The success of Henry Fonda in Fox’s Young Mr. Lincoln, directed by John Ford, meant that he (Hank, not Abe) was an obvious choice to star in Ford’s next foray into the American past, to tell the story of how the United States were born. And this time it was based on a best-seller, was in Technicolor, had a big budget and there was a large cast. So, directed as the film was by Ford, and starring Fonda as it did, you would assume that this is a must-own, often-watch Western, right?
But it isn’t. It isn’t really a Western, at all for one thing. It’s a revolutionary war story set in rural New York state in which Gil Martin (Fonda) goes off, leaving posh new bride Lana (Claudette Colbert) on the farm, to win independence from the British and their Tory and Indian allies. For another, it’s a slow-moving plodder, with occasional flurries of action, and the script is uneven, rambling and unfocused.
However, apart from Fonda, the rest of the acting is pretty middle of the road. La Colbert (who in fact got top billing) thought acting meant pressing the back of the hand to the forehead and sighing. Her performance is desperately old-fashioned. The support actors were only a little better. John Carradine looks splendid as the evil Tory villain in an eyepatch (maybe he borrowed it from Ford) but he has so little to say or do he doesn’t get a chance. Ditto Ward Bond, though he is cheerful. Dear old Russell Simpson was always wheeled out whenever a Mormon or Quaker elder was needed or any kind of minister. He had been ‘rediscovered’ by Ford after a long career in silent Westerns. Here he is a snuff-taking doctor. John Ford’s elder brother Francis Ford, his career now in a vertical decline, was given a bit part as Joe Boleo, a member of the community. He has a few more lines than usual and a strong Irish accent is noticeable. Chief John Big Tree had been doing his comic “Hallelujah!” Indian chief act for Ford since The Iron Horse and was still to be doing it in The Searchers thirty years later. Here he gets one or two Hallelujahs.
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There’s some decent Bert Glennon and Ray Rennahan photography (especially during the chase when Fonda is outrunning the Indians to get help), and both received Oscar nominations, though Ford was always ambivalent about color. Utah stands in effectively for upper New York State. The Alfred Newman score also does the job.
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8 Responses
Edna May Oliver was always something else! And Claudette was incandescently lovely. I met her in her 80s, and she was still lovely. Wish she were better in this picture, though.
Oddly, I've never been able to warm to Fonda. Don't know why; just never have.
Fonda had a cold hardness to him as an actor, or a cold fire if you will. Best seen as Tom Joad in my view. He was a good Western actor because he did lone, tough and stoic so well.
Jeff
Well dated for sure… Overloaded with typical fordian tics, sentimental and esthetic mannerism, comedy and tragedy mix etc. Even within the battles when Ward Bond ridiculously kicked the Indians with his feet only and Claudette – born Emilie Chauchoin in a Paris suburb – so good in Capra,s New-York-Miami is unbearable playing like in a silent movie. In an other hand, to keep the positive, Fonda, the village and field daily life, the military fellowship, the ball, the sense of the community, and patriotism, Francis Ford's end – I am wondering if it has inspired a similar scene in Robert Wise's Sand Peebles !? – all themes announcing the trilogy. An other aspect of the film is its propaganda of the time. Funnily enough the film score almost ends with God Save the Queen…!
And Utah is very good in lieu of Upstate New-York!
We can of course endless argue if the adventure films set east of Mississippi in North America in the 18th and early 19th centuries are westerns. Well, the Appalachian mountains were the first western frontier of the 13 colonies so in a way they are. JM
'Frontier movies' is perhaps a better definition, as the excellent website Frontier Partisans knows.
Jeff
Maybe but since the Frontier – in the US history – is a moving concept, most of the westerns could be considered as Frontier movies…! What do you think of Colonial westerns !? JM
Myself, I have a preference for 'true' Westerns, set in the West between about 1865 and 1900. 18th century stories may be historical dramas and they may be frontier stories, and they are Westerns by some definitions, but they don't really do it for me. I am happier with more modern Westerns, with cars and such, as long as they have Western themes and spirit.
Jeff
Differ with you here a little Jeff. I consider this to be one of Ford’s best, with exciting battle scenes and the wonderful Fordian touches of community in the face of hardship. The color photography is striking and I very much like Colbert’s performance as well as Fonda’s and the terrific Edna May Oliver. Also my definition of a western is broader than yours I think. The traditional Civil War to turn-of-the-20th century is definitely the foundation, but I also think most frontier films, like this, as well as most films dealing with the American Indian and rodeo films fit into the genre as well. I also consider this to be more of a western than say “No Country for Old Men” which is marvelous and certainly has some western elements, but, to me, is not really a western.
Fair enough!