Best Golden Era (up to mid 60s) Westerns?

[FedoraFan112390]

What are the best Westerns say from 1930 to 1963?

 

[Doctor Strange]

This article's a good place to start:

http://www.imagesjournal.com/issue10/infocus/

 

[EmergencyIan]

Beyond that list, and off of the top of my head, The Garden of Evil, The Law and Jake Wade, Jubal, 3:10 to Yuma, those Anthony Mann westerns that he did with Jimmy Stewart are pretty good, Broken Lance, Vengeance Valley, The Professionals, etc, etc. I know that there are many glaring example that are slipping my mind, right now. That becomes a problem (at least for me) when you've seen so many westerns. However, I'm sure that some other fellow western fans will chime in and add to the list that Doctor Strange provided.

- Ian

 

[Benzadmiral]

Naked Spur, co-written by Sam Rolfe, is good. And I love the sweep and grandeur of How the West Was Won. The big action scenes -- the raft on the rapids, the buffalo stampede, and the capper, the train robbery, where things go from bad to worse very fast -- all tie the film together.

Still, for people who hate Westerns -- if you were trying to show somebody why the genre can be good -- there's nothing like the original True Grit and the delightful comedy The Cheyenne Social Club. Both of those are beyond FedoraFan's 1963 boundary, but they're good films all around.

 

[Fading Fast]

I'm not a big Western guy - I like some of them, but don't have the passion for the genre it provokes in others. But two that I always enjoy are "High Noon" and "Big Country."

"High Noon" is an intense, mainly, psychological drama that really is a morality play - how the townspeople respond to a threat, how the sheriff responds and how his wife does or does not support him. It's all about personal morality in a setting - the Old West - that left you free to be as moral or immoral as your conscience and will power allowed, i.e., it was a true test of character.

"Big Country" has several elements to enjoy. First, you have the outsider coming into a very establish social structure who - being an outsider - has the ability to see its weaknesses and stress points better than those who have lived inside of it - so he gets to shake things up in a smart and convincing way (after making some rookie-outsider mistakes). Also, it's got a neat love traingle / quadrangle going on with one angle being a smart independent woman. And, finally, you have the "main" story of powerful families fighting with each other and amongst themselves over land, wealth and past grievances - standard Western fare, but handled very well in this one.

 

[EmergencyIan]

^ Both very good westerns!

- Ian

 

[Benzadmiral]

Big Country is based on a novel by Donald Hamilton, the creator of the hardboiled American spy Matt Helm. (Ignore those films with Dean Martin. Hamilton's Helm is in good tough company with Hammett's and Chandler's heroes.)

Oh, I thought of another mid-Sixties Western that's worth anyone's while: Hombre, with Paul Newman, Richard Boone, Fredric March, Barbara Rush, and more. Based on a novel by Elmore Leonard (who wrote some of the best Westerns in print), it's exciting and solid.

 

[emigran]

What was the name of the movie with Glenn Ford and Henry Fonda as old roustabouts who dealt with Chill Wills and an ornery un-rideable Strawberry Roan Horse along with two dizzying "blondes"... great flick...

 

[green papaya]

Distant Drums 1951 starring Gary Cooper

I like the Indian War westerns

Gary Cooper in the movie "Distant Drums"

Distant Drums is a 1951 "Florida Western" film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Gary Cooper. It is set during the Second Seminole War in the 1840s, with Cooper playing an Army captain who destroys a fort held by the Seminole Indians then retreats into the Everglades while under chase.

 

[green papaya]

APACHE starring Burt Lancaster

APACHE movie released in July 1954 , starring Burt Lancaster

Following the surrender of Geronimo, Massai, the last Apache warrior is captured and scheduled for transportation to a Florida reservation. On the way he manages to escape and heads for his homeland to win back his girl and settle down to grow crops. His pursuers have other ideas though.

 

[EmergencyIan]

What was the name of the movie with Glenn Ford and Henry Fonda as old roustabouts who dealt with Chill Wills and an ornery un-rideable Strawberry Roan Horse along with two dizzying "blondes"... great flick...

1965's The Rounders

[video=youtube;q2geg23z4Ts]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2geg23z4Ts[/video]

- Ian

 

[DNO]

Aside from High Noon, no one has mentioned the films that I'd consider the real classic westerns: Stagecoach (1939); The Searchers (1956); The Man who Shot Liberty Valance (1962); My Darling Clementine (1946); and the cavalry trilogy of Fort Apache (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) and Rio Grande (1950)...all John Ford works (excluding High Noon).

There are others of course but any list of great westerns from that period would have to include these.

 

[Stearmen]

I am surprised no one mentioned this film! Though, I suppose, it might be considered, as you can tell by the look on Jimmy's face, more of a Psychological thriller then an out right western.

 

[Mister Cairo]

High Noon.

 

[EmergencyIan]

It's difficult to recall all of the great westerns, at least it is for me, when you've seen hundreds of them, over the years. Those mentioned above are all fine westerns. We may not have mentioned some of them, previously, because they were referred to in the list (link) provided in this threads first response.

- Ian

 

[emigran]

Rounders... Thanks Ian...!!!

 

[EmergencyIan]

^ Welcome!

- Ian

 

[skydog757]

Shane (1953) gives me a sense of what living in the West at that time was probably like; the vastness and beauty of the land, the isolation, the lack of any real law enforcement which allowed for naked greed and ruthless tactics, how news of events was spread by word of mouth. Great cinematography, casting and writing:

Shane:
So you're Jack Wilson.

Jack Wilson:
What's that mean to you, Shane?

Shane:
I've heard about you.

Jack Wilson:
What have you heard, Shane?

Shane:
I've heard that you're a low-down Yankee liar.

Jack Wilson:
Prove it.

 

[AmateisGal]

My all-time favorite western and for my money, the best western of the Golden Era: 1959's Rio Bravo with John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, and Angie Dickinson.

 

[Moviehats]

I am honored to have a friend who was in a lot of the movies mentioned here. His name is Jack Young and he was a stuntman during the early years. He doubled for Jack Palance when Shane shot him. He has some great stories and later got into the business behind the camera. He was Old Tucson Studio's Location Manager for years and worked with all the big stars. His son will be writing a Biography soon.