For fans of Western movies, 1973 was what might well be described as a pretty darned good year. Great Westerns just seemed to dominate the silver screen that year. I’ll admit, I’m old enough to have seen a few movies when they were first released in the theater.
Don’t Forget These 5 Western Movies This Year
In the 1970s, there were many great Western movies like “Cahill U.S. Marshall” and “High Plains Drifter” that fans loved. Now, on their 50th anniversary, is a good time to watch these five movies if you haven’t seen them in a while. They will remind you of how amazing 1973 was for fans of Western movies and the Western genre overall.
Cahill U.S. Marshal
As you likely recall, in this great movie, John Wayne plays widowed U.S. Marshal J.D. Cahill. He had two sons but spent more time catching bad guys than being with them. To defy their father, the boys hook up with a band of outlaws (led by George Kennedy). They then let them out of jail and helped them rob a bank.
In the melee, the sheriff is killed. The boys are supposed to take the loot to the outlaws later. However, they have second thoughts and bury it in a cemetery.
In the meantime, Marshal Cahill, along with his Indian tracker Lightfoot (played by Neville Brand), have arrested four innocent men for the crime, and they’ve been sentenced to hang. The marshal figures out something is suspicious, tracks his kids, and learns the truth. Along the way, Lightfoot is killed by one of the bad guys.
I don’t have to worry about being a spoiler since it’s likely everyone reading this has seen the movie at least once. In the action-packed conclusion, Cahill, Danny, and Billy battle it out with the evil forces and arise victoriously. In the process, the boys are reconciled with their father, who promises he’ll stay home more if they don’t rob any more banks.
Best quotes:
Lightfoot – “Give me my five dollars. If you get shot tonight, I’ll disappear. Oh, I’ll come back and bury you…and mumble something Christian over your grave.”
J.D. Cahill – “Lightfoot, your kindness overwhelms me.”
“Cahill U.S. Marshal” didn’t get great marks from movie reviewers at the time. However, some Duke lovers consider it one of their favorites.
High Plains Drifter
In this classic, Clint Eastwood plays a nameless, drifting stranger who rides into a dusty mining town. When he arrives, he is unaware of the secret the residents are keeping. Three ruthless outlaws are soon to be released from prison. And they will be heading to Lago to rob, rape, and commit various other atrocities against the townsfolks.
The dark secret is this: Years earlier, the townspeople hired the outlaws to kill a federal marshal. They then turned them in on false robbery charges.
Enter Eastwood, whom the town’s leaders ask to protect them from the danger. And they offer him anything he wants to save them—a proposition many later regret. The stranger basically turns the town upside down.
He gets a new saddle and boots and forces the saloon owner to give everyone their drinks for free. Not to mention making everyone leave the hotel so he has it all for himself.
Along the way, he spends some quality time in bed with blond townswoman Callie Travers. She then sets him up to be killed by three men after having sex with him in the local hotel. Despite them using dynamite, the stranger still comes out on top, killing two of the attackers and wounding the other.
Of course, in the end, the stranger is victorious over the outlaws. And, as heroes are prone to do, he rides off into the desert.
Best quotes:
Sarah Belding – “You’re a man who makes people afraid, and that’s dangerous.”
The Stranger – “It’s what people know about themselves inside that makes them afraid.”
The Man Called Noon
I included this movie because it’s based on one of my all-time favorite Louis L’Amour books of the same name. All Ruble Noon—played by Richard Crenna—knows is that he was hit on the head and has no memory.
He has no idea who his friends or enemies are, and it turns out he has plenty of the latter. And he knows how to sling a gun pretty darned well, although he has no idea how he knows that.
With the help of an outlaw named Rimes, played by Stephen Boyd, noon sets out to find his identity. Only he ends up in the middle of a search for a hidden treasure.
Along the way, we learn that an unscrupulous judge named Niland, played by Farley Granger, and a young lady named Peg Cullane, played by Patty Shepard, will do almost anything to keep him from finding the hidden fortune.
Noon meets Fan Davidge and attempts to help her find the treasure which had been hidden by her late father. Along the way, he recalls that his name is actually Jonas and that his wife and child had been murdered.
In the end, as in most Louis L’Amour books and movies, the good guy kills all the bad guys and ends up with the sweet young lady, along with the treasure. It’s a very nice movie that didn’t get a lot of attention when it was released. In fact, it is seldom even mentioned these days.
Best quotes:
Noon — “Are you coming?”
Rimes – “Yeah, I figure you might need me…if only to put a marker on your grave.”
The Train Robbers
Another John Wayne movie, this one has an all-star cast including Ann-Margret, Rod Taylor, Ben Johnson, and Ricardo Montalban. In the only film that Wayne and Ann-Margret worked on together, she plays a widow named Mrs. Lowe. She hires Lane (Wayne’s character) to help her find a fortune in gold hidden by her late husband, a train robber.
With the odds stacked against them but lured by the hefty reward offered, Lane and his compatriots head south of the border in search of the booty. All the while, they are pursued by the late train robber’s gang members and every “two-bit gunman in the territory.”
All seeking the riches the treasure could afford them.
Toward the end of the movie, after recovering the gold, Lane and his men put Mrs. Lowe on a train to return the gold. They even tell her she can keep the reward for herself and her son.
Soon afterward, however, they learn from a Pinkerton agent that Mrs. Lowe was never married. She is actually a prostitute named Lilly, who had got the better of them. As the film ends, they head out to rob the train.
Best quote:
Lane – “If anybody tries to cross that river before we’re out of sight, baptize ’em.”
Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid
If you’ve never seen James Coburn and Kris Kristofferson together on the silver screen, complete with music by Bob Dylan, then you’ve never seen “Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid.” In fact, Dylan even plays a knife-wielding associate of Billy in the movie.
Filmed in Durango, Colorado, it is set in the wild west of 1909. The film is Director Sam Peckinpah’s dark take on the Billy the Kid story, told differently in several other movies.
In the film, Coburn plays the aging Pat Garrett. Wealthy New Mexico cattlemen hire him to bring his former best friend Billy the Kid, played by Kristofferson, to justice. After being close in their younger days, Garrett has chosen to stay on the right side of the law. However, Billy is more attracted to outlaw endeavors.
Caught once, Billy managed to escape before being hanged, prompting Garrett to once again go in pursuit of him. In the end, Garrett shoots Billy in the bedroom of a house where he is staying with his girlfriend. While the townspeople gather the next morning to see Billy’s lifeless body, Garrett rides out of town, with a small boy throwing stones at him.
Best quotes:
Billy – “Ol’ Pat…Sheriff Pat Garrett. Sold out to the Santa Fe ring. How does it feel?”
Garrett – “It feels like…times have changed.”
Billy – “Times, maybe. Not me.”
There you have it—five Western movies celebrating their 50th anniversary this year. If that list doesn’t have you ready to make some popcorn and do a little binge-watching, you just might not be a real fan of Western movies. Enjoy!
This article was originally published in the Guns of the Old West Spring 2023 issue. Subscription is available in print and digital editions at OutdoorGroupStore.com. Or call 1-800-284-5668, or email subscriptions@athlonmediagroup.com.
