Along the Great Divide

Plot synopsis:
Federal marshal Len Merrick and his two deputies rescue cattle rustler and murder suspect Tim "Pop" Keith from a lynch mob headed by grieving rancher Ned Roden, whose beloved son was shot in the back. Merrick insists on taking Keith to Santa Loma to stand trial.
The other ranchers are unwilling to go against a marshal, but Roden vows to administer his own brand of justice. He sends his other son, Dan, to gather his ranch hands while he attends to the burial. Merrick offers to help, but is met with implacable hostility. After Roden leaves, Merrick finds a pocket watch.
Keith suggests that they spend the night at his home, as it is nearby. Merrick accepts, but has cause to regret his decision when Keith's daughter Ann ambushes them. Fortunately, Merrick is able to disarm her with no harm done. When they leave, Ann decides to go with them.
After he is warned of Roden's intentions by fellow ranchers, Merrick decides to take an unexpected desert route, where he can see if he is being trailed. The ploy fails, however, and the party is overtaken by Roden and his men. In the ensuing gunfight, Merrick's best friend and deputy, Billy Shear, is wounded. Merrick forces Roden to go away by capturing his son Dan. As they travel on, Billy dies.
Merrick and Ann start falling in love. The marshal reveals that his unswerving devotion to duty is because the one time he neglected it, it cost his father his life. He was a deputy to his marshal father, and refused to help escort two prisoners. All three were lynched. Ann sympathizes, but warns him that her first loyalty is to her father.
Meanwhile, Dan convinces the remaining deputy, Lou Gray, to help him escape by the bribe of a ranch. When the group reaches a waterhole, only to find the water undrinkable, a disagreement breaks out. All but Merrick want to head to a river half a day to the south. Worried because the river is on the Mexican border, Merrick insists on continuing on to Santa Loma. Gray quickly draws his gun, but Merrick is faster on the draw and shoots it out of his hand. Now, he has three prisoners.
After two days without sleep, an exhausted Merrick drops from his horse. Keith grabs his gun, but is unwilling to shoot. When Gray goes for his rifle, Keith kills him, then hands the gun back to Merrick.
Keith is tried in Santa Loma. Merrick tells the jury that he is sure Keith is not a killer, but all the evidence and witnesses are against him, and a guilty verdict is reached. Just before Keith is to be hanged, Merrick notices that the watch he found has an inscription to Dan. Confronted with the proof that he killed his own brother, Dan draws his revolver and grabs Ann as a shield. When his father approaches, Dan kills him and tries to flee on horseback, but is shot in the back, just like his brother, by Merrick.

Tags: revenge

Review:
Douglas' first western and Mayo acts great and looks great..
Virginia Mayo, who used to be just another pretty woman, here, as in Colorado Territory, has a chance to show her talent and does very well, she still looks modern, when you see the film today.
The story is about Kirk saving Walter Brennan from a lynch mob, and trying to get him to the nearest town without being caught by the mob.
What I did not like about the film is the song that Douglas does not want to hear, and Brennan keeps singing, it's too sentimental and just one step from being ridiculous.
Walter Brennen, three time Academy Award winner, and one of the greatest character actors of all time, is combined with Kirk Douglas for 88 minutes of action and drama.
This is the western Walsh made after "Colorado territory"("White heat" which is "Colorado'"s follow up is a masterpiece but not a western- and it nearly matches its brilliance.A rather short movie,it's an action-packed story which never loses momentum.Beginning with a very tense situation (a lynching) it remains suspenseful and absorbing all along the great divide.The characters are wonderfully depicted and any of them could be the subject of a movie.This is like" Colorado 's territory" or "pursued" ,an intellectual western.The hero,Merrick ,carries the weight of his father's death.Kirk Douglas gives a fine performance ,being in turn nice or unpleasant.What's really fascinating is that his tragedy is about to happen again:his prisoner may be innocent and he will have another fault on his conscience.Pop Keith (Walter Brennan) and his daughter Ann (Virginia Mayo who was at the time Walsh's favorite actress:she's in the two movies I mention above as well) are an endearing couple:the girl is a strong personality -the part was tailor-made for Mayo-while his papa is a resigned old man,whose favorite weapon is nothing but a ditty which he knows reminds Merrick of his past he cannot forget.One can go as far as saying that Merrick sees Keith as a father who returned from the grave.Another relationship father/son is also featured: Roden who demands Keith's head because he thinks that he killed his son Ed-"I buried my heart in the grave" he says- and his second son ,the ugly duckling.Roden speaks of his late offspring as a perfect boy .Walsh's movie raises many questions .Sometimes we wonder where justice really is and who is on the right side of the law.This exciting western deserves to be upgraded.
It stars Kirk Douglas, Virginia Mayo, John Agar, Walter Brennan, Ray Teal, James Anderson and Morris Ankrum.
Music is by David Buttolph and cinematography by Sidney Hickox.U.S. Marshall Len Merrick (Douglas) and two deputies rescue suspected murderer Tim Keith (Brennan) from a lynch mob led by a local cattle baron who is convinced that Keith killed his son.
The lawmen embark on a hazardous journey across the rugged terrains, determined to get Keith to Santa Loma for a fair trial...Kirk Douglas' first Western is something of an undervalued treat.
It was a film he didn't enjoy making, where working out in the desert with Raoul Walsh proved something of a cross to bear.
Yet the director got a very good turn out of Douglas, allowing the actor to put down a marker in the genre that would serve him well throughout his career.It sits very much in the psychological Western realm, a fact that some critics of the time failed to grasp - since complaints about not being a standard Oater were floated about!
It really shouldn't have surprised anyone given that Douglas had already made a handful of superb film noir pictures, he was surely cast for this pic on the strength of his noir characters.There's big father issues abound in the whole film, the various strands keeping the narrative edgy.
Not just for father issues, and a lack of water, but also via the presence of Keith's daughter, Ann (Mayo), who mercifully isn't just a token female dressage character (she's feisty with believable emotional outpourings).
A grandiose title for a low-budget western starring Kirk Douglas....
The heavy-handed script of ALONG THE GREAT DIVIDE puts every possible obstacle in the way of a saintly sheriff (KIRK DOUGLAS) intent on bringing a suspected murderer to justice and away from the men who want to lynch him for killing a rancher's son.The plot gets off to a good start with a lynching interrupted by good guy Douglas, who saves the neck of WALTER BRENNAN from the hangman's noose.
But the plot gets a bit too thick by the time we encounter Brennan's fiery daughter (VIRGINIA MAYO) and the bad men who want to stop Douglas and his party from reaching a town where a jury can decide Brennan's fate.Despite the gorgeous outoor scenery filmed in crisp B&W, there's a low-budget look to the night scenes filmed on indoor stage bound sets.
Director Raoul Walsh keeps things moving, but the plot is so full of tiresome obstacles and shifting loyalties that the thirsty desert scenes seem to drag as the film nears its conclusion once the party has reached civilization.JOHN AGAR is decent enough as Douglas' ill-fated sidekick but it's JAMES ANDERSON as the no good son (brother of the man Brennan is supposed to have killed), who manages to steal scenes with his shifty manner as the villain of the piece.
Too bad his career was cut short by his premature death at 48.VIRGINIA MAYO is improbably cast and her romance with Douglas is strictly full of clichés as they fight incessantly over his intent on bringing her father to justice.
The story is pretty routine and even though the running time is brief, the film runs out of steam before the party reaches its destination in a nearby village so that the finale seems anticlimactic.It remains an average western despite the good cast..
I didn't know Kirk Douglas was around long enough to be in Black & White movies!It's a solid movie with undertones of "obeying the law" vs "doing what's right"..
Along The Great Divide marked Kirk Douglas's western debut.
Fortunately he made several more and they were a whole lot better than this one.Douglas is a federal marshal who with his deputies John Agar and Ray Teal breaks up a lynching of Walter Brennan who is accused of rustling and killing the son of cattle baron Morris Ankrum.
Along for the ride is Brennan's daughter, Virginia Mayo.Kirk Douglas proved to be a natural western star and he's cast well as the determined federal marshal.
Some of the B westerns of Tim Holt or Roy Rogers make a lot more sense than this one.I won't give away the plot or the incidents involved, but Kirk should have died on the desert and Walter Brennan should have made it to Mexico..
A rustler about to be lynched for the murder of a rancher's son is saved by a US Marshall intent on taking him to trial.
The father determines to exact justice and pursues them across the desert.This western has a great cast with Marshall Len Merrick played by Kirk Douglas, Timothy 'Pop' Keith (the rustler) portrayed by Walter Brennan and Virginia Mayo as his daughter, Ann. Also along for the ride are Ray Teal and John Agar as trusted deputies, and Morris Ankrum as the rancher.
You'll reach your conclusion well before the end of the film but still enjoy watching the predictable story develop..
Len Merrick, a US marshal, and his two deputies rescue an elderly farmer named Timothy Keith from a lynch mob.
Keith is something of a disreputable character and freely admits to being a cattle rustler, but the leader of the mob, a local rancher named Ned Roden, indignantly denies that he would seek to take a man's life for a few head of cattle.
In view of the seriousness of the allegation against Keith, Merrick agrees to take him to Santa Loma to stand trial, but this does not satisfy Roden who wants to kill Keith with his own hands, not leave the task to the public hangman.
The rest of the film tells the story of the journey to Santa Loma and of Keith's trial.
Merrick and his deputies are pursued across the desert by Roden and his gang who are determined to administer their own brand of justice and who would have no compunction about killing Merrick in order to do so.
Although he claims that he is innocent of the murder charge, he clearly does not believe that he can expect a fair trial in Santa Loma because he is continually trying either to escape or to persuade Merrick to set him free.
Further complicating factors are the fact that Merrick is forced to take Roden's other son, Dan, as a hostage and the presence on the journey of Keith's beautiful daughter Ann. Merrick and Ann fall in love, but their romance is a difficult one because she believes passionately in her father's innocence whereas Merrick believes him to be guilty.
This was Kirk Douglas's first Western.
The whole romantic subplot between Merrick and Ann is one of the complications which could easily have been omitted, but the producers evidently wanted to see a pretty girl in what would otherwise have been an all-male film, and in the early fifties few young actresses were prettier than Virginia Mayo.
Walter Brennan seemed to specialise in playing irritating old men, and here he makes Keith the sort of irritating old man that audiences would quite happily have seen hanged, if not for murder or for cattle-rustling then for being a general pain in the ass.
This may not be a great film, but Douglas himself certainly gives an excellent performance.
The film is a "psychological Western", one of a type which was becoming popular in the early fifties; in the next few years James Stewart was to make some great films of this type with director Anthony Mann such as "The Naked Spur" and "The Man from Laramie".
His determination to save Keith from the lynch mob, even though he believes him to be guilty, is only partly due to a belief that any man, even an accused murderer, deserves the due process of law.
Douglas's performance gives the film a greater psychological and moral complexity than it might otherwise have had and lifts the film above the level of some of his more run-of-the-mill Westerns like "The Big Trees" or "The Indian Fighter".
Kirk was made for Westerns as we find out in future movies as he went on to star in some pretty nice stuff.
Walter Brennan is a guaranteed good time as the man captured every role he ever played no matter where you put him.
No it is not bad but overall this is a routine western - straightforward story - Old guy wrongly accused of murder (Walter Brennan), taken by Marshall (Kirk Douglas) for trial, chased by rich rancher (Morris Ankrum) whose son was killed, Marshall has hots for old guy's daughter (Virginia Mayo) despite all the tension between them.
It does have its moments and a good cast despite all the western clichés and Kirk Douglas's clenched teeth.
Kirk Douglas manages to look credible, but the rest of the cast doesn't achieve what this great actor could in this film.
Douglas saves Brennan from both an illegal, then a legal hanging, in this complicated, superior , western.
One of my favorite westerns, dominated by the complicated relationships between Kirk Douglas, in his first western, crusty old Walter Brennan, as an accused cattle rustler and murder, and Brennan's wildcat, sharpshooting, daughter Ann, played by beautiful Virginia Mayo, in her tomboy mode, with close-cropped hair.
A gang headed by cattle baron Ned Roden, having been thwarted by US Marshall Merrick(Douglas) and his 2 deputies in lynching Brennan, follows this group, intent on killing Brennan, as the presumed murderer of Ned's favorite son.
Merrick is just as intent in insuring that they don't kill Brennan: that he will get a fair jury trial at the distant Texan town of Santa Loma.
Hence, throughout the journey, they try to convince Merrick that Brennan is innocent, hence should be let go, to hopefully make it to the Mexican border before Roden gets him.
Dan is also being taken by Merrick to Santa Loma for the murder of his deputy Billy during that gun battle.
Merrick's surviving deputy turns out to be the unexpected victim of this crisis.Well, the rest of the bunch somehow survive to reach Santa Loma, and a trial for Brennan is held immediately.
Ray Teal, who plays the older Deputy Gray, is a familiar-looking character actor, as is Norris Ankrum, who plays Ed Roden.There isn't a lot of humor.
Brennan hopes this will induce Merrick to release him.Shot in B&W: probably a better choice than color, given the bleak nature of the terrains..
Raoul Walsh does make a very solid Western here with a great cast.
Walter Brennan is always good in a western and this one is no exception as his experience shows.
Virginia Mayo is excellent as Brennan's daughter.
The plot has to do with a Marshall (Douglas) trying to bring in a father (Brennan) and his Daughter (Mayo) fighting him all the way.
I really envy Douglas getting to ride in several scenes on a horse with Mayo nearly on his lap.
I saw this on TCM for the first time and I appreciate them running a lot of Walsh's films on television as I think some of his lesser known ones like this movie deserve more recognition.There are a scene or two which take advantage of Mayo's great figure and her thighs.
A marshal has to transport an accused murderer across the desert to the nearest town to face trial.
A steady tension builds up along the trail, with Kirk Douglas as the marshal and Walter Brennan as the accused.
Douglas's deputies, played by John Agar and Ray Teal, both add interesting dynamics to the situation, while Virginia Mayo, as Brennan's daughter uses all of her seductive powers on Douglas in order to free her father.
Followed by a posse led by a wealthy rancher who wants Brennan hung, Douglas manages to capture the rancher's son played by James Anderson, and uses him as protection to get Brennan to the town.
Anderson eventually wins over deputy Teal with a promised bribe, setting up the film's best dramatic element, that of a tired Douglas alone against Brennan, Mayo, Teal, and Anderson.
Although the film contains its fair share of Western clichés, it's quite a decent adventure, and Kirk Douglas turns in one of his reliable portrayals of iron-jawed integrity.
This renders the film worthy of mention alongside rather better movies such as the original 3.10 to Yuma, and a number of John Ford Westerns.
The Marshall (Kirk Douglas) and his deputies come upon a lynching about to occur so they naturally stop it.
Along the way, the accused (Walter Brennan) convinces the group to stop by his home overnight--a major hole in the plot, as I can't see any sane lawman willing to take such an unnecessary risk.
Despite all this, eventually Douglas is able to get the man to town for the trial--though they barely make it.
Brennan readily admits to the theft but there's an obvious (way too obvious if you ask me) alternate suspect in the killing.This is a decent western but there are a few plot points that didn't seem to work well.
I already mentioned the stopping off at Brennan's house portion but there also was a back story about the death of Douglas' father that seemed forced and unnecessary--as did the budding romance between Douglas and Mayo which seemed more clichéd than anything else.
In this case, the territory is a desert, as it was in so many other Westerns -- "They Came to Cordura," "Three Godfathers", and the rest.Nice cast, too, with performers that are either reasonably good, like Kirk Douglas in the lead role of a US Marshall who must get his prisoner, Walter Brennan, to San Loma without his being lynched, or else merely seasoned, like Roy Teal, or at least no worse than we've come to expect of them, like Virginia Mayo and John Agar.The script wastes little time on meanders.
The story moves along efficiently and without much soul.Douglas is fine, Brennan is okay, and Jim Anderson, the real villain, is as abrasive on film as he was in real life.
Virginia Mayo as Brennan's dusty daughter is surprisingly okay, despite falling deeply in love with Douglas after a two-minute chat behind the joshua trees.
Disappointing western, except for Walter Brennan.
Kirk Douglas plays the US Marshall determined to take rustler (?), murderer (?) Walter Brennan to trail, rather than allow him to be lynched by the father of the man he may have killed.
Even more traditional is the silly sort-of-romance between Douglas and Brennan's daughter (Virginia Mayo).There is one thing that sets this film apart -- a true gem of a role for Walter Brennan...and because his role is key to the plot, he gets lots of screen time here.
His acting here is as prominent...perhaps more so...as in "Rio Bravo".So, watch this film for Walter Brennan's acting.
Kirk Douglas is at his moodiest as a lawman taking accused murderer Walter Brennan into be tried, having saved him from the hangman's noose via a lynching.
With the murdered man's family stalking the group (which includes Brennan's masculine daughter, Virginia Mayo), Douglas becomes more troubled, both from the lack of sleep and Brennan's use of the knowledge of Douglas's past to further destroy him.
I generally like westerns, which is why I was attracted to watching this one when it popped up on Turner Classic Movies.
(I'm not prejudiced against black and white movies - I just think THIS particular one would be better in color.) The performances by the cast are adequate; Douglas does pretty well as the stubborn (but all the same conflicted at times) marshal.