Wild Harvest

In the annals of Hollywood legends, Wild Harvest has a unique reputation. Not that it's a great film, but because of the circumstances under which it was filmed. At least the interiors that were done at Paramount studios under interesting circumstances.

Mentioned in both Beverly Linet's biography and in the The Citadel series on The Films Of Alan Ladd, there was a strike by one of the unions at the time. Rather than be guilty of crossing the picket line, director Tay Garnett had cast and crew bunking at the studio. As Garnett liked a happy set, he catered everyone with plenty of food and a nice free flowing supply of liquor.

There were several bar scenes in this film which is about the itinerant harvesting crews who use the giant combine machines to harvest wheat in the autumn. If the cast looks a little oiled and lubricated they were. A great time was had by all.

Lloyd Nolan narrates the film and it is his eyes through which we see the action. He spends most of the time coming between Alan Ladd and Robert Preston who are his best friends, but have totally different personalities. Ladd is a by the book dead serious guy who has raised the money for the machines and hired a crew. Preston is an ace mechanic and Ladd needs him to keep his combines running. But Preston likes a good time and nothing keeps him from that.

Enter Dorothy Lamour who probably was playing her worst character. She plays of Ladd and Preston and gets their hormones going. But Preston is whom she marries and Preston who has a bit of larceny in his soul starts skimming the wheat and selling some of what they harvest in some private sales. In the old west this would be the equivalent of cattle rustling and the wheat farmers feel about the same way toward 'high graders' which is the term for what Preston is doing.

Wild Harvest veers wildly toward serious drama and outright slapstick comedy. Maybe under more normal working conditions the film might have turned out better, who knows. The most interesting character in the film is Lamour who could have done more of these roles had she been cast. Still Ladd and Preston fans will see something interesting if not the best work for either of these guys.

This is the original custom combining movie, made not long after the original Massey-Harris Harvest Brigade of World War II, back when men were men and work was work and movies were movies. Every custom combining movie should have a fire or a tornado, and this one has a fire. It's rather realistic. Alan Ladd is famous for Shane. Robert Preston is famous for The Music Man and has had a lot of roles. This movie proves that a good man doesn't need an extravagant, spoiled, lazy, conniving woman. The climax of Wild Harvest is releasing a combine off the back of a speeding truck. Massey-Harris collectors have a magazine called Wild Harvest.

part of this movie was filmed on the vista del llano ranch at Cantua Creek , California .i lived there with my family, i was a small child at the time . my dad came home one day to get me and my brothers and sisters . he took us across a small ditch that ran through the camp to meet the famous Alan ladd . the film crew and stars were having lunch at the time Alan did not stand up but was courteous to a hand full of poor little farm kids and shook our hands and patted us on the head. we did have wheat on the ranch. my dad was a mechanic at the time and worked on harvesters . he was seen once in the movie driving a machine. i had the movie a couple of years ago , someone borrowed it and don't know if he still has it . not a great movie but watchable

Alan Ladd and his pals may not know farming, but they do know machinery. So the numbers from buying six combine harvesters and following the ripening wheat from Texas to the Canadian border seems likely to make this bunch of roughnecks a good chunk of money.... even after Ladd pays off the balance. But Will Wright has his own harvesters and crews, and he's willing to undercut Ladd's prices, bad-mouth him, and occasionally stick an iron bar or two in the gears. But is he any worse than farmgirl Dorothy Lamour? She makes a play for Ladd, but when he's all business on the job, she marries Robert Preston. And she has a scheme to make some extra money.

Director Tay Garnett has a fine cast, with Lloyd Nolan and Griff Barnett, but this transposition of itinerant railroad workers and/or oil wildcatters looks a bit played out. Happily, he has DP John Seitz in charge of the cameras. Seitz had been doing this since the 1910s, and seems to have been Ladd's favorite cameraman. He was lighting cameraman on Ladd's breakout in THIS GUN FOR HIRE, and his last time in the position was on another Ladd vehicle in 1960. Then he retired. He died in 1979 at the age of 86.

Wild Harvest was the first movie made to portray the life of a transient harvester. However, I felt the inclusion of the "highgrading" issues and the fights between farmers and their harvesting crews, does go to extreme. The footage of the Massey-Harris 21A's is very nice. I also liked the opening footage of the varied combines/harvesting scenes, which also included the original Massey-Harris 21.

Hooray for the comment on the Wild Harvest newsletter! I'm the one who initially launched the newsletter, but am no longer connected with it.

This is one movie that needs to be re-released on both DVD and VHS! There are many farmers and custom harvesters among us who still want to either see this for the first time, or simply see it again after such a long time.