Les cow-boys

As Monogram Pictures morphed into Allied Artists, they tried to raise the quality of their projects. As the demand for their B westerns disappeared, they hired some good actors -- among them the incomparable Edmond O'Brien -- and produced this western, directed by long-time Western director Lesley Selander.

I wasn't expecting O'Brien to be convincing as a cowboy, but he is astonishingly good as an ex-cowpoke who is building an express business -- and given a huge oversupply of cattle, he's shipping an awful lot of tallow and hide, all the scrubs are good for. There's a lot more history intelligently explained here than is usual for a B western, the photography is crisp and clean and there are fine supporting actors carrying the roles -- John Millicam is particularly affecting in, for him, a large role.

Selander directs very efficiently -- you can tell that villain Barton Maclane shot his interiors in a block and the action sequences near Lone Pine, where Selander spent most of his professional career are handled to advantage.

The net effect is that everything is much better than a B western, yet the obvious economies make it at best a shaky A. Still, overall it is a superior effort and worthwhile for western fans and a surprisingly unexpected sidetrack for Edmond O'Brien.

Cow Country is directed by Lesley Selander and adapted to screenplay by Adele Buffington from Curtis Bishop's novel "Shadow Range". It stars Edmond O'Brien, Helen Westcott, Robert Lowery, Barton MacLane, Peggie Castle, Robert Barrat, James Millican, Don Beddoe and Robert J. Wilke. Music is by Edward Kay and cinematography by Harry Neumann.

Texas ranchers led by floating cowboy Ben Anthony (O'Brien) fight to save their land from crooked banker Marvin Parker (MacLane) and his hired thugs.

We are at the beef collapse of 1875 and this forms an interesting narrative backdrop. Pic is conventional, though, yet it never lacks for in efforts to entertain. There's a ready amount of chases, punch-ups and shootings, all laced with nefarious or heroic deeds, and although the ladies are beautiful, they unfortunately fall foul of under written romantic arcs - though we do get a quite glorious whipping sequence courtesy of Melba (Castle).

It's all very routine but there's enough here for the undemanding Western fan to enjoy, with good casting and performances helping things along. 6.5/10

On Edmund O'Brien's birthday, 2012, Turner Classic Movies presented this movie hitherto unknown to me.

This is an astonishingly good movie, and for several reasons: It assembled some of the most talented actors in Hollywood; they were all good to even great actors (Mr. O'Brien, for example, is one of those rarities who is believable in any role, and anyone who is a good cowboy is, to me, at the top of his profession); the characters, except, of course, for the bad guys, were likable and often admirable; even the bad guys were well-rounded and believable.

There are two female leads, and both of them are good horse riders; both even know how to mount a horse, even in long skirts, as if they had been riding for years (and might have been; unfortunately, I haven't read their bios to know for sure). That is important for characters who are supposed to be natives to the West.

Don Beddoe has not only one of his best roles, he handles it beautifully. He shows he was an actor who deserved even more and even better roles.

Raymond Hatton was a veteran of movies back to the silent days. He too gives one of his best performances.

Robert Wilke also has one of his best roles, and also handles it beautifully. So often all he is allowed to do is walk on and get shot. Here his character is very integral to the entire plot. And, again, he shows he was very capable of more and bigger roles. (In our one conversation, he never expressed any regrets about his career. He might have been content or even happy. His auto license plate read, if I have the spelling right, "VILLEN." He was one of the best and one of the busiest of them.)

The writing and directing were good, if not perfect, and the only criticism I have is of the costuming. Even most of that was good, but one of the characters wore a Fredericks bra, which was popular in that era of film-making but actually deformed the female figure. (Just imagine Madonna as she so often appeared on stage.)

Otherwise, well, "Cow Country" is good enough for me to rate it a 9. I highly recommend it.

Nothing special in this western speaking of a topic so common in this genre: war between cattle owners. It is so predictable that you can't expect any surprise, only watch it to waste time. Edmond O'Brien does his job, a good job as usual. Lesley Selander was a prolific western specialist and this feature will not be a milestone in his career.

Though it's ingrained in me to love tiny westerns that ably coast on tropes and cliches, the more the better, this one just didn't get there. The novel idea of cattle men fighting amongst themselves was fascinating and held my interest to a degree, but it started to drag in subplots and one dimensional characters. Normally a real fave of mine, I found Edmond O'Brien uncharacteristically low key in this and absent for long stretches of the story. The three Roberts, Barrat, Lowery and especially Wilke steal the picture right out from under him. Barrat plays a wealthy entitled cattle baron and though he's supposed to be one of the ostensible good guys when all is said and done, he's nearly as reprehensible in his actions as Wilke's character who is typically cast as evil incarnate. Plus I was really bothered by a scene of our hero shooting someone in the back. Had this been an Anthony Mann western or a later Spaghetti or New Hollywood western, that could work, but in a 1953 low budget oater, it seemed out of place. Not that I don't mind defying genre conventions, but it just didn't sit well with me this time. Normally these films pass the clocks with ease on a lazy weekend afternoon, but I got antsy watching this one and felt encouraged to nitpick.