James Arness Movies
American actor James Arness had an unremarkable Minneapolis childhood, but his wartime experiences shattered that normality - literally. During the battle of Anzio, Arness' right leg was peppered with machine gun bullets, and when the bones were set they didn't mend properly, leaving him with a slight but permanent limp. The trauma of the experience mellowed into aimlessness after the war. Arness became a "beach bum," lived out of his car, and worked intermittently as a salesman and carpenter. Acting was treated equally lackadaisically, but by 1947 Arness had managed to break into Hollywood on the basis of his rugged good looks and his 6'6" frame. Few of his screen roles were memorable, though one has become an object of cult worship: Arness was cast as the menacingly glowing space alien, described by one character as "an intellectual carrot," in The Thing (1951). For a time it looked as though Arness would continue to flounder in supporting roles, while his younger brother, actor Peter Graves, seemed destined for stardom. John Wayne took a liking to Arness when the latter was cast in Wayne's Big Jim McLain (1953). Wayne took it upon himself to line up work for Arness, becoming one of the withdrawn young actor's few friends. In 1955, Wayne was offered the role of Matt Dillon in the TV version of the popular radio series Gunsmoke. Wayne turned it down but recommended that Arness be cast and even went so far as to introduce him to the nation's viewers in a specially filmed prologue to the first Gunsmoke episode. Truth be told, Arness wasn't any keener than Wayne to be tied down to a weekly series, and as each season ended he'd make noises indicating he planned to leave. This game went on for each of the 20 seasons that Gunsmoke was on the air, the annual result being a bigger salary for Arness, more creative control over the program (it was being produced by his own company within a few years) and a sizeable chunk of the profits and residuals. When Gunsmoke finally left the air in 1975, Arness was the only one of the original four principals (including Amanda Blake, Milburn Stone and Dennis Weaver) still appearing on the series. Arness made plans to take it easy after his two-decade Gunsmoke hitch, but was lured back to the tube for a one-shot TV movie, The Macahans (1976). This evolved into the six-hour miniseries How the West Was Won (1977) which in turn led to a single-season weekly series in 1978. All these incarnations starred Arness, back in the saddle as Zeb Macahan. The actor tried to alter his sagebrush image in a 1981 modern-day cop series, McClain's Law -- which being set in the southwest permitted Arness to ride a horse or two. It appeared, however that James Arness would always be Matt Dillon in the hearts and minds of fans, thus Arness obliged his still-faithful public with three Gunsmoke TV movies, the last one (Gunsmoke: The Last Apache) released in 1992. In between these assignments, James Arness starred in a 1988 TV-movie remake of the 1948 western film classic Red River, in which he filled the role previously played by his friend and mentor John Wayne. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1950
Wyoming Mail stars Stephen McNally as frontier postal inspector Steve Davis. Assigned to break up a gang of outlaws who prey upon mail trains, Davis goes undercover, posing first as a fugitive from justice. Joining the bandit gang run by the ruthless Cavanaugh (Howard da Silva), Davis discovers that the crooks have an "inside man" within the railroad company itself. Alexis Smith co-stars as the "bad" girl who turns good to save Davis. Universal-International's knack for turning out superior westerns on modest budgets is entertainingly demonstrated in Wyoming Mail. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen McNally, Alexis Smith, (more)
- 1950
Stars in My Crown is an episodic movie about a rural Southern community in the 19th century. Though the film features a number of characters, it focuses on a preacher who moves into the city and helps solve the town's problems. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joel McCrea, Ellen Drew, (more)
Wagon Master, splendidly directed by John Ford, is a superlative western. The film is the outwardly simple tale of a Mormon wagon train headed for Utah. Along the way, the group, led by Elder Wiggs (Ward Bond) hook up with two horse traders Travis Blue (Ben Johnson) and Sandy Owens (Harry Carey Jr), the members of a traveling medicine show and a tribe of Navajo Indians. The group is threatened by a gang, known as the Clegg family, who have robbed an express office and murdered the clerk. This wonderful film emphasizes the virtues of solidarity, sacrifice and tolerance, and shows John Ford at his most masterful, in total control of the production from the casting to the bit players to the grandeur and scope of the visual compositions. The film, with its breathtaking scenery, brilliant performances by a cast of character actors, and an engaging sense of humor, is a superlative example of the American western. Wagonmaster inspired the television series Wagon Train and was also shown in a computer-colorized version ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Johnson, Harry Carey, Jr., (more)
Veteran cinematographer-turned-director Norman Dawn calls the shots in Two Lost Worlds. Set in the Australian colony of Queensland, the film stars Jim Arness as Kirk Hamilton, an American seaman who conducts an ongoing battle of wills and weapons against marauding pirates. After a particularly deadly skirmish, Hamilton and his men find themselves marooned somewhere in the Dutch East Indies. The film's many subplots are dispensed with during a last-reel volcanic eruption. When not indulging in derring-do, Hamilton romances an Aussie lass (Laura Elliot). If Elliot looks familiar, that's because she later played Mrs. Larry Tate on TV's Bewitched, billed under her new "nom de film" Kasey Rogers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1950
Audie Murphy and Wanda Hendrix were husband and wife when they co-starred in the Technicolor western Sierra. Murphy plays Ring Hassard, the son of outlaw Jeff Hassard (Dean Jagger), who despite his dad's reputation is basically a good kid. Hendrix portrays Riley Martin, a lady lawyer who hopes to clear Ring's name -- and, eventually, to march him to the altar. The plot hinges on whether or not Ring's father is the ruthless desperado he's cracked up to be. The film's highlight is an extended wild-horse roundup sequence, which helps the audience forget Wanda Hendrix's miscasting as a female legal eagle. Sierra was based on a novel by Stuart Hardy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Audie Murphy, Wanda Hendrix, (more)
Incoming MGM production head Dore Schary ramrodded Battleground into the studio's schedule over the virulent protests of MGM boss Louis Mayer. The result was an award-winning box-office hit, as well as the beginning of the end of Mayer's power. This dramatization of the battles of Bastogne and the Bulge in the waning days of World War II concentrates on a single infantry unit. Van Johnson and John Hodiak are the ostensible stars, but the film is stolen by James Whitmore as the cigar-chomping, battle-stained sergeant. Also appearing is Ian MacDonald as General McAuliffe, whose legendary response to the Nazi's suggestion that the Americans surrender consisted of a single four-letter expletive: "Nuts". Whitmore's final scenes of near-delirium before the relief troops arrive are unforgettable. Battleground tries within MGM limits to be wholly realistic, though it is slightly compromised by the scripters' inability to use Army profanity, and by pointless subplot involving actress Denise Darcel. The film doesn't hold up as well as such wartime efforts as The Story of GI Joe or Walk in the Sun, but in 1949 Battleground was regarded as an important milestone in the field of truthful, de-glamorized combat flicks. Please avoid the colorized version: this is a black-and-white subject if ever there was one. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Van Johnson, John Hodiak, (more)
- 1947
Second-echelon leading man Don Castle (later a TV producer) stars in yet another Sol M. Wurtzel production, Roses Are Red. Kidnapped by political boss Locke (Edward Keane), honest district attorney Throne (Castle) is replaced by his less-than-honest look-alike. Even the DA's intimates are fooled by the substitution, which is only one of the many hard-to-believe contrivances of Irving Elman's screenplay. Before the film's 65 minutes have expended themselves, the real DA escapes -- then pretends to be his look-alike so that he can catch Locke at his own game. Incredibly, the film's two leading ladies -- Peggy Knudsen and Patricia Knight -- more closely resemble one another than the two Don Castles! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Don Castle, Peggy Knudsen, (more)
- 1947
When Loretta Young stepped up to accept her Academy Award for The Farmer's Daughter, the ever-youthful leading lady, who'd been in films since 1928, sighed "At long last!" Young is cast as Katie Holstrum, an independently-minded Swedish girl who leaves her family's Minnesota farm to take a domestic job at the Washington DC home of congressman Glenn Morley Joseph Cotten. Katie's outspokeness and Scandanavian common sense immediately endears her to Morley, his mother Ethel Barrymore, and the family's crusty-but-kindly butler Clancy Charles Bickford. Sensing that the political machine backing Morley isn't thoroughly honest, Katie takes an active hand in Washington politics, leading to her own nomination for a congressional seat. The machine-boss villains (depicted rather provocatively as right-wing reactionaries) try to discredit Katie on the eve of the election, but she is rescued by Morley, who of course has fallen in love with her. Adapted from Juurakon Hulda (Hulda, Daughter of Parliament), a Finnish play written by Hella Wuolijoki (using the pen name Juhani Tervapää), which had originally been optioned as a potential vehicle for Ingrid Bergman, The Farmer's Daughter later matriculated into a weekly TV series, with Inger Stevens as Katie and William Windom as Morley. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Loretta Young, Keith Andes, (more)
