THE HANGING TREE "EL ÁRBOL DEL AHORCADO" 1959

Warner Bros. THE HANGING TREE (1959) is something of an unsung classic western. But over the years cultists have been drawn to it and it just gets better and better with each viewing! A "sleeper" of 1959, nobody thought it would turn out as good as it did. Based on a story by Dorothy Johnson it was fashioned into a splendid screenplay by Wendell Mayes and Halsted Welles. Gary Cooper headed a fine cast which consisted of Karl Malden, the strikingly beautiful Maria Schell, George C.Scott in his first picture and newcomer Ben Piazza (resembling a young Victor Mature). Produced by Cooper's own company Baroda Productions (named after the street where he was raised) it was solidly directed by the ever underrated Delmer Daves and as usual with Daves' outdoor pictures richly photographed in Technicolor, this time, by ace cinematographer Ted McCord ("Treasure Of The Sierra Madre"/"Johnny Belinda"). The lavish Art Direction by Daniel B.Cathcart was superb with a whole mining town built on locations near Yakima, Washington which would double for the mining fields of 1880's Montana.

The story revolves around Dr. Joe Frail (Cooper) who arrives in the rough mining town of Skull Creek to set up practice. Since the area is bereft of any sort of law enforcement the only deterrent to lawbreakers is symbolised at the town's entrance by the presence of a great ugly and ghostly looking tree complete with a hanging noose ("Every new mining camp's got to have its hanging tree - makes folks feel respectable" a new entrant declares). 

The enigmatic doctor is a man with a hidden past! Stories abound about him years before setting fire to a house with a man and a woman inside ("The woman was my wife and the man was my brother - and I have no right to forget"). But in Skull Creek things are not working out so good for him in the new life he is attempting to carve out for himself. Firstly he falls in love with a beautiful Swiss immigrant Elizabeth Mahler (Schell) when she becomes his patient after being temporarily blinded by the sun. Then he falls foul of an unscrupulous and licentious town wastrel (Karl Malden giving an excellent performance). The picture ends with an exciting but bloody shootout and Frail being frogmarched by the townspeople to the hanging tree just before Elizabeth arrives and offers the mob her newly acquired riches of gold and even her goldmine to stop the lynching. ("Know what? She wants to buy her man! If she wants him that bad let her have him").

Adding immeasurably to the picture is Max Steiner's extraordinary score! It boasts a wonderful central theme for Doc Frail! Heard in different guises throughout the film it becomes a ravishing love theme and is touchingly rendered in the scene where Frail removes the bandages from the eyes of the blinded Elizabeth. Later when she stands on a cliff edge and opens her eyes regaining her sight for the first time Steiner's arresting theme makes it a remarkable sparkling moment! The great composer also provided some exciting action cues such as those for the townspeople pursuing a sluice robber and also for a stagecoach hold-up. A song by Mack David and Jerry Livingstone was sung over the opening and closing credits by Marty Robbins and was nominated for an Oscar. Steiner cleverly interpolated the song into his score and is heard to best effect in the final scene when Frail is being dragged to the infamous hanging tree.

THE HANGING TREE is a splendid drama in an unusual and atmospheric western setting. Eclipsing his Will Kane in "High Noon" Cooper gives one of his very best and most likable performances in what would be his final appearance in a western. A genre he made all his own! It would also be his third last film!

KING SALOMONS MINES "LAS MINAS DEL REY SALOMÓN" 1950

When this production was mounted for Stewart Granger, with Deborah Kerr and Richard Carlson as his co-stars, no one could have imagined how imitated, influential and important the film would become. It has an epic quality about it that is earned by African on-site locales, fine cinematography and direction of the film, and the discovery-aspect of the narrative as the participants learn along about a fascinating continent and its people with the viewers. H. Rider Haggard's venerable novel find to b a curious mixture of Victorian angst, adventure, romance, mystery evoked by an expedition storyline. The fine acting by Stewart Granger as Alan Quartermain the white hunter, Deborah Kerr as a woman seeking her missing husband, Richard Carlson as her brother, and Hugo Haas as a back-sliding villain works exceptionally to increase the believability of the film. The simplest incident on this dangerous expedition--sitting down in the wrong place, turning over a leaf, wearing the wrong weight or textile of garment, cutting one's hair, hearing a sound, anything--can trigger a learning or a dangerous experience... This was a lavish MGM production, with participation by legendary artists and technicians such as Cedric Gibbons as art director, Edwin B. Willis as set decorator, Robert Surtees as cinematographer, Douglas Shearer in charge of sound and many others. But the real star of the film apart from the actors is Andrew Marton and Compton Bennett's realization of Helen Deutsch's interesting modernization of the original novel. Wjite hunter Alan Quartermain does not really care to live any longer; he has just seen one of his best "boys" die in a hunting accident, having been hired to please a bloodthirsty imperial's whim to kill wildlife; and Deborah Kerr comes along just then in need of a guide, trying to convince herself that she still cares about the cold husband who disappeared in search of a fabled treasure, the gold mines of King Solomon of Israel.. Obviously the two are ready to fall in love during the dangerous search for her lost mate, one that takes them into unknown country, among dangerous tribes, and into adventures that include helping a deposed seven-foot-tall monarch regain his throne by a rite of combat, incidentally saving their lives in the process. The most exciting sequence in the film is a grass fire that causes animals to stampede toward the expedition, who must taken shelter crouched low behind a makeshift low barrier; it has been imitated, never duplicated, and was later used in several other films. The film is occasionally leisurely, never dull; its makers play with time very intelligently. For once, the viewer gets the sense in a film of an arduous trek, of time passing, time for changes to happen and motivations for the same. The actors are grand, especially the mature intelligent leads; all-in-all, this simple storyline in the right hands was turned into what is all-but-universally acknowledge to be a classic adventure-romance.

FOUR FEATHERS "LAS CUATRO PLUMAS" 1939

Alexander Korda's "The Four Feathers" (1939) is perhaps one of the greatest triumphs of British film-making -- a crowning achievement in Imperialistic propaganda and a nostalgic testimony to the societal traditions which once inhibited us as individuals. Simply put, "The Four Feathers" is a cinematic masterpiece in the vein of "The Drum" (1938), "Kim" (1950), "The Jungle Book" (1942) and "Gunga Din" (1939). It also represents a rare instance in which a film is far superior to the original novel.

The original novel upon which the film is loosely based was penned by A.E.W. Mason and has an actual excuse for being somewhat flimsy: Following the bloody outbreak of World War I, Mason wrote the story as a mere identity cover while doing espionage work for the British government. He was able to scout northern Africa under this guise of an accomplished author gleaning material for the plot of the novel.

The plot of "Four Feathers" is simple yet engrossing: A young man, Harry Faversham (the dashing John Clements), is brought up by his distant father (Allan Jeayes) in a lonely household steeped in Imperial tradition which values courage and honor above happiness or life itself. His natural human instinct of self-preservation is accentuated into possible cowardice by the horrifying war stories told around the dinner table by old veterans. As he matures, Faversham falls deeply in love with Ethne Burroughs (the radiantly beautiful June Dupréz) and decides that he would rather spend his life in his own way than be trapped in the futile repetitiveness that is a soldier family. On the eve of his unit sailing for Africa, he resigns his commission and is branded a coward -- one of the worst labels in Victorian England -- by both his friends and his betrothed. To reclaim his honor and prove both to himself and others that he is not a coward, Faversham sails to darkest Africa.

In Africa, our dauntless hero is embroiled in unfolding military history as General/Lord Horatio Kitchner ventures into the blistering Sudan with 20,000 British personnel against the varied 50,000 warriors of the Khalifa (John Laurie). The film terrifically climaxes in the breathtaking Battle of Omdurman, a historical engagement which a young Winston S. Churchill witnessed and, in one of his most famous literary pieces, fittingly described as a "victory snatched from the jaws of peril!"

When I was very young, my parents would show me this particular film as an example of a forgotten way of life: of lavish ballrooms where uniformed officers and young ladies in ornate Victorian gowns danced the night away on the eve of war amidst whispered pledges of love and marriage. The film taught me that a true gentleman never insults another in public; a leader must be able to command his own self before he can command others; to honor your word even if it may kill you in the process and to be unafraid of whatever befalls you as long as you are true to yourself.

MILDRED PIERCE "ALMA EN SUPLICIO" 1945

With those broad shoulders, those wall-to-wall eyebrows, that steely look on her face, and wrapped in those expensive clothes, the inimitable Joan Crawford exudes glamour and resolve as famed Mildred Pierce, housewife turned businesswoman, in this Michael Curtiz-directed film, part mystery, part melodrama.

The film's story, told in flashbacks, begins with mystery, and it is helped along by terrific B&W lighting. Most of the rest of the story is sheer melodrama, with talky dialogue that erupts from confrontations between various characters. The most important confrontations occur between Mildred and her ungrateful, scheming daughter Veda, who requires tons of money to be happy. As the story moves along, Mildred buys and successfully operates a restaurant, but it's not enough to win approval from her odious daughter. Mildred's love for Veda is deep. But Mildred, we learn, is also a take-charge woman who won't take any guff from anyone, at least from caddy suitors or prospective in-laws.

It's a great story. And in addition to the topnotch cinematography, the film has great production design, costumes, and editing. We're also treated to some pleasantly nostalgic music from the 1940s. Crawford gets good support performances from Ann Blyth, Eve Arden, and Jack Carson. I also liked Butterfly McQueen, the little lady with the high-pitched voice who plays Mildred's maid.

I suspect this film would have been worthy of praise, even with someone else playing the title character; the film is that good. But no other actress would have had the stage presence of the impressive Joan Crawford. It's mostly because of her that "Mildred Pierce" will be remembered and loved, for generations to come. It's also partly because of "Mildred Pierce" that Joan Crawford will be admired as a Hollywood legend, for generations to come.