New Frontier (1939)

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Blistering performances.

This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

One of 51 Republic B westerns in the late '30s and early '40s under the banner of The Three Mesquiteers: a combination of mesquite and musketeer. The identity of the actors varied. John Wayne was in only 8 of them, this being the last one before he graduated to A pictures. It's an early example of the directing of B westerns by George Sherman, who would eventually move to Columbia, then to Universal, always directing almost exclusively B westerns. Here, Wayne is Stony, Ray Corrigan is Tucson, and Ray Hutton is Rusty......Just after the Civil War, Major Braddock decided to move from the decimated South to the Wild West. He landed in The New Hope Valley, as he called it, and started a community. Now, they are celebrating their 50th anniversary, which would make it about 1915. But, aside from one bulldozer, it seems it should be more like their 25th anniversary, as there is no other hint of motor vehicles nor electricity use.......As part of their celebration, they have a curious reenactment of the Pony Express riders, featuring the 3Ms as the riders(who were way overweight compared to the real scrawny riders!) The 3Ms hand the mail pouch off to each other out in the boonies, where no one could see them, then are chased into town by a trio of 'Indians'. Of course, the real riders went extinct 55 years before, after their 18 month existence.......The screen play, at least, is a bit different from that of the usual B western of this era. The central problem is that the government wants to build a dam to provide more water and electricity for the neighboring growing city of Metropole, and the dam will flood the area of New Hope Valley, meaning that everyone will be dispossessed, with no evident suitable nearby area to resettle. Naturally, the residents are hopping mad that the government could do this to them. They try, to no avail, to get the court to declare the project too costly in disrupted lives. Therefore, some harass the surveyors and other workmen. At one point, there's a serious confrontation, when the supply wagons try to roll in. The workmen roll a flaming oil tanker wagon down to crash into the barricade erected by the settlers. Later, when the dam floodgates are being opened to flood the valley, the settlers again attack the dam crew, and close the floodgates, after learning that their promised new homes are still located in a waterless rocky desert, with the promised water pipe not even started. Then, the film comes to an abrupt ending, Supposedly, a tunnel has been dug, in record time, through the intervening mountain, to allow the pipeline to reach the New New Hope Valley....... Not too bad of a story. See it at YouTube......Forgot to mention that this was the first film role of Jennifer Jones. She played Celia: daughter of Major Braddock, who founded the New Hope settlement. Not much of a role compared to her next film.

SYNOPSIS: Just as the good citizens are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of New Hope (which occurred shortly after the end of the Civil War), word is brought that a neighboring city intends to flood the valley to ensure its water supply.NOTES: Number 25 of the 52-picture Three Mesquiteers series, and Wayne's last "B" western. The print under review is from the Republic Collection. Although the cassette blurb claims the print was "mastered from original film negatives", this is demonstrably untrue. It was in fact obviously duped from a 16mm television print, and not from the original 35mm negative, let alone the 36mm theatrical print. The grading is terrible, the lack of contrast so bad that many shots look almost completely washed out.COMMENT: A John Wayne-Jennifer Jones picture? Yes indeed. Actually it was her first film and she appeared under her real name, Phylis Isley. She is billed after Wayne, Corrigan and Hatton and her role is fairly large, though she has but a few lines and only one close-up, and I think only three brief scenes with Wayne. The producers seem unsure what to do with her. In her introductory and longest scene, she has her hair long and dark. In her next scene and throughout the rest of the film she wears it short and light. We wonder if it's the same girl. She often stands in a shot while Eddie Waller does all or most of the talking. His is really the main role after Wayne's. Both Corrigan and Hatton have so little to do, it's hardly fair to call this a Three Mesquiteers movie. Even Sammy McKim has a bigger part than Corrigan.As with Miss Jones, the script bears every evidence of being changed or made up on the run. A couple of good guys unexpectedly change into villains and the plot leads into a series of climaxes, all of which unexpectedly fizzle out or come to nothing. Oddly, for a western, although plenty of confrontations occur, there is no bloodshed at all. Not a drop. The villains are routed with no more than a dozen or so fists raised in anger, and the climax, instead of an expected Poverty Row duplication of The Rains of Ranchipur, comes to nothing. All the lead-up with the dam waters being released raises expectations. We assume the farmsteads have been swept away before Wayne turns the water off. But, would you believe, the flood waters are neither shown wreaking havoc (no Lydecker special effects or miniatures in this movie) or even mentioned.Aside from its cleverly contrived introduction when the audience is fooled into thinking a recreation of the Pony Express run is the actual McGuffin, the plot manages to whip up surprisingly little interest. Lackluster direction, dull locations and the paucity of action doesn't help. It's fortunate Miss Jones was cast in the film because the novelty of her presence is just about the only reason anyone would want to watch it from start to end. Even Wayne himself is less forceful than usual. Of course, fans of garrulously verbose Eddy Waller will be cheering themselves hoarse, but if Eddy's total fan following overflows a phone booth, I'd be very surprised.Note the prominence given Wayne's name in the poster. Also that Phylis Isley is pictured pointing a rifle when in fact, true to her Jennifer Jones screen image, she does no such thing.

New Frontier (1939) ** 1/2 (out of 4) The final Three Mesquiteer film for John Wayne has the boys trying to help some settlers who are about to lose their land to some bad men. At the moment I can't recall how many of the Wayne films I've seen from this series but this is just like most of them. The film contains some pretty good action scenes and Wayne is good as usual but the stories aren't really that strong. Jennifer Jones has a small supporting role and does a pretty nice job.As of now the only way to view these films is by AMC, which also includes commercials.

John Wayne said farewell to the Three Mesquiteers film series and to the character of Stoney Burke he had played in them. The Mesquiteers would continue on without the Duke as they had before him. Herbert J. Yates and Republic finally decided that Wayne had become too big a star to continue him in B westerns. His next film after this was a loan out to RKO, Allegheny Uprising.In fact there was another change in the cast, Max Terhune left the series even before this and was replaced by Raymond Hatton.New Frontier, not to be confused with the Kennedy administration, also has Phyllis Isley as the leading lady. Her next film would win her an Academy Award and a name change to Jennifer Jones. Of course that is the Song of Bernadette. She never did do a film with Wayne after this, but I'm guessing it was because the Duke didn't want to work for David O. Selznick.This entry in the Mesquiteers films deals with the right of eminent domain. The Mesquiteers ranch and the property of all the others in New Hope Valley has been condemned because the state wants to build a dam for a large city and create a reservoir where their property is. This subject was dealt with in a quite serious way in Elia Kazan's film Wild River about the Tennessee Valley Authority. Of course here it's all part of land swindle, but Stoney, Tucson, and Rusty put things to right in the end and do it with the same pioneer spirit their ancestors showed.You would expect anything else from a John Wayne film?