THE SHEEPMAN
US, 1958, 85 minutes, Colour.
Glenn Ford, Shirley Mac Laine, Leslie Nielsen, Mickey Shaughnessy, Edgar Buchanan, Pernell Roberts, Slim Pickens.
Directed by George Marshall.
The Sheepman is a very pleasant and entertaining western. Glenn Ford portrays a man who has won a flock of sheep in a poker game and brings it to a cattle town. Needless to say, the inhabitants are not too pleased and rely on their leader, Leslie Nielsen, to confront the sheepman. However, there are complications in the past relationship between the sheepman and the leader.
Shirley Mac Laine appears to her advantage, early in her film career, as a rough and ready western type – anticipating her Two Mules for Sister Sarah ten years later.
The film is amusing as well as a film with some action. It was directed by George Marshall, a veteran director of westerns including Texas (with Glenn Ford) and Destry Rides Again, a number of Martin and Lewis comedies. He worked so well with Glenn Ford that his next five films were with Ford. They are The Gazebo, Imitation General, The Mating Game, It Started With A Kiss and Cry For Happy. He also directed him in Advance to the Rear. Glenn Ford was one of the most popular actors in Hollywood during these years and was prolific in the number of films that he made.
1. A successful blend of comedy and Western ?
2. The use of Cinemascope, colour, locations, atmosphere, music and songs?
3. The title and its reference to Jason, the clash with the cattlemen? The significance of a rebel and a man with a difference? Its relationship to Jason's wheat? The humorous portrayal of his arrival, the details of his aggressiveness at outsmarting the residents, his relationship with Milt and outsmarting him? The initial clash with Della? The staged fight with Jumbo? The encounter with the colonel and the revelation of the previous encounters? His humour, wit, the scene where he bought things for his ranch? How strongly delineated was his character? The
revelation of the sheepman?
4. How well did the film present the sheep and cattle issues? The background of the range war? The availability of land, the suspicions of the cattle people as regards sheep and the threat to the cattle? The fears leading to violence?
5. How attractive, a character was Jason? his explanation of his background, his stubbornness, his relating to people but not wanting to be popular ? The using of people, their liking him? His attitude towards his sheep, getting them off the train, his assistant? The contrast with the colonel and his phony respectability, change of name? The background of the gunfight, the colonel's robberies and the killing of Jason's fiancee? The fencing, hostility, using Della?
6. How attractive a character was Della, a girl from a cattle town, her father, engaged to the colonel? The importance of their encounters, the fact that she betrayed him?
7. The build-up of the atmosphere of the dance, Jason’s enjoying it, the colonel’s suavity, Milt’e suspicions? All the girls dancing with Jason and then the revelation of the trick?
8. The irony of the return with the sheep and Jason confronting the people at the dance?
9. The upper hand with the revelation of the truth about the colonel and his money deals in Washington, the people being disillusioned with him?
10. The conventional portrayal of hired killers their violence, the staged gun fights, deaths and the help of Milt and Della?
11. The dramatic build-up to the confrontation between Jason and the colonel ? The colonel's death?
12. How attractive was the happy ending? Inevitable and appropriate for this kind of film?
13. The film’s portrayal of success in the West? American type genial attitude towards the American past?
