The Kentuckian (1955)

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

It was not Matthau's line, but Glen Strange's: "Who dast?" That's all I have to say and am only writing on because I have to have a minimum of ten lines. Well, then, I'll say I enjoyed the film, found the choice of Matthau odd until I found that some of his earlier roles were in Westerns(is this a Western, really?), thought the young boy as Little Eli was very good and always enjoy John Carradine. Once I realized that Lancaster directed this film, I started watching it differently, looking for evidence of a novice. Actually, as I watched, I didn't care; I just enjoyed it. If anyone is interested, I would recommend reading some of the Old Southwest humorists like George Washington Harris and Augustus Baldwin Longstreet for insight into the period and types. Enjoy.

The Kentuckian is directed by, and stars, Burt Lancaster. It's adapted to screenplay by A.B. Guthrie Junior from the novel The Gabriel Horn written by Felix Holt. Also starring with Lancaster are Dianne Foster, Diana Lynn, John McIntire, Donald MacDonald, Walter Matthau and John Carradine. A Technicolor/CinemaScope production filmed on location at Kentucky sites, with cinematography by Ernest Laszlo and music scored by Bernard Herrmann. Lancaster plays a Elias Wakefield, a Kentuckian pioneer and widower bound for 1820's Texas with his young son (MacDonald). But ill education, romance and mean townsfolk stunt his progress. Burt Lancaster had great designs to be a director, even planning to give up acting as early as 1955 to make directing his sole career. Foolishly thinking, and proclaiming, it to be an easy job, his experiences on making The Kentuckian would halt him in his tracks and the film would remain his only sole directing credit for the rest of his life. Unfortunately the film shows that the film world hasn't missed a great director in the making. It's a decent film, more because it is an interesting misfire than any great dramatic thrust. There's very good period flavours here, the photography is often gorgeous, Herrmann's score (used better in Jason and the Argonauts 8 years later) is appealingly tone setting and a few scenes really do hit the mark, but the pace is stop-start and Lancaster isn't sure how to direct himself, with the big man turning in a performance that sits somewhere between camp and aww shucks machismo. He handles his other cast members well, where it's good to see two female characters properly impact on the storyline, but the screenplay sometimes falls flat and scene skipping cheapens the production (one moment Lancaster is in jail, we see a hand lift a key out a coat pocket and the next shot he and his son are relaxing out in the wilderness with Diana Lynn!). Another major problem is the ludicrous nature of the main villain, Walter Matthau's whip-wielding Stan Bodine, the daftness of such Matthau (in his first big screen role) himself would decry later in his career at how ridiculous the role was. Yet the character features in the best scene in the film, as Bodine and Wakefield are pitched in a fight, man with whip against man with only brawn on his side. This oddness (stupid character features in best scene) that says volumes about The Kentuckian's variable quality. Other strong scenes flit in and out, such as a riverboat gambling sequence, while the finale that sees Lancaster run full pelt across a river to take down a foe, is hugely entertaining. But once the end credit flashes up you may find yourself scratching your head and pondering just what you had just sat through?Entertaingly messy! 6/10

I think one of the worst problems with American films from the 1930s-1950s is that way too many Westerns were made. Part of the problem that plot-wise, most are very, very derivative--with the same basic plot being rehashed yet again (if I see one more Western about rich guy who runs the town and is trying to force all the farmers/ranchers/sheep herders to sell out to him, I'm gonna puke). Because of this, I love films that talk about American history that are unusual--not Westerns or war films--just something different. This film is about life 'out west' (in the Tennessee area) circa 1820--a period WAAAY underrepresented in American films...heck, it's hardly ever even mentioned! So, from the onset, I was pretty happy about the setting of this film.Burt Lancaster plays an outdoorsman--sort of a Davy Crockett or Daniel Boone sort of fellow. The main difference is that he also has a young son AND doesn't want to abandon him (Crockett and Boone should have taken note NOT to do this). The problem, however, is money. He and his son love the carefree outdoor life--but it takes money to get to this promised land. In the meantime, the two are forced to hang around civilization (at least what approximated it out on the frontier). Here in town, Lancaster's brother (played by John McIntyre--a guy who looked nothing like Burt and seemed too old for the part) pushed for him to go into business with him--and get rid of his buckskin clothes and settle down. In addition, two women wanted him--the school teacher (who represented domesticity) and the indentured servant (who believed in his dream). What will happen? Will Burt and son become domesticated and civilized or will they eventually make it to the wide open lands of Texas? Overall, this is not one of Burt Lancaster's best acting performances. He's good--but also pretty unremarkable. But, the film is different and reasonably well made--and it's hard to dismiss it. A nice film, at least from a history teacher's perspective, and well worth seeing.

A mix of 50's sensibilities and period art the way they could only do it in the 1950s. Lancaster is stiff at times, but shines in the riverboat scene and of course handles the on screen fights pretty well. A.B. Guthrie Jr. knows what to put in a frontier story, and Matthau, McIntire and Carradine act rings around the rest of a fairly lackluster cast. The part of the boy isn't well-directed, and only manages to be a fairly sympathetic character. Both Foster and Lynn seemed miscast... Foster was too elegant for the indentured servant role and the Lynn character weak for a frontier schoolmistress. But the story holds together and is worth the watch for fans of Matthau, Lancaster, or the genre of offbeat 50's westerns. Watch for almost a dozen 'stock' cowboy figures from that era popping in and out of scenes, like James Griffith as a perfectly evil riverboat gambler.