THE BFI COMPANION TO THE WESTERN <i> edited by Edward Buscombe (Atheneum: $50; 432 pp.) </i>

Continuing the theme of British fascination with the American frontier, it’s typical that this exhaustive reference book on Western films was compiled by the British Film Institute. European film people, who routinely name Western directors among their major influences, seem to take the genre more seriously than do their American counterparts. The editor of “The BFI Companion” claims the genre as international territory immediately when he writes: “From Timbuktu to Tokyo, from Montevideo to Manchester, the figure of a man in a ten-gallon hat is recognizable to all.” The introductory essay, “The Western: A Short History” offers sociology, business and appreciation. We learn of the Ten Cowboy Commandments laid down by Gene Autry to codify the Western star’s behavior; the clean-cut hero’s fortunes rose when increasing sophistication in market research raised concerns about material “fit for youthful consumption” (at about the same time when the Comic Book Code was drawn up).

Delightful though the entries are, their organization unfortunately suggests an encyclopedia/reader hybrid, but the book doesn’t work entirely satisfactorily as either. A wonderful essay on the spectacular film stunt listed as “Dragged by a horse,” for example, appears under “Culture and History.” The breakdown, which must necessarily be arbitrary in some cases, would have been helped by an index.