Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

utgard14 Stranger Daniel Howitt (Harry Carey) arrives in an Ozarks mountain community and has a positive affect on those around him, including Matt Matthews (John Wayne), who is bent on killing his father who abandoned his mother when he was a baby. John Wayne's first color film is more of a starring vehicle for Harry Carey, despite the billing. Wayne gives a very nice performance. Carey is excellent and has a commanding presence throughout the film. He just owns every scene he's in, even when he's not saying anything. Pretty Betty Field is all kinds of adorable and likable as the girl in love with Wayne. The supporting cast is terrific. Beulah Bondi is great as Wayne's evil aunt. You can't really have a hillbilly movie without Marjorie Main, so she's here. It also wouldn't be a proper John Wayne movie without Ward Bond and John Qualen, so they're here too.There were quite a few hillbilly movies in the '30s and '40s. Some outright made fun or were judgmental and some were just that way incidentally. This is one of the rare ones that doesn't look down on the Ozarks people, although they do make use of stereotypes. It's a very pleasant movie, slow and soft throughout most of its running time. The climax leaves a little to be desired and the central twist you'll see coming immediately but it's still a good movie worth checking out, especially if you're a fan of the actors involved.

dougdoepke 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.

Tweekums The television guide simply described this as a 'western starring John Wayne'; this led me to expect a totally different film; rather than the wide open plains of the west this is set amongst the Ozark mountains where the people are depicted as being superstitious and insular. John Wayne gets top billing as Moonshiner 'Young Matt', a bitter man who is determined that one day he will kill the father that abandoned him and his late mother when he was young; he isn't really the star of the film though. The main protagonists are Daniel Howett, a wealthy outsider who wants to move into the area and buys the property Matt's mother used to live in but is considered cursed and Sammy Lane a young woman he befriends after helping her father. As the film progresses Howett provides honest work to people, much to the chagrin of the moonshiners and even pays to for a blind old woman to have an operation so she can see for the first time. Of course he has a secret that most viewers will guess long before it is revealed and when it is there will be tragic consequences.This might not have been what I was expecting but I enjoyed it none the less. The opening scenes led me to believe to would be a story about the moonshiners and the revenue men who were after them but that was almost the limit of their involvement. Betty Field did a good job as Sammy; serving to introduce both the viewer and incomer Howett to the people and their ways. Harry Carey was equally good as Howett. John Wayne's role was smaller than I expected but he put in a solid enough performance and we did get to see him in a knock-down brawl. Apart from these the most memorable character is 'Aunt Mollie' a particularly unpleasant woman who metaphorically poisons those around her with her talk of curses. For a relatively early colour film, John Wayne's first, the colour looks fantastic; bringing the glorious scenery alive.

henry-girling **possible spoilers**Although it has John Wayne in the cast it is not really a western. It is more a study of the Ozarks and the people who live there. Although some scenes are filmed in the studio you do get a feeling of the landscape of the area and the kind of people it produces; sturdy, suspicious, superstitious, kindly, ignorant and wise. Much like any isolated community around the world. The film is surprisingly good. The acting is solid all round. John Wayne makes a good attempt at the Young Matt role, bringing out well the confusion and conflicts in his mind. Beulah Bondi is riveting as the bitter Aunt Mollie. Harry Carey is good as ever. Betty Field as Sammy Lane is excellent and it is her who holds the film together. It is through her eyes we mainly see things. She is also quite sexy in her tight jeans and short tops. Some of the scenes are exceptional; when Daniel Howitt is cashing a never seen before cheque, when Granny Becky has her eyes uncovered after an operation, when Young Matt talks about how love is so complicated, when Daniel Howitt takes possession of the old house in Moaning Meadow, when Aunt Mollie cremates her dead son and herself, when Pete the mute brother is discovered in a stream of light pouring through a window trying to catch dust motes. All directed without sentimentality but with real feeling.It is one of those films which did not promise much from the TV listings but actually delivers much more than one expects.