Author: Boyd Magers

  • The Old Corral: The Career of Dick Foran

    It's with great pleasure we welcome Warner Bros.'s Dick Foran Western Collection, a terrific, long overdue four-disc, 12 feature film DVD box set. Produced in 1935-1937 these B-Westerns are not only entertaining but historic in that they were made simultaneously with the man who began the singing cowboy craze at Republic, Gene Autry.Because Gene was just beginning his meteoric rise to fame, Foran's westerns aren't so much in competition with Autry's, even though they run ...

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  • The Old Corral: Joining The Royal Canadian Mounted Police

    I'm very happy to see VCI releasing the four seldom seen 40-45 minute 'streamliner' Westerns released by Screen Guild/Lippert in 1946-1947 as part of their Royal Canadian Mounted Police series. All four starred former Hopalong Cassidy sidekick, Russell Hayden.In 1945 Robert L. Lippert, a West Coast theatre chain owner, formed Action Pictures and released three low budget features filmed in Cinecolor. These films eventually saw release through Screen Guild, a new ...

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  • Old Corral: Fightin' Mad, Rebel Lad...Nick Adams

    Nicholas Aloysious Adamshock was the son of a Nanticoke, PA, coal miner. At 5'8' he wasn't tall enough or handsome enough to be a leading man, but his stubborn determination as Nick Adams and his personal refusal to recognize anything as impossible eventually paid off. With no experience, only a desire 'to be somebody'...an actor...a chance meeting with Jack Palance led to a role in a New York stage presentation of Tom Sawyer. From there he hitch-hiked to Hollywood in January 1950 an...

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  • The Old Corral: Appreciating The Dakotas

    Why has Warner Bros.' The Dakotas been overlooked for so long? Finally released on DVD this exceedingly underrated series is finally getting the recognition it deserves.The Dakotas was the most adult, hard-edged, high-energy, in-your-face, man's western ever aired, crammed with tense, explosive action. Beginning with the stirring William Lava theme music, The Dakotas detailed the efforts of U. S. Marshal Frank Ragan and his three very diverse...

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