The Cowboy Rides Away is a series on the final Western films of great cowboy stars. Other entries include John Wayne’s The Shootist (1976) and Gary Cooper’s The Hanging Tree (1959). The supposed immortality of movie stardom is a funny thing. Some stars only grow in stature as the years go by, but others shrink.…
This is the second entry in a series on the final Westerns of the great cowboy stars. The previous entry looked at Gary Cooper and The Hanging Tree. Don Siegel’s The Shootist is an elegy. Made three years before John Wayne’s death from cancer, it tells the story of a gunfighter (or a “shootist” to…
Editor's Note: This entry will kick off a new series on the Final Westerns of the great cowboy stars. First up: Gary Cooper. When The Hanging Tree appeared in movie theaters in 1959 the Western was at its peak. Indeed, no view of the 1950s can be complete without an acknowledgement of the outsized popularity…
