# 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:** 5\ **Page:** 4
**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:** [August 7, 2022, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-b-western/967718/61 "2022-08-07T16:41:07Z")
You may be confusing George Kennedy and Walter Matthau. Matthau never got close enough to Douglas to identify him at the end. Kennedy beat Douglas while he was in jail, and the two confronted each other later on the mountain. And yeah, it is a great movie. I first saw it when I was 9 or 10, and I appreciated it even then. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2022, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-b-western/967718/62 "2022-08-07T16:43:55Z")
Damn, how memory can trick you, or else there is another Walter Matthau/Kirk Douglas western in which they fight. I have a clear memory of the fight, involving Matthau using a whip against Douglas. ETA: just read the synopsis on wiki for “Lonely Are The Brave”, and that’s definitely not the movie I saw, playing after the Korean War. The one I remember played in the old west. ---
**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:** [August 7, 2022, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-b-western/967718/63 "2022-08-07T16:47:55Z")
Maybe **this one**? > **[The Indian Fighter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Indian_Fighter)** > > The Indian Fighter is a 1955 American CinemaScope and Technicolor Western film directed by Andre de Toth and based upon an original story by Robert L. Richards. The film was the first of star Kirk Douglas's Bryna Productions that was released through United Artists. The film co-stars Elsa Martinelli, Walter Matthau, Kirk Douglas's ex-wife Diana Douglas and Walter Abel. > Johnny Hawks is a man who made his name fighting Indians. Returning to the West after the Civil War he must now keep wronged ... ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2022, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-b-western/967718/64 "2022-08-07T16:49:28Z")
Yeah, that’s the one, I just googled it myself. Sorry for the confusion. But that’s another good western, too! ---
**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:** [August 7, 2022, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-b-western/967718/65 "2022-08-07T17:36:49Z")
Writers loved westerns because they could use nearly any dramatic plot. The costumes and horses were window dressing. You could have the classic love triangle. Make the husband and wife the ranch owners. The illicit lover is the new ranch hand. It ends with a gunfight. You could use the same basic script and the husband and wife own a large factory. The illicit lover could be a neighbor’s husband.It still ends with a gunshot with a snub nose revolver. Film it dark and call it film noir. That’s how they churned out western movies and tv shows for over 20 years. Big Valley had very few scenes with cattle or ranch work. Most of the stories were dramatic conflicts between people and business interests. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-b-western/967718.md?page=3)