I have recently watched "West Of The Divide," and "Randy Rides Alone," and I was not that impressed with these two movies. I accept from the outset that they are B movies, however I was disappointed that the fight scenes have no sound effects for the punches and John Wayne shoots few to no villains within these movies.

Are there any good B movies of his, I must admit that I do like "Winds from the Wasteland," the version I have is colouried (an improvement) it does not however have the original sound track (to an extent this is also an improvement, some of the unnecessary music has been removed and the punch sounds have been included, the problem is that actors voices are dubbed).

What do fellow members feel are worthwhile Duke B movies, and what versions of these movies are better?

Thanks in advance.

:agent:

I just Guess Some of us are Just Out of A Other Time Zone, because in the 1930s we all thought that Duke's Old Films were Great and Fun To Watch !
:yeaahh:
And Remember this was at the First of The Talkies and The Film Companys were Just Learning how to Make These Kind of Films !!
:ohmy:
But if You Do Not Like Them Just Don't Watch Them, but as for Me I will Still Watch Them as it takes me back to the Good Old Days Of Film Making !!!
:glare:
Chilibill
:cowboy:

Rob,
As Bill says, back in the Thirties (and Forties), kids the age of Bill and I practically lived in our hometown theaters for Saturday afternoon matinees featuring Duke's B movies, and also those of Roy Rogers, Gene Autrey, Hopalong Cassidy, Lash Larue, Tom Mix and other "cowboy" actors. And for that time and place, we thought they were great. Of course back then, a lot of young kids spent much time playing cowboys and Indians. I doubt many modern youngsters even think of such things, much less play them. Video games are the thing now.

As time passed, movies of all genres got progressively better so that movie fans nowadays (including me) tend to think of old B grade films as pretty bad. I've mentioned this before and it's probably a factor in play here - we have a biiiiiig generation gap. Also, and this is important, tastes change.

Like Bill says though, if you don't like 'em, don't watch 'em.

There are several of Dukes B films that I enjoy. Maybe some aren't as sophisticated as his later work but I enjoy them for the most part.

I started liking these movies as a kid...a local channel would show these as a TV series, either "Cowboy Theater" which showed movies by various stars or "John Wayne Theater", which showed Duke's hour long movies. I enjoyed them as a kid. Later when I caught up with the videos and DVD's as an adult, they weren't quite as good as I remembered them, but they still had a sense of fun to them that I enjoy. What is interesting to me; all of the Indiana Jones movies and the copycats were inspired by those old Westerns and action Serials from these days. All of the action movies of today with their annoying CGI just can't compare to ol' Yakima Canut and his stunt crew! Just my opinion of course!

Anyway, to answer your original question, some of the old Duke B Westerns that I like are The Warner Brothers series, which were remakes of old Ken Maynard movies and used footage from his silent movies to effectively pad them out..making some of them look like bigger budget movies than they were....my favorites were "Haunted Gold", and "Telegraph Trail".

Others I liked were "King of the Pecos", "Winds of the Wasteland" and "Hell Town".

Have watched Blue Steel yet?

As most will be aware I like many of you am a die hard John Wayne fan so the option of not watching his B movies was never going to be considered by myself.

My worries about his B movies seem to have been unfounded, I watched the excelled "Hell Town" last night and thoroughly enjoyed it, I am hoping that I can find many more gems within John Wayne's B movie portfolio.

:agent:

Have to admit I haven't watched all John Wayne B movies yet despite buying most of them on DVD.

I think the best policy is to ration them out at one at a time with good intervals in between. If you watch them close together they do tend to merge and even the scenery starts to get familiar as well as the actors & storylines.

I think Hell Town is one of the better ones so I will pull it out for a viewing.

What I like about the B movies is the contrast they offer in terms of Duke in his early days, and then you can see how his acting developed.

When Lone Star and Monogram were merged to form Republic,
the budgets were significantly increased,
so from Westwood Ho! onwards Dukes 'B'
were an improvement.

However I am great fan of all Duke's 'Poverty Row' movies,
and think they were all great fun.

As Stumpy, Arthur and myself have said in the past,
us kids grew up at the Staurday morning matinees,
watching all these films.
They are classics, every single one of them!!

However I am great fan of all Duke's 'Poverty Row' movies,
and think they were all great fun.



This goes for me as well, especially his early WB stuff.

yes-riders of destiny,haunted gold.lonely trail at least i think so

Definitely Haunted Gold.