Classic gold-mining story hits the silver screen
1 The story
The short story Tennessee’s Partner by Bret Harte first
appeared in the October 1869 issue of The Overland Monthly, a San
Francisco magazine which Harte was editing.
It is very short,
3600 words, and succinctly told. The action takes place at Sandy Bar, a gold camp
in Calaveras County, California, sometime around 1850.
It tells of a
gambler and thief, Tennessee, and his rustic, almost simpleton partner, who is
never named. The partner marries a (nameless) waitress in Stockton and brings
his new wife back to the cabin he shares with Tennessee. Soon, however,
Tennessee and the girl go off together. When Tennessee returns, sans woman (she has run off with another
man) to everyone’s surprise (including that of the reader, really), Tennessee’s
partner is the first to shake his hand and welcome him home. The miners,
cheated of their expected gunfight are annoyed, and when Tennessee robs a
stranger and shoots his way out of a saloon they determine to try to hang him.
1869 short story
Tennessee is
captured by “a small man on a gray horse” with two pistols and a knife who
turns out to be the judge. At the ‘trial’ Tennessee’s partner arrives to speak
for his friend but is so inarticulate that he is unable to say anything
germane. He generously offers all his acquired gold to save Tennessee but the
judge is affronted at what he takes to be an attempted bribe and Tennessee is
sentenced to death and duly hanged from a tree by the miners.
Tennessee’s partner
takes the body in his donkey cart back to the cabin where he buries his friend.
He then declines in health and soon follows his pal to the grave. “And so they
met”.
Francis Bret Harte (1836 - 1902)
It is almost a
homosexual love affair, although of course such a relationship could only be
hinted at.
Harte heard of a
true story that took place in 1855. At the camp of Second Garrote, a newcomer
had committed a capital crime. The miners organized a court and gave the miscreant
a trial and decided to hang the culprit. But "Old Man Chaffee"
stepped forward, drew a bag of gold-dust from his shirt, and said that he would
give his "pile" rather than have a lynching occur in the camp. He
begged the crowd to turn the prisoner over to the authorities and let the law
take its course. His proposal was adopted with a cheer and the man was taken to
the jail at Columbia.
Chaffee's partner, Chamberlain, seems to have had no part in the affair; but the two were clearly united by a love similar to that of his partner for Tennessee. Long after the trial the two old men lived in their cabin, Chaffee mining and Chamberlain farming. At last, in 1903, their 54-year partnership came to an end when Chaffee died. Within eight weeks Chamberlain had followed him.
Chamberlain and Chaffee
In Harte’s version, the
tale is told by an outside observer whose own tone of amused irony contrasts
with the homespun talk of the rough miners.
When the miners
speak the language is pretty hokey:
And now, what's
the case? Here's Tennessee wants money, wants it bad, and doesn't like to ask
it of his old pardner. Well, what does Tennessee do? He lays for a stranger,
and he fetches that stranger; and you lays for him, and you fetches him; and
the honors is easy. And I put it to you, bein' a far-minded man, and to you, gentlemen
all, as far-minded men, ef this is isn't so."
Mark Twain
criticized Harte (who was somewhat of a rival) for his over-quaint dialogue but
that was rather the pot calling the kettle black (Twain was capable of worse on
occasions).
They made their own law
There is a certain
historical basis in truth to this kind of rough-justice story. When the
mining-camps, which were in a part of California that had not been settled by
the Mexicans and were occupied by men who knew nothing of their system or laws,
were set up, they had little or no system of law and made their own. Each camp elected its own officers and punished
lawbreakers. Theft was considered an especially heinous offense. As there were
no jails, whipping and expulsion were common, but in some cases it was death.
Even after the state government was organized, the law for a short while permitted
a jury to prescribe the death penalty for grand larceny.
Tennessee's Partner, the story is in the
public domain and available to read here free if you
want.
2 The film
There were three silent films inspired by Harte’s story. In 1916 Paramount
released the Jesse L. Lasky production Tennessee's Pardner, directed by
George Melford and starring Fannie Ward as Tennessee. Producers Distributing
Corp released The Flaming Forties in 1924, directed by Tom Forman and
starring Harry Carey. And in 1925 Paramount released The Golden Princess,
directed by Clarence Badger and starring Betty Bronson.
In addition, Paddy Chayefsky's adaptation of Alan
Jay Lerner’s story in the film version of Paint
Your Wagon owes a lot to Tennessee's
Partner: two close friends – one named "Pardner" – share the same
woman.
In 1947,
Vernon Clark was said to be producing a version of the story, starring Joel
McCrea, for executive Harry Sherman. But that version was never made.
The best-known film version came in 1955 with RKO’s
movie starring John Payne, Ronald Reagan and Rhonda Fleming, Tennessee’s Partner.
As it really was?
It must be said at the outset that the film
version, although it boasts in the title screen that it is “Bret Harte’s
Tennessee’s Partner”, is only nominally based on the story. Let’s say ‘inspired
by’ rather than ‘based on’. The great DD Beauchamp (among others) worked on the
screenplay.
Bret Harte's... Well, yes and no.
In the movie version frock-coated smoothie
Tennessee (Payne) is partner with Duchess, the madam of a thinly-disguised
bordello (beautiful Rhonda Fleming). She manages the whores and he runs the gambling. Arrogant
would-be town boss Turner (Anthony Caruso as Tony Caruso) loses a fortune to Tennessee
and accuses him of cheating. Turner sends a hired killer to deal with Tennessee
but a simple cowpoke, named Cowpoke (Ronald Reagan), gets the drop on the killer and saves the Doc
Holliday-esque gambler. Tennessee and the cowpoke become friends.
Fleming and Payne: bordello madam and slick gambler
Cowpoke aims to marry
gold-digger Goldie Slater (Western vet Coleen Gray). To save Cowpoke, Tennessee lures
Goldie to go with him to San Francisco, then puts her on a ship. Tennessee
returns and there is a brutal fistfight as Reagan beats the daylights out of
Payne.
Reagan beats up Payne
Old-timer prospector
Grubstake (good old Chubby Johnson), Tennessee’s (other) partner in a mine, is
killed and the sheriff (excellent tough-guy Leo Gordon) arrests Tennessee for
the murder.
Sheriff Leo
The real culprit was of course Turner. There is a climactic
shoot-out in which Cowpoke is killed, Tennessee looks sad and says “I didn’t
even know his name”, then weds Duchess, closes up the whorehouse and sets sail
with his new bride. The end.
Prospector Chubby
That’s really quite
different from Bret Harte, isn’t it.
The bordello is amazingly vulgar but is described
by everyone as “classy”. Payne looks a little like Karl Malden in this one,
though one difference is that Payne can act. There’s a good bit where he is
accused of cheating and uses a derringer.
Morris Ankrum is the judge. A young Angie Dickinson
in one of her first roles is one of the girls.
Payne defends himself with a derringer
The film was directed by old hand Allan Dwan, who lived to
be 96 and had a 52-year career. Dwan understood the Western. He should
– he directed 171! But 157 of these were silent movies produced between 1911
and 1917. Then there was a long pause until the very average Tide of Empire in 1929, one of those
movies on the cusp between silents and talkies. Frontier
Marshal, Fox’s 1939 Wyatt Earp picture with Randolph Scott, was his first
proper talkie Western and his first oater for a decade. Later he seemed to
specialize in Westerns with powerful leading women such as Belle le Grand, Montana Belle,
Woman They Almost Lynched and Cattle
Queen of Montana. Dwan liked Payne and also directed Silver
Lode.
Dwan also managed to extract one of the best
performance ever from the normally rather wooden Ronald Reagan.
In the original Bret Harte story his character is described as very florid, "short and stout". Harte writes, "his aspect under any circumstances would have been quaint, and was now even ridiculous" but Ron didn't attempt that part.
Doc Hollidayesque
The color
film was in SuperScope, RKO's widescreen process. Payne always shrewdly insisted
that his films be in color (and kept the TV rights). It was photographed by
John Alton, who did eight Westerns, including Cattle Queen of Montana, Devil’s Doorway for Anthony Mann and Silver Lode.
Essential knowledge:
the film inspired one of the hits of The Four Seasons. As the character based
on Bob Gaudio explains in the musical Jersey Boys, "I'm watching
the million dollar movie. Some cheesy John Payne western. He hauls off and
smacks Rhonda Fleming across the mouth and says, 'What do you think of that?'
She looks up at him defiant, proud, eyes glistening - and she says, 'Big girls
don't cry.'”
Well, well. I
think Tennessee’s Partner the movie is
rather better than “some cheesy John Payne western”, although I would certainly
not say it’s a Western classic. Have a go, dear e-readers. You may enjoy it.