AGES 9-11: Like his real-life namesake, Billy Bonney is a charming young man with a hair trigger temper and quick reflexes with a .44. But fact and...
Billy the Kid
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Articles
The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid
We can thank The Assassination of Jesse James for the long-overdue DVD release of Philip Kaufman’s brilliant James Gang movie, released in 1972....
Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa
AGES 4-8: This darling tale about the importance of friendship, split into four mini-chapters, is a helpful introduction for children beginning to...
Ford at Fox at Last
I promised you an update on Ford at Fox, and here it is. Fox has packaged 24 of the silents and talkies John Ford directed for Fox, where he worked...
Searchers 2.0
Mel (Del Zamora) and Fred (Ed Pansullo) have it in for Fritz Frobisher (Sy Richardson) who they’ve never forgiven for his unkind efforts to make the...
A Hex Upon You
DC comic hero Jonah Hex is going to hit the big screen in his current Horror-Western incarnation, which means he’ll be fighting demons or zombies or...
The First Films of Samuel Fuller
Sam Fuller made his first movie about a sullen loser, Robert Ford, instead of a two-fisted hero, a singing cowboy or an outlaw. Lucky for Fuller, I...
The Curse of Idolatry
Jesse James stands on a frozen pond. Through the ice, he can see the carp swimming inches below the surface. He asks his friend if he ever...
Grass Valley, California
Located in the heart of California’s Gold Country, Grass Valley was once a small settlement of fortune hunters who arrived just after the Gold Rush...
Can’t Kick the Boot Addiction
Hello, my name’s Johnny (yes, Johnny; it’s on my birth certificate), and I’m an addict. Not booze, gambling or anything illegal. But it is a serious...
Dude Ranching at an Outlaw Haunt
I take a deep breath and stare at the glacier-capped Wind River Mountains. My quarter horse Hank has probably seen this view a hundred times, but he...
Letters From the Corrugated Castle
AGES 10-14: Fictionalized corres-pondences to and from a girl, Eldora, living in Gold Rush California from 1850-1852 provide the narrative of this...