ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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I worked on the post below off-and-on for over a week to get it right. I'm proud of it, and I hope you folks will find in enjoyable.

However, if it doesn't inspire a few replies from the members of All Sci-Fi, maybe I've been just wasting my time — along with a considerable amount of money on an annual fee for a reliable web host.

I do all this just to create a message board which, I'm sorry to say, seems to be dying a slow and painful death.

The point here is that none of you folks actually need to like Westerns! You just need to show that you appreciate posts which celebrate good movies like the ones below.
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BUD'S FAVORITE WESTERNS!

My old pappy, Leroy Guy Cook, was a huge fan of Westerns!

When I was growin' up in the great state of Georgia, he and I often gathered around that electronic campfire known as a tee-la-fishin’ and enjoyed shows like Gunsmoke, Wagon Train, Rawhide, and Bonanza.

Pappy was a kinda armchair "cattleman"— 'cause he just loved it when Ma "rustled up" a sizzling steak dinner! Pa called Ma "Cookie" — on account a' her name was Virginia Cook.

Pa never quite figured out why his son had such a hankerin' to meet up with aliens from other planets and ride rockets off into space . . . instead a’ ridin' a horse off into the sunset.


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But Pa was an aircraft mechanic for Delta Airlines (a skill he learned in the Navy during WWII), so he knew that technology was the way to conquer the new "frontiers" of the future.





Anyhow, partners, here's a few of my favorite Western movies. I'm a'hopin' we can share some of these while sitting around that "virtual campfire" at the old Bar ASF ranch — in that thing them city slickers call a “chat room”.
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Dodge City (1939)

If you’re an Errol Flynn fan — especially his great swashbucklers — you won’t be disappointed by the Technicolor wild west adventure with co-stars from The Adventures of Robin Hood (Olivia de Havilland and Alan Hale). The villain is Bruce Cabot of King Kong fame. The director was Michael Curtiz (who did three of Flynn’s most famous swashbucklers), and the music is by Max Steiner, who did King Kong.

The opening scene shows a train crossing the open country, carrying a group of railroad tycoons to Dodge City, and they enjoy a brief race between the train and stagecoach traveling on a parallel road. The train wins, of course, symbolizing the progress represented by the locomotive.

I showed that scene to one of my 5th grade classes when we were studying the westward expansion of America.

The movie’s climactic shootout between the Good Guys and the Bad Guys takes place aboard a train racing aross the prairie . . . and it’s on fire! It’s an amazing action sequence.

________________ Dodge City – title sequence


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Garden of Evil (1954)

This wonderful 20th Century Fox Western was the 4th film shown on NBC’s Saturday Night at the Movies first season in 1961. It’s a star-studded Cinemascope adventure with a fabulous Bernard Herrman score. Susan Hayward leads four men — Gary Cooper, Richard Widmark, Cameron Mitchell, and Víctor Manuel — on a mission to rescue Hugh Marlow.





Marlow is trapped in a gold mine, deep within an area of Mexico occupied by Apache Indians.

The story is fast paced with some awesome scenes which feature beautiful matte paintings.







I remember watching this movie with my family in 1961 when I was thirteen years old — just knee-high to a longhorn steer!

Here’s the trailer, followed by a good copy of the full movie. Saddle up for a rousing Western adventure, partner!

___________________ Garden of Evil - trailer


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_______________ Garden Of Evil 1954 Western


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Virginia City (1940)

With a great cast that includes Errol Flynn, Miriam Hopkins, Randolph Scott, and Humphrey Bogart — along with Alan Hale, Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams, and Frank McHugh (all three from Flynn’s other Western, Dodge City — this fine Western from Warner Bros. golden years presents a story whosethe only villain is the leader of Mexican banditos (Humphrey Bogart). It pits two good guys against each other, played by Flynn and Scott who are on opposite sides in the Civil War.

But the story takes place out West, where Randolph Scott’s is desperately trying to deliver a large shipment of gold to the Confederacy so it can prop up their failing war effort, while Errol Flynn is a Union officer who is out to prevent the delivery and thus shorten the war.

The complex and exciting plot is a joy to watch for fans of Westerns.

___________ Virginia City (1940) Official Trailer


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The Professionals (1966)

This has been one of my favorite Westerns since I first saw it at a movie theater in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1966 during a two-month-long personal adventure all my myself at the tender age of 18, just before going into the Air Force!

A team of bold mercenaries is assembled by a wealthy railroad magnate to rescue his beautiful you Mexican wife from a revolutionary leader, deep in the desert. This is Mission: Impossilble . . . Western style!

The cast is pure gold:

Burt Lancaster
Lee Marvin
Robert Ryan
Woody Strode
Jack Palance a
Claudia Cardinale
Ralph Bellamy


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______________ The Professionals 1966 Trailer


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Rio Bravo (1959)

What a rootin' tootin' combo this one is!

Howard Hawks directs this terrific Western starring John Wayne, with a score by Dimitri Tiomkin, including three songs by costar Dean Martin — one of which is the closing theme, the second is a duet with a cool young gunslinger played by Rickey Nelson, and the third is a lively tune delivered by Dean, Ricky, and (of all people) Walter Brennan.

The one which Dean and Ricky sing together tugs at my heart strings so hard I almost fall over backwards . . .

Rio Bravo - Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, Walter Brennan


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The lovely Angie Dickinson rounds out the cast — no pun intended.





The true charm of this movie lies in way the characters listed above come together into team which sticks together, stands up to tyranny, shoots it out with the bad guys, and aren't afraid to go down fighting!

If I haven't sold you on this movie, this trailer might. It's narrated by the great Art Gilmore, the voice behind the trailers for many of our favorite sci-fi movies.

_________________ Rio Bravo (1959) - trailer


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The Westerner (1940)

I was amazed when I read this IMDB trivia item.
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Gary Cooper never liked the film and said "You can't make a western without a gunfight" He walked off the film and refused to start work on it. It was only after long battles with Goldwyn that he started work on it but always said that he wished he'd never made it.
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I certainly don’t understand Cooper’s strange attitude.

Cooper’s character is fascinating, his performance is flawless, and the script is brilliant. Actually, there is ample gun play in this movie. In fact, the exciting climax is a long shootout between Cooper and Walter Brennen — with Cooper making an dramatic appearance in a usual way.


_______________ The Westerner (1940) trailer


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The Magnificence Seven (1960)

And finally, there's this classic Western.

It's the Gold Standard of the genre, the King of the Cowboy Movies, the Roy Rogers of Cinematic Western Adventure!

The cast is like a Western version of the Knights of the Round Table.

Chronologically the film falls smack dab in between its original inspiration — Seven Samurai — and the sci-fi version it spawned — Battle Beyond the Stars.

The rousing score has been used to in everything from Western parodies to Marlboro commercials.

The characters — from the heroic gunslingers to the peons to the leader of the banditos (played to perfection by Eli Wallach) — are well portrayed that we love 'em all!

Folks, this movie is the Forbidden Planet of Westerns, and anybody who does love it might just be lacking the imagination needs to truly appreciate great movies.

If you fall into that category, try buying the Blu-ray and watching it on a rainy day after a few shotS of tequila.

Even if it doesn't work, you won't be any worse off . . . but you won't be as happy as I am.

____________ The Magnificence Seven - trailer


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)