![]() Now that the war has ended, Bishop (Conderate) sees Bannon (Union) as the reason his son was executed as one of Quantrill’s Raiders, and he’s vowed to see him dead. (I’ll let you come up with your own list of examples.) Working from a short story by Louis L’Amour, The Tall Stranger is part of that sub-genre. Ned Bannon (Joel McCrea) and Hardy Bishop (Barry Kelley) are half-brothers who found themselves enemies in the Civil War. The relationships between brothers, often strained or on opposite sides of the law, was a popular theme with Western screenwriters of the 50s, forming the basis for some of the decade’s finest cowboy pictures - often with some redemption worked in. And while The Tall Stranger won’t knock the Walsh movie off your list of favorites, it has plenty to recommend it. It offers up a re-teaming of Joel McCrea and Virginia Mayo from Raoul Walsh’s terrific Colorado Territory (1949). But this one’s got more going for it than that. In many ways, The Tall Stranger (1957) is just another late-50s CinemaScope Western from Allied Artists - a straightforward, low-budget picture boosted by a cast full of familiar faces. Cline, ASCĬast: Joel McCrea (Ned Bannon), Virginia Mayo (Ellen), Barry Kelley (Hardy Bishop), Michael Ansara (Zarata), Whit Bissell (Judson), James Dobson (Dud), George Neise (Mort Harper), Adam Kennedy (Red), Michael Pate (Charley), Leo Gordon (Stark), Ray Teal (Cap), Philip Phillips (Will), Robert Foulk (Pagones), Jennifer Lea (Mary) It’s great to see them looking like this, and I’d certainly welcome some more.Ī lot of people simply don’t like Great Day In The Morning. But it’s a Jacques Tourneur movie that’s often overlooked, and for that reason, along with its superb presentation on Blu-Ray, I recommend it highly.ĭirector Of Photography: Wilfred M. You hear a lot about how the process was grainy and soft, but you’d never think that after look at these Blu-Rays. Warner Archive has been bringing out 50s SuperScope movies on Blu-Ray lately, such as John Sturges’ Underwater! from 1955, and they’re doing a tremendous job with them. ![]() Being that Tourneur is at the wheel on Great Day In The Morning, we shouldn’t be surprised when Pentecost’s redemption doesn’t happen the way it usually does. But with almost every genre convention Tourneur faces, his pictures seem to zig where other films zag - it’s very evident in his first Western, Canyon Passage (1946). Here, we fully expect Pentecost to see the error of his ways, have a change of heart and make amends before the final fade. It’s the backbone of many of the genre’s finest films. Westerns, especially the ones from the 1950s, get a lot of mileage out of the theme of redemption. Robert Stack is fine as Pentecost, and he’s to be commended for playing the character as the creep that he is. Gordon to the ladies, Virginia Mayo and Ruth Roman. The cast of Great Day In The Morning is terrific, from the villains like Raymond Burr and Leo G. Pools of light in deep shadows are used well to direct our eye and highlight certain characters or bits of action. ![]() First, there’s the incredible look Tourneur gives all his films. But you’d be overlooking a lot of good stuff. The male lead isn’t very likable, and it’d be easy to transfer that opinion to the film itself. He’s always willing to play one side against the other for his own benefit.Īnd that’s where the trouble comes in. Owen quickly establishes himself, drawing the ire of the town boss (Raymond Burr), getting caught up in all the pre-war bickering and fighting, and catching the eye of both a businesswoman (Virginia Mayo) and saloon girl (Ruth Roman). He’s a self-centered opportunist (about the nicest thing you could say about him), hoping to profit from the gold being discovered there and the unrest created by the impending war. He finds the place divided between those sympathetic to the North or the South. Owen Pentecost (Robert Stack) arrives in Denver from his home in North Carolina, right before the start of the Civil War. It’s well worth seeking out, especially now that we can see it in all its Technicolor and Superscope glory on Blu-Ray from Warner Archive. Great Day In The Morning (1956) was Tourneur’s last Western feature (he did some cowboy stuff for TV), and it’s often overlooked or shrugged off. It’s a shame his Westerns - a handful of very good, and very unique, pictures from the 40s and 50s - don’t get the same recognition. Based on the novel by Robert Hardy AndrewsĬast: Virginia Mayo (Ann Merry Alaine), Robert Stack (Owen Pentecost), Ruth Roman (Boston Grant), Alex Nicol (Captain Stephen Kirby), Raymond Burr (Jumbo Means), Leo Gordon (Zeff Masterson), Regis Toomey (Father Murphy), Carleton Young (Colonel Gibson)ĭirector Jacques Tourneur is well known for his horror ( Cat People) and noir ( Out Of The Past) pictures, and he should be.
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