Here’s a red/green 3-D image from The Command (1954) which was shot in two separate versions (with completely different takes and compositions) — 3-D non-anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen and CinemaScope anamorphic 2.55:1 (2-D) widescreen.
The Command was only released to theaters flat, usually in CineamScope. The left side of the 3-D negative was edited and used for the flat release and 16mm prints. If the right side is still around, a 3-D release is possible! (Let’s hope!)
The Warner Archive DVD of The Command presents the CinemaScope version. It’d be great to see this make it to Blu-Ray, especially if the 3-D could be worked out. And while you’re at it Warner Archive, how about The Bounty Hunter (1954)?
Here’s a 3-D image from The Command, courtest of The 3-D Archive. More info here.
I’ve been meaning to post about this for some time — but you know, stuff gets in the way of stuff.
Kathryn Jones’ biography of Ben Johnson, Tall In The Saddle: The Life of Ben Johnson, Hollywood’s Real Cowboy, will be available in March from The University Press Of Mississippi.
Click on the cover (above) for the Amazon pre-order link. And if you ask me, putting Wagonmaster (1950) on the cover was absolutely the correct choice!
Imprint has announced The Magnificent Seven Collection, a new five-disc set of The Magnificent Seven (1960) and its three sequels, limited to just 1,500 copies.
The original is included on both 4K Blu-ray and Blu-ray, with the three sequels on Blu-ray. Return Of The Seven (1966) will feature a (magnificent?) commentary by yours truly.
The Magnificent Seven (1960) Directed by John Sturges Starring Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, Brad Dexter, James Coburn, Horst Buchholz, Eli Wallach
Return Of The Seven (1966) Directed by Burt Kennedy (below, with Yul Brynner) Starring Yul Brynner, Robert Fuller, Warren Oates, Claude Akins, Emilio Fernández, Fernando Rey
Guns Of The Magnificent Seven (1969) Directed by Paul Wendkos Starring George Kennedy, Monte Markham, Bernie Casey, James Whitmore, Reni Santoni, Joe Don Baker, Fernando Rey, Michael Ansara
The Magnificent Seven Ride! (1972) Directed by George McCowan Starring Lee Van Cleef, Stefanie Powers, Michael Callan, Pedro Armendáriz Jr., Luke Askew
Imprint’s boxed sets are a jewel in anybody’s collection, and this one will be no different. There are a ton of extras — trailers, commentaries, interviews, etc. — and each film is presented in stereo surround and the original mono. Coming in March. Recommended!
Directed by Harry Keller Produced by Gordon Kay Written by Burt Kennedy Director Of Photography: Maury Gertsman, ASC Film Editor: Aaron Stell, ACE Music Supervision by Joseph Gershenson
Cast: Audie Murphy (Ben Lane), Dan Duryea (Frank Jesse), Joan O’Brien (Kelly), George Wallace (Will Boone), Roy Barcroft (Mustanger), Bob Steele (Puncher), Henry Wills (Indian leader), Phil Chambers (Undertaker) Charlita Regis (Mexican dancer), Dale Van Sickel
Let’s kick off 2026 with a look at a solid contender for my favorite video release of 2025 — Via Vision’s Blu-Ray of the Audie Murphy picture Six Black Horses (1962), paired with The Wild And The Innocent (1959).
I’ve spent plenty of time on this blog (and in commentaries) championing Murphy’s last pictures for Universal International — a run of seven low-budget Westerns produced by Gordon Kay. They’ve been done dirty over the years, often dismissed as “serviceable” and “routine.” A couple of them, Hell Bent For Leather and Seven Ways From Sundown (both 1960), have been singled out, but they all have something to recommend them.
You can tell that the budgets have shriveled up a bit — they only cost around $500,000 to $600,000 each. But the films themselves are quite good, thanks to solid direction, tight scripts, fabulous casts and gorgeous location photography.
This time around, Ben Lane (Murphy) and Frank Jesse (Dan Duryea) are hired by Kelly (Joan O’Brien) to escort her through Apache territory to meet up with her husband.
Well, that’s what she says she’s hiring them for.
Written by Burt Kennedy just a couple years after the last of the Budd Boetticher/Randolph Scott Ranown pictures, Six Black Horses has that lean, mean, efficiency that Kennedy was knocking out so effortlessly back then. (I may be way off base here, but I think there are echoes of Six Black Horses in Monte Hellman’s 1966 The Shooting.)
The small cast is excellent, the dialogue is good and most of the picture takes place outdoors, which is a great way to expand a tight budget. It was shot in Utah and just outside of Las Vegas — and in the same section of the U-I backlot used for Curse Of The Undead (1959).
Audie’s supported in this one by Dan Duryea, Roy Barcroft and Bob Steele. George Wallace, Commando Cody in Radar Men From The Moon (1952), is despicable as a scalp hunter who’s got the Apaches all stirred up.
Joan O’Brien — who worked with the likes of John Wayne, Cary Grant, Tony Curtis, Elvis and Jerry Lewis — has a good role here, given more to do than just look pretty. (Ms. O’Brien passed away in 2025.)
Audie befriends a dog early in the film and he tags along for the rest of the 80 minutes. He’s such a pretty dog; I’m assuming he’s a mixed breed. Dogs can be annoying in movies, but not here.
For decades, it was hard to see Six Black Horses. I saw a faded 16mm print of it over 30 years ago (Six Pink Horses?) and used to have a sorry-looking bootleg VHS of it. The fine folks at Via Vision have thankfully rectified this situation.
Via Vision has done a tremendous job with Six Black Horses. It’s an excellent transfer, sharp as a tack with the Eastman Color dialed in just right and perfect 1.85 framing. They didn’t go overboard with the cleanup — there’s a speck of dust here and there, a line or two, even some changeover cues. To me, that’s a good thing. Such “artifacts” are part of the movie-watching experience, or at least they used to be, and I miss ’em.
There are no extras for this film, or for the accompanying The Wild And The Innocent (that looks just as good). The single-disc set, called Audie Murphy: Double Feature Collection One, is Region Free and the price is excellent. Collection Two consists of Joe Butterfly (1957) and The Texican (1966).
It’s so easy to recommend Six Black Horses. I’ve been evangelizing about these movies for years now. It’s just as easy to recommend this Blu-Ray, which presents a couple of terrific movies in tip-top condition — at a collector-friendly price. As I mentioned up top, this is one of my favorite releases of 2025. Go get it!
Sat down this morning with a cup of coffee, a slice of mincemeat pie and a big chunk of the book this blog’s named after, 50 Westerns From The 50s. And with the year coming to an end, it kinda made sense to let y’all know what’s going on with this thing.
Started working on 50 Westerns From The 50s in August of 2009. This blog cranked up a couple months later. I had absolutely no idea that 16 years later, I’d still be working on this thing. Embarrassing.
But it’s getting close. Every chapter’s been written; some are more written than others. Have more than the prescribed 50 Westerns, giving me the chance to ditch some things that don’t make the grade. There are a handful of things needing more research, and I’m still trying to track down a better copy of one film.
There’s a target publishing date, but I’m not gonna share it just yet. Missed enough of them already. I’ve put all my other writing things on hold till this one’s done. Juggling three movie books and a rather lame attempt at a novel doesn’t move anything along too quickly.
Thank you for your patience along the way. I hope it’ll be worth the wait.
After a way-too-long hiatus, here’s the fifth episode of The Carbon Arc Podcast. This time, Western author Scott McCrea (writer of the Ezra Flint series, among others) and I discuss and contrast (and profess our love of) the 1936 version of 3 Godfathers, directed by Richard Boleslawski, and the 1948 John Ford version starring John Wayne.
These are terrific movies to watch around the holidays. And they were a lot of fun to talk about.
Marie Windsor (December 11, 1919 – December 10, 2000)
My favorite actress, the lovely Marie Windsor, was born 106 years ago today.
Emily Marie Bertelsen was born in Utah and went to Brigham Young University. She headed for Hollywood in 1939 and studied acting at Maria Ouspenskaya’s school. Around this time, she started using the name Marie Windsor.
Marie worked on radio, was a telephone operator and did lots of bit parts before getting a really good role in Force Of Evil (1948) with John Garfield. A string of noirs and Westerns followed: Hellfire (1949), The Fighting Kentuckian (1949), The Showdown (1950), The Sniper (1952), The Narrow Margin (1952, on its way to Blu-Ray), The Bounty Hunter (1954), Abbott & Costello Meet The Mummy (1955), The Killing (1956), Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971) and The Outfit (1973). She was on TV in shows like Cheyenne, Maverick, Perry Mason, Rawhide, Batman and Adam-12.
Not that this ad for Utah Tailoring Mills plugs Hellfire.
On May 31, 1958, the Trail Drive-In in Sarasota, Florida, got creative and booked a “Big Western Show” featuring six pictures with “Gun” in the title. Their resulting “Gun Roundup” offers up a pretty solid night of 50s Westerns:
The Stranger Wore A Gun (1953) Directed by Andre de Toth Starring Randolph Scott, Claire Trevor, Joan Weldon, George Macready, Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine
Top Gun (1955) Directed by Ray Nazarro Starring Sterling Hayden, William Bishop, Karin Booth, James Millican, Regis Toomey, Hugh Sanders, John Dehner, Rod Taylor
Gunslinger (1956) Directed by Roger Corman Starring Beverly Garland, John Ireland, Allison Hayes
Gun The Man Down (1956) Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen Starring James Arness, Angie Dickinson, Emile Meyer, Robert J. Wilke, Harry Carey, Jr., Don Megowan
That’s six hours well spent. Would’ve loved to have been there! (By the way, you can recreate this bill with your DVD and Blu-Ray collection!)
Directed by Jacques Tourneur Starring Joel McCrea, Miroslava, John McIntire, Kevin McCarthy, Nancy Gates, John Carradine
Jacques Tourneur’s Stranger On Horseback (1955) starring Joel McCrea is a Western considered pretty much lost until Kit Parker sorted out and bought the rights — and tracked down what is probably the only surviving 35mm color print (hiding at the BFI).
This new Stranger On Horseback will be a huge improvement over the old DVD. The supplements include a mini-documentary, Thunder In The Saddle: The Making Of Stranger On Horseback; an audio commentary by some dude named Toby Roan; the theatrical trailer; and image galleries that include production photos, the original shooting script, posters, lobby cards and more.
UPDATE: The release date is December 16. Get ready, folks!
50 Westerns From The 50s.