Memorable, crazy movie

An Exercise In Nonsense

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

I watched most of the episodes of Action in the Afternoon in 1953 and 1954 as a 10 and 11 year old boy. It was shot live on the Montgomery County side of City Line Avenue (technically not in Phila.), directly along City Line Avenue next to the station. A six foot fence separated all but the tops of the wild west buildings from view from the street, unless you walked around the fence on the corners where you could see in. You could also see in standing on the back of a pick up truck.Unlike all other westerns before, and almost all since, it snowed heavily at times, causing snow to accumulate in the dirt street of this Montana town. It is always summer in other westerns; it never rains and is never even cloudy. To deal with the snow and rain, the cowboys wore black wool capes attached to their jackets which could be shaken off when entering the saloon. This protected their coats from becoming waterlogged. Their wide brimmed cowboy hats were very functional in heavy rain and wind. In the cold, you could see condensed water droplets coming from the horses when they breathed. When it was below freezing, everybody was cold and glad to be indoors. People paused in their dialog like in real life, too. They did not always have meaningful things to say every time they opened their mouths.From the warmth of my home, I sensed the ruggedness of year round living in the old west - something I have never felt from any other western. While the John Wayne westerns were brilliantly acted and shot, the fakeyness of the always summer, never cloudy weather made it clear that a John Wayne western was a Hollywood film. Adult TV westerns (Gunsmoke, Wyatt Earp, Bonanza) were little different from Hopalong Cassidy and Roy Rogers in weather realism. In Action in the Afternoon you could feel like it was the real thing. It was great.