James Stewart and Anthony Mann made eight movies together.  Of the eight, five were westerns known as “revenge” westerns.  These movies helped define the western character of Stewart.

“Winchester ‘73” was the first of the westerns that James Stewart and Anthony Mann worked on together.  The second was “Bend in the River”.  In this movie, Stewart squares off against Arthur Kennedy as the bad guy.  The story revolves around settlers going from Missouri to Oregon.  

The third movie in the western series is “The Naked Spur” which has been considered by some as one of the best westerns ever made, a critical success for Stewart and Mann.  Other actors contributing to the success are Robert Ryan, Janet Leigh, Ralph Meeker and Millard Mitchell (who was also in “Winchester ‘73”).  Stewart plays a character who is driven to bring back a killer (Robert Ryan).  Seems to be a common theme in the Mann/Stewart movies.  

One of the lesser known is “The Far Country”.  Supporting Stewart in this move are Walter Brennan, Ruth Roman and John McIntire as the judge out to get Stewart’s character.

The last of the westerns made by Stewart and Mann is “The Man From Laramie”.  Once again one of the bad guys Stewart’s character is looking for is played by Arthur Kennedy.  Donald Crisp and Alex Nicol are also featured.

It is interesting to note that character actor Jay C. Flippen appeared in three of the five movies.  I will leave it up to you to find out which three. 

Many shows on radio were devoted to the lone detective.  He was either a policeman, a private eye, insurance investigator or a newspaper reporter.  They always solved the crime and did it in 30 minutes to boot.  

Boston Blackie was probably one of the most well know of the detectives.  This private investigator was a former jewel thief always being blamed for crimes by Inspector Faraday.  Blackie always solved the crime and make Faraday look foolish.  

The Adventure of the Falcon was developed from the successful movie series featuring the Falcon.  In the movie version, George Sanders played the Falcon most of the time.  Later editions featured his real life brother, Tom Conway.  Neither of these two played the Falcon on the radio.

Broadway Is My Beat was about Lt. Danny Clover, a police man who worked the Great White Way.  Richard Diamond, Private Detective is about a former NYPD police officer turned sarcastic private eye.  This version starred Dick Powell as Diamond.  

One of my favorites was Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.  It was about a freelance insurance investigator with an expense account.  He documents every dollar he spends and each item introduces an element of the story.  In the same vein is The Adventures of Sam Spade, Detective and Philip Marlowe.

These are just a few of the many lone wolf detectives featured on Old Time Radio.  Check them out.

Photography has changed over the years.  We have gone from box cameras to DSLR digital cameras.  This article discusses the best ways to save your photos in the new digital age.  Several good options are given.  

Storing the images on your computer allows you to view them on your monitor at a later date.  You can also burn a DVD from your stored photo data.  This will allow you to get traditional photos printed.  All in all, there is a lot of good information presented here that will help any photography enthusiast store the photos they have so carefully taken.  The rest of the website also gives information related to photography.

*Another Website Review...

The Bad in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, Lee was relentless in his pursuit of The Good, Clint Eastwood.  Van Cleef made an excellent bad guy and did so in many of his movies.  

Clarence LeRoy Van Cleef, Jr. was born January 9, 1925, in Sommerville, New Jersey.  His first role of consequence in the movies was as Jack Colby, one of Frank Miller’s gang.  They were trying to shoot down Gary Cooper in High Noon.
Van Cleef spent many years playing villains in many western movies.  He also played in a couple of science fiction movies, but is mostly remembered for his roles in western films.

Due to his sharp features, he was cast as an Indian in several early westerns.  However, in 1958 he was involved in a serious auto accident which put his career on hold for several years.  When he came back, he was cast in several Spaghetti Westerns.  He was in a couple with Clint Eastwood, and then became the star of several others.  

The Sabata trilogy was the best known of these westerns.  He was the steely eyed Sabata fighting against evil.  Even though he was not the villain, he was still tough and unmovable.

Van Cleef made many appearances in various TV productions as well.  Later in his life, he had his own show “The Master” which aired for 7 episodes.  He was in 90 movies and around 109 television appearances.  One of the great bad guys.

Several actors developed a career portraying gangsters.  A few that come to mind are James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson and Paul Muni in the early days.  Later on we have Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. 

James Cagney starred as a bad guy in films like White Heat and The Public Enemy.  He started out as a song and dance man, but was so good as a tough guy that he eventually went in that direction.  Later he came back to the song and dance in Yankee Doodle Dandy.

Humphrey Bogart’s debut as a bad guy was as Duke Mantee in The Petrified Forest.  Then later as “Baby Face” Martin in Dead End.  In his later movies he became the tough good guy like Rick in Casablanca or as Sam Spade in the Maltese Falcon.

Edward G. Robinson’s most famous role was as Rico in Little Caesar.  In Key Largo he was Johnny Rocco, the foil of Humphrey Bogart as Frank McCloud.  Paul Muni played in several gangster movies.  Scarface was probably his best.

Al Pacino and Robert De Niro starred in the greatest gangster movie of all time, The Godfather.  De Niro played a young Vito Corleone in Godfather Part II and Pacino was his youngest son in the first Godfather.