Every story takes its characters on a journey, and invites the viewer along for company too of course. Those narrative journeys must bring the protagonists to some new place in life, another staging post from which they can embark on the next leg of wherever it is fate or destiny has offered up as a choice. It’s not always a literal journey, one involving actual travel from point A to point B, but it sometimes is and that sense of real physical movement can he a handy way to highlight the more important shifts that occur. The Tall Men (1955) is what we might call a trail drive western from one of the pioneers of the form; Raoul Walsh had directed the impressive and innovative The Big Trail a quarter of century before and there’s even a nod toward that production in the lowering of covered wagons on ropes down a sheer cliff face at one point. In pursuit of dreams that are both competing and complementary, Walsh takes his characters up and down the length of the United States, and even further than that emotionally.
It opens in the snow, a chill and bleak backdrop with the color drawn out and starkness and bleakness to the fore once the blood red credits have faded from the screen. It is 1866 and the aftermath of years of conflict has left some men cast adrift, men such as Ben Allison (Clark Gable) and his younger brother Clint (Cameron Mitchell). That beginning deftly informs the viewer of the cynical and detached perspective of the lead characters – the sight of a hanged corpse in the wilderness prompting a throwaway line about civilization that is ripe with bitterness. Yet Walsh was not a cynic, he was at heart a romantic (even if he might never have wanted to admit that in public) and his best movies all set his characters off on grail quests for the truth and fulfillment that they must ultimately find within themselves. Ben Allison and his brother seem to be searching for nothing more than quick and easy money at the outset, staking out and executing a cheap and tawdry bit of banditry when they hold up and abduct a man they figure is both moneyed and green. That man is Nathan Stark (Robert Ryan), and while he may be carrying plenty of crisp new banknotes, he’s far from being a fool. He wrong-foots the brothers by offering them not a date with the law but a business proposal – help him drive a herd of cattle from Texas all the way up to Montana and share in the profits on completion. For men who are not by nature thieves, this offers them a way out, a chance to step away from the tantalizing vortex of crime and a life outside the law before it is too late. Setting out on that long ride back south to assemble a herd is the first step, and it also brings about a meeting with the other central character Nella Turner (Jane Russell), the woman who will bind all of them together and who prompts a reassessment among them of what they want and where they want to be in life.
The Tall Men was the first time Raoul Walsh worked with Gable, Russell and Ryan, and he would go on to make The King and Four Queens and Band of Angels with Gable, and The Revolt of Mamie Stover with Russell. There are many who would characterize Walsh’s filmmaking in terms of action and movement, and there is certainly plenty of that on display in The Tall Men. The sense of forward momentum, aided by the driving nature of the plot, is never far from the surface. Those action scenes, the seeing off of the Jayhawkers and the climatic stampede are shot and marshaled with considerable aplomb. Still, it is some of the quieter, more intimate moments that raise the movie and make it more than a simple shoot-em-up in the wilderness. The early scenes, after Gable has rescued Russell and they find themselves sheltering in an abandoned cabin, have great warmth and set the characters up for the developments that will follow. Gable and Russell form the core of the movie, the characters growing and changing in a way that feels very natural and the course of their relationship is first mapped out in that cabin sequence.
The use of music in this movie is artful and crafty too in the way the song – that vague ribaldry of the lyrics is characteristic of Walsh’s sense of humor – Russell sings, and appears to improvise according to circumstances, charts the peaks and troughs of her relationship with Gable. It’s not the first time a song has been used to punctuate a western, but it does feel different in the way its fluid lyrics alter depending on the singer’s mood while the theme itself remains constant.
“There goes the only man I ever respected. He’s what every boy thinks he’s going to be when he grows up and wishes he had been when he’s an old man.”
That line is uttered near the end by Robert Ryan’s Nathan Stark of Gable and it feels like screenwriters Sydney Boehm and Frank Nugent had the star himself in mind when they came up with it. The ageing Gable is used to good effect once more, that weariness that came along with the years, as well as the wisdom and philosophical self-awareness that is always lurking nearby, help to create a character who feels real, one whom the viewer can relate to and root for. Russell plays off him nicely, their moments together indicate chemistry and her role is of course key to making the plot work. Without her provocative and heartfelt performance the destination Gable, and Ryan too, arrives at would have little meaning.
Robert Ryan was one of the true masters of ambiguity, his heroes exhibiting bumps and cracks in their surface smoothness and his villains typically suggesting some grain of decency even if one would have to dig deep to find it. His Nathan Stark is a complex and nuanced portrayal, almost obsessively ambitious and capable of flat out ruthlessness, but he has a style about him, a kind of honest worldliness that is hard to resist. Once again, the script does the character justice, allowing the arc described to follow a natural path and, in the end, to reach a very satisfying destination. Cameron Mitchell was in the middle of a pretty good run at this time. Always more of a strong supporting actor than a natural lead, he had a knack for conveying callowness and occasionally suspect judgement. There is a point along the trail where it looks as though he may be heading down a disappointingly predictable route but the writing draws him back from that and his own skills make the turnaround credible.
The Tall Men has long been available on DVD, and it has always looked very nice too. The movie got a Blu-ray release in the US from Twilight Time and one in Germany via Koch Media, both of which are now out of print. Being a Fox title and therefore now owned by Disney, I guess hopes of a reissue on BD are slim at the moment. The movie is another of those classy pieces of filmmaking by Raoul Walsh which can be approached as both a slick entertainment package and also as a subtle commentary on the compromises people need to make if personal fulfillment is to be achieved. All told, a really fine bit of cinema.
Riding the High Country 
Looks like a must see. Just curious…there’s a number of films with similar titles. I recall years ago Ten Tall Men with the wonderful Burt Lancaster. Seen it, heard of it?
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Paul, the Lancaster movie is a Foreign Legion yarn directed by Willis Goldbeck and it’s a fairly light-hearted affair. It seems it was originally a western but was rewritten as a desert adventure.
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I read Clay Fisher’s novel, and I had no doubt it would make a fine film. it did and you have done all concerned justice. Nathan Stark, in the novel, is almost the equal of Ben Allison as seen through the eyes of Native American narrators. The final line goes something like this: They were all Tall Men, Nathan Stark was a Tall Man, but Ben Allison ws the tallest of all. Ryan’s line which you quoted goes to that but with more soul.
A personal word about Clark Gable. In 2010 my wife and I watched a DVD, she stepped out of the room a moment, and when she returned there was a shot of Gable on horseback in the lower right-hand corner of the screen Alone, surrounded by what I call red mountains. She observed Cary Grant was the greatest actor of all, but Clark Gable is a part. Beautiful, profound, and on target. Memorable to me because I agreed and she was dying.
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I very much enjoy Gable’s late career run. Not all of the movies he made in the last dozen or so years are great of course, but a number of them certainly are and even in some of the weaker efforts he still had or contributed to moments which are memorable and have depth. Walsh, Ford, and Huston got some fine performances out of him, as did Wise and Wellman.
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I agree. He is wonderful in ‘Run Silent Run Deep’ and ‘The Misfits’. Some of those scenes with Monroe are so moving on so many levels.
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I’ve heard it said that the physical demands of making The Misfits took their toll. Gable got to round off his career with a fine bit of work in a pretty fine movie though.
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A bittersweet moment, Barry.
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Jerry, you are so right. I try to keep her alive and am waiting for Mr. Jordan to make things right again.
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That’s a nice way to look at it.
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I still can’t believe that I have some of Walsh’s best Westerns on Blu: ‘The Big Trail’, ‘Pursued’, and ‘Colorado Territory’. So neat. Need to get this eventually. I still can’t believe I can watch ‘The Big Trail’ in HD. Thanks for your excellent review.
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I keep hoping Criterion will release that High Sierra / Colorado Territory double feature in the UK as I’m locked in Region B for Blu-ray, but it’s a long time coming. I may yet buckle and just buy the DVD version to get a decent copy of Colorado Territory as the old Spanish DVD I own is just about passable.
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I have the Criterion High Sierra/ Colorado territory on Blu ray. After running both films several times, I reversed myself. At the outset I was a Colorado Territory proponent, but no more. Both are good to near great. but the Bogart, Lupino variation transcends time, not because of the playing, but development and directorial handling.
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I know that last time I watched the movie, I felt Colorado Territory was the better version, or the one that affected me more anyway – mind you, it’s not as though either film is in any sense a dud. However, that was a long time ago, more than a dozen years and I’d like to watch both versions again to see if I still feel the same.
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Depending on mind, set, they are probably variable. Both fine.
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Bogart is legendary, McCrea is great. I just enjoy loving both versions.
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This is true. There’s nothing forcing us to choose one over the other, which is an altogether fine situation to be in when you stop to think about it.
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Even though its not completely restored ‘Colorado’ looks pretty great on the Criterion Blu ‘High Sierra’ looks amazing.
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Colin
Spot on write-up on this one. I catch it every so often and it never fails to entertain. A neat personal take on the film, is that it was the first color film I recall seeing. We were at the drive-in in Edmonton Alberta in 1961-62, and this was on a double bill with of all things, a Lewis and Martin comedy. I was 6 at the time and the color was amazing. Nothing unusual for drive-ins to feature films that had been out for years. Thanks for giving the old brain-pan a jolt.
Gordon
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We didn’t have drive-ins, but I recall seeing some movies projected on the big screen a few years after they would have had their initial theatrical run. The Towering Inferno is one that springs to mind.
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I saw a number of movies at drive-ins as a kid. Drive-ins were fun. Sadly at the time I saw those movies drive-ins were already starting to die off in Australia.
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Gordon and Dee, we still have a drive-in theater 32 miles from where we live. On the last Thursday night of each month, they have what is called “Throwback Thursday.” This month JAWS(filmed 1974, released 1975) will be shown. Tickets are $6 for ages 12 and up, $2 for ages 6-11, under 6 are free.
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Walter, Dee
Drive-ins were a hoot, particularly once we hit teenage years. A triple bill of mostly westerns on a Saturday and a few 12 packs of beer made for a great time. I really miss the things. So sad they all disappeared. I saw JAWS at a drive-in as well.
Gord
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Gordon, the Kendra Drive-In was right next to the Marshall School football field. The visiting team’s bench was located on the side where the movie screen could be seen. I guess they hoped that would be a distraction for the opposing players. I recall that in 1973, PRIME CUT(filmed, 1971, released 1972) was playing on the screen while our game was still being played. Up on the screen were Lee Marvin and Sissy Spacek being chased through a wheat field by a combine harvester.
During the spring of 1974, our track and field team were driving through Marshall returning from a track and field meet and we had to stop and fuel the bus we were on. Across the highway was the drive-in and THE EXORCIST(filmed 1972-73, released 1973) was being shown. Everyone was at the bus windows just at the right time to see the pea soup scene.
Those were the days.
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Walter
Most of PRIME CUT was filmed here in Calgary and area. My youngest brother who was 6 or 7 at the time is in one of the crowd scenes.
Gordon
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Gordon, small world isn’t it, at times, anyway. I think that is rather neat that your younger brother was in the movie.
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A very nice write-up of a very good western, Colin. Perhaps being a western your always reliable power of expression is given its head.
Raoul Walsh, Gable and Ryan makes for a potent combination but one should say that Russell’s work with both Ryan and Gable is really fine. Great chemistry with Gable. The film really ‘moves’, as one would expect with Walsh, and is very colourful. My wife isn’t always persauaded to watch a western but she really enjoyed this one.
Gable had a great career, both before and after his service in WW2. Not all his films in the 1950s were among his best perhaps but several are and I think “THE TALL MEN” is one of those. After 30 years as a major star he took on a film, “THE MISFITS”, that was physically challenging for a man of his age (it almost certainly led to his fatal heart attack) but it was a very fine performance to go out on.
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Russell turns in a strong performance. Her part is a well developed one, tracing an arc every bit as true as credible as those of her co-stars. As I said above, her role is a pivotal one which heavily influences how those co-stars react and where they all end up. The writing is of course important as it provides the framework but Russell’s interpretation of the character is well done.
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Yes, I should have mentioned the writing; it was good and heavily contributed to the success of the film.
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Watching the opening credits and seeing the names of Frank Nugent and Sydney Boehm as good as guarantees something worthwhile is on the way.
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Yes, but too young. I was twenty-one in 1960, and my interests were much the same then as now. A shock, and an enormous newspaper and broadcast story.
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It was indeed too young, Barry. I was 12-13 in 1960 and had not found the music I went on to love but movies and TV series sustained me then and do so still now.
Only the following year was the equally shocking news that Coop had died of cancer.
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That specific period fascinates me. We’ve spoken before of how the western began to, quite rapidly, decline as a genre, both in terms of the number produced and that subtle shift in sensibility that became apparent in the years ahead. In a broader cinematic sense though it seems to have represented something of a cutoff point. Gable, Cooper, Bogart, Flynn and Power all departed within the space of a few years.
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It’s interesting why and how it changed. The stars passing away, living memory of the actual Old West going, Vietnam and the loss of honor all theories advanced. Richard Slotkin’s ‘Gunfighter Nation’ is a fascinating read on the Western and American History.
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Colin, it’s a pleasure to read your fine write-up of THE TALL MEN(1955), which is the kind of Western Movie that I like and never cease to enjoy and think about. I first recall viewing this movie on Memphis, Tennessee’s WMC Channel 5 Sunday night’s MOVIE BONANZA in the summer of 1968. I even remember the book that I was reading that particular day, WYATT EARP U.S. MARSHAL(1956) written by Stewart H. Holbrook with illustrations by Ernest Richardson. The book was #67 in the Landmark series of books. Landmark Books is a children’s book series originally published by Random House from 1950 to 1974, featuring stories of notable people and events in American History written by popular authors of the day. These books were intended for children ages ten to fifteen and I read several of them back in the day.
We had visitors that Sunday to our small ranch in Owl Holler. They were our barber and his wife. Believe it or not their last name was Barber. I didn’t like getting haircuts as a youngster and I still don’t, but Lee and Ida Barber were good people. I didn’t like haircuts, but I liked to read the neat magazines that Mr. Barber had in is barber shop on Water Street: LIFE, LOOK, and THE SATURDAY EVENING POST. In that barber shop, I first read parts of Charles Portis’ “True Grit, ” which first appeared in THE SATURDAY EVENING POST in May 1968 as a three-part serial with illustrations by Stan Galli. That sunny Sunday afternoon we were sitting in our front yard, and I was reading my Wyatt Earp book, which was checked out from the public library, and Lee Barber noticed the book. He said that he believed that type of book was what young people should be reading. I realize that I’ve digressed and rambled around enough, but these memories just crossed my mind as I recall first viewing THE TALL MEN.
I think that THE TALL MEN has a lot going for it. The source material was the novel THE TALL MEN(1954) written by Henry Wilson “Heck” Allen using his sobriquet of Clay Fisher. Another pen name he used was Will Henry. Also, Heck Allen worked as an animated short film writer for MGM. He wrote dozens of Tex Avery cartoons from 1938-1955. In my opinion Allen is one of the best Western novelists of all time and his THE TALL MEN is top-notch. His THE BIG PASTURE(1955) continues the story and is also a good read. The novel and the movie are two different entities, and that’s okay because they are both good.
I’ve always liked stories in which a journey takes place whether it be literally, figuratively, or both. Colin, I think you spelled out the journey motif very well. The screen writers Sydney Boehm and Frank S. Nugent did a pretty good job of adapting the book to the screen and some of their additions worked out rather well. Trail drive stories are favored by me, and this is a good one and who better than director Raoul Walsh to bring realism to the fore, because in his teens he worked as a cowboy on a real cattle drive in Mexico and Texas. Besides being a trail drive story, it’s a tense psychological story of conflict between three men and a woman. The romantic back and forth between Ben Allison(Clark Gable) and Nella Turner(Jane Russell) is a joy. The inside cabin scenes are sensual without being graphic and I like her footwork. I get a kick out of Jane Russell’s “Tall Man” song with lyrics that vary, depending on the situations. Russell has a natural down to earth brassy eminence that I think endears her to moviegoers for such a celebrated sex symbol. She more than holds her own and proves equal to the “Tall Men.” I agree that Nathan Stark(Robert Ryan) is a complex character and Ryan portrays the slick, but rough-edged risk-taking enterpriser with as you say ambiguity. He also shows that he is a quick draw with a pistol, when the occasion requires it. Clint Allison(Cameron Mitchell) is a hot headed jester who likes to flirt with danger but comes full circle. Mitchell is a good actor and plays the part well. Ben Allison(Clark Gable) is the real deal and Gable was excellent in the role. I think this type of role fit him to a T. Barry, I liked the way your late wife described him, so true. I think it’s a shame that he didn’t do more Westerns.
THE TALL MEN looks great in DeLuxe color CinemaScope and Leo Tover’s photography is stunning and the high production values make the movie even more of a pleasure for the eye. There is plenty of action and I could talk about this kind of movie all day.
Is THE TALL MEN a better trail drive movie than RED RIVER(filmed 1946, released 1948) or LONESOME DOVE(filmed 1988, TV Miniseries released 1989)? No, of course not, but I don’t think it tried to be better. I like this movie and I think it is an underrated gem, which is well worth viewing.
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That’s a solid appreciation of the movie in itself. I rather liked that phrase you used for Jane Russell – “brassy eminence” has a nice feel to it.
Your reminiscences of the time you first saw the film are impressive. I wish my own memory was as good!
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Colin, thank you for triggering my memory with your thoughtful write-up of THE TALL MEN. Memory is a funny thing. I can remember something from fifty-five years ago, but five days ago is another matter. In the past I’ve been able to recall numbers, dates, names, places, and etc. very well, but as I’m getting older, not so well. Currently, I’ll have trouble trying to remember a name, but later on when I’m not trying to recall the name, it’ll pop into my mind. Also, we have the internet today, whereas we didn’t have back in the day. We can look things up. Although just because an item of information is on the internet, doesn’t mean that information is correct. That is why we have to double, triple, and quadruple check.
I like Jane Russell and always have, and I think she has been underrated as an actress. Sure, she’s not a great actress, but she has a charismatic personality that carries her through. Also, I think she is a talented singer and dancer, as well as being naturally humorous. Beauty, as we say, is in the eye of the beholder.
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Nicely done, Walter.
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I love it when you ‘ramble’, Walter. I could sit and enjoy reading that all day!
Incidentally, the only Will Henry book I have read (about 60 or more years ago and I still have it) is “WHO RIDES WITH WYATT”. I am seriously minded to dig it out for a second read.
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I’m pretty sure the only Will Henry book I’ve read is Mackenna’s Gold. I’m also reasonably confident I own another of his titles (packed up somewhere in my parents’ place) but I have no idea which one that is now.
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Colin, Will Henry’s MACKENNA’S GOLD(1963) is a lot better than the movie of the same name, although I think that MACKENNA’S GOLD(filmed 1967, released 1969) does have its moments.
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Yes, I think the book is better too. That said, I first saw the movie at, let’s say, an impressionable age and I retain a bit of a soft spot for it in spite of its flaws.
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Colin, same with me. I first viewed it on THE CBS THURSDAY NIGHT MOVIES in 1972 and despite all its flaws, I rather enjoyed it. I’ve read where MACKENNA’S GOLD was a huge hit in India.
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Jerry, it’s easy for me to ramble, especially as the years go by.
I’ve read Will Henry’s WHO RIDES WITH WYATT(1955) and still have a paperback copy somewhere. I think I read it over 30 or more years ago. If my memory serves me right the book is a pretty good Historical novel, but it plays loosely with the real story of Wyatt Earp and Johnny Ringo. In the novel Earp is sort of a would-be mentor to young Ringo, until he goes over and sides with Curley Bill Brocius and the Clanton’s. My friend Western novelist, the late Dusty Richards, told me that these novels are “Historical fiction” with emphasis on “fiction.” Looking at the date that WHO RIDES WITH WYATT was published, at that time we didn’t have the books and magazine articles that have since been published on the Earp brothers both pro and con.
Writer/director Burt Kenndey made the movie YOUNG BILLY YOUNG(filmed 1968, released 1969) loosely based on the novel WHO RIDES WITH WYATT. Kennedy changed the names of the main characters, except for John Behan(Jack Kelly). Earp became Deputy U.S. Marshal Ben Kane(Robert Mitchum), Ringo became Billy Young(Robert Walker, Jr.). I think the movie is an enjoyable entertaining one with a good cast made up of Angie Dickinson, David Carradine, John Anderson, Paul Fix, and others. Robert Mitchum sings the theme song. I first saw the movie on the NBC SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES in 1976 and I think it’s worth watching.
Getting back to writer Henry Wilson “Heck” Allen. I recommend highly his Western novels written under his pen names of Will Henry and Clay Fisher. Also, catch some of Tex Avery’s Droopy Dog cartoons, which were written by Heck Allen.
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I wasn’t particularly taken with Young Billy Young, even though the cast and premise ought to have worked for me. Another western from around that time, also starring Angie Dickinson as it happens, that I didn’t get on well with was The Last Challenge. I had this to say about the latter on another forum after a recent viewing:
“Westerns from the 1960s, particularly as the decade wore on, can be a bit of a challenge in themselves. Partly through overexposure as a result of the glut that the TV variety had brought over the previous decade and partly through the insidious vacuity encouraged by the popularity of the Spaghetti western, the genre lost its way.
This is a good example of just that aimlessness. The story of a gunfighter who is forever bedeviled by his reputation is nothing new – Henry King’s The Gunfighter maybe tackles it as well as any – but as a concept it had and has potential. Yet this is a tired affair whose inappropriate score does nothing to instill energy, and there is a meanness, perhaps even a pointlessness, to the way the tale develops. Glenn Ford and Angie Dickinson make for a good couple, but the trajectory of their relationship makes little sense and the conclusion is stuffed with emptiness.”
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‘Insidious vacuity encouraged by the popularity of the Spaghetti Western’
Gosh, I wish I could have come up with that description – it absolutely nails the feelings that Spaghetti westerns leave me with, and indeed left me with on first viewing as they came out.
I know they have their fans and one or two are good but by and large they are not for me.
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Nasty and often negative Marxist tracts, and if not, Jerry, they are surely anti-American,sadly at their best.
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That’s a new perspective to see those films in for sure, Barry. To me, mostly, they are just lousy westerns.
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Not the Lex Barker, Guy Madison, or Stewart Granger variation, but the Sergio Leone interpretation.
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There were a lot of nihilistic, empty and hollow spaghetti westerns made. I do not count Sergio Leone’s work among them, his films are on an entirely different level.
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I have no argument with your assessment, my observation to Jerry goes to content and meaning.
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I also agree with Colin about the nihilism of so many spaghetti westerns. It gets tedious and depressing.
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I agree. I’ve liked a couple of spaghetti westerns but mostly there’s too much politics and it’s too heavy-handed.
To be honest it wasn’t just a problem with spaghetti westerns. Heavy-handed politics was starting to ruin American movies in the 50s. The Hollywood Social Problem movies of the 50s are just political lectures dressed up as movies. By the late 60s movies everywhere were being ruined by politics. I don’t care what the political message is, I don’t care what the film-maker’s political stance is, I do not want political messages in movies.
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Colin, you pretty well described here the 1963-69 transitional period of Western Movies. “Insidious vacuity” for goodness sakes alive, that is a somewhat harsh, but apt description of most of the Italian(Spaghetti) Westerns. I’m not a fan of the Italian Westerns, but I do like the one Chris Evans mentioned, ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST(1968), which I first viewed on THE ABC SUNDAY NIGHT MOVIE in 1971. This was the first Italian made Western I had ever seen, and I really enjoyed it. I think the reason I like it, besides the photography, musical score, and actors is that it is clearly a homage to the American Westerns made from the silents to the early 1960’s. THE IRON HORSE(1924), UNION PACIFIC(1939), DUEL IN THE SUN(1946), CHEYENNE(1947), WINCHESTER ’73(1950), HIGH NOON(1952), SHANE(1953), JOHNNY GUITAR(1954), THE SEARCHERS(1956), THE COMANCHEROS(1961), THE LAST SUNSET(1961), THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE(1962), and there are probably others in this filmed tribute.
Looks like I like THE LAST CHALLENGE(filmed 1966, released 1967) more than you do, but I don’t think that it’s that good of a movie either, just a fair one. I first recall viewing the movie on THE CBS LATE MOVIE in 1974. It has a good cast, starting with Glenn Ford, Angie Dickinson, and Chad Everett and it has some good dialogue throughout. I watch the movie for the actors although it’s a downer of a movie, especially toward the end. Also, there is one sequence that I think is embarrassing, which has to do with inebriated Dini(Apache). I agree with you about the musical not being very good for a Western. The movie has its moments and it’s a solid made Western produced and directed by veteran Richard Thorpe. I’ve a soft spot for Richard Thorpe, because he made a lot of movies that I like and enjoy viewing. Thorpe seems to have received short shrift by most, when movie directors are written about. I think good efficient working directors, like Thorpe, should be given credit where credit is due. Anyway, I think THE LAST CHALLENGE is worth viewing, at least once.
Getting back to good trail drive Westerns and Glenn Ford, I really like Delmer Daves’ COWBOY(filmed 1957, released 1958), which I think is well worth watching.
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I remember feeling unsure about Jack Lemmon in a western role, thinking he didn’t seem a natural fit for the genre. The truth is though that he is very good in the movie as the green outsider and plays well off Ford’s trail boss.
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Colin, I agree about Jack Lemmon being very good as Frank Harris who is a hotel clerk wanting to get into the cattle business. Lemmon plays a tenderfoot that has to learn the ropes of being on a cattle drive the hard way. He and Tom Reese(Glenn Ford) both learn valuable life lessons on the trail as partners in this refreshing realistic Western story. I first viewed it on Memphis, Tennessee’s WREC Channel 3 LATE MOVIE in 1973.
COWBOY is loosely based on Frank Harris’ MY REMINISCENCES AS A COWBOY(1930), which may have been loosely based to begin with. Frank Harris was an Irish American novelist, short story writer, editor, journalist and publisher.
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Barry, thank you. Tears came to my eyes, concerning your late wife.
Best,
Walter
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Nice summation. I really don’t understand why Brian Garfield in his excellent but grouchy Western guide is so tough on this movie in his entry on it.
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Brian is inconsistent and often careless. For example, he described the 1936 version of Last of The Mohicans with Randolph Scott as Hawkeye in color, and that color dull and faded. But he is wrong, it ws produced and released in black and white. Sloppy for a so-called go-to guy. I threw my copy away.
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I like some of what he says but often at odds with him. His comments on ‘The Big Trail’ are wrong and somewhat careless. I hope he got to see the awesome widescreen preserved on the wonderful Blu and revised his opinion.
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I’m not familiar with that book. I guess that big, encyclopedic works can be prone to errors, especially those written when access to copies of movies was more restricted than is currently the case.
As for interpretations, some critics do come across as meaner or grouchier, but personal assessments of works are always going to reflect the writer’s personal take on material and that is likely to rub somebody, somewhere, up the wrong way. I don’t suppose I’ve ever been in full agreement with any critic all of the time – shifting perceptions over time may even lead to my holding different views of different films on different occasions – and the best to hope for is find oneself broadly in sympathy. Those I find myself to be consistently disagreeing with I just leave as we are clearly coming at things from entirely different angles.
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I agree Colin. I’d still recommend the book and of course since he was writing over forty years ago he didn’t have the internet to help on research. Critics do help you see things differenty. Garfield is spot on in his praise for ‘The Wild Bunch’ in my opinion but we don’t get on at all about Leone whose films I really love especially ‘Once upon a time in the West’ which I think is one of the greats.
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Chris, thank you. Memories just cross my mind and some events I recall.
I don’t own a copy of Brian Garfield’s WESTERN FILMS: A COMPLETE GUIDE(1982), but I have looked at it, but it’s probably been more than thirty years ago. I don’t really pay any attention to what the so-called critics say about a movie, because everyone has different likes and dislikes. I either like a movie, or I don’t. What I like, someone else may not like. This old world would be a boring place if everyone liked the same things.
I do think that Brian Garfield is a good writer.
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Yes I’d like to read some of his other books. His Western guide is beautifully written especially the first hundred pages. It’s his movie reviews that might cause hard disagreements.
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I think that is right, the reviews were a disappointment.
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I have the Brian Garfield book and treat it as one of the more important books about the Western in my collection. However, reading through the reviews I have often asked myself ‘Does this guy REALLY like westerns?’ I guess he does but you wouldn’t always know it.
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I don’t really pay any attention to what the so-called critics say about a movie, because everyone has different likes and dislikes.
Critics have their own obsessions and prejudices and quirks which often distort their judgments. And with most of them there are genres or styles of movie (or directors) in regard to which they have huge blind spots. I read some reviews and I end up shaking my head in bewilderment.
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Dee, back in 1972 I read a lukewarm critical review of Sam Peckinpah’s JUNIOR BONNER(filmed 1971, released 1972). The review wasn’t that harsh, but the reviewer only thought the movie was fair. When I first viewed the movie on THE ABC SUNDAY NIGHT MOVIE in 1975, I thought the movie was top-notch in every respect and one of Sam Peckinpah’s best.
I as an individual may think a movie is great, but another individual may think the opposite, and vice versa. We all have our likes and dislikes and that is what makes the world go around.
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I don’t take any notice of anyone else’s opinion on a movie unless I really know that person’s tastes inside-out. There are regular contributors here and on one or two other places and also a handful of online reviewers who fall into that category for me. I know their tastes are very similar to mine so if they recommend a movie I’ll buy it.
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Wyatt Rides Alone?
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Coming up on cable here is a couple of films that I do not recall ever seeing. First up is, THE WAR LORD 1965 with Chuck Heston. I know someone mentioned it here in the last while.
Then there is a Burt Lancaster film I have never even heard of called, SOUTH SEA WOMAN from 1953. Chuck Connors and Virginia Mayo co-star.
What can you good people tell me about these productions?
Gordon
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I wouldn’t mind a bit of feedback on that Lancaster movie myself.
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Colin
It is another week or two before they show here. I plan to record both. I’ll give you a quick rundown afterwards.
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Thanks. I’m familiar with The War Lord, but I’ve never caught up with the Lancaster picture.
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I don’t know the Lancaster picture, Gord, but THEWAR LORD I found to be very worthwhile.
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Belatedly I agree very much with everyone’s comments re COWBOY (1958). I like Jack Lemmon and know he was much more than funny (DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES) but could not imagine him in a western. But he was excellent in it and he and Glenn Ford played so well off each other.
Talking of westerns (always happy to do so), I take it most here are familiar with “A DAY OF FURY” (1956)? I decided to give it (yet) another re-watch this morning and confirmed our generally-held belief that the U.I. westerns of the 1950s were some of the finest. Not talking about the level of a John Ford classic but the ‘meat and potatoes’ westerns I love so much. Apart from the two specific reasons for watching, namely Dale Robertson and Jock Mahoney, I was most impressed with the beautiful Mara Corday in this. She gave a believable and sympathetic performance that was just right. Good western.
What do others think of it??
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I haven’t watched it recently, Jerry, but I was quite impressed with it last time I did. I featured it here almost a decade ago.
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Jerry
To add more confusion to the matter of SOUTH SEA WOMAN. It is showing on TCM. One would think it would have been shown there before as it is a “Warner Brothers” film. How could I have missed something with Lancaster?
Gord
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Gordon, I brought up THE WAR LORD(filmed 1964, released 1965) back on Colin’s write-up of THREE VIOLENT PEOPLE(filmed 1956, released 1957). dfordoom and I both touched on it. I think the movie is a top-notch spectacle of an action-packed love story realistically done that is set in Medieval Normandy. Dee added that he thought it may have been the first epic to have a really gritty feel to it, and that Charleton Heston is superb. Dee and I both think it’s well worth viewing.
SOUTH SEA WOMAN(1953) has been aired on Turner Classic Movies(TCM) in the past. Somehow or other this movie eluded me over the years until I caught it on TCM in 2011, and I’ve since purchased it on DVD. I think it’s a fun entertaining free for all rollicking dramedy with Burt Lancaster, Chuck Connors, and Virginia Mayo. Burt and Chuck portray a pair of brawling marines, who end up vying for Viriginia Mayo’s character and she keeps things popping. I don’t want to give away too much, but you’ll think that it’s going to be a military courtroom drama as it begins with Master Gunnery Sergeant James O’Hearn(Burt Lancaster) refusing to plead guilty or not guilty, while being tried for desertion, theft, scandalous conduct, and destruction of property. Showgirl Ginger Martin(Virginia Mayo) is there to testify on his behalf The story is set in the Pacific right at the beginning of the USA’s entry into World War II. I think it’s worth viewing.
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Thanks Walter
LOL It must not have shown that often here on TCM. Then again, there are films that TCM will show in some countries and not others. Something to do with music rights etc. Off your comment, I can hardly wait to go a round or two with Burt the marine!!!!!!
Thanks again, Gordon
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Gordon, your welcome.
This is off topic, but I’ve been viewing episodes of the tv show CHEYENNE(1955-1963) starring Clint Walker recently, and I was wondering if you are any other readers of Colin’s blog have ever viewed, or even heard of the other tv series that Clint Walker did, which was titled KODIAK(1974)? I’ve never seen this tv series. It aired on ABC-TV Friday nights at 7:00 Central Time. I was playing American football on Friday nights, so I couldn’t see the new show. I do recall the advertisements for the new series, “The big man is back in action.” Unfortunately, the show aired opposite NBC-TV’s SANFORD AND SON and CBS-TV’s PLANET OF THE APES series. KODIAK was finishing next to last in the Nielsen tv ratings.
Wikipedia states that KODIAK was canceled after the first episode, although a total of four episodes were aired. Also stated is that the production locations were in Alaska and the last episode aired on October 4, 1974. This is all misinformation. Although, on the same page where it reads that the production locations were in Alaska, it also reads that the show was filmed in Bend, Oregon, which is correct. Anyway, the show was canceled after the first four episodes were aired and a fifth went ahead and aired on October 11,1974. Thirteen episodes were filmed in and west of Bend, Oregon in the Cascade Mountains. The series was a Kodiak Productions LLC and Warber Bros. Television co-production distributed by ABC-TV. Stanley Shpetner and Anthony Lawrence created the series with Shpetner and Clint Walker producers.
Apparently, KODIAK has never been released on Beta, VHS, DVD, or anything else, but there are snippets of two episodes on YouTube, which are of poor quality. One snippet is from the first episode “Red Snow, White Death.” The Second snippet is from the unaired tenth episode “The Burning Snow.” Although, on YouTube the episode is captioned as “Lesson in Terror,” which is listed by IMDb as the fifth episode, so which is correct? Richard Bradford and Robbie Benson are in this snippet, but Bradford is listed as a guest star in “The Burning Snow.” Where did these snippets come from? Someone may have taped these episodes, or parts of them off of the air. Scrawling across the bottom of the Richard Bradford episode is a news item about the Columbia Shuttle with further details on AFKN, which is the Armed Forces Korea Network. This military network channel was also widely available to non-military audiences on cable television in Seoul, South Korea. I wonder if any of the other Armed Forces tv networks throughout the world aired all thirteen episodes of KODIAK? Someone knows somewhere.
This is intriguing too me, but I doubt very seriously that Warner Bros. Discovery under CEO David Zaslov and his underlining’s will let so-called forgotten tv series like KODIAK ever be released on DVD, Blu-ray, or streaming. Then again, who knows?
Gordon, have you ever run across any of the KODIAK tv episodes in your huge tv show archive?
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Walter and Gordon, I remember KODIAK coming onto our UK screens, but briefly. It was of special interest to me because I was a big fan of CHEYENNE (still am). As you say, never seen again.
I best know Richard Bradford as the star of a rather good UK TV series “MAN IN A SUITCASE (1967-68).
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I’ve never heard of the Clint Walker series.
Re Richard Bradford, I think Man in a Suitcase was a superb show, one of the best ITC productions and Bradford was terrific as the enigmatic McGill.
He also had a good role in Arthur Penn’s The Chase as a really nasty type who beats the tar out of Marlon Brando’s sheriff.
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Colin, I suppose that KODIAK may have not played in your neck of the woods.
I remember MAN IN A SUITCASE(1967-68) with Richard Bradford, and it was one of producer Lew Grade’s ITC-TV productions, which played here in the USA in 1968 on ABC-TV. I knew when I saw the ITC logo, it would be a good show. It was a good show and Richard Bradford is a good actor.
I would think that Richard Bradford’s role as Damon Fuller in THE CHASE(filmed 1965, released 1966) help get him the role as McGill in THE MAN IN A SUITCASE.
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Yes, I think I read or heard somewhere that it was a factor in his being cast as McGill.
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I agree about Man in a Suitcase. A great series with lots of cynicism and surprisingly dark for an ITC series. A bit film noir-ish even.
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It felt as though it were anticipating the neo-noir direction movies would take in the decade ahead.
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Yes, I agree. Man in a Suitcase has that characteristic 1970s paranoia.
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Jerry, I just did a search and I found that KODIAK played in the UK from 1976-79. It was on YORKSHIRE TELEVISION and GRANADA TELEVISION. You got to see all 13 episodes several times. Here in the USA just 5 episodes once.
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You got me there, Walter LOL. So we got to see more here than the home country? Can I ask, Walter, which search found you that info please? The BBC here has a fantastic Genome website where all programs can be found but the Independent TV companies (Granada and Yorkshire back in the day) do not have such a facility – as far as I know. If they do I would want to be straight there for some research! Would Imdb give that much breakdown about Kodiak?
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Jerry, no I don’t think IMDb would devote much time to KODIAK, and much of what little is there is misinformation. I can tell that the reviewers probably never viewed the show. The UCLA Library Film and Television Archive in Los Angeles, California and the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. probably have prints of all 13 episodes. Since I won’t be in those cities in the near future, I can count that viewing opportunity out. Hopefully, Gordon Gates will find some of the episodes in his personal TV Show Archive.
Yes, some movies and tv shows were being aired in overseas markets, but we couldn’t view them here in the USA. There’s MGM’s THE IRON PETTICOAT(1956), which after its theatrical run never received a tv network premiere during prime time viewing or any other time anywhere, no licensing to local tv stations, nothing in the USA. Thanks to the Genome Project: BBC Programme Index, you can see that it aired on BBC-TV starting in 1961 and thereafter. The movie starred Bob Hope and Katharine Hepburn and finally received a tv premiere on Turner Classic Movies on November 29, 2012.
Jerry, again thank you for letting us know about the Genome Project. I enjoy just clicking on it and looking up what you were watching on BBC-TV back in the day. I used newspapers.com to search for KODIAK’s tv airings in the UK. Unlike the Genome Project, it’s not free, you have to pay to use it. They don’t have every newspaper, but newspapers.com does have a lot. They don’t have four newspapers that I wish they had, because those newspapers were published from where I lived, back in the day. They will give you a one-week free trial period to get you interested, and then you have to pay.
https://www.newspapers.com/?_gl=1*t0vacy*_ga*OTAyMDExMTM2LjE2NzUyNDMzNTk.*_ga_4QT8FMEX30*MTY4MjUyNzI0Ni4yNjUuMC4xNjgyNTI3MjQ2LjYwLjAuMA..
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Thanks very much, Walter, for that helpful info on newspapers.com. That is something I will have to investigate.
Thanks also for the Clint Walker interview. From all I have read, Clint was a good guy. I was very aware of the huge success of his WB series “CHEYENNE” but wasn’t able to view an episode until the very end of 1959. From the ‘off’ the series was one of my favourite TV western series and, thanks to the Warner Archive, my 1959 taste has proven to have been good judgement.
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Jerry, your welcome. As far as the Hollywood industry goes, I think that Clint Walker was a unique individual.
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Walter
I can honestly say that you have sprung a title, KODIAK , that I have never heard of. No idea if it ran in these parts or not. I would love to see them all.
Gord
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Gordon, yes, KODIAK was aired in Canada, but like me you never were able to view it, before it was canceled. Only 5 episodes were aired in the USA and Canada. If you ever discover them in your tv show archive, let us know.
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Wasn’t it during the filming of the KODIAK series that Clint Walker was quite badly injured by a spear or similar? Went into his chest, if memory serves me.
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Hi Jerry,
My research indicates in March 1971 the movie YUMA was released starring Walker. In May 1971, Walker had a skiing accident at Mammoth Mountain, California when he took a tumbling fall with his ski pole stabbing him through his chest and penetrating into his heart. Initially being pronounced dead, he survived open-heart surgery. He walked out of the hospital eight days later.
Link…..https://www.movieguide.org/news-articles/western-star-clint-walker-shares-the-prayer-that-saved-his-life.html
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Thanks for that, Scott. It seems my memory was a bit skewed as the accident happened before Clint made KODIAK.
He was certainly fortunate to survive that!
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Jerry and Scott, the doctors wrote that Clint Walker’s case was a MEDICAL MYSTERY. It went against everything that they had been taught in medical school regarding his kind of injury.
It’s a little ironic that two and a half years later Clint Walker wanted to film KODIAK near Bishop, California where he had his ski accident. He was taken to Northern Inyo Hospital in Bishop, where his recovery took place. The co-creator/co-producer wanted to film KODIAK in the Cascade Mountains near Bend, Oregon. So, they ended up filming the pilot episode in the Cascades in February 1974 when they had plenty of snow. Later they went back to start filming the series and it rained for two weeks with the cast and crew waiting to begin filming.
Here is part of an interview with eighty-five-year-old Clint Walker talking about his experiences.
https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/clint-walker
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All, here is the entire interview with Clint Walker.
https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/clint-walker?clip=1
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Thanks Walter,
I just spent the afternoon with Clint Walker…….”a good guy” and real class act.
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Scott, your most welcome. I agree with you about Clint Walker. In an interview with Virginia Mayo, who co-starred with Clint in the good Western Movie FORT DOBBS(filmed 1957, released 1958), she said that she didn’t know how Clint made it in the Hollywood entertainment business, because he didn’t drink, smoke, cuss, and was so nice, and a gentleman.
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All
MAN IN A SUITCASE is an excellent UK series. I have it all here somewhere in storage.
Last night I watched for the first time, 1945s ESCAPE IN THE DESERT. It took about 5 minutes to realize it was a low end copy of, THE PETRIFIED FOREST. This time the baddies were escaped German prisoners of war instead of Bogart and his gang of bank robbers. Not exactly a barnburner, but still watchable. Phil Dorn, Helmut Dantine and Alan Hale Sr turn in the best work.
Gord
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Some sad news. Harry Belafonte – Odds Against Tomorrow, Island in the Sun – has passed away at age 96.
RIP
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Hey, you mentioned two of the three movies that I would have!
A magnificently gifted man. My appreciation of him goes back to my formative years in the 50s and saw him at the Greek Theatre in L.A. And also saw him much older about 20 years ago with my wife–he was still as charismatic as ever.
His artistic legacy was very rich.
It’s mostly his singing with the wonderful repertoire of music that he nurtured that stands out most of course, but he was an excellent actor in movies. Preminger’s CARMEN JONES is in my mind a cinematic masterpiece and a brilliant rendering of the work, though flawed because the singing of Belafonte and Dorothy Dandridge was dubbed–though not opera singers, they were excellent singers and could have carried Bizet’s music effectively.
Of the two movies Colin mentions, ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW (1959) is my favorite movie of Robert Wise. It’s an effectively somber work, with a haunting mood and music by John Lewis no less, Belafonte co-starring with the always powerful Robert Ryan, and has often been considered the last true film noir, though I’d hold out for UNDERWORLD U.S.A. (1961, Samuel Fuller).
I’d say that in so many ways, the world was a better place because Harry Belafonte was in it. Sad to think of him being gone.
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Yes, his singing will be what he’s best remembered for, which I think is fair enough.
I thought he did really fine work in the two films I mentioned – I must revisit Odds Against Tomorrow some time soon as it’s been far too long since I last saw it. I haven’t seen Carmen Jones, one of those Preminger movies I’ve yet to catch up with. Although on that note, I managed to get my hands on a copy of The Cardinal recently so I’m looking forward to that.
Anyway:
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Thanks for sharing that! This says it all. One of his greatest. And the song made a great opening to a melodrama that is still underrated (this montage is not exactly that opening, though has some of it–images with Joan Fontaine are from later in the movie). But that’s fine. It’s wonderful to hear him sing it today.
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Your review of ‘The Tall Men’ caused me to get the Twilight Time Blu. Lucked out and found a copy. Thanks Colin!
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That’s great. Those Twilight Time titles tend to be rare now, and can be correspondingly pricey.
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