Tennessee's Partner (1955)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Absolutely Fantastic

A Masterpiece!

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

John Payne plays Tennessee, a very successful gambler in the old west. It seems he's made some enemies and one of them tries to have him shot in the back. Fortunately for Tennessee, 'Cowpoke' (Ronal Reagan) is in town and sees the murder about to occur...and he intervenes. The two soon become friends. However, Tennessee can't believe Cowpoke is going to marry Goldie, as she's a cold-hearted money grubber and prostitute. But his new friend will hear none of it, so Tennessee decides to expose her for what she is by offering to marry her instead and take her to San Francisco...where he promptly dumps her. Naturally Cowpoke is angry. What will this do to their friendship? And how does Duchess (Rhonda Fleming) fit into all this? And why is there a lynch mob trying to hang them later in the movie?Overall, this is a modest little western. Not great by any standard but it's different enough to make it worth your time.

There are many factors which determine crucial decisions in our lives. Ideas, Love, Patriotism,etc. In this film it is Friendship, between the gambler Tennessee (John Payne), the cowpoke (Ronald Reagan) and also the miner "Grubstake" (Chubby Johnson). There is also the "Duchess" (Rhonda Fleming) , who is a friend besides being the madam, and the woman who is a foe, Goldie (Coleen Gray). All this provides an interesting and entertaining western, which is to be expected when the director is Allan Dwan. There are two remarkable moments in the film, when the "Duchess" asks Tennessee to kiss her like he wants to get married, and not out of lust, and the poker game where the gamblers keep raising the stakes. The film is based on a story written by Bret Harte who also wrote "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" . "Tennessee's Partner" was Allan Dwan's favorite among all his films.

Tennessee's Partner is directed by Allan Dwan and collectively adapted to screenplay by Milton Krims, D.D. Beauchamp, Teddi Sherman and Graham Baker from a short story written by Bret Harte. It stars John Payne, Rhonda Fleming, Ronald Reagan and Coleen Gray. Music is by Louis Forbes and cinematography by John Alton.We are in a gold mining town in California and Tennessee (Payne) is an excellent poker player operating out of Elizabeth 'Duchess' Farnham's (Fleming) bordello. But when you are so good at cards you make enemies fast and Tennessee is only saved from being killed by the intervention of a stranger named Cowpoke (Reagan). The two men quickly become friends, but that friendship is sorely tested when Cowpoke's intended bride to be turns out to be a no good gold digger whom Tennessee knows well.Producer Benedict Bogeaus once again assembles the principals that made the excellent Silver Lode the previous year. Dwann directs Payne while Alton photographs and Forbes drips his Western flavoured music over the top of things. Although this is not in the same league as Silver Lode, it's a hugely enjoyable movie in spite of adhering to a formula so rife in B Westerns of the 50s. The plot has enough going for it to keep it from ever feeling lazy, at its heart is a friendship under pressure from matters of the heart, but there is also gold in them thar hills, and with that also comes greed and irrational behaviour. With all hostile roads leading to Payne's gambling anti-hero.The friendship between Tennessee and Cowpoke is very engaging. Tennessee has no friends, his line of work and his womanising ways have ensured that is the case, but Cowpoke is an amiable fella who only judges what he sees at first hand, and Tennesse welcomes this with open arms. But Cowpoke is gullible as well, especially where viper in the nest Goldie (Gray) is concerned. With Payne making Tennessee calm and slick, and Dwan able to get a very human aw-shucks performance out of Reagan for Cowpoke, they are interesting polar opposites, but still it's very easy for the audience to care what happens to them. While Fleming's Duchess is beautiful and brainy, and she's the glue holding firm while the town comes apart.The French Region 2 DVD is not a perfect print, but it has transfered well enough to see the benefit of having John Alton on photography. Filmed out of Iverson Ranch, the film barely sets foot out of the confines of the town, so this is all about close character filming and sumptuous Technicolor lenses, and here Alton excels. The costuming (Gwen Wakeling) is first rate, especially for Fleming, who gets to don a number of knockout dresses, with a red one eye poppingly gorgeous, and the set design for the bordello/gambling den is wonderfully ornate. So with a good blend of quality aesthetics and weighty plotting, Tennessee's Partner easily shakes of its "B" budget beginnings to become a safe recommendation to the Western lover. 7.5/10

"Tennessee's Partner" was one of a series of minor westerns produced by Benedict Bogeaus, directed by Alan Dwan released by RKO in the 1950s. Gambler Tennessee (John Payne) cleans up at the gambling table at the "establishment" run by he beloved, the "Duchess" (Rhonda Fleming). Bad guy Turner (Anthony Carouso) sends Clifford (John Mansfield) who was the big loser to ambush Tennessee. A stranger who calls himself "Cowpoke" (Ronald Reagan) rides into town and saves Tennessee's life. Cowpoke then becomes, now wait for it, Tennessee's Partner. Cowpoke it seems has come to town to marry a girl named Goldie Slater (Colleen Gray) whom the boys meet at the boat dock. It turns out that Goldie has a past and had been involved with Tennessee earlier. So Tennessee sets out to save his partner from this fortune seeker. He manages to convince her to run away with him to San Francisco and takes her to the boat, but puts her aboard and returns to his true love the Duchess. Meanwhile, Cowpoke finds out what has happened and swears to kill his friend. Meanwhile, meanwhile Tennessee had financed an old miner named "Grubstake" (Chubby Johnson) and he strikes it rich. In an effort to shield Grubstake from the other miners, Tennessee takes him to his place. While Tennessee is trying to convince the Duchess that he didn't run off with Cowpoke's girl, Grubstake is murdered, his map stolen and Tennessee is blamed. Tennessee seeks out Cowpoke at his mine to settle accounts and allows Cowpoke to beat him up. But just then, the Sheriff (Leo Gordon) rides up and arrests the pair. To clear themselves the boys escape and go to the location of Grubstake's mine to catch the real murderer and.... It's odd that so many of the characters in this film have only nicknames. We never learn Tennessee or Cowpoke's real names. The so-called "Marriage House" run by the Duchess is nothing more than a thinly disguised brothel, sanitized to appease the censors of the day. The story is weak and there are few surprises. Payne plays an unsavory character for a change, Reagan is good as the jilted lover, Fleming is beautiful as always and Gray is only around for a short while. Others in the cast include Morris Ankrum as the Judge, Myron Healey as a hired gun, Joe Devlin as Carouso's assistant, Frank Jenks as the bartender and if you pay attention you'll see Angie Dickenson as one of the Duchess' girls. Veteran Pierce Lydon also has a bit as one of the miners. Reagan, Carouso, Johnson, Ankrum and Healey all appeared in "Cattle Queen of Montana" made by the same team a year earlier.