This movie for me is all about what it means to be a person
of character. I don’t mean as in ‘she is a real character’ but as in ‘she has real character.’ The story is about an East Coast sea captain,
played by Gregory Peck, who has to navigate the dangerous waters that exist in
and around the family of his Texas
fiancé (played by Caroll Baker). The
movie is long at 165 minutes but it is well worth it. One of the gems you will
find is Burl Ives as the patriarch of the Hannassey clan. He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting
Actor.
While there are several traditional western elements in the
film they admirably serve to expound on the theme of the movie which is about
the nature of a person’s behavior (i.e. their character) and how what other
people think and do has no bearing on that issue.
When a woman of character (played by Jean Simmons) is introduced, the
film gets additional valuable subplots and the theme is shown to apply equally
to women as to men. Let me just come right out and say it (not a spoiler) that
Gregory Peck and Jean Simmons play heroes and they would be good role models
for anyone!
Produced by Gregory Peck and William Wyler and directed by
William Wyler, this film was released October 1, 1958. Other notable William Wyler films (all of
which he was nominated for Best Directing Academy Awards) are Dodsworth (1936, starring Walter
Huston), Wuthering Heights (1939,
starring Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon), The Little Foxes (1941, starring Bette Davis and winner of Best
Director Academy Award for Wyler), The
Best Years of Our Lives (1946 and winner of seven Academy Awards including
Best Picture, Best Director for Wyler and Best Actor for Frederic March and
Best Supporting Actor for Harold Russell), The
Heiress (1949, starring Olivia de Havilland, Montgomery Clift and Ralph
Richardson), Roman Holiday (1953,
starring Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn, winner of the Best Actress Academy Award), Ben-Hur
(1959 and Best Director Academy Award for Wyler among a total of 11 Academy Awards for the film), Funny Girl (1968, starring Barbra Streisand), The Children’s Hour (1961, starring Audrey Hepburn, Shirley
MacLaine and James Garner) and my favorite Mrs.
Miniver (1942, starring Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon and Teresa
Wright, for which Wyler won a Best Director Academy Award, Garson won Best
Actress and Wright won Best Supporting Actress).
Screenplay by James R. Webb, Sy Bartlett and Robert Wilder,
adapted by Jessamyn West and Robert Wyler from Donald Hamilton’s serialized
magazine novel Ambush at Blanco Canyon. Starring Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Caroll
Baker, Charleton Heston, Burl Ives (Winner of Academy Award for Best Suporting
Actor and Golden Globe), Charles Bickford, Alfonso Bedoya, Chuck Connors. Score by Jerome Moross who was nominated for
an Academy Award.
A Favorite Quote: [I
am not going to put my favorite quotes in here because they are so integral to
the story’s theme that I don’t want to spoil the fun of hearing the actors
speak them for you on screen first.] So here’s one that is good and famous but not
my favorite: “There’s no prettier sight
in the world than 10,000 head of cattle… unless it’s 50,000.” [Charles Bickford
as Major Terrill].
Genre: Epic Western,
Romance
The next installment
in my top ten by alphabet will be Captains
Courageous.
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