The Proud Ones (1956)

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

"The Proud Ones" gives star Robert Ryan one of his rare chances to play the hero in a western. In this one, he plays town marshal Cass Silver a tough no nonsense lawman in a town where large herds of cattle are arriving for shipment east. He is supported by his deputy Jim Dexter (Arthur O'Connell) who is nervously awaiting the birth of his first child, and crusty old jailer Jake (Walter Brennan) .Arriving with one of the herds is a two gun young man named Thad Anderson (Jeffrey Hunter) who has a bone to pick with Cass. It seems that Cass had killed the young man's father in a gunfight. Despite Cass's efforts to explain what happened, Thad retains his doubt of the incident.With the town prospering, gambler "Honest" John Barrett (Robert Middleton) arrives and sets up shop in the local saloon. Along with him are his floor manager Dillon (George Matthews) and his two gun fighter pals, Pike (Ken Clark) and Chico (Rodolfo Acosta). It seems that Cass and Barrett have a history. Faithful girl friend Sally (Virginia Mayo) stands by her man Cass.Cass is grazed by a bullet during a shoot out and begins to experience periods of blindness. Cass meanwhile, gradually wins the confidence of Thad, hiring him as a relief jailer. But when Cass is forced to shoot Chico, Thad believes that Cass gunned down an unarmed man and renews his hatred of Cass. When Dexter resigns as deputy, Cass offers the job to Thad who accepts. Gradually Thad learns the truth about his father and Chico's deaths and becomes allied with Cass in his efforts to rid the town of Barrett. Sally wants to take Cass and leave town and get help for his vision problems.When the three of Barrett's men that Cass had arrested are broken out of jail, Cass and Thad pursue them but Cass experiences a blind spell.Ryan as always is better than his material. His reactions to Thad, his blind spells and his confrontations with the villains are well played. Virginia Mayo does her best with a limited role and Jeffrey Hunter is convincing as the young man seeking revenge. I thought Walter Brennan's role was all too brief. Robert Middleton gives one of his best oily villain roles as the chief baddie.Other recognizable faces in the cast include Ed Platt as the town doctor, Whit Bissell as a town councilor, Paul E. Burns as the sympathetic town drunk as well as, silent film child star Jackie Coogan, Richard Deacon as the town barber/undertaker and William Fawcett and I' Stanford Jolley in other brief roles.

The movie contains gun-play , Western noisy action , thrills , exciting spectacle and hard-biting interpretations . Offbeat Western about an almost-blind marshal with recurring bouts of blindness and taking on a nasty bandit . The rowdy ,free-spending cowboys attracted saloon keepers , gamblers , brothels and all types of frontier riff-raff , the town became notorious for its lawlessness , but there was Marshal Cass Silver (Robert Ryan) . After arrival the railway in town , Marshal Cass has to face off villains , killers and other mean people . Meanwhile , a cowboy called Thad Anderson (Jeffrey Hunter) comes to town with a cattle drive and meets Sheriff Silver , who murdered Anderson's dad when he was young . But his revengeful feelings of animosity soon change when Cass is telling the truth about his daddy . Later on , there appears his old nemesis , a corrupt gambler named John Barrett (Robert Middleton) and Cass has to deal with his hoodlums (Rodolfo Acosta , Ken Clark) . But here is a problem however , Cass is blind and he gets to hitting the dust .The film packs violence , shootouts , high body-count , it's fast moving and quite entertaining . It's a medium budget film with good actors , technicians , production values and pleasing results . A good Western of the kind that was already close in the then changing climate of Hollywood , what follows result to be Westerns in which stand out the twilight style , typical of the sixties . There is plenty of action in the movie , guaranteeing some shoot'em up or stunts every few minutes ; it continues to thicken to the inevitable final showdown . As the movie displays shot'em up , frantic action , thrills and moving pieces . It's a stirring Western with breathtaking confrontation between two leading roles , Robert Ryan/Jeffrey Hunter , and their enemies , Robert Middleton , Ken Clark , Rodolfo Acosta . Robert Ryan interprets efficiently an aging marshal responsible for law and order in a frontier cattle town , Jeffrey Hunter is cool as his young colleague and Robert Middleton is nice as a ruthless saloonkeeper . Virginia Mayo more used to work in Warner Brothers Musical seems miscast as the girlfriend . Support cast is pretty good such as Ken Clark , Rodolfo Acosta as hired guns . Special mention for the latter , Rodolfo Acosta , in his ordinary role as a cruelly baddie , he is terrific, and bears a hysterical and mocking aspect , subsequently he would play similar characters . Furthermore , Arthur O'Connell , Edward Platt , Whit Bissell , Richard Deacon , Jackie Coogan and a wasted Walter Brennan as an old deputy . Enjoyable score , including a catching whistled theme tune that may stay with you for some while . Colorful as well as evocative cinematography by Lucien Ballard , Peckinpah's usual .Screenplay by Petrarca and prestigious Edmund H North with interesting premise about a 'blind gunfighter' , subsequently taken by Japanese series starred by ¨Zaitochi¨, a blind swordsman from the 60s and being recently remade by Takeshi Kitano . This attractive theme about a blind gunslinger is also treated in other Westerns such as ¨The Blindman¨ by Ferdinando Baldi with Tony Anthony and Ringo Starr , ¨An eye for eye¨ by Michael Moore with Robert Lansing , ¨Minessota Clay¨ with Cameron Mitchell , directed by Sergio Corbucci and ¨Blind Justice¨ (1994) by Richard Spence with Armand Assante , Robert Davi and Elizabeth Shue .¨The proud ones¨ was expertly staged by Robert D. Webb who carried out an exciting climax of the picture . Robert Webb makes a nice camera work with clever choreography on the showdown , fighting , moving shootouts and suspenseful set pieces . Robert D Webb was the last person to win the short lived Oscar category "Best Assistant Director" . Often worked as assistant to the director Henry King . Directed Elvis Presley in his first feature film , Love Me Tender (1956) . Robert was an assistant director and director, known for Beneath the 12-mile reef , (1953), Seven Cities of Gold (1955) , Love Me Tender (1956) , this The proud ones (1956) , Pirates of Tortuga (1961) and The Cape Town affair (1967) . ¨The proud ones¨ is an outlandish , surprising and uneven story but will appeal to Western aficionados . Rating : 6.5/10 , riotous Western in which there's too much action and violence and excitement enough

THE PROUD ONES – 1956A much better than I was expecting western from the middle of the heyday of the genre.Robert Ryan is a lawman in a railhead town at the end of the cattle trail. He tries to play fair with everyone, and tells the just arrived cowhands etc to behave themselves. It they cause no trouble, they will not get any from Ryan and his deputies, Walter Brennan and Arthur O'Connell.Ryan is keeping company with Virginia Mayo, who runs a boarding house in town. He is finally going to pop the question and ask for her hand in marriage. This happy turn of events is soon interrupted by the return of several past problems.First is the son, Jeffery Hunter, of a gunslinger Ryan had killed some years before. The son is looking for maybe a little payback. He has heard that Ryan had gunned his father when the man was unarmed. Hunter wants to decide if Ryan is indeed a back shooter. The second, and bigger problem, is the new saloon and gambling hall owner, Robert Middleton. Middleton, who goes by the unlikely name of "Honest John Barrett" runs anything but a honest set-up.It does not take long before Ryan catches a card sharp in Middleton's saloon, doing a bit of underhand card playing. Ryan runs the card sharp out of the place. One of Middleton's guns goes for Ryan from behind. Hunter, who is having a beer, shouts out a warning to Ryan. The gun hand puts one in Hunter's leg and grazes Ryan in the head before Ryan drops the four flusher.Ryan has Hunter put up at Miss Mayo's place to heal up. Ryan intends to ride close watch on Middleton's action. The deal with the two is that there is bad blood between them. The two had squared off in a different cow town before. Ryan had left that burg because his girl, Mayo had asked. Middleton had mistakenly taken this as cowardice on Ryan's part. Another twist is that Hunter's father was in Middleton's employ when he bought it.Hunter recovers and is given a job as a jailer by Ryan. Ryan sits the kid down and tells him that his dad was a low-life gunman. Hunter does not like hearing this but can see that Ryan seems to have the respect of the town.The one deputy, Arthur O'Connell, quits in order to be with his with child, wife. Hunter is offered the job, which he takes. Ryan is slowly filling up the jail with Middleton's crew as they get caught rolling winners at the table etc. The pit boss at Middleton's saloon, George Mathews kills a man for calling him a cheat. Ryan adds him to the jail house residents. Middleton has had enough of Ryan and sends for his two best guns, Ken Clark and Rodolfo Acosta.Adding to Ryan's problems is that the head wound he got earlier is causing bouts of 2 or 3 minutes of blurred vision. This of course he keeps to himself. Clark and Acosta make a late night play at bushwhacking Ryan on his rounds. Ryan has to run for it as a bout of blurred vision hits.The next night he takes Hunter along on his rounds. Acosta makes another play at Ryan. This however ends with Acosta getting some unneeded changes to his breathing process. Acosta's partner, Clark, does not like this and grabs a few of Middleton's men for a raid on the jail house. They free Mathews etc and kill guard Brennan.Ryan hears the shooting and comes a running. He finds Hunter exchanging shots with Clark, Mathews and bunch. Ryan and Hunter chase the villains into a large barn on the edge of town. There is a long gun battle during which Ryan has another bout of blindness. He also catches a round in his gun arm. Hunter though is up to the task and the gunmen are soon ready for Boot Hill.All that remains is to put the pinch on ringleader Middleton. Middleton is not inclined to go peacefully and goes for a hidden gun. Hunter is not fooled by the move and puts Middleton down for the count. Ryan and Mayo ride off to start a new life and Hunter is the new town lawman.Also in the cast are Edward Platt, Fay Roope, Richard Deacon and Whit Bissell.The director was Robert D. Webb. Webb was a long time second unit man whose films after making the move to main chair, include, THE GLORY BRIGADE, THE SPIDER, WHITE FEATHER, BENEATH THE 12 REEF, GUNS OF THE TIMBERLAND and Elvis's first film, LOVE ME TENDER.The look of the film is just what one would expect from top notch cinematographer, Lucien Ballard. Ballard lensed, HOUSE ON TELEGRAPH HILL, FIXED BAYONETS, BERLIN EXPRESS, DON'T BOTHER TO KNOCK, THE GLORY BRIGADE, INFERNO, THE KILLER IS LOOSE, BUCHANAN RIDES ALONE, CITY OF FEAR, NEVADA SMITH, WILL PENNY, HOUR OF THE GUN, TRUE GRIT, THE WILD BUNCH and THE GETAWAY.The film features a rather subdued and haunting theme from Lionel Newman.Ryan is Ryan. Did he ever turn in anything but a great performance? Hunter is good while a mustache wearing Brennan is at his scene stealing best in his limited screen time.Unlike most westerns, this one is not set out in the big spaces. It instead makes great use of the town as the backdrop for all the gun-play and double dealing. Most of the action takes place at night which works quite well.

Of all the genres, Westerns are among my least favorite--mostly because I just think there have been too many. So many that the same themes appear again and again and they just don't hold my interest. So, when I find a Western that's just a little different, I get pretty excited. Now THE PROUD ONES has a lot of familiar elements, but enough new ones that I liked the film and am glad I watched it.It also didn't hurt that it starred one of the best and most underrated actors of the 1950s, Robert Ryan--who played a wonderful character. This character seemed inspired, somewhat, by Gary Cooper in HIGH NOON--a sheriff who refused to back down when it came to doing his job and doing what was right. However, there were a few unique story elements, such as the back stories of both Jeffery Hunter and Ryan. Also, the villain (Robert Middleton) wasn't the usual bad guy--it's usually some power-hungry land baron or bank robber.Overall, due to a very well constructed script, good action, plenty of tension and excellent direction, this one manages to get an 8--it's really quite good.