SADDLE UP

Last night was Jimmy Stewart Westerns Night on TCM, so you can bet your leather chaps that Big Bore and I giddy-upped in front of the TV for two great flicks and one just so-so.  

First out of the chute was The Man From Laramie.  Jimmy hauls some supplies into a two-bit New Mexico town with an ulterior motive to seek vengeance for the murder of his brother by those vicious Apaches. But it 's  not just the Indians who have Jimmy riled up.  Some white ranchers are trying to make some extra cash by selling the savages bootlegged rifles.  Oh, the greed!  Well, you can figure out just who figures out who is behind the rotten dealings.  The bad guys bite the dust and, against all odds, Jimmy saves the day!  Hooray.  The end. Three flames out of four from The Flaming Bore.

Next up is The Naked Spur, our fave of the night.  In this winner, Jimmy is a bounty hunter who is determined to return bad guy Robert Ryan from the Colorado mountains to Abeline, Kansas. Along the way, he gets some unsolicited help from an old dude and a cavalry reject who borders on the criminally insane.  Oh, and a pouty Janet Leigh is along for the ride as Robert Ryan's sidekick. The trip back to Kansas is rife with trouble--everything from vicious Indians, of course, torrid river rapids, escape attempts, and a gunshot wound.  But, by gum, Jimmy will not be deterred!  He's gonna collect that $5,000 bounty, even if it kills him--which it just might.  The action is non-stop, the scenery is grand, and the tension is great all the way to the end.  And wait'll you see how Jimmy wields his naked spur.  Four flames all the way!

Last stop is Two Rode Together. Now, you'd think this one would be the blockbuster since it was directed by John Ford and had lots of semi-big names to co-star with Jimmy, like Richard Widmark and Shirley Jones before her "Partridge Family" days.  But Big Bore actually cashed in during the middle of it, leaving me to ride alone to the end.  In this one, cantankerous Jimmy and his old pal Richard are hired to bargain for some white settlers who were kidnapped years before by, who else, the Apaches!  They get the job halfway done, returning a teenaged boy and a young woman who has the hots for Jimmy.  Sadly, the two don't adjust well to their new surroundings.  In fact, the boy ends up killing the woman who takes him in as her son....even though we find out too late that he's actually someone else's son and Shirley's little brother. Got that?  He gets hung. Too bad.  Jimmy hooks up with the gal he rescued. The end.  Two flames....barely.  

I'm saddling up for The Blob this afternoon.  Steve McQueen and some really campy dialogue.  "For heaven's sake, don't get any of it on your hands!!!!"  Happy trails.