With 635 television episodes, 480 radio shows and five movies, no other series in any genre has equaled the longevity of Gunsmoke. And to fans who...
Clearing the Gunsmoke
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Western Movies
Rescued From Oblivion— The Forsaken Westerns
A Western TV fan stumbling upon the Forsaken Westerns Channel on YouTube might well conclude that they’d entered an alternative universe. Here, Fess...
Morgan Woodward
Actor Morgan Woodward is known for many things, most of them unpleasant: he’s so good at playing bad that, “although it was an unwritten law that no...
Max Evans in Hollywood
"Ol’ Tony Hillerman told me one time, ‘Max, you know, if you option a novel, you’ve got to hope they don’t make the movie. Because then you can’t...
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
The new Netflix Western anthology film from Joel and Ethan Coen, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, is the best Western comedy since 1969’s Blazing...
More than Animal House
Despite 183 acting credits, two Emmy nominations and no signs of slowing down, the suave and funny actor Tim Matheson will be forever remembered as...
DVD Review: Dawson City Duo
Those Redheads from Seattle (Kino Lorber; $19.95); Dawson City: Frozen Time (Kino Lorber; $29.95 and pictured above). A perfect pairing: two movies...
DVD Review: The Hanging Tree
“Sluice robber!” With that bellow, and a well-aimed shot, Frenchy (Karl Malden) and a Montana boomtown mob take after the thief (Ben Piazza). He’s...
Sitting Bull’s Gal
The primary job of the biographical Western Woman Walks Ahead, starring Jessica Chastain, Michael Greyeyes and Sam Rockwell, is to entertain. It...
Still Blasting Away
Six decades ago this September 30, a Western series premiered, starring a ballplayer-turned-actor and a one-season Mouseketeer as father-and-son...
A Bad Bad Man
Scott Martin has been cautiously optimistic about the future of Western films: “Until this resurgence, there hasn’t been the appetite for them. But...
DVD Review: The Durango Kid Collection
From 1945 to 1952, Charles Starrett played undercover hero the Durango Kid in 65 hugely popular Columbia Pictures B-Westerns. Unseen for decades, a...