This Savage Land

I spotted this film in a very brief listing of the day's TV, which gave only George C Scott's name. It turned out that he was a "special guest star" with not so many lines as several other actors, but his was the most dominant screen presence.

The whole film turned out to be a reasonable way of filling in 90 minutes after a hard day in the garden, but I wouldn't want to watch it again. I groaned a little when the cute kid complete with piglet appeared, but he turned out not to be too much of a pain. I did wonder why the bad guys, having burned one of the Pride family's wagons and giving them until next morning to clear out, then allowed them to stay long enough to build a sod hut - which seemed to go up very quickly, given the lack of labour! What jarred the most was the instant attraction between Barry Sullivan (in his late 50s) and Kathryn Hays (looking far younger than her mid-30s. Gary Cooper, Randolph Scott and Cary Grant could get away with such an age difference, but not Sullivan, who looked his age in some of the close-ups. And he may have been wearing a toupee, but he needed a lot of work on his teeth! In contrast Kathryn Hays looked pretty good, especially when she was responding to Sullivan's romancing.

Quite why the township was called Lawrence I don't know; the real Lawrence was the victim of a ferocious attack by Quantrill's Raiders, whereas in the film the bad guys seemed only to want to put out of business a critical newspaper and were under orders not to kill anyone.

I found this TV movie a quite satisfying one, albeit somewhat disjointed. It is what it is. A 60's low budget TV western with a surprisingly good cast. Barry Sullivan looks older than his years but plays his part well. The rest of the cast are decent too although second billed Glen Corbett only turns up near the end. Why George C Scott agreed to appear in this I don't know. The one real saving grace in this is the performance of John Drew Barrymore as Stacy Daggart. He has a real presence!!

Beautifully written, acted and directed major 1960s western adventure.

Strong leading performances from veteran stalwart Barry Sullivan excellent support from Brenda Scott and Kathryn Hays make this a compelling revenge frontier justice western.

Good supporting roles for Glenn Corbett and Andrew Prine.

Originally This Savage Land was a 2 part episode of the cult western TV series Road West 1966, but was eventually released as a major theatrical film feature release.

Directed by prolific western and television director Vincent McEveety and written by Richard Fielder this classic western shows to great effect the 1960s golden age of classic masterpiece movies.

A classic western with all the required ingredients and more. Unmissable.

I couldn't get over the fact that the piglet never got any bigger throughout the film.

Also the sod hut grew remarkably quickly and where did all the wood come from?

A very predictable plot, with everything too clean and tidy but that was normal for Westerns made in that era. A waste of time .

Easily forgettable Better to wash the car. Did we really want films like that in the 60's

Ohio widower Ben Pride (Barry Sullivan) moves to Kansas with his parents and children shortly after the Civil War. When they arrive in Lawrence they are harassed by Confederate marauders led by Jud Barker (George C. Scott). Ben also has matters of the heart to contend with as he starts to fall for Elizabeth Reynolds (Kathryn Hays), the daughter of the local doctor.

This is basically a TV movie that was spliced together from a TV series in the 60s called The Road West. It's a bit uneven and certain character factors are hard to swallow - such as the 21 year gap between the Sullivan and Hays romance, and the underuse of Scott's complex character - yet it's well performed and has the requisite Western staples to please fans of the genre. 5.5/10