# Please recommend a "B" western **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [July 10, 2022, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-b-western/967718 "2022-07-10T18:22:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2022, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-b-western/967718/21 "2022-07-10T21:46:09Z")
_[The Cheyenne Social Club](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065542/)_. Henry Fonda and Jimmy Stewart. Directed by Gene Kelly. The ladies of said club include Shirley Jones, Sue Ane Langdon and Elaine Devry. Plus a nice performance by Dabbs Greer. IMHO the best western ever made. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2022, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-b-western/967718/22 "2022-07-10T21:47:54Z")
Is the comedy [Something Big](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Big_(film)) with Dean Martin definitionally a B-movie? I surprised myself by finding it okayish and I wasn’t usually that big of a Dean Martin fan. I sort of slot it in a lower category of Western just because of Dean Martin 😀 . But warning - I saw it over 30 years ago, when I may have had lower standards 😉. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2022, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-b-western/967718/23 "2022-07-10T22:12:35Z")
I once stumbled across this movie late at night on TV. It’s pretty good—Gregory Peck is in his element as “Stretch,” and a very young Anne Baxter is both gorgeous and a great actress. > **[Yellow Sky (1948) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040978/)** > > Yellow Sky: Directed by William A. Wellman. With Gregory Peck, Anne Baxter, Richard Widmark, Robert Arthur. A pistol-packing tomboy and her grandfather discover a band of bank robbing bandits taking refuge in the neighboring ghost town. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2022, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-b-western/967718/24 "2022-07-10T22:13:17Z")
You might like **High Plains Drifter** , a high concept western directed by and starring Clint Eastwood, in his attempt to make an American ‘Spaghetti Western’. A stranger rides into town and is asked to protect the town from some bad guys coming for them, but not all is as it seems… I’m not sure it classifies as a ‘B’ movie, but it was low budget and was made before Eastwood was a huge star. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2022, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-b-western/967718/25 "2022-07-10T22:20:38Z")
**This** is the quintessential Dean Martin comedy Western! I saw it at a drive-in one night in August 1967 and laughed myself silly. It was on a double bill with _ **The Dirty Dozen** _, which was kind of an odd pairing (to say the least). > **[Texas Across the River (1966) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061080/)** > > Texas Across the River: Directed by Michael Gordon. With Dean Martin, Alain Delon, Rosemary Forsyth, Joey Bishop. In 1845 Texas, a Louisiana belle is courted by a wanted Spanish nobleman and a Texas brawling gunrunner but her suitors' passionate duel... “Don’t worry, I’ll find you! After all, Texas isn’t even a state. How big can it _be_?” ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2022, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-b-western/967718/26 "2022-07-10T22:26:03Z")
_ **Big Jake**._ A John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara movie. With Patrick Wayne, Ethan Wayne, Christopher Mitchum, Bruce Cabot as Sam Sharpnose, Richard Boone as the bad guy. The singer, Bobby Vinton plays one of John’s son and he gets shot early, witlch is a plus. ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2022, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-b-western/967718/27 "2022-07-10T22:43:13Z")
Many thanks for the invitation. _The Ox-Bow Incident_ (1943) – Anti-lynching western with Hank Fonda. _Bad Men of Tombstone_ (1949) – No good guys in bleak story of outlaws turning on one another. _The Baron of Arizona_ (1950) – One of Vin Price’s best roles as late 19th century grifter working the long con to prove he legally owns the entire state. _Johnny Guitar_ (1954) – Now-classic western pits aging Joan Crawford vs. shrill Mercedes McCambridge as the men in their lives stand around and act confused. _The Beast of Hollow Mountain_ (1956) – No better than the second greatest western ever made with a (stop motion) dinosaur. _Forty Guns_ (1957) – U.S. Marshals take on cattle baroness Barbara Stanwyck in stylishly directed, heavily Freudian film featuring one of the longest and most impressive tracking shots ever done. _The Ride Back_ (1957) – Similar to _3:10 to Yuma_, but even more obscure and in some ways better (e.g., some Bergman-like cinematography). _Terror in a Texas Town_ (1958) – Slow, very low-budget western showcasing eccentric elements, e.g., a gunman with a metal arm, harpoon vs. gun duel, etc. _Walk Like a Dragon_ (1960) – Unusual racially-tinged story of cowboy Jack Lord buying a Chinese woman with consequences for both. _Any Gun Can Play_ (1967) – Bounty hunter George Hilton (aping Clint), bandit Gilbert Roland and bank official Edd “Kookie” Byrnes (sans comb and Kookie T) vie for stolen $$$. I think this was actually intended as a parody; in any event, it has some of the best fake-Sergio Leone direction ever. _The Jackals_ (1967) – Remake of _Yellow Sky_ (1948) can’t match its star power, but ends up more interesting reset in South Africa with Zulus instead of Indians. Vin Price barely hams as miner confronted by outlaws wanting his gold and tomboy granddaughter (Diana Ivarson, outdoing Anne Baxter in the original, imo). _The Valley of Gwangi_ (1969) – The greatest western ever made. NOTE: List does not include _Canyon Passage_ (1946), _My Darling Clementine_ (1946), _Rancho Notorious_ (1952), _The Good, The Bad and the Ugly_ (1966), _Once Upon a Time in the West_ (1968), _The Wild Bunch_ (1969) or _Blazing Saddles_ (1974) - seven of the greatest westerns ever made sans dinosaurs - none of which can legitimately be called a ”B western,” imo. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2022, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-b-western/967718/28 "2022-07-10T22:47:54Z")
Great non-standard Spaghetti-O western- _My Name Is Nobody_, with Terence Hill and Henry Fonda. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2022, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-b-western/967718/29 "2022-07-10T22:49:19Z")
An off the wall one: _[Curse of the Undead](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052718/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0)_ – Preacher Dan must save his town from a long, tall vampire that rides in to town with an eye for the ladies. Kinda eerie. Why, yes, there’s a shoot out, I’m glad you asked. Needed a better title. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2022, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-b-western/967718/30 "2022-07-10T23:46:04Z")
I’ll see your _ **Curse of the Undead** _, Partner, and raise you with _ **Billy the Kid versus Dracula** _: > **[Billy the Kid Versus Dracula (1966) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060168/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_2)** > > Billy the Kid Versus Dracula: Directed by William Beaudine. With John Carradine, Chuck Courtney, Melinda Casey, Virginia Christine. Dracula travels to the American West, intent on making a beautiful ranch owner his next victim. Her fiance, outlaw... **This** is the absolute bargain-basement comedy Western: > **[The Wackiest Wagon Train in the West (1976) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0295018/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3)** > > The Wackiest Wagon Train in the West: Directed by Jack Arnold, Earl Bellamy, Bruce Bilson, Oscar Rudolph. With Bob Denver, Forrest Tucker, Ivor Francis, Jeannine Riley. Four episodes of Dusty's Trail edited together into a movie. The episodes, in the... _ **Gilligan’s Island** _ in the Old West. Watch it once, just so you can say you did. **These two** are, I think, a bit better: > **[3:10 to Yuma (1957) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050086/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_2)** > > 3:10 to Yuma: Directed by Delmer Daves. With Glenn Ford, Van Heflin, Felicia Farr, Leora Dana. Broke small-time rancher Dan Evans is hired by the stagecoach line to put big-time captured outlaw leader Ben Wade on the 3:10 train to Yuma but Wade's... > **[Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047849/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0)** > > Bad Day at Black Rock: Directed by John Sturges. With Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis, Dean Jagger. A one-armed stranger comes to a tiny town possessing a terrible past they want to keep secret, by violent means if necessary. Glenn Ford is a greatly underappreciated actor, IMO. The Tracy film is a contemporary Western and is very, very good. I second the vote for _ **Walk Like a Dragon** _. Mel Torme both sings and acts alongside Jack Lord. **One more** that’s pretty good: > **[Red Sun (1971) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067770/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0)** > > Red Sun: Directed by Terence Young. With Charles Bronson, Ursula Andress, Toshirô Mifune, Alain Delon. In 1870, a gang robs a train and steals a ceremonial Japanese sword meant as a gift for the U.S. President, prompting a manhunt to retrieve it. Charles Bronson **and** Toshiro Mifune. Who could ask for more? ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2022, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-b-western/967718/31 "2022-07-11T00:00:33Z")
Maybe not a Western _per se_, but **this** is a damned good movie that’s largely and undeservedly forgotten: > **[The Raid (1954) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047388/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_31)** > > The Raid: Directed by Hugo Fregonese. With Van Heflin, Anne Bancroft, Richard Boone, Lee Marvin. A group of Confederate prisoners escape to Canada and plan to rob the banks and set fire to the small town of Saint Albans, Vermont. To get the lay of... ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2022, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-b-western/967718/32 "2022-07-11T00:06:08Z")
NM, should have read further. 🤮 ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2022, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-b-western/967718/33 "2022-07-11T00:50:31Z")
My two best recommendations. I usually watch both once every year. _Dodge City_ 1939 directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, and Ann Sheridan. _The Virginian_ 1946 directed by Stuart Gilmore and starring Joel McCrea, Brian Donlevy, Sonny Tufts. Has one of the more explicit hanging scenes that I’ve seen in movies made under the _The Motion Picture Production Code of 1930_ (Hays Code ). The director avoided censorship by showing the feet jerking. Its quite effective and reminds the audience that hanging is a brutal form of punishment. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2022, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-b-western/967718/34 "2022-07-11T01:10:08Z")
If you are going that route, you have to watch **4 For Texas**. > **[4 for Texas (1963) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057071/)** > > 4 for Texas: Directed by Robert Aldrich. With Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Anita Ekberg, Ursula Andress. Zack Thomas is a tough guy who hooks up with Joe Jarrett to open a casino. And despite its star power, this was definitely a “B” western. > **[The Hallelujah Trail (1965) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059250/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)** > > The Hallelujah Trail: Directed by John Sturges. With Burt Lancaster, Lee Remick, Jim Hutton, Pamela Tiffin. On its way to Denver, a cargo of whiskey destined for the miners, is sought after by the Temperance League, the U.S. Cavalry, the local... ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2022, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-b-western/967718/35 "2022-07-11T02:12:40Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Look for the seven Randolph Scott movies directed by **Budd**" **Boetticher**. > > Boetticher was unusually talented for a B movie director. He did a lot on limited budgets. Dang it, ninja’d by six hours so I’ll have to firmly second the notion. While the films cited were definitely ‘B’ pictures – _The Tall T_ had a budget of $200,000, not a lot of money even in 1957 – Boetticher could squeeze more out of that budget and get it on the screen better than anyone else in that period. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2022, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-b-western/967718/36 "2022-07-11T03:38:39Z")
Low budget films require a special type of director and writer. The writer has to create small scenes that use a limited number of sets. It’s similiar to the requirements of a stafe play. I enjoy watching B movies and study how they saved money on sets and a small cast. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2022, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-b-western/967718/37 "2022-07-11T12:30:09Z")
Once I saw some mentions of Dean Martin, _Four for Texas_ immediately sprang to mind. Martin, Sinatra, Andress, Ekberg. Plus a special appearance by the 3 Stooges. What else could one want in a western? I second _The Hallelujah Trail_. If you can get past the racist depictions of the natives. (Which is going to be a problem with a lot of these films.) It’s the secondary actors that make this film: Donald Pleasence, Brian Keith, Martin Landau, Dub Taylor, etc. And don’t get me started on _Cat Ballou_. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2022, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-b-western/967718/38 "2022-07-11T14:28:49Z")
Big Jake is a fantastic movie. It brings back Maureen O’Hara and numerous great scenes of the Duke killing people, especially killing the bad guy trying to harm his grandson with a pitchfork. Dumbass: I thought you were dead! Big Jake: Not hardly Shot Gun: BLAM!!! ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2022, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-b-western/967718/39 "2022-07-11T14:48:03Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Do the Spaghetti Westerns count? Technically, no. [The “B” partly has to do with being the second feature in a double feature; such movies typically run under 90 minutes, sometimes well under.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B_movies_(Hollywood_Golden_Age)#Rise_of_the_double_feature:_1930s) _GBU_ is nearly double that. My answer to the OP: > [@What is the best “war movie”?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-war-movie/941184/214): > > _The Guns of Fort Petticoat_ (1957) is pretty good, mainly thanks to Audie Murphy’s experience with drilling raw Texas National Guard recruits. Murphy’s character, a fictional lieutenant serving under [Col. John Chivington,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Chivington) recognizes the harm that [attacking the settlement at Sand Creek](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_Creek_massacre) would do and goes AWOL to warn his hometown of reprisal from the natives. Virtually all of the men in the Texas town are off fighting the Civil War and the women they left behind are highly suspicious of Lt. Hewitt, due to his joining the US Calvary instead of the rebels. After one of the women turns up as being killed in a Cheyenne raid, Hewitt convinces the rest of the women to hole up in a nearby mission and drills them in defending themselves. > > Of course, the film takes some liberties with the real history, notably Chivington’s fate. ---
**Author:** ![motu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/motu/32/259_2.png) [@motu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/motu)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2022, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-b-western/967718/40 "2022-07-11T15:07:42Z")
I highly recommend the Terence Hill/Bud Spencer films, They Call me Trinity and Trinity is Still My Name > **[They Call Me Trinity (1970) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067355/)** > > They Call Me Trinity: Directed by Enzo Barboni. With Terence Hill, Bud Spencer, Steffen Zacharias, Dan Sturkie. A lazy, unorthodox gunfighter and his portly, horse-thieving brother defend a Mormon settlement from a land-grabbing Major, a Mexican... > **[Trinity Is Still My Name (1971) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068154/?ref_=tt_sims_tt_t_1)** > > Trinity Is Still My Name: Directed by Enzo Barboni. With Terence Hill, Bud Spencer, Yanti Somer, Enzo Tarascio. Bambino tries to teach his brother Trinity how to become an outlaw, but the two wind up saving a pioneer family and breaking up an arms... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-b-western/967718.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-b-western/967718.md?page=3)