About Riding the High Country
This site is the place where I jot down my reviews on and thoughts about the movies which I view. I have always loved the movies for as long as I can remember and I like the idea of having a place where I can ramble on about them.
I guess the bulk of what I write will relate to pre-1980 movies since that’s the period of film-making for which I have the greatest affection. While I watch and enjoy films from every conceivable genre, I suppose most of my posts will focus on westerns and film noirs as, again, these are my personal favorites.
I have categorized my entries according to both genre and decade, or simply by decade where a film doesn’t seem to fit conveniently into a genre (I’ve also recently added director and/or actor tags for most titles). Titles can also be browsed by clicking on the alphabetical index.
Happy reading. 
EDIT: 12/26/11 – I had originally left in the links to comments made on the old site as I didn’t want them to seem ignored in the shift to my new home. However, I’ve had to go back and strip them all out as I became aware that they were not only directing traffic to the old site but resulting in people leaving comments there where they were in danger of being missed. To those who have left comments on the old FilmJournal site and can’t now see them, you have my apologies. Unless or until I can figure out a way to transfer them over they will have to remain where they originally appeared.
Paul
December 15, 2011 at 9:22 pm
This is nice, Colin – I like the colour scheme you’ve chosen, which is a bit unusual, and the layout is very neat. Wow, have you transferred all this from Filmjournal in the past few days?!? Do you have control over graphic logos and layout etc here? One thing I’m not keen on at the moment with my new one is the fact that I can’t seem to get it to appear in seach engines (I’ve been through the settings) – if this is the case then it does limit the potential audience somewhat. At least Filmjournals appeared on Yahoo etc…
Livius
December 15, 2011 at 10:28 pm
Thanks Paul, glad you like the look.
I had transferred some content – maybe the first 80 or so posts – via an export file a few years back as an experiment before wordpress changed to the point it was no longer possible. As such the final shift wasn’t quite as bad as it could have been – still something of a Herculean task!
I pretty much have control over layout, although it’s limited somewhat by the choice of theme obviously. I haven’t had the chance to check out how it appears in search engines yet, but I’ve already earned two “likes” and one follower! I’ll get back to you when I explore a bit more.
Dafydd Jones
December 16, 2011 at 9:15 am
Nice looking layout Colin. Already favourited on my computer. Got a bit worried when I read your ‘farewell’ note on Film Journal. I thought for a second that you were giving up blogging. Good to see that things will be carrying on over here. I look forward to the first of the ‘new’ reviews
Livius
December 16, 2011 at 9:27 am
Thank you Dafydd. I’m very happy with the response so far, and I think the time was right for a change.
With Xmas almost upon us, I figure it will be the New year before I actually manage to post something new. Seems more appropriate that way.
TonyG
December 16, 2011 at 7:53 pm
Having just recently discovered your blog (love the name of it, by the way). I am glad this is just a change in location, not a retirement.
Livius
December 16, 2011 at 8:28 pm
Don’t worry, I’m not planning on closing down operations any time soon.
Harvey Canter
April 23, 2012 at 6:04 am
Really great stuff here, by that I mean the film noir page, but I can see this is a rich site. When you were writing about The Bribe, you mention a version you obtained from a source called Absolute, sounded like it was subtitled in Spanish. I’ve done some googling, but can’t seem to find it. Care to share a link?
Keep up the good work!!! Will return to indulge in more Noir-ness.
Colin
April 23, 2012 at 6:45 am
Thanks Harvey, glad you enjoyed it.
The copy of The Bribe that I have is an official Spanish release, which has the English soundtrack and optional Spanish subtitles – they can be switched on or off via the setup menu on the disc. Here’s a link to the Amazon Spain listing for the title.
Hope that helps, and stop by anytime.
Harvey Canter
April 23, 2012 at 8:15 am
Thanks, the link took me right to it.. I don’t know if I can purchase using my amazon usa account. I tried it w/amazon uk and it didn’t work. My copy of The Bribe is pretty good, it is the R1 version. What a great movie!! I think you are right, it is almost a noir, but not quite. It uses a lot of noir style, though. I loved the movie. I saw another on your site, Singapore, that I have never seen or heard of, so I will start looking for that one. I agree, Criss Cross is a perfectly realized noir in every respect, really one of the core films in the canon, imo. BTW, on amazon us i got a copy of Desert Fury that was R0, I think it was from Brazil or Argentina. The color was quite good, and the subtitles were removeable. They are having a noir fest here in Los Angeles at present. I wanted to go see Phantom Lady tonight, but I mixed up the time and missed it!!! They also had Black Angel and The Window, but I was paying to see Phantom Lady on the big screen, so without that, I just went home. I’ve been into film noir since about 1982 when I took a college class devoted to it, one of the first I am pretty sure. It was taught by a fellow named John Schultheiss, who later did some scholarly work on Abraham Polonsky (Force of Evil). Great class, and I guess this is the 30th anniversary of taking it!! He made us write something on Cornell Woolrich, and trust me, almost nothing of his was in print back in 1982. Now, of course, you can get his stuff anywhere, but I had to run down an old used copy in a dusty shop. It was great fun, long before one could have something sent via internet in a few days. Well, keep up the good work and I will check in from time to time. Wonderful site you have been building. I think I got to it from the billboard at Danger & Despair Knitting Circle. There was a comment about the piece on Criss Cross and a link. Lucky find, I must say!
Colin
April 23, 2012 at 9:05 am
Very kind of you Harvey. The noir fest sounds great; it’s always a pleasure to see these old movies on the big screen.
BTW, if you have an Amazon US account, then you should be able to order from any of their worldwide sites – your data is saved centrally, so once you log in you just go through the same steps to order as you would on the US site.
Harvey Canter
April 23, 2012 at 11:16 am
Thanks, Colin, I’ll give it a try and see if it works. I better check the Euro conversion rate first!