Dedicated to the proposition that America was better off when its TV shows were about Cowboys instead of Lawyers
The The Top 10 Lists
At the end of each month, Emil and Friends sit around the radio campfire and talk about western movies, the actors, the scripts, and, the musical scores. Emil is usually joined by Todd Roberts, Michael F. Blake, Robert Nott, John Komrada, Cotton Smith, and Johnny Boggs. Lively discusstions come up when the group tries to choose a "best of" or "Top 10" list of movies, movie scores, actors, directors, plots, or who was the best "bad guy."
- Lee Marvin - SEVEN MEN FROM NOW (1956)
- Jack Palance - SHANE (1953)
- Dan Duryea - WINCHESTER 73 (1950)
- Glenn Ford - 3:10 TO YUMA (1957)
- Richard Boone - THE TALL T (1957)
- Walter Brennan - MY DARLING CLEMENTINE (1946)
- Powers Booth - TOMBSTONE (1994)
- (tie) Bruce Dern THE COWBOYS (1971), Ben Foster 3:10 TO YUMA (2007)
- (tie) Henry Fonda ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (1968) Eli Wallach THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY and MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
EMIL'S NOTES: 1. Marvin is even better in this Randolph Scott/Budd Boetticher/Burt Kennedy classic than in MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE or THE COMANCHEROS. 2. Palance made his name with this role, partly with that slow, menacing entry into town. Mike tells us that was an accident as Palance claimed he could ride a horse to get the part and couldn't gallop in as the script called for. 3. There was something about Duryea's psycho laugh... 4. Ford plays Ben Wade far more pyschologically than physically - Russell Crowe in the remake is an over the top Rambo.5. Boone could've had this for several others. It's another classic from that batch of greatness turned in by Scott, Boetticher and in this case Elmore Leonard (who also wrote 3:10 TO YUMA). 6.Ford's Old Man Clanton is a great example of John Ford doing identity theft, but it's Brennan's greatest bad guy. 7. Booth does Curly Bill so well that you almost sympathize with him. 8. Dern killed The Duke - what more do you need. Foster plays Wade's #2 as over the top as Crowe played Wade, but he makes him a believable sociopath. 9, We aren't big on spaghettis, but this one along with some Clint passes muster. Wallach's too, along with that great bandido leader portrayal.
