In the late 1940s, when, after his death, Faust had become a Hollywood legend, several of the Max Brand westerns were adapted for film. Republic did a version of Singing Guns which was released in 1950 with a popular singer of that era, Vaughan Monroe, as Rhiannon and the lovely Ella Raines as the female lead. A bearded Monroe did a passable job as a western hero, and the script showed some fidelity to its original, but the production is undeniably second rate and of little importance in the tradition of the western film. Ironically, a 1943 film western, The Desperadoes, based on an original story by Faust, comes closer to the spirit of Singing Guns. This big budget technicolor film, with Glenn Ford and Randolph Scott as an outlaw and sheriff who share a lasting friendship, is a spirited action film which has worn fairly well. Curiously, The Desperadoes...