THE LAST HUNT

 

THE MOVIE (MGM, 1956)

DIRECTOR: Richard Brooks;  PRODUCER: Dore Schary;  WRITERS: screenplay by Richard Brooks based on novel by Milton Lott;  CINEMATOGRAPHER: Russell Harlan

CAST: Robert Taylor, Stewart Granger, Lloyd Nolan, Debra Paget, Russ Tamblyn, Constance Ford, Joe Desantis, Ainslie Pryor, Ralph Moody, Fred Graham, Roy Barcroft, Steve Darell, Dale Van Sickel, Dan White, Henry Willis, Terry Wilson 

THE PLOT.

The year is 1882, somewhere in South Dakota.  An experienced buffalo hunter named Sandy McKenzie (Stewart Granger), who has tired of killing buffalo, is approached by Charlie Gilson (Robert Taylor), an inexperienced hunter, who nevertheless relishes killing buffalo, and, as it turns out, Indians.

A deal is worked out to go partners and they hire a one-legged skinner known as Woodfoot (Lloyd Nolan) and the half Irish, half Indian Jimmy O'Brien (Russ Tamblyn) to help him.

When Indians steal their horses, Charlie trails them and ambushes them in their camp.  He spares only two lives; a young Indian woman (Debra Paget) and her baby son.  He brings them to the hunters' camp.  Charlie hates Indians, but he intends to make the Indian "his woman."

Unfortunately, for Charlie, she and Sandy are attracted to each other, but they are afraid to let the ruthless Charlie know.  But the mutual attraction cannot be hidden.  Sandy had already been in the process of seeking a way to sever his ties with the sadistic Charlie, and his relationship with the Indian woman (who is never given a name) drives the two hunters even farther apart.

At the late date in which the film is set the buffalo had vanished in the southwest and much of the Great Plains, decimated by the hunters who killed them for their hides, leaving the carcasses to rot and be consumed by scavengers.

It was an ugly business that not only wiped out the herds but also transformed the lives of the native tribes that were heavily dependent on them for their livelihoods, forcing them against their will to live out their days on government reservations.

The film manages to show the viewer just how brutal the act of shooting buffalo must have been.  It does that by filming the annual "thinning out" of the protected herd in Custer State Park in South Dakota, giving viewers the most graphic scenes of a buffalo hunt to ever be filmed.

Sometime in the 70's I first read the novel the film's screenplay is based on, and shortly thereafter I viewed the movie on TV.  A lot of water has gone under the bridge since then, but I never forgot the chilling climax to the film and it is still a vivid memory all these years later.  Recently, I reread the novel, and the story's conclusion was just as shocking to me as it was a half-century ago.  

However, I am not going to spoil the ending for future readers of the novel or viewers of the film.

THE STARS.

Robert Taylor, born Spangler Arlington Brugh in 1911 in Nebraska, died in 1969, at age fifty-eight.

He appeared in only one Western before 1950, and that was when he was miscast as the title character in BILLY THE KID (MGM, 1941).

Taylor was not believable in the role for several reasions, but especially since he was thirty-years old and was portraying an historical figure who died at twenty-one.

Furthermore, it doesn't help things that Billy is a good guy cleaning out the territory of bad guys and that Brian Donlevy, near the top of my list of actors who should never have been cast in a Western, is Taylor's co-star.

In the 50's, Taylor starred in six Westerns.  Fortunately, he and the films were great improvements over his debut Western.  THE LAST HUNT is one of the best -- and perhaps the best -- of the six. Taylor was cast against type in the film and the result is that he gave one of his best perfomances.

He starred in a couple more Westerns during the 60's, the last produced three years before his death.

Robert Taylor and Ricard Widmark in THE LAW AND JAKE WADE (MGM, 1958)

Stewart Granger, born James Lablache Stewart in London in 1913, died in 1993.  Since he needed to adopt a new screen name in order to avert confusion with James Stewart -- and he couldn't have very well chosen his middle name, he became Stewart Granger.

Granger was much more a swashbucker than a westerner, but he was quite good in the Westerns in which he appeared.

His only two Westerns made in the United States were THE LAST HUNT and GUN GLORY (MGM, 1957).  He did star in three Westerns made in Europe in which he portrayed Karl May's "Old Surehand."

In the 1970-71 TV season Granger, as Col. Alan MacKenzie (ironically), became the last owner of the Shiloh Ranch in The Virginian series.  However, the title was changed to Men of Shiloh.  James Drury and Doug McClure continued in their roles as The Virginian and Trampas, respectively, while Lee Majors was added to the cast.

As good as THE LAST HUNT is, it could have been even better if Taylor and Granger had been backed with better supporting actors.

Debra Paget, who had portrayed an Apache woman in BROKEN ARROW (Fox, 1950), portrayed a Sioux in THE LAST HUNT.

It wasn't that she was a bad actress, but that she just didn't look the part.  Anne Bancroft had been originally cast in the role in THE LAST HUNT, but was injured early in the filming when she fell off a horse.  As good an actress as Bancroft was, it would be just about as difficult to accept her in the role as it is Paget.

Lloyd Nolan, who was a good actor, is also on my list of actors who should never have been cast in Westerns.  He was much more at home on the streets in large cities than in the Dakota Badlands or the Black Hills.

Russ Tamblyn, in the role of Jimmy O'Brien, was even more miscast than Nolan or Paget.

THE DIRECTOR/SCREENWRITER.

Richard Brooks was one of Hollywood's most respected and acclaimed directors and screenwriters, though many people, because of his bad boy reputation, didn't exactly relish the idea of working with him.

However, he was nominated for eight Academy Awards as either a director or screenwriter, but won only one, that being his screenplay for ELMER GANTRY (UA, 1960).

He directed only two Westerns after THE LAST HUNT: THE PROFESSIONALS (Columbia, 1966) and BITE THE BULLET (Columbia, 1975).

THE CINEMATOGRAPHER.

Russell Harlan began his career behind the camera when he served as Harry "Pop" Sherman's cinematographer on the Hopalong Cassidy B-Western series from 1937-1944.  He is one of the reasons that the series was the all-time best looking B-Western series ever filmed.

His first two A-Westerns were also for Harry Sherman, both starring Joel McCrea: RAMROD (UA, 1947) and FOUR FACES WEST (UA, 1948).  They are two highly entertaining middle-budget films, that are beautifully filmed by Harlan.

Then there was RED RIVER (UA, 1948), followed by THE LAST HUNT, and three years later, both RIO BRAVO (WB) and DAY OF THE OUTLAW (UA).

Of course, Harlan was busy during those years filming important and critically - acclaimed non-Westerns.  In a thirty year career, though he never won, he was nominated for six Academy Awards, including two in the same year in 1962: HATARI (Paramount) and TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (Universal).

 The Director/Screenwriter

                The Cinematographer

                    

******

Reviews

"The film has a worthy message, teaching us the evils of bloodlust, indiscriminate hunting, Indian-hating, and lack of respect for the environment." -- Jeff Arnold, Jeff Arnold's West

"This one is admittedly clumsy -- the screenplay reduces Lott's complex novel to a slender simple yarn; the acting, except for the two leads, is poor; the movie is too slow.  But it is strong stuff and the ending is one you are not likely to forget. -- Brian Garfield, Western Films: A Complete Guide

"Harlan's low-key photgraphy captures beautifully the bleak tone of Brooks' script and direction." -- Phil Hardy, The Western

"The equating of Indian-hating with a lust for slaughter is morally good.  But it does seem to take Mr. Granger an awfully long time to get around to freezing out Mr. Taylor." -- Bosley Crowther, New York Times

******

The Book.

"I hope that no one makes the mistake of classing this book as a 'Western.'  It is about as far removed from the run-of-the-mill book of that variety as it is possible to get." -- W.R. Burnett, New York Times

The Last Hunt (1954) was Milton Lott's (1916-1996) debut novel.  Although he may have written more, only two other novels were published: Dance Back the Buffalo (1959) and Backtrack (1960).

Needless to say, Lott is remembered, if remembered at all, for THE LAST HUNT, a book that was nominated for both a Pulitzer and a National Book Award.

While the movie is set in South Dakota in order to take advantage of the buffalo herd in Custer State Park, the book is set in northwestern Montana.  Lott chose that location because by 1882, as earlier noted,  the buffalo in the southwest and much of the plains had been decimated. 

The Last Hunt is a landmark novel about that slaughter and the near extinction of the great herds.

It is a slow burn that may not satisfy readers who require a lot of action in their Westerns.  To be sure, there is action, but at first Lott uses flashbacks to flesh out his four main characters and even after that the story if very much character driven.

I don't know if Lott ever wrote poetry or painted landscapes, but if not, he nevertheless possessed the soul of a poet and the eye of a painter.

Since he grew up in the Snake Valley in Idaho, he was intimately acquainted with the setting of his novel and his lyrical descriptions allow one to picture the valleys, badlands, and mountains of Montana, even if one has never been there.

I have read only one other novel about buffalo huntng that can compete with The Last Hunt.  It is Butcher's Crossing, the only Western written by John Wiliams.  In its plot, characterizations, and psychological impact, it reminds me of The Last Hunt.  

What W.R. Burnett wrote about The Last Hunt is also true of Butcher's Crossing.  Both are examples of historical fiction that happens to be set in the West.  And I have to admit that it is a toss-up for me as to which is the better book.

******

Reviews

"A resolution of destinies against an enduring setting of mountains, plains, and valleys, and an encyclopedic sense of buffalo hunting, and its bloody, hoggish destruction ... with a bitter knowledge of the waste." -- Kirkus

"In one sense, THE LAST HUNT is a frontier morality play, a struggle between good (Sandy) and evil (Charley), two men engaged in the same deadly pursuit but with strikingly different attitudes about their professions." -- Edward Joseph Brawley, Chasing the Sun: A Reader's Guide to Novels Set in the American West

"[Lott] creates a sense of chronicle, channeling a series of events through geographical area, and he is solidly artistic in his depiction of landscape, atmosphere, and emotion." -- Christina Bold, Twentieth-Century Western Writers

THE END

ELMER KELTON (1926-2009)

"My dad wanted to make a cowboy out of me, but every time he turned around to see where I was, I was reading a book."

Crane, Texas (1940s)
"In an oil-patch town like Crane a boy who excelled in English and won spelling bees was automatically suspect."

No writer ever knew West Texas better than Elmer Kelton.  No, that's not quite correct.  Let me start over.  No writer ever knew west Texas as well as Elmer Kelton.

After all, he was born on a west Texas ranch where first his grandfather and than his father was the foreman.  He grew up near the town of Crane on the McElroy Ranch located in Upton and Crane counties where his father, R.W. "Buck" Kelton, was employed for over thirty years.  His mother was Neta Beatrice "Bea" (nee Parker).

Kelton wrote in his autobiography, Sandhills Boy: The Winding Trail of a Texas Writer (2010), that:

"Dad gave me every chance to learn to be a cowboy.  I was probably the greatest failure of his life.  I was always better talking about it, and writing about it, than I ever was at doing it .... By the time I was eight or nine years old, I fantasized about someday writing the Great American Novel."

A good listener, Kelton was quoted as saying that "Cowboys, especially in the days before television, were pretty good storytellers.  As a kid I loved to sit around and listen to them talk.  I soaked it up like a sponge."

After high school he attended the University of Texas at Austin and was a semester shy of graduation when he was drafted into the army during WWII and served in the infantry in Europe from 1944 to 1946.  A Bronze Star was among his ciatations.

After the war he finished his degree in journalism at the University of Texas.  Beginning in 1948 he wrote for over forty years about farming and ranching in west Texas for various agricultural newspapers and journals, before retiring in 1990.

Kelton's mother, a former school teacher, encouraged him to be a writer, but his father was rather dubious about his son's career choice.  His response was "That's the way with you kids nowadays, you all want to make a living without working for it."

When asked if he had any advice for young writers, Kelton said: "Keep your day job.  Read, read, and keep on reading.  Write, write, and keep on writing."

Kelton took his own advice.  He kept his day job.

During those four decades as an agricultural journalist he wrote fiction in his spare time, in the evenings and on the weekends.  He began writing short stories for pulp magazines and published his first novel, Hot Iron, in 1955.

He went on to write more than forty novels, all westerns, and, with few exceptions, set in west Texas.

His first real recognition was due to the publication of his novel, Buffalo Wagons (1957), which received the highest honor that a western novel can receive, that being a prestigious Spur Award from the Western Writers of America.

That was just the beginning, for six of his later novels would also win the award.  They are: The Day the Cowboys Quit (1971); The Time it Never Rained (1973); Slaughter (1992); The Far Canyon (1994); Eyes of the Hawk (2001); and The Way of the Coyote (2002).

In addition, three of his novels have received Western Heritage Awards from the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.  They are: The Time It Never Rained (1973); The Good Old Boys (1982); and The Man Who Rode Midnight (1987).

Note that The Time It Never Rained is the only Kelton novel to be honored by both organizations.  This is only fitting since it is his most popular and most critically acclaimed work, as well as being his personal favorite.

In 1995, The Good Old Boys was made into a TV movie on TNT, starring Tommy Lee Jones, who also directed and co-wrote the script.  To date, it is the only Kelton story to be adapted for film.

That same year Kelton's peers in the Western Writers of America organization voted him the "All-time Best Western Author."  I don't know where the two biggest selling authors, Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour, placed, but it was somewhere behind Willa Cather who finished a distant second.

When asked in an interview how he felt about the vote, he said, "I'd hate to have to stand up and defend that in front of a jury.  I appreciate the compliment, but I can't say that I believe it."

Kelton's primary theme in his novels "has always been change and how people adpt to it or don't adapt."  Never is this more apparent than it is in his most acclaimed novel, The Time It Never Rained.

It is the story of an actual drought that occurred in west Texas during the 50's, one that lasted seven long years.

During those years the ability of ranchers to adapt was severely tested year after year.

Kelton not only wrote about the drought in his novel, he lived it.

He said that "I could never have written it without my experience as a reporter.  That drought was my daily running story as an agricultural writer for seven years."

Charlie Flagg is the story's primary protagonist.  Kelton said, "I have heard Charlie described as a mythical character representing old-fashioned ideals of rugged individualism and free enterprise.  To me there was nothing mythical about him.  He was real."

And so were you, Mr. Kelton.

 

THE GOOD OLD BOYS: The Movie

Elmer kelton wrote more than forty novels, all set in the American West.  One would think that more than one of them might have been filmed, wouldn't you?

After all, Zane Grey's stories were filmed over and over and over.  The plots were rewritten so many times that in the last productions the only two things they had in common with the original product was Grey's name above the title -- and the title.

This despite the fact that, let's face it, he wasn't a good writer.

Two good writers whose novels were many times adapted to the screen were Ernest Haycox and Luke Short, though not as many times as Grey's.

Of course, when all three of these writers were publishing the Western dominated all other genres in print and on the screen.

Louis L'Amour, who sold more Western novels than any other writer, including Zane Grey, began his writing career in the early 50's and many of his did make their way to the big screen, but they were written in the 50s and 60s.  By the time the 70s arrived his books were still selling but they weren't being adapted for movies though some did become TV movies.

Did I mention that Elmer Kelton wrote over forty novels and that only one was adapted as a movie? 

That didn't happen because Kelton wasn't a good writer.  In fact, he was a great one.  The Western Writers of American even named him the greatest Western novelist of all time.  

Of course, one factor that explains the lack of screen adaptations of Kelton's novels is the explanation of L'Amour's drop-off at the end.  Western movie production was curtailed in the 60's due to the competition of the little screen in the living room and even more so during the 70's and later.

However, I am still flabbergasted that only one Kelton story made it to the screen -- and it wasn't even a theatrical release, it was a TV movie.

That movie was THE GOOD OLD BOYS (Turner/TNT, 1995).

DIRECTOR: TOMMY LEE JONES; PRODUCER: SAM NEWMAN; WRITERS: TELEPLAY BY TOMMY LEE JONES & J.T. ALLEN BASED ON NOVEL BY ELMER KELTON; CINEMATOGRAPHER: ALAN CASE

CAST: TOMMY LEE JONES, TERRY KINNEY, FRANCES MCDORMAND, SAM SHEPARD, SISSY SPACEK, MATT DAMON, WILFORD BRIMLEY, WALTER OKLEWICZ, BLAYNE WEAVER, BRUCE MCGILL, LARRY MAHAN, PARK OVERALL, JIMMY DON COX

Here's what Jonathan Taylor had to say about the film in Variety at the time that it debuted:

"THE GOOD OLD BOYS has 'vanity project' written all over it.  Tommy Lee Jones not only stars but also makes his debut as director and writer .... By rights, it should be an indulgent and self-conscious effort, instead, it's a work of uncommon charm and poignance.  It's being shown on TNT but would look just fine on the bigscreen."

Good for you, Mr. Taylor, those are my exact sentiments.  But there's more:

"It's enormously entertaining and marks an auspicious directing debut.  It's not so much of a vanity project as a virtuosity effort."

Well, now, that is indeed high praise.  And it would not have happened had it not been for Tommy Lee Jones' "vanity project."  Look at that cast list; not quite what one would expect for a TV movie.

Tommy Lee Jones is Hewey Calloway

The movie is set in West Texas and is filmed there around Brackettville, Alpine, Del Rio, and Fort Davis.

It is an "end of the West" story in the tradition of films such as SHANE, RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY, and THE WILD BUNCH.

It is, however, a story of quiet characterization, with a lack of gunplay.  Hewey doesn't carry a gun and was a notoriously bad shot. Only one shot is fired in the whole movie and it is a warning shot fired by a county sheriff. 

Therefore, it doesn't portray the violence that takes place in the previously mentioned films, especially the last one.  It is much more akin to MONTE WALSH, but even that film had a shootout near the end.

Jones and his co-writer must have admired Kelton's novel for the script adheres closely to what the author had written and many of the good lines and humor are taken directly from the book.

Hewey Calloway is one of the good old boys whose only ambition, like that of Monte Walsh, is to be a cowboy forever, and, in the year 1906, that sets him off from most of the rest of the world, for the life he desires to live forever is being rapidly replaced by techological progress.

Elmer Kelton wrote in the introduction to my copy of the book:

"[Hewey] tries to remain a horseback man while the world relentlessly moves into a machine age .... He lives in an impossible dream, trying to remain changeless in a world where the only constant is change."

The movie opens with Hewey riding toward the homestead that his younger brother, Walter (Terry Kinney), is farming in west Texas.

Along the way he has a conversation with his horse, Biscuit:

"Biscuit, I'm tired of this cowology.  I'm tired of these mountains.  And if you won't take it the wrong way, I'd just as soon talk with somebody can talk back, every once in a while.  You ain't said nothin' in two years."

Before he arrives at his brother's place he meets up with a former employer and big rancher and banker C.C. Tarpley (Wilford Brimley), who, as it turns out, owns the mortgage on Hewey's brother's farm:

C.C. has designs on Walter's farm

C.C. TARPLEY: "All you got is a brown horse past his prime, an old saddle, and maybe twenty dollars.  Now that ain't much to show for them years, is it?"

HEWEY: "I went north one time into Canada and seen the glaciers.  You ever see a glacier, C.C.?"

Eventually he arrives at his brother's farm where he spies his brother and his brother's youngest son, Tommy (Blayne Weaver), plowing a field.

Father and son are tickled and pleased to see Hewey who had been drifting for two years.

He expected a warm welcome from his brother and nephews, but he knows his appearance will not be welcomed by Eve (Fances McDormand), his headstrong, temperameltal sister-in-law, who seemed to always like him more when he was going than when he was coming.

headstrong and temperamental Eve (Frances McDormand

Before Walter married Eve he was as footloose as Hewey and beginning at an early age the two had ridden many a trail together.

That changed, however, after Walter met Eve, a pretty young woman working in a boarding house.  Despite Hewey's objections and efforts to abort the relationship Walter married Eve.

After their marriage Eve insisted that Walter take a job as a ranch foreman rather than jumping from one job to another as he once did, and as Hewey still did.  She grew dissatisfied with their situation on the ranch and she talked Walter into staking a homestead claim so that they could raise their two sons on land that they owned.  Walter, cowboy, became Walter, farmer.

Eve fears the effect that Hewey might have on Walter and their two sons.  She is afraid that Walter may be influenced by Hewey and long for the days in which he too had the freedom to roam at will.  She knows that Hewey loves her sons and they love him in return, but she is fearful that they might grow up to emulate their wandering uncle.

Eve was always lecturing Hewey about settling down, about responsibility, respectability, always trying to change him.

EVE: "A man with a good woman to help and encourage him can make a garden out of a desert."

HEWEY: "If he's anything like me he'd make a desert out of a garden."

The way Hewey saw it, the Lord had purposely made every person different.  He could not understand why so many people were determined to thwart the Lord's work by making everyone the same.

 

Hewey, riding his horse "Biscuit" flanked by his nephews (L) Cotton (Matt Damon) and (R) Tommy (Blayne Weaver)

 

Fourteen-year old Tommy has grown a good deal in the two years since Hewey last saw him, but he's young enough that he still worships his uncle Hewey.  Cotton, age 16, is a different story.  He has not only grown, he has changed, and he has grown distant from both Hewy and his parents.

young Matt Damon, in one of his earliest screen roles, is Cotton Calloway

Cotton talked of the future as a time of automobiles and great machines and fantastic inventions waiting to burst forth upon the world.  Hewey shuddered.  He tried, but could picture no place in such a world for him.  The wonders that made the future look golden to Cotton made it bleak and terrifying to Hewey.

COTTON: "Yov ever ride in an automobile?"

HEWEY: "No. Only ones I've been around are broken down or fixin' to explode."

COTTON: "World's movin' faster all the time.  You either go on with it, or you get left behind.  I'm gonna be part of it.  I'm gonna help build it."

HEWEY: "Well, I hope you like it when you get finished."

Hewey is approaching middle age, but has never married, and posseses no desire to change that situation, at least not until he meets the boys' teacher, Miss Spring Renfro. This casuses him to examine and re-examine the life he has chosen to pursue.

Miss Spring Renfro (Sissy Spacek)

Kelton states Hewey's quandary in the introdution to his book:

"To fulfill a wish we often give up something of equal or nearly equal value.  Hewey feels drawn to the life his brother Walter has found: a home a family, a piece of land that is his own.  But to have it he knows he must give up his freedom to go where he pleases, when he pleases, to travel his own road without considering the needs of someone else ....

He cannot have it all: nobody can.

He asks Spring to marry him and they make plans.  Enter Snort Yarnell (Sam Shepard), Hewey's saddle pal and partner in making mischief.  He has a string of horses that he is taking into Mexico and asks Hewey if he would like to go with him.

Which road will Hewey choose?  Will it be the open road with Snort or a settled domestic life with Spring?

Sam as Chuck Yeager, his most famous role

Sam as Frank James  

Elmer the Great

******

REVIEWS

".... a charming cowboy yarn that Jones also directed, artfully blending romance and adventure, the call of the hearth and that of the open sky.  He plays Hewey Calloway, a true Texas cowboy trying to keep the modern era from tossing his era out of the saddle. -- Steve Johnson, Chicago Tribune

"This is a Western without gunfire or even the threat of serious violence.  The characters and builders we see, to quote novelist Elmer Kelton, are the West's 'main event,' not the storied gunslingers whom Kelton brushes off as 'the sideshow.'" -- Ray Loynd, LA Times 

THE END 

THE WESTERN TALKS!, 1928-1937

"It would seem that the western, telling its story in terms of action rather than dialogue, should have been relatively unconcerned about the mechanical problems of sound .... [But] because of many actual and alleged problems, including most specifically the recording of the camera's own operational noise, the camera became rooted to the ground and housed in small 'sweat boxes.'

"In the first year or two of sound, the western didn't seem important enough to justify the necessary effort.  Like the big elaborate swashbuckler, it was considered a dead relic of the silents and of no major commercial value." -- William K. Everson, A Pictorial History of the Western Film

The humble B-western dominated western filmmaking in the silent era, just as it did during the first two decades following the advent of sound.

There were some silent westerns produced to appeal to adult audiences, those starring William S. Hart, for example, or directed by a young John Ford, but the biggest star of the era was Tom Mix, whose fast-moving, action-filled films were geared to a younger audience.

Hart

Mix and Tony

But since westerns were by their nature outdoor films, the coming of sound, and its crude sound equipment, meant that most productions would be filmed indoors and consequently the western would be at a disadvantage.

This was true even after IN OLD ARIZONA (Fox, 1928) proved that sound movies could be filmed outdoors.  However, even this film was unavoidably stilted and static because of the problems presented by the sound equipment which dictated that the camera had to remain stationary much of the time.

Warner Baxter is the Cisco Kid in IN OLD ARIZONA

Despite the success of the film, the major studios tended to shy away from outdoor pictures. Under the best of conditions, it was still a cumbersome process when compared to filming on a sound stage.  As it turned out, it would be the Poverty Row studios that rushed in where the majors feared to tread.

Many of them didn't even own a sound stage and didn't possess the necessary financial wherewithal to rent one. For that reason, among others, B-westerns flooded the market.  Many of them were so crudely done and amateurishly acted and unintentionally laughable that they are extremely painful for even lovers of western films to watch today.

But the equipment improved and the films began to slowly but surely improve as studios such as Republic and Monogram began to produce superior B's and some of the majors also got back into the business of making quality B-westerns.

And as equipment improved and logistical problems were worked out the majors also began to film A-westerns geared to adult audiences.  It was still a slow process, however, and did not build up a head of steam until the landmark year of 1939.

As Les Adams and Buck Rainey noted in their detailed study of western movies, Shoot-em-Ups, the years from 1933 to 1937 were boom years for the B-western programmer, but not so much for the A-western.  In fact, almost 500 of the 530 western features shot during the period were B-westerns.

What follows are some of the significant sound A-westerns made prior to 1939, beginning with, naturally:

IN OLD ARIZONA (Fox, 1928)

DIRECTOR: Irving Cummings and Raoul Walsh;  WRITERS: adaptation by Tom Barry based on O. Henry's short story, The Caballero's Way; CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Arthur Edeson

CAST:  Warner Baxter, Edmund Lowe, Dorothy Burgess, Henry Armetta, Frank Campeau, Tom London, J. Farrell MacDonald 


Warner Baxter is the Cisco Kid, a Robin Hood type who robs the rich and gives to the poor.  In O. Henry's short story the Kid was actually an Anglo, but Baxter plays him as a Mexican, unconvincing accent and all, and in the many Cisco Kid films (and TV series) that followed, he would never return to his original Anglo status. 

In the second year of the Academy Awards the film was nominated for five Oscars out of a possible seven.  However, Baxter's award for Best Actor was the film's only winner.  Despite the award it is difficult today to watch his attempt to portray a Latin outlaw without cringing at its stereotypical nature.  Neither his performance nor the film has stood the test of time.


"[It] was of its time -- a romantic triangle melodrama with a gloomy ending." -- Brian Garfield, Western Films: A Complete Guide

"[It] was hardly a super-western but was certainly one of style and importance.  Microphones hidden under prairie scrub and foliage enabled naturalistic sound effects to be picked up, and even more than the gunshots and the galloping hooves, the sound of frying bacon impressed itself on viewers and showed that the realistic quality of sound was perhaps just what the western needed. -- William K. Everson, A Pictorial History of the Western Film

"Novelty of first major sound western and first talkie to take microphones outdoors has long worn off, leaving only a stilted performance led by Baxter's dubious Oscar winner as the Cisco Kid." -- Leonard Maltin

THE VIRGINIAN (Paramount, 1929)


DIRECTOR: Victor Fleming;  PRODUCER:
B.P. Schulberg;  WRITERS:  screenplay by Howard Estabrook based on novel by Owen Wister;  CINEMATOGRAPHER: J. Roy Hunt;  Assistant Director: Henry Hathaway;  Dialogue Coach: Randolph Scott

CAST:  Gary Cooper, Walter Huston, Mary Brian, Richard Arlen, Chester Conklin, Eugene Palette, Victor Potel, Ernie Adams, George Chandler, Bob Kortman, Ethan Laidlaw, Lee Meehan, Jack Pennick, Randolph Scott, Charles Stevens


TRAMPAS (Walter Huston):  "Well, who's talkin' to you?"

THE VIRGINIAN (Gary Cooper):  "I'm talkin' to you, Trampas!"

TRAMPAS: "When I want to know anything from you, I'll tell ya, you long-legged son-of-a-...."

THE VIRGINIAN:  [Trampas stops talking abruptly as the Virginian's pistol is pressed against his abdomen.]  "If you want to call me that, smile!"

TRAMPAS:  "With a gun against my belly, I -- I always smile!"
[He grins broadly.]
  

Owen Wister's seminal western novel is perhaps the most famous ever written. It was so popular that it was twice produced as a play and has been the basis for six films, including two during the silent era.  And then there was the popular TV series that ran for nine seasons from 1962 to 1971.

The 1929 film is known primarily for the above scene and the exciting shoot-out conclusion.  An early talkie, it is generally considered to be a classic film and easily the best production of the story.  It also made Gary Cooper a leading man though real stardom would have to wait a few more years. 

"[It] remains a classic: the essential western, still vital, still funny and moving by turns .... Cooper's performance ... still impresses, but Huston and Arlen aren't far behind ... THE VIRGINIAN is fun, and very good; possibly we may never come nearer to the ultimate western." -- Brian Garfield, Western Films: A Complete Guide

".... stiff but interesting western, salvaged in good climactic shoot-out." -- Leonard Maltin

".... verbose, slow and unlikely .... The film's slowness is a direct result of the new slower pace sound brought to the cinema." -- Phil Hardy, The Western



BILLY THE KID (MGM, 1930)

DIRECTOR: King Vidor;  PRODUCER: King Vidor; WRITERS: dialogue by Laurence Stallings, et al. based on book by Walter Noble Burns, The Saga of Billy the Kid; CINEMATOGRAPHER: Gordon Avil;  TECHNICAL ADVISER: William S. Hart

CAST: Johnny Mack Brown (as John Mack Brown), Wallace Beery, Kay Johnson, Wyndham Standing, James Marcus, Russell Simpson, Roscoe Ates, Warner Richmond, Hank Bell, Chris-Pin Martin

The story of Billy the Kid had been filmed a couple of times during the silent era, but by the dawn of the sound era he had become an almost forgotten historical character.  That all changed in 1926, however, with the publication of Walter Noble Burns' pseudo-biography, The Saga of Billy the Kid, which was not as much a biography of historical Billy as it was of the legendary Billy.  The bestselling book effectively resurrected Billy from the dustbin of history -- or at least the legendary version, the tragic hero, the misunderstood one who was a victim of circumstances.

Johnny Mack Brown ... brought athletic ability and a pleasing personality to the role of Billy, although it was Wallace Beery as Pat Garrett who gave the best performance, a surprisingly underplayed piece of acting for such an extrovert player and an equally surprising underwritten role. -- William K. Everson, A Pictorial History of the Western Film

William S. Hart served as technical adviser to the film and this no doubt added an air of authenticity to the production.  And so did the fact that the film was shot on the actual locations of the Lincoln County, New Mexico conflict.

However, the old cowboy actor had to be displeased with the happy ending that was added to the film, one that allowed Billy to ride across the border to enjoy a peaceful life with the woman he loved.  At least that is what happened in the version released in the U.S.; the film distributed in Europe included the historical ending in which Garrett shot and killed Billy.  One supposes that the producers didn't think U.S. audiences would be willing to accept such a tragic conclusion.

It was hoped by all concerned that the film would make a star of Brown and it did, but not the kind that he or the studio envisioned.  

What he did eventually become, after being demoted to Poverty Row for a time, was one of the most pleasing and most durable of all the B-western stars, spending most of his career at Universal and later Monogram.


"The slow film is rather talky but it recaptures the legend of Billy the Kid very nicely .... The movie conveys an overpowering flavor and sense of history, in terms of time and place, rather than the facts ... and the movie was shot on actual locations at a time when they hadn't changed perceptibly." -- Brian Garfield, Western Films: A Complete Guide

" ... the photography is good, but always naturalistic, the characters drab in dress, the buildings ramshackle, the streets dusty .... its script is frankly untidy, yet the film is quite certainly the best and most convincing of all the Billy the Kid sagas." -- William K. Everson, A Pictorial History of the Western Film

"[It] is undeniably faithful to the look of the old West, despite its big budget and romantic plot." -- Phil Hardy, The Western

"Realistic early talkie western ...; some performances seem highly dated today." -- Leonard Maltin 



THE BIG TRAIL (Fox, 1930)


DIRECTOR: Raoul Walsh;  PRODUCER: Winfield R. Sheehan;  WRITERS: screenplay by Marie Boyle, Jack Peabody, and Florence Postal based on story by Hal G. Evarts;  CINEMATOGRAPHER: Lucien N. Andriot and Arthur Edeson

CAST: John Wayne, Marguerite Churchill, El Brendel, Tully Marshall, Tyrone Power, Sr., Charles Stevens, Chief Big Tree, Ward Bond, Iron Eyes Cody

"The most important picture ever produced" was apparently not a unanimous opinion.

Great pains were taken to give this wagon train tale an authentic look, but the film is severely hampered by a B-western script and Wayne's lack of experience as an actor.  "The most important picture ever produced" was a failure at the box office where it really counted.

Much has been written about this film due to the fact that it provided John Wayne with his first important role. THE VIRGINIAN made Gary Cooper a leading man, but BILLY THE KID failed to do the same for Johnny Mack Brown. And Wayne, like Johnny Mack, would be relegated to B-westerns, but finally, unlike Johnny Mack, he would finally escape in 1939 when John Ford chose him to star in STAGECOACH (UA, 1939)  
  

But even then, like Cooper before him, the film made him a leading man but true stardom would have to wait several years, in his case, almost a decade, until Howard Hawks cast him in RED RIVER (UA, 1948).  The actor's long and fruitful association with John Ford began after that and eventually he became the biggest star of them all, especially in, but not restricted to, western films.


In a perverse way the failure of THE BIG TRAIL may have worked in the actor's favor. Those years at Monogram and Republic starring in B-westerns are where he finally learned his craft.

"THE BIG TRAIL was a surprising box office failure .... Wayne ... is more than adequate in the lead .... The sequences of the wagons fording rivers and being manhandled up mountains and the action scenes are both realistic and visually breathtaking." -- Phil Hardy, The Western

".... an outstanding early sound epic .... But ... the authenticity of detail and the sweep of history was somewhat let down by a standardized 'B' plot ...." -- William K. Everson, A Pictorial History of the Western Film

"The script is poor, but so is Wayne's acting; he is wooden at best, and embarrassingly inept at worst." -- Brian Garfield, Western Films: A Complete Guide

"Epic western may seem creaky to some viewers, but remains one of the most impressive early talkies, with its grand sweep and naturalistic use of sound." -- Leonard Maltin

CIMARRON (RKO, 1931)


DIRECTOR: Wesley Ruggles;  PRODUCERS: William LeBaron and Wesley Ruggles;  WRITERS: dialogue by Howard Estabrook based on novel by Edna Ferber;  CINEMATOGRAPHER: Edward Cronjager;  SECOND UNIT DIRECTOR: B. Reeves Eason

CAST: Richard Dix, Irene Dunne, Estelle Taylor, William Collier, Jr., Nance O'Neil, Roscoe Ates, George F. Stone, Stanley Fields, Edna May Oliver, Bob Kortman, Frank Lackteen, Ethan Laidlaw


CIMARRON is primarily noted for two things: 1) it was the first western to win an Oscar for Best Picture (the second to win the award was DANCES WITH WOLVES [1990], fifty-nine years later) and 2) the Oklahoma land rush scene staged by the incomparable action director B. Reeves Eason.

It was reported that the land rush scene took a week to film, utilizing 5,000 extras, 28 cameramen, 6 still photographers, and 27 camera assistants.

Unfortunately, as critics have noted the land rush is the most exciting thing about the film and it occurs at the beginning.  After that, it is unsurprising that the film had a tendency to lose its momentum.

However, it was nominated for seven Oscars and won three (Best Picture, Art Direction, and Best Writing Adaptation).  Both of its stars, Richard Dix and Irene Dunne (her film debut), were nominated for their performances but neither won.

Dix would go on to star in 18 other westerns, but except for one comedic contemporary western, this would be the only one for Dunne.

It was also the year's biggest money maker at the box office, but because of its expensive production costs it still lost money.  


"The opening spectacle -- the Oklahoma land rush -- is tremendous and it's a solid empire-building movie about the conversion of Indian Territory into the state of Oklahoma and the subsequent building of oil fiefdoms ..., it's soap more than horse opera ... it leaves quite a lot to be desired for modern audiences, and with the climactic land rush at the beginning rather than the end, it has nowhere to go but downhill." -- Brian Garfield, Western Films: A Complete Guide

"... it tended to be bogged down in character studies and had the structural flaw of presenting its highlight -- the massive Cherokee Strip land rush sequence at the beginning of the picture .... the film was well-served by Richard Dix and Irene Dunne in the leads [and] many good supporting performers .... " -- William K. Everson, A Pictorial History of Western Film

"Though Ruggles' spirited direction seems dated now, the outdoor scenes still remain impressive." -- Phil Hardy, The Western

" ... it dates badly, particularly Dix's overripe performance -- but it's still worth seeing." -- Leonard Maltin



LAW AND ORDER (Universal 1932)

Based on W.R. Burnett's novel, Saint Johnson, the film is a thinly disguised fictional treatment of the events leading to and including the shoot-out at Tombstone's O.K. Corral.  It stars Walter Huston as a Wyatt Earp-like character with Harry Carey filling the role of the Doc Holliday-like character.

I earlier reviewed the film and if you wish you can read it here.



THE TEXAS RANGERS (Paramount, 1936) 

DIRECTOR: King Vidor; PRODUCER: King Vidor: WRITERS: screenplay by Louis Stevens from a story by King Vidor and Elizabeth Hill based upon data from Walter Prescott Webb's book, The Texas Rangers; CINEMATOGRAPHER: Edward Cronjager 

CAST: Fred McMurray, Jack Oakie, Jean Parker, Lloyd Nolan, Edward Ellis, Benny Bartlett, Fred Kohler, George "Gabby" Hayes, Stanley Andrews, Irving Bacon, Hank Bell, Neal Hart, Charles Middleton

Three desperadoes (L-R): Fred McMurray, Jack Oakie, Lloyd Nolan; two will eventually go straight.

What a pleasant surprise!  It is a much better film than the attention it has received would indicate.  I had read about it, but had never viewed it until recently.  It wasn't because I didn't want to, it was because I couldn't locate it. But what I had read in works dealing with the history of the western, with one exception, had never given the film much more than a  brief mention.

The exception is A Pictorial History of the Western by William K. Everson.  Everson writes:

"By far the best of Paramount's quartet of mid-thirties epics was THE TEXAS RANGERS and indeed, despite its weaknesses, it is still one of the most enjoyable Paramount super-westerns from any period.  It was directed by King Vidor in 1936, his first western since BILLY THE KID [1930], and a much more polished if gripping work .... [T]he script ... was not ambitious enough ... ostensibly based on Texas Rangers records, but actually it seems to consist of well-known Ranger incidents ... fused with a very standard "B" picture plot which constantly threatens to reduce its epic stature.

"[B]ut Vidor fills his film with enough incident, action, and well-developed characters for these flaws to matter too much.

"Even though not a classic, [it] is an exhilarating western with a refreshing schoolboy vigor."

By the way, the other three Paramount super-westerns that Everson alludes to and ranks below THE TEXAS RANGERS are: THE PLAINSMAN (1936), WELLS FARGO (1937), and THE TEXANS (1938).  Two of them are coming up next and I plan a complete review of THE TEXAS RANGERS in the near future.

Fred McMurray: outlaw?

McMurray and Oakie: Rangers or outlaws?

Gabby: crooked judge?

THE PLAINSMAN (Paramount, 1936)

DIRECTOR: Cecil B. DeMille;  PRODUCERS: Cecil B. DeMille and William H. Pine; WRITERS: screenplay by Waldemar Young, Harold Lamb, and Lynn Riggs; CINEMATOGRAPHER: Victor Milner;  SECOND UNIT DIRECTOR: Arthur Rosson

CAST:  Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur, James Ellison, Charles Bickford, Helen Burgess, Porter Hall, Paul Harvey, John Miljan, Fred Kohler, Harry Woods, Anthony Quinn, Francis McDonald, George "Gabby" Hayes, Fuzzy Knight, Stanley Andrews, Francis Ford, Irving Bacon, Hank Bell, Monte Blue, Lane Chandler, Bud Osborne, Charles Stevens, Chief Thundercloud, Hank Worden

Gary Cooper is Wild Bill Hickok, Jean Arthur is Calamity Jane, James Ellison is Buffalo Bill Cody, and Cecil B. DeMille is in charge of what was his first western epic.  The film should have benefited from its big budget, but it didn't always. The director always preferred shooting his epics indoors and never liked spending much time on location, to the detriment of this film and others he helmed.  Consequently, the film is marred by phony studio "exteriors," back projection shots, and actors riding mock-up horses. In fact, most of the outdoor scenes, and not just the action scenes, were shot by second unit directors, in this case, Arthur Rosson.

Wild Bill gets the drop on crooked gambler

But the audiences of the '30's didn't seem to mind and it was a popular, if not critical, success.  And the good cast is able to overcome its shortcomings to some degree and the end result is entertaining.

Jean Arthur is Calamity Jane

James Ellison is Buffalo Bill Cody

And, by the way, Porter Hall is Jack McCall, the dastardly coward who dispatches Wild Bill in a Deadwood saloon, shooting him from behind, of course. Oh, and another thing, if you are interested in the true history of the three principal characters it would be best to look elsewhere.

"... for all its attention to petty historical detail ... it plays fast and loose with history .... Slow moving and overly romantic by modern standards in its depiction of westward expansion, [it] remains an entertaining spectacle." -- Phil Hardy, The Western

"[W]hile a big popular success, it was hardly a good picture.  Its script was heavy-handed and obvious, and far too much of the film was spoiled by DeMille's over-fondness for shooting as much of his pictures as possible within the confines of the studio.  Nevertheless ... the production as a whole was big and certainly entertaining." -- William K. Everson, A Pictorial History of the Western Film

" ... performances by most of the players are spirited.  But its juvenile, an overblown programmer.  [It] isn't much of a movie but it did establish Cooper as the archetypal western hero." -- Brian Garfield, Western Films: A Complete Guide

"Typical DeMille hokum, a big, outlandish western .... About as authentic as BLAZING SADDLES [WB, 1974], but who cares -- it's still good fun." -- Leonard Maltin



WELLS FARGO (Paramount, 1937)

DIRECTOR: Frank Lloyd;  PRODUCERS: Howard Estabrook and Frank Lloyd; WRITERS: screenplay by Paul Schofield, Gerald Geraghty, and Frederick J. Jackson based on story by Stuart N. Lake;  CINEMATOGRAPHER: Theodor Sparkuhl

CAST: Joel McCrea, Bob Burns, Frances Dee, Lloyd Nolan, Ralph Morgan, Johnny Mack Brown, Porter Hall, Robert Cummings, Harry Davenport, Frank Conroy, Peggy Stewart, Ernie Adams, Hank Bell, Lane Chandler, Richard Denning, Jack Perrin, Hal Taliaferro, Harry Woods

Joel McCrea and Frances Dee were Mr. and Mrs. McCrea in real life.  

There's a lot of soap in this hoss opera, a nation-building epic about the formation of Wells & Fargo, Co. McCrea portrays a troubleshooter who is instrumental in the company's efforts to establish an overland freight and mail service. The film covers the years represented by the California Gold Rush, the Pony Express, and the Civil War. This requires the stars to age several decades and suffer through many trials and tribulations, including strains on family life, during those eventful times.

Before all is said and done the story evolves, make that devolves, into more of a costume drama than western adventure.  My advice is to skip this one and to watch Four Faces West, a much more satisfying western starring McCrea and Dee. 

However, WELLS FARGO was McCrea's first starring role in a western and there would come a time when he would devote his entire career to starring in the genre.  And those of us who love westerns (and that should be everyone) can grateful for that.


"[Joel McCrea] proved at home in the saddle here, and hence his selection as the star of UNION PACIFIC [Paramount] two years later ... but the film can be a bore unless you are in a tolerant mood." -- Brian Garfield, Western Films: A Complete Guide

" ... a long, carefully made, but stiff, dull and practically actionless movie, long on historical data, romance, and interior scenes, short on excitement and exteriors." -- William K. Everson, A Pictorial History of the Western Film

"Paramount's production values are solid enough, though Lloyd wisely eschews any crowd scenes, but the material doesn't stretch to the 115 minutes' running time." -- Phil Hardy, The Western