Ringo Pits John Wayne Against Roy Rogers

"Ringo" pits cowboy stalwarts John Wayne and Roy Rogers in a brief cinematic duel created from more than 20 public domain films by the two stars.

Directed by Dave Monahan of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, it unreels to the tune of Don Robertson's story-song of the same name. Monahan said at the screening that Robertson graciously permitted them to use the song in the short, which has been making the festival rounds.

Ringo is cleverly cut and paced, with the iconic images of Wayne and Rogers spliced into an artificial conflict not a lot less convincing than most of the "B" westerns they made. It's interesting that those old cowboy images can still arouse a tingle of emotion in those of us who grew up with them, but they entertain everyone.

Westerns don't hold the American imagination they once did. But for baby-boomers like me, who caught all those "B" westerns on tv at an impressionable age, there's a place in our psyhe where these images once reigned.

Even without the psychobabble, though, this short works for audiences.

It's five mintues and 30 seconds fly by as fast as Wyatt Earp on the draw. The song and the images mesh perfectly. This is purely an inspired gimmick, but it's one that works.





22 of 24 frames on our short film meter