THE BIG LAND
US, 1957, 92 minutes, Colour.
Alan Ladd, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O'Brien, Anthony Caruso, Julie Bishop, John Qualen.
Directed by Gordon Douglas.
The Big Land is a moderately entertaining Alan Ladd western of the late '50s. It is routine material about the taking of cattle from Texas to the Mid-West? states, the opposition of ruthless cattle dealers and violence and vengeance. Alan Ladd is at home in this kind of film - and is emphasised as a southerner, a Reb (as in One Foot In Hell and The Proud Rebel, also made in these years). Virginia Mayo is a competent leading lady - and has an effective song by David Buttolph which becomes the theme of the film. Edmond O'Brien has a good role as an alcoholic. Direction is by Gordon Douglas who made many westerns in the '50s and action adventures in the '60s.
1. Expectations of a western? Popularity? Audiences accepting the conventions? Texas, the Mid-West?, cattle struggles? A competent western?
2. Colour photography, use of locations? Special effects, especially for the stampede? Musical score, Virginia Mayo's song and its lyrics about strong and weak men - and it becoming a plaintive theme for the film?
3. The post-Civil War situation: the Rebs and their anger, Texas and its not providing support for cattle, the cattle movement to Kansas and Missouri, cheated in deals? Loyalties, clashes? The move to the mid-west? The use of the map to emphasise the American heritage in the 19th century?
4. Alan Ladd as Morgan - his stolid cinema presence? Laconic hero? The encounter with Joe Jagger and Edmond O'Brien's skill in an alcoholic role? Clashes, Morgan saving Joe, Joe in the saloon as alcoholic? The journey together and the D.T's, Morgan's saving Joe? The arrival at the Johnsons' and the support given by the family? The plan for the wheat and the cattle. the building of the town? The origins of the Mid-West? towns?
5. The meeting, the putting up of the money, the plans for the town, Joe's supervising? The cattle dealers and the burning of the town? The success of the building, the sequence with the cattle-bidders arriving at the hotel?
6. The moving of cattle, Morgan's dream, his friends and the fight with them, their siding with him, the long trek? The stampede?
7. The ruthless cattle dealers, robbing the Texas cattlemen, the plan against Morgan, the burning of the town, the confrontation with Joe and killing him, the murder of the cattle-bidder, the setting off of the stampede, the fight with the cattlemen? The confrontation with Morgan? Stereotype -but real villains?
8. The sketch of Joe and his rehabilitation, sense of achievement, relationship with Helen and Tom, the building of the town, the management of the hotel? The challenge by the ruthless dealers? Forcing him to drink -but his not drinking? Confronting in a gunfight? Helen, work in the saloon, the song? Engagement to Tom, helping with the building? The death of Joe? Her anxiety about Morgan?
9. Helen and Tom's giving her up?
10. The cattlemen, the town, the bids, the wheat. the railroad? The local families and their future?
11. A piece of Americana, the 19th century heritage? Themes of violence, law and order, justice? The heroes and heroines of the building of the West?
