[who is your fav actor]

Everyone seems to like a lot of different ones. Mine are about the same, Roy Rogers, Gabby Hayes, Charles Starrett (The Durango Kid), Tim Holt, Hopalong Cassidy, John Wayne, Randolph Scott, Rod Cameron, Allan "Rocky" Lane, William "Wild Bill" Elliott, Don "Red" Barry, Bob Steele, Hoot Gibson, Ken Maynard, and tons more, but my all-time favorite, and I collect all his movies, is Audie Murphy. His westerns were the best. Good acting, great co-stars, really nice looking locations, and really good stories. Some of his co-stars included Walter Matthau, Walter Brennan, Chill Wills, Stephen McNally, Dan Duryea, and James Stewart. If I were to name three favorites of Audie Murphy films, and they change daily, I would say: "Destry", "The Kid From Texas", and "Seven Ways From Sundown". But there are so many more.

[Whats so great about letterbox?]

I really cringe when I hear people say things like "why should I watch a movie that cuts off the heads and feet of people and gives me ugly black bars on my television", because they don't understand what Widescreen or Letterbox means. These are the people that I call 'Foolscreen' people, those who are close-minded and don't read or listen when someone tries to explain the differences between Pan & Scan (foolscreen) and Letterbox or Widescreen.

 

I was hired by Wal-Mart a couple of years ago to teach a class about how to sell the consumer on the differences between a 4:3 and 16x9 television set, and the importance of each.

 

I got to instruct the managers first for three days using the same movie on two types of televisions. I always looked for a movie that had both the Widescreen version and the Pan & Scan version of the movie on the same disc, so I could compare certain scenes of the movie I was using as an example.

 

My favorite example was to show a scene from "Dirty Harry" where the mayor is discussing the 'scorpio killer' case and asks who is working the case. The police lieutenant tells him that it is Harry Callahan. On the widescreen set you see Eastwood enter the room and hear his dialogue with the mayor as he walking towards the front of the room. In the Pan & Scan version you just hear the door open and close and Clint Eastwood's dialogue with the Mayor until he walks into the scene. Another favorite is from "Air Force One". In one of the opening scenes you see the camera angle is coming up the aisle toward Harrison Ford while he is giving his speech and you see the movement of the people on each side of the screen. In the Pan & Scan version they just show you Ford giving his speech and there is no travel up the aisle to his podium. The third example I use is "Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade". There is so much going on in this movie across the screen, that it is just simply ignorance of the person watching who would answer "I don't like the black bars".

 

We actually discussed what the black bars were, they are unused screen on the television set, and while they are bigger portions on the 4:3 sets than on 16x9 there are still these noticeable black bars.

 

It is amazing how much attention was paid by the people I taught during these classes, but then I was totally blown away when Wal-Mart started featuring Full Screen versions of their new releases and 'hiding' the Widescreen versions. I felt that I had wasted my time teaching these employees the differences to help with their sales techniques.

 

So I just smiled when I got my check and smiled all the way to the bank.

 

I refuse to purchase a DVD if it does not offer the Original Aspect Ratio of the film in its content. I prefer the disc that has both versions so I can show my friends the differences, but when I make purchases I always look for the Widescreen version first.

 

Thirty years of being a projectionist doesn't hurt my knowledge of movies either.

[How about Audi Murphy?]

Audie Murphy westerns are probably my most favorite of all. They always had a good story, and he always managed to have some pretty big name co-stars in them. He actually did three war movies - "The Red Badge of Courage", "To Hell and Back" and "Battle at Bloody Beach", which was made in 1961 and co-starred Gary Crosby.

 

Some of his early westerns were my most favorite -

 

The Cimarron Kid

The Kid From Texas

Destry

Duel at Silver Creek

Drums Across The River

Tumbleweed

Night Passage

Ride Clear of Diablo

Seven Ways From Sundown

Hellbent For Leather

No Name on the Bullet

Gunsmoke

Ride A Crooked Trail

Kansas Raiders

 

Just to name a few. Rarely do they get shown on TCM anymore. I wish they would have a Saturday tribute to Audie Murphy and the best of his Universal Westerns instead of the same stuff, and show them all in their original aspect ratio.

 

Recenty they showed "The Quiet American" a rare Audie Murphy movie which was not a western.

 

The best of Murphy's movies came while he was with Universal, later he went to Columbia Pictures where he had movies like "The Quick Gun", "Guns of Fort Petticoat" and "The Texican" to name a few.

 

You can tell that I am truly an Audie Murphy fan, and I collect all of his movies.

[Name 2 of Your Favorite Comedic Westerns]

My two all-time favorite western-comedies are "Support Your Local Sheriff" and "The Villain".

 

"Support Your Local Sheriff" stars James Garner, Harry Morgan and Jack Elam in a slam-bang comedy fest. Featuring all-time western favorite Walter Brennan. My favorite scene is when Brennan comes into the sheriff's office with his gun pointed at Garner and Garner puts his finger in the barrel of revolver.

 

"The Villain" was the live-action version of a road runner & coyote cartoon featuring Kirk Douglas, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Ann-Margret in one hilarious laugh filled action movie.