Roseanna McCoy

Out picking flowers, pretty Joan Evans (as Roseanna McCoy) gets stung by not only a hornet, but also handsome Farley Granger (as Johnse Hatfield). Guess you could call it love at first bite. Of course, their feudin' families ("The Hatfields and the McCoys") are against the young duo getting hitched... The meeting of the hillbilly "Romeo and Juliet" is one of the couple's few good scenes, with Mr. Granger leaping to Ms. Evans' aid, and sucking insect poison from her arm. The original casting idea, to star Cathy O'Donnell from Granger's "They Live by Night" (1948), might have worked. Richard Basehart (as Mounts Hatfield) easily goes to the head of a strong supporting cast. Little Peter Miles (as Randall McCoy) has a memorable shooting scene. And, many of the locations, by Lee Garmes, are beautiful.

***** Roseanna McCoy (8/18/49) Irving Reis ~ Joan Evans, Farley Granger, Richard Basehart, Peter Miles

Probably Samuel Goldwyns's Roseanna McCoy a story based on the real life Hatfield/McCoy feud would be better known and received today if Paramount had not beaten Goldwyn to the hillbilly saga. Their films, The Trail Of The Lonesome Pine and Shepherd Of The Hills cover the subject far better and are in color.

It's Romeo and Juliet once again in a different setting in this film. During a county fair Johnse Hatfield played by Farley Granger meets and flips for young Roseanna McCoy played by newcomer Joan Evans. A hornet stings her and Granger with some first aid with amorous overtones saves her from infection. After that true love will try to win out even over a pair of families who have been feuding for generations.

The clan patriarchs are Charles Bickford and Raymond Massey for the Hatfields and McCoys respectively a pair of actors who could convey merciless hate better than most. The women are pretty good to in that department with Aline McMahon for the McCoys and Hope Emerson for the Hatfields. But the guy to watch in this film is Richard Basehart who did a fine line of psychotics in many of his film roles. He just loves being a Hatfield because it gives him an excuse to kill. A McCoy is just someone he's got permission to shoot at will, they're in 365 day hunting season as far as Basehart is concerned.

Color would have been nice, but some of the rural area of California substituted nicely for the Appalachins. Roseanna McCoy is not a bad film, but I prefer the ones I cited already from Paramount.

It's down to the old guard of Charles Bickford ("Hatfield") and Raymond Massey ("McCoy") to inject a bit of personality - bigoted and curmudgeonly - into this old feud western. Grudges galore have prevailed for generations between these two families until "Johnse" (Farley Granger) and the eponymous "Roseanna" (Joan Evans) start to fall for each other. Over their respective dead bodies, say the oldies, but the youngsters are made of solid stock and opinions and entrenchments are going to have to be reviewed if there is any chance of peace breaking out. Massey stands out for me here, he always did manage to portray the puritanical character rather well and he clashes well with Bickford's bloody-minded character too. The rest of this features the odd gunfight but is mostly a rather ponderously paced romantic drama with little chemistry between the lovers nor skill from them as actors either. Frank Loesser wrote the title song, and some of the dialogue is quaintly effective - like in a "Wile E. Coyote" cartoon but the rest of it is little better than standard afternoon feature fayre.

For this big, classy production, Sam Goldwyn transposed the Capulet/Montague conflict to the Hatfield/McCoy story. John Collier concocted a quirky screenplay with eccentric details of mountain magic, as well as some droll humor at the expense of the rustics ["Don't talk with your knife in your mouth!"] These efforts sink under the ploddingly literal direction of Irving Reis and the disastrous casting of Joan Evans in the title role [only marginally competent even as an ingenue]. Farley Granger has the appropriate dash for Romeo, but seems too squeaky clean for the squalid Hatfield family. It's still interesting for the exceptionally fine supporting cast and the graceful location camerawork of old master Lee Garmes.

I really expected to like Roseanna McCoy because it had a really good premise and fine actors. Unfortunately, the way the characters were developed left much to be desired. Johnse Hatfield is introduced as a stalker, which may have been acceptable in 1949. However, I have watched many movies from that era and the way Johnse behaved (supposedly)out of desire for her would never have been acceptable.

Johnse's actions concerning Roseanna McCoy may have been begrudgingly tolerated after a long courtship. But from his first several meetings with her, it is made clear that Johnse is a loathsome and dumb, albeit handsome, brute. I understood Roseanna McCoy was supposed to be extremely naive, but some of the ridiculous choices she made left me wanting to see bad things happen to her. It did not seem like Roseanna cared about anything or anyone, including herself.

The lovers' families were feuding just like in Romeo and Juliet, but that is where the similarities end. Johnse was certainly no Romeo and Roseanna was definitely not Juliette. The love story seemed very forced, and not just because Johnse takes what he wants, world be damned. In the third act, the movie tries to create sympathy for the two characters but it is far too late. Johnse and Roseanna were the two characters I cared about least in the movie.

As other reviewers have stated, the cinematography was excellent in Roseanna McCoy. I just wish the rest of the film had been as fine as the camera-work.