Roseanna McCoy (1949)

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Out picking flowers, pretty Joan Evans (as Roseanna McCoy) gets stung by not only a hornet, but also handsome Farley Granger (as Johnse Hatfield). Guess you could call it love at first bite. Of course, their feudin' families ("The Hatfields and the McCoys") are against the young duo getting hitched... The meeting of the hillbilly "Romeo and Juliet" is one of the couple's few good scenes, with Mr. Granger leaping to Ms. Evans' aid, and sucking insect poison from her arm. The original casting idea, to star Cathy O'Donnell from Granger's "They Live by Night" (1948), might have worked. Richard Basehart (as Mounts Hatfield) easily goes to the head of a strong supporting cast. Little Peter Miles (as Randall McCoy) has a memorable shooting scene. And, many of the locations, by Lee Garmes, are beautiful.***** Roseanna McCoy (8/18/49) Irving Reis ~ Joan Evans, Farley Granger, Richard Basehart, Peter Miles

In the wilderness of Appalachia of the 1890s, the Hatfield clan and the McCoy clan hate each other. A long-time feud is reignited when young Roseanna McCoy runs off with Johnson Hatfield. A battle ensues.It's Romeo and Juliet in the woods, far more than it's Montagues and Capulets or Hatfields and McCoys. It begins with a cloying love song. Here are some lyrics: "Roseanna, Roseanna, the wind breathes your name." (It's a good thing she wasn't named Betsy.) The focus is on Joan Evans as Roseanna and Farley Granger is Johnse. There is a surprising scene suggestive of rape. Granger has kidnapped Evans and they stand among the pines in the middle of the night. He kisses her forcefully, despite her objections, and pushes her back into a thicket. Dissolve to a glorious sunrise and heavenly music as the two ride a horse in tandem. For all that, Farley Granger is no Sheik of Araby, and Evans is no more than blandly pretty.This is Hollywood's version of the 19th-century backwoods. Appalachia, you will be surprised to know, was actually sunny and pleasant and had many of the kinds of live oaks found in California. Flowers abounded. You can find other examples of this stylized milieu in "Sergeant York" and "Young Mr. Lincoln," two far better films. I wonder if Central Casting didn't send over the same wrinkled, bearded, tobacco-chewing, old men in battered hats.The irony is that this movie pretty much sucks and yet has a fine supporting cast. With Hope Emerson and Aline McMahon as the competing matriarchs, it can't be all bad. And the writers, mostly, I would guess, John Collier, have included a subdued but tense scene between Richard Basehart (his hair shellacked in the traditional 1941 Hollywood fashion) and Joan Evans. The room is dark, the only light is from a flickering fire. She holds an empty pistol on him. He is caressing a knife -- and he's mad.The tale itself -- the senseless, murderous feud between two extended families in a classic Appalachian backwoods culture -- has a great deal of promise. The place names alone evoke the proper atmosphere -- Pike County, The Big Sandy, Kentucky, Pikeville, The Tug Fork. Those names are hardly ever used in the film. Maybe that's one of the reasons this all adds up to one of the dullest movies ever made.

I really expected to like Roseanna McCoy because it had a really good premise and fine actors. Unfortunately, the way the characters were developed left much to be desired. Johnse Hatfield is introduced as a stalker, which may have been acceptable in 1949. However, I have watched many movies from that era and the way Johnse behaved (supposedly)out of desire for her would never have been acceptable.Johnse's actions concerning Roseanna McCoy may have been begrudgingly tolerated after a long courtship. But from his first several meetings with her, it is made clear that Johnse is a loathsome and dumb, albeit handsome, brute. I understood Roseanna McCoy was supposed to be extremely naive, but some of the ridiculous choices she made left me wanting to see bad things happen to her. It did not seem like Roseanna cared about anything or anyone, including herself.The lovers' families were feuding just like in Romeo and Juliet, but that is where the similarities end. Johnse was certainly no Romeo and Roseanna was definitely not Juliette. The love story seemed very forced, and not just because Johnse takes what he wants, world be damned. In the third act, the movie tries to create sympathy for the two characters but it is far too late. Johnse and Roseanna were the two characters I cared about least in the movie.As other reviewers have stated, the cinematography was excellent in Roseanna McCoy. I just wish the rest of the film had been as fine as the camera-work.

Call it a guilty pleasure, but I find this movie satisfying on several levels. I was hooked from the opening shot with Lee Garmes' cinematography capturing writer John Collier's evocation of the mysticism of the mountains, enhanced by the choral version of Frank Loesser's theme song. The fact that Joan Evans was a complete unknown discovered in a New York City High School worked for me. She seemed confused and overwhelmed much of the time, which was natural, given Farley Granger's heavy breathing and bodice-ripping efforts in her direction. As previously discussed, the supporting cast is terrific, with Raymond Massey and Charles Bickford as the patriarchs of the opposing families. They clearly enjoyed chewing up the scenery in their respective roles. Aline MacMahon is wonderful as Ma Hatfield, working tirelessly to end the hostility between the families, to little avail. Mention must be made of the youngsters, played by Gigi Perreau, Peter Miles and William Mauch (formerly Billy of the Mauch twins), for whom I felt concern whenever the bullets started to fly. I was most fortunate to view a beautiful 16mm print of the film. Lee Garmes' lighting and compositions are stunning indeed.