Tuesday's Overlooked Movie: Chato's Land

This is one of the few Charles Bronson movies I'd never seen. CHATO'S LAND is about as simply plotted a film as you'll ever find. Bronson plays a half-breed Apache who guns down a lawman who's about to kill him for no good reason. A posse of townspeople led by former Confederate officer Jack Palance chases him into the Arizona badlands. The posse members start fighting among themselves after they find Bronson's homestead, rape his wife, and kill his brother. Then the hunters become the hunted as Chato starts picking them off one by one, and the only question is who's going to survive. That's it.

With a plot like that, the appeal of the movie is going to depend on how well it's done. In that respect, CHATO'S LAND is a mixed bag for me. Bronson gives a good performance as the tight-lipped, vengeance-seeking protagonist. And I do mean tight-lipped. He has maybe a dozen words of dialogue in English and not much more than that in Apache, but he manages to be a formidable screen presence, anyway. At times I felt like this was more Jack Palance's movie than Bronson's. He's excellent as the former soldier who misses the war and sees this pursuit as a chance to recapture some of the excitement of those days. The rest of the posse is filled out by some fairly big names, such as James Whitmore, Simon Oakland, Richard Basehart, Richard Jordan, and Ralph Waite, but for the most part they come across as mostly interested in a paycheck and a trip to Europe, where the movie was filmed. The production values seemed more like TV rather than feature film level, but on the other hand, I was watching a mediocre print recorded from TV, so it's hard to say about that.

Overall, I'd say CHATO'S LAND isn't anywhere near the top rank of Bronson's Westerns. It's worth watching for his performance and Palance's, but it's so overwhelmingly bleak it would be hard for me to call it entertaining. I'm still glad I watched it. One more off the list.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Argosy, December 4, 1937

What a great era for ARGOSY this was. A Thibaut Corday yarn by Theodore Roscoe, serial installments by Lester Dent, Borden Chase, and Allan Vaughan Elston, plus stories by William Chamberlain and Richard Wormser. The readers back then definitely got their dime's worth of great adventure fiction.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Lariat Story, January 1950

I probably post too many covers from LARIAT STORY, but dang, I like the covers by Allen Anderson, including this one with another of his odd-looking horses, and the story titles. I really want to read "Blood-Guns of the Crazy Moon!", especially since it's by Les Savage Jr., one of the better pulp Western authors. Heck, I wouldn't mind writing a story called "Blood-Guns of the Crazy Moon!" Savage and Richard Wormser (a reprint under the John Starr house-name) are the only recognizable authors in this issue.

Forgotten Books: The Bloodrock Valley War - Ray Hogan

Ray Hogan wrote for most of the paperback publishers at one time or another, but early in his career his main market was Ace Books, which published many of his novels in the Ace Doubles line, including THE BLOODROCK VALLEY WAR. The hero of this one is Ben Keenlyn, the owner of a small ranch in Bloodrock Valley, New Mexico Territory. When an Eastern syndicate wants to buy all the ranches in the valley and consolidate them, Keenlyn is the lone hold-out who refuses to sell. This puts him in bitter opposition to the other ranchers, who want to take the money and run. The most powerful of them, Pete Amber, decides to force Keenlyn out of Bloodrock Valley, no matter what it takes.

That's pretty much the whole plot. The set-up and the resulting range war fill up this short novel, which probably isn't much over 35,000 words. There's very little characterization. The book is almost all action and tough, clipped dialogue. Even the few female characters are laconic, biting off their sentences like talking hurts their mouths. But for what it is, I found the book very enjoyable. It reads fast, and a couple of minor but well-handled twists insure that not everything is quite as black and white as it seems at first. Hogan was a very traditional Western writer, but he always delivered a satisfying story.

Happy Thanksgiving

Whether you celebrate or not, have a good day.

A Middle of the Night Music Post: Night Crawler - Bob James

"Angela's Theme" is my favorite Bob James song, but this one's not bad. I like that 70s jazz sound.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Detective Tales, February 1938

This almost looks like a Weird Menace cover, and sure enough, there are stories by Weird Menace stalwarts Hugh B. Cave and Wyatt Blassingame in this issue. There are also stories by prolific, reliable pulpsters Paul Ernst, Emile C. Tepperman, and Ray Cummings (twice, once under his own name and once as Gabriel Wilson). That's plenty to make me think this was probably a pretty good issue.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Dime Western, February 1933

Another great-looking issue of DIME WESTERN with stories by Walt Coburn, T.T. Flynn, and Harry F. Olmsted, three of my favorites, plus Cliff Farrell and Murray Leinster among others. And a Walter Baumhofer cover, to boot.

A Middle of the Night Music Post: Mas Que Nada - Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66

I always liked Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66. One of the YouTube commenters said he wanted to live the rest of his life in 1967. I wouldn't go nearly that far, but I do enjoy revisiting that era.

A Million Words and Counting

I reached the million word mark today for the 12th straight year. The first time I hit that level, back in 2005, I had no idea I'd still be writing that much a dozen years later. In the past I've talked about when I'm going to slow down, but I've come to realize I have no idea what's going to happen from year to year. I have enough work lined up for 2017 that I ought to be around a million words again. We'll have to wait and see whether that comes about. Most importantly to me, I'm still having fun, at least most of the time.