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A love quadrilateral – or even pentagon
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Teen idol Edd Byrnes, Kookie the parking lot attendant from 77 Sunset Strip, never really became the new James Dean that he wanted to be and he battled with drugs and alcohol and bit parts in low-budget films. But he does a good job as Clint Walker’s sidekick in Yellowstone Kelly even if you expect him to get his comb out at any moment.
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Clint is Luther Sage Kelly (1849 – 1928), chief of scouts for General Miles, expedition guide in Alaska, captain of volunteers in the Philippines, trapper, hunter and explorer along the Yellowstone River and general all-round action man. He wrote his memoirs, published in 1926. Clint Walker was well-suited to the role and was ideal as the strong, silent loner in this nice Gordon Douglas-directed Western.
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Written by Burt Kennedy from a novel by Heck Allen (under the name Peter Bowen) and nicely shot by Carl Guthrie in Technicolor, the movie has real quality. It was first slated for John Ford and John Wayne and that would have been dandy but they opted to make The Horse Soldiers instead and so Warners drafted in less-than-stellar Gordon Douglas (who actually did some good Westerns such as Rio Conchos and Fort Dobbs, the latter also with Cheyenne Bodie from TV, Clint Walker). With actors John Russell as Gall, the Sioux chief; Ray Danton as his rival Sayapi; and Rhodes Reason as the incompetent, almost Custerish cavalry major, it seemed, in fact, as if the whole Warners stock TV company were on the set.
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Claude Akins does a good job as a tough sergeant who saves the troop from the doltish major, and Private Warren Oates is in it just long enough to be recognized before he is knocked over by an Indian bullet.
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The writing is good (well, it would be) and Clint handles the lines very well. He always brought a certain authority and dignity to this kind of role. It’s a pity he didn’t do more A-Westerns; he could have been almost a Gregor Peck.
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They keep on telling us that a severe Montana winter is coming early and watch out but it remains resolutely hot and sunny. That’s what you get for filming in Arizona in summer, I guess.
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Anyway, a good little Western, definitely worth a second look.
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7 Responses
Hi Jeff,
you are right about Clint Walker. He's a fine western actor: He reminds me a bit of that other more famous Clint. He has the same coolness and dignity.
Anyway a nice western. Gordon Douglas made some fine (and sometimes brutal violent) westerns as Rio Conchos and the Fiend who walked the West.
Bart
Yes, I am a bit of a Clint W fan – have been ever since watching Cheyenne on TV as a boy.
As for G Douglas, it was a very mixed bag: he did some good stuff, as you say, but also some pretty plodding oaters!
Jeff
Luther Kelly is one of the greatest adventurers of the West – and beyond as he went as far as the Philippines islands in the early 1900s ! And Heck Allen one of the aliases used by Henry Wilson Allen. Jean-Marie
Jeff, I have been browsing your blog to find some advise on Gold of the Seven Saints directed by Gordon Douglas in 1961 in southern Utah after a Leigh Brackett script initially for Howard Hawks, and starring Clint Walker, Roger Moore, Robert Middleton, Chill Wills, but I failed. Is it hidden somewhere !?
I have not watched it for years but I remember some good hustonian moments – it is a gold story – with a very brilliant ending. Could it be added on your G.Douglas list one day ? Thanks. JM
I have a fondness for this movie as seeing it is a childhood memory. It turned up on TV recently so I was able to renew acquaintance with it. It’s not a ‘great’ movie but it isn’t a bad one – and it presses some of my personal buttons.
Jeff used to cite 1948 as a year for great westerns. More recently, Jean-Marie suggested 1953 as a special year. I would like to propose 1959 as a special year – perhaps not for ‘great’ westerns but a high quality one almost takes for granted.
None of these – from memory – were in our lists (that’s what I mean by taking them for granted) – ‘The Bravados’ ‘Warlock’ ‘Last Train to Gun Hill’. I think ‘Gunman’s Walk’ is 1959 too – and that one with Burl Ives and all the snow.
Gunman’s Walk according to this blog is from 1958
Day of the Outlaw is the Burl Ives in the snow one…
Warlock is certainly a major western.
Regarding 1959, Face of a Fugitive with an excellent Fred MacMurray, The Hanging Tree (close to a masterpiece), No Name on the Bullet, The Gunfight at Dodge City, Ride Lonesome, Rio Bravo are demonstrating that 1959 is an far above average excellent vintage.
About Fred MacMurray I would have thought that Jeff had dedicated a special essay about him. Maybe in my dreams…