THE TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE

US, 1936, 102 minutes, Colour.
Sylvia Sydney, Fred Mac Murray, Henry Fonda, Beulah Bondi, Nigel Bruce.
Directed by Henry Hathaway.

The first Western made in full colour. It was a re-make of an old story of traditional Western themes made originally by Cecil B. de Mille in 1916. Henry Hathaway, a veteran of assistant work in silent movies, was beginning a very successful and wide-ranging career as the director of many genres of film. Henry Fonda in one of his earliest films is the subordinate hero to Fred Mac Murray. Sylvia Sidney was very popular at this time. There is a folksiness as well as pessimism about this Western and it highlights social themes of the people in the hill country, progress as well as the traditional themes of violence and vengeance. Dated but with an atmosphere that is still relevant and fine colour photography which show great technical accomplishment in the mid-thirties.

1. An interesting and enjoyable Western? Its place in the Western tradition'? How does it seem in retrospect - from the point of view of the developing cinema Western?

2. The colour process - the first three-colour Technicolor processed Western? The qualities of the colour photography now, the contribution to the atmosphere and plot, the attention given to scenic beauty for its own sake?

3. The film's study of pioneers, the hills, isolation, laws and customs? A world within its own boundaries and laws? As typical of such isolated societies in the United States? Part of the American heritage?

4. The violence and revenge themes within this small community? Hostilities, closed society, vengeance? The futility of vengeance and hatred? Who suffered, who were the victims?

5. The importance or the foreword and its explanation of this society and Its own laws and customs? Audience response to this foreword in viewing the story and the themes? The significance of the prologue illustrating this - the visuals of the West, the characters. the violent situations, the look towards the future?

6. The Western hills and the authentic locations, the beauty yet ugliness, the potential for good and for violence? The melancholic tone the film took with feudings and death, peace only through death?

7. How well did the film illustrate and explain the family feuds? Traditions, blind hatred? The guns? Melissa and her baby at the beginning, Melissa and her not understanding the wars throughout the film? Judd and his hostility, David and his being part of the family, the Fallons and their point of view, the point of view of the Tollivers? June as growing up in this world of hatred and taking it for granted? How corrupting is hatred?

8. Dave as initial hero - as part of the Tolliver feud, ill and gangrene, relationship with Judd and Melissa, and his love for Melissa? His love for June and its being taken for granted that they marry? Their living within this coherent isolated world? Jack’s presence and him changing their lives - the coal, the modern point of view and progress, money? Jack's ability to heal Davo? The change in Dave as regards his love for June, work? The inevitability of his dying and his heroism in dying for the others?

9. Jack as hero - modern. industrial. engineering, kind towards the boy, attracted towards June, acceptable to the Tollivers? His dealings with his own men, with the two feuding families? His ability to break through the feud?

10. How well did the film portray a way of life, the working, idling, fighting, easy money, the receiving of cheques and inability to read them? The background of harsh religion, morals?

11. June as heroine and focus for the film? Her not having travelled, going to town for Jack? Her continually following him around? The change for Dave and her inability to understand this? The advice of Melissa?

12. The coal and its change in the West, the railroad, Jack and his associates and their work? The negotiations with the hill people?

13. The boy and his innocent enjoyment around the camp, working with Jack? The ugly violence of his death and this as catalyst for the subsequent events? The feud, Dave’s gesture, his death and peace coming?

14. How interesting an example of a Western, the heritage of the West and its ethos?