'Movie Horses'

Blame this post on Chelsi. Her flight of fancy on movie horses fueled a train of thought this morning that could not be derailed.

Back in the day (1994) when we actually had scads of disposable income (imagine that), Mr. Fry and I acquired a limited edition print of a watercolor called 'Movie Horses' by the actor/artist Buck Taylor. Son of the legendary character actor Dub Taylor, Buck may be best known as Newley on the old 'Gunsmoke' TV show, but he has also acted in many movie westerns, including 'Tombstone' (Val Kilmer, Bill Paxton, Sam Elliott, et al).


'Movie Horses' was painted on the set of our absolute favorite western, 'Conagher' (1991). If you look very closely you can see Buck's penciled title and personalization at the bottom.

This is a plot summary of the movie, not penned by me. It may be from the back of the DVD case (I'm too lazy to look). "He conquered the range. She conquered his heart. From the Louis L'Amour novel. Conn Conagher admires a woman with nerve, and the widow Teale has plenty. But that doesn't mean he's ready to show up at her door clutching posies. Precious little time for that, what with deadly rustlers cutting in on his livelihood. Besides, a fenced-in life with a missus just isn't Conn's way. Not yet, anyways. Conagher is both a hard-riding actioner and a character-driven look at Western life. Katherine Ross plays Evie Teale, widowed after coming West and forced to prove her mettle in many ways. Sam Elliott plays Conagher, a cowhand who, when not tracking rustlers, drifts in and out of Evie's life. Something about that frontier woman keeps drawing him back. But can Evie ever keep from drifting out again?"

I tried for over an hour to find and download the trailer, to no avail, but you can watch it here.

I have had a thing for Sam Elliot since the early 1970s. He is my kinda cowboy (as is Tom Selleck — catch them together in 'The Sacketts'). One of the many things I love about him in this movie is how he talks to and about his horse. He has one of those low, raspy-yet-melodious drawls, and in his solitary drifting, every once in awhile he just starts mumbling to his horse. Most of it is hard to catch, but it's great stuff. At one point, Evie's stepson Laban asks if he should give the horse some grain. Conn says something to the effect that if you gave that horse grain, he'd think you were trying to kill him. Cracks me up.

What is your favorite western movie and what is its appeal for you?