Falling somewhere in director John Farrow's western filmography slightly above "Copper Canyon" (which, like this film, stars Ray Milland) and far below "Hondo", there just isn't a lot to say for good or ill about this relatively unambitious western drama. While positioning itself as a serious picture in terms of theme, it conforms in every way to standard melodrama formulas and fails to present a memorable villain or fundamental conflict. Nice technicolor photography, stylish flourishes from the director, and not even the great Barbara Stanwyck can save this film from being just slightly more than mediocre.
Stanwyck plays Lily, a much maligned singer trying to make it big in California off her legs and her pipes where all the men are trying to bring in satchels of gold. Milland is Jon Trumbo, a gambler who deserted from the army and spends half the movie hiding from them and the other half brazenly running a tavern in town. Barry Fitzgerald is third billed but basically drags the movie down into unintentional farce with his mannerisms, while on the other end of the spectrum George Coulouris is cast as an intriguingly written villain but ends up underplaying the role to death.
Farrow can always be relied upon for brief moments of misogyny like the one in this movie where Stanwyck is slapped and then shown rubbing her cheek as if she was getting masochistic pleasure from it. Generally speaking this is one of Stanwyck's duller roles from the 40s. So much more could be done with her in a western, as for example in Anthony Mann's "The Furies" and Sam Fuller's "Forty Guns." Here Farrow forces her into a rather dull 40s version of an independent woman that rings hollow.
Milland was a good western hero; he played these roles with a bit more realism and less projected "integrity" than most B movie cowboys tended to do. Unfortunately in this movie it's like he's searching for a moment to really do some acting but just can't find it. Farrow usually has a good sense of film economy but in this film it seems like the energy of a lot of the scenes is amped too high and there's not much rhythm to the film as a whole. However the reason this film is much better than "Copper Canyon" is because Milland can make better scenes with Stanwyck in this movie than he can with Hedy Lamarr in that one. This film isn't any worse than most westerns and it's better than quite a lot of them, but you just have to feel that if they had put a big more effort into the whole thing it could have been a lot better. Stanwyck is in this dull role, and you have an actor like Anthony Quinn in a role that barely exists. Meanwhile you have Coulouris who is probably the most boring actor in the movie playing the most interesting character. I think the film could have focused more on him, but it was probably written down since they couldn't get a real star.
Worthy entertainment with low expectations.
Stanwyck plays Lily, a much maligned singer trying to make it big in California off her legs and her pipes where all the men are trying to bring in satchels of gold. Milland is Jon Trumbo, a gambler who deserted from the army and spends half the movie hiding from them and the other half brazenly running a tavern in town. Barry Fitzgerald is third billed but basically drags the movie down into unintentional farce with his mannerisms, while on the other end of the spectrum George Coulouris is cast as an intriguingly written villain but ends up underplaying the role to death.
Farrow can always be relied upon for brief moments of misogyny like the one in this movie where Stanwyck is slapped and then shown rubbing her cheek as if she was getting masochistic pleasure from it. Generally speaking this is one of Stanwyck's duller roles from the 40s. So much more could be done with her in a western, as for example in Anthony Mann's "The Furies" and Sam Fuller's "Forty Guns." Here Farrow forces her into a rather dull 40s version of an independent woman that rings hollow.
Milland was a good western hero; he played these roles with a bit more realism and less projected "integrity" than most B movie cowboys tended to do. Unfortunately in this movie it's like he's searching for a moment to really do some acting but just can't find it. Farrow usually has a good sense of film economy but in this film it seems like the energy of a lot of the scenes is amped too high and there's not much rhythm to the film as a whole. However the reason this film is much better than "Copper Canyon" is because Milland can make better scenes with Stanwyck in this movie than he can with Hedy Lamarr in that one. This film isn't any worse than most westerns and it's better than quite a lot of them, but you just have to feel that if they had put a big more effort into the whole thing it could have been a lot better. Stanwyck is in this dull role, and you have an actor like Anthony Quinn in a role that barely exists. Meanwhile you have Coulouris who is probably the most boring actor in the movie playing the most interesting character. I think the film could have focused more on him, but it was probably written down since they couldn't get a real star.
Worthy entertainment with low expectations.