Westerns > Universal Westerns

John Wayne Does Comedy!

Advantages: Good story, good acting, some good funny bots
Disadvantages: John Wayne!

John Wayne and Comedy are not 2 words which I would have associated together but in this film he has actually tried to play a comedy role. I hate to admit it but he actually did a decent job!. Sam, John Wayne and George, Stewart Granger, are best friends who have struck it rich n the gold mines in Alaska. The men return to their town millionaires and now George thinks that it is time to go and fetch his sweetheart Jennie who is waiting for him is ...
...is needed to stay at the mines but when Sam arrives in Seattle he finds that in the 3 years Jennie has been waiting for George she has already married someone else. Sam makes a hard decision as he meets a French lady in a dancing club and decides that he will take her as a replacement bride for George. Will George like his new lady or will Sam become too close to her on their long journey back to Alaska? The storyline to this film really is very ...

sewbizzie 24.08.2009 · Read full review
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Review of North To Alaska (DVD)

The Ladies take charge

Advantages: Curtis, Ron Silver and the great shootouts.
Disadvantages: Lack of any extras and some of the dialogue.

Kathryn Bigelow followed her Western Vampire Near Dark (1987) with this film noir/slasher. Both films share the same cool style but the action is now relocated to the urban environment rather than the desert. This film follows disgraced rookie cop Megan Turner (Jamie Lee Curtis) is implicated in a series of murders around New York. Meanwhile her lover, Eugene (Ron Silver) begins to act strangely. Curtis gives a good performance as Megan a brave ...
...of implications which we are left to imagine especially in the scenes where she asked why she became a cop. Ron Silver turns in a very creepy performance as a commodities broker who is increasingly unhinged. The character aside from being good at romancing Megan shares characteristics with many slasher movie monsters. Clancy Brown this role is quite a departure for Brown who is better known for playing the main villain Highlander and the drill sergeant ...

Pa8ax 29.05.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Blue Steel (DVD)

North To Alaska

Advantages: Two big starts doing comedy
Disadvantages: Can be slow in some places

I saw the last 20 minutes of this comedy when it was on TV. I went out and bought the DVD as I have never seen this the whole way through. Glad I did. When watching this film through from start to finish you do get a sense of awe in respects of the production values and the big sets that were used in production. Scenes like the boarding of the ship, the logger contest and the town street scenes all have dozens of extras to fill the screen. Something ...
...computer as a cost saving. The plot is that Stewart Granger plays George Pratt and John Wayne plays Sam McCord with Fabian playing George's brother Billy. Grainger and Wayne are partners, totally 50/50 on everything. They own a mine in Alaska and have hit the big time with the gold rush happening around the turn of the century. As McCord is off to Seattle to source mining machinery and George asks Sam to bring back the love of his life, Jenny who ...

Timbo3107 08.01.2007 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of North To Alaska (DVD)

Chasing Indians!

Advantages: good story, good acting great music
Disadvantages: John Wayne!

...film sees John Wayne playing the role of Ethan Edwards. It s set in Texas in 1868. Ethan returns 3 years after the war has ended to his brothers house and the family. He is pleased to be back but soon finds he is being asked to go and help the local men fight off a gang of Comanche Indians who have been threatening the people who live in the area and killing for no reason. As the men all set off to find the Indians they soon discover than they have ...
...Ethan returns home he finds the house and the family have been killed apart from his two nieces Lucy and Debbie who have been taken hostage by the Comanche Indians. Ethan and his sort of adopted nephew, Pauly, Ethan found him as a baby and sent him to his brothers to be bought up, set off in search of the Indians with the help of some of the local men with the hope of returning with both Lucy and Debbie but the trail is harder than they anticipated. ...

sewbizzie 09.06.2009 · Read full review
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Review of The Searchers (50th Anniversary Edition) (DVD)

John Elder sets out to find the truth

Advantages: Good acting by co-stars, lovely scenery
Disadvantages: Very average performance by J. Wayne

...John Wayne film season continuing the next offering I had to sit through was The Sons of Katie Elder. Hubby says that this is this third favourite John Wayne film so I was expecting quite a lot from it but sadly I was a bit let down. The film see John Wayne playing the role of John Elder. The eldest of 4 brothers. Three of the brothers have met up at the train station in Clearwater to pay their respects at their mothers funeral but the eldest being ...
...but they soon discover that the ranch is now owned by Morgan Hastings. He ‘acquired’ it after the death of the boys father. John is not happy about this and with the help of his brothers sets about finding out just why his mother gave up the land and how the Hastings got their hands on it. John needs to watch his back though as the Hastings have hired a gun hand to watch over them as they are scared of John. Will John and his brothers be able to ...

sewbizzie 14.06.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of The Sons Of Katie Elder (DVD)