Debbie Reynolds and Cyd Charisse to influencing directors as far-flung as Jacques Demy and Stanley Kubrick.
- 3/30/2012
- by Gary Susman
- Moviefone
More than a homage to the silent era, Michel Hazanavicius's The Artist is a dazzling tale of love and loss
What better way could one year end and another start than with a pair of charming, funny, moving films celebrating the cinema itself? Three weeks ago Martin Scorsese gave us Hugo, a deeply felt picture about the creation of the cinema in France during the final years of the 19th century. Now the French cineaste Michel Hazanavicius returns the compliment with the complementary The Artist, about the coming of sound to Hollywood. The directors of the Nouvelle Vague were born around the time the talkies began. Hazanavicius was born seven years after Truffaut's Les quatre cents coups and Godard's Breathless but is as steeped in movies as they were. His first feature film, La classe américaine, which I haven't seen, was apparently compiled entirely of clips from old Warner Brothers films,...
What better way could one year end and another start than with a pair of charming, funny, moving films celebrating the cinema itself? Three weeks ago Martin Scorsese gave us Hugo, a deeply felt picture about the creation of the cinema in France during the final years of the 19th century. Now the French cineaste Michel Hazanavicius returns the compliment with the complementary The Artist, about the coming of sound to Hollywood. The directors of the Nouvelle Vague were born around the time the talkies began. Hazanavicius was born seven years after Truffaut's Les quatre cents coups and Godard's Breathless but is as steeped in movies as they were. His first feature film, La classe américaine, which I haven't seen, was apparently compiled entirely of clips from old Warner Brothers films,...
- 1/1/2012
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Marlene Dietrich on TCM Pt.2: A Foreign Affair, The Blue Angel Schedule (Et) and synopses from the TCM website: 6:00 Am The Monte Carlo Story (1957) Two compulsive gamblers fall in love on the French Riviera. Dir: Samuel A. Taylor. Cast: Marlene Dietrich, Vittorio De Sica, Arthur O'Connell. C-101 mins, Letterbox Format. 7:45 Am Knight Without Armour (1937) A British spy tries to get a countess out of the new Soviet Union. Dir: Jacques Feyder. Cast: Marlene Dietrich, Robert Donat, Irene Van Brugh. Bw-107 mins. 9:45 Am The Lady Is Willing (1942) A Broadway star has to find a husband so she can adopt an abandoned child. Dir: Mitchell Leisen. Cast: Marlene Dietrich, Fred MacMurray, Aline MacMahon. Bw-91 mins. 11:30 Am Kismet (1944) In the classic Arabian Nights tale king of the beggars enters high society to help his daughter marry a handsome prince. Dir: William Dieterle. Cast: Ronald Colman, Marlene Dietrich, James Craig.
- 9/1/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Marlene Dietrich on TCM: Shanghai Express, The Scarlet Empress, The Devil Is A Woman Raoul Walsh's unpretentious Manpower (1941) is a surprisingly entertaining drama about a love triangle featuring good-time gal Marlene Dietrich and unlikely partners Edward G. Robinson and George Raft. As an ex-Nazi chanteuse/black marketer (photo), Dietrich nearly steals the show in Billy Wilder's post-war Berlin-set A Foreign Affair (1948); I say nearly because Jean Arthur is Dietrich's equal as the goody-goody American congresswoman who learns that goody-goodiness may take you far at work (at least in the movies) but not in life. In the hands of someone like Ernst Lubitsch, A Foreign Affair would have been a humorously romantic masterpiece, cleverly and subtly interweaving the personal, the social, and the political. As it is, the comedy works great whenever Arthur and Dietrich are on-screen; else, A Foreign Affair suffers from Wilder's heavy hand; lapses in judgment in Wilder,...
- 9/1/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
In honor of the opening of the film Burlesque, starring Cher, Christina Aguilera and Stanley Tucci, the Movie Geeks are presenting what we feel are the best motion picture musicals.
Honorable Mention: Mary Poppins
“Practically Perfect in Every Way”, this is how the incomparably magical nanny Mary Poppins describes herself with nary a boastful smirk on a revealing tape measure in the still-charming 1964 Disney classic musical set in post-Victorian London circa 1910. Mary Poppins is the first movie I can remember seeing in a theater as a child I still feel genuine warmth about this movie as an adult. Such was the impact of Julie Andrews in her big screen debut, as she epitomizes the title character with equal quantities of starch and sugar. There are so many delightful scenes in Mary Poppins that it’s hard to choose which to highlight, though one of the best ones has to be...
Honorable Mention: Mary Poppins
“Practically Perfect in Every Way”, this is how the incomparably magical nanny Mary Poppins describes herself with nary a boastful smirk on a revealing tape measure in the still-charming 1964 Disney classic musical set in post-Victorian London circa 1910. Mary Poppins is the first movie I can remember seeing in a theater as a child I still feel genuine warmth about this movie as an adult. Such was the impact of Julie Andrews in her big screen debut, as she epitomizes the title character with equal quantities of starch and sugar. There are so many delightful scenes in Mary Poppins that it’s hard to choose which to highlight, though one of the best ones has to be...
- 11/23/2010
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The holidays are over, but the news continues to be slow out of Hollywood this week. My guess is the studios are all scrambling to figure out which of their films to Avatize, or Avatarize, or simply shoot in 3D. Right now, execs are stiffly walking onto sets a la Millard Mitchell in Singin' in the Rain and shutting down production because of the latest game-changing picture. Makes me wonder if there are any actresses who'll lose their careers because they just don't look as beautiful in three dimensions.
With so little to talk about, everyone continues to concentrate on the box office success of James Cameron's little blockbuster that could. Amazingly Avatar, despite not being based on a popular comic book or amusement park ride or historical tragedy (unless you count the white man's takeover of America, Africa and Iraq), has cracked the $1 billion mark worldwide and crushed...
With so little to talk about, everyone continues to concentrate on the box office success of James Cameron's little blockbuster that could. Amazingly Avatar, despite not being based on a popular comic book or amusement park ride or historical tragedy (unless you count the white man's takeover of America, Africa and Iraq), has cracked the $1 billion mark worldwide and crushed...
- 1/4/2010
- by Christopher Campbell
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