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    Best Western Movies: Winning Pictures, Favorite Films and Hollywood "B" Entries
    Best Western Movies: Winning Pictures, Favorite Films and Hollywood "B" Entries
    Best Western Movies: Winning Pictures, Favorite Films and Hollywood "B" Entries
    Ebook441 pages3 hours

    Best Western Movies: Winning Pictures, Favorite Films and Hollywood "B" Entries

    By John Howard Reid

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    Western films may have fallen from Hollywood's grace in the past few decades; however, a loyal following of obsessed fans and collectors remain. If you are just beginning a Western movie DVD collection or are a seasoned aficionado of all things Western, "Best Western Movies-Winning Pictures, Favorite Films and Hollywood 'B' Entries" by John Howard Reid is a must. This is the twentieth title in Reid's "Hollywood Classics" series. The research needed for a book of this nature is remarkable. Mr Reid names Westerns among his favorite genres and his dedication to these classics is admirable. His more than 20,000 reviews on file and collection of over 3,000 titles on VHS and DVD provide the resource for the bulk of the informative text. More than 160 titles are examined. You'll recognize some of the all-time greats such as Yellow Rose of Texas, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, and They Died With Their Boots On. Mixed in with the well-known films are B-movie gems like Cyclone Prairie Rangers, Arizona Bound, and Buckaroo from Powder River. Reid takes an in-depth look at the 162 minute epic, How the West Was Won. And in addition to individual reviews of Border Vigilantes, Call of the Prairie, Cassidy of Bar 20, Doomed Caravan, Heart of Arizona, Hidden Gold, Hills of Old Wyoming, Hopalong Rides Again, North of the Rio Grande, Partners of the Plains, Riders of the Timberline, Santa Fe Marshal, Secret of the Wastelands, Showdown, Silver on the Sage, Stagecoach War, Texas Trail, 3 Men from Texas and Twilight on the Trail, Reid includes a cast, release date and director index of all 66 Hopalong Cassidy films. On the other hand, for each main section title, Mr Reid has included the entire cast and the parts played by name. The director, screenplay writer, editor, music composers, and producers are listed, as well as copyright date, studio, worldwide release dates and run times. Most selections include the dates when the movie was shot and the cost of production. Mr Reid gives his own personal review and summary as well as other reviewers' comments. Parents will appreciate the "Viewers Guide" with most entries receiving an "Okay for all" recommendation. For me, the actors from these films stand out as much or more than the films themselves. Larger than life men like the legendary John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, and William Boyd carried many of these films when script quality, production values, and budgets were questionable. Mr Reid has even included a few posters that also make this an enjoyable book. In short, "Best Western Movies" by John Howard Reid is a must read for the Western movie enthusiast or collector. If you are looking for a cinema experience that is a little different from current movie offerings, or perhaps you enjoyed these classics during their first run and wish a nostalgic second look, this book is as essential as your VCR/DVD remote. Highly Recommended by William Potter in Reader's Choice Book Reviews.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJohn Howard Reid
    Release dateApr 8, 2011
    ISBN9781458076199
    Best Western Movies: Winning Pictures, Favorite Films and Hollywood "B" Entries
    Author

    John Howard Reid

    Author of over 100 full-length books, of which around 60 are currently in print, John Howard Reid is the award-winning, bestselling author of the Merryll Manning series of mystery novels, anthologies of original poetry and short stories, translations from Spanish and Ancient Greek, and especially books of film criticism and movie history. Currently chief judge for three of America's leading literary contests, Reid has also written the textbook, "Write Ways To Win Writing Contests".

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      Book preview

      Best Western Movies - John Howard Reid

      BEST WESTERN MOVIES

      WINNING PICTURES, FAVORITE FILMS AND HOLLYWOOD B ENTRIES

      John Howard Reid

      ****

      Published by:

      John Howard Reid at Smashwords

      Copyright (c) 2011 by John Howard Reid

      ****

      All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

      Smashwords Edition Licence Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.

      ****

      Original text copyright 2011 by John Howard Reid. All rights reserved.

      Enquiries: johnreid@mail.qango.com

      ****

      HOLLYWOOD CLASSICS 20

      2011

      Other Books in the Hollywood Classics series:

      1. New Light on Movie Bests

      2. B Movies, Bad Movies, Good Movies

      3. Award-Winning Films of the 1930s

      4. Movie Westerns: Hollywood Films the Wild, Wild West

      5. Memorable Films of the Forties

      6. Popular Pictures of the Hollywood 1940s

      7. Your Colossal Main Feature Plus Full Support Program

      8. Hollywood’s Miracles of Entertainment

      9. Hollywood Gold: Films of the Forties and Fifties

      10. Hollywood B Movies: A Treasury of Spills, Chills & Thrills

      11. Movies Magnificent: 150 Must-See Cinema Classics

      12. These Movies Won No Hollywood Awards

      13. Movie Mystery & Suspense

      14. America’s Best, Britain’s Finest

      15. Films Famous, Fanciful, Frolicsome and Fantastic

      16. Hollywood Movie Musicals

      17. Hollywood Classics Index Books 1-16

      18. More Movie Musicals

      19. Success in the Cinema

      20. Best Western Movies

      21. Great Cinema Detectives

      22. Great Hollywood Westerns

      23. Science Fiction and Fantasy Cinema

      24. Hollywood’s Classic Comedies

      25. Hollywood Classics Title Index to All Movies Reviewed in Books 1-24

      --

      OTHER MOVIE BOOKS by John Howard Reid

      CinemaScope One: Stupendous in ‘Scope

      CinemaScope Two: 20th Century Fox

      CinemaScope 3: Hollywood Takes the Plunge

      WESTERNS: A Guide to the Best (and Worst) Western Movies on DVD

      British Film Entertainments on VHS and DVD

      Mystery, Suspense, Film Noir and Detective Movies on DVD

      Silent Films & Early Talkies on DVD

      Musicals on DVD

      --

      Table of Contents

      * indicates a Gene Autry picture

      # indicates a Hopalong Cassidy entry

      @ indicates the Roy Rogers brand

      $ indicates a John Wayne movie

      + indicates a Charles Starrett vehicle

      jmb indicates a Johnny Mack Brown film

      A

      Adventures of Don Coyote (1947)

      Africa—Texas Style (1967)

      Arizona Bound (1941) Buck Jones

      Arizona Stage Coach (1942)

      B

      Barbed Wire (see Cow Town)

      Beyond the Sacramento (1940)

      Big Sky (1952)

      Big Timber (1950)

      Billy the Kid Trapped (1942)

      Border Vigilantes (1941) #

      Buckaroo from Powder River (1947) +

      C

      California Outpost (see Old Los Angeles)

      Call of the Prairie (1936) #

      Cassidy of Bar 20 (1938) #

      Cheyenne Autumn (1965)

      Clue (see Outcast of Black Mesa)

      Conquest of Cochise (1953)

      Covered Wagon Days (1940)

      Cow Town (1950) *

      Cripple Creek (1952)

      Cyclone Fury (1951) +

      Cyclone Prairie Rangers (1944) +

      D

      Dakota (1945) $

      Dakota Incident (1956)

      Dalton Gang (1949)

      Daltons Ride Again (1945)

      Danger Valley (1937)

      Days of Jesse James (1939) @

      Desert Command (see Three Musketeers)

      Desert Passage (1952) Tim Holt

      Devil’s Doorway (1950)

      Doomed Caravan (1941) #

      Down Under (see Squatter’s Daughter)

      Duel in the Sun (1946)

      Duel on the Mississippi (1955)

      Dynamite Canyon (1941)

      Dynamite Pass (1950) Tim Holt

      F

      Faro Jack (see Outlaws of the Panhandle)

      Fighting Kentuckian (1949) $

      Forbidden Trails (1941) Buck Jones

      Fort (see Renegades of the Sage)

      Fortune Hunter (see Outcast)

      Fort Utah (1967)

      Frankie and Johnny (1966)

      G

      Gay Desperado (1936)

      Gold Is Where You Find It (1938) Tim Holt

      Gold Rush Daze (1937)

      Go West (1940)

      Great Alaskan Mystery (1944)

      Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)

      Gunman from Bodie (1941) Buck Jones

      Guns A-Blazing (see Law and Order 1932)

      Guns in the Dark (1937) jmb

      Gunsmoke Trail (1938)

      H

      Heart of Arizona (1938) #

      Heart of the Golden West (1942) @

      Hidden Gold (1940) #

      High Venture (see Passage West)

      Hills of Old Wyoming (1937) #

      Home in Wyomin’ (1942) *

      Hopalong Rides Again (1937) #

      How the West Was Won (1962) $

      In Old Oklahoma (1943) $

      Iroquois Trail (1950)

      J

      Jubilee Trail (1954)

      K

      Kansas Pacific (1953)

      Kid from Santa Fe (1940)

      L

      Last Days of Boot Hill (1947) +

      Law (see Law and Order 1940)

      Law and Order (1932)

      Law and Order (1940) jmb

      Law and Order (1953)

      Law of Vengeance (see To the Last Man)

      Lone Prairie (1936)

      Lone Star Raiders (1940)

      Longhorn (1951)

      M

      Man from Music Mountain (1943) @

      Man from Sonora (1951) jmb

      Massacre River (1949)

      Masterson of Kansas (1954)

      My Darling Clementine (1946) Tim Holt

      N

      Northerner (see Dakota)

      North of the Rio Grande (1937) #

      Northwest Territory (1951)

      O

      Old Los Angeles (1948)

      Outcast (1954)

      Outcast of Black Mesa (1950) +

      Outlaw of the Plains (1946)

      Outlaws of the Panhandle (1941) +

      Outlaw Trail (1944)

      Overlanders (1948)

      P

      Paroled—To Die (1937)

      Partners of the Plains (1938) #

      Passage West (1951)

      Perilous Journey (1953)

      Phantom Stockman (1953)

      Pirates of Monterey (1947)

      Plainsman (1937)

      Power of Justice (see Beyond the Sacramento)

      R

      Ranch of the Ravens (1936)

      Range Law (1931)

      Ranger Guns West (see Three Men from Texas)

      Rangers of Fortune (1940)

      Red River Robin Hood (1942) Tim Holt

      Relentless (1948)

      Renegade Ranger (1938) Tim Holt

      Renegades of the Sage (1949) +

      Return of the Frontiersman (1950)

      Return of the Plainsman (see Phantom Stockman)

      Rhythm on the Ranch (see Rootin’ Tootin’ Rhythm)

      Ride ‘Em Montana (1936)

      Rider from Tucson (1950) Tim Holt

      Riders of the Timberline {Timberlands} (1941) #

      Ride the Man Down (1952)

      Rio Grande Patrol (1950) Tim Holt

      Road to Denver (1955)

      Rocky Rhodes (1934) Buck Jones

      Romance of Louisiana (1937)

      Rootin’ Tootin’ Rhythm (1937) *

      Roseanna McCoy (1949)

      Rose of the Rancho (1914)

      Rose of the Rancho (1936)

      Roughshod (1949)

      Round Up (1941)

      S

      Santa Fe Marshal (1940) #

      Savage Horde (1950)

      Secret of the Wastelands (1941) #

      Sentiment and Song (see Song of the Prairie)

      Showdown (1940) #

      Silver on the Sage (1939) #

      Sing Cowboy Sing (1937)

      Song of the Prairie (1945)

      Song of the Range (1944)

      South of the Chisholm Trail (1947) +

      Spoilers of the Range (1939) +

      Squatter’s Daughter (1934)

      Stagecoach War (1940) #

      T

      Tall Timbers (1937)

      Texas (1941)

      Texas Legionnaires (see Man from Sonora)

      Texas Rangers (1936)

      Texas Rangers Ride Again (1940)

      Texas Trail (1937) #

      They Died With Their Boots On (1941)

      Three in the Saddle (1945)

      Three Men from Texas (1940) #

      Three Musketeers (1933)

      Tomahawk Trail (see Iroquois Trail)

      Topeka (1953)

      To the Last Man (1933)

      Toughest Man in Arizona (1952)

      Trail to Mexico (1946)

      Twilight on the Trail (1941) #

      Two Fisted Law (1932)

      U

      Under a Texas Moon (1930)

      V

      Viva Max (1969)

      W

      War of the Wildcats (see In Old Oklahoma)

      Warpath (1951)

      War Wagon (1967) $

      When the Daltons Rode (1940)

      Winchester ‘73 (1950)

      Wrangler’s Roost (1941)

      Wyoming (1947)

      Y

      Yellow Rose of Texas (1944) @

      Index to all 66 Hopalong Cassidy films (see Hidden Gold)

      --

      Adventures of Don Coyote

      Richard Martin (Don Coyote), Frances Rafferty (Maggie), Marc Cramer (Dave), Val Carlo (Sancho), Benny Bartlett (Ted), Frank Fenton (Big Foot), Byron Foulger (Felton).

      Director: REGINALD LE BORG. Screenplay: Bob Williams, Harold Tarshis. Original story: Bob Williams. Photography: Fred Jackman. Film editor: Lynn Harrison. Music score: David Chudnow. Producers: Buddy Rogers, Ralph Cohn.

      Copyright 9 May 1947 by Comet Productions. Released through United Artists. No New York opening. U.S. release: 9 May 1947. U.K. release: December 1950. Australian release: 9 March 1951. Aust. distributor: Universal-International. 5,964 feet. 65 minutes.

      COMMENT: This C-grade western is very short on action and has virtually nothing to recommend it: a few desultory songs, a couple of poorly-staged fights, pedestrian direction, poverty row sets, unattractive photography. The plot has heroine Frances Rafferty (who deserves more inspired material than this) enlist the aid of the good Don to save her ranch from the attacks of a band of outlaws.

      --

      Africa – Texas Style

      Hugh O’Brian (Jim Sinclair), John Mills (Wing Commander Hayes), Nigel Green (Karl Bekker), Tom Nardini (John Henry), Adrienne Corri (Fay Carter), Ronald Howard (Hugo Copp), Charles Malinda (Sampson), Honey Wamala (Mr Oyondi), Charles Hayes (veterinary), Stephen Kikumu (Peter), Ali Twaha (Turk), Mohammed Abdullah (witch doctor), Hayley Mills (girl at airport).

      Director: ANDREW MARTON. Script: Andy White. Photography: Paul Beeson. Color: Eastman Color. Editor: Henry Richardson. Art director: Maurice Fowler. Special effects: Thomas (Nobby) Clark. Music composed and conducted by Malcolm Arnold. Assistant directors: Ted Sturgis and Ivo Nightingale. Make-up: Eleanor Jones. Hair styles: Betty Glasow. Wardrobe: Duncan McPhee. Sound recording: Gerry Turner. Filmed in Kenya, Africa. Set continuity: Doreen Soan. Casting director: Irene Howard. Production secretary: Midge Warnes. Camera operator: Harry Gillam. Still photographs: John Jay. Supervising electrician: Tom Heathcoat. Property master: John Poyner. Executive producer: Ivan Tors. Distributor: Paramount. Production company: Vantors. Producer: Andrew Marton. Associate producer: John Pellatt. Production manager: Derek Parr.

      Copyright 2 June 1967 by Vantors Films. An Ivan Tors Production, released by Paramount. New York opening at RKO neighborhood theaters: 12 July 1967. U.S. release: 2 June 1967. U.K. release: 16 July 1967. Australian release: 5 January 1968. Sydney opening on a double bill at the Capitol (ran one week). 9,818 feet. 109 minutes.

      SYNOPSIS: Hoping to develop wild game ranching in Kenya as an alternative to cattle ranching, Howard Hayes, an English settler, engages two Texan cowboys, Jim Sinclair and John Henry, to rope and herd the animals. Cattle rancher Karl Bekker opposes the scheme, fearing that his cattle will be infected by diseases spread by the wild animals.

      VIEWER’S GUIDE: Okay for all.

      COMMENT: With a banal script that does not miss a single cliché and has trite dialogue and worthy sentiments to match, Andrew Marton cannot make much of this film, even with actual location filming. The actors come off poorly, and the animals fare even worse, being mainly used to cover up action where inept direction has left an untoward gap. There are one or two moderately exciting moments, and the film is in color. Otherwise, it’s a bore.

      OTHER VIEWS: Producer-Director Ivan Tors, who with such TV series as Flipper and Daktari has made animals his livestock in trade, combines two supposedly potent ingredients into one-wide-screen epic: The Dark Continent and the Wild West… Tors, a director of the World Wildlife Fund, obviously hoped to make a film that would entertain as well as instruct. This one does neither. Africa — Texas Style! has not enough of the real Africa, less of Texas, and no style at all. It patronises the natives, shows the beasts in badly edited shots that unconvincingly mix footage of wild lions and tame humans. Tors has even included the ancient anthropomorphism of a pet monkey guzzling beer — which only goes to prove that successful films with monkeys in them can still be counted on the fingers of one foot.

      — Time.

      --

      Arizona Bound

      Buck Jones (Buck Roberts), Tim McCoy (Parson McCall), Raymond Hatton (Sandy Hopkins), Luana Walters (Ruth Masters), Dennis Moore (Joe), Kathryn Sheldon (Aunt Miranda), Tris Coffin (Steve Taggart), Horace Murphy (Red), I. Stanford Jolley (idler with straw), Ben Corbett (Judge Melford), Slim Whitaker, Gene Alsace, Jack Daly, Hal Price, Augie Gomez, and Silver.

      Director: SPENCER GORDON BENNET. Screenplay: Jess Bowers. Original story: Oliver Drake. Photography: Harry Neumann. Film editor: Carl Pierson. Art director: Vin Taylor. Music composed and directed by Edward J. Kay. Assistant director: William Drake. Production manager: C. J. Bigelow. Sound: Karl Zint. Western Electric Sound System. Producer: Scott R. Dunlap.

      Copyright 19 July 1941 by Monogram Pictures Corp. U.S. release: 9 July 1941. No New York showcase. Australian release through British Empire Films: 12 February 1942. 6 reels. 5,263 feet. 58 minutes.

      SYNOPSIS: Marshal Roberts is called in to clean up Mesa City.

      NOTES: This was the first of the famous Rough Riders series, the following films (also starring Jones, McCoy and Hatton) being The Gunman from Bodie, Forbidden Trails, Below the Border, Ghost Town Law, Down Texas Way, Riders of the West and West of the Law. The series came to an end when McCoy returned to active duty (as a lieutenant colonel) in the U.S. Army. Jones made one more film, Dawn on the Great Divide, before his tragic death on 30 November 1942 from burns received in the Cocoanut Grove fire. Bennet directed the first two films, Robert N. Bradbury the third, and Howard Bretherton all the rest. Arizona Bound was shot in 7 days at a negative cost between $60,000 and $70,000. Shooting title: The Rough Riders.

      VIEWERS’ GUIDE: Okay for all.

      COMMENT: For a Monogram B-western, this Rough Riders saga has been produced on a comparatively lavish scale. True, the apparent shortage of action is a handicap until it becomes plain that the plot has been constructed on the Hopalong Cassidy model with minor skirmishes between the heroes and the villain and his henchmen until the final climactic shoot-out which sees the Rough Riders racing for the town, the director using running inserts of our heroes cross-cut with the baddies who, barricaded in the saloon, are shooting it out with the honest townsfolk!

      Tristram Coffin makes an effective villain and has a nice team of henchmen to support him. Buck Jones comes into this one right from the first shot at the start of the film proper (after some establishing long shots), but Hatton (playing a horse-trader in this one) and McCoy (doing his customary parson stunt — the scene with all the bad types lined up against a wall smilingly singing Bury Me on the Long Prairie with its deft pans along the forced-to-smile faces recalls a sequence that John Huston used some years later in Beat the Devil) come in after the film is well under way.

      Luana Walters is only a passable heroine, while Dennis Moore has a small part as her fiancé. Kathryn Sheldon seems to have been thrown into the film for comic relief, but fortunately there is very little of this and even Hatton forgoes most of his usual slapstick.

      Although the plot is familiar, it is neatly constructed, and the dialogue is not as corny nor as laden with clichés as some of these films.

      Production values are remarkable with some surprisingly fluid direction and deft film editing and very attractive photography. The exterior locations are appealing and there are plenty of costumed extras milling about. Kay’s music score tends to be monotonous and repetitious but at least it’s a cut above the amateurish efforts of Frank Sanucci.

      Altogether, with this film the Rough Riders were off to a most auspicious start!

      OTHER VIEWS: See Forbidden Trails in this book.

      --

      Arizona Stage Coach

      Ray Corrigan (Crash Corrigan), John King (Dusty King), Max Terhune (Alibi Terhune), Nell O’Day (Dorrie Willard), Riley Hill [Roy Harris] (Ernie Willard), Charles King (Tim Douglas), Kermit Maynard (Strike), Jack Ingram (Sheriff Denver), Forrest Taylor (Uncle Larry Meadows), Steve Clark (Jake, the stage driver), Carl Mathews (Ace), Slim Harkey (Panhandle), Slim Whitaker (Red), Frank Ellis (Dan, the stage shotgun), Stranley Price (Tex Laughlin), Eddie Dean (henchman), Victor Adamson, Herman Hack, Milburn Morante, Jimmy Aubrey (barflies), Richard Cramer (Joe, the bartender), and Elmer.

      Director: S. ROY LUBY. Screenplay: Arthur Hoerl. Story: Oliver Drake. Film editor: S. Roy Luby. Photography: Robert Cline. Music director: Frank Sanucci. Song: Where the Grass Grows High in the Mountains (King) by Rudy Sooter. Production manager: William L. Nolte. Sound recording: Lyle Willey. Associate producers: Richard Ross, Anna Bell Weeks. Producer: George W. Weeks.

      Not copyright 1942 by Range Busters, Inc. Released through Monogram Pictures Corporation: 4 September 1942. 58 minutes.

      SYNOPSIS: The unusually complicated story of this 16th entry in the series, is a little difficult to follow. But if you pay close attention, you’ll just manage to keep up with it. Not that you’ll bother, because the whole affair, what with a loose talking dummy (in both senses of the word loose) and a hero with a bent for nasty practical pranks, is in many ways so childish, it’s not really worth the effort. In brief, The Range Busters are enlisted to ferret out a gang of highwaymen who specialize in stealing Wells Fargo cash boxes from the Arizona stagecoach.

      COMMENT: Of mild interest for rabid fans of Corrigan and company, this Range Busters entry, filmed against the serviceable but somewhat lackluster scenery of the Corrigan Ranch, does hold out three or four joys for the general viewer in the acting department. It’s good to see Kermit Maynard filling the shoes of a bad guy and it’s always great to find Charles King up to his old tricks. Another favorite heavy, Jack Ingram, can be spotted in a smallish but odd part as the local sheriff. But the real flavor of this entry is provided by Steve Clark who really revels in his role as a corrupt stage driver. And for once, Steve has the best lines in the movie!

      The action spots are directed at a fast clip (with running inserts yet!) and, as inferred above, there’s probably enough fast riding and quick-on-the-draw shooting to satisfy the inveterate fans. As usual, Mr King is handed a couple of songs, one of which he renders upside down. And also as usual, Mr Terhune and his poorly animated dummy (who receives an inordinate number of close-ups) waste a fair amount of our time.

      DEATHLESS DIALOGUE. Corrupt stage driver (mildly chiding the leader of a group of masked bandits who has his eyes set on the cash box): Say, this isn’t the spot where you were supposed to hold us up.

      Bandit’s quick-as-a-flash retort: I liked this spot better.

      --

      Beyond the Sacramento

      William Wild Bill Elliott (Wild Bill Hickok), Evelyn Keyes (Lynn Perry), Dub Taylor (Cannonball), Frank LaRue (Jeff Adams), Don Beddoe (Warden McKay), Bradley Page (Cord Crowley), Norman Willis (Nelson), and Steve Clark, Harry Bailey, Art Mix, George McKay, Bud Osborne, Blackjack Ward, Jack Low, Olin Francis, Clem Horton, Tex Cooper, Ned Glass, John Dilson, Jack Clifford.

      Director: LAMBERT HILLYER. Original screenplay: Luci Ward. Photography: George Meehan. Film editor: James Sweeney. Western Electric Sound System. Producer: Leon Barsha.

      Copyright 7 November 1940 by Columbia Pictures Corp. U.S. release: 14 November 1940. No New York opening. 6 reels. 58 minutes.

      U.K. release title: Power of Justice.

      VIEWER’S GUIDE: Okay for all.

      COMMENT: It’s astonishing what a stranglehold Luci Ward had on the writing of B-picture westerns. Why she was employed is a typical Hollywood piece of illogicality, since her knowledge of the frontier is nil, her dialogue is stilted and her plots are merely variations of well-worn themes with as many clichés as there are leaves in a hen-party teapot.

      This one is no exception. It emerges as a pretty mediocre Wild Bill Hickok western, with plenty of dialogue and not overmuch action. Admittedly, the climax starts promisingly with Mr Hickok making a most spectacular entrance, but, alas, the rest of it is lame. Dub Taylor’s comic relief is chiefly concerned with a running gag about a cow-hide vest that is not the least bit funny.

      Although Evelyn Keyes figures in a fair bit of footage, her fans will be hard put to recognise her. Even her personality is quite colorless. On the evidence of this film it would be hard to believe she had a Hollywood future.

      One of our favorite villains, gravel-voiced Norman Willis, has only a secondary henchman role. The chief villains themselves are an undistinguished lot.

      Lambert Hillyer’s direction is dull. Though competent, it does not exhibit any traces of his customary flair and style. Other production credits are okay.

      OTHER VIEWS: Standard Saturday matinee fare.

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      the Big Sky

      Kirk Douglas (Deakins), Dewey Martin (Boone), Elizabeth Threatt (Teal Eye), Arthur Hunnicutt (Zeb), Buddy Baer (Romaine), Steven Geray (Jourdonnais), Hank Worden (Poordevil), Jim Davis (Streak), Henri Letondal (Ladadie), Robert Hunter (Chouquette), Booth Colman (Pascal), Paul Frees (MacMasters), Frank De Kova (Moleface), Guy Wilkerson (Longface), Don Beddoe (mule buyer), and Barbara Hawks, George Wallace, Max Wagner, Sam Ash, Frank Lackteen, Jay Novello, William Self.

      Narrated by Arthur Hunnicutt.

      Produced and directed by HOWARD HAWKS. Written by Dudley Nichols, based on the novel by A. B. Guthrie, Jr. Photographed by Russell Harlan. Edited by Christian Nyby. Art directors: Albert D’Agostino and Perry Ferguson. Music composed and conducted by Dimitri Tiomkin. Music co-ordinator: Constantin Bakaleinikoff. Music editor: Richard Harris. French lyrics. Gordon Clark. Casting assistant: Harvey Clermont. Sound effects: Walter G. Elliott. Sound recording: Phil Brigandi, Clem Portman. Set decorations: Darrell Silvera and William Stevens. 2nd unit director: Arthur Rosson. Costumes: Dorothy Jeakins. Make-up: Mel Berns, Don Cash. Hair styles: Larry Germain. Special effects: Donald Steward. Assistant director: William McGarry. RCA Sound System. Associate producer: Edward Lasker. Filmed in Grand Teton National Park.

      A Winchester Pictures Production, distributed by RKO Radio. New York opening at the Criterion: 19 August 1952. Copyright 29 July 1952 by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. U.S. release: August 1952. U.K. release: 8 December 1952. Australian release: 12 February 1953. 122 minutes.

      SYNOPSIS: Two young Kentuckians and their frontiersman uncle are hired by a riverboat captain to guide his keelboat more than a thousand miles from St Louis into Blackfoot Indian territory.

      NOTES: Arthur Hunnicutt was nominated for an Academy Award for Supporting Actor, losing to Anthony Quinn in Viva Zapata!

      Russell Harlan was nominated for an Oscar for his black-and-white Cinematography, losing to Robert Surtees for The Bad and the Beautiful.

      The producer wishes to thank the National Parks Service for photographic assistance in Grand Teton National Park.

      Guthrie’s 1947 novel was extremely well received, both critically and commercially. Its sequel The Way West (1949) won a Pulitzer prize.

      VIEWER’S GUIDE: Suitable for all.

      COMMENT: Beautifully photographed epic about pioneering up the old Missouri, somewhat reminiscent of the later Far Horizons, though this is much more exciting and spectacular. Dud Nichols’ screenplay, however, is far from satisfying. It’s not just that the characters are one-dimensional, it’s that they don’t seem to have any dimension at all! We know as much about the characters in the first 12 minutes as we do in the next 120! Composer Tiomkin and cinematographer Harlan seem to be the only people striving to give the story some dramatic impact.

      OTHER VIEWS: Although both Joseph McBride and Tony Thomas give some interesting background information on this film in their respective studies of Kirk Douglas (McBride notes that Douglas would not accept the part unless his role was built up at Dewey Martin’s expense), the best critique of the film is found in The Films of Howard Hawks by Donald C. Willis. A comparison is made between the original book and the film. Once it gets started, in Chapter 23, it’s a good book, but Hawks’ film never does get started. It’s partly a picturization of the dullest section of the book and partly its own concoction... The film makes little use of its epic spaces. Instead, nature dwarfs the movie and its concerns. In Guthrie’s book, distances in time and space help create a deep sense of kinship between people. In the movie, the setting is just a scenic backdrop, well-employed in shots of the fur trappers pulling the keelboat up the river or of Indians riding along the shore on horseback... Some of the names are the same as in the book, but Hawks and Nichols discarded virtually all its characters... Deakins is pared of his religious musings and his significance as a link between civilization and wilderness. But the difference between the book’s Boone Caudill and Dewey Martin’s version is crucial... The narrator has to come to the story’s aid near the end to explain what’s happening. The narration tries to supply what the movie doesn’t, a real sense of comradeship between Boone and Deakins. Instead of developing that sense, the film shoves one of the book’s peripheral concerns — the fur company’s attempts to sabotage Jourdonnais’ expedition — into stage center. The script might better have forgotten all about plot and been a documentary of men and keelboats and sky and river, but it keeps dwindling into conventional heroes-and-villains melodrama.

      To get back to McBride, one of the things he does rightly point out is that one of the highlights of the film is an early scene in a tavern in which Douglas sings Whisky Leave Me Alone and then gets embroiled in a fight which is unexpectedly — and hilariously — terminated when Douglas is knocked cold with a metal bar tray.

      P.S. In my French period, I wrote for the short-lived Cinéma dans Marseilles. The above comments are translated from my original Movies in Marseilles review. I have since read the book. An enthralling experience, The Big Sky is one of the ten most gripping novels I’ve ever read. It has a feeling for the frontier and the motivations of the early 19th century pioneers that is absolutely fascinating. Unfortunately, little if any of this powerfully descriptive and interpretative material is captured in the movie. Whilst the picture is interesting enough in its own right — especially when the scenery is allowed to dominate — it bears such a peripheral relationship to the book that its connection is tenuous enough to be disregarded. One good thing is that seeing the movie will in no way spoil your enjoyment of the book. (Of course if you read the book first, you’re apt to be mighty disappointed by its picturisation).

      — J.H.R.

      --

      Big Timber

      Roddy McDowall (Jimmy), Jeff Donnell (Sally), Lyn Thomas (June), Gordon Jones (Jocko), Tom Greenway (Rocky), Robert Shayne (Dixon), Ted Hecht (Bert), Lyle Talbot (1st logger).

      Director: JEAN YARBROUGH. Original screenplay: Warren Wilson. Photography: William Sickner. Supervising film editor: Leonard W. Herman. Art director: David Milton. Set decorator: Ray Boltz, Jr. Music director: Edward J. Kay. Set continuity: Ilona Vas. Assistant to the producer: Wesley Barry. Sound recording: Tom Lambert. Western Electric Sound System. Associate producers: Roddy McDowall, Ace Herman. Producer: Lindsley Parsons. A Lindsley Parsons Production.

      Copyright 10 September 1950 by Monogram Pictures Corp. No New York opening. U.S. release: 10 September 1950. U.K. release through Associated British-Pathé 15 January 1951. Never theatrically released in Australia. 7 reels. 73 minutes.

      SYNOPSIS: Super-keen youth gains experience in a logging camp.

      VIEWER’S GUIDE: I can’t understand the Oz censor’s Parental Recommendation for this one. Usually the PR errs very much on the side of liberality, but this one cautions parents against "some objectionable scenes.’’ I can’t imagine what scenes were considered unacceptable as I would rate Big Timber as Highly Recommended for All without any reservations whatever. Certainly the British censor agrees. His certificate is U for Universal Exhibition.

      COMMENT: This engaging semi-documentary is an unusual production

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