Cereal At Midnight

This better-than-average western features Audie Murphy in his youthful prime. At only 5 foot 5 inches tall, Murphy may not have had the screen presence of a Hollywood leading man, but the fact that he was one of the most highly-decorated soldiers of World War II lends heaps of credibility to his star power and believability. Here he gets to play a character that's heroic but also has some of the qualities of a scoundrel--think Han Solo back when Han shot first. Murphy plays Reb Kittredge, a mercenary who served as a hired gun during the Johnson County War. His reputation precedes him when he finds himself the patsy in the middle of a land scheme (it's more interesting than it sounds) involving a ranch, some cattle, and a whole bunch of people that want to see him hung out to dry. Kittredge has a core of nobility, but he's not against settling disputes with his pistol. Case in point, the climax of the film features a melee with a surprisingly-high body count as Murphy sits a...

The Naked Spur is another cracking western teaming up director Anthony Mann with his frequent leading man Jimmy Stewart and serves yet another example of the storytelling economy of the classic Hollywood studio system. The film wastes nothing and everything on screen and in the dialogue in service of moving the plot forward and informing the characters, who we come to know and understand through their actions.  The film immediately introduces Stewart as a bounty hunter on the hunt for a murderer. He cautiously rides up on an elderly prospector (Millard Mitchell, Singin' in the Rain ), thinking it may be his prey. Realizing he is not the target, Stewart is forced to explain his aggressive actions, and reluctantly agrees to pay the man to help him find his bounty. Now there are two. A few minutes later, a discharged Union soldier (Ralph Meeker, The Dirty Dozen ) crosses their path and wants to know what they're doing. After an uncomfortable confrontation, Meeker follows the men,...