Gli implacabili

The tall men in question are Clark Gable, Robert Ryan and Cameron Mitchell heading a cattle drive to Montana through some of the most spectacular scenery in any western and Jane Russell is the woman along for the ride in Raoul Walsh's handsome, large-scale and decidedly old-fashioned movie. There isn't a great deal of plot and the tensions between the central characters are never fully developed but it's well-played and director Walsh handles the action sequences with aplomb. Sad to think, though, that within five years Gable would be dead and a new breed of darker, more intense psychological westerns would have replaced Boys Own Adventure movies like this one. It was among the last of its kind.

One thing the auteur theorists seemed to overlook when analysing the classic and archetypal Westerns, is the fact that all those post-war greats directed by John Ford, from Fort Apache (1948) to Two Rode Together (1961), were written by the same person – Frank Nugent. However with The Tall Men, we have a Frank Nugent Western directed by Raoul Walsh, and lo and behold it features many of those themes often mistakenly described as Fordian, such as respect accorded to an aging gunfighter, and a hostile yet dignified portrayal of Indians. Still, not everyone directs alike, so this doesn't mean it will turn out exactly like one of the Ford horse operas.

Of all Hollywood directors, probably no-one had quite the same affection for the West as Walsh did. Walsh always emphasised the openness and freedom of the plains in his achingly beautiful landscape shots. He contrasts these with a very confined and stripped-down look for his indoor or town-based scenes. He even creates a kind of artificial indoors, for example when Clark Gable and co. settle down after the first day of the cattle drive, with elements as simple as a sloping bank, a tree and a wagon, so as to give all that more impact when we return to the trail. Appropriately for the title of this one, he has his heroes stand tall against the landscape. Although Ford does many similar things (such as contrasting wide-open outdoors with cramped interiors) Ford's landscape scenes often have a slightly desperate, dangerous look to them, with the characters small and vulnerable against the vastness of the scenery, while his homesteads have a safe cosy feel. Walsh on the other hand makes the outdoors look inviting despite its dangers, whereas civilization is dull and restrictive. It's differences like this that bring the diverging characters to the two men's work.

But why, you might ask, if Walsh is so good and he's got a Nugent script, is The Tall Man not a timeless classic like so many of the Ford post-war Westerns were? Well you have to remember Ford was a respected, award-winning director, whereas Walsh was these days a potboiler-man. Ford had access to better casts, better crews, bigger budgets, more flexible shooting-schedules, not to mention being more likely to get Nugent's finer scripts, and to be honest the Tall Men is far from Nugent's best. There's also the fact that Walsh is not on top form because he was not well-suited to the Cinemascope aspect ratio (something Ford managed to avoid for all his late Westerns). Walsh liked to compose in depth – landscape shots that emphasise distance, action moving towards the camera, dollying in for emphasis – and the extra width is fairly useless to him. He tends to frame the action towards the middle of the screen as if still using academy ratio, and as such his actors look a little overwhelmed, detracting from the impact they have on screen and sapping the romantic scenes of any intensity.

Still, there is much to like about The Tall Men. Clark Gable may have been getting on a bit in years, but he has lost none of his rugged screen presence. Jane Russell is no great actress but she's a tough girl who looks like she belongs out on the trail by Gable's side. Walsh's depiction of the cattle drive sweeping across the plains is among the most breathtaking ever committed to celluloid, and the Victor Young score underpins the imagery with an appropriately sentimental theme. There are some superbly rousing actions scenes too, with a real emphasis on making the audience feel in the thick of it. And despite its not being the most thought-provoking thing Frank Nugent ever wrote, like all his Westerns it paints a convincing picture of larger-than-life heroes, and is imbued with all the roughness and nostalgia that has come to define the genre.

It seems to me that with few exceptions, the best western films were made in the 1950s. The Tall Men is one of the best.

What makes it work so well is what made any Clark Gable movie work; Clark Gable. He had an on screen presence that has been rivaled by few, if any, leading men before or since. As Robert Ryan's character, Nathan Stark, says of gable's character Ben Allison, "he's what every boy wants to be when he grows up, and what every man wishes he had been when he's old." This is a line clearly meant to describe Gable himself.

The film's plot is predictable but it works. Ben Allison and his brother Clint are down on their luck after serving in the Civil War "in a left handed sort of way" as rebels with Quantrill's Raiders. They decide to hold up a cattle baron (Stark) for some fast cash. But in a twist, they agree to return his money and sign on with him for a dangerous cattle drive north for the promise of greater earnings. Along the way Jayne Russell shows up to be the love interest.

Cameron Mitchell is excellent in a role he seems to have perfected, that of a drunken gunslinger who gets his due before the film ends. Juan Garcia is superb as the leader of a Mexican crew of caballeros that once served with Colonel Allison and have remained loyal to him over the years. You can see his total loyalty to "Colonel Allison" in everything he says and does.

All in all, a top notch film.

Romantic westerns are a subgenre in themselves - they aren't to everyone's taste as the reviews here show - but for me there is so much chemistry and fire between Clark Gable's Texan and Jane Russell's Nella that it's hard not to swept away with it all.

The story is an epic one: a couple of bothers, ex-soldiers, rob an easy pigeon of $20 000, only to be offered instead the chance to earn five times as much by driving cattle the 1500 miles from Texas to Montana. As they head to Texas they rescue Russell. Russell is fun, feisty, and fiery as the woman who wants to dream big and won't settle for Gable with bigger fish available.

I just love this movie - it has all the elements of the Hollywood western and there is a charm and ease to it that make it a great watch. All in all, with Russell's passing there are few of the old Hollywood left but with films like The Tall Men to remind us we can at least have a glimpse of their stature from a time when everyone went to the cinema all the time.

...that's enough for me.That's what Jane Russel sings ,and this ditty comes back as a leitmotiv ,along with another one,a rather saucy song about her peaches ,and the tree the man who wants them has to climb up to.Russell has a big dream,and Gable a small one,there's the rub;wealthy Ryan can provide Russell with the luxury and easy life she longs for :in a long conversation with Gable,Russel tells him about her childhood,and her mother who died in the harness ,and however "daddy used to love her as much as it could be".The movie is nothing but an initiatory journey for Russel,who plays the only character whose psychology will mutate along the way.

This is a classic western,which recalls "red river" , a bit overlong because an action-packed story this is definitely not.The cinematography is splendid ,and enhances marvelous landscapes with a good use of scope ,but the movie lacks madness of earlier Walsh works such as "Colorado territory" or "pursued" or even later extravaganzas such as "band of angels".