Il grande agguato

In continuing to review movies and TV appearances of the original "Dallas" cast in chronological order, we're once again in 1949 with Jim Davis once again playing an antagonist in Brimstone having previously been in Hellfire early in the year. He's one of the sons of Walter Brennan who's long resented all the settlers that have-what he believes-invaded his land and has no qualms about robbing and killing to get what he wants. Rod Cameron plays someone who aims to stop Brennan and his family. Forrest Tucker, also from Hellfire, once again plays a lawman but you might be surprised about his motivations. I'll stop there and just say that Davis has his most exciting scenes that I've seen him in during his younger days in this movie especially concerning his fate here. And I also like the way some characters turn loyalties on a dime. And how about when Brennan's other son, Jack Lambert, asks how the world can be round since if it was so, "...the people down in China would be standing on their heads!" Oh, one more thing: James Brown, the youngest son, would also appear in the later seasons of "Dallas" as Harry McSween. So on that note, I highly recommend Brimstone.

This is a Republic Studios shot at an A picture. The problem is that it is still Republic, after all. The film is in color, but it's "Trucolor", which is a two color process that makes the great outdoors look very odd. (The movie was clearly shot in the winter -- which makes the fact that the process really does not show green less of a liability. The blue shows up as a very cold blue) And when it is time for a big sweeping scene that's beyond this film's budget, the movie suddenly changes to black and white for a minute.

But the reason for watching is seeing Walter Brennan in full-bore villain mode. And he plays the character as that mean old evil reprobate we all know in our lives, and he is scary good at it. The character resembles his villain in "My Darling Clementine", but he has more film time to be just plain awful, and he makes the most of it. It is bravura acting, but it is not the least hammy or corny. The man won his Academy Awards for a reason.

Plot? Stranger with unclear motives takes on a corrupt town. No surprises on how this develops, though one thinks the Walter Brennan character in real life would have made prompt mincemeat of the stalwart hero, and purchased himself a few more local politicians.

Borrowing from his portrayal of Old Man Clanton in My Darling Clementine, Walter Brennan dominates this film as the mean and merciless head of an outlaw family. It seems that Brennan at one time was the local Ben Cartwright, but little by little the homesteaders and small ranches have nibbled him down to little by his standards. So he and his two outlaw sons Jim Davis and Jack Lambert have been plying the outlaw trade going after them with some cattle rustling and other forms of criminal enterprise.

The general outlaw situation has a lot of people mighty of suspicious of sheriff Forrest Tucker and deputy Guinn Williams. Federal Marshal Jack Holt arrives on the scene, but he's wounded in a stagecoach holdup and not able to do too much.

Into all this mix is a mysterious loner played by Rod Cameron who looks like he's trying to cut himself in on everybody's action, Brennan's and Tucker's. When you're not watching Brennan, Cameron's the one that should be paid attention.

Brennan had a very bad time with John Ford when he made My Darling Clementine, but Ford got a great performance from him. I think Brennan channeled a lot of that into his role here of Brimstone Courteen.

This is a great action western from Republic with quite a bit more plot to it than the usual Republic product for the Saturday afternoon kid market. And you'll not forget Walter Brennan in the title role.

*Stagecoach* used to be my favorite Western, but *Brimstone* may supplant it. Brimstone has no intellectual pretensions, but it's a perfect distillation of all cowboy movies. Every line is a great cliche.

This one would have gone over well with the under 12 crowd, many years ago. For you young folk, once upon a time movie theaters had matinees for kids every Saturday morning. Starting times varied - ours started at 10:00 am, and consisted of some cartoons, a serial, maybe a comedy short, and then a (fair-to-middling) western feature film. "Brimstone" would have filled the bill for one of these, and if I were 11 I would have rated it higher.

"Brimstone" is a typical two-dimensional western devoid of rational thought and motivation, the type produced by the carload by Poverty Row studios in the 40's. It has lots of action, with fistfights and shoot-outs and hombres talking tough. This one has stalwart Rod Cameron as a US Marshal trying to apprehend some stage robbers, in fact a family of them. The family is headed by Walter Brennan in iron-fisted fashion as a cantankerous old rancher, and he makes the most out of his chance to carry a movie. He is like Moe and his sons like the other Stooges, aided by some unintentionally funny dialogue and knockabout comedy, as the British would say. (Of course,this is supposed to be deadly serious stuff).

There are the usual plot dead ends and unresolved loose ends which I always find annoying, but at the age of 11, who would notice? There is enough action to fire up the young audience, and cause the matron to descend on us and order all concerned to be quiet, flashlight in hand.