Recent Viewings: 3 Westerns

[Scott]

DESTRY RIDES AGAIN (1939) - Great Western starring Marlene Dietrich and Jimmy Stewart. Very enjoyable film and perhaps one of my now all time favorites. Marlene Dietrich is a real wild cat especially the bar room brawl and Jimmy Stewards character has to one of the all time best characters ever captured on film. Just loved this film.



GARDEN OF EVIL (1954) - A good 50's Western starring Gary Cooper who looks alittle aged and Richard Widmark, Cameron Mitchell, Susan Hayward, Rita Moreno, and Victor Mendoza. It is a good cast. Widmark is really good in this one. Cooper anchors this film. Rita Moreno has a nice song and dance early in the film and then you don't see her again. Hayward isn't that good in this film, but is passible. The story takes place in Mexico and three Americans are set ashore from their ship that has broken down. The ship was  heading for California and while waiting the three Americans stop at a cantina were Hayard needs help and hires the three and a Mexican to rescue her man trapped in a mine in Indian country. I enjoyed the direction, acting, and locations. It's a good one.



SANTA FE TRAIL (1940) - Interesting film mostly about the historical character of John Brown. Though inacurate it makes me want to look into my history books to get the facts straight. Raymond Massey plays John Brown. Also starring are Errol Flynn as Jeb Stuart and Ronald Reagan as George Custer both West Point graduates. The film has little to do with the Santa Fe Trail and not much of the West in this film. It's really not a Western, but Raymond Massey gives a good performance.

[Deej]

Destry is a great western. I'm not a big James Stewart fan, but he's really good in this one. Marlene Dietrich is awesome, The song she sing's(The Boys In The Backroom)is good. One of the best.

Santa Fe Trail is my least favorite Errol Flynn movie, It's just too friggin' cheesy, and as you mentioned, way off, historically. Flynn and Reagan teamed up a couple of years later, much more successfully in Desperate Journey. It's far superior to Santa Fe and Reagan gives his best performance ever, one of Flynn's best flicks, check it out!

[Scott]

Errol Flynn wasn't very interesting in this one Deej. I'll keep a watch out for DESPERATE JOURNEY. Thanks.

By the way any other Flynn movies that you liked that we haven't mentioned in the past? Here are the ones that I have seen or plan on seeing.

The Adventures of Robin Hood
The Sea Hawk
They Died With Their Boots On
Captain Blood
San Antonio
The Adventures of Don Juan
Kim
Prince and the Pauper

Dodge City (plan on renting this one sometime this summer)
The Charge of the Light Brigade (cable might show this one)
Virginia City (will wait till cable)

[Deej]

Ya gotta see Dodge City!!!

Others to check out:

The Dawn Patrol(1938)-Flynn and David Niven co-star as British pilots in France during WWI. Basil Rathbone, in a rare "good guy" role does a really fine job as the Flight Commander. One of Niven's finest, as well. Awesome flick.

Gentleman Jim(1942)-Flynn plays Gentleman Jim Corbett, the boxer who defeated heavy weight champ John L Sullivan. Good comedy/biography, actually more comedy than biography. This is one of my favorites and reportedly Flynn's favorite role. Alan Hale as Flynn's dad, Jack Carson as his best pal, and Ward Bond as John L. Sullivan.

Edge Of Darkness(1943)- Probably Flynn's most serious role. A very somber story about the Norwegian Resistance in WWII. Not alot of action, but fine drama. Look for Ruth Gordon(Maude in Harold&Maude, and Clint Eastwood's mom in the Monkey flicks)as a relatively young woman here, though she still plays a mom.

Objective Burma!(1945)- Flynn wins WWII single handed!! Tight war flick, plenty of action and good drama. One of the best of it's type! Apparently caused quite a stir in it's day, because most of the combatants in the real campaign were British, whereas most of the characters in this film are American. Still, first rate war film!

Against All Flags(1952)- Flynn's last good swashbuckler. "Good" being a relative term. It's definitely a step or five down from The Adventures Of Robin Hood or The Sea Hawk, but, for a Flynn fan(that's me), it's good to see him take up the sword in one last good one. Flynn plays an English agent sent to infiltrate a band of Pirates. Not as big-budget as his earlier swashbucklers, and his years of hard living are very apparent, but he pulls it off well. Good action scenes, including the scene where Flynn thrusts his sword through a sail and slides down it(stolen from The Black Pirate...but cooler when Flynn does it!). Flynn would make a few swashbucklers after this, but he just seems to phone those in. This is the last one in which it felt like he tried. Maureen O'Hara and Anthony Quinn co-star.

In The Wake Of The Bounty(1933)- Flynn's first film!!! An Australian filming of the HMS Bounty story. Flynn plays Fletcher Christian(two years before Clark Gable) Recently released on VHS, to the best of my knowlege this has never been released before and is little known. I haven't seen it, but it's on my list. If you see it first, let me know how it goes!! Interesting side-note, Flynn was a descendant of the real Fletcher Christian!



Post Edited (03-28-04 01:46)

[BoyScoutKevin]

Alot of Flynn's film were remade or remakes. "Dawn Patrol" was a remake of 1930's "Dawn Patrol." "Objective Burman" was remade in 1951 w/ Gary Cooper. And "Against All Flags" was remade in 1967 w/ Doug McClure.

Of the 3 westerns mentioned, seen all three. Not much to say about "Garden of Evil," but "Santa Fe Trail" is one of the first films I remember seeing on television. And "Destry Rides Again" has a good cast as well, besides Jimmy Stewart and Marlene Dietrich, also starring Mischa Auer, Charles Winninger, Brian Donleavy, Allen Jenkins, Warren Hymer, Una Merkel, Billy Gilbert, Samuel S. Hinds, Jack Carson, and Dickie Jones, among others. And Dietrich belts out a pretty good rendition of "See What the Boys in the Back Room Will Have."

"Destry Rides Again" was remade into "Destry," one of Audie Murphy's better westerns, in 1954.

[Deej]

BoyScoutKevin wrote:

> Alot of Flynn's film were remade or remakes. "Dawn Patrol" was
> a remake of 1930's "Dawn Patrol." "Objective Burman" was remade
> in 1951 w/ Gary Cooper. And "Against All Flags" was remade in
> 1967 w/ Doug McClure.

The 1930 Dawn Patrol seemed wooden to me, but I am an Errol Flynn fan, so I'm probably biased. Didn't know about the others. Audie Murphy's Destry was pretty good .

[Scott]

GARDEN OF EVIL must be one of those overlooked films. I never heard of it till I saw it recently. I liked the setting and idea of a ship heading for California with Americans ready to join the search for gold in California only to be down for repairs in Mexico and offered an opportunity to make some good money. This Western film worked for me.