Encyclopedia of Weird Westerns
Page 39
“THE GRAVE” (3:07) [WW]
Premiere: October 27, 1961; Main Cast: Lee Marvin as Conny Miller, Strother Martin as Mothershed, James Best as Johnny Rob, Lee Van Cleef as Steinhart, Richard Geary as Pinto Sykes; Producer: Buck Houghton; Story-Director: Montgomery Pittman; 25 min.; Cayuga Productions, CBS Television; b/w.
Gunman Miller attempts to track down outlaw Pinto Sykes in a story that involves revenge from beyond the grave.
“SHOWDOWN WITH RANCE MCGRAW” (3:20) [WW]
Premiere: February 2, 1962; Main Cast: Larry Blyden as Rance McGraw, Robert Kline as TV Jesse James, Arch Johnson as Jesse James; Producer: Buck Houghton; Story: Rod Serling; Director: Christian Nyby; 25 min.; Cayuga Productions, CBS Television; b/w.
Bungling, cowardly TV Western actor Rance McGraw comes face to face with the real Jesse James who becomes his agent in an attempt to bring some reality to McGraw's “phony baloney” TV series. A satire on the juvenile nature of TV Westerns of the period.
“THE 7TH IS MADE UP OF PHANTOMS” (5:10) [SFW]
Premiere: December 6, 1963; Main Cast: Warren Oates as Richard Langsford, Ron Foster as William Connors, Randy Boone as Michael McCluskey, Greg Morris as Lt. Woodard; Producer: Bert Granet; Story: Rod Serling; Director: Alan Crosland Jr.; 25 min.; Cayuga Productions, CBS Television; b/w.
Army National Guard soldiers on maneuvers near Little Big Horn are time-transported to the day of Custer's last stand.
2. The Twilight Zone-Radio Dramas (2007)
Nationally syndicated weekly radio show adaptations of episodes from the original Twilight Zone television series. The original scripts have been expanded from 23 minutes to 43 minutes.
Main Cast: Stacy Keach as the Host; Producers: Carl Amari, Roger Wolski; 43 min.; Falcon Picture Group.
“A HUNDRED YEARS OVER THE RIM”:
Cast: Jim Caviezel; Vol. 3 [SFW]
“THE 7TH IS MADE UP OF PHANTOMS”:
Cast: Richard Grieco; Vol. 5 [SFW]
“THE GRAVE”:
Cast: Michael Rooker; Vol. 6 [WW]
“MR. DENTON ON DOOMSDAY”:
Cast: Adam Baldwin; Vol. 6 [WW]
“SHOWDOWN WITH RANCE MCGRAW”:
Cast: Chris McDonald; Vol. 7 [WW]
“DUST”:
Cast: Bill Smitrovich; Vol. 9 [WW]
The Two Devils
[Novel; SFW]
Author: David B. Riley; First publication: Pittsburgh PA: LBF Books; Las Cruces, NM: Hadrosaur Productions, 2004.
Wandering barber Miles O'Malley and his horse Paul travel through the Old West of the 1880s meeting fallen angels, the owl-headed Mayan god of death Ah Puch, aliens from Mars, demons and Nick Mephistopheles.
Two-Gun Kid
[Comic book]
First publication: March 1948; Art: Syd Shores; Publisher: Timely-Atlas–Marvel Comics.
1. The first Western comic book published by Timely (Marvel Comics). In a storyline that would be repeated in other Marvel Western titles, Clay Harder is wrongly accused of murder and spends his life on the run from the law with his trusted horse Cyclone by his side.
2. Following the cancellation of the title in April 1961, Two-Gun Kid was revived by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby in issue #60 (November 1962). The new version of Two-Gun Kid continued the numbering from the original title. Original Two-Gun Kid Clay Harder was reduced to a dime novel character as Matt Hawk (later to undergo a name change to Matt Liebowicz) became the “real-life” Two-Gun Kid.
Influenced by the success of the Marvel superhero titles, Two-Gun Kid soon included various super-villains including Chief Roaring Bear, The Panther, Purple Phantom and hypnotist Silver Sidewinder.
Weird Western storylines:
“NOTHING CAN SAVE FORT HENRY” [WW]
First publication: #65 (September 1963); Story: Stan Lee; Art: Dick Ayers.
Disgraced doctor Major Dave Dixon decides to get revenge on Fort Henry by supplying Chief Roaring Bear with a potion that gave him and his stallion super-strength and super-size. But Dixon's eventual act of self-sacrifice saves the fort from destruction.
“THE PURPLE PHANTOM” [WMW]
First publication: #68 (March 1964); Story: Stan Lee; Art: Dick Ayers.
Wearing a phosphorescent costume, Hunk Hondo poses as the ghostly Purple Phantom in his cattle-rustling raids.
The title was finally laid to rest in 1979 but Two-Gun Kid returned in a Weird West adventure in Daredevil, The Man Without Fear in 1985. Two-Gun Kid was also featured in The Avengers, West-Coast Avengers and She-Hulk where he traveled through time, and the limited series' Two-Gun Kid: Sunset Riders (1995) and Blaze of Glory (2000).
3. Mighty Marvel Western mini-series one-shot; First publication: August 2006; Story: Dan Slott, Keith Geffin; Art: Eduardo Barreto, Robert Loren Fleming, Mike Allred.
A present-day adventure with She-Hulk reminding Two-Gun Kid of a tale from his past involving cattle rustlers and monsters.
2000x: Tales of the Next Millennia
[Radio show]
Premiere: 1999; Announcer: Robert Foxworth; Host-Consultant: Harlan Ellison; Executive Producers: Andy Trudeau, Stefan Rudnicki; Producer-Director; Yuri Rasovsky; 26 × 60 min.; NPR (National Public Radio), Hollywood Theater of the Ear.
Radio anthology series consisting of 49 30-minute plays celebrating the new millennium in fiction.
“SHAMBLEAU” [SW]
Original broadcast: NPR Playhouse (February 20, 2001); Story: C.L. Moore; Adaptation: Sarah Montague; Main Cast: Kristoffer Tabori as Northwest Smith, Ann Marie Lee as the Shambleau, George Murdock as Yarol; 30 min.
This radio dramatization of C.L. Moore's original story avoids narration in favor of dialogue.
See: 7th Dimension
Two Tiny Claws
[Novel; SFW]
Author: Brett Davis; First publication: Riverdale NY: Baen, 1999.
In this sequel to Bone Wars, paleontologist Barnum Brown searches for dinosaur bones in turn-of-the-century Montana but encounters aliens and Old West gunslinger Luther Gumpson.
See: Bone Wars
Uchū Kaizoku Kyaputen Hārokku
(1978) [Anime; Japan]
Premiere: March 14, 1978; Director: Rintaro; Toei Animation; 42 × 25 min.; Color.
Based on characters created by Leiji Matsumoto.
In the year 2977, humans devote all their time and energy to leisure. Captain Harlock and the crew of the Arcadia become Earth's only hope against the alien Mazone.
“MY FRIEND, MY YOUTH” (1:30) [SW]
Taking refuge from the pursuing Mazone on Pirate Island, Harlock recalls his first encounter with Toshiro Oyama and Queen Emeraldas in an Old West–style town where Toshiro saved him from a hangman's noose.
Undead or Alive
(2007) [Film; WW]
Main Cast: James Denton as Elmer; Chris Kattan as Luke, Lew Alexander as Geronimo, Navi Rawat as Sue; Producers: Deborah Del Prete, David S. Greathouse, Gigi Pritzker; Story: Glasgow Phillips, Scott Pourroy; Director: Glasgow Phillips; Odd Lot Entertainment; Color.
Comedy Western about two robbers fleeing an undead sheriff and his zombie posse. When the two are captured by Geronimo's niece Sue, they have no idea she may their only salvation from Geronimo's “white man's curse.”
Under a Harrowed Moon Part 1: Strange Bedfellows
[RPG book; WW]
Author: Matt Forbeck; First publication: 1997; Deadlands: The Weird West Dime Novel #4; Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment Group.
Under a Harrowed Moon Part 2: Savage Passage
[RPG book; WW]
Author: Matt Forbeck; First publication: 1998; Setting: Deadlands: The Weird West Dime Novel #5; Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment Group.
Under a Harrowed Moon Part 3: Ground Zero [RPG book; WW]
Author: Matt Forbeck; First publication: 1998; Setting; Deadlands: The Weird West Dime Novel #6; Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment Group.
Crossover series of Dime Novels with Werewolf: The Wild West. Undead hero Ronan Lynch a
nd company are coerced to join forces with a team of werewolves. They venture from the Weird West to the Savage West to track evil Dr. Hellstromme and save two worlds.
Under a Prairie Moon
[Novel; WWR]
Author: Madeline Baker; First publication: New York: N.Y. Leisure Books, 1998.
When Kathy inherits a neglected family ranch, she sets about bringing it back to life, but is disturbed by feelings of someone watching her every move. The spirit of Dalton Crowkiller a Lakota half-breed from the 1870s, befriends her and they fall in love. Pleading for a second chance at love, Dalton and Kathy are transported back to the Old West where Dalton is alive in the flesh once again. But they both become aware that their time together may be limited and come to appreciate each day knowing it may be their last.
“Under the Moons of Mars”
[Pulp fiction; SW]
Author: Norman Bean (Edgar Rice Burroughs); First publication: The All-Story Magazine Vol. XXII #2 (February-July 1912).
One of the first attempts at mixing the Western and Science Fiction genres. The first title, My First Adventure to Mars, was changed to The Green Martians. In the margin of the first page of his original manuscript, Burroughs wrote Dejah Thoris Martian Princess?, a title he would adopt when he mailed the half-completed 43,000-word manuscript to Argosy magazine on August 14, 1911.
The story was expanded to 65,000 words and serialized in The All-Story Magazine under the pseudonym “Normal Bean” which was printed “Norman Bean” due to a typing error. Burroughs sold serial rights for $400. He told the Chicago Examiner:
I was very much ashamed of my new vocation ... It seemed a foolish thing for a man to be doing—much on par with a man dressing in a boy scout suit and running away from home to fight Indians.
Synopsis: At the close of the American Civil War, former Virginia Confederate officer John Carter is prospecting in Arizona when Apaches attack.
The Indians discovered that I was alone, and I was pursued with curses, threats, arrows, and bullets! The facts that it is difficult to aim anything but curses and threats accurately by moonlight; that they were upset by the unexpected manner of my arrival; and that I was a rapidly moving target; saved me from their various deadly projectiles and permitted me to reach the shadows of the surrounding peaks. My horse was traveling practically unguided, and so it happened that he entered a shallow gully that led to the summit of the range and not to the pass that I had hoped would carry me to safety. However, I owe my life and my remarkable adventures to this turn in the road.
After hiding in a cave, Carter ventures out upon the desert landscape of Arizona and gazes up toward the planet Mars in the sky.
As I stood thus meditating, I turned my gaze from the landscape to the heavens where the myriad stars formed a gorgeous and fitting canopy for the wonders of the earthly scene. My attention was quickly riveted by a large red star close to the distant horizon. As I gazed upon it I felt a spell of overpowering fascination—it was Mars, the god of war, and for me, the fighting man, it had always held the power of irresistible enchantment. As I gazed at it on that far-gone night it seemed to call across the unthinkable void, to lure me to it, to draw me as the lodestone attracts a particle of iron.
My longing was beyond the power of opposition; I closed my eyes, stretched out my arms toward the god of my vocation and felt myself drawn with the suddenness of thought through the trackless immensity of space. There was an instant of extreme cold and utter darkness.
Inexplicably Carter finds himself on Mars where he is taken prisoner by six-limbed green giants on eight-legged mounts.
I opened my eyes upon a strange and weird landscape. I knew that I was on Mars; not once did I question either my sanity or my wakefulness. I was not asleep, no need for pinching here; my inner consciousness told me as plainly that I was upon Mars as your conscious mind tells you that you are upon Earth. You do not question the fact; neither did I.
After meeting the beautiful Martian princess Dejah Thoris, they join forces in their fight for freedom and the future of Mars.
The six-part serial was collected to form the novel The Princess of Mars (A.C. McClurg & Co., October 10, 1917), The novel served as the first part of a trilogy that continued with The Gods of Mars and concluded with The Warlord of Mars. Burroughs' subsequent stories in the series didn't feature a specific Western setting or John Carter but showed the influence of different genres including Western pulp fiction of the era.
Unforgettable
[Novel; WWR]
Author: Madeline Baker; First publication: New York: N.Y. Leisure Books, 2000.
Visiting the ghost town of Bodie in Northern California while on vacation, Shaye Montgomery encounters the ghost of handsome Old West gambler Alejandro Valverde, who was hung for his crimes. Shaye eventually meets Alejandro in the flesh when she travels back in time and space to the boomtown of Bodie in 1880. But can she save him from being hung?
Uninvited
(1993) [Film; WW]
Main Cast: Jack Elam as Grady, Zane Paolo as Billy Ray, Ted Haler as The Priest, Jerry Rector as Winchester, Bari Buckner as Emma; Producers: David Kleinman, Shawn Coulter, Larry Kaster; Story-Director: Michael Derek Bohusz; 90 min.; Rush Hour Productions; Color.
Eight strangers searching for gold trespass on sacred burial grounds, disturbing the ghosts who then exact their revenge.
The Unity
[RPG book; WW]
Author: Shane Lacy Hensley; First publication: 2002; Setting: Deadlands: Hell on Earth The Wasted West; Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment Group.
Conclusion of the Deadlands: Hell on Earth main storyline.
Uomo avvisato mezzo ammazzato ... parola di Spirito Santo
(1971) [Film; Italy-Spain; WW]
Cast: Gianni Garko as Spirito Santo, Victor Israel as The Preacher, Poldo Bendandi as General Ubarte, Cris Huerta as Carezza/Chuck, Jorge Rigaud [George Rigaud] as Don Firmino Mendoza, Pilar Velazquez as Juana Mendoza, Paul Stevens [Paolo Gozlino] as Samuel Crow; Producer: Luciano Martino; Story: Tito Carpi; Screenplay: Tito Carpi, Federico DeUrrutia, Giuliano Carnimeo; Director: Anthony Ascott [Giuliano Carmineo]; 94 min.; C.C. Astro, Lea Film; Color.
Spiriti Santo helps local revolutionaries in their war against General Ubarte with the help of a unique machine gun. In return he asks for their help in finding gold.
The film includes many Weird Western elements including a quasi-supernatural main character dressed in white with a dove on his shoulder, chickens who lay dynamite eggs and a sidekick with superhuman strength. The subsequent films in the series were standard Westerns.
See: They Call Him Holy Ghost
Urban Renewal
[RPG book; WW]
Author: Lucien Soulban; First publication: 2000; Setting: Deadlands: Hell on Earth; Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment Group.
The buildings of Junkyard contain squatters and creatures waiting to pounce from among the ruins.
The Valley of Gwangi
(1969) [Film; SFW]
1. Premiere: July 25, 1969; Main Cast: James Franciscus as Tuck Kirby, Gila Golan as T.J. Breckenridge, Richard Carlson as Champ Connors; Producer: Charles H. Schneer; Story: William E. Bast; Director: Jim O'Connolly; 96 min.; Morningside Productions, Warner Brothers/Seven Arts; Color.
When a cowboy (Franciscus) enters Forbidden Valley to return a midget horse on the advice of gypsies, he encounters living dinosaurs. He decides to capture an Allosaurus to place in an ailing Wild West show. But when a rival releases the dinosaur, it creates a path of havoc and destruction in the local town.
Willis O'Brien's script Emilio and Guloso, later retitled Valley of the Mist, was optioned by producer Jesse Lasky in the 1950s but never went into production. The script would be adapted for The Valley of Gwangi.
2. Comic book adaptation.
First publication: Movie Classics #01-880-912, December 1969; Art: Jack Sparling; Publisher: Dell Publishing Co.
Vampire Wars: Battle for the Universe
(2005) [
Telefilm; Canada; SW]
DVD release title (U.S.) for Bloodsuckers.
Vanishing Riders
(1935) [Film; WMW]
Premiere: July 3, 1935; Main Cast: Bill Cody as Bill Jones, Bill Cody Jr. as Tim Lang, Wally Wales as Wolf Larson, Ethel Jackson as Joan Stanley, Donald Reed as Frank Stanley, Budd Buster as Hiram McDuff; Producer: Ray Kirkwood; Story: Oliver Drake; Director: Bob Hill; 58 min.; Spectrum Films; b/w.
When outlaw Wolf Larson and his gang are hired for ranch work, they see the perfect opportunity for cattle rustling. But the ranch has a reputation for being haunted and ranch owner Joan Stanley exploits their fear of ghosts to bring them to justice.
Vanquish the Night
[Novel; WW]
Author: Shannon Drake; First publication: New York: Silhouette Books, 1990.
A young Texas woman falls for an immortal but risks eternal damnation. Vampire Western published under the anthology title Bewitching Love Stories.
Vartàn
[Comic book; Italy; WW]
First publication: 1969; Creators: Furio Viano, Sandro Angiolini; Story: Furio Viano, Paolo Ghelardini; Art: Sandro Angiolini; Publisher: Furio Viano Editore.