The Saga of Hemp Brown

The Saga of Hemp Brown is a satisfactory western with great characters, good visuals and the usual solid performance from Rory Calhoun.

But...

Rory has a mission to clear his name. Ok nothing wrong with that...unless the movie presents about 10 different ways that this could occur before reaching its conclusion?

It ends up giving you the feeling of 'what's the point'. The plot totally destroys what is otherwise a good presentation.

I can usually overlook plot holes but The Saga of Hemp Brown keeps smacking you over the head with them.

Its a real shame and this was allowed to happen and it feels like they pumped out a movie treating the audience with contempt :)

An army officer (Rory Calhoun) is blamed and is dishonourably discharged from the army wrongly after gold from a stagecoach is robbed. He goes after the man really responsible.

An indistinguishable low budget western that looks cheap, but fairly mature material.

Can there have been any male actor in Hollywood to rival the handsome face of Rory Calhoun in his hey day in this film? Bland it may be, hackneyed plot, lack of reality but what the film may lose in greatness, it makes up for with Rory Calhoun's fine acting and general superb handsomeness.

I thoroughly enjoyed the film which shows Rory being dismissed for cowardice and after quite a few adventures and fights he is able to regain his reputation, win the girl, AND get paid for being a handsome fine actor.

Sorry chaps, this guy was GORGEOUS!

U. S. cavalry officer, Hemp Brown (Rory Calhoun), runs into some serious trouble when the party of civilians and troops he's bringing to a nearby Army fort is ambushed. A woman is killed during the gunfight, and money is stolen by the bandits. The leader of the gang, Jed Givens (John Larch), is an acquaintance of Brown, who implicates the fugitive during the subsequent trial. But Brown is court-martialed and booted from the Army. Brown tracks down Givens to restore honor to his name.

From cavalry officer Rory Calhoun's character becomes an outcast, one who has been wronged, and searches for the key that will grant him readmission into society, and the only way he could do that is by capturing John Larch. Larch is excellent as the villain of the piece, coming across quite psychotic. Calhoun does equally well as the man desperately trying to clear his name of cowardice. Beverley Garland add some colour as well as offering advice to our hero: that revenge can be self-defeating nature of it all and how it ends up inflicting more harm on the seeker than anyone else.

This western does lack some action, but it's plot driven and you get absorbed into the story with enough things happening. When I first watched this I found it a tad boring in parts, but on second viewing I liked it more. The pace can be a bit lumbering and there's some lack of excitement - but it's still a decent western with strong themes and performances.

Lieutenant Rory Calhoun is in charge of making sure the payroll and the wife of the commanding officer gets to the fort. He runs into ex-sergeant John Larch, who robs the payroll. Charges are brought for theft; Larch is believed dead. The only thing the court can make stick is cowardice, which gets him cashiered, of course, and infamy. So he goes in search of Larch to prove his innocence.

There are lots of nice details in this Shaky A western, one of many made by Calhoun in the 1950s. Director Richard Carlson seems particularly good in directing the women, particularly Beverly Garland, the star of a traveling show that succors him. But there's something about this movie that strikes me as odd. It seems to lack any subtext whatsoever, with all of its points lying on the surface, a story that is well told, but has nothing at all to say about anything else.

And it should. The direst B western has something to say about the coming of civilization. This seems to be a story about Calhoun's character and nothing more. Perhaps that's the subtext: things happen, and there's no meaning to them beyond the individuals involved. That's rather nihilistic, isn't it?