Posts by ZS_Maverick

“Ganger Squad”
This movie surprised me…I liked it! I heard so many bad reviews, I didn’t know what to expect. Plus it had Sean Penn in it (as the bad guy), and I try to avoid his films. Like most modern action films, the violence was graphic, and the language might be a little strong for some, but story-wise, it was a good old fashion good guy vs. bad guy gangster movie done in the style of “The Untouchables”. It was based on the true story of how L.A. mob boss Mickey Cohen was taken down. (Of course “based on the true story” means you tell a little bit of truth mixed in with enough lies to make it interesting!)
A fun little period piece action movie.

Gary Cooper did one in the 30's called "Operator 13".


THese were probably more Western than War, so I don't know if they count, but they took place in the war years; There was "Kansas Raiders" an Audie Murphy movie about the early years of Jesse James, Ronald Reagan did one called "The Last Outpost" about Confederates and Union Soldiers teaming up out west to fight Indians. There was also "Red Mountain" with Alan Ladd (another fictional story about Quantrill's Raiders) and "Rocky Mountain" with Errol Flynn. And of course there was "Virginia City" with Errol Flynn.

Congratulations! Nice purchase!

Think I'm going to boycott the Oscars this year. I mean, how could they snub "The Three Stooges" for best picture?

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Sorry if I ruined it for you.

Nah! Andy Divine was great as Buck. I did enjoy your Ward style dialog though.

Another thing I like about this movie is that IT CAN’T BE REMADE! This is the definitive version. They tried it in the 60’s; that version was fair, Bing Crosby as the Doc was good, but it’s far from a classic. And of course the TV movie in the 80’s was just a novelty…just something for Country Music fans like myself to collect. That version wasn’t much at all!

Just watched STAGECOACH! Great choice, one my all-time favorite movies!

On one hand you had the quintessential Western; the vengeful gunslinger, the “saloon girl” with a heart of gold, the mysterious gambler, the cavalry vs. Indians, and the midnight shootout. And on the deeper level the drama of the forced union of characters from both sides of the tracks. One group looks down on the other, but the supposed “dregs”, especially Dallas and the drunken Doctor Boone prove they have more class than the snobs!

Of course the two “proud glorified dregs”, Doc and Dallas steal the show. They are the strongest characters. But, the other two outcasts are my personal favorites!

Ringo, who’s more quiet and underplayed than the later John Wayne characters, is a great character just by being, well, quiet and underplayed! Sure Gary Cooper could have played the character very well, as could Joel McCrea or Randolph Scott. But at that time, John Wayne just said more with a look than most leading men could with dialog, proving John Ford was right and Duke was the only one for the role!

(And for the record, I didn’t buy any naiveté that might have been implied. He’s been around! I mean this guy is a gunslinger, he’s been in and out of prison, he knew well that Dallas was a “saloon girl”. So why did she worry about hiding that fact from him? He knows and he doesn’t care!)

And we can’t forget the other outcast, the gambler, Hatfield. I liked this guy! He may actually be my favorite character of the story, because, in the end, we still don’t know much about this guy! We know he’s an ex-rebel soldier, and that Mrs. Mallory’s father was his commanding officer, and he owes him a debt…but that’s it! And we’re almost certain that Hatfield is not his real name!

Then there’s the chase across the desert…it’s one of the best action scenes from ANY movie!

The final 10 minutes…Ringo Vs. the Plummer Brothers is more classic than some entire movies! Luke Plummer has relatively short screen time, but, thanks to great dialog, we know and hate this guy the minute we see him!

IT’s easy to see that this movie inspired many filmmakers down the line, including Sergio Leone, who’s character “Harmonica” in “Once Upon a Time in the West” reminds me somewhat of Ringo.

And it even inspired me! When I produced a play a few years ago called “Shooting Sundown”, when it came to staging the gunfight scenes, I wanted to do it in a way that didn’t look corny. So, taking a cue from John Ford, as in this movie, the audience saw the start of the gunfight, but then the lights came down and we used sound effects and switched to the point of view of another character down the street who, along with the audience heard the gunshots, and then the lights would come up and you’d see the aftermath of the shootout.

Great movie. One of the best! The only thing, I watched it after reading your post, Ladyhawk, now I miss Ward in that role!

Happy Halloween!

Went to a Halloween costume party last week dressed as Clint Eastwood from “The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly”. Everyone kept coming up to me and saying, “Marty McFly from ‘Back to the Future 3’, Right?”


Tonight, I’m just going to stay home and watch horror movies. Hopefully I’ll do better than last year when I tuned in to the classic movie channel to watch “Night of the Living Dead” – the one about the soulless zombies wandering mindlessly through the streets….took me over an hour to realize I had it tuned to CNN and was watching coverage of the Occupy Wall Street Protesters!

Anyway, Happy Halloween!

TALL IN THE SADDLE

Just watched the movie of the month, and enjoyed it a lot. I haven’t watched this one in a while. While it’s never been one of my favorites, I still think it’s a very good watch!

It was well written¸ had a few laughs, plenty of action, and Duke just being Duke!

Along with the fight between Rocklin and Judge Garvey, the final fight between Rocklin and George Clews wasn’t bad either; and unlike the Judge, ol’ George ain’t walking away from this one!

The only thing, when the old lady slapped Clara, I wanted Clara to haul off and deck her! Is that wrong?

Anyway, good movie and good choice. I enjoyed it once again.

The Duke, on the big screen, (At the Rialto Theater in Denison, Texas) in my favorite, "True Grit".

First time in a long time that I've seen Duke on the big screen! They had showings of "Red River" and "The Green Berets" earlier in the year that I had to miss, but wasn't about to miss this one! Fun night!

Just watched “The Conqueror” again, and now my brain hurts! Don’t get me wrong; as I said in a past post about the movie, I don’t think its Duke’s worst movie. The action scenes are good, and there’s… There’s… Well, the action scenes are good!

I liked the movie, when I watched it before, but for all the wrong reasons; for the same reasons I enjoyed Duke as a singing cowboy in some of those B movies, or for the same reasons I have enjoyed Japanese giant monster movies…for the novelty of it! But like those Japanese monster movies, the novelty kind of goes away with a second viewing!

The dialog in the movie is bad, but that’s the one thing that annoys me in most ‘sand and sword’ movies. Whether the characters are Asian, African, European or whatever, there’s always that overdramatic pseudo-Shakespearian way of delivering the lines that gets old real fast!

To sum it up, it had good action scenes, but even with that, it was hard to keep my mind on the movie! (For instance when I saw John Wayne as Genghis Kahn I kept thinking of those old “Looney Tunes” where Yosemite Sam would pop up as a knight or pirate or the like!)

John Wayne is my hero, my favorite actor and the star of many of my all-time favorite movies…but this ain’t one of ‘em!

Well, I watched "The Sons of Katie Elder" just for this discussion last week, so I guess I can start it….

I think this movie is one of the best! I had to edit my top 25 list, and move this into the top ten. I haven’t watched it in a while and had forgotten just how good it is.

I think "Sons of Katie Elder" is one of Duke’s most underrated Westerns. When the classics are mentioned, this is often left out, and in my opinion it belongs up there with the best. Also many of the critics or movie experts don’t mention it much. I guess this was the time Clint Eastwood and the Sergio Leone movies were getting to be the in thing when it came to westerns, and the old school John Wayne Westerns were out. But as I said, I think this is among the best Westerns to come out of the 60’s.

It has everything I like in a Western, (on any action movie); a good story, good characters, action, a little humor and even well done suspense. The gunfight at the creek is one of the classic Western scenes, as is the final explosive duel between John Elder and Hastings.

If any modern film maker wants to make a good western, this is one of the films they should study to get it done right.
I’ve been a fan of this movie for years, and have just learned recently that it was based on a true story. Instead of the fictional Elders of Texas, it was based on the Marlow Brothers of Oklahoma.

TO sum it up, it’s a solid classic Western that belongs on any “best Western movies” list.

THE DAWN RIDER (2012)

The remake of the old John Wayne Lone Star Western from the 30's. This one stars Christian Slater and Donald Sutherland.

BAD MOVIE! I thought if they just had to remake old movies, then remake the old B Westerns. That way they could flesh out the characters a little more and add a little depth to the story. BUT NO! THEY ACTUALLY MADE IT WORSE!

This one was poorly written, the acting wasn't much, and, well, it was just bad all the way around! Why do they have to use the "F Word" so much! It just makes the dialog sound so idiotic!

Also, a very dull ending....I missed the big fight scene and Yakima Canutt Stunt work!!!

Makes me appreciate the old "Lone Star Oaters" a little bit more!

I hate to say this, but lately, I'm finding it hard to sit through most modern movies! Either they're all that bad or my attention span is getting shorter and shorter!

One movie I can think of is "Titanic". Man, less than two hours into that one I started rooting for the iceberg!

Quote from The Ringo Kid

Ditto this one too. Also, did you know there was a direct-to-DvD-sequal made? Yup. It's called: Dances with Weasels. :lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

By the way, Ringo, did you ever see India's version of "Dances with Wolves?" It's called "Tangos with Tigers". A Classic!

In honor of Duke's birthday, I watched "The Alamo"

Still one of the best! (And this wasn't even the director's cut!)

I liked the new version, had no problem with it at all! But the one difference between the two is that the classic version is one of my favorites, if not my very favorite movie. Can't say that about the new one! You just can't outdo a classic!

Duke and Bridges did many of the very same Charles Portis lines, but to me, Duke did them much better! He had such great delivery! (Side note: Back when I did stand-up comedy, to get my delivery right, I studied John Wayne as much or more than I did any comedian! Believe it or not)

"The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly" On the big screen!

There's a theater in town that shows classic movies. Three weeks ago, for the opening weekend they had "Red River" (Missed that one, didn't see it advertised!).

For anyone in Texomaland the websight is www.rialtodenison.com

"The Green Berets"

Forget the critics....I think this is a great movie!

Great! Been waiting to see this one!

"Paleface" with Bob Hope. I haven't watched this movie in years....laughed out loud several times throughout the movie!

I've always liked this movie. I Saw this at the drive-in theater in Garland, Texas when I was about 7 years old! It's kind of low budget, and doesn't have the best production values...but it does something a multi-million dollar blockbuster of today can't do...tells me a good story! I've seen weaker movies than this win Oscars!