La jungla dei temerari

John Payne plays Tennessee, a very successful gambler in the old west. It seems he's made some enemies and one of them tries to have him shot in the back. Fortunately for Tennessee, 'Cowpoke' (Ronal Reagan) is in town and sees the murder about to occur...and he intervenes. The two soon become friends. However, Tennessee can't believe Cowpoke is going to marry Goldie, as she's a cold-hearted money grubber and prostitute. But his new friend will hear none of it, so Tennessee decides to expose her for what she is by offering to marry her instead and take her to San Francisco...where he promptly dumps her. Naturally Cowpoke is angry. What will this do to their friendship? And how does Duchess (Rhonda Fleming) fit into all this? And why is there a lynch mob trying to hang them later in the movie?

Overall, this is a modest little western. Not great by any standard but it's different enough to make it worth your time.

Nice but unexceptional Western adapted from a story by Bret Harte and script from Milton Krims and Beauchamp .Featuring Ronald Reagan as a stranger who steps into the middle of a fight between gamblers and ends up befriending one : John Payne . The latter is a card player who gets turned around by Reagan . Along the way , Payne romances Elizabeth Farnham : Rhonda Fleming who is keeper of a peculiar boarding house called Marriage Market that is inhabited by young ladies : all able to Cook all desirous of finding decent husbands ( no others need apply). When rhe West was a shameless young Hussy !. All the guts and gusto of the West .. as it really was !

A good little drama with thrills , loves stories , emotion , crossfire and better than the title suggests . Displaying colorful cinematography by John Alton, as well as thrilling musical score by Louis Forbes . Fine acting from John Payne and Ronald Reagan , in fact , this is one of Payne's best characters . While Ronald Reagan is pretty well as the cowboy who intervenes in an argument and becomes Payne's pal . Both of whom well accompanied by two gorgeous girls : Rhonda Fleming and Coleen Gray . Along with a notorious plethora of secondaries such as : Anthony Caruso , Morris Ankrum, Leo Gordon , Fred Aldrich , uncredited Angie Dickinson and Chubby Johnson . It results in an agreeable buddy movie in which two friends develp a kind , likeable friendship .

The motion picture was professionally directed by Allan Dwan . He was a prolific filmmaker who made all kinds of genres , directing acceptable films , outstanding the following ones : "Three Musketeers" , "The Iron Mask" , "Heidi" , "Sands of Iwo Jima" , "Pearl of South Pacific" , "Brewster's Millions" , "Enchanted Island" , "Gorila" , "Escape to Burma" and the Westerns : "Cattle Queen Montana" , "Passion", "Montana Belle" , "The Restless Breed" , and "Tennesse's Partner" . Rating : 6/10 . Acceptable and passable Western.

Alan Dwan does a good job of directing, glorious color photography by John Alton and editing by James Leicester, and a twisty script, all further buoyed up by strong acting from Payne, Reagan, Fleming, Gray and Leo Gordon as sheriff.

The friendship between the two male leads is particularly convincing.

Certainly deserves watching - and not just once! 7/10.

"Tennessee's Partner" has a considerably different plot and variety of characters than a typical Western film. I don't recall having seen it as a youngster in the theater, or ever seeing it on late night TV movie broadcasts. It has a good cast of actors for the day. John Payne ("Miracle on 34th Street") had top billing with Ronald Reagan and Rhonda Fleming in major roles and a cast of well-known supporting actors of the day - Anthony Caruso, Morris Ankrum, Leo Gordon and Coleen Gray.

The story is set in the gold rush foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in northern California. But the plot varies from the usual frontier town with bawdy bars and wild goings on. The area already has taken on a start of respectability, even with the ladies' establishment with its hostesses, drinks and fine eats, as well as gambling tables. Indeed, one wonders how many places in those days had poker games with $5,000 bets and raises.

But the film has a fair share of fighting and shooting as well. It's something of a strange film about friendship. Here are some favorite lines from the movie.

Tennessee, "I don't have any friends." Cowpoke, "Well, that's somethin' you don't know until the time comes. Then you find out."

Cowpoke, "What's wrong with women?" Tennessee, "They act like women." Cowpoke, "Now, that's one thing I've always liked about 'em."

Cowpoke, "A man can take about anything. Except being made a bigger fool than he already is."

John Payne is a gambler living in a California gold mining town. Rhonda Fleming owns the local bordello. When a guy who's upset with Payne tries to kill him, Ronald Reagan steps in and saves him. An uneasy friendship forms, made more uneasy by the relationship between Payne and Reagan's fiancé Collen Gray.

I can't say I thought much of this film. There's a bizarre, cheap unreality to it that I found constantly distracting. Fleming's "bordello" located in a pretty small frontier town has utterly palatial interiors that feel like sets borrowed from a film about Louis XIV. The gambling loss that Payne and random guy argue about is said to be $12,000, which would be well over a quarter of a million dollars in today's currency. (It's not clear how anyone could casually lose that much during an evening's poker game.)

All this odd cheapness ended up amounting to a film I stopped paying much attention to. Reagan and Payne seemed to work it all out in the end.

Reagan's character is named "Cowpoke".