one of the better westerns filmed during the 1960's a violent storey, in the old west and a stirring social commentary. james garner, dennis weaver, bibi anderson., sidney potier stand out in this western and calvary action movie,the only thing missing was...maybe john wayne or burt lancaster coming to the rescue.
Exciting western
Duel at Diablo is an excellent western that deals with more than just the battles between the cavalry and Indians, but also the tensions among the groups. The movie follows a supply train through the desert as they are harassed by an Apache chief, Chata, and his band of renegades. Trapped in the desert without any water, the supply train must fight their way out. There is plenty of good action here as well as very good characters. The movie deals with racism throughout since one of the main characters was kidnapped by Apaches and forced to live with them. When she escapes from the village, the people at Fort Creel look down upon her with disgust.
James Garner stars as Jess Remsberg, the army scout who is also trying to track down the killer of his Indian wife. His role is very good and also different from what his fans might be expecting of him. Sidney Poitier plays Toller, the ex-sergeant who now accompanies the wagon train to break in their new horses for him. I hadn't seen Poitier in a western, but he is very good in this role alongside Garner. Dennis Weaver and Bibi Anderson star as the Granges. Anderson's character was abducted by Apaches and escapes but now wants to go back and live among them. Weaver's Will Grange is a rascist and very dislikable. Bill Travers plays Lt. Scotty McCallister, the leader of the wagon train who is desperately trying to get a promotion. The DVD offers widescreen presentation that looks very good and also a theatrical trailer. This is not your typical western but it is still very enjoyable. Check it out if you haven't seen it before!
Good action western with beautiful Utah scenery
"Duel at Diablo" is another cavalry-Indian affair that has the Apaches rising one last time, going on the warpath to settle old grievances and mistreatment on the reservation at the hands of corrupt agents and military police. The deserts and multicolored canyons and mountains of Utah provide a beautiful panorama for the hostilities between a column of troopers and Apaches that result in several bloody skirmishes in which the pony soldiers must battle thirst as well as their fierce adversaries. There are similarities between this film and "Ulzana's Raid" that was released several years later, with the Apaches fighting desperately for a return to the glory days of the warpath who are trailed by army scouts who know Indians and lead cavalry troopers into the field against them. Both films are quite violent but this film has a romantic angle between Indian scout Jess Remsberg who seeks revenge on the man who murdered his Comanche wife and Ellen Grange, the spurned wife of a freighter who has borne an Apache son. The film's music score has a bouncy, carefree quality that doesn't really work because it lacks the traditional heroism and tension of strings, woodwinds and tom-tom beats that give cavalry-Indian films much of their unique sense of drama, character and urgency that is part of the fiber of this kind of film.
Bandolero! peaks early, with a long, immensely satisfying opening half-hour in which cowpoke James Stewart saves his bank-robber brother (Dean Martin) from the hangman's noose... by strolling into town and masquerading as the hangman. As the brothers depart into Mexico, with a comely hostage (Raquel Welch) in tow, the action becomes more conventional. It's handsomely shot on eye-filling locations by outdoorsy veteran Andrew V. McLaglen (clever Jerry Goldsmith score, too). George Kennedy plays the lovelorn sheriff in pursuit, leading his half-hearted posse through bandito territory. Credibility suffers with Raquel's fabulous hair, which weathers kidnapping and life on the dusty trail with an unlikely sheen. Stewart and Martin, meanwhile, are too casual to allow the already-relaxed... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): James Stewart - Dean Martin Director(s): Andrew V. McLaglen DVD Release Date: Released the 09 March 2004 Usually ships within 24 hours
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The most famous and sublime treatment of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, John Ford's My Darling Clementine is by any measure one of the most classically perfect Westerns ever made. Henry Fonda plays a hard, serious Wyatt Earp leading a cattle drive west with his brothers when a stopover in the wild town of Tombstone ends in the murder of his youngest brother. Wyatt takes up the badge he had turned down earlier and tames the wide-open town with his brothers (Ward Bond and Tim Holt), all the while waiting for the wild Clantons (led by Walter Brennan's ruthless Old Man Clanton) to make a mistake. Victor Mature delivers perhaps his finest performance as the tubercular gambler Doc Holliday, an alcoholic Eastern doctor escaping civilization in the Wild West. Ford takes great liberties... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Henry Fonda - Linda Darnell Director(s): John Ford DVD Release Date: Released the 06 January 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Besides being a terrific movie in its own right--and the second entry in a remarkable eight-film series teaming director Anthony Mann and star James Stewart--Bend of the River is also fascinating as a variation on one of the greatest Westerns. With or without anyone else's knowledge, screenwriter Borden Chase reworked scenes, character configurations, and much of the structure of Red River, the screenplay of which he had cowritten (from his own novel) for director Howard Hawks six years earlier. Seeing what Hawks and Mann did with some of the same scenes--a spooky night skirmish with Indians, for instance--makes for a compelling lesson in the transformative power of directorial style.
Instead of Texas and the Chisholm Trail, Bend of the River is set in the Oregon... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): James Stewart - Rock Hudson Director(s): Anthony Mann DVD Release Date: Released the 06 May 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The Ox-Bow Incident is one of the essential Westerns, directed by William Wellman. A study of the effects--and aftereffects--of mob violence, this film (based on a true story) begins with the murder of a popular rancher. Angry townspeople form a posse, find suspects, and, without waiting for a trial, summarily hang them in an expression of biblically tinged frontier justice. But the one cowboy who tried to turn the mob aside ultimately proves that they executed innocent men. Made in 1943, the film features stunning black-and-white cinematography and a solid dramatic sense about what a deadly combination ignorance and self-righteousness can be. Fonda made this film between The Grapes of Wrath and My Darling Clementine, at a point when he was at the peak of his powers... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Henry Fonda - Dana Andrews - Mary Beth Hughes Director(s): William A. Wellman DVD Release Date: Released the 04 November 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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No relation to the 1992 Clint Eastwood film of almost the same name, The Unforgiven is based--like John Ford's The Searchers--on a novel by Alan LeMay. Again the story focuses on a frontier family divided by racism. But instead of the complex, endlessly resonant demonology of the Ford picture, John Huston aims in The Unforgiven for a pat, civil-rights-era allegory of loving solidarity triumphing over societal prejudice--and, to be sure, some noble but dangerous Kiowas. Burt Lancaster and Audrey Hepburn costar as, respectively, the eldest son of a ranching family and the beloved sister who's not his sister at all, but an Indian. However, the film's dark heart belongs to Joseph Wiseman as an avenging ghost who materializes out of the wind, and Lillian Gish as the... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Burt Lancaster - Audrey Hepburn Director(s): John Huston DVD Release Date: Released the 20 May 2003 Usually ships within 24 hours
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