Books in the Six-Gun Law series

The modern Western is so intent on portraying the West as it really was that the end product comes across as a tedious, dimly photographed exercise in grime, gloom and doom. Westerns of the 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s may not have been entirely accurate in their depiction of the Old West, but they moved like wildfire and entertained prewar and postwar audiences by the millions. Sadly, the classic American Western no longer exists-where good guys were good and bad guys were bad. The great Western hero actors of the past have holstered their six-shooters and ridden off into the fading sunset. Author Atkinson looks at the Western career of four of Hollywood's often overlooked cowpokes: Randolph Scott, Audie Murphy, Joel McCrea and George Montgomery, What these hombres have left behind is a vast body of work that continues to bring pleasure and enjoyment to many, many fans of a certain age, and may even garner a few younger devotees.

Like Scott, Murphy, McCrea and Montgomery, the subjects ofvolume one, the four actors showcased in this second volume, RoryCalhoun, Rod Cameron, Sterling Hayden and Richard Widmark,were all perfectly capable of playing their tough roles with ease becauseof their hard, uncompromising upbringing (especially truein Calhoun's case). ey were also naturals in the saddle, born toride, even Hayden, their combined output in the eld an enduringreminder of how, many, many years ago, the Western movie reignedsupreme over all others. So let's hit four divergent trails out Westwith four contrasting meaner-than-hell hombres and see how theycoped, in true Western tradition, with bad guys (when they weren'tbeing bad guys themselves), Indians on the warpath, sexy saloondames, trigger-happy gunmen, cavalry detachments, double-crossingpartners, devious land-grabbers, crooked logging-grabbers, corruptlawmen, ladies (and tomboys) in peril, dishonest town o cials,the construction of railroads on schedule across hostile terrain, thefelling of timber and, in two instances, the legendary battle of theAlamo, all lmed in and around America's breathtaking untamed,rocky native scenery. You won't be bored for a single second!