Author Archive: Retro

Rare excellent comedy western. Dir. Jean Yarbrough.

Liquor smugglers have the run of the Montana Territory until they wound a local lawman, and undercover agent Hoxie is on the job. Dir. Robert North Bradbury.

Hawk of the Hills (1927), a ten episode serial, re-edited into a five-reel feature length version

The film that made Garbo famous. Young married woman becomes the object of a defrocked priest’s affections. English titles. Dir. Joseph Kane.

Maynard’s first western has him at the mercy of a dissolute banker who wants Maynard’s land deed and will stop at nothing to get it! Dir. Clifford S. Elfelt

Early version of the Wister novel, as a ranch hand must bring down local cattle rustlers. Dir. Tom Forman.

Zvenigora stars Nikolai Nademsky (Earth), as the grandfather of Timoshka (Semyon Svashenko), whom he alerts to secret treasure buried in the mountains and the boy spends the rest of his life trying to find. The film wonderfully blends both lyricism and politics and uses its central construct to build a montage praising Ukrainian industrialisation, attacking the European bourgeoisie, celebrating the beauty of the Ukrainian steppe and re-telling ancient folklore. Zvenigora is a most remarkable avant-garde film, which has a unique style in its approach and disregards the more traditional storytelling devices.

A fisherman thought drowned returns to find that his wife is expecting his best friend’s baby. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock. His last silent film.

Tom takes a backseat to his scene-stealing horse Tony, as the Legendary Cowboy trains a wild horse to find the man who shot him. Dir. Tony Mordente.