Johnny Gault

We watched The Outsider last night and tonight. It's a cowboy movie, reminiscent of Shane and/or High Noon, but not at the same quality level. It first showed up a few years ago on Showtime.

Here's the funny thing. The gunfighter hero, played by Tim Daly, is named Johnny Gault.

Maybe it's just a coincidence. After all, there was a nineteenth century novelist named John Galt, and I don't recall any evidence that Ayn Rand had him in mind when she named her hero.

But in the case of Ragnar's last name, she was caught red-handed. As my wife tells the story:

'Once I mentioned to her that I had noticed where she got the name Danneskjold from Victor Hugo’s first novel, Hans of Iceland, in which the hero becomes the first of the Counts of Danneskjold! I thought this was a great tribute to him, but she worriedly said to me "Oh yes, but it wasn’t plagiarism because there really were counts of Danneskjold!"'

I don't say the writer's at fault
For calling this guy Johnny Gault,
But he sure would have been a big dork
If the villian were named Howie Rourke!