kfratt

It's no Good, Bad, Ugly or Once Upon a Time in the West, but I truly enjoyed Tall in the Saddle not only for a what I thought was a great depiction of John Wayne (John Wayne as actor and I suppose what Wayne is really like) but even more for Ella Raines. I loved the character she played, her aggressive nature and earthy good looks played perfectly opposite the sweet-as-pie, adorable young blonde played by Audrey Long. I was pulling for Raines to win Wayne's heart out over the obviously desirable and available Long. I was a little surprised to read, in Raines' biography, that Tall in the Saddle was considered one of her A-pictures, because it seems like a second-bill production. It's still super.

I enjoy film noir, and this film has a nice reputation (according to the Turner Classic folks), and while I watched the entire movie I was turned off early on. The Danny Hawkins character, first portrayed as sympathetically pathetic because he was picked on and bullied throughout his young life, evolves into an adult jerk. He doesn't know the meaning of "No" while he attempts to court who has to be one of the most beautiful girls in town, Gilly Johnson, portrayed by Gail Russell. She unrealistically falls for this partly- to fully-unemployed moody and borderline abusive loser. That was the turn off. From there the movie runs somewhat predictably, as the beauty has her life turned upside down because of her decision to fall for basically a psycho. If only they made her character less appealing, it all would have worked better.