THE WONDERFUL COUNTRY.

US, 1959, 98 minutes, Colour.
Robert Mitchum, Julie London, Gary Merrill, Albert Dekker, Jack Oakie, Charles Mc Graw, Anthony Caruso, Mike Kellin.
Directed by Robert Parrish.

The Wonderful Country is a conventional enough western, with Robert Mitchum as a man who has avenged his father’s murderer and gone south of the border and become involved in arms deals, especially arranging shipments for a Mexican general. However, he has a difficult time, breaks his leg, recuperates, is involved in another fight which leads to a man’s death. He is pursued by the Americans, invited by the Texas Rangers to do a deal and return to work with them and to fight against the Indians.

The Wonderful Country has plenty of themes and has Robert Mitchum in a typical enough role.

The film was written by Robert Ardrey, a novelist who wrote a number of screenplays in the 1940s, They Knew What They Wanted and Thunder Rock. However, in the 40s and 50s he wrote a number of significant screenplays for MGM ranging from The Three Musketeers and The Secret Garden to Madame Bovary, Quentin Durward. He also wrote screenplays for The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and Khartoum. Direction is by Robert Parrish.

1. Was the title correct? Is the American south and the west wonderful? Did the film justify this? Was there an irony in the difficulties in this 'wonderful country’?

2, How conventional a western was this? What conventions did it utilize? Did it show originality or use the conventions ordinarily?

3. The film was ambitious in its scope. Did the film seem pretentious in its presentation of a hero and his trials, and the exploration of the background of the 'wonderful country'? Or did the film seem to be within an appropriate attitude?

4. What were the main themes which emerged from this western? The hero and the kind of heroism in the west, men being used by power dictators, the role of the army, the ruggedness of the land, the potential of the land, the nature of relationships and the accidental disasters that can come?

5. On which country was the title 'wonderful' most apt? The border country, Mexico and Texas, the landscape and its potential. the land affecting a person, the law applying in these countries, the accidents that give people away, even of accents?

6. Was Martin Brady an interesting hero? As a person, a loser? Taking his chances? What pressures made him leave Texas? The role of law and authority and Justice? why did he submit himself to the Mexican dictator and get involved in illegal arms-carrying? Why was he attracted to a life of law and order back in Texas? The emotional appeal of Ellen? The accident of his return to Mexico and imprisonment? Why then did he finally escape? Where would his future be? Was he a typical man of the west?

7. Was the picture of the Mexicans interesting and accurate? Castro and his dictatorship and illegal arms- running? Was there anything to cornmend the Mexicans? How did the Mexicans contrast with the army? The personality of Major Colton and of Captain Rucker? Their sense of order and discipline and making the west safe?

8. What did the film have to say about law, order, authority and justice in the west? Who is to enforce it? Who had the right? The role of shooting in the west?

9. Was Ellen a conventional leading lady for this kind of film? Did she add anything to the film? The theme of her estrangement from her husband? Her love for Martin Brady?

10. What did the film show of accidents affecting people's lives in the west? Is this the pattern of life itself?

11. What did the film seem to imply about proving oneself and being a man of the west?