Recent content by Bert Greene

Just received in the mail this week a great new coffee-table book, "The Art of the Classic Western Movie Poster," put together by Ed Hulse. It's a real beauty, depicting something like 800 one-sheet movie posters, from the earliest beginnings of western films to the early-1970s. Gorgeous...

I'm rather craving to see the Hoppy films in hi-def. So many of these sport that marvelous Lone Pine scenery which should look so stunning. The old Echo Bridge dvd's are older transfers, and they crammed five films per disc leading to some compression issues which diminished their visual...

Although more minor-league, let's not leave out "End of the Trail" (1932-Col), with Tim McCoy. It still backs a bit of a punch, in showing the Indians getting a raw deal. I thought things couldn't get worse for Noah Beery in "The Vanishing American" (1925-Par), when he gets an arrow...

Sounds like it would be a fun experience. Wish the Warner Archive could release some more of those Vitaphone collections, by the way. They could be wildly hit-or-miss (with some being pretty groan-inducing), but they are fascinating historical artifacts, capturing on film a lot of early...

Managed to watch another western I'd never seen before, "Arizona Mahoney" (1936-Par), one of Paramount's long running series of films based on Zane Grey stories, which they made throughout the 1930s (and even earlier, in the silents). This was always an above-par series of westerns, made on...

Good news, and I hope we can get it on blu sometime soon. I still have my old Turner-era 1989 VHS release, and definitely need an upgrade. I do love the film, which is funny, as I've always been one to somewhat bemoan the 'psychological western.' Primarily the often overdone examples in the...

As I didn't officially sign up for the Challenge, I'm fully aware that I'm ineligible for the $50,000 prize drawing at the end of the month. But since I did manage to watch a western yesterday that I'd never seen before, I thought I'd throw in my thoughts. It was an early-talkie Hoot Gibson...

Looks like William Bakewell on bottom right. More of a longshot, but could second from left on bottom be Jackie Coogan?

Hmm, I don't think I'm too keen on the name "Outlaws Network" either. Sounds like the kind of enterprise a slicked-up Roy Barcroft would be heading, while sending his henchmen Kenne Duncan and Bud Geary out at night to rob the safe at the headquarters of the Hallmark Channel. Referencing...

Nice news about "The Woman Who Came Back" (1945-Rep). The mod-dvd of it from Films Around the World (Mr. Fat-W) was pretty raggedy, as I recall. Also great about "Black Moon" (1934-Col). First saw it screened at a Cinecon many years back, when it was quite a rarity. Dorothy Burgess is a real...

Continuing to gallivant around Republic Pictures' odds-and-ends, I came to "G.I. War Brides" (1946-Rep), starring Anna Lee, Jimmy Ellison, and William Henry. It was a pretty decent little confection from the studio. The plot involved Brit gal Anna Lee illegally taking the guise of a war bride...

Speaking of "California Passage" (1950-Rep) brings us to Estelita Rodriguez, doesn't it? She was in a heck of a lot of Roy Rogers westerns, but at Republic she also had her own little series of starring comedy-musical vehicles: 1. BELLE OF OLD MEXICO (1950) w. Robert Rockwell 2. CUBAN...

Referencing that "Wild Bill Hickok" lobby-card above, has anyone ever seen any of those ersatz movies that Monogram/Allied Artists released, each culled from two tv-episodes of the series? There were 16 in all, released to theaters. It probably made some financial sense to put these things...

I gather this is going to be from the American cut of the film, as well as from 35mm, via that recent restoration. It's certainly good news! I'd really like to see this film in improved quality, as it's visually quite exciting.

To amend something I mentioned in my previous post, I'm now leaning to believe that producer Anthony J. Xydias was indeed involved in those two 1935 Noah Beery Jr. indies. Although he wasn't as active as he'd been in the 1920s, Xydias did have that "Heroes of the Alamo" (1937) release, starring...