The Tall Stranger

The final phase of Joel McCrea's career was spent at Allied Artists, the renamed Monogram Pictures, where he did a group of good B westerns. The Tall Stranger based on a Louis L'Amour novel is one of the best.

McCrea spots some cattle rustling and is left for dead after being shot by one of the rustlers. He's found by members of a wagon train who nurse him back to health. But Joel's real suspicious of the leader of this train of ex-Confederates who is George Neise. They're looking to settle on land owned by Barry Kelley who is McCrea's half brother and who is estranged from McCrea over the Civil War.

What Neise is looking to do is start a nice range war with Kelley and his plan is based on the fact that Kelley's a mean and hard-bitten old soul who shoots first and asks questions later. It's up to McCrea to keep things from boiling over. How successful he is, you'll have to see the film for.

You won't be disappointed if you do see the film. Virginia Mayo is the woman with a small son, Phil Phillips, on the wagon train that Joel takes a hankering to. A very mean and cunning villain played by Michael Ansara also has a hankering for Mayo and he's not one to go about the usual courting procedures.

Besides those already mentioned such western regulars as Ray Teal, Leo Gordon, Michael Pate, and Whit Bissell are in the cast. It's nice to see Leo Gordon in a role that doesn't call for him to be a mean psychopath.

The Tall Stranger is a good fast paced western that fans of the genre and fans of Joel McCrea will definitely like.

The Tall Stranger is directed by Thomas Carr and written for the screen by Christopher Knopf from a story by Louis L'Amour. It stars Joel McCrea, Virginia Mayo, Michael Ansara, George Neise, Whit Bissell, Adam Kennedy, Barry Kelley and Leo Gordon. A CinemaScope/De Luxe color production, film is filmed on location at two ranches in California, Morrison and Russell, with Wilfred M. Cline the cinematographer. Hans J. Salter scores the music.

Plot sees McCrea as Ned Bannon, who has a run in with rustlers and left for dead. Luckily he is found in time by a wagon train heading for California. Nursed back to health, Ned becomes suspicious of two outsiders who are leading the group into a dead-end valley owned by his hostile half-brother. Ned must overcome family hostility to try and avert a range war from occurring.

Solid mid 50's Oater boosted by the reliable McCrea and some dark shades within the writing. Running at just over 80 minutes, picture condenses enough old time punch ups and shootings into the story to stop the routine nature of the plotting dragging the pace down. There's even some messages in here to show the writers wanted something more than just a yeehaw production. Sadly the film is badly let down by the pan and scan process and the lifeless colour. There are very few reviews of the film about, but nobody makes mention of the bad print of the film? Certainly the current print doing the rounds for British TV is so bad it takes much away from the film. Cline's ("The Last Wagon/The Indian Fighter") location photography is barely seen - is this really in CinemaScope? - and periphery characters are heard but chopped in half! Even the normally radiant Mayo looks washed out due to the tired looking De Luxe color. There's a half decent film in the mix, but even with the best of home cinema set ups to play with, it's nigh on impossible to fully immerse oneself in the movie. 6/10

The hothouse plot drives mercilessly forward with appropriate action , breathtaking shooting , thrills , attacks , treason , rivalry , twists and turns .The film is set in post civil war , at a Western town, the pattern of the other celebrated cow towns of the Old west. There arrives back from the Civil War, Ned Bannon (Joel McCrea), a gunman who arrives at the place that is dominated by Hardy Bishop (Barry Kelley) , an old enemy, and who considers Bannon to be responsible for the death of her son by the famous Quantrell gang. In his territory Hardy Bishop runs his own legal regime, nicknamed 'Bishop's law' , There, conflicts mark the daily life of the town, especially when some farmer settlers try to settle around and our starring is forced to defend trusting, weak and betrayed colonists . Ned Bannon comes across rustlers and is shot and left for dead, but is found in time by a wagon train heading for California, being cured by the beautiful Ellen (Virginia Mayo). When he recovers he becomes suspicious of the two outsiders who are leading the train into a dead-end valley owned by his hostile half-brother. Braving his relative's animosity going back to the Civil War, Bannon makes contact to attempt and avoid a showdown. He Rode Tall And He Walked Tall... The Stranger out of Nowhere! The wagon train hated him, even after his gun had saved them from a massacre! Savagely written by the author of "Hondo"!

The picture based on a story by expert Louis L'Amour contains whirlwinds of manic action , fights , sustained energy and often commendable results . Nice-looking but ordinary 'Walter Mirisch Productions' Western , including some novelties , but also with usual elements , such as frenetic action, thrills , crossfire , romance and some spectacular action scenes .The tale is strong one and the action is wonderfully located against a colorful background from Morrison Ranch, Agoura, and Russell Ranch - Triunfo Canyon Road, Thousand Oaks, California; however, the cinematography is lousy due to bad copy, being necessary a perfect remastering. The picture gets Western action , shootouts , a love story and is quite entertaining . It's a medium budget film with good actors , technicians, production values and pleasing results . Brawling , sprawling , almost primitive action in which our starring goes into action and eventually changes allies against traitors . Stars Joel McCrea who gives an efficient acting in his usual style as an ex-Yankee officer aids a wagon train of former Confederates settle in a prosperous valley marred by cattle-rustling and land-grabbing feuds. Joel was a prolific actor in Western, his career is divided in movies directed by some great Western filmmakers . His wholesome good looks and quiet manner were soon in demand, primarily in romantic dramas and comedies, and he became an increasingly popular leading man. He hoped to concentrate on Westerns, but several years passed before he could convince the studio heads to cast him in one. MacCrea was a B actor , though ocassionally he played A films as ¨Sullivan's travels¨ and The ¨Dangerous game¨ . Joel perfomed a lot of Westerns, such as : ¨Union Pacific¨ , ¨Buffalo Bill¨, ¨The Virginian¨ , ¨Ramrod¨ , ¨South of Saint Luis¨, ¨Four Faces West¨ , ¨The Oklahoman¨ . Forteen years on from the famous ¨Sam Peckinpah's Ride in High Sierra¨, aging Joel Crea's goes back , as he came out of retirement to play a likeable and upright starring in his last film in 1976 ¨John C. Champion's Mustang County¨. Cos-star the always gorgeous Virginia Mayo as a woman with a dark past and with whom he falls in love. Both MacCrea and Mayo achieved great success with the classic ¨Colorado Territory¨ (1949) by Raoul Walsh. In The ¨Tall Stranger(¨1957) stands out a large numbers of secondaries, Western's ordinary, such as : Barry Kelley , Michael Pate , Michael Ansara, Leo Gordon, Ray Teal, James Dobson, George Neise and Whit Bissell .

The film was professionally and artisanally directed by Thomas Carr (1907-1997) , however it is sadly botched by a poor print run, which makes it almost unwatchable, at times. American second-feature director of the 1940s and '50s, invariably westerns for Republic, Monogram and other Poverty Row companies. Carr began as a child actor with Selig in silent movies from the age of two, continuing to act until becoming a dialogue director with Republic in 1937. Stayed with the studio and graduated to directing in 1945. Ended his career working in television during the 1960s. He was a Stakhanovite craftsman who directed a number of films in his long career, both in cinema and television, among which the following can be included: ¨Alias Billy Kid¨ (1946), ¨Brick Bradford¨ (1947), ¨Jesse rides again¨ (1947), ¨Congo Bill¨ (1948), ¨Blazing guns¨ (1950), ¨Guns of justice¨ (1950), ¨Pirates of the high seas¨ (1950), ¨Captain Scarllett¨ (1953) and ¨Superman in Exile¨ (1954) . Carr directed the original ¨Superman¨ (1948) serial. This led to the gig for which he is best remembered, directing many episodes of ¨Adventures of Superman¨ (1952) television series. He would spend his final decade in the business mostly directing for episodic television. ¨The Tall Stranger(¨1957) rating: 5.5/10. The film will appeal to Joel McCrea and Virginia Mayo fans.

I'm starting to become a big fan of Joel McCrea. He is a consistently entertaining western hero. He his always believable. He gives a solid, tough performance in "The Tall Stranger", which is a solid, tough movie. It's a fast moving and often a very tense watch. It's well acted by the entire cast, especially Barry Kelley. I should watch this one more often. Honorable mention: a dreamy Virginia Mayo.

I was expecting just a run of the mill fifties B Western but the film was quite entertaining for several reasons I will attempt to allude to.

1) Casting. Central character Ned Bannon (Joel McRea) is an ex Union soldier who becomes a sort of mediator between his hot-headed half-brother Hardy Bishop (Barry Kelley) who owns a big plot of land and a group of simple minded wagon train homesteaders on their way to a new settled life in California who stray onto Bishop's land after some bad advice from Mort Harper disregarding warnings given by Bannon himself.

2) Cinemascope colour photography makes this low budget film seem more upmarket as such.

3) Plenty of gunfights (and fist fights!) throughout the films typically short B running time keep the story ticking over nicely.

The film has its origins from a novel of the same name so has some good origins for its screenplay.

McRea himself endears his character to the audience like other notable 'Western' actors such as John Wayne and Randolph Scott.

Give this film a viewing, it's worth the time and a must for fans of the Western genre in particular.