Rocky Mountain (1950)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Best movie of this year hands down!

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Another western featuring Unionists and Confederates. Once again in a civil war film the rebels are shown to be honourable and principled whereas the Unionists are regarded as somehow disreputable. Let me remind you that the civil war was about the abolition of slavery and the confederates wanted to keep slavery. Maybe it tells us a lot about the attitudes to race of the Hollywood film studios.Errol Flynn is a Confederate officer whose small band of men travel 2000 miles to California to meet up with southern sympathisers and outlaws to stir up rebellion. Things do not go according to plan as they fail to meet up the support and get sidetracked when they rescue a girl and driver from a stagecoach during an attack by Indians. They then have to contend with the girl's fiancé, a Union cavalry officer who comes looking for her with his troops and some Indian scouts.When it turns out that the Indian scouts have betrayed the Union soldiers, Flynn and his small army are overwhelmed by the Indians and decide to sacrifice themselves to save the girl.The film was photographed in New Mexico and has a John Ford feel to it with some of the photography, however the nighttime battle scenes ends up at the viewer looking at a dark screen!Flynn does well as a jaded but gallant officer but the film lacks action with plenty of lulls, there is some good horse chase sequences, a decent battle at the end with the Indians and a loyal dog that will bring a tear to the most cynical eye.

I saw this film for the first time more than fifty years ago. In Brazil it was known as "Olhando a morte de frente" which the best translation I can come up with is "Looking straight ahead at Death". Even though I was a child I enjoyed it greatly and could not stop talking about it after. Seeing it again yesterday I realized how good this film is nowadays, of all Flynn' s westerns it is the one that less aged. The quality that only a big studio like Warner could provide makes most of the modern westerns pale in comparison. Great cinematography in black and white, great music by Max Steiner, great performance of Flynn, excellent actors like Slim Pickens. It is surprising why this film was never released before, and why it did not get the positive critical approval it deserved.

This film has an unusually gritty and authentic look and feel, and an unusual ending for a 1950's western.( I can't say more or I would ruin the plot for anyone who hasn't seen the film). It has a very good beginning and a truly exciting and emotional ending. The middle though,does drag a bit.The characters of the confederate soldiers are very well established and should elicit sympathy and respect.This was Errol Flynn's last western, and , while he was no longer in his prime and looks older and a little weathered, he is perfect for the role of a man who has seen too much war. One aspect of the film that is little commented on it the exceptional horsemanship in the film. In real life, Flynn and several of the co-stars were very good horsemen, and it really shows.

Errol Flynn brings a world-weary look and an understated performance to this William Keighley directed Western. The film features several gifted horsemen Dickie Jones, Buzz Henry, Slim Pickens, Sheb Wooley and the legendary Yakima Canutt. It was the first film for both Pickens and Wooley who both became journeymen character actors. It is also interesting to see Errol Flynn and Patrice Wymore (Mrs. Errol Flynn) work together in their only pairing on screen. The presence of Flynn's carousing companion Guinn "Big Boy" Williams also puts Flynn at ease in this role. Rocky Mountain blends a Civil War chapter, rampaging Indians and a love triangle all in a solitary location shoot. One of the last black & white Westerns, it holds up well more than 50 years after it was filmed.