Le vagabond et les lutins

An excellent Western. Joel McCrea delivers a fine performance as is usual for this gifted actor. The story moves well, and the supporting cast does a fine job. If you haven't seen it, and love Westerns, by all means don't let this one slide by.

Joel McCrea, who likes life free, easy, and independent in Saddle Tramp, on an impulse visit to friend John Ridgely finds himself taking responsibility for his four boys when Ridgely is killed in an accident.

That in a nutshell is the film Saddle Tramp. But it's far more than that, it's what is meant when a film is said to be family entertainment. It's one of Joel McCrea's better westerns in his post World War II period.

The change of lifestyle doesn't come without problems for McCrea. Now he has to get some real work in order to take Ridgely's small ranch out of debt and put food on the table for five. During the course of the film it's six as runaway Wanda Hendrix joins the merry band as she's looking to escape from Uncle Ed Begley.

McCrea also finds work for John McIntire and Jeanette Nolan and gets himself in the middle of a range war between McIntire and neighbor Antonio Moreno. Cattle is being stolen from both ranches and the two neighbors are blaming each other. The film gives you two possibilities as the brains behind the stealing.

Best supporting performance is that of McIntire as the irascible ranch owner who doesn't like children and won't hire anyone with them. That fact is the reason for all the machinations McCrea has to go through.

Saddle Tramp is a nice easy to take western and great for a Saturday morning viewing.

A vagabond cowboy suddenly finds himself taking care of four orphaned boys. The Technicolor cinematography is pleasing and the film is entertaining enough, but is letdown by the routine script that contains a fair amount of corn. McCrea displays his usual easy-going charm in the title role. Hendrix is a runaway teenager who also ends up with the orphaned boys. Although they are not shown getting intimate, it is somewhat creepy seeing McCrea getting romantically involved with Hendrix, who was half his age at the time of the film. The good supporting cast features McIntyre as a grumpy rancher and Nolan as his understanding wife.

Joel McCrea is very likable in carrying this breezy "B" western with a winning sense of humor and just the right amount of action. John Russell does his usual professional supporting job and Wanda Hendrix is delightfully offbeat as the love interest. Joel McCrea's talent for whistling gets a nice showcase. Not outstanding, but quite enjoyable.

Joel McCrea is riding along, figuring he'll follow the wild geese to California. First though, he drops in on his brother, who promptly dies, leaving McCrea to deal with his four orphaned sons. He totes them along, hides them while he gets a job with kid-hating John McIntire, and gets caught in subplots involving McIntire's cattle-rustling neighbor, Antonio Moreno, and runaway Wanda Hendrix.

Hugo Fregonese directs this with a rather heavy hand, making sure that the audience is aware of the subtext, and this extends into the various questions and mysteries that the plot concerns itself with, and the heavy-handed musical stings to indicate the jokes. Still, there is some startling original landscape photography by Charles P. Boyle, and Russell Simpson, an inveterate marker of A westerns since he appeared in Demille's THE VIRGINIAN in 1914.