All the Brothers Were Valiant

Taylor is captain of a whaling ship in the south Pacific. His wife, Anne Blythe, is also aboard to keep Taylor from getting too nervous. The crew are a mixed lot. Somewhere along the way Taylor's ship picks up Taylor's brother, Stewart Granger, who left home long ago to pursue various unsavory adventures, leaving behind a history of family friction.

Granger relates a tale of falling in with a couple of douche bags, Kurt Kaszner and James Whitmore, who show him a stash of pearls in the lagoon of an island inhabited by hostile natives. Before they can make off with the millions of dollars of rare pearls, the two miscreants are killed and Granger barely escapes alive.

Back aboard Taylor's ship, Granger invites him to forget about any past frictions and join him in getting the pearls. Forget the whaling business. It sounds pretty good to Anne Blythe, who has always had a bit of a crush on the roguish Granger, but Taylor's face is grim as he declares that he, the captain, will carry out the ship's mission, which is to kill whales.

Stewart seduces Blythe and incites a mutiny. That's the kind of guy he is. There is a knockabout fist fight, and Granger changes sides to fight side by side with his brother and -- well, medical discretion forbids the revelation of additional plot details, but, this being a 1950s movie, you can guess the ending.

Interesting to see Stewart Granger in the role of irresponsible and light-hearted adventurer, kind of an Errol Flynn role. Robert Taylor's acting makes a quantum leap in this film -- he manages to suggest two emotions at the same time. As an actress, Anne Blythe had a pretty voice.

The score is by Miklos Rozsa. You can tell from the moment that first signature six-note phrase appears. We're told Rozsa was a musical prodigy. There's no reason to doubt it, but he recycled the same tone and even the same melodies from one movie to the next. Dmitri Tiomkin was also distinctive, but you can tell one score from another. "The Guns of Navarron" doesn't sound like "Red River." But here, if you close your eyelids, you find you're watching "Ben Hur" unroll on their interiors.

I hate to sound too sarcastic about this but it really is a dated by-product of the old Hollywood. It seems to have been ground out like a Sonic Burger. Everyone wears clean clothes. The men are closely shaved except those who look like supporting players and extras who have been instructed to grow beards so they look villainous. The tans are not from the weather but from Max Factor. After a monstrous gut-busting fist fight, nobody has a mark on him -- and this was after "Shane". The scenes aboard ship are studio bound. There's not a puff of wind.

Strictly routine.

This swashbuckling yarn pits Robert Taylor and Stewart Granger against each other as brothers who have very different ideas about how to captain a ship. There's mutiny, island lasses, palm trees, and lots of that flat, too-bright lighting common to Technicolor films from the 1950s. George Folsey received his billionth Oscar nomination for the film's color cinematography, but I'm guessing it was more for capturing some pretty ocean scenery than it was any artistic decisions.

Ann Blyth gives a sub-par performance as Taylor's wife who comes along for the sea voyage. She's a boring character and her presence teeters the film too often into romantic melodrama, when what we really want is more macho battle of wills.

Grade: B-

Based upon the novel by Ben Ames Williams who died the year it was released this is produced by crowd pleaser Pandro S. Berman and directed by Richard 'one-take' Thorpe. MGM stalwart Robert Taylor is lumbered with the part of the good brother whilst Stewart Granger has by far the most interesting role as his villainous sibling. Ann Blyth, replacing Elizabeth Taylor, is the meat in the sandwich. This proved to the last film alas of veteran Lewis Stone. Ravishing Betta St. John plays her customary 'exotic' role. Keenan Wynn and James Whitmore were to enjoy long careers and teamed up that year to steal the show as Lippy and Slug with their priceless rendition of 'Brush up your Shakespeare'. George Folsey was again Oscar-nominated for his superlative cinematography but again missed out and the score by Miklos Rosza is suitably stirring. The whale hunt is well done although obviously filmed in a studio tank and the final fisticuff-fest well choreographed. Despite its cast and production values it is alas rather plodding and fails to excite. Granger's description of it as a 'crappy melodrama' seems unduly harsh but he was notoriously dismissive of most of his films. This prickly actor parted company with MGM four years later while the more 'accommodating' Robert Taylor continued his thirty-year long association.

This film is an adaptation of a novel. I have not read it, but it seems like a story of big action and big themes. It can be difficult to put such a story on film, but the filmmakers did a decent job of it.

It all begins when whaling captain Joel Shore returns home to New Bedford, after a lengthy expedition. He finds that Priscilla Holt (Ann Blyth) has grown into young womanhood, and he asks her to marry him before he takes to the sea again. She agrees, despite the fact that Joel might be gone for two or three years. He surprises her by refitting the captain's quarters of the Nathan Ross so that she can go with him. And they set to sea, where she learns about whaling and the dangers of sea life. Everything changes when they discover that Joel's older brother, Mark (Stewart Granger), who used to captain the Nathan Ross, is alive.

Much of the film consists of flashbacks of Mark's story. And then it picks up with Joel, Mark, and Priscilla back on the water, where complicated passions and differing purposes are dealt with. The ninety-five minutes of running time are filled to the brim with conflict and adventure, including a fight scene that is very worthy of the genre.

The acting, across the board, is good. Granger has the meatiest part, and he takes advantage of it. Watch for Lewis Stone in his last film appearance. And Keenan Wynn and James Whitmore, who tackle musical comedy in "Kiss Me Kate", soon after their appearance here.

Really did like the idea of the story and who doesn't like a good old adventure yarn once in a while? The cast is an agreeable one, although Robert Taylor was a bit hit and miss for me as an actor depending on the role on paper this sounded like a role that would suit him well. Stewart Granger and Ann Blyth were always watchable, as was Lewis Stone (here sadly in his last film). Richard Thorpe to me was a competent director but at times an undistinguished one.

'All the Brothers Were Valiant' was somewhat disappointing unfortunately, and am taking no pleasure in saying this being somebody that really wanted to like it very much. It is definitely worth a one-time watch and has a lot of fine things. 'All the Brothers Were Valiant' also, considering such a stirring title and that the idea was great, could have been a lot better, with the drawbacks being a fair few and sadly quite big.

Will start with the good things. 'All the Brothers Were Valiant' is a great looking film with the expense showing. Would actually go as far to say that the Technicolor photography in particular is stunning, very lavish and sweeping. Nearly forgot to mention Miklos Rosza as being another interest point, a great film composer with an immediately recognisable compositional style. Which one can definitely hear here in 'All the Brothers Were Valiant', it's arresting from the very first note and is typically lush with some nice grandeur and atmosphere.

It as a film starts off very well and the action oriented scenes are colourfully staged. The bag of pearls flashback is agreed the story highlight. Most of the cast do really well. Taylor's role suits him really well and plays to his strengths, he's on good form here. As is Granger, a nice rivalry contrast to Taylor. The supporting cast are very good, especially Peter Whitney.

However, Blyth fares a lot less well. She has next to nothing to work with, or anything that stands out, and she looks as if she knew that in a performance that doesn't show that much effort. The romantic chemistry came over as bland and watery. Stone does decently and is typically reserved in his cameo but he deserved a better final film and a bigger role. The script is pedestrian and overwrought.

Likewise with the romantic element of the story, which generally after a promising start gets very silly to suspending disbelief level and predictable. Do agree that the ending does undo the film quite badly, it's ridiculous and not remotely plausible. It was like the writers didn't know how to end the story so came up with what was forced upon them. Thorpe's direction gets the job done but too often, especially dramatically, it's undistinguished and like his heart wasn't completely in it.

Bottom line, watchable but doesn't have enough to it to rise above average. If only the rest of the film lived up to its promising start and good potential. 5/10