Sierra Baron

I happen too see this wonderful film by chance, some years ago, on Encore's Western channel.It's a fine, vivid telling of the Anglo encroachment into mid 1800"s California. Rick Jason is exceptional as the son of a recently murdered Spainish land baron, who is thrust into the forefront of trying to protect what has been his family's land for generations ,against the white settlers who move in now and answer questions later .Brian Keith, in one of his fine low key performances, plays a man who(gets things done), for the Anglo powers that be,but decides to think for himself after being befriended by Jason's character.The rest of the cast is stellar as well as the writing ,direction, music and the glorious color photography. This is a rare gem, not many U.S. films like it...if any.

Its just not that good.

The ending of the main conflict is simply ridiculous, only matched by a love interest involving a widow whose husband died about 10 minutes (ok maybe a week) previously, who claims she can't forget the past but its time to move on.

WTF!

An Anglo land speculator in California (Brodie) has the owner of a large land grant with roots dating back to Spanish colonialism murdered, but doesn't count on his son (Jason) showing up to defend his murdered father's claim. By this time Brodie has already divided up the land and sold it to unsuspecting Anglo settlers. Jason's arrival is pretty well done, as the first Anglo trespasser/settler he meets fights him with a pair of brass knuckles and Jason detaches one of the spurs off of his boots and slashes the guy's face with it. There are some other out-of-the-ordinary scenes in this film that make it moderately fun to watch, though the film for some reason cloaks Jason's character as a Spaniard, when he's really Mexican, and all of the land was Mexico until the treaty ended the war that enabled the US to confiscate it. But whatever, Brian Keith's hired gun character is pretty decent, and Jason's rescue of Mala Powers in the desert is not bad at all. Same with Brodie, who nails the part of the scheming real estate broker.

Well done oater. It's something of an oddball—a TCF production with typically good production values, an unusual premise, but no marquee names. In fact, screen time is divided between two "heroes", Keith and Jason, neither of whom was a big name at the time. Still, the movie's crowd scenes plus epic location filming suggest an A-production with hopes for a lesser-known cast.

It's a big canvas storyline as land rights between an old Spanish land grant and the ambitions of newcomer white settlers clash. Jason certainly looks the part of an aristocratic Spanish padrone, while Keith acts out a low-key gunslinger in usual fine fashion. Each, of course, has a love interest, lovelies Gam and Powers, respectively. Naturally it takes a while for the various conflicting interests to get sorted out, no thanks to the one irredeemable bad guy, Steve Brodie. There are several likable scenes—a charming folk dance among the settlers, along with a very well conceived last scene that serves as a fitting epilogue.

I suspect this 1958 release got lost in the waves of Westerns consuming much of TV and movies of the time. I'm sure it was hard to compete with the likes of The Big Country (1958) with Gregory Peck and Charlton Heston that received a ton of promotion. Still, this obscure feature remains a good slice of entertainment, along with some food for thought.

Spectacular scenery, loud music and a slightly novel plot in terms of history and with the Spanish being seen as the good guys. But overall the story is a familiar one: a man accomplished with a gun comes to the aid of a community under threat and quickly gets romantically involved. Jack's instant switch of loyalties as soon as he met Felicia was unconvincing, and it was easy to guess that Miguel would fall for Sue.

Also unconvincing was how the mob's attack on Miguel's hacienda fizzled out.

I'm a fan of Brian Keith, but he wasn't really cut out for characters in romantic situations in "Sierra Baron" and was mis-matched in his relationship with Felicia.