Man nannte ihn Kelly

I finally got to see Yellowstone Kelly today and found it to be a decent enough western. Back in the day I was going to see it at the age of 12, but did not want to deal with the unbelievably long lines or the screaming teens who came to see Kookie.

This was not Edd Byrnes first feature film, but the first after his success on 77 Sunset Strip. The bobbysoxers were nuts about him back in the day and crowded out us connoisseurs of the western. I remember the long lines and the stories about how one could not hear the dialog with the adolescent females going gaga for Kookie.

The real star in the title role was another Warner Brothers TV veteran, Clint Walker. He plays a mountain man trapper and scout, the last of a breed. He's allowed to do his thing on Sioux land because he saved John Russell's life who is the chief.

After taking on Edd Byrnes as a young assistant, the two visit the Sioux where both of them catch the eye of Andra Martin who is an Arapahoe captive and Russell's personal squeeze. Another brave Ray Danton would like to replace Russell in her tepee. When she runs away and follows Walker and Byrnes to their cabin, Russell and Danton come calling with the tribe. These kind of things start wars as the Ancient Greeks would be the first to tell you.

As much as Kookie got all the publicity and was the reason for Yellowstone Kelly's box office, this film belongs to the stoic Clint Walker who if he had come along a decade earlier would have been a great cowboy hero. Walker is smart and stoic in the title role.

I have to say that Andra Martin as a blue eyed Arapahoe was most disconcerting. Just like Burt Lancaster in Apache.

Despite that Yellowstone Kelly was a well made action western that any fan of the horse opera will love.

In 'Yellowstone Kelly,' Clint 'Cheyenne' Walker plays a muscular fur-trapper who prevents war between Indians and U.S. Cavalry, and who survives only to find true love in the arms of a beautiful and talented newcomer Andrea Martin...

Becoming a 'squaw man' and a devoted one, Clint Walker goes Western all the way in this standard action film with routine excitements and a cast of TV faces: John Russell as the tall, darkly chief prancing across the plains; Ray Danton as the Indian with conviction and authority; Claude Akins as the heavy tough sergeant; and Warren Oates making his debut as a proud soldier...

With the absence of a strong story line in the screenplay, but displaying an outstanding Technicolor photography, 'Yellowstone Kelly' is

Young Anse is the most endearing character in the whole movie:when you deal with the experimented tough guy /sensitive greenhorn team,generally the latter is told lessons in life and survival by the former ;in "Yellowstone Kelly", on the contrary ,it's the young one who,all in all,shows the way.He's an orphan ,an uneducated young boy ,whose only "culture " is his "Our Father" prayer.He has understood,long before Kelly ,that life is sacred and that you can't "own" anybody.One can dream of what Nicholas Ray would have done with this subject.

That said,this low-budget western is enjoyable even though the Indians look like white guys with wigs ( they are ,particularly the Indian beauty everyone covets ,about as "Indian" as Debra Paget in "broken arrow" or Barbara Bush in "Taza Son of Cochise" )

Magnificent locations, a pleasant adventure: "Yellowstone Kelly" is a typical nice western movie of the 1950s and, in my personal opinion, it is a relevant instance of a better way of making cinema (better than the current one, I mean).

The movie has merits and defects. Among the merits (apart the already quoted beauty of the photography): the fast-pace of the narration; a number of well-elaborated action scenes; the presence of Andra Martin as the Arapaho girl Wahleeah. In fact, beautiful Martin manages to create, with few but skillful touches, a soft erotic atmosphere rather unusual in western movies of that epoch. However, it should be noted that her (splendid) blue eyes are a relevant clumsiness of the movie. Clint Walker, in the role of the trapper Yellowstone Kelly, is a nice guy, though certainly not a great actor. As always in mature 1950's westerns, the war between whites and Indians is provoked by either hot-heads or rogues, in the present case a stupid ambitious cavalry officer: this remark is just intended to contradict the false common-place that in those years Indians were always represented as blood-thirsty savage assassins.

The story is placed around the Wyoming-Montana border: however the final part was evidently filmed in the wonderful area of Sedona, Arizona. I'm not able to decide whether this could be considered a defect of the movie: probably not. The worst flaw in the film is the fact that all Sioux perfectly understand and speak English (?). There are several other inaccuracies. For instance: I may be wrong, but I bet that the Blue Soldiers had never been equipped with Winchester carabines.

I saw "Yellowstone Kelly" at the theatre, when I was a kid: the pleasant impressions I retained have been confirmed by my recent new view at the TV. I recommend this movie, especially to people nostalgic of good old western flicks.

I like Clint Walker, I'm a fan of Gordon Douglas' movies (e.g., "Them!", "Rio Conchos", "The Detective") and I can even tolerate Edd Byrnes--in small doses--but I really wasn't expecting much from "Yellowstone Kelly" when I first saw it a few days ago. Turned out that I got a lot more than I bargained for.

First off, Walker is a hell of a screen presence. I haven't seen "Cheyenne" in many, many years, and I kind of forgot just how much he can fill up the screen, and not just physically; he has the kind of commanding presence that John Wayne has, and although Wayne's a better actor, Walker's no slouch himself. He does a first-rate job here, and Burt Kennedy's script doesn't make him the kind of stock "hero" type that many "B" westerns tend to make of their stars.

Second off, the scenery--as pointed out by other reviewers--is spectacular. It has the kind of power that John Ford brought to the screen with his Monument Valley locations yet it doesn't overwhelm the overall film, as Monument Valley tended to do. In addition, Gordon Douglas' westerns are noted for their "balls to the wall" action scenes, as in "Rio Conchos", and this film doesn't disappoint in that department. There are several of them, from bar-room brawls to full-out Indian attacks, and they're all extremely well done.

Then there's Andra Martin. She's not given much to do, actually, but she is one of the most strikingly and exotically beautiful women to have ever graced the screen, and she does the most here with what she's given, and she's actually quite good.

A good supporting cast--Claude Akins and Warren Oates stand out, and even Edd Byrnes is far less annoying than he usually is--helps greatly. If there's any downside to this picture, it's the casting of white actors in Indian roles. John Russell and Ray Danton are good actors, but they don't even come close to being convincing as Indians and, as this practice usually does, actually hurt the picture.

Overall, though, I was more than pleasantly surprised with "Yellowstone Kelly". Walker turns in a first-rate performance, the scenery is beautiful, the action is well done, and on top of everything else there's Andra Martin. A very good combination. Walker made another western that I haven't seen, "Fort Dobbs", and if it's half as good as this one was, I'll have to check it out.