KingCoody

With that title one would expect either a western, a p.i./cop dark streets noir,or a war drama. Well it's in the West on a sheep ranch and Rory Calhoun is the protagonist. Jean Simmons is there to provide the standard romantic figure but is way too sophisticated to be believed as a outland waif. Stephen McNally like his contemporary Charles McGraw just looks of villainy so its surprising when he carries a badge while Mr. Ahearne like his screen daughter just looks out of place. So one gets a character study instead of a shootalot as the title implies. The actors do the script,the director sees his slide continuing,and the viewer wonders why the title wasn't used by Randolph Scott for one of his Ranown epics.

At another studio perhaps there would have been a happier ending,with all the little people getting together and buying that farm. Capra maybe for that or over at Twentieth Century Fox Shirley Temple could have sung some happy tunes while Bill Robinson danced with Lenny and George in the background Lenny and George being her caretakers until they find her rich relative's ranch in the San Joaquin Valley. Over at Warners perhaps a shootout ending with George killing Curley before collapsing dead with Lenny and Mae free to fall in love. Lewis Milestone directed a realistic drama about the forces that drive us to be either humane or inhuman,whether inside of ourselves or beyond our control. The character of George could have treated the retarded Lenny as a beast of burden to bolster his own image but it's the ranch owner's son Curley who does that to most of the workers except for Charles Bickford who he envies and fears. The character of Mae is meant to be seen as both shrill and pathetic trapped in a loveless marriage in a setting where she thought she would be elevated considered one of "better people" of the community;has come to realize too late her true role as a breeder of more Curley's. Lenny represents the trusting masses who follow whatever voice is loudest or gives the most reward and by not being able to discern his own innate strength mot destroyed or ruthlessly controlled. The example of Nazism and Communism alive and baring fangs in Europe gave added weight to the role of Lenny. Both had taken over stricken societies with visions of a new day with rewards for the faithful brutal remorseless doom for those who challenged them. Film is not escapist fare no bright tomorrow over the horizon as in Ford's version of The Grapes of Wrath,only one little man permanently crippled and alone in a society that barely knows he exists.

The only thing the real Tecumseh and this film's Tecumseh have in common is they were both Native Americans. Following on the heels of the successful Broken Arrow with James Stewart and Jeff Chandler as The Apache Leader Cochise,Hollywood flirted with the Indian as A Sympathetic Figure for a moment in series of films of dwindling quality. Columbia got on the bandwagon with this non epic depicting the historic Tecumseh as wishing to live in peace with the advancing White Eyes. In reality Tecumseh led a bloody campaign that for a brief moment seemed to be on the point of keeping the Midwest Native. The Indian Wars East of the Mississippi were far more bloodier than the ones John Ford,Raoul Walsh and others portrayed for the movie going public. Anyway The Bad White Eye and the Bad Indian ruin everything even causing the scene from the Glen Ford William Holden western The Man From Colorado of a burning town to be used again. So historical no as usual, action packed in recompense, no. Worth a peek only if you need to.