High Lonesome

There were so many westerns made, that it has to have a unique angle or something memorable, to sick its head above the parapet. Did I enjoy this movie? Without a doubt. The characters were strong and likable and I really found myself rooting for the young lad. Location? Excellent. The great expanse of the country was well portrayed and the shacks, houses and barns were all spot on. Acting? Good overall. All utterly believable and gave a strong sense of family unit. Storyline? Well this is maybe where the movie didn't quite do itself justice. The story was okay, but has, with variations, been told hundreds of times and it didn't bring much new to the table. But at 80 minutes, it wasn't too long and I found myself glad to have watched and enjoyed it.

Oddball Western drama. There's no commanding central character to hang your hat on. Barrymore Jr. headlines, but his "Cooncat" stands more for misunderstood youth than as a force for good. Actually, several characters alternate in the spotlight, crippled old Davis (Ruysdael) being the most commanding, with his spirited daughter Abby (Miller) not far behind. Then too, there's a very un-Western hint of the spooky in the "ghost" figures lurking in the background. That "horse dragging" sequence is unusual and more brutal than expected. If Barrymore had padding to ease the abrasion, I couldn't spot it.

It's a pretty cluttered screenplay with a number of characters and episodes drifting in and out that makes it difficult at times to keep up with. Nonetheless, it's a good original story with a number of nice touches, including the barn dance; plus, the wide open vistas of southwest Texas (where the epic Giant {1955} was filmed). I also like the way that underneath the sub- plots, the film is really about the hapless kid finding a home. Note that the character Cooncat foreshadows a popular theme of the coming decade—misunderstood youth, especially as popularized by James Dean several years later.

I expect the un-tried Barrymore was given top billing for box office purposes. He tries hard, and after all his character is based on anger and frustration since nobody believes him and is about to hang him. The only scene I can spot where he clearly over-acts is when describing the two horsemen to Boatwhistle (Wills). Otherwise, I see him as giving a logically emotional performance.

Anyway, I liked the film as an entertainingly offbeat Western.

Purportedly High Lonesome was shot in color for the transoceanic company Eagle Lion Pictures. But all I saw was a pretty bad black and white print rented on Amazon.

John Drew Barrymore who with his sister Diana carried the most famous thespian name in America stars in this film playing a youthful loner type whom we just know as 'Cooncat'. In a part that Steve McQueen would have probably phoned in with a good performance, Barrymore plays a troubled youth who is a runaway from an abusive home in Texas. Unfortunately in his travels he walks into an area where a whole lot of unsolved murders are taking place and he gets good and tagged for them.

Not believing him, but taking him in anyway the better to keep an eye on him is rancher Basil Ruysdael with two pretty daughters, Lois Butler and Kristine Miller. Only Miller believes in Barrymore. In the end all is revealed as that Belgian sleuth was wont to say.

Poor Barrymore like Diana he did some unmemorable films for the most part, the pressure of the name a bit much to handle. High Lonesome is one of those films. Maybe the color might have helped, but I have to judge on the print available.

Novelist Alan Le May directed this, his first and last effort. Perhaps if he had solid production designers, as Mike Nichols did for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1966) and "The Graduate" (1967), he might have continued, but the acting isn't much either. Chill Wills is okay in one of his longest parts and it is a pleasure to see beautiful Kristine Miller in a rare appearance, but John Drew Barrymore appears to be a committed student of silent movies, offering a range of extreme facial expressions that a better director might have told him to tone down. This oater is 81 largely wasted minutes.

John Drew Barrymore (credited as John Barry Jr.) shows up at Basil Ruysdael's ranch in Big Bend country. He tells an ever-shifting story that evokes suspicion in Ruysdael, the cook, Chill Wills, and his elder daughter, Kristine Miller; only younger daughter Lois Butler believes him. When he tops it off by describing two men who caused a fuss at a party, Wills thinks he's telling ghost stories; he's describing two men he killed in a feud a decade and a half earlier. Evidence continues to pile up against him.

It's written and directed by Alan Le May, and I was struck by his use of using a doorway to frame people that reminded me instantly of John Wayne's exit at the end of THE SEARCHERS. The cinematographer is W. Howard Greene, an expert in Technicolor, although the lighting does not have the dramatic and color-filled skies of that movie.

Le May has written a marvelous story, filled with ambiguity and fine performances. The one exception is Barrymore, who seems rather futile and juvenile in the role. I expect Le May allowed the other performers to set their own interpretations, but Barrymore needed rather more. Still, it's visually arresting, filmed in Presidio County in Texas. Had it been from a more prestigious distributor than Eagle-Lion, it might be better known. With John Archer and Jack Elam.