O Morro dos Maus Espíritos

I just caught this little gem on AMC. I missed the opening credits so I had no idea who directed it. As the film progressed, I was like "This has GOT to be a John Ford film." After all, it features John Wayne, Harry Carey, Ward Bond and lots of wonderful Ford like shots. A wonderfully photographed and directed film. It even has Marjorie Main in a character role that's a total departure from her normal, boisterous parts we all know and expect from this great actress. Then I looked it up here at the IMDb and saw that it was Henry Hathaway's film. I never thought of Hathaway as a bad director by any means, but wow! This simply has the look of a well crafted classic beginning to end. Highly recommended.

A marvelous, if little known, early John Wayne film. There are so many wonderful moments in this film that I can only list a few: Harry Carey splendid as the mysterious man who comes to the Ozarks to purchase a piece of dirt land and settle down, and ends up purchasing Moanin' Meadow. A gorgeous, seamless, seemingly effortless piece of acting.

Betty Field, always in bare feet saying that she nearly stepped in a cloud and reveling in the mud between her bare toes.

Marc Lawrence trying to catch dust motes in a sunbeam coming through a dirty windowpane.

Beulah Bondi making a circle of candles and lamp oil!!

Marjorie Main seeing for the first time in her life.

And John Wayne moving from bewildered and embittered young man with a curse on him, to a man in love who can't express his feeling because of the curse, and finally coming to terms with his real, inner self for the first time in his life.

Anyone who thinks John Wayne could not act, should see The Shepherd of the Hills. He is not only beautiful to look at, but he brings charm, power and sympathy to a very difficult role.

Set in the Missouri Ozarks, the film follows Daniel Howitt (Harry Carey), a stranger in town who is looking to buy some land. He befriends Sammy Lane (Betty Field), who tries to help him navigate his way around the peculiar locals, such as the moonshiner family ruled over by the disagreeable Aunt Mollie (Beulah Bondi). One of Mollie's boys is Matt Matthews (John Wayne) who doesn't take kindly to this newcomer trying to take land that used to belong to Matt's long-dead mother.

This was John Wayne's first color film, and it would make a great double bill with 1936's The Trail of the Lonesome Pine. The cast is very good, from Carey as the world-weary gunslinger looking to settle accounts, to Betty Field as a backwoods gal pining for more out of life. Beulah Bondi is terrifically witchy, but ultimately more than a cartoon, displaying real character depth by the shocking ending. The biggest surprise to me was Marc Lawrence. Most classic movie fans will recognize the face if not the name, a pock-marked weasally countenance who played dozens of gangsters and low-lifes from the 1930's through the 1990's. Here he plays a slow witted man-child, slightly deformed and more pitiful than menacing. It's a performance quite unlike anything I'd seen from him before, and he was excellent. If not for the slight cop-out ending, I would have rated this even higher.

This is an overlooked John Wayne movie ,as well as an overlooked Hathaway's -who in his long career produced more great or good movies than wretched ones :"Peter Ibbetson" is one of the most beautiful romantic movies I know,"lives of a Bengal lancer is adventures movie quintessence and "Niagara" remains one of Marilyn Monroe's best films ,to name but three.

John Wayne is cast against type in "the shepherd" ;he is not really the he-man but a frail human being ,born under a bad sign , with a curse hanging over him .The characters and the atmosphere are not unlike those of "the trail of the lonesome pine" which Hathaway made five years earlier ,with the same wonderful color.

Some scenes are admirable:when Wayne 's old man enters the room of the old home,he feels a presence in the room : the furniture, the things ,everything reminds him of the woman he's never stopped loving (he is as romantic as Peter Ibbetson!).Another memorable scene shows the old man and his son fishing in the river :watch closely and you'll hear a ravaged tale ;the gentler side of the movie hides real fury (and Hathaway does not indulge himself a flashback of the stormy fateful night).

Actually,John Wayne 's character is not so much bitter as wistful and it's one of the actors' best performances;but it's all the cast that should be praised .Add it to your Hathaway list.

Rural drama quite mellow, but well done, helped by a good casting. Betty Field at maybe her best performance at movies pictures; John Wayne at his first film in color after the grandiose The Stagecoach; Harry Carey in the Priest; Beulah Bondi at one of her characteristic works playing an embittered woman; the very used by master John Ford, War Bond. And, last but not least, an splendid photography in wonderful Technicolor. I though it was a western and I find instead a strange community making whisky clandestinely at Ozark Mountains Region, Arkansas,who remind me some people I meet in a trip to North of England, near Kyle of Lochals, very reluctant to contact with foreigns. I like the 80% of the film, that was made with conviction, professionalism and care by excellent craftsman Henry Hathaway. It is is a bite too much melodramatic and out of date, but interesting. I give it an seven.