BEFORE: Well, after "Gone With the Wind", it's all downhill from here, right? God, I wish. I've mentioned how I'm on the "tougher track" with some very long Westerns and war films coming up - now I wish I'd taken the easier path and scheduled the shorter, simpler Hitchcock films. I could be hitting "Psycho" right around Halloween, and wouldn't that be something? Oh, well.
I eneded up watching "Gone With the Wind" on the same day that "Lincoln" premiered on premium cable, and though it's mighty tempting to follow up with another Civil War-themed film, I'm looking at the big picture - so I'll get back to the Civil War in a couple of days and I'll get to Mr. Lincoln in a few weeks.
I'm not giving up on linking, just because I'm dipping back into the past for a couple of oldies. Linking from "Gone With the Wind", Victor Jory (who played the evil overseer Jonas Wilkerson) carries over to play the main villain tonight.
THE PLOT: During the war for Texas independence, one man leaves the Alamo before the end (chosen by lot to help others' families) but is too late to accomplish his mission, and he is branded a coward.
AFTER: As you might expect, I've got something of a bias for modern films, and I don't think I'm alone in this. I know some people who won't even watch black-and-white films, just because they look so outdated. Or maybe it's because nearly everyone in them is dead, I don't know. Except Olivia De Havilland, apparently.
Anyway, when you compare most Westerns made in the 1940's and 1950's to films like "Unforgiven", or "Dances With Wolves", to me they just don't hold up. For one thing, the technology of filmmaking has come a long way. Those really fake-looking shots of people riding on prop wagons in front of obvious rear-projection backdrops drive me crazy. At what point did Hollywood realize that it looked more real to transport the actors out to Arizona or New Mexico and film them on a real wagon in a real canyon?
Then we've got the simplistic plots to deal with. You know what I'm talking about, all that Tom Mix/Roy Rogers/Lone Ranger stuff, where the good guy wears a white hat and clean clothes and the bad guys wear black and look all grimy. The "High Noon" type stuff, where the sheriff has to defend the town against Black Bart's gang. It entertained young kids in the 1950's, but seems really dated now.
Into this mix comes "The Man From the Alamo", where I must admit, it's not so easy to tell who's the good guy. Oh, it's easy enough for the audience, it's the actor with top billing, Glenn Ford. But for the characters on the screen, not so much. First off, he leaves the Alamo (yes, you read that right) - because apparently just before all of the valiant heroes in Texas made their last stand, there was a chance for them (OK, one of them) to leave. Someone's sort of messing with history here - you can't just call a "time out" in the middle of a siege and let someone go. When the commanding officer asks every man willing to fight to take one step forward, he's really not expecting someone to step back. It's more of a rhetorical gesture, really, he doesn't expect anyone to opt out. (I'm reminded of the British drill sergeant in "Monty Python's Meaning of Life"...)
Here's where the film screws up, because it can't really decide if this guy, John Stroud, is a coward or not. Technically if he doesn't want to fight in a particular battle, that's desertion. But he's thinking about defending his family, so isn't that a darn good reason for leaving the Alamo? But then the talk among the soldiers who stood their ground seems to suggest that they drew lots to determine who would leave and check on all of their families - but who gave any of these soldiers any choice in the matter to begin with?
Word starts to spread about the guy who left the Alamo, and when Stroud comes to town on another matter, the whole town wants to beat him up. And yet, he doesn't explain to any of them WHY he left the Alamo. I assume this is part of his plan, because otherwise it doesn't make much sense - if the reason why he left is so simple, why not just say it?
Instead he ends up in jail, and his cellmate MIGHT be part of the gang of non-Mexicans that burned down his home. I say "Non-Mexicans" because that's what they are - but they're pretending to be Mexicans. I'm not sure if this is very clever of them, or was written into the plot to cover the fact that the casting director couldn't find any genuine Mexicans, or people who even looked Mexican.
But the real Mexicans are coming (though not seen in this film...) so the whole town of Oxbow packs up and forms a wagon train, and our hero catches up with them to defend them from the fake Mexicans, and get his revenge. Which turns out to be a smart move, since the soldiers defending the wagon train are called away to fight - and the commander in charge faces a similar dilemma to the one our hero had at the Alamo - follow orders, or stay and defend the wagon train, which is the right thing to do, but is equivalent to desertion. Ah-hah, it's not so easy, is it?
NITPICK POINT: The whole town packs up and leaves Oxbow. Then a bunch of men from Oxbow storm the jail in order to string up Stroud - huh? Where did they come from? And why didn't they leave to defend the wagon train? Priorities, people!
NITPICK POINT #2: The men of Oxbow storm the jail, grab Stroud, and head out to lynch him - leaving the cell door hanging wide open, enabling Stroud's cellmate to escape. That's some quality mob justice, there...
NITPICK POINT #3: Much is made of the characters with rifles needing to load with powder horns and clean the rifle before shooting - and they are then seen shooting multiple times as needed, without stopping to reload. Huh? What happened to reloading between shots?
Also starring Glenn Ford, Julie Adams (last seen in "World Trade Center"), Chill Wills (last seen in "Meet Me In St. Louis"), Hugh O'Brian (last seen in "Ten Little Indians"), Jeanne Cooper, Neville Brand (last seen in "Birdman of Alcatraz"), Guy Williams.
RATING: 4 out of 10 dispatches from Sam Houston
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