Thrilling Western May 1958

British edition, Vol. 9, No. 12

Contents:

Featured Novelette

Holdup at Stony Flat

By Clair Huffaker

Taw was being framed, Christine warned . . . but how could he believe a woman who had already betrayed her own husband?

Short Stories

To the Last Man

By Ben Frank

A man should be ready to shoot, if need be, to uphold his family’s honor . . . but Johnny had to have a better reason before he could kill.

Track the Man Down

By Robert J. Hogan

Grace was all the things Vermilion Smith wanted in a woman . . . and the sister of the man he had to shoot on sight.

Fair Warning

By Larry Powell

To Dave Morris, there was a right and a wrong way to act . . . even if doing the right thing meant he would have to kill a man.

As far as I understand it, Thrilling Western continued in the UK after its original American run came to an end. This is one of those later issues. Were the stories written for the UK publication? Nope, they are taken from other American pulps, namely Ranch Romances. The first three stories all coming from the April 1957 issue of Ranch Romances and the final tale from the November 1956 issue. 

I’ve included the cover of the April 1957 issue of Ranch Romances as it shows how the cover art has also been re-used too, or at least a new version of it painted – if you look at them closely, you’ll see there are a number of differences between the two. 

But what of the stories themselves? I’ve read work by three of these authors before, the odd one out being Larry Powell. Ben Frank (r.n. Frank Bennett) I’ve only read in a similar pulp, whilst the other two I’ve read in full length books and greatly enjoyed, so I was really looking forward to trying some of their earlier work.

I found all four tales to be entertaining reads, but did enjoy those by Huffaker and Hogan more than the other two. I do wonder if this is because Frank and Powell’s tales are much shorter so their storylines weren’t as complex. Hogan’s tale had the most memorable ending for me due to its hard-hitting nature. To say all these tales came from a publication with romance in the title I did wonder whether they would be more of a love story than an action packed western but this wasn’t the case. Yes, all the tales have some element of romance but they are traditional westerns filled with twisting plots and plenty of gunplay. On the strength of these four stories, I’ll certainly be on the lookout for more work by all the authors.

I have quite a few western pulps and my enjoyment of this one has me eager to read some more as they certainly contain some first-class western entertainment. 

It would be remiss for me not to add some further comments about the Huffaker novelette, Holdup at Stony Flat. This would later become a full-length novel under the title of Badman which was published in 1958, the year after it first appeared in its original shorter form. Later, in 1962, Huffaker wrote a screenplay based on Badman and in 1967 the film The War Wagon was released, directed by Burt Kennedy, it starred John Wayne and Kirk Douglas. Later publications of the book saw it have a name change to The War Wagon. 

Although I have the full-length book version, I’ve never read it, so what has been added to lengthen the tale I couldn’t say. It’s also been many years since I saw the film and I don’t remember much about it, but from what I can gather it differs quite significantly after the opening scene which closely portrays the start of the original short-story.

Hannie Caulder

By William Terry

NEL, September 1971

Fleeing the scene of a botched bank robbery, the Clemens brothers come across an isolated homestead. Attempting to steal fresh horses, the trigger-happy youngest brother murders Caulder, the landowner. His wife Hannie is unable to fend off the three Clemens alone. They rape her, steal her horses and burn her home to the ground. Determined to seek revenge Hannie teams up with Thomas Price a ruthless bounty hunter. She implores him to teach her how to kill. Reluctantly he agrees and together they set off in pursuit of the outlaws.

This is the book of the film rather than a book that became a film. The author, William Terry, based the book on the screenplay which in turn was adapted from an original story by Peter Cooper.

William Terry is a pseudonym used by Terry Harknett, who would become much better known the following year as George G. Gilman when the first in the best-selling Edge western series was released, a series that would run for seventeen years.

Terry tells me he wrote the book from the final draft of the script the director would be using to make the film. He knew who was to star in the film and was sent some black and white stills of key scenes which is why his descriptions of characters is spot on. Dialogue was taken from the script and it’s intriguing to discover this contains a lot of gallows humour which would become a trademark of Terry’s own books, something he freely admits he was influenced by along with many other TV and film westerns he watched and was ‘enthusiastically encouraged by the editorial team at New English Library!’ to continue using this in his own westerns.

The story is a straight-forward revenge tale and mixes the dark theme of Caulder’s rape and subsequent quest for vengeance with lighter comic moments mainly through the antics of the Clemens brothers. Terry’s writing perfectly captures the spirit of the film and its changing tones.

The book was published around the time the movie was released and is a must read for fans of both the film and Terry Harknett’s work as well as those who enjoy fast-moving westerns that mix violence and humour.

The film is a British production directed by Burt Kennedy and starred Raquel Welch as Hannie Caulder. It also stars Robert Culp, Ernest Borgnine, Strother Martin, Jack Elam, Christopher Lee, Diana Dors, and Stephen Boyd.