The best of Lippert
Robert L. Lippert (1909 - 1976) was an owner of movie houses who eventually possessed a chain of 118 theaters. Annoyed
by what he saw as exorbitant rental fees charged by the studios for films, in
1946 he started to produce his own pictures (a Bob Steele Western, Wildfire, was the first). In all, there
were 50 Lippert movies, many of them Westerns.
Robert Lippert
Probably the best of these
Lippert Westerns, a high-grade B, Little
Big Horn ran 86 minutes and had two good and reasonably big stars. While it was presuming
a lot to bring out a cavalry Western so soon after John Ford’s cavalry trilogy
had been completed with Rio Grande, and Little Big Horn cannot be
regarded in that class at all, it is nevertheless a solid black & white picture
and Lloyd Bridges’s and John Ireland’s performances elevate it to well above
the usual Lippert standard.
I think they economized a bit on the poster art, too
For such a good writer as Charles
Marquis Warren, it doesn’t start well, with the opening words, “John, we can’t
go on like this” (she really says that) and there are some pretty clunky lines later on too but
once the dame (Lippert regular Marie Windsor, twenty years later excellent in Cahill U.S.Marshal) is out of the picture (mercifully soon) the action can start.
There’s too much (economical) studio work but what location settings there are
(a ranch near Los Angeles) are satisfactory.
The film was the first Western
directed by Warren. A friend of F Scott Fitzgerald’s, he was known as a writer
and had penned four oaters prior to this, including the rather good Streets of Laredo and Only the Valiant (the latter another
cavalry Western). He went on to write the ho- Springfield Rifle (1952) and the ho-hum Pony Express (1953) and on TV in the
late 1950s and through the 1960s he produced Rawhide, The Virginian and Gunsmoke
episodes, writing and directing many of the latter. The direction of this movie
is sound. There are one or two (but only one or two) almost Fordian shots of
troopers in silhouette on a hill and some good close-up work. The
cinematographer was Ernest Miller, who had shot silent and programmer Westerns
since 1923.
Hadley and Bridges - both excellent
Bridges is very good indeed. Interestingly,
it is a year before Bridges played the sulky youth in High Noon, yet
he here comes across as a real man, an austere, tough leader, almost an Owen Thursday-type commander. He hates his second in command (Ireland) because the man
made a pass at his wife.
Ireland - also very good
Ireland, too, is very competent.
He was quite well known at the time because he had been Billy Clanton in John
Ford’s My Darling Clementine and,
more famously, Cherry Valance the gunman in Red River. He was Bob Ford in Samuel Fuller’s trashy I Shot
Jesse James (another Lippert picture) in 1949 and ‘Johnny Callum’, the star of The Return of Jesse James. He was also excellent in Vengeance Valley the same year as Little Big Horn.
Reed Hadley is terrific as the
sergeant demoted from major in the Civil War. He had been Jesse in I Shot Jesse James and brother Frank in another Jesse B-movie The Return of Jesse James the following
year, and was ‘The Abilene Kid’ (aged 38!) in Lippert’s Rimfire in 1949.
They do not get on
The other soldiers manage
(just) to come through as real people. Jim Davis is a corporal and Hugh O’Brian
a private.
Like the Randolph Scott Western
7th Cavalry (1956), it is
only tangentially a Custer picture as the story concerns an attempt (a failed
attempt) to join up with the general, and not the battle itself.
The song is bad. The Sioux are
just Hollywood Indians to be shot. The movie is not a nail-biter and will not
have you on the edge of your seat. Actually, it’s a low-budget pale Fort Apache.
But it gets better as it goes along and is tough, dusty and gritty. Worth a
look.
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You have NO idea what a Good western is...had Little Big Horn been released by a major studio, it would have garnered Oscars. As most so-called authorities on the genre, you probably think every time Wayne or Eastwood fart on screen it is a triumph.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. First of all, I am not at all an “authority” on Westerns, merely a lover of the genre who writes about them. Secondly, I am complimentary about this movie. I say is “probably the best of these Lippert Westerns, a high-grade B”, which is, I think, true. I also speak highly of the lead actors. For example, I write of Lloyd Bridges, “Bridges is very good indeed. Interestingly, it is a year before Bridges played the sulky youth in High Noon, yet here comes across as a real man, an austere, tough leader.” So I’m not quite sure why you dislike my review. As to Wayne or Eastwood, both were capable of fine performances in great Westerns but both also were responsible for some pretty weak ones.
DeleteJeff