Les implacables

Romantic westerns are a subgenre in themselves - they aren't to everyone's taste as the reviews here show - but for me there is so much chemistry and fire between Clark Gable's Texan and Jane Russell's Nella that it's hard not to swept away with it all.

The story is an epic one: a couple of bothers, ex-soldiers, rob an easy pigeon of $20 000, only to be offered instead the chance to earn five times as much by driving cattle the 1500 miles from Texas to Montana. As they head to Texas they rescue Russell. Russell is fun, feisty, and fiery as the woman who wants to dream big and won't settle for Gable with bigger fish available.

I just love this movie - it has all the elements of the Hollywood western and there is a charm and ease to it that make it a great watch. All in all, with Russell's passing there are few of the old Hollywood left but with films like The Tall Men to remind us we can at least have a glimpse of their stature from a time when everyone went to the cinema all the time.

Salty, surly star-driven western about a cattle drive from Texas to Montana. Would-be rancher Clark Gable vies for the hand of wisecrackin' Jane Russell with banker Robert Ryan, but Jane's lookin' for a tall man and plenty of rainbows! Good-looking if rather unexceptional time-passer from director Raoul Walsh. Screenwriters Frank Nugent and Sidney Boehm, working from the novel by Heck Allen (using the pen-name Clay Fisher), smoothly intermingle Indian clashes and Mexican stand-offs with jovial exchanges between the characters (also Russell singin' in the washtub). Enjoyable of its type, with attractive cinematography by Leo Tover and another solid performance from Gable. **1/2 from ****

It seems to me that with few exceptions, the best western films were made in the 1950s. The Tall Men is one of the best.

What makes it work so well is what made any Clark Gable movie work; Clark Gable. He had an on screen presence that has been rivaled by few, if any, leading men before or since. As Robert Ryan's character, Nathan Stark, says of gable's character Ben Allison, "he's what every boy wants to be when he grows up, and what every man wishes he had been when he's old." This is a line clearly meant to describe Gable himself.

The film's plot is predictable but it works. Ben Allison and his brother Clint are down on their luck after serving in the Civil War "in a left handed sort of way" as rebels with Quantrill's Raiders. They decide to hold up a cattle baron (Stark) for some fast cash. But in a twist, they agree to return his money and sign on with him for a dangerous cattle drive north for the promise of greater earnings. Along the way Jayne Russell shows up to be the love interest.

Cameron Mitchell is excellent in a role he seems to have perfected, that of a drunken gunslinger who gets his due before the film ends. Juan Garcia is superb as the leader of a Mexican crew of caballeros that once served with Colonel Allison and have remained loyal to him over the years. You can see his total loyalty to "Colonel Allison" in everything he says and does.

All in all, a top notch film.

Clark Gable is the trail boss who ramrods a cattle drive from Texas to Montana in this colorful, sprawling western that has plenty of action. Jane Russell supplies the romance, such as it is, between Gable and co-star Robert Ryan, who'll stop at nothing to owning all of Montana because he dreams big dreams. Naturally, Gable comes to the rescue of Russell a time or two during the film but her head is turned by Ryan's promise of a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Beautiful Mexican scenery is the backdrop for this story as the herd makes its way north to Indian country. A lengthy battle takes place between the cattlemen and the Indians that is expertly done but Gable's cunning saves the day, and the beef, for Mineral City. The cast, CinemaScope lensing and Victor Young's plaintive music score are all very good.

...that's enough for me.That's what Jane Russel sings ,and this ditty comes back as a leitmotiv ,along with another one,a rather saucy song about her peaches ,and the tree the man who wants them has to climb up to.Russell has a big dream,and Gable a small one,there's the rub;wealthy Ryan can provide Russell with the luxury and easy life she longs for :in a long conversation with Gable,Russel tells him about her childhood,and her mother who died in the harness ,and however "daddy used to love her as much as it could be".The movie is nothing but an initiatory journey for Russel,who plays the only character whose psychology will mutate along the way.

This is a classic western,which recalls "red river" , a bit overlong because an action-packed story this is definitely not.The cinematography is splendid ,and enhances marvelous landscapes with a good use of scope ,but the movie lacks madness of earlier Walsh works such as "Colorado territory" or "pursued" or even later extravaganzas such as "band of angels".