Rancho Bravo

The Rare Breed is the second of four films James Stewart did with director Andrew V. McLaglen. This is a fictionalized account about how Hereford cattle came to the great state of Texas. In this film Stewart brought a breeding bull together with his owners, Maureen O'Hara and Juliet Mills.

The question of course is whether the breed can stand up to a harsh and cruel Texas winter and breed calves. I guess since in real life there are a whole lot of Hertford cattle all over the USA now, the answer is they could. Of course in the film it involved some sacrifice in regard to some notions the women had, especially Juliet Mills who regards the bull Vindicator as a family pet.

Stewart's character, Sam 'Bulldog' Burnett has a bit of the rogue to him, but he certainly turns out to be the decent reliable Jimmy Stewart that movie audiences for three generations loved. Irish born Maureen is a proper English lady and Juliet Mills does very well as the daughter.

In her memoirs Maureen O'Hara said that some scenes she states she stole from Jimmy Stewart got cut from the final print. In watching The Rare Breed tonight, there were some illusions to some banter and a horse race that we just see the finish of. I'm sure that was what she was referring to although it's pure speculation as to the reason for the edit.

But if Maureen was worried about scene stealing, the guy who stole the film completely is Brian Keith. He plays the Scotch Texas cattle baron with proper brogue and a wild appearance. When we first see him, he's a real frontier character with a possible aversion to soap and water. Maureen has a civilizing affect on him and Keith becomes a rival to Stewart for her affections. He's quite a sight in the uniform of his former Highland regiment playing the bagpipes.

The Rare Breed doesn't rank up there with most of the Anthony Mann westerns of the Fifties. But it's entertaining enough and nothing anyone in the cast need be ashamed of.

This is dire. Without James Stewart, this flabby, far-too-long cattle yarn would be unwatchable. As it is, it's not far off. Stewart made a few of these 'modern' westerns for Universal in the mid 60's ("Shenandoah" springs to mind) and they are consistently shallow and unrealistic.

Two English beauties, Martha and her daughter Hilary, travel out to the American West in 1884 to sell their prize hornless bull. They meet up with Bulldog Burnett, a trusty cowpoke, who helps them move their bull to Texas. Various adventures befall them along the way.

The film wants to be a comedy action movie, but fails in both departments. The script is very weak and the improbabilities of the story are just too much to swallow.

Stewart plays Burnett, and manages to inject a bit of human interest into even this poorly-drawn character who has to utter some dreadful lines. Martha is played by Maureen O'Hara. She reacts beautifully and wordlessly when Bowen proposes marriage, but other than that she has nothing to do in the whole interminable film except look pretty and seem aloof. Juliet Mills is passable as the female ingenue Hilary, as is her male counterpart (Jamie, played by Don Galloway), but their characters are too flimsy to merit further attention. Jack Elam plays the bad guy Simons, as ludicrous a villain as exists anywhere on celluloid.

And now for the daffy parts. Burnett and the English ladies have camped for the night on the trail, but their camp is as bright as day, thanks to the Universal 'look'. Somebody takes a shot at Burnett, the bullet striking the coffee pot in his hand, but everyone decides to ignore it and turn in for the night! The notion that these two fragrant English roses would sleep on dirt is preposterous, but worse is to follow. The next morning, they are wearing crisp new outfits, both featuring dazzling white blouses - even though they have no luggage with them! Simons shoots his partner dead for no reason whatsoever - even though he is within his victims' earshot and risks ruining his own plan.

When Simons stampedes Jamie's herd, nobody notices him firing his gun or riding in among the cattle, waving a yellow scarf. When he robs the travellers, the obvious thing for him to do is to kill them, but he lets them go free. Before and after the dry gulch sequence, the group moves through lush pasture land. The dry gulch simply doesn't fit with the terrain (which is probably meant to be Oklahoma Territory). Brian Keith as Alexander Bowen parades the most awful Scottish accent since Brig O'Doon - and because he's Scottish, he plays the bagpipes, of course.

The scenes in the Bowen ranch yard and the blizzard sequence are very obviously filmed in a studio.

Verdict - Too long, too shallow ... and too bad they decided to film it at all.

This western has much going for it: great stars (Jimmy Stewart, Maureen O'Hara, and Brian Keith), interesting plot twists (is Stewart's character a thief, after all), and some comedic moments (Brian Keith is a hoot as Scottish cattle baron). Take the movie as it is, an old western that is mediocre in script with star power holding it afloat, and you'll enjoy the movie. Start picking it apart for studio shots, etc and of course you'll not enjoy it. The storyline of how Herefords came to replace Texas Longhorns sounds plausible enough. It was cute how Juliet Mills (sister of Hayley) got that Hereford bull to follow her by whistling "God Save the Queen". Juliet added quite a bit to the movie, and she was a good balance to the humorous triangle of Keith, O'Hara, and Stewart. Some reviews are harsh, yet the questions remains--How could anyone not enjoy a movie with Jimmy Stewart in it?

I just saw bits of this film for the first time today and kept at it because all of the leads were some of my all time favorite actors. I can't speak for the quality of the film since I didn't see it all, but it seems apparent that no lesser light than James A. Michener not only saw it, but liked it a lot since the basic plot line about the great British bull being brought to America by an English widow and then dying in a record blizzard after leaving his stamp on a new generation of crossbreeds is used almost verbatim in "Centennial" which was published nine years after this film was released.

Anyway, what I saw I enjoyed. I can't not enjoy O'Hara, Stewart and Keith!!!

Not only a good story but the acting was terrific in this western where a woman, played by Maureen O'Hara, comes to America with her daughter. Her husband died and she had to take over. It was the introduction of Hereford cattle into the American West that was her husband's dream. They enlisted help from Sam, played by James Stewart, who struggles to bring a bull to breed in Texas. The whole journey is fraught with many dangers and Sam doubted the survival potential of this 'rare breed'. If you like good stories, I recommend this one highly. 7/10