A Classic on TCM This Month

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (Paramount, 1962) Directed by John Ford. This is Ford's last great and perhaps his greatest movie. This is one of the few "society" Westerns that I really love, and that's because the characters are so finally drawn and the larger issue of a territory at stake between the rule of law and lawlessness takes on far reaching and shattering personal dimensions. This one has a lot of my favorite actors in it: John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Lee Marvin, Lee Van Cleef, Andy Devine, Strother Martin, and in my favorite role in the flick, our old pal Edmund O'Brien from D.O.A as the local newspaper editor. Ford shot this one in glorious black and white, and I think it is also the last great black and white Western. Check it out!