Errol Flynn bids adieu to our noble genre
Rocky Mountain was Errol Flynn’s last Western feature. Flynn was one of the most glittering Hollywood figures of the late 1930s and early 1940s, though his star had waned somewhat since then. Substance abuse and his philandering had seen a sad decline in his capacities, and his public appeal was no longer what it was. The 1943 rape trial certainly didn’t help. But despite Flynn’s own initial skepticism, Westerns had been a bankable proposition since Dodge City in 1939 and maybe Flynn (and Jack Warner) thought that another couple at the turn of the decade might restore his box office viability. And to be fair, whether Flynn got himself in shape or lighting and make-up personnel managed to disguise things, or both, he did look pretty good in the two late oaters. He was certainly stockier and more lined but he was pushing forty after all and was entitled. And he played slightly older, wearier characters. I think he continued to convince in the genre.
The picture benefited from high Warner Brothers production values and an excellent supporting cast. In particular, a superb score by Max Steiner (again) added emotional depth. Though notionally set in California, it was shot around Gallup, New Mexico by Ted McCord, the Treasure of the Sierra Madre guy, and while some viewers might have been disappointed not to have Technicolor, McCord did a wonderful job with the black & white, which in any case probably added to the somber tone of the movie. And after all, 1950 was the year of great Westerns like Anthony Mann’s Devil’s Doorway and Winchester ’73, and they were in black & white. Warners sound was also famously good.
All this comes across well on the excellent DVD from Warners Home Video, which benefits from a voiceover commentary from Thomas McNulty, author of the enjoyable biography of Flynn that I have just read, Errol Flynn: The Life and Career. I don’t normally care much for these special feature commentaries on DVDs, which mean you have to watch the movie all over again but can’t really because the dialogue fades out in favor of the commentator, and the commentaries are sometimes frankly dreary, but this one is good and gives real insight into Flynn and the movie.
Another very strong point of Rocky Mountain was the writing, by Winston Miller and Alan LeMay, no less, the former of My Darling Clementine fame and the latter fine as both novelist and scenarist, notable, later, for The Unforgiven and The Searchers. The plot of Rocky Mountain, which Miller based on the LeMay story Ghost Mountain (the working title of the film), is somewhat traditional for the genre but the script is high quality and succeeds in establishing atmosphere and delineating and developing character.
The picture was directed by Flynn friend William Keighley (pronounced keely) whose last movie three years later, The Master of Ballantrae, would also be an Errol Flynn one. Keighley, pictured below with friend, had worked with William Dieterle on Flynn’s The Prince and the Pauper and with Michael Curtiz on The Adventures of Robin Hood, in Flynn’s heyday, and though Rocky Mountain was his only Western, he clearly understood the genre and he did a solid job.
As for the cast I mentioned, the picture marked the debut of two fine Western character actors, Slim Pickens and Sheb Wooley. Wooley became a drinking buddy of Flynn’s during filming. They play CSA soldiers on a last-ditch mission, sent by Robert E Lee (it’s supposedly loosely based on a real incident but…) to raise California for the Confederacy with the aid of sinister outlaw Cole Smith (an excellent Howard Petrie). It’s a plain-clothes affair and the clothes concerned are authentically patched and worn-out buckskins and such.
Also in the party, thoughtfully introduced by a Flynn voiceover, are Rush Williams, Peter Coe, Buzz Henry and, in the inevitable kid role, Dickie Jones, 23, who will forever be, for me, Dick West, Jock Mahoney’s boy sidekick in The Range Rider. They are bossed by Captain Flynn’s second-in-command, a bearded old-timer, perhaps the greatest Flynn drinking buddy (with Alan Hale anyway), Guinn ‘Big Boy’ Williams (who would be a pall bearer at Flynn’s funeral when he died, aged only 50, in 1959).
The picture is also notable for the leading lady. Lauren Bacall was assigned the role but refused it, and Warners suspended her as a result. She later said, “I turned it down because it’s just not a part. It’s kind of nothing. I’m not angry, I’m just incredulous. I’ve never been offered a role like this before. I don’t want to do it and they shouldn’t have to pay me. I shouldn’t imagine they’ll have any trouble replacing me.” The studio in fact replaced her with Patrice Wymore, with whom Flynn fell in love (though he was engaged at the time) and who would become the third and last Mrs Flynn between the movie’s wrap and its release. Wymore plays the fiancée of a Union lieutenant and she causes most of the trouble by coming out West to find him. In a classic scene for a Western, well choreographed too, Indians (Shoshones, played by local Navajos) attack the stagecoach she is traveling on, which is driven at breakneck pace by good old Chubby Johnson – or his stunt double anyway. Wymore actually does a good job with the role, managing grace and decency in equal measure. There’s no romance between her and Flynn, beyond the suggested hint of attraction. She is in love with her Army fiancé and does not waver there. Warners tried to plug the love interest in their advance publicity, but there wasn’t any.
The lieutenant is played by Scott Forbes, an Englishman known at the time for the title role in ABC’s The Adventures of Jim Bowie He too does a sound job as the straight-up officer. Really, he is the film’s good guy: Flynn is, yes, the hero, but his character has a dark edge. For example, he does not scruple to shoot one of the Union soldiers he has captured, and when he threatens to do the same to the lieutenant if he tries to escape, you can tell he means it. Rocky Mountain is the darkest of the Flynn Westerns.
Yakima Canutt, by the way, is a Union trooper. He was stunt coordinator and worked with Buzz Henry.
A leading character actor is Spot, Dickie’s dog – tragically uncredited – who gets his own music from Steiner whenever he appears, a fast-paced bit on flutes and piccolos, for he is a nippy little job. There’s a bit at the end where he whimpers on the body of his master which could have been saccharine but in fact was rather well done.
Errol uses the same horn-handled 1873 Peacemaker he did in Dodge City, quite clever for 1865. He must have had an advance prototype. Similarly those with 1892 model Winchesters. The Spencer rifles and carbines the Rebs had looked authentic, though. Not that I’m a great expert on firearms.
There’s an amusing in-joke when salty old Williams says the only officer he ever saluted was JEB Stuart and Errol replies, “He must have been quite an officer.” Flynn of course plated JEB Stuart in Santa Fe Trail.
In the climax (spoiler alert) the gallant Rebs sacrifice themselves to save the girl and perish one by one at the hands of the horde of Indians (this is an unreconstructed Hollywood picture in which the Indians are still just nameless savages) and they all die with their boots on. Indeed, Capt. Flynn is the last to fall, most Custerishly, skewered by Indian arrows. He later said, “I never died so heroically.” The US Cavalry arrives too late, for once, but the decent Lt. gives the Rebs a funeral with full military honors and mournful Steiner treatment of Dixie, and orders the stars and bars to be raised on the Rocky Mountain of the title. Not only that, he adopts Spot, so you can tell he’s a goodie.
Bosley Crowther in The New York Times commented, “Needless to say, such heroics do not make much sense, nor do they make for much distinction in the historical qualities of this film. But they make for considerable bravado of a flag-waving, rebel-yelling sort as the gallant band makes its final gesture by riding headlong into the charging Indian horde.”
Rocky Mountain is in many ways a traditional, rather unoriginal Western, and clearly became another Flynn vehicle, but it’s still pretty good. In fact, according to Wikipedia’s entry on the movie, Flynn was given the lead role over Ronald Reagan, to Ron’s annoyance, as he felt he had brought the story to the studio. Reagan left Warner Bros soon afterwards.
McNulty calls it “a solid, earnest little film” and that’s probably about right. Occasionally it rises above that, I think, and it definitely has its qualities, visually, musically and in its screenplay, as well as the acting. Whether he liked Western parts or didn’t, and McNulty says “he came to accept the fact that he was good at it”, Flynn was indeed good in the genre. This last one is the opposite of, say, San Antonio: he isn’t flamboyant and he doesn’t crack a smile. Or if he does, it’s a wry, weary, cynical one. But he’s entirely believable.
Reviews at the time were moderate. For example, the Los Angeles Times said “it comes so close to being an exceptional figure that no one could have been sorrier than this reviewer to see it fall short… the reason is, I think, the characterizations lack forceful definition.”
It did reasonable business. According to Variety, the picture earned $1.7 in the US by the end of 1950. But this was only a shadow of what earlier Flynn Westerns had made. By comparison, Fox’s Broken Arrow with James Stewart grossed $3.5m.
Critic Brian Garfield in the 1980s was very down on it, saying “this one may have been the worst” of Flynn’s Westerns, calling it “a trite adventure” and slamming the “very weak script.” Myself, though I often concur with Brian on Western movies, I can’t agree with that. I think it’s rather good.
I’m not alone. Filmink magazine recently called it “a hidden gem, one of Flynn’s best Westerns.” Thomas McNulty says that Rocky Mountain was an “emotional and touching conclusion” to Errol Flynn’s big-screen Western.
Our next post will be a ‘Flynnorama’, an overall look at Errol Flynn’s Westerns (he did a couple on the small screen too), so come back soon!
20 Responses
Forgot to add that the italian title capitalises on the custerish theme as you said (Flynn was used to die with his boots on anyway…) but who is using a lance, the savages maybe !? . The French title is La Révolte des dieux rouges… (the revolt of the red gods), beside of them Rocky Mountain is rather dull
The title translates as “The 7th Lancers charge” and given the dramatic and heroic charge in the last reel (I wonder how many time Errol shouted “Charge!”) I guess the Italian poster thought of Errol’s band of guerrillas as 7th Lancers.
Interesting to me that you found the picture dull. I thought it was rather good.
Jeff
Jeff, this is only the american title which sounds dull to me compared to the French and ltalian ones which have a more adventurous taste but I like the film very much indeed !
Got it!
Glad you like it too.
Jeff
In fact my 1st post is missing… where I was telling many nice words about the film especially about Flynn and his sad eyes expressing some despair all along the film (as if he knew that the South is going to loose anyway) matching his own life
Yes. I would say that overall, Hollywood Westerns were pro-Union but occasionally they adopted a slightly sentimental ‘sad failure of the Confederacy’ approach.
Hi Jeff,
Thanx for a great review of my favorite Errol Flynn Western. I rank this together with “They Died with Their Boots On” as his best.
I love your writing about Westerns, so keep up the good work.
I usually check with you if it’s worth watching when there’s one movie I haven’t seen before .
This week I’ve run through “The Far Country”, “Rawhide” and “The Naked Spur” all three very good.
“The Naked Spur” is more than very good, I’ll say excellent.
Best regards from a Swedish fan of Western movies
Hi Peter and/or Birgitt,
You’re very welcome. Glad you liked it.
Jeff
The very first episode of Cheyenne, ‘Mountain Fortress,’ bears more than a passing resemblance to ‘Rocky Mountain’ and makes liberal use of footage from this movie. Warners did a lot of recycling from its film library during that period.
Yes, I heard that. Not the first time a feature Western plot would turn up on TV!
Jeff
The dog running at the end to his master choked me up as a kid
The dog bit choked me up as a 40 year old. I’m a dog guy, feel there should be a special Oscar for best canine, or animal, performance.
I thought Flynn looked good in this, lean and clear-eyed. In MONTANA, made the same year, he looked a little “puffy,”. Both in face and body. Morphine and a fifth of Vodka a day is a rough diet for anyone, even Erroll Flynn.
That gives me an idea for a post. It’s def time for an essay on canines in Westerns. I’m a dog guy too.
Jeff, good write-up and I guess I might as well throw in my 2 cents worth, or is it 25 cents worth today, because of inflation. I like ROCKY MOUNTAIN(1950) and I wish Errol Flynn had continued to make Western Movies throughout the 1950’s, because he would have fit right in. I think the more weathered and world-weary he became the more interesting he became, as seen in ROCKY MOUNTAIN. I realize that his popularity at the box office had peaked in 1946, but I think he became a better actor from 1947 onward.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN was shown a lot on tv in the 1960’s and 1970’s. I first viewed it on Memphis, Tennessee’s WREC Channel 3 EARY MOVIE in 1968. I liked it then and I still do. The movie has a lot going for it and I think it is well worth viewing.
Yes, aging stars often did well at Westerns. The grizzled look helped. Gary Cooper was supremo of that. Look at Sam Elliott today. He’s about 100 and just right for the frontier.
Brian Garfield rarely knows what the hell he’s talking about and proves so here by slamming the most worthy Rocky Mountain. This film reminds me somewhat of The Tall T insofar as it’s set, almost entirely, in a single isolated location, and the heroes in both films are confined to this single spot and beset by grave menace and danger. Heck, one could even say that Errol Flynn’s Lafe Barstow bears a strong resemblance to Randolph Scott’s Pat Brennan in his rather dour disposition and his unimpeachably upright behavior vis-a-vis a vulnerable, beautiful lady in their midst. Alas, Rocky Mountain ends far more tragically than The Tall T.
The picture’s scenery, near my old stomping grounds of Gallup, New Mexico, is stark and forbidding, not unlike Monument Valley. And indeed, this film feels almost like something John Ford–Monument Valley Ford, that is–could have directed. The black-and-white photography is quite fine, but I can’t help wondering how this movie would have looked in Technicolor. The red and orange rock formations of west central New Mexico are remarkably vivid and would have shown well in color.
Excellent acting in this one. Slim Pickens makes one helluva film debut for himself and it’s clear from the start that he was born to be a star in the Western genre. Patrice Wymore is very good as a rather brave Yankee woman who finds herself in a very frightening scenario and is a bit conflicted by her presence among Confederates who wind up ambushing her fiance and his Union patrol. Then there’s the grizzled, folksy Chubby Johnson as a stagecoach driver, and a canine thespian playing Spot who very nearly steals the show.
There is never a dull moment in Rocky Mountain, but the conclusion is its most memorable part. Barstow’s Confederates heroically divert a Shoshone host from the woman, the old stagecoach driver, and an injured Bluebelly, and go out in a blaze of glory with a suicidal charge into the Indian forces. The Union cavalry arrives a moment too late to do the Rebs any good, but does honor them by unfurling the Confederate battle flag, and sending the dead soldiers off with a full military tribute as Max Steiner’s dolorous version of “Dixie” plays in the background. It may not be a bona fide tearjerker, but it’s not far from it. At bare minimum, the viewer’s heartstrings will be tugged, provided he has a heart.
I remember having insisted on Jeff to reconsider Rocky Mountain, a film I had discovered and liked very much long ago but that he had only briefly mentioned in his Errol Flynn’ s westerns essay.
My first comment had disappeared in which I was strongly disagreeing with him saying it is an “unoriginal Western”. To me that’s the reverse.
Released the same year as Montana, belonging to the cavalry, the lost patrol and the Civil War in the West subgenres (and survivalist!), Rocky Mountain fits perfectly well with Flynn’s life and career, bringing brightly to an end his flamboyant western filmography (The Golden Shanty I have never seen was broadcast on NBC 26 days after his death) and a metaphor of his life.
As said in 2020, I remembered having been very impressed as a teenager by the very catchy French title, litterally “the revolt of the red gods” before watching it…!
With its unembellished style and crepuscular tone, it is a pretty grim and dark movie, its darkness accentuated by the black & white. No doubt that the western was beginning to change.
A very inspired Ted McCord (beside of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Proud Rebel, The Hanging Tree but also about a dozen of films for Michael Curtiz, several Noirs and The Sound of Music…) did a superb job.
He marvellously showcased the stunning landscapes, increasing the oppressive atmosphere with its plans seen from above andlow-angle shots, using the local hostile topography, playing with level differences, the escarpments, crevices and overhangs, showing in the day for night scenes the rocky peaks and the stark desert in the background, with the characters silhouetted against the sky.
It is a kind of an outdoor lock-up play, a “chamber” western in open air, with not a single interior in the entire film, close to match the conventions of classical western theatre (unity of time, place and action), something already discussed on this blog.
I have not read Ghost Mountain, the original story by Alan Le May (who also directed his own script High Lonesome that you will find in the blog’s index, quite good in my opinion).
I don’t know why they have not kept its title as Rocky is confusing since the film is set in California (Flynn’s character’s name is Barstow…).
Shot in New Mexico, close to Gallup (Pyramid Mountain) and in the Chuska Mountains, north of Window Rock, close to the Arizona border, we can spot the spectacular Cleopatra’s Needle in Todilto Park (shown within Jeff’s text).
In spite of its many discussions’ scenes enlightening the characters’ psychology more than the spectacle (maybe due to a slim budget), the action is suspenseful, quite intense and has virtually no downtime, emotional moments alternating with the fights at breast height.
The film is siding for the South but the North is not ridiculed. Union soldiers are structured and have substantial resources when the Confederates are disorganised and resourceful. If the (Lost) Cause is mentioned, the words slave and slavery are never told even when they talk of their plantations. Southern gallant and gentlemanly conduct parralels the chivalrous attitude of the Union soldiers (Final salute and Dixie etc).
Both sides will forget temporarily their conflicts to fight a common and most formidable ennemy, maybe the best warriors of the three…
Peckinpah will use this trope in Major Dundee in his own way…
Happily enough, William Keighley, Alan Le May and Winston Miller have bannished any comical intermedes (that’s what has aged the most in Ford’s films) for a factual, tense and sharp storytelling and a restrained actors’ direction.
In many respects, especially its modest low-key aspect, it reminds me the excellent Little Big Horn (Charles Marquis Warren, 1951).
And also Fort Apache with the last battle vanishing in a cloud of dust.
But nothing epic nor glorious, and no legend to come.
Just desperate, the Southerners are failing in their primary task. All is lost, but honor.
These delightful unmagnificent 8 (Jeff might have said something about their number…) know they are fighting a losing battle, not thinking of themselves as heroes.
Their final goodbyes are reminiscent of what would follow in The Wild Bunch.
And I can’t help thinking of weary Barstow as a sort of Pike’s ancestor.
It is one of Flynn’s best roles, maybe the best ever of his westerns, beside of They Died With Their Boots On.
Rocky Mountain its minor key version, kind of, where heroism is melancholic and not glorified with no uplifting speeches or large scale actions. The Korea/Cold War years influence maybe…
Flynn, looking older than his age at 41, turns into benefit his hardened looks, his tired and grave face and body damaged by alcoholism.
He is disenchanted, war-torn, cynical, bitter, ruthess, doubting the outcome of the mission, and still, powerfully charming and charismatic, matching perfectly the film’s tone.
That is probably the only time of his career, an incredible originality, where he does not (try to) get the girl and keeps his feelings bottled up.
I have always thought he was potentially the best D’Artagnan ever. Not only the dashing one of The Three Musketeers, but, for the whole trilogy, as, at the end of his career, he would have been perfect for the considerably darker Twenty Years After and The Viscount of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later.
A poignant closing curtain for a legendary actor.
I’ve not seen this film, but you chaps have definitely intrigued me!
I would highly recommend the Errol Flynn Westerns collection DVD that has this film included.
Excellent comments, J-M, particularly on the cinematography and Flynn.
There is a particularly memorable scene of the Yankee gal and a couple of the Rebs gazing down upon a distant nocturnal Shoshone revel around a massive bonfire. It almost looks as though it’s shot from the back of a cave. Regardless, it’s pretty eerie.
As for Flynn, believe it or not, Rocky Mountain is the only film of his I’ve ever seen, and I was pretty impressed. His performance is rather low-key but quite forceful all the same.
I also agree that Rocky Mountain is a poor title for this film. According to the historical marker we see in the opening scene, the peak in question was also known as Ghost Mountain. That would have been a much better title.