Elisabeth Grace Foley

Historical Fiction Author

The Pen is Mightier Than the Six-Gun…Most of the Time

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When I set out to choose a subject for Legends of Western Cinema Week, I found that I kept wanting to write about Western books instead of movies. But it’s supposed to be about cinema, right? And then it hit me that there was a way I could do both.

More classic Westerns than you might realize were based on books—novels, novellas, magazine serials, and short stories alike. And in all but a few cases the movie versions seem to be better known than the original stories. Only a few Western writers have achieved the lasting popularity that means reprints and easy name recognition. Of course, with some authors it’s understandable. Not every pulp-magazine story was of lasting quality, even if some of them did manage to spawn a memorable movie. But on the other hand, there is quite a fair mix of the pulps and more “serious” fiction among the source stories for Western movies.

So today, let’s give the writers their day. Here’s a list of Western movies paired with the titles of the books and stories they were based upon (with intermittent opinionated commentary by myself). Some of them you may know well, but other titles and authors might surprise you!

It isn’t an exhaustive list—I’ve stuck mostly to films that are fairly easily recognizable, at least to Western fans, and covered only the “classic” era (for the purposes of this post, the cutoff date is 1965). And I’ve made a few deliberate omissions: (A) Owen Wister and the various adaptations of The Virginian, because most everybody knows all about that, and (B) Zane Grey, because I’ve yet to hear of a film adaptation that borrowed anything more from its Grey source besides a title and some character names.

I also called it quits at only a couple of Louis L’Amour titles, because reading the descriptions of some other “adaptations” (term used loosely) basically had me going like this:

Whoever managed to turn Heller With a Gun (not a half bad book) into something called Heller In Pink Tights deserves an award from relatives of the people who give out the Bulwer-Lytton Prize.

But let’s get on to the good stuff.

Stagecoach (1939) / short story “Stage to Lordsburg” (1937) by Ernest Haycox

(Probably one of the best examples of how a short story can be “opened up” into a film by fleshing it out with added material, without changing the core plot.)

Destry Rides Again (1939) / novel Destry Rides Again (1930) by Max Brand

(Only the title belongs to Brand. Trust me.)

Dark Command (1940) / novel The Dark Command (1938) by W.R. Burnett

The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) / novel The Ox-Bow Incident (1940) by Walter Van Tillburg Clark

Tall in the Saddle (1944) / magazine serial “Tall in the Saddle” (1942) by Gordon Ray Young

Canyon Passage (1946) / magazine serial Canyon Passage (1945) by Ernest Haycox

Red River (1948) / magazine serial “The Chisolm Trail” (1947) by Borden Chase

Three Godfathers (1948) / short story “The Three Godfathers” (1912) by Peter B. Kyne

Blood on the Moon (1948) / magazine serial “Blood on the Moon” (1941) by Luke Short

Whispering Smith (1948) / novel Whispering Smith (1906) by Frank H. Spearman

(Haven’t seen or read this one, but I loved Spearman’s two short story collections about railroading, The Nerve of Foley and Held For Orders.)

Four Faces West (1948) / novella “Paso Por Aqui” (1926) by Eugene Manlove Rhodes

(I wrote about this adaptation at some length a while back. It’s a nice movie, but Gene Rhodes deserved better. But hey, at least his story wasn’t murdered in cold blood like some other authors’ have been! And as a writer who was always at daggers drawn with “the movies” even in their infancy, I’ll bet he would have been tongue-in-cheek philosophical about it.)

the cavalry trilogy

Fort Apache (1948) / short stories “Massacre” (1947) and “The Big Hunt” (1947) by James Warner Bellah

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) / short stories “Command” (1946), “The Big Hunt” (1947), and “War Party” (1948) by James Warner Bellah

Rio Grande (1950) / short story “Mission With No Record” (1947) by James Warner Bellah

(A note at the bottom of this page, which lists sources and tie-ins for John Wayne films, explains the background of the “trilogy” in relation to Bellah’s cavalry stories. I haven’t been able to get my hands on a copy of Massacre yet, but I’d like to—and see how he measures up to my favorite genuine frontier-fort-alumnus Charles King.)

The Furies (1950) / novel The Furies (1948) by Niven Busch

Stars in My Crown (1950) / novel Stars in My Crown (1947) by Joe David Brown

Branded (1950) / novel Montana Rides (1928) by Max Brand

Singing Guns (1950) / novel Singing Guns (1928) by Max Brand

(*cough* This doesn’t sound like the book I read…)

Man in the Saddle (1951) / magazine serial “Man in the Saddle” (1938) by Ernest Haycox

High Noon (1952) / short story “The Tin Star” (1947) by John M. Cunningham

(No relation, incidentally, to the 1957 movie The Tin Star, which had an original script.)

Bend of the River (1952) / novel Bend of the Snake (1950) by Bill Gulick

Shane (1953) / novel Shane (1949) by Jack Schaefer

(The best novel-to-film adaptation in the genre, of the ones that I’ve personally read and watched.)

Hondo (1953) / short story “The Gift of Cochise” (1952) by Louis L’Amour

(Psst…can I tell you a secret? I think I actually liked the original short story better than L’Amour’s novelization of the movie script! Aren’t I a little rebel?)

The Man From Laramie (1955) / magazine serial “The Man From Laramie” (1954) by Thomas T. Flynn

The Searchers (1956) / novel The Searchers (1954) by Alan Le May

3:10 to Yuma (1957) / short story “Three-Ten to Yuma” (1953) by Elmore Leonard

(I’ve already written about this one in-depth too, but I’ll give you spoilers: I like the short story better. *dives behind water trough*)

The Tall T (1957) / short story “The Captives” (1955) by Elmore Leonard

Night Passage (1957) / novel Night Passage (1956) by Norman A. Fox

The Big Country (1958) / magazine serial “Ambush at Blanco Canyon” (1957) by Donald Hamilton

Apache Territory (1958) / novel Last Stand at Papago Wells (1957) by Louis L’Amour

(Based on my favorite L’Amour novel. Since they didn’t consult me, naturally the casting is all wrong. While fairly unremarkable in the larger scheme of things, it provides insight on the Hollywood attitude toward Westerns: if the book isn’t exciting enough, let’s throw in some dynamite. Literally.)

The Hanging Tree (1959) / novella “The Hanging Tree” (1957) by Dorothy M. Johnson

(Johnson is one of the best Western authors out there for my money. The novella is captivating…the movie synopsis made me ask “Why?”)

The Unforgiven (1960) / novel The Unforgiven (1957) by Alan Le May

(After liking the novel, I read the movie synopsis and it made my blood boil with its changes to the very heart of the story. I may still watch the movie one of these days and get steamed up again.)

Two Rode Together (1961) / magazine serial Comanche Captives (1959) by Will Cook

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) / short story “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” (1949) by Dorothy M. Johnson

(I’ve written a lengthy piece on this one too. This is another good example of opening up a very brief and crisp short story into something bigger, and where the three central characters are concerned it’s not a bad job—it was the fudging and over-simplifying of the history element that got under my skin.)

* * *

You know what strikes me most strongly about this list? Almost all of these adaptations closely followed their source material, most of them just a couple years after the original book/story was published. Kyne, Spearman and Rhodes are the only real “old-time” authors on this list. So at best, classic Hollywood was receiving its vision of the West at second- or third-hand. You have to wonder, why didn’t the movie-makers of the 1930s-60s ever dig back into the wealth of Western stories in what’s now our public domain for source material?

For the fun of it, let’s do a little unofficial survey here. I’ve seen 20 of the movies on this list, read 14 of the source stories, and I’d heard of all but three of the authors (Flynn, Fox, and Cook) before I compiled the list. How many of the titles on the list have you read, as opposed to the number of the movies you’ve seen? How many of the authors had you heard of before? And of course, if I’ve left any notable book-based titles out by accident, let me know!

Legends of Western Cinema Week 2019: The Tag

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There’s a blogging event going on this week that you know I just couldn’t miss: Legends of Western Cinema Week, hosted by Hamlette of Hamlette’s Soliloquy, Olivia of Meanwhile, In Rivendell, and Heidi of Along the Brandywine—a week-long celebration of anything and everything to do with Western film. I’ve got at least one more fun post coming up later in the week, but today I’m kicking off my participation by answering the event blog tag.

All three event hosts are having giveaways too, and you can visit any of their introductory posts (linked above) to find the ongoing list of participants’ posts.

Now, let the games begin!

– the tag –

1) Do you tolerate, like, or love westerns?

Love, of course! Read ’em, watch ’em, and write ’em.

2) What do you enjoy about them and, more broadly, the west itself (e.g. the history, accompanying paraphernalia, etc)?

Aside from all the horses, which I think were one of the first big draws when I was a kid, I guess my original reasons for enjoying Westerns were the sense of adventure involved in the storylines, and…well, the romance of the wide-open spaces, if you want to indulge in a cliché. But I think the history was always a big part of it too, perhaps more than I realized at the time. Looking back, I can recall that I always enjoyed stuff about the American frontier, from the Little House series and the “Kirsten” American Girl books to the Oregon Trail computer game. And that interest has only grown as I’ve grown older. I find the logistics and details of ranching, homesteading, and railroading fascinating in themselves; and in a broader sense, I think it’s still that sense of adventure and unpredictability in the partly-settled West that still appeals to me—that, and the colorful variety in its landscapes, characters, and events.

3) What’s the first western you can remember watching?

You know, I honestly don’t know. I guess it was too early to remember. It was probably either a John Wayne film or an episode of Bonanza.

4) Who are your favorite western stars, the ones whose presence in a western will make you pick it up off the shelf?

To be honest, I don’t typically pick out movies based on the top-billed stars. These days I’m more inclined to go for a new-to-me film based on the director or the amount of good character actors in the supporting cast. But I will say that when it comes to Westerns, Ben Johnson is always a plus. With his Oklahoma drawl and splendid horsemanship, he’s the closest thing to a real-McCoy cowboy on the screen, and his characters always seem to be among the most believable, too, whether he’s playing a good guy or a bad guy.

5) What’s your favorite performance by an actress in a western?

Olivia de Havilland as Linnet Moore in The Proud Rebel. Partly because I like the character, but I think de Haviland’s performance is wonderful, too, as she gradually transforms from seeming rather tough and brusque to showing her character’s caring and gentler side. It’s not so much a dramatic character change as it is a portrait of a woman who’s been used to fighting all her own battles, learning to let her guard down and let her whole personality blossom once she has a friend to stand by her. Plus, Linnet just seems to me like a more generally realistic portrayal of a frontier woman than a lot of the female characters in Western movies.

(Runner-up: Jean Simmons as Julie Maragon in The Big Country. Even though it’s not one of my personal favorite movies, I loved her character.)

6) What is your ‘go-to’ western, the one you’ll typically reach for?

Rio Grande (1950). Most others I have to be in the right mood for, but Rio Grande is my longtime personal favorite and one that I’ll nearly always be willing to watch.

7) Do your family/friends share your interest in westerns, or are you a lone ranger (pun completely intended)?

My immediate family are all usually game for watching a good Western if they happen to be in the right mood for it, though I don’t think any of them have as lively an interest in the genre/era for its own sake as I do.

8) Pick one western to live inside for a week, and explain why you chose it.

I think I would have to say Shane, simply because of the Wyoming setting. It would almost be worth dodging a few gunfighters to spend a week in the Grand Tetons. And in their more peaceful moments the settlers in Shane seem to have a friendly, close-knit little community among themselves, which is something I’d like being a part of.

9) What are some of your favorite lines from western movies? Are there any you quote regularly?

“That ain’t in my department” from She Wore A Yellow Ribbon is one of my go-to lines. Also for some reason, “We’re gonna have ’em all wore out passin’ ’em back and forth!” from Red River gets a surprising amount of mileage in everyday situations.

Favorite Film & TV Homes Blogathon: The Browns’ cottage in “National Velvet” (1944)

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“I am excessively fond of a cottage; there is always so much comfort, so much elegance about them. And I protest, if I had any money to spare, I should buy a little land and build one myself.” ~ Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility

When I found out about this fun blogathon, it was easy to pick what to write about. I’m sure there’s been more than one movie house that’s made me say, “Aw, gee, I wish I could live there,” (if you include more modern film, Barton Cottage from Sense and Sensibility ’95 may be my all-time favorite movie dwelling) but one of the first that always springs to mind is the Brown family’s cottage in National Velvet (1944). Tucked away in a corner of a little English village, it’s cozy, cheerful, bright, and homelike. It looks like you could really step into it and live there. As I took the screenshots for this post, I found myself discovering all sorts of delightful little details I’d never noticed about it before, even though I’ve seen the movie dozens of times.

Lots of screencaps coming here, so make yourselves comfortable, perhaps with a cup of tea (I had one beside me while writing this, in fact). You can click on any picture to enlarge it and see the details better.

When you really look at it, the layout of the cottage is extremely simple. The downstairs consists of the one main room, encompassing both dining-room and living-room, a charming little winding staircase leading up to the second floor, and a step down into the kitchen. And yet it’s a perfectly comfortable fit for a family of six. I love the simple, countryish décor—the light-colored walls, wide white woodwork, the ceiling beams and those wonderful many-paned windows.

Watch the scenes in the parlor and you pick up all sorts of homey little touches—the plaid afghan on a chair, the mismatched but coordinating pillows scattered about, the family photos tucked in corners, socks drying by the fire, the lace doilies and sewing-basket on a table. I love how in the final scene (below left), the windowsill and window-seat are carelessly piled with books and newspapers—it’s a house that really looks lived-in. The dining-room chairs don’t all match, though they’re all the same finish. [Read more…]