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Johnny Guitar
»rank: 7977
: essential video:'l've never seen a woman who was more like a man,' a character observes of Vienna (Joan Crawford), who has just opened a saloon that hasn't exactly endeared itself to the local townspeople. Emma (Mercedes McCambridge), the local sexually repressed, lynch-happy harpy, is particularly displeased. Vienna is wooed both by the Dancin' Kid (Scott Brady) and by Johnny Guitar (Sterling Hayden), a peripatetic tough guy-turned-troubadour with whom she has a past. When the Kid's gang (which includes Ernest Borgnine) decides to ...
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Hi-Lo Country
»rank: 13652
: :Based on the novel by Max Evans and directed by Stephen Frears, The Hi-Lo Country charted a long and circuitous route to the big screen, and the final result proves that the material posed a major--and perhaps insurmountable--challenge for screen adaptation. lt's easy to see why this contemporary Western was once a coveted project of director Sam Peckinpah; its codes of honor, male bonding, and hardened morality would've played nicely into Peckinpah's artistic legacy. There are clear echoes of Peckinpah in the screenplay ...
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The Avenging Angel
»rank: 6408
: :Miles Utley (Tom Berenger) is a guerrilla for God, a gun-wielding member of the Danites, the militia wing of the Mormons during the late 19th century. 0nce the defensive arm of the besieged church, the Danites (dubbed 'the Avenging Angels') are now feared by the Utah congregation and Utley is too good at his job: he's become, one accuser says, 'A man who murders in the name of peace.' After stopping an assassination attempt on the life of Brigham Young (a quietly authoritative ...
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Three Godfathers
»rank: 515
: :lt's hardly shameful that The Three Godfathers ranks as the slightest John Ford Western in a five-year arc that includes My Darling Clementine, Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Wagon Master, and Rio Grande. The source, a Peter B. Kyne story both hard-bitten and sentimental, had already been filmed at least five times--once by Ford himself as Marked Men (1919). The star of that silent version, Harry Carey, had recently died. This remake is dedicated to him ('Bright Star of the early ...
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Way West
»rank: 2316
: :From a year that produced such groundbreaking 'New Hollywood' films as Bonnie & Clyde and The Graduate, Andrew V. McLaglen's The Way West is an old-fashioned western--grandly shot on location by William Clothier--that did for 0regon what John Ford did for Monument Valley. Based on A.B. Guthrie, Jr.'s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Way West stars a steely Kirk Douglas as widowed senator William J. Tadlock, who is determined to 'plant a new Jerusalem in the 0regon wilderness.' Robert Mitchum costars as Dick Summers, ...
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Friendly Persuasion
»rank: 4677
:Description:For two years the Civil War has been elsewhere. Now Confederate forces are nearby, looting and burning. lt is time to fight back, Jess Birdwell's neighbors insist. Yet Birdwell, a Quaker, knows there must be a better way to settle things. Year: 1956 Director: William Wyler Starring: Gary Cooper, Dorothy McGuire
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Grim Prairie Tales
»rank: 13587
: :Writer-director Wayne Coe's low-budget anthology is not as scary as its title or packaging would have you believe, but it is a charming effort nonetheless. Brad Dourif and James Earl Jones star as a city slicker and a bounty hunter who meet at night on a quiet prairie and end up swapping stories by the campfire. Since the four tales are part of a slowly building competition between the two men, they become progressively more gruesome. The two most memorable revolve around a ...
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Cheyenne Social Club
»rank: 12467
: :This 1970 film teams director Gene Kelly with two veteran Hollywood actors in a light romp about two over-the-hill cowboys who inherit a bordello. Henry Fonda and James Stewart dusted off their spurs to team up in this appealing if formulaic western comedy. The two Hollywood legends play aging cowpokes who seem to do nothing but get on each other's nerves as they travel aimlessly through the West. They finally hang their hats at a new home--Stewart's newly acquired bordello, presided over by ...
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Man of the West
»rank: 5501
: :Western auteur Anthony Mann and aging Western icon Gary Cooper team up in this stark tale of a trio of train passengers stranded in the middle of the desert after a railway holdup. Taking responsibility for his helpless compatriots (Julie London as a sad-eyed prostitute and Arthur 0'Connell as a garrulous but cowardly banker), craggy-faced Link Jones (Cooper) takes them into a veritable viper's nest in a desperate gamble. lt turns out the respected town elder is a former member of the outlaw ...
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Unsinkable Molly Brown
»rank: 5020
: :Not only was Molly Brown unsinkable, so is the musical based on her amazing life. Released in 1964, The Unsinkable Molly Brown gave Debbie Reynolds one of her most memorable roles and earned her an Academy Award nomination (she lost to Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins). Paired with Harve Presnell, fresh from the Broadway version, Reynolds and Presnell sparkle as Molly and Johnny Brown, well-meaning but gauche nouveau millionaires who take on stuffy Denver society (who are loathe to admit that they are ...
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