The Sheepman (1958)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Glenn Ford was very busy as an actor in 1958- 6 films including Torpedo Run and this movie. Because of his being busy, this movie though well cast is kind of an assembly line production. There are some accidents in this film that make people think it is supposed to be a comedy.The biggest one is the cast. Leslie Nielsen, Edgar Buchanan, and Slim Pickens all became know for comedy later in their careers. Just because they are in this cast does not mean it is a comedy. Just because this is sheep versus cattle doe not make it a serious film either.What we have is something in-between. Ford plays his role straight and yet at times is funny himself. Shirley MacLaine's role here as Fords girl Dell is not fully exploited here. I think that explains the whole movie. A good looking talented cast and an uneven script. Writer James Edward Grant would write a better western comedy with McLintock later featuring the Duke, Chill Wills and Buchanan amongst others but in this movie he is still working on how to shape a western comedy.This film is a pleasant diversion for those who like the cast. I believe it was intended to be more serious than it is but with everyone being so busy cranking out other films, and a lot of old western actors, the film is just a pleasure to watch and wonder if they really had tried to make a comedy here, how it would have turned out?

Many viewers of U.S. westerns deem this one of the funniest of all satirical comedies set in the West. The so-called western defies the limits post-modernists want to put onto it. Their purpose is to argue away the reality based, secular, individual-rights basis of North American history, to argue that it was all a bad idea persons mistakenly believed in, and that we ought to be glad to be living in the Age of public interest imperialism and the corporate man. "The Sheepman" is as powerful and as humorous a refutation of totalitarianism modern-variety as any I know. The writers were the comedy specialist William Bowers, western veteran James Edward Grant and William Roberts, with the swift-paced and able direction being supplied by versatile George Marshall. The story-line retails what seems at first glance to be a superior situation from which to develop a comedy. Jason Sweet, able played by Glenn Ford, has won a herd of sheep in a poker game. He is intelligent enough to know that while cattle and sheep get along very well, the folks in the area he wants to graze them are not about to prefer science to their own stupid bigotry; so he has no choice but to make a splashy entrance into the town he has chosen. Gonzales Gonzales plays his lugubrious sheepherder foreman; Ford heads into town, leaving the sheep to him while he accomplishes three things. One is to meet ditsy but very cute Shirley Maclaine, whom he fancies immediately as much as he sets her teeth on edge. A second it to pick a fight with Jumbo, ably played by Mickey Shaughnessy, so the town--as in "Destry Rides Again"--will take notice of his defeating their toughest bully. ASnd third, he finds out an old enemy, Johnny Bledsoe, calling himself Colonel Bedford, in the person of Leslie Nielsen, is courting the lady and pretty well running the town. So from the start, Ford knows the game. Dirty tricks abound, but eventually Nielsen has to hire a gunfighter, played by Pernell Roberts, to try to ride himself of Sweet and the sheep. However, all turns our right in the end, leaving a grinning Ford in possession of everything he had set out to win. The colorful story is actually quite attractive as a production, with cinematography by Robert J. Bronner and art direction provided by Macolm Brown and William A. Horning. Jeff Alexander provided the original music, and there are fine sets by Henry Grace and Hugh Hunt and Walter Plunkett's vivid costumes to enjoy also. This is one of several excellent Gleenn Ford--George Marshall western efforts, a body of work second only perhaps to the John Wayne-John Ford team's output. Not to be missed; a favorite with viewers everywhere. In the talented cast besides Ford and an understated and intelligent Nielsen, the viewer can find such western stalwarts as Edgar Buchanan, Willis Bouchey, Slim Pickens, Buzz Henry, Roscoe Ates, Hoot Gibson, Kermit Maynard, Percy Helton and Harry Harvey.

An excellent late-50s MGM oater, this one stars Glenn Ford as Jason Sweet, a ex-gambler who's come into town with a trainload of sheep he won in a card game. He knows there's going to be opposition since this is cattle country, so he strikes the first blow by letting the town know he's here to stay and that he plans on sharing the rangeland with his sheep. The beginning scene with slow-witted Jumbo McCall (Mickey Shaughnessy) in the Chinese restaurant is a hoot.And by coincidence (?) his main opponent is none other than an old nemesis turned cattle baron named Stephen Bedford (Leslie Nielsen) who knows more about Ford's past than anybody else in town. And vice-versa. It turns out that Stephen Bedford used to be known as Johnny Bledsoe, a notorious card shark and gunman who's now gone into the respectable cattle business. He's also planning on marrying the town airhead, played by Shirley McLaine who will later fall in love with Ford.It now turns into a battle of wits between Sweet and Bledsoe to see who will win out. Bledsoe has the upper hand at first because the town's behind him. But Sweet won't be rattled so easily so Bledsoe brings in Choctaw Neal (Pernell Roberts) as a hired gunman to do the dirty work. Choctaw isn't so tough when his two fellow gunslingers aren't able to back him up in a gun duel with Sweet. They being held at gunpoint by McLaine and Edgar Buchanan (as the town sage) so Sweet will be able to have a fair fight. I like the unsure look on Choctaw's face as he's forced to draw on Sweet alone. (laughs) Good scene.The ending shootout in Nielsen's study is also well done as he attempts to fool Ford into thinking that his show pistol is unloaded and that he's just playing around with it. Both of them fire simultaneously killing Nielsen and wounding Ford. There's more to all this than what's been described, so you'll have to see it for yourself.Another enjoyable western from director George Marshall (DESTRY RIDES AGAIN) with good comedic touches (especially Mickey Shaughnessy's part) that aren't contrived or forced upon the audience in any way. It all blends in neatly with the story.8 out of 10

I enjoyed seeing Leslie Nielson as a young man, and was quite taken with him...I love him in everything he's in, even as a bad guy! He does better in comedy than drama, though, in my opinion. Shirley MacLaine was beautiful, and her voice sounded higher than it did in "Two Mules for Sister Sara", the western she was in with Clint Eastwood.