Westerns

[movieman1957]

Springfield Rifle is a misleadingly titled Civil War era story. The object of the title didn't show up until the climax of the movie and was only mentioned for a moment in the very early part of the movie.

Mostly it deals with the intrigue behind a band of outlaws stealing horses from the Union Army and selling them to the Confederate Army. The film is helped by great location settings and a good if unremarkable supporting cast. Cooper is Cooper and that is enough to check it out. There are some interesting plot twists. Some good action but overall average film. Andre de Toth directs in similar fashion to early 50's Randolh Scott (cue chorus) westerns.

[MissGoddess]

Howdy, Chris!

Springfield Rifle is probably my least favorite of Gary's westerns. It's nice looking
but rather routine. De Toth could make interesting movies, but he also could make
stolid ones and I'm afraid this one falls into that category. I can't even remember
ANY of the other performers in it, so meager was the impression they made.

Gary does look good, though, and that's something!

[MissGoddess]

This is turning out to be fine day for western movie watching. Encore has been
showing some good-to-excellent examples, with a nice mix of westerns I've grown to
love and a couple I've never seen.

This morning I awoke to THE MAN FROM DEL RIO, starring Anthony Quinn
and the always vibrant Katy Jurado. Quinn plays a Mexican gunslinger
who becomes the sheriff of a "wide open town". He's built his self-respect
on his skill with his gun, but Katy won't have anything to do with him until
he earns respect the hard way. He does. The ending is a bit too...well,
a bit too simplistic but these two performers are mighty entertainting
together. Quinn can be overwhelming so he's got the right leading lady
to avoid that trap.

Right after TMFDR, came a great favorite My Darling Clementine,
followed by another western I hadn't seen before, THE HALLIDAY BRAND.
This one gave Ward Bond a leading role as an iron-fisted patriarch
with a son who goes against his racist ways. Joe Cotten is the son
and Joseph Lewis is the director. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Ol' Wardy
surely could act, especially when playing narrow, forceful characters.
Joseph Cotten played his part the way he does in Duel in the Sun, or
several other movies in which he's a guy who lacks the courage of
his convictions. I'm afraid I have never cared for him in such roles.
He's very convincing at the weakness to fight for his beliefs, but
this makes for a rather limp character to root for. Bond's force
tends to blow Cotten around like a leaf. But the direction and
talents of all involved made it very interesting, start to finish.

Dallas is on now, which will be followed by The Commancheros
and topping it off for me is TCM's broadcast of one of my all-time
favorites, SHANE, at 6 p.m. EST.

[MissGoddess]

I forgot to add that THE OX-BOW INCIDENT is playing on Encore tonight, too.

[movieman1957]

Hi April:

I wasn't going to see "Shane" tonight so I watched it this morning.

You go first.

[MissGoddess]

Hi April:

I wasn't going to see "Shane" tonight so I watched it this morning.

You go first.

I'm going to re-watch it this evening, first. I need a straight run-through, if you
know what I mean. Last time I was taking hundreds of screencaps.

If you are still around after it's
over, I'll be at the Starretts waiting.

[mrsl]

Miss Goddess Ma'am:

Victor Mature puts a queasy feeling in my stomach, and I don't mean like Mitchum does!!!! So because of that, I've only watched the first 15 or 20 minutes of My Darling Clementine, am I being really silly? Should I stock up on Tumms and give it a go? I've given Citizen Kane so many chances and still don't see any extraordinary elements about it, but I respect your opinion about Westerns so give me some reasons to sit down and watch it since I have it on an inexpensive 'Great Westerns' DVD that I have. I've replaced 3 of the movies on it with Directors cuts and such, but haven't done so with Clemmy.

Anne

[MissGoddess]

Howdy, Anne!

Victor Mature puts a queasy feeling in my stomach, and I don't mean like Mitchum does!!!! So because of that, I've only watched the first 15 or 20 minutes of My Darling Clementine

There are some performers who do that to me so I hear you.

am I being really silly? Should I stock up on Tumms and give it a go?

It's not a typical western, it has a different feel to it so it may be that you won't
every like it very much. It's not a "warm" film, I think is what I'm getting at. Add
that to Victor Mature and you may come away feeling exactly as you do about
Citizen Kane---but I do recommend anyone calling themselves a real western
fan sit down and watch it at least once. Just as I think eveyrone ought to
watch Citizen Kane, too. Then you make up your own mind.

My own reasons for loving My Darling Clementine are personal and subtle
because to me it's not so much a movie-movie as it is a "ballad". Scenes
seem to flow into one another like verses in a troubador's song about a
knight and his lady fair. But that's just me.

Do let me know what you think when and if you finally give it a whirl.

Yours respectfully, ma'am,

Chihuahua

[moira finnie]

Hey Chihuahua,
You've been a brave girl, even if your fidelity to Doc and your integrity around the card table might be called into question on occasion, but when I watched My Darling Clementine for the first time in a couple of years yesterday, I noticed several new things, (as always happens with a Ford film).

When you were going under the knife, and were probably mortally wounded thanks to that trigger happy Clanton boy, you looked ravishingly beautiful for the first time in the entire movie, (seen above in a not very good pic). Most of the time when you are sashaying around on screen, I am usually transfixed by that incredible hairdo you sported in the movie. It looks as though a passel of coyotes could live in that tumbleweed on your head.

A family of four could live in that 'do.

Other than that, I just reveled in the cinematography of Joseph MacDonald, looked up the other movies that Ford & MacDonald worked on together. I thought it too bad that Ford and he didn't work on more than this movie, Pinky (from which Ford was fired/left), and What Price Glory, 'cause these guys were phenomenal together. Another thing that struck me for the first time was the unsung contributions of art directors James Basevi and Lyle R. Wheeler and the wonderfully detailed set decor from Thomas Little. I especially liked the way that in the last 20 minutes of the film, the movie consists of a series of disturbing shots of horizontals and uneven verticals focusing on the fencing that is arranged in spikes using the natural, unhewn wood from the area to create divisions on the stark landscape around Tombstone. This moment with Victor Mature (who's terrific in this part) is the best image I could find of the fencing around the town that creates such interesting visual tension as the Clantons, the Earps and Doc Holliday move toward their final confrontation:


Another aspect of the movie that really seemed more noticeable to me this time around was the number of figures in dark silhouettes and the beautiful use of day for night photography here. I know that this is something that irks a lot of people about black and white and older movies, but when it's done well, it can really enhance a story. Here's an image of Mature and Ward Bond that says this better:


One other thing about this movie to note are the few moments of throwaway comedy:
Wyatt Earp (Henry Fonda) to Mac the Barman (J. Farrell MacDonald):
"Mac, you ever been in love?"
Mac: "No, I've been a bartender all my life."

It really is an "essential" Western, at least to me. Thanks for reminding me that it was being shown, Miss G. or should I say Chihuahua?

[movieman1957]

I saw a old/new western this morning on the Westerns channel called "The Halliday Brand." It stars Ward Bond as the father and sheriff. Joseph Cotten as his son and Betsy Blair as his daughter. Talk about your family feud. Blair loves Indian half breed. This really makes Bond mad. When the boyfriend happens upon a rustling everyone is convinced he is involved except for Cotten and Blair. Soon the boyfriend is lynched which sets off bigger problems not only with the family but finally the way Bond deals with his job.

Bond is fine as racist father who is determined to stand in the way of his children's happiness because the name is the thing. Cotten is good too but it is nice to see Blair play someone with a bit of an attitude. At only 79 minutes it would be worth a look just to see the actors in slightly different role types.

It is playing several times today and may be over the next few.

[MissGoddess]

Really good article here about William S. Hart:

http://greenbriarpictureshows.blogspot.com/

I think that website is one of the best classic film "blogs" on the internet.

[JackFavell]

I watched The Undefeated last night. The movie was beautiful to look at, with scenes showing wild horses being driven south to Mexico. The sparkling cinematography, by William Clothier, was the best thing about this film. The rest of the movie was..... well, let's just say that it is the kind of movie that made me dislike westerns for years.

The main problem with the movie was that there was no story, just an opening idea..... that idea was never fleshed out or given depth. The characters made arbitrary decisions based on who was the biggest star, rather than on the reality of the situations at hand. Oh my, it was a rehash of a rehash of some western nobody ever actually made because it was too trite.

For instance, the spectacularly awful Roman Gabriel played the Jeffrey Hunterish role of Wayne's adopted Cherokee son. I wished for Jeffrey Hunter to come and take this role - and I don't actually like him. Gabriel's line readings are exactly that - line readings. When he was on screen, I worried about how he kept his long hair out of his eyes, THAT's how much he held my attention. Wayne at one point has to actually saythat he loves him like he was his own son, and it's just embarrassing. All the dialogue could have been dispensed with and would have made the movie immeasurably better.

Wayne plays the alpha male role that I so dislike him in, with everyone deferring to him and letting him shout orders at them, making fun of them, etc. Wayne strives for a feeling of community and a sort of roustabout comeraderie, but it doesn't work here. Rock Hudson, well, I won't be cruel and say that his southern accent was ridiculous. He had a couple of decent scenes. As for the women in the film, I found myself wondering how they found hairspray in the desert.....The cast is full of veteran character actors, completely unused. Harry Carey, Jr. has maybe one line???!! And the others, folks like Dub Taylor or Merlin Olsen, are all just doing their particular brand of schtick, contrived and foolish. Ben Johnson actually came off best, and that is not saying a lot. For me the film was an exercise in Ben-spotting, and as I said, the action sequences with the horse wrangling were lovely. I would have loved it if they had taken those veterans and made a movie about the hardships of older men driving the wild horses in order to make a last stake. Even if it had been two hours of horses running across the desert, it would have been better.

[moira finnie]

Wow, JackFavell, now I won't feel guilty that I've never been able to get through 15 minutes of this movie. I used to think it had something to do with Rock Hudson's massive sideburns here. Thanks for the excellent analysis.

Do you think that Wayne would have been bearable with a stronger director than Andrew McLaglen to keep his alpha male tendencies in check? Clearly, it must have been tough for A.M. to stand up to one of his father's best buds, who had known him since boyhood.

[movieman1957]

Wendy:

I agree with you on the overall thought of the movie. Too macho Wayne with too ridiculous Hudson with more ridiculous supporting cast. I don't know whether you know but Roman Gabriel and Merlin Olsen were, at the time, members of the Los Angeles Rams. Gabriel was a handsome young fairly good quarterback. Olsen went on to a fairly successful acting career. (This was Wayne's one substitute for the usual pop singer in the cast he felt required to have.)

Mostly it is pretty dreadful. He makes this and "True Grit" the same year. There should have been a clue.

[JackFavell]

Moira,

I was thinking the same thing - A.M. must have had a hard time of it. I imagine Wayne poking fun at him on the set, all the while saying (a la Gene Kelly in Singing in the Rain) "Why don't I just say it this way, like I did in The Horse Soldiers?"

Couldn't they have figured out the story before they started shooting?

Chris,

I did not know that they were football players, but I should have guessed.... Hope Roman didn't quit his day job.

Now I start to realize how great The Wild Bunch really is, after seeing two or three westerns from the same time period....