In 1965
John Wayne was recovering from quite drastic cancer surgery. The Western-loving
public was holding its breath. Would he come back as a Western star? Of course
he would. With the strength and guts and work ethic he had, he’d be back in the
saddle alright. The Sons of Katie Elder
was the first in a whole series of big, commercial, well-made movies that he
made down in his beloved Durango, Mexico, 1965 - 73. The others were The War Wagon, The Undefeated, Chisum, Big Jake, The Train Robbers and Cahill, US Marshal. The pictures were box-office successes and gave Duke weight and dominance. His then wife Pilar was dismissive of
them:
Looking back, I can barely tell
those Durango films from one another. They had a sameness of story, plot and
location which seemed like a disservice to Duke’s fans. Different casts are the
only thing which made them stand apart.
But in
fact she was wrong. They had very different stories but similar casts. Wayne
gathered his stock company about him and used them in successive movies. Ben
Johnson and Harry Carey Jr., Paul Fix, Bruce Cabot – the usual suspects. And he
used favorites for the crew too. His son Michael as producer, Carl Anderson as
art director, William Clothier and Lucien Ballard as cinematographers, Henry Hathaway, Burt Kennedy or Andrew V McLaglen to direct. And they did a good job;
they were professionals. The films did well in the theaters; people liked
them. And they fixed Wayne in the mind as a larger-than-life Western star.
These were in many ways the golden years of the John Wayne Western.
The sons of Katie Elder: Wayne, Martin, Holliman, Anderson
Though
Durango, Mexico locations were used, it is Durango, Colorado where the movie
opens, as the Durango/Silverton railroad through the Royal Gorge is featured.
Royal Gorge in opening shot
Three
sons of the late Katie Elder are at the Clearwater, Texas depot awaiting the
arrival of the fourth, John. He isn’t on the train, though. It’s George Kennedy
who gets off, all in black, a gunslinger if ever there was one, as Sheriff Paul
Fix can tell right away. In fact the delayed entry of Wayne is rather well
done: the public also awaits him, with bated breath. How will he appear after
his surgery? Well, he appears monumentally when finally he is seen. Shot from
below, standing on a crag, like a crag himself.
Lucien
Ballard was the cinematographer, one of my all-time favorites. He really was an
artist. Later he has some great shots of horses being driven, as there were too
in another of these Westerns, The Undefeated (McLaglen/Clothier). There are also some fine landscapes, and
the shoot-out among the tree roots is very well done. It's Technicolor and
Panavision; no expense spared.
Sheriff Paul Fix
There is
a slight problem with chronology: John (born 1907) is supposed to be the oldest
brother of Bud (Michael Anderson Jr., born 1943). We are told
their mother married in 1850, and there are 36 years between the brothers. It’s
1893 now… Oh well, who’s counting? John does rather look his age (well, he
would) so it isn’t all that convincing but never mind.
The
other brothers are Earl Holliman and Dean Martin, the latter reprising his
co-starring role with Duke in Rio Bravo.
Dino is also not convincing as Wayne’s brother but never mind that either. He
plays the part as the roguish, ne’er-do-well son, Tom. John’s a gunfighter so
he’s a not-often-do-well. Earl as Matt Elder is more respectable. I think he
said he owned a store. Of course Holliman had parts in Broken Lance and Gunfight at the OK Corral to his credit so was well known to Western audiences. The kid
brother Bud has been off to college, at his ma’s wish, so they have all been
away and have ignored their poor widowed mother.
Yes,
widowed: Pa was shot in the back. Now it occurs to the four to wonder who did
that. As a bad guy has also taken Ma’s ranch, he’s a likely candidate. The bad
guy is Morgan Hastings, who owns half the town and wants all the rest. He is
James Gregory, usually a tough cop but equally good as a Western villain. He’d
been in oaters since Gun Glory, a
Stewart Granger B, in 1957, and was the Army general in A Distant Trumpet in 1964. He made many appearances in Western TV
shows. His son is a scaredy-cat lowlife, Dennis Hopper. Father and son run a
firearms business, so are well placed to bushwhack. Rodolfo Acosta is one of
Gregory’s henchmen, though sadly has very few lines.
Bad man Gregory sights in his scoped Remington
Loads of
other old-favorite character actors populate the town, which is nice. James
Westerfield is the banker, John Doucette is the undertaker, Percy Helton is the
storekeeper. Strother Martin has a comic role in the saloon. Fat Rhys Williams
turns up in a buggy. John Qualen, an old member of John Ford’s stock company,
is a deputy. Familiar faces. Very enjoyable.
Kennedy, Westerfield, Doucette, Qualen, Hopper, Helton, Williams - great!
I say it
is 1893. Duke refers to the Daltons, who died the year before. He says they
were “hung” whereas of course they were shot (or in the case of Emmet
imprisoned) but who needs accuracy when dealing with the Old West? Wayne wears
his usual rig, leather vest over a cavalry shirt, and that old yellow-handled
1873 Colt .44/.40 he always had, whether the story was set in the 1860s or
1900s.
Duke lets rip with his Colts
Gunman
Kennedy is beating on Doucette when John comes along and whacks the bully in
the face with a piece of hickory, like Clint in Pale Rider. That’s telling him. Mind, we see him soon after with no ill effects at all; you'd expect the make-up department to have made his face black & blue.
Martha
Hyer (Rory Calhoun’s amour in Red Sundown
and Jock Mahoney’s in Showdown at Abilene)
is the love interest, kinda, Mary. She is at first scathing to the brothers who
deserted their saintly ma, but comes round to thinking John a good egg when she
receives Katie’s rocking chair as a bequest. She’s twenty years younger than
John but well, that’s OK.
A lot of fun
The
music is by Elmer Bernstein and excellent in that Bernsteiny way, stirringly
orchestral and catchily whistlable. It gets you urging the good guys on.
There’s
a choreographed final shoot-out in a gunpowder store and neat resolution of the
crimes, and the baddies get their just desserts. Natch. The final shot is of
the rocking chair rocking, suggesting future domesticity for John.
All good
stuff, if you an undemanding Western-lover, and if you aren’t, why are you
reading this blog?