Robert Ryan's character, Nathan Stark, is based upon a real person, Nelson Storey, who struck it rich near the boomtown of Virginia City, MT(renamed Mineral City in the film) and, in 1866, drove a herd of Texas Longhorns north from Texas to meet the pent up demand for beef among the gold miners. As in the film, he did encounter trouble from jayhawkers when he tried to drive his cattle through Kansas, he did have a major encounter with the Sioux in Wyoming, and the army did try to prevent him from proceeding further along the Bozeman Trail, because of Native American hostility. Part of this herd was used to establish a permanent herd in MT. The other aspects of this film are purely fictitious, if entertaining, and mostly involve the give and take between Jane Russell, Clark Gable and Robert Ryan. Of course, we can rightly assume that, in the end, Russell and Gable will end up together, although it doesn't look promising for most of the film.
From my perspective, this film incorporates key elements from 3 previous films. As in "Call of the Wild", made 20 years before, Gable and companions rescue a beautiful woman in dire circumstances in a snowy wilderness(not once, but twice in the present film!) The woman eventually has to choose between Gable and another man. 5 years later, director Raoul Walsh directed a Civil War western "Dark Command". Quantrill's raiders, a quasi-military Confederate guerilla gang, were prominently featured in that film. In the present film, Gable, as Ben, and his brother, Clint(Cameron Mitchell) have recently quit Quantrill's raider's when they show up in Mineral City. In both films, the featured lady eventually has to choose between a poor but heroic cowboy or a sophisticated but overly ambitious rival, who throws money and promised status at her. The cowboy doesn't appear to have a ghost of a chance, but....
Of course, there are some similarities with the previous "Red River". Both involve an epic cattle drive north out of Texas. Both involve occasional disputes among the leaders as to how to proceed or handle a dire situation at hand. However, there is no mutiny in "The Tall Men". Rather, the long drive sequence serves to better test the characters of the main protagonists and to give Russell more time to decide for sure who she wants to live with.(Both Gable and Ryan qualify as being "tall"). Russell's royal treatment on the trail by Stark reminds me of the spoiled tycoon in "Call of the Wild". Both merit their private bath tub on the trail!
I thought Russell and Gable were generally excellent, with snappy dialogue and a good amount of sarcastic humor in their give and take. Russell certainly serves to lighten the tedium of the long cattle drive compared to the much more limited female presence in "Red River". She talks of her hard life growing up on a ranch(where?), but she also seems accustomed to fancy dresses and jewelry. What was she doing in the Wyoming winter wilderness, trying to get to CA? Who cares. Ryan, as Stark, was stiff and unemotional, with little sense of humor. I don't know if this is typical Ryan or an intentional characterization to make Gable's character look relatively more appealing to Russell. As was true of most of his films in his last 10 years, Gable's character was certainly meant for someone a good 20 years younger than Gable, who looked all of his 54 years. However, a weathered-looking Gable seemed better than no Gable.
All-in-all, I found it an entertaining '50s western epic, shot in vivid CinemaScope. I don't agree with the scathing reviews of the times, nor with the common very unfavorable comparison with "Red River". The trail drive sequence was perhaps a bit long, but a lot shorter than the real 1500 mile drive! I liked Victor Young's background traveling music, played as the cattle were crossing that big river, for example. Yes, Ben was lucky in his occasional risky bravado episodes. but that's what you expect of Gable. The relationship between Stark and Ben and Clint was certainly unusual. The last 10 min. bring a few surprises in sorting out the final relationships between the principles, which have been simmering through most of the film....I didn't get around to discussing Ben's troubled, more trigger happy, brother. Remember that, as former members of Quantrill's raiders, the brothers were used to stealing, burning and killing. The James-Younger gang would emerge as the final incarnation of Quantrill's raiders.
In an update, I recently became aware of two other excellent epic cattle drive films from this general era: "Cowboy", starring Glenn Ford and Jack Lemmon, and "The Texans", back in the '30s, starring Randolph Scott.
From my perspective, this film incorporates key elements from 3 previous films. As in "Call of the Wild", made 20 years before, Gable and companions rescue a beautiful woman in dire circumstances in a snowy wilderness(not once, but twice in the present film!) The woman eventually has to choose between Gable and another man. 5 years later, director Raoul Walsh directed a Civil War western "Dark Command". Quantrill's raiders, a quasi-military Confederate guerilla gang, were prominently featured in that film. In the present film, Gable, as Ben, and his brother, Clint(Cameron Mitchell) have recently quit Quantrill's raider's when they show up in Mineral City. In both films, the featured lady eventually has to choose between a poor but heroic cowboy or a sophisticated but overly ambitious rival, who throws money and promised status at her. The cowboy doesn't appear to have a ghost of a chance, but....
Of course, there are some similarities with the previous "Red River". Both involve an epic cattle drive north out of Texas. Both involve occasional disputes among the leaders as to how to proceed or handle a dire situation at hand. However, there is no mutiny in "The Tall Men". Rather, the long drive sequence serves to better test the characters of the main protagonists and to give Russell more time to decide for sure who she wants to live with.(Both Gable and Ryan qualify as being "tall"). Russell's royal treatment on the trail by Stark reminds me of the spoiled tycoon in "Call of the Wild". Both merit their private bath tub on the trail!
I thought Russell and Gable were generally excellent, with snappy dialogue and a good amount of sarcastic humor in their give and take. Russell certainly serves to lighten the tedium of the long cattle drive compared to the much more limited female presence in "Red River". She talks of her hard life growing up on a ranch(where?), but she also seems accustomed to fancy dresses and jewelry. What was she doing in the Wyoming winter wilderness, trying to get to CA? Who cares. Ryan, as Stark, was stiff and unemotional, with little sense of humor. I don't know if this is typical Ryan or an intentional characterization to make Gable's character look relatively more appealing to Russell. As was true of most of his films in his last 10 years, Gable's character was certainly meant for someone a good 20 years younger than Gable, who looked all of his 54 years. However, a weathered-looking Gable seemed better than no Gable.
All-in-all, I found it an entertaining '50s western epic, shot in vivid CinemaScope. I don't agree with the scathing reviews of the times, nor with the common very unfavorable comparison with "Red River". The trail drive sequence was perhaps a bit long, but a lot shorter than the real 1500 mile drive! I liked Victor Young's background traveling music, played as the cattle were crossing that big river, for example. Yes, Ben was lucky in his occasional risky bravado episodes. but that's what you expect of Gable. The relationship between Stark and Ben and Clint was certainly unusual. The last 10 min. bring a few surprises in sorting out the final relationships between the principles, which have been simmering through most of the film....I didn't get around to discussing Ben's troubled, more trigger happy, brother. Remember that, as former members of Quantrill's raiders, the brothers were used to stealing, burning and killing. The James-Younger gang would emerge as the final incarnation of Quantrill's raiders.
In an update, I recently became aware of two other excellent epic cattle drive films from this general era: "Cowboy", starring Glenn Ford and Jack Lemmon, and "The Texans", back in the '30s, starring Randolph Scott.