Duel dans la boue

Terrific production values. Great cast. Lackluster script. Terrible soundtrack. Something missing. Too clean and tidy. Not realistic in a strange sense. A melodrama western? Not a bad film just not a really good one and certainly not as good as it should have been given the great cast. Lots and lots of clichés. Main character is not really likable. Many loose ends. Underdeveloped characters. Worth watching for Lee Remick and Patricia Owens.

I can't put my finger quite on the reason why this film falls flat. There just isn't any sizzle or scenes that grab you. Perhaps it is because the role of Latt (the main character) is not sympathetic. He seems to change from a decent guy to a heel almost overnight, forgetting about his true friends. Then he redeems himself instantly at the end. People don't change back and forth and back again like that.

A TCF western means it's well produced on a bigger budget than most oaters. On the whole, it's a good movie, a little slow and talky, but then the story's a strong one. I like the way we follow Lat's (Murray) climb up the economic and social ladder. He's a 19th century entrepreneur, starting out with very little but with some good moneymaking ideas for becoming a rancher. Still, he needs start-up money, which he gets from dance hall girl Callie (Remick), who he romances.

With money in hand, he embarks on becoming a success, along with buddy Tom (Whitman). The trouble is that success causes him to lose some perspective, and he starts looking down his nose at Callie and Tom, and romancing society girl Joyce (Owens). Thus his challenge is not only in confronting bad guy Jehu (Egan), but in recognizing the moral debts he owes to those folks who helped him along the way. Thus, the story is more rewardingly complex than with most westerns.

Murray's boyish charm reminds me of a young Jimmy Stewart, and wisely the script doesn't require him to be the toughest guy in town. The movie also looks like an effort at promoting him into a studio star since he gets a lot of screen time on top of a strong supporting cast that ranges from a poignant Remick to the always commanding Dekker. There's also some of the most compelling scenery this side of the Happy Hunting Grounds (too bad IMDb doesn't credit the locations!). On the whole, it's a good western if you don't mind a lot of talk along with some good action, especially the dramatic lynching scene.

I noticed that some complained that "These Thousand Hills" is a slow-moving film. I would have to agree that it is slow...or, as I like to see it, deliberately paced. But I didn't mind this and liked that the film is so very different...during an era when westerns were about all Hollywood seemed to be making!

Lat Evans (Don Murray) is a very ambitious young man. He works his butt off to earn as much as he can so he can buy a ranch and make something of himself. Well, after a few setbacks, he is able to get the money...thanks to a loan from a local 'fallen woman' (Lee Remick). And, his ranch becomes a huge success...so much so that the locals want him to run for the senate. Of course, Lat wants this, as he has huge ambitions and has worked so hard to get where he has. But then something strange happens....he starts to wonder if success alone is what he wants. Something more important becomes apparent...integrity...which leads to a dandy conclusion.

This film is slow paced but again and again, it avoids the usual cliches and has a lot to say about real masculinity and honor. Well worth seeing and a finer film than it's relatively mediocre score on IMDB would indicate.

By the way, my complaints are minor. One cannot be helped and that is that the print I saw looked almost smoky in the beginning and could use some restoration. The other complaint is that some of the music (the songs sung by some young singing star) were pretty bad and didn't fit the film.

This relatively early exercise in applied psychology by Richard Fleischer was based on a novel by A. B. Guthrie Jr in which rising young star Don Murray played an aspiring social climber with serious childhood issues who courts working girl Lee Remick before cruelly discarding her when she becomes a social embarrassment after initially making the innocent enquiry "Is she anybody's in particular?"

Murray initially naively assumes she's a nice girl since she dresses in green, but that dress has been paid for by Richard Egan, who shows what an utter heel he is by destroying a birthday cake among sundry other misdeeds.

Average western with advantage of good cast. Don Murray is okay in the lead, he never really had that elusive something to be a great movie star but is a fine actor but a more magnetic actor, Robert Mitchum or Burt Lancaster for example would have raised the film up a notch. The supporting cast is full of familiar faces that all provide excellent work, the real standout is Lee Remick who offers up a delicately shaded performance of a girl whose life has been full of bad breaks and hard luck. It a shame her part is relatively small since she's the most compelling character and actor in the film. The color and cinematography are also noteworthy. Not a bad movie just not great.