The Shepherd of the Hills

In a quiet, rural hill community, fear and mistrust between several groups cause regular troubles and disagreements. One of these groups is young Matt, a man filled with anger over a father he never knew, who deserted his Matt's mother and, in his view, contributed to her early death. Into this community comes a stranger who buys a small portion of land (annoying Matt) but generally seems to be keen to unite the community despite some parts still mistrusting him. I taped this film because it had John Wayne in the cast and I have been seeing several of his films a week in the past month (some sudden push on two of the terrestrial channels here). The plot summary in the guide made it sound like a complex drama based on past hurts, but for the majority of the film this isn't the case – in fact for the majority it simple ambles along with little direction. The role that Howitt will play is of no surprise to anyone but yet is concealed for the majority of the film. This lack of a really compelling plot leaves much up to the actors to recover – happily they do quite well. Wayne is good as the bitter young Matt, and he plays him well even if it makes him an unsympathetic character. Carey is solid as Howitt and wins the audience over easily. Field is pretty weak and makes the film feel like a bit of a soapy melodrama than was intended. The glorious colour was intended to be as much of a star as the actors and, to that end, it all looks richly pretty. Sadly it is wasted a little as too many scenes are shot on a sound stage with backdrops – colour like this cries out for sweeping landscapes to be used! Overall this film was interesting as I was waiting for the inevitable to arrive. However the film takes a long time getting to it (needlessly hiding their cards the whole time) and the end result is that, despite two good performances, the film is a little dull and ultimately not one that will stick in my mind very long.

This is a great movie that was filmed during the summer of 1941 while my family was camping in Big Bear, California. I was only 3 years old and have been told about the visit to the sets that my older sisters were able to make. They don't recall seeing any stars and think that they visited after the days shooting was completed. They were camped in a public campground just down the hill from the houses that were built for the movie. I have been told that I sang the Frank Sinatra hit "I'll Never Smile Again" at the age of 3 for all of the campers at the nightly campfire gathering. I memorized songs, I've been told, from the radio that my sisters always were playing. This was the last camping done until after WW 2 since Pearl Harbor was attacked in Decemeber of that year. The opening scene of the movie is of Big Bear Lake and the later scenes around the small lake where they fished is at a small man-made lake that was formed for the movie. I assume that the inside scenes were filmed in Hollywood but all of the outdoor scenes were filmed on the crest of the mountains to the south of Big Bear Lake. The San Bernardino valley is beyond some of the distant mountains as they filmed on the top of the crest. The rocks are prominent in the San Bernardino mountains and used throughout the film. The south shore of Big Bear Lake has large boulders at the water's edge but this area is not use in the movie. Anyway, it is great because of the newness of John Wayne and his now famous facial antics, which we love, and Harry Carey who was John Wayne's idol in real life. Betty Fields, always great, shines in the part of Sammy. This movie is now available as an econimical set of John Wayne DVD's that just became available. It is the best of the movies in the set but all of the others are wonderful just because they feature John Wayne. My wife and I enjoyed "Seven Sinners" which we had never seen.

It's rare to come across a cult movie that I can not only unreservedly recommend but that I feel fully justifies its cult reputation. Of course, maybe the cultists like the movie for the wrong reasons. But with The Shepherd of the Hills it's hard to find wrong reasons. Everything about the picture is so right. The luminous performances: Wayne, perfectly cast, giving one of the best of his entire career; Carey, so winning and sympathetic, making the title role so memorable it will become a point of reference for the rest of your life; Marjorie Main, equally unforgettable as the blind woman who sees too much too quickly; Beulah Bondi, never more embittered or meaner-spirited as the real head of the Matthews clan; Marc Lawrence, giving the finest and certainly the most unusual study he ever attempted as the pathetically inarticulate Pete. So many others - Ward Bond who has the realistic fight with Wayne, Fuzzy Knight as the singer, Olin Howland as the squirrelling storekeeper... And all brilliantly directed by Henry Hathaway too. Henry, as I've said before, is the sort of director I most admire. For a start, he doesn't direct actors. He expects them to know their craft and is equally impatient with amateurs and hams. Secondly he's a specialist in action and outdoors work. He once said that he always preferred location assignments because it took him well away from front office interference. Hathaway ran a tight unit, turning out the movies he wanted to make in the way he wanted to make them. He had an eye for natural scenery, and could see its dramatic and story possibilities. Weeping Meadow is just that. The hill country in Shepherd is both brutal and supremely picturesque. Of course it's the script's large array of bizarre, vividly realized characters, plus the unusual setting in which they move, and the age-old conflicts which they generate (particularly Youth against Age, Idealism against tainted or even repented Experience, Freedom and/or Libertarianism against Authority) which has propelled The Shepherd of the Hills into such firm favoritism with present-day cultists. The movie of course has these qualities. But it has something else which is not so popular to-day and which indeed, both when the novel was written back in 1907 and throughout its various film versions, was the main reason for its existence. It has a spirituality, a supernatural element, a discussion of the Two Ways, a depiction of the classic struggle between good and evil, and the power of Light to overcome Darkness.

Beneath the somewhat awkward narrative lies an affecting spiritual parable, about hate and redemption. The hatred Matt (Wayne) and his aunt Mollie (Bondi) have towards Matt's dead father is poisoning their lives and those lives around them. Never mind that they don't know the details surrounding the father's absence while Matt's mother and Mollie's sister dies alone and unattended. Now Matt has sworn a blood oath to kill his father whom he's surprisingly never seen, having been adopted instead into Mollie's family. Meanwhile, Mollie spews venom around her household that's affected her husband and everyone else. Then, into this backwoods den arrives a mysterious stranger Howitt (Carey) with a load of money and city ways. He doesn't preach any kind of redeeming sermon. Instead, he selflessly ministers to the sick, puts moonshiners to work at a better wage, and buys Matt's now abandoned cabin site for an outlandish price. He's got "good man" written all over him. In short, he's a transformative figure to all but Mollie and Matt who persist in their poisonous grudge. It's easy to see Howitt as a religious symbol though the movie's spirituality is pretty much limited to revealing beams of sunlight from above. (Rather surprisingly, no mention is made of biblical religion among Ozark folks known for their literalist beliefs.) But, to me, the real spiritual symbol is the apparent simpleton, Pete (Lawrence), one of Mollie's sons. The story is that he was normal until a bolt of lightning struck him at the same time Matt's mother died. Now, I suspect the story and its timing suggest some kind of mysterious passage from dying mother to nephew Pete. It appears, however, to be a curse on Pete, since from then on he behaves like a grunting primitive, unable to speak coherently. But consider two things. It's Pete's fateful struggle with Mollie, his mother, that finally forces her to consider the error of her ways, something not even Howitt has been able to achieve. Second, is the movie's central scene, at least in my little book. That's the powerfully moving shot of Pete alone and wordlessly picking at motes amid a glowing beam of sunlight through a small window. The message seems clear. Pete alone is in contact with something more ethereal than the Ozarks and moonshine or even Howitt. Whatever that communion is must remain both symbolic and mysterious. I also expect it's no accident that the movie cast the darkly colored Mark Lawrence in the role since he looks nothing like the rest of Mollie's family. Now, I'm neither particularly religious nor spiritual. But I do appreciate this aspect of the film, which I believe is both intelligently and artistically implied. The movie itself is a photogenic marvel as others point out. The colors are so lush I hardly recognized the Big Bear locations, where as an LA resident, I used to hike. Moreover, I really like the way the movie refuses to glamorize the casting of Sammy, the ingénue. Betty Field is perfect for the part, with her average looks but uncommon liveliness. She injects real spark into the proceedings. Carey too is well chosen. With his easy smile and affable manner, he wins us over quickly, making his showdown in the meadow with Matt something of a shocker. Somehow, it's odd seeing Wayne without a cowboy hat and with his real hair. Still, he's fine in the part, showing why he's generally underrated as an actor. I guess my only complaint is with Bondi who spreads the bile on pretty thickly. Then again, maybe that's what it takes in a family with a bunch of strapping roughnecks. All in all, the movie's something of a sleeper, even though it never made it into Wayne's canon of classics, probably because Wayne is not the central character, despite the poster depiction. Too bad. Because both the story and the visuals deserve to be better known, inasmuch as the humane message remains as enduring now as it was then.

This flick was made during the Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation's heyday (think the juicy colour palettes of "Vertigo", "Wizard of Oz", "The Adventures of Robin Hood", "Black Narcissus", "Barefoot Contessa", "Fantasia", "Ivanhoe", "Petter Pan", "Pinocchio", "North by North West", "Rear Window", "Drums Along The Mohawk" etc), and so possesses a magical look that is now impossible to recapture. The Technicolor process, which combined two or three strips of exposed film (carefully tinted with special dyes), was renowned for its super saturated colours, hyper-realistic hues and rich palette. But despite its gorgeous visuals, Technicolor proved too labour intensive and expensive a process, and so was slowly phased out. In 1954 Technicolor stopped using their three-strip cameras, and from 1952-1954 onward Hollywood shot almost all of its colour features on Eastmancolor negatives, whether the colour brand was Technicolor, DeLuxe colour, WarnerColor, or Metrocolor. Technicolor itself stopped making dye transfer prints available in the US in 1975. So in a sense, these early Technicolor films – regardless of their actual content – all posses a certain visual magic which you simply can't find today. Even the best high definition cameras, best modern lighting and cinematography, best CGI trickery and colour correction software (Martin Scorsese tried and failed to reproduce the Technicolor look in "The Aviator"), can't capture the gorgeous magic of these early Technicolor flicks. They possess a certain sharpness. A certain richness. Their blacks are intense and their reds vibrant, an effect largely due to the quality of the dyes used, which produces at once clarity, saturation, depth, roundness of colour and a kind of acrylic-paint exuberance. 7/10 – Forget about this film's plot, which simply revolves around a group of yokels, hillbillies and moon-shining grannies. Focus instead on the film's landscapes, its Appalachian Mountains, cackling fireplaces, gorgeous log cabins and juicy Technicolor visuals. One only has to look at the various Walt Disney, Warner Bros or Max Fleischer animated shorts released in the 1940s and 1950s (Bugs Bunny, Looney Tunes, Superman, Chuck Jones etc) to see how magical Technicolor was and how beautifully it ages.

source: The Shepherd of the Hills

If you combined The Quiet Man with Sergeant York, you'd mostly have The Shepherd of the Hills. But in this case the end result is far weaker than constituent parts. The setting, characters, grudges, romance and violence is all very similar to that in the first half of Sergeant York. There are two aspects of this movie that should be recognizable to any fan of The Quiet Man. The first being the name of the piece land that the wealthy stranger buys to the chagrin of fearsome locals. In The Quiet Man, it's "White O'Morn". In this movie it's "Mourning Meadow". The other is the way John Wayne says "Thanks" for unhelpful input form well meaning outsiders when he's in a big fight. Incidentally, Ward Bond who plays a supporting role in The Shepherd of the Hills was in both The Quiet Man and Sergeant York. Clearly a lot of money was spent to make this movie. Technicolor in 1941 was itself a budget buster. The cast is amazing. I don't think there's another movie that includes Margorie Mane and Beulah Bondi. There are some very wonderful moments where it all comes together. But overall, it's a disappointment. The story is choppy and the ending is just hokey.

Good story about a backwoods community in the Ozarks around the turn of the century. Moonshine is the leading industry, fighting and funning the major form of entertainment. One day a stranger enters the community and causes a shake-up among the locals. Beautiful scenery adds much to the story.

This is John Wayne's first color film and he receives top billing, though clearly the star of this hillbilly movie is Harry Carey. Unfortunately, there were quite a few films about the Ozarks made during a 10 year stretch in the 30s and 40s and they were all pretty bad (such as SWING YOUR LADY, THE MILLERSON CASE and SPITFIRE). And while this movie isn't exactly bad, it sure isn't good--due to weird script writing and some over the top performances (particularly Beulah Bondi who plays a character like a mean version of Granny from "The Beverly Hillbillies"). Harry Carey is a stranger to the mountains and wants to buy land and move there. Considering that there is no logical reason for a stranger to move there, it's amazing how long it takes the residents to realize who he really is. At the same time, John Wayne (who seems rather out of place in this hillbilly heaven) broods about how he hates the father who abandoned him--yet he and so many others don't bother putting it all together to realize his father is Carey. Now I know that this technically is a spoiler (so it is noted), but every member of the audience guessed this LONG before the folks did in the movie. Sadly, I think the idea that mountain folk are superstitious idiots is how you are supposed to rationalize how none of them figured this out for the longest time! I'm sure most Arkansans groan when such stereotypes appear on film. Despite beautiful color cinematography, there isn't much to recommend this dull little film due to dumb (and occasionally cartoon-like) characters, a silly plot and a rather listless pace. While it's far from horrible, it's nothing like you'd expect from John Wayne and it's only passable entertainment.

Rural drama quite mellow, but well done, helped by a good casting. Betty Field at maybe her best performance at movies pictures; John Wayne at his first film in color after the grandiose The Stagecoach; Harry Carey in the Priest; Beulah Bondi at one of her characteristic works playing an embittered woman; the very used by master John Ford, War Bond. And, last but not least, an splendid photography in wonderful Technicolor. I though it was a western and I find instead a strange community making whisky clandestinely at Ozark Mountains Region, Arkansas,who remind me some people I meet in a trip to North of England, near Kyle of Lochals, very reluctant to contact with foreigns. I like the 80% of the film, that was made with conviction, professionalism and care by excellent craftsman Henry Hathaway. It is is a bite too much melodramatic and out of date, but interesting. I give it an seven.