Gentle Annie

Marjorie Main is the title character. This is a Western, basically. But with Main as the lead, it doesn't really feel like one. We already know her as the proprietor of the dude ranch in "The Women" -- hardly a Western -- and (though it came later) as Ma Kettle.

I liked Westerns when I was a child but don't care for them now. Many still do. I think this movie would please the two camps about equally.

It's psychologically quite odd, if watered-down: Main's two sons adore her. And one of them is named Violet. OK.

James Craig is an outsider in town and a central figure in the plot. He was a handsome an underrated actor of this period. I sometimes wonder why certain careers, such as his, didn't take off.

Donna Reed, too, is an outsider. She was very appealing in movies of the 1940s. This one is no exception.

Who knows if it was intentional but the movie is, looking at it now, a little campy. We have the son named Violet. And Main's dog is named Belle. True, she is a daughter of the Confederacy. But it's kind of a grand name for a rancher to give her mongrel dog.

It's 1901 Oklahoma. Annie Goss is the matriarch of a train robbing family. Cottonwood Goss (Harry Morgan) invites Rich Williams (James Craig) to the family home after helping during a dust-up. He turns out to be US Marshal Lloyd Richland looking for the train robbers. The Goss boys also invite stranded traveler Mary Lingen (Donna Reed).

This is a fine crime western. I like the cast and these characters. The middle section could use some action. The Goss boys could have executed a train robbery under the nose of the Marshal. That would be a great catalyst for a final confrontation between the Marshal and the Gosses. Instead, this movie goes a different path. It's not one that I like but it's fine for what it is. This is fine.

This movie is in the same category as 'The Big Country', But not in the same league. 'Big Country', is one of the best movies ever for getting good messages across to the audience. 'Gentle Annie' does the same thing and also in an entertaining way that doesn't insult your intelligence. Worth seeing again. Stellar performances by Donna Reed and Marjorie Main.

Marjorie Main brings her Ma Kettle characterization to this film about a southern woman who settles in the west with her two sons after the Civil War. However her two sons in Gentle Annie, in this case Harry Morgan and Paul Langton, are more like the James Brothers than the rustic Kettle clan.

The story line of Gentle Annie is similar to the 20th Century Fox film Jesse James with Tyrone Power and Henry Fonda. In fact since this took place well after the Civil War, the Goss brothers could easily have taken the James boys as role models. Morgan and Langton are outlaws who ostensibly are just trying to earn enough money to get back to the old homestead in Missouri, they never can get quite enough though. Main's wish is enough to justify a criminal career.

James Craig plays the marshal out to get the folks who are doing the robbing. And since they're robbing trains with the US mail that makes it a federal offense and Craig's jurisdiction. Craig's undercover however and sets his sights on Main's kids and works his way into their confidence. He has to because the local law enforcement is as corrupt as it gets under sheriff Barton MacLane. MacLane's a northerner who doesn't like the ex-rebel Goss family on general principles.

Donna Reed plays a stranded woman who the Gosses take in and who Craig falls for. All in all Gentle Annie is a nicely done B western from MGM, a studio that normally didn't put out that kind of product.

This is a great drama, that just happens to be a western. Craig is the marshal that must decide whether he should arrest the family that has treated him so well. This is yet another grand story from the pen of MacKinlay Kantor (Outlaw Territory, 1953/Gun Crazy, 1950). Each character is carefully developed, and, by the climax we really feel the injustice of 'the system.' Morgan shows once again, that earlier in his career he was Oscar material. Keep the kleenex handy, if you can find this one on video or TV you'll need them.