American Empire (1942)

This is the old time basic Western, and one interesting aspect about it is how it is one of the "models" for most later TV series.Perhaps the best way to illustrate this is by the star billing. Dix and Carillo are top billed, yet it is obvious from the start that Preston Foster and Frances Gifford are the lead romantic interests.Romantic leads were not always the standard. Top billing in "THEM!" went to the chief characters of Gwynn and Whitmore as the eccentric show stealing scientist and the policeman who was followed throughout the story. In "THE RAVEN" the two young romantic lovers play second fiddle to three with star billing in Karloff, Price, and Lorre.So it's not new. What is important is that the character played by Dix is the one who is the strong, solid, stable influence. This is the character who would be the mainstay of just about every TV Western series to follow, and most other TV shows. He was Cheyenne, Bronco, Matt Dillon, Ben and Adam Cartwright.Foster was the mistake prone fellow who lacked the solid fundamentals. He learns some bitter lessons the hard way. Unfortunately, as in real life, it is other people who pay for them. In this case, his first born son does.The villainy of the Mexicans is on the racist side. One interesting bit is that when the two good guys meet up with the villain Carillo, it is their own man who is at fault for the troubles, but they are men of experience and savvy, and recognize Carillo for what he is.Frances makes a very nice entrance, and she is very stunning. She appeals to both the male libido and the female intellect.Dix, though seemingly shadowed in the background, is no more shadowed than Bronco or Ben Cartwright were in their endeavors. They were the main character, because they were not just one man, but representative of a lot of men who would try to make things work. They weren't "Everyman". They were "Everymen".

There are buffs who signal American EMPIRE as an unusual and likable western; they are right about a degree of relative originality. Nicely paced, this flick is pretty well made. The plot isn't very interesting, and it's not an exciting and lively movie; but it looks better than the regular westerns of those times. I'm kind of a fan of this movie. As a genre, American EMPIRE isn't as a matter of fact a western, but a melodrama; a ranch melodrama.Gracelessly played by the two aging male leads (the distinguished and oldie Preston Foster and Richard Dix), this charming light ancient comedy manages, for a little while, before it quickly turns into romance, some kind of a screwball western—or western screwball; which would of been interesting to follow on, but, as I said, they traded screwball for romance. The action begins in the aftermath of the civil war. Two boatmen, Bryce and Taylor, turn into ranch-men. They sailed, they ride, now they have a cattle ranch. A sister for one of them means a lover for the other.Then we are, with our Texans, in 1874. Bryce (played by Preston Foster), now a family man and a powerful owner of cattle, has become a heartless guy; in his individualism, he even opposes progress as represented by the railroad, he believes only in the sharpest concurrency, he concedes nothing. Even his relatives resent him.Bryce's wife is played by the hot Frances Gifford, some girl ….What is the American EMPIRE? Bryce's ranch.The scene of the firewall is awesome.The folks depicted in these naive ancient westerns are usually _asexualized, generous and decent, conventionally horny sometimes.The title of Cristian Ciopron's review should not mislead—the characters leave the river—for cattle, love and family—quite early in the movie.

This B-western sure has a lot of familiar faces--Richard Dix, Preston Foster, Robert Barat, Cliff Edwards, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, Leo Carrillo and Jack LaRue. While none of these names were exactly big names at the time, this did give the film a bit better cast than you'd usually expect with such a film.Edwards, Williams and Dix run a riverboat along the Louisiana-Texas border just after the Civil War. They get an idea from Leo Carrillo to go into the cattle business--as they see that there is a huge need up north for beef. During the first year, the men (along with Dix's sister) manage to create a prosperous cattle ranch--but into their seemingly charmed life comes Carrillo and his bandit friends to rob them blind. As Carrillo's character reasons, as he gave them the idea for the ranch, the cattle are just as much his!! He disappears from the film for a while...only to appear again much later.Time suddenly passes as you see the years flying past the screen. Dix's daughter has married Foster and they have a child. Unfortunately, instead of Foster relaxing and enjoying his success, he acts as if it's him against everyone--including the railroads! Will he have a change of heart or will he lose everything he loves in the process? See it for yourself to find out what happens next.Some of this film is quite formulaic. The idea of a cattle baron becoming greedy and trying to squeeze out the competition certainly is not new--nor is the notion of two friends becoming estranged in the process. The climax is amazingly good--and very violent! Generally, the acting is very good, but the casting of Carrillo is odd, as he's supposed to be a Cajun--a FRENCH-speaking Cajun. With his heavy Spanish accent, this seemed like an odd choice for the actor to play this role. As for the plot, it's very familiar but entertaining. Not great but worth seeing if you like westerns.

This turned out to be a fairly entertaining Western, as well as an interesting analysis of a once forward thinking individual whose aging conservatism turns rigid. Paxton Bryce (Preston Foster) winds up coming full circle by the film's blazing finale, having had to endure the alienation of those closest to him. You can figure out fairly early how this one's going to go even though the happy ending is tempered by the loss of Bryce's young son.Richard Dix is top billed as Bryce's long time friend and business partner Dan Taylor. Taylor's sister happens on the scene to provide the romantic interest as Bryce's future wife Abby (Frances Gifford). The film doesn't spend too much time developing that relationship, but that's not the central focus. The story has more to do with the regular expansion of the partners' land holdings and cattle business, with Leo Carrillo providing the foil as a hustling cattle thief. Except for the fact that he's the villain of the piece, he plays it pretty much the way he would as the Cisco Kid's sidekick Pancho in the 1950's TV series. He may not mangle as much of the English language here, but his temperament and mannerisms make it difficult to see him as the bad guy he's intended to be.Guinn Williams delivers in the comic relief role as 'Sailaway', a name derived from his free wheeling riverboat days with Bryce and Taylor. I've always enjoyed his roles in movies starring Roy Rogers, John Wayne and Errol Flynn, though here he's not in the usual sidekick role. Instead, he's a loyal employee of the two river men turned ranchers, who gets his kicks by verbally sparring with his buddy Runty (Cliff Edwards). Sailaway helps make the save near the end of the story when he gets wind of Dominique Beauchard's (Carrillo) plans to raid the town of Riverford. By that time, the opposition of the local ranchers to Bryce's restriction of his range land is about to get ugly, and becomes the turning point in bringing Bryce back to his senses.Though the open range theme had been done time and time again in 'B' Westerns of the Forties and Fifties, the formula still works well here. It reaches a rather dramatic but sad climax when Bryce's seven year old son dies from injuries suffered in a cattle stampede trying to enforce his father's rigid rules. I don't believe I've ever seen an element as harsh in service to a film of the era before. It works, but one can't help feeling that maybe they could have come to a happy ending without the loss of Pax Jr.