The Tall T

source: The Tall T

Budd Boetticher and Randolph Scott teamed up for quite a few westerns. While most of them have the simplest of plots, they managed to rise above the vast pool of mediocre films of the genre. Now this wasn't necessarily because the plots were that unusual. In fact, the plot for THE TALL T seems rather similar to quite a few westerns I've seen. The difference is the nice meandering style and Scott's simple and seemingly effortless delivery. Some of this was Scott--he was a much better actor than people thought at the time. Some of this was Boetticher's ability to bring out this from Scott and the other actors. So together they have produced with THE TALL T yet another classic film---one that is strikingly beautiful and once again has an object lesson about doing the right thing--a common theme in their films together. In this film, genial and easy-going Scott wanders into a stage coach robbery and kidnapping along with the rest of the people on the stage. The bandits are tough and mean business--you can tell this because Henry DeSilva is among them--a perennial psycho bad boy of old Westerns. An unusual member of this ensemble cast, however, is a middle-aged Maureen O'Sullivan who is usually more at home in a Tarzan film, not a western--although she is just fine here as and aging spinster who finally marries--and marries a total lout! Later in the film, after being bullied and threatened, Scott realizes that they might not make it out alive so he decides to act. Behaving like the typical action-hero, he quickly switches from nice guy to killer--much like Bogey did in KEY LARGO--leading to a dandy showdown with all three of the killers. The final showdown isn't particularly surprising nor are many of the plot elements. However, as I said above, it's all handled so well. Scott is great as a combination action-hero AND nice-guy cowboy and the film is among the better examples of the genre.

**** I never really figured out what the Tall T exactly was. It doesn't matter. This is a great film and an outstanding western. The actors are all good, especially Randolph Scott as a western everyman (I always want to repeat the "Blazing Saddles" homage to Scott whenever I say his name)and Richard Boone as one of the most evil bad men in western film history. Skip Homeier and Henry Silva give great performances as two young guns who are teamed up with Boone. They are sexy and evil at once. The dialogue is biting, the situations are adult and dramatic, the scenery is superb, and the music complements the film's tension to a Tall T.

The first twenty minutes of this Ranown cycle movie have an easygoing charm quite unlike the rest of the series, which are all diamond hard and laconic. Here Randolph Scott's homesteader Pat Brennan gets to smile a few times and even strings together several sentences, as he joshes with stage driver Arthur Hunnicutt. Also winning, is the later business with the bull-riding, which is beautifully done, as Brennan overrules his own better judgment so as not to be shamed in front of a despised rival. As a result, he ends up limping along a desert trail lugging a saddle and eating dust. Somehow I wanted the film to continue in this unpredictable vein. However the screenplay quickly reverts to classic form, Scott turning rock hard and squaring off against friendly bad guy Richard Boone and his two henchmen. Scott-Boetticher fans generally consider this film the best of the series. My preference is for the treacherous Decision at Sundown, even though it lacks the symbolic boulder-strewn background. A key flaw to this story is that no matter how charming Boone gets, we know early on the unforgivable thing he has done at the Way Station, something that other trademark bad guys in the cycle were not condemned with. Thus Boone's bad guy loses the necessary moral ambiguity that is key to the cycle as a whole. Also, the entrapment scene with henchman Skip Homeier is neither credible nor well executed, a rarity for the usually eagle-eyed Boetticher. Which is not to say that this is not an outstanding Western for many of the reasons cited by other reviewers. I particularly like the observation that the main difference between Boone and Scott is that the latter has developed a personal code while Boone continues to run with his amoral henchmen. But Scott's is a very personal code and one not in alignment with conventional morality, otherwise he would not allow Boone to ride off Scot-free after the terrible crimes he committed at the Way Station. There's an interesting conflict here between what Scott owes Boone and what Scott owes society. A more conventional Western would have resolved the conflict in a conventional way, which is why these Ranown films are so special. The Tall T, along with its companion films, shows how well Boetticher and Co. understood the wisdom of "Less is sometimes more", and stands as a perfect antidote for those max'ed out on today's empty big-budget extravaganzas.

Very good Western about a rough confrontation with strong characterization. Compelling tale of a cowboy , Randolph Scott , and his nemesis, Richard Boone, and hoodlums , Skip Homeier and Henry Silva . In the Old west there are always the men who live breathe violence and the women who hold their breath . Having lost his horse in a wager , a hard-bitten man named Brennan (Scott) takes a stagecoach driven by his friend Ed (Arthur Hunnicutt) . Ed is carrying newlyweds , Willard (John Hubbard) and Doretta (Maureen O'Sullivan). At the next station the stagecoach and its passengers are kidnapped by a trio of gunfighters ( Homeier , Silva) led by a villain named Usher (Richard Boone). When Usher aware that Doretta is the daughter of a rich copper-mine owner, he decides to obtain a ransom but the events get worse. This is a tremendously exciting story of a drifter who helps newlyweds and falls in love with the recent wife . It begins as a sluggish , slow-moving Western but follows to surprise us with dark , complex characters and solid plot . The simple tale is almost rudimentary though full of clichés, a good guy come to free newlyweds just in time to get the woman . Suspense and tension builds over the time in which the outlaws and the starring await a response to their demands . The action is brutishly cruel as when the nasties shoot without remission. The highlights of the film are the facing off between Scott and his enemies and the climatic showdown on the ending . Phenomenal and great role for Randolph Scott as tough guy , he's the whole show. He play perfectly as stoic, craggy, and uncompromising figure .Vivid and atmospheric musical score by Heinz Roemhelz and colorful cinematography reflecting marvelously the rocky,stony scenarios by Charles Lawton Jr . Watchable results for this offbeat Western. The motion picture is stunningly directed by Budd Boetticher in bleak style . Boetticher formed a production company called ¨Ranown¨ along with Harry Joe Brown and Randolph Scott and as usual writer Burt Kennedy. The first Harrry Brown-Boetticher-Scott movie was 1956's " Seven men from now" , following ¨Decision at sundown(57)¨, ¨Buchanan rides alone(58)¨,¨Westbound(59)¨ ,¨Ride lonesome(59) ,in the decades since, they have produced and directed one Western ¨Comanche Station(60)¨ . Boetticher was a great expert on Western genre and also on the bullfighting world as ¨Bullfighter and the lady¨, ¨The magnificent matador¨ and ¨Arruza¨ . Rating : Above average. Well worth watching .

Something happened to the Western movie during the 1950s. Where Westerns of the War and immediate post-War years seems to be wrapped up in the American flag, indeed the very essence of Americana, there was a sea change when the memory of WW2 faded and the spectre of the Cold War and the Soviet threat began to rise. The truth is I think I prefer Westerns cast in the more traditional mold. I like Americana. I've said elsewhere on this site that MY DARLING CLEMENTINE is my all-time favourite Western, with THE WESTERNER running it a close second. But there is an undeniable something going on in movies like THE TALL T. You can't quite put your finger on it, but it's a nagging disturbing influence that grows as the film progresses. The setting of THE TALL T looks like the old West. People dress like it's the old West, but the comforting Code seems to be gone. The Code of the West that says all men are supposed to protect the womenfolk and the kids. But in THE TALL T, it's the womenfolk and the kids that are preyed upon by the bad guys. Of course, the film-makers were just reflecting the way that contemporary society was changing around them. In the real world there were also those that preyed on women and children. Perhaps the experiences of ordinary Americans, and the events some of them witnessed during WW2, changed the ground rules. Whatever the reasons, THE TALL T is a far bleaker film than anything Ford would have made during the 1940s. Is it any good? It's superb. Cooper is perfect as the taciturn hero. Henry Silva makes a very scary villain. It's tough as saddle-leather and tight as a cinch at just 78 minutes. But it's not a happy film. The story in THE TALL T may be set in the 1880s, but it's also a fascinating reflection of the times that hatched it.

The Tall T This Budd Boetthicher/Randolph Scott project is overrated. I'll admit it's watchable and certainly has merit, but at the end of the day it's a middling movie riddled with faults. As usual, I'll start with some positives: I'm a big Richard Boone fan and this no doubt one of his better parts. He's plays Frank Usher, the heavy, who is conflicted over his outlaw status and is especially unhappy with his lack of intelligent, honorable companionship. The plot pretty much makes sense from beginning to end, which is saying a lot for this type of movie. It moves along pretty well and maintains a good level of dramatic tension. Henry Silva is quite effective as "Chink", the outlaw band's stock crazy gunman. He played a similar kind of character a year later in "The Law And Jake Wade". The presence of Skip Homeir is interesting. He was the heavy in "The Gunfighter" five years earlier. Randolph Scott, as usual, is modestly effective as the leading man. This was shot almost entirely on location. There are very few sound stage scenes. Willard Mims, the cowardly bounder, is well characterized and the part is well acted by John Hubbard. Here's some of the things that kept this movie from being better: In the opening scene, great pains are taken to deeply characterize a man and little boy who run a remote stagecoach station. Later in the day - about 15 minutes of move time later - they are brutally gunned down and their both their bodies are dumped in a well right in front of the station. Fortunately, this happens off camera. Nonetheless, this is extremely grisly and out of sync with the tone of the rest of the movie. Scott's Pat Brennan is the hero, but starts out the movie by riding 30 miles from his ranch to a place where he loses his horse in a foolish bet, forcing him to walk home. Is this the clever guy we are counting on to outwit the outlaw gang? Also, about that bet. Wouldn't his former boss have allowed him to ride the horse he lost home, and return later with two horse? Or loan him a horse? The guy is trying to get Pat to come back to work for him. Why make him walk home 30 miles carrying a saddle? Attempts to make Pat Brennan seem like a super nice, friendly and easy going fellow fall very flat. The story is supposed to be set in New Mexico or Arizona and is clearly filmed in California. There's no way Pat Brennan would have allowed Frank Usher to mount his horse in the final scene. Every cowboy in the universe carries a rifle on his horse. Also, he would have not allowed Usher to walk away. He had murdered the little boy and man at the station, as well as his "buddy" the stagecoach driver. Pat didn't have to kill him to stop him, just shoot him in the leg. There is very little attempt at comic relief. No Indians, no Mexicans, no civil war references, some of the things I like to see referenced in Westerns. The ending is too abrupt. I guess the "guy got the girl" in the end, but this feels contrived.

Cowboy Pat Brennan (Randolph Scott) gets caught in a hostage situation when some bandits led by bad guy Frank Usher (Richard Boone) hold up a stagecoach he's on. Also held captive are rich Doretta Mims (Maureen O'Sullivan) and husband Willard Mims (John Hubbard). Usher discovers that Doretta is rich and decides to hold her for ransom...but Pat is determined to save her. I'm not a fan of westerns but I agree there are a few classics like "High Noon" and "Ride the High Country". I read that this was a classic but, after seeing it, I can't figure out why! I heard this was an adult western--but what's so adult about it? The conflict and yawningly familiar tough guy dialogue has been before in countless westerns. I pretty much knew what the ending was going to be after the bad guys showed up. This film has nothing great or interesting in it. The acting is good (especially by Scott), the scenery is beautiful in Technicolor and it is well-directed by Budd Boetticher (that's why it gets 2 stars)--but I was bored silly. Maybe for western fans this is a classic but I couldn't wait for it to end. I can't recommend this.

This 1957 Western follows in the tradition of "Rawhide" (1951). Once again we find a group of people that are being held by a band of thieves while waiting for their next stage to rob. This time Randolph Scott has taken over the Tyrone Power role of the hero in the earlier film. Scott must wait for the appropriate opportunity to make his stand against the evil band of killers (Richard Boone, Skip Homeier, and Henry Silva). Maureen O'Sullivan (who once portrayed Tarzan's Jane of the movies) finds herself in the unusual role of portraying a "plain jane" who has recently married a scoundrel. The newlyweds are on their way to their honeymoon when they are captured by Boone and his gang of cut throats. O'Sullivan's husband tries to use his new wife and her father's fortune as a bargaining chip to buy his way out of his predicament...but the killers wind up killing him along with the stage station's owner and his son. The hapless victims all seem to be killed off one by one and thrown into a well. Margaret O'Sullivan's only hope is for Randy to somehow save her. Scott uses the gang's individual weaknesses to get the drop on them .... and what is to come is one of the most brutal Westerns made during that period of film making. This film serves as a transitional bridge between the old Ken Maynard (man in a white hat who only drinks milk) bloodless Western and the grimy, realistic sweat stained Spaghetti Western that is destined to come. A fine cast and a disciplined script makes it everything one could hope for in a Western!!!

SPOILERS. If you're attracted only to black-and-white dramas shot in the rain in Slovenia, you probably won't like this one. It's a no-nonsense El Cheapo Western shot on a low budget, an elementary piece of exposition of masculine honor, with Boetticher, Scott, Kennedy, Richard Boone, and movie flats -- all at the top of their forms. What distinguishes the half-dozen or so Westerns that came from Boetticher and Scott is not so much the plot, which is generally simple, but the slight twists in character and the occasional grace notes in the dialogue. You have to love this dialogue. "Cookin'? That's WIMMIN's work!" And, said by Scott in all sincerity, "There are some things a man can't ride around." And, "There are ten head of wimmin for every man in Sonora. Course, most of them is just hurrah gals." And, "I'm not gonna get shot in the belly just 'cause you're feelin' sorry for yourself." And, "Why don't you just say it out in words?" Basically the story has Scott and O'Sullivan (who, twenty years earlier had been Tarzan's delectable mate) held hostage by Boone and his two shallow young companions, Billy Jack (Skip Homeier) and Chink (Henry Silva). Boone, although a vicious murderer, is not entirely unsympathetic. He feels forced to "run with" these coarse companeros who live from moment to moment. They don't even know their own ages. They've been beaten and mistreated since they were kids. ("You run with them," says Scott reprovingly.) Boone, on the other hand, is sick of their talk about wimmin and such. He is lonely, has no family or wummin waiting for him. "Talk," he orders Scott at gunpoint, "about anything!" He dreams of someday having a spread of his own, with a couple of cattle, working the ground. But the code -- I mean the movie code of the 1950s, not the Western code -- is an unforgiving one. He is, after all, a murderer. When O'Sullivan's cowardly new husband is given permission to ride off to freedom and desert his wife, Boone turns away and mutters, "Bust him, Chink." The coward's name is Willard Mimms -- Arthur Honeycutt draws out the vowel and imposes a dipthong on it when he pronounces the name -- "Mee-yums." We know Mimms is toast five seconds after we meet him. Richard Boone is great as the heavy with the daydreams. In a particularly violent climax he is blinded by a shotgun, twirls around entangled in a burlap sheet, and collapses. Scott shows his range in this movie. He laughs at the beginning and becomes grim after being taken hostage. He even forcefully smothers O'Sullivan in passionate kisses. And I thought he only like horses and mules. Commanding too is the performance of Henry Silva, in pink shirt and suspenders. He's clever, the way a sewer rat is clever. He slouches when he walks, and he stands hipshot. His expression hardly ever varies. And his voice is matter of fact, even when he's eagerly anticipating dumping yet another body in the well. It's quite a lot of fun, shot as it is in Movie Flats. That's Mount Whitney in the background, the highest peak in California's Sierra Nevada. The highest peak in the lower 48 for that matter.