1969 - YOUNG BILLY YOUNG - a rather tired Western

Young Billy Young was released the same year as Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch and these two films certainly are a contrast in where the state of the western film was at this time. One of the themes of the  Peckinpah film involves the end of the west as the authorities hunt a gang of outlaws who have probably lived and robbed past their time.  On the other hand,  Young Billy Young is almost an attempt to keep pumping out the same type of western film the public had been watching for years.  It is singularly lacking in any kind of interest or excitement

Robert Mitchum brings whatever authority that he can as a lawman out for revenge on a gang who killed his son. Haven't ever seen that plot before :)  Angie Dickinson is "the hooker with the heart of gold."  Robert Walker Jr. was in Easy Rider of all things.  He's the young kid who the lawman reforms after he shows him the error of his ways.

The writer and director was Burt Kennedy who at his best was usually pretty good at spoofing the western genre.  Here he doesn't seem to have worked up much enthusiasm or energy for this story.  The film moves along from one obvious scene to another.  The film is actually rather nice to look at, it has some decent photography and runs about 90 minutes.

 

Robert Mitchum sings the title tune of this film, probably the only thing interesting about this dud.

1969 - THE GOOD GUYS AND THE BAD GUYS, an out of it Western.

The director Burt Kennedy had some experience mixing comedy and drama in the Western genre but by the 1960's Sergio Leone and his many contemporaries had redefined the traditional western with the "Spaghetti" western.  The Good Guys and the Bad Guys seemed really old fashioned and checked out with contemporary trends in this genre.

The film has a surprisingly decent cast with actors such as Robert Mitchum, George Kennedy, Martin Balsam, David Carradine and Lois Nettleton.  Exactly how they got roped into this would probably make a more interesting story then this by the numbers plot of a former sheriff and bank robber teaming up to stop a train robbery.

The film has a decent train robbery action scene towards end and the photography and location filming in Colorado are the only things the film has going for it.

Really not much of a film.

91 minutes, written by Ronald M. Cohen and Dennis Shryak.

1967 - THE WAR WAGON, John Wayne, Kirk Douglas

Here's an oddball John Wayne film.  The War Wagon is one of those big caper films where a team is assembled and a big heist is planned and executed to a carefully constructed plan.  This film is unusual in that it's set in the west and has John Wayne and Kirk Douglas as it's stars.

Clair Huffaker who had been responsible for writing one of Wayne's worst films, Hellfighters wrote the screenplay but it was director Burt Kennedy's supposed uncredited rewrite that saved the film.  Kennedy apparently added the humor to the film which really upped the entertainment value of The War Wagon. 

As with Robert Mitchum in El Dorado, John Wayne works very well with a strong actor like Kirk Douglas.  Wayne couldn't push a personality like Douglas around unlike a lot of actors who he easily dominated.  Douglas is as good at hogging a scene as John Wayne is. At this stage in his career John Wayne would no longer play love scenes with leading ladies because he felt he was age inappropriate.  However he and Kirk Douglas definitely have a love hate romance going on throughout the film which is highly entertaining. 

Although there was an attempt to try something new plot wise in a Wayne western, it's still a Wayne western.  The audience gets a saloon fight, gunfights, and Indian fights although none of it is taken very seriously. 

This film is probably how audiences liked John Wayne best, in undemanding entertainments, which is what The War Wagon is, nothing wrong with that.

96 minutes.

1973 - THE TRAIN ROBBERS - another late career John Wayne film

Pretty mellow, laid back western probably a little more mellow and laid back then is should be. 

Duke is the leader of a group of gunfighters who are hired by a widow to bring back some gold that her dead husband stole from Welles Fargo.  Wayne and his gang head to Mexico pursued by another gang of outlaws determined to get the gold from them.  

Burt Kennedy was the writer/director and his specialty was this type of small scale western.  Kennedy had written the best of Budd Boetticher's Randolph Scott westerns so he knew how to take a basic story and situation like this and spin it with a few different variations. 

The cast was pretty good starting with Rod Taylor and Ben Johnson as Wayne's old civil war cronies.  Ann Margaret played the widow and she looks kind of weird with her Las Vegas hooker/showgirl makeup and hairstyle.  She's supposed to be the focus of the story but she really doesn't have much to do and at times it seems like she's barely in the film.  Wayne does his usual good job playing his typical western character.   

Probably the best thing about The Train Robbers is the photography by William H. Clothier.  The film looks very good and a lot of the compositions are really stunning and clear.

92 comfortable minutes.