CAST: Gregory Peck, Anne Baxter, Richard Widmark, Robert Arthur, John Russell, Henry (Harry) Morgan, James Barton, Charles Kemper, Robert Adler, Harry Carter, Victor Kilian, Paul Hurst, Hank Worden, Chief Yowlachie
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| (L-R) Victor Kilian, bartender; Paul Hust,barfly; and soon-to-be bank robbers: Stretch, Bull Run, Dude, Lengthy, Half-Pint, Walrus, Jed |
THE PLOT.
However, they do survive, but just barely. Badly dehydrated and quarreling among themselves they see what appears to be a town in the distance. They make their way there only to discover that what they had spotted was in reality a ghost town. Yellow Sky was once a booming mining town, but now it has only two inhabitants: an old man (Barton) and his young tomboy granddaughter, Mike (Baxter).
The Civil War has been over for a couple of years but some ex-soldiers
find it difficult to adjust to peaceful postwar conditions. Some even resort to a life on the wrong side
of the law.
It was such a group of men,
seven in all, who rob the Rameyville bank.
A detachment of cavalry pursues them as they make their getaway. One of the gang, Jed (Adler), is killed, but
the other six escape by riding into an area of desolate salt flats (filmed in
Death Valley). In fact, the area is so
forbidding that the cavalry commander halts the pursuit believing that the
fugitives will perish in the desert.
However, they do survive, but just barely. Badly dehydrated and quarreling among themselves they see what appears to be a town in the distance. They make their way there only to discover that what they had spotted was in reality a ghost town. Yellow Sky was once a booming mining town, but now it has only two inhabitants: an old man (Barton) and his young tomboy granddaughter, Mike (Baxter).
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| Mike |
The men do not receive a warm welcome from Mike. She does direct them toward the water source
that saves their lives, but she makes it clear that she wants them to clear
out.
The final three-way shoot-out takes place in an old saloon and is staged in an extremely effective fashion. We hear the shots and see the flashes of gunfire from Mike’s perspective outside the saloon. After the firing ceases, she enters the saloon and we discover with her who, if anyone, has survived the altercation.
There is no honor among these thieves and it is all their leader Stretch
(Peck) can do to keep them in line. In
fact, it is more than he can do. He orders the other gang members to stay away
from Mike and her grandfather, but two of them are especially hard to
restrain.
Dude (Widmark) has a hankering
for wealth. He is certain that there is
something of value to be had in Yellow Sky or why would the old man and his
granddaughter choose to live there (he is right). He is determined to find out what it is and
to make it his.
Lengthy (Russell) has a
hankering for wealth – and the woman. Despite
his orders to the men to stay away from her, Stretch finds it impossible to
apply the same restrictions to himself.
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| Mike and Stretch |
Dude and
Lengthy challenge Stretch’s leadership causing the gang to split into two factions. The other three gang members – Walrus
(Kemper), Half-Pint (Morgan), and Bull Run (Arthur) -- are born followers and rather
malleable and therefore it soon becomes apparent that since they are easily
influenced they might continue to follow Stretch or they might side with Dude
and Lengthy. They, in effect, hold the
balance of power.
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| Dude |
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| Lengthy with Bull Run in background |
The final three-way shoot-out takes place in an old saloon and is staged in an extremely effective fashion. We hear the shots and see the flashes of gunfire from Mike’s perspective outside the saloon. After the firing ceases, she enters the saloon and we discover with her who, if anyone, has survived the altercation.
That’s enough about the plot, except to say that only three gang members
survive the conflict that embroils the group.
However, I’m not saying which three.
One more thing, as has happened before in Western movies, beginning with
those starring William S. Hart (practically all of them), a bad man is reformed
by the love of a good woman. I’m not going to say which bad man, but it wasn’t
Lenghty. You already knew that, didn’t
you?
THE STARS.
Compared to
many young actors, Gregory Peck was extraordinarily lucky. True, he was in his late twenties before he
made his film debut (DAYS OF GLORY [RKO,
1944]). However, unlike most actors
appearing in their first film, he had the lead role. Furthermore, for his performance in his
second film, THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM (Fox,
1944), he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor.
Three more
nominations came in the next four years, giving him four in just five
years. The other nominations were for THE YEARLING (MGM, 1946), GENTLEMEN’S AGREEMENT (Fox, 1947), and TWELVE O’CLOCK HIGH (Fox, 1949). It was quite a beginning to what would be a
long and successful career. True, he had
to wait another fourteen years before receiving another nomination, but the fifth
time was the charm. For his defining
role as Atticus Finch in TO KILL A
MOCKINGBIRD (UI, 1962), he was awarded his only Best Actor Oscar. It was also his last nomination.
During those
early years, in among his Oscar-nominated roles, he starred in some other rather
successful films. In addition to a
couple of Hitchcock films, he starred in three Westerns. The first was DUEL IN THE SUN (Selznick, 1946), in which he was cast against type
as Lionel Barrymore’s mean, lowdown son, Lewt.
Then there was YELLOW SKY in
1948 and two years later a true classic, THE GUNFIGHTER (Fox).
In the
ensuing years, Peck starred in eight more Westerns of varying quality. The best of the eight was THE BRAVADOS (Fox, 1958).
It seems
that practically every Western begins with the female and male leads getting
off on a bad footing with each other.
That was true of both A- and B-productions – especially the latter. Think back to all those Gene Autry and Roy
Rogers movies (if you are old enough to remember them) and how the two cowboys
nearly always did something early on (usually inadvertently) that led the
leading lady to dislike them. In the
end, of course, everything would work out for the best and they would become
friends (but rarely more than that). The
A’s differed in that the relationship usually evolved into something more
serious.
Anyway,
there seemed to be a rule in the Western Writers Handbook that mandated that a Western story simply had to have a female among the leading players even if her
presence added very little to the plot. YELLOW SKY was an exception in that
Anne Baxter’s role was just as essential as Peck’s.
She played
the tomboy role very well and I have only one quibble with her
performance. It is perhaps a minor one,
but it is one of those minor things that bother me. Here she and her grandfather are living alone
in this godforsaken ghost town located on the edge of the desert and the Levis
she wears for the duration of the film look as though she bought them at the
local general store – that very day -- only there is no local general store. However,
as I said, it is difficult to find fault with her performance.
Despite
being only in her mid-twenties at the time she starred in YELLOW SKY, she was already a show business veteran. She made her Broadway debut at age thirteen
and appeared in her first film when she was only seventeen. That first film was a Western, but not a
particularly good one. It was 20 MULE TEAM (MGM, 1940). Incidentally,
both it and YELLOW SKY featured
scenes filmed in Death Valley. All told, she appeared in eight Westerns, but
none of the others came close to the high standards of YELLOW SKY.
Two years before YELLOW
SKY, Baxter was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
for her performance in THE RAZOR’S EDGE
(Fox). Two years after YELLOW SKY, she appeared in the film
with which she would become most closely identified, ALL ABOUT EVE (Fox).
Both
she and the film’s other leading lady, Bette Davis, received Academy Award
nominations for Best Actress, which probably resulted in the fact that neither
won and Judy Holliday did. It was
Baxter’s last nomination.
Richard
Widmark, a veteran radio actor, was in his thirties when he made his screen
debut in KISS OF DEATH (Fox) in
1947. But what a memorable debut it
was. Widmark portrayed Tommy Udo, a
psychotic mob enforcer who murdered a wheelchair-bound old lady by shoving her
down the stairs. If that wasn’t bad
enough he giggled with relish while perpetrating the crime.
For his
performance, he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting
Actor. It would be his only
nomination. He also won a Golden Globe
for Most Promising Newcomer.
YELLOW SKY was
his second film and he makes the most of it.
His performance as Dude, the gambler and outlaw with a bad lung, who
becomes Stretch’s main rival for control of the outlaw gang, is one of his
best. He may have gotten off to a late
start in movies, but he was certainly making up for lost time.
Widmark
would go on to appear in sixteen Westerns during his career. He was even fortunate enough to
star in two John Ford Westerns, TWO RODE
TOGETHER (Columbia, 1961) and CHEYENNE AUTUMN (WB, 1964). However, he was unfortunate in that the two, through
no fault of his, are Ford’s weakest Westerns.
I am probably
in the minority, but I thought he gave a strong performance in his last Western,
that is if rodeo pictures can be considered Westerns. WHEN
THE LEGENDS DIE (Fox, 1972), co-starring Frederic Forrest, is considered to
be the lesser of several rodeo films that were made at about the same time, but
I think that it is an entertaining film with excellent location photography. Widmark was never better.
THE SUPPORTING CAST.
With John
Russell leading the way, YELLOW SKY’s supporting cast is outstanding. Russell was a decorated ex-Marine who was
awarded a field promotion as a 2nd Lt. while serving on Guadalcanal
during WWII. He also received a
discharge due to a case of extreme malaria.
Somewhat
like Jim Davis, for example, he never achieved stardom on the big screen,
though he was responsible for some strong performances in supporting
roles. Also like Davis, he did become a
star on the small screen. In 1958-1962,
he starred as Marshal Dan Troop in the Western series, LAWMAN.
YELLOW SKY was
Russell’s eleventh film, but his first Western.
Clint Eastwood cast Russell
in three of his films, including Russell’s last Western, THE PALE RIDER (Malpaso/WB, 1985).
Charles
Kemper is probably best known for his role in John Ford’s WAGON MASTER (Argosy/RKO, 1950).
Just as in YELLOW SKY, Kemper
portrays an outlaw. However, Kemper’s
Uncle Shiloh in WAGON MASTER is a
decidedly more lowdown, vicious example of the breed than the character he
portrayed in YELLOW SKY.
Kemper died
about a month after WAGON MASTER was
released. He was forty-nine.
Harry Morgan
(billed as Henry in the early years) is primarily known for his work in
television. Surely he set a record by having recurring roles in ten TV series,
the most famous as Col. Sherman Potter in M*A*S*H. However, he was also a busy supporting actor
in movies during his six decades of acting.
Many of his roles were in Westerns, several classics among them.
Morgan liked
appearing in Westerns and always singled out his role as Henry Fonda’s partner
in THE OX-BOW INCIDENT (Fox, 1943)
as his favorite film role.
And why not? He probably had more
screen time in that one than in any other film.
Directed by William Wellman, it is considered a classic today, but was
not a commercial success at the time.
Morgan has a
delightful little scene near the end of YELLOW
SKY, but I’m not going to spoil it.
And speaking
of William Wellman….
THE DIRECTOR.
William
Wellman launched his career as a director at the helm of Buck Jones Westerns
during the silent era. Over the years,
he would direct sixteen films in the genre, with THE OX-BOW INCIDENT and YELLOW
SKY being the best of the bunch.
Not only was
he talented, he was also versatile, possessing the ability to direct films in
many different genres. He received three
Oscar nominations for Best Director: A
STAR IS BORN (UA, 1937), BATTLEGROUND
(MGM, 1949), and THE HIGH AND THE
MIGHTY (WB, 1954). However, his only win was as co-writer of
the screenplay for A STAR IS BORN.
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| William A. "Wild Bill" Wellman |
******
REVIEWS:
“It’s not a masterpiece – it’s quite conventional in plot and
development – but it’s an excellent, grim, little movie, very taut and
involving and suspenseful.—Brian Garfield in Western Movies: A Complete Guide
“…the guns blaze, fists fly and passions tangle in the best realistic
Western style….Wellman has directed for steel-spring tension from beginning to
end.” – Bosley Crowther in The New York Times
“The direction by William A. Wellman is vigorous, potently emphasizing
every element of suspense and action, and displaying the cast to the utmost
advantage. There’s never a faltering
scene as sequence after sequence is unfolded at a swift pace.” – Variety
“Beautifully
shot, in a stark black and white, YELLOW
SKY is one of the best Westerns of the forties.” – Westerns on the Blog
“Well-written, well directed, well cast, the gang is a well-drawn
collection of individuals, each with his own personality and intentions. – Buddies in the Saddle
“Like all the best Westerns, it raises questions about one’s word of
honour and, in this case, if that has any value for those who live outside the
law.” – Riding the High Country
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| one of the film's greatest strengths is Joseph MacDonald's glorious black-and-white photography in Death Valley and the Alabama Hills near Lone Pine, California There are black-and-white and colorized versions of the film on YouTube. I recommend the original black-and-white version. |
