21 August 2008

They don't make 'em like they used to

Turned on the television and there was a cowboy movie on. Now, Rico's a sucker for cowboy movies, and he hadn't seen this one, so he let 'er run. Turns out it was Lone Star, a "rip-roaring big star, big budget semi-historical story by Borden Chase about cattle baron Devereaux Burke, who is enlisted by an aging Andrew Jackson to dissuade Sam Houston from establishing Texas as a republic. Burke must fight state senator Thomas Craden, in the process winning the heart of Craden's newspaper-editor girlfriend Martha Ronda."
It was, in a word, awful. How can this be, you ask? It starred Clark Gable and Ava Gardner (it was Ava Gardner day, it turns out), along with Broderick Crawford (of Highway Patrol fame), Lionel Barrymore (of Drew's family), Ed Begley (of Junior's family), and William Conrad (of Cannon fame), with a host of others. And it had gunplay (though no one appears to get shot), fisticuffs (though everyone gets up in the end and shrugs it off), and even a big smooch by Gable and Gardner (though no sex).
It was still awful. In black and white, no less.
Rico says do not check it out.
Now, Lone Star, made some forty years later, is a different story.
Rico says check it out, and do it today...

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