Drums Along the Mohawk

Dumb among the rednecks. It's surprising just how bad this movie is. The director? John Ford. The stars? Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert? That's some pretty heavy duty bloodlines there. So why is this flick so foolish? It barely qualifies as a story; just a pastiche of scenes from colonial New York, culminating in a Revolutionary War victory for the proto-Americans and a few laughable visuals of women and Natives saluting the flag in their joy over a win for the white trash. As an echo of the country that once was, this is a weird piece of historical curiosity--but without the usual dose of fond nostalgia these sorts of movies usually bring. As a movie, it's makes little sense, is not particularly entertaining, and doesn't show its cast and crew in a good light. Quite an unusual--and disappointing--experience.

Fort Apache

Sometimes, a Western moves at a mosey, appropriately enough. Here's an example, a film that takes its time getting to the heart of the story, though an excess of establishing scenes. Eventually, though, you wind up with a pretty good but not great cowboys and Indians flick. The story is basically just a backdrop to collection of character studies. Henry Fonda's colonel is supposed to be the foil, if not the outright villain, of the piece, but, frankly, a modern or dispassionate viewer can see he has a point, both about his perceived exile to a frontier posting and the half-assed nature of the men under his command. It's a decent performance, but not one that can really drive a film. John Wayne comes off somewhat better--his captain is practical, pragmatic, and a decent guy. Among the principals, Shirley Temple shines as the colonel's daughter; she's a luminous screen presence, even here in her post-superstardom teens. When the movie eventually gets around to some actual story, a series of questionable actions ultimately leads to a provocative climax and ending, with some interesting perspective on just how the west came to be considered to have been won--though ultimately without diverging too far from Western convention. All in all, not bad but not really spectacular--basically, it's pretty much standard issue stuff, which means watchable but not really a classic.

My Darling Clementine

The key takeaway here is the reminder of how good, how versatile Henry Fonda was as an actor. His Wyatt Earp here covers a lot of range, from calm to courtly to hardass, and all of it seems real and natural. The overall movie suffers from misplaced elements--some of the stabs at humor, including recurring jokes, feel out of place in the broad range of the plot--and that pulls the rating down, despite an otherwise satisfying Western adventure.

How the West Was Won

Alternatively entertaining and asinine. Yes, movies were different back in the day, especially westerns, which hardly exist nowadays. Still, you kind of wonder when musical numbers randomly break out in the midst of the story of westward ho! expansion. Anyway, there's a lot of hokum here, some decent action scenes, a hilarious cameo scene with John Wayne as Sherman and Harry Morgan as Grant at Shiloh--visually incongruous barely begins to describe it--and just a little bit of regret about, you know, all that stabbing Indians in the back. And the bad restoration job on the DVD I watched--including distractingly viewable seams between the original Cinerama panels--didn't help. As a time capsule piece, I guess it may be worth a look, once in a while. Otherwise, not the best work of an admittedly all-star cast.