The Great Meadow

Inspired by frontiersman Daniel Boone, brawny John Mack Brown (as Berk Jarvis) decides to lead a group of settlers from relatively civilized Virginia to the great wilderness of Kentucky. Before embarking, Mr. Brown takes attractive Eleanor Boardman (as Diony Hall) as his wife. The 1770s terrain is rough, but the bloodthirsty Native Americans "Injuns" are rougher. It seems like they scalp someone close to Brown. Ouch. Brown is off to seek justice and leaves Ms. Boardman without a man around the house...

"The Great Meadow" would have looked much better as a "silent" movie, with sound effects and incidental dialogue. The director of several silent classics, Charles Brabin is clearly having trouble accommodating the changes in style necessitated by the new microphones. So is most of the cast. Brown, who had been fine in silent features, understandably moved from tenuous dramatic actor to "B" western movie star. Boardman, who had been exceptional in silent features, couldn't get a break and retired too early.

**** The Great Meadow (1/24/31) Charles Brabin ~ Johnny Mack Brown, Eleanor Boardman, Gavin Gordon, Lucille LaVerne

THE GREAT MEADOW is an early talkie "western" about settlers moving from Virginia, across the Appalachian Mountains into Kentucky. The film stars Johnny Mack Brown and Eleanor Boardman as a newly married couple who make the trek to "the great meadow" because of a speech given by Daniel Boone.

This is a solid film with excellent production values that do not glorify or simplify frontier life in 18th century America. Life is rugged and tenuous with starvation, illness, and Indian attacks all a part of everyday life.

Brown is solid as the impetuous settler who is up to any task of frontier life. He leads the band of settlers across the rugged mountains and keeps them moving despite the hardships. After his mother is killed by the Indians, he foolishly embarks on a journey of revenge. Boardman, who made only a handful of talkies, is quite good as the naïve young woman who trudges forth with her husband, only to be abandoned by him.

The supporting cast includes solid work by Lucille LaVerne (the mother), Gavin Gordon as Brown's rival, Russell Simpson, Julie Haydon, Dale Fuller, Guinn Williams, Anita Louise, Virginia Sale, Sarah Padden, John Miljan, and Helen Jerome Eddy as the woman driven crazy by Indian attacks.

Worth looking for.

The Great Meadow (1931)

** (out of 4)

A group of Virginians led by Berk Jarvis (Johnny Mack Brown) decide to take the dangerous journey to Kentucky hoping for a better life. This film takes place in 1777 and the "quality" of this early talkie will have you thinking it was shot during that time as well. THE GREAT MEADOW is far from being great but there are several very good and exciting moments scattered throughout it. The only problem is that there are some very bad moments scattered throughout it as well. For the most part I think film buffs or fans of early talkies should at least be somewhat interesting in the film. The highlight is without question the various fight scenes that are sprinkled throughout. The majority of the time the settlers are fighting off Indian attacks and there's a pretty tense sequence where one breaks into a cabin with two women. Of course, this here also contains one of the very bad thing and that's the "reaction" of the woman not being attacked. The film starts off incredibly boring as we have to listen to everyone talking about whether they should go on this journey or not but it certainly picks up when we see them trying to get their equipment through the territory. Again, the action scenes are great and it's too bad we've got so many things that didn't work. The screenplay itself doesn't seem to know what it wants to do as the characters are all rather bland and there's really not much direction and there's especially a lack of energy at times. The sound quality is also pretty bland as is the direction. Fans of the lead star will enjoy seeing him here, although his performance makes the character feel like a really dumb redneck. The supporting performances are a rather mixed bag but the majority of them fall closer to bad than good.

One doesn't watch this movie for it's somewhat uninspired acting, especially by Johnny Mack Brown, who no matter what film he was in only seemed to have one acting style. However, the realistic portrayal of the hardships faced by early settlers in the 18th century is the real reason to view this film. Those problems included weather, terrain, American Indians, and internal disagreements.

The only two failures of this verisimilitude are Eleanor Boardman's pristine complexion throughout the movie and the hero's decision to leave his family and the other settlers and single-handedly take revenge on the leader of the Indian tribe that had been attacking the fort and surrounding settlements.

Prairie saga with just awful performances in almost every role. Incredibly slow moving considering the short running time. The wretchedness of the performances can be partially, but only partially, laid to the cringe worthy dialogue that the actors are forced to spout. It's what they do with it where the rest of the problem lies.

Eleanor Boardman comes off best although some big silent screen gestures occasionally slip in to her work here and there. Still compared to the truly dreadful acting of the two main men, Johnny Mack Brown and Gavin Gordon, she's a Duse. That's Lucille La Verne, the voice of the evil Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, hamming it up as Brown's mother.

If you're a fan of Anita Louise don't be fooled by the prominence of her billing, she has what amounts to a bit in the very beginning of the film and is gone from the picture after that.

All in all a struggle to get through unless you're a student of the early transition from silence to sound.