RED SUN (1971) – I had originally planned to review this international production during Frontierado Season of 2025, but French superstar Alain Delon’s recent death made me decide to post it now. Red Sun was a French-Italian co-production starring America’s Charles Bronson, France’s Alain Delon and Japan’s Toshiro Mifune in a Spaghetti Western.
Directing the film was Terence Young, who had helmed Dr. No and From Russia with Love. Ursula Andress and Capucine added to the massive international star power.
Red Sun is set in 1870. The new Japanese Ambassador to the United States, along with his retinue and bodyguards, arrived in California and as the movie opens is traveling via train across the West in order to reach Washington DC. Ambassador Sakaguchi is bringing with him an ancient Japanese sword as a gift for President Ulysses S. Grant.
The train also carries a shipment of gold targeted by a gang of outlaws led by a charismatic but cruel man called Gauche (Alain Delon) and his longtime partner in crime Link Stuart (Charles Bronson). The bandits rob the gold as the train passes through the western deserts. Gauche displays his callous ruthlessness by not caring that he has to kill an innocent passenger while gunning down a man trying to play hero.
Despite the best efforts of samurai Kuroda Jubei (Toshiro Mifune) the gunslinging outlaw leader even steals valuables from the Ambassador’s party, including the sword intended for President Grant. This sets in motion the rest of the storyline. Continue reading
The first Friday of every August marks Frontierado, the holiday devoted to the myth of the old west rather than the grinding reality. For some of us the celebration kicked off Thursday night, for others they wait until the actual day of Frontierado to hold their festivities. 
BUFFALO SOLDIERS – Obviously the historical significance of these African American soldiers begins during the U.S. Civil War and goes far into the 20th Century, but for the purposes of this blog post I’ll be looking only at their involvement in conflicts from 1866-1896. 
BATTLE OF THE SALINE RIVER (August 1867) – In Kansas, Cheyenne warriors led by Tall Wolf attacked and killed a party of railroad workers laying the transcontinental railway. Buffalo Soldiers from Fort Hays were sent out after the Cheyenne, and this resulted in the 8-hour long Battle of the Saline River. Under 100 soldiers from the 10th Cavalry clashed with over 400 Native Americans, inflicting greater casualties on them and making it back to Fort Hays alive. 
May ?, 1875 – Susan B. Anthony delivered a lecture in Sidney advocating for women’s suffrage.
DEADWOOD DICK – In general, the Dime Novel period of westerns, detective, science fiction and horror tales lasted from 1860 to around 1919 or the early 1920s. Pulp magazines took over from there. Many Dime Novels were very loosely based on real-life figures like Buffalo Bill, Calamity Jane and others. Many more were purely fictional, like Deadwood Dick. 
BREAKHEART PASS (1975) – (Frontierado is coming up August 2nd and, as always, it’s about the myth of the Old West, not the grinding reality.) Alistair MacLean may be more closely associated with espionage and crime thrillers like When Eight Bells Toll, The Eagle Has Landed and Puppet on a Chain but his lone Western, Breakheart Pass, is a very solid story which transfers MacLean’s usual themes to the American West. 
Some critics bash this above-average film because they apparently thought Alistair MacLean’s name on the script meant it would be an over-the-top Western Spy actioner along the lines of Robert Conrad’s old Wild Wild West television series crossed with Where Eagles Dare. Instead, Breakheart Pass comes closer to grittiness than slickness and is all the more enjoyable for that. 
“CRAZY MIKE” HOGAN – Also called Frank Hamilton, Tom Blake and Tom Moore, some sources claim this trigger-happy outlaw’s real name was Thomas Hamilton Blanck. However, researcher Mark Dugan maintained that the man was born Michael Hogan Jr. on October 28th, 1870 in Schenectady, New York. 
A clash with his employers led to the thug quitting and heading west in 1889. One account holds that Mike robbed some cash from those employers before fleeing. He next surfaced out west working as a railroad brakeman before setting out on his infamous True Crime saga. 
WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS STARTED IN DODGE CITY – The Las Vegas in this article is Las Vegas, NEW MEXICO, not the more famous Las Vegas in Nevada. This lesser known Las Vegas held a degree of renown from the 1846-1848 war with Mexico onward. Its earliest history dated back to the 1600s. 
The Frontierado Holiday is fast approaching and will be marked Friday August 2nd this year. Frontierado is about the myth of the old west, not the grinding reality. Balladeer’s Blog has covered a lot of 
JAYBIRD VS WOODPECKER WAR (1888-1889) – First off, let’s make sure to distinguish between JayHAWKS and JayBIRDS. Jayhawks were the anti-slavery forces in Bleeding Kansas during the 1850s. Jaybirds were in 1880s Texas and were the racist white Democrat forces trying to expel the mixed black and white Woodpeckers who had gained power from Republicans during Reconstruction after the Civil War. 
THE CABALLERO’S WAY (1907) – This was the original short story written by O. Henry in which he introduced the character called the Cisco Kid. The Caballero’s Way was first published in the July issue of Everybody’s Magazine, then was included in the anthology The Heart of the West later that year. 
The communities in the Cisco Kid’s territory between the Frio River and the Rio Grande help hide the kid from his Texas Ranger pursuers out of fear, NOT out of any fondness for the violent killer. Also unlike later portrayals of the Kid as a good guy, Cisco is an American whose surname is Goodall and he loves to shoot Mexican men.
COWBOY G-MEN (1952-1953) – A reader recently mentioned the old Robert Conrad series The Wild Wild West, and that reminded me of The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. AND the much earlier television western titled Cowboy G-Men. That last series featured fictional exploits of U.S. Secret Service Agents in the old west. 
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