The Tall Men (1955)

Two brothers , old members of the guerrilla or irregular military forces called Bushwhakers from Quantrell, Anderson leaders -played by Clark Gable and Cameron Mitchell- and being recently discharged from Confederate Army lead a cattle drive from Texas to Montana . The brave brothers along with the boss Robert Ryan heading for Texas and they save the besieged Nella: Jane Russell from the Indians and she , then, decides ro ride with them . Across the rough territory they confront Jayhawkers , Indians Sioux commanded by Chief Red Cloud , savage stampede , angry rustlers , wild rivers , bad weather with snowy storms , assaults with the aim of attrition and many other things . Nice western with plenty of action , attacks , stampedes , rich dialogue , a triangular romance and with a real feel for the wide open spaces of the west . It has spectacular scenes , impressive outdoors scenarios , and moving set pieces as the stampeding a herd of cattle . It stars three great stars giving meaty roles : Clark Gable , Robert Ryan and Jane Russell . However , the 3 stars were all deemed too old for their characters ; furthermore , the great John Wayne withdrew and Charlton Heston was deemed for the main role . This trio furnished decent interpretation . Features two frontier hands : Gable and Cameron Mitchell , along with a tough boss , Robert Ryan , on rough cattle drive . Along the way confronting Indian Sioux , cutthroats , and the wilderness while vying with each other for the love Russell. And fine support cast with notorious secondaries as Emile Meyer, Harry Shannon, Robert Adler , Juan Garcia and others uncredited as Mae Marsh , Chuck Roberson and Russell Simpson .It displays a brilliant and rousing cinematography in Cinemascope, color De Luxe by Leo Tover . And an emotive and thrilling musical score by maesto Dimitri Tiomkin , including a sensitive leitmotif .The motion picture was well directed by Raoul Walsh who has an extreme feeling for the wide open spaces of the Far West for which this veteran filmmaker must take most of the credit .Walsh directed masterfully all kinds of genres and he made good westerns such as : They died with their boots on , Distant drums , Pursued , Gun fury , Lawless breed , Band of Angels and The king and four queens also with Clark Gable .Rating : 6.5/10 . Charming and decently made Western. Better than average . Worthwhile watching .Essential and indispendable seeing for Clark Gable and Jane Russell fans .

The Tall Men is directed by Raoul Walsh and stars Clark Gable, Jane Russell, Cameron Mitchell and Robert Ryan. Produced out of 20th Century Fox by William A. Bacher and William B. Hawks, it's adapted for the screen by Frank S. Nugent & Sydney Boehm from a novel written by Heck Allen (as Clay Fisher). Filmed out of Durango, the cinematography is by Leo Tover in a CinemaScope/DeLuxe production and Victor Young provides the score.Montana Territory 1866"They came from the South, headed for the gold-fields….Ben & Clint Allison, lonely, desperate men. Riding away from a heartbreak memory of Gettysburg. Looking for a new life. A story of tall men-and long shadows."The Tall Men has professionalism written all over it, from the tight direction by Walsh to the on the money writing, it's a Western that has no pretencions. The panoramic vistas are beautifully realised by the makers and in spite of Russell's flat style of acting, the cast put credibility into the cattle drive and romantic aspects of the story. Tho action sequences are few and far between, the film succeeds because of the well written characters and the landscapes that frame them. There's even much comedy to enjoy as well, a department where Russell does earn her corn in the movie (there's also a bath moment to get us boys hot under the collar too). Most notably the comedy works for her when playing off of Gable who seems to be enjoying himself as the rough, tough and cheeky Ben Allison. Very talky to be sure, there are for instance many extended scenes of our lead protagonists swapping dialogue, but it all serves a purpose and in the capable hands of Walsh the sequences serve to drive the narrative forward.Solid enjoyable stuff if ultimately a touch too long. 6.5/10

20 Century Fox's THE TALL MEN (1955) is one of their elaborate Cinemascope/colour westerns they were so expert at producing in the fifties. But let's not lose the run of ourselves altogether here for it's not really that good and there are some serious anomalies in the production. Besides a couple of blatant continuity problems, the screenplay by Sidney Boehm and Frank Nugent is unremarkable and quite pedestrian. But most importantly the direction by veteran Raoul Walsh is lame and unexciting. None of Walsh'e fifties movies are very interesting! This once great director of such forties classics as "They Died With Their Boots On" (1941), "Gentleman Jim"(1942), "White Heat" (1949) and his masterpiece "Objective Burma" (1945) appeared to have lost his creative punch in any of his later films. ( His final movie - a western called "A Distant Trumpet" (1964) was an unmitigated disaster!) However,THE TALL MEN is saved primarily by the screen presence of its star Clark Gable and also by the sparkling Cinemascope cinematography of Leo Tover plus the remarkable score by the great Victor Young.From a novel by Clay Fisher THE TALL MEN is the story of two brothers (Gable and Cameron Mitchell), late of the Confederate army, who arrive in Texas intending to make their fortune. They meet and hook up with a somewhat unscrupulous businessman (a surprisingly bland Robert Ryan in a poorly written role) and make a deal with him to drive 5000 head of cattle to Montana. Before the drive they rescue a feisty Jane Russell from the Indians and take her along on the journey resulting, of course, in Gable and Ryan vying for her affections. Along the trail there are some good action scenes when Gable and his Vaqueros take on a gang of Jayhawkers and fend off a well staged Indian attack near the picture's end.(A splendid set piece where the Vaqueros stampede the cattle into the path of the marauding Indians).This was Gable's first real "John Wayne" type western (There are even shades of Howard Hawks "Red River" and interestingly Hawks' younger brother William is producer on THE TALL MEN). Gable had dabbled in the genre before in movies like "Boom Town" (1940), "Across The Wide Missouri" (1951) and the excellent "Lone Star" (1952) but in THE TALL MEN and with dazzling panache he is the real deal herding cattle across the prairie. He had never before done this kind of movie and it suited him extremely well. It's a great pity he never did more of this type of western! (A later one - directed by Walsh again - the abysmal "The King & Four Queens" (1957) is best left in the obscurity it deserves). The supporting cast are uniformly OK with the only real drawback being Jane Russell! An actress I always found most irritating who - with her smart mouth and that snarl-like facial expression - never impressed me as the choice female in any movie. To me she was so unappealing and could emit about as much sex appeal as a Humpback Whale! So how Gable came to choose her as his leading lady is one of the great mysteries of life I guess! She just doesn't compliment him in the slightest! Someone like Susan Hayward or his old MGM co-star Ava Gardner would have been much more suitable!One of the most tangible aspects of the film is Victor Young's extraordinary music! The great composer of such hit tunes from his film scores as "My Foolish Heart", "Love Letters", "Stella By Starlight" ("The Uninvited") and "When I Fall In Love" (from "One Minute To Zero") was no stranger when it came to writing for the great outdoors of the American west. Among his music for westerns are such classics as "Wells Fargo" (1937), "Northwest Mounted Police" (1940),"Rio Grande" (1950), "Johnny Guitar" (1954) and most memorably "Shane" (1953). For THE TALL MEN he composed one of his finest themes for a western! First heard over the credits it is used later in the picture to point up the vast spectacle of 5000 cattle lumbering across the plains. With its appealing key changes and rich engaging orchestration this long loping piece is not only melodic but is wonderfully appropriate! The year after THE TALL MEN Victor Young passed away! He was only 56 years old! That same year he was posthumously awarded an Oscar for his magnificent score for "Around The World In 80 Days". During his career he was nominated 19 times. When he died he had just begun working on his score for a now forgotten film called "China Gate" and had only written the Main Title music. His friend Max Steiner stepped in and finished the score without pay. The music credit on "China Gate" reads "Music by Victor Young - Extended by his old friend Max Steiner".If you can overlook some of the glaring faults in THE TALL MEN like the slim screenplay, the uneven direction, some iffy performances, a couple of continuity problems and the presence of Miss Russell there is some enjoyment to be had from the movie thanks to the stunning widescreen cinematography, Young's awesome score and of course the inimitable Clark Gable strutting his stuff like never before.

Set in the Montana Territory of 1866, brothers Ben (Clark Gable) and Clint (Cameron Mitchell) Allison find themselves talked into a cattle drive from Texas back to Boomtown, after robbing high roller Nathan Stark (Robert Ryan) in his own saloon. Ryan's character is the taller of the two main stars, but it's not enough to win the heart of Nella Turner (Jane Russell), after she see saws her way between the two through much of the story. Russell of course steals any scene in which she's featured, and with the help of a provocative wardrobe, one is constantly reminded of her best assets.Constantly on the lookout for tidbits from an earlier era, I was as shocked as the Allison Brothers when the stable guy wanted to charge them sixteen dollars for two horses overnight. I don't think I've seen another Western where the charge was more than two bucks. What made that especially onerous was when Nella was quoted a dollar fifty a night, nine dollars for the week at a ritzy hotel in San Antone. Kind of makes you wonder what the horses got that humans didn't! Amid the tension of the romantic triangle, I got a kick out of the comic relief elements in the story, all wonderfully understated, and usually involving Russell's character. The best included the cutting of the girdle scene, her drenching river crossing, and brother Clint's frog in the bucket. Curiously, even though they were brothers, I found it intriguing how Clint sounded more and more Mexican as the story progressed.I can empathize with other reviewers on this board who felt the film was a bit on the long side. Considering that the cattle drive was fifteen hundred miles, that would have taken at least two months in real time, and probably longer. This was the only time I ever saw in a movie where they had to hoist the wagons down over rock cliffs, something I would never have considered. So what do you leave out, the Jayhawkers or Red Cloud?By the time the story's over, Nella's big dreams and Ben's small ones find a way to converge in the most minor of twist endings. It was interesting too how the words to Nella's 'Tall Man' song always seemed to fit the occasion; I wonder if she had one for Prairie Dog Creek?