My Baby Loves a Western Movie Poster

The Art of the Shoot ‘Em Up🤠

From the bestseller list in 1939 to the big screen in 1941.

Real western art from the likes of Charles M. Russell and Frederic Remington was created at the end of an era that was fading like the steel blue smoke from the tip of a Colt .45. Both artists were romantics. Most of their works were detailed moments, freezing the action around a horse reacting to a rattlesnake, a rider caught in a dark green cloudburst, or a hunting party seeking buffalo at dawn.

Piegans, Charles M. Russell; Rattlesnake, The Stampede, Frederic Remington

As the economy of the Great Depression sank slowly in the early 1930s, the demand for escapism into dark movie houses was as real as the need for whiskey after a long cattle drive. Dorothy hiked to Oz, Busby Berkeley unleashed psychedelic dancers, and Rhett dumped Scarlett and didn’t give a damn.

The rest of the screen time of the 30s and 40s was filled often by what they called “Oaters” (horses eat oats), “Horse Operas” (cowboys who could sing were a triple threat), and “Shoot ‘Em Ups” (he was such a quiet bronco buster). The men were strong and rugged, their cowgirls never got the blues, and the plots were thin as rolling papers.

Tim McCoy (1891-1978) in 1932. He lost in his 1942 bid to be a Wyoming senator, and 48 hours later enlisted for active duty in the Army.

Advice for anyone who might be seeking a glimmer of inclusion. Keep looking. It’s a white man’s white world. Good guys wear white hats, bad guys wear black. African American western heroes before Cleavon Little in the satiric Blazing Saddles (1974) (a film that landed punches on several now-protected groups) or Texan Jamie Foxx in Django Unchained (2012) were as rare as silver bullets. 

In 1964 Cheyenne Autumn became one of the first films concerned with the plight of Native Americans. Marlon Brando’s Oscar for The Godfather (1972) was declined by his representative Sacheen Littlefeather as a protest for Hollywood’s long standing portrayals of Native Americans and to draw attention to a standoff in progress at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. She was roundly booed. Brando was taken to task for his ill-timed stand on human rights and Littlefeather was ridiculed for appearing in native dress. And this was 1973. 

What we have here is a gallery where the artists have been forgotten as have most of these movies they celebrated. Much of this took root in real Western art, then hit all the bases including making the hero larger than life. Most offer collages of continuous action across a cinescape as vast as the horizon. Also, there is clear evidence of a fast horse and a beautiful woman. Or the other way around.

So get ready for some real rootin’ tootin’ highfalutin' straight shootin’ themes from imaginary Westerns. Smile when you paint that, pardner. Git along little dogies. The posse is coming and the art is holed up inside the better-than-OK Retrofit corral.

1949. The IMDB Pitch: “A reformed gambler turned preacher, partners with a pretty, female fugitive outlaw, runs into an old pal who’s also a marshal and they both fall for the same bad gal..

Rosemary Theby gets a gun and top billing in this 1919 classic of the flu pandemic.

From 1935, Buck’s little brother has done lost Buck’s herd to a bad bunch, the Keeler Gang.

From 1951. a small business owner tries to unload his stock before the telegraph hits town and they abandon the Army post. Tim Holt smells some insider trading.

Duke (1907-1979) starred in 142 motion pictures, most of them Westerns. Pilgrim. .

Hollywood sensitivity on display. Still, Herbert Jeffrey is a true hero in Harlem Rides the Range (1939) as he foils a plot to steal a radium mine. Not much is known about A Chocolate Cowboy (1927) except the alternate title was “Mine Your Own Business.” Pick one.

Doesn’t look much like a Western, but Gene Autry’s broadcasts from his Radio Ranch are disrupted when a subterranean future city is discovered way down below the oil. Chapter 12 runs this weekend right here on Retrofit Drive In!

From 1967, Jimmy Stewart’s second wind as a Western star, delivering another classic.

From 1944, a Western that public radio would love, Outlaws take over the water hole that supplies the town and the livestock on a nearby cattle drive. They have paid off the feckless mayor, so the cattlemen and the city get them a hired gun.

Tom Edwin Mix (1880-1940) made 291 movies from 1909-1935.

Joan has been wrongly accused of murder, and if you don’t believer her she will shoot your ass!

Roy upgraded to a friendlier image for the TV kids of the 50s, but the decade before he meant business.

From 1952, a Western in real time, as the clock on the wall keeps reminding us. Sheriff Gary Cooper (1901-1961) must decide between single handedly fighting a gang of murderers, or skipping town with his new bride, Grace Kelly. A favorite of presidents, Eisenhower screened it at the White House, as did Bill Clinton—a total of 17 times!

“The past is a blast.”

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