The Picture Show Annual (1943)

Randolph Scott and Gene Tierney in “ Belle Starr.” These principles have been rigidly adhered to by the real Western stars, but of late we have had a type of Western in which the hero has been a bandit and often a killer. These plays have, in the main, been taken from the history of the West, and have featured such outlaws and killers as Billy the Kid, the James Brothers and other notorious law-breakers. As screen plays, judged by the usual standards of acting and production, these new-type Westerns have been very good, but to the lover of the real Western they never carried the right brand. Killers who were rightly deemed bad men. and treated as such in the days when they really lived, have been white-washed and even glorified. Even when it has been impossible to ignore the fact that they were cold-blooded killers, attempts were made to excuse their murders and robberies by saying they were first driven to crime by a wrongful conviction, or by injustices practised in the name of the law. But this line of argument was never backed up by history from which the stories were supposed to be taken. Undoubtedly, in the lawless days of the West from the period following the end of the American Civil War, many injustices were perpetrated in the name of the law. chiefly by land grabbers. These land grabbers, supported by legal documents furnished. by corrupt judges, laid claim to land to which they had no right at all, the land thus falsely claimed usually being in the line the ever- growing railways were taking, which made it ex- ceedingly valuable when the railways wanted to buy. Small ranchers or farmers were evicted, and this led to gun play, the small- holders having to take to the wilds to save their lives, and then they were pro- claimed outlaws. But this injustice was responsible for only a small proportion of the outlawed and killers. Mostly, these preferred robbery under arms to work, and in very few cases was there any redeeming quality about these gunmen. LAW-ABIDING WESTERNERS Edgar Buchanan and W ill i am Holden in Texas." Dut even at this time the real West- erners were the law-abiding ones. They were wild, but they were not wicked, and if at times they took the law into their own hands, they dealt out justice, even if it was Judge Lynch justice. And carrying the badge of the Marshal or Sheriff were some of the real heroes of the Wild West. Wh:-n they went to get a killer, they carried their lives in their hands, for it was on the quickness of the draw and the straightness of their shooting that they maintained the law and kept their lives. It was such men as these that were picked as heroes for the early Westerns, and the type is still portrayed by stars like Gene Autry, Bill Boyd, George O’Brien and others. There were no end of these law- abiding Westerners who fought for justice with their guns in the old days, and I have always wondered why film pro- ducers did not seek out more of them and make them the heroes of their tales, instead of whitewashing black sheep and trying to make romantic figures of killers. The Wild West with Music — heading the list of singing cowboys on Hollywood is Gene Autry, Republic star and one of the box office favourites. With him and his guitar in every picture is his fa- liorse, Champion. Bob Steele. Noah Beery, ]r„ and Roy Rogers in "The Carson City Kid.” 40