Instead of a serial lady-killer hiding out with his unsuspecting family, Francis Lederer’s runaway Count Dracula blends in with an American household.Ī rogue’s gallery of Western TV faces starred in this 1959 Gothic feature. Autry singing “Ghost Riders in the Sky,” against a haunting and poetic montage, is the film’s highlight.Ī Weird Western made while the producers, director and head writer were on hiatus for ABC’s The Rifleman, 1958’s The Return of Dracula is a sophisticated reworking of Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt. Roberts sees the legendary ghost riders coming for him. Inspired by a song penned by Death Valley Forest Ranger Stan Jones, this 1949 Gene Autry film features Rock McCleary (Robert Livingston), who sends his henchmen to arrange a fatal runaway wagon “accident” for Old Man Roberts (Tom London) after he witnesses a killing. Full of action and atmospherically photographed, the movie echoes Gunga Din, yet was made two years earlier. When the men learn he’s a missing archaeologist on the hunt for the lost Indian city of Lukachukai, they join the expedition, led by an untrustworthy Indian (played by Yakima Canutt). His singing cowboy had to battle the advanced underground Muranian civilization in time for him to return to his ranch for his nightly radio show.Īmong the best of the B-Westerns, this 1937 film from Republic’s “Three Mesquiteers” series features Ray “Crash” Corrigan, Robert Livingston and Max Terhune as three buddies who find a man delirious in the desert. Mascot’s delightfully nutty 1935 serial made a star of Gene Autry. The Phantom Empire courtesy Mascot Pictures /Gene Autry Entertainment. The earliest Weird Western to watch this Halloween is 1935’s The Phantom Empire, a 12-chapter serial, in which Gene Autry defends himself against the bad guys of Murania. This Halloween, you can watch some particularly fine recent Weird Westerns (a blend of Western with Sci-Fi and Horror): HBO’S Westworld miniseries and the independent feature Bone Tomahawk.īeyond those, here are some classics to add to your queue. As King says, “I saw… The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and before the film was even half over, I realized that what I wanted to write was a novel that contained Tolkien’s sense of quest and magic but set against Leone’s almost absurdly majestic Western backdrop.”īut don’t despair over the largely Manhattan-set movie. Readers found a lot of Spaghetti Western in the seven Dark Tower novels. Stephen King’s The Dark Tower, an endlessly-in-the-works film that finally premiered on August 4, disappointed fans because, unlike the novels, it’s not a Western. The Valley of Gwangi courtesy Warner Bros. The West gets even weird when cowboys battle dinosaurs in 1969’s The Valley of Gwangi.
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