Tom Photiou
Film God
Posts: 4837
From: Plymouth U.K
Registered: Dec 2003
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posted September 12, 2017 03:20 PM
A film we viewed for the last time tonight, The classic John Wayne Western directed by John Ford, (his second John Wayne movie).
This was a film my Brother bought off Roger Lily from here in Plymouth. It was an ex library print so we knew it had some lines but this is a rare film in feature format & in colour. Due to how hard this title was to find as a 4 x 400ft he bought it anyway. We have many many years of viewing pleasure from it but Brother has decided to move it on.
The print is very sharp and the sound quality is excellent though from reel 2 it is marred a little by a high tone whistle that lasts the rest of the film. During normal action and music parts of the film it goes unheard but during the quite moments it is there. We were offered a refund but we decided to put up with it. While colours are still very good the early signs of fade are there now so Philip has decided he no longer wishes to view red or fading films.
We also bought the 400ft version of this movie which contains the attack on the Indians near the finale not included in the 4 x 400ft version, very odd, but we spliced it in anyway. The colours, as often the case, on the insert is now better than the feature but the sharpness and sound are not so good.
Here is the plot for those who may be interested.
On the verge of his retirement at Fort Starke, a one-troop cavalry post, aging US Cavalry Captain Nathan Cutting Brittles (John Wayne) is given one last mission: to take his troop and deal with a breakout from the reservation by the Cheyenne and Arapaho following the defeat of George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.
Brittles' task is complicated by being forced at the same time to deliver his commanding officer's wife and niece, Abby Allshard (Mildred Natwick) and Olivia Dandridge (Joanne Dru), to an eastbound stage and by the need to avoid a new Indian war. His troop officers, 1st Lt.Flint Cohill (John Agar) and 2nd Lt. Ross Pennell (Harry Carey, Jr.), meanwhile vie for the affections of Miss Dandridge while uneasily anticipating the retirement of their captain and mentor.
Assisting him with his mission is Capt. Brittles' chief scout, Sgt. Tyree (Ben Johnson), a one-time Confederate cavalry officer; his first sergeant, Quincannon (Victor McLaglen); and Maj. Allshard (George O'Brien), Brittles' long-time friend and commanding officer.
After apparently failing in both missions, Brittles returns with the troop to Fort Starke to retire. His lieutenants continue the mission in the field, joined by Brittles after "quitting the post and the Army". Unwilling to see more lives needlessly taken, Brittles takes it upon himself to try to make peace with Chief Pony That Walks (Chief John Big Tree). When that too fails, he devises a risky stratagem to avoid a bloody war by stampeding the Indians' horses out of their camp, forcing the renegades to return to their reservation.
The film ends with Brittles being recalled to duty as chief of scouts with the rank of Lt. Colonel and Miss Dandridge and Lt. Cohill becoming engaged.
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