Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

BeSummers Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

classicsoncall There seems to be an aura of reverence for the Boetticher/Scott Western collaborations by any number of fans, but each time I see one I come away with the impression that I just watched a fairly competent movie but nothing really special. Ditto here with "The Tall T", I liked it well enough but it doesn't break new ground for the genre. What impressed me were the little things, like the mules instead of horses pulling the stagecoach in the early going; that was different. And the description of Randolph Scott's horse, it was a claybank; I never heard that one before. The term was used a couple of times, once by the young kid Jeff when he saw Pat Brennan (Scott) riding toward the way station, and later on by Rintoon (Arthur Hunnicutt) asking Brennan where his claybank was. It sounded cool, but I couldn't figure out what made it a claybank, it looked like a fairly average looking horse to me.So Brennan finds himself in a desperate situation against an outlaw bunch headed by Frank Usher (Richard Boone). The other two desperadoes were kind of interesting, a cocky murderer by the name of Chink, admirably portrayed by Henry Silva, and a somewhat less than self confident gunman played by Skip Homeier. The dynamic here involves the seed of distrust Brennan plants with Chink when Usher takes off to secure a ransom demand from the wealthy father of a newlywed passenger (Maureen O'Sullivan) on the stage they just held up. Then Brennan conjures up a scenario for the kid intimating that the new widow Mims (Maureen O'Sullivan) might be open to a tryst with her husband put away by the bad guys.The way Brennan takes out these two is convincing enough, but when Usher returns, I didn't quite understand why Brennan just didn't ambush him from the get-go. He had the time to set up for it, but instead allowed the competition to be met on fairer terms. From an earlier conversation between the two men, it was pretty transparent where this one was going, so I guess a more climactic showdown was called for. Personally, I would have taken the safer route.One thing about Scott though, his character never loses his cool, even after learning about the station agent and his son in the well. You could tell he was seething but circumstances didn't warrant getting killed over it. You have to admire the man's supreme confidence and positive outlook on life, especially when it's all over and he confidently assures Doretta - "Come on now. It's gonna be a nice day".

rsda I looked forward to seeing this film in the pantheon of the Scott-Boetticher films. I had so much enjoyed SEVEN MEN FROM NOW and anxiously awaited my viewing of this. Not to be a nitpicker but Scott looks less interested and the supporting cast other than Richard Boone who is fine lets the film down a bit. I think the presence of Gail Russell and Lee Marvin in MEN tips the scales. Also it has the same plot contrivance of traveling lady with a weak husband that works so much better in the SEVEN MEN film. Maureen O Sullivan's performance is almost out of the silent film era. She is way over the top in a few scenes. This film is not bad by any means and holds your interest but just doesn't quite measure up to standards.

Michael O'Keefe THE TALL T is one of seven films that Randolph Scott stars for director Budd Boetticher. Scott plays Pat Brennan, a former ranch foreman that loses his horse on a bet he could ride a rough bull. He is picked up in the desert by a stagecoach carrying newlyweds Maureen O'Sullivan and John Hubbard. The stage driver(Arthur Hunnicutt)is shot during a high-jacking by a ruthless bandit(Richard Boone)and his two henchmen(Henry Silva and Skip Homeier). The cowardly new husband is easier to dislike than the three bandits holding them captive at a stagecoach station. Some wait and see tension dominates until some rapid fire bloodshed ends the film. There is question as to the meaning of the title THE TALL T that doesn't seem to be real explanatory in the script. Nonetheless well worth watching. Especially for Scott fans.

OldAle1 Pat Brennan (Randolph Scott) has a small spread that he works by himself, miles from nowhere. On a ride into town to buy a bull, he stops by the stagecoach station for some easygoing conversation, and promises to by the stationmaster's young son some candy. Once in town, he meets an old friend, the coach driver (always-awesome Arthur Hunnicutt) who is in the process of insulting sleazy Willard Mims (John Hubbard) for marrying into money in the form of plain-jane old maid Doretta (Maureen O'Sullivan), daughter of the richest man in the area. Instead of buying a bull from Tenvoorde, his old boss, Brennan allows himself to get suckered into betting that he can ride it and thus win it for free, but instead loses his horse and gets a dunking. He's walking back towards the coach station when he gets picked up by a private stage, driven by muleskinner Ed (Hunnicutt) and carrying the newlywed Mims. Unfortunately, something has happened at the station....After a couple of reels of easygoing fun and character development, we're in a different world as The Tall T rapidly shifts from lighthearted and almost comedy mode to a grim hostage drama, as Brennan and the Mims have to figure out how to stay alive after being captured by Frank (Richard Boone) and his two gunslinging helpers Chenk (with an i) (Frank Silva) and Billy Jack (Skip Homeier). A simple enough plot, but as with Seven Men From Now Boetticher and screenwriter Burt Kennedy kick this tale up several notches by making the chief outlaw every bit as interesting and watchable as Lee Marvin's Masters was in the previous film. Frank is closer to Brennan's age, clearly fairly smart and somewhat educated, always ready with a flip, brief comment - in fact in the early scenes his to-the-point dialog almost mirror's Scott's usual taciturnity - and he clearly sees a kinship between himself and the rancher, which helps to keep Brennan alive and the story with it.As in the earlier film, the woman has made a poor choice of husbands, though in this case we know pretty much from the start that Sims is despicable, and it's quite clear that he values his own skin more than this plain-jane he's married just for her father's dough; he is the one who comes up with the idea to ransom them all for daddy's money, and is quick enough to leave when offered the chance, without her. When he gets his, it's clear that the outlaws consider him lower than themselves, and Frank says as much to Brennan. Brennan has no answer - honor to him is felt and lived, not talked about; he knows that Frank isn't - or wasn't - as low deep down as his two henchmen (especially Silva's truly psychotic character, played with gusto by this specialist in scumbags) - but he knows that as Frank stays with them, he's brought down to their level, not keeping them from sinking. And this is what seals his fate, ultimately; if there was a chance for redemption there, he long since passed it by.Beautifully filmed in Lone Pine, CA - the same location as Seven Men From Now and two further films in the series - once again Boetticher is in command of all the elements. The performances are uniformly fine, with Boone especially fantastic - the violence is quick, sometimes unexpected, no more than necessary but all the more potent for that. The score by Heinz Roemheld is stirring and romantic and seems to belong to a "bigger" film, but then this film is bigger than its budget and running time would suggest. Another terrific entry in the cycle.