Sierra

This early Audie Murphy western for Universal has Murphy as the feral son of Dean Jagger, a man "everyone knows" committed murder and then fled. No one believes in his innocence except for lawyer Wanda Hendrix (they were married at the time, but broke up soon after production ended).

Directed by Alfred Green, this movie is a master class in Technicolor camerawork by DP Russell Metty. The opening sequence in Cedar Breaks National Monument looks like an oil painting; the night scenes look like Rembrandt, and the entire movie has the rich, black undertoning that disappeared from the Technicolor lexicon soon after. Metty's reputation as an artist with the camera would continue to rise until he won an Oscar for SPARTACUS; his later work was mostly on undistinguished movies and distinguished TV specials. He died in 1978 at the age of 71.

There is quite a supporting cast, including Burl Ives -- who sings a few songs -- Tony Curtis, Sarah Allgood and James Arness. Mostly, though, I just enjoyed Metty's work.

I'm always fascinated by a movie star's early work and even more so with Audie Murphy because this was just 5 years after his heroics in WWII. It's amazing to think how much transition this young man went through in only a handful of years. Murphy is a natural fit for Westerns with his quiet manner and brooding looks. Sierra is not often shown on television, but if you have the chance to catch it, you won't be disappointed. I'd say watch for Burl Ives alone, because his voice was timeless. Such beautiful simple little Western melodies are peppered throughout the film. What's also unique about Sierra is that Murphy is costarred by his then-wife Wanda Hendrix. Their marriage didn't last long, but their chemistry is very obvious. And keep your eyes peeled for a young Anthony "Tony" Curtis as a Coulter gang member.

An Audie Murphy Western from 1950. A woman (Wanda Hendrix) gets lost in the mountains & found by Murphy who escorts her back to his cabin blindfolded which he shares w/his father (Dean Jagger). It turns out Jagger was accused of murder years before & rather than face an unjust punishment, he hightailed into the hills w/Murphy where they ply their trade as bronco busters as they scoop up mustangs from the wild. During a taming session, Jagger gets hurt prompting Murphy & Hendrix (who was bitten by a snake) to go into town (using an alias so he can keep his identity safe) for medical help. Returning to the cabin, Murphy comes across some rustlers w/his wares who give him a beat-down setting up a final confrontation where Murphy (now running w/other accused desperadoes which include Tony Curtis) & the villains vie for a large passel of mustangs. Running a scant 90 minutes (typical of Murphy fare), this film suffers from a surfeit of back story & incident which is given short shrift but as a time filler it gets the job done. Burl Ives (most people will know him as the narrator of the perennial Christmas classic Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer) plays Murphy's town contact & gets ample opportunity to get his song on.

Audie Murphy and his aging, fugitive father Dean Jagger, live deep in the mountains, away from trouble. A chance encounter with lost lady lawyer Wanda Hendrix and a serious injury to Jagger sends Audie to town for the first time since he was a small boy, where he finds trouble with the law.

Striking locations, good photography, and a well-plotted story combine to make a fairly entertaining movie. Action scenes are handled quite nicely as well, especially the climax, involving a stampeding of hundreds of horses, back and forth between the good guys and the bad! The only problem with the movie is that the ending (satisfying as it was) is just a little too convenient.

An interesting cast includes Burl Ives as a singing mountain man and early performances from Tony Curtis and James Arness as brothers and part of an outlaw family hiding on Audie and Jagger's mountain

Meanwhile, Audie plays pretty much the same type of character you always see (and love to see) him playing, that of a young, angry, brooding, misunderstood young man, real-life traits, shaped by his service in World War II, that Hollywood seized upon and interestingly enough, inspired writer David Morrell to create the character of Rambo, a piece of trivia that makes seeing Audie elude a posse in the mountains all the more interesting.

Until they take in a fugitive girl, a father and son hide out in the mountains to elude a bogus murder charge.

Pretty good Murphy western, one of his earliest. When you think about it, his transition from Texas sharecropper to WW II hero to Hollywood actor is remarkable. True, it was hard for him to loosen up on screen, still he delivered his lines well enough, while nobody could do a hard-eyed stare better.

Here Murphy does well enough, carrying most of the movie. The role of a hard eyed loner (Ring Hassard) appears tailor made for him. At the same time, diminutive, girlish Hendrix (Riley) manages her courtroom lawyer sequence in pretty convincing fashion. Ironic to think the two were married at the time, but in the process of getting divorced. So there's something poignant about their riding into the sunset at movie's end.

Universal popped for a pretty big budget, unlike many of Murphy's later westerns. The red rock Kanab (Utah) locations are really eye-catching. Then too, those wild horse herds are anything but skimpy. And nobody could strum a guitar more soothingly than the rotund Burl Ives. Together they add a lot of color and mood to the dramatics. At the same time, there's not much gunplay, yet quite a bit of suspense to the rather complex story.

All in all, it's a picturesque, entertaining Murphy western.