CHEAP, FAMILIAR, AND EVER POPULAR, THE WESTERN WAS THE BREAD AND BUTTER OF HOLLYWOOD FROM ITS INCEPTION WELL INTO THE STUDIO ERA. THE VERY FORM OF THE AMERICAN NARRATIVE FILM DEVELOPED BY ADOPTING THE PLOTLINES, ICONOGRAPHY, AND STYLISTIC TECHNIQUES OF WESTERN DIME NOVELS, PLAYS, AND WILD WEST SHOWS. IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE, THE WESTERN, TO QUOTE TAG GALLAGHER, “INVENTED THE CINEMA.”

JOIN US AS WE TRAVEL TO A TIME OF SINGING COWBOYS, SAGEBRUSH MEN, AND SILENT TYPES, EXAMINING THE B MOVIES THAT FORMED THE LIFEBLOOD OF THE WESTERN GENRE THROUGHOUT THE GOLDEN AGE OF CINEMA.

Featuring words on Jack Arnold, Gene Autry, Budd Boetticher, Allan Dwan, Tim Holt, Joseph Kane, George Sherman, R.G. Springsteen, Edgar G. Ulmer, and more…