Le roi des chevaux sauvages

I remember seeing King Of The Wild Stallions years ago on television and then it became unavailable. It's a nice combination of elements of the film Shane and the television series Fury.

It sure is the story of a horse and the boy who loves him. Young Jerry Hartlebren after all the grownups fail captures a wild black stallion who is in the title role. But he keeps it a secret until the horse is ready to be broken. A lot of people would like that stallion including the kingpin rancher in the area Emile Meyer.

Meyer as we know played another kingpin rancher in Shane, the man who intimidated and bullied all around him. He's no better in this film. He's offered a $500.00 reward for the capture of the black stallion.

Which curiously enough is the amount that Hartlebren's mother Diane Brewster needs to keep her place, it's the amount she needs to renew her lease on some government range. Meyer wants that lease and he does just about anything to push Brewster off her place short of hiring a gunfighter as he did in Shane.

Good thing Brewster has her two hands George Montgomery and Edgar Buchanan around to protect her. Especially for Montgomery and Brewster.

King Of The Wild Stallions is a nice family film which I would recommend highly as family entertainment. It's easy to take with nice people as those who triumph in the end. It holds up well after 55 years.

King of the Wild Stallions is directed by R.G. Springsteen and written by Ford Beebe. It stars George Montgomery, Diane Brewster, Edgar Buchanan, Emile Meyer and Jerry Hartleben. A CinemaScope/DeLuxe Color production, music is by Marlin Skiles and cinematography by Carl Guthrie.

A widow and her young son find trouble at their remote ranch, with the land baron vultures circling. But help could come from an unlikely source.

It's indicative of many other family friendly Westerns of the 1950s, but as it happens this is no bad thing where King of the Wild Stallions is concerned. It's a charming film full of likable Western movie character actors who are able to keep the safe formula on the good side of good. It all comes down to goodies doing battle with the baddies, with the added bonus of a jet black equine called Lightning who dominates most of the narrative. The backdrop of Vasquez Rocks is beautifully captured by Guthrie's scope photography, while the action is well marshalled by old pro Springsteen, including a horse fight!

Time to shout for the goodies here, hooray! 7/10

Hey, let me start by admitting that I had never heard of Director R G Springsteen until I watched what struck me as the type of film Walt Disney would have approved of: KING OF THE WILD STALLIONS.

It had everything for a family outing to the movies in 1959: a cute pre-teen boy called Bucky (played by Hartleben); his lovely-looking mother Martha (Diana Brewster), who knows exactly what her son has been up to, including chasing Lightning, an unbroken stallion running from myriad would-be catchers; a great humorous performance by Edgar Buchanan, one of the greatest supporting actors ever; nasty heavies headed by the menacing Macguire (Emile Meyer); countless free-running, superb-looking quadrupeds that follow Lightning everywhere.

Acceptable script by Ford Beebe, good cinematography by Carl E Guthrie.

Last and certainly least: wooden male lead George Montgomery. Though also a thespian of limited ability, Audie Murphy would have played that part more believably... he would never open his mug the way Montgomery does with Meyer, proper punchbag style. And when he is not getting suckerpunched or ambushed by Meyer, he is out in love with Brewster. Not the sharpest knife, good old George.

Anyway, young Bucky saves the day for everyone, cleverly ensnares - and tames! - Lightning, and Macguire gets his comeuppance the legal way.

Love wins too, so... all's well that ends well! 6/10.

THE KING OF THE WILD STALLIONS is a well-made Allied Artists western starring George Montgomery, Diane Brewster and a nice cast of superior B western actors, including Byron Foulger and Edgar Buchanan.

It also boasts Forde Beebe's last script. Beebe was a long-time B director and writer, whose credits went back to J.P. McGowan's unit in 1915. He never raised his head above the Bs, but knew how to put the elements together. In this one he combines two standards of the genre: the pretty rancher who needs her ranch protected from the dastardly rich man and the taming of a wild stallion.

It is well directed by R.G. Springsteen and features the handsome Vasquez Rocks for the outdoors photography, well-shot by Carl Guthrie. There isn't much surprising in this movie; by this point, the dying B western was as rigid a form as Noh drama. Still, everything is put together as well as it can be. Fans of the genre will not be disappointed.

I know that RG Springsteen gave us COME NEXT SPRING, another even smoother western, if we can call it this way. Anyway both features belong to the family western, involving horses. So don't expect any tough, rough, brutal story at all. It is not bad, no, it is agreeable but destined to specific audiences in search of cheesy tales. I could hardly make it till the end, I admit, because this is not my stuff. As were BLACK HORSE CANYON and also a couple of other films. And the worst is that I got this movie in pan and f...scan frame. That doesn't hekp much you know...So this western is not lousy, it is not a crap junk product but I know the director Springsteen has given us far more powerful movies.