The Halliday Brand

Apart from some of the singing, I enjoyed "The Halliday Brand" quite a bit. While I am not normally a huge western fan, the Oedipal style story is timeless.

When the story begins, Martha (Betsy Blair) is carrying on a covert relationship with a man who is half American Indian. Her father, Big Dan (Ward Bond), is a bigot and so she's been hiding this from him. When he does find out, he's predictably furious...but what happens next shocks everyone. Soon Big Dan stirs up the locals and the boyfriend is murdered. Big Dan's son, Daniel (Joseph Cotten), is furious and naturally blames his father. But Big Dan isn't finished....his infamy seems to know no bounds. Soon, however, he's pushed Daniel so hard that Daniel makes it his life's work to destroy the man.

In many ways, this reminds me of one of the greatest westerns, "The Big Country". This film also is about the father-son relationship as well as two patriarchs who are too proud to bend in any way. Both should be watched...just try to ignore the moaning lady 'singing' some of the music...that "The Halliday Brand" could do without!

The Halliday Brand is a short movie clocking in at less than 80 minutes but it packs a powerful punch for all that, being a passionate,moody and brooding movie without an optimistic bone in its body

Ward Bond is the patriarch of the Halliday clan-rancher,lawman and bigot who controls his family with an unflinching will and brooks no opposition to his domestic and governmental tyranny.When his daughter (Betsy Blair)falls in love with a mixed race man(part Native American/part white)he orders him off the family ranch and railroads him into gaol on a false rustling charge and shortly thereafter the man is lynched.This is too much for his equally strong willed son (Joseph Cotten)who abandons family and home to set himself up in opposition to his father The tale unfolds via flashback when he returns to the bedside of his ailing father but there is to be no cosy reconciliation,and blinkered hatred rules Directed by Lewis in an intense almost manic style this is generally well acted,although Lindfors is simply

The look is minimalist with stylised studio interiors being put to good use and adding to the sense of oppression generated by the movie.There is no room for compromise in Bond's world view and Cotten is the mirror image leaving tragedy as the ultimate outcome Lindfors is miscast but other performance are strong and using performers not always readily associated with the genre aids involvement

The specialist of cheap golden gems was without any discussion Joseph H Lewis, and not only for GUN CRAZY and TERROR IN A TEXAS TOWN - and several other pictures - but for this very one too. With so few dollars, he had the ability to offer us something amazingly powerful, inventive, surprising. And more, he gives here a wondeful character to play for Ward Bond; the character symphony between him and Joseph Cotten is so riveting, far from clichés. This is not the most widely known film, or even western, known from this so unfairly neglected director, but it deserves to be watched for western buffs.

The same year that Ward Bond embarked on Wagon Train as Major Seth Adams the role that would give him star status at long last he did this rather grim western. The Halliday Brand casts him as both sheriff and local Ponderosa owner and he's one mean and bigoted man. His two sons Joseph Cotten and Bill Williams and daughter Betsy Blair are apples that have fallen far from the tree.

In fact Bond is even concerned about the sex lives of the ranch hands he employs and he and Cotten go to check out who Christopher Dark who is a mixed race person in the Halliday employ is shacking up with. Bond is horrified to learn that it's Blair and they want to get married.

Small wonder that when Dark is arrested on a rustling charge, sheriff Bond lets a lynch mob deal with Dark while he's conveniently out of town. Later on he kills Jay C. Flippen who is the father of Dark and of Viveca Lindfors who Cotten has a thing for.

I'm agreeing with the reviewer that said this film should have had a bigger scope and budget. The Halliday Brand has elements of both Red River and The Big Country and Duel In The Sun and should have gotten that kind of treatment.

Bond is proud, stubborn, and brutal. Joseph Cotten has recycled elements of his and Gregory Peck's character from Duel In The Sun in his relationship with Bond. It's not a totally satisfying welding of those two characters either. Cotten is way too much the classy gentleman to get down and dirty as he does in this film.

Still fans of the other players should like The Halliday Brand.

If you want to hate the western genre forever, go ahead and rent The Halliday Brand. Otherwise, do everyone a favor (especially Joseph Cotten and Ward Bond) and forget it was ever made. I don't know what was wrong with the director, but this might be the worst filmed old movie I've ever seen. Joseph H. Lewis, famous for turning low-budget pictures into palatable ones, didn't give his magic touch to this drama. Perhaps he only had $5,000 in the entire budget, and he didn't have any money to film close-ups or medium shots. Perhaps he did film the variety, but there was a terrible fire and all the footage was lost. Or perhaps he accidentally recorded the rehearsals while the camera was poised for the wide shot, and by the time he realized the error, they were out of time and money.

If you've ever wondered whether close-ups were necessary to a movie, they certainly are. Joseph Cotten, Ward Bond, Betsy Blair, and Viveca Lindfors had clenched fists, long pauses after each line (which actors sometimes provide in long shots to make it easier on the editor), and often turned their backs on the camera because they assumed the subsequent close-up would make up the difference. I felt so sorry for these actors.

The story itself was also difficult to root for. Ward plays the powerful patriarch in the western town, and his daughter Betsy Blair falls for a half-Indian hired hand. They sneak around and kiss each other while hiding in the man's house - unacceptable behavior no matter what color her boyfriend's skin is. Also, this was a period piece, during a time when a woman's reputation mattered. Also, her father's a sheriff. And yet we're supposed to be on Betsy's side when Ward forbids the match. As a loving, responsible father, is he supposed to encourage his daughter to be ostracized from the entire town, raising mixed children who are ridiculed by their peers? Her husband could easily be lynched, for daring to marry such a prominent white man's daughter.

I sat through this entire movie for love of Ward Bond. He died two years later, and I certainly missed his energy in the 1960s. Thankfully, George Kennedy quickly stepped up the plate and served as a replacement. But I treasure Ward while I can - just not in this movie.