BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

Spoonatects Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

jacobs-greenwood Directed by Delmer Daves, and adapted from Frank Harris's book My Reminiscences as a Cowboy by Dalton Trumbo and Edmund North, this Western is worth a look despite the odd casting which includes Jack Lemmon in the title role as Harris, and Dick York as a womanizing trail hand named Charlie.Glenn Ford is hardly out of place as the hard nosed cattle drive master, Tom Reese. Marlon Brando's wife Anna Kashfi plays Maria Vidal, the Mexican woman who's the object of Harris's affections; Donald Randolph plays her disapproving father Senor Vidal. Brian Donlevy plays a stereotypical quick draw lawman, Doc Bender, who joins the cattle drive as a trail hand because he's tired of everyone gunning for him. Victor Manuel Mendoza plays Reese's dependable right hand man Paco, aka Ramrod. World War II film veteran Richard Jaeckel plays Paul Curtis, another trail hand whose careless act with a rattlesnake leads to the death of a wagon driver, played by an uncredited Strother Martin. King Donovan plays another veteran trail hand, Joe Capper. William Lyon and Al Clark earned an Academy Award nomination for Editing.At the end of a long cattle drive, Tom Reese (Ford) and his crew descend upon a Chicago hotel whose manager, Mr. Fowler (Vaughn Taylor) is prepared for them. He informs his newest employee, Frank Harris (Lemmon), that everyone on the second floor of the hotel must be relocated for Reese and company. Frank is reluctant to do this because he's fallen in love with one of the occupants in a suite on that floor, Maria Vidal (Kashfi), daughter of Senor Vidal (Randolph). However, Frank had expressed his affections for Maria in a poem and her father had intercepted it. Wanting none of these entrapments for his daughter, Senor Vidal decides that they must leave anyway. On the way out of the hotel, cattleman Vidal greets his former acquaintance Tom Reese, and the two tentatively agree to a future business arrangement. Reese is used to getting what he wants from his men and with his money, and is impatient with anything but the very best service from the hotel's employees. While his men party the night away, Reese gambles away so much of his money that he excuses himself at the poker table in order to pay his hotel bill, before he's completely busted. Frank, who'd earlier expressed his grandiose ideas about becoming a cowboy to Reese but had been "shot down", finds himself in the enviable position of being able to stake Reese's comeback in the poker game. Reese, desperate to get back in the game, agrees to let Frank come along on their next trip. However, as he and his men prepare to leave early the next day, Reese is upset that Frank catches up with them, insisting that he's a partner on their drive from Mexico and Senor Vidal's ranch. Since he'd given Frank his word (e.g. his bond!), Reese permits the greenhorn to join them, but it's obvious that he's going to make it tough going for the young man.The rest of the film deals with the complex relationships between the men and their master, Reese, as well as the evolving relationship between he and Frank, which by the end becomes one of mutual respect. Though the men work as a team by day, they are individuals who are free to get themselves into, and out of, trouble by themselves at night. At first, Frank does not understand the code, particularly when Curtis's careless act causes the wagon driver's death. But after they get to Guadalupe and Senor Vidal's ranch, where he finds that Maria has been forced into a marriage with Don Manuel Mendoza (Eugene Iglesias), Frank adopts Reese's hard attitude with a vengeance. On the drive, when Reese is injured, Frank becomes the hard nosed, seemingly unfeeling, cattle drive master. In a sense, the character of Maria is a Hitchcock-like McGuffin because the meat of the story (if you'll pardon the pun) is the cattle drive and the type of men one finds on it.

Richie-67-485852 You get a taste of what it was like. The word wild before west is presented rather well here. You work hard and you play hard and there are rules for both too. Enjoy two good actors Jack Lemon and Glenn Ford working at their trade while we glimpse history. Lemon playing drama was a treat too. There was fortunes to be made running cattle. Instant wealth was available back in the day when you normally had to work hard for years just to save enough money for a small spread. But it was sweat money. You earned every dollar and you risked your life every time too. You can retire rich but not before you eat a lot of dust and lose a lot of sleep. They make the point of eating chicken in between eating beef here a couple of times. You can only eat so much beef & beans. Speaking of eating, do a meal while watching this. Have a snack and a tasty drink on standby too. Enjoy

Spikeopath Cowboy is directed by Delmer Daves and adapted to screenplay by Edmund H. North and Dalton Trumbo from Frank Harris' book My Reminiscences as a Cowboy. It stars Glenn Ford, Jack Lemmon, Víctor Manuel Mendoza, Anna Kashfi, Dick York, King Donovan, Brian Donlevy and Richard Jaeckel. Music is by George Duning and cinematography by Charles Lawton Junior.Based on Frank Harris' memoir, the story finds Lemmon as Harris, a Chicago hotel clerk who in an attempt to prove he is a man and impress the girl he loves, wrangles his way onto a cattle drive being led by rough and tough cowpoke Tom Reece (Ford). He soon finds that out there on the range, in amongst the dust, beef and perils of the west, that life is far from glamorous.Once you buy into Lemmon as a Western character, accepting his transference from utter greenhorn into a man of the drive, it really becomes a very good film. It's a sort of debunking of the cowpoke myths whilst playing out as a character study of two men, who are polar opposites, as they build an understanding and ultimately help each other to grow and learn. Along the way, from Chicago to the Rio Grande, there is fights, death, stampedes and tests of loyalties and manhood. The great Delmer Daves directs it without fuss or filler (how nice that the romantic arc is rightly a side issue and doesn't get in the way) and Lawton's photography brings the sprawling landscapes to life. Lead cast members are excellent, with Ford once again providing rich characterisation by way of layered acting, and Lemmon rises up to the challenge of genre work outside of what he would be known for. In support Donlevy is his usual excellent self, making what could have been a clichéd character (aging gunfighter wants to leave his past behind) interesting with emotional depth, and Mendoza as the Ramrod is good foil for Ford. There's some quibbles, such as Dick York hard to take seriously, Jaeckel and Strother Martin (uncredited) wasted and some of the humour doesn't come off. But this is a very enjoyable film, one that thrives on having some character depth and actually something worthy to say. 7.5/10

edwagreen Wonderful western with Glenn Ford and Jack Lemmon.You'd think at the beginning that this would be a comedy as Lemmon plays a timid hotel clerk dreaming of a life as a cowboy. His desire increases over the woman he loves, especially when she is forced back to Mexico by her father who then arranges a marriage for her.This film is anything but comical. It's the story of cowboys coming of age. It shows how the 2 partners, Ford and Lemmon forge a relationship. It describes the cowboy idea of death. Both men will eventually take on the personality of each other.An aging Brian Donlevy takes on a role as a cowhand, a former sheriff, with a conscience. Even the unusually villainous Richard Jaeckel is somewhat subdued here. Look for Dick York as a hand, he'd later make it so big in the television show "Bewitched."