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Ultra-tense
The Tall T was the second, after Seven Men from Now, which we reviewed recently (click the link for that) of the cycle of seven Randolph Scott Westerns that Budd Boetticher (click for an essay on him) directed in the late 1950s, and certainly one of the best – though they were all good.
Written by Burt Kennedy again (once more, click to read about Burt) photographed by Charles Lawton Jr – replacing William Clothier, who had done the first picture – once more at the iconic Lone Pine locations, and with the excellent Richard Boone as the bad guy this time, the picture had everything in place to be extremely good, and it was.
The movie was shot in July 1956, actually before the release of Seven Men, and was clearly a follow-up to it, though this time it was not a John Wayne production, and not for Warners. Harry Joe Brown produced it, with his partner Scott, and it was part of a deal with Columbia. Much as I like Seven Men, I do think that the Scott-Brown pictures for Columbia were even better.
Kennedy’s screenplay was based on a story, The Captives, by the master Elmore Leonard (first published in Argosy magazine in February 1955). Burt followed it quite closely, though the film adds occasional scenes.
Being an Elmore Leonard story, it’s is set around Contention, AZ and there is some lovely photography of fine scenery by Charles Lawton Jr, with California standing in just fine for Arizona. There were no interiors (apart from a cave), according to Burt Kennedy for budgetary reasons, but it really improves the picture. Visually, the film is splendid and the color fine. Lawton was a maestro of the camera, as he proved shortly afterwards when he shot 3:10 to Yuma for Delmer Daves in an absolutely glowing black & white. He worked a lot for Daves, and with Scott, and was one of the greats of Western cinematography. He would also shoot the last two pictures of this series, Ride Lonesome and Comanche Station.
Really, everyone in The Tall T is lonely, and the empty vistas and wide shots of riders in open landscapes accentuate that. There are some masterly directorial/photographic touches: for example when Scott learns that the outlaws have killed the stationmaster and his young son, the camera just pans, following Scott’s gaze towards the well (where we understand the bodies have been thrown) and then back to the outlaws. Nothing is said, and Scott’s stony face betrays little. It’s a very powerful moment.
Good as Lee Marvin was as the charismatic bad guy in Seven Men from Now, Richard Boone as Frank Usher in The Tall T is even better. Boone was always best as a badman in Westerns. My own personal favorite of his villainy is his Grimes in another movie based on an Elmore Leonard tale, Hombre (1967) but there are plenty of other excellent examples. Boetticher bad guys were almost appealing in some ways, and morally close to Scott’s characters. There is a certain ambivalence about them: we are almost on their side. And Scott’s stony stoicism contrasts wonderfully with their panache. Boetticher said that he felt Boone’s Usher wanted to be Scott’s Pat. I have seen these films praised for their “moral certitude” but in fact I think nothing could be further from the truth. There is huge ambivalence on both sides.
As an aside, but a Western aside you understand, I would say that the 1950s established the charming-rogue badman firmly as a character. We might think of Arthur Kennedy in Anthony Mann’s Bend of the River (1952), or Burt Lancaster in Robert Aldrich’s Vera Cruz (1954), or, contemporary with The Tall T, Glenn Ford’s masterly Ben Wade in 3:10 to Yuma (1957). There were plenty of others. Robert Preston, for example, almost specialized in the role. All these smiling badmen played off the tough-guy stoical heroes, James Stewart in Bend, Gary Cooper in Vera Cruz, Van Heflin in 3:10. The types were bad guys, yes, but you kinda sympathized with them anyway, and they had saving graces. The roles lasted, such as Kirk Douglas in The War Wagon (1967). I guess the apogee was Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), in which both the stars were that type. But back to The Tall T.
Boone is supported in The Tall T by two truly nasty heavies, also well played by Skip Homeier as young Billy Jack and the excellent Henry Silva as Chink. These thugs are truly frightening. Homeier had been the punk kid who gunned Gregory Peck down in the Gunfighter (1950), you will remember, and he got slightly typecast in punk-kid roles. He mostly did low-budget Westerns and TV it must be said but occasionally he was really good, as here. Need a sneering gunman? Call Skip. Silva was new to Westerns. He’d had a small part in Viva Zapata! as a peasant and had also been in a Wagon Train episode but that was it. Budd Boetticher, reported by Robert Nott in his very good book The Films of Randolph Scott, said, “Henry Silva I just loved. He came down to play the part, and he had never seen a horse up close before, and he put the wrong foot in the stirrup! But he rode fairly well, I thought.” Silva got the taste for Westerns because in 1958 he too came up against Gregory Peck, this time in The Bravados, and the same year he was a heavy in The Law and Jake Wade.
Maureen O’Sullivan (from the Tarzan pictures) is excellent as the plain woman who rather than become an old maid agrees to be married for her money to a scoundrel (John Hubbard) – not all actresses would have accepted such a role. As a scenario, ‘cowardly husband with wife who deserves better – and look, here comes Randy!’ had worked well in Seven Men. She ‘grows’ during the picture and becomes a real woman. It’s a good performance. Ms O’Sullivan didn’t really do Westerns as a rule, though she had started back in 1932 under Louis King with George O’Brien in the first version of Robber’s Roost.
Arthur Hunnicutt, how we love him, does his classic old-timer act as the stage driver Rintoon. He was one of those Western actors, like Walter Brennan and Gabby Hayes, who were always old, even when they were young.
The cast is small because these films were not huge epics. Rather, they were high-quality, low-budget, short, taut actioners (this one was shot in twelve days and is 78 minutes long) with interesting development of well-written and well-played characters.
Randolph Scott as the hero Pat Brennan is outstanding, of course. Towards the end of his career (he retired in 1960), he just got better and better. He starts as a cheery, decent rancher, ever ready with a smile, prepared to go out of his way to buy candy for a kid (actually the movie is a bit too light at the start, but that does at least give impact to the brutality to come).
But when the outlaws come and, horribly, throw the little boy’s body down the well, Scott changes. He becomes the hard man of Seven Men from Now. Even when he escapes the bandits’ clutches, he does not flee. He has to settle accounts. He does this with guile and grit. It’s a stunningly good performance.
‘The Tall T’ is presumably the name of the ranch Scott is trying to make a go of, or the ranch he visits in the early part of the film, though the name is never mentioned, either in the movie or in the short story. Some anonymous Columbia exec gave the picture the name. There’s apparently quite a discussion on Internet as to the movie’s title. I haven’t joined in.
The Heinz Roemheld score is understated and builds tension nicely.
And tension is what it’s all about. In many ways this is the ‘psychological Western’ par excellence. And it’s curious how such a concise, pared-down treatment, with such a short runtime, can seem almost at times leisurely, taking its time to develop. Certainly that’s helped by Scott’s laconic style.
The Tall T is a tough, gritty little Western which, like all the Boetticher/Kennedy pictures, deserves more fame than it has received. For a long time, even though Variety applauded it as “an unconventional Western [that] passes up most oater clichés”, it was forgotten and ignored, not available commercially. But now it is receiving some of the credit it deserves. For example, Martin Scorsese talks glowingly about it in his A Personal Journey Through American Movies. And Paul Simpson in The Rough Guide to Westerns even makes it No 10 in his list of Top Ten Westerns.
The next picture, Decision at Sundown, released later the same year, was even darker. We shall be examining that one shortly, so come back soon!
23 Responses
Excellent review. I love this series of films and ‘The Tall T’ is a favorite. Boone is fantastic here and his interactions with Randy, Sullivan, his gang are fabulously played. Randy is top tier too here. Taut and fascinating its classic stuff. They can’t make films Budd’s way anymore.
Just finished watching Tall T, 15 minutes, ago, for the first time in my long life. A near perfect western, very likely one of the 10 best I’ve seen, ever. In fact, I roused my dog Peach, sleeping on her end of the sofa,
when I cheered the movie’s powerful closing scene. Then it came to me that I hadn’t read Jeff’s review, purposefully deferring that pleasure until I’d actually seen the movie. Now I finally had, and have now, minutes ago, read Jeff’s review of Tall T. Like the film, his review was one of the best I’ve ever read, anywhere, perfectly capturing the film’s essence, and adding substantially to my enjoyment … a review I’d say was fully worthy of the sturdy excellence of The Tall T and Randolph Scott.
Yes, I love this film. Boone and Scott are so perfect together. I’ve watched it over the years marveling at its perfect construction. ‘Come on, it’s going to be a nice day’.
A stellar closing line for sure, Chris.
The running time of The Tall T is very brief. Almost like a temporally overgrown episode of Gunsmoke. And that’s fine. This film is taut, compressed and direct. Unlike more ambitious–or pretentious–Westerns such as Once upon a Time in the West, and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, there is absolutely no flab or dead air. The story is economical, the pacing is at a swift gallop, and the climax hits like a cannonball.
Randolph Scott is a delight in the lead. Before seeing him in Ride the High Country about a year ago, I had never even heard of the man. Now, the more I see of him, the more I think he’d make an excellent choice for the fourth face–along with Duke, Clint and Coop–on a Western Mt. Rushmore.
You can’t, of course, have a great Western without strong villains/henchmen, and TTT holds a full house with Richard Boone, Henry Silva, and to a slightly lesser extent, Skip Homeier.
Boone’s Frank Usher is a classic Burt Kennedy villain–he penned the film’s screenplay–in that he’s a thoroughly nasty piece of work, but still retains a few shreds of humanity. (Much like Claude Akin’s character in Comanche Station.) The scene where he takes a plate of food and coffee to the sleeping captive Doreen Mims (Maureen O’Hara), and then pulls a blanket over her exposed shoulder is quite touching. He behaves as a father to a daughter he will almost certainly see murdered within 48 hours. One can well imagine the conflict in his mind.
Usher also takes a shine to his prisoner Pat Brennan (Randolph Scott), and the latter evinces a grudging respect for the former, too. As good as TTT is, it would have been better still if the relationship between Brennan and Usher had been fleshed out further. This would have increased the impact of the ultimate battle between the two at the movie’s conclusion.
Silva also leaves an impression as the soulless Chink who positively salivates at the thought of killing people.
On the other hand, Arthur Hunnicutt’s performance as a crusty old stagecoach driver was somewhat disappointing. I like Hunnicutt a great deal, but he was not in top form for TTT.
In the last analysis, this a little gem of a Western. It’s tough, well-acted, sharply drawn, and it gets straight down to business. TTT belongs in every Western buff’s DVD collection.
I like your Western Mt. Rushmore idea. No doubt that Randy’s mineral face would perfectly match the Black Hills granite… You are very lucky to discover such a monument like him only now…!
Jeff was one if his most ardent admirers :
https://jeffarnoldswest.com/2021/04/the-westerns-of-randolph-scott-d44/
He has especially written extensively on his films with Boetticher but not only.
In point of fact, Jean-Marie, I only came to the Western genre about three years ago, if that. Despite growing up in West Texas, I had no interest whatsoever in Westerns and all other things Western. Now I’m a convert and have the convert’s zeal. Very strange how things can swap ends so swiftly. Perhaps we see more clearly as we age. At least I hope so.
PS–Which four actors would make your Western Mt. Rushmore?
Four is difficult beyond measure. Wayne, of course, Coop, Randolph Scott, and Clint I certainly would not be opposed to. Wish I could get Mitch too.
Leaving off William S. Hart would be as foolish as leaving off George Washington would have been on the real Mt. Rushmore.
It’s difficult. I thought about Harry Carey too. Plus Tom Mix and Bronco Billy along with Hart.
Henry Fonda and Jimmy Stewart would merit strong consideration. Hell, so would Lee Marvin, Claude Akins and Walter Brennan.
Nothing equals the zeal of a convert kndeed…!
But is you are deep in the heart of (western) Texas (Amarillo, the panhandle or El Paso area ?), you are surely an exception.
Lubbock, to be precise. And, yes, I was something of an exception. But I’m making up for lost time!
The Llano Estacado can be very atmospheric westernwise…
I have been lucky enough to made several trips to western Texas including Amarillo and Palo Duro Canyon, El Paso and Carlsbad Caverns, Fort Davis, Marfa, Terlingua and Big Bend NP. but never been to Lubbock yet…
You’ve been to some places in West Texas that I haven’t. I’ve actually spent much more time exploring New Mexico–you name it, I’ve been there, and lived in Gallup in the late 70s–than far West Texas. At any rate, let me know the next time you’re visiting Texas. We could get together for steaks and Bloody Marias.
PS–On a few occasions when shopping in local Western wear stores, I’ve encountered small groups of Europeans–mostly Germans–decked out in all their cowboy finery. I can only assume they’re Western buffs who make occasional trips to Old West territories to soak up the scenery, culture and the historic sites/sights. Is fascination with the Old West a fairly common phenomenon in Europe?
I don’t know how much has changed but for over at least a hundred and sixty years Europeans have been fascinated by our West. Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, the pulps (Hitler read about Old Shatterhand in an imaginary West), the movies (Stalin loved Western films especially John Ford’s) has fed into a real interest in the American West no matter their feelings about America overall. It is something no other country had in the exact way.
Yes, Chris, I’m sure you’re right about that. The Old West has an intrinsic charisma, and it cuts across time and space. Rather remarkable. Some historians periodize the Old West as 1865 to 1890, a mere 25 years. And while I define it quite a bit more broadly than that, there can be no doubt the the Old West punches far above its weight when viewed temporally.
Clearly, Hollywood has a great deal to do with that, but the Old West exerted its pull before the first Western was even filmed. Folks back east lapped up every bit of information and fiction they could get about the exploits of the outlaws, the lawmen, the Indians and the cowboys they could get. Again, quite remarkable. The Old West has je ne sais quoi. Of what it consists is something I don’t quite understand, although, like anybody else, I can theorize.
The Old West historical legends are the United States’s great heroic tradition–like England’s King Arthur, India’s Mahabharata, Japan’s samurai–with two advantages. First of all, unlike other heroic traditions, it’s relatively democratic; whereas to be a knight (for instance) you had to be well-born and undergo years of specialized training, to be a western hero you needed no more skill or social capital than what any nineteenth-century American farm boy would have picked up in the course of living. Second, it’s close to us in time and relatively well documented; we don’t know whether there ever was a real King Arthur, but we know there was a real Wyatt Earp even if he wasn’t quite what legend made him out to be. As heroic traditions go, it’s quite accessible. No wonder foreigners love it.
The American West and its westward expansion with its moving frontier have generated or invented the Romantic West. The westward expansion coincides with the end of the Enlightment and the beginning of the european romantic movement. Art and litterature (Bodmer, Catlin Miller Irving, Cooper etc) will have a huge impact on the public on both sides of the Atlantic along with historic events such as the Lewis and Clark expedition and its journal, the fur trade lore and the California Gold Rush, probably the first event launching the age of globalization. Several european crowned heads and other famous people will travel to the young USA from Tocqueville to Grand Duke Alexis of Russia, the Czar’s son (escorted by Buffalo Bill Cody and Custer) or Albert de Monaco and their stories will have major repercussions. The US West is inspiring european authors such as Jules Verne and Karl May whose novels had an incredible impact in Germany. Photos of the fantastic western countrysides including the fresh national parks are distributed. Buffalo Bill and the Wild West shows came touring Europe, leaving an enduring mark upon the imagination of a global audience. then the first westerns films wether american or european appeared and Hollywood bursted.
Today the US is the number one long haul destinations in UK, Germany and France. And the european traveller wants to visit the American West and “collect” its National Parks to project himself in his own film… The movies are very often a source of inspiration to feed the trip…
Thank you for your invitation, I hope to come back to Texas one day.
I love New Mexico too where I have travelled several times..
I was in Gallup long ago during the Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial. I slept at the El Rancho where the film crews used to stay…
I visited Gallup for the first time in 46 years last July. Mon dieu, quelle incroyable. The sense of deja vu was overwhelming. And I too stayed at El Rancho. It is Gallup’s crown jewel, positively redolent of the Old West, and also features a pretty good restaurant. It was soon after this trip that my immersion into the world of the Old West began in earnest. Hmmm. Now what Western to watch tonight?
On the late Lloyd Fonveille’s blog he has nice articles on his trips to Marfa and Ft Davis.
Beginning a list of our preferred western actors is going to bring us in dangerous endless discussions but why not…!?
I have always some to rank the actors in general and especially the number one – speaking of the leading men only in talkies only – between Wayne and Cooper.
Then my list includes
James Stewart,
Henry Fonda,
Gregory Peck,
Glenn Ford,
William Holden,
Randolph Scott,
Robert Mitchum
Clint Eastwood
Joel McCrea,
Richard Widmark,
Burt Lancaster,
Kirk Douglas,
Charlton Heston,
Errol Flynn,
Robert Taylor,
Steve McQueen,
Sterling Hayden,
John Payne.
Tyrone Power,
Robert Ryan
,
Victor Mature,
Alan Ladd
Anthony Quinn
Rory Calhoun
Paul Newman
James Garner
Audie Murphy
Dana Andrews
Rock Hudson
Van Heflin
Fred Mc Murray
Clark Gable
Jeff Chandler
Lee Marvin
Spencer Tracy
Warren Beatty
Charles Bronson
Tommy Lee Jones
Kevin Costner
Robert Redford
Jeff Bridges
Dick Powell
Rod Cameron
George Montgomery
Dale Robertson
Barry Sullivan
Scott Brady
Ray Milland
I could add at least one or two dozens more who have played even only once as the leading actor. But this list is reaching 50…
I must say I hold the opposite view. I was quite disappointed by this one, having seen 7 Men From Now first