The Tall Men (1955)

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

I enjoy watching these colour 1950s westerns, more so now that they have been remastered in 1080p HD. This one is based on a novel by Heck Allen (as Clay Fisher).The cast performed very well, with Clark Gable and Cameron Mitchell as ex-confederate brothers seeking a better life after the Civil War, and Robert Ryan as a practical, intelligent businessman with big dreams. Jane Russell doesn't seem like an especially good actress, but she was okay for her role. The cinematography is beautiful to behold - director Raoul Walsh chose some ideal locations. The cost of making the movie was $3,115,000, a substantial amount for the time, and it made a profit with box office revenue of $6 million.

Hello!?? You call these "tall" men!!?? Ha! They seemed awfully small and petty to me.From my perspective, Ben and Clint Allison (the story's 2 main characters) were nothing but a pair of common criminals and equally worthless saddle-tramps. The only thing noticeably "tall" about these 2 scoundrels was the height of their over-inflated egos, especially that of Ben (played by, none other than, Clark Gable).Set in the year 1866, this second-rate, 1955 Western (that shied away from close-ups) seemed more concerned, than anything else, about focusing in on the mega-stupid and totally predictable romance that transpired between Ben and that gold-digger, Nella (played by the buxom, but talentless, Jane Russell). There was really no attempt made here to develop a worthwhile story about the great, old west.Yes. This Western did contain its fair share of gun-play, as well as feature a predictable cattle-drive, a laughable ambush and an inevitable Indian uprising (thrown in for good measure) - But, in the long run, the only thing worth any mention about The Tall Men was its nicely shot scenes in the wide, open country of Montana and Texas.And, unfortunately, when it came to the likes of big-name actor, Clark Gable - At a tired-looking 55 he was completely unconvincing as Ben Allison, the rugged, cowboy stud-muffin. Gable's laughable performance as this character easily brought this film's rating down by a few serious notches.

One thing the auteur theorists seemed to overlook when analysing the classic and archetypal Westerns, is the fact that all those post-war greats directed by John Ford, from Fort Apache (1948) to Two Rode Together (1961), were written by the same person – Frank Nugent. However with The Tall Men, we have a Frank Nugent Western directed by Raoul Walsh, and lo and behold it features many of those themes often mistakenly described as Fordian, such as respect accorded to an aging gunfighter, and a hostile yet dignified portrayal of Indians. Still, not everyone directs alike, so this doesn't mean it will turn out exactly like one of the Ford horse operas.Of all Hollywood directors, probably no-one had quite the same affection for the West as Walsh did. Walsh always emphasised the openness and freedom of the plains in his achingly beautiful landscape shots. He contrasts these with a very confined and stripped-down look for his indoor or town-based scenes. He even creates a kind of artificial indoors, for example when Clark Gable and co. settle down after the first day of the cattle drive, with elements as simple as a sloping bank, a tree and a wagon, so as to give all that more impact when we return to the trail. Appropriately for the title of this one, he has his heroes stand tall against the landscape. Although Ford does many similar things (such as contrasting wide-open outdoors with cramped interiors) Ford's landscape scenes often have a slightly desperate, dangerous look to them, with the characters small and vulnerable against the vastness of the scenery, while his homesteads have a safe cosy feel. Walsh on the other hand makes the outdoors look inviting despite its dangers, whereas civilization is dull and restrictive. It's differences like this that bring the diverging characters to the two men's work.But why, you might ask, if Walsh is so good and he's got a Nugent script, is The Tall Man not a timeless classic like so many of the Ford post-war Westerns were? Well you have to remember Ford was a respected, award-winning director, whereas Walsh was these days a potboiler-man. Ford had access to better casts, better crews, bigger budgets, more flexible shooting-schedules, not to mention being more likely to get Nugent's finer scripts, and to be honest the Tall Men is far from Nugent's best. There's also the fact that Walsh is not on top form because he was not well-suited to the Cinemascope aspect ratio (something Ford managed to avoid for all his late Westerns). Walsh liked to compose in depth – landscape shots that emphasise distance, action moving towards the camera, dollying in for emphasis – and the extra width is fairly useless to him. He tends to frame the action towards the middle of the screen as if still using academy ratio, and as such his actors look a little overwhelmed, detracting from the impact they have on screen and sapping the romantic scenes of any intensity.Still, there is much to like about The Tall Men. Clark Gable may have been getting on a bit in years, but he has lost none of his rugged screen presence. Jane Russell is no great actress but she's a tough girl who looks like she belongs out on the trail by Gable's side. Walsh's depiction of the cattle drive sweeping across the plains is among the most breathtaking ever committed to celluloid, and the Victor Young score underpins the imagery with an appropriately sentimental theme. There are some superbly rousing actions scenes too, with a real emphasis on making the audience feel in the thick of it. And despite its not being the most thought-provoking thing Frank Nugent ever wrote, like all his Westerns it paints a convincing picture of larger-than-life heroes, and is imbued with all the roughness and nostalgia that has come to define the genre.

Robert Ryan's character, Nathan Stark, is based upon a real person, Nelson Storey, who struck it rich near the boomtown of Virginia City, MT(renamed Mineral City in the film) and, in 1866, drove a herd of Texas Longhorns north from Texas to meet the pent up demand for beef among the gold miners. As in the film, he did encounter trouble from jayhawkers when he tried to drive his cattle through Kansas, he did have a major encounter with the Sioux in Wyoming, and the army did try to prevent him from proceeding further along the Bozeman Trail, because of Native American hostility. Part of this herd was used to establish a permanent herd in MT. The other aspects of this film are purely fictitious, if entertaining, and mostly involve the give and take between Jane Russell, Clark Gable and Robert Ryan. Of course, we can rightly assume that, in the end, Russell and Gable will end up together, although it doesn't look promising for most of the film.From my perspective, this film incorporates key elements from 3 previous films. As in "Call of the Wild", made 20 years before, Gable and companions rescue a beautiful woman in dire circumstances in a snowy wilderness(not once, but twice in the present film!) The woman eventually has to choose between Gable and another man. 5 years later, director Raoul Walsh directed a Civil War western "Dark Command". Quantrill's raiders, a quasi-military Confederate guerilla gang, were prominently featured in that film. In the present film, Gable, as Ben, and his brother, Clint(Cameron Mitchell) have recently quit Quantrill's raider's when they show up in Mineral City. In both films, the featured lady eventually has to choose between a poor but heroic cowboy or a sophisticated but overly ambitious rival, who throws money and promised status at her. The cowboy doesn't appear to have a ghost of a chance, but....Of course, there are some similarities with the previous "Red River". Both involve an epic cattle drive north out of Texas. Both involve occasional disputes among the leaders as to how to proceed or handle a dire situation at hand. However, there is no mutiny in "The Tall Men". Rather, the long drive sequence serves to better test the characters of the main protagonists and to give Russell more time to decide for sure who she wants to live with.(Both Gable and Ryan qualify as being "tall"). Russell's royal treatment on the trail by Stark reminds me of the spoiled tycoon in "Call of the Wild". Both merit their private bath tub on the trail!I thought Russell and Gable were generally excellent, with snappy dialogue and a good amount of sarcastic humor in their give and take. Russell certainly serves to lighten the tedium of the long cattle drive compared to the much more limited female presence in "Red River". She talks of her hard life growing up on a ranch(where?), but she also seems accustomed to fancy dresses and jewelry. What was she doing in the Wyoming winter wilderness, trying to get to CA? Who cares. Ryan, as Stark, was stiff and unemotional, with little sense of humor. I don't know if this is typical Ryan or an intentional characterization to make Gable's character look relatively more appealing to Russell. As was true of most of his films in his last 10 years, Gable's character was certainly meant for someone a good 20 years younger than Gable, who looked all of his 54 years. However, a weathered-looking Gable seemed better than no Gable.All-in-all, I found it an entertaining '50s western epic, shot in vivid CinemaScope. I don't agree with the scathing reviews of the times, nor with the common very unfavorable comparison with "Red River". The trail drive sequence was perhaps a bit long, but a lot shorter than the real 1500 mile drive! I liked Victor Young's background traveling music, played as the cattle were crossing that big river, for example. Yes, Ben was lucky in his occasional risky bravado episodes. but that's what you expect of Gable. The relationship between Stark and Ben and Clint was certainly unusual. The last 10 min. bring a few surprises in sorting out the final relationships between the principles, which have been simmering through most of the film....I didn't get around to discussing Ben's troubled, more trigger happy, brother. Remember that, as former members of Quantrill's raiders, the brothers were used to stealing, burning and killing. The James-Younger gang would emerge as the final incarnation of Quantrill's raiders.In an update, I recently became aware of two other excellent epic cattle drive films from this general era: "Cowboy", starring Glenn Ford and Jack Lemmon, and "The Texans", back in the '30s, starring Randolph Scott.