High Lonesome

Plot synopsis:
A young drifter is found stealing food at Horse Davis' ranch by Boatwhistle, the cook. Another rancher, Pat Farrell, who is engaged to Horse's daughter Abby, believes the boy to also be a horse thief and possibly worse.
Given the nickname Cooncat by the cook, the boy explains that he was wrongfully accused of murdering a man named Shell and has fled from the law. Shell owed him money, he says, and two strangers known as Smiling Man and Roper gave him a gun to confront Shell. He wound up unconscious and next to Shell's bullet-riddled body.
Horse doubts the boy's story, though youngest daughter Meagan believes it. At a barn-warming party for Pat, word comes that his parents have been found murdered. A livid Pat is ready to hang Cooncat for the crime. Horse talks him out of it, creating a rift between the two old friends.
Smiling Man and Roper turn up in the bunkhouse. They laugh at Cooncat's predicament and call him their lucky charm. Boatwhistle is killed by Smiling Man, and Cooncat flees the ranch before the rest of the family gets home. Horse decides Pat was right about the boy, and plans to ride out to hunt him down in the morning. Cooncat comes back and talks to Meagan through her window before returning to the trading post to look for the body of Jim Shell. Megan leaves a note for her father and goes with him. The Roper and Smiling Man show up, and Megan and Cooncat hide in some ruins 'til morning, when Horse Davis, Frank, Dixie, and Pat Farrell show up. Horse starts to go into the trading post to ambush who he thinks is Cooncat, but is really the Roper and Smiling Man. Cooncat comes out of hiding to warn him and is shot by the two inside. Horse goes in and confronts them, killing the Roper, but is knocked down by the Smiling Man. Pat shoots Smiling Man just as he is about to kill Horse, and as Meagan cradles the wounded Cooncat, Pat and Horse agree to take him under their wing.

Tags: murder, flashback

Review:
Oddball Western.
Oddball Western drama.
There's no commanding central character to hang your hat on.
Barrymore Jr. headlines, but his "Cooncat" stands more for misunderstood youth than as a force for good.
Actually, several characters alternate in the spotlight, crippled old Davis (Ruysdael) being the most commanding, with his spirited daughter Abby (Miller) not far behind.
Then too, there's a very un-Western hint of the spooky in the "ghost" figures lurking in the background.
That "horse dragging" sequence is unusual and more brutal than expected.
If Barrymore had padding to ease the abrasion, I couldn't spot it.
It's a pretty cluttered screenplay with a number of characters and episodes drifting in and out that makes it difficult at times to keep up with.
Nonetheless, it's a good original story with a number of nice touches, including the barn dance; plus, the wide open vistas of southwest Texas (where the epic Giant {1955} was filmed).
I also like the way that underneath the sub- plots, the film is really about the hapless kid finding a home.
Note that the character Cooncat foreshadows a popular theme of the coming decade—misunderstood youth, especially as popularized by James Dean several years later.I expect the un-tried Barrymore was given top billing for box office purposes.
He tries hard, and after all his character is based on anger and frustration since nobody believes him and is about to hang him.
The only scene I can spot where he clearly over-acts is when describing the two horsemen to Boatwhistle (Wills).
Otherwise, I see him as giving a logically emotional performance.
Anyway, I liked the film as an entertainingly offbeat Western..
Silly acting.
Some of it is laughable.
Filmed by Eagle-Lion right after THE SUNDOWNERS (1950) near some of the same Amarillo locations and with returning cast members Chill Wills, Jack Elam and the 'star', gawky teenager John Drew Barrymore.
No Robert Preston to give some weight to the film, this time.Story boils down to a boy, "Cooncat" (Barrymore) running away from an abusive home and witnessing a murder committed by Elam and Dave Kashner.
Only the local ranch owner Horse Davis (Basil Ruysdael) and his family don't believe him.
They think Cooncat's seeing ghosts because Cooncat's describing some men that were killed during a range war 15 years previously.
Of course there are no ghosts.
Cooncat actually did see the murder.
I won't give away the ending but lets just say it too is as anti-climatic as the THE SUNDOWNERS was.This also suffers from some of the same disjointed editing that that earlier film had suffered from, as well as Barrymore doing his silly facial grimaces while he overacts his part.
And the way John Archer treats his bride-to-be Kristine Miller, needs to be seen to be believed.
He spanks her on the bottom for shooting down a pan off the wall in order to prove a point.
Then they kiss and make up like nothing happened.
UN-REAL.
Obviously some of the details in the script weren't worked out for the audience ahead of time.Also filmed in Technicolor with nice scenic West Texas locations, it's worth a look but it's not a keeper, in my opinion.4 out of 10.
Are you lonesome tonight?.
There were so many westerns made, that it has to have a unique angle or something memorable, to sick its head above the parapet.
Did I enjoy this movie?
Without a doubt.
The characters were strong and likable and I really found myself rooting for the young lad.
Location?
Excellent.
The great expanse of the country was well portrayed and the shacks, houses and barns were all spot on.
Acting?
Good overall.
All utterly believable and gave a strong sense of family unit.
Storyline?
Well this is maybe where the movie didn't quite do itself justice.
The story was okay, but has, with variations, been told hundreds of times and it didn't bring much new to the table.
But at 80 minutes, it wasn't too long and I found myself glad to have watched and enjoyed it..
This Coon should stay tree'd.
Purportedly High Lonesome was shot in color for the transoceanic company Eagle Lion Pictures.
But all I saw was a pretty bad black and white print rented on Amazon.
John Drew Barrymore who with his sister Diana carried the most famous thespian name in America stars in this film playing a youthful loner type whom we just know as 'Cooncat'.
In a part that Steve McQueen would have probably phoned in with a good performance, Barrymore plays a troubled youth who is a runaway from an abusive home in Texas.
Unfortunately in his travels he walks into an area where a whole lot of unsolved murders are taking place and he gets good and tagged for them.Not believing him, but taking him in anyway the better to keep an eye on him is rancher Basil Ruysdael with two pretty daughters, Lois Butler and Kristine Miller.
Only Miller believes in Barrymore.
In the end all is revealed as that Belgian sleuth was wont to say.Poor Barrymore like Diana he did some unmemorable films for the most part, the pressure of the name a bit much to handle.
High Lonesome is one of those films.
Maybe the color might have helped, but I have to judge on the print available..
"There's somethin' hangin' on this kid's shirt tail like grim death...".
John Barrymore Jr. brings a Sean Penn-like quality to the portrayal of his character Cooncat in "High Lonesome", although that probably has more to do with his similar looks than in acting ability.
This was Barrymore's second appearance in a leading role following "The Sundowners" which came out the same year.
In my review of that picture, I opined that it's doubtful daughter Drew ever saw him in that film; my suspicion is that it's probably true here as well.When the picture was all over, I found myself scratching my head.
What started out as something of an off-beat mystery Western, this wound up being a story that didn't make much sense.
No reason was ever offered as to why the characters of the Smiling Man (Jack Elam) and Roper (Dave Kashner) ever hung around following the murder of Jim Shell in the abandoned trading post.
Stealing Cooncat's money was one thing, but why all the other intrigue of lurking in the shadows; the disappearing duo gimmick got a little tired after a while.
And what about all the men killed on both sides of the 'Jessup' fence when the Davis crew went out to tear it down?
Are we just supposed to forget about all of that like it never happened?
And by the way, who killed Pat Farrell's (John Archer) parents?
They were dead a whole week before their bodies were discovered, and the idea was that 'maybe' Cooncat was responsible.
Well, he wasn't.
Oh, never mind.
See what I mean - story elements were brought in and then discarded as if no one was bothering to pay attention.One thing I did like though - this was the only time I've ever seen Jack Elam's lazy eye referenced in a story.
As he describes the men who instigated him to go after Jim Shell, Barrymoore's character states - "He had a cast in his eye so you couldn't tell which eye was pointin' where".
I just wish they had taken a great line like that and gone somewhere meaningful with it.One last thing in the 'it doesn't make sense' department.
Remember the finale?
- Smiling Man and Roper have rancher Davis pinned down with gunfire after shooting Cooncat.
So what does Davis do?
He manages to swing around and just walk into the bad guy cabin through the back door!
I don't know, and you won't either..
I like this western.
This movie displays Drew Barrymore daddy's talent.He was working to be a star of Hollywood motion pictures.Now I don't know who was his mother.Dolores Costello ?
The novel writer he was married too.The actress who took advantage of his name and used him?
His career as a big star never developed.I don't know why.He plays young man who ran way from his father who had abused him.He took his 7 dollars that the had earned that his abusive father kept holding back.This come from the same company that did the Technicolor ,Trip to the moon, Eagle Lion.They did no use the very cheap Cinecolor that most smaller companies would use just to save pennies,but , expensive bulky Technicolor.Well Cooncat finds himself in some one ranch eating food.He is caught by the ranch Hands.He tries to tell them what happened.But when he tells the story and then he tries to show them the evidence .Strange that it's all the opposite.No one will believe him.Basil Ruysdale plays Davis ,now and older physically handicapped Ranch owner.
Lois Butler plays his Older daughter Meagan and Kristine Miller plays Abbey,the youngest.John Archer portrays the next door neighbor rancher Pat.Meagan and Pat are engaged.Pat live in a ranch which was originally owned by the the Davis enemies.In which they had feud ,which resulted in The Davis winning but all their cattle getting killed.Character actor Jack Elam plays Smiling man and Davis Kashner plays Roper.Two of the men that took advantage of Cooncat.Frank Cordell ,i think portrays Frank the alleged store clerk,who tricks Coon into saving his money for him.Stealing it.Frank starts to denies that he has any money of his.Coon tries to get it from him but some one hits him and when he wakes you fines the store clerk dead.So he takes off Rancher Davis decide to keep him for a while to see if his story is true cause they think he mentally ill.Cause the building is abandon.Eventually Abbey believes him when she witness both crooks ,In which the rancher cook ,played by Chill Wills, claim that he saw the same crooks died during the feud.Well during the engagement party .Cooncat and Abey try to look for the crooks ,cause he sees them again.All of a sudden Pats parent are mysteriously murder and Coon is binge blamed and being accuse of being a member of that family.Well Abbey and Coon find the part of the old place where it was sealed off for some evidence.Things are straightened out and everyone believes him.Coon has a girl friend now.this was a very unusual western.