The Shepherd of the Hills - 1941

[MissGoddess]

(I have to take advantage of ChiO's vacation absence to post as much as possible on John Wayne and John Ford! )


The number of genuine pearls I keep discovering in the career of (blessedly un-auteurish) director Henry Hathaway
(starting in 1925 as an Assistant Director and working until 1974) makes me wonder why
he's seldom critically discussed. Admiration continues for films like Lives of a Bengal
Lancer, Peter Ibbetson, Kiss of Death, Fourteen Hours, Rawhide, Garden of Evil and
Niagara but it's as if people are suprised when they see who's named their director.
After Peter Ibbetson, I think The Shepherd of the Hills is one movie that should
inspire a second look. It is a darkly beautiful and pungeant realization of the best selling novel
about Ozark Mountain people by Harold Bell Wright. Lushly photographed by Harold Green
and Charles Lang in russets and greens (Technicolor), it is rich in shadow and dappled light
and perfectly complemented by a very unobtrusive score, by Gerard Carbonara, which is
keyed to Brahms lullaby.

It is curious to me why this movie is virtually ignored whenever John Wayne's best
films are listed because it's unquestionably his best performance and film since 1939's
Stagecoach. Personally, I am moving The Shepherd of the Hills into his top five.

At times, you feel like this could be a John Ford movie, which just goes to prove he
wasn't the only director who could exhibit a feel for backwoods folk (Clarence
Brown's limpid The Yearling being another example) that is honest and free
from condescension.

What an extraordinary cast Hathaway had to work with, it must have made it easy to
create something special with the likes of Beulah Bondi in her most atypical role until de Toth's
Track of the Cat in 1954. If you had to face off those two Bondi characters, I couldn't say
which would be the winner, they are both poisonous and twisted with hate that fills the
atmosphere. Just why "Aunt Mollie" is so filled with the devil is never explicitly explained,
though one scene seems to imply a jealousy toward the sister abandoned by her husband and
whose son, John Wayne, has been raised by Mollie to kill his father if he ever finds him. Matriarch
of a brood of shiftless moonshiners, Bondi's "Mollie" has made pariahs of the whole Matthews
clan including her shell of a husband (James Barton) who knows her evil ways but is impotent to
stop her; and shaggy Ward Bond as "Wash" (who appears decidedly comfortable in his role
as worst of the lot).

The only two creatures not entirely without loving ways are Matt (John Wayne) and Mollie's youngest
son Pete, rendered mute by an accident. The speechless "Pete," in a remarkable performance
by Marc Lawrence (who will be familiar to fans of gangster and film noir) and the blind elderly
neighbor, "Granny Becky" (Marjorie Maine) will ultimately be the only locals who comprehend
the truth behind Mollie's bad ways. Granny will "see" it and Pete will communicate it.

When a stranger comes to the hills, young "Sammy" (Betty Field) who loves Matt thinks
there may be hope for healing and a return to peace in their community. The newcomer manages
to heal the sick and bring sight to the blind (indirectly, by paying to have Granny Becky's eyes
operated upon) and befriending young Pete and Matt in a fatherly way. But the stranger brings
a secret---and in the hands of the matchless Harry Carey, he assumes an almost
redemptive character---a secret that connects him to the Matthews clan and compels him to buy
the land where the grave of Matt's mother, Sarah, lies.

The truth will out and along with the healing and return of hope there also comes
the reckoning between Matt and his past. Without giving away any more of the plot, I
encourage everyone who can to see for themselves this rich tapestry Hathaway weaved
and perhaps reevaluate his place among directors---for the sake of exceptional gems like this one.

(If you want to see some screencaps from Shepherd of the Hills, I posted them here:
http://forums.tcm.com/jive/tcm/thread.j ... 3&tstart=0 )

[knitwit45]

Ms. G, I grew up not 200 miles from the Shepherd of the Hills Country. As a child, we drove down thru the Ozark Mountains (the oldest in the country, I believe) and it still looked the way the film portrayed it. Branson MO was a small town with a lot of SOTH gift shops, Quilt stores with hand made quilts hanging on clotheslines to display them, wooden carvings of Shepherds, mountain folk, and whirlygigs outside of stores.

The play, Shepherd of the Hills, was performed outdoors every summer night it didn't rain. You could walk thru "The Shepherds' cabin", visit "Aunt Mollie's pantry", etc.

I remember once buying a LARD bucket full of blackberries for $5.00, from a little girl standing barefoot by the side of the road. I had just bought the book of SOTH, and got a blackberry stain on one of the pages.

Now, Branson is a small metropolis, with music shows everywhere, hotels and motels piled cheek-on-jowl, gridlock, and every fat obnoxious tourist in the world, struggling to wolf down one more ice cream cone or cotton candy than his wife....

[MissGoddess]

Hi Knitwit! How interesting! In reading through a website about the author of The Shepherd of the Hills I learned what a phenomenal best seller the story was. Put together with what you've written about the community's heydey as a tourist attraction, it's baffling to me that this movie is virtually forgotten.

Tourism certainly can be a mixed blessing, VERY mixed.

[moira finnie]

Whenever I come across Shepherd of the Hills (1941) playing I watch it, in part because of John Wayne and Harry Carey's beautifully dovetailed performances, but also because, as you pointed out, the fine work of Beulah Bondi and Marjorie Main (seen below with John Qualen).

The real star of this film, to me, however, is the beauty of the technicolor cinematography and the area where the movie was photographed in Branson, MO, Cedar Lake and Big Bear Lake and Valley in the magnificent San Bernardino National Forest, in California. This extends to the carefully framed and photographed interiors as well, including this shot of Carey in the doorway, drawn from your screenshots, which are beautiful, Miss G.


Have you noticed how little dialogue there is in this film? Almost all the story is told through the expressions of the actors. Btw, does Betty Field's character seem to be at all out of place to anyone, or is she simply the product of her environment?

While I think Henry Hathaway's movies could be visually and dramatically arresting, he does seem to have been unjustly forgotten when compared to others. Some of those earlier Hathaway movies that NEED to be revived for their blend of action and drama in astounding natural settings are Spawn of the North (1938) and The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936). Some of the best forgotten work by Hathaway that is more internalized and often concerned characters reflecting on a series of tough choices in life are as diverse as Fourteen Hours, The Desert Fox, 23 Paces to Baker Street, Johnny Apollo, Of Human Bondage (1964) and Kiss of Death. He had a reputation for being a very tough cookie, but he got some unexpectedly fine performances out of actors, (including a certain Mr. Wayne near the beginning of his stardom and the end), as well as making some wonderfully colorful, action-filled flicks.

Perhaps his versatility worked against him or maybe the fact that he seems to have been a good craftsman as well as a contract team player in the studio system has hurt his reputation, along with his fame for his rather um, prickly personality on the set, (though that hasn't really hurt John Ford, has it?). When he is recognized it seems to be primarily as a good action director, which he was, but he was capable of more than that, as Shepherd of the Hills showed so well.

Of course, like many contract directors, Hathaway also seems to have been fully capable of churning out some pretty awful movies as well as some beauties. Have you ever endured Sundown (1941) or China Girl (1942) or the dreadful Circus World (1964), for example?! I've tried to like China Girl 'cause it features Victor McLaglen as a double agent, George Montgomery (who's dumb but purty as an actor) and a very lovely Gene Tierney, but boy, it's awfully silly. But then, maybe that's not such a bad thing, either.

[movieman1957]

Moira:

I sat through "Circus World" and dreadful is a pretty good description. LLoyd Noland was pretty good though.

[stuart.uk]

Miss G

When I first watched Shepherd On The Hill I was expecting to see John Wayne playing a Shepherd of sheep, but discovered he as a bootlegger of moonshine and the Harry Carey snr was a kind of Shepherd to the people.

The film reminds me of The Long Voyage Home in the sense that John Wayne was top-billed in both films, but the real star of the movies were Thomas Mitchell in TLVH and Carey snr in SOTH

I always thought until a couple of yrs back that Wayne had met Carey through John Ford as pappy directed the older man in silent movies in the same way he did with Duke with sound. However, I don't think Ford's relationship with Wayne was that good at the time, because the star didn't enlist in the army.

PS I was wondering if you got an email saying Trying TalkTalk. if you did, it was from me, trying to see if this particular email system travelled outside the UK. In the past it always came back, but this time it didn't so I presumed you received it.

Stuart

[knitwit45]

Moira, did Betty Field's character seem kind of loopy to you, too? The only time I've ever seen her in a "sane" role was as the mother of Kim Novak in "Picnic", and I didn't realize at the time it was the same woman who had been in "Kings Row". She was so wild eyed in that one, and in SOTH, I guess I have allowed her film roles to color my perception of her actual persona.

[MissGoddess]

Thank you for your, as always, beautifully expressed opinions and for
the pictures! You picked the perfect cap for Marjorie Maine---I love that moment in the film.

Have you noticed how little dialogue there is in this film? Almost all the story is told through the expressions of the actors.

Yes!! I did notice this but neglected to mention it and it's one of the reasons the movie resonates with me. It felt strongest in the scenes where there were no words, sometimes, not even any music.

Btw, does Betty Field's character seem to be at all out of place to anyone, or is she simply the product of her environment?

I had the exact same impression when first I saw this movie as a kid; her character drove me nuts. But for some reason this time I like her better, and admire her spunk and the way she looks deeper into people than many of the others around her, while at the same time maintaining that endearingly childish superstition. I also think she looked like a mountain kid, but at the same time I don't know if you noticed but they did seem to indicate she was growing into a woman by the emphasis on how small her clothes were fitting to her body (and no undies!)

I'm sure it is Hathaway's uncomfortable fit into the "auteur" mold that dismisses him from current critical consideration. However, I am optimistic that the tide will eventually turn and directors like him will one day get more attention.

While I agree China Girl may be Tierney's worst movie, I happen to be very fond of Sundown, I think it's an entertaining actioner with remarkable use made of the locations---I actually thought it really was Africa at first! Also, it's quite possible Gene was never more beautiful than in this film, and regarding her that is quite a statement.

[MissGoddess]

PS I was wondering if you got an email saying Trying TalkTalk. if you did, it was from me, trying to see if this particular email system travelled outside the UK. In the past it always came back, but this time it didn't so I presumed you received it.

Stuart

No Stuey---I received no email.

[mrsl]

Since to make more credits for myself, I always went to summer school, and my dad never coordinated his vacation with my before or after time, I never went on summer vacations with my family. My aunt always came and stayed with me. One year they all went on a trip through the Ozark mountains, and I recall mom talking about a college group they saw who put on the play of Shepherd of the Hills and how beautiful a story it was. Knowing mom and dad loved to visit old churches, somehow I got the impression this was another form of the life of Christ so I never paid much attention to it. Then a few years ago I caught the last half hour of it and kicked myself for never checking it out. NOw I'm going to make it a goal to find a copy in one of Walmart's cheap, cheap bins. I know I've seen it there, so I'm going to have to dig, but I will try next Saturday when I go shopping. I thought I had it on one of my John Wayne collections but NOT. Wish me luck.

Thanks for the heads up.

Anne

[moira finnie]

I sat through "Circus World" and dreadful is a pretty good description. LLoyd Noland was pretty good though ~movieman1967

Hey, Chris,
Could it be you and I are among the only people who'd watch a bad movie simply to see Lloyd Nolan? Ha! I think Nolan made many poor movies bearable and occasionally enjoyable, (Portrait in Black is one winner that comes to mind). Circus World was one of those movies that made me embarrassed for all the actors involved in it.

I always thought until a couple of yrs back that Wayne had met Carey through John Ford as pappy directed the older man in silent movies in the same way he did with Duke with sound. However, I don't think Ford's relationship with Wayne was that good at the time, because the star didn't enlist in the army.~ stuart

Most biographers that I've come across seem to believe that Harry Carey Sr. and John Wayne first became acquainted when Wayne and other USC football players were hired on the Fox lot as prop men and eventually put to work in front of the camera as well on the 1929 Ford movie Salute. There was, as so often happened with John Ford's hard-pressed and often mistreated friends, a long period when Harry Carey, Sr. and the director didn't see or work together, for several reasons, despite their track record working together.

John Wayne's lack of real world military experience was a sore point between Ford and the actor throughout the war and a touchy subject later too. Wayne, who had several children to support by Dec., 1941, wrote a series of letters to Ford during the war (while the director was serving in the Navy), claiming that right after the next picture, he'd be enlisting, etc. Somehow, the timing was never quite right for Wayne's induction. Some think it was a matter of fulfilling his contractual and familial obligations, others think that Wayne saw the lack of Hollywood competition for good roles in Hollywood as his irresistible chance to solidify the gains that he'd made in his career just prior to Pearl Harbor. (Some good sources to see regarding this topic: Print the Legend by Scott Eyman & Joseph McBride's Searching For John Ford and Garry Wills' John Wayne's America for more detailed info).

Moira, did Betty Field's character seem kind of loopy to you, too? The only time I've ever seen her in a "sane" role was as the mother of Kim Novak in "Picnic", and I didn't realize at the time it was the same woman who had been in "Kings Row". She was so wild eyed in that one, and in SOTH, I guess I have allowed her film roles to color my perception of her actual persona. ~knitwit.

Jeez, Nancy,
The only other movie I can remember seeing the talented Betty Field in where she seemed to be a stable person was as Fredric March's perceptive fiancée in Tomorrow! The World (1943) and Jean Renoir's The Southerner(1945)--and look who she appears with again in the latter: Cantankerous ol' Beulah Bondi as Granny Tucker, (whose matriarchs never had a good word for anyone in SOTH or The Southerner, as far as I could tell, not to mention her bitter Eugene O'Neill-like character of "Ma" in Walter Van Tilburg Clark's Track of the Cat). While I thought that Field was a good actress and could appear to be quite attractive when young, she seemed to have a gift for playing women who were more than a bit off. They were probably more interesting to play than the ingenue roles.

Miss G., I think you're right about Betty Field's character trying to figure things out, looking at the situations around her with a deeper, half-articulated understanding that an intelligent, perceptive girl in a situation like that might. Hey, hadn't really consciously noticed the lack of "foundation garments" on our free-spirited Betty, but now I see you're right. Must've seemed pretty racy back in '41.

[MissGoddess]

My intro to Betty Field was BUS STOP and I have always identified her with that "Joan Blondell" type persona---little did I know that she scarcely EVER played that type before or since. Yet, she was so good as the brassy, big hearted Bus Stop owner with a yen for the brawny bus driver (I don't blame her, he was the only man worth looking at in that whole movie).

[MissGoddess]

Anne, the John Wayne collection I have that contains Shepherd of the Hills is this one, in case you don't find a copy at Walmart:

http://tinyurl.com/5rxwf3

[movieman1957]

Moira;

My intro to Lloyd Nolan was "Michael Shayne" which I remember as "B" detective movie. I remembered it was ok.

Was Wayne one of those the government was perfectly content to have making pictures for the home front? Not that he couldn't have joined anyway but with the family exemption I thought the gov't was quite content with him staying home.

[moira finnie]

Was Wayne one of those the government was perfectly content to have making pictures for the home front? Not that he couldn't have joined anyway but with the family exemption I thought the gov't was quite content with him staying home~movieman1957

Here's some more of the info I've come across about this matter, Chris,
In addition to the info mentioned above, according to John Wayne's son, Michael said, (on p. 253 of Eyman's book on Ford), "he [Wayne] was too old [34 years old in '41] with too many dependents, [four kids and a shaky first marriage] plus he had an ear infection from a film he made called Reap the Wild Wind, an infection that never left. Everytime he'd get in the water it would come back. So he was actually 4-F." John Ford reportedly had several openings that he offered to Wayne in the Field Photo Unit he operated throughout the war, (which sounds like a pretty freewheeling production unit operating in several theaters of war chronicling everything from the Battle of Midway to the Nuremberg Trials).

It wasn't so much that the government wanted John Wayne to win the war on screen, but he was constantly under pressure to remain available for filming from Republic, which repeatedly arranged deferments for Wayne, their biggest moneymaking star. John Wayne did go on USO tours of Australia, New Britain, and New Guinea, and worked at the Hollywood Canteen throughout the war.

Others point out that age didn't stop the following from enlisting: Clark Gable was 41, Henry Fonda and Robert Montgomery 37, Jimmy Stewart 33, Gene Autry was also 34 when he enlisted & Ronald Reagan, who was reportedly disqualified by his very poor eyesight, nevertheless enlisted at 32, (and served by making films for servicemen in Hollywood). Many of these men also had children and dependents and several never regained their career momentum after the war.

I'm honestly on the fence with this one. Wayne was first and foremost, always an under-rated actor to me, even though some of his political positions seem pretty extreme to me and came to overshadow his artistic achievements, (I also think there were some times in his career when he'd have been better off making fewer pictures.)Maybe his apparent hyper-patriotism was a way of compensating for some guilt he may have felt about not serving actively in the conflict. Maybe enough time has elapsed since this period for us to understand that everyone makes choices and lives with them and to just see him as an often good, often lucky, very hardworking actor, not a mythical hero.

All this aside, I love his quietly powerful work in Shepherd of the Hills (1941).

Next to The Long Voyage Home and The Big Trail, it may be one of my favorite roles in his youth, (sorry, but he's not the best thing in Stagecoach to me. Thomas Mitchell & John Carradine & Berton Churchill & Donald Meek are the real standouts for me in that movie).

I apologize for inserting this digression into your Shepherd of the Hills thread, Miss Goddess. Mea culpa, buddy.