Movies

Abilene Town (1946)

A fearless lawman (Randolph Scott) stands between unruly cattlemen and a group of determined homesteaders as the two factions vie for control of the government land bordering the town.

Stagecoach (1939)

John Ford directs this classic western about a group of strangers on their way through dangerous Apache territory, including an alcoholic doctor, a prostitute run out of town and a captured fugitive, played by John Wayne in his breakthrough role.

Angel and the Badman (1947), starring John Wayne

Angel and the Badman is a 1947 American Western film written and directed by James Edward Grant and starring John Wayne, Gail Russell, Harry Carey and Bruce Cabot. The film is about an injured gunfighter who is nursed back to health by a Quaker girl and her family whose way of life influences him and his violent ways. Angel and the Badman was the first film Wayne produced as well as starred in, and was a departure for this genre at the time it was released. Writer-director James Edward Grant was Wayne’s frequent screenwriting collaborator.
In 1975, the film entered the public domain in the USA due to the copyright claimants failure to renew the copyright registration in the 28th year after publication.

The Big Trees, 1952 Western film starring Kirk Douglas

The Big Trees is a 1952 Western film starring Kirk Douglas and directed by Felix E. Feist. It was Kirk Douglas’s final film for Warner Brothers, a film he did for free in exchange for the studio agreeing to release him from his long-term contract.

The film has fallen into the public domain. Douglas plays a greedy timber baron who seeks to exploit the Sequoia forest, while facing the protest of the Quaker colonists.

Vengeance Valley, 1951 western starring Burt Lancaster

Vengeance Valley is a 1951 American western film starring Burt Lancaster and based on the novel by Luke Short. In 1979, the film entered the public domain due to the failure of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to renew the copyright registration in the 28th year after the movies’ publication. The picture was directed by Richard Thorpe with a supporting cast featuring Robert Walker, Joanne Dru, Sally Forrest, John Ireland and Ray Collins.

Plot:
Fifteen years ago, wealthy but crippled Colorado cattleman Arch Strobie (Ray Collins), whose own son Lee (Robert Walker) was wild, took in young Owen Daybright (Burt Lancaster) as a foster son to help raise and control Lee. Now Owen is ranch foreman, but Lee, despite being married to Jen (Joanne Dru), is wilder than ever.

Unmarried Lily Fasken (Sally Forrest) gives birth but refuses to identify the father. After Owen gives Lily $500 to help care for the baby, her brothers Hub (John Ireland) and Dick (Hugh O’Brian) believe that he is the guilty party, but they are unaware that Owen has done this on Lee’s behalf. The brothers try to beat up Owen and he lodges a complaint against them. Sentenced to a week in jail, they vow to get even as soon as they’re out.

When Arch chides Lee for overdrawing his bank account by withdrawing $500 in gold, Jen realizes that Lee fathered Lily’s baby. She confronts him and Lee tries to lie his way out. She decides to leave him but is persuaded by Owen and Arch to stay. Lee inveigles Arch to make him a partner in the ranch by saying that he will strike out on his own unless he gets a half-interest; he gets what he wants and learns that the other half will go to Owen, once Arch retires or dies.

Jen locks Lee out of their bedroom. He gets drunk, mistakenly believing she and Owen are carrying on behind his back. He schemes to get rid of Owen and make a fortune at the same time by conspiring with Hub and Dick to ambush Owen during the spring cattle roundup. On the trail, Lee secretly sells 3,000 head of the cattle, intending to run off with it, but Owen learns of the plan.

Lee pretends to change his mind. He persuades Owen to ride in with him to stop the sale, but in fact he lures Owen into a trap. Hub and Dick, waiting in ambush, wound Owen as Lee casually rides away. In the ensuing gunfight, Owen Kills Dick. Hearing shots, a group of trailhands ride to Owen’s rescue. They chase down and shoot Hub. Owen catches up with Lee and tells him that they are both going to confess everything to Arch. Lee refuses and draws his gun, forcing Owen to kill him. Owen breaks the news to Arch and Jen.

McLintock!, 1963 starring John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara

McLintock! is a 1963 American western comedy film, starring John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara, directed by Andrew V. McLaglen. The film co-stars Wayne’s son Patrick Wayne, Stefanie Powers, Jack Kruschen, Chill Wills and Yvonne DeCarlo (billed as “Special Guest Star”). Loosely based on William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, the project was filmed in Technicolor and Panavision and produced by Wayne’s company Batjac Productions.

Plot:
Cattle, timber and mining baron George Washington “G.W.” McLintock (John Wayne) is living the single life on his ranch. He is estranged from wife Katherine (Maureen O’Hara), who left him two years before, suspecting him of adultery. She has been living the society life back East while their daughter Becky (Stefanie Powers) is completing her college degree.

Following a meeting with a group of homesteaders whom he cautions against trying to farm on the Mesa Verde:

“God made that land for the buffalo. It serves pretty well for cattle. But it hates the plow! And even the government should know you can’t farm six thousand feet above sea level!”

He hires one of them, attractive widow Louise Warren (Yvonne De Carlo), as his cook and housekeeper. G.W. welcomes both her and her two children into his home, including grown son Dev (Patrick Wayne), who is handy with his fists, good with cattle, and is an excellent chess player, who had to leave Purdue University on the death of his father.

Katherine (a.k.a. Katie), returns to the town of McLintock, seeking a divorce from G.W. He declines to give her one, and has no idea why she has been so angry with him for two years that she moved out.

Following a misunderstanding which leads to a Comanche subchief nearly being lynched by a hotheaded settler father who believes his daughter has been kidnapped, there is a gigantic brawl at the mud slide by one of McLintock’s mines. Significantly, Katherine is in there swinging on her estranged husband’s side as the local Indians watch the white folks make fools of themselves.

Rebecca “Becky” McLintock returns to town, along with her banjo-playing love interest, “Junior” Douglas (Jerry Van Dyke). Junior is approved of by Katherine but not G.W. However, she soon falls for Dev (of whom G.W. approves wholeheartedly), and they become engaged after he takes her across his knee and spanks her with a coal shovel following a sharp exchange between them. When they announce the engagement, G.W. and Mrs. Warren both give their blessings.

The same train that brought Becky home from college also brought back Chief Puma of the Comanche tribe, an honored enemy and blood brother of G.W., who has been released from prison by the federal government. The territorial governor is out to force the local Comanche tribe off their lands and onto a reservation near Fort Sill.

At the request of Chief Puma, McLintock acts as the spokesman for the Comanche, translating Puma’s speech into English at the kangaroo court hearing organized by Governor Humphrey. The governor announces that the Indians will be moved to Oklahoma, and Chief Puma and his subchiefs are imprisoned again. With the illicit help of G.W., a breakout is arranged and an Army train is looted of a cargo of Krag-Jorgenson rifles and ammunition. The Comanche head out on what Puma had called “the last fight of the Comanche,” hotly pursued by the local troop of U.S. Cavalry. This has the effect of bringing what Humphrey and Agard, the local Indian agent, have been doing to the attention of Washington. It is implied that both will shortly be removed from office.

At the Fourth of July celebration during which the Comanche breakout takes place, McLintock finally has enough of Katherine’s behavior. Following one insult too many, G.W. pursues Katherine through the streets and shops of the town like Nemesis, Katherine losing her clothing one piece at a time until she is down to her corset and bloomers. After an epic chase, he finally catches her, spanks her bottom with a coal shovel, and tells her that now she can have her divorce. She decides she doesn’t want a divorce after all, and G.W. and Katherine happily reconcile.

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cinevault westernsCINEVAULT Westerns — Kick off your spurs and hitch a ride back to the Old West with CINEVAULT Westerns, featuring iconic, action-packed films from Columbia Pictures. Hallmark Movies & More — Hallmark Movies & More is your home for movies, series & specials from the Hallmark library.