ClassicFlix - Only the Classics

The Old Corral: A Tribute to George Sherman

Many of cinema's greatest directors worked in Westerns over the years (particularly in the '50s) -- Ford, Hawks, Daves, Mann, Wellman, Ray, etc. With such names turning out great, often epic films at a steady pace, it makes sense that some talented, lesser-known people, making smaller Westerns, would get lost in the shuffle of cinematic history. It's a real shame, because as fans of these things know, the smaller pictures are where a lot of the real treasure is found.Some of those...

The Old Corral: The Old Corral Heads To Old Tucson

If you're a fan of Western movies, chances are good a few of your favorites were shot at Old Tucson Studios -- 'Hollywood in the Desert.' The location is very well represented on DVD and Blu-ray. Here are a few points of interest.Arizona (1940)In 1938, Columbia Pictures built a replica of 1860s Tucson on a site adjacent to the Tucson Mountains and owned by Pima County for the movie Arizona. In just 40 days, workers built more than ...

The Old Corral: Here Comes Santa Claus (And The Cowboy And The Indians)

The Cowboy and the Indians (1949) Directed by John English Produced by Armand Schaefer Cast: Gene Autry (Gene Autry), Sheila Ryan (Doctor Nan), Frank Richards (Smiley Martin), Hank Patterson (Tom), Jay Silverheels (Lakohna), Claudia Drake (Lucy Broken Arm), Georgie Nokes (Rona), Charles Stevens (Broken Arm), Alex Frazer (Fred), Clayton Moore (Luke), Iron Eyes Cody Gene Autry wore a lot of hats, and not just in the literal sense....

The Old Corral: The Lone Ranger in 'The Ghost of Coyote Canyon'

The Lone Ranger was ABC's top-rated show throughout its original run, and the network's first big success of the 1950s. Of course, the character had been around since his radio debut in 1933, created by George Trendle and Frank Striker. And while the show, novels, comics and movie serials were big hits, it was the TV show, starring Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels, became a true phenomenon. For many of us, Clayton Moore is the Lone Ranger, the same way Sean Connery is J...

The Old Corral: The Durango Kid

In 1940, Columbia Pictures' B unit released a typically unassuming Western called The Durango Kid. Directed by Lambert Hillyer, it starred a Dartmouth College football star turned Columbia contract player, Charles Starrett, along with Luana Walters and Kenneth MacDonald. At the time, that was pretty much it, just another B Western from Columbia. Five years later, Columbia returned to the character (or at least the name), changed things around, and came up with The Ret...

The Old Corral: Fred MacMurray Rides the '50s West

We don't think about it so much today, but at a certain point in time, Fred MacMurray was a big star in Hollywood and one of the highest paid. And certainly one of the most versatile, as he bounced from breezy stuff like The Egg And I (1947) to the noir-est of noir, Double Indemnity (1944), with incredible ease. As much as we liked him when he played, what we assume, was himself (the kind, wise, easy-going fatherly type), he really shined when cast against that - proven by h...

The Old Corral: Wide Screen, Narrow Budget - The Regalscope Westerns

By the mid-1950s, the CinemaScope widescreen process had done what it set out to do — help bring back some of the audiences lost to television. With TV still black and white (and with tinny monaural sound), 20th Century-Fox decreed that all their CinemaScope pictures would be in color and stereo. Independent B-producer Robert Lippert and Spyros Skouras, the head of 20th Century-Fox, cooked up Regal Films, Inc. — an independent ...

The Old Corral: Guy Madison Profile

If Guy Madison (1922-1996) had done nothing but star in the hugely successful syndicated TV series The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok (1951-58), he’d have made his mark on 50s popular culture. But Western fans know Madison rode tall in theaters, too. He made some excellent medium-budget Westerns, which are under-represented on DVD. Born Robert Mo...

The Old Corral: The Tenderfoot's Guide to '50s Westerns

The first motion picture to tell a story, have a plot, use close-ups, have actual cuts, and on and on, was The Great Train Robbery of 1903. The Western is as old as cinema itself. By 1950, the Western had gone through quite an e...

Author: Toby Roan