Cow Country (1953)

the audience applauded

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

"Cow Country" has a good supporting cast of western veterans--Robert Lowery, James Millican, Robert J. Wilke, Robert Barrat, Peggie Castle, among others--a writer (Adele Buffington) who had been turning out western screenplays for years and a director (Lesley Selander) who specialized in making efficient, fast-paced westerns and did a lot of them, but they all must have had an off day because this is one of the slowest-moving, talkiest, cheapest-looking snorefests I've seen in a long time.Star Edmond O'Brien must have been short on his mortgage payment when he agreed to make this, because that would be the only possible explanation for his being in it. It certainly couldn't have been the script, which is awful and sounds like Buffington slapped it together from pieces of the innumerable westerns she'd written before this. There's no connection at all among any of the characters in this film; everybody just seems to be standing around waiting for their cues so they can recite their lines. The few "action" scenes are very poorly done (Selander's action scenes were usually far, far better than what we see here). Production values are, to be charitable, minimal. even for Allied Artists. The film has the look of a particularly cheesy episode of the old "Lone Ranger" TV series.As mentioned, even the good cast can't save this mess. O'Brien tries hard, and Wilke puts in his usual good job of villainy, but nothing really works. For some odd reason it was decided to make James Millican, who had one of the smoothest and most recognizable voices in the business, a German immigrant, and he's embarrassingly bad at it; he makes almost no effort at a convincing German accent, mostly substituting "v" for "w" ("Vhere are you going? Let's go that vay") and it's extremely annoying.The film has virtually nothing to recommend it. I gave it two stars, but that's mostly for the presence of so many good western actors who got stuck in this thing. Otherwise, it's not worth your time. Skip it.

1875 crash in meat market usual cliché--the hidden (but obvious) baddie trying to take over; also the familiar cliché of the hot-headed boss and the loyal guy for no discernible reason.This film is set in 1875 and apparently the market for beef has crashed. All the ranchers are in dire financial straights because of this. And, like about 75% of the westerns of the era, there is an evil boss-man who is trying EVERYTHING to destroy the ranchers. And, typical of this far over-used cliché, he has a private little army of thugs who steal cattle and kill in. Heck, before any of this occurred, I KNEW what was going on, as the baddie is Barton MacLane--who is almost ALWAYS the evil boss!!"Cow Country" also has another cliché--not as over-used but still too familiar. There is the strong-willed rancher who won't listen to anyone (Robert Barrat). And, typical of this cliché, there is a nice guy who, in spite of this rancher's pig-headedness, is still very loyal and will do anything to help him (Edmond O'Brien).Now if you haven't seen hundreds of westerns before, you may not notice these as very familiar characters. In this case, the film will probably be a lot better. All I could think was that I've seen most of this before (apart from the crash in the beef market). It's a shame, as O'Brien and Barrat were fine actors and were, frankly, better than the material they were given.

On Edmund O'Brien's birthday, 2012, Turner Classic Movies presented this movie hitherto unknown to me.This is an astonishingly good movie, and for several reasons: It assembled some of the most talented actors in Hollywood; they were all good to even great actors (Mr. O'Brien, for example, is one of those rarities who is believable in any role, and anyone who is a good cowboy is, to me, at the top of his profession); the characters, except, of course, for the bad guys, were likable and often admirable; even the bad guys were well-rounded and believable.There are two female leads, and both of them are good horse riders; both even know how to mount a horse, even in long skirts, as if they had been riding for years (and might have been; unfortunately, I haven't read their bios to know for sure). That is important for characters who are supposed to be natives to the West.Don Beddoe has not only one of his best roles, he handles it beautifully. He shows he was an actor who deserved even more and even better roles.Raymond Hatton was a veteran of movies back to the silent days. He too gives one of his best performances. Robert Wilke also has one of his best roles, and also handles it beautifully. So often all he is allowed to do is walk on and get shot. Here his character is very integral to the entire plot. And, again, he shows he was very capable of more and bigger roles. (In our one conversation, he never expressed any regrets about his career. He might have been content or even happy. His auto license plate read, if I have the spelling right, "VILLEN." He was one of the best and one of the busiest of them.)The writing and directing were good, if not perfect, and the only criticism I have is of the costuming. Even most of that was good, but one of the characters wore a Fredericks bra, which was popular in that era of film-making but actually deformed the female figure. (Just imagine Madonna as she so often appeared on stage.)Otherwise, well, "Cow Country" is good enough for me to rate it a 9. I highly recommend it.

As Monogram Pictures morphed into Allied Artists, they tried to raise the quality of their projects. As the demand for their B westerns disappeared, they hired some good actors -- among them the incomparable Edmond O'Brien -- and produced this western, directed by long-time Western director Lesley Selander.I wasn't expecting O'Brien to be convincing as a cowboy, but he is astonishingly good as an ex-cowpoke who is building an express business -- and given a huge oversupply of cattle, he's shipping an awful lot of tallow and hide, all the scrubs are good for. There's a lot more history intelligently explained here than is usual for a B western, the photography is crisp and clean and there are fine supporting actors carrying the roles -- John Millicam is particularly affecting in, for him, a large role.Selander directs very efficiently -- you can tell that villain Barton Maclane shot his interiors in a block and the action sequences near Lone Pine, where Selander spent most of his professional career are handled to advantage.The net effect is that everything is much better than a B western, yet the obvious economies make it at best a shaky A. Still, overall it is a superior effort and worthwhile for western fans and a surprisingly unexpected sidetrack for Edmond O'Brien.