87% (2) The Tall T 78 min, APPROVED, [Romance, Thriller, Western] [Budd Boetticher] [02 Apr 1957]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 74%, Rotten Tomatoes: 100%, External Reviews
Awards: 1 win.
Actors: Arthur Hunnicutt, Maureen O'Sullivan, Randolph Scott, Richard Boone
Writer: Burt Kennedy (screenplay), Elmore Leonard (based on a story by)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Having lost his horse in a bet, Pat Brennan hitches a ride with a stagecoach carrying newlyweds, Willard and Doretta Mims. At the next station the coach and its passengers fall into the hands of a trio of outlaws headed by a man named Usher. When Usher learns that Doretta is the daughter of a rich copper-mine owner, he decides to hold her for ransom. Tension builds over the next 24 hours as Usher awaits a response to his demands and as a romantic attachment grows between Brennan and Doretta.
Rotten Tomatoes: Perhaps the grittiest and grimmest of the Randolph Scott-Budd Boetticher collaborations, The Tall T was adapted by Burt Kennedy from the Elmore Leonard short story The Captive. Scott plays a former ranch foreman who, along with newlyweds Maureen O'Sullivan and John Hubbard, is held hostage at a deserted stagecoach station by ruthless bandit Richard Boone and his henchmen Henry Silva and Skip Homeier. Since we already know that Boone has no qualms about killing a freckle-faced 10 year old boy, we shudder to think of what's in store for Scott and his fellow captives once Boone carries out his plan to rob the next stagecoach. In Boetticher's time-honored Mexican Standoff fashion, Scott bargains with Boone for the life of O'Sullivan, but his efforts are undercut by Hubbard's cowardly treachery. The film's sparse, carefully controlled tension level bursts into full-out bloodshed only minutes before the final fade-out. Curiously, the title The Tall T is never explained at any time; certainly the "T" doesn't refer to Randolph Scott, whose character name is Pat Brennan.
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87% (2) The Lusty Men 113 min, Approved, [Action, Drama, Sport, Western] [Nicholas Ray, Robert Parrish] [24 Oct 1952]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 75%, Rotten Tomatoes: 100%, External Reviews
Actors: Arthur Hunnicutt, Arthur Kennedy, Robert Mitchum, Susan Hayward
Writer: Horace McCoy (written for the screen by), David Dortort (written for the screen by), Claude Stanush (suggested by a story by)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: When he sustains a rodeo injury, star rider Jeff McCloud returns to his hometown after many years of absence. He signs on as a hired hand with a local ranch, where he befriends fellow ranch hand Wes and his wife Louise. Wes has big dreams of owning his own little farm, and rodeo winnings could help finance it. Wes convinces Jeff to coach him in the rodeo ways, but Louise has her doubts. She doesn't want her man to end up a broken down rodeo bum like Jeff McCloud. Despite Louise's concern, the threesome hit the road in their Woody, chucking a secure present for an unknown future. Will they find success or sorrow? This picture features plenty of rodeo action and thrills.
Rotten Tomatoes: In this modern-day western, former rodeo star Robert Mitchum, disabled by a series of accidents, hobbles back to his Oklahoma hometown. Aspiring bronco-buster Arthur Kennedy hires Mitchum to train him for an upcoming rodeo, promising that they'll split the winnings. Complications arise when Mitchum falls hard for Kennedy's wife.
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85% (2) The Big Sky 140 min, APPROVED, [Drama, Western] [Howard Hawks] [27 Nov 1952]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 71%, Rotten Tomatoes: 100%, External Reviews
Awards: Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 1 nomination.
Actors: Arthur Hunnicutt, Dewey Martin, Elizabeth Threatt, Kirk Douglas
Writer: Dudley Nichols (screenplay), A.B. Guthrie Jr. (novel)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English, French Country: USA
Plot: Jim Deakins is a frontiersman and Indian trader who is making a perilous journey with a group of other men up the Missouri River to get a large haul of furs from friendly Blackfoot Indians. The problem is that they have to get through hostile Indian territory first and they find that they have seriously underestimated the difficulties they will undergo. The large body of men who started the journey are gradually whittled down until only a hardy few, like Deakins, are left.
Rotten Tomatoes: The Big Sky is based on a popular novel by A.B. Guthrie. Kirk Douglas and Dewey Martin play a pair of Kentucky frontiersmen who embark upon the first keelboat trip up the Missouri River way back in 1830. Joining Douglas and Martin are Martin's grizzled old uncle Arthur Hunnicutt and garrulous Frenchman Steven Geray. Running afoul of various Indian tribes, Douglas nonetheless romances Sioux princess Elizabeth Threatt (their off-screen relationship was on the kinky side, as an embarrassed Douglas reveals in his autobiography). Director Howard Hawks leavens the Boys' Own Adventure atmosphere of the film with a few isolated comic sequences, including a sidesplitting scene in which Douglas' gangrenous finger is cut off. Produced for RKO Radio by Hawks' own Winchester Pictures, The Big Sky was released at 141 minutes, though the TV print runs 122 minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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65% (1) Moonrunners 110 min, PG, [Action, Comedy] [Gy Waldron] [14 May 1975]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 65%, External Reviews
Actors: Arthur Hunnicutt, Chris Forbes, James Mitchum, Kiel Martin
Writer: Gy Waldron
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Grady and Bobby Lee run moonshine for Uncle Jesse, who prides himself on his old-school moonshining methods, and refuses to buckle in to the 'big business moonshine' of Jake, who controls these parts for New York mobsters.
Rotten Tomatoes: In this action comedy, the endeavors of a grizzled old moonshiner and his two fearless nephews to stay ahead of the federal revenuers and the Mafia are chronicled. Eventually, the plot for this became the basis for the popular TV show the Dukes of Hazzard.
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58% (1) She Couldn't Say No 89 min, APPROVED, [Comedy, Drama] [Lloyd Bacon] [15 Feb 1954]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 58%, External Reviews
Actors: Arthur Hunnicutt, Edgar Buchanan, Jean Simmons, Robert Mitchum
Writer: D.D. Beauchamp (screenplay), William Bowers (screenplay), Richard Flournoy (screenplay), D.D. Beauchamp (story)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: As usual with most of the RKO films from this era "presented" by RKO-owner Howard Hughes, the PCA number is usually 500-1000 digits lower than the one from other studios being released at the time, indicating it was released a year or more after it was completed. This one finds heiress Corby Lane (Jean Simmons) coming to a small Arkansas town to play Santa Claus because, when she was a small child traveling with her impoverished father, the townspeople saved her life by donating money needed for medical treatment. She meets and falls in love with "Doc" Sellers (Robert Mitchum), an easy-going doctor who enjoys fishing and the unhurried pace of the town. Corby's gesture of handing out money and lavish gifts to the citizens backfires when, after it has been publicized, the town becomes the destination of every wayward traveler and fortune seeker.
Rotten Tomatoes: Lloyd Bacon wrapped up his lengthy directorial career with the innocuous comedy She Couldn't Say No. "She" is a young heiress named Corby (Jean Simmons), who visits the small town of Progress, Arkansas, hoping to repay a good deed. It seems that, when Corby was a child, the villagers had all donated money to pay for her life-saving operation. Now she intends to reward the villagers by anonymously donating all sorts of financial boons and civic improvements. This serves only to stir up resentment against our well-intentioned heroine. Particularly offended is local doctor Robert Mitchum, who rightly sees Corby's beneficence as an invitation for every hustler and con-artist on earth to descend upon Progress. What Doc Mitchum can't foresee (though the audience can) is that he'll fall head over heels in love with Corby before fadeout time. With She Couldn't Say No, Jean Simmons fulfilled her contractual obligations to RKO, freeing her for more prestigious assignments like Desiree and Guys and Dolls.
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