The Young Land (1959)

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

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

"The Window" director Ted Tetzlaff's low-key but suspenseful "The Young Land" isn't your ordinary B-movie western. First, it takes place at a seminal moment during the shift in California history in the aftermath of the Mexican/American war as white Americans take over the land from Mexicans. Nevertheless, the Mexican ranchers still retain some power over things since they outnumber the Americans. The film opens in the small, dusty town of San Bartolo, California, in 1848, with a well-done showdown between a Mexican,Francisco Quiroga (Carlos Romero of "They Came to Cordura") and Hatfield Carnes (Ken Curtis of "Gunsmoke"),a racist, trigger-happy American gunslinger who has been itching for the opportunity to carve another notch on his revolver. No sooner has the dust settled than Sheriff Jim Ellison (Patrick Wayne of "The Alamo") arrests Carnes and holds him until Judge Millard Isham (Dan O'Herlihy of "RoboCop") arrives in town, with Deputy U.S. Marshal Ben Stroud (Cliff Ketchum of "Pork Chop Hill") at his side. The Norman S. Hall screenplay is literate, intelligent, and concerns civil rights on the frontier. The bulk of the film concerns the trial that occurs after the shooting, with the Mexican population observing how impartial American justice can be. Unfortunately, the clash of characters between fade-in and fadeout slackens. Nobody gives a bad performance. Dan O'Herlihy, Dennis Hopper, Ken Curtis, and Cliff Ketchum stand out in a rugged cast. Altogether, "The Young Land" qualifies as an above-average oater that addresses civil rights issue. Patrick Wayne is appropriately heroic throughout this oater. Dennis Hopper makes a superb villain. Above all, Ken Curtis has the best role, and he changes over time while the others remain essentially the same.

Immediately following the "Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo" in 1848 the territory known as California passed from Mexico to the United States of America. Since almost all of the people living there had been citizens of Mexico there was some apprehension among them concerning how they would now be treated. So when an American gunslinger named "Hatfield Carnes" (Dennis Hopper) kills a Hispanic man the residents of a sleepy village are extremely anxious about whether justice is served. To complicate matters this village has a very rowdy group of American outlaws who feel threatened at the thought of one of their own being tried in a court of law. On the flip side there are also vaqueros riding in from various parts of California to make sure that Hatfield pays for his crime. As a result the unofficial sheriff "Jim Ellison" (Patrick Wayne) is thrown into the middle of something that is rapidly becoming very ugly. At any rate, rather than reveal the rest of the story and risk spoiling the movie for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this film turned out to be a pleasant surprise. The acting was pretty good and I especially liked the performances of Yvonne Craig (as "Elena de la Madrid") along with the aforementioned Patrick Wayne. All in all, this movie wasn't too bad and I rate it as slightly above average.

An American gunslinger kills a Mexican man in California immediately after the Mexican-American war. The killer is arrested and put on trial for murder with the Hispanic population waiting to learn of American justice.Sounds like Miami today.Heavy handed directing. No so good acting, even though Dennis Hopper is the main character.I never thought he was such a great actor. He prove it here.If anything, this movie serves to prove even in 1959 the left was churning out propaganda.

I got The Young Land in a one of those 20 western packages and was not expecting much out of it, especially since the lead was a very young Patrick Wayne. Let's face it, no sane film maker would have given him a lead in any movie if he weren't the Duke's son. I expected him to be perfectly awful, but he didn't live up to my worst expectations. He was what used to be termed charitably as "adequate". Well, almost so.But the movie had such good production values and such a good supporting cast for young Wayne, it was thoroughly entertaining. The best surprise in the works was a Dimitri Tiomkin score. Also excellent were the sets, the cinematography, the costumes, and the props. The down to earth dialog, the characterization, the dress, and the props all combined the give it an authentic look and feel, even though it was not actually authentic in detail. For instance, all the revolvers were correctly cap and ball models, but not the ones that were available in 1848. Amusingly, Wayne was shown loading his rifle in the muzzle, which was appropriate to the time period, but the rifle was obviously a Sharps, which was a breach-loader! Never mind-- E for effort in that department.Wayne's supporting cast was the movie's best asset. Denis Hopper did his usual disgusting, whining psycho. He was a one-note actor, but he did that well. Yvonne Craig as Wyane's Spanish girl friend was merely decorative, but she was very good at that, I should say! Dan O'Herlihy as the no-nonsense judge dominated the proceedings in more ways than one. Ken Curtis showed that he had possessed quite a range as an actor back in the days before he turned into Festus Haggen. But the actor who really stole the show was Cliff Ketchum, as the quiet but deadly marshal, the judge's right hand man. He was truly authentic. He reminded me of one of those old time rural Texas lawmen I used to know when I was a kid -- scrawny, dried-up, past middle age guys. They didn't look like much but could be tougher than any punk who might come along.The Young Land had good production values, a great score, a good story, colorful characters, and just the right mix of action and drama. This enjoyable oat-burner was a bargain at the 25 cents I paid for it. Which is more than I can say for some of the lasagna-burners keeping it company in that 20- western pack.