GUEST REVIEW: WILD HARVEST

Here is another movie review from guest reviewer and film historian Bruce Kogan. This time up he reviews a forgotten 1947 drama. I haven't seen the movie in years, so I looked foward to this review...

In the annals of Hollywood legends, Wild Harvest has a unique reputation. Not that it's a great film, but because of the circumstances under which it was filmed. At least the interiors that were done at Paramount studios under interesting circumstances.

Mentioned in both Beverly Linet's biography and in the The Citadel series on The Films Of Alan Ladd, there was a strike by one of the unions at the time. Rather than be guilty of crossing the picket line, director Tay Garnett had cast and crew bunking at the studio. As Garnett liked a happy set, he catered everyone with plenty of food and a nice free flowing supply of liquor.

There were several bar scenes in this film which is about the itinerant harvesting crews who use the giant combine machines to harvest wheat in the autumn. If the cast looks a little oiled and lubricated they were. A great time was had by all.

Lloyd Nolan narrates the film and it is his eyes through which we see the action. He spends most of the time coming between Alan Ladd and Robert Preston who are his best friends, but have totally different personalities. Ladd is a by the book dead serious guy who has raised the money for the machines and hired a crew. Preston is an ace mechanic and Ladd needs him to keep his combines running. But Preston likes a good time and nothing keeps him from that.

Enter Dorothy Lamour who probably was playing her worst character. She plays of Ladd and Preston and gets their hormones going. But Preston is whom she marries and Preston who has a bit of larceny in his soul starts skimming the wheat and selling some of what they harvest in some private sales. In the old west this would be the equivalent of cattle rustling and the wheat farmers feel about the same way toward 'high graders' which is the term for what Preston is doing.

Wild Harvest veers wildly toward serious drama and outright slapstick comedy. Maybe under more normal working conditions the film might have turned out better, who knows. The most interesting character in the film is Lamour who could have done more of these roles had she been cast. Still Ladd and Preston fans will see something interesting if not the best work for either of these guys.

BRUCE'S RATING: 5 OUT OF 10
MY RATING: 6 OUT OF 10

GUEST REVIEW: PLAINSMAN AND THE LADY

I am not a huge fan of westerns, so I figured I would broaden my horizon by featuring another guest review from our resident movie guru Bruce Kogan:

Plainsman And The Lady is a fanciful telling of the founding of the Pony Express hardly anything close to the truth, but a nice tale nonetheless. Wild Bill Elliott stars as a saloonkeeper who throws in with Russell, Majors, and Waddell the western freighting outfit who organized it. The real life characters of Charles Russell and Senator William B. Gwin of California are played by William Davidson and Russell Hicks respectively.

The banker footing a large part of the bill for the Pony Express is Charles Judels who is from Germany written that way to accommodate screen daughter Vera Hruba Ralston's accent. Judels has a second wife in Gail Patrick a real schemer who married Judels for a life of comfort. She's two timing the sick Judels with chief villain Joseph Schildkraut.

Two of the best movie bad people around Schildkraut as always when he does villains is a slick piece of work. He owns a stagecoach line and he stands to lose mail contracts to the faster moving Pony Express so he employs a variety of maneuvers, some involving the unhappily married Patrick to stop the line. As for Patrick she's working her own agenda and determined to be the top dog however things come out.

The first 3/4 of the film is set in St. Joseph, Missouri, but the last quarter is on the frontier itself with enough action and gun play to satisfy any western fan. This Republic western with its adult themes was definitely not marketed for the Saturday matinée kids.

Also in the cast are Raymond Walburn as his usual garrulous character, a judge this time, Don Barry as a murderous punk in Schildkraut's employ and Andy Clyde as Elliott's sidekick. All players that I enjoy seeing in any film.

Bill Elliott was given some good westerns to do by Republic's Herbert J. Yates with larger budgets than his normal Saturday matinée cowboys got. I got the feeling that Elliott liked these films better than the Red Ryder stuff he was doing before and was hoping to make the same quantum leap in career that John Wayne did. Sad to say for him that never came. But Plainsman And The Lady is still a fine western if not exactly truthful about the founding of the Pony Express...

BRUCE'S RATING: 6 OUT OF 10

MOVIE REVIEW: RIO BRAVO

Of all the genres of classic film, probably westerns are my least favorite. I was born after all of those television westerns like Bonanza and Gunsmoke, so I never really go an appreciation for the movie western. However, I have been trying to watch a few from time to time, and one western that has really caught my eye was the classic Rio Bravo. Made in 1959, Rio Bravo was directed by Howard Hawks. The script was written by Jules Furthman and Leigh Brackett, based on a short story by B.H. McCampbell. The film is considered one of the masterpieces of American Cinema. The movie stars John Wayne, Dean Martin, and Ricky Nelson, with Angie Dickinson, Walter Brennan, and Ward Bond. I have always been a huge John Wayne fan, but in this movie I think Dean Martin steals the movie as the alcoholic deputy.

In the town of Rio Bravo, Texas, sheriff's deputy Dude (Dean Martin), who has acquired the contemptuous nickname "Borrachón", enters a saloon to get a drink. Joe Burdette (Claude Akins), brother of rancher Nathan Burdette, tosses a silver dollar into a spittoon at Dude's feet. As Dude reaches for the spittoon, Presidio County, Texas Sheriff John T. Chance (John Wayne) appears and kicks the spittoon away, looking at Dude with pity. Dude whacks Chance with a piece of wood, knocking the sheriff out cold. Joe begins punching Dude as two men hold Dude, then shoots an unarmed bystander dead when he tries to intervene.

Joe leaves the saloon and heads to his brother's saloon, where a bloody Chance arrests Joe for the murder of the bystander. When another patron draws his gun on Chance, causing a stalemate, Dude shoots the gun out of the patron's hand, Chance slugs Joe with his rifle, and the sheriff and his deputy drag Joe off to jail.

While the funeral for the unarmed man is being held, Chance's friend Pat Wheeler (Ward Bond) and his supply train arrive, with him is a young gunslinger, Colorado Ryan (Rick Nelson), riding guard. Wheeler informs Chance that Nathan Burdette's men stopped him before entering the town, meaning that the town is "bottled up" to prevent Chance from getting Joe to Presidio or any assistance in. Inside the jail, Stumpy (Walter Brennan), Chance's other deputy, keeps watch over the jail and Joe. Chance takes a package to the proprietor of the hotel, Carlos Robante (red lingerie for his wife, Consuelo (Estelita Rodriguez). A mysterious woman, Feathers (Angie Dickinson) arrives for a night. Chance tries to help her leave town the next day but the stage wheel is busted (possibly by Burdette men) and cannot leave.

Dude and Chance patrol the town, Dude trying to get off the bottle, when Carlos stops the sheriff, saying Wheeler was talking too much about Chance needing help. Chance implores Wheeler to stop, as it will draw attention from the wrong people. Wheeler and Chance discuss Dude; about three years earlier Dude was a top-notch gunman until he "met a girl on the stage", who was no good (Chance was nearly killed when he tried to tell Dude) and they left together. Six months later Dude came back without her, drunk (hence his name, "Borrachón"), but Dude has stopped drinking due to the crisis. Wheeler offers Colorado for assistance but Colorado politely declines, saying he wants to "mind his own business". Wheeler plans to leave town. Feathers leaves a poker game a winner, Chance follows her up to her room and confronts her as a card cheat, with his evidence four missing aces from the cards being used, and a handbill indicating she was wanted for card cheating. Feathers confesses she is the girl in the poster but denies cheating, and challenges Chance to search her for the missing cards. Colorado arrives saying another participant in the game is the real cheater and plans to confront him, with Chance's acquiesence. Colorado is proven right, and the real card cheat is sent out on the next stage. Chance admits he was wrong but refuses to apologize, saying Feathers is still wanted and wants her out of town. Wheeler is walking toward his room but is shot dead by a Burdette man hiding in the stable. Colorado offers to help but is angrily turned away by Chance, saying "you had a chance to get in this and you didn't want it".

Chance and Dude flush out the shooter, who escapes into Nathan's saloon. Dude noticed the man had muddy boots, but everyone in the bar had clean boots, making them think Dude's drinking had clouded his mind, prompting one patron to throw another silver dollar into a spittoon. Dude notices blood dripping into a drink on the bar and takes one shot into the loft, killing Wheeler's murderer. Dude then gets retribution on the patron who threw the dollar in the spittoon by making him go get it.

Chance goes to the hotel to sleep, insisting Carlos wake him up, unbeknown to him, Feathers stands guard at the door to keep him safe, then runs into her room when he awakens. Chance sees Feathers and asks why she did that but she wouldn't say, then Chance tries to get her on the stage. Meanwhile, Nathan (John Russell) arrives in town with his men, intent on seeing Joe. After one of his men tries to get past Dude, who was confiscating all guns before entering, Dude shoots one of his horses's reins and Nathan agrees to turn in their guns until they leave. Nathan sees Joe, and after a few angry words between the land baron and Chance, is told in no uncertain terms if he attempts to overrun the jail his brother would be shot before they reached him. Nathan then leaves to visit his bar, instructing the band there to play the Deguello (the "cut-throat" song) non-stop.

Carlos says Feathers still will not get on the stage, and when Chance goes to see her she tells the sheriff that she does not want to leave, then gives Chance a kiss. After Colorado visits the jail to tell Chance the meaning of the song Nathan is playing, Chance gives Dude his guns back (the ones he had before he left town, sold by Dude but bought by Chance) as well as some clothes he left behind. Dude gets a bath and a shave, then returns to the jail while Chance and Feathers get better acquainted. Suddenly a shot rings out and Chance races to the jail, only to find Stumpy had shot at a shadow (Dude) in front of the jail. Dude and Stumpy exchange angry words, then Chance tells Dude they've been "pampering him too much" and to get some sleep.

The next morning, Dude is standing guard when four Burdette men stick his head in a water trough, then tie him up in a stable. Approaching Chance on the street in front of the hotel with a fake injury, they draw guns and corner him (Chance's rifle is out of reach), and demand that he release Joe. Inside the hotel, acting on Colorado's instructions, Feathers throws a flowerpot through a window a moment after Colorado steps out on the porch, distracting the Burdette men. Colorado throws Chance's rifle to him and the two men shoot the four Burdette hands.

Chance races down the street, finds Dude tied up in the stable and frees him. Dude, frustrated by his performance and recovering from his extended drunkeness, resigns as deputy, then slaps Chance when he tells Dude he will have to get his own silver dollars out of the spittoon the next time. Colorado agrees to join Chance as deputy and then Dude reconsiders quitting after hearing the Deguello song, reminding him why he was there. The group decides to hole up in the jail, as it will take six days for the United States Marshal to arrive to take Joe to Presidio. Dude and Chance go to the hotel to round up the supplies, but Carlos and Consuelo are captured by Burdette men, and trick Chance into charging down the stairs, falling over a trip-wire, knocking out the sheriff. Dude and Feathers are also captured. Chance is given a choice--take the men to the jail to let Joe out, or the men will arrange a trade with Stumpy for Dude and Chance. Dude implores Chance to let Joe out, saying that Stumpy has no food or water to hold out very long. Chance agrees, and three men go to the jail. Dude's story was a ruse, as Colorado is with Stumpy and the three of them shoot the three Burdette men.

The remaining Burdette men at the hotel take Dude and offer to trade him for Joe. Chance agrees, and the trade is made at a warehouse. But Dude bum-rushes Joe and they fight while a gunfight erupts; Dude takes Joe out and Stumpy (who followed them over after being told to stay behind) finds some dynamite in one of Wheeler's wagons, and throws it at the building Burdette's men are in, eventually exploding the front of the building and forcing Burdette to surrender. With the Burdette men in jail, Chance goes to see Feathers, who is working at the hotel and wearing black tights. Chance objects to the tights, saying that only he should see her in them, and as they kiss Feathers throws the tights out the window, at the feet of Dude and Stumpy, who say nothing...

my rating: 8 out of 10

WESTERN FILM PIONEERS WITH SILENT ROOTS

Western Film Pioneers With Silent Roots
By Susan King

In a hectic world that's constantly changing, it's good to know that some things basically stay the same — for example, the movie western. It's a genre that hasn't changed much in the last century of cinematic history: There are good guys and there are bad guys, horses and shootouts and probably a saloon or two. At the heart of any great western is the cowboy hero. Before there were such legendary movie cowboys as John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Randolph Scott, Clint Eastwood and others, the Hollywood trail was paved by silent-era heroes, led by Gilbert M. "Broncho Billy" Anderson, William S. Hart and Tom Mix. Some of these early performers were true cowboys who did their own stunts. Mix insisted on doing his own stunts in his action-packed films and often got injured.

Several well-known western directors cut their teeth during the silent era, notably John Ford, who scored his first major hit with the 1924 sagebrush saga "The Iron Horse." Though westerns were often shot on soundstages, the producers and directors took advantage of the country's unblemished wide open spaces, which included the western states and even Paterson, N.J., where Edwin S. Porter's 1903 "The Great Train Robbery" was filmed.

Broncho Billy made most of his films in Niles in Northern California — the town still has a yearly silent film festival in his name. During the height of his popularity, Mix opened Mixville near Glendale Boulevard in the former town of Edendale (where Echo Park and Silver Lake are now) — a 12-acre frontier town complete with an Indian village, a faux desert and realistic miniature plaster mountains.

Here's a look back at these pioneering Western stars:

BRONCO BILLY ANDERSON

Born in 1880, Anderson is considered the first western film star. He played three film roles in "The Great Train Robbery" and then began to write, direct and act in his own films. After co-founding the Essanay Studios in 1907 with George Kirk Spoor, Anderson appeared in some 300 short films. But it was his 148 western shorts playing cowboy Bronco Billy that made him a star.

He retired for the first time in 1916 but made a few comebacks, including producing movies into the 1950s for his company, Progressive Pictures. He received an honorary Oscar in 1958 as a "motion picture pioneer." Anderson came out of retirement one more time for a cameo in 1965's "The Bounty Hunter." He died at the age of 90 in 1971.

WILLIAM S. HART

The first Western superstar, the taciturn Hart actually was a successful Shakespearean actor who played Messala in "Ben-Hur" on Broadway in 1899 before riding the range in movies. A longtime fan of the Old West, Hart was friends with Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson.

His film career began in 1914. After two supporting roles he gained fame as the lead in the feature-length western "The Bargain" shot on location at the Grand Canyon. Hart strove to make his westerns realistic with detailed attention played to costumes and props. Though Hart could be cast as a villain, he imbued all of his characters with honor and integrity.

After making western shorts for producer Thomas Ince, he went to Famous Players-Lasky, which merged with Paramount Pictures in 1917. At Paramount he made such gritty feature westerns as "Square Deal Sanderson" and "The Toll Gate." His star began to fade in the early 1920s when audiences grew tired of his moralistic Western tales. Not helping his career was his 1923 divorce from his wife, Winifred, who accused him of having two children by another woman.

He made one last film, 1925's "Tumbleweeds, which he financed himself. In 1939, the film was reissued this time with a prologue featuring a 75-year-old Hart shot on location at his ranch in Newhall talking about the West and his days in films. He died in 1946 at age 81. His home and ranch were turned into William S. Hart Park in Newhall.

TOM MIX

The native of Mix Run, Pa., became a star with his first feature, 1910's "Ranch Life in the Great Southwest." An expert shot, cattle wrangler and horseman, Mix made some 160 cowboy silent Saturday matinee films in the 1920s always playing the man in the white hat who saved the day. Even his trusty steed Tony "The Wonder Horse" became a superstar receiving countless fan mail from kids.

In 1932, he returned to films, making nine talkies at Universal. His last screen appearance was in the 1935 15-part serial, "The Miracle Rider." In 1940, he died at age 60 in a car crash in Arizona. A memorial is at the site of his death on California 79 near Florence. "The Wonder Horse" died two years later.

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