Another Cheapo Western

 

 (themoviedb.org)

WACO-1966-In Emporium, Wyoming, Sheriff Kelly (Richard Arlen) tries to keep law and order but is shot in the back. Councilman Gates (John Agar) wants the mayor (Robert Lowery) to hire convicted killer Waco (Howard Keel) to clean up the town which is controlled by Joe Gore (John Smith) and his partner in crime Rile (DeForrest Kelly). Waco's old flame, Jill (Jane Russell) is now married to preacher Sam Stone (Wendell Corey). 

Waco helps the mayor's daughter (Tracey Olsen) and roughs up some rowdy ranchers. He helps reform the drunken deputy (Gene Evans) but later, Waco decides to take over the town. He sends for his friend gunfighter Ross (Brian Donlevy). However, when Ross backs out, the whole town decides to defend their territory. 

Ben Cooper is a would-be deputy. Terry Moore works in the bar. Also with Fuzzy Knight. Director RG Springsteen who made many westerns in the  30's and 40's was already working in TV by the time of this low budget production. Singer Howard Keel had starred in THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS in 1963.

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Cheap Western

 

 (themoviedb.org)

YOUNG JESSE JAMES-1960-After evil Northern troops hang his father, Jesse James (Russ Stricklyn) wants to join the rebel army to get revenge but Quantrill (Emile Meyer) doesn't want him. His brother Frank (Robert Dix) and cousin Cole Younger (Williard Parker) don't want him there either. But Quantrill has a change of heart and sends Jesse into a town in drag. He has a problem with Zack (Rex Holman) but he saves his life. 

This misguided junk makes heroes out of scum while still showing they are cold blooded murders. They talk about revisionism today! 

Merry Anders is Belle Starr and Norman Leavitt, William Mims and Tyler McVey have small roles. Co-screenwriter Orville Hampton worked a lot with director Edward L. Cahn and later mostly did TV work. Director William F. Claxton directed many episodes of TV's “Bonanza” and later made THE NIGHT OF THE LEPUS (1972).

 (pbs.org)

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Before Purple Rain There Was....

 

 (tmdb)

THE PURPLE HILLS-1961-A drifter named Sheppard (Gene Nelson) shoots Beaumont, a wanted criminal for the bounty but he has to shoot his own horse and can't carry the body back. He buries the body and walks to town. Meanwhile Beaumont's partners in crime Johnny (Kent Taylor) and Chito (Danny Zapien) wait for him but become suspicious when they see vultures. They find his body and plan on collecting the bounty but they are in Apache territory and the tribe liked Beaumont for all the wrong reasons (he sold them guns, booze, etc.). To get the body back Johnny leaves Chito with the Indians and goes looking for Sheppard. Both claim the reward. To settle things the deputy marshal (co-writer Russ Bender) goes with them to the grave but they are accompanied by Amy Carter (Joanna Barnes) and her young charge Martin (Jerry Summers), revenge seeking younger brother of the deceased Beaumont. 

This modest little 60-minute western is actually a remake of a 1915 silent film. This was third film produced and directed by Maury Dexter (THE DAY MARS INVADED EARTH (1962); also with Kent Taylor).

Out West

 

 (imdb)

CONVICT STAGE-1965-A gunslinger named Latimer (familiar TV actor Harry Lauter) searches for the two outlaws who killed his sister. The US Marshall (Don “Red” Barry who also co-scripted) arrests them. He puts them on a stagecoach to take them to trial along with some other passengers (including the outlaws' mother (Hanna Landy) who wants to help them escape). They hold up in an abandoned town and talk a lot. The rest of the gang closes in.

 Low budget black & white little western that seems like a TV episode but longer. Director Lesley Selander may hold some kind of record for directing the most western movies, though he did step out of the genre to make THE VAMPIRE'S GHOST in 1945.

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7 Dummies

 

(imdb)

7 MUMMIES-2006-Idiotic supernatural western nonsense about a group of convicts who escape their transport truck and head into the desert with a female prison guard hostage. After a crazy local (Danny Trejo) tells them about some hidden gold, they decide to search for it and wind up in an old west town occupied by zombie vampires, led by Drake (Billy Drago). Martin Kove is a bar owner. The director Nick Quested had been a music video director before this.

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Against A Low Budget Sky

 

 (imdb)

AGAINST A CROOKED SKY-1975-A weird American Indian Temkai (Geoffrey Land from Al Adamson movies) kidnaps a young girl named Charlotte (Jewell Blanch). Her father (Clint Ritchie) goes to rescue her. Meanwhile his not too bright son Sam (Stuart Petersen) goes looking himself and after nearly drowning is rescued by a backwoods grump called Russian (Richard Boone). After a first aborted search, Sam and Russian search for the tribe that Temkai belongs to. Along the way they meet up with the rightful chief (Henry Wilcoxon who also provides narration) who was left to die in the desert years before. They find the strange tribe now run by an angry bald guy. Sam must go through a ritual to save his sister's life. 

This low budget politically incorrect “The Searchers” rip off is only worth seeing for Boone's performance. Director Earl Bellamy was a prolific TV director with few feature movie credits but he made WALKING TALL PART 2 the same year. Land was in JESSI'S GIRLS and BLAZING STEWARDESSES (both directed by Al Adamson) the same year. Co-star Blanch later became a country-western singer and song publisher.

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The Old West

 

 (imdb)

RAIDERS OF OLD CALIFORNIA-1957-Low budget Republic western about unscrupulous ranchers pushing Mexicans off their own land. Capt. McCain (Jim Davis) is their leader and his gang includes Ric Vallin, Lee Van Cleef and Marty Robbins! When a circuit judge (Louis Jean Heydt) and a marshal (singer Faron Young) investigate, McCain uses intimidation and violence to get his way. He also kills his ex-partner Lt. Johnson (Harry Lauter). 

McCain searches for Sebastian (Lawrence Dobkin), a Mexican who supposedly granted McCain his land and has to fight savage Indians. In a shootout of the country-western singers Young beats Robbins. Douglas Fowley is a semi-comical old sheriff. A flashback filled trial and a stampede cap the finale in which McCain is killed by his own cattle. Gerald Mohr is the narrator. 

Director Albert C. Gannaway also made DANIEL BOONE, TRAILBLAZER which also featured Faron Young.

Sheriff Billy The Kid

 

 (wikipedia)

SHERIFF OF SAGE VALLEY-1942-Billy the Kid (Buster Crabbe) and his two cohorts Fuzzy (Al St. John) and Jeff (Dave O'Brien; REEFER MADNESS; CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT) become the law in Sage Valley when they save a stagecoach from being robbed and the sheriff is murdered. They take on Sloane (Charles King), who runs the local crooked casino and his gang but the real boss is Kansas Ed, Billy's twin brother (also Crabbe) who kidnaps Billy and impersonates him for a while. Billy's buddies save him and they stop Kansas but are almost hanged anyway. 

This PRC western quickie was directed by...who else but the speed demon himself Sam Newfield using his frequent alias, Sherman Scott. His brother Sigmund Neufeld produced. According to my (not so reliable) calculations Buster Crabbe played a character called Billy the Kid in 36 westerns!

Read about the real outlaw: Billy the Kid | Biography, Death, & Facts | Britannica

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Bushwhacked!

  (imdb)

THE BUSHWHACKERS-1951-After the Civil War ends Jefferson Waring (John Ireland) vows never to raise a gun against another man again. He heads west. Things aren't much better. He witnesses some homesteaders killed and their house burned down. Later he meets Peter Sharpe (Frank Marlowe), a newspaper publisher who let's him stay at his home but Sharpe's daughter (Dorothy Malone) has him arrested. The useless Marshall (Wayne Morris) and his dimwitted deputy (Norman Leavitt) lock him up. Sharpe clears him and gives him a job but Waring wants to leave town. He winds up in a fist fight with hired gun Tobin (Lawrence Tierney) and his thugs (one is Jack Elam). 

After he leaves, Waring runs afoul of arthritic wheelchair bound Artemis Taylor (Lon Chaney) and bitchy daughter Nora (Myrna Dell). They know the railroad is planning to buy up the surrounding land for a new line and Taylor wants to drive out the homesteaders before they find out it's valuable. Sharpe saw some surveyors and knows about it so Taylor orders his flunky Ding (William Holmes) to kill the rebel. Nora orders Tobin (who works for Taylor) to kill Ding too. There's a big botch up and Waring is wounded but not killed. He finds shelter with the homesteaders and tells them about the railroad. Nora plans to lead a gang to drive the settlers out once and for all. Sharpe prints an editorial that lays out Taylor's plan for everyone to see and is killed. Later when Nora leads her thugs to destroy the homesteaders they are caught in an ambush. Nora and her dad both die. 

This was the directorial debut for actor/stuntman Rod Amateau who went on to direct many TV shows (Burns & Allen, My Mother,The Car). This last movie was THE GARBAGE PAIL KIDS MOVIE in 1987. He co-wrote the screenplay with debuting writer Tom Gries who went on to write an early Bert I. Gordon movie KING DINOSAUR in 1955. 

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Ulmer in The West

 

THE NAKED DAWN-1955-A violent, philosophical Mexican bandit Santiago (Arthur Kennedy) corrupts Miguel (Eugene Iglesias), a simple farmer and his unhappy wife (Betta St. John; years later in HORROR HOTEL). This is not your typical south of the border western but it might make you think. A technicolor oddity pretty much overlooked and directed by the great Edgar Ulmer. Kennedy was nominated for an Academy Award the same year for his supporting role in Mark Robson's TRIAL. (He won a Golden Globe). 

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Low Budget Minimalist Western

 

THE SHOOTING-1966-A bounty hunter (Warren Oates) and his dumb friend (Will Hutchins) meet a mysterious woman (Millie Perkins; earlier the title role in THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK) who wants them to accompany her on a journey. The two try to figure out her motive and later meet up with her friend Billy, a gunfighter (Jack Nicholson). There's a lot of talk in this moody Western by director Monte Hellman. The ending may seem contrived but pay attention to the minimalist dialogue. Nicholson & Perkins were in RIDE THE WHIRLWIND for Hellman the same year. 

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Deadwood

DEADWOOD ‘76-1965-Cheapo western featuring the unique un-talents of Arch Hall Jr. In the town of Deadwood folks are getting ready for a confrontation between Billy the Kid and Wild Bill Hickok. Out in the desert a guy named Billy May (Hall Jr.) saves cat seller Tennessee (Jack Lester), from some Indians. When they get to Deadwood, Billy kills two outlaws and everybody thinks he’s Billy the Kid. Saloon owners Porker Kate (Liz Renay) and Fancy Poggin (David Reed with a terrible fake mustache) take bets. Later Billy and Tennessee partner in a gold mine. While working it, Billy is captured by some local Indians. At their reservation, Billy meets his father Boone (his real life dad Arch Sr. using the pseudonym William Watters) who he thought was dead. His old man is a Confederate loony who's still fighting the Civil War and wants to use The Sioux to defeat The Yankees and reestablish the Confederacy (he sounds like a neo-nazi). 

Billy’s against it. He leaves even though an Indian maiden Little Bird (La Donna Cottier) likes him. After Billy leaves the tribe, he goes back to his stake but can't find Tennessee. Little Bird follows him but he sends her away. She's later beaten and raped by two jerks. Billy meets up with Tennessee who’s struck pay dirt. Billy finds the rapists and kills them. 

Later Wild Bill Hickok (Robert Dix) arrives for his showdown but Billy denies being the infamous outlaw and Wild Bill believes him. Their showdown doesn't happen, much to the chagrin of the town. After Billy kills a 15 year old who draws on him the whole town turns against him. Tennessee and Little Bird ride to the reservation and Dad and some of the tribe go to save Billy but they are too late. Billy is hanged and they even kill the preacher who tried to save him.

It’s amazing how Arch can get that huge out of place head of hair under an ordinary cowboy hat! Harvey B. Dunn (BRIDE OF THE MONSTER) appears in an un-billed role as a bartender. 

Director James Landis (who co-wrote the screenplay with Arch Sr.) had previously directed Arch Jr. in the incredible THE SADIST and the forgettable THE NASTY RABBIT but this low budget western isn't much. It was Arch Jr.'s last role for many many years.

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Soundtrack By Zappa

RUN HOME,SLOW-1965-This weird black and white western concerns the dysfunctional Hager family in Pebble Springs and the havoc that ensues after the townspeople hang their father. The small family unit is made up of tough vengeance driven daughter Nell (Mercedes McCambridge) and her two brothers, Ritt (Gary Kent) and Kirby (Allan Richards), a hunchback and extended family member, the nitwit Julie Ann (Linda Gaye Scott), Ritt’s wife (she uses a parasol). After robbing a bank they kill the Gately family blaming the father for leading the lynching. In the ensuing battle their horses get away and they lose their money. With only a burro they wander through the desert, find the lost money and argue about having no water. Ritt seems to have been mortally wounded in the gun battle but goes with them anyway. Nell talks to dead dad and abuses the dipshit Julie Ann (she deserves it). They continue to wander after digging for water fails. Although it actually works but they don't realize it. They come upon a dilapidated old house and settle in. Kirby kills their burro for food and Julie finds a white dress (while whining in the desert she wished for one). Everyone acts crazy. Julie Ann and Kirby have sex in a barn where the dead mule is rotting. Ritt seems to be dying constantly and Nell admits the only reason she wanted her brother to marry Julie Ann is so the could have a child and keep their screwed up bloodline going. When Julie Ann runs away, Nell sends Kirby to kill her. Meanwhile the still dying Ritt realizes what's going and denounces his whole family, Nell in particular. He demands she go out and stop the killing. Too late. Although Kirby loses his nerve at putting an axe in Julie Ann’s back, he winds up strangling her. While lifting her dead body the poor lug falls on his ax. However he has enough strength to carry Julie back to house and die in front of Nell. Then somehow the dying Ritt manages to hang himself leaving Nell the last of the Hagers. She runs into the desert. 

Today the only reason most people want to see this minimalist parable western is for the soundtrack by the pre-Mothers of Invention founder Frank Zappa. The film was written and produced by Don Cervaris, one of Zappa's high school teachers. The director of this annoying talk-fest was Tim Brenner, a guy who never directed another movie. He must of suspected something was up. He hides behind the pseudonym Tim Sullivan in the credits (he also plays Mr. Gately who's killed at the beginning of the story). Linda Scott Gaye had small roles in TV shows before and after this but actor Allen Richards never made another movie appearance before or since. Both his and Scott's acting resembles a school play! Gary Kent would go to make movies for Al Adamson, TV Mikels and co-star in a lot of low budget features. His acting here is ok but it takes him the whole movie to die which becomes increasingly frustrating as the movie wears on. I've done some research on lead actress Mercedes McCambridge who won a best supporting actress Oscar in 1949 for ALL THE KING'S MEN. She appeared in high profile movies like GIANT, SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER and JOHNNY GUITAR and wound up in RUN HOME,SLOW.! I've read she battled alcoholism in the '60's and went through a messy divorce. She was later known for having dubbed Linda Blair's demon voice in THE EXORCIST (and had to sue to get credit). A few years after RUN she was in JUSTINE for director Jess Franco. Future director and actor Bud Cardos was on the production staff and has a small role. The soundtrack by FZ has much of the themes he used later on “Burnt Weeny Sandwich” and “Lumpy Gravy”.

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Bad Sheriff

THE BROKEN LAND-1962-In the late 1870's Will Brocious (Jack Nicholson) is being held in jail because his father was an outlaw. Sheriff Cogan (Kent Taylor) is a hard nose operator (he's kind of like a character from a Jim Thompson novel) who's own deputy (Jody McCrea) questions his methods. A dumb guy named Billy (Gary Sneed) is thrown in with Will after being caught stealing a necklace he wanted to give to a local waitress Mavera (Diana Darrin). Dunson (Robert Sampson) is a grouchy guy who gets into a fight with Cogan (an obvious double). Mavera helps the trio escape before she leaves town (Cogan ran her out). Later the guys “rescue” her from a stagecoach and high tail it across the desert with the sheriff in hot pursuit. When his deputy rebels Cogan shoots him and goes after the quartet. He brings them back, killing Billy in the process. Later they expose the sheriff for the no good Union scumbag he is. 

Director John Bushelman was mainly an editor (such as CAT-WOMEN OF THE MOON and several Burt Gordon movies ). 

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