In the early 1960s, when many of us were trying to establish the legitimacy of film studies, the easiest way to make a case for a genre such as the western was to cite prestige films such as High Noon or Shane. Earnest advocates of introducing film studies into schools and universities would ignore anything resembling a B western, or even features like Anthony Mann’s Winchester 73, while lyrically praising the virtues of the latest Ingmar Bergman movie. Pioneering Australian film scholar John Flaus would have none of this. He didn’t dislike Shane or High Noon, but one of his…