The perfect double bill for the 1940 20th Century Fox classic "Brigham Young, Frontiersman", this John Ford western is a fast moving and action packed follow-up to that story of a group of Mormons heading into dangerous territory with a family of vile murderers and thieves on their trail. The moment the Clegg family slithers into their camp you know something is up because of the sudden mood of merriment changing into a somber atmosphere. This slimy looking clan is wanted by the Fed's, and it is obvious that when they innocently ask for food from the traveling caravan that there is going to be trouble in the wake of their arrival.
Charles Kemper is the slimy patriarch of the Clegg clan (which includes a young James Arness), and he is certainly one of the most unforgettable villains in westerns. Ben Johnson gets the leading hero role here, someone who only draws his gun on a snake, which he certainly will need to do here. Harry Carey, Ward Bond and Jane Darwell are among the elders of the group, joined by non-Mormans Alan Mowbray and Joanne Dru, a shapely woman of ill repute who has the Mormon women watching their husbands very carefully. Jim Thorpe, as in "Jim Thorpe, All American", plays a member of the Navajo tribe the group encounters. Ford presents the Navajos as distrustful of white men because of bad deals they made with others, and amusingly, when the Navajos discover that the group are Mormons, they refer to them as only partly dishonest as opposed to the other group they encountered before.
A disturbing sequence has one of the Clegg men being whipped for obviously having just raped a Navajo woman, and as the Morman elders try to convince papa Clegg, it's better for his son to be whipped than the rest of them be scalped. It's nice to see the Navjos presented as a friendly tribe whose efforts to befriend the white man in previous encounters has only lead to betrayal from the supposedly more civilized Caucasians. When the Mormans, having been held at rifle point by the Cleggs, encounter the Feds, the mood becomes intense and they must make some quick decisions in order to avoid bloodshed while being questioned. These seemingly simple non-violent people prove themselves to be pretty crafty, and they realize obviously at some point, they are going to have to resort to violence to keep themselves from being annihilated by the Cleggs which comes none too soon.
John Ford really was the master of the western, having in recent years proved his medal with such classics as "Fort Apache", "Red River" and "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon". This one actually is made more memorable by the absence of John Wayne because this is much more an ensemble piece where everybody is either a hero or villain and the focus isn't on just one character. This also has a very memorable musical score and some extremely intense moments, particularly one where they desperately try to get the covered wagons over a dangerous cliff that certainly isn't covered wagon friendly. This is a film that even non-western fans can enjoy because it is very unique in its storytelling and features a very interesting premise not usually associated with the common man's western.
Charles Kemper is the slimy patriarch of the Clegg clan (which includes a young James Arness), and he is certainly one of the most unforgettable villains in westerns. Ben Johnson gets the leading hero role here, someone who only draws his gun on a snake, which he certainly will need to do here. Harry Carey, Ward Bond and Jane Darwell are among the elders of the group, joined by non-Mormans Alan Mowbray and Joanne Dru, a shapely woman of ill repute who has the Mormon women watching their husbands very carefully. Jim Thorpe, as in "Jim Thorpe, All American", plays a member of the Navajo tribe the group encounters. Ford presents the Navajos as distrustful of white men because of bad deals they made with others, and amusingly, when the Navajos discover that the group are Mormons, they refer to them as only partly dishonest as opposed to the other group they encountered before.
A disturbing sequence has one of the Clegg men being whipped for obviously having just raped a Navajo woman, and as the Morman elders try to convince papa Clegg, it's better for his son to be whipped than the rest of them be scalped. It's nice to see the Navjos presented as a friendly tribe whose efforts to befriend the white man in previous encounters has only lead to betrayal from the supposedly more civilized Caucasians. When the Mormans, having been held at rifle point by the Cleggs, encounter the Feds, the mood becomes intense and they must make some quick decisions in order to avoid bloodshed while being questioned. These seemingly simple non-violent people prove themselves to be pretty crafty, and they realize obviously at some point, they are going to have to resort to violence to keep themselves from being annihilated by the Cleggs which comes none too soon.
John Ford really was the master of the western, having in recent years proved his medal with such classics as "Fort Apache", "Red River" and "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon". This one actually is made more memorable by the absence of John Wayne because this is much more an ensemble piece where everybody is either a hero or villain and the focus isn't on just one character. This also has a very memorable musical score and some extremely intense moments, particularly one where they desperately try to get the covered wagons over a dangerous cliff that certainly isn't covered wagon friendly. This is a film that even non-western fans can enjoy because it is very unique in its storytelling and features a very interesting premise not usually associated with the common man's western.