Henry Hathaway
knew how to direct a Western. He had been doing it since the 1932 Heritage
of the Desert with Randolph Scott. He started off directing a bunch of B
Westerns in the 1930s and then again in the late 1950s and 60s when Westerns
were in vogue again. This felt like such a pure Western to me; the setting,
the details, the story. And of course, John Wayne. Wayne had just had serious
surgery for lung cancer, but he does his own stunts here. Hathaway was to
direct Wayne again in four years in True Grit. The script is terrific; never
in a rush, slowly building to the inevitable climax but filling in the down
time with character development, background, mood and the splendor of the
West.
It begins in classic fashion. The music
of Elmer Bernstein giving the film a familiar jolt. Men at the station waiting
for the train to arrive. Reminding me of High Noon. Three of the Elder brothers
are there - Dean Martin, Earl Holliman and Michael Anderson Jr - as well
as the sheriff (Paul Fix) and his deputy (Jeremy Slate). The train comes
puffing in. The three brothers are hoping the fourth will be on it. Wayne.
He isn't. Only a man dressed in black gets off. A stranger. A killer (George
Kennedy). The three brothers have returned to this dusty town after being
away for years. Their mother has died. It is her funeral. The town turns
out. A sermon from the minister (John Litel) and in a lovely moment the camera
pans away up a nearby hill and between two high jutting stones stands Wayne
looking like the third stone. He is a well-known gunfighter come home.
As the four later gather, they learn from
the towns people that their father had been shot dead in the back, their
mother lost the ranch and has been scrimping on nothing. They came for her
funeral, but none were there when she needed them. Partly this guilt, drives
them to find out what happened. The culprit is of no surprise. The man (James
Gregory) who now owns the ranch and who has hired the killer. Step by step,
treachery by treachery, the film moves toward the violence that has to come.
A smart beautifully shot film. Some good actors fill it in - Martha Hyer,
Dennis Hopper, John Qualen, Strother Martin. The final shot is a classic,
of a rocking chair that symbolizes family and home. An underrated Wayne film.
I expect the lack of firepower and Hathaway pulling his punches against expectations
until the end puts people off.
