writers_reign
Ann Baxter puts a nice spin on her standout performance in Billy Wilder's Five Graves To Cairo, which featured, of course, a desert setting with Baxter and Akim Tamiroff playing reluctant hosts to German invaders. This time around the desert is surrounding the ghost town where Baxter and her grandaddy, James Barton, are equally reluctant hosts to Gregory Peck and five other outlaws. This is an excellent and sadly neglected western shot towards the demise of the 'studio system' with, in this case, 20th Century Fox wheeling out its A-team of writer, director, and acting talent and winding up with a very satisfactory viewing experience.
ppilf
This movie has the makings of a great western, one of the best. An interesting note about this movie is that a color remake was made of it twenty years later entitled "The Jackals" which was far inferior. I think a comparison of these two movies should be made in colleges of film production. The 1948 version is so superior to the remake in every respect that the remake becomes a case study in bad film making, and demonstrates that newer does not always mean better. The 1948 version was not only superior in directing, acting, editing and soundtrack, but surprisingly it was technically superior also. For example, in many of the chase scenes and desert crossing scenes it can be seen that a moving camera was used in the 1948 film. This is especially noticeable in the scene where Walrus takes the first drink from his whiskey-filled canteen while crossing the desert. A moving camera creates a much more professional and pleasing effect in these types of scenes. I actually didn't know they had that capability in 1948 without causing a shaky image; I assume the moving camera was on rails. In my view, the only thing somewhat good that can be said of the 1967 remake is Diana Ivarson's performance. Everything else about that film is really really bad!Getting back to this film, I said it had the makings of a great western. But I took points off because of story flaws. It was a bit far-fetched. There were too many ways and opportunities for Grandpa and Mike (Anne Baxter) to protect their fortune instead of literally taking their abductors into partnership as they did. Grandpa was too appeasing. The first 30-35 minutes of this movie developed into what could have been the best western I've ever seen. But the script and story began to flounder. Gregory Peck's character "Stretch" was often conflicting; both a hardened criminal and honest good guy at the same time.Another thing that may sound minor but always irritates me is in the scene where Peck's character first approaches the house. In this scene Mike, from the house, draws a bead on the approaching Peck, ordering him to halt or she'll shoot. She then does something very stupid; she quickly walks right up to Peck and gets in his face with her gun drawn on him. Grandpa also does this later. Of course this is to accommodate the script part where Peck quickly disarms Mike. Have you ever played that game where someone holds a dollar bill in your open fingers and says you can keep the bill if you can catch it? But you never can because the bill is too close to your fingers; you don't have time to react to a sudden move. If you hold a gun on a perpetrator and then walk up to his face, you may as well hand him the gun because the same reaction time advantage takes effect; he can quickly foil you in one fast move. No one would do what Mike and Grandpa did in that scene, it's stupid. It always bugs me when I see it, I consider it a flaw.I also thought the background and theme music were weak throughout the film.Anne Baxter's acting performance, however, was superb, and oh yes, she's also hot. The other actors' performances were also very good. As always Richard Widmark, one of my favorites, was terrific in this movie.I think if the story had been more stimulating and believable, and better music used in the soundtrack, this film might be a classic today.
weezeralfalfa
My review title sums up the final conflict between the plans of fellow outlaw gang members Dude(Widmark) and Stretch(Peck) in regard to the bags of gold dust that Grandpa and wildcat gunslinger granddaughter Mike have been saving up for many years. Actually, I'm only assuming , from the friendly gathering on horses in the last scene, that Stretch, and probably his partners Half Pint and Walrus, have made amends with grandpa and Mike, and have decided to stay and participate in the hard rock mining of probably a moderate amount of gold near this otherwise ghost town of Yellow Sky. Also, I'm assuming that Stretch and Mike will probably get 'hitched'.At it's peak, this outlaw gang boasted 7 men. One was shot dead by the cavalry that chased these bank robbers to the edge of a vast salt flats, hemmed in by a high mountain range on either side(filmed in Death Valley). The commander remarked that if they tried to cross this waterless hellishly hot flats and then sand dunes, that would save the justice system the trouble of hanging them. He was very nearly correct in this assessment. The men and their horses were near death when they chanced upon Yellow Sky at the far edge. At first, they assumed there was no water in this apparent ghost town. But soon, a tough-talking , rifle-totting, young woman(Mike) decided to show them a spring. This decision would come to haunt her, as soon Dude, who was jockeying with Stretch for leadership of the gang, correctly guessed that the two were surviving here by finding some gold. After a powwow with the two, Stretch offers a deal. The gang would split the gold 50-50 with the two. Grandpa decided to accept this deal as the best way out, despite Mike's objection. But, the outlaws had to dig through the rubble of a collapsing mine shaft to get to it. After finding it, the outlaws disagreed as to whether to take it all or stick to their bargain. Only Stretch voted for the latter. A shootout ensued, with Mike eventually joining Stretch. Later, Dude decides he will try to run off alone with all the booty. When the others find out about this, Half Pint and Walrus switch sides, and the others try to kill Dude before he disappears. You can more or less guess how things turn out from then. Just before the final scene, there is a rather humorous scene where Stretch, Half Pint and Walrus enter the bank they robbed, pull out their guns, and return all the money they stole(presumably using some of the gold dust to replace that which had been lost or spent.) I would have included some substantial 'interest' to mitigate any lingering hostility about the robbery. Just before this scene, we have Mike discovering Stretch unconscious and barely breathing, from a bullet wound. Seems like he should have soon died, but obviously she revived him.This B&W film was mostly shot on location in the Alabama Hills , near Lone Pine, CA, which provided the ghost town and lots of big boulders and arches to play hide and seek among. Death Valley provided the extensive salt flat and probably the sand dunes. The name Yellow Sky may be derived from Stephen Cranes story "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky": the latter being a town in frontier Texas.Death Valley also provided the extensive salt flats and rugged country seen in the Technicolor John Ford western "3 Godfathers", starring John Wayne, also released in '48. Again, it's a tale of an unlikely opportunity for redemption, after a small gang of bank robbers ride onto the salt flats to escape a posse, and die or nearly so before reaching help.Veteran vaudevillian and actor James Barton made an excellent 'Grandpa', with 'Santa' charisma. Otherwise, I've seen him in a few musicals. John Russell, as horny badman Lengthy, went on to star in some TV serials, including "Lawman". Charles Kemper, as rotund Walrus, often played a sheriff in westerns. But I most remember him as the head of the sinister Clegg gang in "Wagon Master". Anne Baxter makes a convincing tomboy wildcat, knocking Stretch off his feet with a punch, after he grabbed her rifle. Widmark is OK as the wannabe leader of the pack, often at odds with Stretch. In contrast to the others, he seems to know this country intimately. Stretch is from the frontier Midwest, where he has participated in pre and actual Civil War violence. What about the character of Stretch? When it comes to protecting the virtue of the leading lady, he's clearly a hypocrite. He emphasized that the gang, including him, should not mess with her. Yet, on the sly, he grabs her, rolls around with her, lands on top of her, extracting a couple of hard kisses before she brushes him off as "stinking worse than Apaches", and grazes his head with a bullet for good measure. Eventually, she becomes accepting of his advances. In contrast, handsome Lengthy wears his horniness on his sleeve, beginning with that revealing cartoon on the saloon wall,Viewable on YouTube, at present
