Nice Jewish Boy Mel Brooks (born Melvin Kaminsky, Brooklyn NY) as the Chief of the Sioux nation in Blazing Saddles (1974)....

...is no sillier than Nice Jewish Boy Jeff Chandler (born Ira Grossel, Brooklyn NY) as Cochise (left) in The Battle At Apache Pass (1952)

I should mention that I had no idea that Chandler -- a slab of beef on feet who I have found inexplicable as a movie star/sex symbol for almost as long as I've been sentient -- was Jewish until I did some web-surfing yesterday. And the reason that I bring him up in the first place is because he appears -- reprising his role as Cochise, albeit briefly and on the character's death bed -- in the 1954 Taza, Son of Cochise (starring the young Rock Hudson, a goyim who also had no business playing a Native American).

Taza, as it turns out, being one of the four lesser known works included in the just released DVD box set Douglas Sirk: Filmmaker Collection (from TCM/Universal).

I'll have more to say about that set in a couple of days, although I should stipulate up front I'm not really a Sirkian. Nonetheless, I was intrigued to learn that Taza (Sirks' only Western) had been shot (although not released theatrically) in 3D; if you have a pair of the red-and-blue glasses lying around from some DVD or other, here's a tantalizing snippet.

Like I said, I'm not a Sirkian, but there's no getting around the fact that he was an incredible visual stylist, and I'm a little disappointed the transfer in the new set is flat; I would have loved to see how he handled the third dimension. In any case, the collection also includes The Tarnished Angels, another Rock Hudson vehicle that's supposed to be a sort-of followup to Written on the Wind, the one Sirk film I am unreservedly enthusiastic about, so I'll keep you posted.