Les ranchers du Wyoming

Robert Taylor, Robert Middleton, Richard Devon, William Windom, and Ray Teal are just some of the actors who quite obviously had some say in the roles and films they were in during this period, and picked an action Western with actual credible motivation in the characters. This old fashioned "my kind of range will be corrupted if we allow..." is something that might not be recognized by people in the information age of computers, but it's something quite obvious for people in the nineteenth century, whose information came from telegraphs and newspapers and rumors and what they saw first hand. The fears of losing livelihood was quite real. The unusual part of this film is how the characters aren't treated as stereotypes, aside from the sadistic one played by Devon. They have credible motivations, and the one unmotivated sadist is par for a realistic course in human events. The somewhat sadistic character played by Middleton pairs up with Devon to form an evil alliance. In comparison to the evil alliance of Shane's Stark and Wilson, this one doesn't come out nearly as well. Stark and Wilson made one of the most credible evil alliances in Western film history. This one is in the next tier. The brother character played by Windom is a pivotal one, as are many others. It is the supporting characters that make a film great, and this one has great supporting characters.

Robert Taylor is Brassfield, land-owner in Wyoming, who is determined to hold onto his land rights. with Joan Caulfield as Sharleen, the love interest. the arch enemy is Clay Mathews (Robert Middleton), a Texas big shot, who thinks his cattle should be allowed to graze anywhere, on any land, at any time. keep an eye out for John Mitchum, brother of Robert Mitchum. Mathews and Brassfield both get their say to the President. and there's the show-down coming, at some point. directed by early film director Tay Garnett. his biggest films were probably Postman Rings Twice and Mrs. Parkington. filmed in lovely MetroScope, for MGM Metro. Taylor was married to Barbara Stanwyck for twelve years! who knew? this one is a slow mover, but gets there eventually.

The only fault i can find is with the premise of the film ... to prevent the territory from becoming a cattle expressway to canada ... that makes no sense at all because the cattle market is in chicago ... i also find it damn near impossible to travel by horseback from the tetons or even lander for that matter to cheyenne in one day ... perhaps from laramie to cheyenne ... being a cattle baron is a risky business because you have to fight off the elements, rustlers, and the buyers that give low prices... not to mention the crooked cattleman's association ... the railroad is rarely used to ship cattle now because its done cheaper and faster by truckers ... the president is in wyoming to visit yellowstone national park which is at least 6 days travel from cheyenne ... its okay, hollywood can make anything happen overnight

"Cattle King" is the last film Robert Taylor made under his MGM contract. His full-time contract had ended in 1959 but he agreed to do three more pictures. "Cattle King" is the third. Mr. Taylor plays a large scale cattle rancher whose living is being threatened by a Texas cartel who want to build a cattle highway from Texas to Canada. This would bring thousands of undesirable cattle to Mr. Taylor's Wyoming home. It's a nice twist on the old cattle ranchers vs. sheep herders story. Instead of wanting to leave the range free for cattle to roam, Sam Brassfield (Mr. Taylor) wants to fence in land for the controlled breeding of high quality bovines. The only sheep herder in the picture ends up siding with Brassfield. The cinematography is outstanding with a palette that brings out the beauty of the area near Yellowstone Park. There are numerous scenes of groups of people riding which must have looked wonderful on the big screen.

The acting is done by seasoned professionals like Robert Middleton, Ray Teal and William Windom and a newcomer, Robert Loggia. They are all excellent. As usual in westerns, Joan Caulfield as the love interest for Sam isn't given enough to do. President Chester A. Arthur (Larry Gates) plays a pivotal role. In many ways Robert Taylor's colleagues at MGM made this a warm farewell. The name Robert Taylor fills the screen from top to bottom in the credits. He is photographed lovingly with numerous close-ups. There's a wonderful scene where Mr. Taylor stands proudly, legs apart in the western stance facing his enemy when the camera slides into a screen filling close-up. Robert Taylor was very good at playing characters who were larger than life, people who made a difference without losing their integrity. There's even a bit of humor as he spends a fair amount of time fussing with his various ties. "Cattle King" is a solid, well-acted, beautifully photographed western.

Well-armed backers of an interstate cattle trail running from Texas to the Canadian border run into resistance from Wyoming rancher Sam Brassfield (Robert Taylor) who has accepted and adapted to the reality that what was once an open range has now (1880's) become increasingly fenced off. His fences are blocking the plan for the cattle super-highway, the main backer of which is burly Clay Matthews (Robert Middleton) and his hired Texas gunman Vince Bodine (Richard Devon) who leads a ruthless band out to bring to reality the cattle trail by killing and scaring off any potential resistors. Matthews uses alcoholic rancher Harry Travers (William Windom) to spread rumors that Brassfield is the one cutting everyone's barbed wire fences in order to become the cattle king of the Wyoming range. Windom's part isn't half bad as the weak brother of the woman Brassfield becomes engaged to (Joan Caulfield). The whole idea of the cattle trail is interestingly brought out when the then President of the United States Chester Arthur (Larry Gates) visits Wyoming and finds out for himself that the rules of the range have changed for good. The film stumbles along at times, but for an early to mid 60's western it has some tough moments.