Captain’s log: stardate 4385.3 Spectre of the Gun is a bit of an interesting episode. Written by Gene Coon, under a pseudonym the episode premiered on 25 October, 1968. When the Enterprise trespasses into Melkot space, the alien race punishes some of the crew including Captain Kirk (William Shatner), Spock (Leonard Nimoy), McCoy (DeForest Kelley),…
Tag: western
The Twilight Zone (1960/1961) – A Most Unusual Camera, The Night of the Meek and Dust
Paramount Pictures guides me deeper into The Twilight Zone with their Complete Series on blu-ray. Up first this week is A Most Unusual Camera. Written by Rod Serling, this episode premiered on 16 December, 1960. When Chester (Fred Clark) and Paula (Jean Carson) rob a curio shop they get more than they expected with a…
Back to the Future: Part III (1990) – Robert Zemeckis
My last stop in the Sci-Fi Chronicles book is the final trip with Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) in Back to the Future: Part III. From the film’s opening credits you know this will be a different adventure, the triumphant theme by Alan Silvestri gives way to a stirring romantic…
Quantum Leap (1992) – The Last Gunfighter and A Song for the Soul
Sam finds himself in the form of aged gunfighter, Tyler Means, in The Last Gunfighter. Written by Sam Rolfe and Chris Ruppenthal and airing on 5 February, 1992, Sam find himself on 28 November, 1957. Tyler Means is 82 years old. He likes his whiskey, and he likes his tall tales, especially the ones centring…
Oklahoma! (1955) – Fred Zinnemann
The Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book has brought around to musicals again, and this time, it’s Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! This big budget adaptation of the beloved Broadway musical that opened in 1943 cast Gordon MacRae as the show’s lead Curly and Shirley Jones, as the object of his affections, Laurey. There’s…
Rio Bravo (1959) – Howard Hawks
If someone mentions John Wayne to me, this is the movie I go to. Happily, it’s the next recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book following my screening of The Searchers. Starring Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, Walter Brennan and Angie Dickinson, this, to me, is Howard Hawks best western. Wayne stars…
Red River (1948) – Howard Hawks
John Wayne gets paired with Montgomery Clift as Howard Hawks directs in the next western recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book. Wayne is Thomas Dunson, a cattle driver, and a fast gun who is a bit of a tyrant as he seizes land for his cattle ranch, and heads to…
Fort Apache (1948) – John Ford
The next recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film for my screening of The Searchers is another Ford/Wayne classic, Fort Apache. A sprawling western, the film not only boasts the talents of John Wayne, but those of Henry Fonda, Shirley Temple and Pedro Armendariz (who I always enjoyed n From Russia With…
Stagecoach (1939) – John Ford
The first recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film is the 1939 John Ford/John Wayne classic, Stagecoach. Wayne plays the Ringo Kid, and he and a number of fellow travellers including Dallas (Claire Trevor) and Lucy Mallory (Louise Platt), a drunk doctor Josiah Boone (Thomas Mitchell), and a dangerous gambler, Hatfield (John…
The Searchers (1956) – John Ford
John Ford and John Wayne. When it comes to westerns there are few names better, and they are my next stop in the Action section of the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book. Confederate soldier, Ethan (Wayne) returns to his family’s homestead in Texas after the end of the Civil War, where he…
