Bob Sanders: Duplication a good form of flattery

It comes as no surprise that some basic ideas are used over and over in the movies. Hemingway’s “To Have and Have Not” has been made into at least three pictures. Chandler’s “Farewell, My Lovely,” likewise. Etc. But I hadn’t realized until I watched it the other night that a movie with roughly the same plot as the all-time classic “Shane” came out the same year, 1953. It was “Ride, Vaquero.”

Take notes:

In “Shane,” Van Heflin is a settler, trying to make a go of it in the Wild West.

In “Ride, Vaquero,” Howard Keel is ditto.

In “Shane,” the loving wife is Jean Arthur.

In RV, it’s Ava Gardner.

In “Shane,” a mean old land baron wants to run the settler out of the country.

In RV, it’s the head of an outlaw gang (overplayed a bit by Anthony Quinn).

In “Shane,” Alan Ladd is the mysterious gunslinger who comes to the aid of the settlers.

In RV, It’s Robert Taylor (not bad in the part).

Nothing important. Just thought that the next time you stumble across “Ride, Vaquero,” you might want to notice the similarities.

* * *

Back to our vacation. We nearly always take a look at any college campus in a town we’re passing through. Scooba, Miss., was one of those places.

A few boys at our high school got football scholarships to play at the junior college there. Bill Hicks, one of the funniest people I’ve ever known, was one of them. We went off to the army together, and a picture of the two of us at Fort Jackson is priceless, two of the saddest Sad Sacks ever.

The Scooba campus is lovely, really is. And students wouldn’t have many distractions. It reminds me, in that way, of the Vermont School of Law in South Royalton, Vt., (about the size of Notasulga), where the only distractions would be grouse hunting or fishing in the beautiful White River.

The Scooba campus may be nice, but the boarded up business district of the town makes Camp Hill look like a boomtown.

Troy University’s campus is also very nice. However, they ought to put up signs.

It’s almost impossible for a traveler to find it. I mean, this is what Troy is famous for (well, that and a well known protective devise), and yet we had to ask numerous times for directions. Come on! It is, unfortunately, not like Auburn or Dartmouth or William and Mary, for three great examples, where town and gown are snuggled right together. Hmmm.

I know a former Miss Troy. I must speak to her about this problem.

And, map makers, you’ve got to fix those maps. Frosty drove about half our total distance backtracking, because a highway was wrongly numbered, or just not there. What?

Our map is 15 years old? We need a new one?

You may have something there.

Bob Sanders is a longtime radio personality with WAUD in Auburn and writes a weekly column for the Opelika-Auburn News.