Le Révolté

Back in those days of the 19th century the polite phrase in describing Audie Murphy's illegitimate birth was to say he was born on the left side of the blanket. I think this story came from the left side of the blanket.

Cast A Long Shadow has Murphy as the illegitimate son of the owner of the local Ponderosa who lives a wastrel life. As the film opens the foreman of said Ponderosa John Dehner pulls a drunk Murphy out of the saloon and tells him his father died and as he had no other family the whole thing is left to him.

Dehner was hoping it be left to him, but since it wasn't and Murphy just wants to keep on with his wastrel life, Dehner has built up a syndicate of sorts from the locals to purchase the place and keep Murphy in booze for a very long time.

What happens afterward, the way Murphy is treated by the townspeople no matter how their 19th century blue noses felt for a man who was to be their benefactor is just ridiculous. Only Terry Moore who Murphy once courted treats him well.

All Dehner's and the rest's plans go up in smoke for the unbridled contempt they hold him in and for another little joker in the deck that gets sprung on everyone. How it all is resolved is for you to see Cast A Long Shadow.

Try as I may I really could not accept people acting against their own rational self interest the way these people do when it comes to Murphy. Cast A Long Shadow will not be rated as one of Audie's better westerns.

During his movie career, Audie Murphy made 45 films...and nearly all of them were westerns. A few of them were really, really good...such as "Drums Along the River" and "Apache Rifles". Many were just ordinary programmers....westerns with little to distinguish them. Sadly, "Cast a Long Shadow" isn't one of the better westerns...mostly due to the way his character was written.

When the story begins, Chip Donahue (John Dehner) finds Matt Brown (Murphy) doing what he loves to do these days...hanging out in a saloon, drink and gambling. Brown is pretty much a bum...which makes Donahue's visit an important one. It seems that Chip doesn't realize it, but he's the heir to a large cattle ranch and Donahue wants to buy it from him now that the owner has died and left it to Brown.

Brown agrees to sell the ranch but soon after arriving at the place, he realizes that it would provide him with something important...and he decides to keep it for himself. However, there's a mortgage overdue on the place and unless he drives a mess of cattle to market as soon as possible, he'll lose the place.

But there is a HUGE problem with this plan.... Brown is a nasty jerk and he's excellent at driving away people around him. Soon, it appears he'll practically have to do the cattle drive himself since he's now such a hated man...and rightfully so.

The surliness of Murphy's character is THE major problem with the film. Had he evolved into a better person through the course of the story (as in the two excellent films I mentioned above), it might have worked. Here, on the other hand, he just seems like a jerk with severe constipation or migraine! It does abate a bit through the course of the story...just not enough to make you care about him and his ranch.

Not his best but not his worst. He will always be one of my Western Heroes

An Audie Murphy Western from 1959. Murphy is drunk, playing cards in a saloon when a man, played by John Dehner, comes a-calling. It turns out Murphy's father has passed & left his ranch to him but Murphy left home a while ago on the outs w/his father so Dehner proposes to purchase the estate from him (he's cobbled together a collection from all the other ranch hands), all Murphy has to do is come back, sign over the deed & go his merry way but once he's among the people he left behind, specifically the girl, now a young woman, who jilted him at the altar, all his past transgressions melt away emboldening him to propose marriage, which she accepts. The fearlessness continues when he announces he's not going to sell & herd 3000 head of cattle to New Mexico (to pay off the debt his father had saddled the farm with). At first his workers/investors aren't too pleased but his determination to get the job done does impress even though there are those among them who would be willing to bump him off if a stampede could happen at the right time. Offbeat to be sure, Murphy rises to the challenge in a role not unlike John Wayne's in Red River (where a megalomaniac pushes his men to their limits) but Dehner is his equal as an old herder who's too stubborn to admit his past regrets must now swallow his pride for the good of the ranch. Also starring a couple of Dukes of Hazzard vets, Denver Pyle & James Best, as Murphy's reluctant workmen.

Cast a Long Shadow is directed by Thomas Carr and adapted to screenplay by Martin M. Goldsmith and John McGreevey from the novel written by Wayne D. Overholser. It stars Audie Murphy, Terry Moore, John Dehner, James Best, Denver Pyle and Ann Doran. Music is by Gerald Fried and cinematography by Wilfred Cline.

Filmed in black and white and produced out of the company Murphy formed with Walter Mirisch, Cast a Long Shadow is a tired Oater on narrative terms. The look and feel is fine and the performances are more than up to scratch, but there's a thematic drive missing from the writing, a missed opportunity to really pump some psychologically distorted blood into its veins.

Murphy is a tough drinking loose cannon type who inherits a ranch and renounces his past and plans to marry his sweetheart. But the ranch is wanted by the townsfolk as a means of productivity salvation and it transpires it's in a whole bunch of debt - with the bank vultures circling. So Audie takes control of a crucial cattle drive and proves to be a very hard task master, so much so he just may kill off any hope of saving the ranch in the process.

In the background is the hovering question of Murphy's illegitimacy, something which bothers him so, and with him trying to go straight and sober - but in the process alienating everyone around him, the meat is there for a tasty stew. Sadly it's only averagely unfurled and culmination of story leaves loose ends dangling. Still, it's never dull, music and photography are in sync with the play, and Murphy fans get good value for their time. 6/10