Get Three Coffins Ready -- The Western Thread

[Sergeant Rock]

There was an old John Wayne film where he played a sheriff (of course) and he came to a bar where he was outmanned. He distracted one of the bad guys by asking him "Say, didn't I know you in Nacogdoches?", the guy looks down, puzzled, and Wayne KO's him.

Does anyone remember what movie this was? I even did a search on IMDB and pretty much everywhere else and can't find it. If you know, share it here, please.

Big Jake (1971) ""Have you ever been to Nacogdoches?"

Sarge

[North Star]

There was an old John Wayne film where he played a sheriff (of course) and he came to a bar where he was outmanned. He distracted one of the bad guys by asking him "Say, didn't I know you in Nacogdoches?", the guy looks down, puzzled, and Wayne KO's him.

Does anyone remember what movie this was? I even did a search on IMDB and pretty much everywhere else and can't find it. If you know, share it here, please.

Searching that city's name and Wayne brought up "Big Jake" (1971).

[Mirror Image]

Never have liked John Wayne films. Give me Clint Eastwood and I'm a happy man. Love 'The Man With No Name' series. One of the greats in Westerns. I also still think highly of Tombstone. Fantastic Western.

[vandermolen]

Am not a great western fan but I recently bought 'My Darling Clementine' partly for the performance of Victor Mature (an unfairly derided actor in my view) as 'Doc Holliday'. Also I like 'The Man who shot Liberty Valance' and 'The Wild Bunch ' who 'came too late and stayed too long'. I also like 'Carry on Cowboy' which features Jim Dale as a nervous plumber who gets mistaken for the new sheriff ('I've come to clean up the town'), but that is probably of exclusive British appeal.

[Bogey]

I just took in Stagecoach a few weeks back.  Wonderful film.  Also viewed The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance....also excellent.  Of late, I really enjoyed The Lone Ranger.  Many hated it, but I took it for what it was and the whole family liked it. 

[DavidW]

I'm reading Comanche Moon now.  The final novel in the Lonesome Dove series.  It matches the dark tone of Lonesome Dove and Streets of Laredo but has the humor and adventure of Dead Man's Walk.  It is a nice mix.  And this is a great series.

Ultimately Comanche Moon meanders without a central plot, or interesting character development.  It also wastes countless pages needlessly setting up Lonesome Dove.  For awhile I thought this would be one of the better entries in the series, but actually it's the weakest.  Lonesome Dove is by far the best, and Streets of Laredo and Dead Man's Walk are good novels but don't achieve the heights of the original novel.  Comanche Moon is really just a chance to see their favorite characters one more time and say goodbye.  And in that regard it worked.

[Bogey]

Ultimately Comanche Moon meanders without a central plot, or interesting character development.  It also wastes countless pages needlessly setting up Lonesome Dove.  For awhile I thought this would be one of the better entries in the series, but actually it's the weakest.  Lonesome Dove is by far the best, and Streets of Laredo and Dead Man's Walk are good novels but don't achieve the heights of the original novel.  Comanche Moon is really just a chance to see their favorite characters one more time and say goodbye.  And in that regard it worked.

Have you read any of these works, David?  Just open the preview and go to the Western section.  Some are quite good.

http://www.amazon.com/Robert-E-Howard-Omnibus-Collected-ebook/dp/B003O86R5M/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1406737464&sr=8-4&keywords=robert+e+howard

[DavidW]

That's MN Dave's territory.  He likes that author I believe.  I haven't read him.

[Karl Henning]

It's years since I read Howard . . . my dad had some old mass market paperbacks of King Kull (IIRC) stories, and a few of the Conan novellas.  I've not read his Western material . . . indeed, I did not know anything of the range of his writing until we watched The Whole Wide World, a movie I find marvelously touching.

[Cato]

Ultimately Comanche Moon meanders without a central plot, or interesting character development.  It also wastes countless pages needlessly setting up Lonesome Dove.  For awhile I thought this would be one of the better entries in the series, but actually it's the weakest.  Lonesome Dove is by far the best, and Streets of Laredo and Dead Man's Walk are good novels but don't achieve the heights of the original novel.  Comanche Moon is really just a chance to see their favorite characters one more time and say goodbye.  And in that regard it worked.

The TV movie of Comanche Moon features an uncanny performance by the great Steve Zahn as a younger Robert Duvall/Augustus McCrae.  The voice and the mannerisms, just everything, all incredible.  Good, but not on the same level, is Karl Urban as a younger Tommy Lee Jones/Woodrow Call.

No, it does not reach the Sophoclean levels of Lonesome Dove, but it does have its moments.