Darn Good Westerns Vol. 2

6 movies/2 DVDs

SHOTGUN: Sterling Hayden challenges the fury of the untamed west with a shotgun in this gritty outdoor drama. He’s a deputy who vows to avenge the murder of a marshal and hits the vengeance trail, encountering half-breed Yvonne DeCarlo and bounty hunter Zachary Scott. Tracking the killer leads into Indian country, where they are captured by redmen who pit Hayden and his quarry against each other in a shotgun duel. Harrison’s Reports hailed this Technicolor Western as “fast, exciting and interesting … it holds [the viewer] in tense suspense.”  1955 | 80 min | Color | 1.85:1/widescreen | NR

MASSACRE: Indian treachery leads to tragedy in this made-on-location Western adventure with Dane Clark and James Craig as officers of the law who lead a small group of men into “redmen” territory to investigate reports of guns being sold to unfriendly Yaqui Indians. Every arrow screams death in an unexpected finale. 1956 | 76 min | Color | 1.85:1/widescreen | NR

THREE DESPARATE MEN: Deputies Preston Foster and Jim Davis save their brother Ross Latimer from hanging for a crime he didn’t commit, but a guard is killed in the fracas and this makes all three hunted criminals. Now living to defy the law instead of defend it, they rob a train and then brazenly attempt a one-of-a-kind double-holdup. 1951 |72 min | 1.33:1 | NR

OUTLAW WOMEN: Meet the babes who shoot to thrill and make the coyotes howl! In this offbeat Western yarn, the town of Las Mujertes is run by women and controlled by saloon owner Marie Windsor, but male visitors (including Jackie Coogan as a gunslinger!) create complications. 1952 | 75 min | Color | 1.37:1 | NR

DEPUTY MARSHAL: Wrongly suspected of murder, deputy marshal Jon Hall devises a plan to draw all the actual suspects (including Dick Foran and Russell Hayden) out into the open and prove which one of them committed murder in order to profit off of the coming railroad line. Hall’s real-life wife, Frances Langford, provides a few songs. “Fast-moving action”—Motion Picture Exhibitor  1949 | 76 min |1.33:1 | NR

FOUR FAST GUNS: Against a backdrop of Arizona landscapes, this offbeat Western spins the yarn of a wanted man (James Craig) who turns unofficial lawman to tame the town of Purgatory–but finds that the main troublemaker is a crippled saloon owner whose infirmity, according to the Western code, keeps him safe from gun justice. Craig becomes the target of a succession of hired leadslingers–including his own brother (Brett Halsey). Who is the FASTEST of the Four Fast Guns? 1959 | 72 min | B&W | 2.35:1/Cinemascope | NR