Le fier rebelle

Although young David Ladd had actually made a brief appearance in his father's western The Big Land the year before, it was decided that David would make a featured debut in this family picture about a father and son roughing it in post Civil War America.

Alan Ladd, late of the Confederate Army, and a widower has searched for and found his son in an orphanage in Pennsylvania. The Yankee soldiers took him and other kids left without homes to northern orphanages. In David's case he's lost his voice due to the traumatic shock of barely escaping the fire from a Union Army shell that burned down his home and killed his mother while Dad was in the army.

They're together now and working their way west. They run afoul of Dean Jagger and his roughneck sons in Illinois, but make friends of spinster farm lady Olivia DeHavilland and Quaker doctor Cecil Kellaway.

David has a sheepdog who could be valuable. And his father has some critical decisions to make about how to pay for an operation that might cure his son's vocal paralysis.

The casting by Alan Ladd of his son David was a stroke of good fortune as the chemistry between the real father and son proved to be a winner. Also Dean Jagger as the one armed sheepherder who has designs on Olivia's land was also very good and against type.

Playing Jagger's two sons are Tom Pittman and Harry Dean Stanton. Stanton, God Bless Him, is still around today, a very highly respected character actor who never seemed to lack for work. As for Tom Pittman, he was killed in a car crash while this film was out in theaters. John Mitchum in his memoirs Them Ornery Mitchum Boys, spoke very highly of Pittman, said he had a solid career ahead of him. He also described a harrowing experience where Pittman was missing for several days before police found him and his car and the bottom of a ravine where they had gone off the road.

This film marked a reunion of Olivia DeHavilland with Michael Curtiz who directed a whole bunch of her films at Warner Brothers back when she was a young leading lady and favorite leading lady of Errol Flynn. Olivia is older now and delivers a good performance as the wise and compassionate farm woman who takes in the Ladds.

With Ladd also producing and starring in this with his younger son, The Proud Rebel is a good family film in every sense of the word.

A very nice classic movie from the Golden Age of Hollywood. I disagree with another reviewer that the film is too slow. It develops and moves along fine. The trouble with todays youth, is that everything has too spill out in a minute flat as nearly everyone under 25 has A.D.H.D or is so pumped up on energy drinks. They are so impatient and snappy. That there are no real craftsmen anywhere or in any field nowadays. It is often said all new movies have 1 dimension characters. Well if you pace it slower and show the back round of the characters. You can have fully developed and believable characters. Alan Ladd did a great portrayal of the character, as he did with the Shane character in the movie of the same name, made 5 years earlier and also a western. The actor dosen't act, he becomes the character. The rest of the cast were superb as well. Olivia De Havaland played such a wholesome women. That you'd want to marry her knowing you'd last forever with her. Alan's son played his son in the film, and playing a mute boy made you think that maybe he couldn't speak. He later of course married Cheryl Ladd from Charlie's Angels series. A nice story without CGI effects and explosions and lots of unnecessary sex.

These are storybook stories that embed in peoples minds. Films from this era have been remembered for 70-80 years. How many films from last year can you recall.

I have long complained because there must have been a million western movies made over the years by Hollywood and practically all of them are variations on the exact Fsame half dozen (or less) themes. As a result, most westerns are repetitive and dull. Fortunately, this one is a bit different--with enough that is not familiar to make it worth viewing.

The film begins with a father and son (Alan Ladd and his real life son, David) traveling across the country. They are Southerners but have left Atlanta following the Civil War in order to locate a doctor who might be able to cure the boy. It seems that following witnessing his mother's death the child has been mute.

In one of the towns, the father meets up with a couple dirt-bags who pick a fight with him. However, it is Ladd himself who is convicted of assault and is sentenced to spend 30 days in jail or pay $30--which he just doesn't have. A local spinster (Olivia de Havilland) takes pity on them and offers to pay the fine if the father comes to her farm to work off the debt.

Once on this farm, it's obvious Olivia's having problems with the same dirt-bags that attacked Ladd earlier in the film. In this case, the men are trying to force her to sell them her struggling farm. Along the way, Alan comes to her aid in this struggle and it's also obvious that some real affection is forming--and it's hardly a surprise when the two decide to stay.

While the story is not monumental in scope, it's a nice story about people. It helped that an exceptional director (Michael Curtiz) and many excellent actors appeared in the film. In addition to the main characters, veteran character actors such as Cecil Kellaway, Dean Jagger, Henry Hull and Harry Dean Stanton appeared in the film as well--giving it nice color. Plus the writing was very good and made for an appealing film.

By the way, the sign language that David Ladd uses throughout the film isn't perfect, but it IS essentially correct. So, when he is trying to tell Alan that there is a fire, that IS what he is signing. It's actually funny, but several times during the movie the dad didn't seem to know what the kid was saying--and I clearly understood and felt like yelling out what he was signing! I especially liked when the boy was trying to tell de Havilland how much he liked her but no one seemed to understand that he was saying how much he liked her. The film makers COULD have just as easily had the kid just make some nonsense signs and hardly anyone every would have known. It's nice to see that they tried. Now here is the rub, however, the DVD is NOT captioned at all!!! So, deaf people who COULD understand the boy cannot watch the film and enjoy it.

Also, while not a huge mistake, in one scene late in the film the three leads are in town and it's pouring down rain--so much so that they need to stay there until it clears. Yet, when they arrive back at the farm, it's 100% dry--the same dessert-like place it's always been with dirt, dirt and more dirt.

Great acting by Olivia DeHavilland (!), Alan Ladd (!), and son David Ladd. Director Michael Curtiz (Casablanca) shows his soft side in this family film about a man selling his dog to heal his son's muteness. I loved this film when I was a pre-teen, and watched it again last night with my twelve-year-old, and she was pulled into it faster than I was. (Harry) Dean Stanton as the villain, good photography and effective musical score by Jerome Moross in the "Big Country" mold. Lackluster action scenes aren't bad enough to ruin the mood; but it will remind many viewers of "Shane".

Alan Ladd does the Shane thing again in this Western from 1958. Ladd, a former Confederate soldier, travels w/his supposedly tongue tied son (played by Alan's actual son in real life David who uses grunts & sign language to communicate) & their well trained sheep dog when he comes upon a town & visits a doctor, played Cecil Kellaway, to see if he can cure his son's malady (a running issue Ladd has been on the move to solve) which he can't but does give him the name of a specialist in Minnesota who may be able to help. Running into some trouble w/a sheep farmer, played by Dean Jagger & his two sons, Harry Dean Stanton (billed as Dean Stanton) & Tom Pittman, Ladd is railroaded into jail w/a bail amount he can't come up with but luckily Olivia de Havilland comes to his rescue (she witnessed the incident) & Ladd agrees to work off his debt which gives the ad hoc family a renewed purpose (especially since Jagger has designs on de Havilland's land for his sheep) but when he gets a generous offer for his sheep dog (an amount that would cover his specialist's bill), he sells the pooch knowing it'll break his son's heart when he returns. Director Michael Curtiz (Casablanca/Captain Blood) gets good mileage from the premise but it's too bad George Stevens got there first w/his seminal version of Shane & the narrative is further let down when the story's later focus is on a typical shoot out to right all wrongs between our players when the strength of the piece is Ladd not coming to terms w/his son's ailment which we now know stems from a mental trauma then something medical science can operate on. Also starring John Carradine as a traveling salesman & Henry Hull as a cantankerous judge.