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Westward ho!

Watch your favourite Westerns at a fest

The Office of Public Affairs U.S. Consulate General for South India and the Madras Film Society, Chennai are organising "The American West", a festival of American Western films from January 23 to 28. The films will be screened at 6.30 p.m. on all days at The Film Chamber Theatre, Gemini Circle. Seats will be allotted on first-come-first-served basis. The festival will be inaugurated on January 23, 6.30 p.m. by David T. Hopper, U.S. Consul General for South India.

The line-up is as follows. "Rio Bravo" (January 23), directed by Howard Hawks, features John Wayne, Dean Martin and Angie Dickenson. Wayne plays the tough Sheriff John T. Chance, who has to hold a prisoner charged with murder in his small jail and awaiting the arrival of the territory judge. Martin plays Wayne's troubled drunk deputy. On January 24, John Ford-directed "Cheyenne Autumn" starring Richard Widmark, Karl Malden and Dolores del Rio will be screened. There's a poignancy to this movie that arises not so much from the performances or directing but from the simple fact that this is Ford's last Western. For once, the story is from the native Indian's point of view. Jimmy Stewart shows up in the role of a thoroughly disreputable Wyatt Earp.

"Left-Handed Gun" directed by Arthur Penn (January 25), features Paul Newman, Lita Milan and Hurd Hatfield. Newman stars as Billy the Kid, an ebullient young illiterate who takes to slinging a gun when his substitute father is killed, only to face another sterner father figure.

"Red River" (January 26), directed by Howard Hawks and Arthur Rosson, features John Wayne, Montgomery Cliff and Joann Dru. The story is about an epic cattle drive. Wayne is Texas rancher Tom Dunson, who adopts a young boy orphaned in an Indian massacre. The boy, Matthew Garth becomes Dunson's assistant and heir apparent. On January 27 "The Magnificent Seven" directed by John Sturges and featuring Steve McQueen, Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach and James Coburn will be screened. The beleaguered residents of a Mexican village, weary of attacks by bandits, hire seven gunslingers to repel the invaders. The festival will come to a close on January 28 with the screening of "Unforgiven" directed by Clint Eastwood. He also acts in the film along with Gene Hackman and Morgan Freeman. When a cowhand cuts up a prostitute and a bounty is placed on his head, killer-turned-farmer Will Munny (Eastwood) joins his old partner (Freeman) in the hunt. But they must face the rough justice of Sheriff Daggett (Hackman).

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