Great Day in the Morning

¨Great day in the morning¨ is well starred by Robert Stack dealing with facing off between Union and Confederation . This excellent , meaty Western contains interesting plot , thrills , brawls , shoot'em up and turns out to be quite entertaining . This outstanding Tourneur Western balances action , suspense and drama . Set in Colorado territory , during the early days of the American Civil war (1861-1865) . Circa 1861 , a stranger Southerner named Owen Pentecost (Robert Stack) arrives in a town , Denver , (Colorado) where he takes on a real villain and falls in love for two women . There the powerful owner (Raymond Burr) gives him an opportunity to a big card game and our Southern gunslinger finds himself equally interested in the two local ladies . The former gunfighter turned hotel manager meets a motley group of characters : Ann Merry Alaine (Virginia Mayo) , one newly arrived from the East to open a dress shop , ¨The wildcat¨ (Ruth Roman) , when she couldn't outshoot a man she used other weapons , a Northern spy (Alex Nicol) and the relentless killer (Leo Gordon) who liked to play with lives . And of course , ¨The land baron¨ (Raymond Burr) , the owned the town hotel , hardware , lock , livestock and gun barrel . And Pentecost , then , has to make even more essential choices when , with the start of the Civil War , seeks justice and at the same time attempts to transport some supplies to Confederation . As the rebel sympathizer and two Northern spies -Col. Gibson (Carleton Young) , Captain Stephen Kirby (Alex Nicol)- are both after Colorado gold to help finance the Civil War . At the end takes place the bugle blast that echoed thru history , including a pretty spectacular pursuit between Union cavalry and Confederated wagons .

Rip roarin' and moving Western set in Denver in which a Southern adventurer turned hotel manager and gets into many problems . This grand Western in the tradition of ¨Red River¨ and ¨High Noon¨ contains an intelligent writing , emotion , violence , go riding , double crosses , crossfire and results to be quite enjoyable . It's a classic recounting about an upright man seeking justice and attempting to execute the Confederate purports , as he becomes one of a small minority in a strongly Unionist town . The public likes big Westerns and here to satisfy them is a big adventure , starring big box office favorites of the 50s , Virginia Mayo , Robert Stack , Ruth Roman , with the kind of high pitched excitement that pay off . The traditional story and exciting screenplay by Lesser Samuels being based on the novel written by Robert Hardy Andrews . Here filmmaker Tourneur gets a good Western by showing a great command of mood and atmosphere . Top-notch Robert Stack as Pentecost who finds himself the owner of a Denver hotel and becomes involved with two women , as well as magnificent Raymond Burr as a proud baron land who seeks vengeance . Support cast is frankly excellent such as Alex Nicol , Leo Gordon , Donald MacDonald , Carleton Young and Regis Toomey . Thrilling and atmospheric musical score by Leith Stevens . Colorful cinematography in Technicolor -photographed in Ansco Color by Pathe- by director of photography William Snyder .

This is another superbly powerful triumph from RKO and producer Edmund Grainger who brought other Westerns as Cimarron , The Sheepman , The Treasure of Pancho Villa , The Fabulous Texan and Wild Bill Hickok Rides . It is probably one of the best Western in the fifties and sixties . The motion picture was decently directed by Jacques Tourneur . Born in Paris , Tourneur went to Hollywood with his father , director Maurice Tourneur around 1913 . Jacques directed all kinds of genres , he was an expert on Noir cinema , such as the classic ¨Out of the past¨ and ¨Nightfall¨(1956) ; Suspense : ¨Experiment perilous¨(1945) , ¨Berlin Express¨ (48) , ¨The Fearmakers¨ (1958) ; Peplum : ¨The giant of Marathon¨ (60) ; Wartime : ¨Days of glory¨ (1943) and adventures as ¨Flame and the arrow¨ , ¨Timbuktu¨ , ¨Appointment in Honduras¨,¨Way of a Gaucho¨ , ¨Anne of the Indies¨, ¨City under the sea¨ ; but he was best known for his terror cinema with producer Val Lewton such as ¨Cat people¨ , ¨Leopard man¨, ¨I walked with a Zombie¨, ¨Night of demon¨ and an amusing horror/comedy : ¨The Comedy of Terrors¨. He went on to direct masterpieces in many different genres and in Western he made various films : The masterpiece titled ¨Canyon passage¨(1946) , ¨Mission of Danger¨ , ¨Frontier Rangers¨ , ¨Strange on horseback¨ (1955) , ¨Star in my Crown¨ (1956) with Joel McCrea , ¨Wichita¨(1955) equally with Joel McCrea as Wyatt Earp formerly to OK Corral duel and this one . He finally directed episodes of ¨Norhwest passage¨ (1958) titled Frontier Rangers , Fury River and Mission of danger . ¨Great day in the morning¨ rating : Well worth watching and it will appeal to Virginia Mayo fans .

"Great Day in the Morning" is a western from RKO in 1956. It takes place just before the Civil War and deals with Union and Confederate factions both trying to get some gold in Colorado in order to finance the war. Based on the novel by Robert Hardy Andrews, the film is quite faithful to the book. Robert Stack plays a southern gunslinger with cynical overtones. Virginia Mayo, a Technicolor knock-out, meets Stack on her way west and has a love/hate relationship with him. Ruth Roman is a hostess with cleavage in Raymond Burr's saloon and she falls like a ton of bricks for Stack. Burr plays a heavy and gives Roman a bad time. A highpoint of the film is a critical card game between Stack and Burr with Roman dealing the cards. Of course Mayo and Roman are fighting like crazy over Stack.

As Westerns go this qualifies for entertainment. All Westerns teach us about history some do it better than others. Many Westerns entertain while teaching. Some do a better job than others. This one educates but falls a little short on quality film watching but is worthy for effort. After all, you have some name-brand players here and they carry the film nicely from scene to scene. We get some gold rush input, pre-civil war activity, and of course drinking, card-playing and shoot em ups with bad and good guys plus the Southerner versus the northerner dynamics. There is virtually no character development. You just have to accept what is going on in the screen and enjoy it. The ending leaves us with mixed feelings only because it is both good and bad. I like to snack while watching and this movie is good for sunflower seeds as you casually watch with a tasty drink to clear the palette. Mount-up and let's ride

Great Day in the Morning was the last western directed by Jacques Tourneur. It's based on a novel by Robert Hardy Andrews and features Robert Stack and Virginia Mayo in key roles.

The action of the film takes place right before the beginning of the American Civil War. Directly from the start of the film we're introduced to the main character of Owen Pentecost (Robert Stack) who is trying to defend himself when attacked by the Indians. Things start to get pretty bad, but group of people appears headed by Sarg. Zeff Masterson (Leo Gordon) and saves his life. But when Masterson discovers that the man he's just saved is a Confederate, he resents himself for doing so and only is stopped from finishing Owen by his colleague Stephen Kirby (Alex Nicol). Soon they arrive to Denver, Colorado, where everything indicates that the war is ready to break out any moment. But Owen Pentecost more concerned about himself and about the real purpose of his coming to Denver, which is a load of gold that was dig by the confederate miners and is ready to be transported to the south to help the Confederate cause. The delay might ruin everything, and this is what Owen counts on, planning to take advantage of the situation for his own benefit. This is where Boston (Ruth Roman) enters the scene. She is beautiful woman who falls in love with him and having her own opinion about what Owen's future should be makes him a town's saloon owner and herself his associate. Meanwhile the time passes by and the Civil War breaks out with Confederates attacking Fort Sumter and urgent transportation of gold to the south becomes a matter of vital importance. That is where Stephen Kirby reveals his true identity as a Captain of a Union Army and gathers a group of volunteers intending to stop moving out the gold.

Great Day in the Morning can be hardly called a classic, but nonetheless is quite a good western worth to take a look at. 7/10

In the last days of RKO and Republic Pictures with the B western having gone on to television, the westerns that those two small studios were putting out were not for the kiddie Saturday afternoon trade. Great Day In The Morning is a western with a few adult themes thrown in, Robert Stack is most definitely not bashful around the women, he won't be satisfied kissing his horse.

The plot Great Day In The Morning takes place at the beginning of the Civil War. The film has plot elements of three classic westerns, Hondo, Virginia City, and The Far Country. Robert Stack's character of Owen Pentecost is a whole lot like James Stewart in The Far Country. Stack is a southerner, but he's not doing anything for the newborn Confederacy without being well paid.

As for the women, Stack has two to choose from, pioneer lass Virginia Mayo and saloon girl Ruth Roman. In fact Ruth Roman is playing pretty much the same part she did in The Far Country. Like in Hondo, Stack is forced into a gunfight with a recalcitrant miner and later on winds up taking the miner's son David MacDonald under his wing.

And of course like Virginia City it's all about that Southern gold only here the southerners are the good guys. Not all the northerners are bad like regular army colonel Carleton Young and Captain Alex Nicol, but the two chief villains are Roman's partner Raymond Burr and hotheaded former army sergeant Leo Gordon.

Burr is an especially hateful character, he's got two things he hates Stack for, politics and the fact Stack's beating Burr's time with Roman. Burr was always a big heavy man, I met him during the early Eighties in New York, but in his early days he kept his weight down to some degree, if you've seen the original Perry Mason series you well remember that. But here to play the part of a character named Jumbo and he's as big here as I remember seeing him in person and in the later Perry Mason films. In fact Raymond Burr's performance is the most memorable one in Great Day In The Morning.

There's enough action for the traditional western fan, but there's a lot of sex in Great Day In The Morning as well. Jacques Tourneur keeps the film going at a good clip. Both traditional western fans and those who favored the adult western soon to be popping up on television will like Great Day In The Morning.