Montana, Terra Proibida

Reminds me a little of the Glenn Ford movie, "The Sheepman". Glenn Ford also brought sheep into bovine territory. I always like that movie and then just discovered this one on TCM this morning. Errol Flynn is one of my favorite actors and this little jewel will be added to my collection. The movies a classic B movie. But Errol Flynn and Alexis Smith was able to pull it off.

And to the person who called his sheepdog a mutt: that was a blue merle collie and could very well be my dog's great-great parent. Mac looked exactly like that. We lost him last year to cancer. This makes the movie even more cherished to me. I just purchased it on Amazon!

Morgan Lane (Errol Flynn) is an Australian sheep herder. He has come to Montana to graze his sheep despite attack by murderous local cattlemen. He encounters traveling huckster Papa Otto Schultz (S. Z. Sakall). He decides to play a peddler and infiltrate the town. Maria Singleton (Alexis Smith) is one of the local cattle ranchers.

It's a fine Errol Flynn western. Sheep herders are not the usual western fare. That's an unique spin. Otherwise, it's very standard and non-challenging. There are some cowboy stunts with the stuntmen. Errol Flynn is doing his leading man work. This is fine but a little slow.

Errol Flynn, as a sheep-herder? Say it ain't sew! No wonder Flynn drank his way through this turgid Western. I'd be pulling the wool over your eyes by saying Flynn doesn't mail it in. Lots of short scenes with many edits plus obvious studio cuts against outdoor backdrops. Flynn's first film in 1950 but the miles and trials were taking a toll on Errol. His eyes were too bloodshot to shoot some scenes.

Nevertheless, the Technicolor cinematography (Calabasas Ranch)is first rate plus production values make up for the drab characters. It's tough to care about anyone except beautiful, flaming redhead, Alexis Smith. I've never seen whiter teeth in my life. Cute little scar on her chin too. Flynn and Smith have some nice scenes plus sing a fun little ditty: Reckon, I'm in love! Seriously, it's not bad! A sheep-herder invades cattle country! If this sounds like a bum steer of a film, you're probably right but it's Flynn in his final decade. He went downhill fast from here but "amoung other things", he still looks good next to Alexis.

Montana with a running time of only 77 minutes has to be some kind of record for Errol Flynn while he was Warner Brothers for shortest feature film. Some of the B westerns with Dick Foran back from the Thirties had longer running times than Montana.

My suspicion is that Montana is nothing more than a pumped up B film, it certainly does not have as expensive a look to it as say The Adventures of Don Juan which Flynn did the year before.

The plot is a simple one and it's the only time that Errol Flynn actually played someone of his nationality which was Australian. Flynn for reasons left unexplained by the film has decided to leave Australia and homestead new country for sheep raising in the Big Sky country of Montana territory.

Naturally this upsets the local cattle ranchers and two of the biggest in the area are Alexis Smith and Douglas Kennedy who are about to make a personal and business merger. But once Flynn gets into the picture he certainly makes Alexis see the error of her ways about him and about sheep in that order.

As a film, Montana relies heavily on the considerable charm of Errol Flynn to bring it off. Bring it off he does, but Montana certainly will not rank high in the best of Errol Flynn list anyone compiles.

But someone out there was really impressed with the film. Back in the day when I lived in Brooklyn there was a judge who must have loved this film as a lad. He thought Errol's character name of Morgan Lane had character so he changed his own name to Morgan Lane from some Jewish sounding ethnic name. Of course that was before he became a lawyer and eventually a judge.

The second thing Montana is known for is a nice little cowboy duet that Errol and Alexis sing called Reckon I'm In Love. It's nice little ditty and one of only a few times Mr. Flynn got to sing in films. I recall he sang in Thank Your Lucky Stars and in Let's Make Up and that's about it in the vocalizing department.

You might watch Montana for entertainment, but who knows if it will actually move you to change your name.

this is a very primitive western with terrible screenplay, wordy dialog, but most of all, the annoying childish cartoon-like music would drive you crazy. the directing was basic, deadbeat and breathless due to a lifeless screenplay, the acting of all the characters in this boring film were badly affected by the lousy script. when these sheepherders went into the territory of the cattlemen, they didn't pay any attention to the eminent danger, drinking and singing around the camp fire, what a stupid arrangement was that? when the cattlemen attacked them at night, there was only a gun available to fight back, what made the guy think that he could deal with the self-entitled cattlemen in Montana? the childish screenplay then forcefully developed into a more stupid scenario with a gunfight in the tavern, then the guy met a pretty local girl in town that was so predictably boring and so formulaic stupid. do i have to go on and on with the annoying sound track? sorry, no can do.